do

en-noun

do (plural dos or do's or (uncommon) doos)

dos (plural)
do's (plural)
doos (plural uncommon)

Brittonicisms in English
Do
Do-support
Early Modern English

From Middle English don, from Old English dōn, from Proto-West Germanic *dōn, from Proto-Germanic *dōną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do, make”).
For senses 4 and 5, compare Old Norse duga, whence Danish du.
The past tense form is from Middle English didde, dude, from Old English dyde, *diede, an unexpected development from Proto-Germanic *dedǭ/*dedē (the expected reflex would be *ded), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰédʰeh₁ti, an athematic e-reduplicated verb of the same root *dʰeh₁-.
The meaningless use of do in interrogative, negative, and affirmative sentences (e.g. "Do you like painting?" "Yes, I do"), existing in some form in most Germanic languages, is thought by some linguists to be one of the Brittonicisms in English, calqued from Brythonic. It is first recorded in Middle English, where it may have marked the perfective aspect, though in some cases the meaning seems to be imperfective. In Early Modern English, any meaning in such contexts was lost, making it a dummy auxiliary, and soon thereafter its use became mandatory in most questions and negations.
Doublets include deed, deem, -dom, but not deal.
Other cognates include, via Latin, English feast, festival, fair (“celebration”), via Greek, English theo-, theme, thesis, and Sanskrit दधाति (dadhāti, “to put”), धातृ (dhātṛ, “creator”) and धातु (dhātu, “layer, element, root”).

der

We’re having a bit of a do on Saturday to celebrate my birthday.

She was into French cuisine but I ain't no Cordon Bleu / This was at some do in Palmers Green, I had no luck with her

1980, Jona Lewie, Keef Trouble (lyrics and music), “You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties”, performed by Jona Lewie:

A gross-gutted, bulb-nosed, bourbon-stanky Boston flatfoot in plain clothes wrinkled white sox, with a race track tip-sheet stuffed in his back pocket trying real hard to mingle unnoticed at an elegant Buddies "do" to glean inside-dope.

1980 December 13, Mitzel, “Dale Barbre's Murder Transformed”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 21, page 13:

[…]; this aside, though, neon forever the moniker of trash, this is a posh do, in an opera house full of folk in tuxes.

2013 September 13, Russell Brand, “Russell Brand and the GQ awards”, in The Guardian:

(UK, informal) A party, celebration, social function; usually of moderate size and formality.


bash

From Middle English *basshen, *basken, likely from Old Norse *baska (“to strike”), akin to Swedish basa (“to baste, whip, lash, flog”), Danish baske (“to beat, strike, cudgel”), German patschen (“to slap”)

cog

They had a big bash to celebrate their tenth anniversary.

The party level ramps up at Thornaby, where a gaggle of women on a 50th birthday bash join us.

2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 74:


eighteenth

From Middle English eiʒtenþe, from Old English eahtatēoþa, from Proto-Germanic *ahtudô tehundô.

The ordinal form of the number eighteen.

agtiende

the ordinal form of the number eighteen — see also 18th

dix-huit

abbreviation XVIII;after the name;in names of monarchs and popes

XVIII)

artonde (abbreviation for monarchs and popes

XVIII

in royal, papal and other names; for centuries


eighteenth

(informal) A party to celebrate an eighteenth birthday.


festival

en-noun

festival (countable and uncountable, plural festivals)

From Middle English festival (adjective), from Old French festival (“festive”), from Late Latin fēstīvālis, from Latin fēstīvus (“festive”). Displaced native Old English frēols. The noun is shortened from festival day, from Middle English festival dai, festiuall day (“feast day, festival”).

The Reading and Leeds festivals take place on the August bank holiday.

A Welsh eisteddfod is a literary festival.

An event or series of special events centred on the celebration or promotion of some theme or aspect of the community, often held at regular intervals.


kegger

raging kegger

In March, Bryan went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with Spring Break … Here to Party, a collection of songs about getting wasted at oceanside keggers.

2013 August 11, Jody Rosen, “Jody Rosen on the Rise of Bro-Country”, in New York Magazine:


hen party

(British, Australia) A bachelorette party; a party held for a woman who is about to be married.


bachelorette party

bachelorette party (plural bachelorette parties)

(US, Canada) A party held for a woman who is about to be married.


bachelor party

bachelor party (plural bachelor parties)

(US, Canada, South Africa) A party held for a man who is about to be married, normally attended only by male friends and relatives.


rave

rave (countable and uncountable, plural raves)

→ Finnish: reivit (pl)

From Middle English raven (“to rave; talk like a madman”), from Old French raver, variant of resver, of uncertain origin. Compare rove.

der

electronic dance music
electronic dance music

An all-night dance party with electronic dance music (techno, trance, drum and bass etc.) in small unknown clubs.

Maybe I wear baggies / And white socks with flip-flops / Maybe I don't like listening to rave / And I'm not on the social mountaintops

2009, Chrysalis Experiential Academy, Mind Harvesting, page 109:

(music, uncountable) The genres of electronic dance music made to be played in rave parties.


stagger

en-verb

stagger (third-person singular simple present staggers, present participle staggering, simple past and past participle staggered)

staggers (present singular third-person)
staggering (participle present)
staggered (participle past)
staggered (past)

From Middle English stageren, stakeren, from Old Norse stakra (“to push, stagger”). Cognate with dialectal Danish stagre.

porrastaa

multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places

The powerful blow of his opponent's fist staggered the boxer.

That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire / That staggers thus my person.

1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:

(transitive) To cause to reel or totter.

To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.
To cause to reel or totter.


bashment

en-noun

bashment (countable and uncountable, plural bashments)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bashment.wav

(slang, uncountable, music, especially Jamaican) Dancehall music.


shindig

Origin uncertain; perhaps an alteration of shindy, or from Scottish Gaelic sìnteag (“jump, leap”).

James Gillray
National Portrait Gallery, London

They'd get up a regular shindig, if it wasn't for making too much noise.

1861, “Mr. and Mrs. Rasher”, in Godey's Magazine, volume 62, page 348:

"That's a darn shame. Well–I suppose you're waiting for somebody to take you out to some big shindig, Sir Gerald." "Shindig? Oh. Shindig. No, to tell you the truth, I was wondering what the deuce I could do this evening[…]"

1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XIX, in Babbitt, section III:

There was bound to be a New Year's shindig going on in his apartment down on Las Palmas.

1950, 45:01 from the start, in Sunset Blvd.:

Which suggests that the man in the middle of what will be the planet’s splashiest shindig this weekend far prefers the stillness and privacy he finds about 1,500 miles away from London, on unpaved roads and rugged woods near the Carpathian Mountains.

2023 May 1, David Segal, “In Transylvania, Anyone With $200 Can Live Like a King. (Well, One Specific King.)”, in The New York Times:


sundowner

What he saw was not usual in this part of Australia - a sundowner, a bush waif who tramps from north to south or from east to west, never working, cadging rations from the far-flung homesteads and having the ability of the camel to do without water, or find it.

2008, Arthur Upfield, edited by Kees de Hoog, Wisp of Wool and Disk of Silver: Up and Down Australia, page 279:

Like the Australian sundowners, some of these trampers were suspected of never wanting to find a job.

2010, John Hirst, Looking for Australia: Historical Essays, page 60:

(Australia, obsolete) An itinerant worker, such as a swagman, who arrives at a farm too late in the day to do any work, but readily accepts food and lodging.

Arrogant, aloof, and suspicious, a “sundowner,” or strict disciplinarian, King inspired respect in many but affection in few.

1985, Ronald H. Spector, Eagle Against the Sun:

(nautical) A sea captain who shows harsh discipline by requiring all hands to be on board by sundown.

These patients may improve by day only to relapse at night (nocturnal delirium or sundowner's syndrome).

1977, Jules Hymen Masserman, Current Psychiatric Therapies, page 179:

They generally occur in the evening or at night in the form of "sundowner" syndrome, as a result of diminished sensory input and social isolation and/or exposure to an unfamiliar environment (e.g., the hospital).

1989, William H. Reid, The Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: Revised for the DSM III R., page 71:

“Sundowner′s syndrome” refers to changes in mood and behavior that begin near dusk.

2007 February 7, Dennis Fiely, “Dark Ages: For the elderly fighting mental or physical problems, life takes a frightening turn when nighttime comes”, in The Columbus Dispatch:

(medicine, colloquial) A patient, usually demented, who tends to become agitated in the evening.

The cocktail, the universal “sherry and bitters” and sundowner will have to be retained.

1918, Robert Valentine Dolbey, Sketches of the East Africa Campaign, page 117:

Mrs. Lowe-Island […] had imagined the Sports Club as a large shadowy veranda, with native servants standing like willing statues around the walls, plenty of sundowners, and that laughter which is the result of personal comment […].

1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 146:

Per custom, we capped our drives with a sundowner cocktail party at a scenic vantage point.

2005, Franz Wisner, Honeymoon With My Brother: A Memoir, page 243:

(originally colonial slang, especially southern Africa) A cocktail consumed at sunset, or to signify the end of the day.

The Sundowner is basically a cocktail party with a buffet on a riverbank in the bush.

2005, Edward M. Bruner, Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel,, page 83:

A cocktail party held in the early evening.


fiesta

en-verb

fiesta (third-person singular simple present fiestas, present participle fiestaing, simple past and past participle fiestaed)

fiestas (present singular third-person)
fiestaing (participle present)
fiestaed (participle past)
fiestaed (past)

Borrowed from Spanish fiesta, from Late Latin festa, from the plural of festum (“feast”). Doublet of feast, fest, and fete.

(intransitive) To take part in a festive celebration; to party.


symposium

en-noun

symposium (plural symposiums or symposia)

Borrowed from Latin symposium, from Ancient Greek συμπόσιον (sumpósion, “drinking party”) from συμπίνω (sumpínō, “drink together”) συν- (sun-, “together-”) + πίνω (pínō, “drink”).

der

Symposium in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Alternative form: symposion

A drinking party in Ancient Greece, especially one with intellectual discussion.

пиршество

a drinking party in Ancient Greece, especially one with intellectual discussion


kickback

en-noun

kickback (countable and uncountable, plural kickbacks)


tea party

A type of imaginative playing in which children gather with each other or their dolls to mimic having a real tea party or other formal meal, often without any food at all.


knees-up

UK 20th century. From the song "Knees Up Mother Brown" (from at least 1918; published 1938). Suggesting the motions of dancing.

Let's have a bit of a knees-up, Arp.

1956, Wolf Mankowitz, My Old Man's a Dustman:

However, having heard all the mutinous chants Taxpayer FC’s fans sang about Gollivan at Vicarage Road, Moyes has realised it’s probably part of his remit to spread some love and urge everyone in east London to have a good old Cockney knees-up before Friday’s visit from Leicester City.

2017 November 24, Jacob Steinberg, “There’s no pleasing some people”, in The Guardian:

William Hill today cut the price of a Scottish knees-up from an original 25/1 into 9/1 favourite.

2017 December 1, Mary McCool, “Prince Harry set to spend his stag do in Scotland as bookies slash odds – but Vancouver, Barcelona and Berlin are also in the running”, in The Scottish Sun:


Tupperware party

Tupperware party (plural Tupperware parties)

One summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue […]

1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, page 1:

Identified with her role as Tupperware party hostess, Ann doesn't seem happily at home in the social world.

A party arranged by Tupperware ladies in their homes to sell Tupperware on the party plan, as a direct marketing concept.


housewarming

In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

(idiomatic) A party to celebrate moving into a new home.


blowout

(Philippines) a party (such as a birthday party)


cocktail party

cocktail party (plural cocktail parties)


party school

(colloquial, derogatory) A college, university, or any institution of higher learning in which there exists a culture of ribaldry and licentiousness amongst the student population.

educational institution
educational institution

An educational institution for the training of cadres of a party, especially a communist party.


sausage party

From sausage, a slang term for the penis.

1999 March 1, Billy (an anonymous American teenager), journal entry, published in Real Teens, Volume 5: Diary of a Junior Year, Scholastic Paperbacks (2000), →ISBN, page 76,
Ok, so it was actually a sausage party, which means ha ha there weren’t so many girls there but it was still pretty great.

Of course, it doesn’t seem like a miracle that there’d be a lady at a metal show unless you’d been touring with a useless, plodding sausage party like say, oh I don’t know . . . Anthrax.

2004, Michael Ruffino, Gentlemanly Repose: Confessions of a Debauched Rock 'n' Roller, Citadel Press, →ISBN, page 131:

2005, Jessica Hopper, “Punk Is Dead! Long Live Punk!: A Report on the State of Teen Spirit from the Mobile Shopping Mall That Is the Vans Warped Tour”, originally in the Chicago Reader, reprinted in J. T. LeRoy (guest editor) and Paul Bresnick (series editor), Da Capo Best Music Writing 2005: The Year’s Finest Writing on Rock, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Country, and More, Da Capo Press, →ISBN, page 70,
The audience at Warped, unlike the sausage party you get at a typical ground-level punk show, is half-female, maybe more.

(slang, derogatory) A gathering with many more men than women.


quinceañera

/ˌkɪnsənˈjɛɹə/

Borrowed from Spanish quinceañera (literally “fifteen-year-old”), feminine of quinceañero, from quince años (“fifteen years”) + -ero.

bor+

Any given night will find moms with their shoulders mounded with chrysanthemums and daughters decked out in quinceañera lace.

(chiefly US) The fifteenth birthday and particularly the celebration and ceremony surrounding it for a young Latina woman.

fête des quinze ans

fifteenth birthday celebration for a young woman


party favor

(US) A small gift given to a guest at a party, as a souvenir.


convivium

In Canada, there are more than 1,500 members and 39 convivia or local chapters.

2009 April 28, Pamela Cuthbert, “Slow food author promotes focus on food producers”, in Toronto Star:

I neglect the convivium (many people) in the hunger for the kind of fullness of being only possible in the dialogue (verbal mostly, sometimes physical) with one other person.

2012, Susan Sontag, “2/15/70”, in edited by David Rieff, As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:


sendoff

We had a sendoff for our departing colleague as he left for a new job.

A party for a person (e.g. a fellow employee) who is leaving; a farewell party.

A party to recognize the passing (death) of a friend and allow survivors to reminisce about the person's life.


cookout

(US) A gathering for a meal that is cooked and eaten outside; either a domestic barbecue or a larger social event.


house cooling party

en-noun

house cooling party (plural house cooling parties)

(idiomatic) A party to celebrate when a person decides to leave a house or flat, and sometimes to help prepare the space for the incoming residents.


slumber party

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-slumber party.wav

A sleepover; a party where people stay and sleep overnight.


tailgate party

tailgate party (plural tailgate parties)

A celebration, held in a parking lot, with picnic food served out of the back of automobiles or pickup trucks.

Parkplatz-Party

a celebration, held in a parking lot, with picnic food served out of the back of automobiles or pickup trucks


after-party

→ Portuguese: after

→ Spanish: after

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-after-party.wav

Coordinate term: afterafterparty

Henri, lord of Nassau-Breda: a member of the Golden Fleece who would joust alongside Philip and then host lavish banquets and after-parties that lasted ‘well nigh the whole night’ […].

2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 224:

A party that happens after an official, often public, party or event.

järelpidu

party that takes place after another party


block party

(basketball, slang) A game during which a single player blocks the shots of many other players.


life of the party

‘You were the life of the party last night, Ma'am, you know,’ returned Flowers, ‘and you suffer for it, to-day, you see.’

1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 37, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

Tom was the life of the party, and the way he "cut up" was "simply awful," as Nellie declared.

1915, Edward Stratemeyer, chapter 30, in The Rover Boys in Business:

They were the life of the party and everyone loves them, even though it was not a party that the nation can afford to throw again.

1950 January 2, “Headliners of the 1920s”, in Life, page 46:

(idiomatic) A person who participates in entertainment events in a very enthusiastic manner and who has a leading role in inspiring others to join in the spirit of festivity.


LAN party

For obvious reasons, one-day events are the easiest to set up, and it is recommended that the first LAN party you host be a one-day party.

2001 October 8, Network World, volume 18, number 41:

People like to go to LAN parties because graphically intensive games play better over a LAN than over the Internet[…]

2007, Meredith G. Farkas, Social software in libraries, page 219:

LAN parties have been around ever since geeks started playing games on computer networks.

2011, Brian Johnson, Duncan Mackenzie, Xbox 360 For Dummies:

(computing) A social event based around a LAN (local area network) where participants engage in computer activities such as multiplayer gaming.


dinner party

She is only coming to gloat over my bedraggled and flowerless borders and to sing the praises of her own detestably over-cultivated garden. I’m sick of being told that it’s the envy of the neighbourhood; it’s like everything else that belongs to her—her car, her dinner-parties, even her headaches, they are all superlative; no one else ever had anything like them.

1919, Saki, The Toys of Peace and Other Papers:

If the dinner party does become extinct, I will mourn its passing. I like having them, and I love being invited to them.

2023 July 15, Rachel Cooke, “No, Nigella – dinner parties are great. Deliveroo just doesn’t cut it”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

A relatively formal meal at which invited guests eat in the home of the host.


hen night

bachelor party

antonym(s) of “party for a man about to be married”

2001, Karen S Smith, Up To No Good, 2004, Black Lace, London, unnumbered page,
This was what a hen night should be: just a group of good friends getting together to enjoy unpretentious fun away from other people’s eyes.

2006, Yasmin Mills, How to Party, RoofTop Publishing, Indiana, page 47,
Plan an unforgettable hen night to show your girlfriends how much you appreciate them.

2007, Nicola Chalk, Because of You, Vanguard Press, UK, page 114,
“Why he is out on a hen night?” Denise asked as soon as we all arrived and met up at the Hotel. “He looks like a man to me.”

The hen night is for Rachel, the thinnest and most mean-spirited of his wife’s friends, and a hotel suite has been hired for the sleepover, complete with a handsome cocktail waiter to use as they see fit.

2009, David Nicholls, One Day, unnumbered page:

Then, Katy’s pal, singer Rihanna, let slip where the actual nuptials were taking place. She told a US radio DJ that she had her work cut out for her, planning a hen night for her friend with a theme to tie in with an Indian wedding.

2011, Jo Berry, Katy Perry: California Gurl, unnumbered page:

A party held for a woman who is about to be married, normally attended only by female friends and relatives.


pool party

A social gathering around, and in, a swimming pool.


house party

The house-party consisted of twelve people, and there were more expected to arrive on the next day.

1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 288:

The difference between Aunt Sadie and Uncle Matthew was not as to whether Lord Merlin should or should not be asked to the ball […], but whether he should be asked to bring a house party.

1945, Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love, Penguin, published 2010, page 39:

(now rare) The guests staying at a given house, as opposed to those visiting for the day.


Mazola party

The term came to prominence in North America in the 1970s following the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

(slang, dated) A social gathering at which people slather themselves in cooking oil (such as Mazola) and participate in sexual activities.


sweet seventeen

sweet seventeen (plural sweet seventeens)

(US, colloquial) A girl's seventeenth birthday, or seventeenth-birthday party. It is often used to mitigate a failed sweet sixteen birthday.


keg party

Meronym: keg stand

A party at which beer is served from a keg.


costume party

Virginia Democratic Congressional candidate Krystal Ball went to a costume party when she was 22 dressed as a sexy Santa.

2010 October 7, Nate Jones, “Candidate's Sexy Santa Photos Leaked”, in Time:

A social gathering of people wearing disguises or costumes, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions.


coming-out party

coming-out party (plural coming-out parties)

coming out of the closet
come out of the closet

(sometimes humorous) A party in celebration of someone who is gay coming out of the closet.


Mars Bar party

Mars Bar party (plural Mars Bar parties)

‘It's like a Mars bar party,’ she told them, over her shoulder, grinning like a very sexy Cheshire kitten. ‘Only different.’ Mr Dictator and his Minister, drinking at the bar with Doug Hutton, the Few's security chief, simultaneously choked on their beer.

2021 [2002], Gwyneth Jones, Castles Made Of Sand, Hachette, →ISBN:

(slang) A supposed party or orgy where Mars chocolate bars are eaten from the vagina or anus.


surprise party

surprise party (plural surprise parties)

A preplanned party in which participants secretively gather in a certain location, wait for the arrival of the person they wish to honour and, traditionally, greet the arrival of the honoured person by shouting, "Surprise!".


street party

A party, typically involving simple food, thrown in a cordoned-off street or road by its residents


crush party

Belen and I were both invited to a crush party by another friend of ours from high school named Stephanie.

2011, Dr Garth Mundinger-Klow, Sex in the Dorms: The Freshman College Experience, page 112:

A party in a sorority or fraternity where each member invites one or more crushes (people they are attracted to), who do not initially know which person invited them.


launch party

An event to coincide with the commercial release of a product or service.


strip party

He escapes Vultura, his would-be murderer, and attends a Hollywood strip party, but he turns up no leads.

1971, American Film Institute, Kenneth White Munden, "The American Film Institute catalog of motion pictures produced in: Issues 1921-1930", page 1049

Dre: "Let's go to that Halloween strip party right quick."

2007, Leandre Taylor, The Great Halloween Jacker, page 64:

One girl can set the stage for the type of interaction the people at a strip party expect.

2008, Crystal Magnum, Gail Magnum, The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story, page 34:


dress-up party

dress-up party (plural dress-up parties)

Men In Black 3 lacks the novelty of the first film, and its take on the late ’60s feels an awful lot like a psychedelic dress-up party, all broad caricatures and groovy vibes.

2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club:


toga party

A party at which the participants wear an approximation of Greco-Roman dress, typically featuring mock togas made from bed sheets.


doe party

There was a doe party for a young girl who was getting married in a week; […]

1983, Sharon Curtis, Tom Curtis, Lightning That Lingers, Loveswept, published 2011, →ISBN:

(rare) A party held for a woman who is about to be married.


buck's party

Like the time he went to a buck's party and didn't come home all night.

1991, Antonio Casella, The Sensualist, Hodder & Stoughton, published 1991, →ISBN, page 32:

Danny Ottley was getting married on the following Saturday night and the town's men were attending a buck's party.

1994, Chris Harkness, New Guinea: The Wahgi Impact, Robert Brown & Associates, published 1994, →ISBN, page 116:

We attended a buck's party one night. It was booked into a hall, with several of our friends employed as the strippers.

2007, Sally Graham, As Black from White, Seaview Press, published 2007, →ISBN, page 20:

(Australia) A party held for a man who is about to be married.


marooning party

marooning party (plural marooning parties)

It was made with different persons, and fitted out with more of accommodation and comfort; but the other, as made with my comrades, was more completely a marooning party

1806, George Pinckard, Notes on the West Indies:

(US, dated) A social excursion party that sojourns several days on the shore or in some retired place; a prolonged picnic.


kitty party

(India, Pakistan) A regular party, usually organized by women, where each member contributes a certain sum of money.


skittles party

skittles party (plural skittles parties)

After Skittles, a brand of multicolored fruit-flavored lentil-shaped candies.

"I hosted an impromptu Skittles party with white tents all around, white linen tables filled with flowing fountains of liquor, and an assortment of colorful pills at your fingertips: Oxycodone, Ritalin, Tylenol with codeine, Adderall, and a list of others."

2012, Ni-Ni Simone, Amir Abrams, Hollywood High - Volume 1 - Page 288:

I didn’t need her killin’ my vibe. I needed to relieve my stress and have my skittles party in peace. So…I slipped her a nice mix of somebody’s granny’s heart medicine, Xanax, and Sudafed in her nightly shot of scotch and rocked her to sleep. […] “It’s not that I make a habit out of playing Captain Save A Crackhead. But I figured I’d make an exception this time.” / I’m not a crackhead and you haven’t saved me, you cheap whore! This is an insult! You’ve torn up my life. Ruined my career. Called the police on my skittles party!

2014, Ni-Ni Simone, Amir Abrams, “Heather”, in Put Your Diamonds Up (Hollywood High), New York, N.Y.: Dafina KTeen Books, Kensington Publishing Corp., →ISBN, pages 18 and 22–23:

(idiomatic) A party where teenagers or young adults bring with them a lot of random pills, take them, and see what happens


birthday party

birthday party (plural birthday parties)

A party held to celebrate a person's birthday.


bottle party

A party where guests bring and consume their own bottles of drink.


lingerie party

lingerie party (plural lingerie parties)

An event held as part of a party plan for selling women's undergarments.


shooting party

shooting party (plural shooting parties)

A social event consisting of, usually among other things, shooting game


garden party

A party held on a lawn or in a park, usually more formal than a picnic or barbecue.


@ party

From the @ symbol used in e-mail addresses.

Hi! An @ party will be held in Room 3121 at Balticon on Saturday night, starting at 10 PM and going for an as-yet undetermined while. The @ party is hosted by Digital Express Group, purveyors of that mightiest of refreshments, digital espresso!

1992, Richard L. Butler, “An @ party at Balticon, Room 3121, hurrah...”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet):

I've been to a few @ parties- it's very simple. You look at the party board, and show up at the appropriate place and time. Usually/often someone at the door will ask you for your email address (just to make sure you aren't some kind of clueless geek, I guess), and you go on in and meet net.people.

1993, Binky, “@ Party?”, in alt.fandom.cons (Usenet):

(Internet, historical) An informal private party held as part of a convention, giving Internet users a chance to meet in person.


nomikai

A Japanese drinking party for coworkers, often held in a restaurant.


party store

(UK) A shop that sells or hires fancy dress and other goods for parties.


blocko

(Trinidad and Tobago) A large outdoor party held by a community.


key party

Undoubtedly, the structure of a key party is right out of a straight-male pipe dream. Key party lore is exclusively heterosexual, women are not afforded sexual veto power, and men are guaranteed a partner with no chance of rejection.

2018 March 15, Joe Kukura, “Did Key Parties Ever Really Happen?”, in SF Weekly:

A group sex event where participants' car keys are randomly handed out, determining which couples will have sex.


work party

A social gathering at which the attendees work, such as a barn raising.


measles party

A party where children are brought together to spread measles between each other, allowing them to develop immunity for life, as the consequences of measles infections in adulthood are much harsher than in childhood.


hurricane party

hurricane party (plural hurricane parties)

(US) A social event in the coastal United States, held during a hurricane, where attendees bring supplies and stay with their host for several days.


bonenkai

From Japanese 忘年会, literally "forget-the-year gathering".

A Japanese drinking party held at the end of the year, generally among groups of co-workers or friends, to forget the woes and troubles of the past year and look to the future.


circuit party

(LGBT) A large dance event closely associated with LGBT culture, often extending through the night into the following day, usually with a number of affiliated events in the days leading up to and following the main event.


party trick

He summarised the situation to me in RAIL 612: "The railway is expanding. Sooner or later, after every engineering party trick, we run out of capacity."

2020 May 6, Philip Haigh, “Just one more stop on the long journey to HS2 fulfillment [sic]”, in Rail, page 64:

A trick that could be performed at a party for entertainment.


chickenpox party

chickenpox party (plural chickenpox parties)

A party where children are brought together to spread chicken pox between each other, allowing them to develop immunity for life, as the consequences of new infections in adulthood are much harsher than in childhood.


covid-19 party

covid-19 party (plural covid-19 parties)

(neologism) A party where people come together to spread COVID-19 between each other to attempt to acquire temporary immunity and/or to accelerate herd immunity.


COVID-19 party

COVID-19 party (plural COVID-19 parties)


flat-warming

From flat + warming, after housewarming.

A party to celebrate moving into a new flat (apartment).


gender reveal

It was going to be a super-busy weekend at the palace—with the royal babies' official gender reveals today and the baby showers tomorrow.

2019, Ann Omasta, The Royally Broke Billionaire:

(chiefly US, often attributive) An event at which the sex of an expected baby is revealed to family and friends as being either male or female, often by means of a cake, balloons, etc., coloured blue for male or pink for female.


wrap party

A celebration held after completing the filming of a movie or television show.


pop out cake

A construction in parties and celebrations which appears to be (and often partially consists of) a large cake, but which really conceals a person inside who will jump out to surprise the partygoers.


tabby party

(slang, dated) A social meeting of women for tea and gossip.


bush party

Many stories are told over there about the bush parties to which the men go. I saw a one-act play, one might call it, depicting the men enjoying themselves at one of these beer bush parties and the consequences of over-consumption of this terrible stuff manufactured under very primitive and unhygienic conditions. The ladies enacted the bush party, and it seemed to me a wonderful moral lesson to the young people to keep away from beer parties of that nature.

1961 September 7, John Mathison, quotee, New Zealand Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), volume 328, Wellington, New Zealand: R. E. Owen, published 1962, page 2113, column 2:

Young people were largely allowed to have unsupervised grad bush parties where liquor and drugs were assumed to be freely available. This was not seen as an isolated Spring event, but rather part of the whole fabric of the community.

1983, Alcoholism: Strategies for Northern Alberta, Northern Alberta Development Council, page 72:

Lang has had a certain amount of experience with big vehicles, having put in a stint as the driver of a five-ton grain truck before she became a legendary “progressive country” singer, and having spent her adolescence in a small town on the Alberta prairie, where “bush parties” are part of growing up. Bush parties involve a lot of nighttime drinking around a bonfire somewhere out of town, frequently from the back of a half-ton pickup. “This Chevy would be an asset at a bush party because you could slide open the back window and blast the stereo,” she noted.

1990 April, Mark Ginsburg, “Truckin’”, in Vanity Fair, volume 53, New York: Condé Nast, retrieved 2022-01-21, page 202:

Bush Parties and Booze Cruises were shaped mainly out of the necessity to find a “place to party” but they did represent more than the material practicalities of space. Both activities became symbols of rural identity and as such were proliferated to mark and proclaim that identity. The Bush Party was heralded as a badge of hardiness. In the small town, rural people were closer to nature and partied under the stars, in the great outdoors.

2003, Robert A. Wardhaugh, “‘Bush Parties and Booze Cruises’: A Look at Leisure in a Small Town”, in Raymond Blake, Andrew Nurse, editors, The Trajectories of Rural Life: New Perspectives on Rural Canada, Regina, Saskatchewan: Canadian Plains Research Centre, →ISBN, pages 82–83:

Well this guy- he lived out on the highway um, near Haileybury. And he had like a huge property and in his backyard he had this bus. Um, and so it was like a bush party but there was a big bus there and people were just going crazy in and on top of the bus and I remember um people being on top of the bus and like shooting fireworks in the air and-stuff

2010, Carrie Tippman, quotee, “Bush Party”, in Ontario Dialects Project, Toronto: University of Toronto, retrieved 2022-01-21:

(chiefly Canada) An outdoor social gathering held in a wooded area or a field, especially one attended primarily by young people at which alcohol is drunk.


paper bag party

paper bag party (plural paper bag parties)

(US, historical) A (possibly apocryphal) social event to which only those whose skin color passed the "brown bag test" were admitted.


play party

(US, chiefly historical) A social gathering at which singing and dancing games are played, frequently held in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the American South and Midwest.