Questions tagged [slang]
Questions about “Language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense.” [OED: 𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒈]
1,523
questions
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0answers
23 views
British colloquial phrase [closed]
What is the origin and meaning of the expression "And Bob's your uncle?"
0
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0answers
23 views
Can you wind the wind? Can you tear a tear? Can you lead to lead? What are these examples called? [duplicate]
These words are spelled the same. These words sound different. These words have different meanings.
This question can be answered and is about learning English. We really speak American in the United ...
-6
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0answers
44 views
Story behind "Murphy's law"?
Nothing to do with potato or potatoes, I think. Slang word for potato is like a someone is uninteresting, dull,strange or ugly in English language and one expression for potato is used for "...
-1
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0answers
44 views
What does "Let's hogwash this VI" mean?
I'm watching Six season 2 EP2 , and a character says
Okay, let's hogwash this VI.
It was the leader of a Navy Seal team who said it. After saying that sentence, he starts criticizing about his team ...
2
votes
1answer
187 views
What does "Oh snap" mean?
May I ask, what does "oh snap" mean please?
I heard it from the DIY Art competition, when the competitors were waiting for the judges to announce who's the winner.
Competitor A said: I'm ...
1
vote
1answer
47 views
Would you use 'bender' to describe a person?
We know 'bender' as a period of time which one spends excessively drunk (or maybe high), and "a person or thing which bends," and Bender, the robot on "Futurama," but would -- or ...
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0answers
69 views
What does “white spade” mean in this context?
This is a lyric in the Tom Waits song Heart Attack and Vine - “white spades hanging on a telephone wire”. Does anyone know what this means? I found online that “white spade” refers to an old type of ...
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1answer
39 views
What does this name "X Perry Ment" mean? [closed]
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I read this sentence in a book named Eyewitness testimony：
It gradually becomes evident that the article is satirical when the reader learns that the trial took place on April Fool’s Day, that the ...
-2
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1answer
59 views
Why does "tarrier" as an American job title not appear in OED or Merriam-Webster?
The folksong "Drill Ye Tarriers Drill" is well-known:
Wikipedia Drill Ye Tarriers Drill.
The title refers to Irish workers, drilling holes in rock to blast out railroad tunnels. It may mean ...
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0answers
37 views
Origin of the Expression: "Yes, Harriet"
When I was a child (in the 1970s) when my mother asked my father to do something that he had already planned to do, he would say "Yes, Harriet". Can anyone tell me where this expression &...
2
votes
3answers
121 views
Legitimacy of the word "imput"
I see Merriam Webster defines "imput" as a "variant of input" but no other dictionaries have entries (unless you count the Urban Dictionary's "The usual idiotic misspelling of ...
0
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2answers
144 views
What is the general name/description for what I thought was "Makeout Creek"?
In The Simpsons, and many old movies from/set in the 1950s, there is a common scene where a couple sits in a parked car at what appears to be a high hill, in the evening or night, looking out over the ...
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0answers
66 views
"Ain't no thang but a chicken wang."
I understand that phrase to mean, "it's not difficult," but what is the metaphor with chicken wings? Where does this phrase come from?
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1answer
129 views
What does it mean by "Done Diddly doo do" [closed]
What does it mean by "Done Diddly doo do"
I have heard people saying this after a meeting or at the end of the meeting.
Alright folks we are done diddly doo do.
2
votes
0answers
79 views
How did "combo" arise as an abbreviation for "combination"? [duplicate]
I am interested in the shortening of "combination" to "combo." I understand the etymology of "combination," and it's clear to me how "comb-" would be used taken ...
3
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1answer
399 views
He had his ears bored
I’m reading The Underground Railroad by Coleson Whitehead. Early in the first chapter he writes:
“Her last husband had his ears bored for stealing honey. The wounds gave up pus until he wasted away.”
...
6
votes
2answers
363 views
What does this bit of Cockney mean?
In the 2nd episode of the 3rd season of Would I Lie To You?, a fragment is shown from a 1985 episode of London Weekend Television's The Six O'Clock Show, with someone purporting to be a former Teddy ...
2
votes
2answers
198 views
Can 'An ass that won't quit' connote stubbornness?
I've tracked down a potential folk etymology of "butt that won't quit" from the phrase 'legs that won't quit', but I can't attest that in a dictionary anywhere.
My question comes from my ...
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3answers
5k views
Understanding "ain't no fun when the rabbit got the gun"
"ain't no fun when the rabbit got the gun"
I came across the above slang recently. The explanation I could find on line is
Someone being butthurt over having something, they do to others ...
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2answers
89 views
"Truth" as a reply instead of "True"
I think this sentence is grammatically correct:
You need a new pair of glasses.
True.
However, I've heard sometimes someone says Truth instead of True:
You need a new pair of glasses.
Truth.
Is ...
0
votes
1answer
90 views
Is the phrase "he sucks in something..." offensive in UK? And US? How this can also be expressed? [closed]
The literal translation of the slang "He sucks", in some languages, can have a very different meaning.
First: is it offensive or it's ok to say?
Second: how can we say the same in UK/US but ...
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2answers
161 views
meaning of "giddy-up"
I'm reading The Sellout by Paul Beatty. It says:
"All I know is that I’m pre-black. Dickens born and raised. Homo sapiens OG Crip from the goddamn
primordial giddy-up, nigger."
What does &...
4
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2answers
154 views
Origin of 'gin up'
I have been reading the Ken Follet 'Century' saga, and came across a usage I had not seen before. Supposedly in the words of an American...
He had different governmental departments working together ...
1
vote
1answer
65 views
Are there any words or terms when 'a small daughter dancing with her dad with her feet on top of his'?
I'm writing my story and I had the idea to have both the characters to dance with one of them standing on the other's feet. But whenever I tried to search the word or term nothing showed up. The only ...
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0answers
78 views
"Сделать на отъебись" in English [duplicate]
There's an obscene yet often used expression in Russian which sounds exactly like this:
"Сделать что-то на отъебись"
Which means you do/create/complete something just enough so that it ...
1
vote
1answer
44 views
Not everything is about you [closed]
What does it actually mean when people say "Not everything is about you."
when they use it?
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1answer
32 views
How do I use "It's none of your business"? [closed]
I don't know how to use the phrase "it's none of your business" in everyday English or slang, please help me?
1
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1answer
48 views
Meaning of "gamecock" when referring to a person [closed]
I was watching a south korean drama (Youth of may), second episode, and the scene is:
The guy is waiting at the restaurant for a blind date. The girl arrives late and as soon as she seats in front of ...
4
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0answers
102 views
A to the B to the C: some kind of slang [closed]
I've often heard, especially in songs where slang is commonly used (pop, rap, etc.), people use a weird structure: something like "A to the B to the C...", where A, B, C, etc. are usually ...
0
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1answer
94 views
define "the dangerous age"
How many years-old is "the dangerous age"? Where does the term come from? (Google doesn't seem to know.)
"I've reached the dangerous age, and lady, I'm going to have fun."
X ...
2
votes
1answer
82 views
What could be one word for time off for family/personal work?
What could be a word/one word and slang for a time-off period, that someone took for his personal/family work?
i.e. I took time-off from office to do some personal work, household chores.
The word ...
5
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2answers
368 views
What does "uggin’ bumplies" mean?
Here's an example sentence:
How long do you think Rick and Michonne been uggin’ bumplies?
What does “uggin' bumplies” mean and where does it come from?
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3answers
95 views
Is "green ones" not slang for money? [closed]
I wish I could bring in some green ones.
I cannot bring in the green ones.
I'm making tons of the green ones.
Are these proper English/American English sentences? Can you use "green ones" ...
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vote
0answers
108 views
Single word when you know destination but not path
Is there a single word which describes knowing the destination but not the path?
Knowing the objective but not the method?
Knowing the 'what' or 'where' but not the 'how'?
In a sense this would be the ...
1
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0answers
160 views
The "Elephant and Apple" - Phonetical Spelling of NY(C) with normal letters [closed]
Some toponyms change over time:
Be it by pronunciation (Los Angeles, New Orleans) or by changing the wording/spelling to either make more sense to the speaker (the London district "Elephant and ...
5
votes
3answers
280 views
Where does 'po-faced' come from etymologically, geographically, and chronologically?
The entry for po-faced in Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003) reads as follows:
po-faced adj {perh. fr. po chamber pot, toilet, fr. F pot pot} (1934) Brit : having an assumed ...
5
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2answers
2k views
How did cougar come to mean predatory woman?
The common slang connotation of the term cougar is that of an older women who has sexual relationships with younger men. The expression appears to come from Canada but its origin is still unclear ...
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3answers
263 views
When and why did "the Dutch act" emerge as a slang term for suicide?
J.E. Lighter, Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1994) provides this entry for "Dutch act":
Dutch act n. Und[erworld] suicide.—constr[ued] with the. [Earliest cited ...
18
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5answers
6k views
What exactly is a "ring-a-ding girl"?
It's been years since I watched this episode, but I remember being very confused about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-a-Ding_Girl
"Ring-a-Ding Girl" is episode 133 of the American ...
1
vote
1answer
62 views
Looking for an idiom or a slang word/phrase for a formal reply with no intent to help [duplicate]
There is a word in Russian "отписка", which could mean "unsubscription" but also has in some context could mean "written reply in a very formal way with no intent to really ...
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0answers
50 views
What's a wedding pip? [closed]
At a wedding, the son of the bride said, "I wish I could have put up a pip for you." What was he talking about?
2
votes
1answer
15k views
''Wassup, can a loc come up in your crib''?
I think, in the first mission of Franklin in the video-game GTA 5, Llamar says this to Franklin in front of a house:
Wassup, can a loc come up in your crib?
What does that mean? I just can't even ...
1
vote
2answers
375 views
What does "Do you know how to party?" mean? [closed]
I was actually wanting to know how to say this in Spanish when I realized that I didn't have a clear definition of it in my own language — English. My knowledge of this phrase comes from colloquial, ...
0
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0answers
123 views
What to say when someone's answer is not related to our question or at least we think it's not? [duplicate]
I would say: "How's that related to my question ?"
Please answer for both formal and informal cases
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0answers
143 views
Is there such expression as "Charlie someone out"?
There is the following exchange in Deadwood series season 1 episode 3
...
Johnny: Al?
Al: Yeah.
Johnny: That cherry New York dude is downstairs askin’ for ya.
Al: No good. Charlie him the fuck out.
(...
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0answers
80 views
Is some version of "Y'alright"/"Y'arite" used as a greeting in Australian English?
I must admit, I'm asking because my friend and I disagreed on what is said in this video but as someone who speaks English as a second language, I thought it would be a common enough expression.
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1answer
34 views
Dramatic Writing and Behavior of primary characters in a screenplay
A way to describe a person who is smirking or their lips purse? A simple phrase or word that describes a series of conflicting and contradicting emotions being displayed by a person. The description ...
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1answer
4k views
What does 'yep clock' mean?
Been seeing this term on twitch lately.
For example, it is referred to starting at
19 min 00 secs of this video https://www.twitch.tv/videos/821017035
Is it some meme or slang term?
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0answers
29 views
Business Language for "Good looking out"
I am looking for a business language alternative to the slang "good looking out" meaning something similar to "thanks for looking out for me" but with a more familiar tone ...
2
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1answer
220 views
Would an American girl aged 12-14 really use the "F-word" casually like this in 1947?
In the 1997 movie "Lolita", in the beginning set in 1947, there is a scene where Dolores Haze (12 or 14, White, girl) has this conversation with a friend:
Mary Rose: "See you later, ...
