Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, Third Edition; Tony Thorne (A & C Black, 2005)

cunted

114

1b. a woman or women in general. An extension of the above sense which is probably most commonly heard in the USA.

2. a very unpleasant person. As well as being the most ‘obscene’ of the common set of sexually related taboo words, ‘cunt’ is also used to indicate extreme distaste or dislike. This usage, which is more noticeable in British and Australian English than American, is presumably inspired by deep-seated fear and loathing of women’s sexuality, although in practice the word is usually applied to men.

From Anglo-Saxon times until the 14th century the word was in standard use, but was then replaced by euphemisms in all but rural dialect speech. Most dictionaries refused to acknowledge the word until the 1960s and it is probably the only word that is still banned from most British newspapers and television.

cunted adj British

a.exhausted

b.intoxicated by alcohol or drugs

‘I went to a bop last night and got totally cunted.’

(Recorded, female university student, London, 2000)

A term which, although forceful, has no sexual or taboo connotations. Used by speakers of both sexes. Twatted is a contemporary synonym.

cupcake n American

1.a cute or attractive woman. A deliberately humorous or (consciously or unconsciously) patronising male term of endearment. ‘Cupcakes’ are small, usually iced, buns.

2.an eccentric person

curling n British

drinking alcohol, especially beer. The expression is a synonym for bend(ing) the elbow, heard in the Midlands and north of England.

currant bun n British

1a. the sun

1b. a son

Both rhyming-slang uses have been in evidence in London working-class use since at least the 1940s.

2. a nun. A rare item of rhyming slang heard occasionally from at least the 1950s.

curry-queen n

a gay male who is attracted to South Asian partners.

Compare rice-queen

curse, the curse n

menstruation, a monthly period. This is the standard term used by schoolgirls and women; its probable origin is in Genesis, in which Eve is ‘cursed’ by God who promises to ‘multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children’. The ‘curse of Eve’ thus became a euphemism for the most troublesome aspect of femininity.

I’ve got the curse, I’m afraid.

cushdy, cushti, kushti adj British

fine, wonderful. An all-purpose term of approbation or agreement. This work- ing-class term (recently brought to a wider audience by the television comedy Only Fools and Horses) is related to ‘cushy’, the colloquial term for easy or comfortable. Both words derive ultimately from an archaic Persian word khosh, meaning ‘pleasant’, either via the Hindustani khush, or the Romany kushto, or both.

cuss (someone) off vb

to criticise, denigrate someone. The phrase is in black usage in Britain and the USA and may have originated in Caribbean speech.

custard n British

a very unpleasant person. The playground term of abuse, in use since 2000, is a blend of cunt and bastard.

cut1 vb

to dilute or adulterate (illicit drugs), usually with the intention of increasing weight and hence profit

The coke was cut with lactose.

cut2 adj circumcised

‘Everyone knows what cut and uncut means.’

(Male prostitute, Channel 4 documentary

Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and their Johns, October 1994)

cut (someone) a little slack vb American to relax regulations, to make allowances for or give room to move. The image is of tailoring something for relatively unrestricted ease of movement.

Come on, cut me a little slack will you?

115

cyberpunk

cut a rug vb

to dance. A lighthearted expression which was fashionable in the jitterbug era and in the post-war language of rock and jive. It still survives in jocular use.

cute adj See completely cute

cut it vb

to succeed, manage. A shortened form of ‘cut the mustard’ or ‘cut some ice’.

‘Her experience among women rappers trying to cut it in the macho world of hip hop led Charlotte to look again at the girl groups from the Seventies she’d always loved.’

(Ms London magazine, 4 September 1989)

cuz n American

a term of address (derived from ‘cousin’) for a stranger or friend. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

cuzzer n British

a curry meal. The standard word has been modified with the suffix indicating familiarity and/or affection.

c-word, the n British cunt

cyberpunk n

an enthusiast for information technology,

anet-head. The term arose in the 1980s to describe young fans of the science-fic- tion writer William Gibson, who combined

afascination for computing and youth culture with a supposedly punk attitude. In the later 1990s the word usually referred to a nonconformist user of the Internet.

‘Just launched, Cyberseed describes itself as Britain’s first Cyberpunk event, which will, it is hoped, one Friday every month, present a vision where man, music and machine contrive to be one.’

(Sunday Times, 12 December 1993)

D

D, d n

1. dope, illicit drugs. The predictable abbreviation was typically used by British cannabis smokers in the early and mid1970s.

Hey, man, got any d?

2. Australian a detective. This abbreviation dates from the 19th century and is now almost archaic. It has metamorphosed into demon.

D.A. n British

1.a hairstyle in which the hair is scraped back and greased into a curl on the nape of the neck. It is an abbreviation of duck’s arse. The style was popular among teddy boys in the 1950s and, to a lesser extent, with the rockers of the early 1960s.

2.drug addict. An abbreviation used, generally facetiously, by drug users themselves in the midand late 1960s.

da bomb n, adj See bomb

dabs n pl British

1. fingerprints. The term has been used by police officers, criminals and crime writers since the 1930s at least. It derives from the fingerprinting process in which the suspect presses his or her fingers on an ink pad.

We managed to lift some dabs from the wine glasses.

2. money, pounds. The term is usually, but not invariably, heard in the plural form, especially in the north of England.

Daddies, the n pl British

a group of respected or prestigious males, the ‘in-crowd’. From army and Officer Training Corps usage.

daddio, daddy-o n

a man, usually one who is old. A variant of ‘Dad’ and ‘Daddy’, used as a term of address. It originated in the jive talk of black jazz musicians in the 1940s, and was adopted by the beatniks of the 1950s. The word implied a degree of respect or affection, usually for someone older or in authority. In later use, e.g. by

British teddy boys and beatniks, it was often a teasing or mocking form of address.

daddy n British

1.a dominant inmate among prisoners

2.an older and/or dominant male homosexual in a relationship, group or institution

daffy adj

silly, eccentric. The rather dated colloquialism was revived by adolescents from the later 1990s. Its ultimate origin is the Middle English daffe, meaning a ‘fool’.

dag n Australian

1.(a piece of dried) sheep dung. This sense of the word dates from the 16th century, but has become archaic in Britain. It usually refers to the dried flakes adhering to tail wool.

2.a stupid or unpleasant person, by extension from the first sense. By the late 1980s ‘dag’ had become a fairly mild allpurpose insult or description, freely used for instance in television soap operas such as Neighbours.

dagga n South African

cannabis, marihuana. This is the most common term for these drugs in South Africa and it derives from local African languages. It is occasionally heard elsewhere among drug users.

daggy adj Australian

stupid, unpleasant. From the noun dag. A brusque but fairly mild expression of distaste (deemed suitable for inclusion in the scripts of TV soap operas, for instance).

dago n

a. a person of Hispanic origin (Spanish or Latin American). This derogatory meaning is probably the original sense of the word in that it derives from the Hispanic proper name ‘Diego’ (James). The word usually has this sense when used by British speakers.

117

Danny

b. an Italian. This has become the most common American sense of the word. ‘Dago’ is sometimes used as an indiscriminate insult to persons, usually male, of Mediterranean origin.

dainties n pl

(women’s) panties, knickers. A jokily coy euphemism heard in both America and Australia from the mid-1970s.

dairybelle n South African

an attractive woman, especially one with large breasts. The term is an adoption of the brand name of milk and cheese products.

daisy n

a male homosexual or an effeminate man. The word in this sense is not common, but occurs occasionally in British, American and Australian usage.

daisy chain n

a group of people taking part in ‘serial’ sexual activity; cunnilingus, fellatio, penetration, etc. in series

daks n pl

trousers. From the trademark name of a brand of casual trousers sold since the 1930s in Britain and Australia. The word’s popularity was boosted by its use in the Barry McKenzie cartoon series in Private Eye magazine, usually in the phrase drop one’s daks.

damage n British

an attractive female or females in general. A male usage recorded in 2004. Biffage is a synonym.

major damage

Check out the damage.

dame n

a woman. An Americanism usually identified with the criminal, musical, etc. milieus of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. The usage obviously derives from the original British 13th-century title of ‘Dame’ (itself from the Latin domina, via Old French), which quickly became a synonym for a woman in dialect and rural speech. Like doll, broad and, to some extent, chick, the term now sounds dated.

damn skippy! exclamation American

a strong expression of agreement. It is a more recent version of colloquial phrases such as ‘darn tootin’ (right)’ or ‘damn straight’.

‘Did you nail that cute co-ed?’ ‘Damn skippy!’

damp adj

1. British a middle-class synonym for wet in the sense of ineffectual or feeble

I always found Jenny’s husband a bit damp.

2.(of a woman) sexually aroused

‘On the Jonathan Ross show one night I saw a female comic asked how she viewed the prospect of the next guest, a renowned male hunk. “I’m damp”, she replied, and went on to repeat the assertion a few times. “Damp. Yes, I’m really damp”. There was no joke as such, no turn or twist or wit, just a blank description.’

(Sebastian Faulks, Independent magazine, 28 October 1989)

d and d adj

drunk and disorderly. The phrase in full is police or judicial jargon; the abbreviation is a euphemism used by police officers in the USA and, in Britain, facetiously by drinkers.

Terry was completely d and d again last night.

dang n American

1.the penis. A rare variant of dong.

2.a euphemism for ‘damn’

dangleberries n pl

a variation of dingleberries dangler n

1.the penis. A nursery euphemism also used facetiously among adults.

2.Australian a flasher, a male sexual exhibitionist

3.British a trailer, when attached to a truck or tractor

4.American a trapeze artist

danglers n pl

the testicles. An old and predictable euphemism heard, e.g., in British public schools and the armed forces.

dank1 adj American

excellent. This sense of the word may be influenced by its use as a nickname for potent marihuana.

dank2 n American

(high-grade) marihuana. So called because of its dark colour and moist, sticky consistency.

Danny (La Rue) n British

a clue, invariably as part of a phrase in utterances such as ‘Don’t ask me, I haven’t got a Danny La Rue’. The rhyming slang uses the name of the femaleimpersonating UK variety star. Scooby(- doo) is a synonym.

da nuts

118

da nuts n, adj

the best or the greatest, excellent. The phrase, poular since around 2000, is a euphemism for the dog’s bollocks.

That man is da nuts.

dap adj American

elegant, smart, fashionable. The term, heard in black and campus speech, is a shortening of ‘dapper’.

dap-dap n, adj American

(an individual considered) attractive, well dressed, fashionable. An elaboration of dap favoured by younger teenagers in California and featured in the 1996 US film Clueless.

dapper n British

a stylish, successful or dominant male. The noun form of the standard adjective has existed in London street slang since 2000, probably originating in black usage.

dappy n, adj British

(a person who is) silly, clumsy, eccentric. This blend of dippy and daffy was in use among schoolchildren and teenage speakers in the early 1990s.

daps n pl British

tennis shoes, plimsolls. The word may echo the sound of light footfalls or derive from an archaic dialect verb meaning to ‘dart’ or ‘pad’. ‘Daps’ was a particularly popular term among teenagers and schoolchildren in Wales and the Southwest in the 1960s.

darb1 vb British

to have sex. In this sense the word was recorded among London schoolgirls in 1993. Its origins are unknown and it seems not to be related to the identical American noun.

darb2 n, adj American

(someone or something) excellent or admirable. The word seems to have originated in the 1920s and is said to derive from Ruby ‘Darby’, the name of a popular showgirl.

dare adj British

good, fantastic. A vogue term in use among teenage gang members. The term, sometimes in the form of an exclamation of approval, was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

dark adj

1. British behaving harshly, unfairly or unpleasantly (to another person). Used

in this way the term is part of the slang code heard among London teenagers since the 1990s. It probably originated in the black Caribbean community, although the same word was employed to mean stupid or obtuse in 17th-century English slang.

‘I didn’t like it that he was actin’ dark.’

(Recorded, North London schoolboy, 1993)

2. stylish, impressive. This sense of the word derives from its use to describe ‘moody, deep’ drum ’n’ bass music in the later 1990s.

Darren n British

an uncouth, unfashionable and/or unfortunate male. A synonym, in use since around 2000, for the earlier Kevin and Wayne and the contemporary Trev, playing, like the female Sharon, on the supposedly negative social connotations of some common first names.

dash1 n

money, a bribe or tip. The term is from West Africa, where it derives from dashee, a local African dialect term. It may be the origin of the more common dosh.

dash2 vb British

to throw away. A usage recorded among young Londoners in 2004.

date n

1.Australian the anus. Presumably by association with the colour of the fruit, or just possibly from the archaic British rhyming slang ‘date and plum’ meaning bum.

2.British a stupid, silly or weak person. This rare usage (probably by association with the texture of an over-ripe date) is now nearly obsolete, but was heard until the 1960s, especially in the phrases ‘you soft date’ and ‘you soppy date’. Such phrases now survive only in nursery language.

3.a prostitute’s assignation with a client. An item of police slang recorded by the London Evening Standard magazine, February 1993.

date roll n Australian

a toilet roll. Derived from date 1.

David n British

semen. This 1996 term from the language of adolescents puns on the surname of the sports hero and Arsenal and England goalkeeper, David Seaman.

119	dead presidents

David (Gower) n British

a shower. An instance of educated rhyming slang which borrows the name of the cricketer, heard among university students from the 1990s.

David (Mellor) n British

(a drink of) Stella Artois lager, playing on the name of the notorious Tory politician turned journalist. Nelson (Mandela), Paul (Weller) and Uri (Geller) are synonyms, all popular with students since the late 1990s.

Davy Crockett n British

pocket. A piece of rhyming slang inspired by the cult film about the American pioneer for which there was a craze in 1956.

Sky rocket and Lucy Locket are synonyms.

dawg, dog n American

a friend. This term of affection, originating in southern speech, became one of the most widespread slang vogue words in US usage from around 2000.

daylighting n

working (usually illicitly) at a second job during daylight hours. An obvious derivation from the colloquial ‘moonlighting’.

deacon n British

a stupid person, Benny, spack. Allegedly from ‘Joey Deacon’, an elderly cerebral palsy victim featured on TV in the early 1980s. The term is used by schoolchildren.

deadass n, adj American

(a person who is) very boring, feeble or very stupid

He’s a real deadass. What a deadass town.

dead bang adv, adj American

caught in flagrante or red-handed. An American police version of dead to rights or the British bang to rights.

‘I got you dead bang for breaking into Eddie’s apartment.’

(The Rockford Files, US TV crime series, 1979)

deadbeat n

a.a poor or homeless person

b.a penniless scrounger, a freeloader

c.a worthless or stupid person

All these senses derive from a 19th-cen- tury Americanism in which ‘dead’ means ‘completely’ and ‘beat’ is not ‘exhausted’ but a ‘loafer’ or hobo.

dead-crack adj British penniless, broke

deadhead1 n

1. a very stupid, lifeless or boring person. An obvious derivation of its component parts, this phrase is reinforced by its 19th-century American meaning of nonpaying passengers or non-participants (from a ‘dead head’ of cattle).

‘This is a stoners’ western for crystal-dan- gling deadheads.’

(Evening Standard film review, 22 July 2004)

2.Australian an idle person, a good-for- nothing

3.a fan or devotee of the San Francisco rock group The Grateful Dead, who were popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and enjoyed a revival in the 1980s

deadhead2 vb American

(of a vehicle) to run or drive empty or without passengers. This meaning, a relic of 19th-century cattle drives, is now rarely heard.

See also deadhead1 1

deadleg1 n British

1. a feeble, lazy or disappointing person. This word has been used from the 1950s and may derive from an earlier armedforces term ‘deadlegs’, meaning a cripple or someone who refuses to rise from bed.

‘The usual crowd of airheads, phonies, deadlegs, posers, bimbos, wallies, wannabees, hangers-on and gatecrashers.’

(Christena Appleyard, Daily Mirror, 11 May 1989)

2. a numb feeling in the leg following a kneeing in the thigh by an attacker

deadleg2 vb British

the action of kneeing someone in the thigh. A popular school playground tactic.

deadly adj Irish

excellent, cool. The term was recorded with this sense in 2003.

dead meat n

a person who is dead, about to die or inevitably doomed. Dead meat is an old and heartless euphemism for a corpse. Now the phrase usually forms part of a threat.

Do that, baby, and you’re dead meat!

deadneck n American

a variant of deadhead, deadbeat, etc.

dead presidents n pl American money, banknotes

deadshit

120

deadshit n, adj Australian

(a person who is) contemptible or very unpleasant

That was a deadshit party.

dead soldier n

an empty bottle (of alcohol). The phrase was first used by members of the British armed forces about 200 years ago, likening the aftermath of a drinking bout to a battlefield littered with corpses.

I’ll clear up the dead soldiers while you fumigate the place.

dead to rights adv, adj American

an American version of the British bang to rights. ‘Dead to rights’ is probably the original form of the phrase, dating from the 19th century and now rarely, if ever, heard in Britain.

‘Dead’ is used here in its common colloquial meaning of ‘completely’.

deal1 n British

a portion or amount of a drug, especially hashish. Before decimalisation in 1971, very small amounts of cannabis were bought or referred to as a ‘five-bob deal’ or ‘ten-bob deal’.

deal2 vb

to sell (drugs). The verb is used intransitively, as in ‘does he still deal?’, and transitively, as in ‘she deals dope at the weekend’.

dealer n

a supplier of illicit drugs. The term, imported into other English-speaking areas from the USA in the early 1960s, is a neutral one, implying someone who sells on demand without coercion. It replaced the earlier, pejorative word pusher among users themselves.

dealing adj British

involved in a relationship, ‘seeing someone’. A fashionable term from the older adolescent’s lexicon of dating, heard from the later 1990s. The word had been used in the same sense by public schoolgirls in the 1960s.

deal with (someone) vb British

to beat up. A term used by young streetgang members in London since around 2000.

deb n

1. a debutante; a young girl being introduced into the social season. Although principally identified with an upper-class London milieu, the adoption of débutante, French for ‘beginner’, may have

occurred in the USA in the first decade of the 20th century.

2. American a female member of a street gang. A term used in the 1960s, usually in the plural, probably originating in ‘debutante’, perhaps reinforced by the prevalence of the Christian name Deborah or Debbie. ‘Deb’ resurfaced in the gang argot of Los Angeles in the 1980s.

de-bag vb British

to remove (someone’s) trousers. The phrase originated among 19th-century university students but quickly spread to schoolboys for whom the ritual humiliation of fellow pupils by de-bagging was a popular diversion up to the late 1960s at least. Bags was a 19th-century slang term for trousers which survived until fairly recently.

debs’ delight n British

an upper-class young man, especially one who might be considered an eligible partner or escort by parents (of debutantes), in spite of low intelligence. The phrase was used pejoratively and/or enviously and was popular in the 1960s. A more recent version is pedigree chum.

deck1 vb

to knock (someone) to the ground. A variant of ‘to floor’.

deck2 n

1.a portion or package of illicit drugs, especially heroin. The term, from American addicts’ jargon of the 1960s, spread to Britain and Australia where the meaning was sometimes amended to refer to an injection, or the amount (of heroin) necessary for an injection.

2.a skateboard or surfboard in the jargon of aficionados

deck up vb

to prepare for injection or to inject a drug, usually heroin. A phrase from the jargon of drug users and prisoners in the UK. The verb derives from the noun deck, meaning a quantity of a narcotic.

decorators n pl British See have the decorators in

deep adj

1.unpleasant, inferior

2.impressive, attractive

In both senses the word has been fashionable among black adolescents and their imitators since 2000. The usage may have originated in from the jargon of DJs and hip-hop aficionados, or from the codes of street gangs, or both.

121

derry

deep-sea diver n

a £5 note, fiver. A piece of London rhyming slang heard occasionally since about the mid-1970s.

deep-six vb American

to bury, dispose of. The verb form, which has been common in American speech since the 1950s, derives from the earlier noun form ‘the deep six’, an underworld euphemism for the grave. The ultimate origin is nautical; burials at sea have to be made in water that is more than six fathoms deep.

‘I’ve got to exchange all this money!’ ‘You can deep-six it, sir.’

(M.A.S.H., US TV series, 1977)

def adj

excellent, wonderful, ‘the real thing’. A late 1980s vogue term of approbation deriving from the language of hip hop. The word is a shortening of ‘definitive’ or ‘definite’. The use of the word as the title of a BBC2 ‘youth slot’ programme (DEF II) in 1988 marked its apogee. Det is a more recent synonym.

‘This month’s music selections are frightfully def, totally treach and all those other hip hop clichés.’

(I-D magazine, November 1987)

de facto n Australian

a live-in lover, one’s unmarried partner. This phrase is one Australian solution (since the 1970s) to the problem of finding an acceptable term to describe what the British judicial system calls a ‘common-law spouse’.

‘My de facto’s out buying groceries.’

(Recorded, young woman, Melbourne, 1978)

de-frosted adj American

heated, agitated. An adolescents’ term, inspired by the opposite notion of cool or chilled out.

Come on, don’t get all de-frosted.

dekko n British

a look, glance. A word that probably originated in the jargon of tramps, taken from the Romany word for ‘look’, dik, in the late 19th century. British soldiers overseas also encountered the Hindustani version dekko. The word is now less popular than in the 1950s but is still heard in the phrase ‘take/have a dekko (at)’. The word is not unknown, but is rare in American slang, where it has been recorded as ‘decko’.

See also dick2 2

Delhi belly n

an attack of diarrhoea. Since the era of British colonialism this has been the South Asian equivalent of gyppy tummy,

Montezuma’s revenge, etc.

delicious adj British

(of a person) attractive, often deliberately mispronounced as ‘delshous’. The term is used typically by teenage girls and students of both sexes.

dementoid, demental n, adj American

(a person who is) crazy, demented. A high-school term of the 1980s that expressed contempt, grudging admiration or both. The word is also used adjectivally, as in ‘that was a totally dementoid movie’.

demon n Australian

a detective. This probably originated in the simple abbreviation D, which then passed via ‘d-man’ to demon. The word is fairly rare; when it does occur it is often in the plural form.

Dennis (Law) n British

hashish or marihuana. The term is rhyming slang for draw. The name of the footballer was evoked by adolescents at the end of the 1980s.

Has anyone seen Dennis? [Have you got any smoke?]

dental floss (pants) n British variant forms of the American floss

derk, durk n British

a stupid person. Used by younger teenagers, the words are formed from or influenced by dork, nerd and durr-brain.

dero n Australian

a homeless person or tramp, a derelict. The term has been in use for about twenty years. It is also heard as a fairly mild insult among children and adolescents.

derro n British

1. an unfortunate, inferior or unpleasant person. A derivation from ‘derelict’, used either of vagrants or of someone pitied or disliked.

‘And touching someone when you’re dancing, Caris intimates, is the act of a derro, a flo-to-tin’ yup, a deadbeat, a homebug and a commuter.’

(Observer, Section 5, 7 May 1989)

2. a derry

derry, deri n British

a derelict building or similar location, used as a temporary shelter by tramps, etc.

desi

122

‘It’s not a derry, guy, there are people living there.’

(Recorded, vagrant, Waterloo, London, 1988)

desi n, adj South Asian

(someone who is) local, indigenous. The term is used in the UK, sometimes pejoratively, by younger or supposedly sophisticated speakers to refer to traditionalists or recent immigrants.

Compare freshi

Desmond n British

a lower second university degree, a 2.2 (two-two). This is a student’s witticism playing on the name of the black South African community leader Bishop Desmond Tutu. The word was in vogue in 1986 and gave rise to a number of other joky euphemisms, such as Douglas, Pattie, Taiwan, Richard, etc.

‘We all expected Penny to get a James but she ended up with a Desmond.’ (Evening Standard, June 1988)

destroyed adj

intoxicated by alcohol or illicit drugs. A widespread colloquialism which has been particularly popular among middleclass speakers since the late 1960s. The word continues the dramatic tendency evidenced by such usages as smashed, bombed, wrecked, etc.

det, dett adj

excellent, physically attractive. A vogue term, pronounced with a glottal stop at the end and never a ‘t’ sound, since 2000, it may be a variant form of the earlier def.

detox n, vb

(to undertake) a course of withdrawal from ‘hard’ drugs or alcohol; a detoxification, to detoxify. A term from health workers’ jargon which is now standard among drug users and patients.

deuce n

a.two dollars or two pounds

Just let me have a deuce till tomorrow.

b.a two-year prison sentence

He pulled a deuce in Club Fed.

devo adj American

apparently ‘robotic’ or depersonalised. The name of the avant-garde late-1970s band (who presented themselves as near-automatons and semi-retards due to ‘devolution’) is now used to describe a ‘somnambulistic’, expressionless person

or behaviour. Stepford is used in a similar context.

acting devo

I don’t know what her problem is but she is so devo.

dex, dexie, dexo n

a pill or capsule of Dexedrine, a trademark for an amphetamine (pep pill) frequently prescribed and abused in the 1950s and 1960s. Yellow pills of Dexedrine were popular among English mods of the mid-1960s. Dexy’s Midnight Runners, a phrase adopted as the name of a late 1970s white soul group, was an elaborate nickname for the drug.

Dexter n American

a conventional and/or boorish male. The pejorative term has been in vogue among adolescents since the late 1990s.

Dezzy n British

an alternative form of Desmond

dialog(ue) vb

to engage in conversation, particularly with the intent to trick, seduce, etc.

diamond adj British

first-rate, superb, admirable. A London working-class and underworld term, often heard in the appreciative phrase ‘a diamond geezer’.

dib1 n

a contribution, portion, amount of money. This word was in use in Britain in the late 19th century, but is now heard mainly in the USA, typically in children’s street or playground games. The plural form was common in England until the late 1950s and survives especially in the expression ‘to have dibs on something’, meaning to reserve or have first rights to something.

dib2 vb, n British

a partly smoked cigarette saved for relighting later, or the act of extinguishing it. This term, which may originate in a dialect verb meaning to ‘pinch’ or to ‘stub’, is used for instance by workmen, labourers and the armed forces.

dick1 n

1. the penis. This use of the word has been widespread in the English-speaking world since the end of the 19th century. It is probably an affectionate personification in origin in the same way as willie, etc. This sense of the word is sometimes extended to mean sex in general, as in ‘Suzy loves dick’.

123

diddle

‘Not all women in pop are, or ever have been, brainless bimbos lured into lurex by cynical rock business shitheads with one eye on their cheque books and the other on their dicks.’

(Ms London magazine, 4 September 1989)

2.a fool (invariably male). Dick has this secondary sense in common with most slang terms for the male member, such as prick, tool, etc.

3.nothing at all. A vulgar emphatic more commonly heard in America and in vogue since the mid-1970s. Its sense is roughly equivalent to the British buggerall.

‘What do those gimps do all day?’ ‘They do dick.’

4. a detective. Almost invariably in the phrase private dick. This Americanism, popularised in crime fiction, originated in underworld jargon as a corruption of the word ‘detective’ itself.

See also dickless Tracy dick2 vb

1.to have sex (with), penetrate. A predictable but rare term, generated from the noun sense of dick.

2.British to look at. A variation of the Romany dik, meaning to look, from which dekko may be derived. This rare term is occasionally heard among tramps, street traders, etc.

See also dekko

3. to mess up, mess around (with). A variant of dick around or dick up.

She completely dicked the project.

dick around vb

to mess around (with), behave in a disorganised or aimless way. The expression employs dick (the penis) in the same way as cock, prat about, etc.

dickbrained adj

stupid, extremely foolish. A term popular among young people since the 1980s. The adjective is American in origin and the sense of dick employed, deriving from ‘penis’, may be reinforced by the German sense of ‘thick’.

dickhead n

a fool, an idiot. An old, folksy Americanism which became a vogue term among British youth from around 1980. It may be applied to males or females. Abusive compound words ending in ‘-head’ have proliferated since the end of the 1970s.

‘The outcome of being a dickhead is that I don’t possess any Aretha Franklin singles and make do with compilations.’

(John Peel quoted in New Musical Express, 7 February 1987)

dickless Tracy n Australian

a policewoman. A humorous coinage playing on dick (the penis) and ‘Dick Tracy’, the American comic-strip detective hero created by Chester Gould.

dick up vb

to make a mess of. A variant of cock up occasionally heard in Britain and Australia.

dick-wad, dick-weed n

a despicable, obnoxious or contemptible person. Teenage insults using the combining form -wad and its euphemistic version -weed.

dicky adj British

shaky, insecure, faulty. A colloquialism whose origin is obscure but which dates back at least 150 years. Its original meaning of ‘ill’ survives in the modern phrase ‘a dicky heart’.

‘Oh, my dicky ticker!’

(Catchphrase from ’Allo ’Allo!, British TV comedy series of the 1980s)

dicky bird n British

a word. A piece of London rhyming slang which has become a widespread colloquialism, especially in the phrase ‘not a dicky bird’. Unlike most modern examples of rhyming slang, it is invariably used in full, presumably to avoid confusion with ‘dickie’ and dick.

did n British

a form of didicoi

diddle vb

1. British to cheat. A common colloquialism recorded since the early 1800s.

‘Comedian Ken Dodd insisted on cash for shows to diddle the taxman, his former agent told a jury yesterday.’

(Daily Mirror, 5 July 1989)

In Old English dydrian meant to deceive or delude; Jeremy Diddler was a fictional swindler (in the 1803 farce Raising the Wind by James Kenney).

2a. to have sex with. This sense probably derives from a nursery sense of diddle meaning fiddle with or agitate (see diddle 2b).

2b. to sexually stimulate (a woman) with the fingers. (In Middle English dideren meant to quiver.)