Dictionary of Contemporary Slang

nookie n British

sexual intercourse or sex in general. This coy term became popular in the late 1970s and 1980s, probably due to its use in the media in place of more offensive synonyms. (Nookie also occurs, albeit rarely, in American usage.) The etymology of the word is uncertain. It may be a form of the archaic British dialect verb ‘nug’ (which has survived in American speech in the form noogie: kiss or hug), or it may alternatively be an alteration of an older euphemism for the female pudenda as a ‘shady nook’. It has been defined recently as ‘70’s style slang for sex, now making a bit of a comeback’.

noonie n

an alternative spelling of nunnie

noov, noovo n, adj British

(a person who is) nouveau riche. A dismissive term employed by upper-class and public-school speakers and pseudo-intellectuals. Etonian schoolboys applied the term to Harrovians in the late 1980s.

Nora n British

a drab or unattractive woman. The phrase ‘a right Nora’ was used in the 1990s by students and other adolescents to condemn any female thought to be frumpy, unattractive or shrewish. The term is inspired by the character of Nora Batty in the TV comedy Last of the Summer Wine.

norks n pl Australian

female breasts. This word is said to be inspired by the wrapper design for butter produced in the 1950s by the Norco Co-operative Dairy Company, which showed a cow with a full udder. The word was introduced to British speakers by the Barry McKenzie cartoon series, running in Private Eye magazine in the 1960s. ‘Norkers’ and ‘norgs’ were earlier forms.

Norman no-mates n British

a rarer version of Billy no-mates

Norman Normal n British

a very conventional, conformist person. The mythical Norman (supposedly an especially dull, typically bourgeois or petit bourgeois Christian name as well as resembling ‘normal’) was invoked by the last beatniks and, after them, the hippies as a term of light-hearted contempt.

Norris n American

a misfit, outsider, clumsy and inept person, usually male. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

north and south n British

the mouth. A piece of Victorian London working-class rhyming slang that is still heard, always in the full form.

‘What a mouth, what a mouth/ What a north and south/ Blimey what a mouth he’s got!’

(Lyrics to ‘What a Mouth’, recorded by Tommy Steele, 1960)

nosebleed n American an obnoxious person

nose candy n American

cocaine. Another euphemistic use of candy in particular and sweet imagery in general to describe drugs. This term was widespread among users following the adoption of cocaine as a middle-class fashion in the late 1970s.

nosh1 n British

1. food. In Yiddish, the noun (deriving from the verb form, itself from the German naschen) signifies a snack or tidbit eaten between meals. In English usage it has been generalised to encompass all sizes of meal.

‘Hey look at all that lovely nosh going to waste.’

(Biff cartoon, 1986)

2. a promiscuous and/or disreputable female. A term used by young streetgang members in London since around 2000.

nosh2 vb

to eat. The word is a later alteration of nashn, a Yiddish version of the German word naschen, meaning to snack or eat surreptitiously.

After he’d noshed everything on the table, he started in on the fridge.

no shit, Sherlock! exclamation

an ironic riposte to a statement of the obvious. Probably originating in American speech, it is also an item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

nosh (someone) off vb British

to have oral sex with someone, perform fellatio or cunnilingus. A 1980s invention in self-conscious imitation of cockney forms of the 1950s.

nosser n British

a homeless person, vagrant

not(!) exclamation

a contradiction of the previous statement. The usage, which some linguists claim to have originated in Celtic languages, was popularised by the cult US film Wayne’s World in 1992 and the comedy sketches on the US TV programme, Saturday Night Live, on which it was based. It neatly replaces the older mechanism whereby the phrase ‘I don’t think!’ was appended.

She’s my favourite person. Not!

no-tail n British

a female. The term, used typically by males, is probably inspired by its usage in the black comedy TV series The League of Gentlemen, but may be earlier in origin.

not bill n British

the vagina. Based on bill in the sense of the penis, this term was in use among middle-class adolescent males in 2000.

not bill mice n British

tampons. A jocular term in use among middle-class adolescent males in 2000.

notch n American

the female sex organs

not many! exclamation British

an all-purpose term of dismissal, derision, etc., in London working-class speech. Its precise derivation is unclear, but it may be a replacement for the earlier use of ‘not much!’ as an ironic riposte to a statement of the obvious.

not shy adj British

sexually forward, promiscuous. A jocular euphemism heard e.g. on British campuses since 2000.

not the full shillin’ adj British slow-witted and/or distracted, eccentric. A folksy expression dating from the pre-decimalisation era, still heard in 2004, perhaps due to its use in the TV soap Coronation Street.

nouve, nouveau n, adj British alternative renderings of noov, noovo

novel adj British

pretentious, unoriginal, unappealing. The standard term has been used ironically in this way by students and others since 2000.

nowhere adj

worthless, inferior, hopeless, uninteresting. A dismissive term which formed part of the beatnik vocabulary in the USA in

the 1950s and later in Britain. When the Beatles recorded Nowhere Man in 1965, the word was in vogue in very limited circles; it was subsequently heard among hippies, particularly in the USA.

nowherian n

a vagrant or feckless person

nowt n British

nothing. A northern English dialect version of the archaic or literary ‘naught’. The word is sometimes appropriated by southern speakers for emphasis, irony or familiarity.

N.T.D. adj British

an abbreviation of ‘not top-drawer’; a code term of snobbish disapproval sometimes used in all seriousness by Sloane Rangers or would-be members of the upper classes

nuddy, nuddie adj British

nude, naked. A schoolchildren’s humorous or coy mispronunciation of the standard English term, usually in the phrase ‘in the nuddie’.

nudger n

a gay male. This pejorative term is a shortened form of fudge-nudger.

nudnik, noodnik n American

an irritating, boring or stupid person. This Yiddish word is derived from the Czech adjective nudny, meaning tiresome or boring.

’nuff n

a humorous rendering of ‘enough’ reflecting its pronunciation in rapid or childish speech. The word is usually seen in this form in the cliché ‘’nuff said’. Vogue expressions also employing the word were ‘nuff-tuff’, meaning bold or daring, and ‘nuff carn’, meaning enough money, both used by teenagers from the late 1980s.

nuff! exclamation American

possibly a contraction of the phrase ‘enough said’

nug n American

a girl(friend). The term is probably a shortening of the word nuggy which is equivalent to the British nookie.

nugget n British

a one pound coin. From its gold colour and thickness.

nuggets n pl American the testicles

Man, it was so cold my nuggets nearly froze off.

nuggy n American

an alternative spelling of noogie nuke vb

a.to attack with nuclear weapons. The verb was coined by ‘hawks’ in the USA in the early 1970s. During the Falklands War of 1981, T-shirts and car stickers were produced in Britain with the exhortation ‘Nuke Buenos Aires!’.

b.to devastate, defeat, overwhelm. By extension the verb is now used with this general meaning, particularly by teenagers and students.

We nuked them in the inter-college playoff.

c. to cook in a microwave oven. The colloquial verb for a nuclear attack has been used in this sense throughout the Eng- lish-speaking world.

nukes n pl

nuclear weapons. An abbreviated form first seen in the USA in the 1970s, especially in the disarmament slogan ‘no nukes!’.

number n

1. a marihuana cigarette, joint. A vogue term of the late 1960s originating in the USA and deriving from the use of number to mean item, piece or unit. The word remains in use among cannabis smokers.

‘Roll another number for the road.’

(Song title, the Holy Modal Rounders, 1969)

2.an act of betrayal, a confidence trick, a scam. Most often heard in the phrase do a number on (someone): make a dupe of someone. Related is the phrase ‘to get someone’s number’: to see through someone’s deception.

3.a sexual partner. An unromantic term of the 1970s and 1980s denoting a casual or anonymous pick-up. (American author John Rechy published a novel with the title Numbers, dealing with gay liaisons, in 1970.)

‘She goes to singles bars to pick up what she calls “numbers”.’

(Recorded, London, 1986)

number (someone) vb

to identify, single out, denounce someone

They numbered him as a prime suspect. I got numbered.

number-cruncher n

a (human or mechanical) calculator, handler or manipulator of (usually large)

numbers. This light-hearted phrase evoking a mill or grinding mechanism fed with figures has become a standard item of business jargon.

number-crunching n

the activity or practice of handling complex calculations and large quantities.

See also number-cruncher

number one(s) n

urination. A nursery term dating from the Victorian concept of personal hygiene as a drill. The idea is usually expressed in the form ‘do number ones’. In the USA it is occasionally a verb, in the form ‘to number one’.

See also number two(s)

number two(s) n

defecation. A children’s term often used humorously by adults. It occurs in both British and American speech.

See also number one(s)

numb-nuts n

an ineffectual, stupid or contemptible person, invariably male. A term of abuse popular for instance with college students in the USA; since the mid-1980s it has been heard in other Englishspeaking areas. (Nuts refers to the testicles, although the epithet has no sexual connotations.)

numero uno n, adj American

(something or someone considered) superlative or supreme. A borrowing, from Hispanic American speech, of the Spanish for ‘number one’.

numptie, numbty, numshie n British

a fool, buffoon. This Scottish term became more widespread from the early 1990s. It has been derived from the unfortunate children’s character Humpty-Dumpty, but is equally likely to be based on ‘numb(-skull)’.

nunnie, noonie n American

the backside, butt, ass. An invented inoffensive euphemism.

‘You’re gonna freeze your nunnie.’

(M*A*S*H, US TV comedy series, 1981)

nurd n

an alternative spelling of nerd

nurk n

an alternative spelling of nerk nut1 n

1. the head. A predictable metaphor which had become established slang by the mid-19th century (see the verb form).

2a. a crazy, eccentric person. The word was used in this sense in the USA for about thirty years before its adoption by British speakers in the late 1940s, from nut-case.

2b. a devotee, fan(atic) or buff. The word is used, particularly in American English, as a combining form or suffix, as in ‘health-nut’.

nut2 vb British

to butt someone with one’s head, usually in the face, a common form of assault among street fighters and practised brawlers. The concept is also expressed by phrases such as ‘stick the nut on (someone)’ or ‘give someone the nut’.

Gorbals kiss, Glasgow kiss and ‘Glasgow handshake’ are colourful alternatives.

‘Millions of TV viewers … saw the Wimbledon wildman nut Everton skipper Kevin Ratcliffe.’

(News of the World, 12 February 1989)

nut-case n

a crazy person. A slang version of ‘mental case’ which spread from American speech into British usage at the end of the 1950s. It is now a fairly mild term, usually denoting harmless eccentricity. A racier, more modern version is headcase.

nut-house n

a psychiatric hospital, mental home. The phrase has been in use since the 1920s.

nut-job n American

a more recent variation of nut-case

nut out/up vb

to go crazy, lose control of oneself, run amok. A recent teenagers’ and college students’ term.

nuts1 adj

1a. crazy, absurd, insane. An Americanism from the turn of the 20th century, adopted elsewhere before World War II, it derives ultimately from the 19th-century notion of ‘off one’s nut’, a slang version of the colloquial ‘off one’s head’.

1b. extremely enthusiastic or enamoured

He’s nuts about her!

2. British good. As heard since 2000, the word is probably a shortening of the mutt’s nuts rather than the colloquial term for crazy.

nuts2 n pl

the testicles. A metaphorical use of the word which serves as a more acceptable euphemism for balls.

nuts! exclamation

an exclamation of defiance which may be used without offence, unlike the synonymous balls. The most famous instance of this (typically American) expression was General McAuliffe’s one-word riposte to the German army’s request for surrender at Bastogne in World War II.

nutter n British

a maniacal, unrestrained, unpredictable person. Often said in awe or grudging admiration of the subject’s energy and capabilities.

‘He then began saying I would get into trouble. “That boy of yours looks a nutter to me!”’

(Joe Orton’s diary, 12 May 1967)

nutty adj

1.crazy, absurd, eccentric. A usage which slightly pre-dates the almost synonymous nuts. By the 1960s it was considered a well-established colloquialism.

2.Jamaican natty (in the standard and patois senses), smart and spirited. Caribbean English has retained the 19th-cen- tury British sense of dandified. The word was applied by the white British pop group, Madness to themselves in a punning reference to their ‘craziness’ and the inspiration they gained from black music.

3.British excellent, exciting. An all-pur- pose term of approval in use among schoolchildren, clubbers and fashionistas from the late 1990s.

nyaff n Scottish

an irritating or obnoxious person. The term is supposed to be echoic in origin, and is based on the irritating sound of a dog or a small child.

nyam (up) vb British

to eat. The term was heard in black British speech in the early 1990s. It was thought to be echoic, but possibly originates from a West African language.

nympho n

a promiscuous woman. The word is a shortening of ‘nymphomaniac’. The word has often been used by schoolchildren since the 1950s.

O n

opium, in the jargon of drug users oats n pl See get one’s oats

oatsy adj

spirited, assertive, restive or feisty. A coinage derived from the earlier phrase to ‘feel one’s oats’.

obbo n British

observation by police officers, surveillance. An item of police slang recorded by the Evening Standard magazine, February 1993, and popularised by its use in the many TV dramas based on police work broadcast in the later 1990s.

obv adj, adv British

short for ‘obvious(ly)’. An abbreviated form in use among middle-class speakers from around 2000.

Compare unforch

ocean-going combining form British

an all-purpose intensifier used to prefix nouns, as in ‘an ocean-going shit’ (an extremely obnoxious person). The usage is inspired by such terms as ‘ocean-going yacht’, denoting a larger and more powerful version of the thing in question. Born-again is used in a similar way.

ocker n Australian

a working-class male, especially one epitomising the more boorish Australian attributes. This word, which seems to be related to the British oik by an unrecorded process, has a resonance beyond its simple definition. It has overtones of the American ‘good ole boy’. ‘Ockerism’ and ‘ockerdom’ describe the cult or syndrome of male comradeship, beer-drink- ing and lack of refinement embodied in such cultural icons as the comedian Paul Hogan’s ‘Hoag’ character and the Test cricketer Merv Hughes. (Alf is a less wellknown synonym for ocker.)

‘Paul Hogan …the archetypal Aussie Ocker.’

(Photo caption, Southern Cross magazine, July 1989)

ockerina, ocarina n Australian

a female ocker. A play on words heard occasionally.

octopus n British

a bus. An item of rhyming slang from the Merseyside area, given exposure by its use in the TV soap opera Brookside.

O.D., o.d. n, vb

(to) overdose. The abbreviation replaced the full form in the 1960s among ‘counterculture’ and street drug users. It is still in use and is sometimes extended to refer to a surfeit of something innocuous.

Oh God, I’ve completely o.d.’d on those chocolates.

‘Billy O.D’d on Drano on the night that he was wed.’

(‘People Who Died’, written and recorded by Jim Carroll, 1981)

oddball n, adj

(a person who is) eccentric, nonconformist or an outsider. An Americanism which has been established in British and American speech since the 1950s. The origin of the expression probably lies in pool playing or another sport.

She’s a bit of an oddball.

That’s thoroughly oddball behaviour.

odds and sods n pl British

a rhyming vulgarisation of ‘odds and ends’

odds it vb British

to ‘play the odds’, take a risk or chance. A piece of London working-class terminology, used particularly by police officers and members of the underworld.

You’re oddsin’ it a bit, aren’t you?

I can’t be sure, we’ll just have to odds it.

ofay n American

a white person. The word is said to be a backslang version of ‘foe’ in black Ameri-

oggle vb British

a humorous or simply mispronounced version of the verb to ‘ogle’, usually in the sense of ‘eye lasciviously’. A mid- dle-class colloquialism.

oggle-rye n British

a.an eye

b.an eyelash

c.an eyebrow

A parlyaree term recorded since the 1960s, in use particularly among London gays and transvestites. It combines the verb oggle (a deformation of ‘ogle’) and a nonsense syllable to provide the rhyme.

ohno-second n

a realisation of error, sudden panic, in e.g. medical slang. The expression mimics technical terms such as nanosecond. It describes ‘…the moment you realise you’ve dropped that blood sample it took six stabs to get’. (Recorded,

British Medical Journal online, 2002).

-oid suffix

the suffix, seen in slang since the late 1960s, confers a sense of the pseudoscientific or pathological on the preceding word or part of a word. It is invariably also pejorative, and as such performs as a negative version of the neutral ‘-ish’ or ‘-esque’. Examples are ‘Ramboid’, ‘bozoid’ (from bozo), ‘trendoid’ and zomboid.

oik n British

1. a vulgar, coarse, boorish or socially inferior person. This term was, and still is, applied by public schoolboys (rarely by girls) to local children or those attending state schools. It is also sometimes used self-effacingly or ironically by workingclass males to refer to themselves. The word’s origin is obscure (one suggestion is that it was an imitation of the sound of unsophisticated speech), but seems to lie in the 19th century; it is almost certainly cognate with the 20th-century Australian term ocker, also denoting a working-class male. Evelyn Waugh used the word, in his diary entry of 7 January 1920, when referring to his host as a ‘wizened, pleasant little oik’.

‘I’m constantly amazed that a couple of oiks like me and Gray have managed to make it.’

(Recorded, advertising executive, London, 1986)

2. a person with ‘one income and kids’. An acronym in yuppie use in the late

1980s. Similar coinages are dinky and oink.

oiler n

1.British a sycophant. The Sunday Times, 16 October 1994, reported that Princess Diana had used the term in reference to Prince Charles’s entourage.

2.American a synonym for greaser in the sense of a Hispanic person

oily n British

a stupid, unsophisticated or unfortunate person. This derogatory term, heard among black teenagers in the late 1980s, is probably a blend of oik and wally, rather than a specialised use of the standard English adjective.

‘I don’t want to walk down the street and have them shout, “Hey, oily” because of how I look.’

(Recorded, black youth, London, 1989) oily rag n British

1.a disparaging term applied to inexperienced or incompetent motor mechanics who are assigned menial jobs such as wiping away grease

2.a cigarette. This piece of rhyming slang, from fag, was common in the 1950s but is now rarely heard.

oink n

a person with ‘one income and no kids’. An acronym characterising one type of worker in the yuppie milieu from the late 1980s. Similar coinages are dinky and oik.

oinker n American

a vulgar, obnoxious or greedy person. A young person’s euphemism for pig. The term was, and is, predictably, applied to police officers.

OK, O.K., okay exclamation

all right, correct. The term is no longer thought to be slang, but its origins are frequently debated by amateur and professional etymologists. The first recorded use was in the Boston Morning Post of 23 March 1839 by C. G. Greene, who used OK as a facetious abbreviation of a mis-spelled ‘Orl Korrect’. This novelty, possibly reinforced by the Scottish phrase ‘Och, aye’, which has the same meaning and an almost identical pronunciation, was imitated by other comic writers and taken as the title of a Democratic political club in 1840; this last example was also probably a pun on ‘Old Kinderhook’, the nickname of the politician Martin van Buren. The several other proposed

sources for the word, including a posited cry in French au quai! (‘to or on the quayside’), are probably spurious. By the end of the 19th century OK was in use in Britain.

okey-dokey, artichokey! exclamation

a joky expression of agreement on the lines of aye-aye, shepherd’s pie. Apparently the okey-dokey version was a favourite of First Lady Hillary Clinton.

-ola suffix

this word ending has been appropriated from Spanish where it signifies large and negative. It is added to standard terms and slang terms (as in payola and boffola) to convey the notion of outrageous, excessive or ‘super-’. The usage arose in the USA in the 1950s.

Old Bill, the Old Bill n British See Bill

old cheese n Australian

a mother or matriarch. An affectionate epithet used principally by males.

old Dutch, my old Dutch n British See

Dutch1 1

old fellow n

the penis. An affectionate euphemism used by hearty males.

old lady n

one’s mother, wife or sweetheart. The term was notably adopted by hippies in Britain in the late 1960s, not from local working-class usage, but in imitation of American bikers, etc.

old lag n British

a recidivist, habitual offender or former prisoner. Lag is an elastic term which, since the early 19th century, has encompassed imprisonment, sentencing, a notion of transportation or simply a convict.

old man n

one’s father, husband or sweetheart.

See also old lady

old moody n British See moody1 b

old trout n British

a middle-aged or elderly woman, especially one who is frumpish or short-tem- pered. This expression has been used as a mild pejorative (very occasionally even affectionately) since the 19th century.

‘Here’s what’s coming up for you; two old trouts and a man who should be in the army.’

(Victoria Wood, As Seen on TV, BBC comedy series, April 1988)

See also out trouting

Oliver (Twist) adj British

drunk. An item of rhyming slang for pissed. Unlike many similar multi-word examples, it invariably occurs in its full form, rather than being abbreviated to ‘Oliver’.

ollie n British

a marble, in the literal sense of the children’s plaything (which is probably a variant form of allie), and in the figurative sense, as in the expression to lose one’s marbles

‘Another few days with those dozy gobshites and I’d have lost me ollies.’ (Alexei Sayle, Great Bus Journeys of the World, 1988)

omi, omee n British

a man. A parlyaree word which survived into the modern era, omi is a corruption of the Italian uomo, meaning man. The term featured in the language of the theatre and among street traders and vagrants among others.

omipolone, omipoloni n British

a male homosexual. This now-dated form has survived in theatrical and film usage from more widespread earlier currency in the argot of the underworld, tramps, tinkers, etc. It is a portmanteau comprising omi (man) and polone (woman). The word was used as a euphemism in the radio comedy series Round the Horne during the 1960s.

on a mish vb See mish

on blocks adj, adv See up on blocks

on canvas adj, adv British

in solitary confinement, in prison. The phrase derives from the fact that prisoners in solitary confinement are issued with canvas mattresses and nightshirts.

oncer n British

an alternative spelling of oneser

on crack adj American

behaving in an eccentric, crazy way. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

one-er n British

a £100 note or sum of one hundred pounds. In the parlance of street gangs, recorded in London in 2002.

one-eyed trouser snake n

the penis. A colourful metaphor which probably originated in Australia in the 1950s. The word has spread to Britain and the United States and is nowadays generally truncated to trouser snake,

which has developed further connotations.

oneser n British

a one-pound note or pound coin

All I got on me is a oneser.

one time n

the police (referred to as such because you have one time or one chance to get out of the situation alive). An expression from the lexicon of rap.

See also Babylon; Feds, the; pig

on holiday adj British

in prison (temporarily), in the argot of tramps and the homeless

on one adj British

a. under the influence of (a tablet of) MDA or ecstasy. An expression from the jargon of acid house club habitués.

Are you on one, matey?

b. in the know, au fait or au courant

In both senses this is an adolescent vogue phrase of the late 1980s.

on one’s Jack/Jack Jones adj

alone, on one’s own. Rhyming slang from the name of the American singer.

on one’s tod adj

alone, on one’s own. The phrase is rhyming slang from ‘Tod Sloan’, the name of an American jockey active at the turn of the 20th century.

on the arm adj British

bribed, corrupted. An instance of police and criminal slang.

Don’t worry, we’ve got a prison officer on the arm.

on the batter vb British

engaged in prostitution and soliciting. An item of working-class slang heard throughout the UK since the 1960s, deriving from a more generalised 19thcentury sense of the phrase as signifying ‘engaged in a violent debauch’.

on the blob adj

menstruating. The expression, which seems to be used mainly by males, is heard in many English-speaking communities. Blob has also been used in several sexually related contexts. On the rag is an older synonym.

on the brew adj, phrase British

on the dole, unemployed. The sense of ‘brew’ in this phrase, which was heard in the 1980s, especially in the north of England, is unclear.

on the bum adj, adv

1a. on the road. Leading the life of a hobo or tramp.

‘Just about a year ago I took off on the bum.’

(Lyrics from ‘Lodi’, written by John Fogerty and recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1968)

1b. engaged in cadging or begging. From the verb to bum.

2. malfunctioning, out of order. A less common synonym of ‘on the blink’, bum here meaning dud or useless.

on the bung adj Australian out of order, broken down

on the cotton wool adv, adj British

a rhyming-slang version of on the pull, recorded in 1999

on the creep adj, adv

in search of a sexual partner. The term, heard in the Lowlands of Scotland and the north of England, usually refers to male behaviour. Contemporary synonyms include on the sniff and out trouting.

on the drip adv, adj British

on hire purchase, by instalments. One of many synonyms (including on the knock, on the never-never, on the strap and ‘on the lay-by’) in use since the 1950s.

on the earhole/ear’ole adj, adv British cadging, trying to borrow money. An old London working-class expression which was still heard in the 1980s. For the etymology see ear’ole.

on the elbow adv British

engaged in cadging, borrowing money or scrounging. A London working-class expression. The elbow reference may evoke literal nudging or figurative barging or pushing.

on the floor adj British rhyming slang for poor

on the fritz adj, adv American malfunctioning, out of order. A synonym of the colloquial ‘on the blink’. Fritz here may be the German nickname, probably alluding to imported German goods, thought by Americans in the 1930s to be shoddy. It may alternatively echo the sound of a short circuit, a buzzing in electrical equipment.

‘We’re thinking about getting a doberman since the alarm system went on the fritz.’

(Hart to Hart, US TV series, 1981)

on the heavy bevvie adv

engaged in heavy drinking. The term is heard particularly in the Scottish Lowlands and the north of England.

on the hot cross (bun) adj, adv British on the run. An item of rhyming slang used, and possibly coined, by the crime novelist Ruth Rendell.

on the hurry-up adv British

at full speed. An item of London police jargon.

on the job adj, adv British

engaged in sexual intercourse. An unromantic euphemistic phrase which has been used increasingly in ‘polite’ company in Britain and Australia since the 1960s.

on the knock adj, adv British

1.on credit or hire purchase, by instalments

2.See knock

3.engaged in selling or canvassing door to door. An alternative form of on the knocker.

on the knocker adj, adv British

going from door to door. Typically to sell something of dubious worth or to persuade the gullible to part with items such as antiques for less than their true value. A non-regional working-class term.

on the lash adj British

engaged in drinking or otherwise having fun. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

on the money adj

correct, accurate. The phrase, which probably originated in the US in gambling circles, is usually heard among middle-class speakers.

‘It’s good when the band’s on the money.’

(UK TV documentary on the band Status Quo, 18 June 1993)

on the needle adj

habitually injecting heroin or another narcotic

She finally admitted she was back on the needle.

on the nest adj, adv Australian having sex

on the never-never adj, adv British

on hire purchase, on credit, by instalments. One of many such phrases originating in the 1950s; this one ruefully reflects on the impossibility of ever getting out of debt once enmeshed.

on the nose adj Australian

stinking, smelly, rank. The expression is either a shortening of a phrase such as ‘heavy on the nose’ or an inversion of an earlier expression ‘to have a nose on (someone or something)’, meaning to dislike.

on the (h)orn adj British

(of a male) having an erection. A very common working-class and schoolboy vulgarism of the 1950s and early 1960s, now somewhat dated. ‘Horn’ has been a synonym for the penis since at least the 18th century.

on the other bus adj British homosexual. Used typically by males, usually of other males, the pejorative or mocking phrase is a synonym for batting for the other side.

on the piss adj, adv British

engaged in a drinking bout or habitual heavy drinking

on the pull adv, adj British

looking for a sexual partner, hoping to pick up a member of the opposite sex. A working-class term in use since the late 1960s from pull; its predatory overtones mean that it is usually applied to males.

‘Don’t bother asking – those two are out on the pull again.’

(Recorded, adolescent girl, London, 1987)

on the q.t. adv

discreetly, secretly. A version of ‘on the quiet’, first recorded in 1870.

on the rag adj British

menstruating. ‘Rag’ was, until the 1970s, a common slang synonym for a sanitary towel.

on the razz/razzle adj, adv British engaged in boisterous celebration, on a binge. The old colloquialism (razzle probably originated as a rhyme for ‘dazzle’) has been adopted by adolescents since 2000.

on the reg adv American

frequently, regularly. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

I smoke weed on the reg.

on the salmon adj British

(of a male) having an erection. The phrase is a shortened form of the rhyming slang ‘on the salmon and prawn’, meaning on the (h)orn. The phrase was used as the title of an art exhibition in the