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Dictionary of Contemporary Slang

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welfare-jockey

472

welfare-jockey n American

a recipient of state subsidies, unemployment pay, etc. A pejorative term employed by the right-wing comic writer P. J. O’Rourke, among others.

well adv British

very. A vogue usage among adolescents and younger schoolchildren since about 1987, from the slang of the streets (used by black youth and some white workingclass adults) of the earlier 1980s. Typical instances of the word as an intensifier are ‘well good’ and ‘well hard’.

well-hung adj

having large genitals. A vulgarism applied to males (only very rarely used of large female breasts) for at least two hundred years.

‘No male streakers are naff, least of all stupendously well-hung men who invade the pitch at a Test Match and upset Richie Benaud.’

(The Complete Naff Guide, Bryson et al., 1983)

See also hung

The pun ‘well-hanged’ appeared in Shakespeare in 1610.

wellie1, welly n British

1a. force, impetus, power. The word often occurs in the phrase ‘give it some wellie’.

1b. brute strength, brawn as opposed to brain

‘It was just welly, welly, welly. The ball must have been screaming for mercy.’

(Ron Yates characterising Wimbledon FC’s style, Independent, May 1989)

2.a dismissal, the sack, as in ‘get the wellie/the order of the wellie’

3.a condom. A term from the late 1980s using the name of one piece of protective rubberwear for another. Also known as a willie-wellie.

4.a green welly

Wellie, as a diminutive of ‘wellington (boot)’, became a household word in the 1970s. It was quickly applied to figurative or metaphorical uses of the word or notion of ‘boot’, both as a noun and, later, a verb. The first instances of the use of the word have not been definitively identified, although the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly popularised the term, closely followed by several radio disc-jockeys.

wellie2 vb British

1.to kick out, dismiss, sack

2.to defeat, bully or attack

These are back-formations from the noun form of the word, heard since the end of the 1970s.

well-oiled adj

drunk. A colloquial synonym for lubricated.

well on adj

a.drunk

b.intoxicated by drugs

In both senses the euphemism was fashionable in the late 1990s.

welsh vb British

an alternative spelling of welch

wenching n

(of a male) having sexual relations with females. A term typically employed in the UK by adult males but adopted for ironic or jocular use by adolescents.

wenchy, wench adj American obnoxious, condescending. Used particularly of and by women, the term is based on a specifically American colloquial sense of ‘wench’ as a forward, shameless or troublesome female. (In archaic dialect usage in Britain, the word, deriving from an Old English word for a child, had for several centuries signified a promiscuous or immoral woman.) By 2004 the words were being used in the UK as a generalised term of disapproval.

Wendy n British

a feeble, ineffectual or contemptible person; a weed, swot or misfit among schoolchildren. The word was typically applied to schoolboys by their contemporaries in the 1980s. The name is supposed to epitomise ‘girlishness’ and, like Tinkerbelle, probably owes its resonance to a character in Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.

wet1 adj British

1a. ineffectual, irresolute, feeble or foolish. A characterisation common in service and public-school usage since the early 20th century.

1b. (of a Tory) having liberal views as opposed to being resolutely ‘Thatcherite’. The schoolboy term began to be applied in 1980 as a term of disapproval to MPs with reservations about the style and substance of the current cabinet policies.

2. (of a woman) sexually aroused. Also expressed as damp.

wet2 n British

a.a weak, irresolute or foolish person

Oh Nigel, you’re such a wet!

473

whammy

b. a Tory who was not a wholehearted supporter of the policies of Margaret Thatcher. The word was used by the Prime Minister herself in 1980.

wetback n American

an illegal immigrant from Latin America. The term refers specifically to those swimming the Rio Grande, the river which forms the Mexican–US border. It dates from the 1940s.

wet scene n American

a gory killing. An item of police and secret-service jargon of the 1970s.

‘hellacious wet scene’

(Jonathon Kellerman, Over the Edge, 1987)

wetter n British

a knife when carried or used as a weapon. An item of black street-talk used especially by males, recorded in 2003, so called because the blood wets the blade.

whablow exclamation British

a vogue greeting originating among black youth around 2000, but recently more widespread

whack1 n

1. British a quantity or portion. The word is imitative of a slapping or smacking (down); here used in the sense of dumping or depositing spoils onto a table or other surface.

He insisted on his full whack.

2.American a contract killing. A variant of hit.

3.heroin. A later variant form of smack.

4.American a whacky person.

See also wack1

whack2 vb American

to kill. A racier and more recent coinage based on the well-established use of hit in this sense.

whacked adj

a.abnormal, deviant, crazy

b.unpleasant, unacceptable

A more recent version of whacky and wack.

whacker n

1.a whacky person, an irresponsible or eccentric individual

2.an alternative spelling of wack or wacker

whacko, wacko n, adj

(someone who is) crazed, eccentric, insane. This racier version of the colloquial whacky has been heard since the

mid-1970s. It was popularised by press references to the singer Michael Jackson as ‘Wacko Jacko’.

We got enough to handle without her going whacko on us.

whack off vb

to masturbate. A vulgarism heard all over the anglophone world. Like many synonymous terms it employs the notion of striking or slapping.

whack-up vb

to share, apportion. The phrase is heard particularly in Australian speech.

whacky, wacky adj

crazed, eccentric, insane. This now widespread colloquialism seems to have originated in northern English dialect meaning a fool (either by analogy with ‘slap-happy’ or as an imitation of ‘quacking’ speech). The word was particularly popular in the 1980s.

‘The Wacky Patent of the Month is devoted to recognising selected inventors and their remarkable and unconventional inventions.’

(www.colitz.com, June 2005)

whacky baccy n

marihuana. A humorous nickname from whacky (eccentric or crazy) and baccy (tobacco).

whagwan?, whatagwan?, wha’s gwanin? exclamation British

a vogue greeting (a dialectal version of the bonding catchphrase ‘what’s going on?’) originating among black youth around 2000, but recently more widespread

whale n See play the whale

wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am n

a catchphrase used to characterise a brusque, cursory sexual act. The expression was heard among American servicemen in World War II (probably adopted from cowboy parlance). Currently the phrase is most often employed disapprovingly by feminists and others to describe a selfish or boorish male attitude to sex.

I was hoping for something interesting or exciting, but it was just wham-bam- thank-you-ma’am.

whammers, wammers n pl British female breasts. An adolescent vulgarism heard in the late 1980s.

whammy, the whammie n American

a supernatural power, spirit or curse, responsible for punishment or retribu-

whang

474

tion. A fanciful evocation, adapting the colloquial term ‘wham’, imitative of a heavy blow. The word is sometimes part of the phrase ‘to put the whammy on (someone or something)’.

‘Sarge, you got the whammy on me!’

(Bilko, US TV series, 1957)

whang, whanger n

the penis. These are earlier (and still current) spellings of wang and wanger.

whap vb American See whop

whaps adj British

bad. The word, of uncertain origin, although it may be related to whoop, was used by London schoolchildren from the late 1990s.

what it is! exclamation

an all-purpose exclamation of greeting, approval or solidarity, which originated in black American speech at the end of the 1980s, and by the late 1990s was being heard in British school playgrounds. ‘What it like?’ was a similar ritual greeting used by members of rival black street gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, in Los Angeles.

what to go? exclamation British

a phrase used by teenage gangs as a provocation or invitation to fight. A synonym is do me something! Both phrases are often followed by ‘then?!’ The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in the 1990s.

what ya saying exclamation British

a vogue greeting originating among black youth around 2000, but recently more widespread

wheelie n

a manoeuvre in which a vehicle is driven at speed on its back wheel(s) only. The term may apply to bicycles, motorcycles or cars (in the case of cars the term may apply only to the spinning of the rear wheels).

‘Stealing and nicking gives you lots of pleasure and money for everything. And it’s easy … you just get an old lady in your sights and do a 360-degree wheelie on her moustache.’

(Teenage mugger, Observer, 22 May 1988)

wheelman, wheels-man n

a getaway driver. A piece of criminal and police jargon in use in all Englishspeaking areas.

wheels n

a car or means of transportation

wheeze (off) vb American

to destroy, defeat, frustrate. This adolescent usage often occurs in the phrase ‘wheeze off someone’s gig’, meaning to frustrate their efforts, spoil their enjoyment, etc.

whiff1 vb

1.to sniff (cocaine)

2.British to smell bad. A synonym of niff.

whiff2 n cocaine

whiffy adj British

having an unpleasant smell. Niffy is a synonym.

It’s a bit whiffy in here, isn’t it?

whinge1 n

a complaint, a bout of self-pity

‘His “memoirs” are really an extended whinge at how terribly he’s been treated by the corporation – seldom offered any work, never appreciated enough, sneered at by pinkoes, and so on.’

(Private Eye magazine, 27 October 1989)

whinge2, winge vb

to complain or make excuses, especially in a wheedling tone. A blend of ‘whine’ and ‘cringe’ which existed for some time in Australian usage before becoming established in Britain in the second half of the 1970s. The word was originally often found in the Australian phrase ‘whingeing Pom’, describing the perpetually complaining British immigrant.

‘English people love a good queue, and they love a good disaster; they seem to love a good moan. I think the notion of the “whingeing Pom” is true. But I’ve become a whinger too, since I’ve been here.’

(Australian nurse, NOW magazine, March 1988)

whip n American

a car. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000. A luxury car is a ‘phat whip’.

whipped adj American

a shortened, hence disguised and more acceptable version of pussy-whipped

whip some skull on (someone) vb American

to perform fellatio. A phrase (using skull as a substitute for head in a similar context) which was often used as a ribald exclamation by college boys and hippies, among others, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

475

white telephone

whirl(e) amount n British

a large quantity. This synonym for ‘lots’ or ‘loads’ is usually used in connection with money. The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

whirling pits, the n British

a feeling of giddiness and/or nausea, tinged with hallucination, brought on, for instance, by the combination of alcohol and a drug such as hashish. The expression describes a condition characterised by lying on one’s back, unable to move, while one’s stomach heaves and the room whirls about one’s head. The helicopters is a synonym.

whistle n British

(of clothes) a suit. From the rhymingslang phrase ‘whistle and flute’. This term dates back to before World War II and has survived into the early 21st century. It was used by London mods, for instance, and is now heard among students as well as working-class Londoners. Since the 1950s the phrase has almost invariably been abbreviated to the one word.

white ant vb Australian

to denigrate, undermine. The phrase is based on the action of the Australian termite and was given prominence by its use in TV soap operas such as Neighbours.

white bread n, adj American

(a person who is) virtuous, well bred, but dull and insipid. A dismissive term, usually applied to straitlaced or ingenuous people, from the preppie lexicon. The word is also used in marketing jargon, meaning bland or inoffensive.

white-hat n American

the term was defined in 2002 as follows: a genre of high-school and col- lege-aged boys primarily from New England. Identified by their social uniform of khaki trousers, white trainers, a plaid flannel collared button-down shirt with a white cotton T-shirt underneath and a white baseball cap that has either a sports team or fraternity logo on it: white-hats are usually members of a fraternity and are condemned by nonmembers for their lack of individuality.

white lady, the white lady n

a.cocaine

b.heroin

‘“I’ve been through pot, white lady and blue lady forms of synthetic heroin and I can’t go through this much more”, says Jean Hobson.’

(Sunday Times, 10 September 1989)

Often used to denote a spectre in folklore, the phrase is employed here to romanticise or dramatise the white powders or crystals in question.

white lightning n

1.raw spirit, illicitly distilled grain alcohol. The phrase evokes the sudden, devastating effects (and perhaps the accompanying visual disturbance) of the substance in question.

2.a generic nickname given to white tablets or ‘microdots’ of LSD in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the same fashion as ‘orange sunshine’ or ‘blue cheer’

whitener n

1.British cocaine. A yuppie term.

‘There are guys who blow out, sure, stick too much whitener up their nose.’

(Serious Money, play by Caryl Churchill, 1987)

2.Irish a version of white-out, recorded in the Irish Republic in 2004

white-out, whitey n

a bout of nausea and/or feeling faint as a result of ingesting drugs and/or alcohol. The expression, which is airline pilots’ slang for an abrupt loss of vision due to snow, refers to a sudden pallor.

Dave chucked a whitey so he went home.

whites n British

a ‘class A’ illicit drug; heroin, cocaine or crack. An item of black street-talk used especially by males, recorded in 2003.

dealin’ whites

get me some whites

white space n

free time. Yuppie jargon of the late 1980s inspired by blank spaces in an appointment book, but ultimately deriving from the jargon of graphic designers, printers, typographers, etc., in which white space refers to areas deliberately left blank in a page layout.

I think I have some white space towards the end of the week.

white telephone, big white telephone n the toilet bowl or pedestal. The term occurs in phrases such as ‘making a call on the big white telephone’, evoking the image of someone being noisily, and usually drunkenly, sick. The phrases probably originated in US campus slang of the

white trash

476

early 1970s, which also gave synonyms such as pray to the porcelain god. One phrase combining both notions is ‘call God on the big white phone’.

white trash n

a. poor whites living in the southern states of the USA. A term coined by black speakers in the mid-19th century to refer to their neighbours, either pejoratively or ruefully. The term was also used by whites and survives into the early 21st century; it is often used with connotations of degeneracy and squalor.

See also trailer-trash

b. the decadent rich or sophisticated individuals, the ‘jet set’ or their hangerson and imitators. The phrase has been extended to refer contemptuously to cosmopolitan socialites (often in the phrase ‘International White Trash’). Eurotrash is a derivative.

‘She came from South Los Angeles, near Watts, every day and her parents had saved all their lives to buy her in among this rich white trash.’

(Julie Burchill, The Face magazine, March 1984)

whitey n

1.American a white person. A predictable term used by black speakers to or of individuals and of the white community in general. It is usually, but not invariably, pejorative or condescending. Pinkie is a less common Caribbean and British form.

2.a white-out

whizz n

1.See wizz1

2.See Billy

whoop, woop adj British

bad. An all-purpose term of disapproval in use among London schoolchildren at the end of the 1990s. It may be related to whoopsy.

whoopsy, whoopsie, whopsy, woopsie n British

an act of defecation, excrement. A nursery term sometimes used facetiously among adults, usually in the phrase ‘do a whoopsie’.

whop, whap vb American

to hit, beat, thrash. The terms (used for over 200 years) are echoic and are sometimes extended to mean defeat or trounce.

They whopped us good.

whore n

a prostitute. The word has been used in this sense since about the 12th century; before that time it denoted an adulteress and, earlier still, a sweetheart. The ultimate derivation of whore is the Latin carus, meaning dear or beloved. In Germanic languages this became horr or hora (Old Norse) and hore (Old English).

‘Thugs, whores, cabbies, street Arabs, gin jockeys – these are by nature conservative folk.’

(Republican Party Reptile, P. J. O’Rourke, 1987)

whorehouse n a brothel

‘Pundits summarize [the history of Manila] as “four hundred years in a convent, fifty years in a whorehouse”.’ (Republican Party Reptile, P. J. O’Rourke, 1987)

who ya bouncing exclamation

an exclamation of irritation, defined by one user as ‘what the f*** do you think you’re doing, bumping into me!’ It was recorded in 1999.

wibble1 vb British

to behave or speak in an irresolute, confused and/or tedious manner. A middle class adult and Internet usage, popular since 2000.

‘…fruitcake Anna Nicole Smith has been rambling away again – sticking up for fellow former fatty Kirstie Alley. “Everyone’s so mean to her”, wibbled Anna…’

(Metro, 30 July 2004)

wibble2 n

meaningless and/or tedious speech. In this sense, probably inspired by the use of the word in the UK TV comedy Blackadder and Viz comic, wibble is commonly employed on the Internet to describe tedious small-talk or irrelevance.

wick1 n

1. British the penis. This sense of the word combines the candle wick as a phallic image and the London rhymingslang phrase Hampton Wick (for prick). Hampton Wick is a small community in the Southwest London suburbs, familiar to cockneys of the past hundred years as being on their route to the nearby riverside, Hampton Court or Bushy Park. Wick is rarely found alone, but rather in

477

wife-beater

the phrases dip the wick or ‘get on one’s wick’.

2. Irish nonsense. The standard English word (originally meaning a flammable material) is used in colloquial Irish to mean ‘rubbish’, hence this extended meaning.

wick2 adj

1. Irish uncomfortable, embarrassed, ashamed. This usage may derive from the phrase ‘get on one’s wick’, meaning to annoy or irritate, or from the second noun sense above.

feeling wick

2. British an abbreviation of wicked, meaning good

wicked adj

good, excellent. A US term of approbation adopted by UK teenagers. Originally in black and street-gang usage, the word is now employed by analogy with bad but in this sense is probably much older, dating from the turn of the 20th century. By 1989 wicked had become a vogue term, even among primary schoolchildren (sometimes used in the emphatic form ‘well wicked’, meaning extremely good, and it may alternatively be spelled ‘wikkid’).

‘[Oxford University] aristocrats disguise themselves with lingo like: “It’s wicked, guy”.’

(Evening Standard, 16 June 1988)

widdle1 n British

an act of urination. This middleand upper-class nursery term is a blend of wee and piddle.

widdle2 vb British

to urinate. A combination of wee and piddle. This nursery term was given prominence when employed by Prince Philip to describe the actions of an ape during a visit to London Zoo.

‘Now sneak pictures of Prince William, apparently widdling into a hedge, are published in colour on the front page of the unsavoury Sunday People.’

(Victoria Mather, Evening Standard, 22 November 1989)

wide-o n

a disreputable, dishonest individual. The term is a variant form of the colloquial term ‘wide-boy’, where ‘wide’ denotes someone untrustworthy, devious or dishonest.

wide-on n

a feminine, feminist or jocular female version of hard-on

widget n

a device, small contraption or product. This synonym for, and adaptation of the word ‘gadget’ has been in use since before World War II in the USA. In Britain it has been widely used since the 1970s to denote a hypothetical, otherwise unnamed product in business simulations, calculations, planning, etc.

widgie n Australian

a female equivalent/counterpart of a bodgie (teddy boy). The widgie was a less respectable Australian version of the bobby soxer, characterised by the wearing of hair tied into a ponytail, a long skirt or blue jeans, often accompanied by ‘delinquent’ behaviour. The name is said to be a diminutive of ‘widgeon’, as used as a term of endearment.

widow n, adj British

(an) American. A piece of now almost obsolete London rhyming slang from around World War II, playing on Widow Twankey (a character in the pantomime

Aladdin): Yankee.

widows’ and orphans’ fund, the n American

money given as bribes. A police euphemism. In Britain the ‘policeman’s ball’ has been employed in a similar euphemistic role.

wienie, weenie, wiener n American

1.a frankfurter type sausage. The word is a contracted form of ‘wienerwurst’ (a Vienna sausage).

2.the penis. A term which is usually derisive, inspired by the small size and flaccidity of the sausage of the same name.

3.an ineffectual, foolish or tedious person. This sense applies particularly to swots in the argot of students.

wienie-wagger, weenie-wagger n American

a.a male masturbator

b.a male sexual exhibitionist, a flasher. Wand-waver is an alternative.

‘He’s just a wienie-wagger … that’s what the cops call them.’

(Lady Beware, US film, 1987) wife-beater n

1.American a white undershirt, typically ribbed and sleeveless, thought to be emblematic of uncouth males. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

2.British a slang term for Stella Artois lager. The origin of the term is unknown

wifey

478

but is possibly related to domestic abuse as a result of drinking too much.

a pint of wifebeater

wifey n American

a female partner. The term is typically used with irony and affection rather than patronisingly or dismissively.

wigga, wigger n

a white person who adopts the mannerisms, appearance and culture of blacks. The word blends ‘white’ and nigger and was first coined by blacks to describe white participants in hip hop and rap subcultures. The word is used appreciatively as well as neutrally or pejoratively.

‘Wiggas wannabe black: the word may be only a letter different from a serious case of racial abuse, but London’s super-cool young whites carry it with pride.’ (Evening Standard, 21 March 1994)

wigged adj American

a 1990s variant form of wiggy

wiggle n

a sexual act. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000. The word has been used in the same sense by US rappers and hip hop devotees.

wiggle-room, wriggle-room n American freedom to manoeuvre, especially in a delicate situation. The term was common in the 1990s in armed-forces’ and professional usage.

You’ve got to let us have some more wig- gle-room.

wiggling n

having sex. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

wiggy adj

crazy, eccentric, irresponsible. The word, from the beatnik lexicon, was often used approvingly as a synonym for wild. It derives from the use of ‘wig’ to mean the head or brain and the notion of ‘flipping one’s lid’. (Liddy is a less common synonym.)

wig out vb

to go crazy, ‘lose one’s cool’, ‘flip one’s lid’. A term from the argot of the beatnik era, based on wig as used as a jocular term for the head or brain in pre-World War II jive talk.

wikkid adj

an alternative spelling of wicked (in its vogue youth sense of admirable)

wild adj

exciting, impressive, excellent. This was a vogue term among jazz aficionados, hipsters and beatniks of the 1950s in the USA. It is inspired by the use of wild to mean enthusiastic in the phrase ‘wild about something’. The transferred use of wild as a term of approbation mainly survives in adolescent and pre-teenage speech.

wilding n

running amok. A black youth vogue term, seemingly first published in the New York Times, 22 April 1989.

‘A beautiful woman jogger viciously gangraped and left in a coma by a mob of “wilding” youths in New York’s Central Park has woken from the dead.’

(People, 14 May 1989)

Wilf n British

a fool. A mild term of (usually) jocular or affectionate abuse from London work- ing-class speech. The word, typically heard in a school context, is either based on the supposedly inherent comic nature of the name Wilfred, or on the use of that name for a character in the cartoon strip The Bash Street Kids, appearing in the Beano children’s comic since the 1950s.

Come on, don’t be such a Wilf! wiling n See wylin’

William n British

the police, a police officer. A personification based on the Old Bill and usually used facetiously or ironically.

willie n British

the penis. A schoolchildren’s word which is usually used coyly or facetiously by adults. It is a personification, like many similar terms (peter, John Thomas, etc.), in this case first recorded in 1905.

‘“genital cold injury” … is described as “Arctic Willy” in the current edition of The British Medical Journal.’

(Independent, 22 December 1989)

willied adj British

drunk. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

willie-wellie n British

a condom. A humorous expression (wellie is a wellington boot), playing on the notion of protective rubberwear.

Willy Wonka vb British

to have sex (with). A term used by younger teenagers in 2001. The phrase

479

wing-wong

comes from the name of a character in a Roald Dahl story and 1971 film based on it Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

wiltshire n British

impotence. A middleor upper-class embellishment of ‘wilt’, heard since the early 1970s.

It was a case of wiltshire, I’m afraid.

wimp n

a feeble, weak or timid person. This now well-established term first appeared as a term of derision employed by US highschool and college students in the mid1970s. Its exact origins are obscure: suggested derivations are from ‘whimper’; from a British undergraduate term for a girl (which was, however, in very limited use and was obsolete by 1930); from the name Wimpy, given to a character in the Popeye cartoons; or from a blend of ‘weak’, ‘simple’ or simp and ‘limp’ or gimp. By the late 1970s the word had spread to adult speech and beyond the USA.

‘Well, goodnight Ralph. It was nice meeting someone so sensitive, aware and vulnerable. Too bad you’re such a wimp.’

(Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche, Bruce Feirstein, 1982)

wimp out vb

to act in a feeble or cowardly manner. A later coinage based on wimp, by analogy with the many phrasal verbs employing ‘out’ (freak out, weird out, etc.)

Listen, just pull yourself together; this is no time to wimp out.

wimpy, wimpish, wimpo, wimpoid adj feeble, weak or cowardly. Formed from the noun wimp.

windbag n

a person who is garrulous, loquacious or full of empty rhetoric. An old and wellestablished colloquial expression.

‘Mr Kinnock appears to be sinking under a barrage of criticism to the effect that he is an ill-educated Welsh windbag carried high by chippy class hatred.’

(Evening Standard, 25 July 1989)

winding n

dancing. A term used in club and hip hop culture since the 1990s.

window n

a.an opportunity

b.a period available for meetings, appointments or other tasks

This fashionable jargon term of the yuppie era derives from the use of window in space engineering to denote a set of parameters in time and space. The term was carried over into data processing and other semi-technical usage.

window-licker n

a slow-witted, unfortunate and/or irritating person. A popular term among adolescents and in office slang from around 2000. The image is said to be that of a handicapped person peering from inside a bus.

wind someone up vb British

to provoke, tease, deceive someone. A London working-class usage which became fashionable at the end of the 1970s in raffish circles. It described the sort of straightfaced manipulation of a victim which discomfits increasingly; the image is probably that of winding up a clockwork toy or tightening a winch. By the early 1980s the phrase was in widespread colloquial use and was generalised to encompass mockery, deliberate irritation, etc.

It took me a few minutes to realise that she was winding me up.

wind-up n British

a provocation, teasing or deception. A London working-class back-formation from the verb wind someone up, which became a fashionable term in the late 1970s, spreading into general colloquial usage around 1979. (An expert at this kind of deliberate irritation is a ‘wind-up artist’.)

wing it vb

1.to improvise, ad lib. Rather than being inspired, as is sometimes thought, by the phrase ‘on a wing and a prayer’, this usage almost certainly comes from a 19th-century theatrical term ‘to wing’, meaning to learn one’s lines at the last moment (while standing in the wings, literally or metaphorically).

2.to leave, go away

wing-nut n

a person with protruding ears. The jocular pejorative, heard in all Englishspeaking areas but particularly the USA, has been applied to Prince Charles, among others.

wing-wong n British

an object or contraption, the name of which is unknown or forgotten. The expression is probably a nursery term, also used among some adults.

winkie

480

winkie, winky n

1.British the penis. A nursery term which is probably a diminutive of winkle.

2.American the backside, buttocks

winkle n British

the penis. This nursery term is based on the supposed resemblance between a (peri)winkle (a seafood delicacy traditionally associated with working-class outings) and a child’s member.

winnet n British

an alternative term for dingleberry

winning action n British

a successful sexual encounter. A euphemism employed by university students since 2000. A synonym is action gagnée.

wino n

an alcoholic or habitual drunk. A term particularly applied to vagrants. (In the USA cheap domestic wine is the standard means of intoxication for tramps and poor alcoholics.)

wipe vb

1.to kill or destroy. A racier version of the standard phrase ‘wipe out’.

2.Australian to snub, ignore or blank (someone). This usage was prevalent in the 1950s.

3.American to be repellent, inferior or worthless. A more recent synonym of suck and blow, in use principally among adolescent speakers.

‘This planet both wipes and sucks – in that order.’

(Third Rock From the Sun, US TV comedy, 1995)

wiped out adj

1a. exhausted

1b. intoxicated by drink or drugs

2. devastated, ruined, defeated

These senses of the phrase are all based on the standard meaning of annihilate or massacre.

wipe out vb

a.to fall off a board or be capsized by a wave. A surfer’s term.

b.to fail, particularly in a decisive and/or spectacular way

The second sense is a transference of the first, which came to prominence during the surfing craze of the early 1960s.

wipe-out n

a failure, particularly a sudden and/or spectacular one

wired adj

1. tense, edgy, manic. The word combines the notion of highly strung with that of electrified. It arose among amphetamine (and later cocaine) users in the 1970s, originally in American speech. The word was subsequently adopted in the USA in a non-drug context to denote someone overstimulated or anxious.

‘Frankie man you’re all wired, you’re all pumped up – you know you’re not thinking straight.’

(Satisfaction, US film, 1988)

2. American well-connected, integrated in a social or information network

wiseacre n American

a know-all, insolent or smug person. The word is an anglicisation of the Dutch wijssegger (literally ‘wise-sayer’, originally meaning soothsayer).

wiseass vb, n American

(to behave as) a know-all, an irritatingly smug or insolent person. This vulgar version of ‘wise-guy’ has been heard since the early 20th century. (The word wise has flourished in American speech because of reinforcement from the synonymous Dutch wijs and the German weise.)

wiseguy n American

a member of a mafia family or organised crime syndicate. This item of East Coast US criminal jargon was made famous by Hollywood films of the 1980s and 1990s.

‘It was a glorious time. There were wiseguys everywhere.’

(GoodFellas, US film, 1990)

wisenheimer n American

an alternative spelling of weisenheimer

witchy adj

mysterious, uncanny, fey. This term probably originated in black American speech; it became fairly widespread in the hippy era, describing a bewitching or other-worldly quality or atmosphere.

with-it adj

fashionable. A vogue term of the early to mid-1960s which, in its sense of stylish or up-to-date, is still used by the middleaged in particular, but now sounds dated. It derived from the phrase ‘get with it’, an essential item of pre-World War II jive talk and post-war beatnik parlance. In its sub-sense of ‘on the ball’ or in touch with events, the phrase may be used by speakers of all ages.

481

wombat

‘The “Galerie 55”… has a madly with-it cabaret of saucy “chansons paillardes”.’

(About Town magazine, September 1961)

witten n British

an alternative term for dingleberry

wizz1, whizz n British

amphetamine sulphate, speed. The term, which dates from the later 1970s, is used by the drug abusers themselves.

wizz2 vb American

to urinate. An echoic term.

‘What can I do?

Wizz in one of the empty beer bottles in the back.’

(Dumb and Dumber, US film, 1994)

wob n British

a piece, chunk, lump. A term in mainly middle-class usage since the 1980s. It is a coinage presumably inspired by wodge, ‘gob(bet)’, ‘knob’, etc.

wobblefats, wabblefats n American

an obese person. A term of abuse heard mainly among adolescents.

wobble off vb British

to leave, depart. The term, which does not necessarily imply moving slowly or unsteadily, was recorded in 1999.

Why don’t you wobble off and get the car?

wobbler, wobbly n British

a bout of erratic, neurotic or extreme behaviour. The term usually occurs in the phrase throw a wobbly/wobbler. The wobbling in question is probably the unsteadiness or trembling of a disturbed or uncontrolled subject and the usage may have arisen among medical or psychiatric personnel. The word has been widespread since about 1980.

wobbly eggs n pl British

temazepam tablets, in the parlance of young drug users in the 1990s. The gel- atin-covered capsules of a tranquilliser are roughly ovoid, and both they and their users can be said to wobble.

wodge, wadge n

1.British a lump or slice. The word is a blend of ‘wad’ and ‘wedge’ and has been in use since at least the mid-19th century.

2.money. In this sense, recorded in 2002, the word is probably a variant from of wedge.

wog n

1. British a foreigner. The word was first used to refer to dark-skinned inhabitants of other countries and is still usually

employed in this sense. First recorded in the late 19th century, some people believe the term is derived from the initials for ‘Westernized Wily Oriental Gentleman’, a condescending euphemism supposedly applied to Indians or Arabs working for the British colonial authorities. An equally plausible source is the word ‘golliwog’ (originally ‘golliwogg’), denoting a black doll with curly hair; a character invented by the children’s writer Bertha Upton in the late Victorian era. The word is common in Australia and not unknown in the USA.

‘The only reason I was opposed to them calling me a wog was because I realise that in this country the word is used adversely against dark-skinned people.’

(Marsha Hunt, Oz magazine, July 1969)

2. the wog Australian an alternative version of wog gut

wog gut n

an upset stomach, diarrhoea, a gyppy tummy. A World War II armed-services term surviving mainly in Australian usage, also in the form ‘the wog’.

wok1 vb

to have sex (with), penetrate. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

wok2 n British See chimney-wok

wokking n smoking crack

wolf n

a predatory male. This word has been used since the early 1900s in the USA to denote an aggressive womaniser and, in the gay and criminal subculture, an aggressive, promiscuous and/or violent male homosexual. Since the 1960s the heterosexual sense has been adopted in other English-speaking areas.

‘A self confessed wolf, with the morals of a tom-cat.’

(The judge in the Argyll divorce case, speaking in March 1963)

womba n British

an alternative spelling of wamba wombat n

1.American an eccentric and/or grotesque person. The name of the bear-like Australian marsupial has been used in this way since the late 1970s, probably because of the animal’s exoticism and comic-sounding name.

2.an incompetent, ineffectual and/or irritating person. In Internet and office slang

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