"B" Slang

boulder shoulders

General

Large, round, well-developed shoulders that look like boulders sitting on top of the arms.

boulders

General

Slang for large, rounded, well-built shoulder muscles (deltoids).

bounce

Street

A New Orleans hip-hop subgenre defined by the Triggerman and Brown Beat loops, MC call-and-response chants, ward shout-outs, and relentless ass-shaking energy. Born in the housing projects in the late 80s / early 90s, it stayed regional for decades before bleeding into mainstream pop via Big Freedia, Drake's 'Nice For What', and Beyoncé's 'Formation'.

bounceback

General

ED slang for a patient who gets discharged and then reappears within 72 hours with the same complaint. Sometimes it's the patient not coping at home, sometimes it's a missed diagnosis the first time round, which is why bouncebacks get audited.

boundaries

Internet

Personal limits you communicate to protect your time, energy, or emotional space.

bouse

General

A 'bousing ken' — the alehouse or drinking-den where the canting crew gathered.

bow bells

Street

The bells of St Mary-le-Bow church in Cheapside; traditionally, a true Cockney must be born within earshot of them.

bowk

General

To belch or burp — and at the heavier end, to retch or come close to throwing up. The sound is in the word.

bowl

Street

The rounded chamber of a pipe or bong that holds the cannabis, and by extension a single packed serving.

bowl round

General

To come around casually to someone's place for a visit.

bowling pins

General

A mocking term for skinny, undertrained legs that look like bowling pins beneath a much larger torso.

box

General

To slap or punch someone, especially in the face.

box man

Street

A box man is a professional safe-breaker, 'box' being slang for a safe. It was a respected specialty within organized theft.

box out

General

To establish position between an opponent and the basket to secure a rebound.

box-and-one

General

A hybrid defense with four defenders in a box zone and one chasing the opponent's best scorer man-to-man.

box-to-box

General

Describes a central midfielder with the energy and skill to influence play defensively and offensively from one box to the other.

boxing

Gaming

Going toe to toe with another god up close, trading autos and dodging skillshots until one of you drops. Pure mechanical skill, no lane to hide in.

boy

General

In leather culture a 'boy' is a role, not an age. It marks the submissive or junior position in the hierarchy — someone who serves, learns from and submits to a Sir or Daddy. A 'boy' can be older than the dominant he serves; what matters is rank within the dynamic, not the calendar. The flip side of the Daddy archetype, and a recognised, often proudly-held identity in its own right.

boy mode

General

Switching how you present for the day: boy mode is masculine, girl mode is feminine, regardless of which way someone's actually transitioning. Big in early or part-time transition, when someone might be girl mode at home and boy mode at a job that doesn't know. Said matter-of-factly, sometimes with a tired eye-roll about the mode you don't want to be in.

boydem

Street

The police, using the Patois '-dem' plural.

boyfriend

General

Affectionate nursing slang for a gentle, uncomplaining elderly male patient who is a pleasure to look after.

boys' love

Internet

The broad publishing category, abbreviated BL, covering male homosexual romance content generally created for a female audience, spanning both chaste and explicit works.

bozo

Internet

A mocking label for someone who repeatedly makes poor calls or falls for scams in the crypto space.

bp

General

The force of blood against artery walls, recorded as systolic over diastolic and a key vital sign.

bpt

Street

Three-letter tag for Bompton, the Blood-flipped spelling of Compton. You see it scrawled in graffiti, stitched on snapbacks, and rapped by Compton Bloods who won't put a C anywhere near their name.

braata

General

A small extra amount given free with a purchase (like a baker's dozen); also an encore. Also 'brawta'.

brace

General

Tightening the core muscles to stabilize the spine and generate pressure before and during a heavy lift.

brady cops

General

Cops whose names sit on a prosecutor's 'Brady list' because their record (lying, excessive force, planted evidence, bias) has to be handed to defence lawyers any time they testify. Once you're on it, you're basically untouchable as a witness.

brae

General

A hill, hillside or steep bank, often beside a river.

brag

General

A mischievous goblin or shape-shifting sprite of North East folklore.

brah

General

A meme-styled variant of 'bro' associated with bodybuilding-internet and aesthetics culture, as in 'U mirin', brah?'

brahms and liszt

General

Cockney rhyming slang for 'pissed' in the British sense of drunk. Often shortened to 'Brahms'. Pairs two classical composers purely for the rhyme on Liszt.

brain bucket

General

A hard hat. The job-site helmet that catches the dropped wrench before it caves your skull in. Same nickname rides over into motorcycle and military aviation slang for helmets generally — anywhere your brain needs a bucket.

brain dump

General

The act of getting all your knowledge or notes out at once, often before a handover.

brain housing group

General

A jokingly over-technical term for a Marine's head or brain, framed as if it were another piece of equipment with a nomenclature.

brain rot

Internet

The cognitive haze that sets in from consuming too much low-effort online content. Can't focus, brain feels static, every thought is a meme reference.

brainrot

Internet

Low-quality, hyper-addictive online content — or the mental fog and short attention span that comes from consuming too much of it.

brake tag

Street

Universal New Orleans name for the annual motor vehicle inspection sticker stuck on your windshield. Nobody local says 'inspection sticker.' The name stuck even after Louisiana scrapped the statewide program in most parishes — Orleans Parish kept it going longer than anybody.

bram

General

A spontaneous, informal dance or party. Also brams.

brass

Internet

Northern English slang for money, as in 'where there's muck, there's brass.'

brass tacks

General

The essential practical details once the small talk is over.

brassic

General

Completely broke — no money whatsoever. From the Cockney rhyming slang 'boracic lint' = 'skint', which made its way north and embedded itself in Scouse and wider working-class British speech. Sky's 'Brassic' series put the word back in the national conversation.

brat

Music

A submissive who doesn't submit quietly — they push, tease, talk back, and break the rules on purpose to bait their dominant into a reaction. It's playful defiance, not actual disrespect: the resistance is the foreplay. The dom who handles a brat is a 'brat tamer.' Bottoming, but make it a fight you want to lose.

brat tamer

Internet

From kink vocabulary, now firmly in BookTok rotation: the dominant partner who enjoys a bratty sub talking back and knows exactly how to bring them in line. The appeal is the matchup — a brat is only fun if the tamer is up to it.

brave

Street

A large number or amount of something — meaning 'loads' or 'plenty.'

bravo

General

The code word representing the letter 'B' in the NATO/ICAO phonetic alphabet, used to spell out letters unambiguously over radio.

bravo zulu

General

A naval signal meaning 'Well Done,' conveyed by flag hoist or radio to commend good performance.

bravo zulu minus

General

Naval slang inverting 'Bravo Zulu' to convey a poorly done job — a tongue-in-cheek reprimand rather than praise.