"B" Slang

beck

General

A stream or brook, used especially in south and east Durham.

bed blocker

General

A patient who no longer needs acute care but cannot be discharged (usually awaiting social care or placement), thereby 'blocking' the bed.

bed rot

Internet

Often framed positively as restorative downtime.

bed-and-breakfast

General

A British tax dodge where you sell a losing position one evening and buy it straight back the next morning. You keep the position, you crystallise the capital loss, HMRC gives you the writedown. Killed off in 1998 when the 30-day rule made the round-trip pointless.

beef

Music

A grudge, dispute, or ongoing conflict between people or groups.

beef it

General

To crash or mess up a trick badly; a hard, often clumsy fall. Synonymous with 'eat it.'

beefer

Street

A beefer is an informer or complainer, from 'beef' meaning a grievance or to squeal. It marks someone who talks to the law.

beemer

General

A patient with a very high BMI. Coded language so staff can flag the lifting hazard, the bariatric bed, the hard IV stick, without the patient or family clocking the insult. Not flattering — the medical-humour books admit it 'wouldn't win a prize for sensitivity'.

beer tokens

Internet

Humorous slang for money, framing cash as what you exchange for drinks.

bees and honey

General

Money or cash. 'Bees and honey' rhymes with 'money' and clips to 'bees'.

beezum

General

A broom — traditionally the besom kind made from a bundle of birch twigs. Brummie / Black Country pronunciation of 'besom'.

beg

General

Someone who's desperately trying to fit in, suck up, or be liked by people cooler than them. A try-hard. Probably the most-used insult in London secondary schools for a solid fifteen years running.

behind

General

On a tight line, you call 'behind' before crossing into another cook's blind spot. Stops them from spinning around with a hot pan or a knife and putting it through your sternum. Non-negotiable kitchen safety language.

beige flag

Gen Z

A quirky, oddly specific trait in a partner that's neither a good sign (green flag) nor a bad one (red flag) — just distinctly them.

belay that

General

A naval command meaning to stop or disregard the order just given.

bellwether

General

A person, company, or metric that signals the direction a broader trend will take.

belt

General

A thick belt worn around the midsection to brace the core and support the spine during heavy lifting.

belta

General

Excellent, brilliant, class. The Geordie all-purpose stamp of approval — slapped on a goal, a night out, a pint, a haircut, anything that hits right. Said with full gusto, never half-heartedly.

belting

General

Excellent. The Manc shorthand for anything that absolutely lands — a goal, a curry, a night out, a tune. Said flat with conviction, not gushed.

bembé

General

A big, lively party. Originally an Afro-Caribbean religious drumming celebration, now any good bash.

bembelequero

General

Someone who gossips and spreads unofficial news or stirs up trouble. Feminine 'bembelequera'.

ben

General

A mountain or high peak, most familiar in mountain names.

ben the hoose

General

Through in the inner room; 'come ben' means come through into the house.

benched

General

Left out of the starting line-up and made to sit among the substitutes.

benching

Internet

A dating move where someone keeps a roster of benched people in reserve.

benchmark

General

A point of comparison used to evaluate performance or quality.

benchwarmer

Internet

Someone maintained on the sidelines as a reserve romantic option, the target of benching.

bendigedig

General

A proper Welsh-language word that means wonderful, fantastic, brilliant — and one of the few Welsh words even non-speakers reach for. North Wales tends to favour it, where the South says 'lush'. Pronounced ben-dee-GED-ig. Mutates to 'fendigedig' after 'yn'.

bene

General

In 'bene whids' — good or fair words; to 'cut bene whids' was to speak kindly.

benihana

General

An air in which the rider grabs the tail while kicking the back foot off the board and extending the leg out, then replaces it before landing.

benjamins

Internet

Slang for $100 bills and, by extension, big money.

benji

Internet

Shortened form of 'Benjamin,' meaning a $100 note.

benny

General

A term for people who are non-locals in a particular surf area, often tourists who do not know local etiquette.

beoir

General

An attractive young woman. Common in Cork and Munster.

bera

Internet

A playful misspelling of "bear," describing bearish sentiment or someone expecting prices to fall.

berk

Street

A mild insult meaning a fool or idiot, derived from the vulgar rhyming slang 'Berkshire/Berkeley Hunt'.

berko

General

To go berserk or become uncontrollably angry.

berl

Street

To boil. Used about water, crawfish, shrimp, crabs — anything getting dropped in a pot with cayenne and corn. The noun works too: a crawfish berl is a whole afternoon, not just a meal.

berm

General

An embankment built up on the outside of a track corner to create a banked wall riders can rail around at speed. Berms let you carry more speed through turns than a flat corner.

besom

General

A term for a woman or girl, ranging from affectionately cheeky to disparaging.

best boy

Internet

The male counterpart to best girl: the male character a fan considers the best in a series. As with best girl, the character's sex is largely aesthetic and it functions as 'best overall'.

best girl

Internet

The female anime character a fan rates above all others in a given series, especially in shows with a love-triangle or harem setup. Declaring your best girl is a fandom rite.

best-in-breed

General

Describing a product or solution regarded as the top performer in its specific class.

bestie

Internet

Sometimes sarcastic, aimed at someone you're not actually close to.

bet

Aave

An affirmation meaning "okay", "sure" or "it's a deal". Can also signal confident agreement to a challenge.

beta reader

Internet

A volunteer who reads a draft of fan fiction to catch errors and give feedback before it is published.

beta-alanine tingles

General

The itchy, tingling sensation (paresthesia) many people feel 10-20 minutes after taking beta-alanine, a common pre-workout ingredient; harmless and often taken as a sign the pre is 'kicking in'.

beton

General

In the set phrase 'laisse beton', 'beton' is verlan for 'tomber' (to drop/fall), reshaped from tom-ber to be-ton. The whole phrase means 'drop it' or 'forget it'.