"C" Slang

c-collar

General

A stiff brace applied around the neck to limit movement of the cervical spine after suspected trauma until injury is ruled out.

c-note

Street

A C-note is a hundred-dollar bill, 'C' being the Roman numeral for 100.

c-spine

General

Refers to the seven cervical vertebrae; in the ED, 'clearing the C-spine' means confirming there is no neck fracture or instability after trauma.

c.o.

Street

The standard term inmates and staff use for a uniformed prison guard.

c'mere to me

General

Doesn't actually ask anyone to come anywhere. It's a verbal nudge meaning 'listen' or 'tell me this' — used to flag that a question or bit of gossip is coming. Stretched out as 'c'mere to me now' for emphasis. Pure Hiberno-English filler with rhythm.

caballerial

General

A vert and transition trick consisting of a 360-degree ollie performed while riding fakie, rotating backside. Commonly shortened to 'cab' or 'full cab.'

cabbage

General

Used casually and often with a vintage or playful feel.

cabbaged

General

Mentally gone. Either from too much booze, too many drugs, or just a brutal shift that's hollowed you out. The lights are on but no one's running the desk.

cabg

General

Surgery that reroutes blood around blocked coronary arteries using grafted vessels. Pronounced 'cabbage.'

cabrewing

General

Portmanteau of canoeing and brewing. The Michigan summer pastime of loading a cooler into a canoe, pushing off down a lazy river (Au Sable, Manistee, Rifle), and drinking your way downstream. Often a whole-day affair with a flotilla of friends, lashed-together vessels, and a designated sober driver waiting at the takeout.

cachibaches

Street

Junk. Random stuff. The miscellaneous pile of crap that lives in your garage, your glove box, the drawer in the kitchen. Affectionate-dismissive — not actually trash, just clutter you can't be bothered to sort.

cactus juice

General

Jocular term for strong or rough alcoholic drink.

cadbury's flake

General

Cockney rhyming slang for 'mistake'. Often shortened to 'Cadbury's' or just 'Flake'. Named after the crumbly British chocolate bar.

cadence

General

The set pattern or frequency at which something recurs, like meetings or releases.

cadge

General

To get something off someone by asking — politely or otherwise. A cadged tab, a cadged lift, a cadged tenner till Friday. Not quite begging, not quite borrowing; it's the grey area in between. Wider than Geordie but heavily used across the North East.

cadillac

Street

Instant coffee prepared with creamer and sweetener as a small luxury. 'Cadillac' also denotes a prized work assignment or the best bunk.

cadillac job

Street

A prison job seen as easy, well-positioned, or privileged compared to hard labor assignments.

caer el chahuistle

General

Said when something spoils the moment or an unwelcome person shows up unexpectedly.

caff

Street

An inexpensive café, especially a traditional 'greasy spoon'.

cage

Street

An inmate's cell, emphasizing its confining, barred nature.

caggy

General

Left-handed. One of those regional words for a southpaw — every part of the UK has its own (cack-handed, corrie-fisted, kerry-handed) and 'caggy' is the Midlands flavour. Usually neutral, occasionally teasing, especially in school playgrounds.

caguama

General

A big returnable bottle of beer, named after the sea turtle for its size.

caidón

General

Someone who 'falls in' uninvited or shamelessly seizes freebies/attention.

cain't

General

A dialectal pronunciation and spelling of "can't."

cake-eater

General

A foppish young man who frequents tea dances and parties, more interested in flirting than working; a lady-killer.

cake-hole

General

The mouth. 99% of the time it appears in the phrase "shut your cake-hole" — a Brummie/British classic for telling someone to be quiet. Older than your nan and going nowhere.

cakeday

Internet

Reddit's birthday party for your account. Every year on the date you signed up, a tiny cake slice appears beside your username for 24 hours. Tradition says other Redditors throw you free upvotes as a 'happy cakeday' tribute — though hivemind being hivemind, you'll also get the occasional contrarian downvote just for existing.

calcos

Street

Shoes — specifically the sharp dress shoes that finished off a zoot suit. By extension, any pair of shoes in old-school Chicano talk.

calennig

General

A traditional New Year's Day gift, or the custom of children going door to door singing to collect coins for good luck. Now in the Oxford English Dictionary.

califas

Street

California in Caló — the Chicano street Spanish of the Southwest. Used across Chicano rap, lowrider culture and SoCal Latino slang for decades; you'll see it tattooed in Old English across plenty of backs.

callaloo

General

A dark leafy green (amaranth) and the popular dish made from it, often steamed with saltfish. Also spelled callalou.

calli sober

Street

A sober-adjacent lifestyle in which a person avoids alcohol but continues to consume cannabis.

calls

Internet

Call options: contracts giving the right to buy a stock at a set price, profitable when the underlying rises. The go-to bullish weapon for WSB gamblers.

cally

Street

'Cally' is cannabis, originally hinting at California-grown imports but in London it covers any decent bag of green. Heard on every other drill track — 'pack of cally,' 'zoot of cally.'

calm

British Mle

Fine, okay or no problem — an all-purpose word of reassurance or agreement.

cámara

General

Used to agree or confirm, like 'okay', 'cool', or 'sounds good'.

cambro

General

Genericized brand name (Cambro Manufacturing) for the heavy translucent plastic storage containers every restaurant uses for stock, brine, prep, and dry goods. Stackable, label-friendly, and indestructible. Comes in 2qt up to 22qt.

camelback

Street

A New Orleans shotgun house with a hump on the back — one story up front, two stories at the rear. Built that way in the late 1800s because property taxes were assessed on the number of front-facing stories, so locals stacked the extra room out of sight. Tax dodge as architecture.

camello

General

The huge, humped truck-buses once used for mass transit in Havana; named for their camel-like shape.

camille

General

Slang for a patient who dramatises illness or impending death, named after the tuberculosis-stricken heroine of the play/film 'Camille.'

camión

General

In Mexican usage, the everyday word for a city or intercity bus (elsewhere it means truck).

cammies

General

The camouflage utility uniform worn by Navy and Marine personnel — the counterpart of the Army/Air Force field uniform.

camp

Gaming

As a noun, 'camper,' a player known for this passive, ambush-heavy style.

camper

Gaming

Someone who parks in one position — a corner, a window, behind a door — and waits for kills instead of moving. Effective, infuriating, and a classic source of lobby rage.

campers

General

Guests who park at a table well past the meal — coffee long gone, check dropped twice — while a wait list stares daggers at the host stand. Front-of-house's nightmare on a Saturday turn. Kills covers, kills tips, kills morale.

camping

Gaming

Hiding in a fixed position and waiting for enemies to walk by so you can pick them off, instead of moving and fighting. Considered cheap or cowardly by most players.

can devs do something

Internet

A meme complaint aimed at a project's developers to "do something" about poor price action, as if code could move markets.

can of corn

General

A high, lazy fly ball that is very easy for a fielder to catch.