"C" Slang

chai

Street

A versatile exclamation reacting to surprising, upsetting, or dramatic news — used widely, especially in southeastern Nigeria.

chain

Street

A busload or transfer of prisoners moved together in chains; to 'catch the chain' is to be transported. Also 'chain gang' historically for shackled work crews.

chain combo

Gaming

A combo built by linking normals in order of strength, light into medium into heavy, with each move cancelling into the next. Easy, reliable, and the bread and butter of a lot of pressure.

chain gang

General

The officials' assistants on the sideline who operate the 10-yard chains and down marker to measure for first downs.

chaining

Gaming

The heart of high-score play in a lot of shmups. You link enemies or items together without breaking the sequence, and the chain multiplies your score. Drop the chain and the multiplier resets to nothing. Some are simple kill-fast systems, others are deep puzzles in their own right.

chair

General

The bardic chair awarded at the National Eisteddfod to the winning poet of the awdl — a long poem in the strict-metre form known as cynghanedd. A new chair is made specially each year by Welsh craftsmen. Winning it earns you the title Prifardd ('Chief Bard') and a very public ceremony on Friday of Eisteddfod week. The 1917 'Black Chair' — awarded posthumously to Hedd Wyn, killed at Passchendaele weeks earlier — remains the most famous.

chair emoji

Internet

A 🪑 dropped in the comments to mean 'this is hilarious'. The whole joke is that a chair has nothing to do with laughter — that's why it's funny.

chair force

General

A jab at the Air Force playing on the perception that many airmen spend their time 'flying a desk' doing office work.

chairborne ranger

General

A jokingly disparaging term for someone who works at a desk rather than in the field — a play on 'airborne ranger.'

chairforce ranger

General

A mocking term for an Air Force member who does office work but affects the bearing of a frontline operator; a variant of 'chairborne ranger.'

chairo

General

A mocking term for a self-righteous left-wing progressive or 'social justice' idealist.

chairo de closet

General

A mocking phrase for someone secretly or hypocritically 'chairo' (progressive).

chaka-chaka

General

Untidy, disorganised or in a chaotic state.

chale

Street

A hard no. Caló's version of 'nah' or 'hell no' — used to shut down a request, deny an accusation, or just register disbelief. Lower-key than 'nel' but still a refusal with bass in it. Lives all over SoCal Chicano speech and West Coast rap.

chalfont st giles

Street

Cockney rhyming slang for 'piles', shortened to 'chalfonts'.

chalice

General

A ceremonial pipe (often a large water-pipe) used by Rastas to smoke ganja communally.

chalk

General

Magnesium carbonate powder applied to the hands (and sometimes the body) to reduce sweat and improve grip on heavy lifts.

chalked

Gaming

Declared unwinnable or as good as over. Down too many rounds, no economy, no chance — it's chalked.

chalmatian

Street

A person from Chalmette, the parish seat of St. Bernard ('Da Parish') just downriver from NOLA. The label leans hard into the stereotype: thickest yat accent in the region, dropped R's, 'how's ya mom-n-em?', a particular look and a particular attitude. Sometimes affectionate, sometimes a punchline, almost never used by Chalmette people about themselves — they're just 'from Da Parish'.

chamaco

General

An informal word for a child or young person; 'chamaca' for a girl.

chamba

General

Informal word for work or a job; 'chambear' means to work.

champagne

General

Short form used when a procedure comes back flawless, most often a champagne tap. Sometimes generalised to any spotless result.

champagne room

General

The upsell room. Curtained-off VIP space behind the main floor where a customer pays a hefty hourly rate (plus a bottle of overpriced champagne) for one-on-one time with a dancer. The club takes a cut, the dancer keeps the rest. It's where the real money in the building changes hands.

champagne tap

General

A perfectly executed lumbar puncture yielding cerebrospinal fluid with zero red blood cells (no traumatic contamination). Traditionally worth a bottle of champagne.

chan

Internet

A diminutive name-suffix expressing affection or endearment, used for small children, young women, pets and close friends. Attaching it signals warmth and familiarity.

chancer

General

An untrustworthy opportunist looking to get away with something.

changarrear

General

To operate a small informal business or side hustle; from 'changarro'.

changarro

General

A small, informal business, shop, or stand.

chanme

General

From the standard French 'mechant' (mean, wicked, nasty). Verlan inverts me-chant to chan-me. Like English 'wicked', it ironically came to mean great or awesome.

channel

General

The gap on either side of central defence, between the full-back and the centre-back, that attackers try to exploit.

channies

General

Channellock tongue-and-groove pliers. Another brand-eats-category situation: the Meadville, PA company made the adjustable slip-joint pliers so iconic that every plumber, electrician, and HVAC tech calls any version 'Channies' regardless of who made them. Spot them by the cyan-blue grips.

chant down

General

To denounce, resist or symbolically destroy something (esp. Babylon) through righteous song and chanting.

chanta

General

A con artist, fraud, or unreliable bluffer, someone who promises much and delivers nothing. The source is often linked to Genoese 'ciantapuffi' (a debtor who skips out, lit. 'plant-debts').

chante

General

One's house or home; a Chicano/border Spanglish term.

chao pescao

General

A cutesy Cuban goodbye — 'bye, fish!' — sometimes answered '¡y a la vuelta, picadillo!'.

chap

General

To knock or rap, especially on a door; 'chap the door'.

chapstick lesbian

General

Sits right between lipstick lesbian and butch — leaning neither hard feminine nor hard masculine. The name says it all: she's not doing full lipstick and not doing none, just chapstick. Minimal makeup, often a sporty or low-maintenance vibe, comfortably androgynous. The term popped on a 1997 episode of Ellen and has had a fresh viral run on TikTok.

char

General

Tea. Specifically the strong, milky, sweet builders' brew that's powered every British military operation since the empire. 'A cup of char' or 'a brew of char' is sacred.

charas

Street

A traditional hashish made by hand-rubbing live cannabis plants to collect resin.

chare

General

A narrow alley or street, especially in Newcastle.

charging

General

To surf big, dangerous waves with total commitment and no hesitation.

charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent

General

RuPaul's holy quartet of what makes a winning queen, and a sly acrostic: the first letters spell C.U.N.T., reclaimed here as the highest compliment. A euphemism that lets RuPaul say the quiet part on network TV. If you've got all four, you've got 'it'.

charity stripe

General

Slang for the free-throw line, where uncontested 'free' points are available.

charlie

General

The letter C in the phonetic alphabet, and during the Vietnam War a general term for the Viet Cong, shortened from 'Victor Charlie' (VC).

charlie mike

General

Radio brevity spelling C-M in the phonetic alphabet for 'Continue Mission,' an order or affirmation to push on with the task at hand.

charper

General

To search, look for, or hunt something out. The headline use is 'charpering omi' — literally a 'searching man', i.e. a policeman — the very people Polari was built to talk around back when being gay could get you arrested.

charpering omi

General

In Polari, a police officer. It combines 'charper' (to search or look for, from Italian 'acchiappare', to catch) with 'omi' (man) — a 'searching man'.

chart dehiscence

General

Mock-surgical term (from wound 'dehiscence') for a bulky chart bursting open and scattering its papers.