"G" Slang

ghosted

Street

To be transferred to another prison without warning, often to break up trouble or remove a difficult prisoner.

ghostin'

Street

Clipped form of ghost-riding — climbing out of a moving car to dance next to it. Used as a verb on its own once everyone knew what whip you meant.

ghosting

General

As a verb, to ghost someone is to disappear on them.

gi rounds

General

Jokey slang for going to eat, dressing up mealtime as a set of clinical 'rounds' for the gastrointestinal tract.

giant-killing

General

When a lowly team causes a huge upset by beating a far bigger club, usually in a cup competition.

gie it laldy

General

To sing, dance or perform loudly and wholeheartedly.

gig

General

To mark a demerit against someone for a discrepancy in appearance or an inspection failure; a small fault so noted.

gig economy

General

A labor market characterized by short-term contracts, freelance work, and on-demand tasks rather than permanent jobs, often mediated by apps and platforms like ride-share and delivery services.

gig line

General

The imaginary line formed by the edge of the shirt placket, the belt buckle, and the trouser fly, which must all line up for inspection.

gigabrain

Internet

Crypto-Twitter compliment for a trader or analyst whose takes consistently print money. Beyond galaxy-brain — this is the person seeing the trade three moves before everyone else. Can be sincere ('he's a gigabrain on L2s') or sarcastic when someone fumbles a layup.

gigabrained

Internet

Describing a take, plan, or move that reflects unusually sharp intelligence or foresight.

gigachad

Internet

An exaggeratedly capable, confident and admirable person — usually used half-jokingly to praise someone for a strong or unbothered move.

gigachad energy

Internet

Describes behaviour that projects the confident, dominant, unbothered vibe of the Gigachad meme.

gigging

General

Earning income through a series of short-term, freelance, or on-demand jobs, especially via apps and platforms, rather than through steady permanent employment.

giggle water

General

Champagne or any fizzy, celebratory booze.

giggle-smoke

Street

A 1940s-era term for cannabis, referencing the giggly effect it produces.

gigot

General

A leg cut of lamb or mutton, standard in Scottish butchers.

gih

General

The creole form of 'give'. 'Gih muh' = give me. Also geeh.

gijinka

Internet

A humanised personification — turning an animal, object, place or concept into a human (or humanoid) character, a hugely popular fan-art and official-design practice.

gilding

Internet

The act of awarding paid Reddit Gold (or later Platinum) to a comment or post. Functioned as a flashy public tip — you were literally buying a stranger premium membership because their joke landed that hard. Reddit retired the Coins/Awards system in 2023, so the term is now mostly nostalgic.

gill

General

A measure of drink; in the North a 'gill' commonly means a half-pint of beer.

gimme

General

Contracted command 'give me'. Also gimmeh, gih muh.

gimme some sugar

General

An affectionate request for a kiss, especially from a child or sweetheart.

gimp

Gaming

A kill that has no business happening at that percent. You catch someone offstage with a weak hit or a steal of their recovery and they just can't make it back. The damage didn't kill them, the situation did.

gine

General

Replaces 'going' or the future 'will/going to'. 'She gine do it' = she will do it.

ginger

General

Generic Glaswegian term for any fizzy soft drink — Coke, Irn-Bru, lemonade, the lot. Doesn't have to contain a molecule of actual ginger. Baffles tourists and English visitors on a regular basis.

gingin

General

Scottish for utterly disgusting, rank, vom-inducing. Reserved for things that genuinely turn the stomach — not just mildly unpleasant. Often paired with 'pure' or 'heavy' for emphasis. If something's gingin, you're physically backing away from it.

ginnal

Street

A cunning trickster, hustler or con-artist who deceives people. Also spelled ginnul.

ginnel

General

A covered or roofed-over passage leading from a street to a yard.

gip

General

To gag or retch, or to feel disgusted. Common in Yorkshire and the North.

girl crush

General

The mainstream version: a woman's starry-eyed admiration for another woman she finds cool, gorgeous, or impossibly put-together. Framed as platonic, no attraction implied. You want to BE her or be her friend, not date her.

girl dinner

Gen Z

A casual, low-effort meal assembled from snacks and bits and pieces rather than a cooked dish — crackers, cheese, olives, whatever's in the fridge.

girl math

Internet

Playful, self-aware logic used to justify a purchase or spending decision, e.g. treating something bought with cash as "free".

girlboss

Internet

Part of the ironic gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss trio.

gist

Street

To have a conversation, share gossip, or catch up on news with friends; as a noun, "the gist" is the story or news itself.

gittima

General

An item passed on to someone, often used or second-hand.

give it a go

General

To make an attempt; 'having a go' is culturally valued.

give out

General

To bollock someone — tell them off, usually at length. 'She gave out to me for being late' = she chewed me out. The direction matters: you give out TO someone.

give ower

General

An instruction to stop doing something annoying; 'give over'.

give your 'ead a wobble

General

Telling someone to rethink. They've said or done something so daft that you're literally asking them to physically shake their brain back into place. Aggressive cousin of 'have a word with yourself'.

give-and-go

General

An offensive play in which a player passes to a teammate and immediately cuts to the basket to receive a return pass.

giving

General

To radiate or serve a particular energy, look or vibe. Drop a noun after it and you've described the whole mood: 'it's giving rich auntie', 'it's giving desperate'. Compliment or read depending entirely on what comes next.

giving / it's giving

General

Used to say something radiates a specific quality or energy, often without finishing the thought. 'It's giving' followed by anything, a noun, an adjective, a whole mood, tells you what the thing is putting out. Comes straight from ballroom's 'giving face / giving body', where what you give is the presence you project.

giving out

General

To scold, complain about or tell someone off. 'Giving out yards' is doing so at great length.

giz

General

Hand it over. The Scouse all-purpose request — for a ciggy, a chip, a job. Immortalised by Yosser Hughes in Boys from the Blackstuff: 'Gizza job.'

gizmo

General

Any mechanical device, gadget, or part whose proper name the speaker doesn't know or can't recall.

gizza

General

A contraction of 'give us a', meaning 'give me'.

gizzit

General

A freebie — a bit of kit, a souvenir, a sticker, a patch, a brew — blagged off someone for nothing. Comes straight from the slurred British plea 'give us it'. Especially common when a unit deploys somewhere new and starts collecting morale patches, lanyards and tat off the locals or allied forces.