"S" Slang

step-back

General

A move where a player steps backward away from the defender to create separation for a jump shot.

stepover

General

A dribbling trick where a player rolls or swings a foot over the ball without touching it to sell a change of direction.

stern brunch daddy

Internet

A male lead archetype in romance fiction who's older, authoritative, and visibly capable — but underneath the steel is a man who'll book the restaurant, remember your coffee order and handle your problems before you've named them. Think silver fox energy with a side of cinnamon roll. The 'brunch' bit is the tell: he's not gruff for gruff's sake, he's domestic-coded too.

steups

General

A sharp kissing or sucking of air through the teeth to express annoyance, dismissal or scorn. Also spelt steupse, stupse.

stick

Street

Can also just mean a literal stick or, in older slang, a stick-shift car, depending on context.

stickup

Street

A stickup is a robbery committed by threatening a victim with a weapon, from the command to 'stick 'em up.' The robber is a 'stickup man.'

sticky icky

Street

High-grade cannabis so dense with trichome resin that it's sticky to the touch.

stickybeak

General

A nosy person; as a verb, to pry or take a look.

stiff

General

A note smuggled between inmates — folded tight, run by a trusty, flicked under a door, fished across a tier on a line. The prison version of a text message, and the kind of evidence that gets you more time if it's intercepted.

stiff arm

General

When a ball carrier uses his free arm, held out straight, to push away or ward off a would-be tackler.

stiffed

General

Server worked the table all night and the guest left zero tip — or worse, drew a smiley face on the tip line. In tipped-wage countries it's a direct pay cut, not a slight.

still mooing

General

Steak so rare the joke is the cow's still alive. Sits below 'blue' on the temperature scale in cook-speak — quick sear, cold red centre. Usually said by the guest as a flex, or by the cook as a warning to the runner not to drop it on the way out.

stimmy

Internet

Affectionate slang for a government stimulus payment, which many retail traders funneled straight into stocks and options during 2020–2021.

stinger

General

A DIY heating coil — usually two razor blades or bits of metal wired to a stripped power cord — dunked straight into a cup of water to boil it. Cooks noodles, brews coffee, makes the pruno warm. Also a great way to electrocute yourself or set the cell on fire, which is why staff confiscate them on sight.

stink

General

No good, lame or unfortunate. 'Stink one' expresses sympathy or disappointment.

stink one

General

An expression of sympathy for someone's bad luck or a disappointing outcome.

stir

Street

Prison, as in 'in stir' or 'stir crazy' (driven mad by confinement).

stirk

General

A young ox or cow between one and two years old.

stizzy

Street

A gun. The -izzy suffix (same Snoop-era playbook that gave us fo'shizzle) gets slapped on strap and you've got stizzy. NYC drill rappers wear it out — Pop Smoke, Fivio, Sheff G all stizzy-talking on record.

stl

Street

Drill shorthand for the Black Disciple set at 63rd & St Lawrence — usually said in the same breath as EBT. Home of FBG and ground zero for the long-running war with rival GD blocks like O Block.

stoater

General

An outstanding person or thing; a beauty. A 'pure stoater' is a great specimen.

stoatin

General

Reeling drunk (staggering/bouncing along); separately, of rain, bouncing hard off the pavement.

stoating

General

Steaming drunk to the point you're staggering, bouncing along like a rubber ball. Often 'stoating aboot' — wobbling in and out of the road on the walk hame.

stock rotation

General

Stock rotation is the discipline of putting newly received product behind the older stock so the old stuff sells first — basically FIFO (First In, First Out) at shelf level. Critical in grocery, dairy, and pharmacy where dates kill margin. Skip it and you end up writing off pallets of yoghurt that expired sitting at the back of the cooler.

stodge

General

Figuratively, anything dull, dense, or hard to get through.

stoked as

General

Very thrilled; showcases the Australian dangling 'as' intensifier.

stomp

General

To land a trick or jump cleanly and with total control, so both feet plant firmly and the rider rides away smoothly. It is the opposite of a sketchy or bailed landing.

stone the crows

Street

A Cockney exclamation expressing astonishment or disbelief.

stoned

Street

Being strongly under the influence of cannabis, often sluggish or spaced out.

stoner

Street

A person who frequently uses cannabis, often as part of their identity or lifestyle.

stonks

Internet

Deliberate misspelling of 'stocks,' deployed when the market does something gloriously dumb — your meme coin pumps on no news, a bankrupt company 10x's, your puts print in a green day. Comes with the mental image of the Meme Man 'Stonks' guy in a suit pointing at a line going up. Equally usable for wins and absurd losses.

stool pigeon

Street

A stool pigeon (or stoolie) is an informer, often one who cooperates with police to spy on other criminals. It carries strong connotations of betrayal.

stoop

Street

The front steps of a house — usually a few concrete or wooden treads straight onto the sidewalk. In NOLA (and plenty of other US cities) the stoop isn't just architecture, it's a venue: where you drink a beer, watch the parade pass, gossip with the neighbours, let the kids run loose in the street. 'Sittin' on the stoop' is a whole activity.

stoor

General

Dust, especially fine household dust or a cloud of it.

stop the lights

General

An exclamation of amazement, disbelief or exasperation.

stop-and-go lights

General

A local term for traffic signals, so called because you stop and then go.

stop-tap

General

The moment the landlord shuts off the beer taps and calls last orders. Pure Welsh-English pub vocab — what the rest of Britain calls 'closing time' or 'last orders'. If you're still ordering pints at stop-tap you're cutting it fine.

stoppage time

General

Extra time played at the end of each half to make up for stoppages such as injuries and substitutions; also 'injury time'.

store

Street

Either the canteen itself, or an inmate operation lending or selling goods for repayment at a markup ('running a store').

storrowed

General

Getting your truck or rental moving van decapitated by one of the absurdly low overpasses on Boston's Storrow Drive. Happens like clockwork every September 1st — Allston Christmas — when half the city's students move in and at least one of them ignores the seventeen warning signs. The whole city watches the news that night for the annual carnage.

story horse?

General

Inner-city Dublin greeting, short for 'what's the story, horse?' — 'horse' being a matey term of address (think 'mate' or 'pal') with no equine implications. Pure working-class Dublin, you'll hear it around Liberties, Finglas, the northside flats.

stotious

General

Extremely drunk; falling-over intoxicated.

stotter

General

To stagger, reel or bounce; often of a drunk person's walk.

stottie

General

A flat, round, dense loaf of bread native to the North East, often filled to make a sandwich. Also 'stottie cake'.

stotty

General

A flat, dense, round loaf of bread roughly the size of a dinner plate, traditionally baked on the bottom of the oven. Sliced through the middle and stuffed with ham and pease pudding, it's the classic Newcastle sandwich. Named because if you drop it, it bounces — 'stot' is Geordie for bounce.

stove up

General

Physically stiff and sore, often from age, injury, or hard work.

stovies

General

A hearty Scottish dish of potatoes slow-cooked with onions and (usually leftover) meat.

strac

General

Describes a well-organized, well-turned-out soldier with a pressed uniform, polished brass, and shined boots — a proud, competent trooper who can be depended on.