"T" Slang

trini to de bone

General

An expression of pride in one's Trinidadian identity, famously a soca refrain.

tripear

General

To be kidding or messing with someone, or to be amazed. '¿Me estás tripeando?' = are you kidding me?

triple crown

Internet

An honor for a song that wins first place on the same music program for three consecutive weeks. Traditionally led to being exempt from further competition on that show.

triple nickel

General

Electrician slang for the Greenlee 555, the powered conduit bender that's been the go-to tool for bending EMT, IMC and rigid conduit on commercial jobs since the late '60s. Three fives = triple nickel. Also called the sidewinder or whirlygig depending on the crew.

triple threat

General

An offensive stance from which a player can immediately shoot, pass, or dribble, keeping the defense guessing.

triple witching

General

Third Friday of March, June, September and December. Three derivative classes — stock options, stock-index futures and stock-index options — expire on the same day. Hedges get unwound en masse, volume explodes, and weird closing prints are a feature, not a bug. (Single-stock futures made it 'quadruple witching' for a while, but those got delisted.)

triple-decker

General

A three-story wooden apartment house, one unit per floor, built by the thousands across Boston, Worcester, Providence and the rest of New England between roughly 1880 and 1930 to house mill and factory workers. Long porches stacked out back, flat or low-pitched roof, and almost always wood-frame. If you grew up in Dorchester or Somerville you grew up in one or next to one.

triple-double

General

Reaching ten or more in three of points, rebounds, assists, steals or blocks in one game.

trippin

Music

Being paranoid or stressed about something.

trippy

General

Describing art, music, or visuals that feel dreamlike and mind-bending.

tris

General

Abbreviation for the triceps, the muscles on the back of the upper arm.

troca

Street

A pickup truck. The standard word for one along the border and across Mexican-American Texas — said with affection, especially for a lifted, chromed-out one. Standard Spanish would say 'camioneta,' but nobody actually does on the border.

trolleyed

General

Extremely intoxicated. Widespread British slang, common in Midlands speech.

tromle

General

Refers to the metro as a means of getting around the city.

trotters

Street

Feet; also the name of the Trotter family in Only Fools and Horses.

trouble

Street

The shortened form of 'trouble and strife', Cockney rhyming slang for wife.

trouble and strife

General

A wife. 'Trouble and strife' rhymes with 'wife', and is clipped to 'the trouble', dropping the rhyming word.

trough

General

The bottom or lowest point of the wave, between the crest of one wave and the next.

trucha

Street

A warning — look out, watch yourself, something's about to pop off. Shouted when trouble's incoming.

trucho

General

Fake, counterfeit, fraudulent. The source is debated; it may relate to older Lunfardo 'trucha' (face/mug) or 'truco' (trick), and the Academia Portena del Lunfardo does not fix a single origin.

trucks

General

The two T-shaped metal components mounted under the deck that hold the wheels, allow turning, and are the part you grind on.

true

General

Describes a wheel that is straight and running without any wobble or buckle when spun. Keeping wheels true is basic bike maintenance for riders who grind and case landings.

true blue

General

Authentically Australian, loyal and dependable.

true last boss (tlb)

Gaming

The boss behind the boss. Beyond the normal ending sits a secret final boss that only unlocks if you meet brutal conditions: no-missing, hitting a score threshold, surviving into a second loop. Usually the hardest fight in the entire game by a country mile.

truing

General

The process of removing buckles and wobbles from a wheel by carefully adjusting the tension of individual spokes. It is a core wheel-maintenance skill for riders hard on their bikes.

trusty

Street

A trusty is an inmate granted responsibilities and privileges by prison authorities; in older cant it also implied a convict who carried tales to the guards.

truth nuke

Internet

A short tweet presented as a devastating fact, regardless of whether it actually is one. The framing does the work — the poster acts like they've ended the debate. Often used ironically about an obviously dumb claim.

tryna

Street

A contraction of 'trying to,' written how it sounds.

ts pmo

Internet

Shorthand for 'this s**t pisses me off'. The universal comment-section vent — stubbed your toe, video buffered, someone took the last slice. Half the time people use it without knowing what the letters stand for, which is part of the joke.

tsukkomi

Internet

In a comic double act, the sharp-tongued 'straight man' who reacts to and calls out the funny man's nonsense, often with a smack or a retort. A staple of anime comedy.

tsundere

Internet

Used to describe push-pull behavior in flirting or friendship — mean one minute, sweet the next.

tsundoku

Internet

The habit of acquiring reading material and letting it pile up unread; a knowing joke among manga collectors.

tsuntsun

Internet

Describes a cold, blunt, standoffish or aloof attitude — the harsh outer half of the tsundere's personality before the sweetness shows through.

ttk

Gaming

Time To Kill. How long it takes to bring a target down. Low TTK means things die fast; high TTK means a grind.

ttm

Internet

An acronym for "talk to me" or "talking to me," used to ask someone to reach out or to reference who one is dating/chatting with. Context-dependent.

ttyl

Internet

Stands for "talk to you later," used to end a conversation while implying you'll chat again. A friendly closing.

ttyn

Internet

Stands for "talk to you never," a sarcastic twist on TTYL ("talk to you later") signalling you don't intend to speak to someone again. Can be a genuine brush-off or a joke.

ttys

Internet

Stands for "talk to you soon," a sign-off implying you'll be in touch again shortly. A warmer variant of TTYL.

tu maletín

General

A dismissive 'that's your problem, not mine'. Literally 'your briefcase'.

tu meke

General

An expression of appreciation or admiration, roughly 'awesome' or 'too much' (in a good way); often for a job well done.

tubular

Pop

In surf origin, describing a perfect curling wave that forms a hollow tube you can ride inside.

tucker

General

Food generally; 'bush tucker' is wild food found in the bush.

tuff

Internet

A compliment for something that looks hard, clean, or impressive — most often an outfit, a car, a sneaker, a beat, a haircut. Visually and aesthetically coded; not used for, say, a kind gesture.

tulip

Street

An oversized joint built with a bulbous, tulip-shaped bowl of cannabis at the end of a rolled stem, holding a large amount of flower.

tully

General

The Evening Telegraph — Dundee's local evening paper. Generations of folk got 'the Tully' off the boy on the corner for the football results and the obits.

tum-tum

Street

A gun fitted with a drum magazine — the round cylinder mag that holds 50-plus rounds. The name's onomatopoeic, mimicking the dull thump of the drum bumping against the shooter's body or the rapid-fire it enables. Brooklyn drill staple, all over Pop Smoke and Fivio Foreign cuts.

tumbao

General

A cool rhythmic groove or the swagger someone carries — a walk or vibe with natural flow.

tumbar la guara

General

To betray established trust or break the camaraderie of a group; to ruin the good vibe.