"T" Slang

tb

Gaming

The Teleblock spell. Land it on someone and they can't teleport out for five minutes. In the Wilderness that's a death sentence — no escape, just you and the loot.

tba

Internet

Stands for "to be announced," indicating information will be shared at a later time.

tbf

Internet

Stands for 'to be fair,' used to introduce a balancing point or concede the other side has a point.

tbr

Internet

The pile, list or Goodreads shelf of books you swear you'll read. Mostly aspirational. Often growing faster than you can read.

tdee

General

'Total daily energy expenditure,' the total calories your body burns in 24 hours, used as the baseline for setting a bulk or cut.

tdy

General

'Temporary Duty' — a short-term assignment at a location other than the member's permanent duty station, after which they return; the Navy/Marine equivalent is TAD.

te crees muy muy

General

Accuses someone of acting superior or thinking they're special.

te la comiste

General

Praise for doing something excellently — 'you ate that up'.

tea

Aave

Gossip or the inside story. "Spill the tea" means share the gossip; "what's the tea?" asks for the latest news.

tea pad

Street

An after-hours parlor, especially in Harlem in the 1930s-40s, where people gathered to smoke cannabis and hear jazz.

teal

General

A political candidate (often a woman) holding economically moderate but pro-climate-action views; Macquarie's 2022 Word of the Year.

teardrop

General

A soft, high-arcing shot in the lane, also called a floater or runner, designed to drop over taller defenders.

teaser

Internet

A brief video, photo, or concept clip released before a comeback to build anticipation. Teasers are dissected frame by frame by fans.

teasy

General

A Cornish word for being grumpy or short-fused, often 'tired and teasy'.

tec

Street

A handgun, originally and specifically the Intratec Tec-9 — the boxy 9mm semi-auto that became a 90s gangsta-rap icon. The name long ago stretched to cover any similar machine pistol, and now sometimes just any pistol full stop.

tech

Gaming

A knockdown tech is the timed input that lets you recover faster or roll out instead of lying there exposed. Miss the window and you eat the okizeme.

tech chase

Gaming

When an opponent is knocked down they have a handful of recovery options. A tech chase is predicting which one and being there to punish it, turning one knockdown into another.

technical debt

General

The accumulated cost of shortcuts and hasty code that will need reworking later.

technicolour yawn

General

A humorous term for vomiting, evoking colourful spew.

teckle

General

Top quality. Brilliant. The good stuff. Closest thing Dundee has to 'sick' or 'class' — a wholehearted seal of approval.

teef

General

To thieve or pilfer; as a noun, a thief. Also tief.

teem

General

To pour, especially heavy rain; to empty out a liquid.

teeth

General

Mock acronym written into notes as a plan when a patient has been worked up to death, treated with everything, and nothing has shifted. Stands for 'Tried Everything Else, Try Homeopathy' — a swipe at both the impossible case and at homeopathy as a last-resort placebo. Pure dark-humour catharsis; never actually meant as a treatment plan.

teh

Internet

A marker of self-aware, old-internet humor, signalling the writer is being playful.

tek time

General

An instruction to take your time, be careful or go gently with something.

tell me x without telling me x

Internet

A challenge format where you out yourself as belonging to some group by listing oddly specific habits or quirks instead of stating it directly. The further the indirection, the funnier the reveal.

telt

General

Told. Geordie and Scots past tense of 'tell' — preserves the older English pattern (like 'felt' from 'feel'). Standard English ironed it out to 'told'; the North kept the original.

tempo

General

The prescribed speed of a rep, often written as four numbers for the lowering, pause, lifting and top phases.

ten toes

Street

Doing something on foot, no car, no help. Drill rappers go 'ten toes' to a rival block — walking in, not driving by. Counts ten toes because that's what you're rolling with.

tender

General

A fire apparatus built around a large water tank (typically 1,000–4,000 gallons) used to shuttle water to fires where no hydrants exist — rural structure fires, wildland incidents, highway calls. NWCG and NFPA officially call them "water tenders"; many East Coast departments still call the same rig a "tanker," which in wildland-speak actually means an air tanker. The terminology fight is eternal.

tendieman

Internet

Playful title for a trader who has racked up serious profits ('tendies'), a hero of the day on WSB.

tendies

Internet

Money won on a trade, framed like a mum-bought reward of chicken tenders for being a good boy. Born on r/wallstreetbets where the self-deprecating image is a basement-dwelling man-child cashing out his Robinhood account to order tendies. Profits = tendies. Losses = no tendies tonight.

tenner

Internet

Slang for a ten-unit banknote in the US and UK.

tens

General

Straight tens across the board, a perfect score from all the judges, which sends a walker through to the next round. 'Getting your 10s' is the goal of the opening round of a category: clear the bar, prove you've got the fundamentals and the look, and you advance. Anything less and you risk the chop.

tens across the board

General

The dream call at a ball: every judge throws up a 10, you sweep the panel and move forward, no chops. It's the ballroom version of a flawless victory, and the phrase has spread well beyond the scene as shorthand for perfection — used the way you'd say something scored a perfect 10. So iconic it's been borrowed as the title of essays and pieces on ballroom history itself.

tent up

Street

To drape sheets or blankets around a bed to create a private, curtained space, often against the rules.

terminal lance

General

A US Marine stuck at E-3 Lance Corporal for their entire enlistment — passed over for promotion to Corporal again and again, and now headed for EAS (End of Active Service) with the same rank they pinned on years ago. The phrase mixes self-deprecation, dark humour, and a particular brand of resignation that only Marines really understand. Cemented in Corps culture by Maximilian Uriarte's long-running comic strip 'Terminal Lance', launched in 2010, which basically became the unofficial newspaper of the lower enlisted.

terminally online

Internet

Stronger sibling of 'chronically online'. Implies the condition is fatal — the person can no longer think a thought that isn't refracted through a niche subreddit or a 4-year-old Tumblr argument. Their references won't land at a dinner table. They will, however, type 1,200 words about why your dinner-table take is fascist.

terminate

General

A brevity code, used in training, directing participants to cease a local engagement without affecting the overall exercise — narrower in scope than 'Knock it off'.

tern

General

Clipped slang for a first-year resident (intern), the most junior doctor.

terp

Street

Slang clip of 'terpene,' referring to the aromatic flavor compounds of a strain.

terp pearls

Street

Tiny quartz, glass or ruby balls placed inside a banger that spin with airflow, distributing heat evenly and spreading the concentrate for a bigger, more even vaporization. Also called dab pearls.

terp sauce

Street

A concentrate consisting largely of terpenes in a runny, sauce-like form, often paired with THCA diamonds, prized for intense flavor.

terp slurper

Street

A style of quartz banger with a bottom dish and open slotted channels that pull melted concentrate upward as it vaporizes, maximizing flavor.

terpenes

Street

The volatile aromatic compounds in cannabis responsible for its distinct scents and flavors, often abbreviated 'terps'.

terpy

Street

Said of cannabis or concentrate with a strong terpene content that produces intense aroma and flavorful vapor.

testimonial

General

An exhibition game staged to celebrate a player's loyalty and service to a club, often for charity.

testosterone

General

The main male sex hormone, central to building muscle and strength; often discussed for natural optimization or as the base of steroid cycles.