"T" Slang

thorazine shuffle

General

The characteristic shuffling walk produced by antipsychotic medication (e.g. chlorpromazine/Thorazine) and its side effects.

thought leader

General

An individual or firm regarded as an expert whose opinions shape a subject area.

thousand-yard stare

General

A blank, distant stare seen in profoundly fatigued staff or traumatised patients; borrowed from military usage into hospital speech.

thrape

General

To beat someone soundly — playground threat, pub threat, or just a verbal flex. Also used of sporting hidings: 'we thraped 'em 4-nil'.

thrasher

General

A dedicated, hard-charging skater who rides aggressively and lives the culture, an old-school badge of honor. It also lends its name to the long-running skate magazine.

thrawn

General

Obstinate, perverse and unwilling to be persuaded; twisted or crooked in a literal sense too.

threads

Pop

Clothes or an outfit. A long-standing, casual term, sometimes with a vintage flavor.

threat

Gaming

In MMOs and tab-target RPGs, every action generates threat (aggro) on an enemy. Whoever has the most gets attacked. The tank's whole job is keeping threat above everyone else's so the boss never turns on the squishies.

three 6 mafia

Street

Memphis hip-hop group founded by DJ Paul and Juicy J, named because the lineup fluctuated between three and six members after some originals left the early collective (Triple Six Mafia). Won the 2006 Oscar for Best Original Song with 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp'. Patient zero for crunk, phonk, and most of what trap eventually became.

three hots and a cot

General

Slang for someone attending hospital chiefly to secure meals ('three hots') and a bed ('a cot') rather than for genuine illness. Abbreviated THC.

three-and-out

General

An offensive series in which the team fails to get a first down in three plays and must punt.

three-way

General

A plate of Cincinnati chili over spaghetti topped with shredded cheese; add beans for a four-way, onions too for a five-way.

throne

Gaming

The win condition. Everything — towers, rax, fights — is just clearing the road to the throne. Drop it and the game's over, no comebacks.

throw

Gaming

To lose a game you were clearly winning because of careless or terrible decisions.

throw a wobbly

General

To lose it completely — a tantrum, a sulk, a small adult meltdown. Used right across Britain but stays heavy in Brummie speech. Usually deployed about someone else, never yourself.

throw down

Music

Playful slang for a workout session, framing it as an event to 'throw down.'

throw me somethin', mista!

Street

The official call of Carnival. You yell it up at the masked riders on the floats and they're supposed to chuck you beads, cups, doubloons, stuffed animals, whatever they've got. Kids learn it before they can spell it. Cheating it with a sign that just says the phrase is a time-honored move.

throw shade

General

Shade is the elegant evolution of reading. You don't tell someone they're ugly — you don't have to, because they already know, and that silence is the insult. Subtle, deniable, devastating. The definitive take comes from Dorian Corey in Paris Is Burning: 'I don't have to tell you because you know you're ugly. And that's shade.' Now everyone from gossip blogs to politicians 'throws shade,' usually with none of the finesse.

throw under the bus

General

To publicly shift blame onto someone else, betraying them to protect oneself.

throwed

Street

Faded — usually off lean (codeine syrup), the way DJ Screw's chopped-and-screwed tapes sound. Slow, leaning, eyes half-mast.

throwing

Gaming

Intentionally playing badly to lose a match, sometimes out of spite, tilt, or to grief teammates.

throwing it

Pop

In voguing and dance, to hit your moves, dips, and poses with maximum power and commitment.

throwing plates

General

Slang for lifting heavy weights with apparent ease, tossing loaded plates around like they're light.

throwing shade

General

Disrespecting someone on the slant — a backhanded remark, a look, a pointed silence that lands the insult without quite stating it. As drag legend Dorian Corey put it in Paris Is Burning: 'I don't have to tell you you're ugly because you know you're ugly.' That's shade — the curve to reading's pitch. Born in the 1980s Black and Latino gay ballroom scene, gone fully mainstream after RuPaul's Drag Race.

thruster

General

A three-finned surfboard, the most common modern fin configuration, offering drive and maneuverability.

thug bible

Aave

A definitive, no-nonsense guide to street life, hustling, or the slang and codes of thug culture — the "bible" you'd swear by. Used figuratively for any trusted rulebook on surviving and coming up on the streets.

thug realness

General

Thug realness is a realness category where you're scored on how convincingly you pass as a hard street 'thug' — the walk, the clothes, the attitude, the whole performance of tough masculinity. Realness in ballroom is about being so authentic you'd blend into that world unnoticed, and thug realness is its street-tough flavour, a close cousin of banjee.

thx

Internet

An abbreviation of "thanks," used for quick informal gratitude. Sometimes spelled THNX or THANX.

tia

Internet

Stands for "thanks in advance," thanking someone before they help, common when making a request.

tic

General

An engagement in which friendly troops are actively fighting the enemy, pronounced 'tick.'

tic tracer

General

A non-contact voltage tester — the pen-shaped device electricians wave at outlets, wires and panels to check if anything's live without making contact. 'Tic Tracer' is technically a Greenlee brand name (and 'Volt Tick' is Fluke's) but trades use it for any brand, the same way everyone says Sharpie. Fast, convenient, and not to be fully trusted on its own.

tic-tac

General

A skate technique where the rider lifts and swings the nose left and right in small kickturns to gain speed or steer without pushing. It is an old-school way to move and maneuver.

tícher

General

Dominican Spanish for a football or sports jersey.

tick

Street

Buying something on credit, to be paid for later. 'On tick'.

tick manipulation

Gaming

Timing your clicks around the 0.6s game tick so two actions resolve as one, skipping wasted time. Big in efficient skilling — woodcutting, fishing, herblore.

tick throw

Gaming

You poke them with a quick attack they block, which locks them in blockstun for a beat. The second that blockstun ends, you throw them — they can't jump or backdash out in time. Classic frame-trap pressure.

ticket

Street

A citation for breaking prison rules. In New York the tiers of tickets escalate in severity.

ticky-tack

General

A minor, marginal foul that many feel should have been let go by the officials.

tid

General

A prescription frequency meaning the medication is taken three times daily.

tidy

General

Of an amount, fairly large or considerable.

tidy swill

General

A fast wash covering at least the face and hands — the bare-minimum freshen-up before tea, the pub, or your nan coming round. 'Tidy' here means 'proper/good' (Welsh English's all-purpose adjective), 'swill' is the act of sluicing water about. Not a shower, not a bath, just enough to look human.

tie-up

Street

A robbery, typically of a house or business, in which the victims are tied up.

tiep

General

Used as an interjection of disgust or disappointment, like 'eww' or 'that's pathetic'.

tier

Street

One horizontal level of cells; inmates 'walk the tier' along the walkway fronting their cells.

tiffy

General

Originally the Hawker Typhoon, the brutal WWII ground-attack aircraft that hammered German armour in Normandy with rockets and cannon. Crews shortened Typhoon to Tiffy and the name stuck. The nickname carried straight over to the Eurofighter Typhoon when it entered RAF service — same root word, same affectionate handle.

tifo

General

An organised visual display by fans using banners, cards, flags or smoke to create a spectacle, usually before kick-off.

tifu

Internet

Tag and subreddit name for storytime confessions where the poster cops to a screw-up — anything from burning dinner to ruining a marriage. Format demands a TL;DR at the bottom because the lead-up is always too long.

tight trucks

General

Trucks with the kingpin tightened so the board is more stable and resistant to turning, favored by some for rails, flip tricks, and high speed.