"W" Slang

w-keying

Gaming

W is forward on PC, so w-keying means you only ever move toward the fight. Pure forward momentum, never backing off. Can be a compliment for relentless aggression or a roast for someone who runs it down mindlessly.

w/o

Internet

An abbreviation of "without," pairing W with a slash and O. Common in quick notes.

w00t

Gaming

Sometimes back-formed as an acronym ('we owned the other team'), though this is a later folk explanation.

waacking

General

A dance style from the 1970s disco era, born in the LGBTQ clubs of Los Angeles. It's all about the arms, fast rotational throws, sharp poses, attitude and glamour for days, danced to up-tempo disco. It runs adjacent to vogue and the two have borrowed from each other heavily over the decades, which is why people often mention them in the same breath.

wabbit

General

Weary, run-down or feeling under the weather.

wacha

General

Chicano command meaning 'look' or 'check this out'; also spelled 'güacha.'

wachar

General

Spanglish verb meaning to watch or look; also spelled 'watchar' or 'guachar.'

wacker

General

Friendly term of address — mate, pal, fella. Vintage Scouse, more your granddad than your mate. Often shortened to 'wack'. Outsiders sometimes use 'wacker' as a nickname for Scousers themselves.

wacky tabacky

Street

A humorous, old-school rhyming term for cannabis.

wacky tobacky

Street

A lighthearted, rhyming euphemism for marijuana.

wad

Internet

A rolled or folded bunch of bills; a lot of cash on hand.

wag

General

An acronym for the partners of players, especially those who attract media attention at tournaments.

wag mon

General

The school attendance officer — the council-sent enforcer whose job was knocking on doors when kids didn't show up for class. Loomed large in mid-20th-century Birmingham childhoods. The threat of the wag mon kept many a Brummie kid honest.

wag1

General

What's going on? — the standard MLE greeting, shortened for text and DMs. The '1' is just 'wan' typed lazy. Opens almost every WhatsApp chat between London teenagers.

waggin

General

Playing truant. Bunking off school. Heard across the Black Country and Birmingham — 'waggin' it' is the full version, often shortened to just 'waggin'.

wagging

General

Bunking off school. Used across the North of England — Geordie, Scouse, Manc all claim it. 'Wagging it' means you're not in maths, you're behind the bike sheds.

waggro

Gaming

Wife aggro. The moment your partner has had enough of you gaming and starts demanding your attention, pulling you away from the screen. The real-life version of a boss grabbing threat. Played for laughs in raid chat.

wagmi

Internet

A rallying acronym for 'We Are All Gonna Make It', used to express shared confidence that a community or the market will ultimately succeed.

wagmi frens

Internet

A friendly, encouraging send-off combining "we're all gonna make it" with "frens," affirming solidarity within a community.

wagon

General

A disliked, difficult or unpleasant woman. Heard all over Ireland but especially Dublin — usually delivered with a sigh and an 'oul' in front of it. Carries a whiff of bitterness rather than outright hatred; the kind of word your mam might use about a neighbour she's fallen out with.

wagwan

British Mle

A greeting meaning "what's going on?" — roughly "what's up?" or "how are you?"

wah gwaan

General

A casual Jamaican greeting used the way English speakers say 'what's up' or 'how are things'.

wah gwaan fi

General

An extended form used to ask what is going on with a particular person or situation.

wahala

Street

Wahala is one of the most widely used West African Pidgin words, describing any kind of trouble, problem, or stressful hassle. 'No wahala' is a near-universal way of saying 'no problem, it's fine.'

waho

Street

Waffle House — born in Avondale Estates, GA in 1955 and now a Southern religion. WaHo is where the night ends: post-club, post-fight, post-everything. Hash browns scattered, smothered, covered.

waifu

Internet

Used more loosely for any fictional woman someone is obsessed with, even outside anime. The point is the parasocial devotion, not the medium.

waifu wars

Internet

An ongoing, playful (or fierce) argument among fans over which female character deserves to be the top waifu, with 'your waifu is trash' as a classic jab.

waifu-material

Internet

A fandom compliment marking a female character as so appealing she'd make an ideal waifu. The male equivalent is 'husbando material'.

waifuism

Internet

The (semi-serious) practice or mindset of being romantically devoted to a fictional character, treating them as one's waifu or husbando.

wain

General

A child or young person. Common in the north of Ireland and Ulster Scots areas.

wains

General

Children. The plural of 'wain', common in Ulster.

wait, out

General

A procedure word signalling "I must pause for longer than a few seconds" before resuming. Plain 'Wait' indicates a pause of only a few seconds.

waiting on line

General

The distinctively New York way to say you're in a queue — 'on line' rather than 'in line.'

wajang

General

A person associated with crude, ghetto or unruly behaviour. Also wajank.

waka

Street

Means to walk or move around on foot; also used to mean leaving/walking away from somewhere.

wake and bake

Street

To consume cannabis shortly after waking, often before eating or starting the day.

waku waku

Internet

A sound-word conveying a giddy thrill of excitement or eager anticipation, the fluttery 'I can't wait!' feeling.

walahi

Street

An emphatic way of swearing that something is true, similar to "I swear" or "honestly, believe me."

walk

General

To compete at a ball. You walk a category, runway, face, realness, vogue, whatever the night calls, performing it in front of the judges for a trophy, cash and the title. It's the core verb of the whole scene: you don't enter a ball, you walk it. Bring less than your best and you'll get chopped before you reach the end of the floor.

walk good

General

A warm farewell wishing someone a safe journey and wellbeing.

walk-in

General

Room-sized commercial refrigerator. Holds the entire kitchen's protein, dairy, produce, prep. Also the unofficial place cooks go to cool off, hide, cry, or have an honest conversation during a brutal service.

walk-off

General

A hit or play in the bottom of the final inning that immediately wins the game for the home team, who then 'walk off' the field.

walk-on

Internet

A masquerade entry where the cosplayer simply crosses the stage to show off the costume without a rehearsed skit or dialogue.

walkabout

General

A period of wandering; 'gone walkabout' means to have disappeared or wandered off.

walked

General

When a table eats, drinks, and slips out the door before the check lands. In most houses the server eats the bill out of their own tips, which is why a walk-out is treated like a small bereavement.

walkers

General

Ironic — and openly nasty — staff slang for elderly dementia patients with no quality of life, often bed-bound and the opposite of walking. The 'joke' is the gap between the name and the reality. Sits in the same drawer of vocabulary as 'gomer' and 'dyscopia' and gets the same ethics-journal treatment: discouraged, but still in the staff-room.

walkie-talkie

General

A patient who can walk and talk and largely look after themselves — low-acuity and easy to nurse.

walking

General

Walking a category means stepping onto the ballroom floor to compete in a specific judged theme — Face, Body, Realness, Vogue, whatever the call is. You don't 'enter' a ball, you walk it. The verb carries the whole performance: the strut, the presentation, the bid for the trophy in front of the judges and the crowd.