English dictionary, thesaurus, translations & etymology

Slang Dictionary — Modern Slang, Decoded

What does that word actually mean? Our slang dictionary explains modern slang clearly — Gen Z, internet, British and street slang — with real definitions, examples and where each term came from.

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Gen Z Slangrizz, delulu, slay Internet Slangbrainrot, based, mid British Slangpeng, bare, peak AAVEbussin, finna, cap

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Latest slang terms

roundhouse cutback

A cutback that arcs in a full figure-of-eight, swinging back to the foam and rebounding off it to return to the pocket.

An informal name for the game of basketball, also called b-ball or hoops.

An old-fashioned term for a home run, referring to the batter's complete trip around all the bases.

A queue that drops you into a random matched instance from a pool. You don't pick the duty, you get what you're given, and you cash in the daily bonus for it.

The station chef responsible for roasted, broiled and often grilled meats in Escoffier's brigade system. Runs the roast oven, the spit, the broiler — anything where a protein gets cooked by dry radiant heat. Reports to the sous; often has a grillardin and commis under them on bigger lines.

A soft Indian-origin flatbread, and also the popular meal of curried meat or vegetables wrapped inside it.

A mock eponymous 'sign' for the yellow-brown nicotine staining of a heavy smoker's fingers, named after a cigarette brand.

Stands for "rolling on the floor laughing," an alternate spelling of ROFL that spells out "the." Used to express intense amusement.

A complex, high-maintenance patient deliberately reassigned to different nurses on successive shifts to share the load and prevent burnout.

The enemy commits to A, so the defenders holding B rotate over to help. It's the constant repositioning that keeps a defense flexible: read where the pressure is, move to meet it. Rotate too early and you fall for a fake; too late and the site's gone.

What the rest of the country calls a roundabout or traffic circle. Massachusetts (and parts of the wider Northeast) calls them rotaries — and famously treats them as a vehicular free-for-all where yield signs are merely a suggestion.

A cannabis extract produced by pressing flower or hash under heat and pressure, using no solvents.

A cuppa. The most famous tea-rhyme in the Cockney book, and one of the few that still gets used unironically — 'fancy a Rosie?' will be understood in any London cab. Usually clipped to just 'Rosie'.

Dota 2's powerful neutral monster sat in his own pit. Kill him and a hero grabs the Aegis of the Immortal, which revives them once on death. Teams build whole moves around taking him.

A gentle-sounding code name for the mortuary, used so patients and visitors don't realise what is meant.

A roscoe is a handgun, a jocular hardboiled term popularized by pulp crime fiction.

The moment in a cardiac arrest when the patient's own heart starts pumping again after CPR, defib and drugs. Pronounced 'rosk'. The single word every crew wants to say on a working arrest — it doesn't mean they walk out of hospital, but it means you've got something to hand over. Called over the radio so the receiving ED can prep post-arrest care.

So furious as to need restraining, like a wild animal that must be roped.

The one who loves being on the receiving end of the rope. A rope bunny is a bottom whose thing is bondage itself, the surrender, the stillness, the held tension of being bound. The counterpart to the rigger or rope top who does the tying. Affectionate, scene-standard term; nothing diminishing about it.

Very tired; or of a thing, broken beyond use. (Note: 'root' also has a vulgar sense.)

The fan of snow spray thrown up behind a snowboard when carving or slashing through powder, resembling a rooster's tail. A big rooster tail signals a hard, spirited turn.

A newcomer in their debut season or someone new and green at the top level.

Used wherever English would say hand, including grabbing, holding, and striking.

Brand name (Southwire) for Type NM — non-metallic sheathed cable — that's become the generic word for it, like Kleenex or Hoover. Flat plastic jacket, usually white (14-gauge) or yellow (12-gauge) or orange (10-gauge), with two or three insulated conductors plus a bare ground inside. The default residential wiring in the US and Canada.