Slang Dictionary — Modern Slang, Decoded

The total amount of training work performed, commonly counted as sets, reps, or load lifted.

A sharp, sudden spike in implied volatility, often around a shock event, which rapidly repriced options.

Dropping out of bounds and into the nothingness underneath the level. Sometimes it kills you, sometimes the game catches you and respawns you somewhere useful — which is the whole point when a runner does it on purpose.

A highly stylised dance built from crisp, magazine-cover poses, angular arms, and dramatic lines — like flipping through Vogue at speed. Born in the Black and Latino ballroom scene of Harlem, it's a whole competition category and an art form, with styles from Old Way to New Way to Vogue Fem. Madonna's 1990 hit 'Vogue' borrowed it for the mainstream, but the floor it came from was queer, Black and Latino long before that.

Voguing is a highly stylised dance born in the Harlem ball scene of the 1970s–80s, created by Black and Latino LGBTQ+ performers. It steals from high-fashion poses, runway angles and even ancient Egyptian art, then snaps them into rigid lines, dramatic arm and hand movements, and floor work. Named after Vogue magazine — you're literally throwing the poses from the pages. Madonna borrowed it; the ballroom built it.

Vogue Femme is the most theatrical of the vogue styles, born around the mid-1990s. It's fluidity taken to the extreme — exaggerated, overtly feminine movement pulled from ballet, jazz and modern dance, dramatic and soft and powerful at once. It's organised around five elements (hands, catwalk, duckwalk, spins & dips, and floor performance), and it ranges in feel from soft and graceful all the way to 'dramatics', where the energy turns aggressive and explosive.

Vogue is the dance style born in Harlem's ballroom scene, built on striking magazine-model poses and slicing the air with angular, geometric arm work. The name comes straight from Vogue magazine — walkers mimicked the editorial poses in its pages. It's competitive and confrontational: you vogue against another person and the moves double as shade. It went global after the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning and Madonna's 'Vogue', but the scene built it long before the mainstream noticed.

The subgroup of members who handle the primary vocals and high notes. Often spotlighted in ballads and choruses.

An informal, folksy word for food, especially a home-cooked meal.

Slang for diazepam, a benzodiazepine used for sedation, anxiety or alcohol withdrawal.

Slang for a diuretic such as furosemide, used to offload fluid.

Slang for haloperidol, given to calm severely agitated or psychotic patients — jokingly a 'vitamin' the ward needs.

Fandom shorthand for an idol's appearance or for exceptionally attractive photos/footage; 'the visuals were insane'.

The stunned reaction fans have on first seeing an exceptionally good-looking idol. Often cited as the reason someone fell into a fandom.

A game genre that is largely a digital illustrated story, where the player reads dialogue over character art and backgrounds and makes branching choices that steer the plot. Many anime are adapted from popular visual novels.

The subgroup of members regarded as the best-looking, extending the 'visual' role to several people. A common fan classification.

Used as an adjective-style compliment meaning strikingly good-looking.

A vogue category reserved for beginners, performers who've been walking for a year or less, or never competed at all. It levels the floor so first-timers aren't thrown against veterans, a protected lane to learn, build nerve and earn your stripes in the scene.

Clinical slang for an abdomen with no previous surgery and therefore no adhesions — relevant before operating.

1920s-40s slang for a habitual cannabis smoker, especially among jazz musicians.

Crew humour: the regular 'Very Important Person' reskinned as 'Very Intoxicated Person'. Used between EMTs and at handover to flag a patient who is, medically speaking, just absolutely hammered. Lets you brief the next crew or the triage nurse with a straight face.

The vig (short for vigorish) is the interest a loan shark charges or the percentage a bookmaker takes on bets. Failure to pay the vig invites violence.

The French Quarter, by its proper name. French for 'old square' — the original colonial grid laid out in 1718, bounded by Canal, Rampart, Esplanade and the river. Tourists say French Quarter; old-line locals, the preservation society, and anyone wanting to sound like they belong say Vieux Carré (pronounced roughly 'voo car-AY').

Informal term for one's girlfriend or wife (and sometimes mother); 'viejo' for the male partner.