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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Actively aggressing on rivals — sliding through opp territory, shooting, putting in the violent work the genre is named after. This is the sense the music, and the indictments, are built on.

Actively hunting opps — riding through rival territory looking to shoot. The verb form the whole subgenre takes its name from. Not metaphor; the rappers using it usually mean it.

An active gang member or shooter — somebody who actually drills, i.e. puts in the violent work the music is talking about. In NYC drill this is the heaviest sense.

The rap subgenre itself — sparse, sinister beats with sliding 808 basslines, hi-hat triplets, and flat, threatening vocals. Born in Chicago around 2011, mutated hard in South London.

A regional NYC term for being aggravated or sick of something.

The one-word NOLA shorthand for the full po-boy treatment: lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo on top of whatever meat or seafood you ordered. Counter staff will ask 'dressed or undressed?' and if you hesitate you've outed yourself as a tourist.

UK drill for stabbed, with the grim implication of being soaked through with blood. Part of the wet/water family of drill stab metaphors alongside wetting and splashed.

Dreary, bleak, dismal — almost always about weather. That cold drizzly grey day where the sky never quite gets light. Voted Scotland's most iconic Scots word more than once.

Dripping or thoroughly wet. Related noun 'dreep' is a drip.

A Cornish word meaning soon but with no urgency at all, the local equivalent of 'mañana'.

dream job fantasy

The belief that a single 'dream job' exists that will provide complete fulfillment, often criticized as setting workers up for disappointment and overwork in pursuit of an unrealistic ideal.

As a noun, a person with dreadlocks or a fellow Rasta; as an adjective, something serious, heavy or fearsome.

drawing the defense

When a player's drive or threat attracts an extra defender, opening up a teammate.

To draw on a spliff (inhale), or more generally to reach for / pull something.

draped up and dripped out

Fully decked: diamonds on the neck (draped up) and a glossy candy-paint Cadillac under you (dripped out). The Houston version of stunting — the car and the chain count as one outfit. Bun B's 2005 single 'Draped Up' is the canonical reference.

One of the two big stylistic lanes in vogue femme (the other being soft). Dramatics is the high-octane mode: speed, stunts, tricks, hard dips, the whole thing cranked to theatrical. It's about shock and impact, leaving the room gasping. Where soft is graceful flow, dramatics is a fight scene.

A measure or glass of whisky; 'a wee dram' is a small one (though rarely small).

Draking is indulging in emotional behavior like sad drunk-texting or reaching out to former partners in a wistful mood.

An intensely hollow, sucking barrel, often over shallow reef, that appears to 'drain' the water off the bottom as it breaks.

A boring or tedious situation, treated as if it were a place you could be stuck in.

When one component is holding up the plate — usually the long-cook item or the station that got hit hardest. Expo will call it out so everyone else stops sending and waits, or refires to match.

To publicly tear into someone's behaviour or opinion.

To walk off a job for good — collect your tools, get your final check, gone. Heavy in union ironwork, pipefitting, and boilermaker circles. A 'drag-up check' is the cheque you get when you quit (or get run off). Not a layoff, not a firing — you're choosing to leave.

Your guide into the art. A drag mother is a seasoned queen who takes a newer performer under her wing, teaching makeup, performance and survival, and often passing down a shared drag surname. The newcomer is the drag daughter; together they're a drag family. Echoes the 'house mother' structure of ballroom culture.