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

Describing an inmate covered in tattoos.

An informal or secondary reporting relationship where someone influences but doesn't directly manage another.

Lacking sense; behaving in a doltish or absent-minded way. Also spelt dottish.

An effect you slap on a target that drains their health in repeated ticks instead of one big hit. Stack a few and the enemy melts while you do something else.

A lazy article. A work-dodger, a class-mitcher, someone who treats effort as optional. 'Dossing' = skiving, messing about instead of getting on with it.

To sleep, especially rough or in any spot you can grab — 'doss down' on a camp cot, in the back of the wagon, on the floor of the NAAFI. A 'doss bag' is a sleeping bag.

A person who's hard work. Whinging, draining, exhausting to be around — you've caught a 'dose' of them. Affectionate when it's family, cutting when it's not.

The exaggerated, drawled accent of well-off South Dublin — 'DART' (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) comes out as 'Dort', which is where the name comes from. Flattened vowels, upward inflections, lots of 'roysh' for 'right'. Mocked relentlessly by everyone outside D4 and immortalised by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly.

Excellent, outstanding, or of the highest quality, used as strong praise.

The noise made by the trumpet-playing skeleton meme — usually written as 'doot doot' in the caption. Comes from the 2010 webcomic 'Calcium' and exploded around Halloween 2016, becoming Reddit's annual October mascot. Now used as a general spooky-season greeting and to summon spooktober energy.

A sliding glass door — the big patio kind that's basically a wall of glass. Almost no one outside Michigan uses this word; cross the border into Ohio or Indiana and you'll get blank stares. Believed to come from a mid-century trade name a Michigan manufacturer slapped on the product.

Someone from Dumfries; also a nickname for the town's football fans.

doon aboot the moo

Depressed, glum, miserable. Literally 'down about the mouth' — the look of someone whose face has properly dropped. The Scots equivalent of 'down in the mouth' but with more weight to it.

Going all-in on negativity, doom, and hopelessness, sometimes as a whole mindset or identity. It plays on the "-maxxing" suffix, framing pessimism as something you maximize.

A wojak archetype in a black beanie, hoodie and cigarette — staring into the void. Represents the burnt-out 20-something who thinks society's cooked and there's no point. Used as both reaction image and self-identification.

To dip or plunge into water; a 'dook' can be a swim or a dip, as in the New Year 'Loony Dook'.

An informal, friendly term for a cannabis cigarette.

A shortened, casual term for a doobie or joint.

A pigeon or dove; 'doocot' is a dovecote.

A conversational tag appended to statements for emphasis and to invite agreement, delivered in the classic Upper Midwest accent.

ER and trauma-team nickname for a motorcycle. The grim joke: bikers crash, bikers die young and healthy, and their organs end up on ice for transplant. Trauma surgeons use it without flinching — gallows humour is the job.

A man or guy, often used dismissively for 'that guy'.

Hands. Pure Brummie nursery-talk, used by parents at every Birmingham dinner table since forever. "Give us yer donnie" = hold my hand. "Wash yer donnies" = before you touch that sandwich.

A wander. An aimless, easy walk — round the block, along the front, through the park. Not exercise, not a commute. The whole point is the dawdle. Also used as a verb: to donner.