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

When a player stays back near the offensive basket instead of playing defense, hoping for easy transition buckets.

An aerial work platform — a hydraulic boom with a bucket on the end, usually mounted to a truck. Linemen, sign techs, and tree crews ride them up to do work overhead. Name comes from orchard rigs originally built to pick cherries without ladders.

chercha (verb sense)

To joke, tease, or kid around with someone in good fun. Related to the noun 'chercha'.

Lively, aimless chatting or hanging out for fun; joking around and good vibes.

Pronounced 'sha,' it's the Cajun version of 'darling' or 'sweetheart' — used the way other regions use 'honey' or 'baby.' Said to anybody you've got affection for: your wife, your kid, the waitress, the dog. Heard all over south Louisiana, especially in Acadiana parishes.

Spanglish verb meaning to check or verify something.

chem light batteries

A classic snipe-hunt errand: new troops are sent to find batteries for chemical light sticks, which contain no batteries at all.

American slang for the basic metabolic panel of seven blood chemistry values (electrolytes, urea, creatinine, glucose).

To answer back or chatter cheekily, especially of children. Yorkshire/Northern dialect.

From the standard French 'louche' (shady, shifty). Verlan inverts lou-che to che-lou. It means suspicious, sketchy, or dodgy.

Stabbed. The kitchen metaphor doing heavy lifting — a chef chops, so to chef someone is to put a blade in them. Standard issue in NYC drill bars and the wider UK/US drill crossover, where opps don't get shot, they get cooked.

To stab. The image is a chef wielding a knife. Heavily used in UK drill lyrics — one of several MLE words for stabbing that proliferated in the 2010s drill scene.

Mid-tier brigade rank. Owns a single station — sauté, grill, fish, garde manger — and is responsible for everything that leaves it. Reports to the sous, supervises commis cooks under them. The step where a cook stops being a hand and starts being a craftsman.

A person from Wisconsin, especially a Green Bay Packers fan; also the wedge-shaped foam cheese hat worn to games.

cheese-on-bread

A polite minced oath used like 'oh my gosh' or 'good grief'. Iconic to Barbados. Also cheese-and-bread.

cheese and onion

An example of jokey rhyming ward banter; retained only where attested, otherwise skip. (Low-confidence; included cautiously.)

cheese and kisses

Cockney rhyming slang for 'missus', meaning wife or long-term partner. Often shortened to 'cheese'. A staple of old-school East End and pub-talk slang.

An impressive fastball; 'high cheese' or 'high cheddar' refers to a hard fastball up in the zone.

cheers big ears

A jokey thanks. Said with a grin, usually to a mate. The traditional comeback is 'same goes, big nose.'

Used to say thank you, to toast a drink, or to sign off.

A Cornish word for a child, distinct from 'boy'; 'a boy or a cheeld'.

Describing a small, slightly naughty indulgence.

A vivid fastball, derived from the older term 'cheese'; 'high cheddar' is heat up in the zone.

Slang for money received, especially pay.