Slang Dictionary — Modern Slang, Decoded

Flexible armoured cable — insulated conductors wrapped inside a spiralled steel or aluminium jacket that doubles as physical protection and (with the bonding strip) the equipment ground. Old urban housing — especially pre-war New York apartments — is full of it. The trade still calls modern Type AC by the old BX name.

A boy or young man; extremely common in Patois and dancehall, forming compounds like 'rude bwoy' and 'sound bwoy'.

A self-inflating bag with a one-way valve and face mask used to deliver positive-pressure breaths to a patient who is not breathing adequately.

Thrilled, elated or full of excitement. A Mancunian favourite.

A made field goal released just before, and counted at, the sound of the buzzer.

In British slang, also means delighted or thrilled.

The gentle, enjoyable lift felt from consuming marijuana.

Die at the wrong moment and you can dump a chunk of gold to teleport back to life immediately rather than sitting dead for 60-plus seconds. Wins games when you buy back to defend the throne — loses them when you waste it early.

The support or commitment of others—especially decision-makers—for an idea or plan.

A strategy and rallying cry to purchase during a price pullback on the belief the decline is temporary. The vulgar emphatic form is BTFD.

An interactable terminal scattered round the Warzone map where you spend cash earned in-match. Plates, killstreaks, self-revives, loadout drops, even buying back dead teammates — it all happens at the buy station.

A self-aware inversion of investing's golden rule, used ironically to mock the community's habit of buying at tops and panic-selling at bottoms.

Sandwich. From 'buttered bread'. Liverpool and the north live on them — chip butty, bacon butty, jam butty if times are hard. Universal northern noun, but Scousers say it with full conviction.

A pass route in which the receiver runs downfield, then abruptly stops and hooks back toward the quarterback to receive the ball.

A button man is a soldier in a Mafia family, especially one used as a hit man. 'Getting your button' means becoming a made member.

Describes a trick or combination performed so smoothly and effortlessly that it looks flawless. The word evokes the smoothness of butter.

Ugly. Properly unattractive. Brutal little word that does a lot of damage in two syllables. Used about people or, more harshly, faces.

A mean little pun: 'butterface' = 'but her face.' The idea being everything about her looks good but her face. It's crude, it's sexist, and it knows it. Started in Black college and queer slang in the 90s as 'butta face' before bros dragged it mainstream in the 2000s. Urban Dictionary made it Word of the Day in 2009 and people rightly clocked how nasty it is.

A second lieutenant or ensign, named for the single gold bar of the rank insignia. Connotes inexperience.

The freshest officer in the room. A second lieutenant wears a single gold bar that looks like a pat of butter, hence the nickname. Carries the implication that they outrank you on paper but don't know what they're doing yet, so the salty NCOs are quietly running the show.

Mortar, in a bricklayer's mouth — and especially the act of applying it. You 'butter' a brick the way you butter toast: a smooth layer on the end before pressing it into place. Tells you the consistency they're after — spreadable, not soupy, not stiff.

Mate, pal, friend. The standard Valleys form of address — 'alright, butt?' is how you greet anyone from the milkman to your best mate. Has nothing to do with the American 'butt' meaning arse; this one is pure Welsh warmth.

In ballroom, butches are trans men — people who present and live as masculine within the scene's six-part gender system. They're one of the four original gender categories the culture recognised (butch queens, femme queens, butches, women) before the system expanded. Note the scene-specific meaning: this isn't the broader lesbian sense of 'butch' — in ballroom it's a precise gender designation for trans-masculine walkers.

Used for a quick glance or inspection of something.