Slang Dictionary — Modern Slang, Decoded

A box man is a professional safe-breaker, 'box' being slang for a safe. It was a respected specialty within organized theft.

To slap or punch someone, especially in the face.

A mocking term for skinny, undertrained legs that look like bowling pins beneath a much larger torso.

To come around casually to someone's place for a visit.

The rounded chamber of a pipe or bong that holds the cannabis, and by extension a single packed serving.

To belch or burp — and at the heavier end, to retch or come close to throwing up. The sound is in the word.

The bells of St Mary-le-Bow church in Cheapside; traditionally, a true Cockney must be born within earshot of them.

A 'bousing ken' — the alehouse or drinking-den where the canting crew gathered.

Personal limits you communicate to protect your time, energy, or emotional space.

ED slang for a patient who gets discharged and then reappears within 72 hours with the same complaint. Sometimes it's the patient not coping at home, sometimes it's a missed diagnosis the first time round, which is why bouncebacks get audited.

A New Orleans hip-hop subgenre defined by the Triggerman and Brown Beat loops, MC call-and-response chants, ward shout-outs, and relentless ass-shaking energy. Born in the housing projects in the late 80s / early 90s, it stayed regional for decades before bleeding into mainstream pop via Big Freedia, Drake's 'Nice For What', and Beyoncé's 'Formation'.

Slang for large, rounded, well-built shoulder muscles (deltoids).

Large, round, well-developed shoulders that look like boulders sitting on top of the arms.

To be killed. Originally aviation slang for a fatal crash, the 'farm' being the cemetery plot; extended to any killed-in-action service member.

The first turn made at the bottom of a wave after the drop, redirecting the surfer back up the face and setting up everything that follows.

The Bottom is on the receiving end — taking the sensation, the restraint, the impact the Top delivers. Like Top, it's a physical role rather than a psychological one. Bottoming isn't the same as being submissive; a Bottom can be calling every shot while taking the action. Plenty of power lives at the bottom.

To collapse under pressure and blow a lead or a title that looked secure.

A shop licensed to sell packaged alcohol to take away.

A shop selling takeaway alcohol; shortened to 'bottle-o'.

Used as a flex symbol for spending big money on a night out.

Used to praise nerve or to mock cowardice depending on the phrasing.

A driver of a shared, fixed-route taxi (often an almendrón).

A lift or ride; 'coger botella' / 'ir en botella' is to hitch a ride, often flagging cars at intersections.

A 19th- and early-20th-century term for two unmarried women sharing a home and a life, financially independent of any man. Some were romantic, some weren't — the phrase let polite society leave that unspoken. It got its name from Henry James's 1886 novel The Bostonians, which centers on exactly this kind of arrangement, though James never used the words himself. His own sister Alice lived one. Common among suffragists and the early college-educated set.