Slang Dictionary — Modern Slang, Decoded

Slang for lifting heavy weights with apparent ease, tossing loaded plates around like they're light.

In voguing and dance, to hit your moves, dips, and poses with maximum power and commitment.

Intentionally playing badly to lose a match, sometimes out of spite, tilt, or to grief teammates.

Faded — usually off lean (codeine syrup), the way DJ Screw's chopped-and-screwed tapes sound. Slow, leaning, eyes half-mast.

To publicly shift blame onto someone else, betraying them to protect oneself.

Shade is the elegant evolution of reading. You don't tell someone they're ugly — you don't have to, because they already know, and that silence is the insult. Subtle, deniable, devastating. The definitive take comes from Dorian Corey in Paris Is Burning: 'I don't have to tell you because you know you're ugly. And that's shade.' Now everyone from gossip blogs to politicians 'throws shade,' usually with none of the finesse.

The official call of Carnival. You yell it up at the masked riders on the floats and they're supposed to chuck you beads, cups, doubloons, stuffed animals, whatever they've got. Kids learn it before they can spell it. Cheating it with a sign that just says the phrase is a time-honored move.

Playful slang for a workout session, framing it as an event to 'throw down.'

To lose it completely — a tantrum, a sulk, a small adult meltdown. Used right across Britain but stays heavy in Brummie speech. Usually deployed about someone else, never yourself.

To lose a game you were clearly winning because of careless or terrible decisions.

The win condition. Everything — towers, rax, fights — is just clearing the road to the throne. Drop it and the game's over, no comebacks.

A plate of Cincinnati chili over spaghetti topped with shredded cheese; add beans for a four-way, onions too for a five-way.

An offensive series in which the team fails to get a first down in three plays and must punt.

Slang for someone attending hospital chiefly to secure meals ('three hots') and a bed ('a cot') rather than for genuine illness. Abbreviated THC.

Memphis hip-hop group founded by DJ Paul and Juicy J, named because the lineup fluctuated between three and six members after some originals left the early collective (Triple Six Mafia). Won the 2006 Oscar for Best Original Song with 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp'. Patient zero for crunk, phonk, and most of what trap eventually became.

In MMOs and tab-target RPGs, every action generates threat (aggro) on an enemy. Whoever has the most gets attacked. The tank's whole job is keeping threat above everyone else's so the boss never turns on the squishies.

Clothes or an outfit. A long-standing, casual term, sometimes with a vintage flavor.

Obstinate, perverse and unwilling to be persuaded; twisted or crooked in a literal sense too.

A dedicated, hard-charging skater who rides aggressively and lives the culture, an old-school badge of honor. It also lends its name to the long-running skate magazine.

To beat someone soundly — playground threat, pub threat, or just a verbal flex. Also used of sporting hidings: 'we thraped 'em 4-nil'.

A blank, distant stare seen in profoundly fatigued staff or traumatised patients; borrowed from military usage into hospital speech.

An individual or firm regarded as an expert whose opinions shape a subject area.

The characteristic shuffling walk produced by antipsychotic medication (e.g. chlorpromazine/Thorazine) and its side effects.

Rubber sandals held on by a strap between the toes; called flip-flops elsewhere.