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

The South Walian word for grandfather, paired with 'mamgu'. Now recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.

A zoot suit — the iconic Pachuco fit with the long jacket, wide shoulders, baggy pegged trousers and a watch chain swinging to the knee.

The Welsh-spelled form of taxi, an example of how English loanwords are respelled in Welsh.

'Tactical Air Control Party' — the ground-based team, typically attached to a maneuver unit, that advises on and directs close air support, often including JTACs.

To crash by folding around an obstacle such as a rail or box, wrapping the body over it like a folded taco. In cycling it can also mean bending a wheel into a taco shape.

A pit mound — the spoil heap of waste rock and clay tipped out of a coal mine. 'Tocky' is the rocky muck from the shaft, 'bonk' is a bank. Stick them together and you get the lumpy black hills that still finger the Black Country landscape long after the pits closed.

A person's possessions, gear or bits and pieces.

tackle for a loss

A tackle that stops the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage, resulting in negative yardage for the offense.

A jump that is level or flat across its whole top, so the takeoff and landing are joined by a flat span rather than a gap. Coming up short lands safely on the flat table instead of in a hole.

A single complete cycle on a table: sat, ordered, fed, paid, cleared, reset. Restaurants measure a night in turns — two turns on a Tuesday is fine, four on a Saturday is the difference between rent and ruin.

The basic features or requirements you must have just to be in the game.

An air trick where the rider pushes the bike into a flat, tabletop position sideways in the air and then brings it level again to land. It is one of the most stylish, photogenic airs.

A state of depression and longing after being left or cheated on by a loved one. To 'have a tabanca' is to be pining.

Goodbye, see you later. The everyday Liverpool sign-off — said at the door, at the end of a phone call, after a chat at the bus stop. Often stretched to 'ta-ra a bit' for 'see you in a bit'.

Tijuana, the Mexican border city just south of San Diego.

Initialism for Trinity Gardens, a historic Black neighbourhood on Houston's north-east side near the Fifth Ward. Tight-knit, deep roots, plenty of rap pedigree.

A mocking term for small, undertrained arms, likening them to the tiny forelimbs of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Mama, in Dallas. Used affectionately for your mother, grandmother, or whichever woman did the raising. Outsiders hear it and assume it's a person's name; Dallas natives clock you instantly when you use it right.

A deliberate period of abstaining from cannabis to lower one's tolerance so it hits harder again.

The working uniform in any club where full nude isn't allowed. A thong cut so the back strap forms a T shape at the waistband. Covers the legal minimum, shows the legal maximum. In some US states the law literally requires dancers to wear one.

Charting shorthand for a seizure, a burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain.

A wig or hairpiece. 'Syrup of figs' rhymes with 'wig', and is clipped to 'syrup', dropping the rhyme.

To pull together information from multiple sources into a unified whole.

The combined value or benefit that results from cooperation between departments, teams, or entities being greater than the sum of their parts. It has become the poster child of empty corporate jargon.