Library / English Dictionary

SLANG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)

Example:

they don't speak our lingo

Synonyms:

argot; cant; jargon; lingo; patois; slang; vernacular

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("slang" is a kind of...):

non-standard speech (speech that differs from the usual accepted, easily recognizable speech of native adult members of a speech community)

Domain member usage:

juice (energetic vitality)

skinful (a quantity of alcoholic drink sufficient to make you drunk)

key (a kilogram of a narcotic drug)

big bucks; big money; bundle; megabucks; pile (a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit))

juice (electric current)

wog ((offensive British slang) term used by the British to refer to people of color from Africa or Asia)

tripper ((slang) someone who has taken a psychedelic drug and is undergoing hallucinations)

suit ((slang) a businessman dressed in a business suit)

squeeze ((slang) a person's girlfriend or boyfriend)

schlockmeister; shlockmeister ((slang) a merchant who deals in shoddy or inferior merchandise)

out-and-outer (someone who is excellent at something)

old man ((slang) boss)

guvnor ((British slang) boss)

good egg ((old-fashioned slang) a good person)

butch; dike; dyke ((slang) offensive term for a lesbian who is noticeably masculine)

boffin ((British slang) a scientist or technician engaged in military research)

bad egg ((old-fashioned slang) a bad person)

airhead (a flighty scatterbrained simpleton)

Boche; Hun; Jerry; Kraut; Krauthead (offensive term for a person of German descent)

drop-dead (extremely)

clean; plum; plumb (completely; used as intensifiers)

slam-bang (violent and sudden and noisy)

pint-size; pint-sized; runty; sawed-off; sawn-off (well below average height)

bolshy; stroppy (obstreperous)

mean (excellent)

some (remarkable)

grotty (very unpleasant or offensive)

butch ((of male or female homosexuals) characterized by stereotypically male traits or appearance)

uncool ((spoken slang) unfashionable and boring)

freaky (strange and somewhat frightening)

can-do (marked by a willingness to tackle a job and get it done)

besotted; blind drunk; blotto; cockeyed; crocked; fuddled; loaded; pie-eyed; pissed; pixilated; plastered; slopped; sloshed; smashed; soaked; soused; sozzled; squiffy; stiff; tight; wet (very drunk)

square; straight (rigidly conventional or old-fashioned)

bunk off; play hooky (play truant from work or school)

chuck; ditch (throw away)

hoof (dance in a professional capacity)

feel (pass one's hands over the sexual organs of)

buy it; pip out (be killed or die)

give (occur)

bitch (an unpleasant difficulty)

heebie-jeebies; jitters; screaming meemies (extreme nervousness)

the shits; the trots (obscene terms for diarrhea)

arse; arsehole; asshole; bunghole (vulgar slang for anus)

soup-strainer; toothbrush (slang for a mustache)

legs (staying power)

cert (an absolute certainty)

dreck; schlock; shlock (merchandise that is shoddy or inferior)

nick ((British slang) a prison)

Mickey Finn (slang term for knockout drops)

gat; rod (a gangster's pistol)

deck (street name for a packet of illegal drugs)

caff (informal British term for a cafe)

shakedown (a very thorough search of a person or a place)

square-bashing (drill on a barracks square)

dekko (British slang for a look)

hand job; jacking off; jerking off; wank (slang for masturbation)

blowjob; cock sucking (slang for fellatio)

ass; fuck; fucking; nookie; nooky; piece of ass; piece of tail; roll in the hay; screw; screwing; shag; shtup (slang for sexual intercourse)

power trip ((slang) a self-aggrandizing action undertaken simply for the pleasure of exercising control over other people)

shakedown (extortion of money (as by blackmail))

heist; rip-off (the act of stealing)

swiz (British slang for a swindle)

bite (a portion removed from the whole)

spic; spick; spik ((ethnic slur) offensive term for persons of Latin American descent)

Jap; Nip ((offensive slang) offensive term for a person of Japanese descent)

dago; ginzo; greaseball; Guinea; wop ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Italian descent)

Chinaman; chink ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Chinese descent)

hymie; kike; sheeny; yid ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a Jew)

Injun; red man; Redskin ((slang) offensive term for Native Americans)

honkey; honkie; honky; whitey ((slang) offensive names for a White man)

poor white trash; white trash ((slang) an offensive term for White people who are impoverished)

'hood; hood ((slang) a neighborhood)

nosh-up (a large satisfying meal)

burnup (a high-speed motorcycle race on a public road)

bun-fight; bunfight ((Briticism) a grand formal party on an important occasion)

dibs (a claim of rights)

skin flick (a pornographic movie)

applesauce; codswallop; folderol; rubbish; trash; tripe; trumpery; wish-wash (nonsensical talk or writing)

baloney; bilgewater; boloney; bosh; drool; humbug; taradiddle; tarradiddle; tommyrot; tosh; twaddle (pretentious or silly talk or writing)

hooey; poppycock; stuff; stuff and nonsense (senseless talk)

corker ((dated slang) a remarkable or excellent thing or person)

niff; pong (an unpleasant smell)

bay window; corporation; pot; potbelly; tummy (slang for a paunch)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "slang"):

street name (slang for something (especially for an illegal drug))

rhyming slang (slang that replaces words with rhyming words or expressions and then typically omits the rhyming component)

Derivation:

slang (use slang or vulgar language)

slangy (constituting or expressed in slang or given to the use of slang)

Domain member usage:

baddie (the principal bad character in a film or work of fiction)

bennie (a form of amphetamine)

cat (a large tracked vehicle that is propelled by two endless metal belts; frequently used for moving earth in construction and farm work)

stiff (the dead body of a human being)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Informal language consisting of words and expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions; often vituperative or vulgar

Example:

their speech was full of slang expressions

Synonyms:

slang; slang expression; slang term

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("slang" is a kind of...):

non-standard speech (speech that differs from the usual accepted, easily recognizable speech of native adult members of a speech community)

Derivation:

slang (abuse with coarse language)

slang (use slang or vulgar language)

slangy (constituting or expressed in slang or given to the use of slang)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Abuse with coarse language

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "slang" is one way to...):

abuse; blackguard; clapperclaw; shout (use foul or abusive language towards)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

slang (informal language consisting of words and expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions; often vituperative or vulgar)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fool or hoax

Example:

You can't fool me!

Synonyms:

befool; cod; dupe; fool; gull; put on; put one across; put one over; slang; take in

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "slang" is one way to...):

betray; deceive; lead astray (cause someone to believe an untruth)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "slang"):

kid; pull the leg of (tell false information to for fun)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Use slang or vulgar language

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "slang" is one way to...):

speak; talk (use language)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

slang (a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves))

slang (informal language consisting of words and expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions; often vituperative or vulgar)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I do not know myself if I shall ever speak slang; I do not know if Arthur likes it, as I have never heard him use any as yet.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Your scientific slang is beyond me.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I see a young lady who pins her collar straight, laces her boots neatly, and neither whistles, talks slang, nor lies on the rug as she used to do.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I must tell you beforehand that Mr. Morris doesn't always speak slang—that is to say, he never does so to strangers or before them, for he is really well educated and has exquisite manners—but he found out that it amused me to hear him talk American slang, and whenever I was present, and there was no one to be shocked, he said such funny things.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"I imagine it's the philosophic slang that bothers you," was all he could say.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Jo does use such slang words!" observed Amy, with a reproving look at the long figure stretched on the rug.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"Oh, booze," he laughed. "It's slang. It means whiskey an' beer—anything that will make you drunk."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Being only 'a glorious human boy', of course he frolicked and flirted, grew dandified, aquatic, sentimental, or gymnastic, as college fashions ordained, hazed and was hazed, talked slang, and more than once came perilously near suspension and expulsion.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Ruth misunderstood his slang, and reverted to cigarettes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Don't say 'make good,'" she cried, sweetly petulant. "It's slang, and it's horrid."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)