Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (103 page)

I'll marmalize you!

marmite-driller
n British

a male homosexual. The term, one of a set of synonyms including
chutney-ferret
,
fudge-nudger
and
turd burglar
, was used, e.g., by the British stand-up comedian Ben Elton in a monologue in January 1994. The reference is to contact with excrement in the course of sodomy.

Marmite motorway
n British

the anus. A synonym is
Bourneville boulevard
; the American equivalent is
Hershey highway
.

marp
n British

an erection. The usage was recorded among middle class adolescent males in 2000.

married alive
adj British

in a steady or long-term relationship. The pun, on ‘buried alive', evokes a person trapped in a sterile partnership. The
phrase was popularised by the UK journalist Julie Burchill.

Marvin
adj British

very hungry, a more recent version of
Hank
, used often by younger speakers who have no idea of the derivation

Marzipan set, the
n British

a
yuppie
coinage, defined by George Pitcher in the
Observer
as ‘Those city flyers who are above the rich cake but below the icing'

mash
¹
, mash-up, mashed(-up)
adj British

1a.
destroyed or damaged

1b.
ugly

2a.
exhausted, worn out

2b.
intoxicated by drugs,
high

‘After secretly munching her pills my mates watched in confusion as I sweated my way through lasers and flame-throwers. I was totally mashed; Christmas had definitely come early.'
(
Independent
, 24 January 1995)

2c.
extremely drunk

‘Let's go and get mash-up.'
(Recorded, Kent schoolgirl, 2003)

All the senses of the words arose in black speech and derive from the image of destruction and damage. In the later 1990s the expression crossed over into the fashionable slang of white teenagers and young adults.

mash
²
n
,
vb British

(to make) tea. From the use of the term in the beer-brewing process.

mash
³
vb British

to have sex (with). A common term from youth slang recorded in West London in 2010.

mash-up
n British

a disaster, mess. From the earlier adjectival usage.

a real total mash-up

mass
n British
a gang or group of friends. A fashionable synonym for
crew
,
set
and
posse
in the mid-1990s. The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

massive
¹
adj

excellent. This sense of the word probably arose from its use in the music and film industries in such formulations as ‘massive hit', extended to ‘this band are going to be massive'.

‘… the sixties were mega, the seventies were major, and what you are going to see now is going to be totally massive!'
(
Scratchy & Co.
, children's TV show, 8 March 1997)

‘We had a really good time. the whole experience was massive.'
(
Celebrity Love Island
contestant,
The Sun
, 21 June 2005)

massive
²
n

a group, clique or gang. The vogue term, heard since the end of the 1990s and popularised by the comedian Ali G among others, may be in origin an elaborated form of
mass
, or influenced by
massive
in the sense of overwhelming, impressive, etc.

Shout goin' out to the Dundee massive.

matelot
n British

a.
a sailor, referred to patronisingly by soldiers, policemen, etc.

b.
a member of the river police, as referred to by other sections of the police force The word
matelot
is French for sailor.

mattress-muncher
n Australian

a (passive) male homosexual. A rarer and probably later version of
pillow-biter
.

maulers
n pl British

hands. A mainly middle-class schoolchildren's usage, popular in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Keep your maulers off my things, will you.

maungy
adj

miserable, grumpy, disaffected

MAW
n American

a glamorous and/or idle woman of uncertain profession. An abbreviation of ‘model, actress, whatever …', it was an ironic social categorisation originating in the later 1980s and heard in show-business and media circles. (It is pronounced as a word rather than letter by letter.)

max
adv

at most, to the maximum extent

I swear he only earns £25k, max.

See also
to the max

mazooma, mazuma
n

money. An American term heard since the early years of the 20th century. Like many other picturesque but dated synonyms it was revived in British speech in the late 1980s. The word is originally Hebrew, entering American slang via Yiddish.

McDonald
n British

the sum of £250 or, more usually, £250,000 in the argot of City of London financial traders in the 1990s. The reference is to the McDonald's ‘quarter-pounder' hamburger.

McJob
n American

a menial and/or temporary job. The term arose in connection with the
slacker
generation/
Generation X
and was based on the notion of educated middle-class youngsters taking temporary jobs at, e.g., McDonald's burger restaurants.

‘People with short attention spans and no work ethic… barely surviving in… low status, short-term McJobs.'
(
Independent
, 24 April 1997)

MCP
n

a sexist man. An abbreviation of ‘male chauvinist pig', a feminist vogue term which appeared in 1970. It was often used in this shortened form both in writing and, less often, in speech. If used, the expression is now usually truncated to ‘chauvinist' or even ‘chauve'.

‘He'd ordered a Heineken from a waitress who was a real throwback, an MCP's delight.'
(
The Serial
, Cyra McFadden, 1976)

mean
adj

wonderful, impressive, excellent. A typical reversal of the standard (American) meaning in black code and later teenage usage, like the more recent
bad
and
wicked
.

meat and two veg
n British

the male genitals. A working-class vulgarism dating from the days when these components constituted the standard British meal, as advertised in cafés, boarding houses, etc. (Veg is short for vegetables and is spoken with a soft ‘g'.) Meat has been a slang synonym for the penis, as well as for human sexuality in general, since at least the 16th century.

meatball
n

a clod or fool; a brawny but unintelligent male. The word may be used as a variation of
meathead
, or less pejoratively to denote an attractive male, a
hunk
(albeit patronisingly).

‘My Swedish Meatball.'
(Title of an American softcore movie)

meathead, meat head
n

a stupid person, dullard. This word was first popularised in the USA. The image evoked is either based on meat signifying solid muscle (instead of brains) or perhaps on the sexual sense of
meat
as the penis, in which case the expression is a precursor of the popular term
dickhead
.

‘A man of patient indulgence, apparently capable of putting up with every bozo and meathead who comes his way.'
(Jonathan Keates reviewing Malcolm Bradbury's
Unsent Letter
,
Observer
, 5 June 1988)

meat injection
n British

an act of sexual intercourse. The vulgar euphemism is invariably used by male speakers.

meat market
n

a place where people congregate in the search for sexual partners; a singles bar. The phrase is usually used dismissively of dance halls, clubs, etc. by non-participants or ex-participants.

meat rack
n

a place where, or occasion when available sexual partners are on display. The phrase is specifically used in a
gay
context to describe public places and events such as bars, discos, parties, etc. at which homosexuals gather.

meat wagon
n

a.
a police van,
black maria

b.
an ambulance

c.
a hearse

All the senses of the phrase were first heard between the world wars.

meff, meffer, meffa
n British

a.
a homeless person, tramp. The pejorative term, originating in Merseyside, is an alteration of ‘meths-drinker', used particularly in the 1950s and 1960s when alcoholic vagrants imbibed methylated spirits.

b.
a worthless, unpleasant person

meffy
adj British

repellent, unpleasant, worthless. The adjective derives from the noun
meff
.

meg
n British

an awkward, unpopular girl

mega
adj

enormous, hugely successful, great, wonderful. A popular teenage buzzword since the mid-1980s, by the end of the decade mega had penetrated adult speech, in particular journalese. In origin it was an adaptation by black American youth of the fashionable late-1970s prefix ‘mega-' into an independent adjective.

This band is going to be mega, mark my words!
We had this real mega thrash.

megabucks
n

an enormous amount of money. An Americanism of the 1970s which is now heard elsewhere, including Britain, where ‘-bucks' remains the suffix although not strictly appropriate. (‘Mega-' was a fashionable prefix of the late 1970s.)

He's making megabucks in the City.

meh
exclamation

an expression of indifference

‘Meh means rubbish. It means boring. It means not worth the effort, who cares, so-so, whatever. It is the allpurpose dismissive shrug of the blogger and messageboarder. And it is ubiquitous.'
(
Guardian
, 5 March 2007)

mellow out
vb

to become relaxed, serene; to free oneself from tension and inhibition. The phrase is a cliché of the
hippy
era, taken from the jargon of jazz and, later, rock musicians. It is still heard, largely in American speech.

melon
n American

the head. The humorous usage featured in the cult 1992 film,
Wayne's World
.

Use your melon, guy!

melon(-head)
n British

a stupid person. The word was recorded in use among younger teenagers in the late 1980s.

melons
n pl

female breasts. An obvious metaphor which exists in other languages, notably Spanish. The word was employed as a nickname by the British tabloid press in 1986 to refer to the supposedly buxom figure of Lady Helen Windsor.

melvin
vb American

to grab by the testicles

‘I don't believe we just melvined death.'
(
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
, US comedy film, 1991)

Melvin
n American

a boring person, nonentity. The Christian name was thought in the 1950s to be quintessentially mundane, personifying a suburban dullard. More recently it has been a term of abuse among college students.

Melvyn (Bragg)
n

1.
a sexual encounter,
shag

2.
a cigarette,
fag