Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (108 page)

munchies, the
n

hunger, especially a craving for food brought on by the lowering of blood-sugar levels that is a well-known side-effect of smoking cannabis. The word was a children's synonym for snacks which was adopted by
hippy
-era smokers of hashish and marihuana.

‘Those smug, stupid hippies, who thought it so cool to be comatose called that post-smoke famished feeling “the munchies”, and for once they were right.'
(
Platinum Logic
, Tony Parsons, 1981)

munchkin
n

a cute small child, a dwarf, underling. An American expression taken from the name of the little people in the musical,
The Wizard of Oz
; the word is used affectionately or condescendingly. (A low-level munchkin is an employee near or at the bottom of a hierarchy.)

mung
n

dirt, muck. A term that encompasses everything filthy or distasteful, used particularly by teenagers or students since the late 1970s.

munged
adj South African

intoxicated by drink or drugs

munt
n South African

a black person. A highly offensive term used by white racists. The word is Afrikaans slang deriving from the Bantu
umuntu
, meaning a person.

munter
n British

defined in 2001 as ‘someone who looks disgusting and smells', the term has been in vogue among adolescents and young adults since 2000

muntered
adj British

drunk. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

munting toad
n British

a very ugly or unattractive female. The phrase is an elaboration of the more widespread
munter
.

muppet
n British

a retarded, incapacitated or grotesque person. A word usually used with none of the affection or humour that its innocent source (the American TV puppet show of the 1970s) might suggest. The term has been applied to hospital inmates, mentally deranged prisoners or simply to unattractive teenagers by their peers. According to a UK student in 2002: ‘When many muppets are gathered in one place, the expanded phrases
The Muppet Show
or
Muppets Take Manhattan
may be used.'

muppet-shuffle
n British

a reallocation of roles in an organisation so that under- or non-performing colleagues are moved into positions where they can do less or no harm

murder it
vb British

1.
to ruin

That wafty DJ murdered it. He cleared the dancefloor like a fire alarm.

2.
to carry out or perform successfully

That DJ is a don. He murdered it! The dancefloor was heavin'!

The phrase, in both senses, formed part of ‘Lamby's lingo', the slang promoted by BBC 6 Music radio presenter George Lamb in 2009.

murk, merk
vb

to kill, defeat, attack, confound, humiliate. A key component of
hip hop
, gang and youth slang, originating in the USA but widely used in the UK, the true origin of the term is unclear. It may be an alteration of murder; some have claimed that is an abbreviation of mercenary.

murphies
n pl American

female breasts. The word ‘murphy' is adapted from its use (since the 19th century) as a nickname for a potato.

murphy
¹
, the murphy
n

1.
British
a potato. The Irish surname has been used as a joky synonym since the early 19th century.

2. the murphy
American
a confidence trick whereby valuables lodged for safekeeping are stolen or substituted by worthless goods

murphy
²
vb American

to subject (someone) to
the murphy
(a term denoting various forms of a simple confidence trick)

mush, moosh
n British

1.
the face. A word which has been in use since the 19th century, when it often referred specifically to the mouth. Mush is nearly always used in connection with fisticuffs and may have originated as pugilists' slang. The precise etymology of the word is uncertain, but it has obvious connotations of softness and mastication.

2a.
an allpurpose term of address to a stranger (invariably used by men to other men). A working-class, mainly London, usage which was common in the 1950s and 1960s but is now rarely used. The word is not particularly friendly and is quite
often used provocatively. It comes from the Romany word for man,
moosh
.

‘I suggest you buy better shirts in future.
Are you asking for a punch up the faghole, mush?'
(
Hancock's Half Hour
, BBC TV comedy, 6 November 1959)

2b.
a man, unnamed person. The derivation for this usage is as for the previous sense. The word has rarely been used thus (rather than as a term of address) since the 1950s.

muso
n

a.
a musician, player of rock music with real technical expertise

b.
a rock or progressive music fan who displays a pedantic or obsessive interest in his or her favourite music and/or musicians

mutant
n

a clumsy, foolish or otherwise unpopular individual. A term used by adolescents to refer to unpopular or despised fellow-students or other contemporaries. The same word is used with the opposite connotations in the form
mutie
.

muthah
n

an alternative spelling of
mother
(in its slang or euphemistic sense), particularly used by fans of heavy metal music to refer appreciatively to each other or their heroes

mutie
n British

a daring exponent, devotee. A word used by skateboarders and some surfers and rock-music fans to refer to themselves and their fellows. The word is a diminutive form of
mutant
which itself is usually employed with negative connotations.

mutt
n

an ugly or unattractive female. The term, originally denoting a dog, has been popular among younger speakers since 2000.

mutton, Mutt 'n' Jeff
adj British

deaf
. Rhyming slang, from the cartoon figures created by Bud Fischer, which were popular before World War II. The slang expression has been heard in London from the late 1940s to the present day. It was spread further afield by its use by the character of Albert in the popular 1960s television comedy series
Steptoe and Son
.

‘I'm sorry, love, you'll have to speak up.
I'm a bit mutton in my old age.'
(Recorded, London, 1988)

mutton dagger
n

the penis. A joky euphemism on the lines of
pork sword
and
beef bayonet
.

muttonhead
n

a variation of
meathead

mutt's nuts, the
n
,
adj

(something) excellent. In playground and student usage since 2000. Like
the dog's dangly bits
it is a version of the earlier
the dog's bollocks
.

Dave's new stereo is the mutt's nuts.

mwah
exclamation

an imitation of a kissing sound, originally often suggesting insincerity or affectation, now often sincere affection and sometimes written down, as in e.g. closing a text message

my bad!
exclamation American See
bad
²

mystery
n British

a runaway person, vulnerable minor. A term from the language of pimps, paedophiles, the homeless and police, referring to someone of uncertain origin or identity.

mystery bags
n pl Australian

sausages. The term is influenced by the name of a children's lucky dip sweet packet and is both a rhyming-slang term for
snags
(another slang term for sausages) and an ironic comment on the dubious contents of some sausages.

‘What's for dinner?
Mystery bags… snags… sausages.'
(
Razorback
, Australian film, 1984)

nabe
n American

a.
a neighbourhood

A new guy in the nabe.

b.
a neighbour

The nabes are acting up again.

A shortening of the sort popularised by
Variety
magazine and perpetuated in teenage speech. (
Mersh
and
the burbs
are other examples of this trend which enjoyed a particular vogue in the late 1980s.)

nack
vb British See
knack

NAD
adj British

‘not actually done' in medical shorthand, e.g. as added facetiously to a patient's notes

nada
n

nothing. The Spanish word is used in English slang, especially in the USA.

nadgered
adj British

a middle-class alternative of
knackered
in all its senses

‘By the time I got home I was feeling pretty nadgered.'
(Recorded, 15-year-old boy, Horsham, England, October 1995)

nadgers
n pl British

1.
the testicles. The word was probably used in this sense merely due to the resemblance to
knackers
. It has not been widely used since the 1960s.

a kick in the nadgers

2. the nadgers
a state of nervous agitation, irritation, distress or unhealthiness, as in such phrases as ‘he's got the nadgers' or ‘it gives me the nadgers'. The word could also be used to describe a curse or jinx in the same way as
mockers
. This humorous nonsense term of the 1950s (popularised in broadcast comedies such as
Hancock's Half Hour
) is now virtually obsolete.

nads
n pl American

the testicles. An abbreviated form of ‘gonads' used jocularly by teenagers since the 1980s.

naff
adj

tasteless, inferior, shoddy and unap-pealing. Naff had existed in working-class slang for at least 40 years by the time it became a vogue word in the later 1970s. It had been used in the jargon of prostitutes to mean nothing or negligible. In the theatrical, criminal and street-trading milieus it meant third-rate or poor quality. The word's sudden popularity occurred probably because it was seized upon by TV scriptwriters (particularly Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais in the comedy series
Porridge
) as an acceptable euphemism for
fuck
in such forms as ‘naff-all' (meaning
fuck-all
),
naffing
and
naff off
. Naff's ultimate origin, which seems to be 19th century, is nonetheless obscure. It has been claimed that it is a
backslang
form of
fan(ny)
(in the sense of female sex organs) or an acronym or alteration of a phrase involving the word fuck (such as ‘not a fucking fart' or similar). Neither etymology is attested (or particularly convincing), and the similarity to NAAFI is probably coincidental.

‘To be naff is to be unstylish, whatever that may mean.'
(
The Complete Naff Guide
, Bryson
et al
., 1983)

naffing
adj British

an allpurpose intensifying adjective used as a euphemism for
fucking

naff off
vb British

to leave, go away. The expression is usually in the form of a dismissive exclamation or instruction synonymous with
fuck off
. First used in the TV series
Porridge
in the mid-1970s, the phrase was given great prominence in 1982 when Princess Anne told reporters who were pestering her to naff off.

nag
n

a horse. The well-known term is used particularly by horse-racing enthusiasts. It was first recorded in 1400 when it was paralleled by the Dutch
negge
, meaning a small horse.

nagwan
exclamation British

a negative response to the query
w(h)agwan?

‘Nagwan's in reply to Wagwan, and means nothing is going on.'
(Posting on the ‘gangsta' website in 2005)

nail (someone)
vb

to identify, catch, punish or defeat (or any combination of these). This common term, which can now also by extension (and by analogy with
screw
) refer to the sexual conquest of a woman by a male, has been heard since at least the 18th century.

nailed-up
adj British

arrested, imprisoned. An item of police and underworld slang.

‘I used to shift cars, but I'm telling you that there's more money and less hassle in this. I don't know anyone who's been nailed-up for shifting spares.'
(Car thief, quoted in the
AA Magazine
, 1995)

namby
n British

1.
a weak, cowardly person, a
wimp
. A schoolchildren's word of the late 1980s which is a shortening of the standard English adjective ‘namby-pamby'.