Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (129 page)

respect
n American

an allpurpose exclamation of greeting and acknowledgment and an essential concept in peer-group relationships. ‘Respect' was a key term from the rituals of street-based black subcultures of the late 1970s and early 1980s when it was adopted in the UK, too.

He didn't give me no respect.

See also
touch-respect

resting bitch face
American See
RBF

result, a result
n British

a.
an outcome in one's favour, what is due, a good result. The term originated in football jargon where to ‘get a result' means not to lose. Since 2000 it has often been used as an exclamation of delight, surprise and/or triumph.

‘He owes me money. He's not ill – it's just a ploy to stop me getting a result!'
(
Minder
, British TV series, 1982)

b.
an arrest and/or conviction. A specialised use of the above sense among members of the police force.

retard
n

a term of abuse among schoolchildren in the UK and the USA (where it is more fashionably shortened to
tard
) since the 1970s

retarded
adj American

tedious, disappointing, of poor quality. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000. It is a synonym of
lame
.
Tardy
is a more recent variant form.

retrosexual
n

a man who is unconcerned with his appearance; a slovenly male. The jocular social categorisation was invented in 2004 on the lines of the earlier
metrosexual
.
See also
contrasexual

retro-slang
n See
granny slang

rettes
n pl American

cigarettes. A shortening fashionable among
preppies
in the late 1970s.

revved
adj American

excited. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

By the time the band came on everyone was totally revved.

rhino
n British

money. A raffish term which seemed obsolescent until its revival, along with synonyms such as
pelf
,
dosh
,
moolah
, etc., during the glamorising of finance and commerce in the mid-1980s. The word has had this meaning since the end of the 17th century, perhaps because of the value of the (supposedly aphrodisiac) rhinoceros horn or simply because the animal was at that time a fabulous symbol of wealth and exoticism.

rhubarb
n British

meaningless babble, nonsense, empty talk. The theatrical term for background mumbling or hubbub has been adopted by London working-class users as a
contemptuous or dismissive term for rubbish of all sorts.

He gave me a load of old rhubarb.

riah, riach
n British

hair, head of hair. One of the few instances of
backslang
to escape from a very restricted milieu. The word, usually pronounced to rhyme with ‘fire', was used in the 1950s and early 1960s by actors, dressmakers, hairdressers, etc.

Richard
n British

a third-class university degree. Like
Desmond
,
Pattie
,
Taiwan
and
made-in
, it is a student witticism, based on ‘Richard the Third'. A
Douglas
(Hurd) is a more recent and fashionable version.

Richard (Gere)
n British

(a glass of)
beer
. An item of rhyming slang using the name of the Hollywood star, heard amongst students from the early 1990s.

Richard the Third
n British

1a.
a
bird
(in the literal sense or as slang for a woman)

1b.
a
turd
The phrase has two senses in cockney rhyming slang; the first is now dated whereas the second achieved limited currency among non-cockneys in the 1970s and 1980s.

2.
the longer (rarely used) form of a
Richard

Ricky
n American

a foolish, unfortunate and/or unpleasant male. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000. The original reference is uncertain.

riddle
n See
Jimmy Riddle

ride
¹
vb

to copulate (with). A metaphorical usage which has been in evidence since at least the 16th century, when it was a standard synonym or euphemism in the same way as ‘mount'. Ride is still heard in this sexual sense, albeit rarely, whereas the noun form is still fairly widespread.

ride
²
n

1.
an act of sexual intercourse or a sex partner. This is a later derivation of the (now less common) verb form of the word.

2.
a car. This sense of the word probably originated in US usage.

‘His most “ghetto fabulous” ride is his GM van in New York.'
(
Sunday Times
, 6 June 2004)

ride one's bang
vb British

to serve one's prison sentence, ‘do one's time'. The phrase was recorded at Winchester Prison by the English Project in October 2010.

ride someone's ass
vb American

to nag, harass. The phrase is a pun on ‘ass' as a donkey, as well as evoking an image of driving or urging from behind.

Quit riding his ass over this, will you?

ride the baloney-pony
vb

a.
to have sex (with)

b.
(of a male) to masturbate. This adolescent witticism is inspired by the American name for the Bologna sausage.

ride the porcelain Honda/bus
vb American

to suffer from diarrhoea, sit on the toilet. A
preppie
witticism on the pattern of
kiss the porcelain god
(to vomit).

ridic, redic
adj British

ridiculous. The shortening is typically used online or in conversation by teenagers.

ridiculous
adj British

drunk. The term is particularly heard in Glaswegian speech.
Miraculous
is a synonym.

Ridneck, rid nek
n
,
adj British

(someone who is) embarrassed, mortified. The term, from the notion of blushing with shame, was used as shorthand for an admission of discomfort by teenagers on social networking sites in the noughties decade.

He's such a ridneck.
Getting found out was a rid nek.
The rents saw what I wrote about Leah. Ridneck!

ridonkulous
adj American

outrageous, absurd. A jocular alteration of ridiculous used by hip hop aficionados and students, among others.

riffed
¹
adj American

intoxicated by drugs or alcohol. The word ‘riff' has had several slang senses, but it is not clear which, if any, gave rise to this usage.

riffed
²
, rifted
adj British

arrested. A term from street-gang slang, recorded in 2013.

riffing
n American

behaving in a provocative or obstreperous manner. The term, heard in black slang of the 1990s, covers a number of meanings related to the earlier use of the word ‘riff' in
jive talk
, including provoking, complaining and boasting, but the logic of the connection is unclear.

riff-raff
n

a ‘street-smart' individual. Often appreciative, e.g. in the parlance of British Asian youth.

rift
¹
n See
get a rift/rush/hustle on

rift
²
vb British

(to emit) a belch. The term, which imitates the sound of the eructation, is heard particularly in the Scottish Lowlands and the north of England.

rig
n American

1.
the male sex organs. A word used, especially by women, in the
hippy
era, although the word is older.

‘I got this cute little pendant in the form of a flying rig.'
(
Groupies
, US film, 1973)

2.
a truck, large van or bus

3.
a heroin user's syringe, ligature, etc.

‘I remember saying to the guy I was with “Don't fill the rig up. Don't put too much coke in it.”'
(
Q
magazine, March 1997)

righteous
adj American

a.
good, admirable

A righteous dude.

b.
large or excessive

A righteous mess.

Both senses are originally black adaptations of the standard English term, influenced by religious jargon. The terms are now also used, sometimes ironically, by white speakers.

right-on
adj American

admirable, thoroughgoing, authentic. A term of approval from the late 1970s which derives from ‘right on!', the 1960s exclamation of enthusiasm, support, agreement or solidarity (itself originally from black American speech). The phrase is increasingly used ironically to mean
gung-ho
or self-righteous.

a right-on guy
She was right-on.

rigid
adj

drunk. The term often (but not necessarily) refers to someone helplessly drunk.

rim
vb

a.
to lick the anus as part of sexual stimulation

b.
to sodomise

rimmer
n British

a despicable and/or obnoxious person. An allpurpose playground insult, probably from the more specific senses of
rim
. This usage was reinforced by the fact that an unlikeable character in the cult TV comedy
Red Dwarf
was given the name.

ring
n

the anus. A common vulgarism in all English-speaking communities. The word has also occasionally been used for the vagina.

ringburner
n British

a hot curry, or the condition following its digestion and excretion. An expression used typically among males for whom a hot curry is a test of
machismo
and/or a natural adjunct to drinking. (The ring in question is the anus and the word is a pun on a designation of a stove or cooking hob.)

ringer
n

1a.
something such as a stolen or defective car, a racehorse or greyhound, which has been tampered with or doctored in order to deceive

1b.
a person who alters the appearance of a car, racehorse, antique, etc., in order to deceive

2.
American
a substitute introduced by subterfuge into a game or race in order to gain an unfair advantage

ringing
adj British

excellent, exciting. A contemporary synonym of
banging
,
kicking
, etc.

ring-piece
n British

the anus. An elaboration of
ring
popularised by its constant appearance in
Viz
comic.

ring someone's bell
vb

to bring to a sexual climax. A euphemistic phrase which appears in the lyrics of several soul and disco records of the 1970s, also sometimes meaning simply to ‘catch someone's eye' or ‘strike a chord'.

ring-sting
n British

a painful act of defecation or the resultant feeling. The term was defined on the Student World website in 2001 as ‘the result of bad food and cheap toilet paper'.

rinky-dink
adj

1.
British
cute, neat, smart. This fairly rare sense of the phrase may be based on a misunderstanding of the American usage, or a separate coinage influenced by
dinky
.

2.
American
shoddy, makeshift, meretricious. The phrase probably originated as an imitation of the sound of fairground music, evoking gaudiness and kitsch.

rinse
vb

a.
to perform, play or use to excess. A vogue term since 2000 among DJs and club aficionados.

‘That Destiny's Child song has been rinsed on the radio.'
(Recorded, London student, March 2002)

b.
to deplete, exhaust, empty

I totally rinsed my credit cards.

rinsin'
adj

exciting. A vogue term, especially in dancefloor culture, from black speech heard since the late 1990s. It probably derives from DJ jargon in which ‘rinsin' out the plates' denotes spinning the records.

a rinsin' tune

ripe
adj American

physically attractive. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

rip off
vb

to cheat, steal (from) or take advantage (of). A raffish black street euphemism for steal or rob, in the mid-1960s rip off passed quickly via
hippy
jargon into popular currency all over the English-speaking world.