Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (130 page)

‘Well, just about everyone in the music business has been ripped off, financially speaking. That's Entertainment!'
(
Ms London
magazine, 4 September 1989)

rip-off
¹
n

an instance of theft, deception or unfair appropriation. It is now used in fairly mundane contexts, such as overcharging or plagiarism. The noun, like the verb, is from 1960s black argot in which it meant a robbery or a fraud.

rip-off
²
adj

(of goods) overpriced; (of people) grasping; and (of financial arrangements) crooked

ripoff artist
n

a practitioner of
rip-offs
, fraudster or thief. The late 1960s
-artist
suffix does not denote expertise, but merely habitual involvement.

ripped
adj

1. stoned
on marihuana or a similar drug. The word is occasionally also used to mean drunk and is often elaborated into ‘ripped to the gills' or ‘ripped to the tits'.

‘We're just sitting around getting ripped and listening to records.'
(
IT
magazine, July 1972)

2.
American
killed. A ‘tough guy' euphemism of the 1970s and 1980s.

He just got ripped.

3.
American
unhappy, disappointed

4.
American
muscular, physically attractive. In this sense the word has been adopted by journalists and devotees of social media beyond the USA.

ripper
¹
adj Australian

excellent, first-rate. A word which goes in and out of vogue, ripper was a British term of admiration, probably originating in the sports world (it has denoted a well-bowled cricket ball or a devastating punch in boxing) in the mid-19th century.

ripper
²
n British

a promiscuous female,
slag
. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

rippy
adj British

excellent, thrilling. A late 1980s version of the archaic ‘ripping' (equivalent to the Australian term
ripper
), heard among middle-class teenagers, for instance.

ripshit
adj American

angry, enraged, frenzied

rivets
n American

money, dollars. The term was recorded in British speech from the early 1800s but is now rare.

roach
n

1a.
the butt of a
joint
(a marihuana cigarette). An American term adopted elsewhere in the late 1960s; this use of the word arose before World War II and is probably simply a borrowing of ‘cockroach'. (Some authorities have suggested a connection with ‘to roach', i.e. to clip a horse's mane.)

1b.
a marihuana cigarette,
joint
. A US teenage usage, probably derived from the first, more widespread sense of the word.

2a.
American
a despicable or contemptible person

2b.
American
an unattached girl

road
¹
, roadz
n British

one's local area, estate or neighbourhood. The word, used thus in multiethnic youth slang, can by extension denote the authentic outside world.

start living in the road
Keep out of our roadz.

See also
from ends

road
²
adj

a more recent and more fashionable version of
street
(wise)

He's road.

road apple
n

a piece of horse manure on the highway. In the USA, where the term probably originated, the synonym
alley apple
also exists.

roadie
n

1.
a rock group's assistant, responsible for handling equipment and general tasks. The word is a short form of the portentous official title ‘road manager'.

2.
American
beer. A shortened version of
road brew
or
road sauce
in
preppie
jargon. It is usually in the plural form.

Let's grab some roadies.

3.
American
an unattractive female. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000. It may be a shortened form of ‘road-kill'.

road pizza
n American
any small creature that has been run over and flattened by a car. A sardonic witticism of the late 1980s.

Compare
pavement pizza

roarer
n British

a male homosexual, especially one who is actually or supposedly flagrant. This alternative form of ‘roaring
pouff/queen
', etc. is a heterosexual term of abuse of the 1970s and 1980s.

roasting
¹
adj British

a.
sexually aroused. In use among South London schoolchildren in 2010 and defined by one as
horny
.

b.
frustrated, bored. The usage was recorded at Winchester Prison by the English Project in October 2010. Inmates defined it as to be ‘hanging around waiting for something to happen'.

roasting
²
n British

(of a pair of males) penetrating a sexual partner orally and from the rear simultaneously. The phrase achieved brief notoriety in 2009 when footballers were reported to be indulging in the practice.
Spitroasting
is the longer form.

rob-dog
n British

a dishonest and/or despicable individual. The epithet, often expressing strong dislike, was first widely heard in the north of England in 2003 and 2004.

robobabe
n American

an overwhelmingly attractive female. An item of invented slang from the cult 1992 US film,
Wayne's World
. The prefix is adopted from the earlier cult film,
Robocop
.

Compare
babia-majora

robot
n South African

a set of traffic lights

rock
¹
n

1.
a gem, diamond

2. crack
, cocaine. The term has been used for many years by dealers and users to denote any crystalline preparation of a narcotic. In the USA in the late 1980s, rock is the most widespread generic term for crack among law-enforcers and breakers.

‘A $15 “rock” – costing about the same as two cinema tickets – contains six “hits”, enough to keep two people high for 90 minutes.'
(
Independent
, 24 July 1989)

rock
²
vb

1.
to be exciting,
cool
. The usage began as an Americanism but is now heard in all English-speaking areas. In the USA it sometimes occurs in the form ‘rock out'.

Their new single rocks.

2.
to display ostentatiously, wear, sport. In this sense the verb has become a fashion/journalese vogue term.

Shenelle rocks the neo-punk look.

Rock, the
n

1.
Gibraltar

2.
Alcatraz, the escape-proof island prison (now closed) in San Francisco Bay, USA

rocker
n British

a member of a youth cult of the early 1960s, characterised by the wearing of black leather jackets and enthusiasm for motorcycles and 1950s rock 'n' roll music. These mainly working-class teenagers and young adults were the successors to the
ton-up boys
and coevals of the self-consciously ‘progressive'
mods
, who despised them for their adherence to 1950s American fashions and music. Mods and rockers fought each other sporadically until the late 1960s, when each group metamorphosed; rockers into
greasers
and subsequent anonymity, or into
bikers
.

‘Rockers' hard-wearing clothes were of the type worn out of doors. Mods on the other hand were recruited in the main from the forum of office juniors and shop assistants.'
(Johnny Stuart,
Rockers
, 1987)

rockets
n pl

female breasts, particularly when prominent or ‘jutting'

rock-head
n American

a stupid person. Like its later derivative
rubblehead
, rock-head is based on the
uniquely North American notion of having rocks in one's head instead of brains.

rock house
n American

premises where
crack
(also known as
rock
) is processed and/or sold

‘In the depressed inner-city areas of Los Angeles or New York, crack is frequently consumed in “crack houses” or “rock houses” – derelict buildings, often occupied by squatters, where addicts can buy and consume the drug.'
(
Sunday Times
, 10 September 1989)

rocking
adj

excellent, exciting,
cool

rock 'n' roll, the
n British

the
dole
or a dole office (the term is extended to cover Social Security payments and offices). A piece of recent rhyming slang.

on the rock 'n' roll again
I'm going down the rock 'n' roll.

rocks
n pl

the testicles. An American version of the archaic British ‘stones', rocks is now in limited use elsewhere in the English-speaking world.

See also
get one's rocks off

rod
n

1.
American
a gun, particularly a pistol or revolver

2.
the penis

3.
a short form of hot rod

roddy, rodder
n British

a.
a male masturbator

b.
a foolish or obnoxious individual This playground term, usually used by males of males, probably derives from the earlier

rod-walloper
, a rarer synonym of
wanker
.

rod-walloper
n

a male masturbator.
Rod
is an occasional slang synonym for the penis.

ROFL
phrase

an expression of extreme amusement. The letters stand for ‘rolling on the floor laughing'. Elaborated forms include
ROFLMAO, rofl harris, roflcopter
.

rogan (josh)
n British

money. An item of rhyming slang heard since the 1990s, borrowing the name of a popular curry dish to rhyme with
dosh
.

‘By the look of them they're not short of a bit of the old rogan josh.'
(Recorded, musician, London, August 1994)

roger
vb British

to copulate with (a woman). First recorded in 1711, the term is probably older. Roger, like
dick
,
peter
,
willie
, etc., has been used in the past as a nickname for the penis. It was also frequently given as a name to bulls and rams. In modern British middle-class use it is often employed as an ‘acceptable' alternative to taboo synonyms. Roger has also been employed to denote buggery (in a homosexual context).

‘Should not a Half-pay Officer roger for sixpence?'
(James Boswell, writing in his
London Journal
, 1762)

roll
¹
vb

1.
to rob or mug (someone). Originally the term referred to robbing someone who was dead drunk or asleep, hence literally rolling over an inert body in order to rifle pockets.

2.
to have sex with. The verb form is much rarer than the noun in this sense.

3.
American
to leave. The word was used in this sense in the 1960s and has again become fashionable since the mid-1990s.

roll
²
n

1.
an act of sexual intercourse. Usually heard in a fairly light-hearted context, particularly in the cliché ‘a roll in the hay'.

2.
a wad of banknotes, a bankroll

3.
an act of mugging or robbing, particularly of an already unconscious person. A rare noun form of the verb sense.

rolling
adj British
rich.

A middle-class colloquial shortening of ‘rolling in it', which is itself based on the image of a pig, horse or other animal rolling in manure.

She's absolutely rolling.

rollocking
n British

a severe dressing-down, an angry and pointed tirade. The word is a euphemism for
bollocking
.

‘Though Dad gave me a real rollocking, in the end I won. I just fluttered my eyelids at him and promised I wouldn't be seeing Josh again.'
(Jade Jagger, quoted in the
News of the World
, 29 March 1989)

ronk
vb British

to stink. An invented word probably combining ‘stink' and ‘rotten'.
Honk
is a synonym. Ronk is a popular word in Liverpool and elsewhere in the north of England, though its use is not restricted to this area.