Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (149 page)

stack
³
, stack out
vb British and Australian

a.
to crash. The verb can be used intransitively or transitively.

b.
to fall down, trip over

stackage
n

an instance of impressive physique, especially referring to a female's breasts. The term, heard in 2013, is based on the earlier slang sense of
stacked
.

Wow, maximum stackage!

stacked
adj

a.
(of a woman) having large breasts, ‘well-endowed'. A male term of approbation which is now offensive to most women.

The expression, first popular in the USA, is a shortening of ‘well-stacked'.

‘When one person is important and the other person is stacked and/or well-hung.'
(Subheading in P. J. O'Rourke's
Modern Manners
, 1983)

b.
(of a male) well built

stack some zees/zeds
vb

to sleep. The phrase, originating in the USA, is synonymous with the more common
cop/bag some zees
.

stain
¹
n British

an unfashionable, tedious individual or a
swot
. This term of contempt was in use among university students in the late 1980s. It is usually a synonym of
anorak
; unbeknown to most users it is short for
wank stain
, i.e. a despicable nonentity.

‘“Stains” are “replete with acne and anoraks”.'
(
Evening Standard
, 16 June 1988)

stain
²
adj British

bad, unpleasant, disappointing. The adjectival usage dates from around 2000.

stalk
n

a.
an erection or the penis. This British and Australian sense of the word principally survives in the phrases ‘stalk fever' and
stalk-on
.

b.
effrontery (in a male), cheek,
bottle
. A rare working-class usage (recorded in
The Signs of Crime
,
A Field Manual for Police
by Deputy Assistant Commissioner David Powis, 1977).

stalk-on
n

an erection. A vulgarism heard since the 1950s.

stallion
n

a
stud
. The term has been used figuratively in this way since the 14th century.

stan
n British

1.
a Pakistani. The ‘a' is long, the term is usually neutral not pejorative.

2.
a curry

stand, stand-on
n

an erection

standard
¹
adj British

a.
excellent

b.
an allpurpose exclamation of approval or agreement

‘Standard in East London means like definitely, for sure.'
(Posting on
www.blackchat.co.uk
, March 2004)

The term has acquired these specialised senses in black British speech since 2000,
and in 2004 was reported as a vogue term among
chavs
.

standard
²
exclamation British

‘of course', ‘that goes without saying'

The Baldwins are wafty siblings – standard.

An item of multiethnic youth slang, the usage was also part of ‘Lamby's lingo', the slang promoted by radio presenter George Lamb in 2009 who defined it as meaning ‘a fact, a given. The way it is'.

stand-up
adj American

honourable, reliable, steadfast. A term of (mainly male) approbation or admiration in such clichés as ‘a stand-up guy'. It derives from the notion of ‘standing up for someone' or being willing to ‘stand up and be counted'.

‘It's funny that priest going AWOL. I always thought he was a real standup guy.'
(
V
, US TV film, 1983)

stank
adj American

a.
unpleasant

b.
in poor taste, inappropriate

That girlfriend's outfit is stank.

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

stanky
n American

an unstylish person. A more recent variation of
skank(y)
and
scangey
.

star
exclamation British

an allpurpose intensifier placed at the end of an utterance

‘Hey, I'm the king at table tennis – star!'
(Recorded, London student, 2000)

starkers
adj British

naked. A characteristic public-school or Oxbridge version of ‘stark naked' which has become a common colloquialism. (It is sometimes elaborated to
harry-starkers
.)

star-spa
n British

a friend, fellow gang member. The term was used as an indicator of solidarity by adolescent gang members and as a term of address. It was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in the 1990s.

startin'
n British

fighting. From black speech. Synonyms are
mixin'
,
regulatin'
,
tanglin'
.

stash
vb

to hide, put away. The word, which spread from America to the rest of the English-speaking world at the turn of the 20th century, was probably originally a blend of ‘stow', ‘store' and ‘cache'. It was formerly often spelled ‘stache'.

state
n British

a mess, disaster. This word became an allpurpose vogue term in London working-class speech of the early 1970s. The original notion of ‘to be in a (bit of a) state' was transformed so that state (
two and eight
in rhyming slang) came to refer to the individual rather than the situation.

He looks a right old state, doesn't he?

static
n American

criticism or hostile interference. A respectable slang term inspired by the standard sense of an electrical disturbance or interference. The suggestion is typically of opposition from various quarters that threatens to frustrate a scheme.

We're getting a lot of static from higher up now that the powers that be have been informed.

staunch
adj South African

tough, strong, attractively fit. A vogue term in youth slang.

stay loose
vb American

an alternative version of
hang loose

steamboats
adj British

drunk. A lighthearted term of uncertain derivation. It may have something to do with the use of a name such as ‘Steamboat Bill', possibly in a lost rhyming-slang expression.

He was completely steamboats by midday.

steamed
adj American

furious. A 1980s variation on the more generalised ‘steamed-up'.

steamer
n British

a bout of heavy drinking. Often heard in the phrase ‘on/in a steamer'.

steamers
n pl British

gangs of muggers who enter a shop, train compartment, etc. en masse and overwhelm their victims with some force. From the colloquial ‘steam (in)', meaning to move forcefully and quickly. The term arose in London in 1985 among black street gangs.

steaming
¹
n British

the activity of
steamers

‘Steaming is very modern, a term for mob-handed theft often by joeys, young criminals.'
(James Morten,
Independent
, 23 December 1988)

steaming
²
adj British

1.
an otherwise meaningless intensifying adjective, almost invariably used in the now dated expression ‘(a) steaming nit',
which was briefly popular in the early 1960s

2.
drunk

‘You've only had two cans and you're steaming.'
(
Red Dwarf IV
, BBC comedy, 1994)

steek
n British

a synonym of
chav
, in vogue in 2004. It may be an altered form of
stig
.

stem
n

a knife, particularly when carried or used for criminal purposes. An item of New York street slang that spread to other English-speaking areas in the early 1990s.

stems
n pl Irish

legs

a lovely pair o' stems

step!
exclamation

don't try it!

stepford
adj American

dully conformist, android-like. The term is inspired by the 1975 cult film
The Stepford Wives
, depicting a suburb in which women are turned by men into placid robot
hausfraus
.
Devo
carries the same connotations.

step off, step
vb American

1.
to opt out, desist, stop

2.
to lose one's temper, become aggressive

Both usages originated in black street slang and may refer to the figurative sense of stepping off the straight and narrow, or the physical sense of leaving a path, sidewalk, escalator, etc., in order to launch an attack.

step on
adj

to adulterate, cut (a drug). The term has been used by drug users and dealers since the end of the 1960s, particularly in reference to cocaine or heroin; occasionally it is used of amphetamines, but not of cannabis or other organic substances.

‘You expect a cut at this level, but this stuff has been stepped on by a gang of navvies in hob-nailed boots.'
(Recorded, cocaine user, London, 1982)

step on one's dick
vb American

to make a blunder. A term used particularly in the context of the workplace or the armed forces.

Just give those guys some slack and pretty soon one of them will step on his dick.

Steve McQueens
n British

jeans
. Rhyming slang using the name of the late Hollywood star.

stick
n

1.
a
joint
,
reefer
(cannabis cigarette). A term which was fairly widespread among smokers of the drug (
beatniks
, prisoners, etc.) until the mid-1960s, when joint and
spliff
largely supplanted it.

2.
British
chastisement, physical or verbal punishment. Originally implying a literal thrashing with a stick or cane, then generalised to any violent assault, the expression is now used, especially by middle-class speakers, to encompass verbal abuse, denigration or nagging.

You've done nothing but snipe at me since I got home – what have I done to deserve all this stick?

3.
British
a police truncheon

‘His trousers weren't done up and his shirt tails were flapping and he had a stick in his hand.'
(Police officer,
Inside the British Police
, Simon Holdaway, 1983)

4.
an excessively serious, dull or repressed person

From the notions of rigidity, woodenness and chastisement.

5.
a pickpocket's associate or decoy.

See also
sticksing

sticks, the
n

the countryside, a rural or provincial place, the ‘backwoods'. Originally, in the USA and Canada, a humorous reference to trees, the term had spread to other English-speaking areas by the 1950s.

He lives way out in the sticks somewhere – Ongar I believe.

sticksing
n British

pickpocketing. A term used in black criminal circles.

stick the nut on (someone)
vb British See
nut
²

sticky
n British

a liqueur. The word (like ‘liqueur' itself in middle-class and ‘society' usage) is occasionally extended to refer to sweet wines.

stiff
¹
vb

1a.
to kill. An Americanism based on the noun form of the word (denoting a corpse). Since the 1960s the term has been heard in raffish or underworld parlance in Britain.

1b.
British
to attack physically, trounce

2.
to take financial advantage of (someone); to cheat, rob or extort from

She tried to stiff me for the fare.

3.
to ‘stand someone up', snub (someone)

I don't like getting stiffed like this.

4.
to flop, fail. A term used typically in the context of the entertainment business or sports.

Their last single stiffed.