Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (150 page)

The first four senses of stiff are related to the noun form denoting a corpse.

5.
American
to aggress, treat harshly. The term is from ‘stiff-arm', a version of ‘strong-arm'.

6.
British
to have sex with. A working-class vulgarism.

stiff
²
n

1a.
a corpse. An unsentimental term inspired by rigor mortis and originating in American slang in the 19th century.

1b.
a rigidly conventional, dull or serious person

1c.
an individual, particularly one to be pitied

I'm just a poor working stiff.

1d.
American
a hobo, vagrant

1e.
a drunk

1f.
a flop or failure

Most of the many subsenses of stiff are related to the idea of corpse-like rigidity or absence of life. The notion of ‘stiff-necked' also plays a part in the case of sub-sense
b
.

2.
British
a smuggled note. An item of UK prisoners' slang.

stiffie
n British

1.
an erection. A jocular term heard principally among middle-class males, although women also employ the word.

‘Got a stiffie? Wear a Jiffi!'
(Promotional T-shirt logo for Jiffi condoms, 1985)

2.
an invitation card. The term describes the engraved social missives exchanged in traditional,
Sloane ranger
and
yuppie
circles.

stig
n

an outsider, misfit, provincial bumpkin. The term became popular in 2003 and 2004 together with other terms synonymous with
chav
. It had been used in this disparaging sense previously, possibly after the publication of Clive King's children's novel
Stig of the Dump
(1963) about a caveman, but it may be an older dialect word. (It is also a Scandinavian first name.)

stikkie
n South African

a sweetheart, girlfriend. Recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the
Cape Sunday Times
, 29 January 1995.

still
British

in multiethnic youth slang the word is placed at the end of a declaration purely for emphasis, not to signify passage of time

She lookin hot, still.

sting
n American

a.
a confidence trick, fraud or act of extortion

b.
a scheme devised in order to trap or entrap criminals

Both senses of the word (popularised by the film of the same name released in 1973) imply an elaborate arrangement with a sudden ‘pay-off'.

stinking
adj British

1.
a short form of ‘stinking rich'

2.
extremely drunk. An alternative for
stinko
.

stinko
adj

drunk. This word (an abbreviation from ‘stinking drunk', with the addition of the lighthearted adjectival suffix ‘-o') is almost obsolete in British speech except in upper-class usage.

stir
n

prison. Various Romany (gypsy) words such as
stardo
and
steripen
, dealing with the concept of imprisonment, gave rise to ‘start', an 18th-century British slang term for prison, and later, in the mid-19th century, to stir, which has remained one of the most widespread words for jail or imprisonment in all English-speaking areas, particularly in the phrase ‘in stir'.

stir crazy/happy
adj

psychologically disturbed as a result of confinement in prison (
stir
). The notion is sometimes extended to encompass a
sense of frustration or hysteria felt in any institutional surroundings. (The less common form ‘stir happy' is now dated.)

stitch
n American

something funny, a source of hilarity. A typically middle-class and
preppie
term derived from the expression ‘to be in stitches'.

‘Oh Jean-Marie, you're a stitch!'
(
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
, US film, 1987)

stitch this!
exclamation British

an exclamation of defiance said while hitting someone, particularly when butting them in the face. The phrase is used by ‘toughs'.

stitch (someone) up
vb British

a.
to concoct false evidence against someone, to ‘frame'. A piece of underworld and police jargon from the 1950s which penetrated popular speech in the 1980s.

‘Openshaw, 41, allegedly said on his arrest: “I'm being stitched up”. The trial goes on.'
(Court report,
Daily Mirror
, 14 July 1989)

b.
to outmanoeuvre comprehensively, defeat by devious means, render helpless. This extension of the previous sense of the phrase became a vogue term of the early 1980s.

‘Leched over by managers, stitched up by agents, girls in the music biz have traditionally paid a high price for succumbing to the lure of lurex.'
(
Ms London
magazine, 4 September 1989)

stoat
n British

the vagina. A vulgarism in use among adolescents in the 1990s and listed in
Viz
comic in 1994.

stocious
adj

an alternative spelling of
stoshious

stogie
n American

a cigar. An old but surviving nickname which is from Conestoga, Pennsylvania, where covered wagons were manufactured. The driver of the wagons smoked cheap cigars which became known as stogies.

stoked
adj

excited, thrilled, stimulated. The usage probably arose in the surfing community in the US, whence it spread to other English-speaking areas. It is now popular, particularly in Australian speech. It derives from the image of a furnace being ‘stoked up' or perhaps from the words ‘stunned' or ‘choked'.

‘Beth's really stoked you're going to give her away.'
(
Neighbours
, Australian TV soap opera, 1993)

stomp
vb

to beat up, attack and/or defeat. A usage which was part of the Hells Angels' lexicon, referring to the ritual punishing of enemies. The word was adopted by
hippies
in the USA and Britain in about 1968.

stompers
n pl American

a.
the American term for
brothel creepers
, the thick-soled shoes worn by teenagers in the 1950s

b.
heavy workboots or cowboy boots

stomp it
vb British

to hurry, go quickly. The term is used by devotees of dancefloor and
rave
culture.

On Tuesday we stomped it down to the Limelight.

stone
n British

the drug
crack
. A synonym, recorded in 2002, of the earlier
rock
.

stoned
adj

intoxicated by narcotics or alcohol. In the 1960s stoned proved the most popular of a number of synonyms employing the metaphor of punishment or damage (
wrecked
,
destroyed
,
blitzed
, etc.). It became the standard term to describe the effects of cannabis in particular. This use of the word originated in the argot of jazz musicians and bohemians in the USA in the 1940s.

‘[Richard Neville] suggesting making love when stoned with stereo headphones on both partners, playing the first Blind Faith album.'
(
Oz
magazine, February 1970)

stoner
n

a drug user, especially a habitual user of cannabis. Originally an Americanism, the word has become more widespread since 2000.

‘This is a stoners' western for crystal-dangling deadheads.'
(
Evening Standard
film review, 22 July 2004)

stonker
n British

something stunning, devastating or powerful. This invented word should logically be derived from a verb ‘to stonk' which is, however, unrecorded in modern slang, although
stonkered
and
stonking
are. In origin the term is probably influenced by words such as ‘stun', ‘clunk' and ‘bonk'.

See also
stonkered

stonkered
adj

a.
drunk

b.
destroyed, out of action, devastated or exhausted. (For the probable derivation see
stonker
.)

stonking
adj British

extremely. The word is an allpurpose intensifying adjective, usually used in place of more offensive terms. Mainly in working class and armed service usage, stonking was in vogue in the late 1980s. It probably postdates
stonker
and
stonkered
.

stony, stoney
adj

penniless. A shortened form of ‘stony broke', heard especially in Australia.

stooge
n British

an innocent stand-in at an identity parade. A term from the jargon of police officers, deriving from the standard colloquial senses of menial, dupe, etc. (The word stooge, which appeared in the USA in the 19th century, is said to be a corruption of ‘studious' or ‘students'.)

‘They don't think they can get the I.D. parade off the ground. I don't know if there are problems with the stooges, or what.'
(
Flying Squad
, British TV documentary, March 1985)

stoolie
n

an informer. A shortening of
stool pigeon
.

stool pigeon
n

an informer. In North America in the 19th century pigeons were tied to wooden frames (known as stools) as decoys to lure game birds. The expression was later applied to a cardsharp's human decoy, and later still to a police informer or spy. By World War I the use of the phrase had spread to Britain where it was adopted by crime fiction and the real underworld. The term is commonly shortened to
stoolie
.

stoosh
adj

a.
costly

b.
wealthy

c.
offensively ostentatious or snobbish

The word, heard in London speech since 2000, occurs in Jamaican slang but its exact origins are obscure.

stormer
n British

an impressive, admirable thing, person, etc.

storming
adj British

excellent, exciting. One of many vogue terms in adolescent usage, particularly among devotees of dancefloor, techno and jungle music since the 1990s.

stoshious, stotious, stocious, stoshers
adj British

a.
drunk

b.
silent, tight-lipped, discreet

This mysterious word can be traced to the 19th century and was thought by some authorities to be extinct by the 1930s. It survives, however, in jocular usage. The term is either a mock-Latinate invention or a corruption of a dialect word for water-logged or muddy.

stote
vb

to go for a walk. The term, of uncertain origin, was in use among UK adolescents in 2003.

stouch, stoush, stoosh
adj British

presumptuous, arrogant, overbearing. The fashionable term, recorded among adolescents in the 1990s, was defined by
Touch
magazine in September 1993 as ‘acting like your shit don't stink'. The origin of the expression is uncertain.

stoush
n Australian

a brawl. The word is probably a descendant of lost dialect terms for ‘uproar' or ‘strike'.

straight
¹
n

1.
a heterosexual, particularly heard in the language of homosexuals

2.
a conventional person, someone who does not take drugs or ascribe to ‘counter-culture' values. A term from the language of drug abusers and counterculture members which was a buzzword of the later 1960s.

‘Would you say Hunter Thompson was afraid of anything in particular? “Ah… Straights”.'
(Ralph Steadman,
I-D
magazine, November 1987)

3.
a cigarette (as opposed to a
joint
). A now dated cannabis users' term in wide currency in the 1960s.

If you give me a straight I'll roll us something for the journey.

4.
South African
a bottle of alcoholic liquor. Recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the
Cape Sunday Times
, 29 January 1995.

straight
²
adj

1a.
honest, not criminal or corrupt

‘You couldn't bribe or compromise him because he was straight. However, he was also naive.'
(Former detective,
Inside the Brotherhood
, Martin Short, 1989)

1b.
heterosexual

In the first two subsenses, the opposing slang term in British English is
bent
.

1c.
not under the influence of drugs or a drug-user

I've been straight for three days.
Don't offer her any, she's straight.