Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (156 page)

ticked off
adj

annoyed, irritated, angry or resentful. A politer form or euphemism for
pissed-off
, heard especially in the USA.

‘Thank you guys, but Mork's not here and I'm too ticked off to go anywhere.'
(
Mork and Mindy
, US TV comedy series, 1981)

ticker
n

one's heart. Ticker was first slang for a clock or fob-watch then, by analogy, the heart.

‘Oh my dicky ticker!'
(Catchphrase from the British TV comedy,
'Allo 'Allo!
)

tickle
n British

a.
a hint

b.
an inkling

c.
a minor success or sign of future success

d.
a mild expression of interest All these closely-related subsenses of the word are well established in working-class speech and commercial jargon. They derive from the use of tickle to denote the sensation felt when a fish nibbles at a bait.

tickle the pickle
vb

(of a male) to masturbate. A humorous coinage in imitation of the more widespread
jerkin' the gherkin
, mainly heard in Britain and Australia.

tiddly-dum
adj British

tedious, dull, boring. An imitation of bored humming, synonymous with, but rarer than
ho-hum
.

tie off
vb

to bind one's limb in order to raise a vein in which to inject narcotics. An addicts' term.

tie one on
vb

to get drunk. Like its synonym,
hang one on
, this phrase was a 1930s Americanism, now heard in other English-speaking areas. The precise etymology of these expressions is not clear, but both probably convey the image of attacking a quantity of liquor or the burden resulting from its ingestion.

tight
adj

1.
mean, stingy, miserly. Now a common colloquialism rather than slang, this usage originated in the USA in the early 19th century. The image evoked is of someone who is ‘tight-fisted'. A modern elaboration is
tight-arsed
.

2.
tipsy or drunk. The word was first used in this sense in the USA in 1843, being adopted almost immediately in Britain. The word evokes someone full of or bulging with alcoholic liquid.

3.
American
very friendly, close
Me and Harry been tight since we were kids.

4.
American
excellent, skilful. A generalisation of the use of the term from musicians' jargon, in which it signifies closely co-ordinated. In this sense tight has become a vogue word since 2000.

5.
unfair, harsh. A fashionable usage among some adolescents since 2000.

tight-arse, tight-ass
n

1.
a mean, miserly person. This sense of the word is more common in British usage than the following sense. The term has existed, mainly in working-class speech, since the early part of the 20th century. ‘Tight' alone has had this meaning since the mid-19th century.

2.
a repressed, prudish or
uptight
person; an ‘anal retentive'. This use of the expression is probably more widespread in American speech. In the 19th century it usually meant specifically sexually repressed, puritanical or chaste.

tight-arsed
adj British

miserly, mean, stingy. This is an elaboration of
tight
(itself used to mean stingy since the 1820s), heard since the early years of the 20th century.

tighten one's face
vb American

to shut up, keep quiet. A teenagers' and
Valley Girl
expression, usually heard in the form of an instruction.

Aw, come on, you, like tighten your face!

tightwad
n

a miserly, ungenerous person. A pre-World War I Americanism, later adopted
elsewhere. The
wad
in question is a role of banknotes.

Tijuana bible
n American

a pornographic magazine or book. Just across the US-Mexico border, the town of Tijuana has long been a centre of uncontrolled sexual amenities for visitors from the north.

tik
adj

a South Asian version of
thick
, in the sense of physically attractive

Tilbury
n British

penis. The item of rhyming slang derives from Tilbury Dock (for
cock
), in East London.

‘A friend of mine recently made reference to his Tilbury. I struggled for a minute or so until I managed to fathom what he meant.'
(Posting on
Daily Mail
website, 22 February 2013)

time
n British

a long while. An item of multiethnic youth slang probably originating in black speech.

I ain't seen you for time.

tin bath
n British

a laugh/joke/not being serious. More recent synonyms are
bubble bath
,
bobble (hat and scarf)
and
giraffe
.

tincture
n British

1.
an alcoholic drink. An adult male middle-class term, popularised by the fictional Denis Thatcher in the satirical ‘Dear Bill' letters in
Private Eye
magazine in the 1980s.

2.
a tincture of cannabis; hashish in liquid form as legally prescribed to some drug users for a period in the 1960s

tin-cupping
n

cadging or begging for money. The phrase has become part of business jargon where it refers to approaching a series of companies for loans.

tings
n

the penis. A term from Caribbean speech, also heard in the UK since 2000, especially among younger speakers. It is probably a borrowing from the adult euphemism ‘things' to denote genitals.

tinkle
¹
n British

1.
an act of urination. A coy, humorous or childish expression, in common use since the 1920s.

I'm just off upstairs for a tinkle.

2.
a telephone call. This colloquial usage was inspired by the thin, slow ringing of early telephones.

3.
money, cash, wealth. A working-class term heard especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Got any tinkle for me?

tinkle
²
vb

to urinate. A childish, coy or humorous euphemism which has been in widespread use since the 1920s, although it probably originated earlier as an echoic nursery term.

tinkler
n British

the penis. A nursery term from
tinkle
, also applied ironically or derisively in reference to older males.

tinnie, tinny
n Australian

a can of beer. There has been recent argument in Australia as to whether this term is now archaic or not, but as late as 1988 it was recorded in London among young expatriate Australians.

tin-tacked
n British

dismissed from one's job. An item of rhyming slang based on the colloquial term
sacked
.

tiny
n British

a small child, younger fellow-pupil. ‘The tinies' is the (usually dismissive or condescending) standard middle-class, prep or public-school designation of children ‘lower down' the school.

tip
¹
n British

a dirty, messy or squalid place. The term has become a popular colloquialism since the 1980s, often describing an untidy bedroom. It is a shortening of ‘rubbish tip'.

tip
²
n
,
adj

(a male who is) fashionable, admirable,
cool
. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

tiswas, tizwoz
n British

a state of confusion and/or flustered excitement. Usually found in the expressions ‘all of a tiswas' or ‘in a (bit of a) tiswas'. This folksy, lighthearted term probably comes from ‘it is – it was', that is, expressing a disorientation in time, or else is an elaborated form of the colloquial ‘tizz' and ‘tizzy'.

tit
n

1a.
a breast. Various Old Germanic languages and late Latin dialects contained related words formed on the root
tet-
or
tit-
(
teta
in Spanish and
téton
in
French are modern cognates). ‘Teat' was, for many centuries, the standard English form; in the 17th century the alternative spelling and pronunciation tit began to be used. It was only in the 20th century that the variant spellings and pronunciation clearly differentiated the vulgar and standard usages.

1b.
any button, knob, nipple or small protuberance

You have to attach it to the tit on the end.

1c.
the sight or touch of a woman's breast(s). An exclusively male vulgarism.

I got some tit.

1d.
women in general, seen as sexual partners. An exclusively male vulgarism.

There's loads of tit around.

2.
a fool, buffoon. The word has been heard in this sense since the early 20th century in British usage.

‘There were two outstanding things about Q.E.D.'s “The Battle Of The Sexes” – Faith Brown. Stuart Hall merely made a right tit of himself.'
(Charles Catchpole,
News of the World
, 5 February 1989)

tit about/around
vb British

to mess about or behave in a disorganised or ineffectual manner. One of many similar expressions such as
arse about
,
fanny about
,
fart around/about
, etc.

titfer
n British

a
hat
. One of the best-known examples of rhyming slang (from the cliché ‘tit-for-tat'), the term probably dates from the end of the 19th century and is still heard.

tits-up
adj See
go tits-up

tittie, titty
n

1.
a breast. An affectionate or diminutive form of
tit
, in use since the 18th century when it was considered less vulgar than it is today.

2.
See

tough titty titwank
¹
vb British

(of a female) to stimulate a male's penis with one's breasts

titwank
²
n British

1.
an act of
titwanking

2a.
a foolish, irritating and/or unfortunate person

2b.
a term of endearment

In all senses the word is used, for example, by students and other young adults.

tit-wrench
n British

a stupid, inept or ridiculous individual. The word suggests an imaginary and presumably unnecessary tool.

TL; DR
phrase

an online dismissal when faced with a lengthy and/or boring message: the letters, sometimes also spoken, stand for ‘too long; didn't read'. (A colon is sometimes preferred to the semi-colon.)

See also

TR; DL

TMI
phrase

‘too much information', a warning that someone has divulged too much, been indiscreet, or has
overshared
. The initials are spoken as well as written.

toadsucker
n American

a teenage term of abuse which, while offensive, has the advantage of not being obscene

toast
adj American

confounded, in trouble. The word nearly always occurs in the form ‘I'm toast!', an admission that one is about to suffer, e.g., punishment or humiliation.

toasted
adj American

drunk or tipsy

‘It's not much [money], just enough to go out and get toasted some time you need it.'
(
Working Girl
, US film, 1988)

to be Anne
phrase British

‘to be frank'. The pun, playing on the name of the young wartime diarist, Anne Frank, was in use among London university students in 2012.

ToBo
adj American

worthless, inauthentic, pretentious. A shortening of the
Valley Girls
' standard dismissal ‘totally
bogus
'. The formation is based on the pattern of similar phrases such as
MoFo
, etc., and was first recorded in 1991.

tockley
n Australian

penis. A very unusual item of vulgar slang in that at least one person claims to know exactly where and when it was coined. According to Jack Marx, writing in the
Melbourne Age
newspaper in August 2006, ‘The word “tockley” was in fact invented in 1974 by either Alan Benn or James Darroch, two 4th grade students of St Joseph's Primary School in Charles-town, on the outskirts of Newcastle, New South Wales.' Marx claimed that he recalled the word in 1989 and then featured it in magazine articles, leading to its subsequent popularity. The reason for the choice of the word is not explained; it
may be an arbitrary borrowing of Tockley as a family or place name.