Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (168 page)

whaps
adj British

bad. The word, of uncertain origin, although it may be related to
whoop
, was used by London schoolchildren from the late 1990s.

whatevs, whatev
exclamation

an expression of indifference typically used by teenagers

what to go?
exclamation British

a phrase used by teenage gangs as a provocation or invitation to fight. A synonym is
do me something!
Both phrases are often followed by ‘then?!' The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in the 1990s.

what ya saying
exclamation British

a vogue greeting originating among black youth around 2000, but recently more widespread

wheelie
n

a manoeuvre in which a vehicle is driven at speed on its back wheel(s) only. The term may apply to bicycles, motorcycles or cars (in the case of cars the term may apply only to the spinning of the rear wheels).

‘Stealing and nicking gives you lots of pleasure and money for everything. And it's easy… you just get an old lady in your
sights and do a 360-degree wheelie on her moustache.'
(Teenage mugger,
Observer
, 22 May 1988)

wheelman, wheels-man
n

a getaway driver. A piece of criminal and police jargon in use in all English-speaking areas.

wheels
n

a car or means of transportation

wheeze (off)
vb American

to destroy, defeat, frustrate. This adolescent usage often occurs in the phrase ‘wheeze off someone's gig', meaning to frustrate their efforts, spoil their enjoyment, etc.

whiff
¹
vb

1.
to sniff (cocaine)

2.
British
to smell bad. A synonym of
niff
.

whiff
²
n

cocaine

whiffy
adj British

having an unpleasant smell.
Niffy
is a synonym.

It's a bit whiffy in here, isn't it?

whifty
n British

a cigarette containing cannabis,
joint
. The word was in use among UK youth in 2010.

whinge
¹
n

a complaint, a bout of self-pity

‘His “memoirs” are really an extended whinge at how terribly he's been treated by the corporation – seldom offered any work, never appreciated enough, sneered at by pinkoes, and so on.'
(
Private Eye
magazine, 27 October 1989)

whinge
²
, winge
vb

to complain or make excuses, especially in a wheedling tone. A blend of ‘whine' and ‘cringe' which existed for some time in Australian usage before becoming established in Britain in the second half of the 1970s. The word was originally often found in the Australian phrase ‘whingeing Pom', describing the perpetually complaining British immigrant.

‘English people love a good queue, and they love a good disaster; they seem to love a good moan. I think the notion of the “whingeing Pom” is true. But I've become a whinger too, since I've been here.'
(Australian nurse,
NOW
magazine, March 1988)

whip
n American

a car. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000. A luxury car is a ‘
phat
whip'.

whipped
adj American

a shortened, hence disguised and more acceptable version of
pussy-whipped

whippit
n Australian

nitrous oxide (‘laughing gas'), or a canister containing it. The items, used for whipping cream, can be bought legally and inhaled for their narcotic effect.
Bulb
and
nang
are synonyms.

whip some skull on (someone)
vb American

to perform fellatio. A phrase (using
skull
as a substitute for
head
in a similar context) which was often used as a ribald exclamation by college boys and
hippies
, among others, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

whirl(e) amount
n British

a large quantity. This synonym for ‘lots' or ‘loads' is usually used in connection with money. The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

whirling pits, the
n British

a feeling of giddiness and/or nausea, tinged with hallucination, brought on, for instance, by the combination of alcohol and a drug such as hashish. The expression describes a condition characterised by lying on one's back, unable to move, while one's stomach heaves and the room whirls about one's head.
The helicopters
is a synonym.

whistle
n British

(of clothes) a suit. From the rhyming-slang phrase ‘whistle and flute'. This term dates back to before World War II and has survived into the early 21st century. It was used by London
mods
, for instance, and is now heard among students as well as working-class Londoners. Since the 1950s the phrase has almost invariably been abbreviated to the one word.

white ant
vb Australian

to denigrate, undermine. The phrase is based on the action of the Australian termite and was given prominence by its use in TV soap operas such as
Neigh-bours
.

white bread
n
,
adj American

(a person who is) virtuous, well bred, but dull and insipid. A dismissive term, usually applied to straitlaced or ingenuous people, from the
preppie
lexicon. The word is also used in marketing jargon, meaning bland or inoffensive.

white lady, the white lady
n

a.
cocaine

b.
heroin

‘“I've been through pot, white lady and blue lady forms of synthetic heroin and I can't go through this much more,” says Jean Hobson.'
(
Sunday Times
, 10 September 1989)

Often used to denote a spectre in folklore, the phrase is employed here to romanticise or dramatise the white powders or crystals in question.

white lightning
n

1.
raw spirit, illicitly distilled grain alcohol. The phrase evokes the sudden, devastating effects (and perhaps the accompanying visual disturbance) of the substance in question.

2.
a generic nickname given to white tablets or ‘microdots' of LSD in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the same fashion as ‘orange sunshine' or ‘blue cheer'

whitener
n

1.
British
cocaine. A
yuppie
term.

‘There are guys who blow out, sure, stick too much whitener up their nose.'
(
Serious Money
, play by Caryl Churchill, 1987)

2.
Irish
a version of
white-out
, recorded in the Irish Republic in 2004

white-out, whitey
n

a bout of nausea and/or feeling faint as a result of ingesting drugs and/or alcohol. The expression, which is airline pilots' slang for an abrupt loss of vision due to snow, refers to a sudden pallor.

Dave chucked a whitey so he went home.

whites
n British

a ‘class A' illicit drug; heroin, cocaine or
crack
. An item of black street-talk used especially by males, recorded in 2003.

dealin' whites
get me some whites

white space
n

free time.
Yuppie
jargon of the late 1980s inspired by blank spaces in an appointment book, but ultimately deriving from the jargon of graphic designers, printers, typographers, etc., in which white space refers to areas deliberately left blank in a page layout.

I think I have some white space towards the end of the week.

white telephone, big white telephone
n

the toilet bowl or pedestal. The term occurs in phrases such as ‘making a call on the big white telephone', evoking the image of someone being noisily, and usually drunkenly, sick. The phrases probably originated in US campus slang of the early 1970s, which also gave synonyms such as
pray to the porcelain god
. One phrase combining both notions is ‘call God on the big white phone'.

white trash
n

a.
poor whites living in the southern states of the USA. A term coined by black speakers in the mid-19th century to refer to their neighbours, either pejoratively or ruefully. The term was also used by whites and survives into the early 21st century; it is often used with connotations of degeneracy and squalor.

See also
trailer-trash

b.
the decadent rich or sophisticated individuals, the ‘jet set' or their hangers-on and imitators. The phrase has been extended to refer contemptuously to cosmopolitan socialites (often in the phrase ‘International White Trash').
Euro-trash
is a derivative.

‘She came from South Los Angeles, near Watts, every day and her parents had saved all their lives to buy her in among this rich white trash.'
(Julie Burchill,
The Face
magazine, March 1984)

whitey
n

1.
American
a white person. A predictable term used by black speakers to or of individuals and of the white community in general. It is usually, but not invariably, pejorative or condescending.
Pinkie
is a less common Caribbean and British form.

2.
a
white-out

whizz
n

1.
See
wizz
¹

2.
See
Billy

whoop, woop
adj British

bad. An allpurpose term of disapproval in use among London schoolchildren at the end of the 1990s. It may be related to
whoopsy
.

whoopsy, whoopsie, whopsy, woopsie
n British

an act of defecation, excrement. A nursery term sometimes used facetiously among adults, usually in the phrase ‘do a whoopsie'.

whop, whap
vb American

to hit, beat, thrash. The terms (used for over 200 years) are echoic and are sometimes extended to mean defeat or trounce.

They whopped us good.

whore
n

a prostitute. The word has been used in this sense since about the 12th century;
before that time it denoted an adulteress and, earlier still, a sweetheart. The ultimate derivation of whore is the Latin
carus
, meaning dear or beloved. In Germanic languages this became
horr
or
hora
(Old Norse) and
hore
(Old English).

‘Thugs, whores, cabbies, street Arabs, gin jockeys – these are by nature conservative folk.'
(
Republican Party Reptile
, P. J. O'Rourke, 1987)

whorehouse
n

a brothel

‘Pundits summarize [the history of Manila] as “four hundred years in a convent, fifty years in a whorehouse”.'
(
Republican Party Reptile
, P. J. O'Rourke, 1987)

who ya bouncing
exclamation

an exclamation of irritation, defined by one user as ‘what the f*** do you think you're doing, bumping into me!' It was recorded in 1999

wibble
¹
vb British

to behave or speak in an irresolute, confused and/or tedious manner. A middle class adult and internet usage, popular since 2000.

‘…fruitcake Anna Nicole Smith has been rambling away again – sticking up for fellow former fatty Kirstie Alley.
“Everyone's so mean to her”, wibbled Anna…'
(
Metro
, 30 July 2004)

See also
go wibble

wibble
²
n

meaningless and/or tedious speech. In this sense, probably inspired by the use of the word in the UK TV comedy
Blackadder
and
Viz
comic, wibble is commonly employed on the internet to describe tedious small-talk or irrelevance.

wick
¹
n

1.
British
the penis. This sense of the word combines the candle wick as a phallic image and the London rhyming-slang phrase
Hampton Wick
(for
prick
). Hampton Wick is a small community in the South West London suburbs, familiar to cockneys of the past hundred years as being on their route to the nearby riverside, Hampton Court or Bushy Park. Wick is rarely found alone, but rather in the phrases
dip the wick
or ‘get on one's wick'.

2.
Irish
nonsense. The standard English word (originally meaning a flammable material) is used in colloquial Irish to mean ‘rubbish', hence this extended meaning.

wick
²
adj

1.
Irish
uncomfortable, embarrassed, ashamed. This usage may derive from the phrase ‘get on one's wick', meaning to annoy or irritate, or from the second noun sense above.