Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (18 page)

bins
n pl British

1a.
glasses, spectacles. A cockney shortening of binoculars, sometimes spelled
binns
. The term has been in use at least since the 1930s and is still heard.

1b.
the eyes. An extension of the previous usage.

2a.
headphones. Part of the jargon of recording engineers and rock musicians in the late 1960s; the term was eagerly picked up by hi-fi enthusiasts and
musos
in the 1970s, although
cans
is more prevalent in this context.

2b.
hi-fi or concert speakers. By extension from the above sense.

bint
n British

a girl, a (young) woman.
Bint
is Arabic for daughter or girl; the word was adopted by soldiers serving in Egypt and became widespread in Britain from the 1920s to the 1960s. In English the word nearly always had, and still has, deprecatory overtones.

‘I've got to keep him and that Russian bint one step ahead of the police.'
(
Room at the Bottom
, TV comedy, 1987)

binter, binta
n British

a girl. A variant form of
bint
heard since 2000.

binting
n British

pursuing or seducing females. A term used by (generally unsophisticated) young males, from the noun form
bint
.

biotch
n American

a.
an unpleasant female

b.
a female

An alteration of
bitch
in use among students since 2000.

bird
n British

1.
a girl. A very common term in the late 1950s and 1960s, it is now somewhat dated and considered offensive or patronising by most women. The word was first a 19th-century term of endearment, ultimately from Middle English, in which bird could be applied to young living things in general, not merely the feathered variety.

2.
a prison sentence. From the rhyming slang birdlime:
time
.

He's doing bird in Wandsworth
.

birdbath
n British

a silly person. A humorous variant form of the colloquial ‘birdbrain' typically used since the 1970s by parents and children.

birding
n British

pursuing or trying to ‘pick up' women. A northern English working-class term of the
1960s and 1970s, from the more widespread use of
bird
.

birf
n British

a coy or jocular shortening of ‘birthday', used typically by teenage magazine journalists since the 1980s

birl
n See
burl

biscuit
n American

1.
an attractive person. The term, heard from the late 1990s, can be used by, and of, either sex.

Wow, a total biscuit!

See also
earth biscuit

2.
the head

The result was Chrissie bumped her biscuit.

3.
a gun. The term is from street slang and is referenced in
rap
and
hip hop
lyrics.

‘We on the corner wit a 40 and a biscuit…'
(Lyrics to
Look in My Eyes
by Obie Trice)

biscuits
n pl American

1.
the buttocks

Man, scope those biscuits.

2.
dirty, worn-out footwear

bish
n

a bitch. The disguised form is used by
hip hop
aficionados and teenagers.

You shouldn't hang out with those bishes.

See also
bi-atch

bish-bash-bosh
adv
,
adj British

quickly, efficiently, in quick succession. A vogue catchphrase in use among fashionable young professionals in London in the mid-1980s and still heard.

It was bish-bash-bosh/a bish-bash-bosh job.

Compare
bosh

bit
adj American

disappointed, resentful. A folksy version of ‘bitter' or ‘bitten' used by country people and poor blacks (in pre-war slang it usually meant ‘cheated'); adopted as part of
preppie
language in the 1970s.

She sure was bit when she found out she hadn't been chosen
.

bitch
n

a.
a pejorative term for a woman which, although not strictly speaking slang, is normally highly offensive. As a term of denigration bitch, like its alternatives ‘sow', ‘vixen', etc., has been widespread since the Middle English period. In black American speech ‘bitch' can be used with proprietorial or condescending overtones rather than with personalised malice.

‘Ultimately, it [N-W-A's album]'s just another extension of the black underclass machismo which casts all women as “bitches”.'
(
Independent
, 8 September 1989)

b.
a spiteful or vindictive male homosexual

c.
an infuriating or gruelling task

d.
something impressive, admirable. This is another example of a negative term being employed in a contradictory sense (compare
bad
,
wicked
, etc.). It usually occurs in the appreciative phrase ‘it's a bitch!' in American speech.

bitch-bag
n

an unpleasant female. The term, heard since 2000 and used both pejoratively and sometimes affectionately, is an elaboration of
bitch
.

bitch-fit
n

a bout of anger and/or spite

bitchin'
adj American

excellent, first class. From the colloquial phrase ‘it's a bitch!', expressing great enthusiasm.

bitch (someone) out
vb American

to criticise, nag, denigrate

Do you expect me to just go home and have the wife and kids bitch me out
?

bitch slap
n American

to attack (someone) suddenly and spitefully, either literally or metaphorically. The image evoked is of a pimp slapping a prostitute.

Bitch slap that sucka!

bite
vb American

to be repellent, inferior, worthless. Since around 2000 ‘it bites' has been synonymous with ‘it
sucks
'.

bite me!
exclamation American

a cry of contempt or defiance

biter
n American

someone who imitates the style of another or copies from them

biting
n

selling a graffiti artist's pen name to another young person. Usually seen in this form rather than the verb ‘to bite'. It is a specialisation of the colloquial sense of bite meaning ‘coercion'.

bit of fluff, bit of stuff
n British

a woman, seen as attractive but frivolous, or not to be taken seriously. A condescending male term from the early 1900s, still fairly widespread in the 1960s and not yet quite obsolete.

bit of rough
n British

a lover of either sex who exhibits or feigns primitive, aggressive or socially inferior characteristics. A phrase often used jocularly in the 1980s, originally a variation of the prostitutes' and homosexual term
rough trade
.

She's always preferred a bit of rough
.

bits
n pl British

1.
primary sexual characteristics. In origin possibly a shortening of ‘naughty bits', the word has become popular with all age groups since around 2000.

Show us yer bits!
He was doing acrobatics and his bits fell out.

2.
See
in bits

bitser, bitza
n

a mongrel (usually a dog). A witticism based on the idea that the animal's pedigree is composed of ‘bits of this and bits of that'. The expression, which probably originated in Australia, can also be applied to anything put together from disparate components.

bivvy
n British

1a.
a bivouac, camping place

1b.
a tent, especially a small tent. Both terms are, predictably, part of the vocabulary of soldiers, scouts, campers and ramblers, etc.

2.
an alternative form of
bevvy

biz, the biz
n

a.
show business. A term used by the self-consciously theatrical, originating as ‘show biz' in the style of journalese popularised by
Variety
magazine.

b.
any sphere of activity, such as the music biz, the public relations biz, etc., by extension from the first sense. It is often used ironically to add a sheen of cheap glamour to difficult or thoroughly mundane jobs. In the company of cognoscenti, any such group may be referred to as
the biz
.

c.
a term of approbation, as in ‘this is the biz' or ‘he's the biz'

bizatch, biznatch
n American

a.
an unpleasant female

b.
a female

Altered pronunciations of
bitch
heard for example on campus since 2000.

blaap
See
braap

blab
vb

to inform (on someone), to tell tales or reveal information. The term often has the sense of a garrulous or inadvertent revelation of a secret or confidence. Like blabber, the word has meant ‘(to engage in) voluble or indiscreet talk' since the 16th century.

blabber
n Australian

a TV remote control. This item of domestic slang of the 1980s refers to the mute capability. No universal slang term for the remote control has yet emerged, though
zapper
is a recorded alternative.

black bag job
n American

a break-in or other covert operation carried out by a government agency. A piece of jargon from the time of the Watergate scandal.

black bombers
n pl British

capsules of Durophet (a form of amphetamine popular among drug abusers in the 1960s), named for their colour and their powerful effects

black-hole-Bill
adj British

depressing, miserable. An expression heard, especially among males, since around 2000.

The weather's black-hole-Bill today.
I'm feeling black-hole-Bill
.

black maria
n

a prison van or police car or van. The nickname originated in the USA in the mid-19th century (Maria is probably an arbitrary borrowing of a female name as a familiarising device).

black rat
n British

a traffic patrol officer. An item of police slang recorded by the
Evening Standard
magazine in February 1993. The black refers to the uniform and the rat to other officers' and motorists' dislike of the traffic police.

black stump
n Australian

a very remote region. The mythical starting point for ‘the back of beyond'.

See also
Woop-woop

blad
n British

an Afro-Caribbean pronunciation, or imitation thereof, of
blood
, in the sense of 2

bladdered
adj British

drunk. An increasingly common term among middle-aged speakers as well as students, etc., since the early 1990s. It was used in the TV soap opera
Brookside
.

‘“What I like to do on a Monday night is go out and get bladdered,” says Mick.'
(
Daily Telegraph
magazine, 15 June 1996)

blade
n

a knife, particularly when used for protective or offensive purposes

blag
n
,
vb British

a.
(to carry out) a robbery. This is the sense of the term familiar to most people since its use in TV shows of the 1970s giving a realistic perspective on criminal milieus.

b.
to scrounge, cadge, deceive or bamboozle, or the booty from such an activity

The word ‘blag' has been in widespread use in both subsenses in underworld and police circles since the early 1950s. It is presumed that it derives from the French
blague
, meaning a joke or blunder, but the details of this etymology are unclear. There have been suggestions that it is more simply an elaboration of to
bag
.

blah, bleh
n
,
adj

(something) dull, tedious, listless, inert. A pejorative term deriving from an exclamation of boredom or resignation. The word spread from the USA to Britain before World War II.
Bleh
is a more recent variant used especially online.

blair, blare (out)
vb British

to criticise, denigrate, belittle. A word of obscure origin (it precedes the media attention paid to the Labour leader Tony Blair), it may have originated in black speech and may simply be an appropriation of the standard meaning of blare, i.e. to shout, trumpet. The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.