Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (19 page)

blamestorming
n British

a session of mutual recrimination in which a group tries to find someone to blame for an error. The jocular expression, popular in business and medical slang in the noughties decade, is a pun on the jargon term brainstorming.

blamming
adj British

exciting. Like its earlier synonyms
banging
and
slamming
the usage (among students, urban gang members, etc. since around 2000) derives from the equation of percussion or explosion with physical and/or emotional stimulus (‘blam' being imitative of gunfire in cartoons).

blang
n American

a later variant form of
bling
, recorded in 2004

blank (someone)
vb British

to snub or refuse to speak to someone or acknowledge them. A mainly working-class expression becoming increasingly popular in London since the later 1980s. The past participle form ‘blanked' in particular is a vogue term among school-children.

‘Donna went to see her and she totally blanked her.'
(
EastEnders
, British TV soap opera, March 1988)

blap
See
braap

blart
n British

a.
the vagina

b.
a collective term for women, especially when seen as potential sexual conquests. Popularised by
Viz
comic since the 1990s.

blast
n

1a.
a party or celebration

1b.
any enjoyable or exhilarating experience

2.
an inhalation of cannabis or another euphoric drug

3.
British
a gun. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

blat
n Australian

a short trip on a bicycle. The word, which was featured in the long-running soap opera
Neighbours
in 1996, has been adopted by British schoolchildren.

blatant
adj

1.
obvious. Can be used to express surprise, as in: ‘What the blatant pantsgan do you think you're doing?'

2.
outright

3.
excessive, outrageous. A vogue term (invariably used to indicate approval) among adolescents since the mid-1990s.

‘Crispin was being blatant again as usual when we went to TuTu's.'
(Recorded, London University student, December 1996)

4. Blatant!
an exclamation of agreement

blates
adj
,
adv British

a short form of
blatant
or
blatantly
in their slang senses

blathered
adj British

drunk. The term has been used by students since 2000. Synonyms include
bladdered
,
blatted
and
lathered
.

blatherskite, blatherskate, bletherskite
n

a.
a boastful or bombastic person, a ‘windbag'

b.
a villainous or disreputable person

This picturesque word is the American and Australian version of the Scottish dialect word ‘bletherskate'. Although it is a fairly innocuous term of mild abuse, it derives from ‘blether' meaning a bladder or to blather, and ‘skate', a dialect variant of
shit
. The image evoked is of someone who is ‘full of shit'. During the War of Independence,
Americans became familiar with the word from the Scottish song,
Maggie Lauder
.

blatted
adj British

intoxicated by drugs or alcohol. A popular word among adolescents since the 1990s. Like many synonyms, the word evokes the notion of someone struck (down) or punished (which has been rendered by ‘blat' and ‘blatter' in dialect for centuries).

blaw
n British

cannabis, marihuana. An altered pronunciation of
blow
, heard since 2000.

blazed, blazed up
adj

a.
intoxicated by drink or drugs

b.
in a heightened state of excitement, anger, etc.

bleach
adj Jamaican and British

exhausted. This use of the term was included in DJ Smiley Culture's 1988 track,
Cockney Translation
.

bleak
adj South African

depressed, disappointed

bledrin
n British

a more recent and more fashionable version of the earlier
bredrin

bleeder
n British

an individual, particularly an unfortunate or despicable person. This working-class term often conveys strong dislike or contempt. It dates from the 19th century, but has lost popularity since the 1960s.

bleeding
adj British

an intensifying term, currently out of fashion except in the expression ‘(the) bleedin' obvious', but widespread in the 1960s when it was significantly stronger than
bloody
. This usage probably dates from the 19th century in working-class speech.

bleezy
n

a marihuana cigarette,
joint

bleh
See
blah

blem
n British

a cigarette. The term was in use among West London teenagers in 2009.

blench
adj British

heavily-built, muscular. A version of
hench
applied to black males in youth parlance.

bless!
exclamation British

a.
a usually ironic or condescending expression of sympathy or affection used typically by adults and journalists. It is probably a version of the colloquial use of ‘bless him/her/them', etc. when addressing or referring to children.

“The poor girl was so upset when she had a wardrobe malfunction.” “Oh, bless!”

b.
a farewell used by younger speakers.
Stay blessed
is a variant form.

blick
adj British

dark. The ‘Caribbean' pronunciation of black is in use among multiethnic youth.

I's bare blick out there, man.

Blighty
n British

Britain. An anglicisation of the Hindustani
bilayati
, meaning foreign. The word was originally used with some affection by the pre-World War I colonial army, but is now most often used to suggest mock jingoism.

‘I was blown through the door and put my hand to my head. It was covered in blood, but we had no thoughts of Blighty. We didn't want to go back, we'd only just come.'
(World War I veteran David Watson,
Independent
, 12 November 1988)

blimp
n

a fat person. A favourite American college-student term of derision, also heard among British schoolchildren and others since the 1980s. From the name of the World War I barrage balloon.

‘When I was playing tennis I was just a fat blimp waddling round the court.'
(Annabel Croft,
Today
, 7 February 1989)

blimp out
vb American

to become sated and/or collapse from overeating. An elaboration of
blimp
in the sense of a fat person. In black street slang of the 1990s it was often shortened to ‘blimp'.

blind
adj South African

unpleasant, painful. Recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the
Cape Sunday Times
, 29 January 1995.

blinder
n British

an impressive or exciting action, thing or person. The word, which is often used for a sporting feat, commonly in the phrase to ‘play a blinder', implies something ‘visually stunning'.

Blind Freddie
n Australian

the personification of a slow-witted, ignorant individual. The term is usually employed in phrases such as ‘even Blind Freddie knows that'.

blinding
adj
,
exclamation British

excellent, outstanding, astonishing. This old term of approbation from the language of middle-aged Londoners was adopted as a vogue term by adolescents in the 1990s,
sometimes in the form of an exclamation. (The colloquial
blinder
, meaning a dazzling feat, has been popular since the 1970s.)

It was a totally blinding bop.
‘Recently I bought a copy of the Big Issue. The man took the money and then, instead of the usual “Cheers!” or even “Thank you!”, he said, “Blinding!”'
(
Daily Telegraph
magazine, September 1996)

bling, bling-bling
n

a.
jewellery

b.
ostentation, conspicuous display.

See also
chav

These terms, from US hip hop and street usage, became emblematic of an assertive vulgarity and conspicuous consumption in popular culture and the media from around 2000.

blingage
n American

a more recent version of
bling

blinglish
n British

an imitation by white or Asian speakers of black speech patterns, especially of
hip hop
slang and a Caribbean accent. The term was reported in the
Observer
newspaper in February 2004: it refers to
bling
as an emblematic term of youth affiliation.

blissed-out
adj

ecstatic, euphoric or in a trance, specifically as a result of a religious experience. The term is from the jargon of transcendent ‘fringe' or alternative religious cults of the late 1960s.

blitz
adj British

cold, freezing. Used in street-gang code and its imitations since around 2010.

Fam, iz blitz in here
.

blitzed
adj

very drunk or
stoned
. The usage ultimately derives from the German
Blitz
(lightning) and
Krieg
(war).

‘Jesus, she was completely blitzed, absolutely out of her head.'
(Recorded, photographer, London, 1989)

blivvit
n British

a.
the vagina

b.
a collective term for women, especially when seen as potential sexual conquests.
Blart
is a synonym.

bloater, bloat
n British

a fat or overweight person. A bloater is an edible fish, but the slang term is probably derived from ‘bloated'.

blob
n British

1.
a corpse, road-accident victim. An unsympathetic term used by ambulance men, the police and tramps.

2.
an ulcer, excrescence

3.
a bodily protuberance, a breast or a testicle

4.
a condom.

See also
on the blob

5.
an idle, inert employee.

See also
blobocracy

The second and third senses of the word are recent mock-childish coinages in use particularly among schoolchildren and students.

In archaic British slang, blob has been used in a variety of sexually related contexts, e.g. ‘on blob', meaning sexually aroused, and ‘blobbing', meaning suffering from a venereal infection.

blobocracy
n British

members of middle management or office workers, especially those considered unimaginative and undynamic. This dismissive epithet was heard in the office slang of the 1990s, typically used by senior executives of their subordinates.

‘If you want to get anything done, the simplest thing is just avoid the blobocracy and push it upstairs as fast and hard as you can.'
(Recorded, advertising sales executive, London, 1995)

blob wagon
n British

an ambulance. From the language of tramps and
dossers
.

‘Being rescued by the “blob wagon” for hospital treatment.'
(
Observer
, August 1987)

block
n British

1.
the head. Since the early 1950s this old term has only been used as part of phrases such as ‘knock someone's block off' or ‘do one's block'.

2. the block
solitary confinement. A prisoners' term which is a shortening of ‘punishment block'.
Down the block
denotes being (sent) in(to) solitary confinement.

block (in)
vb British

to have sex (with). A working-class male vulgarism heard from the late 19th century until the 1960s. It may now be obsolete.

blocked
adj British

under the influence of drugs, especially
pep pills
or amphetamines. This word was popular in the early 1960s among
mods
, who used it to refer to the state of intoxication
caused by ‘pep pills' or amphetamines, such as
purple hearts
,
blues
,
black bombers
, etc. The origin is probably in the idea that one's
block
, or head, is completely taken over and partly incapacitated by the drug. This is reinforced by the fact that a side-effect of amphetamines is to make the user tongue-tied, so that communication is literally blocked.