Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (21 page)

bluddart
n British

a despicable person. An insult favoured by young black males and in use among South London schoolchildren in 2010.

bludge
vb Australian

to cadge, scrounge, shirk or loaf. Originally the word meant to bully and was a short-ening
of bludgeon. It later meant to live off immoral earnings. The word, which has given rise to the more common
bludger
, was introduced to Britain via Australian TV soap operas in the late 1980s.

bludger
n Australian

a cadger or scrounger, a disreputable or despicable person. (A
dole-bludger
is the Australian equivalent of the British ‘dole scrounger'.)

blue
n

1.
Australian
a violent row or fight

‘They got into a blue – Kelly pushed Charlene into a gooseberry bush.'
(
Neighbours
, Australian TV soap opera, 1987)

2.
British
an amphetamine tablet. A term from the 1960s when these tablets were light blue in colour and also known as ‘French blues' and ‘double-blues'. (Strictly speaking blues were tablets of drinamyl, a mixed amphetamine and barbiturate preparation, prescribed for slimmers.)

3.
a police officer. A rare usage, but occasionally heard in all English-speaking countries; it is usually in the plural form.

4.
Australian
a red-headed man. A nickname mentioned in Rolf Harris's well-known song
Tie me kangaroo down, sport!
'

blue balls
n

a condition of acute (male) sexual frustration, jocularly supposed to bring on a case of orchiditis, the testicles swelling to bursting point. This American expression of the 1950s, popular then among college students, has since spread to other English-speaking communities.

bluebottle
n British

a police officer. A term popular in the 1950s and still heard. It has been used in Britain since the 16th century, well before policemen wore uniforms, and indeed existed in any organised form, which suggests that the original reference was to an annoying pestilential presence.

‘Before you could turn round the place filled up with bluebottles.'
(Recorded, pub habitué, London, 1987)

blue foot
n British

a prostitute. An ephemeral word of uncertain origin.

(Recorded by Deputy Assistant Commissioner David Powis in his
Field Manual for Police
, 1977)

bluie, bluey
n

1.
British
a five-pound note or an amount of £5, from the turquoise colour of the banknote. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

2.
Australian
a red-headed man. A common facetious nickname also rendered as
blue
.

blunt
n

1.
a marihuana cigarette,
joint
. This term, fashionable in the USA and the UK since the early 1990s, originally referred to a cigar hollowed out and filled with a combination of cannabis and cocaine.

We prefer to spark up a blunt and kick back.

2.
British
a hand-rolled cigarette, roll-up

blunts
n British

cigarette papers. The term was recorded in 2001.

BMOC
n American

‘big man on campus'; a
preppie
and student term for an influential fellow student.

Compare
BNIC

See also
BNOC

BMW
n American

a successful black male. The initials, punning on the brand name of a favourite German car, stand for ‘Black Man Working'. An item of black street-talk included in so-called
Ebonics
, recognised as a legitimate language variety by school officials in Oakland, California, in late 1996.

Compare
BNIC

BNIC
n American

a successful or dominant black male. The initials stand for ‘Boss Nigger In Charge'. An item of black street-talk that was included in so-called
Ebonics
, recognised as a legitimate language variety by school officials in Oakland, California, in late 1996.

Compare
BMOC
;
BMW

BNOC
n

an outstanding student. The letters stand for ‘big name on campus', and like the earlier synonymous
BMOC
, are almost invariably used ironically. The
Guardian
newspaper, in its 2012 guide to student slang, observed, ‘A BNOC (pronounced bee-knock) is a self-proclaimed campus celebrity – often the chair of a society or involved in student politics. The term is often used to mock the subject for their delusions of grandeur, rather than as a compliment'.

bo
adj

excellent, attractive,
cool
. In the words of one British user; ‘not as cool as
fit
but
more cool than
neat
'. The term, popular in youth slang since the early noughties decade and sometimes used as an exclamation (see
bo selecta
), probably originated in the USA, possibly in Louisiana where it derived from French
beau
, beautiful, or it might be a shortening of
bodacious
.

boak
vb British

to vomit. The term, probably echoic in origin, is heard particularly in the Scottish Lowlands, the north of England and Northern Ireland. It occurs in the work of the Scottish novelist James Kelman and the Northern Irish poet Tom Paulin.

It makes me want to boak.
We could hear him boaking in the next room
.

boat
n American

a desirable, attractive individual. This item of adolescent slang is a clipping of the colloquial
dreamboat
.

boat (race)
n British

the
face
. A piece of London rhyming slang which is still heard in both the shortened and full form. (The Oxford and Cambridge boat race provided an annual excursion for many East Enders.)

‘Nice legs, shame about the boat race.'
(Sexist catchphrase from the 1970s)

bob
¹
n Canadian

a fat or well-built woman. The term, which can be used pejoratively or with mild affection (usually condescending), is an abbreviation of ‘big ol bitch'.

bob
²
vb American

to have sex (with). This fairly inoffensive term, heard among American adolescents, began to be used by younger speakers in Scotland and the north of England in the late 1990s. Like many similar terms (
boff
,
biff
, etc.) it probably derives from the use of the same word (in this case in British dialect) to denote a jab or punch.

‘You hear lads saying they just want to bob her. Not me, mate.'
(
Guardian
, 15 July 1996)

bobbins
n British

rubbish, worthless items. This usage arose in the north of England, referring originally to the waste bobbins in the wool mills, and is still heard in its generalised sense.

bobble ((hat) and scarf)
vb
,
n British

(to)
laugh
. A rhyming-slang phrase heard since around 2000.
Bubble-bath
is a synonym.

You're 'avin a bobble mate.

bobby
n British

a policeman. A widely known nickname, usually applied to constables or uniformed officers. Rarely heard except in jest since the 1960s, the word derived from the Christian name of Sir Robert Peel, who founded the Metropolitan Police in 1828.

bobbydazzler
n British

something or someone impressive or dazzling. The word dates from the late 19th century.

bobby soxer
n American

a teenage girl. The phrase referred to the short white socks worn as part of a standard ensemble in the 1930s and 1940s. The term itself survived until the 1960s.

BOBFOC
n British

a female with an attractive body but an ugly face. A very widespread male pejorative. The expression, popular since 2000, has been defined as ‘…a woman with a great rack and pegs, but a face like a builder'. The letters stand for ‘body off
Baywatch
, face off
Crimewatch
'. It is pronounced as a word rather than letter by letter. A 2005 review of this dictionary wrongly claimed that the term was an invention by lexicographers. In 2006 an alternative spelling, BOBFOK, was proposed by would-be wits: it stands for ‘body of Barbie, face of Ken' (the glamorous doll's square-jawed male consort).

Bob Hope
n British

cannabis,
dope
. Rhyming slang from the name of the British-born American comedian. The term is usually said in full, as in ‘We've run out of Bob Hope, let's call the man.' The ‘H' is often dropped, in self-conscious imitation of the appropriate accent (compare the self-conscious glottal stop in, e.g.,
bottle
). This is an example of rhyming slang used, and probably coined, by young middle-class soft-drug users in imitation of traditional working-class cockney rhyming slang.

bobo
¹
n

a ‘bourgeois bohemian' (person who simultaneously favours materialistic behaviour and ‘alternative' tastes). The word began to be used in New York in 2001, although it originates in French as
bohème bourgeois
.

bobo
²
, bo-bo, bo bo
adj American
of poor quality, inadequate, disappointing, irritating. The word has been used since the early noughties by younger American speakers with a variety of meanings, all
pejorative in some way. These, or some of them, may derive from Spanish
bobo
meaning silly or fool.

bob oneself
vb British

to
shit
oneself. A vulgarism recorded in 2001.

bocat
vb

to perform oral sex. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

bock
n British

bad luck. This obscure term, cited as an example of the jargon of cat burglars, was recorded in
FHM
magazine in April 1996.

bod
n

1.
the body. The short form is usually heard in American speech, as in ‘check out his great bod'. In British middle-class speech it refers to an individual, as in ‘oddbod'.

2.
British
a tedious, intrusive, pretentious or otherwise irritating person. A vogue term among the fashionable young in the later 1980s. The word may be a shortening of the synonymous ‘wimp-bod'.

‘We are going to create a club without bods…No bods. Bods being the sort of chaps who've got onto the scene and just stuck like glue.'
(
Evening Standard
, 12 June 1989)

bodacious, boldacious
adj

fearsome, enormous, impressive,
feisty
. The word is now often used in black speech and by teenagers and has spread from American usage (where it originated) to the language of British teenagers. It appears to be a blend of bold and audacious, but Chapman's
New Dictionary of American Slang
derives it from ‘body-atiously', meaning bodily.

bodge
n
,
vb Australian, British

(to do) a slapdash job, especially in constructing something. The term may be a back-formation from ‘bodger', a rural craftsman who works out-of-doors in primitive conditions roughly shaping and turning, e.g., chair-legs and spindles, or may be from the related standard verb to ‘botch'.

bodge-up
n British

1.
a makeshift repair, a ramshackle construction. The result of someone bodging a job.

2.
a mess or disaster. A variant of
balls-up
or ‘botch-up' influenced by the above sense.

bodgy
adj British

inferior, malfunctioning or out of order. A late-1980s adolescent term based on
bodge-up
.

‘Hey mate, your machine's bodgy!'
(Recorded, video arcade habitué, 1989)

B.O.F., b.o.f.
n British

a ‘boring old
fart
'. An expression of derision institutionalised by rock-music journalists in the mid- and late 1970s, usually applied by devotees of
punk
music to musicians of the
hippy
era who were entering middle age.

‘Taking all my B.O.F. records and paperbacks down to [the] jumble sale…'
(
Sincerely yours, Biff
, Chris Garratt and Mick Kidd, 1986)

boff
¹
vb

1.
to hit, punch. A nursery variant of
biff
, occasionally used semi-facetiously by adults.

2.
to have sex (with),
fuck

‘“He's a logical choice”.
“So the fact he's boffing her has nothing to do with it?”'
(
Vice Versa
, US film, 1986)