Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (39 page)

‘Villains call it clocking in Leeds, eyeballing in Manchester and screwing in London's East End…It came as a shock: juries can be intimidated by a stare.'
(
Sunday Times
, 5 June 1988)

2.
to hit. A usage that was, and is, popular in Australia and which has been adopted in Britain (where it may have originated) and the USA. This term, used almost exclusively by men, probably also derives from the archaic term ‘clock' meaning a person's face; hence the verb meaning to punch (in the face).

He finally lost his temper and clocked him one.

3.
to tamper with the mileometer of a car in order to show a low mileage. A piece of dealers' jargon which has passed into common currency due to the wide extent of the practice.

clocking
n American

selling
crack
. A street-slang term of the late 1980s.

‘Some of them wear tiny gold charms that look like miniature watch faces – a dealer's trademark, which is probably where the term clocking came from.'
(
Sunday Times
, 10 September 1989)

clock it
vb

to defeat one's opponent, win a contest. The term may have derived from the jargon employed in the Nintendo Game Boy computer games, or from the colloquial Americanism ‘to clean someone's clock', meaning ‘to defeat or confound'.

clodhopper
n

a.
a clumsy or boorish person. The term originally (two hundred-odd years ago) referred to a ploughman or rustic (treading clods of earth in the fields).

b.
British
a policeman. Rhyming slang from
copper
, rather than a simple pejorative.

clog
¹
vb British

to kick

clog
²
, cloggy
n British

a Dutch person. This humorous or derogatory word may date from the 1940s when clogs were still widely worn.
Cheese
is a synonym.

clogger
n British

someone who kicks people. The term is usually used dismissively of soccer players whose game is based more on violence than competence.

That team are nothing but a bunch of cloggers.

cloggy
n See
clog
²

clogs
n pl See
pop one's clogs

clone
n

a.
a
gay
man of stereotyped appearance. In the gay male community of the 1970s a ‘uniform' of working clothes, leather caps, moustaches, etc., developed. Indistinguishable conformists to this standard code were referred to by others and themselves as clones. In this sense the word is not necessarily pejorative.

b.
any fashion-follower or imitator who is indistinguishable from others, or is blindly conformist to a dress code. A derogatory term since the late 1970s, often added to a prefix to form such epithets as ‘
Madonna-clone
', ‘
Michael Jackson-clone
', etc.

closet case, closet queen
n

a homosexual who conceals his or her homosexuality; the second version of the phrase refers only to men. Originally part of underground
gay
terminology, this phrase became well known in the early 1970s when many previously secretive homosexuals decided to
come out
. The term was first widely used in the USA although its precise time and place of origin is obscure. The connection between closet and secrecy is obvious; compare the phrase with the well-known ‘skeleton in the cupboard'.

clothes hanger
n British

an idle, ineffective colleague. The item of police slang suggests someone who merely wears uniform or plain clothes, but does nothing else.
BONGO
,
FLUB
and
uniform carrier
are synonyms.

See also
BINGO seat

clouts
n pl British

underpants, especially female. The term is currently in use among, e.g., middle-class adolescents, but dates back to at least the late 18th century when it denoted a handkerchief, later a sanitary napkin.

clowns
n pl

female breasts

The jocular nickname/euphemism, popular since 2000, is used by males.

Club Fed
n American

prison, especially a federal, rather than state institution. A 1980s pun on Club Med(iterranée), which continues the time-honoured metaphor of a prison sentence as a vacation.

clucky
adj Australian

broody, pregnant. From the image of a mother hen clucking over her clutch of eggs, the word has now been extended to mean pregnant, wanting to be pregnant, or merely eagerly anticipating something.

clue-ie
adj Australian

bright, alert, well informed. The term is derived from the colloquial ‘clued up' and has been used in Australian TV programmes such as
Police Rescue
, also broadcast in the UK.

When it comes down to it, she's not too clue-ie, is she?

cluffy
n British

a foolish, unfortunate or unpleasant person, a misfit. In use among schoolchildren and adolescents since 2000.

clumping
n British

a beating or maiming. The term, used typically by criminals to indicate physical punishment or a revenge attack, was recorded in the ITV documentary,
The Cook Report
, 6 June 1995.

clunge
n British

the vagina. A vulgarism used by males and popularised by
Viz
magazine, and the TV series
The Inbetweeners
in 2009.

‘…it has caught on, with boys saying they are going on “clunge patrol” when they are going out on the pull.'
(Recorded, South London adult, July 2012)

clunk
n American

1.
a stupid, dull-witted person

2.
an old, dilapidated car or truck

clutch
¹
n British

a cheek-to-cheek or arm-in-arm dance. A ‘society' word, used by
Sloane Rangers
among others, which is a specialised use of the colloquial meaning of ‘embrace'.

clutch
²
adj American

excellent. The term was in use on campus in 2011.

clutched
adj American

tense, agitated. The term refers to the physical symptoms of anxiety in the form of tension in the abdomen and chest.

There's no need to get so clutched, it's only a math test.

Clyde
n See
Clydesdale

Clydesdale
n American

an attractive male. A humorous term of the late 1980s based on the supposed suggestion of heroic
WASP
maledom inherent in the Christian names ‘Clyde' and ‘Dale'. The word, which probably originated on the streets (‘Clyde' was used by
hipsters
in the 1950s to categorise an archetypal
square
), was used by
Valley Girls
and
preppies
among others from the early 1980s. (The literal meaning of Clydesdale is a form of large, handsome, pedigree horse; strong, hardworking and enormously expensive.)

c-note
n

£100 or $100 (not necessarily always in the form of a hundred-denomination bill). From the Latin numeral C, meaning one hundred, this amount is also known as a
century
.

coasting
adj American

under the influence of illicit drugs, moving around in a drug-induced daze or stupor. By extension, being in a euphoric state after listening to jazz, rock music, etc.

coating
n British

abuse, insults. This use of the word has been recorded since the 1990s among middle-aged speakers and either refers to the grabbing by the lapels, or is based on the notion of
pasting
and the colloquial slang sense of ‘paint' (to beat up). The archaic verb to ‘coat' was also recorded in Britain and Australia in the sense of to reprimand.

cob
vb
,
n American

(to give someone) a pinch or poke in the buttocks. In this sense the word, originally a dialect term for a lump or a protrusion, can be dated back to the English slang of the later 18th century.

See also
get/have a cob on

cobber
n Australian

a friend, ‘mate'. An unsophisticated term of address among men, which is now virtually obsolete. There are two possible derivations proposed for this well-known Australianism: the archaic English dialect verb to ‘cob', meaning to take a liking to (someone) or the Yiddish word
chaber
(from Hebrew, meaning comrade).

cobblers
n British

nonsense, rubbish,
balls
. A popular example of rhyming slang (from ‘cobbler's awls') which is often used in ignorance of its vulgar derivation. Formerly used literally by cockneys to mean the testicles, the word is old, but was given widespread currency in the 1960s by such TV comedies as
Steptoe and Son
.

‘He is dismissive about awards: “A load of cobblers”.'
(
Observer
, Section 5, 9 April 1989)

cob-on
n British

a fit of ill-temper. A term heard predominantly in the north of England.

cock
n British

1.
a term of address (for men). It probably derives from ‘cock-sparrow', or from the image of a brave fighting-cock. Typically, the word is used in an affectionate, bantering way in expressions such as the dated cockney ‘wotcher cock!' or ‘(my) old cock'. Cock has been used in this general sense for at least three hundred years.

2.
nonsense, rubbish. This sense of the word has been in use since the 1940s and may be a shortening of ‘poppycock' (from the Dutch
pappekak
, meaning ‘soft shit' or absolute rubbish), ‘cock and bull' or a euphemistic variant of
cack
.

3.
the penis. In this sense the word is used all over the English-speaking world. In Britain the usage dates from the 17th century. Its origin is in the image of the male member either as a strutting fighter or as resembling a chicken's neck or water-valve. (In the USA the word rooster is usually prudishly substituted when referring to the male bird.)

cockblock
n

1.
an obstacle to seduction by a male, typically an obstructive or intrusive female friend of the intended seductee. The term was posted on the internet in 2003.

Compare
grenade

2.
the protruding dividing barrier between male stand-up urinals

cock diesel
n American

a powerful, attractive male. The term, usually employed appreciatively, but sometimes ironically, was heard in black street slang and on white campuses in the 1990s. The ‘diesel' element (as in
diesel-dyke
) suggests the unrefined power of a diesel-engined vehicle.

cock-fest
n British

‘an event or gathering dominated by males'.
Sausage-fest
is a contemporary synonym, both used, e.g., by university students in 2011.

cocksucker
n

a despicable, contemptible person. This expression is almost always used in this sense rather than its literal meaning of someone who performs fellatio; it is generally an Americanism, applied to males as a term of abuse. The implication is of a person who is willing to stoop (metaphorically) to disgusting or debasing acts.

cock-tease, cock-teaser
n

a slightly more polite version of
prick-tease(r)

cock (something) up
vb British

to make a mess of, to mismanage disastrously. As in the noun
cock-up
, the precise origin of the expression is uncertain. It is common in Britain and Australia, but not in the USA.

cock-up
n British

a mistake, blunder or shambles. Many different sources have been posited for this expression; ‘cock' may refer to some obscure piece of professional jargon (it occurs in the vocabularies of printers, hunters, brewers and others), to the penis,
or it may be an alteration of
cack
. Alternatively, ‘cock' may simply have been chosen as a more acceptable complement in a phrase synonymous with
balls-up
and
fuck-up
.

‘Mercifully these cock-ups don't happen too often.'
(Jeremy Paxman, Breakfast TV, November 1988)

coco
¹
n British

a black or coloured person. A pejorative or patronising term used especially by middle- and upper-class speakers since the 1960s.

‘And there were two cocos changing a wheel in the outside lane.'
(Recorded, public schoolboy, London, 1971)

coco
²
, cocoa
vb British

almost always used in the phrase ‘I should coco(a)!', expressing disbelief or indignation. This is London rhyming slang for
say so
(as in ‘I should say so!').