Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (42 page)

coz
n See
cuz

cozzer
n

a police officer. An item of London working-class slang. The word might have originated in the archaic market porters' term ‘cozza(r)', from the Hebrew
chazar
meaning pork or pig. London's first black
policeman, Norwell Roberts, was known as ‘Nozzer the cozzer'.

‘I didn't want to see the shit-eating grins on the cozzers' faces.'
(Jimmy Robinson, released prisoner, speaking on the BBC TV programme
Panorama
, 24 February 1997)

crabs
n pl

pubic lice, a case of
pediculosis pubis
. The louse is popularly known as the crab louse from its resemblance when viewed under magnification.

a dose/case of crabs

crack
¹
n

1.
a purified, addictive form of cocaine. When pellets of crack are smoked they fizz and crackle, which is probably the origin of the name, reinforced by the precedent of
smack
. The drug became popular in the USA in 1985, but was first described in
The Gourmet Cookbook, a Complete Guide to Cocaine
, published in California in 1972.

‘Crack – cocaine mixed with baking soda and cooked in microwave ovens – has been described as the “fast food of drugs”.'
(
Independent
, 24 July 1989)

2a.
the vagina. An obvious vulgarism, occasionally heard in all English-speaking areas.

2b.
the buttock cleft

3.
Irish and British
a good time. From the adjective cracking and the Irish notion (sense
4
).

‘It's a right crack.'
(Snooker hall manager, ITV telethon, May 1988)

4. the crack
Irish and British
what's going on, the latest news or the current ambience. This word is used all over Ireland and in the late 1980s spread to Britain. The allpurpose term, usually in phrases such as ‘what's the crack?' or ‘that's the crack!', seems to combine two very old, popular unorthodox senses of the word: to talk, gossip or boast, as in
crack on
, and the adjective crack meaning first-rate, excellent.

‘This is the only place to live. I tried Australia but I came back because I missed the crack.'
(Belfast resident,
The Crack: a Belfast Year
, Sally Belfrage, 1987)
‘Big Alex is a minder and a fixer. In his words, he knows all the crack.'
(
Guardian
, 12 December 1987)

crack
²
vb American

to display one's buttock-cleft above the waistline of low-slung clothing

Pull your pants up, baby, you're cracking.

crack a chubby
vb See
chubby

crack a fat
vb Australian

to have an erection. A vulgarism known in Britain through Barry Humphries'
Adventures of Barry McKenzie
. There are a number of mostly obsolete expressions in Australian English using the word ‘crack' to mean achieve or produce.

crackalackin'
n American

happening. The street slang term, an elaboration of
crackin'
, was popularised by its use in the family cartoon movie
Madagascar
.

Hey dude, what's crackalackin'?

crack a stiffie
vb British
to have an erection. An expression used in

Sloane Ranger
and

yuppie
circles.

cracker
¹
n American

1.
a white person. In black street argot the term, from the colour of savoury biscuits, is almost invariably pejorative and often refers to an unsophisticated or bigoted white person.

2.
a computer programmer who breaches systems for fun or profit, in the patois of
cyberpunks
and
net-heads
.

Compare
hacker

cracker
²
adj British

excellent. A vogue adjectival version of the colloquial noun usage (denoting something or someone outstanding, admirable) which dates back to the late 19th century.

crackerbox
n American

a.
a psychiatric hospital

b.
a crazy person

‘I'm stuck in some private crackerbox.'
(
Man Trouble
, US film, 1993)

The terms are a pun on the colloquial adjectival sense of ‘crackers'.

crackin'
n

happening. Usually heard in the phrase ‘What's crackin?', the usage originated in Southern and black speech in the USA but has been adopted by some younger speakers in the UK.

crack it
vb British

to succeed in a seduction. Used by and about men, this is a specific use of the general colloquial sense of to succeed, especially to suddenly succeed after long effort, as in ‘cracking' a safe or a code.

crackle
n British

money, banknotes. A word used by street traders, bookies,
spivs
, etc., particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. An alternative to
crinkle
, similarly inspired by the sound of crisp new notes.

crackling
n British

an attractive female, or women in general seen as sex objects. This male expression was particularly popular in the 1950s and early 1960s, usually in the phrase ‘a bit of crackling'. It derives from the idea of pork crackling being a ‘tasty morsel', perhaps reinforced by the vulgar sense of
crack
.

crack on
vb British

1.
to talk incessantly, browbeat or boast. The phrase, which is now generally used by middle-class speakers, is a successor to a colloquial use of
crack
to mean gossip, brag or tell tales which is at least 300 years old and survives in Scottish and American speech.

‘He was cracking on about his job and his responsibilities.'
(Recorded, city financier, London, 1987)

2a.
to establish contact with a potential romantic partner, seduce

‘You can't crack on to that many people here.'
(
Away the Lads
, BBC 2 TV documentary, February 1993)

2b.
‘crack on someone': to flirt with, have and/or express an infatuation with someone. An item of slang in use in girls' public schools in the early 1990s.

crack wise
vb

to make witty or cheeky remarks. A back-formation from the noun and verb ‘wise-crack'.

crafty butcher
n British

a male homosexual. The pejorative expression is inspired by the notion that ‘he takes his meat in through the back door'. The term was posted on the b3ta website in 2004.

crank
n

1.
the penis. A rare usage, mainly heard in the USA among sailors, truckers, ‘hardhats' and others in the 1960s and 1970s.

2. speed
(methedrine or amphetamine), heroin. A drug users' term from the late 1960s which could also be used to refer to any drug which ‘cranks up' or re-stimulates a person's system.

3.
American
an irritable, bad-tempered person. The slang noun is derived from the colloquial adjective ‘cranky' (itself from the Scottish dialect word for bent or distorted).

cranking, cranked
adj

exciting, stimulating, powerful. The words come from the image of cranking up an engine and, by extension, the colloquial ‘cranking up the volume'.

crank up
vb

to inject (a dangerous drug). A
junkies
' term from the early 1970s derived from the image of inserting a handle into an engine to jerk it back into life.

crank up some smack
They're going to crank up.

crap
¹
n

1a.
excrement,

shit 1b.
dirt, rubbish

1c.
worthless nonsense,
bullshit

In modern usage crap is generally seen as a more moderate synonym for
shit
; in fact the word comes from Middle English
crappe
, which meant scrapings, scale, residue or chaff; this in turn came from words existing in Old French, German and Dutch, distantly related to ‘crop' and ‘crabbed'. (The fact that the flush toilet was invented by a Thomas Crapper appears to be pure coincidence.)

2.
oppressive, petty or unpleasant behaviour; by extension from
crap 1a
and
1b
. This idea is usually expressed in such phrases as ‘he doesn't take any crap from anyone' or ‘she's not going to put up with this crap any more'.

crap
²
vb

to defecate,
shit
. The verb form, which began to be used in the late 18th century, is derived from the earlier noun
crap
, which originally meant rubbish, rather than excrement.

crap-ass
adj

very bad. An intensified form of
crap
, using the American

ass
as a combining form. The term was in use among British speakers in 2003.

crap on
vb British

to nag, harangue or talk incessantly. A near synonym for the verb to
bang on
, with the added suggestion that the content of the monologue or harangue in question is worthless or frivolous.

‘The only moments of light relief we get are when you come in and we crap on about anything we like.'
(Recorded, London University student, July 1988)

crapper, the crapper
n

a toilet. This vulgarism appears to derive from
crap
and not from the name of Thomas Crapper, a Victorian manufacturer
of lavatories who is claimed to be the inventor of the flush toilet.

crappy, crappo
adj

worthless, contemptible, of very low quality. From
crap
. Crappo is a more recent variant.

crash
¹
vb

1.
to go to sleep, lie down and lose consciousness. This word was very popular in the
hippy
era, perhaps because the suggestion of sudden collapse coincided with drug-induced sleep or simply curling up on a floor exhausted. Crash sounded rather dated by the late 1990s; it originated in armed-services slang in World War II, probably among airmen, and was adopted by bohemian travellers and
beatniks
during the 1950s.

2.
to gatecrash. A word made especially popular by the teenage custom (from the 1960s onward) of arriving uninvited at parties.

3.
British
to cadge, borrow or lend. In use among working-class speakers and members of the armed services in the 1950s, this term became popular among adolescents in the 1990s. It is heard particularly in the Scottish Lowlands and the north of England.

Can you crash me a tenner?
I just wanted to crash a couple of biffs.

crash
²
adj

excellent, attractive, exciting. In this sense, fashionable since 2000, the word may be a shortening of
crash-hot
or an unrelated coinage.

crasher
n British

a (crashing) bore. An upper- and, more recently, middle-class term. It has existed in limited circulation since the 1950s and has been fashionable among
Sloane Rangers, yuppies
, etc.

crash-hot
adj Australian

excellent, first-rate. This fairly popular expression is probably a euphemism for
shit-hot
.

crashpad
n

a place to sleep (temporarily)

crater-face
n

a person suffering from facial acne or spots. ‘Pizza-face' is a synonym, similarly used by or of adolescents.

cray, cray-cray, kray
adj American

outrageous, ridiculous, unbelievable. The shortening of ‘crazy' was popularised in 2011 by
That Shit Kray
by Jay-Z and Kanye West.

cream
n South African

an attractive young female. Recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the
Cape Sunday Times
, 29 January 1995.

cream-crackered
adj British

knackered
; exhausted, worn out. A humorous rhyming-slang version of the more common word. It was probably coined in the 1970s, inspired by the savoury dry biscuits called ‘cream crackers'.

crease
n British

the anus, buttocks, the female genital area. The vulgarism, in use especially in the northwest of England, is often heard in phrases such as ‘a kick up the crease'.

creasing, creasing up
adj British

overcome by laughter. The terms have become fashionable, especially in black speech, since 2000.

‘You tell me it's OK for whites to imitate black culture? I'm creasin'.'
(Recorded, black female, London, March 2004)