Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (47 page)

det, dett
adj

excellent, physically attractive. A vogue term, pronounced with a glottal stop at the end and never a ‘t' sound, since 2000, it may be a variant form of the earlier
def
.

deuce
n

a.
two dollars or two pounds

Just let me have a deuce till tomorrow
.

b.
a two-year prison sentence

He pulled a deuce in Club Fed
.

devo
adj American

apparently ‘robotic' or depersonalised. The name of the avant-garde late-1970s band (who presented themselves as near-automatons and semi-retards due to ‘devolution') is now used to describe a ‘somnambulistic', expressionless person or behaviour.
Stepford
is used in a similar context.

acting devo
I don't know what her problem is but she is so devo
.

devo'd
adj

upset. See box on next page

dex, dexie, dexo
n

a pill or capsule of Dexedrine, a trademark for an amphetamine (
pep pill
) frequently prescribed and abused in the 1950s and 1960s

Dexter
n American

a conventional and/or boorish male. The pejorative term has been in vogue among adolescents since the late 1990s.

Dezzy
n British

an alternative form of
Desmond

DFW
adj American

ready and willing. The initials, written and occasionally spoken, stand for ‘down for whatever'. On the Bebo social networking site young people could place themselves in one of the following categories: ‘Single, ‘Seeing Someone', ‘In a Relationship', ‘Engaged', ‘Married', ‘It's Complicated', and ‘Down for Whatever'.

dialog(ue)
vb

to engage in conversation, particularly with the intent to trick, seduce, etc.

diamond
adj British

first-rate, superb, admirable. A London working-class and underworld term, often heard in the appreciative phrase ‘a diamond geezer'.

dib
¹
n

a contribution, portion, amount of money. This word was in use in Britain in the late 19th century, but is now heard mainly in the USA, typically in children's street or playground games. The plural form was common in England until the late 1950s and survives especially in the expression ‘to have dibs on something', meaning to reserve or have first rights to something.

dib
²
vb
,
n British

a partly smoked cigarette saved for relighting later, or the act of extinguishing it. This term, which may originate in a dialect verb meaning to ‘pinch' or to ‘stub', is used for instance by workmen, labourers and the armed forces.

dick
¹
n

1.
the penis. This use of the word has been widespread in the English-speaking world since the end of the 19th century. It is probably an affectionate personification in origin in the same way as
willie
, etc. This sense of the word is sometimes extended to mean sex in general, as in ‘Suzy loves dick'.

‘Not all women in pop are, or ever have been, brainless bimbos lured into lurex by cynical rock business shitheads with one eye on their cheque books and the other on their dicks.'
(
Ms London
magazine, 4 September 1989)

2.
a fool (invariably male). Dick has this secondary sense in common with most slang terms for the male member, such as
prick
,
tool
, etc.

3.
nothing at all. A vulgar emphatic more commonly heard in America and in vogue since the mid-1970s. Its sense is roughly equivalent to the British
bugger-all
.

‘What do those gimps do all day?' ‘They do dick.'

4.
a detective. Almost invariably in the phrase
private dick
. This Americanism, popularised in crime fiction, originated in underworld jargon as a corruption of the word ‘detective' itself.

See also
dickless Tracy

dick
²
vb

1.
to have sex (with), penetrate. A predictable but rare term, generated from the noun sense of
dick
.

2.
British
to look at. A variation of the Romany
dik
, meaning to look, from which
dekko
may be derived. This rare term is occasionally heard among tramps, street traders, etc.

See also
dekko

3.
to mess up, mess around (with). A variant of
dick around
or
dick up
.

She completely dicked the project
.

dick around
vb

to mess around (with), behave in a disorganised or aimless way. The expression employs
dick
(the penis) in the same way as
cock, prat about
, etc.

dickbrained
adj

stupid, extremely foolish. A term popular among young people since the 1980s. The
adjective is American in origin and the sense of
dick
employed, deriving from ‘penis', may be reinforced by the German sense of ‘thick'.

dickhead
n

a fool, an idiot. An old, folksy Americanism which became a vogue term among British youth from around 1980. It may be applied to males or females. Abusive compound words ending in ‘-head' have proliferated since the end of the 1970s.

‘The outcome of being a dickhead is that I don't possess any Aretha Franklin singles and make do with compilations.'
(John Peel quoted in
New Musical Express
, 7 February 1987)

dickless Tracy
n Australian

a policewoman. A humorous coinage playing on
dick
(the penis) and ‘Dick Tracy', the American comic-strip detective hero created by Chester Gould.

dick up
vb

to make a mess of. A variant of
cock up
occasionally heard in Britain and Australia.

dick-wad, dick-weed
n

a despicable, obnoxious or contemptible person. Teenage insults using the combining form
-wad
and its euphemistic version
-weed
.

dicky bird
n British

a
word
. A piece of London rhyming slang which has become a widespread colloquialism, especially in the phrase ‘not a dicky bird'. Unlike most modern examples of rhyming slang, it is invariably used in full, presumably to avoid confusion with ‘dickie' and
dick
.

did
n British

a form of
didicoi

diddle
vb

1.
British
to cheat. A common colloquialism recorded since the early 1800s.

‘Comedian Ken Dodd insisted on cash for shows to diddle the taxman, his former agent told a jury yesterday.'
(
Daily Mirror
, 5 July 1989)

In Old English
dydrian
meant to deceive or delude; Jeremy Diddler was a fictional swindler (in the 1803 farce
Raising the Wind
by James Kenney).

2a.
to have sex with. This sense probably derives from a nursery sense of diddle meaning fiddle with or agitate (
see
diddle 2b
).

2b.
to sexually stimulate (a woman) with the fingers. (In Middle English
dideren
meant to quiver.).

diddlo, didlo
adj British

crazy, silly or unhinged, ‘daft'. An inoffensive Londoners' word popularised by the ITV series
Minder
from the late 1970s.

‘Right bunch of diddlos, this lot!'
(
Minder
, British TV series, 1986)

diddly (squat)
n American

nothing at all, or something very insignificant, petty or small. Diddly is a nursery term akin to tiddly. The word has been used by adults, alone or in conjunction with other nursery terms (
squat, shit
, ‘whoop', ‘doo', etc.) to express dismissive contempt. The expression is understood, if not widely used, in the UK and Australia. A variant form is
doodly squat
.

‘Tevez don't care diddly squat about citeh.'
(Comment in web discussion of star footballer Carlos Tevez and his then team Manchester City, 2009)

diddly-dum
adj British

perfect, fine. A term used typically by students in the 1970s and 1980s, usually in phrases such as ‘everything's (just) diddly-dum'. The phrase resembled other mock-nursery inventions such as
dinky-di
and
fair dinkum
.

diddy
¹
n

1.
British
a fool. A lighthearted term of abuse, heard particularly in Scotland and the north of England.

2.
British
a
didicoi

3.
Irish
the penis

diddy
²
adj British

small, cute and appealing. A variant of
diddly
popularised by the Liverpool comedian, Ken Dodd.

didgy
adj British

‘the opposite of obvious'. Used in street-gang code and its imitations since around 2010.

‘When someone is talking discreetly they are being didgy. The whole point of argot is so you can be didgy.'
(Recorded, teenager, London, 2012)

didicoi, diddicoy, diddyguy, did
n British

a gypsy or a half-gypsy. The word derives from the Romany
didakeis
, meaning the offspring of a marriage between a full-blooded gypsy and an outsider. The word, which can be spelt in many ways, is often used in country districts to denote any type of gypsy or traveller.

‘There was this didicoi used to go down our snooker club – couldn't sign his own
name but he always had a roll of money on him.'
(Recorded, carpet fitter, London, 1989)

diesel
adj See
smutty

diesel (dyke)
n

a lesbian who behaves aggressively and/or has a rough masculine appearance or heavy build. The word, which is pejorative and generally used by men, carries overtones of engineers, engines, trucks and other
butch
associations and perhaps also refers to the overalls, dungarees, etc. worn by some lesbians. The term originated in the USA but was heard in Britain in the 1980s as a pejorative term and also as a simple descriptive phrase used by lesbians themselves.

dig
vb

to understand, appreciate or enjoy. A word from the slang of American swing and jazz musicians which was adopted by the beat generation and thence by teenagers all over the English-speaking world. It is now almost always used ironically or facetiously (except in the question form, ‘you dig?'). The ultimate origin is perhaps a metaphorical or religious sense of dig (into), meaning ‘to apply oneself to (a task)'.

‘The Seventies were not a decade in which a young artist could kid himself his creative idealism could best be fulfilled grovelling in a muddy field digging Hendrix through a bad acid haze.'
(
Platinum Logic
, Tony Parsons, 1981)

digerati
n pl

members of a suppose elite made up of the ‘digitally literate'. A cyber slang and journalistic term, based on the notion of the ‘literati', heard since 2000.

Compare
liggeratti

digger
n Australian

an Australian. The word was used by gold prospectors in the latter half of the 19th century to address or describe one another. It was adopted by British, Canadian and American servicemen in the First World War.
Aussie
has largely replaced digger since the 1960s.

digits
n pl

a phone number

Gimme your digits
.

digs
n pl British

excitement, thrills. A more recent synonym for
kicks
, used by adolescents during the later 1990s.