Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (52 page)

doss
¹
vb

a.
to sleep

I need a place to doss for a couple of nights
.

b.
to move from place to place, sleeping in borrowed or low-class accommodation

‘Old Shawie's been dossing for the last three weeks.'
(Recorded, London student, 1988)

c.
to relax,
chill
. A fashionable usage since 2000.

A 19th-century term which may derive from the Latin
dorsum
, for ‘back'. The verb forms, as opposed to the noun forms of the word, are mainly encountered in British English.

doss
²
n

1a.
a place to sleep, especially a temporary, free and/or makeshift bed. This word, from 19th-century tramps' jargon, was probably originally a corruption of the Latin
dorsum
, for ‘back'. Tramps are unlikely to have coined the term; it may have come from the jargon surrounding pugilism (meaning ‘flat on one's back') which was a sport subscribed to by aristocrats and students, among others.

1b.
a period of sleep, a nap

2.
a very easy task, a pushover. In this sense the word, although based on the notion of lying down, may be influenced by ‘toss', as in easily tossing off a piece of work.

You mustn't see this purely as a doss
.

doss around
vb British

to do nothing in particular, lead an aimless existence. From

doss 2
.

dossbag
n British

1.
a sleeping bag

2.
a scruffy, lazy or slovenly person

doss down
vb British

to lie down to sleep (usually on the floor), to bed down

Just doss down anywhere you like
.

dosser
n British

a.
a homeless person, vagrant, or down-and-out who sleeps wherever space is available

‘We are not tramps, winos or even dossers, we are gentlemen of the road – and we refuse to be moved.'
(Homeless man,
Observer,
16 August 1987)

b.
a slovenly, irresponsible person. A favourite term of affectionate abuse between young (usually male) people since the 1980s. (From the noun
doss
or the verb
doss around
.)

doss house
n

a dormitory for vagrants or a cheap, shabby hotel

I don't know how you manage to live in this doss house you call a flat
.

‘I felt like pissing off and spending the night in some Arab dosshouse.'
(Joe Orton's diary, 14 May 1967)

do the wild thing
vb American

a.
to run amok

b.
to have sex

An item of black slang which may have given rise to the widely reported
wilding
.

do time
vb

to serve a prison sentence

double-bagger
n American

a hideous or repellent person. A phrase from the vocabulary of
Valley Girls
and other American teenagers from the mid-1970s, probably originating in earlier surfers' slang. The image evoked is of a
person who must wear a bag over their head – and provide one for the onlooker too, or alternatively wear
two
bags. The expression, in this humorous usage, was first borrowed from the language of baseball, where it describes a hit which allows the hitter to advance two bases or ‘bags'.

double-munter
n British

a particularly ugly or unattractive female. An intensified form of the vogue term
munter
, popular among students and others since 2000.

douchebag
n American

a contemptible or very unpleasant person. The expression is usually a strong term of abuse, indicating real distaste, although like comparable words it is sometimes used lightheartedly, typically by high-school and college students. Rubber bags were a part of douching paraphernalia when that form of contraception was widespread, especially among prostitutes. The word is applied to males and females.

‘OK, we're going in there and anyone who doesn't act elegant is a douchebag.'
(
Satisfaction
, US film, 1988)

dough
n

money. This was the most popular American slang term for money from the 19th century until the mid-1960s when it was supplanted by
bread
.

doughboy
n

1.
American
an army private. The word was most popular at the time of World War I but is still occasionally used. The original doughboy was a sort of suet dumpling served in the armies and navies of the 19th century in Britain and the USA.

2.
British
a blow, a heavy punch. In working-class and cockney jargon this rare sense of the word is occasionally recorded. Its derivation may be from the (heavy) dumpling referred to above.

He landed him a real doughboy round the chops.

Douglas
n British

a 3rd, a third-class university honours degree. A student witticism of the late 1980s playing on the name, Douglas Hurd, of a long-serving member of Mrs Thatcher's Conservative cabinet (a
Richard
is a synonym).

Compare
Desmond
;
Pattie
;
made-in

do up
vb

1.
to inject or inhale (a drug). An embellishment of

do
in the sense of ‘take (drugs)' common among illicit drug users since the early 1970s.

2.
See
done up

do (someone) up
vb British

to discomfit, defeat, confound

‘Those long-haul flights really do you up.'
(Recorded, female traveller, London, 2003)

dout, dowt
n British

a cigarette end or stub. A word like
dub
, used by vagrants and working-class speakers. The
Oxford English Dictionary
first recorded the word in use in Glasgow in 1975. It may be a dialectal form of ‘dowse(d)' or a contraction of ‘stubbed-out'.

dowee
adj British

‘rubbish'. In use among South London schoolchildren in 2010.

You're so dowee
.

down
adj American

1.
authentic, trustworthy, sound. The usage may derive from the appreciative sense of
down-and-dirty
or the phrase
down with
(someone).

‘You're a down girl.'
(
Clueless
, US film, 1995)

2.
in agreement, interested

I'm down with that
.

downer
n

1.
a tranquillising or sedative drug (especially a barbiturate) in the language of illicit drug users (as opposed to
uppers
or stimulant drugs)

She's on downers
.

2.
a depressing or boring experience. From the slang of American
hipsters
of the 1950s, widespread in the English-speaking world since the 1960s, but now sounding rather dated in British English; although the phrase ‘on a downer' (going through a depressed or unlucky phase) is currently widespread.

downhome
adj American

rustic, ethnic or (agreeably) simple and neighbourly. The word was first used by urbanised northern blacks to refer to their southern roots.

downstairs
adj
,
adv

(in) the genital area or the buttocks. A coy euphemism which was probably inspired by the earlier
upstairs
, relating to the brain or head.

down the block
adj
,
adv British

in solitary confinement, being punished. A prisoners' term.

down the road
adj
,
adv British

dismissed, rejected. An item of working-class slang.

‘I want him down the road as soon as possible.'
(Recorded, labouring gang leader, London, 1992)

down the tubes/flush/chute
adv

ruined, abandoned, beyond hope. These are racier versions of ‘down the drain', ‘down the pan' or ‘down the toilet', heard in the USA since the late 1970s and in Britain since the early 1980s.

‘Bright enough to realise he is going down the tubes, he is still drawn to a prodigal self-destruction.'
(
Sunday Times
, 26 July 1987)

down with
adj

close to, supportive of. An item of black street argot popular among
rappers
and
hip hop
aficionados.

My crew, they're all down with me.

dozy
adj British

slow-witted, foolish. The word is now a colloquialism; in the 1950s it was part of ‘vulgar' speech. Originally it meant sleepy or lazy and was (and still is) a favourite term of abuse employed by sergeant majors and officers in the armed forces, teachers and other authority figures.

drack
¹
n Australian

rubbish. An Australian variant form of the more common
dreck
.

drack
²
adj Australian

scruffy, shabby, dowdy. The adjective is formed from the earlier noun, itself a variant of
dreck
.

drag
n

1.
women's clothing, as worn by men, especially homosexuals, transvestites or female impersonators. Originally theatrical slang of the early 20th century in Britain, signifying a long dress (dragging along the ground), the phrase ‘in drag' crossed into popular terminology in the early 1960s. In the case of women wearing masculine clothing, ‘man-drag' or ‘male-drag' is usually specified.

‘Marlene in man-drag.'
(Caption to photograph of Marlene Dietrich in Kenneth Anger's
Hollywood Babylon
, 1975)

2.
a thing, event or person considered to be boring or depressing. An Americanism, probably originating in the late 19th century and remaining in marginal use until the 1960s, it was adopted into teenage currency in Britain and Australia in the late 1950s and was widespread by the mid-1960s.

‘What a drag it is getting old.'
(
Mother's Little Helper
, Rolling Stones, 1965)

3a.
British
an inhalation of cigarette smoke, a puff

Give me a drag on that
.

3b.
British
a marihuana cigarette, a
joint
. A prisoners' term.

4.
a street, especially a long or important street, usually in the form
main drag
. This Americanism gave rise to ‘drag racing' to describe unofficial races from a standing start over a short, straight stretch of public road. Drag racing is now also an organised sport run over custom-built private ‘dragstrips'.

drag-arsing
n British

lingering, delaying or prevaricating. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

drag ass
vb American

1.
a variant of
haul ass

2.
to move unwillingly, lazily or slowly

drag-ass
adj American

boring, tedious, onerous. The word is applied to people as well as to tasks.

dragged-up
adj

a.
dressed in
drag

b.
dressed, clothed (especially in flamboyant or unusually expensive clothing). By extension from the first sense to the heterosexual world (although the term does not seem to be applied to women). Dragged-up is a racier version of ‘dolled-up'.

Here he comes, all dragged-up in his best things.

draggy
adj

tedious, slow or depressing. Deriving from the second sense of
drag
, the word is now rather dated. In the 1960s and 1970s it was more popular in Britain than in the USA.

It was a totally draggy scene.

drag queen
n

a male homosexual who wears women's clothing. The phrase now has overtones of
flamboyant, exhibitionist ‘femininity' rather than mere cross-dressing.

‘Kenneth Williams then gave a long portrait of a dismal drag queen writing a witty letter requesting employment.'
(Joe Orton's Diary, 13 April 1967)

‘The most important week in my life and I'm going to be spending it with a drag queen?!'
(
He's My Girl
, US film, 1987)

drain the lizard/dragon/snake
vb

to urinate. Colourful euphemisms popular with (invariably male) college students, hearty drinkers, etc. These expressions entered the slang lexicon of teenagers and college students in the late 1960s and early 1970s, although they are probably older, adult coinages on the pattern of
siphon the python
.

‘He can't come to the phone right now, he's in the can draining his lizard.'
(
Friday 13th Part VI
, US film, 1986)