Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (55 page)

dumdum, dum-dum
n

a stupid person. An embellishment (by the linguistic process known as ‘reduplication', which is common in nursery words) of dumb.

See also
dumbo

dummy
n American

a fool, simpleton or dupe. From ‘dumb' in the American sense.

‘The dummy got too chummy in a Bing Crosby number.'
(
Salome Maloney
, John Cooper Clarke, 1978)

See also
dumbo

dummy up
vb

to keep silent; refuse to speak. A more robust alternative to
clam up
, used for instance by underworld characters in fact and fiction.

dump
n

1.
a dirty, messy or dilapidated place. The word in this sense is now so common as to be a colloquialism rather than slang
(which it would have been considered to be, say, in the 1950s).

2.
an act of defecation, usually in a phrase such as ‘take or have a dump'

‘What are you doing back there, taking a dump?'
(
Friday 13th Part VI
, US film, 1986)

dumper
n American

a violent male devotee of aggressive sexual practices. The term is used by police and pornographers to describe males indulging in rough sexual treatment of women.

dump on (someone)
vb

to criticise or chastise, heap blame or responsibility on, denigrate. This expression is now often used as an innocuous colloquialism, although it derives from the decidedly vulgar sense of
dump 2
above.

dun
vb British

to criticise, denigrate, berate (someone). The usage was recorded among middle-class adolescent males in 2000.

dune-coon
n American

an Arab, Middle-Eastern person. A derogatory term recorded in armed-forces' use during the Iraq conflict of 2004.

dung-puncher
n

a male homosexual. A highly pejorative term paralleling
fudgepacker
,
brownie-hound
and
turd burglar
in the reference to the faecal aspects of sodomy.

dunkie
n British

a girl. The word is probably an abbreviation of ‘dunkin' donut', a trademark name of an American chain of doughnut and coffee shops, although there may be a connection with the sexual sense of
dunking
. The overtones of the expression, used by teenagers in the 1970s, were not respectful.

dunking
n British

sex. A euphemism which was in middle-class and ‘society' use in the early and mid-1970s. It now seems to have fallen out of use but might be revived (on the pattern of similarly predictable terms which are periodically rediscovered). The origin is of course in the practice of dunking biscuits (in Britain) or doughnuts (in America) in tea or coffee.

dunky
n British

a condom. The term is a back-formation from ‘dunk' as a sexual euphemism.

dunnee, dunny
n Australian

a toilet, especially an ‘outhouse' or outside lavatory. The word was reintroduced to some British speakers via the Australianisms in the cartoon strip
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
in
Private Eye
magazine in the late 1960s. In fact this term has existed for approximately 200 years in British English as ‘dunnakin' (spelt in various ways, including ‘dunnigan' in Ireland) and had become obsolete. The ultimate origin of these words is obscure but seems to be related to archaic dialect words for excrement such as
danna
, or its colour (‘dun').

dunning
n British

an admonition, telling-off, humiliation. The term has been recorded since 2000, but may relate to a much older use of the word to mean ‘harass or importune'.

‘Three duhs in quick succession indicate a relatively light dunning, but said more slowly and forcefully the dunning becomes more severe.'
(Recorded, London student, 2000)

Duracell
n British

a red-haired person. The nickname, derived from the fact that Duracell
^™
brand batteries have a golden band at the top, is usually unaffectionate and may be employed in the baiting of
gingers
.

durk
n British See
derk

durr-brain, durb
n British

a foolish, slow-witted person. This popular term of abuse among schoolchildren probably imitates the hesitation noise supposedly made, e.g., before responding of a simpleton or dullard, but might possibly be a version of the American ‘dough-brain'.

duss, dust
vb

to depart, leave. In this sense the word dust was recorded among black Americans as long ago as the 1930s, the expression deriving from the image of a cloud of dust being thrown up. As ‘duss', the term was fashionable among gang members and schoolchildren in the UK from the mid-1990s.

It's the beast-man, let's duss
!

dust
vb American

to kill. A ‘tough-guy' euphemism implying the casual elimination of nuisances, typically in a gangland or military context. The origin is probably in a now-obsolete use of dust, meaning to ‘hit', which survives in the expression ‘dust-up'.

dustbin lids
n pl British

children,
kids
. A piece of fairly modern rhyming slang which has spread beyond its working-class London context. The singular form exists, but is rare.
Saucepan lids
is an alternative form.

dust bunny
n American

a ball of fluff lurking in an undusted part of a household. (Also known as
dust kitty
and many other terms.)

‘She won't make the bed, she won't sweep up the dust bunnies or nothin'.'
(
The Rockford Files
, US TV series, 1980)

dust kitty
n American

a.
a ball of fluff, found for instance under a bed or in another undusted part of a household. This domestic phenomenon has given rise to a number of colourful expressions in American English (
dust bunny
,
beggar's velvet
, ‘house moss' and
ghost turds
are others), but none in British English.

b.
the navel. So-called due to its being a repository for fluff, etc.

dusty, dustie
n British

an old person. A term of mild contempt or even affection to their elders among
Sloane Rangers
and other young people of the late 1970s, becoming more widespread since. A less common alternative to
wrinkly
. In
The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook
(1982) Ann Barr and Peter York attempted to define the ages of adults as follows:
wrinkly
(40 to 50 years old);
crumbly
(50 to 70 years old); and
dusty
(70 and above).

Dutch
¹
n British

1.
one's wife. This hundred-year-old piece of cockney usage is still heard (invariably in the form ‘my old Dutch'), although now often used facetiously or self-consciously. It may be a shortening of
duchess
(originally ‘Duchess of Fife', rhyming slang for
wife
), or she may be so-called after ‘an old Dutch clock' (a homely piece of furniture with a broad open dial).

2.
a friend,
mate
. A second cockney sense of the word comes from the rhyme ‘Dutch plate'.

Dutch
²
, Dutch fuck
vb American

to have sex by putting the penis between the female breasts. Dutch here is used as in other expressions, like ‘Dutch auction', ‘go Dutch', etc., to mean unorthodox. In British armed-service slang Dutch fuck referred to lighting one cigarette from another.

dutty
adj British

unpleasant, repellent. The word, used by younger speakers and defined by one as ‘nasty', is a Caribbean pronunciation of ‘dirty'.

DWA
adj American

unskilful in driving. The facetious – and racist – expression, heard, e.g., on campus, parodies the locutions employed by law enforcement for traffic violation and uses the initials of ‘driving while Asian'.

DWB
adj American

wrongfully cited for a driving violation because of one's ethnicity or supposed outsider status. The letters stand for ‘driving while black'.

dweeb
n

a foolish, gormless or unpopular person. An American campus and high-school word of the late 1980s, adopted by British youth since 1988.

‘I didn't even tell her my name – I am a dweeb!'
(
18 Again!
, US film, 1988)

dwem
n

a ‘dead white European male'. A key term in the ‘politically correct' lexicon of the mid-1990s; a dismissive categorisation of members of the supposed literary canon, such as Shakespeare.

dyke, dike
n

a lesbian. The only common slang term to describe a female homosexual; it was first used derogatorily by heterosexuals, but it is now used by
gay
women themselves, though often wryly. When said by a heterosexual the word usually still carries overtones of the ‘aggressive masculine' stereotype of a lesbian. No one has satisfactorily explained the term's ultimate origin; it might be from an old pejorative euphemism for a woman's genitals. Another, rather far-fetched, theory is that it is inspired by the story of the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. Whatever its origin the word seems to have been imported into British English from America between the world wars.

dykie, dyky
n
,
adj

a.
like a
dyke
, a lesbian

b.
(of a woman) ‘masculine' in behaviour and/or appearance

dykon
n British

a lesbian. A variant form of
dyke
in use among schoolchildren since the 1990s. It may have originated as a blending of ‘dyke' and ‘icon', thus referring to the object of
gay
females' admiration rather than the females themselves.

dynosupreme
adj American

excellent, perfect, outstanding. Often an exclamation, this is a teenage vogue elaboration of supreme using a mock-prefix based on ‘dynamo' or ‘dynamic', or a contraction of ‘dynamite'.

E
n

1.
(a dose of) the drug
ecstasy
. An abbreviation in vogue in the UK since the late 1980s.

She's on E.

2.
See
big E, the

eagle freak
n American

an enthusiast for environmental issues. A pejorative categorisation heard particularly on campuses, the term is part of a set including
duck-squeezer
,
tree-hugger
,
earth biscuit
,
granola
, etc.

earache
n British

incessant chatter, complaining or nagging. The expression usually occurs in working-class speech.

Will you stop giving me all this earache about being late and let me eat my tea in peace.

earlies
n pl British

underpants, knickers. A fairly obscure but surviving instance of 19th-century London rhyming slang. The rhyme is ‘early doors':
drawers
. ‘Early doors' is from theatrical jargon.

earner
n British

a scheme or situation which brings financial advantage, especially when unexpected or illicit. Originally from the language of police and thieves, the term, especially in the vogue phrase ‘a nice little earner', entered general circulation in the profit-oriented society of the late 1980s.

‘The job's hard work, long hours and pretty boring – but at £70 a week it's a nice little earner if you're 15 and living at home.'
(Teenage truant,
Observer
, February 1988)

ear'ole
¹
n British

a dull, gormless or exasperating person. A word used typically by working-class schoolchildren in the 1970s to refer to tedious fellow pupils or adults.

ear'ole
²
vb British

1.
to ‘buttonhole' (someone); in other words, to detain (someone) in conversation

2.
to scrounge; from
on the earhole/ ear'ole
, which earlier in the 20th century meant to try to swindle

3.
to nag, shout at, talk incessantly

4.
to listen to, eavesdrop

All these senses of the word are in mainly working-class use and are most commonly heard in London.

earth biscuit
n American

an enthusiast for environmental issues. A pejorative categorisation heard particularly on campuses, the term is part of a set including
duck-squeezer
,
tree-hugger
,
eagle freak
,
granola
, etc.
earwig
vb British