Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (67 page)

gear
¹
adj British

excellent, absolutely right, first rate. An ephemeral vogue word that spread with the popularity of the Beatles and the ‘Mersey sound' from Liverpool in 1963 to be picked up by the media (a fact which incidentally marked its demise as a fashionable term). It is related to ‘the gear', meaning the ‘real thing' or top quality merchandise.

gear
²
n

1.
clothes, accessories. Now a widely used colloquialism, gear was slang, in the sense of being a vogue word in restricted usage, in the early 1960s, when its use paralleled the new interest in fashion among
mods
.

2.
illicit drug(s). Since the early 1960s gear has been used by drug abusers, prisoners, etc. to denote, in particular, cannabis or heroin. In this sense the word is a typical part of the drug user's quasi-military or workmanlike vocabulary (
works, equipment
and
artillery
are other examples).

Got any gear, man?

3a.
top quality merchandise, the ‘real thing'

3b.
stolen goods. A specific usage of the standard colloquial sense of the word.

Stash the gear in the garage.

gee
n American

a version of
G

geeb
n American

an unfortunate, inept and/or unattractive individual. It is probably a blend of
geek
and
dweeb
.

gee-gee
n British

a horse. A nursery term adopted by adults to refer ruefully or facetiously to race-horses. In British films of the 1950s the word was characteristic of
spivs
and
cads
.

I lost thirty quid on the gee-gees.

geek
¹
n

1a.
American
a freak, an insane or disgusting person. This old word originated with fairground folk to describe someone willing to abase themselves or perform disgusting acts, such as biting the heads off live chickens, or a grotesque person exhibited for money. The word is now firmly established in teenage and schoolchildren's slang, helped by the preponderance of geeks in the horror films of the late 1970s and 1980s. It may be derived from German, Dutch or Yiddish words for ‘to peep', or from Dutch and English dialect words for a fool.

‘I'm gonna marry the geek tycoon.'
(
Cheers
, US TV series, 1988)

1b.
American
a tedious, overly earnest, unattractive individual. The term is typically applied to an unfashionable young male, often a devotee of electronic media.

2.
a menstrual period. This use of the word, indicating distaste and/or fascination and used by both sexes, originated in the USA. ‘On the geek' (having one's period), ‘geek pains' (period pains).

geek
²
, geek out
vb American

a.
to indulge oneself in unglamorous, earnest, tedious activities

‘I geek out over calculus.'
(UK Poet Hollie McNish, June 2013)

b.
to search desperately for drug remnants, particularly
crack
. This sense is a specialisation of the first, used by drug users since the late 1980s to describe the actions of a crack addict
in extremis
.

‘You just want more and more. That's when you go geeking – looking for specks on the floor, just to get some more.'
(Drug-user,
Guardian
, 5 September 1989)

geet
n British

a contemptible and/or tedious person

‘Those geets at the ACF [Army Cadet Force] deserved what happened. If they want to join the army, why don't they go and do it.'
(Delinquent youth quoted in the
Daily Telegraph
magazine, 15th June 1996)

geeze bag
n American
an old
fart
, old
geezer
. A term of mild abuse or derision, mainly in adolescent use in the 1990s.

geezer
¹
n

a man. A common word in Britain, where slang users often assume that it derives from a bathroom geyser (water heater), by analogy with
boiler
. In fact it probably originates in ‘guiser' or ‘gizer', a word for a masquerader or mummer who wears a (dis)guise. In the 19th century geezer could be applied to women. The word is also used in the USA, where it is regarded as rather colourful.

geezer
²
adj American

excellent, in
hip hop
and
rap
parlance

geezerbird
n British

a girl with a masculine appearance and/or supposedly male attitudes or behaviour. The term has been common among all age groups since the later 1990s.

‘Some people call me a geezerbird and I suppose I like it, I'm proud of it.'
(Recorded, female DJ, London, 1999)

geezing
n American

injecting heroin,
shooting up
. An item of addicts' and underworld slang, also used by the police, which appeared in the 1960s.

gelt
n

money. The word is taken directly from Yiddish or German and has been used in all English-speaking areas since at least the 17th century, at first probably in allusion to Jewish moneylenders.

Generation X
n American

a journalese coinage describing the supposedly listless, apathetic post-
yuppie
generation of young people who were entering adulthood in the early 1990s. The phrase was borrowed, in 1992, by the Canadian author Douglas Coupland, from earlier use as the title of a British 1960s sociological analysis of youth rebellion and in the 1970s as the name of a would-be
punk
band.

Geoff (Hurst)
n British

a
first
(class degree). The rhyming slang uses the name of the England football star of the later 1960s.

geordie
n British

a native or inhabitant of Newcastle or Tyneside in the northeast of England. The word is a Scottish dialect version of George and probably first arose as a nickname for one of the Hanoverian kings, used by, and later applied to, soldiers billeted upon Newcastle. The name refers also to the distinctive speech patterns of the area.

george
¹
adj American

excellent, first-rate, fine. A word from teenage slang of the late 1950s which is periodically revived by modern schoolchildren and college students. It probably derives from gorgeous or is an expansion of the letter ‘g' (for good).

george
²
vb American

to have sex, the term is used particularly by adolescents and refers to heterosexual activity by either sex

George Raft
n British

a
draught
(of air). A fairly widespread piece of jocular rhyming slang inspired by the American actor of the same name (famous for his tough-guy and underworld roles on and off screen).

Blimey, there's a bit of a George Raft in here, ain't there?

Geraghty, Gerrity
See
do a Geraghty/Gerrity germ
n British

an irritating, unpleasant or contemptible person. A schoolchildren's term of criticism or abuse, typically applied to fellow pupils or younger children.

gerry, geri
n British

an old person. A short form of ‘geriatric', typically said without affection by teenagers or schoolchildren.

gertcha!, gercher!
exclamation British

a cockney cry, roughly equivalent to ‘get away!', ‘give over!', or ‘get out of it!' and expressing disbelief or gentle mockery. The dated expression was revived for use in the musical accompaniment (by Chas and Dave) to a television advertisement for Courage Best Bitter screened in 1983.

‘“Gercher,” wheezes Dad convulsively over the debris of the saloon bar.'
(
Town
magazine, May 1964)

get
n British

a bastard, literally or figuratively; an unpleasant or stupid person. This word is more widespread in the Midlands and north of England, generally in working-class usage. In the south of England
git
is more common. Get was originally a derivation of ‘beget' and meant a (begotten) child.

get a click
vb British

to succeed in picking up a partner. The term is heard particularly in the Scottish Lowlands and the north of England.

I hear Jillie managed to get a click last night.

get a job
vb
,
exclamation American
(to) fulfil oneself. A joke variation on admonitions such as
get a life
or
get real
, which enjoyed a vogue in the 1990s.

get a life
vb
,
exclamation

(to) fulfil oneself. An admonition, originally American, that became a vogue term from the early 1990s.
Get a job
is a jocular alternative.

get a rift/rush/hustle on
vb British

to hurry up, make haste. These are more colourful working-class London variants of the colloquial ‘get a move on'.

get a room
vb American

to behave more discreetly, remove oneself from sight. The phrase is applied, usually but not always lightheartedly, when a
couple are publicly and/or embarrassingly engaged in love-play.

Come on you two, get a room!
Sheena and Damian are always at it in the corner of the bar. They should get a room.

get a twitch on
vb British

to become agitated and/or furious. An item of London working-class slang heard among, e.g., football supporters from the 1990s.

get beats
vb

to be beaten up (by someone). A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

get behind
vb

to approve of, support, empathise with. A phrasal verb (originating in the USA) of the sort popular with the ‘alternative lifestyle' proponents of the early 1970s.

I can't really get behind the idea of God as some bearded dude sitting on a cloud.

Compare
get off (on)
;
get down

get boots
vb American

to have sex. A vogue term in black street slang in the 1990s.
Knock boots
is an alternative, and probably original, version of the phrase.

get busy
vb

1.
to have sex. The euphemism occurs in conversation and features in
hip hop
lyrics by artists such as Sean Paul.

2.
to eat, gorge oneself

get cogging
vb British See
cog
²

get corrugated ankles
vb British

to get drunk. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

get down
vb American

to let oneself go, begin something in earnest. This phrase was originally a piece of black slang, inspired by ‘get down to business' (probably first used as a euphemism for beginning sexual activity, then transferred to musical activity). The expression is still heard in a musical context, referring for instance to musicians improvising successfully or to disco dancers ‘letting go'.

get dribbly
vb British

to become intoxicated by drink or drugs. The phrase usually, but not necessarily, implies being visibly uncontrolled. It was in use among middle-class students in 2001.

get/have a cob on
vb British

to become angry, display irritation. The term has been used in the Channel 4 TV soap opera
Brookside
. Eric Partridge dated the phrase to the 1930s: the ‘cob' in question is probably originally a dialect term for a lump or a protrusion, and can be dated back to English slang of the later 18th century.

get in!
exclamation British

the phrase was defined by a user in 2001 as: ‘Fantastic! Result! That was tremendous! Said after something quite brilliant has happened or if you hear good news'.

Hop on!
is a synonymous expression.

‘“I've managed to get front-row tickets for Steps.” “Get in!”'
(Recorded, London teenager, 2001)

get in (someone's) eye/face
vb American
to behave intrusively and annoyingly (towards)

get into bed (with)
vb

to merge or agree to liaise closely with. A piece of jargon from the business world which has become widely known since the late 1970s.

get it on
vb

a.
to succeed in having sex, to achieve (mutual) sexual gratification. An American euphemism dating from the 1960s.

‘I'm gonna ask you something right up front. Are you getting it on with that dude with the dog parlor or not?'
(
The Serial
, Cyra McFadden, 1976)

b.
to succeed in something pleasurable or desirable. A generalisation of the first sense which was used, sometimes as an exhortation, in the
hippy
era. Both senses became known, and to some extent used, in Britain after 1970, but had largely fallen out of use by the end of the decade.