Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (72 page)

gourd
n American

the head. The word is almost always heard in the phrase ‘out of one's gourd'.

gout
adj British

awful. The term was in use among London students in 2010.

slang governor
n British See
guvnor

go wibble
vb British

to display a lack of sang-froid, show emotion inappropriately. The expression has been used by police officers of fellow officers deemed too sensitive in stressful situations.

See also
wibble
¹

gozunder
n See
gazunda

grab
vb

to kiss. In this sense the word has been used by British adolescents since the late 1990s.

graft
¹
n

1a.
work, particularly hard, unrelenting or persistent work

1b.
a job, one's occupation

2.
American
dishonesty, bribery, or peddling influence in public or political life Both the British and American senses of the word ultimately derive from a British dialect word descended from the Anglo-Saxon verb
grafan
, related to grave and meaning to dig.

graft
²
vb British

a.
to work, in particular to work hard and constantly

b.
to engage in clever, devious or dishonest money-making schemes, especially those involving selling in street markets, fairs, etc.

c.
to pursue criminal activities All the senses of graft originate in a dialect word meaning to dig, from the Anglo-Saxon verb
grafan
.

grand
¹
n

a thousand pounds or a thousand dollars. The word originated in the jargon of American sportsmen, gamblers and, later, criminals. It was adopted in the same milieus in Britain by 1950.

‘Zackerman rings and – this'll make you smile – he goes, he goes, I'll give you a hundred grand plus the car and that, and fifty in your hand.'
(
Serious Money
, play by Caryl Churchill, 1987)

grand
²
vb South African

to appreciate. In this sense the word was recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the
Cape Sunday Times
, 29 January 1995.

Well, I don't grand your joke.

grandstand
vb American

to put on a bravura display, show off to an audience. The expression comes from the world of sport and was originally an Americanism. It is often used as an adjective as in ‘a grandstand play'.

granny spam
n

unwanted emails or internet postings. Typically these messages and/or images, which include jokes, philosophical, religious or political observations, spurious financial offers, etc. are forwarded by and circulated among older internet users for whom they may be interesting novelties, while for younger, cooler, recipients they may be intensely irritating.

granola
n American

a keen environmentalist or a person dressing like one. This campus categorisation (often pejorative) appropriates the name of a health-food cereal. It is a synonym for
earth biscuit
,
duck-squeezer
, etc.

grass
n

1.
herbal cannabis, marihuana. British smokers traditionally preferred hashish, but began to import more marihuana in the mid-1960s. Grass was the predominant American term and had largely supplanted
bush
,
pot
,
herb
, etc. in British speech by 1970.

‘They're saying cannabis drives you crazy, but I can't see that applying to just grass.'
(Teenage smoker, London, June 2005)

2.
British
an informer. Originally the expression was ‘grasshopper' as rhyming slang for
copper
; the meaning was then transferred to the ‘copper's nark' or informer and by the 1940s grass had become established in the underworld lexicon. By the 1970s the word was also widespread among schoolchildren and others. ‘Supergrass' was a journalese elaboration denoting a highly significant informer.

grass (someone up)
vb British

to inform on or betray (someone) to the police or authorities. The usage was originally to ‘grass on someone' or to ‘grass to the authorities'. From the 1980s the London underworld expression to ‘grass someone up' has been used, not least among schoolchildren, who had adopted it from TV police dramas and documentaries. For the etymology see the noun
grass
.

gratz
exclamation British

an expression of thanks. The abbreviated term, used by university students and schoolchildren in 2010, seems to come from ‘gratitude' rather than ‘congratulations'.

graunch
vb South African

to engage in ‘heavy petting', fondling or sex play

graze
vb

to eat while standing up and/or occupied in some other activity. A piece of
yuppie
jargon from the late 1980s.

grease
¹
n American

money. An underworld term of the early 20th century, adopted by
beatniks
among others and, more recently, by teenagers. From the notion of greasing the wheels of commerce, or money as a social lubricant.

If we had some grease we could hit town this weekend.

grease
²
vb American

to kill. The word appears to have had the specific meaning of shoot (probably inspired by ‘grease-gun') until the 1970s when it acquired its additional and more general sense.

One move and we grease your friend.

greaseball
n American

a.
a person of Hispanic or Mediterranean origin or appearance. An offensive term which has been in use since before World War II.

b.
a person, such as a cook or mechanic, who works in literally greasy conditions

grease-monkey
n

a mechanic. Partridge dates the term to around 1910. It was still in use in 2004.

greaser
n

1.
British
a
rocker
, motorcycle enthusiast, a scruffy unfashionable person. A scathing term adopted by
mods
and students to refer to rockers in 1964. The word has gradually fallen out of use since that time.

2.
American
a person of Hispanic or Mediterranean origin or appearance. The term refers to a supposedly greasy complexion; it implies great contempt and causes offence.

‘Crazy greasers – they've always got bees in their panty hose about something.'
(P. J. O'Rourke writing on Panama in
Holidays in Hell
, 1988)

3.
a petty criminal, juvenile delinquent, etc., specifically one who wears hair oil, a leather jacket, etc.

4.
a toady, sycophant or hypocrite, from the notion of greasiness equated with unctuous, devious behaviour

greasy spoon
n

a transport cafe, diner or other cheap restaurant. A mildly derogatory but generally affectionate term for the kind of eating place where most, if not all, of the hot dishes are fried in animal fat. The expression seems to have originated in Canada or the USA in the 1930s.

‘There's nothing for breakfast except toast. Let's go down the greasy spoon – I fancy a good grease-up.'
(Recorded, teacher, London, 1987)

grebo, greebo
n British

a scruffy young rock-music enthusiast, typically long-haired, unkempt and leather-jacketed. The word was coined in 1985 in the Midlands to describe a youth subgroup of gauche but earnest heavy-rock devotees.

‘Greboes drink stout and snakebite, smoke Players No.6 (packets of ten), wear y-fronts and dirty torn jeans, drive big bikes, and go out with girls who don't shave their armpits.'
(
I-D
magazine, November 1987)

greek
vb
,
n American

(to engage in) anal sex. The term, from the euphemism ‘greek love', is invariably used for referring to homosexual behaviour between males.

green
¹
, green stuff
n

money. Banknotes of all denominations are green in the USA. In Britain, pound notes were green until replaced by coins in the 1980s.

See also
long green

green
²
n

1.
a £5 note or the sum of five pounds. The UK banknote is dark turquoise in colour.

2. weed
, from the usual colour of herbal cannabis. A fashionable synonym for the earlier
grass
, heard especially since 2000.

That was a tasty price for that green.

green (out)
vb British

to vomit, especially after smoking cannabis. In use among students since 2000.

Compare
white-out

greenback
¹
n American

a banknote. US paper money is predominantly green in colour.

greenback
²
vb American

to subsidise, underwrite, finance. A recent derivation of the well-established noun form, greenback is employed as a novel synonym for bankroll.

green food
n Jamaican
herbal cannabis. The expression is sometimes shortened to
food
.

green gilbert
n British

a thick piece of mucus from the nose. A schoolchildren's term which has been in use since the 1950s and is now considered respectable enough to be said on television. The choice of Gilbert is due to the supposed inherent comicality of the name and to its echoes of gobbet, glutinous, etc.