Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (74 page)

gross (someone) out
vb American

to disgust or repel (someone). The expression is normally used by a speaker to refer to their own distaste. It is a teenagers' term, popular since the late 1960s.

‘Would you move your socks. Like out into the patio or something? I mean they're really grossing me out.'
(
The Serial
, Cyra McFadden, 1976)

gross-out
n American

a disgusting act or situation. A favourite term of teenagers since the mid-1960s, usually said with excited or exaggerated distaste.

‘After totting up the score-sheet of exposed breasts (“garbonzas”), mutilations, rolling heads, gross-outs, auto-collisions, he awards a number of stars and puts his seal of approval on a film.'
(
Observer
, 9 April 1989)

grot
n British

a.
dirt, squalor, unpleasantness. Although this word was a back-formation from the adjective ‘grotty', it no longer reflects that word's origin in ‘grotesque'.

I can't go on living among all this grot.

b.
a dirty, slovenly or disreputable person

He really is an awful grot.

grotty
adj British

unpleasant, revolting or distasteful. The word became extremely popular in the early 1960s and quickly passed into the middle-class lexicon where it is still found. Grotty, a typically Liverpudlian shortening of ‘grotesque', became popular among young people, via the influence of the ‘Mersey boom' in the early 1960s. It was adopted by some Americans in imitation of British usage, although an American form,
grody
, arose in the 1970s.

grounded
adj American

confined to one's home, deprived of one's car keys. A popular parental means of chastising American teenagers. The image
is of course that of a plane and/or pilot prevented from flying.

‘I can't go out tonight, I'm grounded too, you know.'
(
The Stepford Children
, US TV film, 1987)

group-grope
n

a group ‘heavy-petting' session. A teenagers' term from the early 1960s. The phrase was later applied to full-scale
gang bangs
or orgies and, scathingly, to group therapy sessions.

groupie
n

a girl who associates with or follows a musical group or star. The term originally assumed, and still implies, the sexual availability of the girl. The word and the phenomenon were publicised in the late 1960s, particularly in the semi-autobiographical book
Groupie
by the British writer Jenny Fabian in 1968 and the US film
Groupie Girl
, 1969.

grouse
n
,
adj Australian

(something) excellent, superlative. This use of the word probably derives from the notion of the bird as a delicacy; also used figuratively to denote an attractive woman since the pre-war period.

growler
n British

the vagina. A male vulgarism.

‘Last week The Sun's Gordon Smart …ran a piece on Leona Lewis's visit to a bear sanctuary. Beneath the headline “Leona's Growler”. Not content with that masterstroke, a little gratuitous homophobia was stirred in with the sexism: “She's the right X Factor winner for the job. JOE McELDERRY has never been a big fan of growlers”.'
(Popbitch online gossip website, 9 December 2010)

grub
n

1.
food. The word has existed with this meaning since at least the 17th century, inspired by the action of grubbing around.

‘At the weigh-in, Reynolds, in the red corner, weighed eight stone, two pounds. “Give the poor sod some grub!”'
(
Adolf Hitler
,
My Part in his Downfall
, Spike Milligan, 1971)

2a.
Australian
a dirty, slovenly person. This sense of the word was in British use until the early 20th century, but is now obsolete there.

2b.
British
a younger child, especially a grubby or defiant one. From the terminology of prep and public schools.

Both these senses of grub derive from the lowly insect larva.

grud(s)
n Australian and British
underwear

‘Not a****d if they're Beckham's or not. 9.99 pounds for a pair of gruds for [sic] H and M is an outrage.'
(Tweet by footballer Joey Barton, 2011)

grues
adj British See
gruse

gruff
vb
,
n British
(to)
fart

grundies
n pl British and Australian

underpants, perhaps related to the earlier
undie-grundie

grunge
n

1a.
American
anything dirty, distasteful, squalid or sordid

1b.
American
a boring or irritating person or task

2.
a genre of rock music and subsequently a youth subculture and fashion movement, originating in Seattle in 1992. The earlier senses of the word were applied to the heavy, fuzzy sound of the musical style and to the deliberately scruffy image cultivated by its adherents.

‘Sure, even before Kurt Cobain took his own life last year, whispers of grunge's death had been patently acknowledged.'
(
Guardian
, 25 March 1995)

grunt
n American

1.
a soldier, an army private. A derogatory term sometimes used ironically by the soldiers themselves, deriving from the supposedly low intelligence and predilection for grumbling of the humble enlisted man or conscript.

‘The grunts were conscious that they were involved in a drug-and-rock 'n' roll extension. Most of the combatants, black and white, came from the working class.'
(Michael Herr,
Observer
, 15 January 1989)

2.
power. The term is used particularly by car enthusiasts to refer to engine power.

‘The engine size has gone up from 3.4 to 3.6 so there's plenty of grunt.'
(
Top Gear
, BBC 2 TV motoring series, 13 February 1997)

gruntled
adj

satisfied, gratified. A jocular back-formation from the standard ‘disgruntled' (in which ‘gruntle' in fact means grumble and is related to grunt). This rare word is typically used by educated speakers,
saloonbar philosophers and amateur or professional comedians.

I was feeling extremely gruntled following my success.

grunt-work
n American

menial or demeaning job(s)

‘You know, I used to do the grunt-work around here. Now I own the place.'
(
Double Cross
, US film, 1994)

gruse
adj British

unpleasant, repellent. The term is an abbreviation of ‘gruesome'.

‘I watched my mate get her tongue pierced and it was well gruse.'
(Recorded, London student, 2002)

G-thing, G-thang
n American

1.
a subject or activity characteristic of a

gangsta

‘Nothin' but a G-thang.'
(Title of a
rap
recording by Dr Dre, 1992)

2.
a subject or activity characteristic of males, from the phrase ‘it's a guy's thing'

You wouldn't understand: it's a G-thing.

gub
vb British

a.
to hit (someone), especially in the mouth or face

The geezer kept at him and finally Mickey gubbed him.

b.
to defeat

Our team got well and truly gubbed.

Both senses of the verb derive from a dialect form of
gob
meaning mouth. The terms are heard particularly in the Scottish Lowlands and the north of England.

gubbing
n British

a beating. The term, from the verb to
gub
, is almost always used literally, but can also be used figuratively to mean a verbal attack.

Gucci
adj

flashy, materialistic. The name of the Italian design company, usually employed with (mildly) critical intent, was adopted for use in street and, later, campus slang in the USA in the 1980s. Gucci shoes and handbags were part of the accessories favoured by devotees of the
hip hop
and
rap
subcultures. In the slang of the British Officer Training Corps the phrase
Gucci kit
is used to mock those who bring expensive luggage and accessories to training camps.

guck
n

a sticky substance, muck. A mainly American nursery word blending ‘goo' and ‘muck'. Also spelt
gook
.

guff
vb
,
n British

(to)
fart
. An old childish vulgarism which has been revived since the late 1980s as part of a vogue for pseudo-nursery slang among students and others.

‘The force of the gigantic guff you used has wrecked the entire drainage system.'
(
Johnny Fartpants
,
Viz
comic, April/May 1988)

guffie
n British

a
fart
. A variation of
guff
.

Guidette
n American

the female equivalent of a
Guido

Guido
n American

a male who displays his Italian heritage and thinks highly of himself. The nickname, a common Italian forename, recorded in slang use among younger speakers in 2011, was popularised by the reality TV series
Jersey Shore
.

guinea
n American

an Italian. An offensive term, the origin of which is obscure, but which might derive from a proper name such as Gianni or Giovanni, or else by a tortuous process from the name of the African country (whence slaves were exported).

gully
adj British

excellent. A vogue term in youth slang recorded in West London in 2009 and in
grime
music circles in 2010, it probably originates in the USA where the word was recorded in 2003 with the senses tough, authentic, streetwise. Users have claimed Indian, African and Australian derivations, but these are unproven and the origin may be the standard English word for a ravine or ditch (itself originally a variant form of ‘gullet').

gumby
n

an aggressively gormless, clumsy and/or dull person. From the name of a character personifying these qualities in the TV comedy series
Monty Python's Flying Circus
in the 1970s.

gump
n American

1.
a foolish, clumsy person, a simpleton. This widespread term pre-dated the 1994 film
Forrest Gump
. It originated in Yorkshire English dialect, in which it denoted a ‘dolt' and was probably related to the colloquial ‘gumption'.

2.
a male prostitute, particularly a transvestite male prostitute, from the slang of Chicago police, recorded in the nonfiction work
Pure Cop
, 1991. By 2000 it was also in use in the UK.

gumshoe
n

a detective, private eye or plain-clothes police officer. The term was first used in the USA early in the 20th century and referred to the silent rubber-soled shoes that detectives supposedly wore, as opposed to uniformed police officers' heavy boots.

gunge
n British

a sticky substance, muck. A slang term of the 1960s which has become a middle-class colloquialism.

gung-ho
adj

excessively eager, enthusiastic and/or assertive, especially in the context of patriotism, jingoism and military aggression. This phrase was thought to be a Chinese rallying cry. (The words ‘gung ho' were part of the Chinese title of an Industrial Cooperative and were assumed wrongly to mean ‘work together'.) It was adopted by the Marine Corps and later for general American military use in World War II. It became known outside the USA to a limited extent during the Korean war and more particularly during the Vietnam war, now being so well known as to constitute a colloquialism rather than a slang term.

gunk
n

1.
muck, goo, sticky stuff. An American version of the British
gunge
, now heard in Britain, too. By extension it can also mean debris or rubbish.

2.
British
a school misfit. A schoolboy term reported to be in use in Eton College by
Tatler
magazine in September 1989.

gunny
adj British

excellent. A key word, of uncertain etymology, in youth slang of the noughties decade. (Gunny, as in ‘gunny-sack', is a coarse cloth made from jute and may have been used in the USA or Caribbean as a nickname for marihuana, possibly extended to refer to anything pleasing or of high quality, but this cannot be substantiated).

‘The first thing they tell me is that cool is not a cool word any more, that they all say “nang”, but even that is kind of old, and it is better to say “shabby”, “gunny”, “grimy”.'
(
The Times
, 30 January 2006)

gunsel
n American

a.
a callow youth