Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (82 page)

hooted
adj American

drunk. Although the term, recorded among adolescents, usually describes intoxication by alcohol, it may be influenced by the noun form ‘hooter', denoting a
joint
. Alternatively, it may be inspired by the hooting of inebriated celebrants.

hooter
n

1.
British
the nose. A common term of the 1950s and 1960s which is still heard. A
synonym less widespread on the same lines is
bugle
.

‘The doc says the 30-year-old vain singer [Michael Jackson]'s hooter is collapsing after being broken so often in four operations to change his looks.'
(
News of the World
, 7 May 1989)

2.
American
a
joint
(marihuana cigarette). A college and high-school term.

hooters
n pl American

female breasts. A favourite term of college boys, reminiscent of
bumpers
,
headlamps
and other automotive similes. The usage also plays on the supposed similarity in action between pressing a rubber bulb and manipulating and fondling a breast.

hoover (up)
vb

to devour, eat or drink rapidly or greedily. A popular use of the vacuum cleaner's household name since the late 1960s. The expression is most common in Britain but is known in the USA. During World War II hoovering was the name given to an airborne mopping-up operation by the RAF.

‘We laid out a spread and they hoovered it up in minutes.'
(Recorded, hostess, Weybridge, England, May 1986)

‘He hoovered up five pints and got poleaxed.'
(
The Crack: a Belfast Year
, Sally Belfrage, 1987)

hoovered
adj British

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

hophead
n American

a narcotics user. Hop was a late-19th-century term for opium, later extended to any ‘stupefying' drug including marihuana. Hophead, dating from the 1940s, was one of the first words for a category of drug-users to use the ‘-head' suffix. By the 1960s the word was used mainly by law enforcers and other disapproving adults. It is now rare.

hop on!
exclamation British

a cry of delight or triumph, in use since around 2000. It is synonymous with
get in!
and
result!

hopped-up
adj

under the influence of narcotics. ‘Hop' was a late-19th-century term for opium in the USA, later generalised to refer to any intoxicating drug.

hopper
n American

a toilet (bowl). A term favoured by ‘hardhats' and
jocks
among others. (A hopper is a large metal feeder container in grain silos.) Coincidentally or not, ‘the hopper' is also in American usage to refer to the place where schemes are hatched and ideas nurtured. In business jargon or office slang to ‘put something in the hopper' is to feed it into the system or to ‘put it on file'.

It's all in danger of going down the hopper.

Horatio
n British

fellatio. A usage recorded by
Viz
comic's
Profanisaurus
(glossary of profanities) in 2002.

hork
vb American

1.
to vomit. An echoic term in use among students in 2003.

2.
to steal. In this sense it is probably an alteration of
hook
.

horlicks
n British

a mess, an unpalatable or confused mixture. The trade name of a bedtime drink has here been appropriated as a euphemism for
bollocks
. The word is used by all social classes and began to appear in print in the late 1980s.

how to make a total horlicks of it in five easy stages

hormone
n

a promiscuous, sexually active or successful person. This term, usually applied to males, was popular among adolescents and younger schoolchildren in Britain and Australia in the 1990s.

‘He's what we call a raging hormone.'
(Australian surfer in Biarritz,
Passengers
, Channel 4 TV programme, September 1995)

horn, the
n

1a.
the penis, particularly when erect. This obvious metaphor has been commonly employed in English for at least 200 years. Prior to that horn more often referred to the cuckold's emblem.

1b.
an erection. Usually found in phrases such as to ‘have the horn', to
get the horn
or to be
on the horn
.

2.
a telephone. In this sense the word usually occurs in the form ‘(get) on the horn'. This usage is encountered more often in the USA than in Britain.

horny
adj

sexually aroused, lustful. Although the
horn
in question is the penis (in an image which dates from the 18th century, if not earlier), the expression is now used by and
about both sexes, sometimes in colourful phrases such as ‘horny as a hoot-owl'. It is a 1960s successor of longer phrases such as to
get the horn
, to be
on the horn
, etc.

‘The total absurdity of it all; seven or eight able bodied policemen keeping 24 hour watch on this horny endomorphic Jewish intellectual.'
(Bill Levy,
Oz
magazine, February 1970)

horrors, the
n

1.
a bout of terror or fit of existential despair. The term applies especially to the sudden uncontrollable feelings of dread and horror experienced as a result of drug or alcohol abuse (as, e.g., in cases of delirium tremens, heroin withdrawal, amphetamine
comedown
,
acid flashes
or the fits of paranoia associated with over-indulgence in strong cannabis). The expression was used in the 19th century to refer to the effects of alcoholism.

2.
menstruation, monthly periods. A rare schoolgirl alternative to
the curse
.

horrorshow
adj
,
n

a.
(something) shocking or horrifying

b.
(something) sensational, impressive or excellent

Like
bad
,
creepshow
,
hellacious
and other similar teenage terms of the 1980s, horror-show has undergone the process (technically known as ‘amelioration') whereby a pejorative or negative term acquires a positive meaning. This word, inspired by horror films and comics, has the dual implication of awful and thrilling, the intended meaning apparent only in the tone of voice or context.

horse
n

1.
British
an unattractive female. In playground usage since 2000, the term is sometimes elaborated to
horse-monkey
.

2.
Trinidad and Tobago
a friend

He my horse.
C'mon horse
.

3.
heroin. A word used by drug addicts and
beatniks
in the 1950s, it was already dated by the late 1960s and was generally supplanted, first by
H
, and subsequently by
smack
,
scag
, etc.

horse's ass
n American

a fool, especially an annoying or contemptible one. A common folksy phrase among adults. Like other expressions based on ‘horse', the term has not spread to British usage.

horseshit
n American

nonsense, foolish or empty talk. A popular term in the USA where it is similar in meaning to
bullshit
, with perhaps the suggestion that horseshit is more transparently ludicrous or frivolous. The British apparently still view the horse with more respect or affection; neither horseshit,
horse's ass
or ‘horse feathers' have caught on in British English.

‘You see, there's got to be some respite from the horseshit. And cars give you that. They're primitive.'
(Paul Newman,
Elle
magazine, May 1989)

hose
vb American

to have sex with. A mainly male vulgarism.

‘There must be someone here that I could hose…Better get some more sherry to smooth out my brain.
'

(S. Clay Wilson cartoon,
Head Comix
, 1968)

hose-hound
n American

a promiscuous or sexually active person, usually female. A later coinage based on the verb to
hose
and the noun
hoser 2
.

‘Look at the fun-bags on that hose-hound!'
(
Dumb and Dumber
, US film, 1994)

hose monster
n American

an extremely promiscuous and/or sexually active person. The term, which may be used pejoratively or appreciatively, is particularly applied to heterosexual females.

Compare
shag-monster

hoser
n American

1.
a fraud, deceitful person, cheat

2.
a promiscuous person, usually female Both senses of the term are found in the vocabulary of high-school and college students. The etymology of the word is not certain, but probably derives from
hose
as a noun meaning penis and a verb meaning to copulate or
screw
in the figurative sense of defraud.

hot
adj

1.
stolen, from the image of something ‘too hot to handle'. The word was used in this sense in
The Eustace Diamonds
by Trollope in 1875.

D'you reckon that video is hot
?

2.
exciting, fashionable. A slang usage (from the language of jazz musicians in which ‘hot', frenzied and fast, is contrasted with ‘cool', relaxed and slow) which by the
mid-1970s had become a common colloquialism.

3.
sexually excited or aroused. The adjective has always been used in this sense, both literally and figuratively.

She's hot for him.
Talk dirty to me. You know it gets me hot
.

4.
provocative, obstreperous. In this sense the word was defined by one of its users as ‘acting too obvious' and denotes a transgression of the unwritten codes of behaviour of adolescent gangs. The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

acting hot

hot-dog
¹
vb American

to perform spectacularly and brilliantly and/or to show off. The term is applied especially in sports' contexts (the sport of stunt skiing, e.g., is known as ‘hot-dogging'), or to high-achieving students.

hot-dog
²
,
hot-dogger
n
,
adj American

(someone or something) outstanding, spectacular and/or successful. The term is used as an exclamation, showing amazement and approval, but when applied to people may often indicate envy or disapproval.

Hot dog! We're havin' a great time here!

hot mess
n

a flustered, dishevelled and/or hurried person, nonetheless – or therefore – attractive. An important item of youth slang.

‘Well, you're a hot mess and I'm falling for you/And I'm like hot damn, let me make you my boo'
(Cobra Starship, lyrics to
Hot Mess
, 2009)

hot pants

1.
n
a sexually aroused state; lustfulness, particularly in a woman

2.
n pl
brief shorts as worn by women during a fashion of 1970 and 1971

hot poop
n

the very latest news, most up-to-date information. An American term of the early 1960s which had spread to Britain, especially in the armed services and in journalistic speech, by the early 1970s.
Poop
is a nursery term and adult euphemism for
shit
.

hots, the
n pl See
have the hots (for someone)

hot shit
n
,
adj

(something) impressive, exciting, superlative. The common colloquial terms ‘hot stuff' and ‘hotshot' are in fact euphemisms for hot shit, a term both of contempt and approbation common since the beginning of the 20th century in the USA (still heard more often there than in Britain or Australia).

some hot shit record producer

hotshot
vb
,
n American

(to administer) a lethal injection of a narcotic, usually heroin. This term, from the vocabulary of addicts and the underworld, refers particularly to a deliberate lethal dose, either self-administered or as a gangland method of punishment and murder. Sometimes the hotshot is a high-strength overdose, sometimes a normal dose of the drug mixed with a toxic substance.

The guys put him away with a Drano hotshot.

hot tamale
n American

a sexually arousing or provocative woman. A male expression of admiration or approval first coined by adults but now probably more popular among enthusiastic, if unsophisticated, high-school and college students. A
tamale
is a spicy rolled pancake, a Mexican speciality.