Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (98 page)

a portion of cocaine, amphetamine or other drug ready for
snorting
. The powdered crystals of the drug are scraped into a strip (quite literally ‘a line of coke/speed'), typically on a mirror, tile or similar surface, so that they can be sniffed through a straw, rolled banknote, or any other improvised tube.

‘We had dinner at 192 and then I went back to Sophie's place to do a few lines.'
(Recorded, record company executive, London, 1983)

line (up/out)
vb

to sniff
lines
of cocaine or amphetamine. A drug users' euphemism of the 1980s.

linen
n British

a newspaper. This old item of London rhyming slang (from ‘linen draper', meaning
paper
) was still in use in the 1990s.

‘… although she does not know much about rhyming slang, it is good to see that she reads a good “linen” on Sunday.'
(Reader's letter to the
Sunday Times
, 13 September 1992)

lingo
n

a language, jargon or way of speaking. The word, which often indicates puzzlement, amusement or xenophobia on the part of the speaker, obviously derives ultimately from the Latin word
lingua
, meaning tongue and language. The question as to which romance language inspired the modern slang word is difficult to resolve; it may be a corruption of the Latin word itself, or of Italian, Spanish (
lengua
), or Portuguese (
lingoa
). Provençal is the only modern language in which the correct form of the word is
lingo
.

‘Oxford University aristocrats disguise themselves with lingo like: “It's wicked, guy.”'
(
Evening Standard
, 16 June 1988)

linking
n British

‘going out with someone', dating. The usage was recorded in South London and among Jewish students in London in 2010.

lint-brain, lint-head
n American

a dim-witted or foolish person. This adolescent term of abuse draws on the American use of lint to denote fluff, particularly that lodged in the navel.

lip
¹
n

cheek, backchat. The expression dates to at least 1818 and is typically used by authority figures to characterise the utterances of unruly subordinates. It is a common usage in Britain and Australia, but less so in the USA.

‘Lesson number one: learn to give less lip and do more work.'
(
Neighbours
, Australian TV soap opera, 1987)

lip
²
vb

1.
to cheek, speak insolently (to)

2.
to play a wind instrument, blow. A jazz musicians' term.

cool lipping
Lip that thing
.

lippy
adj

cheeky, insolent. This usage comes from the noun form
lip
, which was first recorded in 1818.

He's a bit too lippy for his own good
.

lipsin'
n

1.
kissing. Originating in Afro-Caribbean usage, the term has been adopted by slang speakers of other ethnic origins in the UK since 2000.

2.
British
insulting, quarrelling. Used transitively or intransitively, the word was popular among London adolescents in 2004.

lipstick
n American

a lesbian interested in high-fashion, a ‘feminine' lesbian. A Yale University term of the 1970s. Lipsticks were contrasted in this setting with the more aggressive or ‘masculine'
crunchies
. The word lipstick has subsequently entered the
gay
female lexicon and journalistic and popular usage in the combination
lipstick lesbian
.

liquid cosh
n British

a heavy tranquilliser or sedative. In the jargon of prison inmates the phrase has been used to describe substances such as Largactil, Paraldehyde, etc.

liquid laugh
n

a bout of vomiting. The term probably originated in Australia. It is now heard in Britain (where it was part of the vocabulary of the influential late 1960s cartoon character Barry McKenzie, the Australian boor and ingénu) and, especially on campus, in the USA.

liquid lunch
n

a lunchtime session of alcoholic drinking (usually as an alternative, rather than an accompaniment, to eating)

listerine
n British

a person holding anti-American views. The term surfaced in 2004 in connection with the US invasion of Iraq. Listerine is the brand name of an antiseptic mouthwash;
septic
(tank) is rhyming slang for
Yank
.

little boy's room, the little boys' room
n

a gentlemen's toilet. Originally a coy euphemism, used by some Americans in all seriousness, this expression has come to be used facetiously all over the English-speaking world.

‘I'm not just some kind of machine you can turn on. I need a cup of joe, a trip to the little boys' room, a glance at the sports' pages. Then we'll talk.'
(
Moonlighting
, American TV series, 1989)

little girl's room, the little girls' room
n

a ladies' toilet. A coy euphemism now almost always used humorously, but originally (in the USA in the late 1940s) used to spare the blushes of the speaker and audience.

little jobs
n British

an act of urination, as opposed to
big jobs
(defecation), in the now rather dated euphemistic language of the middle-class nursery

little man/boy in the boat
n

the clitoris. So-called because of a supposed resemblance, though it is unclear why the pilot of this particular craft is invariably male. In the 19th century the same phrase referred to the navel.

little number
n See
number

lit up, lit
adj

a.
drunk. Originally an American expression, this phrase derives from the visible effects of alcohol (a ‘glow', red nose, etc.) as well as the sensation of heat and the notion of alcohol as firewater or fuel. Embellishments of this usage are ‘lit up like a Christmas tree' and ‘lit up like a dime-store window'. The shorter form, lit, often signifies tipsy or merry rather than thoroughly inebriated.

‘As a whiskey salesman… I'm often lit up by elevenses, loop-legged by luncheon and totally schnockered by 6.'
(Cartoon by Posy Simmonds,
Guardian
, 1979)

b.
American
under the influence of marihuana,
high

live
adj British

excellent, exciting. A vogue term since 2000, probably from the notion of the
superiority of live music or from the urgency of live broadcasts.

livener
n British

a strong alcoholic drink

live phat
adj

excellent, exciting, very attractive. An elaborated form of
live
in its slang sense, heard since 2000.

living, the
n British

a superlative thing, person or situation. A vogue term from the vocabulary of adolescents in the later 1990s, it is probably a shortening of ‘the living end'.

LMAO
phrase

an expression of hilarity or derision. The letters stand for ‘laughing my
ass
off'.

load
¹
vb Australian

to plant (someone) with illicit drugs or stolen goods, or to
frame
by manufacturing evidence. A term from the Australian criminal milieu which was first recorded in the 1930s and is still in use. The noun form is occasionally used to mean either an act of framing or the supposed evidence used.

load
²
n

nonsense, something worthless or unpleasant. In this sense the word is a shortening of the colloquial vulgarism ‘a load of
shit
'.

‘… academic electronic music – what a load!'
(
Vivisect
, Australian fanzine, July 1994)

loaded
adj

1a.
drunk. An Americanism in use since the turn of the 20th century, now heard elsewhere in the English-speaking world. The original metaphor may refer to a burden or a large quantity being imbibed or, more dramatically, to the person being charged like a firearm.

‘Dropped into a tavern/Saw some friends of mine./Party was gettin' under way/And the juice was really flyin' and I got loaded.'
(“I Got Loaded”, song recorded by Peppermint Harris, 1957)

1b.
intoxicated by illicit drugs. An American term popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was this sense that inspired the title of the fourth LP by the seminal New York rock group The Velvet Underground in 1970.

2.
rich. This term, formerly slang, is now a common colloquialism.

3.
British
in the mood for sex or sexually aroused. The term, which refers to males only, is part of the language of adolescents in use in the later 1990s and was included in
Just Seventeen
magazine's ‘lingo of lurve' in August 1996.

I can tell he's loaded/feeling loaded
.

loadsamoney
n British

(someone flaunting) excessive wealth; vulgar, conspicuous consumption. The eponymous comedy character Load-samoney, created by Harry Enfield in 1987, was based on observation of a specific social group. This group comprises bumptious and philistine skilled and semi-skilled working-class young people from southeastern England, who use their comparative wealth – often gained as part of the black economy – to taunt and provoke those worse off than themselves.

‘Singer Mike Rivers has vowed never again to work for the Hooray Henry set – “I hate those loadsamoney thugs,” he declared.'
(
News of the World
, 29 May 1988)

load up
vb American

to take illicit drugs. A campus and high-school term of the late 1970s.

Listen, if you're loading up, that's it between us
.

loaf
n British

a.
the
head
. The shortening of the cockney rhyming-slang phrase ‘loaf of bread' is now more a colloquialism than slang. Since the late 1950s, it has largely been confined to the phrase ‘use your loaf!'.

b.
life. The more common sense of ‘head' and the word ‘life' itself are blended in the cockney oath ‘on my mother's loaf'.

lob
¹
vb British

to throw away, dispose of. A fashionable narrowing of the standard English meaning of the word, heard, particularly in the London area, since the beginning of the 1980s. A near-synonym to
bin
.

It's no use any more – just lob it
.

lob
²
vb, n British

(to give) a bribe. A more recent synonym for
bung
.

If we want him to keep quiet we'll have to lob him
.

lob (in)
vb Australian

to arrive unexpectedly, drop in

You'd better get home right away; the rellos have lobbed
.

lobe
n British

a dull, conformist person. This word, used typically by schoolchildren of a tedious or unpopular fellow pupil is a shortening of ‘earlobe', itself probably inspired by the long established working-class
ear'ole
.

lob-on
n British

(of a male) a partial erection. A term popularised by
Viz
comic since the 1990s. A synonym is
semi
.

‘Can I put my lob-on in your mouth?'
(
Bo Selecta!
, UK TV comedy, July 2004)

loc
n, adj American

(a person who is) crazy. This abbreviated form of
loco
(pronounced to rhyme with ‘poke') became a vogue term among devotees of
rap
and
hip hop
culture in the late 1990s. The word could be used either pejoratively or with admiration for a fanatical individual.

lock
n American

1.
a certainty, usually heard in the teenagers' phrase ‘it's a lock'. This sense of the word is an adaptation of the colloquial phrase to ‘have (the situation) all locked up'.

2.
a person of Polish origin or descent. The racist term heard in the US is supposedly a corruption of
polack
.

locked
adj

drunk. The term was recorded in Ireland in this sense in 1970 and was in use among London clubbers in 2002. It may be a short form of
bollocksed
or
airlocked
.

lock-in
n British

a drinking session taking place in a pub after official closing time. The practice, which usually involves locking out late arrivals, hence locking in the existing clientele, is illegal but sometimes unofficially condoned by local police. A more fashionable term is
afters
.

They have a lock-in every Friday night
.