Douglas Adams. The Meaning of Liff
AASLEAGH (n.)
A liqeur made only for drinking at the end of a revoltingly long bottle
party when all the drinkable drink has been drunk.
ABERBEEG (vb.)
Of amateur actors, to adopt a Mexican accent when called upon to play
any variety of foreigner (except Pakistanis - from whom a Welsh accent is
considered sufficient).
ABERCRAVE (vb.)
To strongly desire to swing from the pole on the rear footplate of a
bus.
ABERYSTWYTH (n.)
A nostalgic yearning which is in itself more pleasant than the thing
being yearned for.
ABILENE (adj.)
Descriptive of the pleasing coolness on the reverse side of the pillow.
ABINGER (n.)
One who washes up everything except the frying pan, the cheese grater
and the saucepan which the chocolate sauce has been made in.
ABOYNE (vb.)
To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly that
none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him.
ACLE (n.)
The rouge pin which shirtmakers conceal in the most improbable fold of
a new shirt. Its function is to stab you when you don the garment.
ADLESTROP (n.)
That part of a suitcase which is designed to get snarled up on conveyor
belts at airports. Some of the more modern adlestrop designs have a special
'quick release' feature which enables the case to flip open at this point
and fling your underclothes into the conveyor belt's gearing mechanism.
ADRIGOLE (n.)
The centrepiece of a merry-go-round on which the man with the tickets
stands unnervingly still.
AFFCOT (n.)
The sort of fart you hope people will talk after.
AFFPUDDLE (n.)
A puddle which is hidden under a pivoted paving stone. You only know
it's there when you step on the paving stone and the puddle shoots up your
leg.
AGGLETHORPE (n.)
A dispute between two pooves in a boutique.
AHENNY (adj.)
The way people stand when examining other people's bookshelves.
AIGBURTH (n.)
Any piece of readily identifiable anatomy found amongst cooked meat.
AINDERBY QUERNHOW (n.)
One who continually bemoans the 'loss' of the word 'gay' to the English
language, even though they had never used the word in any context at all
until they started complaining that they couldn't use it any more.
AINDERBY STEEPLE (n.)
One who asks you a question with the apparent motive of wanting to hear
your answer, but who cuts short your opening sentence by leaning forward and
saying 'and I'll tell you why I ask...' and then talking solidly for the
next hour.
AINSWORTH (n.)
The length of time it takes to get served in a camera shop. Hence,
also, how long we will have to wait for the abolition of income tax or the
Second Coming.
AIRD OF SLEAT (n. archaic)
Ancient Scottish curse placed from afar on the stretch of land now
occupided by Heathrow Airport.
AITH (n.)
The single bristle that sticks out sideways on a cheap paintbrush.
ALBUQUERQUE (n.)
A shapeless squiggle which is utterly unlike your normal signature, but
which is, nevertheless, all you are able to produce when asked formally to
identify yourself.
Muslims, whose religion forbids the making of graven images, use
albuquerques to decorate their towels, menu cards and pyjamas.
ALDCLUNE (n.)
One who collects ten-year-old telephone directories.
ALLTAMI (n.)
The ancient art of being able to balance the hot and cold shower taps.
AMBLESIDE (n.)
A talk given about the Facts of Life by a father to his son whilst
walking in the garden on a Sunday afternoon.
AMERSHAM (n.)
The sneeze which tickles but never comes. (Thought to derive from the
Metropolitan Line tube station of the same name where the rails always
rattle but the train never arrives.)
AMLWCH (n.)
A British Rail sandwich which has been kept soft by being regulary
washed and resealed in clingfilm.
ARAGLIN (n. archaic)
A medieval practical joke played by young squires on a knight aspirant
the afternoon he is due to start his vigil. As the knight arrives at the
castle the squires attempt to raise the drawbridge very suddenly as the
knight and his charger step on to it.
ARDCRONY (n.)
A remote acquaintance passed off as 'a very good friend of mine' by
someone tring to impress people.
ARDSCALPSIE (n.)
Excuse made by rural Welsh hairdresser for completely massacring your
hair.
ARDSCULL (n.)
Excuse made by rural Welsh hairdresser for deep wounds inflicted on
your scalp in an attempt to rectify whatever it was that induced the
ardscalpsie (q.v.).
ARDSLIGNISH (adj.)
Adjective which describes the behaviour of Sellotape when you are
tired.
ARTICLAVE (n.)
A clever architectural construction designed to give the illusion from
the top deck of a bus that it is far too big for the road.
AYNHO (vb.)
Of waiters, never to have a pen.
BABWORTH
Something which justifies having a really good cry.
BALDOCK
The sharp prong on the top of a tree stump where the tree has snapped
off before being completely sawn through.
BALLYCUMBER
One of the six half-read books lying somewhere in your bed.
BANFF
Pertaining to, or descriptive of, that kind of facial expression which
is impossible to achieve except when having a passport photograph taken.
BANTEER
A lusty and reucous old ballad sung after a particulary spectacular
araglin (q.v.) has been pulled off.
BARSTIBLEY
A homorous device such as a china horse or smalled naked porcelain
infant which jocular hosts use of piss water into your Scotch with.
BAUGHURST
That kind of large fierce ugly woman who owns a small fierce ugly dog.
BAUMBER
A fitted eleasticated bottom sheet which turns your mattress
bananashaped.
BEALINGS
The unsavoury parts of a moat which a knight has to pour out of his
armour after being the victim of an araglin (q.v.). In medieval Flanders,
soup made from bealins was a very sligthly sought-after delicacy.
BEAULIEU HILL
The optimum vantage point from which one to view people undressing in
the bedroom across the street.
BECCLES
The small bone buttons placed in bacon sandwiches by unemploymed
guerrilla dentist.
BEDFONT
A lurching sensation in the pit of the stomach experienced at breakfast
in a hotel, occasioned by the realisation that it is about now that the
chamber- maid will have discovered the embarrassing stain on your botton
sheet.
BELPER
A knob of someone else's chewing gum which you unexpectedly find your
hand resting on under a deks top, under the passenger seat of your car or on
somebody's thigh under their skirt.
BENBURB
The sort of man who becomes a returning officer.
BEREPPER
The irrevocable and sturdy fart released in the presence of royalty,
which sounds quite like a small motorbike passing by (but not enough to be
confused with one).
BERKHAMSTED
The massive three-course midmorning blow-out enjoyed by a dieter who
has already done his or her slimming duty by having a teaspoonful of cottage
cheese for breakfast.
BERY POMEROY
1. The shape of a gourmet's lips.
2. The droplet of saliva which hangs from them.
BILBSTER
A pimple so hideous and enormous that you have to cover it with
sticking plaster and pretend you've cut yourself
shaveing.
BISHOP'S CAUNDLE
An opening gambit before a game of chess whereby the missing pieces are
replaced by small ornaments from the mantelpiece.
BLEAN
Scientific measure of luminosity :
1 glimmer = 100,000 bleans.
Usherettes' torches are designed to produce between 2.5 and 4 bleans,
enabling them to assist you in falling downstairs, treading on people or
putting your hand into a Neapolitan tub when reaching for change.
BLITHBURY
A look someone gives you by which you become aware that they're much
too drunk to have undertood anything you've said to them in the last twenty
minutes.
BLITTERLESS
The little slivers of bomboo picked off a cane chair by a nervous guest
which litter the carpet beneath and tell the chair's owner that the whole
piece of furniture is about to uncoil terribly and slowly until it resembles
a giant pencil sharpening.
BODMIN
The irrational and inevitable discrepancy between the amount pooled and
the amount needed when a large group of people try to pay a bill together
after a meal.
BOLSOVER
One of those brown plastic trays with bumps on, placed upside down in
boxes of chocolates to make you think you're-getting two layers.
BONKLE
Of plumbing in old hotels, to make loud and unexplained noises in the
nigth, particulary at about five o'clock in the morning.
BOOLTEENS
The small scatterings of foreign coins and half-p's which inhabit
dressing tables. Since they are never used and never thrown away boolteens
account for a significant drain on the world's money supply.
BOOTHBY GRAFFOE
1. The man in the pub who slaps people on the back as if
they were old friends, when in fact he has no friends,
largely on account of this habit.
2. Any story told by Robert Morley on chat shows.
BOSCASTLE
A huge pyramid of tin cans placed just inside the entrance to a
supermarket.
BOSEMAN
One who spends all day loafing about near pedestrian crossing looking
as if he's about to cross.
BOTCHERBY
The princible by which British roads are signposted.
BOTLEY
The prominent stain on a man's trouser crotch seen on his return from
the lavatory. A botley proper is caused by an accident with the push taps,
and should not be confused with any stain caused by insufficient waggling of
the willy.
BOTOLPHS
Huge benign tumours which archdeacons and old chemisty teachers affect
to wear on the sides of their noses.
BOTUSFLEMING
A small, long-handled steel trowel used by surgeons to remove the
contents of a patient's nostrils prior to a sinus operation.
BRADFORD
A school teacher's old hairy jacket, now severely discoloured by chalk
dust, ink, egg and the precipitations of uneditying chemical reactions.
BRADWORTHY
One who is skilled in the art of naming loaves.
BRECON
That part of the toenail which is designed to snag on nylon sheets.
BRISBANE
A perfectly resonable explanation (Such as the one offered by a person
with a gurgling cough which has nothing to do with the fact that they smoke
fifty cigarettes a day.)
BROATS
A pair of trousers with a career behind them. Broats are most commonly
seen on elderly retired army officers. Orginally the brats were part of
their best suit back in the thirties; then in the fifties they were demonted
and used for gardening. Recently pensions not being what they were, the
broats have been called out of retirement and reinstated as part of the best
suit again.
BROMPTON
A bromton is that which is said to have been committed when you are
convinced you are about to blow off with a resounding trumpeting noise in a
public place and all that acually slips out is a tiny 'pfpt'.
BROMSGROVE
Any urban environment containing a small amount of dogturd and about
forty-five tons of bent steel pylon or a lump of concrete with holes
claiming to be scuplture.
'Oh, come my dear, and come with
me.
And wander 'neath the bromsgrove
tree' - Betjeman.
BROUGH SOWERBY
One who has been working at that same desk in the same office for
fifteen years and has very much his own ideas about why he is continually
passed over for promotion.
BRUMBY
The fake antique plastic seal on a pretentious whisky bottle.
BRYMBO
The single unappetising bun left in a baker's shop after four p.m.
BUDBY
A nipple clearly defined thorugh flimsy or wet matereal.
BUDE
A polite joke reserved for use in the presence of vicars.
BULDOOO
a virulent red-coloured pus which genereally accompanies clonmult
(q.v.) and sandberge (q.v.)
BURBAGE
The sound made by a liftful of people all tring to breathe politely
through their noses.
BURES
The scabs on knees and elbows formed by a compulsion to make love on
cheap Habitat floor-matting.
BURLESTON
That peculary tuneless humming and whistling adopted by people who are
extremely angry.
BURLINGJOBB
A seventeenth-century crime by which excrement is thrown into the
street from a ground-floor window.
BURNT YATES
Condition to which yates (q.v.) will suddenly pass without any apparent
interviewing period, after the spirit of the throckmorton (q.v.) has finally
been summoned by incressant throcking (q.v.)
BURSLEDON
The bluebottle one is too tired to get up and start, but not tired
enough to sleep thorugh.
BURTON COGGLES
A bunch of keys found in a drawer whose purpose has long been
forgotten, and which can therefore now be used only for dropping down
people's backs as a cure for nose-bleeds.
BURWASH
The pleasureable cool sloosh of puddle water over the toes of your
gumboots.
CAARNDUNCAN (n.)
The high-pitched and insistent cry of the young female human urging one
of its peer group to do something dangerous on a cliff-edge or piece of
toxic waste ground.
CAIRNPAT (n.)
A large piece of dried dung found in mountainous terrain above the
cowline which leads the experienced tracker to believe that hikers have
recently passed.
CAMER (n.)
A mis-tossed caber.
CANNOCK CHASE (n.)
In any box of After Eight Mints, there is always a large number of
empty envelopes and no more that four or five actual mints. The cannock
chase is the process by which, no matter which part of the box often, you
will always extract most of the empty sachets before pinning down an actual
minot, or 'cannock'.
The cannock chase also occurs with people who put their dead matches
back in the matchbox, and then embarrass themselves at parties trying to
light cigarettes with tree quarters of an inch of charcoal.
The term is also used to describe futile attempts to pursue
unscrupulous advertising agencies who nick your ideas to sell chocolates
with.
CHENIES (pl.n.)
The last few sprigs or tassles of last Christmas's decoration you
notice on the ceiling while lying on the sofa on an August afternoon.
CHICAGO (n.)
The foul-smelling wind which precedes an underground railway train.
CHIPPING ONGAR (n.)
The discust and embarrassment (or 'ongar') felt by an observer in the
presence of a person festooned with kirbies (q.v.) when they don't know them
well enough to tell them to wipe them off, invariably this 'ongar' is
accompanied by an involuntary staccato twitching of the leg (or 'chipping')
CLABBY (adj.)
A 'clabby' conversation is one stuck up by a commissionare or cleaning
lady in order to avoid any futher actual work. The opening gambit is usually
designed to provoke the maximum confusion, and therefore the longest
possible clabby conversation. It is vitaly important to learn the correct,
or 'clixby' (q.v.), responses to a clabby gambit, and not to get trapped by
a 'ditherington' (q.v.). For instance, if confronted with a clabby gambit
such as 'Oh, mr Smith, I didn't know you'd had your leg off', the
ditherington response is 'I haven't....' whereas the clixby is 'good.'
CLACKAVOID (n.)
Technical BBC term for a page of dialogue from Blake's Seven.
CLACKMANNAN (n.)
The sound made by knocking over an elephant's-foot umbrella stand full
of walking sticks.
Hence name for a particular kind of disco drum riff.
CLATHY (adj.)
Nervously indecisive about how safely to dispost of a dud lightbulb.
CLENCHWARTON (n. archaic)
One who assists an exorcist by squeezing whichever part of the
possessed the exorcist deems useful.
CLIXBY (adj.)
Politely rude. Bliskly vague. Firmly uninformative.
CLONMULT (n.)
A yellow ooze usually found near secretionns of buldoo (q.v.) and
sadberge (q.v.)
CLOVIS (q.v.)
One who actually looks forward to putting up the Christmas decorations
in the office.
CLUN (n.)
A leg which has gone to sleep and has to be hauled around after you.
CLUNES (pl.n.)
People who just won't go.
CONDOVER (n.)
One who is employed to stand about all day browsing through the
magazine racks in the newsagent.
CONG (n.)
Stange-shaped metal utensil found at the back of the saucepan cupboard.
Many authorities believe that congs provide conclusive proof of the
existence of a now extinct form of yellow vegetable which the Victorians
used to boil mercilessly.
CORFE (n.)
An object which is almost totally indistinguishable from a newspaper,
the one crucial difference being tat it belongs to somebody else and is
unaccountably much more interesting that your own - which may otherwice
appear to be in all respects identical.
Though it is a rule of life that a train or other public place may
contain any number of corfes but only one newspaper, it is quite possible to
transform your own perfectly ordinary newspaper into a corfe by the simple
expedient of letting somebody else read it.
CORFU (n.)
The dullest person you met during the course of your holiday. Also the
only one who failed to understand that the exchanging of addresses at the
end of a holiday is merely a social ritual and is absolutly not an
invitation to phone you up and turn up unannounced on your doorstep three
months later.
CORRIEARKLET (n.)
The moment at which two people approaching from opposite ends of a long
passageway, recognice each other and immediately pretend they haven't. This
is to avoid the ghastly embarrassment of having to continue recognising each
other the whole length of the corridor.
CORRIECRAVIE (n.)
To avert the horrors of corrievorrie (q.v.) corriecravie is usually
employed. This is the cowardly but highly skilled process by which both
protagonists continue to approach while keeping up the pretence that they
haven't noticed each other - by staring furiously at their feet, grimacing
into a notebook, or studying the walls closely as if in a mood of deep
irritation.
CORRIEDOO (n.)
The crucial moment of false recognition in a long passageway encouter.
Though both people are perfectly well aware that the other is approaching,
they must eventually pretend sudden recognition. They now look up with a
glassy smile, as if having spotted each other for the firt time, (and are
particulary delighted to have done so) shouting out 'Haaaaaallllloooo!' as
if to say 'Good grief!! You!! Here!! Of all people! Will I never. Coo. Stap
me vitals, etc.'
CORRIEMOILLIE (n.)
The dreadful sinking sensation in a long passageway encounter when both
protagonists immediately realise they have plumped for the corriedoo (q.v.)
mutch too early as they are still a good thirty yards apart. They were
embarrased by the pretence of corriecravie (q.v.) and decided to make use of
the corriedoo because they felt silly. This was a mistake as corrievorrie
(q.v.) will make them seem far sillier.
CORRIEVORRIE (n.)
Corridor etiquette demans that one a corriedoo (q.v.) has been
declared, corrievorrie must be employed. Both protagonists must now
embellish their approach with an embarrassing combination of waving,
grinning, making idiot faces, doing pirate impressions, and waggling the
head from side to side while holding the other person's eyes as the smile
drips off their face, until with great relief, they pass each other.
CORRIEMUCHLOCH (n.)
Word describing the kind of person who can make a complete mess of a
simple job like walking down a corridor.
CORSTORPHINE (n.)
A very short peremptory service held in monasteries prior to teatime to
offer thanks for the benediction of digestive biscuits.
COTTERSTOCK (n.)
A piece of wood used to stir paint and thereafter stored uselessly in a
shed in perpetuity.
CRAIL (n. mineral)
Crail is a common kind of rock or gravel found widely across the
British Isles.
Each individual stone (due to an as yet undiscovered gravtitaional
property) is charged with 'negative buoyancy'.
This means that no matter how much crail you remove from the garden,
more of it will rise to the surface.
Crail is much employed by the Royal Navy for making the paperweights
and ashtrays used inside submarines.
CRANLEIGH (n.)
A mood of irrational irritation with everyone and everything.
CROMARTY (n.)
The brittle sludge which clings to the top of ketchup bottles and
plastic tomatoes in nasty cafes.
CURRY MALLET (n.)
A large wooden or rubber cub which poachers use to despatch cats or
other game which they can only sell to Indian resturants. For particulary
small cats the price obtainable is not worth the cost of expending
ammunition.
DALRYMPLE (n.)
Dalarymples are the things you pay extra for on pieces of hand-made
crarftwork - the rough edges, the paint smudges and the holes in the
glazing.
DAMNAGLAUR (n.)
A certain facial expression which actors are required to demonstrate
their mastery of before they are allowed to play Macbeth.
DARENTH (n.)
Measure = 0.0000176 mg.
Defined as that amount of margarine capable of covering one hounred
slices of bread to the depth of one molecule. This is the legal maximum
allowed in sandwich bars in Greater London.
DEAL (n.)
The gummy substance found between damp toes.
DEEPING ST NICHOLAS (n.)
What street-wise kids do at Christmas. They hide on the rooftops
waiting for Santa Claus so that if he arrives and goes down the chimney,
they can rip stuff off from his sleigh.
DES MOINES (pl.n.)
The two little lines which come down from your nose.
DETCHANT (n.)
That part of a hymn (usually a few notes at the end of a verse) where
the tune goes so high or low that you suddenly have to change octaves to
accommodate it.
DETCHANT (n.)
(Of the hands or feet.) Preunelike after an overlong bath.
DIDCOT (n.)
The tiny oddly-shaped bit of card which a ticket inspector cuts out of
a ticket with his clipper for no apparent reason. It is a little-known fact
that the confetti at Princess Margaret's wedding was made up of thousands of
didcots collected by inspectors on the Royal Train.
DIDLING (participal vb.)
The process of tring to work out who did it when reading a whodunnit,
and trying to keep your options open so that when you find out you can allow
yourself to think that you knew perfectly well who it was all along.
DILLYTOP (n.)
The kind of bath plug which for some unaccountable reason is actually
designed to sit on top of the hole rather than fit into it.
DIBBLE (vb.)
To try to remove a sticky something from one hand with the other, thus
causeing it to get stuck to the other hand and eventually to anything else
you try to remove it with.
DITHERINGTON (n)
Sudden access to panic experienced by one who realises that he is being
drawn inexorably into a clabby (q.v.) conversion, i.e. one he has no hope of
enjoying, benefiting from or understanding.
DITTISHAM (n.)
Any music you hear on the radio to which you have to listen very
carefully to determine whether it is an advertising jingle or a bona fide
record.
DOBWALLS (pl.n.)
The now hard-boiled bits of nastiness which have to be prised off
crockery by hand after it has been through a dishwasher.
DOBWALLS (pl.n.)
The now hard-boiled bits of nastiness which have to be prised off
crockery by hand after it has been through a dishwasher.
DOCKERY (n.)
Facetious behaviour adopted by an accused man in the mistaken belief
that this will endear him to the judge.
DOGDYKE (vb.)
Of dog-owners, to adopt the absurd pretence that the animal shitting in
the gutter is nothing to do with them.
DOLEGELLAU (n.)
The clump, or cluster, of bored, quietly enraged, mildly embarrassed
men waiting for their wives to come out of a changing room in a dress shop.
DORCHESTER (n.)
A throaty cough by someone else so timed as to obscure the crucial part
of the rather amusing remark you've just made.
DORRIDGE (n.)
Technical term for one of the lame excuses written in very small print
on the side of packets of food or washing powder to explain why there's
hardly anything inside. Examples include 'Contents may have settled in
transit' and 'To keep each biscuit fresh they have been individually wrapped
in silver paper and cellophane and separated with courrugated lining, a
carboard flap, and heavy industrial tyres'.
DRAFFAN (n.)
An infuriating person who always manages to look much more dashing that
anyone else by turning up unshaven and hungover at a formal party.
DREBLEY (n.)
Name for a shop which is supposed to be witty but is in fact wearisome,
e.g. 'The Frock Exchange', 'Hair Apparent', etc.
DROITWICH (n.)
A street dance. The two partners approach from opposite directions and
try politely to get out of each other's way. They step to the left, step to
the right, apologise, step to the left again, apologise again, bump into
each other and repeat as often as unnecessary.
DUBUQUE (n.)
A look given by a superior person to someone who has arrived wearing
the wrong sort of shoes.
DUDOO (n.)
The most deformed potato in any given collection of potatoes.
DUGGLEBY (n.)
The person in front of you in the supermarket queue who has just
unloaded a bulging trolley on to the conveyor belt and is now in the process
of trying to work out which pocket they left their cheque book in, and
indeed which pair of trousers.
DULEEK (n.)
Sudden realisation, as you lie in bed waiting for the alarm to go off,
that it should have gone off an hour ago.
DULUTH (adj.)
The smell of a taxi out of which people have just got.
DUNBAR (n.)
A highly specialised fiscal term used solely by trunstile operatives at
Regnet's Part zoo. It refers to the variable amount of increase in the
variable gate takings on a Sunday afternoon, caused by persons going to the
zoo because they are in love and believe that the feeling of romace will be
somehow enhanced by the smell of panther sweat and rank incontinence in the
reptile house.
DUNBOYNE (n.)
The moment of realisation that the train you have just patiently
watched pulling out of the station was the one you were meant to be on.
DUNCRAGGON (n.)
The name of Charles Bronson's retirement cottage.
DUNGENESS (n.)
The uneasy feeling that the plastic handles of the overloaded
supermarket carrier bag you are carrying are getting steadily longer.
DUNTISH (adj.)
Mentally incapacitated by severe hangover.
EAST WITTERING (n.)
The same as west wittering (q.v.) only it's you they've trying to get
away from.
EDGBASTON (n.)
The spare seat-cushion carried by a London bus, which is placed against
the rear bumper when the driver wishes to indicate that the bus has broken
down. No one knows how this charming old custon orginated or how long it
will continue.
ELY (n.)
The first, tiniest inkling you get that something, somewhere, has gone
teribly wrong.
EMSWORTH (n.)
Measure of time and noiselessness defined as the moment between the
doors of a lift closing and it beginning to move.
EPPING (participial vb.)
The futile movements of forefingers and eyebrows used when failing to
attract the attention of waiters and barmen.
EPSOM (n.)
An entry in a diary (such as a date or a set of initials) or a name and
address in your address book, which you haven't the faintest idea what it's
doing there.
EPWORTH (n.)
The preciese value of the usefulness of epping (q.v.) it is a
little-known fact than an earlier draft of the final line of the film Gone
with the Wind had Clark Gable saying 'Frankly my dear, i don't give an
epworth', the line being eventually changed on the grounds that it might not
be understood in Cleveland.
ERIBOLL (n.)
A brown bubble of cheese containing gaseous matter which grows on welsh
rarebit. It was Sir Alexander Flemming's study of eribolls which led,
indirectly, to his discovery of the fact that he didn't like welsh rarebit
very much.
ESHER (n.)
One of those push tapes installed in public washrooms enabling the user
to wash their trousers without actually getting into the basin. The most
powerful esher of recent years was 'damped down' by Red Adair after an
incredible sixty-eight days' fight in Manchester's Piccadilly Station.
EVERSCREECH (n.)
The look given by a group of polite, angry people to a rude, calm
queuebarger.
EWELME (n.)
The smile bestowed on you by an air hostess.
EXETER (n.)
All light household and electrical goods contain a number of vital
components plus at least one exeter.
If you've just mended a fuse, changed a bulb or fixed a blender, the
exeter is the small, flat or round plastic or bakelite piece left over which
means you have to undo everything and start all over again.
FAIRYMOUNT (vb.n.)
Polite word for buggery.
FARDUCKMANTON (n. archaic)
An ancient edict, mysteriously omitted from the Domesday Book,
requiring that the feeding of fowl on village ponds should be carried out
equitably.
FARNHAM (n.)
The feeling you get about four o'clock in the afternoon when you
haven't got enough done.
FARRANCASSIDY (n.)
A long and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to undo someone's bra.
FEAKLE (vb.)
To make facial expressions similar to those that old gentlemen make to
young girls in the playground.
FINUGE (vb.)
In any divisjon of foodstuffs equally between several people, to give
yourself the extra slice left over.
FIUNARY (n.)
The safe place you put something and then forget where it was.
FLIMBY (n.)
One of those irritating handle-less slippery translucent plastic bags
you get in supermarkets which, no matter how you hold them, always contrive
to let something fall out.
FLODIGARRY (n. Scots)
An ankle-length gaberdine or oilskin tarpaulin worn by deep-sea herring
fishermen in Arbroath and publicans in Glasgow.
FOINDLE (vb.)
To queue-jump very discretly by working one's way up the line without
being spotted doing so.
FORSINAIN (n. archaic)
The right of the lord of the manor to molest dwarves on their
birthdays.
FOVANT (n.)
A taxi driver's gesture, a raised hand pointed out of the window which
purports to mean 'thank you' and actually means 'fuck off out of the way'.
FRADDAM (n.)
The small awkward-shaped piece of cheese which remains after grating a
large regular-shaped piece of cheese and enables you to cut your fingers.
FRAMLINGHAM (n.)
A kind of burglar alarm usage. It is cunningly designed so that it can
ring at full volume in the street without apparently disturbing anyone.
Other types of framlingams are burglar alarms fitted to business
premises in residential areas, which go off as a matter of regular routine
at 5.31 p.m. on a Friday evening and do not get turned off til 9.20 a.m. on
Monday morning.
FRANT (n.)
Measure. The legal minimum distance between two trains on the District
and Circle line of the London Underground. A frant, which must be not less
than 122 chains (or 8 leagues) long, is not connected in any way with the
adjective 'frantic' which comes to us by a completely different route (as
indeed do the trains).
FRATING GREEN (adj.)
The shade of green which is supposed to make you feel comfortable in
hospitals, industrious in schools and uneasy in police stations.
FRIMLEY (n.)
Exaggerated carefree saunter adopted by Norman Wisdom as an immediate
prelude to dropping down an open manhole.
FRING (n.)
The noise made by light bulb which has just shone its last.
FROLESWORTH (n.)
Measure. The minimum time it is necessary to spend frowning in deep
concentration at each picture in an art gallery in order that everyone else
doesn't think you've a complete moron.
FROSSES (pl.n.)
The lecherous looks exchanged between sixteen-year-olds at a party
given by someone's parents.
FULKING (participial vb.)
Pretendig not to be in when the carol-singers come round.
GALASHIELS (pl.n.)
A form of particulary long sparse sideburns which are part of the
mandatory uniform of British Rail guards.
GALLIPOLI (adj.)
Of the behaviour of a bottom lip trying to spit mouthwash after an
injection at the dentist. Hence, loose, floppy, useless.
'She went suddenly Gallipoli in his arms' - Noel Coward.
GANGES (n. rare : colonial Indian)
Leg-rash contracted from playing too much polo. (It is a little-known
fact that Prince Charles is troubled by ganges down the inside of his arms.)
GASTARD (n.)
Useful specially new-coined word for an illegitimate child (in order to
distinguish it from soneone who merely carves you up on the motorway, etc.)
GILDERSOME (adj.)
Descriptive of a joke someone tells you which starts well, but which
becomes so embellished in the telling that you start to weary of it after
scarely half an hour.
GIPPING (participial vb.)
The fish-like opening and closing of the jaws seen amongst people who
have recently been to the dentist and are puzzled as to whether their teeth
have been put back the right way up.
GLASGOW (n.)
The feeling of infinite sadness engendered when walking through a place
filled with happy people fifteen years younger than yourself.
GLASSEL (n.)
A seaside pebble which was shiny and interesting when wet, and which is
now a lump of rock, which children nevertheless insist on filing their
suitcases with after the holiday.
GLAZELEY (adj.)
The state of a barrister's flat greasy hair after wearing a wig all
day.
GLEMENUILT (n.)
The kind of guilt which you'd completely forgotten about which comes
roaring back on discovering an old letter in a cupboard.
GLENTAGGART (n.)
A particular kind of tartan hold-all, made exclusive under licence for
British Airways.
When waiting to collect your luggage from an airport conveyour belt,
you will notice that on the next consingle, solitary bag going round and
round uncollected. This is a glentaggart, which has been placed there by the
baggage-handling staff to take your mind off the fact that your own luggage
will shortly be landing in Murmansk.
GLENTIES (pl.n.)
Series of small steps by which someone who has made a serious tactical
error in a conversion or argument moves from complete disagreement to
wholehearted agreement.
GLENWHILLY (n. Scots)
A small tartan pouch worn beneath the kilt during the thistle-harvest.
GLINSK (n.)
A hat which politicans but to go to Russia in.
GLORORUM (n.)
One who takes pleasure in informing others about their bowel movements.
GLOSSOP (n.)
A rouge blob of food.
Glossops, which are generally streaming hot and highly adhesive
invariably fall off your spoon and on to the surface of your host's highly
polished antique-rosewood dining table. If this has not, or may not have,
been noticed by the company present, swanage (q.v.) may be employed.
GLUTT LODGE (n.)
The place where food can be stored after having a tooth extracted. Some
Arabs can go without sustenance for up to six weeks on a full glutt lodge,
hence the expression 'the shit of the dessert'.
GLOADBY MARWOOD (n.)
Someone who stops Jon Cleese on the street and demands that he does a
funny walk.
GODALMING (n.)
Wonderful rush of relief on discovering that the ely (q.v.) and the
wembley (q.v.) were in fact false alarms.
GOLANT (adj.)
Blank, sly and faintly embarrasssed. Pertaining to the expression seen
on the face of someone who has clearly forgotten your name.
GOOLE (n.)
The puddle on the bar into which the barman puts your change.
GOOSECRUIVES (pl. n. archaic)
A parit of wooden trousers worn by poultry-keepers in the Middle Ages.
GOOSNARGH (n.)
Something left over from preparing or eating a meal, which you store in
the fridge despite the fact that you know full well you will never ever use
it.
GREAT TOSSON (n.)
A fat book containing four words and six cartoons which cost ё6.95.
GREAT WAKERING (participal vb.)
Panic which sets in when you badly need to go to the lavatory and
cannot make up your mind about what book or magazine to take with you.
GREELEY (n.)
Someone who continually annoys you by continually apologising for
annoying you.
GRETNA GREEN (adj.)
A shade of green which cartoon characters dangle over the edge of a
cliff.
GRIMMET (n.)
A small bush from which cartoon characters dangle over the edge of a
cliff.
GRIMSBY (n.)
A lump of something gristly and foultasting concealed in a mouthful of
stew or pie.
Grimsbies are sometimes merely the result of careless cookery, but more
often they are placed there deliberately by Freemasons. Grimbies can be
purchased in bulk from any respectable Masonic butcher on giving him the
secret Masonic handbag. One is then placed correct masonic method of dealing
with it. If the guest is not a Mason, the host may find it entertaining to
watch how he handles the obnoxious object. It may be
(a) manfully swallowed, invariably bringing tears to the eyes.
(b) chewed with resolution for up to twenty minutes before eventually
resorting to method (a)
(c) choked on fatally.
The Masonic handshake is easily recognised by another Mason
incidentally, for by it a used grimsby is passed from hand to hand.
The secret Masonic method for dealing with a grimsby is as follows :
remove it carefully with the silver tongs provided, using the left hand.
Cross the room to your host, hopping on one leg, and ram the grimsby firmly
up his nose, shouting, 'Take that, you smug Masonic bastard.'
GRINSTEAD (n.)
The state of a lady's clothing after she has been to powder her nose
and has hitched up her tights over her skirt at the back, thus exposing her
bottom, and has walked out without noticing it.
GUERNSEY (adj.)
Queasy but umbowed. The kind of feeling one gets when discovering a
plastic compartment in a fridge in which thing are growing.
GWEEK (n.)
A coat hanger recycled as a car aerial.
HADZOR (n.)
A sharp instument placed in the washing-up bowl which makes it easier
to cut yourself.
HAGNABY (n.)
Someone who looked a lot more attractive in the disco than they do in
your bed the next morning.
HALCRO (n.)
An adhesive fibrous cloth used to hold babies' clothes together.
Thousands of tiny pieces of jam 'hook' on to thousands of tiny-pieces of
dribble, enabling the cloth to become 'sticky'.
HALIFAX (n.)
The green synthetic astroturf on which greengrocers display their
vegetables.
HAMBLEDON (n.)
The sound of a single-engined aircraft flying by, heard whilst lying in
a summer field in England, which somehow concentrates the silence and sense
of space and timelessness and leaves one with a profound feeling of
something or other.
HAPPLE (vb.)
To annoy people by finishing their sentences for them and then telling
them what they really meant to say.
HARBLEDOWN (vb.)
To manoeuvre a double mattress down a winding staircase.
HARBOTTLE (n.)
A particular kind of fly which lives inside double glazing.
HARPENDEN (n.)
The coda to a phone conversion, consisting of about eight exchanges, by
which people try gracefully to get off the line.
HASELBURY PLUCKNETT (n.)
A mechanical device for cleaning combs invented during the industrial
revoulution at the same time as Arkwright's Spinning Jenny, but which didn't
catch on in the same way.
HASSOP (n.)
The pocket down the back of an armchair used for storing two-shilling
bits and pieces of Lego.
HASTINGS (pl.n.)
Things sain on the spur of the moment to explain to someone who comes
into a room unexpectedly precisely what it is you are doing.
HATHERSAGE (n.)
The tiny snippets of beard which coat the inside of a washbasin after
shaving in it.
HAUGHAM (n.)
One who loudly informs other diners in a resturant what kind of man he
is by calling for the chef by his christian name from the lobby.
HAXBY (n.)
Any garden implement found in a potating shed whose exact purpose is
unclear.
HEATON PUNCHARDON (n.)
A violent argument which breaks out in the car on the way home from a
party between a couple who have had to be polite to each other in company
all evening.
HENSTRIDGE (n.)
The dried yellow substance found between the prongs of forks in
resturants.
HERSTMONCEUX (n.)
The correct name for the gold medallion worn by someone who is in the
habit of wearing their shirt open to the waist.
HEVER (n.)
The panic caused by half-hearing Tannoy in an airport.
HIBBING (n.)
The marks left on the outside breast pocket of a storekeeper's overall
where he has put away his pen and missed.
HICKLING (participial vb.)
The practice of infuriating teatregoers by not only arriving late to a
centre-row seat, but also loudly apologising to and patting each member of
the audience in turn.
HIDCOTE BARTRAM (n.)
To be caught in a hidcote bartram is to say a series of protracted and
final goodbytes to a group of people, leave the house and then realise
you've left your hat behind.
HIGH LIMERIGG (n.)
The topmost tread of a staircase which disappers when you've climbing
the stairs in the darkness.
HIGH OFFLEY (n.)
Gossnargh (q.v.) three weeks later.
HOBBS CROSS (n.)
The awkward leaping manoeuvre a girl has to go throught in bed in order
to make him sleep on the wet patch.
HODDLESDEN (n.)
An 'injured' footballer's limb back into the game which draws applause
but doesn't fool anybody.
HODNET (n.)
The woodn safety platform supported by scaffolding round a building
under construction from which the builders (at almost no personal risk) can
drop pieces of cement on passers-by.
HOFF (vb.)
To deny indignantly something which is palpably true.
HOGGESTON (n.)
The action of overshaking a pair of dice in a cup in the mistaken
belief that this will affect the eventual outcome in your favour and not
irritate everyone else.
HORTON-CUM-STUDLEY (n.)
The combination of little helpful grunts, nodding movements of the
head, considerate smiles, upward frowns and serious pauses that a group of
people join in making in trying to elicit the next pronouncement of somebody
with a dreadful stutter.
HOVE (adj.)
Descriptive of the expression seen onthe face of one person in the
presence of another who clearly isn't going to stop talking for a very long
time.
HOYLAKE (n.)
The pool of edible gravy which surrounds an inedible and discusting
lump of meat - eaten to give the impression that the person is 'just not
very hungry, but mmm this is delicious'.
Cf. Peaslake - a similar experience had by vegetarians.
HUBY (n.)
A half-erection large enough to be a publicly embarrassing bulge in the
trousers, not large enough to be of any use to anybody.
HUCKNALL (vb.)
To crouch upwards: as in the movement of a seated person's feet and
legs made in order to allow a cleaner's hoover to pass beneath them.
HULL (adj.)
Descriptive of the smell of a weekend cottage.
HUMBER (vb.)
To move like the cheeks of a very fat person as their car goes over a
cattle grid.
HUMBY (n.)
An erection which won't go down when a gentleman has to go for a pee in
the middle of making love to someone.
HUNA (n.)
The result of coming to the worng decision.
HUNSINGORE (n.)
Medieval ceremonial brass horn with which the successful execution of
an araglin (q.v.) is trumpeted from the castle battlements.
HUTLERBURN (n.archaic)
A brun sustained as a result of the behaviour of a clumsy hutler. (The
precise duties of hutlers are noe lost in the mists of history.)
HUTTOFT (n.)
The fibrous algae which grows in the dark, moist environment of trouser
turn-ups.
IBSTOCK (n.)
Anything used to make a noise on a corrugated iron wall or
clinker-built fence by dragging it along the surface while walking past it.
'Mr Bennett thoughtfully selected a stout ibstock and left the house.' -
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, II.
IPING (participial vb.)
The increasingly anxious shifting from leg to leg you go through when
you are desperate to go to the lavatory and the person you are talking to
keeps on remembering a few final things he want to mention.
IPSWICH (n.)
The sound at the other end of the telephone which tells you that the
automatic exchange is working very hard but is intending not actually to
connect you this time, merely to let you know how difficult it is.
JARROW (adj.)
An agrucultural device which, when towed behind a tractor, enables the
farmer to spread his dung evenly across the width of the road.
JAWCRAIG (n. medical)
A massive facial spasm which is brought on by being told a really
astounding piece of news.
A mysterious attack of jawcraig affected 40,000 sheep in Whales in
1952.
JURBY (n.)
A loose wollen garment reaching to the knees and with three or more
armholes, knitted by the wearer's well- meaning but incompetent aunt.
KALAMI (n.)
The ancient Eastern art of being able to fold road-maps properly.
KANTURK (n.)
An extremly intricate knot orginally used for belaying the topgallant
foresheets of a gaff-rigged China clipper, and now more commonly observed
when trying to gen an old kite out of the cupboard under the stairs.
KEELE (adj.)
The horrible smell caused by washing ashtrays.
KELLING (participial vb.)
A person searching for something, who has reached the futile stage of
re-looking i all the places they have looked once already, is said to be
kelling.
KENT (adj.)
Politely determined not to help despite a violent urge to the contrary.
Kent expressions are seen on the faces of people who are good at
something watching someone else who can't do it at all.
KENTUCKEY (adv.)
Fitting exactly and satisfyingly.
The cardboard box that slides neatly into an exact space in a garage,
or the last book which exactly fills a bookshelf, is said to fit 'real nice
and kentuckey'.
KERRY (n.)
The small twist of skin which separated each sausage on a string.
KETTERING (n.)
The marks left on your bottom or thighs after sunbathing on a
wickerwork chair.
KETTLENESS (adj.)
The quality of not being able to pee while being watched.
KIBBLESWORTH (n.)
The footling amount of money by which the price of a given article in a
shop is less than a sensible number, in a vain hope that at least one idiot
will think it cheap. For instance, the kibblesworth on a pair of shoes
priced at ё19.99 is 1p.
KIMMERIDGE (n.)
The light breeze which blows through your armpit hair when you are
stretched out sunbathing.
KINGSTON BAGPUISE (n.)
A forty-year-old sixteen-stone man trying to commit suicide by jogging.
KIRBY (n.)
Small but repulsive piece of food prominently attached to a person's
face or clothing.
See also CHIPPING ONGAR.
KIRBY MISPERTON (n.)
One who kindly attempts to wipe an apparent kirby (q.v.) off another's
face with a napkin, and then discovers it to be a wart or other permanent
fixture, is said to have committed a 'kirby misperton'.
KITMURVY (n.)
Man who owns all the latest sporting gadgetry and clothing (gold
trolley, tee cosies, ventilated shoes, Gary Player- autographed tracksuit
top, American navy cap, mirror sunglasses) but is still only on his second
gold lesson.
KNOPTOFT (n.)
The mysterious fluff placed in your pockets by dry-cleaning firms.
KURDISTAN (n.)
Hard stare given by a husband to his wife when he notices a sharp
increase in the number of times he answers the phone to be told, 'Sorry,
wrong number.'
LAMLASH (n.)
The folder on hotel dressing-tables full of astoundingly dull
information.
LARGOWARD (n.)
Motorists' name for the kind of pedestrian who stands beside a main
road and waves onthe traffic, as if it's their right of way.
LE TOUQUET (n.)
A mere nothing, an unconsidered trifle, a negligible amount. Un touquet
is often defined as the difference between the cost of a bottle of gin
bought in an off-licence and one bought in a duty-free shop.
LIFF (n.)
A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For
instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words. 'This book will
change your life'.
LIMERIGG (vb.)
To jar one's leg as the result of the disapperarance of a stair which
isn't there in the darkness.
LINDISFARNE (adj.)
Descriptive of the pleasant smell of an empty biscuit tin.
LISTOWEL (n.)
The small mat onthe bar designed to be more absorbent than the bar, but
not as absorbent as your elbows.
LITTLE URSWICK (n.)
The member of any class who most inclines a teacher towards the view
that capital punishment should be introduced in schools.
LLANELLI (adj.)
Descriptive of the waggling movement of a person's hands when shaking
water from them or warming up for a piece of workshop theatre.
LOCHRANZA (n.)
The long unaccomplished wail in the middle of a Scottish folk song
where the pipes nip around the corner for a couple of drinks.
LONGNIDDRY (n.)
A droplet which persists in running out of your nose.
LOSSIEMOUTH (n.)
One of those middle-aged ladies with just a hint of a luxuriant
handlebar moustache.
LOUTH (n.)
The sort of man who wears loud check jackets, has a personalised
tankard behind the bar and always gets served before you do.
LOW ARDWELL (n.)
Seductive remark made hopefully in the back of a taxi.
LOW EGGBOROUGH (n.)
A quiet little unregarded man in glasses who is building a new kind of
atomic bomb in his garden shed.
LOWER PEOVER (n.)
Common solution to the problems of a humby (q.v.)
LOWESTOFT (n.)
(a) The balls of wool which collect on nice new sweaters.
(b) The correct name for 'navel fluff'.
LOWTHER (vb.)
(Of a large group of people who have been to the cinema together.) To
stand aimlessly about on the pavement and argue about whetever to go and eat
either a Chinese meal nearby or an Indian meal at a resturant which somebody
says is very good but isn't certain where it is, or have a drink and think
about it, or just go home, or have a Chinese meal nearby - until by the time
agreement is reached everything is shut.
LUBCROY (n.)
The telltale little lump in the top of your swimming trunks which tells
you you are going to have to spend half an hour with a safety pin trying to
pull the drawstring out again.
LUDLOW (n.)
A wad of newspaper, folded tablenapkin or lump of carboard put under a
wobbly table or chair to make it standup straight.
It is perhaps not widely known that air-ace Sir Douglas Bader used to
get about on an enormous pair of ludlows before he had his artificial legs
fitted.
LUFFENHAM (n.)
Feeling you get when the pubs aren't going to be open for another
fortyfive minutes and the luffness in begining to wear a bit thin.
LUFFNESS (n.)
Hearty feelingthat comes from walking on the moors with gumboots and
cold ears.
LULWORTH (n.)
Measure of conversation.
A lulworth defines the amount of the length, loudness and embarrassment
of a statement you make when everyone else in the room unaccountly stops
talking at the same time.
LUPPITT (n.)
The piece of leather which hangs off the bottom of your shoe before you
can be bothered to get it mended.
LUSBY (n.)
The fold of flesh pushing forward over the top of a bra which is too
small for the lady inside it.
LUTON (n.)
The horseshoe-shaped rug which goes around a lavatory seat.
LYBSTER (n., vb.)
The artificail chuckle in the voice-over at the end of a supposedly
funny television commercial.
LYDIARD TREGOZE (n.)
The opposite of a mavis enderby (q.v.) An unrequited early love of your
life who still causes terrible pangs though she inexplicably married a
telephone engineer.
MAARUIG (n.)
The inexpressible horror experienced on walking up in the morning and
remembering that you are Andy Stewart.
MAENTWROG (n. Welsh)
The height by which the top of a wave exceeds the heigh to which you
have rolled up your trousers.
MALIBU (n.)
The height by which the top of a wave exceeds the height to which you
have rolled up your trousers.
MANKINHOLES (pl.n.)
The small holes in a loaf of bread which give rise to the momentary
suspicion that something may have made its home within.
MAPLEDURHAM (n.)
A hideous piece of chipboard veneer furniture bought in a suburban
highstreet furniture store and designed to hold exactly a year's supply of
Sunday colour supplements.
MARGATE (n.)
A margate is a particular kind of commissionaire who sees you every day
and is on cheerful Christian-name terms with you, then one day refuses to
let you in because you've forgotten your identify card.
MARKET DEEPING (participial vb.)
Stealing one piece of fruit from a street fruit-and- vegetable stall.
MARLOW (n.)
The bottom drawer in the kitchen your mother keeps her paper bags in.
MARYTAVY (n.)
A person to whom, under dire injuctions of silence, you tell a secret
which you wish to be fare more widely known.
MASSACHUSETTS (pl.n.)
Those items and particles which people who, after blowing their noses,
are searching for when they look into their hankies.
MATCHING GREEN (adj.)
(Of nackties.) Any colour which Nigel Rees rejects as unsuitable for
his trousers or jacket.
MAVIS ENDERBY (n.)
The almost-completely-forgotten girlfriend from your distant past for
whom your wife has a completely irrational jealousy and hatred.
MEATH (adj.)
Warm and very slightly clammy.
Descriptive of the texture of your hands after the automatic drying
machine has turned itself off, just damp enough to make it embarrassing if
you have to shake hands with someone immediately afterwards.
MEATHOP (n.)
One who sets off for the scene of an aircraft crash with a picnic
hamper.
MEETH (n.)
Something which American doctors will shortly tell us we are all
suffering from.
MELCOMBE REGIS (n.)
The name of the style of decoration used in cocktail lounges in mock
Tudor hotels in Surrey.
MELLON UDRIGLE (n.)
The ghastly sound made by traditional folksingers.
MELTON CONSTABLE (n.)
A patent anti-wrinkle cream which policemen wear to keep themselves
looking young.
MEMPHIS (n.)
The little bits of yellow fluff which get trapped in the hinge of the
windscreen wipers after polishing the car with a new duster.
MILWAUKEE (n.)
The melodious whistling, chanting and humming tone of the milwaukee can
be heard whenever a public lavatory is entered. It is the way the occupants
of the cubicles have of telling you there's no lock on their door and you
can't come in.
MINCHINHAMPTON (n.)
The expression on a man's face when he has just zipped up his trousers
without due care and attention.
MOFFAT (n.tailoring term)
That part of your coat which is designed to be sat on by the person
next of you on the bus.
MOLESBY (n.)
The kind of family that drives to the seaside and then sits in the car
with all the windows closed, reading the Sunday Express and wearing sidcups
(q.v.)
MONKS TOFT (n.)
The bundle of hair which is left after a monk has been tonsured, which
he keeps tired up with a rubber band and uses for chasing ants away.
MOTSPUR (n.)
The fourth wheel of a supermarket trolley which looks identical to the
other tree but renders the trolley completely uncontrollable.
MO I RANA
Imagine beeing on a vacation, and it's raining all the time, you are
driving and the kids are making you a nervous wreck. Well you are defenitive
in Mo i Rana.
MUGEARY (n.medical)
The substance from which the unpleasant little yellow globules in the
corners of a sleepy person's eyes are made.
MUNDERFIELD (n.)
A meadow selected, whilst driving past, as being ideal for a picnic
which, from a sitting position, turns out to be full of stubble, dust and
cowpats, and almost impossible to enjoy yourself in.
NAAS (n.)
The windmaking region of Albania where most of the wine that people
take to bottle-parties comes from.
NACTION (n.)
The 'n' with which cheap advertising copywriters replace the word 'and'
(as in 'fish 'n' chips', 'mix 'n' match', 'assault 'n' battery'), in the
mistaken belief that this is in some way chummy or endearing.
NAD (n.)
Measure defined as the distance between a driver's oustretched
fingertips and the ticket machine in an automatic car-park.
1 nad = 18.4 cm.
NANHORON (n.medical)
A tiny valve concealed in the inner ear which enables a deaf granmother
to converse quite normally when she feels like it, but which excludes
completely anything that sounds like a request to help with laying the
table.
NANTWICH (n.)
A late-night snack, invented by the Earl of Nantwich, which consists of
the dampest thing in the fridge, pressed between two of the driest things in
the fridge. The Earl, who lived in a flat in Clapham, inventedthe nantwich
to avoid having to go shopping.
NAPLES (pl.n.)
The tiny depression in a piece of Ryvita.
NASEBY (n.)
The stout metal instument used for clipping labels on to exhibits at
flower shows.
NAUGATUCK (n.)
A plastic sachet containing shampoo, polyfilla, etc., which is
impossible to open except by off the corners.
NAZEING (participial vb.)
The rather unconvincing noices of pretended interest which an adult has
to make when brought a small dull object for admiration by a child.
NEEN SOLLARS (pl.n.)
Any ensemble of especially unflattering and perticular garments worn by
a woman which tell you that she is right at the forefront of fashion.
NEMPNETT THRUBWELL (n.)
The feeling experienced when driving off for the frist time on a brand
new motorbike.
NETHER POPPLETON (n. obs.)
A pair of P.J.Proby's trousers.
NOTTAGE (n.)
Nottage is the collective name for things which you find a use for
immediately after you've thrown them away.
For instance, your greenhouse has been cluttered up for years with a
huge piece of cardboard and great fronds of gardening string. You at last
decide to clear all this stuff out, and you burn it. Within twenty-four
hours you will urgently need to wrap a large parcel, and suddenly remember
that luckily in your greenhouse there is some carb...
NUBBOCK (n.)
The kind of person who has to leave before a party can relax and enjoy
itself.
NOTBOURNE (n.)
In a choice between two or more possible puddings, the one nobody
plumps for.
NYBSTER (n.)
Sort of person who takes the lift to travel one floor.
OCKLE (n.)
An electrical switch which appears to be off in both positions.
OSBASTON (n.)
A point made for the sevent time to somebody who insisits that they
know exactly what you mean but clearly hasn't got the faintest idea.
OSHKOSH (n., vb.)
The noise made by someone who has just been grossly flattered and is
trying to make light of it.
OSSETT (n.)
A frilly spare-toilet-roll-cosy.
OSWALDTWISTLE (n. Old Norse)
Small brass wind instrument used for summoning Vikings to lunch when
they're off on their longships, playing.
OBWESTRY (abs.n.)
Bloody-minded determination on part of a storyteller to continue a
story which both the teller and the listeners know has become desperately
tedious.
OUGHTERBY (n.)
Someone you don't want to invite to a party but whom you know you have
to as a matter of duty.
OUNDLE (vb.)
To walk along leaning sideways, with one arm hanging limp and dragging
one leg behind the other.
Most commonly used by actors in amateur production of Richard III, or
by people carrying a heavy suitcase in one hand.
OZARK (n.)
One who offers to help just after all the work has been done.
PABBY (n.,vb.)
(Fencing term.) The play, or manoeuvre, where one swordsman leaps on to
the table and pulls the battleaxe off the wall.
PANT-Y-WACCO (adj.)
The final state of mind of retired colonel before they come to take him
away.
POPCASTLE (n.)
Something drawn or modelled by a small child which you are supposed to
know wait it is.
PAPPLE (vb.)
To do what babies do to soup with their spoons.
PAPWORTH EVERARD (n.)
Technical term for the third take of an orgasm scene during the making
of a pornographic film.
PEEBLES (pl.n.)
Small, carefully rolled pellets of skegness (q.v.)
PELUTHO (n.)
A South American ball game. The balls are whacked against a brick wall
with a stout wooden bat until the prisoner confesses.
PEN-TRE-TAFARN-Y-FEDW (n.)
Welsh word which literally translates as 'leaking-biro-by-
the-glass-hole-of-the-clerk-of-the-bank-has-been-taken-to-
another-place-leaving-only-the-special-inkwell-and-three-
inches-of-tin-chain'.
PEORIA (n.)
The fear of peeling too few potatoes.
PERCYHORNER (n.)
(English public-school slang). A prefect whose duty it is to suprise
new boys at the urinal humiliate them in a manner of his choosing.
PERRANZABULOE (n.)
One of those spray things used to wet ironing with.
PEVENSEY (n.archaic)
The right to collect shingle from the king's foreshore.
PIDDLETRENTHIDE (n.)
A trouser stain caused by a wimbledon (q.v.). Not to be confused with a
botley (q.v.)
PIMLICO (n.)
Small odd-shaped piece of plastic or curious metal component found in
the bottom of kitchen rummagedrawer when spring-cleaning or looking for
Sellotape.
PIMPERNE (n.)
One of those rubber nodules found on the underneath side of a lavatory
seat.
PITLOCHRY (n.)
The background gurgling noise heard in Wimby Bars caused by people
trying to get the last bubbles out of their milkshakes by slurping loudly
through their straws.
PITSLIGO (n.)
Part of traditional mating rite.
During the first hot day of spring, all the men in the tube start
giving up their seats to ladies and staphanging. The purpose of pitsligo is
for them to demonstrate their manhood by displaying the wet patches under
their arms.
PLEELEY (adj.)
Descriptive of a drunk person's attempt to be endearing.
PLYMOUTH (vb.)
To relate an amusing story to someone without remembering that it was
they who told it to you in the first place.
PLYMPTON (n.)
The (pointless) knob on top of a war memorial.
PODE HOLE (n.)
A hole drilled in chipboard lavatory walls by homosexuals for any one
of a number of purposes.
POGES (pl.n.)
The lumps of dry powder that remain after cooking a packet soup.
POLBATHIC (adj.)
Gifted with ability to manipulate taps using only the feet.
POLLOCH (n.)
One of those tiny ribbed-plastic and aluminium foil tubs of milk served
on trains enabling you to carry one safely back to you compartment where
your legs in comfort trying to get the bloody things open.
POLPERRO (n.)
A polperro is the ball, or muff, of soggy hair found clinging to bath
overflow-holes.
POONA (n.)
Satisfied grunting noise made when sitting back after a good meal.
POTT SHRIGLEY (n.)
Dried remains of a week-old casserole, eaten when extremely drunk at
two a.m.
PUDSEY (n.)
The curious-shaped flat wads of dough left on a kitchen table after
someone has been cutting scones out of it.
QUABBS (pl.n.)
The substances which emerge when you squeeze a blackhead.
QUALL (vb.)
To speak with the voice of one who requires another to do something for
them.
QUEDGELEY (n.)
A rabidly left-wing politican who can afford to be that way because he
married a millionairess.
QUEENZIEBURN (n.)
Something that happens when people make it up after an agglethorpe
(q.v.)
QUENBY (n.)
A stubborn spot on a window which you spend twenty minutes trying to
clean off before discovering it's on the other side of the glass.
QUERRIN (n.)
A person that no one has ever heard of who unaccountably manages to
make a living writing prefaces.
QUOYNESS (n.)
The hatefullness of words like 'relionus' and 'easiephit'.
RAMSGATE (n.)
All institutional buildings must, by law, contain at least twenty
remsgates. These are doors which open the opposite way to the one you
expect.
RANFURLY (adj.)
Fashion of trying ties so that the long thin end underneath dangles
below the short fat upper end.
RECULVER (n.)
The sort of remark only ever made during Any Questions.
RIPON (vb.)
(Of literary critics.) To include all the best jokes from the book in
the review to make it look as if the critic thought of them.
ROCHESTER (n.)
One who is able to gain occupation of the armrest on both sides of
their cinema or aircraft seat.
ROYSTON (n.)
The man behind you in church who sings with terrific gusto almost tree
quarters of a tone off the note.
RUNCORN (n.)
A peeble (q.v.) which is larger that a belper (q.v.)
SADBERGE (n.)
A violent green shrub which is ground up, mixed with twigs and gelatine
and served with clonmult (q.v.) and buldoo (q.v.) in a container referred to
for no known reason as a 'relish tray'.
SAFFRON WALDEN (n.)
To spray the person you are talking to with half-chewed breadcrumbs or
small pieces of whitebait.
SAVERNAKE (vb.)
To sew municipal crests on to a windcheater in the belief that this
will make the wearer appear cosmopolitan.
SCAMBLEBY (n.)
A small dog which resembles a throwrug and appears to be dead.
SCETHROG (n.)
One of those peculiar beards-without-moustaches worn by religious
Belgians and American scientists which help them look like trolls.
SCONSER (n.)
A person who looks around then when talking to you, to see if there's
anyone more interesting about.
SCOPWICK (n.)
The flap of skin which is torn off you lip when trying to smake an
untipped cigarette.
SCORRIER (n.)
A small hunting dog trained to snuffle amongst your private parts.
SCOSTHROP (vb.)
To make vague opening or cutting movements with the hands when
wandering about looking for a tin opener, scissors, etc. in the hope that
this will help in some way.
SCRABBY (n.)
A curious-shaped duster given to you by your mother which on closer
inspection turns out to be half an underpant.
SCRABSTER (n.)
One of those dogs which has it off on your leg during tea.
SCRAMOGE (vb.)
To cut oneself whilst licking envelopes.
SCRANTON (n.)
A person who, after the declaration of the bodmin (q.v.), always
says,'... But I only had the tomato soup.'
SCRAPTOFT (n.)
The absurd flap of hair a vain and balding man grows long above one ear
to comb it to the other ear.
SCREEB (n.)
To make the noise of a nylon anorak rubbing against a pair of corduroy
trousers.
SCREGGAN (n.banking)
The crossed-out bit caused by people putting the wrong year on their
cheques all through January.
SCREMBY (n.)
The dehydrated felt-tip pen attached by a string to the 'Don't Forget'
board in the kitchen which has never worked in living memory but which no
one can be bothered to throw away.
SCROGGS (n.)
The stout pubic hairs which protrude from your helping of moussaka in a
cheap Greek resturant.
SCRONKEY (n.)
Something that hits the window as a result of a violent sneeze.
SCULLET (n.)
The last teaspoon in the washing up.
SEATTLE (vb.)
To make a noise like a train going along.
SHALUNT (n.)
One who wears Trinidad and Tobago T-shirts on the beach in Bali to
prove thay didn't just win the holiday in a competition or anything.
SHANKLIN (n.)
The hoop of skin around a single slice of salami.
SHENANDOAH (n.)
The infinite smugness of one who knows they are entitled to a place in
a nuclear bunker.
SHEPPY (n.)
Measure of distance (equal to approximately seven eighths of a mile),
defined as the closest distance at which sheep remain picturesque.
SHIFNAL (n.,vb.)
An awkward shuffling walk caused by two or more people in a hurry
accidentally getting into the same segment of revolving door. A similar
effect is achieved by people entering three-legged races unwisely joined at
the neck instead of the ankles.
SHIRMERS (pl.n.)
Tall young men who stand around smiling at weddings as if to suggest
that they know they bride reather well.
SHOEBURYNESS (abs.n.)
The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat which is
still warm from somebody else's bottom.
SHRIVENHAM (n.)
One of Germaine Greer's used-up lovers.
SIDCUP (n.)
One of those hats made from tying knots in the corners of a
handkerchief.
SILESIA (n.medical)
The inability to remember, at the critical moment, which is the better
side of a boat to be seasick off.
SILLOTH (n.)
Something that was sticky, and is now furry, found on the carpet under
the sofa the morning after a party.
SIMPRIM (n.)
The little movement of false modesty by which a girl with a cavernous
visible cleavage pulls her skirt down over her knees.
SITTINGBOURNE (n.)
One of those conversions where both people are waiting for the other
one to shut up so they can get on with their bit.
SKEGNESS (n.)
Nose excreata of a malleable consistency.
SKELLOW (adj.)
Descriptive of the satisfaction experienced when looking at a really
good dry-stone wall.
SKENFRITH (n.)
The flakes of athelete's foot found inside socks.
SKETTY (n.)
Apparently self-propelled little dance a beer glass performs in its own
puddle.
SKIBBEREEN (n.)
The noise made by a sunburned thight leaving plastic chair.
SLIGO (n.)
An unnamed and exotic sexual act which people like to believe that
famous films stars get up to in private. 'To commit slingo.'
SLOGARIE (n.)
Hillwalking dialect for the seven miles of concealed rough moorland
which lie between what you though was the top of the hill and what actually
is.
SLUBBERY (n.)
The gooey drips of wax that dribble down the sides of a candle so
beloved by Italian resturants with Chianti bottles instead of wallpaper.
SLUGGAN (n.)
A lurid facial bruise which everyone politely omits to mention because
it's obvious that you had a punch-up with your spourse last night - but
which into a door. Is is useless to volunteer the true explanation because
nobody will believe it.
SLUMBAY (n.)
The cigarette end someone discovers in the mouthful of lager they have
just swigged from a can at the end of party.
SMARDEN (vb.)
To keep your mouth shut by smiling determinedly through you teeth.
Smardening is largely used by people trying to give the impression that
they're enjoying a story they've heard at least six times before.
SMEARISARY (n.)
The correct name for a junior apprentice greengrocer whose main duty is
to arrange the fruit so that the bad side is underneath.
From the name of a character not in Dickens.
SNEEM (n.,vb.)
Particular kind of frozen smile bestowed on a small child by a parent
in mixed company when question, 'Mummy, what's this ?' appears to require
the answer,' Er...it's a rubber johnny,darling'.
SNITTER (n.)
One of the rather unfunny newspaper clippings pinned to an office wall,
the humour of which is supposed to derive from the fact that the headline
contains a name similar to that of one of the occupants to the office.
SNITTERBY (n.)
Someone who pins snitters (q.v.) on to snitterfields (q.v.) and is also
suspected of being responsible for the extinction of virginstows (q.v.)
SNITTERFIELD (n.)
Office noticeboard on which snitters (q.v.),cards saying 'You don't
have to be mad to work here, but if you are it helps !!!' and slightly
smutty postcards from ibiza get pinned up by snitterbies (q.v.)
SOLENT (adj.)
Descriptive of the state of serene selfknowledge reached through drink.
SOTTERLEY (n,)
Uncovered bit between two shops with awnings, which you have to cross
when it's raining.
SPITTAL OF GLENSHEE (n.)
That which has to be cleaned off castle floors in the morning after a
bagpipe contest or vampire attack.
SPOFFORTH (vb.)
To tidy up a room before the cleaning lady arrives.
SPROSTON GREEN (n.)
The violent colour of one of Nigel Rees's jackets, worn when he thinks
he's being elegant.
STEBBING (n.)
The erection you cannot conceal because you're not wearing a jacket.
STOKE POGES (n.)
The tapping moments of an index finger on glass made by a person
futilely attempting to communicate with either a tropical fish or a post
office clerk.
STURRY (n.,vb.)
A token run. Pedestrians who have chosen to cross a road immediately in
front of an approaching vehicle generally give a little wave and break into
a sturry. This gives the impression of hurrying without having any practical
effect on their speed whatsoever.
SUTTON and CHEAM (nouns)
Sutton and cheam are the kinds of dirt into which all dirt is divided.
'Sutton' is the dark sort that always gets on to light-coloured things,
'cheam' the light-coloured sort that clings to dark items. Anyone who has
ever found Marmite stains on a dress-shirt or seagull goo on a dinner jacker
(a) knows all about sutton and cheam, and (b) is going to tome very curious
dinner parties.
SWANAGE (pl.n.)
Swanage is the series of diversionary tactics used when trying to cover
up the existence of a glossop (q.v.) and may include (a) uttering a
highpitched laugh and pointing out of the window (NB. this doesn't work more
that twice); (b) sneezing as loudly as possible and wiping the glossop off
the table in the same movement as whipping out your handkerchief; (c) saying
'Christ! I seen to have dropped some shit on your table' (very unwise); (d)
saying 'Christ, who did that?' (better) (e) pressing your elbow on the
glossop itself and working your arms slowly to the edge of the table; (f)
leaving the glossop where it is but moving a plate over it and putting up
with sitting at an uncomfortable angle the rest of the meal; or, if the
glossop is in too exposed a position, (g) leaving it there unremarked except
for the occasional humourous glance.
SWANIBOST (adj.)
Complete shagged out after a hard day having income tax explained to
you.
SYMOND'S YAT (n.)
The little spoonful inside the lid of a recently opened boiled egg.
TABLEY SUPERIOR (n.)
The look directed at you in a teatre bar in the interval by people
who've already got their drinks.
TAMPA (n.)
The sound of a rubber eraser coming to rest after dropping off a desk
in a very quiet room.
TAROOM (vb.)
To make loud noises during the night to let the buglars know you are
in.
TEGUCIGALPA (n.)
An embarrassing mistake arising out of confusing the shape of something
rather rude with something perfectly ordinary when groping for it in the
darkness.
A common example of a tegucigalpa is when a woman pulls a packet of
Tampax out of her bag and offers them around under the impression that it is
a carton of cigarettes.
THEAKSTONE (n.)
Ancient mad tramp who jabbers to himself and swears loudly and
obscenely on station platforms and traffic islands.
THROCKING (participial vb.)
The action of countinually pushing down the lever on a pop-up toaster
in the hope that you will thereby get it to understand that you want it to
toast something.
Also : a style of drum-playing favoured by Nigel Olsson of the Elton
John Band, reminiscent of the sound of someone slapping a frankfurter
against a bucket. An excellent example of this is to be heard on 'Someone
Save My Life Tonight' from the album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt
Cowboy.
THROUCKMORTON (n.)
The soul of a departed madman : one of those now known to inhabit the
timing mechanish of pop-up toasters.
THRUMSTRER (n.)
The irritating man next to you in a concert who thinks he's (a) the
conductor, (b) the brass section.
THRUPP (vb.)
To hold a ruler on one end on a desk and make the other end go
bbddbbddbbrrbrrrrddrr.
THURNBY (n.)
A rucked-up edge of carpet or linoleum which everyone says someone will
trip over and break a leg unless it gets fixed. After a year or two someone
trips over it and breaks a leg.
TIBSHELF (n.)
Criss-cross wooden construction hung on a wall in a teenage girl's
bedroom which is covered with glass bambies and poodles, matching pigs and
porclain ponies in various postures.
TIDPIT (n.)
The corner of a toenail from which satisfying little black deposits may
be sprung.
TIGHARRY (n.)
The accomplice or 'lure' who gets punters to participate in the
threecard trick on London streets by winning an improbable amount of money
very easily.
TILLICOULTRY (n.)
The man-to-man chummieness adpoted by an employer as a prelude for
telling an employee that he's going to have to let him go.
TIMBLE (vb.)
(Of small nasty children.) To fail over very gently, look around to see
who's about, and then yell blue murder.
TINCLETON (n.)
A man who amuses himself in your lavatory by pulling the chain in
midpee and then seeing if he can finish before the flush does.
TINGRITH (n.)
The feeling of silver paper against your fillings.
TODBER (n.)
One whose idea of a good time is to stand behind his front hedge and
give surly nods to people he doesn't know.
TODDING (vb.)
The business of talking amiably and aimlessly to the barman at the
local.
TOLOB (n.)
A crease or fold in an underblanket, the removal of which involves
getting out of bed an largely remaking it.
TOLSTACHAOLAIS (phr.)
What the police in Leith require you to say in order to prove that you
are not drunk.
TOOTING BEC (n.)
A car behind which one draws up at the traffic lights and hoots at when
the lights go green before realising that the car is parked and there is no
one inside.
TORLUNDY (n.)
Narrow but thickly grimed strip of floor between the fridge and the
sink unit in the kitchen of a rented flat.
TORONTO (n.)
Generic term for anything which comes out of a gush despite all your
careful efforts to let it out gently, e.g. flour into a white souce, tomato
ketchup on to fried fish, sperm into a human being, etc.
TOTTERIDGE (n.)
The riduculous two-inch hunch that people adopt when arriving late for
the teatre in the vain and futile hope that it will minimise either the
embarrassment of the lack of visibility for the rest of the audience.
c.f. hickling.
TRANTLEMORE (vb.)
To make a noise like a train crossing a set of points.
TREWOFFE (n.)
A very thick and heavy drift of snow balanced precariously on the edoge
of a door porch waiting for what it judges to be the correct moment to fall.
From the ancient Greek legend 'The Treewofe of Damocles'.
TRISPEN (n.)
A form of intelligent grass. It grows a single, tough stalk and makes
its home on lawns. When it sees the lawnmover coming it lies down and pops
up again after it has gone by.
TROSSACHS (pl.n.)
The useless epaulettes on an expensive raincoat.
TUAMGRANEY (n.)
A hideous wooden ornament that people hang over the mantelpiece to
prove they've been to Africa.
TULSA (n.)
A slurp of beer which has accidentally gone down your shirt collar.
TUMBY (n.)
The involuntary abdominal gurgling which fills the silence following
someone else's inimate personal revelation.
TWEEDSMUIR (collective n.)
The name given to the extensive vollection of hats kept in the
downstairs lavatory which don't fit anyone in the family.
TWEMLOW GREEN (n.)
The colour of some of Nigel Rees's trousers, worn in the mistaken
belief that they go rather well with his sproston green (q.v.) jackets.
TWOMILEBORRIS (n.)
A popular Ease European outdoor game in which the first person to reach
the front of the meat queue wins, and the losers have to forfeit their bath
plugs.
TYNE and WEAR (nouns)
The 'Tyne' is the small priceless or vital object accidentally dropped
on the floor (e.g. diamond tieclip, contact lans) and the 'wear' is the
large immovable object (e.g. Welsh dreser, car-crusher) that it shelters
under.
ULLAPOOL (n.)
The spittle which builds up on the floor of the Royal Opera House.
ULLINGSWICK (n.)
An over-developed epiglottis found in middle-aged coloraturas.
ULLOCK (n.)
The correct name for either of the deaf Scandinavian tourists who are
standing two abreast in front of you on the escalator.
UMBERLEIGH (n.)
The awful moment which follows a dorchester (q.v.) when a speaker
weighs up whether to repeat an amusing remark after nobody laughed the last
time. To be on the horns of an umberleigh is to wonder whether people didn't
hear the remark, or whether they did hear it and just didn't think it was
funny, which was why somebody coughed.
UPOTTERY (n.)
That part of a kitchen copboard which contains an unnecessarily large
number of milk jugs.
UTTOXETER (n.)
A small but immensely complex mechanical device which is essentially
the 'brain' of a modern coffeevending machine, and which enables the machine
to take its own decisions.
VALLETTA (n.)
On ornate head-dress or loose garment worn by a person in the belief
that it renders then invisibly native and not like a tourist at all. People
who don huge conial staw collie hats with 'I Luv Lagos' on them in Nigeria,
or fat solicitors from Tonbridge on holiday in Malaya who insist on
appearing in the hotel lobby wearing a sarong know wat we're on about.
VANCOUVER (n.)
The technical name for one of those huge trucks with whirling brushes
on the bottom used to clean streets.
VENTNOR (n.)
One who, having been visited as a child by a mysterious gypsy lady, is
gifted with the strange power of being able to operate the air-nozzles above
aeroplane seats.
VIRGINSTOW (n.)
A Durex machinewhich doesn't have the phrase 'So was the Titanic'
scrawled on it. The word has now fallen into discuse.
VOBSTER (n.)
A strain of perfectly healthy rodent which develops cancer the moment
it enter a laboratory.
WARLEGGAN (n.archaic)
One who does not approve of araglins (q.v.)
WATH (n.)
The rage of Roy Jenkins.
WEEM (n.)
The tools with which a dentist can inflict the greatest pain. Formerly,
which tool this was was dependent upon the imagination and skill of the
individual dentist, though now, with technological advances, weems can be
bought specially.
WEMBLEY (n.)
The hideous moment of confirmation that the diaster presaged in the ely
(q.v.) has actually struck.
WENDENS AMBO (n.)
(Veterinary term.) The operation to trace an object swallowed by a cow
through all its seven stomachs. Hence, also (1) en expedition to discover
where the exits are in the Barican Centre, and (2) a search through the
complete works of Chaucer for all the rude bits.
WEST WITTERING (participial vb.)
The uncontrollable twitching which breaks out when you're trying to get
away from the most borig person at a party.
WETWANG (n.)
A moist penis.
WHAPLODE DROVE (n.)
A homicidal golf stroke.
WHASSET (n.)
A business card in you wallet belonging to someone whom you have no
recollection of meeting.
WHISSENDINE (n.)
The nose which occurs (often by night) in a strange house, which is too
short and too irregular for you ever to be able to find out what it is and
where it comes from.
WIDDICOMBE (n.)
The sort of person who impresonates trimphones.
WIGAN (n.)
If, when talking to someone you know has only one leg, you're trying to
treat then perfectly casually and normally, but find to your horror that
your conversion is liberally studded with references to (a) Long John
Silver, (b) Hopalong Cassidy, (c) The Hockey Cokey, (d) 'putting your foot
in it', (e) 'the last leg of the UEFA competition', you are said to have
commited a wigan.
The word is derived from the fact that sub-editors at ITN used to
manage to mention the name of either the town Wigan, or Lord Wigg, in every
fourth script that Reginald Bosanquet was given to read.
WIKE (vb.)
To rip a piece of sticky plaster off your skin as fast as possible in
the hope that it will (a) show how brave you are, and (b) not hurt.
WILLIMANTIC (adj.)
Of a person whose hearth is in the wrong place (i.e. between their
legs).
WIMBLEDON (n.)
That last drop which, no matter how much you shake it, always goes down
your trouser leg.
WINKLEY (n.)
A lost object which turns up immediately you've gone and bought a
replacement for it.
WINSTON-SALEM (n.)
A person in a resturant who suggest to their companions that they
should split the cost of the meal equally, and then orders two packets of
cigarettes on the bill.
WIVENHOE (n.)
The cry of alacrity with which a sprightly eighty-year-old breaks the
ice on the lake when going for a swim on Christmas Eve.
WOKING (participial vb.)
Standing in the kitchen wondering what you came in here for.
WOOLFARDISHWORTHY (n.)
A mumbled, mispronounced or misshears word in a song, speech or play.
Derived from the well-known mumbles passage in Hamlet :
'...and the spurns,
That patient merit of the unworthy
takes
When he himself might his quietus
make
With a bare bodkin? Who
woolfardisworthy
To grunt and sweat under a weary
life?'
WORGRET (n.)
A kind of poltergeist which specialises in stealing new copies of the
A-Z from your car.
WORKSOP (n.)
A person who never actually gets round to doing anything because he
spends all his time writing out lists headed 'Things to Do (Urgent)'.
WORMELOW TUMP (n.)
Any seventeen-year-old who doesn't know about anything at all in the
world other than bicycle gears.
WRABNESS (n.)
The feeling after having tried to dry oneself with a damp towel.
WRITTLE (vb.)
Of a steel ball, to settle into a hole.
WROOT (n.)
A short little berk who thinks that by pulling on his pipe and gazing
shrewdly at you he will give the impression that he is infinitely wise and 5
ft 11 in.
WYOMING (participial vb.)
Moving in hurried desperation from one cubicle to another in a public
lavatory trying to find one which has a lock on the door, a seat on the bowl
and no brown steaks on the seat.
YADDLETHORPE (vb.)
(Of offended pooves.) To exit huffily from a boutique.
YARMOUTH (vb.)
To shout at foreigners in the belief that the louder you speak, the
better they'll understand you.
YATE (n.)
Dishearteningly white piece of bread which sits limply in a pop-up
toaster during a protracked throcking (q.v.) session.
YEPPOON (n.)
One of the hat-hanging corks which Australians wear for making Qantas
commercials.
YESNABY (n.)
A 'yes, maybe' which means 'no'.
YONDER BOGINE (n.)
The kind of resturant advertised as 'just three minutes from this
cinema' which clearly nobody ever goes to and, evn if they had ever
contemplated it, have certainly changed their minde since seeing the advert.
YONKERS (n.)
(Rare.) The combind thrill of pain and shame when being caught in
public plucking your nostril-hairs and stuffing them into your side-pocket.
YORK (vb.)
To shift the position of the shoulder straps on a heavy bag or rucksack
in a vain attempt to make it seem lighter.
Hence : to laugt falsely and heartily at an unfunny remark. 'Jasmine
yorked politely, loathing him to the depths of her being' - Virginia Woolf.
ZEAL MONACHORUM (n.)
(Skiing term.) To ski with 'zeal monchorum' is to decend the top three
quaters of the mountain in a quivering blue funk, but on arriving at the
gentle bit just in front of the resturant to whizz to a stop like a
victerious slalom-champion.
Last-modified: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 13:36:27 GMT