Slang word of the day: hinky

Today's slang word of the day is hinky. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

hinky

adjective

• suspicious (of something.)

  If the driver of the getaway car gets hinky, he'll honk the horn.

• suspicious.

  Whatever Smith's reasons for believing the van is hinky, her hunch appears to be correct: The driver she pulls over is a Puerto Rican man en route to New Mexico with a vehicle full of Mexicans whose names he doesn't know.
  
  -- "On the hunt for Arizona's illegal aliens with the Police Women of Maricopa County", Slate, Jessica Grose, April 30 2010

• strange.
• not quite right; non-standard.

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Catching up with updates #19

Hello slang fans!

Continuing catching up with updates:

• March 14 (ABC, bae, check...)
• March 15 (b school, chillbilly, KenTaco Hut...)
• March 16 (nakey, neckbeard)
• March 17 (pound sand, screw off)
• March 18 (GTK)
• March 19 (BC bud, catting, pony...)

Don't forget that there's now a Word of the Day email list / news feed. You can subscribe on this page.

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Catching up with updates #18

Hello slang fans!

Continuing catching up with updates:

• March 8 (fram, repug, square...)
• March 9 (gasper, tl;dr, IYDLIGTFO...)
• March 10 (AeA, be-in, nib...)
• March 11 (prehab...)
• March 12 (yellow...)
• March 13 (disastrophy, pad, peace out...)

Don't forget that there's now a Word of the Day email list / news feed. You can subscribe on this page.

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: lamestream media

Today's slang word of the day is lamestream media. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

lamestream media

noun

• pejorative term for "mainstream media".

  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin smacked the "lamestream media" on Wednesday for allegedly distorting what she writes in her book.
  
  -- "Sarah Palin trashes 'lamestream media'", Politico, Andy Barr, October 18 2009

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: at loggerheads with

Today's slang word of the day is at loggerheads with. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

at loggerheads with

• in disagreement with.

  Last summer, Google was at loggerheads with China after it was accused of breaking the law by spreading pornography.
  
  -- "Google 'may end China operations over Gmail breaches'", BBC News, 13 January 2010

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Catching up with updates #17

Hello slang fans!

Continuing catching up with updates:

• February 25 (back up off, FTW, pupperazzi...)
• February 27 (gork)
• February 28 (buff, cag, gonzo...)
• March 2 (powder, powder room, take a powder...)
• March 5 (beg off, knuckle under, pop...)
• March 7 (boozled, time travel juice)

Don't forget that there's now a Word of the Day email list / news feed. You can subscribe on this page.

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: bobo

Today's slang word of the day is bobo. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

bobo

adjective

• off-brand. Typically implies lower cost and lower quality than a mainstream brand.

  That bobo toilet paper just doesn't feel as nice as the good stuff.

  More words meaning: bad, poor, sucks, common, generally displeasing

• false; untrue.

  Man, that's bobo.

  More words meaning: nonsense, lies

• crazy, stupid, silly, or weird. From the Spanish word "bobo," meaning "foolish" or "fool."

  She really did that? She's so bobo.

  More words meaning: crazy, insane, weird, strange

noun

• a person who is a "balance of bourgeois and bohemian".

  "...So David Brooks contends in his witty book Bobos in Paradise - "Bobos" being a term of Brooks's coinage to describe this "new upper class", which has created a "balance of bourgeois and bohemian" by "living amidst commerce" while "admir(ing) art and intellect", growing "affluent" while remaining "opposed to materialism", and whose members spend "their lives selling yet worr(ying) about selling out". Who exactly are these people? In the realm of material consumption, Bobos reconcile bourgeois and bohemian by cultivating "ever finer tastes about ever more simple things", preferring to "buy the same items as the proletariat - it's just that (they) buy rarified versions of these items that members of the working class would consider preposterous."
  
  -- "Toaster chic", Andrew Stark, 09 June 2000

  More words meaning: miscellaneous insults (list of)

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Catching up with updates #16

Hello slang fans!

Continuing catching up with updates:

• February 18 (helicopter parent)
• February 19 (conflama, FReeper, vixen...)
• February 20 (bore stiff, brain-damaged, NRN...)
• February 21 (org, scalvage, wind (one) up)
• February 23 (aul wan, lech)
• February 24 (IDGI, oober, Pee Girl...)

Don't forget that there's now a Word of the Day email list / news feed. You can subscribe on this page.

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: slasher

Today's slang word of the day is slasher. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

slasher

adjective

• containing large amounts of horror violence.

  I rented a great slasher film.

noun

• nickname for a surgeon, used by doctors in the UK.

  Thus rheumatology, considered by hard-pressed juniors one of the less busy specialties, becomes "rheumaholiday", the "Freud Squad" are psychiatrists, and "Gassers" and "Slashers" are anaesthetists and general surgeons respectively.
  
  -- "Doctor slang is a dying art", BBC News, 18 August 2003

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Catching up with updates #15

Hello slang fans!

Continuing catching up with updates:

• February 11 (IOTETMCO, IOTTMCO, jammy...)
• February 12 (splitter-upper, the other woman, throw down...)
• February 14 (bluey, UFO...)
• February 15 (cobbler's thumb, in a family way, in high cotton...)
• February 16 (blue, IMAO, rubber-hose cryptanalysis...)
• February 17 (helicopter parent)

Don't forget that there's now a Word of the Day email list / news feed. You can subscribe on this page.

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: 4/20

Today's slang word of the day is 4/20. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

4/20

noun

• April 20th. A widely recognized annual "marijuana holiday".

  I'm heading to CU Boulder for 4/20.

  Happy 4/20!

notes

• See also the slang words 420 and 4:20.
  
  For background information, see 420 (cannabis culture) on Wikipedia.
  
  Thesaurus categories related to marijuana:
  
  Words meaning marijuana
  
  Words meaning marijuana paraphernalia
  
  Words meaning to smoke marijuana
  
  Words meaning under the influence of marijuana

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Catching up with updates #14

Hello slang fans!

Continuing catching up with updates:

• February 4 (ISTR, shadetree mechanic, wrench...)
• February 5 (physics for poets, tweener...)
• February 6 (boarding house reach, CRAFT, driveway story...)
• February 7 (blue wall of silence, pig pile, testilying...)
• February 8 (out to pasture...)
• February 10 (Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, Snowzilla...)

Don't forget that there's now a Word of the Day email list / news feed. You can subscribe on this page.

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Catching up with updates #13

Hello slang fans!

I write up these updates by hand, so I'm a little behind. :) Let's continue where we left off:

• January 29 (bucket list, chase (one's) tail, POTUS...)
• January 30 (clean freak, neat freak, party pooper...)
• February 1 (ASAHP, Aspie, six pack...)
• February 2 (banhammer...)
• February 3 (bogon, bub, cremains...)

Don't forget that there's now a Word of the Day email list / news feed. You can subscribe on this page.

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: The Blue B's

Today's slang word of the day is The Blue B's. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

The Blue B's

• the traditionally blue (Democratic) cities of Berkeley, California; Boulder, Colorado; and Brooklyn, New York, New York.

  Whatever, some of them thought they had found the perfect (empty) vessel to regain control of the Republican Party and most of the United States, with the possible exception of the Blue B's -- Boulder, Berkeley and Brooklyn.
  
  -- "Sarah Palin, finally a fallen star", The Washington Post, Richard Cohen, February 16 2010

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: meow meow

Today's slang word of the day is meow meow. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

meow meow

noun

• mephedrone.

  Tragically, widespread newspaper abuse has become so endemic, it has crippled the country's ability to conduct a sensible debate about the "war on drugs". The current screaming festival over "meow meow" or "M-Cat" or whatever else the actual users aren't calling it, is a textbook example.
  
  -- "The most dangerous drug isn't meow meow. It isn't even alcohol...", The Guardian (UK), Charlie Brooker, 22 March 2010

other

• In English, the sound a cat makes.

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: Texas tea

Today's slang word of the day is Texas tea. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

Texas tea

noun

• oil.

  Someone sees "black ooze" bubbling from the ground in Eden Prairie and one question comes to mind first: Is it black gold, Texas tea?
  
  -- "The secret of the ooze", Eden Prairie News (Minnesota), Leah Shaffer, March 24 2010

• prescription cough syrup.

  Pimp's partner Bun B recently went public and called the popularity of syrup - also known as "lean," "Texas tea" and "drank" - in the South an "epidemic" and said anyone who uses it may want to take a long look at themselves.
  
  -- "Lil Wayne On Syrup: 'Everybody Wants Me To Stop ... It Ain't That Easy'", MTV.com, Shaheem Reid, Feb 28 2008

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: firewater

Today's slang word of the day is firewater. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

firewater

noun

• strong alcohol.

  At 108, she still takes to the floor for traditional Japanese dances. Afterwards she dabs a little French perfume behind her ears and sips the local firewater.
  
  -- "The shock of the old: Welcome to the elderly age", NewScientist.com, Fred Pearce, 08 April 2010

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: cotton on

Today's slang word of the day is cotton on. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

cotton on

verb

• to discover; become wise to.

  Out of sympathy, she began to move money about, ostensibly to "lend" from the rich to the poor for a short period. The authorities finally cottoned on when she broadened her reach, subsidising a small taxi firm in addition to her private clients.
  
  -- "German banker admits transferring money from rich to help poorer clients", The Guardian, Helen Pidd, 24 November 2009

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: overshare

Today's slang word of the day is overshare. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

overshare

noun

• the revealing of information that is overly intimate.

  The detailed description of her childbirth was a definite overshare.

  Lady Gaga took to Twitter Sunday to celebrate her 24th birthday seemingly naked... We love the overshare, but just wish she hadn't started calling herself Mother Monster, it makes staring at this naked pic awfully uncomfortable!
  
  -- "Lady Gaga's Topless Birthday Treat", E! Online, Lia Haberman, Mar 30 2010

verb

• to reveal information that is overly intimate.

  Alcohol tends to make me overshare.

  It was an image that Mr. Hopper, who even described his former self as a "maniac" to Mr. Biskind, nurtured with acid trips, a gun fetish, a tendency to overshare with journalists and bouts of physical violence, culminating in his breaking the nose of his first wife, Brooke Hayward.
  
  -- "Madman, Perhaps; Survivor, Definitely", The New York Times, Manohola Dargis, April 7 2010

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: flameout

Today's slang word of the day is flameout. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

flameout

noun

• a spectacular failure.

  Top 10 Celebrity Relationship Flameouts
  
  -- article title, Time.com, Claire Suddath, Mar 24, 2010

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)

Slang word of the day: software

Today's slang word of the day is software. Click here to vote on usage, vulgarity, etc.

software

noun

• internal ingredients.

  To make a Mac Wrap, you take about half the interior of a Big Mac - a single beef patty, three quick squeezes of special sauce, less lettuce, less cheese, fewer pickles, fewer onions - and wrap the software in a tortilla instead of stacking it on a sesame-seed bun.
  
  -- "McDonald's Has a Chef?", Time, John Cloud and Oak Brook, Feb 22 2010

-- Walter (waltergr@aol.com)