England Glossary
The local lingo can be confusing…
Bottle It - To lose one’s nerve.
Bung – To bribe someone (derived from football).
Cooking Lager (noun) – The cheapest available non-descript lager; typically Fosters.
Firm – A group of football supporters.
Football – No hands, round ball game. Known to the rest of the world as Soccer.
Greasy Spoon (noun) – Refers to a restarant serving a full English fried breakfast.
Heavy Session (noun) – A significant drinking episode.
House Party – A party at someone’s flat. A house party offers you best chances of pulling (see below).
Kicked Off (verb) – For an altercation to come to a head.
ie. it all kicked off…
Mainlined (verb) – refers to any railway related misadventure such as, falling asleep on the train, getting on the wrong train, or missing your stop, which results in you ending up 20 miles outside of London.
ie. we got mainlined to Surbinton.
On the Lash – ie. To go out on the lash. To go out drinking.
On the Ladder - refers to been in the housing market.
Last Train (noun) – Believe it or not, the trains stop running at midnight.
Mine Sweep (verb) – The act of finishing any random pints which may be left on the table, before leaving the pub.
Pitch up (verb) – To arrive at the venue. To make an entrance.
Pull (verb) – To meet a member of the opposite sex, ethier in a pub or more likely a house party.
Ruck Sack (noun) – A back pack.
Tap up (verb) – Derived from football, refers to making an unofficial, completely off the record approach.
Tooled Up – Derived from football; to be carrying a consealed, or improvised weapon.
(See this truely excellent advert from AFC Wimbledon for examples.)
Wife Beater (noun) – Refers to Stella lager. ie. on the wife beater.
Stella is not marketed as a premeim brand in the United Kingdom and has a reputation for making people do strange things.
…and it can only get worse if you live with South Africians:
Biltong Belt – Refers to the areas of South London inhibanted by South Africians, stretching down from Putney across to Raynes Park.
Robots – Traffic lights. ie turn left at the robots.
Rush (verb) – To attempt to con. To try to pull a fast one.
ie. They tryed to rush me 250 quid for a new muffler.
Tune (verb) – To attempt to engage a stranger in conversation.
ie. We where trying to tune these guys.
