Colloquial Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Colloquial

Colloquial. Often used in (informal) conversation but not yet standard. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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All-City adj. He played point guard for Springfield Gardens High, which is where Mason attended. “This year I’m going All-City.” [English Colloquial] [full cite] (Jun. 29, 2006)

beep-beep speed n. Dwight Stone was an absolute blur during his playing days with the Steelers, possessing what former coach Chuck Noll liked to refer to as “beep-beep speed,” the type possessed seemingly only by the Road Runner. [English Sports & Recreation Colloquial] [full cite] (Jul. 28, 2006)

big dance n. As Geraldine Stutz, the president of Henri Bendel, said, “For us, July has been okay, not spectacular. Let’s just say it’s the last beat before the big dance begins in the fall.” [English Colloquial] [full cite] (Sep. 30, 2004)

big dance n. On Friday, he scheduled his first informal back-and-forth with the press, an informal, off-camera session called the “gaggle” which White House press secretaries typically hold in the mornings as a sort of warmup for The Big Dance—the formal White House daily news briefing. [English Media Colloquial] [full cite] (May. 12, 2006)

Big Mother n. When a pupil doesn’t show up for school without advance notice from the parents, the school contacts the parents immediately. None of this is thought of as being the least bit unusual. This is childhood in the ’90s. Big Mother is watching you. Mrs. McClelland accepts it as a necessary part of parenting, imposed by the world that preys on children. [English Colloquial] [full cite] (Aug. 11, 2006)

Big Mother n. We see that Big Brother can come sneaking in the back door in the guise of Big Mother, urging us—indeed forcing usto wear our rubbers on rainy days. [English Government Colloquial] [full cite] (Aug. 11, 2006)

bitza n. Powering the new Teo is the same engine that saw out the end of last season, the same “old bitza” as Mark likes to call it. Indeed it is an engine with some history amongst the team, containing some of the original components from the very first Ford engine campaigned by Mark’s father Steve in his farewell season in the last 1990’s. [English Australia United Kingdom Animals, Insects, & Birds Colloquial Abbreviation] [full cite] (Oct. 19, 2007)

blackberry winter n. It’s only April 9. It’s early and for most crops in the garden things can be replanted.…There may be some delay in when the crop is harvested, and yield may suffer, but freezes at this time of year are not uncommon. In fact we even have a term for it: “blackberry winter.” [English Environment Colloquial] [full cite] (Apr. 13, 2007)

blood and treasure n. As a discussion of the Iraq War grows longer (and more heated), it becomes more and more likely that someone will invoke the phrase “blood and treasure.” This olde-tyme expression, popular with Jefferson and Monroe in the 18th and 19th centuries—and Cromwell long before that—first crept into the Iraq debate a couple of years ago and quickly went viral. B&T has now become the go-to cliché for journalists, bloggers, politicians or anyone else who finds himself getting clobbered in an Iraq argument and is groping around for a little rhetorical juice to disarm the other side. [English Military Colloquial] [full cite] (Sep. 15, 2007)

Bonacker n. For nearly four centuries they have lived in a section the Indians called Accabonac, now known as Springs or Bonac, north of the village that is the wealthy’s playground. They are known as Bonackers, an insular group who fishes and farms and serves the grand homes and summer businesses of the fancy folk they call “upstreeters.” [New York English Colloquial] [full cite] (Jul. 6, 2007)

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