Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (169 page)

feeling wick

2.
British
an abbreviation of
wicked
, meaning good

wicked
adj

good, excellent. A US term of approbation adopted by UK teenagers. Originally in black and street-gang usage, the word is now employed by analogy with
bad
but in this sense is probably much older, dating from the turn of the 20th century. By 1989 wicked had become a vogue term, even among primary schoolchildren (some-times used in the emphatic form ‘well wicked', meaning extremely good, and it may alternatively be spelled ‘wikkid').

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

widdle
¹
n British

an act of urination. This middle- and upper-class nursery term is a blend of
wee
and
piddle
.

widdle
²
vb British

to urinate. A combination of
wee
and
piddle
. This nursery term was given prominence when employed by Prince Philip to describe the actions of an ape during a visit to London Zoo.

‘Now sneak pictures of Prince William, apparently widdling into a hedge, are published in colour on the front page of the unsavoury Sunday People.'
(Victoria Mather,
Evening Standard
, 22 November 1989)

wide-on
n

a feminine, feminist or jocular female version of
hard-on

widget
n

a device, small contraption or product. This synonym for, and adaptation of the word ‘gadget' has been in use since before World War II in the USA. In Britain it has been widely used since the 1970s to denote a hypothetical, otherwise unnamed product in business simulations, calculations, planning, etc.

widows' and orphans' fund, the
n American

money given as bribes. A police euphemism. In Britain the ‘policeman's ball' has
been employed in a similar euphemistic role.

wienie, weenie, wiener
n American

1.
a frankfurter type sausage. The word is a contracted form of ‘wienerwurst' (a Vienna sausage).

2.
the penis. A term which is usually derisive, inspired by the small size and flaccidity of the sausage of the same name.

3.
an ineffectual, foolish or tedious person. This sense applies particularly to
swots
in the argot of students.

wienie-wagger, weenie-wagger
n American

a.
a male masturbator

b.
a male sexual exhibitionist, a
flasher. Wand-waver
is an alternative.

‘He's just a wienie-wagger… that's what the cops call them.'
(
Lady Beware
, US film, 1987)

wife-beater
n

1.
American
a white undershirt, typically ribbed and sleeveless, thought to be emblematic of uncouth males. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

2.
British
a slang term for Stella Artois lager. The origin of the term is unknown but is possibly related to domestic abuse as a result of drinking too much.

a pint of wifebeater

wifey
n

1.
American
a female partner. The term is typically used with irony and affection rather than patronisingly or dismissively.

2.
a steady girlfriend.
Shorty
is a less respectful near-synonym in youth slang, originating in US black usage. In the UK in 2013 wifey was being used as what the
Guardian
weekend magazine disapprovingly called ‘a girl-to-girl endearment', observing that it is ‘hard to pull off…so leave to alpha dudettes'.

wigga, wigger
n

a white person who adopts the mannerisms, appearance and culture of blacks. The word blends ‘white' and
nigger
and was first coined by blacks to describe white participants in
hip hop
and
rap
subcultures. The word is used appreciatively as well as neutrally or pejoratively.

‘Wiggas wannabe black: the word may be only a letter different from a serious case of racial abuse, but London's super-cool young whites carry it with pride.'
(
Evening Standard
, 21 March 1994)

wigged
adj American

a 1990s variant form of
wiggy

wiggle
n

a sexual act. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000. The word has been used in the same sense by US
rappers
and
hip hop
devotees.

wiggle-room, wriggle-room
n American

freedom to manoeuvre, especially in a delicate situation. The term was common in the 1990s in armed-forces' and professional usage.

You've got to let us have some more wiggle-room.

wiggling
n

having sex. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

wiggy
adj

crazy, eccentric, irresponsible. The word, from the
beatnik
lexicon, was often used approvingly as a synonym for
wild
. It derives from the use of ‘wig' to mean the head or brain and the notion of ‘flipping one's lid'. (
Liddy
is a less common synonym.)

wig out
vb

to go crazy, ‘lose one's
cool
', ‘flip one's lid'. A term from the argot of the
beatnik
era, based on wig as used as a jocular term for the head or brain in pre-World War II
jive talk
.

wikkid
adj

an alternative spelling of
wicked
(in its vogue youth sense of admirable)

wild
adj

exciting, impressive, excellent. This was a vogue term among jazz aficionados,
hipsters
and
beatniks
of the 1950s in the USA. It is inspired by the use of wild to mean enthusiastic in the phrase ‘wild about something'. The transferred use of wild as a term of approbation mainly survives in adolescent and pre-teenage speech.

wilding
n

running amok. A black youth vogue term, seemingly first published in the
New York Times
, 22 April 1989.

‘A beautiful woman jogger viciously gangraped and left in a coma by a mob of “wilding” youths in New York's Central Park has woken from the dead.'
(
People
, 14 May 1989)

Wilf
n British

a fool. A mild term of (usually) jocular or affectionate abuse from London working-class speech. The word, typically heard in a school context, is either based on the
supposedly inherent comic nature of the name Wilfred, or on the use of that name for a character in the cartoon strip
The Bash Street Kids
, appearing in the
Beano
children's comic since the 1950s.

Come on, don't be such a Wilf!

wiling
n See
wylin'

William
n British

the police, a police officer. A personification based on
the Old Bill
and usually used facetiously or ironically.

willie
n British

the penis. A schoolchildren's word which is usually used coyly or facetiously by adults. It is a personification, like many similar terms (
peter
,
John Thomas
, etc.), in this case first recorded in 1905.

‘“genital cold injury”… is described as “Arctic Willy” in the current edition of The British Medical Journal.'
(
Independent
, 22 December 1989)

willied
adj British

drunk. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

willie-wellie
n British

a condom. A humorous expression (
wellie
is a wellington boot), playing on the notion of protective rubberwear.

wiltshire
n British

impotence. A middle- or upper-class embellishment of ‘wilt', heard since the early 1970s.

It was a case of wiltshire, I'm afraid.

wimp
n

a feeble, weak or timid person. This now well-established term first appeared as a term of derision employed by US high-school and college students in the mid-1970s. Its exact origins are obscure: suggested derivations are from ‘whimper'; from a British undergraduate term for a girl (which was, however, in very limited use and was obsolete by 1930); from the name Wimpy, given to a character in the Popeye cartoons; or from a blend of ‘weak', ‘simple' or
simp
and ‘limp' or
gimp
. By the late 1970s the word had spread to adult speech and beyond the USA.

‘Well, goodnight Ralph. It was nice meeting someone so sensitive, aware and vulnerable. Too bad you're such a wimp.'
(
Real Men Don't Eat Quiche
, Bruce Feirstein, 1982)

wimp out
vb

to act in a feeble or cowardly manner. A later coinage based on
wimp
, by analogy with the many phrasal verbs employing ‘out' (
freak out, weird out
, etc.).

Listen, just pull yourself together; this is no time to wimp out.

wimpy, wimpish, wimpo, wimpoid
adj

feeble, weak or cowardly. Formed from the noun
wimp
.

windbag
n

a person who is garrulous, loquacious or full of empty rhetoric. An old and well-established colloquial expression.

‘Mr Kinnock appears to be sinking under a barrage of criticism to the effect that he is an ill-educated Welsh windbag carried high by chippy class hatred.'
(
Evening Standard
, 25 July 1989)

winding
n

dancing. A term used in club and
hip hop
culture since the 1990s.

window
n

a.
an opportunity

b.
a period available for meetings, appointments or other tasks

This fashionable jargon term of the
yuppie
era derives from the use of window in space engineering to denote a set of parameters in time and space. The term was carried over into data processing and other semi-technical usage.

window-licker
n

a slow-witted, unfortunate and/or irritating person. A popular term among adolescents and in office slang from around 2000. The image is said to be that of a handicapped person peering from inside a bus.

wind someone up
vb British

to provoke, tease, deceive someone. A London working-class usage which became fashionable at the end of the 1970s in raffish circles. It described the sort of straightfaced manipulation of a victim which discomfits increasingly; the image is probably that of winding up a clockwork toy or tightening a winch. By the early 1980s the phrase was in widespread colloquial use and was generalised to encompass mockery, deliberate irritation, etc.

It took me a few minutes to realise that she was winding me up.

wind-up
n British

a provocation, teasing or deception. A London working-class back-formation from the verb
wind someone up
, which became a fashionable term in the late 1970s, spreading into general colloquial
usage around 1979. (An expert at this kind of deliberate irritation is a ‘wind-up artist'.)

wing it
vb

1.
to improvise, ad lib. Rather than being inspired, as is sometimes thought, by the phrase ‘on a wing and a prayer', this usage almost certainly comes from a 19th-century theatrical term ‘to wing', meaning to learn one's lines at the last moment (while standing in the wings, literally or metaphorically).

2.
to leave, go away

wing-nut
n

a person with protruding ears. The jocular pejorative, heard in all English-speaking areas but particularly the USA, has been applied to Prince Charles, among others.

wing-wong
n British

an object or contraption, the name of which is unknown or forgotten. The expression is probably a nursery term, also used among some adults.

winkie, winky
n

1.
British
the penis. A nursery term which is probably a diminutive of
winkle
.

2.
American
the backside, buttocks

winkle
n British

the penis. This nursery term is based on the supposed resemblance between a (peri)winkle (a seafood delicacy traditionally associated with working-class outings) and a child's member.

winnet
n British

an alternative term for
dingleberry

winning action
n British