al-in-chgo's definitions

Gonatophile

A person who loves knees, or who has a fetish for human knees.

From the Greek GONATOs + PHILE, "Knee" and "Lover of."

Not to be confused with "gonad."

- "Suzy's dress was too long, I couldn't see her knees."

- "What are you, some sort of gonatophile?"

by al-in-chgo November 12, 2015

wink wink nudge nudge

"Wink wink nudge nudge" followed by "say no more, say no more," is a statement popularized by Eric Idle in his Monty Python days in the early 1970s. The winks and nudges are verbal explications of gestures people make when they want to pass on something sly (a wink of the eye and an elbow in the other person's side, nudging). The "say no more" extender means, rather literally, "You don't have to tell me anything more."

This buzz term (or terms) was used when Idle played a character (usually opposite fellow Pythoner Terry Jones as a stuffy Brit), who persistently (and wrongly) tried to put a sniggering sexual implication on perfectly ordinary situations:

-- Idle: "Your secretary, she's a bit of a goer, isn't she?"

-- Jones (perplexed): "Umm, perhaps."

-- Idle: "Wink wink nudge nudge. Say no more, say no more."

Within the past 30 years "Wink wink nudge nudge" has also taken on almost its exact opposite meaning, used sarcastically to mean something along the lines of "I'm sure it's painfully obvious to us both."

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"Look at her, do you think she runs, do you think she runs?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

(Very broadly): "Wink wink nudge nudge say no more, say no more."

* * *

"Did you have any idea that Senator X was closeted and gay?"

"Oh, wink wink nudge nudge. Anyone gay, or anyone working in official Washington (D.C.) knew it already."
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by al-in-chgo March 25, 2010

roughousing

Alternate spelling of "roughhousing" with one "h" omitted. Compare thresh-hold, threshold.

Means mock-fighting or wrestling, grabassing, or physical fooling around, usually between boys of similar age.

See also fooling around.

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"Don't put the twins together in the back seat or they'll be roughousing all the way to the mall."

by al-in-chgo August 18, 2010

backslash

A mark of punctuation ( \ ) introduced in 1960 as a deliberate way to convert two ALGOL symbols ("up" and "down" carets) into ASCII by using the new backslash and its traditional opposite number, the virgule or slant ( / ):

\/ - or - /\ for example.

The backslash went on to find use in early UNIX programs and today is party of a typical QWERTY keyboard, usually to the right of the bracket (and braces) keys. Other terms for the mark include slosh, reverse virgule, and reverse slash.

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If I see a backslash ( \ ) at the end of the line, does it mean go to the next line or go to the next term?

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by al-in-chgo March 3, 2010

haul water

To perform menial or trivial services for one's superiors, with the implication that the agent is capable of doing nothing more significant.

Alderman "X" does not seem concerned with his constituents; what he does best is haul water for the administration.

by al-in-chgo July 23, 2016

shaggy dog story

A long, convoluted anecdote, often told simply to result in a sentence that consists almost entirely of puns.

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One classic shaggy dog story involves a man named Hugh who is out to stop a couple of monks from growing flowers for money:

"Remember Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars."

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by al-in-chgo March 13, 2010

Murse

A Male nURSE. Often used within the industry to refer to nurses who are male.

"Joe doesn't like the term "male nurse"; he says it's old-fashioned."

"So what then?"

"Murse."

by al-in-chgo May 14, 2016