AKACroatalin's definitions
This expression was in common use in the British Royal Navy, certainly in the eighteenth century, but is probably even earlier than this. As these ships were built of wood and powered by sail, emphasis was given to fire power and hull design and as a result crew accommodation and food storage were extremely primitive. This meant that foodstuffs were subject to attack and contamination by the numerous rats living on them. When this happened, the food or other stores, such as sails or ropes that had been destroyed by rats or so contaminated by them as to be totally unusable, would be described as having 'gone to rat shit'.
The expression became more widespread due to its use within the Royal Dockyards and still later within civilian establishments. Its meaning also began to change and expand so that it came to mean anything that had become broken, damaged or useless for any reason not just rat attack. It also began to be applied to people where it meant someone who had changed from being pleasant and personable to unpleasant and disagreeable. It is also applied to someone whose health is failing, affecting their appearance.
The expression became more widespread due to its use within the Royal Dockyards and still later within civilian establishments. Its meaning also began to change and expand so that it came to mean anything that had become broken, damaged or useless for any reason not just rat attack. It also began to be applied to people where it meant someone who had changed from being pleasant and personable to unpleasant and disagreeable. It is also applied to someone whose health is failing, affecting their appearance.
by AKACroatalin February 24, 2017
Get the Gone to rat shitmug. Unlike Itsy Bitsy and Teeny Weeny, Navvy Gravvy doesn't refer to just a small size but to a small amount. A navvy gravy is a very small amount, a little tiny bit, a very fine shaving. In common use within the Royal Dockyards where very small adjustments have to be made, by shipwrights and shipfitters, to customise components in order to get them to fit correctly. Thought to date from around the mid-nineteenth century when many tasks in shipbuilding were still carried out by 'eye', although the origins or the words themselves are not entirely clear, it is still in use today where non-standard sized items have to be adjusted to fit.
As an illustration; if a hole is drilled in a piece of metal to take a bolt, the hole is the correct size but the bolt doesn't fit. The drill is then run through the hole again and the bolt fits. Careful examination may reveal a few grains of metal dust or the tiniest finest curl of swarf removed by the drill, that tiny amount is a navvy gravvy.
As an illustration; if a hole is drilled in a piece of metal to take a bolt, the hole is the correct size but the bolt doesn't fit. The drill is then run through the hole again and the bolt fits. Careful examination may reveal a few grains of metal dust or the tiniest finest curl of swarf removed by the drill, that tiny amount is a navvy gravvy.
by AKACroatalin April 19, 2015
Get the Navvy Gravvymug. This is British slang and is a slightly less vulgar way of saying pain in the arse or pain in the ass if you are American. In this expression the bum in question isn’t an American bum, a word that dates from around the mid nineteenth century, but an English or Australian bum, a word that dates back to the early seventeenth century. At one time the word was not considered to be vulgar at all and was used extensively during the seventeenth an eighteenth centuries. One Gentleman Soldier, fighting for the King during the English Civil War, wrote in a letter that on one occasion the going as so difficult that he “slipped and fell on my bum”.
by AKACroatalin March 3, 2019
Get the Pain in the Bummug. It’s an adjective and it means having or showing a bad temper; being annoyed and irritable; being cranky or disagreeable. You know the sort of person, they come into work pissed off with everything and everybody and just looking for an excuse to blame somebody for everything that is wrong in their crappy lives, the world, the universe. Thoroughly unpleasant shitbags.
by AKACroatalin April 29, 2015
Get the Ill-temperedmug. The term 'mutton dressed as lamb' was first used in the journal of social gossip that Mrs Frances Calvert compiled in 1811, and is possibly attributed to the then Prince of Wales (later George IV). At a musical evening, the Prince was asked whether he did not think some girl pretty. He reputedly answered, “Girl! Girls are not to my taste. I don't like lamb; but mutton dressed like lamb!”
In this case, ‘dressing’ refers to the preparation of food before cooking. The implication in 'dressed as lamb' is that the woman has prepared herself for a romantic encounter. 'Mutton dressed as lamb' was originally a disparaging description of a woman aiming to deceive men into believing she was younger than she really was; back then it was an economic necessity for a woman to marry while still of childbearing age.
Nowadays it refers exclusively to a woman who is deluded and thinks herself attractive in clothes, jewellery and make-up usually worn by those much younger. She’s probably looked in the mirror and thinks herself sex on legs, but she merely proves that eyesight deteriorates with age.
In this case, ‘dressing’ refers to the preparation of food before cooking. The implication in 'dressed as lamb' is that the woman has prepared herself for a romantic encounter. 'Mutton dressed as lamb' was originally a disparaging description of a woman aiming to deceive men into believing she was younger than she really was; back then it was an economic necessity for a woman to marry while still of childbearing age.
Nowadays it refers exclusively to a woman who is deluded and thinks herself attractive in clothes, jewellery and make-up usually worn by those much younger. She’s probably looked in the mirror and thinks herself sex on legs, but she merely proves that eyesight deteriorates with age.
“Look at that stupid old slapper dressed exactly like her daughter! What a sad act!”
“Yeah! Mutton dressed as lamb is about as sexy as a kick in the nuts.”
“Yeah! Mutton dressed as lamb is about as sexy as a kick in the nuts.”
by AKACroatalin August 20, 2016
Get the Mutton Dressed as Lambmug. This means, quite literally, “one who eats faeces”. French beef farmers, supplying meat for export, feed their cattle human faeces as a cheap food as it contains large amounts of partially digested cellulose and thereafter the cows exhibited coprophagic behaviour. Under certain conditions dogs also develop coprophagic behaviour, but this can be prevented, and cured, by feeding them tinned pineapple!
The use of the term has expanded to describe someone who, while not very clever or good at their job, is always smarming round the boss. The sort of behaviour exhibited is:
1. laughing excessively at the smallest joke;
2. apparently sharing the same interests and hobbies as the boss;
3. getting the boss tea or coffee without being asked;
4. sending the boss Christmas and Birthday cards, often with a gift attached;
Exactly the sort of behaviour that makes you think that if the boss crapped on their desk they’d eat it and swear it was ambrosia. These people are usually mediocre to poor performers and its only their relationship with the boss that keeps them from being potted.
The use of the term has expanded to describe someone who, while not very clever or good at their job, is always smarming round the boss. The sort of behaviour exhibited is:
1. laughing excessively at the smallest joke;
2. apparently sharing the same interests and hobbies as the boss;
3. getting the boss tea or coffee without being asked;
4. sending the boss Christmas and Birthday cards, often with a gift attached;
Exactly the sort of behaviour that makes you think that if the boss crapped on their desk they’d eat it and swear it was ambrosia. These people are usually mediocre to poor performers and its only their relationship with the boss that keeps them from being potted.
“Malcolm’s just given the boss a big birthday card and a present, so I told him he was a perfect coprophage. The twat looked at me as if I’d just paid him a compliment.”
“You did. Nothing about that wanker is perfect.”
“You did. Nothing about that wanker is perfect.”
by AKACroatalin March 16, 2019
Get the Coprophagemug. An individual who cruises Urban Dictionary, browsing various words or authors and liking or disliking (usually disliking) words, either because they didn’t think of them themselves or because they were added by a particular author. They have appointed themselves as critics of the people who try to increase the content and scope of Urban Dictionary, without making any sort of contribution themselves. These people are drones; each of them nothing more than a self-absorbed waste of space as, for the same effort, they could vote on the inclusion or exclusion of new words and help keep Urban Dictionary functioning efficiently.
by AKACroatalin August 10, 2016
Get the Drone Browsermug.