puff

Puff: sl. n. (early-mid-19C) wind, breath. 2 (1920s+) life, esp. As in my puff, on my puff. (SE pff, to discharge a puff of air).

You never saw the like of it in all your born puff.
James Joyce, Ulysses, PICADOR, 1998, p. 329.

by Petyush March 28, 2005

rotto

adj.1920 (Anglo-Irish) 1 drunk. 2 rotten, e.g. rotto with money (cf. LOUSY adj.; STINKING adj.)

- Spooning with him last night on the pier. The father is rotto with money.
- Is she up the pole?
(James Joyce:Ulysses,PICADOR,1998, p.23)

by Petyush March 27, 2005

rum

adj (dated Br inf) peculiar; odd: He's a rum character (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD).

Rum how he'd had a feeling it was coming, all the same, he thought, still staring into the blurred plain. (John le Carré: The Honurable Schoolboy, Coronet Books, 2000, p.55).

by Petyush March 27, 2005

weeds n. pl.

(1950s +) (US sl.) clothes

... and to see him in his round spectacles and his civil servant weeds, you would think it was he ... who deserved the tradename ’mole’.
John le Carré: The honourable schoolboy, Coronet Books, Hodder and Stuoghton, 2000, p.57).

by Petyush March 28, 2005

Whistle

n late 14C+the mouth, the throat (Cassel's Dictionary of Slang, 1988).

'Mama Stefano, gosh, super, must be boiling. Here, sport, wet your whistle,' he exclaimed, while he slopped down the brick steps with a glass of wine for her ... (John le Carré: The Honourable Schoolboy,2000,Coronet Books, p.42).

by Petyush March 27, 2005

up the pole

phr. 1 (late 19C+) insane. 2 1920s +) pregnant (cf. UP THE SPOUT).

- Is she up the pole ?
- Better ask Seymour that. (James Joyce:Ulysses,PICADOR,1998, p.23)

by Petyush March 27, 2005

Jacky Tar

Jacky Tar / jack tar: n. 1 (late 18C+) a sailor.

They believe in rod, ... and Jacky Tar, the son of a gun, who was conceived of unholy boast, born of the fighting navy ... (James Joyce: Ulysses, PICADOR, 1997, p. 314).

by Petyush March 28, 2005