Not Published

Every definition on Urban Dictionary was written by a user like you. About a thousand definitions are sent to Urban Dictionary every day, but only half enter the hallowed ranks beside ratchet, Harlem Shake, and Cleveland Steamer. People often email and ask, why didn’t my definition get published? Well, we’d like to know too.

The truth is, we don’t decide. Sometimes we’re just as puzzled. Some rejected definitions seem perfectly good to us. Sometimes we wouldn’t vote for a definition, but we can’t really say why. Urban Dictionary’s users get to edit the content, so they get to decide. However, since this is a frequent question, we thought we’d look into how users make the decision to publish or not publish a particular definition.

We wanted to understand what matters in a definition, what helps it get accepted. To do this, we started by asking users to just describe a list of eight random submissions. We gave people one line of text to describe the submission. For example, one of the words was “phil collins.”

Not Published
People described this definition as “Somewhat biased”, “opinionated”, or “NO! PHIL COLLINS IS THE SHIT”. We collected 69 responses for each word, grouped them together and tried to find the main idea in the description. We continued to group things together until we ended up with eight categories.

funny
hilarious
pun/play on words
amusing
clever/smart

clearly and correctly written
complicated/too long
bad grammar
capitalized/formatting
confused

specificity
personal
too specific
about a celebrity
slander
biased
opinionated

offensive
degrading
slander
sexist
racist
usage
redundant
original
makes sense
helpful
lame
strange
weird

quality of the definition
informative
true
wrong
accurate
stupid/dumb

graphic
disgusting
visceral
dirty

provocative
sexual
improper

by gpetriz March 29, 2017

not published

An email that is commonly taken personally by people when their definition on Urban Dictionary is not published. It goes like:

Thanks for your definition of ________!

A few volunteer editors read your definition and decided to not publish it. Don't take it personally!

To understand what definitions we publish and reject, check out this blog post: (definitions can't contain links)

Try rewriting your definition so that it's easier for others to understand, then try again.

Thanks,

Urban Dictionary

Then follows the rejected definition.

Mark: Mate, my definition on Urban Dictionary was not published
Josiah: Those savage volunteer editors.

by Grounds keeper Niel March 31, 2019

was not published

that sad empty feeling you get when you get an email and your briliant definition was not published so you want to go die in a ditch while crying infinitly until you drown in the ditch

my word was not published so now im sad

by rainbowlamb November 1, 2018

Robinhood Publishers

Publishing houses that rob their star authors to pay bonuses to their oft-underpaid and overworked editors and their bosses, using all kinds of creative strategies to avoid getting caught, while family-owned publishers would notoriously overpay themselves and their loved ones or relatives first, but underpay their employees.

Even in low-corruption Singapore, it’s an open secret that Robinhood publishers continue to thrive, because most authors who’ve a sixth sense of being shortchanged couldn’t afford the legal means to suing them for their decades-long shady business practices.

by Fasters October 21, 2022

Get this published

Just get it published bro.

My dumbass wants to Get this published.

by ResetRBLX February 19, 2019

Pubwashed

Pubwashed means you act drunk or in other means! like a retard.

I’m sorry that I had sex with you grandma I was pubwashed

by Big_jim135 August 30, 2021

facebook publisher

Someone who literally publishes there entire life on Facebook or other social networking sites. This behavior includes, but is not limited to uploading tons of pictures of both recent and past activities, daily status updates, friend hunting, constant photo tagging, consistent commenting and obsessive page monitoring. Those who suffer from this syndrome are typically of the narcissistic type displaying moderate to severe levels of self-obsession and delusion.

Boyfriend: "Come on baby, we are going to miss the show"

Girlfriend: "Hold on, while I upload this picture I just took in front of the parking lot sign and update my status"

Boyfriend: "You are such a facebook publisher"

by VM743 June 11, 2010