The social expectation that a romantic relationship should automatically follow a set of steps and lead to marriage, parenthood, and home ownership. This term is used primarily by people who want to get "off the escalator," who want to judge the success of relationships by criteria other than how smoothly and automatically the relationship gets more serious.

One sample template is "Meet someone > Dating > Sex > Move in together > Get married > Have kids"

Doing these things out of order is being off the relationship escalator: if you have sex on a first date, many people think your relationship can't, or shouldn't, eventually become more serious. If you move in with someone, moving back out again usually means that the relationship is over. Being polyamorous or participating in other kinds of non-monogamy is also being off the relationship escalator.

We broke up because he wanted to be on the relationship escalator, and I prefer to live alone.

Your dating profile suggests you're not on the relationship escalator, so you need to explain specifically what you're looking for.

relationship escalator by Enuja August 26, 2013

Mayonnaise On An Escalator

Mayonnaise On An Escalator! Its Going Upstairs So See Ya Later. Bye Bye! To The Sky!

Dumb Human: Tf is Mayonnaise On An Escalator??

Epic Human: Mayonnaise On An Escalator. Its Going Upstairs So See Ya Later. Bye Bye! To The Sky!

Dumb Human: Oh Epic
Now Epic human: I am epic now YEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Mayonnaise On An Escalator by Orba April 12, 2021

Walking Escalator

n. A person who is unable to perform simple tasks and rendered to be virtually retarded.

My father gave me a toothbrush for lunch telling me to eat fresh. God damn walking escalator.

Walking Escalator by MyBassIsSlippery May 30, 2018

The Escalator

s-ka-lay-tor
verb

1. during a threesome involving one man and two women. the women are stacked stomach too back and the man assumes a kneeling position behind them and proceeds to push his penis from one girl to the next, starting with the bottom girl working his way up. Or reverse the order and direction for variations.

The highlight of my threesome was when i pulled the escalator on the two of them. Next time I think I'm gonna add another floor!

The Escalator by 42 guys under the Rainbow October 21, 2011

escalator

moving staircase (not to be confused with the moving staircases in Harry Potter) used to make walking up stairs easier. Its like taking the worst part about elevators (makes you fat) and stairs (takes too long) and putting it all in one convenient location.

Guy 1: Dude lets take the escalator
Guy 2: Why?
Guy 1: Because escalators are slow and make me fat!

escalator by darkshadow29 July 30, 2010

escalator overachiever

Someone who feels they must treat an escalator as a staircase, bringing guilt to the rest of the parties on the escalator, unless they also do so.

Jane: "Why is that girl bounding up the escalator like it's a flight of stairs? She's making the rest of us look lazy for just standing here riding it!"
Jill: "She's a total escalator overachiever."

escalator overachiever by pseuzieq August 3, 2010

murderhobo

In a tabletop game, a murderhobo is a player who murders NPCs indiscriminately. This is normally derogatory, referring to a player who totally ignores quests, dialog, backstory, trade, world building etc.

The term is most common with Dungeons and Dragons, but it can be applied to most RPGs where the player is allowed to kill most quest-giving NPCs and NPC traders. E.g. Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Divinity original sin.

DM: The sad little orphan girl tugs at Steve's trenchcoat to get his attention, and ask for help saving her pet dog from...
Steve: I'd like to roll a strength check against strangling the orphan.
Dave: I call dibs on the dog.
DM: You murderhobos disgust me.

murderhobo by Loup&S September 9, 2021

Word of the Day on September 22, 2026

Whale

In sales terms, a whale is a prospect that is significantly larger than an organization’s average customer.

Whales are large and extremely difficult to close. Due to their immense size, they are highly sought-after.

A whale is typically identified at first by a whale hunter on the sales team, but often requires cross-discipline participation in order to close; this includes assistance from operations, engineering, creative, client success, and business development teams.

"Shit...the sales director chewed me out on the sales call this morning. He's totally pissed that I have nothing in my pipeline. I've been focused on this one whale for so long that I haven't had time to prospect for normal-sized deals."

Whale by FQ_GFY February 3, 2020

Word of the Day on September 21, 2026

Concrete cowboy

A guy who thinks he's a country kinda guy, but in reality lives a comfortable city / suburban life.

Eugene: Look at that dude in the cowboy hat!
Todd: He's just a concrete cowboy.

Concrete cowboy by EugeneJohnson42000 March 16, 2024

Word of the Day on September 20, 2026

hobo loko

any hard liquor that is cheap & potent.. eg. relska, popov, potters, evan williams, kamchatka, fireball, rumpleminze, southern comfort, everclear

hey let's get a drink of that?

go ahead
*takes drink* ugh wtf is that?

everclear & bepsi
fucking hobo loko eeessshh

hobo loko by d i z k o 2 0 8 September 14, 2026

Word of the Day on September 19, 2026

God Shot

A chance happening with profound meaning, an unexpected blessing, a "sign".

Dr. Drew on Celebrity Rehab said "All of a sudden what had been just another Hollywood proposal became for him an unexpected blessing, an opportunity for growth. In drug recovery language, that's called a "God shot."

God Shot by Imogen1564 February 25, 2011

Word of the Day on September 18, 2026

city chicken

A food native to Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania in which cubes of pork and/or veal are put on a short, wooden skewer, breaded, then baked and/or fried.

I've heard that city chicken originated during the Great Depression, when folks didn't have enough money to buy full cuts of meat, so they assembled meat scraps on a wooden skewer, creating a make-shift drumstick. Hence the name.

Are yinz havin' city chicken for dinner?

city chicken by TRF August 31, 2006

Word of the Day on September 17, 2026