Skip to main content

Voluntourism

Heaven help me, yet another nasty new noun, the unholy marriage of "volunteer" and "tourism".

Voluntourism, an act carried out by "voluntourists", is when hoardes of - generally - the great unwashed backpacker brigade descend on a place to do have a jolly nice holiday - usually at precious little cost to themselves - and do the occasional bit of good work.

Looks good on one's CV as a gap year activity.
Voluntourist 1: Shall we go to Khao Lak to engage in a spot of voluntourism?
Voluntourist 2: No, tsunami voluntourism is old hat now. All the bars are closed and hardly anyone is living in the houses built, anyway.
Voluntourist 1: Good point. (pauses) Sierra Leone?
Vouluntourist 2: Are you insane?
Voluntourism by Roo September 6, 2005
Urban Dictionary Merch

volunteering

1)The act of giving of yourself to help others. Often followed by a rush of happiness at knowing you've made a difference, but sometimes frustration occurs at going unappreciated or unacknowledged.
However, many people volunteer tirelessly anyway, not wanting or needing any validation or applause for what they do.
2)What many high school students are forced into doing in order to graduate. (In many schools you must log a certain number of volunteer hours to recieve your diploma.)
1)-"Where were you Saturday?"
-"I was volunteering... tutoring little kids in math."
-"Wasn't it lame?"
-"Not really. They even sorta looked up to me. It was cool."
-"Okay then..."

2) She was volunteering at the library every weekend to log enough community service hours to graduate.
volunteering by andriod5 October 4, 2005

Volunteering

Attorney: if you don't want to go on probation, you had better get your 24 hours of volunteering done. I recommend seniors and the latino employment fair.
Volunteering by CAMOBLACKICEXXXXX September 8, 2009

M.E.V.O. (Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization) 

The Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization (M.E.V.O.) was founded in the summer of 2008 by Eric J. Fuchs-Stengel and Samuel A. Berman. After going on numerous hiking expeditions during the summer, the two friends became motivated to preserve the natural beauty of our environment. And so, M.E.V.O. was born. M.E.V.O. is a volunteer organization; its primary goals being to clean up, preserve, and protect the environment. Of course, we understand that we can't do this alone, so it is also our mission to raise awareness about pollution, and to motivate other groups and individuals to help us in this cause. These goals will be accomplished by organizing a variety of activities for our volunteers, from hike-a-thons and bike-a-thons to clean-ups and recycling drives. M.E.V.O. is also a "friendship" organization which volunteers its time to help out other friend and partner organizations that work to protect and enjoy the environment as much as M.E.V.O.. Because ultimately, saving the environment and planet is going to be a team effort. And it won't be easy, but it will definitely be worth it.
Guy #1: Man i wanna help save the world, but i don't know how (sad)
Guy #2: Dude we should join, M.E.V.O. (Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization), they have several chapters all over New Jersey
Guy #1: Yeah!!! thats a GREAT idea (happy)

volunteers 

unpaid well intentioned unreliable workers
When the game came on TV, all the volunteers left the job to watch it.

Volunteers 

The nickname for the University of Tennessee: Knoxville. Name is taken from the nickname of the state of Tennessee, which is the Volunteer State. Tennessee obtained this nickname when an unprecedented amount of volunteers came from Tennessee to fight in the Mexican/American War.

Commonly shortened to "Vols"
Let's go Vols!

I attend the University of Tennessee, home of the Volunteers.
Volunteers by JTHNASH June 30, 2009

Tennessee Volunteers Football 

Also known as the Big Orange the Tennessee Volunteers are one of the top 10 best NCAA football teams ever and #2 in the SEC behind Alabama. They have 6 national championships they were the 1st ever football team to win a BCS national championship in 1998 against Flordia State. They have been SEC champions 17 times then when the SEC split into east and west they were SEC east champs 6 times. Their win lose record is 792–345–53 (.688) and their bowl record is 26-24-0. Their fight song is Rocky Top their mascot is Smokey the hound dog and their stadium is Neyland Stadium and their colors are bright orange and whiite. They dominate the SEC in wins the only teams they dont have a considerable amount of wins over is Alabama,Auburn, and Flordia ( Alabama has 10 wins over Tennessee Aubrun and Flordia have 2 wins over Tennessee
Tennessee Volunteers Football is on tonight lets go watch it
More from Urban Dictionary
A group of people, typically women, searching through someone’s digital footprint in order to find more information about that person.
Susie wasn’t sure if her new Hinge match was a creep, so she assembled Galantir and they found out he used to post slurs on gaming forums.
Galantir by Ge-sus September 22, 2026
Word of the Day on September 23, 2026

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
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.
Word of the Day on September 20, 2026
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
Next