AKACroatalin's definitions
This is a British expression which can be used in a number of ways:
1 To obtain an item, by purchase, borrowing or other means;
2 To initiate contact or communicate with a person or persons or an organisation;
3 To understand or appreciate an idea, concept or theory;
The Americans use the expression get ahold of in a similar way.
1 To obtain an item, by purchase, borrowing or other means;
2 To initiate contact or communicate with a person or persons or an organisation;
3 To understand or appreciate an idea, concept or theory;
The Americans use the expression get ahold of in a similar way.
1 “Can you get hold of any 2 inch 10 brass screws?”
2 “That cunt Malcolm’s gone off somewhere, I can’t get hold of him.”
3 “His ideas are so abstruse they’re difficult to get hold of.”
2 “That cunt Malcolm’s gone off somewhere, I can’t get hold of him.”
3 “His ideas are so abstruse they’re difficult to get hold of.”
by AKACroatalin January 4, 2016
Get the Get Hold Of mug.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 shit mug.Daisy is small and soft and very pretty. She is quite shy and finds it difficult to trust people, but this is gradually improving. She loves her food and is quite forward about asking for a meal and when she eats her table manners are not the best. She is very talkative, but is sometimes difficult to understand. She is not an intellectual, but sometimes exhibits some quite amazing insights. She hasn’t had the easiest of lives and this worries her sometimes as she thinks bad things may happen to her again. She loves to play and is very energetic, but she also loves to sleep and will spend hours drowsing with her eyes half-closed.
by AKACroatalin April 26, 2015
Get the Daisy mug.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 Coprophage mug.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 Gravvy mug.There are a number of different meanings for the word brick so don’t just dump it there’s some good stuff here:
1 Very cold. Usually only used to describe the temperature of a place, e.g. the weather or indoors in a particular location.
2 An unintelligent person. Derived from "thick as a brick."
3 A basketball shot in which the ball bounces off the backboard and/or hits the rim, but does not go though the net.
4 A large quantity of drugs packaged in a brick shape, especially cocaine.
5 An external power transformer that provides power from a wall socket to a laptop, wireless router, projector, etc
6 A piece of electronic equipment that has been rendered inoperable. This usually happens when trying to update the firmware or BIOS of the device, when "jail-breaking", installing new mobile phone ROMs, etc.
7 A large mobile phone.
8 British slang for a reliable person.
9 To bail, ditch, let down, not show up or do something as promised/agreed to.
10 To hit something or someone with bricks.
11 To avoid doing something because of fear, derives from shitting bricks.
1 Very cold. Usually only used to describe the temperature of a place, e.g. the weather or indoors in a particular location.
2 An unintelligent person. Derived from "thick as a brick."
3 A basketball shot in which the ball bounces off the backboard and/or hits the rim, but does not go though the net.
4 A large quantity of drugs packaged in a brick shape, especially cocaine.
5 An external power transformer that provides power from a wall socket to a laptop, wireless router, projector, etc
6 A piece of electronic equipment that has been rendered inoperable. This usually happens when trying to update the firmware or BIOS of the device, when "jail-breaking", installing new mobile phone ROMs, etc.
7 A large mobile phone.
8 British slang for a reliable person.
9 To bail, ditch, let down, not show up or do something as promised/agreed to.
10 To hit something or someone with bricks.
11 To avoid doing something because of fear, derives from shitting bricks.
1 It's brick outside today, I’m going to have to put on my thermals.
2 That twonk is such a brick!
3 He keeps on hitting bricks, the useless wanker.
4 I'm gonna score a brick tonight.
5 The sodding brick is fucked.
6 I think I’ve fucked up the brick.
7 That’s not a mobile phone, it’s a brick.
8 You can always rely on Charlie, he's a real brick.
9 Looks like he's gonna brick on the party, but the rest of us are coming.
10 That fat bastard has pissed them off once too often, they’re going to brick him.
11 I knew he’d brick it, no way would he do a parachute jump.
2 That twonk is such a brick!
3 He keeps on hitting bricks, the useless wanker.
4 I'm gonna score a brick tonight.
5 The sodding brick is fucked.
6 I think I’ve fucked up the brick.
7 That’s not a mobile phone, it’s a brick.
8 You can always rely on Charlie, he's a real brick.
9 Looks like he's gonna brick on the party, but the rest of us are coming.
10 That fat bastard has pissed them off once too often, they’re going to brick him.
11 I knew he’d brick it, no way would he do a parachute jump.
by AKACroatalin April 27, 2015
Get the Brick mug.A cuspidor is a large bowl, often of metal, serving as a receptacle for spit, usually from snuff dipping or tobacco chewing. Generally considered to be the same as a spittoon, although spittoons tend to be shorter than cuspidors. The word comes from the Portuguese “cuspir” meaning to spit which itself comes from the Latin “conspuere” meaning to spit upon.
Toreador,
Don’t spit upon the floor,
Use the cuspidor,
That’s what it’s for.
(By kind permission of Bart Simpson)
Don’t spit upon the floor,
Use the cuspidor,
That’s what it’s for.
(By kind permission of Bart Simpson)
by AKACroatalin May 13, 2015
Get the Cuspidor mug.