Slang
Street-level, pub-level, schoolyard-level. The words that never asked permission.
Beour
/bjʊər/ · n.
A woman or girl, often an attractive one. Used as a noun ('she's a beour') and increasingly in the wider Irish slang vocabulary. Carried into settled speech from Irish Traveller Cant (Shelta) and now heard across Cork, Limerick, and South Armagh.
Read definition →Bine
/baɪn/ · n.
A cigarette. Belfast and wider Ulster informal slang, shortened from the brand name 'Woodbine'. Also heard as 'feg' (the more common alternative). 'Bum a bine off you?' = can I have a cigarette?
Read definition →Blade
/bleɪd/ · n.
A girl or young woman, in Tyrone informal speech. 'A wee blade' = a young girl. The word is specifically County Tyrone and rarely heard elsewhere in Ulster, let alone outside Northern Ireland.
Read definition →Bogger
/ˈbɒɡər/ · n.
A person from the countryside, especially the deep rural one. Used by urban speakers, often pejoratively, sometimes affectionately. A close synonym for 'culchie' but with a stronger image: a culchie is rural, a bogger lives where the bog is.
Read definition →Boggin'
/ˈbɒɡɪn/ · adj.
Disgusting. Filthy. Awful. Used for things, places, and situations that the speaker finds unpleasant: a boggin' kitchen, a boggin' fish supper, a boggin' day at work. Adjective only, almost always with the apostrophe-truncated final 'g'.
Read definition →Bowsie
/ˈbaʊzi/ · n.
A rough or unruly man, often drunk, usually a bit of a layabout. Pejorative but stops short of outright insult: a bowsie is a known type rather than a hated individual. Most often heard in working-class Dublin speech.
Read definition →Bucklepper
/ˈbʌkləpər/ · n.
An overactive, overconfident person. The kind who throws themselves around at full enthusiasm and only thinks about consequences afterwards. Often pejorative but never seriously so - a bucklepper is exhausting rather than dangerous.
Read definition →Buckshee
/ˈbʌkʃiː/ · adj., n.
Free, extra, or got for nothing. Used as an adjective ('a buckshee pint') and a noun ('he was in for the buckshee'). Not Irish in origin, but absorbed into Irish use through British Army service before and after partition, and now common in everyday Irish slang.
Read definition →Buroo
/bəˈruː/ · n.
The unemployment office, or by extension unemployment benefit itself. 'On the buroo' = unemployed and signing on. 'Down at the buroo' = at the employment office. Spelled buroo, bru, or brew; pronounced the same.
Read definition →Cat Melodeon
/kæt məˈləʊdiən/ · phrase, adj.
Awful. Terrible. Used of an outcome, situation, or performance that has gone disastrously: 'the gig was cat melodeon' = the gig was awful. The image is of a cat playing a melodeon - a cacophonous noise made by a creature with no business at the instrument.
Read definition →Chiseler
/ˈtʃɪzələr/ · n.
A child, especially in Dublin inner-city speech. Equivalent in everyday use to 'kid' or 'wean' but specifically Dublin in origin and register. Often affectionate; rarely formal.
Read definition →Culchie
/ˈkʌltʃi/ · n.
A person from rural Ireland, used by Dublin and other urban speakers. Range from affectionate (a friend home for the weekend) to pointed (a tourist board's worst nightmare). Used by Dubliners more than by anyone else, and used about rural people more than to them.
Read definition →Feck
/fɛk/ · interj., v.
A mild Hiberno-English substitute for the stronger English expletive. As an interjection ('feck!'), as a verb ('feck off'), as an emphatic ('a fecking nuisance'). Distinct from the English word in two respects: it has no sexual connotation in Irish use, and it is far more acceptable in mixed and family company.
Read definition →Feen
/fiːn/ · n.
A man or boy. The masculine counterpart of beour. Used as a noun ('grand feen, that one') and across registers from neutral description to mild praise. Heard in Munster, South Armagh, and increasingly in general Irish slang.
Read definition →Grub
/ɡrʌb/ · n.
Food. Informal. 'Time for some grub' = time to eat. Class- and age-portable across Ireland, with no fixed register. The word is shared with British informal English, but stays especially current in Hiberno-English.
Read definition →Gurrier
/ˈɡʌriər/ · n.
A tough or unruly young man, particularly a Dublin one. Once a term of approval (a bosom friend, a fine fellow) in the 1930s and 40s; now mostly pejorative - a ruffian, a hooligan, a small-time tough. Range of register has narrowed over a century.
Read definition →Jackeen
/ˈdʒækiːn/ · n.
A Dubliner - used by speakers from outside Dublin, almost always pejoratively. The country reciprocal of 'culchie': where Dublin sees the rest of the country as culchies, the rest of the country sees Dublin as jackeens.
Read definition →Kip
/kɪp/ · n., v.
Two senses, both alive. As a noun: a scruffy, run-down, or dirty place ('the flat's a kip'). Also a sleep, or a place to sleep ('I'm going for a kip'). As a verb: to sleep, especially temporarily or in someone else's house.
Read definition →Mot
/mɒt/ · n.
Girlfriend. Almost always 'the mot' or 'me mot'. A working Dublin word for a woman one is going out with, neutral in register and used freely by speakers of both sexes about each other and about others.
Read definition →Munya
/ˈmʌnjə/ · adj.
Great, lovely, very attractive. Belfast informal slang of approval, applied to anything good - a meal, a piece of music, a person, a result. Stronger than 'nice', shorter than 'cracking'.
Read definition →Rulya
/ˈrʊljə/ · adj.
Mad, wild, or out of hand. Carries either approval ('the wedding was rulya') or alarm ('your man's gone rulya') depending on context. A strongly local South Armagh and Crossmaglen intensifier, increasingly recognised in wider Ulster slang.
Read definition →Sound
/saʊnd/ · adj., interj.
Decent, reliable, good. Used as an adjective for a person of generally trustworthy character ('he's a sound fella') and, more distinctively, as a single-word reply meaning thanks, no bother, or that's grand. Distinct from the standard English senses (a sound argument, a sound sleep).
Read definition →The fear
/ðə fɪər/ · phrase
The dread that descends after a night's drinking: shame, anxiety, half-recalled embarrassments, and the certainty that everyone present saw or heard whatever you cannot quite remember saying. Always with the definite article - you have 'the fear', not just 'fear'. Most common in younger Irish slang since the early 2000s.
Read definition →Wagon
/ˈwæɡən/ · n.
An unpleasant or obnoxious woman. Strictly pejorative. Distinct entirely from the vehicle sense: in Hiberno-English the noun 'wagon' applied to a person carries no other meaning. Almost always preceded by 'the' or 'an aul' (= an old) - 'the wagon', 'an aul wagon'.
Read definition →Wojus
/ˈwəʊdʒəs/ · adj.
Awful. Terrible. Used as a strong informal negative judgement: a wojus meal, a wojus day, a wojus film. Also used as an interjection: 'Oh, wojus!' = oh no, oh dear. Distinctly Irish in tone.
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