och

interj Scottish a general word of exclamation. Very Scottish. Groundskeeper Willie Scottish: Och, yer jokin’!

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off one’s onion

adj Northern England crazy: Some chap was dancing with cars in the street – I think he was off his onion!

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off one’s rocker

adj crazy: Some chap was dancing with cars in the street – I think he was off his rocker! And there I go again with the copy-paste. God, I love computers.

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off one’s tits

adj high (on drugs): I’ve no idea how she got up there, I was off my tits from about nine o’clock onwards. Perhaps she jumped? Ah, you see, you thought I was going to copy-paste the previous entry again. Well, rest assured that I would have done had it meant the same thing.

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off one’s trolley

adj crazy: Some chap was dancing with cars in the street – I think he was off his trolley! Yes, I did just copy-paste the previous entry.

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off-licence

n liquor store. The term comes from the fact that the alcohol can be sold on the condition that it may only be drunk off the premises.

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offside

n the side of a car furthest from the kerb.

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oi

interj pron. “oy,” as in “boy” hey. General noise used to attract someone’s attention. I can’t really believe that an American being accosted with “oi” will be sitting there wondering whether that word means “faucet” or “yard,” but I wouldn’t like to feel this dictionary was too highbrow to be useful to people who had to be fed by their spouses with a spoon.

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omnibus

n 1 old-fashioned bus. This is a quaint word, dating back to the times when buses were open at the rear and had a conductor ready to meet you. An omnibus is essentially one step technologically forward of a tram. 2 concatenated episodes of a week’s worth of television or radio series (typically soap operas) often screened at the weekends (also called “omnibus edition”). The Latin word “omnibus” means simply “for all,” which could explain both of these etymologies. I’m just saying that because I can’t be bothered checking either of them. I can’t even be bothered checking the Latin – someone just told me it. For all I know it’s Latin for pig-fucker.

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on one’s tod

n alone; on one’s own: Ever since his dog died, he’s been sitting on his tod at the end of the bar with a whiskey in front of him. I don’t think it’s doing him any good, but what can you do?

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on the blink

adj not working right: The television’s been on the blink since we had the water-pistol fight.

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on the lash

adj out drinking: Bob’s in a terrible state since he got divorced – I think he’s been on the lash every night.

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one

n I. Rather antiquated and very British. You’d more likely hear your grandmother say “in my day, one didn’t spit in the street” than your local crack dealer say “since Dave the Train got knocked off, one’s had to raise one’s prices.”

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one-off

n something that only happens once. You might use it if you were selling your artwork or attempting to apologise for an affair with your secretary.

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owt

n anything. Rather northern-English: Whatcha looking at me for? I didn’t do owt! It’s recognised throughout the U.K. but it’s a little unusual to use it.

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oxter

n Scottish armpit. From the Middle English oxta, meaning “axis” or “axle”.

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