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75 votes
Accepted

What does it mean? "I can't people today"

It's supposed to be funny. It implies I can't deal with people today. I personally didn't find it funny because this structure I can't [noun] seems cliche to me. It is supposed to invoke ...
Em.'s user avatar
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59 votes
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Is "cops" (= police) a slang/derogatory term?

I am going to write this answer from a sociolinguistic perspective, because there is a lot at stake that can't be explained with a yes/no answer. Nonetheless we shall still make an attempt at giving a ...
Eddie Kal's user avatar
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51 votes
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The antonym of "diss"

My first thought was to give someone props: give props to (one) To praise one and show them respect. Thank you, but I have to give props to Jeanne, who organized this entire event for us. (...
Em.'s user avatar
  • 45.3k
49 votes

What does 'sus' mean in the sentence "People who joined Facebook after 2017 are sus."?

As CharybdeBE noted above, it's a slang term which has become popular thanks to the Among Us game, a multiplayer game where one or more of the characters are secretly evil aliens trying to kill all ...
Juice's user avatar
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45 votes
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What does "Nailed it" mean?

I believe that you are referring to the idiomatic meanings. nailed it to complete a task successfully or get something right Example. A: Oh, you didn't burn the cake this time. B: Yep, ...
Em.'s user avatar
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43 votes
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What does web-mistress imply as a job title

While these are three unrelated words, they share some characteristics: all are produced by modifying existing words in particular ways that are fairly standard. You're right that a documenter would ...
Nathan Tuggy's user avatar
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43 votes
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What's the meaning of phrases that include "ship", "shipping", when there is a conversation about the heroes of TV series?

To ship two people or characters, means wanting to see them in a (romantic) relationship. This is usually something fans of a show or other popular medium do.
Lars Mekes's user avatar
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43 votes
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Is "cool" appropriate or offensive to use in IMs?

There is nothing wrong with “cool” as an informal sign of approval. I disagree with the Urban Dictionary editor who said that it’s ugly. In fact, as far as informal words go, “cool” is quite a ...
tkp's user avatar
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40 votes
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What does "One CPU is going to 'smoke' another CPU" mean?

You have it right; "smoke" can be used to mean "win" (or maybe even, "win easily," or "win decisively"). When talking about lopsided contests, frequently-used ...
J.R.'s user avatar
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40 votes
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What is the difference between IMO and IMHO and IHOP?

IMO - in my opinion IMHO - in my honest/humble opinion Both of these are very well known internet acronyms, and have been used for many years. Both expressions are more or less interchangeable, ...
mike's user avatar
  • 9,813
37 votes

What does "One CPU is going to 'smoke' another CPU" mean?

To smoke someone originally meant (and still does mean) to shoot them to death with a gun. The reference was to the smoke coming from the weapon's muzzle. This colorful term has come to mean "defeat ...
Tᴚoɯɐuo's user avatar
36 votes
Accepted

What does 'sus' mean in the sentence "People who joined Facebook after 2017 are sus."?

This is a slang term used primarily by members of "Generation Z" (currently aged 10–25) to mean "suspicious" but also "dubious", "strange", "creepy", ...
Richard Winters's user avatar
33 votes

How common is it to use the word 'bitch' for a female dog?

In the UK, you can still use the term bitch without embarrassment, providing that the context is clear: Our bitch, Sally, has just had pups. However, you might want to think twice before referring ...
Mick's user avatar
  • 6,536
32 votes

Is there a word or slang word to call a girl who loves brand products?

(vulgar slang alert) A preachy know it all under a skin of designer clothing. Criticizes everything she considers "out of style" or "tacky". (from the Urban Dictionary) As @J.R. ...
Glorfindel's user avatar
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32 votes
Accepted

The female equivalent of "don't break my balls"

I'm not sure there's a direct female equivalent, but there's a gender-neutral expression with a similar meaning and level of vulgarity: Get off my ass! That being said, I think it's much more ...
Alpha Draconis's user avatar
32 votes

Like a Swiss watch

Yes, in English, you can say: x runs as smoothly as a Swiss watch. This can be checked by googling to see sites where the expression occurs. There are, of course, many other expressions in English ...
Lambie's user avatar
  • 40.5k
29 votes

What's the meaning of phrases that include "ship", "shipping", when there is a conversation about the heroes of TV series?

In this sense, to ship two persons means to imagine that they are in a romantic relationship, or to desire that they are in a relationship. This normally applies to characters in a work of fiction (...
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil''s user avatar
23 votes
Accepted

Meaning of "mess lmao"

Although lmao is used as LMAO, which stands for laughing my ass off, it is often used as a general substitute for "ha ha ha". And, "ha ha ha" is not always a genuine, hearty laugh. As for your ...
Em.'s user avatar
  • 45.3k
23 votes

Someone said to me, "We basically literally did." What were they trying to express to me?

The pairing of "basically literally" is very colloquial/informal and skews young. I hear it moderately frequently, mostly when people are recounting stories about personal interactions. It means "I ...
Katy's user avatar
  • 11k
23 votes

If someone is using slang words and phrases when talking to me, would that be disrespectful and I should be offended?

Postel's Law applies: "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept". If addressing somebody you don't know, be careful in how you phrase things until you understand what ...
Mark Morgan Lloyd's user avatar
21 votes

Is there a word or slang word to call a girl who loves brand products?

It's hard to come up with a word that works all the time, because much of this depends on your perspective. Some might call this person shallow. They think this person pays too much money for a name ...
J.R.'s user avatar
  • 109k
21 votes
Accepted

What does this phrase mean? "free me swag out."

'Free me swag out' = 'unpack my canvas bed roll with a mattress inside' A 'swag' (countable noun) is a traditional Australian canvas bed roll with a mattress inside, carried rolled up by hikers or ...
Michael Harvey's user avatar
21 votes

If someone is using slang words and phrases when talking to me, would that be disrespectful and I should be offended?

If a native speaker addresses you with Wassup in a normal everyday situation, it means that they are saying hello in a manner that they consider friendly and collegiate. It is not very formal, but ...
Araucaria - Not here any more.'s user avatar
20 votes

Meaning of "unchubby" in "If you are gay, why were you so unchubby in the shower?"

I looked up some slang dictionaries: pop a chubby, chubby. It was news to me that this word had this slang meaning: to have an erection. So, quite logically, "unchubby" means "without an erection". ...
CowperKettle's user avatar
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20 votes

What is the English equivalent of the Russian word тормоз which is used for very slowly working software?

If software is тормоз because too many poorly implemented features have been added, then it is "bloated." This bloating might be the result of feature creep, as many 'small' features get added on one ...
Adam's user avatar
  • 8,205
19 votes

What does web-mistress imply as a job title

Web-mistress does mean nothing more, and nothing less than web-master. It suggests the person may be female, but given that it occurs in a list of examples (with an implicit etc), it does not ...
Frames Catherine White's user avatar
19 votes
Accepted

Is this structure idiomatic: "I seem to remember...." to mean you only remember a little

"I seem to remember" is quite idiomatic. The expression means that I have what appears to me to be a memory, but I am not confident of it - perhaps it is vague or perhaps it wasn't a real ...
Peter's user avatar
  • 6,060
19 votes
Accepted

If someone is using slang words and phrases when talking to me, would that be disrespectful and I should be offended?

This is mainly a cultural question, and I'll answer it from the perspective of someone familiar with US culture, specifically mid-west and north-east: While usually considered informal, slang directed ...
webmarc's user avatar
  • 335
18 votes

What does it mean? "I can't people today"

This isn't normal English. The person who wrote this is deliberately using weird grammar for fun. This is something people do as a joke: using words as verbs even though they're not verbs. People ...
Lori's user avatar
  • 189

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