Dictionary of Playground Slang (Online)

To be subservient. Often used when your husband, wife, partner gives you an instruction that you wouldn't normally want to obey, yet you still do it.

Truant officer.

A young person - usually of the variety overfull with cheek; "Why, I was using those slang words when you were nothing but a whipper-snapper!".

Bland, uninspired, boring, or insipid. Especially used to describe "middle-American" mores, people, etc.

Derogatory description of things that are naively wholesome, suburban, and middle class; "Donna Reed and Harriet Nelson were incredibly white bread women."

Used in the fifties in Owens's School at the Angel Islington as a term for visiting the lavatory.I.e. You raised your hand in class and said "Please sir can I have a white note" If you wanted to visit there. (contrib. not sure what a white note itself was :))

They live in filth (e.g. rusting cars and old kitchen appliances fill the front yard,) they are poorly educated, they don't care about their appearance (e.g. they are poorly groomed and overweight, wear dirty and tattered clothes,) et cetera.

Though "white trash" can live anywhere, they are indigenous to the midwestern and southern United States; "90% of my school is white trash.".

The act of taking a handful of snow and vigorously stuffing it and rubbing it into the face of someone. It is performed by first putting the victim into a side headlock. The verb form of this term is "to give (somebody) a whitewash". Obviously done only in the winter when there's ample snow on the ground.

During the winter (when there is snow or ice on the ground), the action of tripping someone over and then getting as many people as possible to gather and kick as much snow/ice/slush over them as possible - or just kick them.

A whitey can be produced by over indulgence in marijuana. The heart races, and you are restricted to sitting quietly gazing at the floor (or down the loo). The name is derived from the pallor or whiteness of the sufferers skin. To recover, the person needs to be left alone for a while.

In the meantime, all his/her friends have a good laugh about it, point their fingers and hiss 'whitey!!!' at the victim.

Pronounced 'Whitte-nopa-nair', Whitton Open Air School was the school for "Special" children - unfortunately no distinction was made between mentally and physically handicapped.

Used a "You're gooin' ta Whitt'nopenair!" = "You're a nutcase", or "You're too-o stupid!", "You do that 'n they'll sen' you ta Whitt'nopenair!" = "That's a really stupid thing to do!", "'Ey, Whitt'nopenair!!" = "Hey,stupid", usually followed by a thrown large, hard object.

The worst moment in my life was when, at age 11, my mother came into my bedroom during an illness and said "John, would you mind terribly if you had to go to Whitton Open Air?" I had had Pneumonia and pleurisy and was a serious asthmatic, and had been delirious for the week before she popped the question: a doctor had told her that I would never be able to lead a physically normal life, and would have to go to a "Special School". Ha, fie on him: I played rugby, rowed crew, ran triathlons, and have worked in and visited 50 countries, with field work from 84 deg. North down to 40 degrees South, and from 1,000 feet below sea level to 12,000 feet above sea level.

A terrible moment, but it cured me of throwing epithets around forever.

(ed: well done mate!!)

Impressive or flashy. Typically used to refer to new technology; "This software update has a lot of new whiz-bang features!".

A small group of people would decide upon a certain game, but realise that they didn't have a large enough group to play it. Someone would say 'Shall we do Who-wants-to-play?' and we would link arms, and march self-importantly around the playground chanting 'Who-wants-to-play (pause) Brit-ish-Bull-dog?' (or whatever).

The idea was that whoever else wanted to play would link arms with one end of the row and join in the chanting and walking around, until enough players were recruited. Of course, the usual outcome was that you would spend the whole of playtime recruiting players, and have no time for the actual game at all. We would often be rather selective about who we actually wanted to play with us, so would add various disclaimers at the end of the chant - 'Who-wants-to-play... Char-lies Ang-els... on-ly girls... from Mrs Hopkin's class... ov-er six... and no pik-eys...'

Damaged, jammed, or out of alignment; "I can't open the car door because it got whockerjawed in the accident.".

Friend. Pronounced "whoa-dee."; "See that dude? He's my whodi.".

A response rhyme to a claim that someone had farted, guffed, released an SBD etc. and subsequently smelled. The person who remarked on the odour was greeted with the put down "Whoever smelt it dealt it" After a while, a rhyme was composed to counter act the effect of the slur with the retort "Whoever said the rhyme, did the crime!" thus transfering culpability back to the original person.

To toss or turn your head on a pillow. "You can't wholler on that pillow." (ed: what *is* this??)