McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang And Colloquial Expressions

For the 411 on American slang, this reference is the top banana From "hot head" to "nose job," "beer belly" to "pain in the butt," "knee jerk" to "foot in mouth disease," slang is an integral and natural part of our conversational language. We may not be able to define it, but we know it when we see it. Author and leading authority Richard Spears takes on the colloquialisms, vulgarities, and substandard English that form the "general slang" that you are likely to encounter in everyday interactions in contemporary American life. McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions, Fourth Edition, provides complete definitions of thousands of slang and informal expressions ranging from golden oldies such as catch some rays and take the fifth, to recent coinages like shizzle (gangsta), jonx (Wall Street), and ping (the Internet). Each entry includes one or more examples illustrating how an expression is used in everyday conversation. Wherever necessary, International Phonetic Alphabet pronunciations are provided. And throughout, cautionary notes alert you to crude, inflammatory, or taboo expressions. This fully revised and updated edition now features: 12,000 terms from an array of sources, including gangsta rap, IM acronyms, and surfer talk, to Valley Girls, the blogosphere, and prison lingo A fascinating introduction, "What is Slang?", explores the different categories of slang expressions, their origins and their applications Thematic Index-cross-references expressions by standard terms, such as Angry, Drunk, Food, Good-bye, Mess-up, Money, and Stupidity Hidden Word Index-lets you identify and locate even partially remembered expressions by looking up any major word in the phraseSpears, Richard A. is the author of 'McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang And Colloquial Expressions ', published 2005 under ISBN 9780071461078 and ISBN 0071461078.