In this week’s ongoing series of articles on British Slang, we’re going to get personal and talk about words relating to sex and the bedroom. There are ample phrases for the male and female genitalia along with certain insults and phrases worth a giggle.
This list was a lot of fun to put together when we wrote our British Slang Dictionary last year – details on where to get it here!
Disclaimer! Some of these words are pretty PG rated but some of them are also extremely filthy. You’ve been warned! This list is for educational purposes and will certainly help frequent British TV viewers.
- All fur coat and no knickers – adj – A woman who looks good on the surface but has no substance.
- Antenatal – adj – Prenatal care.
- Arse – n – Buttocks.
- Aussie kiss – n – Oral sex on a woman.
- Axe wound – n – Vagina.
- Baby batter – n – Semen.
- Back passage – n – Anus.
- Bairn – n – Another word for baby, usually used in Scotland.
- Ball bag – n – Scrotum.
- Balloon Knot – n- The anus.
- Baps – n – Another name for a woman’s breasts.
- Bean – n – 1. An ecstasy pill 2. The female clitoris.
- Beat the bishop – v – To masturbate.
- Belisha Beacons – n – The yellow flashing lights at a pedestrian crossing in the UK but can also be used to refer to a women’s breasts.
- Bell-end – n – The end of the male genitalia. Also an insult to call someone stupid. “Don’t be such a bell-end.”
- Bint – n – A derogatory word for woman who is just above a prostitute.
- Boiler – n – An unkind term for an ugly woman.
- Bollocks – n – 1. Male testicles. 2. Something that is rubbish or crap.
- Bollocking – n – To be punished severely or told off.
- Buff – adj – Sexually attractive; Also a word for nude, sometimes used loosely to describe the act of sex e.g. “We was buffin’ for hours.”
- Buggery – n – The act of anal sex.
- Bum – n, v – Buttocks. Not particularly rude – more acceptable in polite circles than ‘arse.’
- Bum cleavage – n – The area between the buttocks.
- Chat up – v – Trying to pick someone up in a bar or elsewhere.
- Clunge – n – A very very rude word for the female vagina not to be used in polite or even impolite conversation.
- Dangly-bits – n – Male genitalia.
- Dogging – v – The act of having sex in public parks while people watch.
- Dressing gown – n – A bathrobe.
- End-piece – n – End of the male genitalia – another way of saying “bell-end.”
- Fanny – n – A woman’s vagina. Not for use in polite conversation.
- Fit – adj – A word used to describe an attractive woman or male.
- Gagging – v – Desperate in a derogatory way. i.e. She was gagging for it.
- Get off – v – To make out with someone.
- Get your end away – v – To have sex.
- Growler – n – A very rude term for female genitals covered in pubic hair.
- John Thomas – n – Male genitalia. (It is not necessary for anyone to comment that my name is indeed Jonathan Thomas, almost every British person I meet reminds me of that!)
- Jubblies – n – A woman’s breasts.
- Kerb crawler – n – A person who solicits street prostitutes.
- Knackers – n – Vulgar name for testicles.
- Knickers – n – Women’s underwear, see pants.
- Knob – n – Male genitalia.
- Leg over – n – Sexual intercourse.
- Manky – adj – Dirty or filthy.
- Meat and two veg – n – Male external genitalia.
- Minge – n – Female genitalia, derogatory.
- Minger – adj – An ugly or filthy-minded person. There is usually an implication of poor hygiene or body odor in the usage.
- Naughty bits – n – A polite way to say male genitalia.
- On the pull – v – Out looking for sex.
- Pants – n – 1. Women’s underwear. 2. Something that is total crap.
- Pedo – n – Shorthand phrase for pedophile.
- Pervy – adj – Perverted.
- PMT – n – PMS
- Quim – n – Female genitalia.
- Randy – adj – To be sexually aroused.
- Rent boy – n – A male prostitute.
- Ring piece – n – The anus.
- Shag – v – To have sex.
- Slag – v – A whore. To call a woman a slag is a grievous insult.
- Snog – v – Passionate kissing, not sex.
- Starkers – v – To be completely naked.
- Stockings – n – Ladies tights.
- Strawberry Creams – n – A woman’s breasts.
- Stuffed – v – Sexual intercourse (i.e. ‘get stuffed’).
- Tart – n – Prostitute or loose woman.
- Thrupney bits – n – Woman’s breasts.
- Tights – n – Pantyhose.
- Undercarriage – n – 1. Male or female genitals. 2. The underside of your car.
- Up the duff – v – To be pregnant.
- Wank – v – To masturbate.
- Wanker – adj – Literally someone who enjoys to masturbate but usually used as an insult for an asshole.
- Y-fronts – n – Men’s undergarments.
Did we leave anything off the list? Please share it in the comments below!
https://store.anglotopia.net/shop/anglotopias-dictionary-british-english-2nd-edition-paperback/
The words on this list were excerpted from Anglotopia’s Dictionary of British English: Brit Slang from A to Zed. Available now from major retailers in prints and eBook form. The book features over 1,000 British Slang words including extra sections on Australian and Kiwi Slang, Cockney Slang, London slang and more! There’s also a hilarious section on Britain’s rude place names. Full details here.
Y fronts are what the Brits cal tighty- whiteys.
I’ve never heard that expression in my life. What part of the country?
How about Kecks, as in sweaty Kecks. Undercrackers.. Or even grundies all for pants!
Grundies refer to dirty underwear and not all pants
The word Bint is Arabic for woman. Used as a slang word by British soldiers returning from the Middle East . Nothing derogatory about it.
You cloth-eared bint 😉
Uphill Gardener…, homosexual…
i want more slang words
You could also add
Dirty Weekend- Dirty weekend is slang for a weekend spent having sex, usually away from home.
“Something for the weekend” – Used in barbershops in reference to a condom. “I’ll have a shave, a haircut, and something for the weekend, please.”
Bonking – general term for having sex
Knee trembler – doing it standing up
Gobble – oral sex
and that’s just for starters!
Did you leave anything off? No, I think you just about covered it, Jonathan.
Gob job – perform oral sex on a male
Cruising – the gay version of out on the pull, not necessarily in bars or club, but anywhere public
Cruising- to cruise, meaning to masturbate. Examples:
He’s been in there cruising for hours.
Stop cruising and get yourself stuffed!
I learned some new words! 🙂
Pants isn’t specific to women, unlike panties in the US
it might be good to add that “clunge” isn’t real slang in Britain. It was created by Channel 4’s comedy show ‘The Inbetweeners’ (the original version not the weird us one) and usage is quite low in real life!
My Dad said bint was Indian. He served on the Northwest. Frontier in the 1930’s, and picked it up there..,
My British/English husband of 39 years was a Grenadier Guard who saw service in the Middle East in the 50s, and he said ‘bint’ was Arab for woman.
I think this article is disgusting i spent my first 20 years there and I never heard half of these words
I also entered a comment saying how disgusting this article is. I see that my comment was not published on this site. wonder why?
You WERE fully warned.
I’ve not spent more than a couple weeks at a time in the UK and I’ve heard at least half of these.
Then again, I do have interesting friends.
If you found an article about slang in the bedroom disgusting, then I’d say you got your money’s worth, wouldn’t you?
If ya don’t like it, why’d ya keep readin it and then go on to leave a comment about it? I woulda left and not looked back if I were you.
I on the other hand thought this was quite funny! Gotta keep my friends guessin what I’m sayin hahahaha
You’re cracking me up JT! I know of an American guy whose real last name is Wank. He took a job in London and actually had to change his name!
There was someone where I live (I think he was/is a lawyer) named Richard Wacker. Think about that for a moment. A very prim and proper lady I used to work for said his name to me once and I cracked up.
Hysterical!
Add “filthy”: usually means the person (male or female) is desirably attractive.
I saw some of these words written on a wall in the women’s room at the Penzance RR station about ten years ago. Interesting to see what was meant by that bit of creative blather.
Bunk up – going to bed/sex…bunk up in a Bedford = having it off in the back of a van!
My English husband used to say derisively of a person ‘he couldn’t run a free bunk-up in a brothel’.
Save time and just refer people to the Profanisaurus – http://www.viz.co.uk/profanisaurus.html
ah, Viz. A great British publication
I like your page, but your language posts are often wrong.
I’ll just mention the first.All fur coat and no knickers does not mean ‘A woman who looks good on the surface but has no substance’. It means a woman who has spent a lot of time and effort trying to persuade the world that she is something better / classier than she is.
There’s also regional variations. Born and bred Brit here, but some of these are almost unique to the Greater London area and rarely heard north of Birminham
Choke the chicken – slang for a wank
Stocking are hosiery used with a garter. Tights are like pantyhose.
Tights ARE the equivalent of pantyhose. What is referred to in the U.S. as a ‘garter belt’ is called a ‘suspender belt’ over there (I’m a Yank who was married to a Brit for 39 years). What we call ‘suspenders’ are ‘called ‘braces’.
Shirt Lifter…A homosexual
Hilarious article, Jonathan – love it!
A bit of the other…Having sex.
Finger a person’s arse………anger a person.
How about a bit of “How’s ya’ father? (Sex)
Tosser, male mastabator. Last seen on a restaurant salad cabinet on International Drive in Orlando, Florida where the managment had requested that ‘parties of 5 or more see the tosser’. I had to take him aside and explaian the word and why so many British tourist where falling about laughing, taking pictures and covering their childrens eyes.
A ‘tosser’ is one who ‘tosses off’ (equivalent to ‘jerk off’).
To tap off…..knock off….get lucky…pull .probs Northern Brit…but all meaning a pick up (for sex usually), generally from a pub or night club
Knock off also means stolen goods…as does fallen off the back of a lorry
To bang.= to have sex…but sadly to be banged up also means to have been beaten
Banged Up also means to be put in prison.
I’m a born and bred Englishman (NOT British), live in the north of England all my life, and as a previous commenter said, most of these are not said up north.
chapel hat pegs = erect nipples
Well what about cunt for female genitalia of a more vulgar way to tell somebody you dislike to go away “fuck off you cunt”
What about “the o be joyful”? I heard that on a Foyle mystery. Is it old?Or just made up by that writer?
I’m from America. Since people in my country are now so easily offended by anything I have now started learning British English. Armed with new terminology I hope I can insult people and not offend them.
Fuckwit – stupid person
One eyed trouser trout – penis
Lady garden – female genitalia
Gurt lush – bristolian for very good
What is the rhyme in “strawberry creams”–“_________ dreams”?