Search for words

Refine search criteria

Choose an word from the list. Use the scroll bar to see all the words.
Fill up the form below to narrow your search. Use the scroll bar to see the submit button.
Speaker and interview
Word or expression

 

Locations Map

Search Results...

There are 20 examples displayed out of 986 filtered.

Big-time

Parf of speech: NA, OED Year: 1910, OED Evaluation: Colloquial. Originally United States.

1. With the. The best kind, the highest rank; a state or example of excellence, fame, etc. to hit the big time: to become notable or famous. 2. To a great degree, on a large scale; extremely

ExampleMeaning
Speaker: Yeah I just remember um large quantities of s-- like huge snowfalls as a kid. Interviewer: Was that exciting? Speaker: Oh big time. Big time.
Very - intensifier
ExampleMeaning
you have to be willing to, number one do like studio work, do um- play in a bunch- in as many bands as you can, you-know, al-- always keeping like one 'our-project' whatever, the key- the thing that I 've been sort-of developing big-time over the last little while, which is what I'd sort-of hope to eventually do is composing, so writing music and selling music, for- I like- I just got a job doing music for a video-game
A lot - intensifier

Bloomers

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1862, OED Evaluation: N/A

Regularly in pl. Loose trousers reaching to the knee or knickerbockers worn by women for bicycling, gymnasium practice, etc.; called also ‘rational dress’. Also, a woman's knee-length undergarment (the usual sense in later usage).

ExampleMeaning
I guess there was a boys' basketball. I don 't know. 'Cause when they were in the gym we weren 't allowed in and when we were in the gym they didn 't come in. We had to wear those silly looking middies and bloomers.
Type of clothing
ExampleMeaning
And, you-know, wear these bloomers, kind-of underneath. And then you 'd make the shakers out of crepe-paper. And you trained hard for it. I mean, it was a pretty big deal that they had this cheerleading competition.
Type of clothing

Bonspiel

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1772, OED Evaluation: NA

Specifically a ‘grand curling-match’ between two distinct clubs or districts.

ExampleMeaning
Speaker: Or three other girls, and then I 'm on a mixed team, which means two girls and two guys, and we 're doing a league that 's based in Toronto, but it 'll be a different club and we play people our own age and, um, hopefully in November we 're gonna go to a Bonspiel which is a tournament. Interviewer: A what? Speaker: Bonspiel. That 's what it's called. B-O-N-S-P-I-E-L. Interviewer: A Bon-- Uh, okay. Speaker: Bonspiel. That 's just- That 's just the name for the tournament. And, um, hopefully that 'll be in Ottawa.
A curling tournament.

Boon

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1500, OED Evaluation: N/A

A favour, a gift, a thing freely or graciously bestowed

ExampleMeaning
And- well, we call it the Olympic-pool. The Donald- the Summerville-Pool at the bottom of Woodbine-Avenue. And that was a big boon for the community is to have those beautiful pools open up. And of course, it was free-of-charge. And so I remember like, you-know, we would just go there for when it opened at ten in the morning, come home for lunch, go back.
Something helpful or beneficial

Boondoggle

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1935, OED Evaluation: US slang

A trivial, useless, or unnecessary undertaking; wasteful expenditure

ExampleMeaning
Speaker: So that was my camp, we never really went to camp after that like, I went to like Camp-Nyorka, I went to Camp-Nyorka for a couple years, where I learned to play with boondoggle. Interviewer: What? Speaker: Like you know, Gymp. Interviewer: Oh yes Speaker: They change the name every two days, I don 't know why. One of my cousins calls it boondoggle and the other one calls it Gymp. Actually, last week I had a little girl-the store was really quiet, so I taught her how to do like some bracelet thing.
Something wasteful and pointless but gives the appearance that it has value

Boonies

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1954, OED Evaluation: North American slang. Originally U.S Military

The jungle; wild or rough country; (hence) a remote or unpopulated area

ExampleMeaning
Which at that point in time was way out in the boonies, it was just ah miles and miles away from anything. And ah, I mean I remember driving down to um my grandmother's house, to ah go for Sunday dinner every week, and we would go by farms as we were going south 'cause they lived Bayview-and-Eglington and we were going south from where we were.
Rural country or a jungle

bringing-up

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: N/A, OED Evaluation: N/A

The years in which a person had their childhood, their up-bringing

ExampleMeaning
They would answer to- to Nina, not to Antonina, unless you were in trouble. You get the full name out. I- I feel that I had a rich bringing up, because living here on Danforth, even though it was quite tight-knit with the community, it was also because you were right in the city, you were able to experience a lot of things that made you go beyond the Italian experience, you know.
The years in which a person had their childhood, their up-bringing

Broom-ball

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1896, OED Evaluation: Originally North American

A team game similar to ice hockey and played on ice, but in which the players wear shoes or boots rather than ice skates and use (specially designed) brooms in attempting to push a ball into their opponents' goal.

ExampleMeaning
I- dunno what else we did. We did some broomball, and. Interviewer: I think broomball's fun. Speaker: Yeah, broomball's pretty good.
A team game similar to ice hockey and played on ice, but in which the players wear shoes or boots rather than ice skates and use (specially designed) brooms in attempting to push a ball into their opponents' goal.
ExampleMeaning
Not- not too much basketball we played hockey we played baseball, played broomball, played floor-hockey, we played hide-and-seek, and- and had little street gangs.

Brown owl

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1918, OED Evaluation: N/A

the adult leader of a Brownie Guides pack.

ExampleMeaning
Yeah. And even in a volunteer-groups that I took part in and I was, I volunteered for the cancer-society and I was a brown owl at the church and you-know, um, whatever the kids got involved with I got involved with. Home-and-school. But again, it was, it was, it was the same. People from the same, same type of background. And I didn 't go downtown very often.
Leader

Bugger

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1936, OED Evaluation: Course slang

Something unpleasant or undesirable; a great nuisance

ExampleMeaning
Speaker: Yeah it 's always open, see all the dogs and-everything in there all the time, used to lock it, couldn't get in. Interviewer: It 's interesting Speaker: Big lock on the bugger, and "No, you 're not allowed in."
A bother/pain
ExampleMeaning
And so that was where you would catch the ferry to get over to the Canary-Islands. Well, the buggers. You had to wait 'til they opened that border crossing. By open means they come in trucks and they open up the ah- open up the huts so they can stamp your passports and so they were very clever in the way they did that.
A bother/pain
I stayed on the Canary-Islands for a couple more days or a couple of weeks or something and then took the ferry back over to Spanish-Sahara. I said, "You buggers. I 'm going to take it the other way just to show you."
A bother/pain
So I learned a lot about the phone system. And there was this real bugger. This old bugger on the test- the test board which you call in to get tests on the lines and things. And he 'd give all the guys a rough time, especially the young guys.
A bother/pain
Well, it turns out his uncle was this bugger at Bell who I used to deal with! (laughs) So, incredible how all of this is connected, yeah. So it was a great time on the Canary- Islands because he had a tent, so we slept on the beach.
A bother/pain
ExampleMeaning
Interviewer: Yeah that 's why I think if you lived over in that Yonge- anywhere along Yonge. Speaker: Oh you bugger. Interviewer: I don 't think that it 's as nice just 'cause it 's so much smaller the backyards and everything and you can 't go in the street for two minutes without having to move out of the way of a car.
A bother/pain

bugger off

Parf of speech: Phrase, OED Year: 1922, OED Evaluation: N/A

To go away, depart.

ExampleMeaning
Speaker: If you don't like what I'm driving, leave me alone. Interviewer: Don't look at it. Speaker: Type-of-thing- That's my (inc). You don't like it, you don't like me, go to hell, get away from me. I don't need you. Bugger off! Thank you very much. Be polite about it (laughs). Be polite about it, but bugger off. Thank you very much. Thanks. And thanks for com-- You-know, thank you come again.
To go away, depart.

Buggy

Parf of speech: Noun, OED Year: 1773, OED Evaluation: N/A

A light one-horse (sometimes two-horse) vehicle, for one or two persons. Those in use in America have four wheels; those in England and India, two; in India there is a hood. (In recent use, esp. in U.S., India, and former British colonies.)

ExampleMeaning
I always had trouble saying that. And you-know, we never bec-- we 'd bicycles but we ne-- we had the buggy- we had the horses whatnot, but strange thing at that time, we knew very few people, maybe two farms South of Brentwood...
Carriage