Tibshelf (n.)

Criss-cross wooden construction hung on a wall in a teenage girl's bedroom which is covered with glass bambies and poodles, matching pigs and porcelain ponies in various postures.

Tibshelf

Monks toft (n.)

The bundle of hair which is left after a monk has been tonsured, which he keeps tired up with a rubber band and uses for chasing ants away.

Monks toft

Scethrog (n.)

One of those peculiar beards-without-moustaches worn by religious Belgians and American scientists which help them look like trolls.

Scethrog

Clackmannan (n.)

The sound made by knocking over an elephant's-foot umbrella stand full of walking sticks. Hence name for a particular kind of disco drum riff.

Clackmannan

Hidcote bartram (n.)

To be caught in a hidcote bartram is to say a series of protracted and final goodbyes to a group of people, leave the house and then realize you've left your hat behind.

Hidcote bartram

Pode hole (n.)

A hole drilled in chipboard lavatory walls by homosexuals for any one of a number of purposes.

Pode hole

Hodnet (n.)

The wooden safety platform supported by scaffolding round a building under construction from which the builders (at almost no personal risk) can drop pieces of cement on passers-by.

Hodnet

Tolstachaolais (phr.)

What the police in Leith require you to say in order to prove that you are not drunk.

Tolstachaolais

Bealings (pl. n. archaic)

The unsavoury parts of a moat which a knight has to pour out of his armour after being the victim of an araglin (q.v.). In medieval Flanders, soup made from bealings was a very slightly sought-after delicacy.

Bealings

Sluggan (n.)

A lurid facial bruise which everyone politely omits to mention because it's obvious that you had a punch-up with your spouse last night - but which into a door. It is useless to volunteer the true explanation because nobody will believe it.

Sluggan

Kirby (n.)

Small but repulsive piece of food prominently attached to a person's face or clothing. See also Chipping ongar.

Kirby

Dobwalls (pl.n.)

The now hard-boiled bits of nastiness which have to be prised off crockery by hand after it has been through a dishwasher.

Dobwalls

Bromsgrove (n.)

Any urban environment containing a small amount of dogturd and about forty-five tons of bent steel pylon or a lump of concrete with holes claiming to be sculpture. 'Oh, come my dear, and come with me. And wander 'neath the bromsgrove tree' - Betjeman.

Bromsgrove

Glutt lodge (n.)

The place where food can be stored after having a tooth extracted. Some Arabs can go without sustenance for up to six weeks on a full glutt lodge, hence the expression 'the shit of the dessert'.

Glutt lodge

Totteridge (n.)

The ridiculous two-inch hunch that people adopt when arriving late for the theatre in the vain and futile hope that it will minimise either the embarrassment of the lack of visibility for the rest of the audience. c.f. hickling.

Totteridge

Naseby (n.)

The stout metal instrument used for clipping labels on to exhibits at flower shows.

Naseby

Frolesworth (n.)

Measure. The minimum time it is necessary to spend frowning in deep concentration at each picture in an art gallery in order that everyone else doesn't think you've a complete moron.

Frolesworth

Ainderby steeple (n.)

One who asks you a question with the apparent motive of wanting to hear your answer, but who cuts short your opening sentence by leaning forward and saying 'and I'll tell you why I ask...' and then talking solidly for the next hour.

Ainderby steeple

Chicago (n.)

The foul-smelling wind which precedes an underground railway train.

Chicago

Wivenhoe (n.)

The cry of alacrity with which a sprightly eighty-year-old breaks the ice on the lake when going for a swim on Christmas Eve.

Wivenhoe

Hickling (participial vb.)

The practice of infuriating theatregoers by not only arriving late to a centre-row seat, but also loudly apologizing to and patting each member of the audience in turn.

Hickling