rhyming slang


noun
  1. a form of slang in which a rhyming word or phrase is substituted for the word intended, as Kate and Sidney for steak and kidney or khaki rocks for army socks.

  2. a further removal from the original word intended by ellipsis of the rhyming part, as titfer for tit for tat for hat.

Origin of rhyming slang

1
First recorded in 1855–60

Words Nearby rhyming slang

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use rhyming slang in a sentence

  • The punk movement started here, as did the infamous Cockney rhyming slang.

    Gal With a Suitcase | Jolie Hunt | November 21, 2009 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Nose em is but a contraction of the rhyming slang, which see.

    The Slang Dictionary | John Camden Hotten
  • And now, if there is any secret about the rhyming slang, it is this—the rhyme is left out.

    The Slang Dictionary | John Camden Hotten
  • If the rhyming slang was ever, during its existence, regarded as a secret language, its secrecy has long since departed from it.

    The Slang Dictionary | John Camden Hotten

British Dictionary definitions for rhyming slang

rhyming slang

noun
  1. slang in which a word is replaced by another word or phrase that rhymes with it; for example, apples and pears meaning stairs

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012