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billingsgate
billingsgatenouncoarsely or vulgarly abusive language.
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Billingsgate
Billingsgatenounthe largest fish market in London, on the N bank of the River Thames; moved to new site at Canary Wharf in 1982 and the former building converted into offices
billingsgate
Americannoun
noun
noun
Etymology
Origin of billingsgate
First recorded in 1645–55; originally the kind of speech often heard at Billingsgate, a London fish market at the gate of the same name
Explanation
Billingsgate is rude, abusive language. If a political debate is becoming nasty and insulting, it's good to have a moderator who will demand an end to the billingsgate. The British term billingsgate is less familiar in the U.S. — but it's a great way to refer to a particularly coarse form of verbal abuse. It comes from London's Billingsgate Fish Market, a 17th-century open-air market where ill-mannered fishmongers hollered raucously, haggling over prices using rude and vulgar language. The word can be used for any kind of foul-mouthed vituperation: "No arguing about sports rivalries at my birthday party! It always turns into pure billingsgate!"
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Gleason merely settles in for an extended Honeymooners skit, swinging on the billingsgate with his wife and rolling fried-egg eyes skyward at every silence.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The best Baedeker of billingsgate and other U.S. lingua frank since Mencken.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Nonsmokers, who used to say mildly, "Would you mind not smoking?" have moved up to billingsgate.
From Time Magazine Archive
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On the floor of the U. S. Senate, Dr. Butler was spattered with billingsgate.
From Time Magazine Archive
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He above all others commands the greatest flow of billingsgate, and is especially notorious for his arrogant treatment of his customers, and for exacting the uttermost farthing.
From A Day in Old Athens; a Picture of Athenian Life by Davis, William Stearns
"There will always be a place to buy fish from in London. It might not be here and it probably won't be called Billingsgate but it will continue."
From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2024
But there are also some great markets, like Billingsgate Fish Market, where we were able to source the seafood from or from Borough Market, which had a lot of specialty stuff, as well.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2023
The City of London deposited a Private Bill to Parliament last November for approval to move Smithfield and Billingsgate markets to Dagenham Dock.
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2023
“At London’s Billingsgate market, thousands of fish, stolen daily from their ocean homes, lie dead or dying,” said Kerri Waters, a spokesperson for Animal Rebellion.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2019
Old London Bridge was soon passed, and old Billingsgate Market with its oyster-boats and Dutchmen, and the White Tower and Traitor’s Gate, and we were in among the tiers of shipping.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.