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• billingsgate
  billingsgate

  noun

  coarsely or vulgarly abusive language.
• Billingsgate
  Billingsgate

  noun

  the 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

American  

[bil-ingz-gayt, -git] / ˈbɪl ɪŋzˌgeɪt, -gɪt /

noun

1. coarsely or vulgarly abusive language.

   Synonyms:

   vulgarity, scurrility, invective, vilification, vituperation

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Billingsgate ¹ British  

/ ˈbɪlɪŋɡzˌɡeɪt /

noun

1. the 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

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billingsgate ² British  

/ ˈbɪlɪŋzˌɡeɪt /

noun

1. obscene or abusive language

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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

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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

See Examples For:

billingsgate Billingsgate

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

Nonsmokers, who used to say mildly, "Would you mind not smoking?" have moved up to billingsgate.

From Time Magazine Archive

Scott never had a chance in the face of Ms. Casals' steady barrage of anti-Riggs billingsgate.

From Time Magazine Archive

That was Firebrand Danny Cohn-Bendit, leveling a barrage of billingsgate at Herbert Marcuse, the aging Pied Piper of the New Left, who appeared at Rome's Eliseo Theater to give a lecture, "Beyond the One-Dimensional Man."

From Time Magazine Archive

Their weapons were “loathsome billingsgate and brutality,” and “sublime bathos.”

From Leigh Hunt's Relations with Byron, Shelley and Keats by Barnette Miller

Reacting to his win on stage at the award ceremony in Old Billingsgate, London, Lynch said it was with "immense pleasure" that he was taking the Booker back to Ireland.

From BBC ● Nov. 26, 2023

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

“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

An inventory from the same year shows the parish of St Botolph's, Billingsgate, half a mile from Pudding Lane, had 36 buckets and a ladder.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2016

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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