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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-geyt, -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

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

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

The best Baedeker of billingsgate and other U.S. lingua frank since Mencken.

From Time Magazine Archive

There is Merry Bell, Washington's hostess with the mostest billingsgate on the tip of her Bryn Mawr tongue.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

The two women recommenced their billingsgate, the boy stuttered, the soldiers laughed, and the dog howled.

From San-Cravate; or, The Messengers; Little Streams by Kock, Charles Paul de