Slang dictionary
gurting
[ gur-ting ]
What is gurting?
Gurting is a Gen Alpha slang term you’ll find in internet memes. The word is said to mean “doing something that’s very smart but very dangerous,” but it also has more oblique usages.
Variations include the noun form gurt, meaning “the act of doing something smart but risky,” and gurter, as in “a person who does smart but risky things.” Then there’s the acronym IKIAG, which stands for “imma keep it a gurt.”
Gurting is an example of “brainrot” slang and is typically found on JuggTok, a segment of TikTok users who share low-quality memes packed with inside jokes. It joins the ranks of nonsense-sounding terms like “versing” and the older “yeet” that mean everything and nothing.
Even Gen Alpha internet users themselves have pointed out how hard it is to describe gurting, saying it has “too many different meanings.”
Where does gurting come from?
Gurting blends two JuggTok meme formats. One is the 2012 “Gurt: Yo” meme, where a character named Gurt responds to “yogurt” with “Yo.” The other is a template featuring the phrase “what they’re doing is very smart but also very dangerous.”
The combination of these ideas is thought to be the work of TikTok user @jdawg.157. In April 2025, the user declared a new definition of gurt/gurting as “doing something very smart but very dangerous.” The user called it “new underground slang” and encouraged others to try it out. The video quickly went viral, with users stitching and creating their own takes.
@jdawg.157’s post uses low-quality or distorted wildlife footage as the background, as do other memes in this format. Much like other so-called “brainrot” content, this style is meant to satirize the endless amount of similar content we consume online. Gen Alpha memes often pair popular content, like animal clips, with surreal, absurd slang to highlight how repetitive and strange internet culture can be. However, some users apply gurting literally, sharing clips of animals doing clever but risky things. For example, in April 2025, TikTok user @therealtumpula posted a video of a bird hitching a ride on a hippo to journey through water.
Examples of gurting
Who uses gurting?
The term is used almost exclusively by Gen Alpha, people born after 2010. It’s particularly seen on TikTok, where it spread from a small meme into a full-blown slang term in under a week in spring 2025.
Gurting is rarely used by adults (yet), but if it follows the path of other TikTok-born slang, it may gain traction elsewhere.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of gurting like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of gurting that will help our users expand their word mastery.
