What does sick mean in slang

To describe something being sick is to give a compliment. For example: - Whoa, your new car is sick! This word stems from the US and its early uses have been traced to jazz slang popular in the s onwards. It began to find popularly and was frequently used in the UK from the early s. You look great! What listeners say about Sick - What does "Sick" mean in British slang?

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The awkward case of 'his or her'. I ate so much of it one day I was sick and that cured me of my addiction. Tell me if you start to feel sick, all right? If he eats anything with wheat in it he's very sick.

Just looking at a picture of the sea is guaranteed to make me feel sick. B2 [ after verb ] informal feeling strong unpleasant emotions , especially anger or disgust :. Joan was not amused by the sick joke her brother told. Inspiring dislike. You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics: Serious and unpleasant. Rude and cheeky. Making people sad, shocked and upset. Extremely good. Grammar Ill or sick? Idioms sick as a dog. It's better for the sick to be cared for at home rather than in hospital.

Medical treatment: people who receive medical treatment. I feel sick. Only a sick mind could think of such things. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Possible Duplicate: How and why have some words changed to a complete opposite? I'm interested in origins and possibly regional patterns, if applicable. This usage reminds me of the use of 'bad' to mean 'totally awesome' in the 80s.

It would be interesting to know how that came about as well, and if the pattern is related Partridge notes bad is much older, and the OED gives the source as George Ade's story of a black shoeshine boy, Pink Marsh : a story of the streets and town :.

It says its originally US slang and means something good or excellent, especially stylish or attractive. The later quotations trace its use through black and jazz slang , , , and until more 'mainstream' use is noted in a US newspaper in and a UK book in The OED has another similar meaning of bad which is originally African-American and used of a person who is so dangerous they inspire admiration, or impressively tough, or especially formidably skilled.

The earliest quotation is from but only meaning dangerous or hostile without admiration. Their next earliest is in in a musical context, as are some of the others, and I can see some overlap of these meanings. A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English gives a possibly unrelated term using sick , but it's somewhat similar:.

I think it was originally a skateboarding slang to express "shock and awe" after seeing something cool. I'm hazarding a guess that it was first used to describe crashes. The only corroboration I can find is from About. Quoting the latter:.