Slang throughout the years

The phrase is sometimes used to mean ‘get going’ or ‘hurry up’. It was explicitly defined that way in the New York Magazine in 1904. “Shake a leg … meaning to ‘hurry up’.”

Let’s shake a leg, you guys. We gotta be there in twenty minutes.

The term yuppie originated in the 1980s and is used to refer to young urban professionals who are successful in business and considerably affluent.

He was disappointed in her choice of restaurant, a noisy, yuppie hang-out, the sort of place where design took precedence over comfort.

Goldbricking in the modern sense of malingering developed around the time of World War II, in the U.S. Army. The term was extended to refer to anybody not pulling his weight—a loafer who gives the appearance of working without actually accomplishing much

Jim’s group had to work extra hours because Jim was such a goldbricker.

Expression: Similar to “No offence” or “back off”, “Don’t @ me” literally means don’t mention my name in a tweet, comment, etc., but is usually used in pretext of something predicted by the presenter to be offensive to a social audience of a specific type.

Donald Trump is the best president ever. Don’t @ me.

• 2000, Jack Croft, The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies for Men (page 51)
  “Smoking just makes things so much worse,” says Dr. McNally. See your family doctor if you need help; there are more ways than ever now to assist you in getting off the lung darts.

Humphrey Bogart spends much of the moving working on lung darts. 

It’s a fine old American slang term for a jail, still widely known today. Most people would connect it with the nineteenth-century cowboys of the Wild West.

Otis ended the evening in the Mayberry hoosegow.

The phrase was popularized (and may have been originated) by rapper Chief Keef, who used the term (spelled glo up—now a common alternate spelling) to refer to a positive improvement in his 2013 song “Gotta Glo Up One Day.” Chief Keef’s play on grow up in the song was also a reference to his crew, known as the Glo Gang.

It’s been amazing to witness Grace’s glow up as she has transformed from an awkward tween into a TikTok trendsetter.

Meh‘s popularity surged after its use on the American animated television series The Simpsons.^[7][27] It was first used in the 1994 episode “Sideshow Bob Roberts“,^[7] when a librarian reacts to Lisa’s surprise that voting records are not classified. It also appeared later in “Lisa’s Wedding” after Marge weaves the words “Hi Bart” on a loom to try to pique her son’s interest in weaving, to which he responds “meh”.

Taylor Swift’s new album is a bit meh.

Gnarly means “treacherous.” An acceptable synonym is “hairy.” Surf punks use gnarly to refer to any wave over two feet

Wow, man! That’s totally gnarly!

The boondocks is an American expression from the Tagalog (Filipino) word bundók (“mountain”). It originally referred to a remote rural area,^[1] but now, is often applied to an out-of-the-way area considered backward and unsophisticated by city-folk.

They were in the boondocks with no cell service.