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Definition of power trip

Examples of power trip in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'power trip.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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Cite this Entry

“Power trip.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/power%20trip. Accessed 8 May. 2024.

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Tina Gilbertson LPC

  • Relationships

One Way to Deal With Someone on A Power Trip

Hint: many who throw their weight around don’t feel all that powerful..

Posted September 17, 2019 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

Aleksander Kaczmarek/Getty Images Pro

Sure, there are people out there who like to use power to control other people—that’s pretty much the definition of a power trip. But is your boss, coworker, ex-friend, or estranged relative really one of them?

Not necessarily.

Not everybody who seems to be on a power trip actually is. Even the most controlling, domineering person in your life may simply be… protecting herself.

Self-protection isn’t the only alternative explanation for an apparent power trip. But it’s one that’s often overlooked.

If you can spot self-protection in action, you’re more likely to respond effectively and even potentially help the person heal.

The Power of Self-Protection

Most of us, if we’ve been hurt badly enough in the past, will prioritize doing whatever it takes to stay emotionally and physically safe.

Some of the behaviors we use as a shield can easily be mistaken for something more aggressive. Here are just a few examples:

  • Dictating the details of how things play out to make sure we don’t get hurt again
  • Requiring lots of information upfront before we agree to do things
  • Changing our minds after agreeing to something that makes us nervous
  • Reducing or eliminating contact with people who feel dangerous

All of these behaviors can come across as power-tripping. But self-protection is not about enjoying power; it’s about trying to ensure safety.

Sometimes, self-protection requires us to remove ourselves from certain relationships. There are various ways of doing this, ranging from “ ghosting ” (disappearing without explanation) to having a respectful conversation in which we clearly state our needs and boundaries in a way that others can choose to act on, or not, with the understanding that we hope they’ll be able to do so.

Mostly, when we’re in self-defense mode, we’re not especially polite. We might come across as unreasonable, stubborn, or even aggressive.

Think about it: If you’re at a backyard barbecue, and your shorts catch fire, you’re going to make a beeline for the swimming pool without concern for whose Coke you knock over. While you’re dashing to the pool, your only thought is for your own safety.

Even if we don’t feel especially powerful, our self-protection can make us look like power-hungry control freaks.

Refusing to return someone’s phone call, from their point of view, is just rude. Even if the truth is we’re scared of what might happen if we talk to them.

Leaving relationships, or acting inconsistently within them because of our own ambivalence, can come across as a power trip because we’re controlling the contact schedule. Sometimes we’re available; other times, we’re not. We decide from moment to moment what we can tolerate.

To the person on the receiving end, we’re just messing with them.

How to Respond

If you’re on the other side, looking at someone who appears to be on a power trip, there are some questions you might consider. To your knowledge…

Has that person experienced physical harm, emotional pain, or deep disappointment in relationships?

How secure does he seem, in general? How’s his overall self-image ?

Is it possible that the “power trip” is really just a need for safety?

If the relationship is important to you, don’t skip over self-protection as a possible explanation for behavior that appears power-driven.

If it might be the case that the person is protecting himself, how can you help him feel safer, especially in the relationship you share?

Here are a few ways to provide safety for people who’ve been hurt and/or traumatized in relationships:

  • Ask permission. Ask about timing, locations, activities, topics that are OK to discuss… anything that the person seems anxious to control. These are important to her, so let her decide what feels OK.
  • Offer choices. Same as above, and let the person know you’re open to hearing her ideas and preferences. Respect her choices, as long as they don’t directly violate your personal boundaries.
  • Don’t push. Fear of being dominated often goes hand in hand with concerns about safety. Never try to coerce someone who’s been traumatized into doing what you want them to do.
  • Be patient. Intrusive self-protective behaviors stem from past harm, not malice. People need time, understanding, and acceptance in order to heal.

what's a power trip slang

These behaviors represent the opposite of what most of us feel like doing when someone is throwing their weight around. It’s human nature to want to push back against anything that feels like an inappropriate power-grab.

So if the relationship is not that important to you, you may choose simply not to deal with someone who seems to be on a power trip.

But now that you know it could be something deeper, you can make an informed choice about your own response.

Tina Gilbertson LPC

Tina Gilbertson, LPC, is the author of Reconnecting with Your Estranged Adult Child and Constructive Wallowing: How to Beat Bad Feelings By Letting Yourself Have Them . She hosts the Reconnection Club Podcast for parents of estranged adult children and offers consultation by distance.

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What Is a Power Trip? Exploring the Psychology, Signs, and Impact of Going on a Power Trip

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By Happy Sharer

what's a power trip slang

Introduction

The term “power trip” has become increasingly popular in recent years. But what exactly is a power trip? In its simplest form, a power trip is when someone seeks to gain control over others by using their power or authority. This can manifest itself in different ways, such as through manipulation, bullying, or intimidation. It’s important to understand what a power trip is and the potential consequences it can have on relationships and mental health.

Exploring the Psychology Behind Power Trips

When it comes to understanding the motivations behind power trips, there are a few psychological factors at play. According to Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles, “Power trips are rooted in insecurity, narcissism, and a need to feel powerful and in control.” 1 People who go on power trips may be trying to compensate for a sense of inadequacy or to make up for a lack of self-esteem. They may also be driven by a need to prove themselves or to be seen as superior.

Another factor that may contribute to power trips is an individual’s ego. Ego can cause people to overestimate their capabilities and underestimate the capabilities of others. This can lead them to take on more than they can handle and to act in a controlling manner. As psychologist Dr. Gail Saltz explains, “People who are prone to power trips often have a sense of entitlement, which means they believe they should get what they want without having to work for it.” 2 This can lead to unrealistic expectations and a lack of empathy for those around them.

Examining Common Examples of Power Trips

Examining Common Examples of Power Trips

Power trips can occur in many different contexts, but some of the most common examples are in the workplace, social settings, and family relationships. In the workplace, a power trip might involve a supervisor or manager who uses their position to manipulate or intimidate others. This could include setting unreasonable demands or expectations, micromanaging employees, or withholding praise or recognition. In social settings, a power trip could involve someone who tries to dominate conversations or make decisions for the group without considering other people’s opinions. In family relationships, a power trip might involve a parent who attempts to control their children’s behavior or choices.

Recognizing the Signs of a Power Trip

Recognizing the Signs of a Power Trip

It’s important to be able to recognize the signs of a power trip so you can address the issue before it escalates. Some common signs to watch out for include:

  • Controlling behavior: A person on a power trip may attempt to control or dictate the behavior of those around them.
  • Aggressive or demanding language: They may use aggressive language or demand things from others.
  • Unreasonable expectations: They may set unrealistic expectations or make unreasonable demands.

Discussing the Impact of Power Trips on Relationships

Power trips can have a profound impact on relationships, both personal and professional. People who go on power trips tend to create tension and conflict, which can strain relationships and lead to feelings of resentment. Additionally, power trips can damage self-esteem and lead to feelings of worthlessness. Research shows that power trips can even have long-term effects on mental health, such as depression and anxiety. 3 It’s important to recognize the impact power trips can have and take steps to address the issue.

Exploring Ways to Avoid Going on a Power Trip

Exploring Ways to Avoid Going on a Power Trip

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to avoid going on a power trip. The first step is to understand your own motivations. Ask yourself why you want to exert control over others and consider whether there are healthier ways to meet your needs. It’s also important to practice empathy and compromise. Make sure to listen to the perspectives of others and be open to making concessions. Finally, it’s important to set clear boundaries. Let people know what you expect from them and don’t be afraid to say no if something doesn’t feel right.

In conclusion, it’s important to be aware of what a power trip is and the potential consequences it can have on relationships and mental health. Power trips are often driven by insecurity and ego and can manifest themselves in different ways. Recognizing the signs of a power trip is key to avoiding it and setting clear boundaries can help you maintain healthy relationships. By understanding the psychology behind power trips and taking steps to avoid them, you can ensure that you don’t fall into the trap of trying to control others.

1 Durvasula, R. (2019, October 23). What is a Power Trip? Verywell Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-power-trip-4157783

2 Saltz, G. (2018, December 21). 8 Signs Someone Is on a Power Trip. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201812/8-signs-someone-is-power-trip

3 Rudolph, K. D., & Hammen, C. (2002). Interpersonal stress and depression: Tests of transactional and diathesis-stress models. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111(4), 602–614. doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.111.4.

(Note: Is this article not meeting your expectations? Do you have knowledge or insights to share? Unlock new opportunities and expand your reach by joining our authors team. Click Registration to join us and share your expertise with our readers.)

Hi, I'm Happy Sharer and I love sharing interesting and useful knowledge with others. I have a passion for learning and enjoy explaining complex concepts in a simple way.

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Definition of power trip

Jerome has been on a power trip since he got promoted.

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Definition of power trip noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

  • on a power trip He's been on a power trip ever since he got promoted.

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what's a power trip slang

American Idiom Dictionary

Bob Lippi

Exceeding one’s authority. An unfounded sense of one’s importance. The word is typically used in a scornful sense of someone who is elevated to a position that they conceive has more authority than it should.  (Compare Throw one’s weight around, Full of oneself, me-me person or Ego trip).

“When I get to work, the manager asks me to get him a cup of coffee. It’s not in my job description. He’s just on a power trip.”

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powertripping

Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Power trip n..

1. ( orig. US ) a show of personal power, esp. if blatant.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

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what's a power trip slang

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Slang for power trip.

As you've probably noticed, the slang synonyms for " power trip " are listed above. Note that due to the nature of the algorithm, some results returned by your query may only be concepts, ideas or words that are related to " power trip " (perhaps tenuously). This is simply due to the way the search algorithm works.

You might also have noticed that many of the synonyms or related slang words are racist/sexist/offensive/downright appalling - that's mostly thanks to the lovely community over at Urban Dictionary (not affiliated with Urban Thesaurus). Urban Thesaurus crawls the web and collects millions of different slang terms, many of which come from UD and turn out to be really terrible and insensitive (this is the nature of urban slang, I suppose). Hopefully the related words and synonyms for " power trip " are a little tamer than average.

The Urban Thesaurus was created by indexing millions of different slang terms which are defined on sites like Urban Dictionary . These indexes are then used to find usage correlations between slang terms. The official Urban Dictionary API is used to show the hover-definitions. Note that this thesaurus is not in any way affiliated with Urban Dictionary.

Due to the way the algorithm works, the thesaurus gives you mostly related slang words, rather than exact synonyms. The higher the terms are in the list, the more likely that they're relevant to the word or phrase that you searched for. The search algorithm handles phrases and strings of words quite well, so for example if you want words that are related to lol and rofl you can type in lol rofl and it should give you a pile of related slang terms. Or you might try boyfriend or girlfriend to get words that can mean either one of these (e.g. bae ). Please also note that due to the nature of the internet (and especially UD), there will often be many terrible and offensive terms in the results.

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Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: @krisk , @HubSpot , and @mongodb .

Finally, you might like to check out the growing collection of curated slang words for different topics over at Slangpedia .

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what's a power trip slang

FluentSlang

Top 20 Slang For Trip – Meaning & Usage

Embarking on a journey, whether physical or mental, is always an exciting experience. But have you ever wondered how to describe that trip using the latest slang? Fear not, as our team has scoured the linguistic landscape to bring you a list of the trendiest and most buzzworthy phrases to capture the essence of your next adventure. So buckle up and get ready to explore the world of slang for trip like never before!

Click above to generate some slangs

A journey refers to a long trip or travel from one place to another. It can also refer to the process of traveling or the act of going on a trip.

  • For example , “We embarked on a journey to explore the ancient ruins.”
  • A person might say , “Life is a journey, enjoy the ride.”
  • In a travel blog , someone might write, “I had an incredible journey through the mountains of Nepal.”

2. Adventure

An adventure is an exciting or daring experience, often involving exploration or unusual activities. It can also refer to a trip or journey that is filled with excitement and unexpected events.

  • For instance , “We went on an adventure to climb Mount Everest.”
  • A person might say , “I crave adventure and love trying new things.”
  • In a travel magazine , an article might describe, “10 Adventurous Trips to Take Before You Die.”

3. Excursion

An excursion refers to a short trip or outing, usually for a specific purpose or activity. It can also refer to a brief deviation or detour from a main journey or route.

  • For example , “We took an excursion to the local market.”
  • A person might say , “Let’s go on an excursion to the beach this weekend.”
  • In a travel guide , it might suggest, “Take an excursion to the nearby waterfall for a refreshing swim.”

A voyage is a long journey, typically by sea or space. It can also refer to any extensive or adventurous journey, regardless of the mode of transportation.

  • For instance , “We embarked on a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.”
  • A person might say , “Space exploration has led to incredible voyages to distant planets.”
  • In a science fiction novel, the protagonist might go on a dangerous voyage to save the universe.

A trek is a long and difficult journey, often involving arduous travel on foot or through challenging terrain. It can also refer to a long and tiring trip or expedition.

  • For example , “We went on a trek through the dense jungle.”
  • A person might say , “I’m planning to trek to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.”
  • In a travel documentary, the host might document their trek through the Himalayas.

A jaunt is a short journey or trip, usually taken for pleasure or leisure. It often implies a quick and enjoyable outing.

  • For example , “Let’s take a jaunt to the beach this weekend.”
  • A traveler might say , “I’m going on a jaunt to explore the nearby town.”
  • Someone planning a day trip might suggest , “We could go on a jaunt to the amusement park.”

7. Expedition

An expedition refers to a carefully planned and organized journey, often with a specific purpose or goal in mind. It typically involves a group of people traveling together for an extended period of time.

  • For instance , “They embarked on an expedition to climb Mount Everest.”
  • A documentary might showcase “an expedition to study marine life in the deep ocean.”
  • An adventurer might say , “I’m planning an expedition to explore remote regions of the Amazon rainforest.”

An outing refers to a planned excursion or trip, usually for recreational or social purposes. It can range from a simple day trip to a more elaborate event.

  • For example , “We’re going on a family outing to the zoo.”
  • A group of friends might plan an outing to a nearby amusement park.
  • A company might organize an outing for its employees, such as a team-building activity.

To roam means to wander or travel without a specific destination or purpose in mind. It implies a sense of freedom and exploration.

  • For instance , “I love to roam around the city and discover hidden gems.”
  • A traveler might say , “I roamed the streets of Paris, soaking in the atmosphere.”
  • Someone planning a road trip might suggest , “Let’s roam the countryside and see where we end up.”

A hike refers to a long, vigorous walk, typically taken in natural or scenic areas such as mountains, forests, or trails. It often involves climbing or navigating challenging terrain.

  • For example , “We went on a hike to the top of the mountain to enjoy the breathtaking view.”
  • A nature enthusiast might say , “I love going on hikes to reconnect with the outdoors.”
  • A hiking club might organize regular hikes for its members.

11. Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is a journey made to a sacred place or shrine, often for religious or spiritual reasons. It is a term used to describe a trip that holds deep significance or importance.

  • For example , “I went on a pilgrimage to Mecca to fulfill my religious obligations.”
  • A person might say , “Visiting the birthplace of Buddha was a life-changing pilgrimage.”
  • Another might describe their experience , saying, “The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela was a test of physical and spiritual endurance.”

A safari is an adventurous trip, typically in Africa, where participants observe and photograph wildlife in their natural habitat. It is a term used to describe an expedition focused on experiencing and exploring the natural world.

  • For instance , “We went on a safari and saw lions, elephants, and giraffes up close.”
  • A traveler might say , “Going on a safari was the highlight of my trip to Kenya.”
  • Another might share their experience , saying, “I captured amazing wildlife photos during my safari in South Africa.”

13. Odyssey

An odyssey refers to a long and eventful journey, often filled with challenges and adventures. It is a term used to describe a trip that involves significant personal growth or transformation.

  • For example , “After quitting my job, I embarked on a solo odyssey around the world.”
  • A person might say , “The road trip turned into a true odyssey with unexpected detours and encounters.”
  • Another might describe their experience , saying, “The backpacking trip through Europe was a thrilling odyssey of self-discovery.”

To ramble means to wander or roam aimlessly, without a specific destination or purpose. It is a term used to describe a leisurely or spontaneous trip.

  • For instance , “We decided to take a weekend ramble through the countryside.”
  • A traveler might say , “I love going on rambles to explore hidden gems in the city.”
  • Another might share their experience , saying, “The hike turned into a ramble as we got lost in the forest but discovered beautiful scenery along the way.”

15. Sojourn

A sojourn refers to a temporary stay or visit to a place. It is a term used to describe a short trip or period of time spent in a particular location.

  • For example , “I took a sojourn to Paris to experience the city’s culture and cuisine.”
  • A person might say , “The beach sojourn was a refreshing break from the hustle and bustle of daily life.”
  • Another might describe their experience , saying, “The mountain cabin provided a peaceful sojourn away from the city noise.”

A junket refers to a short trip or outing, usually for pleasure or entertainment purposes. It can also refer to a trip taken by government officials or journalists, often sponsored by an organization or company.

  • For example , “We went on a junket to the beach for the weekend.”
  • A journalist might say , “I’m going on a junket to cover the new movie premiere.”
  • In a business context , someone might mention, “The company organized a junket to visit potential clients.”

To sashay means to walk or move in a confident and stylish manner. It can also refer to a leisurely stroll or a casual walk with a touch of flair.

  • For instance , “She sashayed down the street, turning heads with her fashionable outfit.”
  • A person might say , “Let’s sashay along the beach and enjoy the sunset.”
  • In a dance context , someone might mention, “He sashayed across the dance floor with grace and confidence.”

To stroll means to walk in a relaxed and unhurried manner, often for pleasure or leisure. It implies a slow and casual pace, enjoying the surroundings.

  • For example , “We took a leisurely stroll through the park on a sunny afternoon.”
  • A person might say , “Let’s take a stroll along the river and enjoy the fresh air.”
  • In a travel context , someone might suggest, “Take a stroll through the charming streets of the old town.”

19. Escapade

An escapade refers to an exciting or daring adventure, often involving unconventional or risky behavior. It implies a sense of spontaneity and thrill.

  • For instance , “We had an escapade when we decided to go skydiving on a whim.”
  • A person might say , “Let’s embark on an escapade and explore the hidden gems of the city.”
  • In a travel context , someone might mention, “I’m looking for an escapade in a remote and untouched destination.”

To prowl means to move stealthily or with a purposeful intent, often in search of something or to explore an area. It can also imply a sense of curiosity and adventure.

  • For example , “We decided to prowl the streets of the city at night, discovering hidden cafes and shops.”
  • A person might say , “Let’s prowl the forest and see if we can spot any wildlife.”
  • In a figurative sense , someone might mention, “I love to prowl the internet for interesting articles and videos.”

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Slang dictionary

Trippin’.

or trippin [ trip -in]

What does  trippin' mean?

You trippin’  means you’re acting a fool, thinking crazy thoughts, or are maybe high on mushrooms. Trippin’ out is “freaking out” or “being extremely high.”

Related words:

  • geekin’
  • set trippin’
  • sweatin’

Where does trippin’ come from?

trippin

In drug slang, a trip is a metaphor for the hallucinatory high produced by LSD, magic mushrooms, and other drugs. The term dates back to the 1920s.

When people are tripping on hallucinogenic drugs, they can act very erratic, which probably accounts for the use of  trppin’  for “acting insane, foolish, or without thinking” in general slang by the late 1980s.

what's a power trip slang

The slang  set trippin’  surfaced in 1990s West Coast gang culture for “killing a gang rival to show off your power.” Set  alludes to a subset   of a larger gang (e.g., the  Pirus are a set of the Bloods ) and trip is black slang for “lose control,” as we’ve seen. Hip-hop artists like Dr. Dre, Coolio, and the Wu-Tang Clang all mentioned set trippin’ , often just trippin’ for short, in their lyrics around this time.

Dr. Dre notably used trippin’ in the “go crazy” sense in his 1992 hip-hop classic, “Nothin’ but a G Thang”: “Never let me slip, ’cause if I slip, then I’m slippin’ / But if I got my nina, then you know I’m straight trippin’.”

Examples of trippin’

Who uses trippin’.

Trippin’ is widespread slang …

The expression you trippin’ is frequently used to call out someone thought to be acting out of line or foolish.

Ain’t no “male best friend” You trippin. Talking bout get some ice cream. https://t.co/V15YB3Ze6J — Keeg (@iamkeganyates) May 30, 2018

The slang is so common it inspired the title of a 1999 film, Trippin’ , starring Deon Richmond as a daydreamer who just can’t get his act together to become a writer and win his prettiest girl.

Trippin’ also gets used when referring to some beef (e.g., I’m not trippin’ over what she said about me). And, tripping is still widely used to refer to being high on hallucinogenic drugs and sometimes just being very high in general.

This is not meant to be a formal definition of trippin’ 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 trippin’ that will help our users expand their word mastery.

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Military Slang Terms: 11 Examples, Explained

By mark peters | apr 29, 2024.

what's a power trip slang

War breeds destruction, death, and misery. It also breeds slang , probably for two reasons.

One, the close quarters of those serving together in war is a perfect Petri dish for jargon. Slang blossoms with an in-group and is often incomprehensible to out-groups. You can’t be more of a tight-knit in-group than soldiers or sailors serving together.

Two, all that destruction and misery are traumatic, and death itself is one of our most taboo subjects. So war slang is frequently served with a side of euphemism.

Please enjoy this smattering of military slang—maybe the only creative output of the horror that is war. 

Army Strawberries

Remf and fobbit      , flak-happy and shellshock.

Anything fubar is “fouled up beyond all recognition,” and if that sounds like a euphemism for the f-word, you’re often correct. The first known use, from Yank magazine in 1944, uses the more printable version, describing “The FUBAR Squadron ... FUBAR? It means ‘Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition’.” Aside from referring to anything completely screwed up, the term can also mean “heavily intoxicated.”

Also from the acronym department, this word for a major-league whoopsie stands for “situation normal: all fucked up.” The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines it as “an expression conveying the common soldier's laconic acceptance of the disorder of war and the ineptitude of his or her superiors.” As for why the military uses so many acronyms: It’s because of “the need for expedient, clear communication” and “to make big concepts easy to communicate,” in the words of Military.com.

Wrinkled prune.

Some military terms comment on the little things in war rather than the omnipresent dangers. One such term is army strawberries , which refers to something generally undesirable but not deadly: prunes . Green’s Dictionary of Slang records this term in use since at least 1916, and a 1941 article in the San Francisco Chronicle shows it had some staying power: “The draftees assigned to Camp Claiborne, in Louisiana, got out a glossary of slang terms to describe everyday things in army life [...] The Louisiana lads call prunes ‘army strawberries’ [...].”

The OED defines this word, which comes from R.A.F. (Royal Air Force) slang, as “A lowly or despised person; a menial, a dogsbody, a wretch.” That sense can be seen in a 1929 issue of Aeroplane: “There is a class abhorred, Loathed by all the high and mighty, Slaves who work and get but little, Little thanks for all their labour; Yet they are both skilled and many, Many men with many talents ... They are but a herd of gremlins, Gremlins who do all the flying, Gremlins who do much instructing, Work shunned by the Wing Commanders.” From there, as the OED puts it, the term spread to mean “a mischievous sprite imagined as the cause of mishaps to aircraft” and later still as “an unexplained problem or fault.” So if something goes wrong and you don’t know who to blame, you can always blame a gremlin. The term transcended military slang thanks to the 1943 book The Gremlins by Roald Dahl and later the 1984 film Gremlins .

This sense of organize isn’t so much about project management as it is blatant theft. The term popped up in World War II, and the first known use is from a 1941 issue of New Statesman , which provides a definition and some context: “Organise, to acquire illicitly. (A new R.A.F. equivalent for the last-war word ‘win’, meaning to ‘scrounge’).” In Henriette Roosenburg’s 1957 memoir The Walls Came Tumbling Down, she describes a sad tale of breakfast meat: “Those Frenchwomen … were busy organizing some sausages from a reluctant butcher.” 

The OED defines this British sense of shower , which was originally military slang before spreading to broader contexts, as “A worthless or contemptible group or crowd of people.” The first known use is from a 1936 issue of the Journal of Education , describing, in impolite terms, “a shower of half-sexed, unlicked, undisciplined, wilting pansies.” Shower can also apply to a single jerk, as defined by the OED: “(In the Army.) A detachment or individual whose ways are slack and whose turn-out is slovenly. (In the R.A.F.) ‘What a shower’ is the derisive remark hurled at someone who has just made a blunder.”

Another acronym, this time from Vietnam, describes those soldiers who offer support but aren’t fighting on the front lines: REMF stands for “rear-echelon motherfucker.” Naturally, the non-remfs resent the remfs, as demonstrated in the first known use of the term in a 1971 Newsweek article: “‘Those REMF’s don’t even know what Vietnam is all about,’ sneered one grunt.” A similar term was coined in the Iraq war: fobbit , a play on hobbit, for someone stationed at a forward operating base (or FOB) and therefore out of danger.

20mm FlaK30 German World War II anti-aircraft gun

This word for a barrage of criticism originally referred to a literal barrage of anti-aircraft fire or an anti-aircraft gun. The term is believed to be an abbreviated form of the German word Fliegerabwehrkanone , which means roughly “pilot warding-off cannon” and has been around since around the late 1930s; a 1940 issue of the Times Weekly described “Heavy and accurate anti-aircraft fire from the flak ships.” By the 1960s, the term had spread from deadly weapons to hurtful words. A 1968 issue of The New York Times mentioned the less-dangerous sort of flak: “In spite of the current flak between Mayor Lindsay and … the … administrator of Boston and New Haven … the potential for the city is unlimited.”

Speaking of flak : It spawned flak-happy, meaning “mentally affected by flak,” according to the OED. Soldiers in World War I would have called that mental state “shellshock,” which George Carlin would later point out is more visceral than the phrase we use for the same phenomenon today: post-traumatic stress disorder.  

Read More Articles About Slang:

The Irish Road Trip

Irish Slang Words: 117 Phrases, Expressions And Their Meanings

By Author Keith O'Hara

Posted on Last updated: March 27, 2024

Irish Slang Words: 117 Phrases, Expressions And Their Meanings

Welcome to our big book of Irish slang words and phrases.

This collection of mad and mighty Irish expressions was put together over the course of 4 years.

It contains common Irish slang that’ll be familiar to you, like  ‘Craic’ , along with some of the more confusing Irish phrases, like  ‘Stall the ball’ .

How it was put together:  I’ve used the Irish phrases that I heard while growing up in Ireland. I also asked asked the 250,000+ Irish Road Trip community what their favourite Irish terms were.

Table of Contents

Famous Irish slang words

common Irish phrases

Click to enlarge

Not all Irish phrases are equal – our first chapter looks at the most famous Irish terms, like ‘Grand’  and  ‘Feck’ .

We’ve also guides to Irish proverbs and Gaelic phrases that you can dive into later. Enjoy!

The word  ‘Craic’  can be used in a couple of different ways. The first is its use to describe something as  ‘Fun’ , for example, ‘Last night was some craic!’ . 

You can also ask  ‘What’s the craic/Any craic?’ as a greeting , which means  ‘What’s going on?’  or ‘Any news/gossip?’ .

‘Grand’  is one of the more confusing Irish slang words as the tone and context in which it is used will change its meaning. It can be used to describe something that’s good or OK.

For example,  ‘That’s a grand bit of sunshine’ . The confusion arises when someone uses  ‘Grand’  as a response to  ‘Are you/is it OK?’ . In this instance, people use  ‘Grand’  as a way of avoiding discussion.

3. Banjaxed

‘Banjaxed’  is one of several Irish phrases used to describe something/someone as  ‘Broke/in a bad way’ . For example,  ‘That oven is banjaxed’  or  ‘I was banjexed this morning after those pints last night’ .

This is one of the older Irish terms and it can be traced back as far as 1929 when Sean O’Casey used it in the play  ‘Juno and the Paycock’ .

Made famous by the Father Ted series on TV,  ‘Feck’  is arguably one of the most famous Irish slang words, however, its meaning varies depending on the user .

Some use it as a less bold way of saying  ‘F*ck’  while others use it to describe someone they don’t like/someone who has annoyed them , for example,  ‘That fecker short changed me by a Euro!’ .

We use the word ‘Yoke’  as a substitute for the word  ‘Thing’  or to describe someone that we don’t like. For example,  ‘Don’t forget the yoke’  or  ‘Karen’s brother is some yoke!’ .

Interestingly enough,  ‘Yoke’  is one of the older Irish terms with it first popping up in the 1894 book ‘Kerrigan’s Quality’ , by Dubliner Jane Barlow.

A  ‘Culchie’  is someone that’s from rural Ireland . It’s thought that this word comes from the Irish for  ‘Back of the house’ , which is  ‘Cúl an tí’ .

It was a popular custom in rural Ireland to enter a house via the back door, rather than the front, to avoid dragging dirt in through the more formal entrance. 

It’s thought that the word ‘Culchie’  stems from Cúl an tí’  and is used to describe people who practice/are perceived to practice this custom.

‘Fine’  is one of the more confusing Irish slang terms. It’s usually used, like  ‘Grand’ , as a way of fending off further discussion , for example,  ‘You’re clearly angry – what’s wrong?’ ‘Nothing. It’s fine’ .

It can also be used to describe someone you find attractive , for example,  ‘They’re a fine thing’ .

8. Gobsh*te

Few Irish words have achieved widespread fondness like ‘Gobsh*te’ , a bit of slang generally used to describe someone foolish .

For example,  ‘I don’t believe it – that gobsh*te has put bleach on the carpet instead of water’.

One of the more famous Irish insults , an ‘Eejit’  is someone that’s foolish or someone that has done something foolish.

For example,  ‘Yer man is some eejit – he stuck a load of petrol into the car and sure hasn’t it got a diesel engine!’.

Commonly used in everyday Dublin slang,  ‘Deadly’  is Irish slang for  ‘Good/great’ . 

For example,  ‘This Irish phrases guide would be deadly if it wasn’t for those fec*in ads!’ .

11. Giving out

Although many of us in Ireland think ‘Giving out’ , which means  ‘To scold/complain’ , has a fairly obvious meaning, it’s one of many Irish slang words that causes widespread confusion to visitors.

It’s believed that it comes from the Irish words ‘Tabhairt amach’, which mean to ‘Give out’ . For example,  ‘Mary was giving out about what you did to her window!’ .

12. Slagging

‘Slagging/to slag’  means to insult someone but  usually  in a way that isn’t meant to hurt that persons feelings.

For example, you might use one of the funny Irish sayings as a slag, like  ‘If you were any longer you’d be late’ .

13. The jacks

‘The jacks’  are what many of us call the toilet in Ireland . For example,  ‘I’ll be there in a minute I need to use the jacks’ .

Interestingly enough, it’s thought this slang come from an Irish fella called ‘Jack Power’  who invented the first multi-toilet cubicles (see more random facts about Ireland )! 

Irish phrases to describe someone you dislike

funny Irish terms

Chapter two of our Irish lingo guide looks at terms used for someone or something that you don’t like.

You’ll find  many  more of these in our Irish insults guide, but here are the ones that are most commonly used.

‘Boll*x’ or ‘Boll*cks’  are Irish slang words that refer to a man’s neither regions . It can be used in several ways and the intended meaning will depend on tone/context.

For example, ‘He’s some boll*x’ might refer to someone you dislike if the tone is negative , but it could refer to your best friend if the tone is positive .

A ‘Pox’ is someone that’s a nuisance . For example,  He’s a miserable little pox’.

There’s some Dublin slang variations of this including  ‘Pox bottle’ which I heard my dad use when I was a kid.

‘Gombeen’ is one of the more unusual Irish idioms. It comes from the Irish word  ‘Gaimbín’  which translates to  ‘Monetary interest’  and it was originally used to describe money lenders .

We use  ‘Gombeen’  to describe Del Boy Trotter types, i.e. wheeler dealers looking to make money off of you.

‘Gobdaw’  is another of the Irish terms used to describe someone foolish or stupid .

For example, ‘Did you hear Bernie’s young fella left the front door open and the place was robbed? He’s some Gobdaw!’ .

One of the first Irish expressions in this guide that’s gender specific, a  ‘Wagon’  is used to describe a female that’s acting/acted in a particular way .

For example,  ‘My little one won’t sleep at all at night, the little wagon!’ .

7. Minus craic

‘Minus craic’ describes a situation or a person that’s no fun (similar to the funny Irish saying   ‘Craic vacuum’ ).

For example, ‘We were at Michael’s 21st last night. There was only four of us there – it was minus craic’ .

Another of the gender specific Irish expressions, a  ‘Geebag’  is used to describe a female you dislike .

For example, ‘Mrs. O’Toole gave us about 7 weeks worth of maths homework. What a geebag’ .

Now, for our American readers – when we say ‘Dope’ in Ireland, we’re not talking about anything dodgy. In Ireland, ‘Dope’ is another way of describing someone stupid .

For example, ‘Her new fella was here last night. Talk about a dope’ .

The use of the word  ‘Sap’ dates back to 1815 and it’s thought to come from the word ‘Saphead’ .

If you call someone a  ‘Sap’  in Ireland you’re usually describing them as a fool or a simpleton .

11. Cute hoor

‘Cute hoor’  is one of the older Irish slang phrases and it can be dated back to at least 1983 when it was used in the ‘ Evening Herald’ paper to describe two politicians.

‘A cute hoor ‘ is used to describe someone that’s relatively crafty and that’s able to mould a situation to benefit themselves.

For example, ‘He’s a cute hoor that fella, always manages to get a free ticket to the concerts in the Phoenix Park’ .

The word  ‘Gowl’  is most frequently used as part of Limerick and Northern Irish slang words. It comes from the Irish word for ‘Foreigner’ , which is  ‘Gall’ .

It’s thought that the native Irish would have referred to the English in this way and the term became a word for someone you dislike .

13. Drysh*te

A ‘Drysh*te’  is used to describe a person that is either boring , no fun or whom is deemed to have taken the fun from a situation.

For example, ‘All them lads do is sit in and play the Xbox. They’re a pair of drysh*tes’ .

‘Kip’  is one of the more common Irish terms and it’s thought that it comes from the Danish  ‘Kippe’ , which means  ‘Dive/cheap inn/hovel’ .

In Ireland, we use  ‘Kip’ to describe a place that’s messy/dirty . For example,  ‘That hotel was an absolute kip’ .

The term ‘Scut’ is thought to come from ‘Scut work’ which was an old way of describing manual labour .

A ‘Scut’  is someone that’s perceived to be a waster or someone with a lower than average intelligence . 

16. Sh*tehawk

The term  ‘Sh*tehawk’  has a number of meanings. The word was actually given to describe birds that ‘Exhibit scavenging behaviour’ .

In Ireland, it’s used in the same was you’d use the word sh*t , for example,  ‘He’s some sh*tehawk that one’ .

‘Dosser’  is one of the Irish expressions that you hear in schools around Ireland, and it’s used to describe someone that’s doing anything other than what they should be doing .

You’ll often hear it used to describe people that are lazy and that are avoiding doing any work. For example,  ‘Stop dossing and do your work, you little dosser’ .

‘Tool’  is one of the less-offensive Irish slang phrases and it’s a less-severe way of calling someone an idiot/clown .

For example, ‘Did you see what she posted on Facebook?! What a tool!’ .

In my experience, ‘Melter’ is one of the Dublin slang words but it’s likely used in many parts of Ireland.

It’s used to describe someone that’s annoying . For example, ‘That lad keeps on texting me. He’s a bleedin’ melter’ .

‘Langer’ tends to have a few different meanings. Personally, I’ve heard it used most frequently used to describe a man’s neither regions . 

However, it’s also used to refer to someone stupid . For example,  ‘He’s some langer’ . This is an iconic bit of Cork slang.

21. Chancer

If someone is known to be an opportunist, usually in a dubious manner or in a way that’s seen to be dishonest , he’s called a ‘Chancer’ .

For example,  ‘His father was a chancer as well – he used to sell chickens each Christmas and tell people they were little turkeys’ .

22. In bits

You can use  ‘In bits’  as Irish slang for drunk . Or you can use it to describe how you feel when you’re hungover.

You can also describe someone you find unnatractive as  ‘In bits’ , for example,  ‘I would go near that lad – he’s in bits’ .

‘Thick’ means  ‘Stupid’ . For example,  ‘That thick Kerrie crashed my car’ . It can also be used to describe someone that’s annoyed .

‘You’ve a big thick head on you – what’s wrong?!’.

‘Muppet’  is one you don’t hear too often these days. It’s used to describe someone foolish .

For example,  ‘I head you lost your new phone, you muppet!’ .

25. Tosspot

‘Tosspot’ is slang from England that’s used in Ireland. Although we use it here to describe someone we dislike, it was originally used to describe someone who drank heavily .

In Middle England, beer was served in a ceramic pot. A  ‘Tosspot’ was a word given to someone who drank too much and who ‘Tossed’ back pots of beer.

The word ‘Manky’ is used to describe something that’s dirty . For example,  ‘Their kitchen is manky. You’d be safer eating in the jacks’ .

If you called a person a  ‘Dose’ , you’d be referring to them as annoying or a pain in the backside.

You can also refer to a sickness as a  ‘Dose’ , for example,  ‘I’ve had a bad dose on me since I was caught out in the rain’ .

28. Hallion

A  ‘Hallion’  is someone that’s seen to be useless . It can also mean someone that’s clowning around someone that’s a bit of a rogue.

For example,  ‘You’re two kids are a right couple of hallions’ .

Slang Irish terms that can be confusing

irish slang phrases

There are plenty of Irish sayings that leave people that are new to Ireland scratching their head.

Below, you’ll find some of the quirkier Irish expressions, from  ‘Yer man’  and  ‘Gimme a shot’  to  ‘Shifting’  and more.

1. C’mere to me

The Irish slang words ‘C’mere to me’  aren’t actually used to ask someone to come closer to you – they’re generally used before you ask a question.

For example, ‘C’mere to me, what was that new mechanic like .

2. Eat the head off

If you were to  ‘Eat the head off’  off someone it would mean that you scolded them in an aggressive manner .

For example,  ‘I was so annoyed I ate the heads off the pair of them!’ .

3. The messages

‘The Messages’ is a slang term for ‘Groceries’ and it comes from a time when people would get their messages (telegrams and letters) from the Post Office where they also sold groceries.

For example,  ‘I’m going for the messages – I’ll be home in an hour!’ .

4. The craic was 90

This is another of the Irish phrases to describe a situation that you found fun . 

For example,  ‘We dropped into the local on Sunday – the craic was 90 after the game!’ .

5. Gimme a shot

‘A shot’  is another way of saying  ‘A go’ . If someone asks you to give them  ‘A shot of’  something, they’re asking to use it.

For example,  ‘Those gloves look grand and warm – gimme a shot of them for a minute I’m freezing!’ .

6. Sure look

Few Irish expressions cause confusion like  ‘Sure look’ , which is used, in my experience, as a way of saying  ‘Ah, well!’ .

For example,  ‘Did you hear they lost the match? That’s us gone until next year!’. ‘Ah, sure look – they did their best’ .

7. Shifting/meeting

These are two Irish phrases used to describe kissing . Growing up in Dublin in the 90s, you’d hear  ‘Will you meet him/her’  when someone was being asked to kiss someone.

‘Shifting’ , in my experience, is generally used by people from more rural parts of Ireland (again, this is just my experience).

8. Yer man/yer one

‘Yer man/yer one’ is a way of referring to a man/woman that you either aren’t overly familiar with or that you aren’t too fond of.

For example,  ‘The state of yer man there in his blue leather jacket’ .

9. Will I, yea/I will, yea?!

One of the Irish expressions that abides by absolutely no rules of the English language, we use  ‘Will I, yea’  as a response to an instruction that we have no intention of following .

For example, ‘You’ll be getting off your hole and emptying the bins in 5 minutes’ . ‘Will I, yea?!’.

10. Acting the maggot

If a person is ‘Acting the maggot’ they’re messing around/dossing… i.e. they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing .

For example, ‘That young lad was in here last night acting the maggot’ .

‘Lash’  is one of many Irish terms that can be used in several different ways. It can be used to describe quick movement , for example, ‘Give yourself a lash we’re late’  or  ‘Lash that in the bin’ .

It can also be used to describe someone you fide attractive , for example, ‘She’s a lash’ .

12. Ah, here!

‘Ah, here’  is generally used when you’re outraged about something or if you’re loosing patience, for example,  ‘Ah, here – I’m sick of your bad language’ .

Or, for example, if you were witnessing a fight, ‘Ah, here – leave it out’ .

13. G’way!

‘G’way’  is one of the less common Irish slang words and it’s used as a way of saying  ‘No way/you’re joking/you’re kidding’ .

For example,  ‘Did you hear I won the lotto?’ G’way?! Are you serious?’ .

14. Sucking diesel

The phrase  ‘Sucking diesel’  is used to describe a situation that’s moved from less favourable to favourable .

For example, if a person is in a car that won’t start and eventually it does,  ‘Now we’re sucking diesel’ would be appropriate.

15. Codding

One of several Irish terms that’s used in several other countries,  ‘Codding/to cod’  means  ‘Joking/to joke/to have on’ .

For example,  ‘Terry’s Irish jokes are gas, to be fair!’ ‘Are you codding me? He couldn’t tell the time, never mind a joke’ .

16. Shaping/shaper

‘Shaping’  is a another way of describing someone that’s walking with a strut , usually in a very cocky manner. You can describe someone walking like this as a ‘Shaper’ .

Or you could say  ‘Look at yer many throwing shapes ‘. 

In most languages,  ‘Sorry’  is used for apologising to someone. In Ireland,  ‘Sorry?’  is one of several Irish expressions that doesn’t follow conventional use of the English language.

‘Sorry?’  is used as a reply, usually to a question or a statement that has angered you . For example,  ‘If you do that again you’ll get a slap’ ‘Sorry? Say that again!’.

18. He/she is your only man/woman!

If you hear someone saying  ‘Ah, he’s your only man’ , the person saying it is usually recommending that person for a particular task/situation .

For example,  ‘I need someone to give say an Irish blessing at the wedding’ ‘Ah, Tom’s your only many for that kind of thing’ .

19. Up to 90

‘Up to 90’ means flat out busy doing something . You’ll often hear this one used in response to questions like ‘How was work today?’ .

The response would then be ‘Ah, sure I’ve been up to 90 since half 7’ .

‘Leg it’  is Irish slang for  ‘Run’ . For example,  ‘The security guard is after us – leg it’ .

21. Donkeys years

‘Donkeys years’  is used to describe a long period of time that has passed.

For example,  ‘Ah, Ollie – it’s great to see you, I haven’t see you around in donkeys years’ .

22. Fair play

‘Fair play’  is generally used as a response to something that you find favourable or to a good deed.

For example,  ‘I’m collecting money for charity’ ‘Ah, fair play’ .

23. Stall the ball

If you ask someone to  ‘Stall the ball’  you’re asking them to hang on/wait .

For example,  ‘Here, stall the ball – I’ll be ready in 10’ .

‘Gas’  is Irish slang for funny . You’ll hear a situation being described as  ‘Gas’ , for example,  ‘Last night was gas craic’ .

You’ll also hear someone deemed to be funny as  ‘Gas’ , for example,  ‘He’s a gas man’ .

Another of the more confusing Irish sayings,  ‘Jammy’  is used to describe someone as lucky/flukey .

For example,  ‘You won the game again?! You’re a jammy hoor’ .

26. Lob the gob

‘Lob the gob’  is another of the Irish phrases that’s used to describe kissing someone .

For example,  ‘He’s in trouble today – wasn’t he seen lobbing the gob on some wan last night’ .

Irish slang phrases for greeting someone

irish slang words and phrases

Our next chapter is filled with Irish sayings that are used to greet people.

You’ll find a fair few weird and wonderful Irish phrases below, some of which are straightforward and others that definitely aren’t.

1. What’s the craic/story?

Arguably the most common Irish slang words for greeting someone,  ‘What’s the craic/story?’  means  ‘How are you/any news/what’s going on?’ .

For example,  ‘Shay – what’s the craic? I haven’t see you in ages?’ .

2. How’s she cutting?

One of several Irish phrases that stems from farming,  ‘How’s she cutting?’  is now used in the same way that you’d use  ‘What’s the story?’ , however, it wasn’t always that way.

Back in the day, you’d usually ask someone ‘How’s she cutting’  during the harvest season to enquire about the the conditions for crop cutting.

‘Well’  tends to come before one of the other Irish terms that we use for greeting someone.

For example,  ‘Well, how are you getting on?’ . It doesn’t really mean anything, but it’s used frequently.

4. Hows-a-going?

Nothing too surprising with this one – it’s simply  ‘How is it going?’  but it generally comes out as  ‘Howsagoin? .

For example,  ‘Tara – howsagoin? Haven’t seen you about in ages!’ .

5. Story horse?!

This is a bit of Dublin slang that’s used to greet someone and it roughly means ‘How’s it going/how are you?’ .

Like plenty of the Irish slang words in this guide, there’s no clear indication as to where this originated.

6. How ya getting on/How’s the form?!

‘Well, how ya gettin on/how’s the form?’ are more Irish sayings that simply mean ‘How are you/things?’ .

You’ll often hear  ‘Well’ stuck in front of it.

7. Bout Ye?

‘Bout ye?’ are some common Northern Irish slang words that mean ‘How are you?’ .

For example, ‘Bout ye, chief! Fancy a pint?’ .

Funny Irish expressions for drunk and hungover

funny irish expressions

The next chapter is packed with Irish sayings that describe being drunk or being hungover.

There isn’t one bit of Irish slang for drunk – there are several. And they tend to vary from county to county.

1. Flutered

Short and sweet and with no clear indication of origin,  ‘Flutered’  is one of the more common Irish terms for drunk .

For example,  ‘I was flutered after that last whiskey’ .

2. Locked/legless/banjaxed/buckled/scuttered/Baloobas

‘Locked’  doesn’t have anything to do with  ‘Closed’ – it’s a way of describing being very drunk .

For example,  ‘You were locked. At one point you announced you were going to give an Irish toast , but you just started singing the Wolfe Tones’ .

3. In a heap/in a hoop

‘In a heap/hoop’  is one of the Irish idioms used to describe being hungover . For example,  ‘I’m in a heap – I feel as sick as a plane to Lourdes’ .

4. In rag order/in ribbons

If you were ‘In rag order/ribbons’  you overindulged and you were drunk. It can also be used to describe a hangover .

For example,  ‘I should never drink vodka. My heads in ribbons’ .

5. Mouldy/mullered

One of the Irish colloquialisms I’ve only ever heard from a group of friends from Louth, this also means you were very drunk .

For example,  ‘I had 2 bottles of wine. It’s no wonder I was mouldy” .

6. Out of your tree/off your head

Potentially one that’s part of Dublin slang,  ‘Out of your tree’  is a colourful way of saying you were more than merry .

For example,  ‘I was so out of my tree I tried cooking chicken in the toaster’ .

7. Hammered

Another of the Irish expressions with no clear origin,  ‘Hammered’  also means very drunk .

For example,  ‘I called him a what? Ah, damn – I must have been hammered’ .

One of several funny Irish sayings used to describe a hangover , you’ll often hear someone say  ‘I’m as shook as a hand at mass’ .

Irish slang words and phrases for good and great

irish terms for good

The next chapter in our Irish sayings guide takes a look at the different Irish slang for good and great.

There’s plenty of Irish terms for describing someone in a favourable way and here are the most common.

One of the more common Irish terms for good is to describe something as  ‘Savage’ .

For example,  ‘That chicken fillet roll was savage’ .

You’ll hear good situations and people being called  ‘Bang on’ .

For example,  ‘The new guy that started is bang on’ .

Another of the popular Irish phrases,  ‘Class’  can be applied to people, places or things .

For example,  ‘Ah, that movie was class’ .

‘Unreal’  can be used as a response to something you deem good or it can be used to describe something you think is great.

For example,  ‘You passed the exam?! That’s unreal!’ .

5. Cracking

‘Cracking’ is another of the Irish expressions used to describe something as ‘Brilliant’ .

For example,  ‘That’s a cracking day out there today’ .

The only people that I know who use  ‘Dead on’  are from county Antrim. It’s used to describe a person or thing you think is great .

For example,  ‘Melissa’s fella is dead on, so he is’ .

You can use  ‘Sound’  as a way of saying  ‘Thanks’. For example,  ‘Sound for collecting me – I would have had to walk otherwise’ .

If something is  ‘Quality’ , it’s very good . For example,  ‘That new show with Brendan Gleeson is quality’ .

Arguably one that’s mainly part of Dublin slang, rapid doesn’t describe fast movement – it describes something you think is ‘Deadly’ .

For example,  ‘I got a new tracksuit last week. It’s rapid looking!’ .

Dublin slang

dublin slang words

There’s a hape of Dublin slang that doesn’t tend to get used by people from outside of the capital.

Growing up in Dublin, I heard the below used as part of everyday life ( note : these many not be exclusively Dublin slang words).

If you’re describing something as  ‘Whopper’  you’re describing it as  ‘Amazing/great/incredible’ .

For example,  ‘This Dublin slang guide would be whopper without those damn ads!’ .

‘Delirah’  isn’t really Dublin slang, it’s more how the word  ‘Delighted’  sounds with a heavy Dublin accent .

For example,  ‘Ah, I’m delirah for the pair of ye’ .

‘Mot’  is generally a way of referring to the girl/woman that you are in a relationship with. You will, at times, hear people use it as Irish slang for girl or woman.

For example,  ‘I’m taking me mot to the pictures’ . The pictures is another chunk of Dublin slang for  ‘The cinema’ .

4. Janey Mack

‘Janey Mack’  is one of the more famous Irish idioms and it appeared in the book ‘Ulysses’  by James Joyce.

It is used as an alternative to being blasphemous and taking the Lord’s name in vein.

‘Scarlet’  is Dublin slang for  ‘Embarrassed’  and it’s used in a couple of ways. The first is as a response to someone telling you about an embarassing situation, for example,  ‘Ah, scarlet for your ma for having ye’ .

The second is to describe yourself as being embarrassed, for example, ‘I fell over leaving the shop – I was scarlet’ .

Now, I’m not sure if this is exclusively Dublin slang, but I’ve never heard anyone from outside of Dublin using it.

A ‘Bogger’ is used to describe someone from rural Ireland , usually one who lives near a bog.

7. Get up outta that

Another of the more unusual Irish sayings,  ‘Get up outta that’  is used as a response to a statement that you don’t believe , for example,  ‘I’m going on a date with an actress’ ‘Ha, get up out of that – you are in your hole’ .

It can also be used in a situation where you’re trying to get some to stop doing something/move, for example,  ‘Get up out of that you little scrote – I saw you trying to steal those bikes’ .

8. Get outta that garden

Similar to the previous bit of Dublin slang, this is used when you don’t believe someone or when you’re trying to get someone to stop doing something.

‘Brutal’  has several different meanings. For example, it can be used to describe feeling bad,  ‘I ate his lunch – I feel brutal about it’ .

Or it can be used to describe a bad act, for example,  ‘They lost – they played brutal’ .

Northern Irish slang phrases

northern Irish slang

There are a handful of Northern Irish slang phrases that you’ll only really hear in the six counties (see our guide to Northern Ireland vs Ireland if you’re confused).

We’ve had a few emails since adding this section to say that these are Belfast slang terms, so keep that in mind.

‘Bake’  is slang for your face . For example, ‘Shut your bake, you clown’ .

Another of the Irish sayings used to describe being embarrassed is  ‘Beamer’ . 

For example, ‘It was definitely Colin. Look at him pulling a beamer’ .

‘Bogging’ is used to describe something as  ‘Dirty’ . For example, ‘The smell off those runners. Your feet must be bogging’ .

If you’re going for a  ‘Dander’ , you’re going for a  ‘Walk’ , usually at an easy pace.

For example, ‘C’mon. Let’s get out for a dander and get some fresh air’ .

One of the stranger Irish sayings, a  ‘Peeler’  is a word given to a member of the police .

For example, ‘Sh*te, put the cans away. There are two peelers coming up the road there’ .

6. Houl yer whisht

‘Houl yer whisht’  is Irish slang for  ‘Be quiet’ . For example, ‘Hey – houl yer whisht in there. I can’t hear the radio!’ .

7. Ogeous handling

Another of the more unusual Irish sayings,  ‘Ogeous handling’  is used to describe a  ‘Tricky situation’ .

For example, ‘Remember the time Micky got caught moving the cow in the back of his Ford Focus?’ ‘Oh, I do. It was some ogeous handling’ .

8. Up to high doh

If you describe someone as being  ‘Up to high doh’  you’re saying that they’re  ‘Excited’ .

For example, ‘He had a bag of skittles and three bottles of Coke an hour ago – he’s been up to high doh ever since’ .

Irish idioms for describing the weather

irish slang for weather

The last chapter in our common Irish phrases guide looks at Irish slang words that are used to describe the weather.

Now, as the weather in Ireland is a bit mental at the best of times, we have a fair few ways of referring to it.

1. It’s a soft day

One of the more confusing Irish idioms, if you describe a day as ‘Soft’ you’re saying that it’s misty with light rain .

For example,  ‘It’s a lovely soft day – make sure you bring a brolly!’ .

2. It’s a good day for drying

‘A good day for drying’  is used to describe a nice dry day . ‘Drying’ refers to drying wet clothes outside.

For example,  ‘Finally, after all that poxy weather, we’ve a good day for drying’ .

3. It’s fierce mild out there

You’ll often hear people describe a fine, warm day as  ‘Fierce mild’ . 

For example,  ‘I’m sweating – it’s fierce mild out there now’ .

4. It’s lashing/p*ssing down/out

One of the more common Irish terms for heavy rain is to describe it as  ‘P*ssing/lashing/pouring/piddling down’ .

For example,  ‘It’s been piddling down all morning – the place is flooded’ .

5. It’s spitting

If there’s light rain falling , it’s known as  ‘Spitting’ .

You’ll hear people saying ‘It’s spitting out’  or  ‘It’s spitting rain’ .

6. The sun is splitting the stones

One of the more common Irish expressions for a sunny day is  ‘The sun is splitting the stones’ .

You’ll often here  ‘Stones’  substituted out for  ‘Rocks’ , too.

7. It’s a day for the fire

This one is used when the weather is cold and wintery and it paints a picture of a beautiful turf fire crackling away.

For example,  ‘By God it’s cold out there – it’s a day for the fire! ‘ .

8. It’s wetter than an otters pocket

There are multiple variations of this, each of which refer to it begin very wet outside .

For example,  ‘That’s some rain – it’s wetter than an otters/penguins/Michael Phelps’s pocket’ .

Need an Irish slang translator? Ask in the comments!

funny short irish sayings

If you’re in need of an Irish slang translator and you can’t find the word you’re looking for below, ask away in the comments and we’ll do our best to help.

Similarly, if there are any Irish colloquialisms that we’ve missed, let us know and we’ll get them added!

what's a power trip slang

Keith O’Hara has lived in Ireland for 35 years and has spent most of the last 10 creating what is now The Irish Road Trip guide. Over the years, the website has published thousands of meticulously researched Ireland travel guides, welcoming 30 million+ visitors along the way. In 2022, the Irish Road Trip team published the world’s largest collection of Irish Road Trip itineraries . Keith lives in Dublin with his dog Toby and finds writing in the 3rd person minus craic altogether.

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Frits van Halewijn

Thursday 2nd of November 2023

In Michael Magee's "Close to Home "there's a lot of Irish/Belfast slang. E.g. , I did not understand the word "beek" in the book. Can you explain?

Brendan Keane

Thursday 31st of August 2023

Latchiko is "half a ball-sack" (leath tíochóg) or cowardly.

Karen Johnston

Saturday 19th of August 2023

My mother used a term “bloody oonshuk” (that’s a phonetic spelling). She said it was like a gom. I know bloody is damn but not sure the other word. Are you familiar with it?

Anthony Kelly

Wednesday 26th of July 2023

13 thanks a million

I got caught out with a common problem when using Irish words on the phone and that is Autocorrect!!! The phrase in the previous comment below is “Go raibh míle maith agat”

Wednesday 26th of April 2023

I'm a novelist and writing a series of books about an Irish family. Is there a word or phrase for a situation where someone had an accident and wasn't badly hurt, just a bump on this head?

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2024 NFL schedule: Ranking eight potential Chiefs opponents for season opener

Who could kansas city play in week 1.

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The Kansas City Chiefs  will be looking to make history in the 2024 NFL season. Kansas City became the NFL's first repeat champions since the 2003-04 New England Patriots , and the Chiefs are now set up to attempt a three-peat. Both Travis Kelce and Andy Reid will be back in 2024 and the team re-loaded at wide receiver, so the Chiefs have a legit shot to make history.

The road to a three-peat begins in Week 1, where the Chiefs will host the NFL opener for the second straight year. Who could the Chiefs face first next season? Which teams are on the table, and who would be the best opponent? Let's rank the Chiefs' eight home opponents that could make the trip to Arrowhead in September. 

8. New Orleans Saints

The 9-8 Saints missed the playoffs in 2023, and new quarterback Derek Carr didn't exactly endear himself to the Saints faithful in his first season. New Orleans has some talented weapons like Chris Olave and Alvin Kamara , and a decent defense led by Dennis Allen. But scheduling the Saints in Week 1 would not be a sexy decision. 

7.   Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Bucs surprised many people in 2023 by winning the NFC South with a 9-8 record, and then upsetting the reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles in Super Wild Card Weekend. Baker Mayfield had a career year working with Mike Evans , and both players have said they want to return to Tampa Bay in 2024. The Bucs lost Dave Canales but gained an interesting offensive coordinator in Liam Coen, so the offense should look a bit different. Mayfield is a fun gamer who could be even more comfortable in Year 2 with the Bucs. 

6. Denver Broncos

The Broncos snapped a 16-game losing streak to the Chiefs last October, but fans in Denver would like to ignore the fact that Mahomes was dealing with the flu less than 24 hours before kickoff. Opening up your season against a divisional opponent does add some intrigue, but we don't know who the Broncos quarterback will be. 

5. Las Vegas Raiders

Another revenge spot against a divisional opponent. The Raiders, of course, defeated the Chiefs in Kansas City on Christmas Day behind Antonio Pierce's stout defense. There's now optimism in Vegas, and it's always fun to watch Maxx Crosby chase Mahomes around the field, but this is another situation where we don't know who the starting quarterback will be. 

4. Los Angeles Chargers

Welcome back to the NFL, Jim Harbaugh. The Chargers are always seemingly one of those teams that receives hype in the offseason they can't live up to, but with Harbaugh calling the shots instead of Brandon Staley, you have to keep an eye on them. 

Justin Herbert's offenses have averaged 24.4 points per game, which are the second-most points per game averaged by a quarterback with a losing record since 1950. Herbert has been let down by his defense ever since he entered the league. He's registered the most passing completions (1,613) and passing yards (17,223) in a player's first four seasons in NFL history, and tied Mahomes for the second-most passing touchdowns (114) in his first four seasons as well. With Harbaugh now the head coach, we could start the new chapter of this rivalry in prime time in Week 1. 

3. Houston Texans

The first meeting between Mahomes and C.J. Stroud . Maybe this is a budding AFC rivalry we will see plenty of in the years to come. The Offensive Rookie of the Year became the youngest quarterback to ever win a playoff game this past season, and led the league in passing yards per game (273.9) and TD-INT ratio. Only two other quarterbacks have done that over the last 50 seasons! Stroud found success with weapons like Nico Collins and Tank Dell immediately, plus DeMeco Ryans improved the defense. Houston allowed the sixth-fewest rushing yards per game in 2023 after the Texans ranked dead last in that category in 2022.

The Texans were expected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL in 2023. Instead, the front office crushed the draft with the NFL Offensive and Defensive Rookies of the Year, leading to the Texans winning the division and a postseason victory. Maybe they are a contender in 2024. 

2. Cincinnati Bengals

What a way to welcome Joe Burrow back to the field following his 2023 season-ending wrist injury. Let's send him straight to Arrowhead to face off against his chief AFC rival in Mahomes. Burrow is actually 2-0 vs. Mahomes in the regular season, and 1-1 vs. him in the postseason. The Chiefs-Bengals rivalry has been entertaining to say the least. Kicking off the 2024 season with this matchup would be a fun idea. 

1. Baltimore Ravens

The most fascinating Week 1 matchup for the Chiefs would undoubtedly be the Ravens -- the team the Chiefs upset in the AFC championship game. Lamar Jackson won MVP this season, but that award couldn't have felt as good to receive considering that his offense fell flat against the Chiefs defense, which held the Ravens to a season-low 81 rushing yards and the lowest time of possession (22:30) in Jackson's career. 

The Ravens were probably the best team in the NFL this past regular season. They became the first franchise to ever lead/co-lead the league in scoring defense, sacks and takeaways, while OC Todd Monken returned Jackson to MVP form in his first year as offensive coordinator. This is the season opener the NFL world is hoping for. 

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Carlos Lozada

What I Learned When I Read 887 Pages of Plans for Trump’s Second Term

A photo illustration of the Oval Office, in which the resolute desk is being moved out and a throne is being moved in.

By Carlos Lozada

Opinion Columnist, a co-host of “Matter of Opinion” and the author of “The Washington Book.”

Every new administration that wins power away from the opposing party contends that whatever its predecessors did was terrible and that victory constitutes a popular mandate to fix or get rid of it all. Elections have consequences, politicians love to remind us, and a big one entails trying to change everything, right away.

It is possible to read “ Mandate for Leadership : The Conservative Promise” — an 887-page document proposing to remake the executive branch, department by department, agency by agency, office by office — as one more go-round in this Washington tradition. With contributions by dozens of conservative thinkers and activists under the leadership of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, the book announces itself as part of a “unified effort to be ready for the next conservative administration to govern at 12:00 noon, Jan. 20, 2025.” There is much work ahead, it states, “just to undo the significant damage that will have been done during the Biden years.”

The book has not been blessed by Donald Trump or his campaign, and the authors emphasize that they want to help the next conservative president, “whoever he or she may be.” But with so many former Trump officials among its contributors, so much praise for him throughout its pages (he is mentioned some 300 times, compared with once for Nikki Haley) and such clear affinity between Trump’s impulses and the document’s proposals, it is easy to imagine “Mandate for Leadership” wielding influence in a second Trump term. It is an off-the-shelf governing plan for a leader who took office last time with no clear plan and no real ability to govern. This book attempts to supply him with both.

There is plenty here that one would expect from a contemporary conservative agenda: calls for lower corporate taxes and against abortion rights; criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and the “climate fanaticism” of the Biden administration; and plans to militarize the southern border and target the “administrative state,” which is depicted here as a powerful and unmanageable federal bureaucracy bent on left-wing social engineering. Yet what is most striking about the book is not the specific policy agenda it outlines but how far the authors are willing to go in pursuit of that agenda and how reckless their assumptions are about law, power and public service.

“Mandate for Leadership,” which was edited by Paul Dans and Steven Groves of the Heritage Foundation, is not about anything as simplistic as being dictator for a day but about consolidating authority and eroding accountability for the long haul. It calls for a relentless politicizing of the federal government, with presidential appointees overpowering career officials at every turn and agencies and offices abolished on overtly ideological grounds. Though it assures readers that the president and his or her subordinates “must be committed to the Constitution and the rule of law,” it portrays the president as the personal embodiment of popular will and treats the law as an impediment to conservative governance. It elevates the role of religious beliefs in government affairs and regards the powers of Congress and the judiciary with dismissiveness.

And for all the book’s rhetoric about the need to “dismantle the administrative state,” it soon becomes clear that vanquishing the federal bureaucracy is not the document’s animating ambition. There may be plenty worth jettisoning from the executive branch, but “Mandate for Leadership” is about capturing the administrative state, not unmaking it. The main conservative promise here is to wield the state as a tool for concentrating power and entrenching ideology.

“Mandate for Leadership” is not the kind of book meant to be read straight through from beginning to end, certainly not by any one person. (Trust me.) Each chapter features one or more authors exploring a particular department or agency in detail, so grasping the entirety of the book’s proposals would require deep expertise in multiple fields — trade negotiations, environmental science, diplomacy, nuclear power, to name a few — and in the intricacies of Washington wonkdom. The book’s prose is dense, packed with bullet points and bureaucratese, and reading about so many obscure offices, page after page, left me sympathetic to its complaints about an elephantine fourth branch of government. The introduction asserts that “one set of eyes reading these passages will be those of the 47th president of the United States,” but I wouldn’t count on any future president poring over these pages, highlighter in hand, nodding sagely. “Mandate for Leadership” is not an exercise in persuasion but a statement of purpose.

The mayhem of the Trump presidency’s early days might have occurred partly by design — recall Steve Bannon’s strategy to “flood the zone” with an expletive — but it is not an experience that the authors of this volume wish to repeat. The book’s existence is an implicit admission that the Trump administration’s haphazard approach to governance was a missed opportunity. Executing a conservative president’s agenda “requires a well-conceived, coordinated, unified plan and a trained and committed cadre of personnel to implement it,” the document says on its opening page. The phrasing quickly grows militaristic: The authors wish to “assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day 1 to deconstruct the administrative state.”

That deconstruction can be blunt. Portions of “Mandate for Leadership” read as though the authors did a Control-F search of the executive branch for any terms they deemed suspect and then deleted the offending programs or offices. The White House’s Gender Policy Council must go, along with its Office of Domestic Climate Policy. The Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations is a no-no. The E.P.A. can do without its Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should be dismantled because it constitutes “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”

Sometimes search and destroy gives way to search and replace. At the Department of Health and Human Services, for instance, the Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force, which the Biden administration created five months before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, must be supplanted by a pro-life task force that ensures that all Health and Human Services divisions “use their authority to promote the life and health of women and their unborn children.” The document also asserts that the department should be known as the “Department of Life.” There is little interest here in the notion that different states can reach their own conclusions on abortion rights, as Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. Instead, the next president should work with federal lawmakers “to enact the most robust protections for the unborn that Congress will support.” (The focus on life is somewhat selective; while urging the next president to work on “restoring a culture of life in America,” the document also calls for “finality” in dealing with the dozens of inmates on death row.)

One of the book’s most frequent targets is D.E.I. — the diversity, equity and inclusion infrastructure erected throughout the federal government in recent years that “Mandate for Leadership” equates with racism. Just about every corner of the administration, from the Department of Labor to the U.S. Agency for International Development, must be scrubbed clean of D.E.I., and the measures to accomplish this can be brutish. At the Treasury Department, for instance, a new conservative administration would identify and interview every official who has taken part in D.E.I. programs to assess the scope of the efforts and ensure that they are eliminated, and it would “treat the participation in any critical race theory or D.E.I. initiative, without objecting on constitutional or moral grounds, as per se grounds for termination of employment.”

The excesses of diversity, equity and inclusion programs are hardly a concern only for the political right, but this isn’t just the countermanding of an ideology. It is a purging of anyone touched by it. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the D.E.I. party?

If “Mandate for Leadership” has its way, the next conservative administration will also target the data gathering and analysis that undergirds public policy. Every U.S. state should be required by Health and Human Services to report “exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence and by what method.” By contrast, the government should prohibit the collection of employment statistics based on race or ethnicity, and the Centers for Disease Control should discontinue gathering data on gender identity, on the grounds that such collection “encourages the phenomenon of ever-multiplying subjective identities.” (Why the executive branch might concern itself with the subjective identities of American citizens becomes clearer some 25 pages later, when the document affirms that the government should “maintain a biblically based, social-science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.”)

The portion of the book dedicated to the Census Bureau warns that the Biden administration’s data collection “could be skewed to bolster progressive political agendas,” yet “Mandate for Leadership” does not seem to grasp how its own proposals could prompt the same concerns in the opposite direction. It doesn’t take a conspiratorial mind to wonder about this; the document states its goal forthrightly: “Strong political leadership is needed to increase efficiency and align the Census Bureau’s mission with conservative principles.”

Even a leader who declared that he alone could fix things cannot accomplish all this alone. Joining the next conservative president would be that army of appointees marching to conquer the executive branch. One of the “pillars” of Project 2025 is the creation of a personnel database — a sort of “right-wing LinkedIn,” The Times has reported , seeking to attract some 20,000 potential administration officials. “Mandate for Leadership” maintains that “empowering political appointees across the administration is crucial to a president’s success,” and virtually every chapter calls for additional appointees to wrest power from longtime career staff members in their respective departments.

This is especially notable at both the State Department and the Department of Justice, which are considered susceptible to unsavory influences, in almost identical terms. “Large swaths of the State Department’s work force are left-wing and predisposed to disagree with a conservative president’s policy agenda and vision,” the book reads. Of the Department of Justice: “Large swaths of the department have been captured by an unaccountable bureaucratic managerial class and radical left ideologues who have embedded themselves throughout its offices.” (Lesson: Beware of swaths.)

It is, no doubt, the prerogative of all incoming presidents to appoint officials who support their agenda; in fact, since presidents are elected on their proposed agendas, it is right that they would do so. In “Mandate for Leadership,” longtime career civil servants are disparaged as “holdovers” with suspect loyalties, lacking the “moral legitimacy” that comes from being appointed by a president who is constitutionally bound to see that the laws are faithfully executed. The book calls for the reinstatement of Schedule F, a Trump-era executive order that would allow the president and political appointees to convert many career civil service positions into appointed roles, thus making those people easier to dismiss and replace with loyalists. In a memorable euphemism, the book refers to this effort as “identifying programmatic political work force needs.”

But there is a difference between fostering a work force that is accountable to the president and simply politicizing all aspects of the executive branch, including areas that require specific expertise. “Mandate for Leadership” leans toward the politicizing approach.

At the E.P.A., for example, the document calls for a new science adviser and at least six new appointees charged with reforming the agency’s scientific research; qualifications for those roles should stress managerial skills rather than “personal scientific output.” Throughout the book, descriptions of new research agendas are often paired with the explicit findings that such research should yield, whether on the mental and physical damage that abortion inflicts on women or the pernicious impact of taxes and regulations on minority-owned businesses. Later, tucked into a discussion of the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the Commerce Department — yes, the weeds are tall and scratchy here — the document urges a new administration to ensure that “any research conducted with taxpayer dollars serves the national interest in a concrete way in line with conservative principles.” It’s an effective sleight of hand: politicizing government-funded scientific research by tying the national interest to conservative priorities.

The administration of relief funds would also assume an ideological bent. “Mandate for Leadership” looks askance at Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, which makes investments to promote growth and innovation in struggling communities and helps distribute emergency funding. Ideally, the book says, a new conservative administration would abolish the agency and send its resources elsewhere. However, if congressional opposition makes that impossible, the Economic Development Administration should instead “better align funding with conservative political purposes.” There’s little subtlety: The book then argues that providing agency funds to “rural communities destroyed by the Biden administration’s attack on domestic energy production would be well within the scope of E.D.A.’s mission.” If you can’t beat them, at least make them work for you.

Despite its professed desire to reduce the size and ambition of government “back to something resembling the original constitutional intent,” in practice, the document’s contributors are willing to build significant bureaucracies. “Mandate for Leadership” calls for dismantling the Department of Homeland Security, for example, and instead creating a major stand-alone federal immigration department. It would piece together Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as well as portions of the Health and Human Services and Justice Departments to build a Cabinet-level body employing more than 100,000 federal workers. This would be “the third-largest department measured by manpower,” the book boasts.

Proposed immigration policies include the “indefinite curtailment” of refugee admissions, completing a southwestern border wall and deploying “active-duty military personnel and National Guardsmen to assist in arrest operations along the border — something that has not yet been done.” It even imagines a new immigration-related revenue stream: charging asylum seekers for “premium processing” of their claims, an innovation that would offer “an opportunity for a significant influx of money.”

The authors recognize the bipartisan dangers of excessive political appointments in the executive branch, but they worry about that mainly when their opponents are the ones benefiting. “The desire to infiltrate political appointees improperly into the high career civil service has been widespread in every administration, whether Democrat or Republican,” the document acknowledges. “Democratic administrations, however, are typically more successful because they require the cooperation of careerists, who generally lean heavily to the left.”

This book does not call for an effort to depoliticize the administrative state. It simply wishes to politicize it in favor of a new side. Everybody does it; now it’s our turn. Get over it.

This attitude proves especially consequential in the book’s treatment of the Justice Department, which has “lost its way,” becoming “a bloated bureaucracy with a critical core of personnel who are infatuated with the perpetuation of a radical liberal agenda.” To find its way back in a new conservative administration, “Mandate for Leadership” implies, the department must become subservient to the White House.

The document cites several reasons the Justice Department has “forfeited the trust” of many Americans, including its promotion of the Trump-Russia collusion investigation and the abdication of its duty to enforce immigration laws. Therefore, a “vast expansion” of political appointees across the department is required, beyond those traditionally appointed to the office of the attorney general and deputy attorney general.

All such appointees must work closely with the White House; in fact, the Justice Department and the White House counsel should act “as a team.” And while the book notes that contact between the White House and the Department of Justice traditionally occurs between the office of the White House counsel and the attorney general or deputy attorney general — a practice that aims to reduce the risk of political interference in law enforcement — “Mandate for Leadership” encourages a new administration to “re-examine this policy and determine whether it might be more efficient or more appropriate for communication to occur through additional channels.”

It is more efficient and appropriate if the goal is to permit greater White House pressure on the nation’s senior law enforcement officers. Even the F.B.I. director, the document argues, must be as politically accountable to the president as any other senior official. “To ensure prompt political accountability and to rein in perceived or actual abuses,” it asserts, “the next conservative administration should seek a legislative change to align the F.B.I. director’s position with those of the heads of all other major departments and agencies.” Trump has complained that the F.B.I. and Justice Department have been weaponized against him; these reforms would ensure their politicization.

After all, when the Justice Department and White House must work as a team, it is clear who serves as team captain. “While the supervision of litigation is a D.O.J. responsibility, the department falls under the direct supervision and control of the president,” the book states. Even though the department will invariably face “tough calls” in its litigation decisions, “those calls must always be consistent with the president’s policy agenda and the rule of law.”

What happens when the agenda and the law conflict? The answer is implicit throughout “Mandate for Leadership.” At the Department of Homeland Security, for example, the general counsel should hire more political appointees to supervise the office’s career lawyers, because “the legal function cannot be allowed to thwart the administration’s agenda by providing stilted or erroneous legal positions.” The law must submit to the president’s priorities. If not, the lawyers are doing it wrong.

Declaring inconvenient laws inapplicable is another option. For example, when the secretary of homeland security decides that “an actual or anticipated mass migration of aliens” headed to the United States “presents urgent circumstances,” the secretary may issue whatever rules and regulations are deemed necessary, for as long as necessary, “including through the expulsion of such aliens,” with a final proviso that “such rule and regulation making shall not be subject to the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act.” Read the act , and you’ll see that it governs the process by which agency rules are exposed to public comment and are subject to review by the courts. That lone sentence, tacked on at the end of a paragraph on Page 152 of “Mandate for Leadership,” is a bureaucratic invitation to legal impunity.

The book regards pursuit of the president’s agenda — variously described as the president’s “needs,” “goals” or “desires” — as always consistent with the law. “The modern conservative president’s task is to limit, control and direct the executive branch on behalf of the American people,” it states. And the American people’s needs, goals and desires are conflated with those of the leader.

Ironically, in this worldview, the people’s needs and desires can become circumscribed. In the book’s foreword, Kevin D. Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, writes that the “pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence should be understood as the “pursuit of blessedness,” that is, that “an individual must be free to live as his creator ordained — to flourish.” The Constitution, he explains, “grants each of us the liberty to do not what we want, but what we ought.” The book ties this argument to the philosophical and legal concept of “ordered liberty,” in which individual rights are weighed against social stability.

The notion that liberty entails the discipline to do the right thing, as opposed to the choice to do whatever things we want, has a long lineage in American political thought, dating back to the Puritans and the “city on a hill.” But in “Mandate for Leadership,” the answer to what we ought to do depends on the cultural and religious proclivities of the authors. “This pursuit of the good life is found primarily in family — marriage, children, Thanksgiving dinners and the like,” Roberts writes. It is also found in work, charity and, above all, in “religious devotion and spirituality.” Later, in a chapter on the Department of Labor, the book suggests that because “God ordained the Sabbath as a day of rest,” American workers should be paid extra for working on that day. “A shared day off makes it possible for families and communities to enjoy time off together, rather than as atomized individuals,” it says.

“Mandate for Leadership” often strains to reconcile what we ought to do with what the authors want us to do. In the same chapter on the Department of Labor, for example, the book calls on Congress to require that for all new federal contracts, at least 70 percent of contractors’ employees must be U.S. citizens (with the bar rising to at least 95 percent over time). Such a law is necessary, the book explains, “so that employers can again have the freedom to make hiring Americans a priority.”

If you want to make federal contractors hire more American workers, then, by all means, propose such a law. But couching it as a way to provide greater “freedom” to employers so they can do what the government is compelling them to do debases the notion of freedom. And it makes the book’s interpretation of “ordered liberty” seem more focused on giving orders than protecting liberty.

“Mandate for Leadership” is about not just a president exerting control over the executive branch but also the executive expanding its power over the other branches of government. In the book, the legislature and judiciary suffer from many small cuts and a few big ones.

Congress’s powers of oversight, for instance, would diminish in various ways. Rather than endure the process of congressional confirmation for people taking on key positions in the executive branch, the new administration should just place those officials in acting roles, which would allow them to begin pursuing the president’s agenda “while still honoring the confirmation requirement.” (That is, if bypassing the requirement is a form of honor.) Lawmakers would no longer review U.S. foreign arms sales, the book states, except when “unanimous congressional support is guaranteed,” a requirement that renders those reviews pointless. The Department of Homeland Security should have the power to select and limit its congressional oversight committees. And the White House can tell the State Department when to remain “radio silent” in the face of congressional inquiries.

In a section titled “Affirming the Separation of Powers,” the book contends that the executive branch — that is, the president and his team at the Justice Department — is just as empowered as any other branch of government to “assess constitutionality.” A new conservative administration must “embrace the Constitution and understand the obligation of the executive branch to use its independent resources and authorities to restrain the excesses of both the legislative and judicial branches.” The president must make sure that the leaders of the Justice Department share this view of the separation of powers.

It is the role of the judiciary, not of the president and a pliable attorney general, to decide whether laws and policies are constitutional. Believing otherwise does not “affirm” checks and balances; it undercuts them. “Mandate for Leadership” turns the separation of powers among the three branches into a game of rock, paper, scissors — except rock beats everything. It is consistent, though, with the leadership of a president who likes to talk of the nation’s top jurists as “my judges” and who referred to a former speaker of the House of Representatives as “my Kevin.”

It’s far from clear , of course, that Trump would turn to “Mandate for Leadership” as a default governing plan for a second term. Various organizations are proposing their own versions of a new conservative policy project, and it’s hard to say which, if any, might prevail. Trump’s campaign has made clear that no outside group speaks for him or represents his agenda. Keeping up with Trump’s views is the eternal challenge for anyone attempting to turn the former president’s impulses — those needs and desires — into a consistent ideology and policy program. (“Mandate for Leadership,” for example, suggests that NATO allies worried about Russia should count on Washington mainly for its nuclear deterrent and should field any conventional forces themselves, whereas this month Trump suggested that he would “encourage” Russia to attack NATO allies if they didn’t “pay their bills.”) The difficulty with Trumpism is Trump himself, who renders any coherent ism impossible.

“Mandate for Leadership” is a game effort, nonetheless. Its ability to obscure drastic change with drab prose is impressive. Its notions of an executive less encumbered by laws or oversight is of a piece with Trump’s views on the immunity and impunity that the president should enjoy. The document’s willingness to empower the administrative state when doing so suits ideological or policy preferences is remarkable, especially given its rhetoric to the contrary. At one point, in a chapter on the Commerce Department, a former Trump administration official offers some italicized advice: “When authoritarian governments explain what they plan to do, believe them unless hard evidence demonstrates otherwise.” He is discussing Russia and China, though the warning could apply more broadly.

Fifty years ago, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. published “ The Imperial Presidency ,” a study of the growing war-making abilities of the presidency and the parallel erosion of Congress’s constitutionally mandated power to declare war. Written during the Watergate scandal, the book also explored the ways in which the Nixon administration had arrogated to itself powers in the domestic arena, the abuses of which later led to the president’s resignation.

“Mandate for Leadership” also purports to lament the decline of congressional prerogatives and constitutional order. But at times the veil slips. In the final chapter, a former Trump administration Justice Department official admits that “until there is a return to a constitutional structure that the founding fathers would have recognized and a massive shrinking of the administrative state, conservatives cannot unilaterally disarm and fail to use the power of government to further a conservative agenda.”

That is the self-issued mandate of “Mandate for Leadership.” It is a call to arms, with the administrative state as its weapon of choice. In the foreword, Roberts, the Heritage Foundation president, writes that the administrative state isn’t going anywhere until Congress seizes power back from the federal bureaucracy. “But in the meantime,” he adds, “there are many executive tools a courageous conservative president can use to handcuff the bureaucracy, push Congress to return to its constitutional responsibility, restore power over Washington to the American people, bring the administrative state to heel.”

The problem with wielding the administrative state as a tool, even against itself, is that it grows comfortable in your hands. Why loosen that grip? In Washington, “the meantime” can last a long time.

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Illustration by The New York Times; Photograph by David Yeazell/USA Today Sports, via Reuters Con

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Carlos Lozada is an Opinion columnist and a co-host of the weekly “Matter of Opinion” podcast for The Times, based in Washington, D.C. He is the author, most recently, of “ The Washington Book : How to Read Politics and Politicians.”  @ CarlosNYT

BREAKING: Shohei Ohtani's ex-translator to plead guilty to transferring $17 million to pay gambling debts

What to know about the crisis of violence, politics and hunger engulfing Haiti

A woman carrying two bags of rice walks past burning tires

A long-simmering crisis over Haiti’s ability to govern itself, particularly after a series of natural disasters and an increasingly dire humanitarian emergency, has come to a head in the Caribbean nation, as its de facto president remains stranded in Puerto Rico and its people starve and live in fear of rampant violence. 

The chaos engulfing the country has been bubbling for more than a year, only for it to spill over on the global stage on Monday night, as Haiti’s unpopular prime minister, Ariel Henry, agreed to resign once a transitional government is brokered by other Caribbean nations and parties, including the U.S.

But the very idea of a transitional government brokered not by Haitians but by outsiders is one of the main reasons Haiti, a nation of 11 million, is on the brink, according to humanitarian workers and residents who have called for Haitian-led solutions. 

“What we’re seeing in Haiti has been building since the 2010 earthquake,” said Greg Beckett, an associate professor of anthropology at Western University in Canada. 

Haitians take shelter in the Delmas 4 Olympic Boxing Arena

What is happening in Haiti and why?

In the power vacuum that followed the assassination of democratically elected President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Henry, who was prime minister under Moïse, assumed power, with the support of several nations, including the U.S. 

When Haiti failed to hold elections multiple times — Henry said it was due to logistical problems or violence — protests rang out against him. By the time Henry announced last year that elections would be postponed again, to 2025, armed groups that were already active in Port-au-Prince, the capital, dialed up the violence.

Even before Moïse’s assassination, these militias and armed groups existed alongside politicians who used them to do their bidding, including everything from intimidating the opposition to collecting votes . With the dwindling of the country’s elected officials, though, many of these rebel forces have engaged in excessively violent acts, and have taken control of at least 80% of the capital, according to a United Nations estimate. 

Those groups, which include paramilitary and former police officers who pose as community leaders, have been responsible for the increase in killings, kidnappings and rapes since Moïse’s death, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at Uppsala University in Sweden. According to a report from the U.N . released in January, more than 8,400 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in 2023, an increase of 122% increase from 2022.

“January and February have been the most violent months in the recent crisis, with thousands of people killed, or injured, or raped,” Beckett said.

Image: Ariel Henry

Armed groups who had been calling for Henry’s resignation have already attacked airports, police stations, sea ports, the Central Bank and the country’s national soccer stadium. The situation reached critical mass earlier this month when the country’s two main prisons were raided , leading to the escape of about 4,000 prisoners. The beleaguered government called a 72-hour state of emergency, including a night-time curfew — but its authority had evaporated by then.

Aside from human-made catastrophes, Haiti still has not fully recovered from the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed about 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless, many of them living in poorly built and exposed housing. More earthquakes, hurricanes and floods have followed, exacerbating efforts to rebuild infrastructure and a sense of national unity.

Since the earthquake, “there have been groups in Haiti trying to control that reconstruction process and the funding, the billions of dollars coming into the country to rebuild it,” said Beckett, who specializes in the Caribbean, particularly Haiti. 

Beckett said that control initially came from politicians and subsequently from armed groups supported by those politicians. Political “parties that controlled the government used the government for corruption to steal that money. We’re seeing the fallout from that.”

Haiti Experiences Surge Of Gang Violence

Many armed groups have formed in recent years claiming to be community groups carrying out essential work in underprivileged neighborhoods, but they have instead been accused of violence, even murder . One of the two main groups, G-9, is led by a former elite police officer, Jimmy Chérizier — also known as “Barbecue” — who has become the public face of the unrest and claimed credit for various attacks on public institutions. He has openly called for Henry to step down and called his campaign an “armed revolution.”

But caught in the crossfire are the residents of Haiti. In just one week, 15,000 people have been displaced from Port-au-Prince, according to a U.N. estimate. But people have been trying to flee the capital for well over a year, with one woman telling NBC News that she is currently hiding in a church with her three children and another family with eight children. The U.N. said about 160,000 people have left Port-au-Prince because of the swell of violence in the last several months. 

Deep poverty and famine are also a serious danger. Gangs have cut off access to the country’s largest port, Autorité Portuaire Nationale, and food could soon become scarce.

Haiti's uncertain future

A new transitional government may dismay the Haitians and their supporters who call for Haitian-led solutions to the crisis. 

But the creation of such a government would come after years of democratic disruption and the crumbling of Haiti’s political leadership. The country hasn’t held an election in eight years. 

Haitian advocates and scholars like Jemima Pierre, a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, say foreign intervention, including from the U.S., is partially to blame for Haiti’s turmoil. The U.S. has routinely sent thousands of troops to Haiti , intervened in its government and supported unpopular leaders like Henry.

“What you have over the last 20 years is the consistent dismantling of the Haitian state,” Pierre said. “What intervention means for Haiti, what it has always meant, is death and destruction.”

Image: Workers unload humanitarian aid from a U.S. helicopter at Les Cayes airport in Haiti, Aug. 18, 2021.

In fact, the country’s situation was so dire that Henry was forced to travel abroad in the hope of securing a U.N. peacekeeping deal. He went to Kenya, which agreed to send 1,000 troops to coordinate an East African and U.N.-backed alliance to help restore order in Haiti, but the plan is now on hold . Kenya agreed last October to send a U.N.-sanctioned security force to Haiti, but Kenya’s courts decided it was unconstitutional. The result has been Haiti fending for itself. 

“A force like Kenya, they don’t speak Kreyòl, they don’t speak French,” Pierre said. “The Kenyan police are known for human rights abuses . So what does it tell us as Haitians that the only thing that you see that we deserve are not schools, not reparations for the cholera the U.N. brought , but more military with the mandate to use all kinds of force on our population? That is unacceptable.”  

Henry was forced to announce his planned resignation from Puerto Rico, as threats of violence — and armed groups taking over the airports — have prevented him from returning to his country.  

An elderly woman runs in front of the damaged police station building with tires burning in front of it

Now that Henry is to stand down, it is far from clear what the armed groups will do or demand next, aside from the right to govern. 

“It’s the Haitian people who know what they’re going through. It’s the Haitian people who are going to take destiny into their own hands. Haitian people will choose who will govern them,” Chérizier said recently, according to The Associated Press .

Haitians and their supporters have put forth their own solutions over the years, holding that foreign intervention routinely ignores the voices and desires of Haitians. 

In 2021, both Haitian and non-Haitian church leaders, women’s rights groups, lawyers, humanitarian workers, the Voodoo Sector and more created the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis . The commission has proposed the “ Montana Accord ,” outlining a two-year interim government with oversight committees tasked with restoring order, eradicating corruption and establishing fair elections. 

For more from NBC BLK, sign up for our weekly newsletter .

CORRECTION (March 15, 2024, 9:58 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated which university Jemima Pierre is affiliated with. She is a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, not the University of California, Los Angeles, (or Columbia University, as an earlier correction misstated).

what's a power trip slang

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

what's a power trip slang

Char Adams is a reporter for NBC BLK who writes about race.

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Putin begins his fifth term as president, more in control of Russia than ever

At a ceremony inside the gilded Grand Kremlin Palace, Putin placed his hand on the Russian constitution and vowed to defend it as a crowd of hand-picked dignitaries looked on.

Vladimir Putin walks to take his oath as Russian president during an inauguration ceremony in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Vladimir Putin walks to take his oath as Russian president during an inauguration ceremony in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

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Honour guard soldiers attend Vladimir Putin’s inauguration ceremony as Russian president in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Vladimir Putin takes his oath as Russian president during an inauguration ceremony in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, attends a prayer service conducted by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia, left, following an inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Alexey Maishev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

A Honour guard soldier carries the Russian Constitution during Vladimir Putin’s inauguration ceremony as Russian president in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Vladimir Putin arrives for his inauguration ceremony as Russian president in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives for an inauguration ceremony to begin his fifth term as Russian president in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Alexey Maishev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia attend a prayer service following an inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Alexey Maishev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Vladimir Putin arrives for an inauguration ceremony to begin his fifth term as Russian president in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

American action-movie actor Steven Seagal arrives for Vladimir Putin’s inauguration ceremony as Russian president in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

Vladimir Putin attends an inauguration ceremony as Russian president in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Vladimir Putin arrives for his inauguration ceremony as Russian President in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia talk during a prayer service following an inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Alexey Maishev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, attends a prayer service conducted by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia following an inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Alexey Maishev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a prayer service following an inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Alexey Maishev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, background center, attends a prayer service conducted by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, left, following an inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin’s Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Alexey Maishev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to honour guards of the Presidential regiment following his inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, rear center, reviews honour guards of the Presidential regiment following his inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Head of Russia’s Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov speaks to media after Vladimir Putin’s inauguration ceremony as Russian president in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Maxim Shemetov/Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin reviews honour guards of the Presidential regiment following his inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Putin began his fifth term Tuesday as Russian leader at a glittering Kremlin inauguration, setting out on another six years in office after destroying his political opponents, launching a devastating war in Ukraine and concentrating all power in his hands. (Pavel Bednyakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

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President Vladimir Putin began his fifth term at a glittering Kremlin inauguration Tuesday, embarking on another six years as leader of Russia after destroying his political opponents, launching a devastating war in Ukraine and concentrating all power in his hands.

At the ceremony in the gilded Grand Kremlin Palace, Putin placed his hand on the Russian Constitution and vowed to defend it as a crowd of hand-picked dignitaries looked on.

“We are a united and great people and together we will overcome all obstacles, realize all our plans, together we will win,” Putin said after being sworn in.

Since succeeding President Boris Yeltsin in the waning hours of 1999, Putin has transformed Russia from a country emerging from economic collapse to a pariah state that threatens global security. Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has become Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, Russia has been heavily sanctioned by the West and is turning to other regimes like China, Iran and North Korea for support.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses members of the Defense Ministry, the National Guard, the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Federal Guard Service at the Kremlin, in Moscow on June 27, 2023. Putin will begins his fifth term as Russian president in an opulent Kremlin inauguration on Tuesday after destroying his political opposition, launching a devastating war in Ukraine and consolidating power. (Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Already in office for nearly a quarter-century and the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin, Putin’s new term doesn’t expire until 2030, when he will be constitutionally eligible to run again.

In a heavily choreographed performance, Putin was pictured in his office looking at his papers before walking along the Kremlin’s long corridors, pausing at one point to look at a painting, on the way to his inauguration.

AP AUDIO: Putin begins his fifth term as president, more in control of Russia than ever

AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on the inauguration ceremony of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

His guard of honor waited in the sleet and rain for hours, in temperatures hovering just above freezing, while Putin made the brief journey to the Grand Kremlin Palace in his Auras limousine.

Putin used the the first moments of his fifth term to thank the “heroes” of his war in Ukraine and to rail against the West.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at a ceremony to present medals on the eve of Heroes of the Fatherland Day at St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. Putin seems to be hoping that relentless military pressure, changing Western political dynamics and a global focus on the war in Gaza will drain support for Ukraine. (Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at a ceremony to present medals on the eve of Heroes of the Fatherland Day at St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. (Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Russia “does not refuse dialogue with Western states,” he said. Rather, he said, “the choice is theirs: do they intend to continue trying to contain Russia, continue the policy of aggression, continuous pressure on our country for years, or look for a path to cooperation and peace.”

He was greeted with applause when he entered the hall with more than 2,500 invited guests. They included senior members of the Russian government as well as celebrities including American actor Steven Seagal.

Neither the U.S., U.K. nor German ambassadors attended. The U.S. Embassy said Ambassador Lynne Tracy was out of the country on “prescheduled, personal travel.”

A handful of European Union envoys attended even though top EU diplomat Josep Borrell said he told them “the right thing to do is not to attend this inauguration,” because Putin is the subject of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine .

Among those present was the French ambassador, according to a French diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu arrive for a meeting with the military brass in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023. A Shoigu deputy was detained last month on charges of bribery amid reports of rampant corruption. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

A 30-gun salute followed Putin’s remarks. He reviewed the presidential regiment in the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square in a light drizzle and then walked into nearby Annunciation Cathedral for a blessing from Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

During the brief service, Kirill compared Putin to Prince Alexander Nevsky, the medieval ruler who “courageously defended their people on the battlefield.”

He reminded Putin that the head of state sometimes “has to take fateful and formidable decisions” that can lead to victims, an apparent reference to the many casualties in Ukraine — a conflict the church has endorsed.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk during their meeting on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (Sergey Savostyanov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk during their meeting on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (Sergey Savostyanov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

The question now is what the 71-year-old Putin will do over the course of another six years in the Kremlin, both at home and abroad.

Russian forces are gaining ground in Ukraine, deploying scorched-earth tactics as Kyiv grapples with shortages of men and ammunition.

Ukraine has brought the battle to Russian soil through drone and missile attacks, especially in border regions. In a speech in February, Putin vowed to fulfill Moscow’s goals in Ukraine , and do what is needed to “defend our sovereignty and security of our citizens.”

Shortly after his orchestrated reelection in March, Putin suggested that a confrontation between NATO and Russia is possible, and he declared he wanted to carve out a buffer zone in Ukraine to protect his country from cross-border attacks.

The Russian government has now been dissolved so that Putin can name a new prime minister and Cabinet.

One key area to watch is the Defense Ministry.

Last month, Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov — a protege of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu — was detained on charges of bribery amid reports of rampant corruption. Some analysts have suggested Shoigu could become a victim of the government reshuffle but that would be a bold move, with the war still raging.

At home, Putin’s popularity is closely tied to improving living standards for ordinary Russians.

Putin on Tuesday once again promised Russians a prosperous future, but since the invasion of Ukraine, many have seen the cost of living rise.

Putin began his term in 2018 by promising to get Russia into the top five global economies, vowing it should be “modern and dynamic.” Instead, Russia’s economy has pivoted to a war footing , and authorities are spending record amounts on defense.

Analysts say now that Putin has secured another six years in power, the government could take the unpopular steps of raising taxes to fund the war and pressure more men to join the military.

In the years following the invasion, authorities have cracked down on any form of dissent with a ferocity not seen since Soviet times.

Putin indicated Tuesday that he would continue to silence critics.

He told his audience in the Grand Kremlin Palace to remember the “tragic cost of internal turmoil and upheaval,” and said that Russia “must be strong and absolutely resistant to any challenges and threats.”

Putin enters his fifth term with practically no opposition inside the country.

Laws have been enacted that threaten long prison terms for anyone who discredits the military. The Kremlin also targets independent media, rights groups, LGBTQ+ activists and others who don’t hew to what Putin has emphasized as Russia’s “traditional family values.”

His greatest political foe, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic penal colony in February. Other prominent critics have either been imprisoned or have fled the country, and even some of his opponents abroad fear for their security .

Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, released a video ahead of the inauguration in which she said Putin’s promises “are not only empty, they are false.”

Russia, she said, is “ruled by a liar, a thief and a murderer.”

EMMA BURROWS

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The Supreme Court is nearing the end of its term. Here are the major cases it still has to decide.

By Melissa Quinn

May 7, 2024 / 9:38 AM EDT / CBS News

Washington — The Supreme Court has wrapped up arguments for its current term and until around the end of June, it will be handing down opinions for the remaining cases, among them, over a dozen involving hot-button issues including abortion, guns, homelessness, Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy plan and the prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

This term, which began in October 2023, follows two in which the Supreme Court handed down consequential decisions unwinding the constitutional right to abortion and bringing to an end affirmative action in higher education. The justices kicked off this latest slate of cases with several involving administrative law and online speech. But it was a pair of disputes involving Trump that captured widespread attention and thrust the justices into the center of legal battles with high stakes for the former president as he mounts a bid to return to the White House.

The court has already decided one of the cases involving the presumptive Republican presidential nominee: whether Colorado could keep him off the 2024 ballot using a Civil War-era provision of the 14th Amendment. The high court ruled in March that states cannot disqualify Trump from holding the presidency under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and allowed him to stay on the ballot.

"It's the most consequential term of my lifetime," said Victoria Nourse, law professor at Georgetown University, "because they're covering a gambit of things from guns to abortion to presidential power."

Here are the most significant cases that the Supreme Court will decide in the coming weeks:

Presidential immunity for Trump

Trump v. United States

Argued April 25

The Supreme Court is considering whether a former president is entitled to sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for allegedly official acts taken while in the White House. Trump has argued that he cannot be criminally charged for his alleged efforts to subvert the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election.

The decision by the Supreme Court will impact special counsel Jack Smith's case against Trump in Washington, D.C., where the former president has pleaded not guilty to the four charges he is facing. But a ruling could also have consequences for two other cases involving Trump: One, also brought by Smith, in South Florida involving Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents; and a second brought by prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, related to Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

During arguments in April, the last of the term, the Supreme Court seemed likely to recognize that former presidents are entitled to some level of immunity from federal prosecution for acts undertaken while in the White House. But the justices expressed skepticism toward Trump's claim that he is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution.

FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and Danco Laboratories, LLC v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

Argued March 26

Less than two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade , the issue of abortion returned to the high court. This case involves access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone and whether the Food and Drug Administration acted unlawfully when it relaxed the rules for the drug's use in 2016 and 2021.

The challenge was brought by a group of anti-abortion rights doctors and medical associations who claimed the agency went too far when it made the changes that made mifepristone easier to obtain. 

During arguments, the justices seemed inclined to maintain access to the drug. Several expressed skepticism that the medical groups and physicians had the legal right to sue, a concept known as standing. If a majority of the court finds that the challengers do not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit, it would order the case to be dismissed.  

Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States

Argued April 24

This pair of cases involves the interplay between Idaho's near-total ban on abortion and a federal law that requires Medicare-participating hospitals to provide necessary stabilizing treatment to a mother whose health is at serious risk.

The Biden administration has argued that in certain circumstances, that stabilizing treatment will be abortion care. But Idaho lawmakers have said that the administration is using the law, called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, to invalidate state abortion restrictions enacted after Roe's reversal.

The justices appeared divided during arguments over whether federal law requires physicians in states with stringent abortion bans to offer pregnancy terminations in certain medical emergencies.

Social media and the First Amendment

Moody v. NetChoice, LLC, and NetChoice, LLC, v. Paxton

Argued Feb. 26

The two cases involve similar laws enacted in Florida and Texas that impose rules on social media companies and their content-moderation policies. Enacted in 2021, the Florida and Texas laws came in response to claims by Republicans that social media companies were silencing conservative viewpoints. 

At issue in the challenges, brought by Internet trade associations, is whether the states' restrictions on the social media companies violate the First Amendment. The justices heard arguments in February, during which they seemed skeptical that the Constitution allows states to regulate how the companies make decisions about the content posted to their platforms.

Murthy v. Missouri

Argued March 18

In another clash involving the First Amendment and social media, the Supreme Court weighed whether the Biden administration violated the free speech rights of a group of social media users when it pressured platforms to remove content it believed spread misinformation about the 2020 election and COVID-19 pandemic.

The dispute tests how far federal officials can go to push platforms to take down or suppress posts before crossing a constitutional line. When the justices heard the case in March, several appeared wary of curtailing the administration's contacts with platforms and raised concerns about hampering officials' ability to communicate with social media companies about certain issues.

The regulatory power of federal agencies

Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce

Argued Jan. 17

In a major challenge to the power of federal agencies, these two cases call on the Supreme Court to overrule its 1984 decision in Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council. That case laid out the framework, known as Chevron deference, that requires judges to defer to an agency's interpretation of ambiguous statutes if it is reasonable.

The 40-year-old decision has long been a target of the conservative legal movement, which has argued that it gives federal officials too much power in crafting regulations that affect areas like the environment, public health and the workplace.

The justices heard arguments in January, during which the court's conservative majority seemed open to curtailing agencies' ability to interpret laws passed by Congress.

Garland v. Cargill

Argued Feb. 28

A ban on bump stocks implemented during the Trump administration is at the center of this dispute, brought by a Texas man who was forced to surrender his devices to comply with the restriction. The case does not involve the Second Amendment, but rather whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could outlaw bump stocks.

Bump stocks are attachments to semi-automatic rifles that speed up their rate of fire. Following the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas, where the shooter used semi-automatic weapons outfitted with bump stocks, ATF issued a rule finding that a rifle equipped with the device qualifies as a machine gun, as defined under federal law. Machine guns have been largely banned since 1986.

The justices heard arguments in the case in February and grappled with whether to leave the ban on bump stocks in place.

Obstruction charge for Jan. 6 defendants

Fischer v. U.S.

Argued April 16

More than 1,300 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, and of those, more than 350 are accused of violating a federal law that makes it a crime to "corruptly" obstruct or impede an official proceeding. 

But the Justice Department's use of that law is now under scrutiny from the Supreme Court, which is considering whether federal prosecutors can apply the obstruction law, passed in the wake of the Enron scandal, to the Jan. 6 attack.

The outcome of the case could affect the Jan. 6 defendants who have already been convicted of the obstruction offense or pleaded guilty, as a decision rejecting prosecutors' broad reading of the measure could lead to new trials or lighter sentences. The ruling could also impact the federal prosecution of Trump in Washington, D.C., as he is charged with one count of obstructing an official proceeding — Congress' counting of Electoral College votes — and one count of conspiring to obstruct the proceeding, as well as two other charges. 

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all four counts. 

During arguments in April, the court appeared divided over prosecutors' use of the obstruction statute. 

Funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association

Argued Oct. 3

On the second day of the term, the Supreme Court heard a case challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding mechanism.

The question in the legal battle is whether the way in which the CFPB receives its funding violates the Constitution's Appropriations Clause. The dispute is one of several that has been brought since the CFPB's creation in 2010 that has sought to weaken the agency.

But during the arguments, several of the justices expressed skepticism that the CFPB's funding mechanism is unconstitutional.

Federal firearms prohibition for alleged domestic abusers

United States v. Rahimi

Argued Nov. 7

This case presented the Supreme Court with its first opportunity to clarify its June 2022 decision that expanded the scope of the Second Amendment. In that ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, the justices laid out a new standard which says gun laws must fit with the nation's history and tradition of firearms regulation to pass constitutional muster. To demonstrate that, the government must put forth laws that are analogous to the modern-day measure at issue.

This dispute involves a 1994 law that prohibits people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from having guns. A federal appeals court struck down the 30-year-old law under the Supreme Court's new test, and the justices considered whether the prohibition violates the Second Amendment.

The justices appeared inclined to leave in place the law stripping alleged domestic abusers of their firearms, and several suggested that those deemed dangerous to society could be disarmed.

Racial gerrymandering

Alexander v. South Carolina Conference of the NAACP

Argued Oct. 11

At issue in this case are the lines of South Carolina's Congressional District 1, which a lower court struck down as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The district, represented by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, was redrawn after the 2020 Census to produce a safer Republican district. To achieve that goal, state GOP officials moved more than 30,000 Black voters from Congressional District 1 into a neighboring district. 

The Supreme Court weighed whether race or politics was the predominant factor during the mapmaking process, though the conservative justices appeared likely to leave the GOP-drawn lines intact .

Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy plan

Harrington v. Purdue Pharma

Argued Dec. 4

This court fight arose from a bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma , which shields the Sackler family from civil lawsuits stemming from the opioid crisis. The Sacklers owned and operated Purdue during the height of the opioid epidemic, and after Purdue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019, the family agreed to contribute $6 billion for abatement of the opioid crisis in exchange for the legal shield.

The bankruptcy plan was approved by 95% of victims, but several states, Canadian municipalities and a smaller group of individuals opposed it because of the protections for the Sacklers. The case involves whether those dissenters should be bound by the releases and therefore unable to pursue their own opioid-related lawsuits against the Sacklers, who never filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Justice Department objects to Purdue's bankruptcy plan and has argued that the so-called third party releases are not allowed under federal bankruptcy code.

Some of the justices during arguments raised concerns about the consequences of a decision unraveling Purdue's bankruptcy agreement, especially for victims and their family members who stand to benefit from it. Others, meanwhile, noted that the plan deprives the holdouts of the ability to hold the Sacklers accountable in civil court, and said the family is benefitting from bankruptcy protection without ever declaring bankruptcy.

A provision of Trump's tax reform package

Moore v. U.S.

Argued Dec. 5

This case involves a challenge to an obscure provision of Republicans' sweeping tax reform package signed into law by Trump in 2017. The mandatory repatriation tax is a one-time tax targeting U.S. taxpayers who hold shares of certain foreign corporations and requires them to pay a levy on their proportionate share of the company's earnings.

The tax was projected to generate roughly $340 billion in revenue over 10 years. A couple from Washington state challenged the tax as impermissible under the 16th Amendment, but the Supreme Court appeared likely to leave it in place .

EPA rule for addressing harmful smog

Ohio v. EPA; Kinder Morgan, Inc. v. EPA; America Forest and Paper Association v. EPA; and U.S. Steel Corp v. EPA

Argued Feb. 21

In these cases, which were heard together, the court is considering whether to halt an environmental rule from the Biden administration that aims to curb air pollution and address harmful smog that travels from certain states into others.

The dispute stems from a plan announced by the EPA in 2023 that established an emissions-control program for large industrial sources like power plants and factories in 23 states. The EPA said emissions from those facilities were contributing significantly to smog pollution in downwind states.

Three GOP-led states, energy companies and industry groups challenged the initiative, and the Supreme Court seemed likely to halt the "good neighbor" rule during arguments in February.

Anti-camping ordinances

City of Grants Pass v. Johnson

Argued April 22

Arising out of an Oregon city's ordinances banning public camping, the case raises whether it's a violation of the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment to punish homeless people with civil citations for camping on public property when they have nowhere else to go.

The dispute is the most significant involving homelessness to come before the Supreme Court in decades, and the outcome could impact how cities and states respond to high rates of homelessness as encampments pop up on public property.

The justices weighed the constitutionality of anti-camping laws during arguments in April and appeared divided over whether the city of Grants Pass went too far with its rules.

  • Purdue Pharma
  • Donald Trump

Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.

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  1. Urban Dictionary: power trip

    Someone, typically at work, who has higher powers over most people they work with. This higher power (usually a manager or someone's boss) tends to go to their head causing them to "Power trip" and abuse their rights as a manager/boss/owner. Such as picking on people or making their lives difficult, "Just because they can." is a person who is on a Power Trip.

  2. Power trip Definition & Meaning

    power trip: [noun] an activity or way of behaving that makes a person feel powerful : something that a person does for the pleasure of using power to control other people.

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    Here are a few ways to provide safety for people who've been hurt and/or traumatized in relationships: Ask permission. Ask about timing, locations, activities, topics that are OK to discuss ...

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    1. power trip - (slang) a self-aggrandizing action undertaken simply for the pleasure of exercising control over other people. control - the activity of managing or exerting control over something; "the control of the mob by the police was admirable". jargon, lingo, patois, argot, vernacular, slang, cant - a characteristic language of a ...

  6. Definition of power trip

    power trip: [noun] an instance of someone abusing their position of power. Jerome has been on a power trip since he got promoted.

  7. POWER TRIP Definition & Meaning

    Power trip definition: an act or instance of exerting one's power, authority, or influence. See examples of POWER TRIP used in a sentence.

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    Definition of power trip noun in Oxford Advanced American Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. ... an action or way of behaving in which a person gets great pleasure from having control over others Barnes has been on a power trip ever since he was promoted to head coach.

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    Definition of power trip noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

  11. Power-trip

    Define power-trip. power-trip synonyms, power-trip pronunciation, power-trip translation, English dictionary definition of power-trip. n. Slang A sustained and often aggressive exercise of power over others in order to boost one's stature or feelings of self-worth: "He was giving orders,...

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    Why Learn Idioms and Slang? Usage Guide; Videos; Blog; Facebook Twitter. Power trip. DEFINITION. Exceeding one's authority. An unfounded sense of one's importance. The word is typically used in a scornful sense of someone who is elevated to a position that they conceive has more authority than it should. ... He's just on a power trip." ...

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    1 ENTRIES FOUND: power trip (noun) power trip noun. plural power trips. Britannica Dictionary definition of POWER TRIP. [count] : an activity or way of behaving that makes a person feel powerful : something that a person does for the pleasure of using power to control other people. She's been on a power trip since she was promoted to manager.

  15. POWER TRIP Definition & Usage Examples

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  16. power-trip, v.

    1977: C. McFadden Serial 61: Rule number one is no power tripping.: 1978: R. Caron Go-Boy! 26: That big creep is power-tripping, Rog.: 1995: M. Dibdin Dark Spectre (1996) 21: It was another repressive pre-emptive strike at the drug culture of which the power-trippers in Washington were rightly terrified.: 2004: L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] What was with these violent, power-tripping men?

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    Green's Dictionary of Slang. Home; Browse; Search; Bibliography; About. power trip n. [SE power + trip n. 4 (2a ... 1971: J. Mandelkau Buttons 85: He was on his own power trip. 1977: C. McFadden Serial 21: Screaming at Harvey about how he was a 'sickie on a power trip'. 1989: T. Blacker Fixx 306: No power trips, just a basic understanding ...

  18. What is a power trip slang?

    Power trip slang is a colloquial term used to describe someone who is abusing their power or authority in a situation. It can refer to individuals who are behaving in a domineering or controlling manner, often at the expense of others. This behavior can occur in various contexts, such …

  19. Power tripper

    Noun. 1. power trip - (slang) a self-aggrandizing action undertaken simply for the pleasure of exercising control over other people. control - the activity of managing or exerting control over something; "the control of the mob by the police was admirable". jargon, lingo, patois, argot, vernacular, slang, cant - a characteristic language of a ...

  20. Slang for "power trip" (Related Terms)

    According to the algorithm behind Urban Thesaurus, the top 5 slang words for "power trip" are: nobles, voyage, thunder cunt, bitch kitty, and shrooms. There are 1396 other synonyms or words related to power trip listed above. Note that due to the nature of the algorithm, some results returned by your query may only be concepts, ideas or words ...

  21. Top 20 Slang For Trip

    6. Jaunt. A jaunt is a short journey or trip, usually taken for pleasure or leisure. It often implies a quick and enjoyable outing. For example, "Let's take a jaunt to the beach this weekend."; A traveler might say, "I'm going on a jaunt to explore the nearby town."; Someone planning a day trip might suggest, "We could go on a jaunt to the amusement park."

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    In drug slang, a trip is a metaphor for the hallucinatory high produced by LSD, magic mushrooms, and other drugs. The term dates back to the 1920s. When people are tripping on hallucinogenic drugs, they can act very erratic, which probably accounts for the use of trppin' for "acting insane, foolish, or without thinking" in general slang by the late 1980s.

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    The term popped up in World War II, and the first known use is from a 1941 issue of New Statesman, which provides a definition and some context: "Organise, to acquire illicitly. (A new R.A.F ...

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    10. Deadly. Commonly used in everyday Dublin slang, 'Deadly' is Irish slang for 'Good/great'. For example, 'This Irish phrases guide would be deadly if it wasn't for those fec*in ads!'. 11. Giving out. Although many of us in Ireland think 'Giving out', which means 'To scold/complain', has a fairly obvious meaning, it's one of many Irish slang words that causes ...

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