I am struggling to answer this question!
Is there a single verb to describe the actions of someone walking along a pavement in London, or any other city for that matter, when that person casually/frantically retrieves a mobile phone from a part of their body or clothing; stares at it enigmatically, often purses the lips, then puts it back from whence it was retrieved.
There is never a sound from either the machine or it’s owner.
The action spells despair, hope for unrequited love, position in a hierarchy, peer gropu pressure, insecurity in their society…
I wish I knew, as the word hasn’t been invented yet.
8 comments:
Suggest you buy Roger's Profanisaurus if you don't have it alreday, it contains the vital and essential phrases to cover most, if not all, contingencies.
I agree with Tuscan - Roger's Profanisaurus cannot be beaten.
Here are some examples:
Take an air dump - to pass wind
Take Captain Picard to warp speed - to masturbate aggressively
Spasm Chasm - vagina
My edition is nine years old now. I can't find the word you're looking for, but I do understand what you mean. You can tell a person's status by how anxiously they treat their phone. Real high rollers have one of their entourage carry their phone for them.
I'm not important enough to have a mobile phone, so that puts me beneath teenagers, chavs and spivs.
Thanks Chaps, I'd forgotten about that one!
There was a time when a chum used to call me and introduce the 'Rusty Sherriff's Badge' into every statement he made!
Have you seen this link?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/
Actually, I've just thought of something...
I'll ask Melvyn Bragg; he knows every word in the dictionary, and I just can't understand him any more!
I do like the man though, because he introduced Mike Oldfield playing the whole of Tubular Bells live on his show, in November 1973!
In that performance, (which I watched in ecstasy while Mrs S slumbered), Mick Taylor was playing guitar. I met him a couple of years later when my firm were building a 'meditation room' for him at his house near Rye! It was the closest I've ever got to stardom...
Actually, this is a more important subject to think about than some kid wandering about peering hopefully at his/her mobile...!
dangle-ber·ry (dan gal běr'ē)
n. pl. dangleber·ries
Unpleasant attachment.
Medical. The small, dark egg of derived from a pubic hair, skin scurf and excereta, having the whole wall fleshy, such as the grape or tomato.
A small, juicy, fleshy bitter fruit, tasting as a kidney or liver, regardless of its structure.
I think the verb is "to check the time"
I haven't regularly worn a watch since I got my first mobile in '99
Sorry Scrobes, we are all just finding out what the time is!
Lilith and Ed,
Thanks for the offer of a word but...
Ed - Good point! Except that without my glasses, which steam up reglarly, I can only see bugger all!
Lilith - I was going to elaborate on the insecurity bit until you replied, so, back to the drawing board!
There is a way...if only we can find it. I may ask John Humphrys!
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