Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
verb
To tell someone to fuck off.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, euphemistic, humorous
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Coined in 1971 from an incident in which Pressdram, publisher of Private Eye magazine, received a legal letter from a solicitor acting for a Mr Arkell. Pressdram's reply stated: We note that Mr Arkell's attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off. The phrase is written as a pseudo-legal citation, as if Arkell v Pressdram were a real court case, although the proceedings never actually made it to court.
