PATOIS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does patois mean? 

• PATOIS (noun)
  The noun PATOIS has 2 senses:

1. a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)

2. a regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard

  Familiarity information: PATOIS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PATOIS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

argot; cant; jargon; lingo; patois; slang; vernacular

Context example:

they don't speak our lingo

Hypernyms ("patois" is a kind of...):

non-standard speech (speech that differs from the usual accepted, easily recognizable speech of native adult members of a speech community)

Domain member usage:

tripper ((slang) someone who has taken a psychedelic drug and is undergoing hallucinations)

Boche; Hun; Jerry; Kraut; Krauthead (offensive term for a person of German descent)

juice (energetic vitality)

skinful (a quantity of alcoholic drink sufficient to make you drunk)

key (a kilogram of a narcotic drug)

big bucks; big money; bundle; megabucks; pile (a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit))

juice (electric current)

wog ((offensive British slang) term used by the British to refer to people of color from Africa or Asia)

drop-dead (extremely)

airhead (a flighty scatterbrained simpleton)

bad egg ((old-fashioned slang) a bad person)

suit ((slang) a businessman dressed in a business suit)

squeeze ((slang) a person's girlfriend or boyfriend)

schlockmeister; shlockmeister ((slang) a merchant who deals in shoddy or inferior merchandise)

out-and-outer (someone who is excellent at something)

old man ((slang) boss)

guvnor ((British slang) boss)

good egg ((old-fashioned slang) a good person)

butch; dike; dyke ((slang) offensive term for a lesbian who is noticeably masculine)

boffin ((British slang) a scientist or technician engaged in military research)

can-do (marked by a willingness to tackle a job and get it done)

clean; plum; plumb (completely; used as intensifiers)

slam-bang (violent and sudden and noisy)

pint-size; pint-sized; runty; sawed-off; sawn-off (well below average height)

bolshy; stroppy (obstreperous)

mean (excellent)

some (remarkable)

grotty (very unpleasant or offensive)

butch ((of male or female homosexuals) characterized by stereotypically male traits or appearance)

uncool ((spoken slang) unfashionable and boring)

freaky (strange and somewhat frightening)

the shits; the trots (obscene terms for diarrhea)

besotted; blind drunk; blotto; cockeyed; crocked; fuddled; loaded; pie-eyed; pissed; pixilated; plastered; slopped; sloshed; smashed; soaked; soused; sozzled; squiffy; stiff; tight; wet (very drunk)

square; straight (rigidly conventional or old-fashioned)

bunk off; play hooky (play truant from work or school)

chuck; ditch (throw away)

hoof (dance in a professional capacity)

feel (pass one's hands over the sexual organs of)

buy it; pip out (be killed or die)

give (occur)

bitch (an unpleasant difficulty)

heebie-jeebies; jitters; screaming meemies (extreme nervousness)

square-bashing (drill on a barracks square)

soup-strainer; toothbrush (slang for a mustache)

legs (staying power)

cert (an absolute certainty)

dreck; schlock; shlock (merchandise that is shoddy or inferior)

nick ((British slang) a prison)

Mickey Finn (slang term for knockout drops)

gat; rod (a gangster's pistol)

deck (street name for a packet of illegal drugs)

caff (informal British term for a cafe)

shakedown (a very thorough search of a person or a place)

arse; arsehole; asshole; bunghole (vulgar slang for anus)

dekko (British slang for a look)

hand job; jacking off; jerking off; wank (slang for masturbation)

blowjob; cock sucking (slang for fellatio)

ass; fuck; fucking; nookie; nooky; piece of ass; piece of tail; roll in the hay; screw; screwing; shag; shtup (slang for sexual intercourse)

power trip ((slang) a self-aggrandizing action undertaken simply for the pleasure of exercising control over other people)

shakedown (extortion of money (as by blackmail))

heist; rip-off (the act of stealing)

swiz (British slang for a swindle)

bite (a portion removed from the whole)

burnup (a high-speed motorcycle race on a public road)

Jap; Nip ((offensive slang) offensive term for a person of Japanese descent)

dago; ginzo; greaseball; Guinea; wop ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Italian descent)

Chinaman; chink ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Chinese descent)

hymie; kike; sheeny; yid ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a Jew)

Injun; red man; Redskin ((slang) offensive term for Native Americans)

honkey; honkie; honky; whitey ((slang) offensive names for a White man)

poor white trash; white trash ((slang) an offensive term for White people who are impoverished)

'hood; hood ((slang) a neighborhood)

nosh-up (a large satisfying meal)

spic; spick; spik ((ethnic slur) offensive term for persons of Latin American descent)

bun-fight; bunfight ((Briticism) a grand formal party on an important occasion)

dibs (a claim of rights)

skin flick (a pornographic movie)

applesauce; codswallop; folderol; rubbish; trash; tripe; trumpery; wish-wash (nonsensical talk or writing)

baloney; bilgewater; boloney; bosh; drool; humbug; taradiddle; tarradiddle; tommyrot; tosh; twaddle (pretentious or silly talk or writing)

hooey; poppycock; stuff; stuff and nonsense (senseless talk)

corker ((dated slang) a remarkable or excellent thing or person)

niff; pong (an unpleasant smell)

bay window; corporation; pot; potbelly; tummy (slang for a paunch)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "patois"):

street name (slang for something (especially for an illegal drug))

rhyming slang (slang that replaces words with rhyming words or expressions and then typically omits the rhyming component)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("patois" is a kind of...):

accent; dialect; idiom (the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people)

Domain usage:

French (the Romance language spoken in France and in countries colonized by France)