Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Chiefly British Slang Variant of ass2.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The buttocks or hind part of an animal.
Wiktionary
- n. chiefly UK, Australia, New Zealand The buttocks.
- n. chiefly UK (not used in US, Canada) A stupid, mean or despicable person.
- v. slang, intransitive To be silly, act stupid or mess around.
- v. slang To make, to bother. (If one cannot be arsed to do something, one does not have the will to make the effort to do it.)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The buttocks, or hind part of an animal; the posteriors; the fundament; the bottom.
WordNet 3.0
- n. vulgar slang for anus
- n. the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
Etymologies
- From Old English ærs, ears, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz. Cognate with Dutch aars and German Arsch. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *órsos (“backside, buttocks”) (according to Julius Pokorny and Carl Darling Buck). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“If your arse is as wide as mine, then there's no excuse.”
“What chaps my arse is the notion put forth by Rob that the unwashed masses who DON'T own top-dollar weaponry are obviously cretins who wouldn't know a Purdey shotgun from a hoe handle and somehow are less able to appreciate the game they seek.”
“Some of the more orthodox Sodomites hold that to cover up the cock and arse is unholy, that the wearing of leather chaps that expose the crotch area is a divine decree of Pan Himself.”
“After he performed his statistical magic, the rallying cry of "the arse is out of her" was sounded far and wide.”
“We were visiting there a couple of years ago and I was having a chat with one of the "old-timers" who (talking about something that Danny Williams did) said, "Well - the arse is out of 'er now".”
“The next time you see someone saying that the "arse is out of 'er" you may want to wait for a week or two then check back and see how the arse is doing.”
“A couple of times a year something happens that causes them to shout "Well - the arse is out of her now, me b'y.”
“His arse is the smoothest I have ever seen on a grown man – human or not.”
“If you have a muslim name, and are not a terrorist, I apologize to you in advance but your arse is on the line also when you are on a plane.”
“You violate those procedures (however pointless and ridiculous they may be) your arse is on the line if anything happens.”
Sonnex and Farmer – only a matter of time. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘arse’.
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buttocks
words for buttocks and anything
to do with buttockshiney, heiney, nates, hindquarters, bum, backside, behind, bottom, breech, bunny, butt, can and 160 more...
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UK - slang
chin wag, arse about, bollock, starkers, sweet Fanny Adams, skive, shufti, codswallop, rhyming slang, bollocks, nookie, skew-whiff and 208 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Awesome Pronunciations
BRING IT ON!!!!!
!, !!, !!!, !!!!, !!!!!, peter piper, licet mihi venera..., aliquid in aere e..., SHAZAM!, dark-sided, vegan quiche...ev..., konstantinopolita... and 113 more...
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Words sung by: Belle and Sebastian
beguiling, herbaceous, peninsula, suffragette, damascan, hastening, berserk, overtime, leccy, bestow, swathe, arab strap and 193 more...
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Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 136 more...
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"Queen's" English
Collection of words from Old Blighty
sorted, sketchy, mate, oi, innit, ol' chum, brilliant, wicked, arse, bloody, bollocks, wanker and 12 more...
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britishisms
A tip of my hat to the snarkiest of English dialects. Here here!
Ponce, snog, bloody, barmy, blasted, blooming, bleeding, knackered, poppycock, wanker, tosser, cracked and 52 more...
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Mr. Pronunciation's Bad Day
Mr. Pronunciation is an upstanding and reliable sort of dude. He's like the Clark Kent of the pronunciation world. Sometimes, though, he botches up a pronunciation and, you know, he's in a hurry an...
colonel, treacle, cruel, laissez faire, poo, stupid, sashay, concrete, birthmark, chic, draught, gaur and 11 more...
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Rubbies
Words and things that rub me wrong
eclectic, canon, flesh, irregardless, conversate, can't, mandatory, war on christmas, male bonding, pissa, parochial, infallible and 98 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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the physical experience
wank, snog, tendon, sinew, sauce shelf, pet, arse, astigmatism, bisexual, brassiere, breast, climax and 186 more...
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Spod's Words
corpulent, squidge, squiffy, sinuosity, ebullient, finger, penetrate, stimulate, recalcitrant, recidivist, dunnock, rococo and 152 more...
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not for mixed company
sodding, git, trollop, bitch, sissy, bastard, strumpet, pillock, quack, scallywag, cad, minx and 23 more...
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jacksmynde's Words
flippant, areola, uvula, bespectacled, hussy, penchant, predilection, sojourn, frivolous, stipend, enamoured, smitten and 30 more...
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Quilp's Words
ankh, bung, zest, yawl, xeno, wart, vile, urge, tart, shag, runt, quim and 16 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for arse.
rolig And, Classically, ars means "art" in Latin. In Slovenia, Radio Slovenia 3, which features mainly classical music and high-culture programming, is called, Radio Ars, which used to crack me up (no pun intended). And their is an upscale chain of shoe stores in Ljubljana, which is also called ARS. Shoecabbages, indeed. Nov 20, 2009
frogapplause Do you mean as a possible shoecabbage, Pro? Nov 20, 2009
Prolagus Did you read the comment below, frogapplause? Nov 20, 2009
tbtabby Means "violin bow" in Turkish. Jul 13, 2009
Prolagus Song quotation on dire. Apr 27, 2009
muamor Heels over Head, topsy turvey, preposterously, without Order. Nathan Bailey, Universal Etymological Dictionary, 1736. Mar 4, 2008
brtom - Agonising Christ, wouldn't it give you a heartburn on your arse?
Joyce, Ulysses, 7 Jan 1, 2007