effing

«effing» in Mova's school dictionary: a softer stand-in for the very rude f-word, used to add… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective, adverb, verb (effing, eff, effed); stand-in word

meaning for a pupil

(slang, euphemism, UK) a softer stand-in for the very rude f-word, used to add anger or force. tree →

sense in the lessons

People say «effing» to swear without saying the full rude word; still rude, used in angry talk, TV and comedy; UK, Ireland, Australia.

examples

• The effing car won't start! tree →
• Chat: «It's effing freezing.» tree →
• «Turn that effing music down!» shouted the neighbour. tree →
• He was effing and blinding at the referee. tree →
• Not an effing chance. tree →
• It's an effing joke, this bus service. tree →

note

Still rude: everyone knows which word it stands for. Not for school or polite talk.

In the corpora

• "Effing" is British slang that says only the first sound of the f-word swear.
• "Effing and blinding" means swearing a lot; it is British slang.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «effing» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.