CB slang

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CB slang (commonly called "CB Talk") are terms that those operating CB radio used mainly during the CB craze of the 1970s and 1980s. Some of these slang terms are still in use with their original meanings, others not used at all and some have changed meaning. This list shows the historical meanings.

[edit] Popular slang terms

Some of the popular slang terms included:

• "Handle." A Handle is the nickname a CB user uses in CB transmissions. Other CB users will refer to the user by this nickname. To say "What's your handle?" is to ask another user for their CB nickname.
• "County Mountie." This refers to a Sheriff's deputy car.
• "Smokey." A law officer. A "smokey report" is what CB users say when they have information on a law officer, such as location or current activities.
• "Bear." Another slang term for a law officer. References to Smokey & Bear are both direct references to Smokey Bear, a character image commonly seen along U.S. highways. He wears a flat-brimmed forest ranger's hat very similar to the hat included in many highway patrol uniforms in the U.S.
• "Bear / Smokey in a plain brown wrapper." An unmarked police car.
• "Bear in the air" or "Fly in the sky." A police helicopter.
• "Bubble gum machine." See "Gum ball machine"
• "Back door." The area behind a vehicle. To say "I got your back door" means that someone is watching another's back. "Knocking at your back door" means approaching from behind.
• "City-Kitty." See "local yokel."
• "Four." Usually short for the ten code 10-4, which means acknowledged, ok, etc.
• "Four-wheeler." A small passenger vehicle, as distinguished from an "eighteen-wheeler" (a semi truck). More commonly, this is used to refer to a four-wheel-drive vehicle (such as a jeep or pickup).
• "Front door." The leader of a convoy.
• "Full-Grown." Refers to a state policeman/trooper, since he can go wherever he wants.
• "Gator...as in alligator." Refers to pieces of blown truck tire whose tread looks like an alligators back. A large piece, if hit just right, can do severe damage to a vehicle.
• "Gum ball machine" or "bubble gum machine" Reference to any law enforcement vehicle. It refers to a popular style of rotating mirror light used by many state police and some other law enforcement agencies at the time, however the term can refer to any law enforcement vehicle. It looked somewhat like the round style of 'penny' gumball machines. It was basically a clear cylinder, like an upside down jar, with lights and a spinning mirror system inside. It was usually mounted on the center of the roof.
• "Good buddy" friend.
• "Hauling fence post holes" or "Hauling sailboat fuel." Carrying an empty load.
• "I'm gone." means 'I am finished transmitting and will no longer be listening.'
• "Local yokel." A law officer with a city or township police force, seldom encountered on interstate highways.
• "Put the hammer down." Slang for shifting to the highest gear & flooring the accelerator.
• "Put the pedal to the metal." Another slang term for pushing down on the accelerator.
• "Picture-taker" or a "Smokey taking pictures" or "Kojak with a Kodak". A law officer monitoring traffic with a radar gun. Today, this can also refer to an automated speed camera.
• "Seat cover." An attractive female passenger in a vehicle.
• "Twenty" as in "What's your twenty?" This is asking the receiver what their current location is. This term comes from the ten-code 10-20.
• "Rolling refinery." A semi truck carrying fuel.
• "Sandbagging" A term used describe the activity of a person not participating in conversation but listening only, despite having the capability of speaking. This is not the same as listening in using a simple receiver, as the person doing this activity can transmit using the two-way radio, but chooses not to.<ref>http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/1608/page2.htm</ref><ref>http://www.acbro.org/a19.htm</ref> It is done to monitor people for entertainment or for gathering information about the actions of others. Often CBer’s will sandbag to listen to others' responses to their previous input to a conversation, sometimes referred to a "reading the mail".<ref>http://www.truckercountry.com/cb-terminology.html</ref>
• "Suicide jockey." A truck carrying explosives.
• "Got your ears on?" Asking the receiver if they are on the air and listening to you.
• "Breaker (channel number)" Telling other CB users that you'd like to start a transmission on a channel. ("One-nine" refers to channel 19, the most widely used among truck drivers.)
• "Breaker, breaker to (CB user handle)." A slang term telling another user that you'd like to speak to them.
• 10-100: (polite) Taking a bathroom break. "Smokey Bear taking a 10-100 on the roadside." Means, a patrolman is taking a bathroom break literally on the roadside, the road's shoulder, in some bushes. 10-100 is commonly only used to refer only to urination ("going number 1").
• 10-200: (polite) Most commonly used to refer defecation ("going number 2"). This different usage may have been spawned from the joke in Smokey & the Bandit.
• Toilet mouth/Potty mouth: Someone using profanity, foul language on the air. Cussing over CB channels is generally frowned upon.
• Evil Kinevil, cop on a motorcycle.
• Meat Wagon: Ambulance

[edit] References