Uni
Short for university, and the everyday word loads of people use in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. You say go to uni, be at uni, start uni, finish uni, drop out of uni. It carries the whole student-life cloud with it too: halls, grim kitchens, last-minute essays, cheap nights out and acting like being skint is basically a hobby.
Swot
That kid who actually revises, does the homework, and turns up with colour-coded notes while the rest of you are chatting absolute rubbish. Swot is usually a teasing label, not full-on nasty, a bit like teacher’s pet with extra stationery. As a verb, to swot means to study hard or cram for an exam. Swots definitely don’t help the grade boundaries.
Burn the midnight oil
It means staying up late to work or study, usually because something needs finishing and sleep's been shoved out the door. The old image was literal oil burning in a lamp while someone kept at it after dark. These days it's screens, caffeine and tired eyeballs, but the vibe's exactly the same.
Buckle down
To buckle down means to quit messing about and properly focus on the job in front of you. You use it when playtime's over and it's time to put your head down, whether that's work, revision, or fixing a chaos pile before it bites back. It gives off a roll-up-your-sleeves, let's get on with it kind of energy.
Knuckle down
To knuckle down means to stop messing about and properly get on with it. You use it when someone quits the excuses, puts their head in gear, and gives a job real focus and effort. It can be about studying, work, sorting your life out, whatever needs proper application.
With flying colours
Means you smashed it, not just scraped by. Most often used with exams, interviews, inspections, anything where you can pass or fail. If you do it with flying colours, you’ve excelled so hard people are a bit stunned. The phrase nods to old military and naval imagery of coming home with your colours still flying, victory intact.
Sail through
If you sail through something, you get through it ridiculously easily. An exam, an interview, a meeting, a load of admin, whatever. It gives effortless vibes, like you barely had to break a sweat. People use it when someone makes a tricky thing look easy, sometimes with a bit of admiration, sometimes with a tiny pinch of jealousy or sarcasm.
In the bag
You say this when something feels basically already won or safely locked in, even if nobody's made it official yet. Could be a job, a deal, an exam, a match, whatever. It's a confidence phrase with a tiny whiff of tempting fate, because if it all falls apart after you've said it, you'll look like a proper muppet.
Absolutely bricking it
You say this when you’re properly terrified or nervous, the kind of fear that makes your stomach flip and your hands go clammy. It’s just bricking it with the volume turned up. The rude mental picture is the point, like you’re so scared you could crap bricks. Handy for exams, first dates, flights, or any bossy quick chat.
Slog
A slog is a grim, tiring stretch of work that feels like it’ll never end, whether it’s a shift, a hike, or a mountain of uni reading. If someone says what a slog, they mean it took ages and absolutely drained them. To slog through something is to keep plodding on anyway, even when every minute feels like hard graft.
Janna
·
United States
"Fried is basically when someone's, you know, mentally drained or mentally exhausted, they're confused, they're like just done with whatever task they're doing. An example would be, because I tried so hard to lock in for this exam, but after three hours I'm just fried. I can't even look at any book anymore."
Fried
Fried means mentally wiped, overstimulated, or so drained your brain feels oven-baked and glitchy. It works for exam fried, work fried, socially fried, any kind of overload where your head's still technically online but nothing's loading right. It's more scrambled than sleepy, that foggy no-thoughts-left state where even one more text feels offensive.
Final boss
The biggest, nastiest hurdle right at the end. You use it for the one last thing that stands between you and being done, whether that's a brutal exam, a nightmare form, or your mate's terrifying mum. If that's the final boss, everything before it was just the warm-up level.
Digs
Digs means your rented place, usually somewhere a bit temporary and a bit lived-in. Student house, bedsit, shared flat, work accommodation, that sort of habitat. If someone says they're heading back to their digs, they just mean they're going home to their place. It sounds warm, casual, and a little scruffy in a fond way.
Townie
A townie is, usually, someone read as town-bred rather than country, or in uni towns, a local who's not a student. It sits in that old town versus gown scrap, with students calling locals townies, and rural people using it for someone who seems a bit soft, polished, or useless once mud, livestock, and actual darkness turn up. Mostly a cheeky jab, but it can go snide fast.
Dark academia
Dark academia is the moody aesthetic that romanticises old universities, classic books, tweed blazers, candlelit libraries and rainy autumn afternoons. It's all about looking like a brooding literature student in a centuries-old college, surrounded by Latin and leather-bound novels. The vibe is intellectual, nostalgic and a little melancholic.
Hugues
·
United States
"D1. Taken from the sports term D1 athlete or Division I athlete. It is added in front of a noun to say that someone is at the peak epitome of that noun. Dude, Charles is fucking hating on Pragmata. What, the game just came out. What do you mean he's already hating on it? Man, I don't know. Charles hates fucking everything. Dude's a D1 hater."
D1
D1 comes straight from Division I sports in the US, where the top college athletes play. Online, people slap it in front of a noun to say someone's absolutely elite at that exact thing, usually half joking, half roasting. So a D1 hater, D1 yapper, or D1 lurker is somebody putting up championship numbers in that lane.