Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <meaning-in-context><british-english><slang>
Title: What does "slap" mean in this context?
Question: From  Grace Dent on Television: Harlots, Housewivs and Heroines - a 17th Century History for Girls, BBC4 | The Independent :   They branded Diana, and still do, an hysterical, diva-ish and paranoid woman, but Diana wasn't paranoid about Camilla and the royal unspoken code of marriage, she was absolutely  slap , bang on.     What does  slap  mean in this context?

Answers:
sents: text: If a thing is slap-bang on , it would mean "exactly right".
text: His answer to the quiz was slap-bang on .
text: That said, one would not usually refer to a person as being: slap-bang on.
text: Please note: the term is slap-bang [right, as in right in the middle of] and usually referring to a THING, not a PERSON.
text: Slap-bang is used to intensify: the dog was slap-bang in the middle of the road.
text: The other term: to be bang on means to be right.
text: slap-bang on merely makes it stronger.
text: So, if you want to join /bang on/
text: the verb to /slap-bang/
text: the adjective, the best way would be: slap-bang on .
text: That said, it is very odd to say that: Princess Diana was slap bang-on.
text: The only meaning here would be: She was right about the royal unspoken code of marriage.
text: That means: She knew that if Charles could have Camilla, then she Diana was perfectly justified (slap-bang on or right about) about having that lover of hers (I forget this name).
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/33113/Lambie
score: 5
sents: text: "Slap-bang on" is a BrE colloquialism that means (more or less) "exactly", or "right".
text: For example: They tried to take the tube and landed slap-bang in the middle of the daily rush of commuters.
text: In this case it means that while Diana was branded by the media as "paranoid", she actually was correct that Prince Charles was romantically involved with Camilla.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/42184/Andrew
score: 4
sents: text: I wonder if this is a personal quote or a misquote because it isn't grammatical.
text: " They branded Diana, and still do, an hysterical, diva-ish and paranoid woman, but Diana wasn't paranoid about Camilla and the royal unspoken code of marriage, she was absolutely slap, bang on."
text: They branded and still brand Diana, as an hysterical, diva-ish and paranoid woman.
text: However , Diana wasn't paranoid about Camilla and in regards to the unspoken royal code of marriage, she was absolutely correct.
text: "Slap" and "Bang on" are slang expressions that simply mean exactly correct (at least in the opinion of the speaker/author).
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/46196/WRX
score: 4
sents: text: If you look at the definition in the Oxford English Dictionary, Slap , and look in the adverb section you can see definition 1.1.
text: 1.1 Exactly; right: Princess Diana was correct in her suspicions about Camilla Parker Bowles.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/41995/Sarriesfan
score: 3
sents: text: As a "Yank from across the Pond" it seems to me the UK slang "slap-bang" is akin to our own "dead-center" (fairly self-explanatory).
text: We also have the slang "dead-on" which means perfection .
text: The problem seems to be the conflation of "slap" with "bang on" being a somewhat odd combination as I read it.
text: Over here the closest thing to "slap-bang on" might be "dead-on center" in US slang.
text: This is not a very common usage but you may occasionally hear it none-the-less.
text: Both would mean "perfectly correct" in the final analysis.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/28540/O.M.Y.
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
"Slap-bang on" is a British English colloquialism , meaning "exactly right". Slap-bang is also used to intensify, to emphasize "exactly".
If something is slap-bang on, it means it is "exactly right", "exactly correct". "Slap-bang" is used as an intensifier in British English. In US English, the expression "dead-center" is the synonym of "slap-bang". Here, it means that Diana was right in her suspicions that Camilla was Charles' lover. However, "slap-bang" usually refers to a thing and not a person, like in the example at hand.