Horlicks
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: The name of the drink, first sold as "Horlick's Infant and Invalids Food", is derived from the surname of its developers, James (1844–1921) and William Horlick (1846–1936); equivalent to Horlick + -'s (possessive marker). The term later became a euphemism for bollocks (“mess; to make a mess of”).
Base: Horlick
Affixes: -'s
Inflected forms:
form: Horlicks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: horlicks
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: Horlickses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: Horlicksing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: Horlicksed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: Horlicksed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: horlicks
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: A hot bedtime drink made with malted milk.
pos: noun
tags: UK
countable
uncountable
examples: When the theatres turned out, people flocked back for their Horlickses and cocoas. Because of the summer visitors, we were open till one o'clock in the morning.
Kathy, drinking Horlicks and laughing about the impossibility of custard (she could not cook – she could not even stir), and obsessive about everything, found out for me that Dylan Thomas had invented a fantasy[…]
It did seem very odd though, drinking Horlicks in the middle of the day. From then on, first thing in the morning, after all meals, and last thing at night, Ruth made me a big mug of Horlicks. Every day, Horlicks. All day, Horlicks.
gloss: Bollocks, a mess or balls-up.
pos: noun
tags: UK
countable
euphemistic
slang
uncountable
examples: McDonald & Dodds is back, with episode one so deliberately hammy and meta that, technically, it should have been a complete horlicks. In one scene, when they were all hanging on to the balloon ropes, Mr Bean-like, to stop Jason Watkins flying away, it sort of was.
gloss: Bollocks, nonsense, false statements.
pos: noun
tags: UK
countable
euphemistic
slang
uncountable
examples: As sleep patterns come unstuck and more and more people complain of not getting enough shuteye, so businesses have spotted an opportunity. […] And beware any consumer product which claims it will transform your slumber: it’s probably a load of Horlicks.
“I don’t condone any abuses of human rights anywhere. But if we’re not condoning human rights abuses anywhere, I wouldn’t even be able to perform in my kitchen.” Which is total Horlicks, clearly, but did at least bless us with this cheering reply: “Robbie, what are you doing in your kitchen?”
gloss: To make a mess of (something); to bollocks.
pos: verb
tags: UK
euphemistic
slang
examples: I have seen a priest massacred in charge of a Mass, experienced schoolmasters carbonated in charge of a class and felt hairdressers Horlicksed in charge of hair clippers. / On a more lasting level, it is possible for surprisingly long periods of time to be drunk in charge of a relationship.
Mr O'Brien has admitted that he was tempted to pay £100,000 to Mr Lowry, out of his own personal generosity, because he had heard pub talk that Mr Lowry's Streamline Enterprises was "Horlicksed"[—]that's a word the Irish Independent has to use as an "intermediary" because the real word is too rude.
One does wonder how the history books will treat Gordon if, as it now looks, he won't even still be PM by the time the next election comes along. / Indeed, if he hadn’t horlicksed the economy with nuclear abandon would they have even mentioned him at all?
Not the groundsman's fault Australia horlicksed it all up in the space of a couple of hours on Friday.
Assuming the Citroen engineers haven’t really Horlicksed things up, which I suspect they haven’t, electric should be the neatest of fits for the comfy, untaxing C4.
Translations: