Term | Description |
---|---|
Checkpoint Charlie | Police checkpoint placed to look for intoxicated drivers, drivers with invalid licenses, etc (alludes to the former border crossing between East and West Berlin). |
DOT | Department of Transportation enforcement vehicle. |
Evel Knievel | Police officer on a motorcycle (refers to the popular motorcycle stuntman). |
Gumball machine/Bubble gum machine | Police vehicle, especially one with the older-style, dome-shaped red rotating/strobe light commonly mounted on the roof of police cars, which resembles a traditional 'penny' gumball machine. |
Miss Piggy | A female police officer (refers to the Muppet character, derived from the pejorative term 'pig' for police officers). |
Mama Bear | A less derogatory term for a female police officer. |
Papa Bear | A male police officer or police supervisor such as Sergeant or higher rank. |
Baby Bear | Rookie police officer. |
Bear in the air | Police officer in some form of aircraft (particularly helicopters). |
Bear | (See 'Smokey' below) |
Bear trap | RADAR or speed Trap. |
Bear bite/Invitation | Speeding ticket. |
Bear's den/Bear cave | Police station. |
Bear rolling discos | A speeding police car with its lights flashing. |
Polar bear | A white unmarked police vehicle. |
Blue Light Special | A police vehicle with its blue strobe lights flashing (refers to the popular Kmart sale gimmick). |
Local yokel | A local city police officer. |
County mountie | A county sheriff or deputy. |
Eye in The Sky | Police aircraft, airplane or helicopter. |
Fox in the hen house | Unmarked police vehicle. |
Kojak with a Kodak | Police officer running radar. |
Bear with ears | A police officer monitoring the CB airwaves. |
Flying doughnut | A police helicopter. |
Chicken coop | A scale house (truck scale). |
Full-grown bear | State police trooper. |
Smokey | A police officer (refers to Smokey Bear, known for wearing a campaign hat very similar to that included in many highway patrol uniforms in the United States; origin of Smokey and the Bandit movie title). |
Wall-to-wall bears | A large number of police vehicles, especially when on a chase. |
Starsky and Hutch | Police officers. |
Taco stand | Border patrol check stations on the Mexico–United States border. |
Term | Description |
---|---|
18, or 18 wheeler | A truck with a total of 18 tire/wheels. It can also be used for any truck usually with a fifth-wheel hitch and a semi-trailer even if the vehicle doesn't have dual wheels, or tandem axles. |
Aircraft carrier | Tractor/trailer carrying a disassembled aircraft, helicopter or a small plane. |
Angry kangaroo | A truck with one (or both) of its headlights out. |
Big Truck | Generally a truck able to pull a semi-trailer, usually with the trailer and not bob-tail. It can mean any vehicle Class 7 or heavier. |
Blinkin winkin/Kiddie car | School bus. |
Bulldog | A Mackroad tractor, noted for its trademark bulldog hood ornament (origin in World War I when British soldiers called the Mack AC 'The Bulldog', giving the name and trademark hood ornament to Mack). |
Bullfrog | An ABF truck. |
Bobtail rig, or Bobtail | Road tractor driving without a trailer. |
Buster Brown | UPS truck. |
Cab-over | A truck where the cab sits directly over the engine. Much less common in North America since the overall length law changed in 1976. |
Cash box | A toll booth. |
Chicken Truck | A dressed up and fancy truck. Usually means extra chrome, wide front bumper, extra light, etc. Can also mean a fast truck. Does not mean a truck hauling chickens. |
Coal bucket | Truck with a trailer for hauling coal, especially an end-dump trailer. |
Corn flake | A Consolidated Freightways truck. |
Cornbinder/Thirteen Letter Shit Spreader | A Navistar International truck. |
Draggin Wagon | A tow truck also called A Wrecker. |
Dry Van | A Trailer without a refrigeration unit or insulation. |
Drop and Hook | The process of dropping off a trailer a then picking up a replacement trailer at a destination. |
Dung Beetle | A Volkswagen Beetle with a male driver. |
Fender Bender | An accident (now used by the general public). |
Freightshaker | A Freightliner truck. |
Four Wheeler/Four-wheeler | Any vehicle with only four wheels. Most often used for personal cars/vans/SUVs. |
Hood | A conventional road tractor, with the engine in front of the cab. |
Jimmy | A GMC road tractor. |
K-Whopper | A Kenworth road tractor. |
Louisville | A Ford L-Series truck. |
Meat Wagon | An ambulance. |
Pete/Peter Car | A Peterbilt road tractor. |
Piggy back | A truck towing another truck. |
Piggy Bank | An armored Car. |
Portable parking lot/Rolling parking lot | A tractor/trailer loaded with new or used cars. |
Pregnant roller skate | A Volkswagen Beetle. |
Pumpkin/Pumpkin roller | A Schneider National tractor/trailer. |
Reefer | A refrigerated trailer or flatbed trailer hauling a refrigerated container. |
Rolling refinery | A tanker truck, typically carrying fuel. |
Salt shaker | Highway department truck for spreading ice melt chemicals on the road, traditionally salt. |
Scanny | A Scania AB truck. There are around 500 in the United States[clarification needed]. It is very rare, so it is used only in social media (truck pages in Facebook, YouTube, etc). |
Skateboard | A straight, flatbed trailer. |
Thermos Bottle | A road tractor with a chemical trailer. |
Turkey hearse | A truck with a load of turkeys headed for slaughter. |
Wiggle Wagon | A road tractor with more than one trailer. |
Yard dog, yard goat,yard horse or mule | Terminal tractor used to move trailers in a shipping/freight yard. |
Term: | Meaning |
---|---|
Beantown | Boston, Massachusetts. |
Beer Town | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
Berta | Alberta. |
Big Apple | New York, New York (now widely used among the general public). |
Bingo or Bingotown | Binghamton, New York. |
Big D / Emerald City | Dallas, Texas now widely used 'North Texas' |
The Bubbly | Champaign, Illinois |
Chocolate Town | Hershey, Pennsylvania (reference to Hershey's Chocolates; now used by the general public) |
Corn patch | The Midwest. |
Cow Town | Fort Worth, Texas. Or Calgary, Alberta. |
Crashville | Nashville, Tennessee. |
Derby City/Derby Town | Louisville, Kentucky. |
The Dime | Interstate 10 |
Disney Town | Anaheim, California. |
Flagtown | Flagstaff, Arizona. |
Flying Hook | Flying J Truckstop chain |
Fort God | Memphis, Tennessee. |
Gateway | St. Louis, Missouri. |
Guitar Town | Nashville, Tennessee. |
Gunspoint | Greenspoint (an area of Houston, Texas). |
Hippie Haven / Bat City / Waterloo | Austin, Texas. |
Hog Town | Toronto, Ontario. |
Hotlanta | Atlanta, Georgia. |
Space City / H Town | Houston, Texas. |
Indy 500 or Indy 5 | Indianapolis, Indiana (reference to Indianapolis Motor Speedway home of the Indy 500) |
Idiot Island | California. |
Job Town | Clinton, New Jersey. |
Little Cuba | Miami, Florida |
Lost Wages | Las Vegas, Nevada. |
Mardi Gras / Crescent City | New Orleans, Louisiana. |
Mickey Mouse | Orlando, Florida (a reference to Walt Disney World resort). |
Mile High | Denver, Colorado (now widely used among the general public as 'The Mile High City'). |
Monkey Town | Montgomery, Alabama ('Monkey' being diminutive form of 'Montgomery'). |
Motor City | Detroit, Michigan (now widely used among the general public). |
Nickle Road | Interstate 5 |
Queen City | Charlotte, North Carolina; Cincinnati, Ohio; or Buffalo, New York. |
Red Stick | Baton Rouge, Louisiana. |
Rhymes with Fun | Regina, Saskatchewan. |
Ripoff Griffin's | Rip Griffin's, a well known truck stop outside Dallas. |
Rock City | Little Rock, Arkansas. |
Salty | Salt Lake City, Utah (a reference to the Great Salt Lake) |
Shakey City or Shakeytown | Los Angeles, California, California (a reference to earthquakes). |
Silly Circle | The Capital Beltway, a beltway around Washington, D.C., running through Virginia and Maryland. |
Stack of Bricks | A house or home ('I'm heading back to my stack of bricks'). |
Steam Town | Scranton, Pennsylvania. |
Steel City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (now used by the general public) |
The Sticker Patch | Phoenix, Arizona (a reference to the cacti in the area). |
Spud Town | Boise, Idaho. |
T Town | Texarkana, Texas/Arkansas or Tulsa, Oklahoma. |
Tonto | Toronto, Ontario. |
Taco Town / Alamo City | San Antonio, Texas. |
Windy City | Chicago, Illinois (now widely used among the general public). |
Term | Meaning |
---|---|
4-10 | A reversal of the ten code '10-4,' when asking if someone agrees with something said or if one's transmission was received. ('That was a nasty wreck. Four-ten?') |
5 by 5 | Indicates that another CB user can be heard clearly (see 'Wall to wall and treetop tall' below). |
10-4 | Acknowledged; can also be used to denote or emphasize an agreement ('That's a big 10-4.'). |
10-6 | Busy; stand by.[5] |
10-7 | Signing off. |
10-8 | En route. ('I'm 10-8 to your location.') |
10-9 | Last transmission not received; repeat your last transmission. |
10-10 | CB user will cease broadcasting but will continue to listen. ('I'm 10-10 on the side.') |
10-20 | Denotes location, as in identifying one's location ('My 20 is on Main Street and First'), asking the receiver what their current location or destination is ('What's your 20?'), or inquiring about the location of a third person ('Ok, people, I need a 20 on Little Timmy and fast'). |
10-33 | Emergency traffic, clear the channel. CB code for Mayday for trucks and police cars. |
3s and 8s | Well wishes to a fellow driver. |
10-36 | Correct time ('Can I get a 10-36?') |
10 in the wind | Listening to the CB while driving (also known as '10-10 in the wind'). |
10-100 | Restroom break. |
10-200 | Police needed at ________. Alternately, in Smokey and the Bandit a character jokingly plays off of 10-100 and says 10-100 is better than 10--200, meaning that 10-100 was peeing and 10-200 was doing a #2. |
Affirmative | Yes.[6] |
Alligator Station | A user who talks constantly and seldom listens (comic reference to an alligator - all mouth and no ears). Someone who will not shut up. Frequently refers to a powerful local base station transmitting to mobile CBers, often on channel 19. Similar to Bucket mouth/Linear lungs, but a base station rather than a mobile. Sometimes, though rarely, used to refer to a very loud mobile user. |
Aye-firmative | Variant of Affirmative. |
Back Door | The rearmost vehicle driver in a group that watches for police officers approaching from behind and gives warning to the others in the group to slow down when speeding. See also Front Door and Rocking Chair. |
Back it Down | Reduce driving speed to the speed limit. |
Back row / Party row | An area of a truck stop, generally located in the back of the property, where prostitutes congregate. |
Bear bait | An erratic or speeding driver.[7] |
Bird-dog | RADAR detector. |
Bird-dog is Barking | RADAR detector indicating that RADAR is being used. ('My bird-dog is barking.'). |
Bob-tail | Semi-truck traveling without a trailer. |
Boop Boop/Cluck Cluck Chicken Truck | Ways chicken haulers greet each other |
Break/Breaker | Informing other CB users that you would like to start a transmission on a channel. May be followed by either the channel number, indicating that anyone may acknowledge (e.g., 'Breaker One-niner' refers to channel 19, the most widely used among truck drivers), or by a specific 'handle', which is requesting a particular individual to respond.[6] |
Bucket mouth/Linear lungs | Someone who will not shut up. Similar to 'Alligator Station', but usually refers to a mobile user rather than a base station. |
CB Rambo | A radio user who brags about his fighting prowess but won't actually fight. |
Chicken Coop | The Weigh Station also called a Port of Entry or The Scales, Scale House |
Chicken Lights | Extra marker lights, usually far in excess of what the law requires. The lights on a chicken truck. |
Choke and puke | A truck stop restaurant, especially one known for its less-than-quality food. |
Comedian | The median or central reservation of a highway. As in, 'A bear taking pictures from the comedian.' |
Copy that/Copy | Acknowledgement 'I heard you' or 'I understand.' |
Cotton Choppers | Other people as a group who are referred to as being bothersome or annoying. Often used in a comic fashion. Occasionally used in a friendly fashion as a rough term of endearment to refer to others. Sometimes used to refer to other people in general, especially those who do not use CB radios. |
Cotton-pickin' | Substitution for foul language. |
Crotch rocket | A very fast motorcycle. |
Do a flip | Turn around and go the opposite direction. As in, 'That county mountie did a flip when the bear bait went by in the hammer lane.' |
Double-nickels | A 55 mph speed zone. |
Drain the Dragon/ The Double D | Comic reference for a restroom call. |
Driver | Generally restricted to someone who drives a truck, not just anyone who's driving |
Eat 'em up | A restaurant. |
Feeding the bears | Speeding or driving recklessly. |
Fifty-Dollar Lane | The inside lane (left most lane) in either direction of an eight-lane highway. |
Fingerprint | The drive has to load, or more commonly, unload the trailer. That is, to put his fingerprints on all the boxes. |
Flip-flop | Used by truckers to refer to the return trip or traveling back the other way, especially when referring to going home on an outbound run. |
Four/Foe | Refers to 10-4, dropping the 10; also 'Yeah, Four', 'Foe', or 'Yeah, foe' (slang for 'four'). |
Flag in five-mile wind | A 45-mph speed zone. |
Front Door | The leading vehicle driver in a group that watches for police officers approaching from the front or officers watching oncoming traffic from the side of the road. This driver gives warning to the others in the group to slow down when speeding. See also Back Door and Rocking Chair. |
Gator, or Alligator | A large piece of tire on the road. From a distance it can resembles an alligator sunning on the road. |
#handle, Got your ears on? / Anybody/Anyone got their ears on? | Asking if a specific person is listening to a given channel / Asking if anyone is listening to a given channel[8] |
Green stamp(s) | Cash money (refers to S&H Green Stamps). When used in the singular form, can also refer to a toll road, such as the New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Turnpikes which are all denoted by green route markers |
Go-go juice | 'I need to get some fuel.' |
Groceries | Goods being hauled. |
Hot mic | A CB user monopolizes a radio channel. |
Good buddy | In the 1970s, this was the stereotypical term for a friend or acquaintance on the CB airwaves.[9][10][6] Now the term 'buddy' can be used similarly as the term 'good buddy' now means a homosexual, especially driver. |
Good numbers | Well wishes to a fellow driver. |
Hand | Person, especially a working person like a hired hand. Sometimes used to distinguish a between a driver and one who isn't. ('I talked to a hand who wants to become a driver.') |
Handle | 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.[6] |
Hammer | Gas pedal/ accelerator |
Hammer | Nickname for a linear amplifier. |
Hammer down | Driving at high speed - or trying to with the gas pedal fully depressed. ('He's got the hammer down!', 'I put the hammer down, but this is as fast as it goes.'; now moderately used among the general public.) |
Hammer Lane | The passing lane or the 'fast lane'. Example: 'Don't let smokey see you camping out in the hammer lane, buddy.' |
Hundred-mile coffee | Very strong coffee. |
Jabber/Jabbering idiot/Babble/Babbling idiot | A CB user transmitting in a foreign language. |
Keep the left door closed | Make time by not stopping. |
Kicker | A linear amplifier used to illegally increase CB transmit power. A favorite tool of Alligator Stations, Bucket Mouths and Linear Lungs. Frowned on by most users. |
Lot lizard | A prostitute in a rest area or who works the parking area of a truck stop. |
Mud Duck | A cb user that has a weak signal and they keep trying to talk despite the fact that no one can understand them. |
Nap Trap | A rest area |
Negatory | No, Negative (often emphatic, like 'Hell no') |
On one's donkey | Following one too close; tailgating. ('You have a sports car 'on your donkey'.') |
Outdoor TV | A drive-in theatre. |
Over one's shoulder / Over one's donkey | The road behind that one has just traveled. ('How's it look over your shoulder / over your donkey?') |
Peanut butter in one's ears | Oblivious to or ignoring CB transmission |
Pickle park | A rest area. Sometimes one especially known for prostitution. (Also can be used to describe large grassy medians on highways. Example: There's a smokey doing flip flops around the pickle park) |
Portable Parking Lot | Semi-truck pulling a trailer that carries a number of vehicles, such as new cars or SUVs. |
Rocking Chair | The vehicle(s) in a group positioned between the Front Door and Back Door drivers. Called the Rocking Chair because drivers in that position of the group can relax while speeding because the Front Door and Back Door drivers are watching for the police. See also Front Door and Back Door. |
Rubbernecking/ Rubbernecks/ Rubberneckers | Looking at something on the side of the road, causing a backup./ People slowing down to look at something, particularly an accident. |
Sandbagging | Listening to CB conversation without participating, despite having the capability of speaking. This is not the same as listening in using a simple receiver, as the person sandbagging can transmit using the two-way radio, but chooses not to.[11][12] It is for the purpose of monitoring CB users for entertainment or for gathering information about the actions of a particular user. Often, CB users 'sandbag' to listen to others' responses to their previous input to a conversation, sometimes referred to a 'reading the mail'.[13] |
Seat cover | An attractive woman in a vehicle, especially one who is scantily-clad or wearing sexy clothing. |
Semi-pro | Pickup truck drivers congregating with truckers. |
Three Sisters | Three large hills on I-80E between Salt Lake City, Utah and Fort Bridger, Wyoming. (Now used by the general public.) |
Turn and burn | To return from a destination back to the original starting point of a trip, especially in a hurry and/or non-stop so as not to lose time. |
Turtle race | Two trucks side by side, one trying to pass the other; but both have speed-governors. |
Suicide jockey | A driver who is hauling dangerous goods, such as explosives. |
Wall Paper | A traffic citation/ticket (especially a speeding ticket). |
Wall to wall and treetop tall | An exceptionally clear, strong signal/transmission. |
Watering Hole | The truck stop |
Yardstick | A mile marker or mile post |
Look up Appendix:CB slang in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
| Listening to the FDNY can be confusing. Until you develop an ear for the format of the announcements, and understand what all of the numbers mean, it could be like listening to gibberish. In this writing I will explain some typical radio terminology. The 10 codes are defined on a separate page. BOX ANNOUNCEMENTS Approximately 60 seconds after a box is transmitted the radio dispatcher announces the box. A typical transmission is formatted thus: borough, source of the alarm, box number, address, what the caller is reporting. The different types of sources are: telephone (Via 911, direct dial, operator assist, TDD, etc.), ERS (street box that allows voice contact), pullbox (mechanical street box sometimes simply called 'box'), DR (discretionary response) box (Mechanical street box with a high false alarm rate. The battalion chief may respond at his discretion.), verbal (reported to us by a member of the department), class-3 (alarms from central station monitoring companies), and EMS or EMS-PD (CFR runs that are received by direct computer link). Addresses in the borough of Queens are mostly numeric and the untrained ear may not be able to decipher the announcement. For example, the address 158-24 81 Street between 158 & 159 Avenues when spoken quickly may sound like just a string of numbers. WHO IS THIS PERSON 'ANNIE ALLEY'? Since the inception of E911 some years ago this phrase has been sneaking into our lexicon. At first we were saying, 'As per the E911 Computer the caller is at..' But that phrase has been shortened to, 'The Annie Alley location is..' Annie Alley of course being the phonetic pronunciation of ANI-ALI. SIGNALS Some of the old telegraph bell signals are still used on the radio. The most common are, 5-7 (1 engine, 1 ladder response), 65-2 (department message), and 5-5-5-5 (line of duty death). WHAT DOES THE LETTER K MEAN? K The use of the letter K is a holdover from the days of telegraph. It was sent at the end of a transmission to indicate that I am finished sending and I await your reply. It is similar to the military use of the word over. B.I.S.P. ROLLCALL & B.I. BISP stands for Building Inspection Safety Program and is also called simply Building Inspection (B.I.) TAXPAYERS There is no legal description of the term taxpayer as used in this department. Textmate powerful and customizable text editor 2 0. It's meaning is derived from the practice of real estate investors who, while holding parcels of land for speculation, constructed cheap buildings that could house multiple tenants. The rent collected would be used to pay the taxes on the land. This type of building commonly houses multiple commercial tenants. Outside of New York City the closest comparison I've seen are buildings called strip malls. Modern taxpayers are not constructed so cheaply but they do contain some of the inherent dangers of their older counterparts. For example: little or no fire stopping between subdivisions over the ceiling, common cellars or cocklofts that run the length of the building, etc. BUILDING TYPES Some building types you may hear are class 1 or class A meaning fireproof, class 3 meaning non-fireproof (NFP), OLT meaning Old Law Tenement (apartment houses built prior to April 1, 1901), and NLT meaning New Law Tenement (apartment houses built between 1901 and 1929). The term tenement is not used to describe buildings built after 1929. OPERATION FIRESTOP In early April, 1999, the department began a campaign designed to educate the general public in fire safety. All units are handing out flyers with information on how to avoid being a fire casualty. They go door-to-door, hand out these flyers, and talk to the citizens in their response area. This campaign is called 'Operation Firestop'. WHO IS THIS PERSON SID AND FROM WHERE DOES HE GET ALL HIS INFORMATION? 'Attention units responding to box 1234, Sids information available upon request.' We're not talking about a person called Sid. The Critical Information Dispatch System (CIDS) was invented to provide fire fighters with information that might be helpful while operating at a fire scene. While companies are out on building inspection they make note of special conditions that can affect their operation. Typical entries contain the height, dimensions, occupancy, and construction of the building; the location of standpipes; the location of hazardous materials stored within; or any other critical information. MIXER OFF Our radio system (for now) is a 2 channel simplex voting receiver type. We transmit on one frequency and receive on another. This gives us in the Central Office the ability to transmit and receive at the same time. The frequency you listen to is the output of the Central Office. In order for you to hear what we hear, we have to turn on the 'mixer'.This device injects our receive audio into the transmitter. When a unit wants to give us sensitive information they ask us to turn it off, thus preventing anyone listening from hearing the transmission. It's not fool-proof though. Anyone within range of the low power transceiver of the unit can monitor the output frequency of the mobile and hear the message. OTHER TERMS MUD - Multi-unit drill. ADV - abandoned derelict vehicle fire (10-23) MUNGO - a fire in a 55-gallon drum used by vagrants to melt insulation from copper wire. REAR TENEMENT - a building situated behind another that doesn't front on a street. The only means of egress is through the building in front. FAST UNIT - a company assigned to an incident that stands by in case a Mayday is transmitted. This policy is the city's equivalent of the OSHA 2in-2out rule. Usually it is a ladder company, but it can be an engine company if the Supervising Dispatcher feels truck availability will suffer. FALLBACK - During times of heavy activity we implement Fallback to reduce the amount of apparatus assigned to an incident. This preserves unit availability. There are 3 steps:
DOUBTFUL? There are 4 terms we use to indicate the control of a fire:
If you need clarifications of other terms and phrases let me know. |