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locker-room

locker-room

7 7.9
Rude and rough talk or behaviour among sports players in a changing room
  • adjective
  • /ˈlɑːkər ruːm/
  • Offensive
translation icon : vulgar
  • The coach warned the players to keep their locker-room talk respectful while in public.
  • locker-room talk
  • locker-room banter
  • locker-room jokes

I'll tell you, my first few years, because of the space I was in, I fell into, I wouldn't call it locker room talk.

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Examples

  • Every once in a while, somebody recognizes me and we talk locker-room stuff.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • I don't want to be a locker room joke, so... don't tell anybody, okay?

  • But only if you ease up on the locker room talk.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Only if you promise to ease up on the locker-room talk, okay?

  • If you believe everything you hear in a locker room, you'll never wise up.

  • Some readers took Dr. Greenfield's comments as a sort of locker-room humor and thought he was merely writing to his audience.

    Blog text (25)
  • It was something that we would discuss on a regular basis, mainly with nervous banter, locker room banter.

  • It was locker-room talk.

  • Brendan, Joe, and I had gotten into a locker-room kind of humor, and at the center of it was a mistake I had anticipated Tom would make.

    Academic text (1995)
  • His jokes are often considered locker-room humor, filled with coarse and crude language.

Antonyms

165 3.3

Having an attractive, stylish look that shows good taste

76 6.2

A work with deep, not obvious ideas that interest thoughtful people

How Coarse

vulgar
  • Offensive
22 6.5
crude
  • Offensive
45 5.1
locker-room
  • Offensive
7 7.9
coarse
  • Offensive
14 4.2

Surface Forms

locker-room positive
locker room positive

Morphology

locker-room = locker + room (semi-transparent) = locker + room

The compound is clearly 'locker' + 'room', but the adjectival sense meaning 'coarse or crude' is a figurative extension that may not be directly deducible by all learners.

Etymology

Locker-room comes from places in sports where players change and keep their things: locker means a 'small box you can lock' and room means a 'place'. Because people in that private place often speak freely and tell rude jokes, locker-room now describes language or humor that is rough or 'not polite'.