foxtrot oscar
- idiom
- Offensive
:
vete a la mierda
- The sergeant barked 'Just foxtrot oscar!' when the recruits got in his way.
Examples
-
When he realized he was being lied to, he told them to foxtrot oscar.
-
He told the rude customer to foxtrot oscar!
-
If you're not going to help, you can simply foxtrot oscar!
-
Just foxtrot oscar!
-
The sergeant barked 'Just foxtrot oscar!' when the recruits got in his way.
-
If you're not going to help, you can simply foxtrot oscar!
-
When he realized he was being lied to, he told them to foxtrot oscar.
Synonyms
104
9.9
Leave or tell someone to leave in a rude way
12
9.9
Tell someone to go away immediately in a rude way
12
8.4
To tell someone to go away right away in a rude or angry way
1
9.9
To tell someone rudely to go away and leave you alone
A rude way to tell someone to go away without the real swear word
A short spoken word telling someone to go away now
Angrily tell someone to go away
How Rude
- Offensive
104
9.9
- Offensive
- Informal
4
7.9
- Informal
5
6.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
foxtrot + oscar
The phrase encodes the letters F and O via the NATO phonetic words 'foxtrot' and 'oscar' to euphemistically signal the taboo imperative "f*** off." A B1 learner who only knows the literal meanings of 'foxtrot' (a dance/term) and 'oscar' (a name) would not be able to infer this forceful, culture-specific meaning without knowledge of the phonetic alphabet and the taboo abbreviation, so the expression is idiomatic and not compositionally transparent.
Etymology
Foxtrot oscar may come from the military spelling alphabet, where foxtrot stands for 'F' and oscar stands for 'O', making the letters 'F.O.', a code for the rude phrase 'to f* off'. That's why foxtrot oscar** is used to tell someone to leave or 'go away'.