psych n.
1. (US campus) psychology or psychiatry, as a course; also attrib.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 7: Psych. n. Psychology. | |
| Cornhusker in DN IV:ii 129: He was feeling sadly As he thought of Pysch and Chem. | |
 | Ottowa Campus 10 Oct. 2/3: I take three kinds of psych. | |
| Goodbye to the Past 66: ‘Everybody’s reading Freud now. Why, even my psych prof mentioned him the other day’. | |
| Addict in the Street (1966) 186: Then she went to school and studied psych and stuff. | |
| Choirboys (1976) 209: There oughtta be a law against people taking Psych 1b. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Glass Canoe (1982) 32: I’m doing my doctorate in Psych. | |
| Christine 589: He was what one of my psych profs in college called ‘an interested outsider’. | |
| Clueless [film script] cher: Freshman psych rears it’s ugly head. josh: Hey, I am not taking psych. |
2. (Aus.) superstition [abbr. SE psychic].
| Lucky Palmer 168: It’s a psych [...] Some fellows reckon the tail falling first is a good omen for tails. |
3. (orig. US) a psychiatrist.
| Walk on the Water 269: After the war we’ll get you a damn good psyc, and if he can’t cure you, we’ll fix it so you adjust to miss all this hurt. | |
| In the Life 38: Must be the psych in me, the psychiatrist in me, Doc. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Gumshoe (1998) 48: See if you don’t end up under a psych having kept your neurosis down to hypochondriasis. | |
| False Starts 64: I was shunted to an Army psych. | |
| Intractable [ebook] The psych had given me a clean bill of health. | |
| ‘In Savage Freedom’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] What the psychs call the learned behaviour. |
4. psychology.
| A-Team Storybook 60: Don’t try none of your fool psyc ... | |
| Stalker (2001) 87: When Cindy had been heavily into psych. |
5. (US) a psychiatric patient.
| Pugilist at Rest 26: A couple of neuropsychs. |
6. (N.Z. prison) an inmate serving a sentence for murder [? SE psychotic].
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 148/1: psych n. 1 an inmate in prison for murder. |
In derivatives
(Scot. gang) crazy, mad.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | (con. mid-1960s) Glasgow Gang Observed 65: Ah wis mad, aff ma heid. Ah ran a right psychey don the toon. Ah ran amock wi’ a big psychey blade. Didnae know whit Ah wis dain. [Ibid.] 120: That the boys themselves should choose the words ‘mental’, ‘crackpot’, and ‘psychey’ to describe their gang is indeed surprising. |
In compounds
(US) one who hosts a radio/TV programme or phone-in on emotional and sexual problems.
| ‘The 20 best libertarian movies of all times’ Orange County Register 🌐 It stars Bill Murray in his funniest role as a ‘multi-phobic’ patient driving psych-jockey Richard Dreyfus nuts. |
(Aus.) a psychological boost, e.g. before a competition.
| Fatty 90: I never needed any special psych-up but Boydy and some of the guys in the team would go bananas. |