rude, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

rude adj.

[ext. of SE]

1. sexually aggressive.

1870		F. Kilvert Diary (1944) 6 Feb. 94: Price said, 'One day a lady was walking on a hill in Flintshire when she met Prince Caradoc who wanted to be rude with her but she spurned him’.
1952		cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

2. wild, uncontrolled, openly hostile to authority.

1938		Z.N. Hurston Tell My Horse (1995) 314: It is a rude (wicked) person who sets duppies on folks.
1956		cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

3. sexual.

1964

J. Orton Entertaining Mr Sloane Act II: You’re not doing rude things with this kiddy, are you, like you did with Tommy?

4. (orig. US campus) unfair, distasteful, offensive, generally poor, flagrantly bad.

1960		A. Buzo Front Room Boys Scene xii: gibbo: He led her up the garden path and stabbed her in the back. robbo: That’s a bit of a rude act.
1979		D. Maitland Breaking Out 283: The Glendower Hotel, which was really only a rude shanty.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 253: rude (adj) Of poor quality, unpopular, bad.
1997		C. Newland Scholar 121: Me nah t’reatnin’ yuh rudey, me jus’ advise yuh, seen?

5. (orig. US campus) excellent, admirable.

1989		P. Munro Sl. U.
2000		Hip-Hop Connection Jan. 74: This place is so great [...] Rude and loopy.

rude boy (n.)

see separate entry.

rude bwai/bwoy (n.)

rude girl (n.) (also rude gal)

(W.I./UK black teen) the female equivalent of the rude boy n.; also attrib.

1997		C. Newland Scholar 206: Yes rudegirl, wha’ gwaan?
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 200: Denise had never used rude gal language in the presence of her mother.
2004		Observer 22 Feb. 7: The coolest group at school are the ‘rude girls’ who dress and talk black.

rudesby (n.) [SE rude + sfx -by]

an unpleasant, boorish person; cite 1850 refers to a vegetable.

1593		Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew III ii: To give my hand oppos’d against my heart, Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen.
1600		Shakespeare Twelfth Night IV i: Be not offended, dear Caesario, Rudesby, begone!
1850		Advocate (Ireland) 28 Aug. n.p.: Our rudesby of the Bohereens sometimes springs from the mud, and bears with it the vulgarity of its nature [...] it is a coarsely tasted vegetable with a foetid x-like smell.
1906		Manchester Courier 4 June 4/4: Married against her will to a ‘mad-brain Rudesby’.
1911		Dublin Dly Exp. 10 Feb. 10/6: No boy was ever a rudesby to his parents.

rudeness (n.)

see separate entry.

rude-ass (n.)

(US campus) a dislikeable, rude person.

1997

Eble Campus Sl. Apr.

rude parts (n.) [euph.]

the genitals, both male or female (in the latter case extended to breasts also).

1982		Barr & York Sloane Ranger Hbk 159: rude adj. Sexual, rude parts n. Private parts.
2001		‘Sir Thomas Eichelbaum’s Report into The Peter Ellis Case’ 9.1.6 on Ministry of Justice (N.Z.) 🌐 First interview – 14 May 1992 X stated that Mr Ellis ‘fiddled with his rude parts’ when he was very small. Charge dismissed at depositions.