arse

See also: ARSE and arşe

English

Alternative forms

ass (American)

Etymology

From Middle English ars, ers, from Old English ærs, ears, from Proto-West Germanic *ars, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz (compare Dutch aars and German Arsch), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃érsos (“backside, buttocks”) (according to Julius Pokorny and Carl Darling Buck).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɑːs/
(General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɐːs/
(Ireland) IPA^(key): /aɹs/, /äːɹs/
(US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɑɹs/
Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)s
Audio (UK) (file)
Audio (CA) (file)
Audio (AU) (file)

Noun

arse (plural arses)

(current in South Africa, UK, Ireland, Canada (regional), Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, dated in New England, now vulgar) The buttocks or more specifically, the anus.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks, Thesaurus:anus
- 2011, James Smart, The Guardian, 12 March:
  As the novel progresses, he is shot in the hand with his own gun, shot in the arse with someone else's and lacerated by a prosthetic weed trimmer.
- 2020 September 9, Jason Chamberlain, “The growing likelihood of a 'different type of railway'”, in Rail, page 45:
  Or to put it in the more colourful language of our Prime Minister: "The secret to improving rail transport, in my view, is you need to find the right arse to kick." Unfortunately, since the abolition of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) in 2005, the DfT has ostensibly been in direct control of railway policy setting, and this has meant that the only arse the government has been able to kick is its own.
(chiefly UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, derogatory, slang) A stupid, pompous, arrogant, mean or despicable person.
- 2007, Martin Harrison, The Judgement of Paris, p.282:
  “You're an arse,” Ellen said. ¶ “Please? You must like something about me …?” ¶ “I do. You're an arse. I just told you that. I feel comfy with you, because you're such an arse.”
- 2007, L. A. Wilson, The Silurian: Book One: The Fox and the Bear, p.103:
  He looked at me, was just about to call me an arse, when I told him, “You throw it too hard. Try and think of the javelin hitting the target before you throw it. Let it all go through your mind first, see it, feel it, then throw it.” ¶ “Good advice, you arse,” he said and tried again.
- 2011, Joe Abercrombie, The Heroes, unnumbered page:
  Felnigg. What a suppurating arse. Look at him. Arse.
(vulgar, slang, uncountable) Used in similes to express something bad or unpleasant.
(vulgar, slang, metonymically, objectifying, countable) A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself or one's person, chiefly their body. By extension, one's personal safety, or figuratively one's job, prospects, etc.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:arse.

Derived terms

Terms derived from arse (noun)

arse about face
arse about tit
arseage
arse backward
arse backwards
arsebag
arse bandit
arse beating
arse biscuit
arsebrain
arse breath
arsebreath
arsebucket
arsebutt
arse call
arse catch
arsecheek
arse cheeks
arsecheeks
arseclown
arseclownery
arse crack
arse-crack
arsecunt
arse eating
arse end
arse end of nowhere
arseface
arse floss
arsefuck
arse-fuck
arsefucker
arsegasm
arse guard
arse has gone clean out of 'er
arse has gone out of 'er
arse has gone right out of 'er
arsehat
arsehattery
arsehattish
arsehatty
arsehead
arsehole
arseholedom
arseholehood
arseholery
arseholey
arseholic
arseholio
arseholish
arseholism
arse in a sling
arse is clean out of 'er
arse is gone right out of 'er
arse is out of 'er
arse is right out of 'er
arse-kicking
arse-kisser
arse-kisser
arse-kissing
arse-lick
arse licker
arse-licker
arse-licking
arselicking
arse like a Japanese flag
arseman
arsemonkey
arsenose
arsenugget
arse over teakettle
arse over tip
arse over tit
arse pounding
arse pull
arse-pull
arse-rape
arserun
arse sucker
arse to mouth
arsewash
arse-wash
arsewipe
arsey/arsy
arsing
ask my arse
badarse
bare-arse
bare-arsed
bee up one’s arse
bet one’s arse
big arse
big-arse
bitch-arse
bite in the arse
bite my arse
bite my shiny metal ass
blow it out one’s arse
blow it out your arse
blow smoke up someone’s arse
bomb-arse
bottle-arse
breakarse
break arse
bring one's arse to an anchor
bubble arse
bug up one’s arse
bust arse
bust arse cold
bust one’s arse
bust someone’s arse
buttarse
candyarse
candy-arse
cat’s arse
cauldron arse
cheap-arse Tuesday
clever arse
cold as a well-digger's arse
cottage cheese arse
could eat the arse out of a low flying duck
cover someone’s arse
cracker-arse
crazy-arse
cuntarse
da arse is gone right out of 'er
dickarse
die in the arse
die in the arse
die on one's arse
drag arse
duck-arsed
duck’s arse
duck's arse
dumbarse dumb arse dumb-arse
dump arse
eat arse
eating arse
fake-arse
fart-arse
fat-arse fatarse
fly-arse
fuckarse
gay-arse
get off one’s arse
get one’s arse handed to one
get one’s arse in gear
get one's arse in gear
get one’s arse into gear
get up someone’s arse
give a rat’s arse
give a rat's arse
gnat's arse
gnat’s arse
grab arse
grab-arse
grassy arse
grassy arse
grown-arse
half-arse
half-arsed
half-arsed, half-arse, halfarse
hang an arse (obsolete)
hard-arse
hardarse, hard-arse, hard-arsed
haul arse
have one’s arse handed to one
have one’s head up one’s arse
he-arse
her arse
his arse
horse’s arse
horseshoe up one’s arse
in a pig's arse
jackarse
jack-arse
jenny-arse
jerk-arse
jerk arse
jive-arse
kick-arse
kick arse
kick arse and take names
kick arse, kick-arse, kickarse
kick someone’s arse
kick up the arse
kick up the arse
kiss arse
kiss arse, kiss-arse
kiss my arse
kiss one’s arse goodbye
kiss someone’s arse
know one’s arse from one’s elbow
know one's arse from one's elbow
know one’s ass from a hole in the ground
know the difference between one’s arse and a hole in the ground
know the difference between one’s arse and one’s elbow
lamearse
lard-arse
lazy-arse
lick someone’s arse
light someone’s arse up
like arse
make an arse of
my arse
no-good arse
no-good arse
not hit a cow's arse with a banjo
one’s arse is grass
one’s arse is grass
open a can of whoop arse
open-arse
open up a can of whoop arse
out of arse
pain in one's arse
pain in the arse
pickle up one’s arse
piece of arse
piss out of one’s arse
piss out one’s arse
pole up one’s arse
pop a cap in someone's arse
pop a cap in someone’s arse
pull out of one’s arse
punk arse
put foot to arse
put one’s arse on the line
put one’s foot in someone’s arse
put one’s foot up someone’s arse
quarter-arsed
raggedy-arse
ride someone’s arse
rip arse
sad arse
shake one’s arse
she-arse
shit arse
shitarse
shitty-arse
short-arse
short-arse
shove it up your arse
show one’s arse
sick-arse
sick arse
sit one’s arse down
sit on one’s arse
sit on one's arse
sketch-arse
slap my arse and call me Judy
slap my arse and call me Sally
smart arse
smart-arse
someone's arse off
someone’s arse off, one’s arse off
sorry arse
stank-arse
stick in one’s arse
stick up one’s arse
strange-arse
suck-arse
suck arse
suck arse
suck arse
swamp arse
take it up the arse
take it up your arse
take one’s tongue out of someone’s arse
talk out of one’s arse
talk out of one's arse
talk out one’s arse
talk through one’s arse
Teck’s arse
Tex-arse
the arse
their arse
their arses
the law is a arse
think the sun shines out of someone’s arse
think the sun shines out of someone's arse
tight-arse
tight as a duck’s arse
tight as a duck's arse
tits and arse
up one’s own arse
up the arse
up to one’s arse in alligators
watch one’s arse
weird-arse
whip-arse
whoop arse
whoop-arse
whoop arse
wisearse
with one’s thumbs up one’s arse
work someone's arse off
work someone’s arse off work one’s arse off
your arse
your arse
your arses

Descendants

Sranan Tongo: lasi

Translations

arse — see ass

Verb

arse (third-person singular simple present arses, present participle arsing, simple past and past participle arsed)

(slang, intransitive) To be silly, act stupid or mess around.
Stop arsing around!
- 1985, Sam McAughtry, McAughtry's War, page 10,
  He was university material, just arsing about as a rigger, arsing about, killing time with bohunks like me […] .
- 2005, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, page 291,
  Pi, upset, roars, "Quit arsing around there and get cracking," and a dozen heads turn their way.
- 2011, Jaine Fenn, Bringer of Light, unnumbered page,
  He was half-expecting a call from the lingua, telling him to stop arsing around, but his com stayed silent, so it looked like a certain amount of arsing around was allowed.

Derived terms

arse about (verb)
arse around (verb)
half-arsed (adjective)
can't be arsed

Anagrams

AREs, Ares, EARs, ERAs, Ersa, SERA, Sear, ares, ears, eras, rase, reas, sare, sear, sera

Italian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈar.se/
Rhymes: -arse
Hyphenation: àr‧se

Adjective

arse f pl

feminine plural of arso

Participle

arse f pl

feminine plural of arso

Verb

arse

third-person singular past historic of ardere

Anagrams

Ares, rase, resa, sera

Latin

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈar.se/, [ˈärs̠ɛ]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈar.se/, [ˈärse]

Participle

arse

vocative masculine singular of arsus

Old Irish

Etymology

Univerbation of airi (“for the sake of it; therefore”) +‎ se (“this”)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈar͈ʲsʲe/

Adverb

arse

therefore, for this/that reason
Synonym: airi
- c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 12^a22
  Ní nád ṁbed arse di chorp, act atá de.
  Not that it might not be therefore of (the) body, but (rather) it is of it

Portuguese

Alternative forms

ársis

Noun

arse f (plural arses)

(poetry, music) arsis (the stronger part of a measure or foot)

Romanian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈarse]

Adjective

arse

inflection of ars:
1. genitive/dative feminine singular
2. nominative/accusative/genitive/dative feminine/neuter plural

Verb

arse

third-person singular simple perfect indicative of arde