MovieChat Forums > New Tricks (2003) Discussion > Another "slang" question

Another "slang" question

posted 9 years ago by SrEditor
4 replies | jump to latest

This is one I saw while watching Chasing Shadows. But of course their board is basically dead now, so I came here to ask.

During the plot of one of their episodes, one character had been arrested or accused of "Fly (something)." Then later, the detective ended up at a junkyard with a big sign on it saying "No fly . . ." Argh! I forgot the last word! Something with an -ing and "fly" is the adjective: No fly fishing? No. No fly chasing? No. No fly digging? No. What was it?

Anyone here who can help complete the phrase AND tell us what it means?

[–] NothingButTheBest 9 years ago

Fly tipping - dumping waste illegally.

The world is your lobster.

[–] SrEditor 9 years ago

That's right...that's *it*!

Thank you for your help!

Now can you disambiguate for us? What led to that being the term? Does it mean "tipping" the garbage over the fence when no one's looking? Or are we feeding the flies? Or what?

[–] willjohn 9 years ago

Dumping something a distance from where is was used to make it difficult to find where it came from.

"On the fly"as in throwing something out of a moving vehicle.

[–] cherns-2 8 years ago

A "tip" is a pile. What we North Americans would call a garbage dump is a rubbish tip in Britain. In 1966, the Welsh town of Aberfan was devastated when a coal tip, aka a spoil tip, turned into slurry and slid onto the town.

By extension, "tipping" is getting rid of rubbish by throwing it on a tip; "fly tipping" is doing that covertly and/or illegally.