arse

• ass (US)

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).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɑːs/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɐːs/
• (Ireland, Scotland) IPA^(key): /aɹs/, /äːɹs/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɑɹs/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)s

• Audio (UK)

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• Audio (CA)

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• Audio (AU)

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arse (plural arses)

1. (Commonwealth, now vulgar) The buttocks or more specifically, the anus.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks, Thesaurus:anus

   • 2011 March 12, James Smart, The Guardian:

     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.

   • 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 131:

     No one, then or now, wanted to drink the mead that came out of Odin's arse.

   • 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.

2. (chiefly UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Commonwealth, derogatory, slang) A stupid, pompous, arrogant, mean or despicable person.
   • 2007, Martin Harrison, The Judgement of Paris, page 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, page 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.

3. (vulgar, slang, uncountable) Used in similes to express something bad or unpleasant.
4. (vulgar, slang, metonymically, 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.

The form arse (as opposed to ass) and its derivatives are usually used by speakers and writers in preference to ass in Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth countries, though only regionally in Canada (in the Atlantic provinces). Historically arse was also used in New England but the form has now been superseded by ass throughout the US and in the rest of Canada.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:arse.

• Sranan Tongo: lasi

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

1. (Commonwealth, 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.

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

arse

1. (Commonwealth) An expression of frustration.

   Synonym: bum (euphemistic)

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

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

arse f pl

1. feminine plural of arso

arse f pl

1. feminine plural of arso

arse

1. third-person singular past historic of ardere

• Ares, rase, resa, sera

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈar.se/, [ˈärs̠ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈar.se/, [ˈärse]

arse

1. vocative masculine singular of arsus

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈar͈ʲsʲe/

arse

1. 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

• ársis

arse f (plural arses)

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

• IPA^(key): [ˈarse]

arse

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

arse

1. third-person singular simple perfect indicative of arde