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Definition:
b) a person who dumps waste illegally
German translation:
fly-tipper = jemand der Abfall bzw. Müll unzulässig entsorgt
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GOOGLE INDEX
fly-tipper: approximately 38,000 Google hits
Sample text:
FLY-TIPPER gangs caught on camera
(BBC - News Headline)
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"The message to FLY-TIPPERS is clear, don’t dump your rubbish in Birmingham, we will catch you, and you will pay a heavy price."
(Birmingham UK city council member)
Did you know?
fly-tipper, chiefly British (U.S. - litter bug)
noun phrase
- someone who dumps waste illegally, especially on public land
(WordWeb Dictionary)
fly-tipping (U.S. - littering)
verb phrase
- illegally leaving things that you do not want next to a road, in fields, in rivers, etc.
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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"Tipping" is a very old British term for dumping, first appearing around 1838. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "tipping" is defined as "the tilting up of a truck so as to discharge its contents; the emptying out of the contents of a truck, etc., by tilting; dumping." While "tipping" originally referred to rubbish and the like dumped from a truck, it has since become a synonym for any sort of refuse disposal.
The "fly" in fly-tipping is a bit more obscure, but appears to derive from "to fly" in the familiar aviation sense. Since the early 19th century, fly has been British (and sometimes American) slang for wide awake or clever, and currently carries the connotation in Britain of crafty or dishonest. So fly-tipping is rubbish dumping done sneakily (and illegally).
(source: The Word Detective)
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Five years ago nobody would have understood the phrase fly-tipper, today it's always in the news."
Thanks to Joachim for suggesting today's word!
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