greaseball

English

Etymology

grease + ball; derived from the fact that Italian-Americans are stereotyped as having greasy or greased-up hair, e.g. John Travolta in Grease and Saturday Night Fever.

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Noun

greaseball (plural greaseballs)

  1. (US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, other Mediterranean, or Latin American descent.
    Hyponyms: dago, Eyetie, goombah, guido, guinea, wog, wop (Italian)
    • 1982, Stephen King, Survivor Type:
      Do you think I wanted to walk across that stage and get my diploma and look down and see that fat greaseball sitting there? [] I got into a fraternity, too. It wasn’t one of the good ones, not with a name like Pinzetti, but a fraternity all the same.
  2. (slang) A mechanic.
  3. (slang) A biker, a tough.
  4. (slang) A rocker or metalhead, especially one who listens to 1950s rock and roll or 1980s thrash metal.

Translations

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.