gear

1) adj

British

excellent, absolutely right, first rate. An ephemeral vogue word that spread with the popularity of the Beatles and the 'Mersey sound' from Liverpool in 1963 to be picked up by the media (a fact which incidentally marked its demise as a fashionable term). It is related to 'the gear', meaning the 'real thing' or top quality merchandise.

2) n

1.

clothes, accessories. Now a widely used colloquialism, gear was slang, in the sense of being a vogue word in restricted usage, in the early 1960s, when its use paralleled the new interest in fashion among mods.

2.

illicit drug(s). Since the early 1960s gear has been used by drug abusers, prisoners, etc. to denote, in particular, cannabis or heroin. In this sense the word is a typical part of the drug user's quasi-military or workmanlike vocabulary (works, equipment and artillery are other examples).

► Got any gear, man?

3a. top quality merchandise, the 'real thing'

3b. stolen goods. A specific usage of the standard colloquial sense of the word.

► Stash the gear in the garage.