S.P.

n

British

starting price, the odds on a horse. Hence essential information, a basis for judgment, the known form. A term fash-ionable in working-class and raffish cir-cles since the later 1980s. It has been in underworld and gambling use since the 1950s.

► 'What's the S.P. on Murphy? Dead from the neck up!' ('Arthur Daley' in Minder, British TV se-ries, 1984)