wellie

I. welly

n

British

1a.

force, impetus, power. The word often occurs in the phrase 'give it some wellie'.

1b.

brute strength, brawn as opposed to brain

► 'It was just welly, welly, welly. The ball must have been screaming for mercy.' (Ron Yates characterising Wimbledon FC's style, Independent, May 1989)

2.

a dismissal, the sack, as in 'get the wellie/the order of the wellie'

3.

a condom. A term from the late 1980s using the name of one piece of protective rubberwear for another. Also known as a willie-wellie.

4.

a green welly

Wellie, as a diminutive of 'wellington (boot)', became a household word in the 1970s. It was quickly applied to figurative or metaphorical uses of the word or notion of 'boot', both as a noun and, later, a verb. The first instances of the use of the word have not been definitively identified, al-though the Scottish comedian Billy Con-nolly popularised the term, closely followed by several radio disc-jockeys.

II. vb

British

1.

to kick out, dismiss, sack

2.

to defeat, bully or attack

These are back-formations from the noun form of the word, heard since the end of the 1970s.