Womble (noun) (British)
wom-bl
A fictional animal inhabiting Wimbledon Common in London, characterized as clearing up litter.
1960s from Wombledon Common, representing a child’s pronunciation of Wimbledon; the creatures first appeared in a series of children’s books (1968–76) by Elisabeth Beresford (1926–2010) and were popularized by a television series (1973–5).
Example sentences
“We could do a lot worse than to style our behaviour on Wombles, who are a kind, helpful bunch.”
Wonky (adj) won-kee Not straight or balanced, off kilter. First recorded in 1915–20; perhaps variant of dialectal wanky, equivalent to wank(le) ( Middle English wankel, Old English wancol. (more…)
