CB slang

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CB slang (commonly called "CB Talk") are terms that those operating CB radio used mainly during the CB craze of the 1970s and 1980s. Some of these slang terms are still in use with their original meanings, others not used at all and some have changed meaning. This list shows the historical meanings.

1 Popular slang terms
- 1.1 Popular terms for law enforcement officers
- 1.2 Other popular terms
2 References
3 See also

[edit] Popular slang terms

[edit] Popular terms for law enforcement officers

"Bear" – a law officer. The terms "Smokey" & "Bear" are both direct references to Smokey Bear, a character image commonly seen along U.S. highways. He wears a flat-brimmed forest ranger's hat very similar to the hat included in many highway patrol uniforms in the U.S.
"Bear Cave" / "Bear's Den" / "Bear's Lair" – a police station.
"Bear / Smokey in a plain brown wrapper" – a law officer in an unmarked police car. The term "plain white wrapper" is sometimes used, depending on the color of the vehicle.
"Bear in the air" / "Fly in the sky" – a police aircraft. While state police often use fixed-wing airplanes to monitor highway traffic, "fly" refers specifically to a helicopter.
"Bear in the grass" / "Smokey in the bush" – a speed trap.
"Blue Light" / "Blue Light Special" – a law enforcement vehicle, especially with a stopped motorist. This is more common in the South, probably because of the popularity of the K-Mart Blue Light Special.
"Chicken coop" – a weigh station. "Locked up" means the station is closed.
"County Mountie" – a Sheriff's deputy car.
"Evel Knievel" – cop on a motorcycle.
"Full-Grown" – a state policeman/trooper.
"Gum ball machine" / "bubble gum machine" – refers to a popular style of rotating mirror light used by many state police and some other law enforcement agencies at the time, however the term can refer to any law enforcement vehicle. It looked somewhat like the round style of 'penny' gumball machines. It was basically a clear cylinder, like an upside down jar, with lights and a spinning mirror system inside. It was usually mounted on the center of the roof.
"Local yokel" / "City Kitty" / "Town Clown" – a law officer with a city or township police force, seldom encountered on interstate highways.
"Picture-taker" / "Smokey taking pictures" / "Kojak with a Kodak" – a law officer monitoring traffic with a radar gun. Today, this can also refer to an automated speed camera.
"Smokey" – a law officer. A "smokey report" is what CB users say when they have information on a law officer, such as location or current activities.

[edit] Other popular terms

"Back door" – the area behind a vehicle. To say "I got your back door" means that someone is watching another's back. "Knocking at your back door" means approaching from behind.
"Breaker" – telling other CB users that you'd like to start a transmission on a channel. May be succeeded by either the channel number, indicating that anyone may acknowledge ("One-nine" refers to channel 19, the most widely used among truck drivers), or by a specific "handle", which is requesting a particular individual to respond.
"Flash for cash" – speed camera
"Four" – short for the ten code 10-4, which means acknowledged, okay, etc.
"Four-wheeler" – a small passenger vehicle, as distinguished from an "eighteen-wheeler" (a semi truck). More commonly, this is used to refer to a four-wheel-drive vehicle (such as a jeep or pickup).
"Front door" – the leader of a convoy.
"Gator" – pieces of a blown truck tire whose tread looks like an alligator's back. A large piece, if hit just right, can do severe damage to a smaller vehicle.
"Good buddy" – at one time it meant friend, but more recently it is used as a slur indicating one is a homosexual.
"Got your ears on?" – asking the receiver if they are on the air and listening.
"Handle" – the nickname a CB user uses in CB transmissions. Other CB users will refer to the user by this nickname. To say "What's your handle?" is to ask another user for their CB nickname.
"Harvey Wallbanger" – a driver who appears to be drunk or is driving recklessly.
"Hauling fence post holes" / "Hauling sailboat fuel" – hooked to an empty trailer.
"I'm / We're gone" – indicates that one is finished transmitting and may not be listening to the conversation any longer, or may be traveling out of receiving range. Equivalent to "Out" or "Clear" in formalized radio voice procedure.
"Kicker" / "Boots" – A Linear Amplifier that is used to boost the transmitting power of a CB Radio above the legal five watts.
"Lot Lizard" – prostitute.
"Meat Wagon" – Ambulance.

+ "Band-aid Buggy" – Ambulance.

"Pickle Park" – an interstate rest area.
"Pregnant Rollerskate" – a Volkswagen Beetle.
"Put the hammer down" / "Put the pedal to the metal" – Slang for flooring the accelerator.
"Rolling refinery" – a tank truck carrying fuel.
"Sandbagging" – a term used to describe the activity of a person not participating in conversation but listening only, despite having the capability of speaking. This is not the same as listening in using a simple receiver, as the person doing this activity can transmit using the two-way radio, but chooses not to.^[1]^[2] It is done to monitor people for entertainment or for gathering information about the actions of others. Often CBer’s will sandbag to listen to others' responses to their previous input to a conversation, sometimes referred to a "reading the mail".^[3]
"Seat cover" – an attractive female passenger in a vehicle.
"Shakeytown" – Los Angeles, so nicknamed because of the earthquakes that occur there.
"Steak on the Grill" / "Put a steak on the grill" – Hit a cow.
"Suicide jockey" – a truck carrying explosives.
"Super Slab" –slang term for highway
"Twenty" / "What's your twenty?" – asking the receiver what their current location is. This term comes from the ten-code 10-20.
"10-100" / "Going number 1" – (polite) Taking a bathroom break, specifically urination.
"10-200" / "Going number 2" – (polite) Taking a bathroom break, specifically defecation.
"Toilet mouth" / "Potty mouth" – someone using profanity on the air (on-air profanity is generally frowned upon within the CB community).
"Organ Donor" – A civilian motorcyclist.