noun General Slang

Reeb

/riːb/ · noun · slang

Cockney back-slang for 'beer' — spelled and said backwards over a market pint.

0

Definitions

1

Used loosely for ale or any cheap pub drink bought with the day's takings.

“He drank his whole day's yenom in reeb and went home skint.”
by community
0
2

By extension, a drinking break or the act of going for a pint, the small social ritual that punctuated a long market day.

“We'll knock off for a quick reeb and be back before the dinner rush.”
by community
0
3

Beer. The word 'beer' simply reversed to 'reeb', one of the most everyday terms in the costermonger's coded vocabulary, used when ordering or talking about a drink without outsiders following.

“Pour us a reeb, I've been shouting prices since six this morning.”
by community
0

Reeb In A Sentence

Two reeb and a feeb sandwich, that's a costermonger's lunch.
She stood the whole barrow-line a reeb when her cart sold out.
No more reeb for him, he can barely call his prices straight.

Origin & Usage

Cockney costermonger back-slang of the 1840s, the simple reversal class of term recorded by Henry Mayhew (1851) and John Camden Hotten (1859), who listed dozens of such phonetic reversals used by London street folk.

Variants reb
Tags #cockney#back-slang#british#uk#drink

People Also Ask

What does reeb mean?

It means beer. It's literally 'beer' spelled backwards, a staple of Cockney costermonger back-slang.

Where did reeb come from?

From the back-slang invented by London street sellers in the 1830s–40s, recorded by Mayhew and Hotten in the mid-19th century.

Is reeb still used today?

Rarely in earnest, but it survives among traders, in market nostalgia and in writing about Cockney heritage.

Comments 0