Uxbridge English Dictionary (formerly New Definitions)
The panellists must suggest alternative definitions for existing English words. For example, "lymph" has been redefined as "to walk with a lisp", or crackerjack has been said to be "a device for lifting biscuits". During one round of the game, Stephen Fry suggested that 'countryside' should mean 'to kill Piers Morgan'. The game has recently been renamed Uxbridge English Dictionary to tie in with a book of that title collecting the definitions made in the round. The game is known outside of ISIHAC as "daffynitions", and bears a strong similarity to the entries from the fictional Dictionary for Today that occasionally featured in Beachcomber, as well as Douglas Adams' whimsical dictionary of redefined place-names, The Meaning of Liff.
An early variation of the game required new definitions for foreign terms or phrases which have become common in English. Graeme Garden memorably redefined "apres-ski" as "plaster of paris" or, "I've Finished the Yoghurt".
There is another running joke found in this game, this time by Barry Cryer, by saying how Sean Connery would say something, for example: "pastiche - what Sean Connery eats in Cornwall" (pasties), or "twinge - what Sean Connery calls children of the same age" (twins).
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“The English language is nobody’s special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.”
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