It has come to the lab's attention that there are times in caving
when the normal range of words used by the English language are simply
not enough to adequately describe the full range of caving experience.
In the interests of improving the caving related lexicon we therefore
humbly offer to following to make up for this oversight on behalf
of the English-speaking world. Feel free to e-mail
us to add some of you own.
Blench: Sudden hesitation you feel when
you realise how far down it is. Advanced blenching can occur, for
example over sudden lack of confidence over one's own abilities to
thread a descender properly.
Blinny: Anything that gets taken accidentally caving and is of absolutely no use underground e.g. a phonecard, sunglasses.
Bobble: To move through passageway at speed.
Crump: The act of stepping on a bat.
Depoppling: To removes one's clothes when attempting a graunch (qv). Often done for effect or out of sheer exhibitionism.
Desplunking: The act of emptying water from one's wellingtons whilst waiting for the group to resclasp (qv)
Embedged: To get stuck in a duck. Non-cavers may get the wrong end of the stick here if inadequately explained.
Fa-faffing: Advanced faffing when getting ready to cave. Olympic faffing. Often characterised by the fact that it's dark when you get to the cave entrance.
Filoed: Description of the state of
one's bodily extremities after a hard day's crawling. Named after
Filo, the Roman God of elbows. And pastry.
Flaunch: To leap into a plungepool safe in the knowledge that it is suitably deep.
Flimmering: Prolonged manner in which one decides whether or not to cave that day.
Flobbered:
To be hit on the head with a small rock whilst waiting at the
bottom of a ladder or pitch.
Glommer: Expression adopted by caver whose helmet straps are clearly far too tight.
(Picture to the left shows an example of a particularly good glommer.)
Graunch: A particularly troublesome squeeze. To the point where breathing in is necessary.
Greb: Description of the person who has just emptied their welly water down the back of your neck, or has dne something truly inexcusable in front of you.
Grobbered: Plesantly knackered in the pub afterwards, unable to lift your arms above your head without mild discomfort.
Gumph: Brown bits found in the bottom of a washing machine after caving weekends.
Hordle: Any piece of equipment used when caving which was originally designed for a more sensible purpose e.g. an ammobox, a minibus.
Nadgered: Descriptive phrase for feeling (or lack of) in the groin region after sitting in an ill-fitting harness for too long.
Neddy: Length of rope that it may or may not be a good idea to use depending on how desperate you are to go down the next bit.
Reclasping: Act of rejoining those members who have gone up various passageways in the interests of finding a way out. Reclasping can involve much standing round in the freezing cold thinking about pizza.
Slump: A collapsed sump.
Snoot: Owner of a brand new oversuit, he or she who always sticks out like a sore thumb.
Swain: Feeling you get when you come across a piece of cave that you saw a while back which means that you have no idea where you are now.
Threbble: The same piece of rock in a pool that everyone falls over
Thrusking: Climbing up a large rift using only your arms. Usually accompanied by a cry of 'HHHRRAAAAAGHHHHH'.
Caving (‘keIvIn) vb (adj) 1.The sport
of climbing in and exploring caves. 2.The justification for buying
a really shiny expensive bit of gear, the reason for keeping old worn
/ knackered / dirty (smelly) pieces of kit. 3. A qualifier for the
consumption of beer, pies, lard, cake, and cider. 4. To some forbidding,
to others irresistible. 5. An ear to ear grin, a “don’t
touch that boulder” moment. 6. A test of welly / oversuit /
hand contact patch adhesion. 7. The reason for dragging yourself out
of bed and into wet gear in order to earn the beauty of formations
in return.
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