In this episode, Andrew and Maura get together to take another edition of the New Words Quiz. Join them as they test their knowledge of new English words! 

If you’d like to play along, you can find the quiz here:

Expressions included in the Learning Materials:

 To chew the fat

To stump someone

Dead meat

Final answer

The bro code

Back in the game

Hindsight is 20/20

A gut feeling

To be sold

To teeter-totter

The stakes

Sample transcript

Maura: All right, let’s get started on today’s episode then.

Andrew: Yeah. Today we have a very fun episode. We are going to do a Chatterbox episode, and this is where we chat and we chew the fat, and we gossip, and we have fun. And today we’re going to play a game, which is the most fun you can have on a podcast.

Maura: Now, last time you did this kind of game, it was with Harp, so this is my first time. So I guess I should say I’m extra excited to try this.

Andrew: So what we’re going to do is the New Words Quiz. And English is a language that is always coming up with new expressions and new ways to say things. And so every couple of months, the big dictionaries, like Oxford Dictionary and Cambridge Dictionary, they add new words to their dictionary. And so what we’re going to do is look at some of these new words and see if we can understand – as native speakers – what these words mean, or if they stump us. It’ll be fun. And last time, I actually lost. Harp beat me, so I am on a mission to win tonight.

Maura: All right, I’m ready. I’m really curious to see what kinds of words have just been added.

Andrew: Right. So there are 10 expressions that we’re going to look at today. And this is actually a quiz – a multiple-choice quiz – that is on the blog of Oxford Dictionary. So we will provide the link with the description of this episode, and if you want to play along, now is the time to navigate to the website so you can take the quiz as well. So, let’s get started, shall we?

Maura: Let’s do it. You’re dead meat.

Andrew: Ooh, OK. So expression number one is cat café.

Maura: Wow, cat café.

Andrew: Hmm. I’ve heard of this one before.

Maura: Yeah, me too. But I’m surprised that it’s getting its place in a dictionary.

Andrew: You know we have a cat café in Montréal now?

Maura: I think I heard that. Have you been?

Andrew: No.

Maura: Although cats are generally very clean animals, I don’t know if I’d want to pet all kinds of strange cats. I actually have two of my own, so I’m not missing any cat affection in my life.

Andrew: Right. So shall we go through the options for cat café? And we’ll try to decide which is the correct choice. So we have cat café; it could be a commercially prepared coffee for pet cats.

Maura: Or the second choice is a café where people pay to interact with cats housed on the premises.

Andrew: Mmhmm. Or it could be coffee served with whipped cream or hot milk.

Maura: Well, I think our discussion already gave away the answer.

Andrew: I think so. It’s got to be B, right? It has to be a café where people go to interact with the cats.

Maura: Yeah.

Andrew: And so this idea was really popular in Korea when I lived there, and I think in Japan as well. But, like we said, it’s kind of new to North America; we just have one cat café in Montréal. All right, one point for each of us.

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips ...