Glossary of player terms

“

Hohoho, hohoho! You got owned! Click to listen — The Scout

”

A number of unofficial terms find regular usage in the game. This glossary lists some of the more common ones players may see:

Glossary

AFK

Away from keyboard.

Aerial / Air shot / Airshot

Hitting or killing an opponent in midair, usually followed from as a result of juggling. An aerial is a type of air shot.

Airblast

Term for the Pyro's compression blast ability.

Backcapping / Back-capturing

See back-capping.

Bodyshot

Refers to a shot a Sniper takes that deliberately aims for the body and ignoring the head.

Bodyshotter

A Sniper that repeatedly bodyshots to intentionally irritate the enemy.

BRB

Be right back.

Buff

May refer to

1. A Medic overhealing a player (player has been "buffed");
2. A weapon or item being improved or made stronger (see also nerf);
3. A charged Buff Banner ready for deployment.

Bunny hopping / bhopping

See Exploits#List of Patched Exploits.

Camping / Spawn Camping

See article.

Cap, Capping, Capped

A control point capture, or the act of capturing a control point.

Carpets / Sticky Carpets

Large groups of sticky bombs that render certain areas impassable until dealt with.

Bomb, the / Kart

The Payload Cart

Cheap

Describing a tactic that is effective but requires little skill or effort. Often combined with 'spammer'.

Circle strafe

See article

Crit(s)

A Critical hit

Crocket

A Critical Rocket

Crit ÜberCharge / Kritcharge / Kritz

A Kritzkrieg ÜberCharge, or the act of being subjected to one.

DC / D/C

Disconnected.

Demo

May refer to

1. A Demoman;
2. A demo recording (see Help:Recording demos).

Demoknight

A Demoman that wields the Chargin' Targe and / or the Eyelander or Scotsman's Skullcutter.

DH

Acronym for the Direct Hit Rocket Launcher unlock for the Soldier.

DM

A player or class's "DeathMatch", meaning their combat prowess.

DR

Acronym for the Dead Ringer watch unlock for the Spy. Given its ability to feign a player's death, the acronym may also be used to indicate that a Spy that was just killed is still alive.

Engie / Engy

An Engineer.

Facestab

See also Backstab#Issues.

A glitched backstab that registers as an instant kill despite appearing to hit the face.

Failstab

A stab aimed at the back that registers as just a normal jab.

FAN / FaN

Acronym for the Force-A-Nature unlock for the Scout.

Farming

The act of obtaining something rapidly that has intended to be obtained over time. Could refer to

1. obtaining achievements in mass
2. using idling or other methods to obtain hats or weapons via the item drop system

Griefing

See article.

Huntspam / Lucksman / Arrow Spam

Terms for the Huntsman, its 'lucky' qualities being attributed to its large hitboxes (it uses the same hitboxes as flame particles).

Idler

May refer to

1. someone who is present on the server but is deliberately AFK for a long period of time to earn items via the item drop system;
2. someone who uses external idling programs or uses idling servers for the same purpose.

Instakill

A kill which is inflicted instantly in a single hit, such as out-of-bounds fall damage, being hit by a train or being caught in the Payload explosion.

Intel / Flag

Shorthand name for the Intelligence flag in Capture the Flag maps.

Juggling

See article.

KDR

Kill death ratio. May be expressed as 27 Kills:7 Deaths or in a figure like 1.75 KDR. Medics will often present their KDR as a ratio of Assists to Deaths as kills are not normally their main source of points.

Knock back

See article.

Lag

The effect experienced by players who display erratic movement due to poor frame rates or connection.

Leeching

A disguised Spy gaining health from an enemy Medic, Dispenser or Payload.

Mic

A microphone, used for communication over voice chat.

Micspam

The act of repeatedly playing sounds through or generally abusing the voice chat feature. This may involve:

1. using direct methods to stream .wav sound files
2. deliberately creating noise by singing, blowing into the mic, or simply talking incessantly in order to disrupt others.

Mix

See PUG.

Nades

Projectiles fired from the Demoman's Grenade Launcher.

Needle boosting

See article.

Nest

The collectivized area of an Engineer and his buildings.

Newb / Newbie

Someone who is new to the game.

N00b / Noob / Nub

A derogatory term used to imply a player is new to the game and therefore unskilled.

Owned / Pwned

A term used to inform a defeated player that they have been thoroughly beaten to an unseemly degree.

Pipebomb

An alternate name for the projectiles of the Demoman's Grenade Launcher.

Piss

Term for the Sniper's Jarate unlock

Poof / Poofing

Term for the compression blast ability.

Poofer

Term for the normal Flamethrower which has the compression blast ability (see above).

Poor and Irish

A player who does not own any hats, coined by the Gentle Manne of Leisure in a hidden update page.

Pub

A public server

Pubber

A usually derogatory term for a player who frequents public servers.

PUG

Pick Up Game/Group, referring to a private game with team compositions determined by out-of-game communication (as opposed to a clan match or pub).

Rage

Term for the Charge a Soldier can build up when using the Buff Banner unlock

Ragequit

When a player leaves the server deliberately straight after getting killed multiple times or getting beaten by the other team (usually out of frustration).

Revving

Spinning up the Heavy's Minigun using the alternate-fire button.

Rush

See article.

Scrim

A focused multiplayer match, often inter-clan.

SG / Sentry / Gun / Turret

An Engineer's Sentry Gun

Sol / Solly

A Soldier

Spamming / Spam

The act of deliberately aiming firepower at a particular area in attempt to get kills;

An unwanted abundance of something such as chat messages, a specific class or a certain attack;

See also micspam.

Spawn

The area in which you initially spawn and/or any area in which you respawn.

Spawn Camping

A situation in which the enemy team is camping your spawn entrance, killing you as soon as you get out.

Spec

Spectate

Spy Cap

Using a Spy to secretly capture a control point by slipping behind enemy lines and uncloaking on the point.

Spy-checking

The act of "checking" teammates and areas where teammates are for Spies.

Spy Crab

A Spy who, by crouching and looking up while having the Disguise Kit equipped, has attained the movements of a crab. Also refers to the taunt associated with the Disguise Kit.

Spyro

A slang term for a Spy disguised as a Pyro

SR / SCO-RES

Acronym for the Demoman's Scottish Resistance

Stab'n'Sap

The act as a Spy backstabbing an Engineer from behind, then immediately switching to the Electro Sapper and sapping his Sentry Gun before it turns around, then sapping his remaining gear before he respawns.

Stairstab

The act of jumping over another player's head from an elevated height as a Spy and backstabbing them.

Steamroll

To take capture points/Intelligence/move the cart extremely quickly at the beggining of a game, often resulting in a crushing defeat.

Stickies

Sticky bombs.

Tele / TP

An Engineer's Teleporter.

Turtling

See article

Uber / Invuln

An ÜberCharge

Ubered

Someone who is being ÜberCharged

WM+1

literally, FORWARD and MOUSE1

Derogatory term for the act of suicidally attacking head on with the Flamethrower or Backburner as a Pyro. It is also used to imply the Pyro class requires no skill.

WM+2

literally, FORWARD and MOUSE2

Derived from WM+1, used to refer to Pyros who only use the compression blast function to reflect projectiles, but avoid using the primary fire attack on the Flamethrower.

Wallhugging

Referring to a Sniper who hides behind walls and only comes out to make a shot.

Wrenching

The act of repairing / upgrading a building with your Wrench.

May also be used to refer to the act of killing a Spy.

External links

• Internet slang on Wiktionary
• urbandictionary.com