happy slapn.
/ˈhapɪ slap/, U.S. /ˈhæpi ˌslæp/ colloquial (originally and chiefly British).
An instance of slapping, punching, or otherwise assaulting a person while being filmed, typically on a mobile phone, the resulting video then being sent or shown to others, or posted on the internet; an instance of happy slapping. Frequently attributive.
ΚΠ
2005 Times Educ. Suppl. 21 Jan. 3 The standard format is a slap round the head. The perpetrator gets another pupil to video it. If the happy slap is a planned event, there is likely to be a huge crowd emerging from the woodwork, out of classrooms from along the corridor.
2009 J. Deaver Roadside Crosses (2010) xi. 108 Somebody's put up a YouTube video about him. They got him in a happy slap vid.
2010 Independent 15 Mar. (Life section) 5/3 Vimeo emphasises quality of service, not mass appeal. Its demographic is artsy—music video directors or graphic designers, not teens filming happy slaps on their phones.
2011 Hull Daily Mail (Nexis) 19 July 15 Officers also recently arrested two girls over a ‘happy-slap’ attack on a girl filmed on a mobile phone, which was then sent around pupils at a city school.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
happy slapv.
/ˈhapɪ slap/, U.S. /ˈhæpi ˌslæp/ colloquial (originally and chiefly British).
transitive. To slap, punch, or otherwise assault (a person) while being filmed, typically on a mobile phone, the resulting video then being sent or shown to others, or posted on the internet.
ΚΠ
2005 Times Educ. Suppl. 21 Jan. 3 I was at my friend's birthday when these boys came and happy slapped this boy so hard.
2007 D. Glennon & P. Neads Occam's Blunt Instrument 101 He had only been there two minutes before being happy-slapped by a group of nine year old girls.
2011 Sunday Independent (Ireland) (Nexis) 20 Feb. There's a timeless lesson there for all the other parents whose offspring turn up..happy-slapping a classmate on YouTube, and who afterwards try to blame the internet, or Grand Theft Auto..for what happened.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.2005v.2005