dutty
Patois spelling of "dirty", reflecting the typical Caribbean pronunciation where the "r" softens and the final consonant is voiced.
Definitions
Patois spelling of "dirty", reflecting the typical Caribbean pronunciation where the "r" softens and the final consonant is voiced. Used literally to mean unclean or filthy, but more often as slang for "raw", "hard", "intense" or "impressively grimy" in the same way English speakers might say a beat is "filthy". Common in dancehall and UK garage/grime, where a "dutty bassline" is a heavy, distorted, irresistible one. The word also names a whole family of dances and phrases: "dutty wine" (a popular 2000s dance involving rapid neck and hip rotation, named in Tony Matterhorn's 2006 hit), "dutty whine", "dutty dancing". Tone determines whether the speaker is paying a compliment, describing literal dirt or, sometimes, calling someone disreputable.
the producer dropped a dutty bassline and the whole crowd lost it
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🗺️About Regional & Other slang
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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Other words near "dutty" (D)
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Related terms
Semantically related
- batty67%
Jamaican Patois word for the buttocks, derived from "bottom" via the same softening that produced "bumbo" and "bumbaclart". Used straightforwardly in many Caribbean contexts to mean the backside ("batty riders" = very short shorts; "batty wash" = washing one's rear). The word is heavily marked, however, by its appearance in the homophobic compound "batty boy" (or "batty bwoy"), a slur for a gay man that was a recurrent feature of certain hardcore dancehall lyrics in the 1980s, 90s and 2000s and has been widely condemned by LGBTQ groups and platforms. Because of that history, "batty" used about a person — especially in compounds — should be approached with caution: in some Caribbean contexts it remains an everyday body word, in others (especially diaspora and online) it lands as a slur trigger.
- wutless64%
Caribbean and Jamaican English term for someone who is completely worthless, useless, or good-for-nothing. The word carries strong contempt and is used freely as both a direct insult and a general descriptor. It is a phonetic respelling of 'worthless' reflecting Caribbean English pronunciation patterns, and is common in Jamaican English and across the English-speaking Caribbean regardless of class or context.
- gwan63%
Patois contraction of "go on", used in several distinct everyday senses: as a greeting equivalent to "what's going on?" (often in the phrase "wha gwan?" or its shortened form "wagwan"), as encouragement meaning "carry on, you're doing well" ("gwan, mi yute!"), as an acknowledgement of someone's style or hustle ("him a gwan good"), and occasionally as a dismissive "go away, get out of here". Pronounced roughly "GWAHN". Massively common across Jamaica, the wider Caribbean and the UK Caribbean diaspora, and a staple of reggae, dancehall and grime lyrics. Multifunctional enough that meaning depends almost entirely on tone, surrounding words and facial expression.
- mash it up63%
(Caribbean, slang) To dance well; to succeed.
- whine63%
Jamaican / Caribbean: to dance with fluid hip movements, especially to dancehall or soca. "Whine up" = to dance aggressively and sensually. A core part of Caribbean dance culture that went global with 2010s dancehall fusion tracks.