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grockle

(slang, British, various parts of the, _, West Country) A tourist from elsewhere in the country.

ˈɡɹɑkəlDocumented since 1920s1920sSilenthistorical153 viewsLast reviewed Jun 29, 2026+ Add a definition
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Born ~1920 · no dated citations yet
1920BornToday, 2026

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UK
#1·Apr 27, 2026UK

(slang, British, various parts of the, _, West Country) A tourist from elsewhere in the country.

Origin: The origin of the word is uncertain. A derivation has been suggested from the eponymous dragon-like creature in the obsolete The Dandy comic strip "Jimmy and his Grockle", based on an earlier strip, "Jimmy Johnson's Grockle", in The Rover comic in the 1920s, somehow leading to use in the present sense in the movie The System (1964). It is doubtful that the word's use in the West of England goes back farther than that. Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English also refers to the film The System but suggests another derivation, that holiday visitors in Torbay were comp. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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#2·May 2, 2026

A tourist from elsewhere in the country

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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.

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