What it means
An emphatic way to say something’s huge or seriously impressive. Brits stick it in front of adjectives like stonking great, stonking big, stonking good, or stonking headache when life’s gone oversized. Slightly goofy and old-school, but that’s the charm. Works for anything from pay rises and portions to engines, deals, and hangovers.
Usage examples
"Dave rocked up to the caff with a stonking great fry-up, full builder’s. I was like, steady on mate, you feeding a family of badgers?"
"They scored a stonking goal from the halfway line, the whole pub jumped up and knocked three pints over."
Where it comes from
Probably born as an emphatic noise word, the kind of thing you blurt when something is impressively big or loud. By the late twentieth century Brits were slapping stonking in front of anything they wanted to amplify, a stonking goal, a stonking great hangover. Pure intensifier, all enthusiasm and no subtlety.
Other ways to say it
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