On 24/05/2021 13:06, Steve Walker wrote:
On 24/05/2021 12:23, R D S wrote:
On 24/05/2021 12:10, Richard wrote:
On 24/05/2021 12:03, R D S wrote:

Give up. What's a demic?

Polite way of saying a piece of ****!
Is it not a common term.... It appears not, a dialect thing.

I've known it all my life as something that doesn't work properly or is
broken and I too assumed that it was a common term, but I just looked it
up and apparently it's Mancunian slang.

Used in particular in the railway industry, as in a faulty locomotive.
A faulty wagon would be a "cripple", as in "knock out a cripple" -
remove a wagon from a rake - e.g. one with a "hot box" (overheated
journal bearing). "Drop off a hot box", although apparently referring
to a similar occurrence, extends to other reasons for taking a PNB
(private needs break).

--
Kevin