Adj. Superb, perfect. “For the lemony, pan-seared garlic chicken with baby spinach and a mashed potato gratin ($21), he suggests the ’97 Edmeades zinfandel, which is a spot-on pairing.” (Los Angeles Magazine, May 2000)/”The vision President Obama laid out in his State of the Union — future forward and focused on winning the clean energy race through innovation, freeing business to compete and investing in research and education — was spot on.” (Huffington Post, January 27, 2011) Google Ngram.

Adj. Flabbergasted; speechless. Note: “gobsmacked” is a relatively new U.K. slang term; its first Oxford English Dictionary citation is from 1985. It derives from a word for “mouth” used in northern England, “gob.” “When I saw Minority Report, I was gobsmacked by it…” (Roger Ebert, Slate, July 3, 2003)/”[In the film, How Do You Know, Paul] Rudd registers a little soft, and not nearly stunned or rancorous enough, for a guy who’s been gobsmacked by fate.” (Time Magazine, December 17, 2010) Google Ngram.

Right away; immediately. (Thanks to Laura Zuccardy.) “And as if for extra emphasis, [Monica Seles] broke Huber straight away in the opening game of the second.” (New York Times, August 19, 1995)/”Oh, he apologized/then and brought me straight away/a new machete,/with which I sliced/the brisket….”  (Bob Hicok, “A Night Out,” published in The New Yorker, May 31, 2010). Google Ngram.

Noun. Television host or personality. “In dialect, [“rip”] is a combining form for expressions like rip-stave, rip-snort and the airheaded television presenter’s rip-‘n’-read.” (William Safire, New York Times, October 31, 1999)/“Two-times Super Bowl winner [Deion] Sanders, now a popular television presenter, played as a kick and punt returner, cornerback and later a wide receiver.” (Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2011) Google Ngram.

Adj. Good, clever, well-conceived or -executed. Very commonly used in the U.K., generally to express rather less enthusiasm than in the U.S. (indeed, it is frequently noncommittal or ironic), and to refer to a an experience, quality, idea, or other intangible, as opposed to a person. The abbreviation “brill” has not penetrated to the U.S., as yet. “It was brilliant to program the Beethoven before the Carter.” (Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, December 9, 1998)/”I jumped on one of those little sleds,” [Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Raul] Ibanez said, “and went down a hill. It’s brilliant. Whoever came up with that – phenomenal.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, February 21, 2011)

Participial form of verb “call.” Named. In the U.S., “called” has commonly been used in reference to a nickname or some other unofficial appellation. The Britishism is to use it for a proper name. “In the branch on Amsterdam Avenue and 69th Street, back in the 1930’s, a boy serendipitously espied a shelf heavy with large volumes filled with photographs by a man called Matthew Brady, a name unfamiliar to the teen-ager.” (Richard F. Shepard, New York Times, July 14, 1991)/”A woman called Carry Nation became a symbol of the movement when she traveled from bar to bar with an oversize hatchet and smashed them to pieces.” (Slate.com, June 3, 2010)

Verb, intransitive. To disappear or vanish. “A proxy card with 425,000 votes for the Bank of New York – the second largest block of stock in its favor – simply went missing.” (Sarah Bartlett, New York Times, September 18. 1988)/”Later, cell phone records obtained through a court order showed a call to her voicemail was made in Massapequa, a hamlet not far from where her body was found, on the day she went missing, the official said.” (Associated Press, January 27, 2011) Ngram for “went missing.”

Noun or adjective phrase. An occurrence or situation that has happened or will happen only once. U.S. equivalent for the adjective is “one-time.” No U.S. equivalent for the noun. “The editors promise that Panorama is a one-off and not Volume One, No. 1 of a new publication.” (Bruce Weber, New York Times ArtsBeat blog, October 14, 2009)/”Friday, Michigan and Air Force announced a one-off game for the 2012 home opener in Ann Arbor.” (MSNBC.com, January 29, 2011) Google Ngram.

Noun. Mom. “Some of the patter is awkward, but [Liza Minelli] is great about both her mum and dad.” (Vincent Canby, New York Times, December 19, 1999) “Actress Barbra Streisand is set to play Seth Rogen’s mum in new movie My Mother’s Curse.”(Monsters & Critics blog, January 31, 2011) Google Ngram.

Noun. Cooking, damn it. “…foods that seem to lend themselves most naturally to no-salt cookery are tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and eggplants.” (Craig Claiborne, New York Times, February 18 1981)/”…the volume is bolstered by essays on the role of African Americans in the evolution of American cookery …” (USA Today, February 15, 2011) Google Ngram.