- gypsiesnounChapter 1 →
A traditional term for Romani people, historically used to describe travelling communities. In this nursery-rhyme context, it carries a warning about mixing with those considered outsiders or social inferiors.
“My mother said I never should play with the gypsies in the wood.”
- the woodnounChapter 1 →
In the nursery-rhyme refrain, the wood is a place of danger and forbidden company — somewhere respectable children are warned to stay away from.
“My mother said I never should play with the gypsies in the wood.”
- a pairphraseChapter 1 →
Two matching things born together; here specifically referring to twins — two children born at the same birth.
“If either twin learns he was one of a pair, they shall both immediately die.”
- blood brothersnounChapter 1 →
Two people who are not biological brothers but who have made a solemn vow of lifelong loyalty, traditionally by mingling their blood, binding themselves as if they were family.
“We're blood brothers, aren't we? An' blood brothers never tell.”
- pissin' against the windphraseChapter 2 →
A crude idiom meaning making a pointless effort that achieves nothing and may even make things worse — like urinating into the wind, which blows it back at you.
“sometimes I think it's just... pissin' against the wind.”
- tryin' to change thingsphraseChapter 2 →
Working to reform social or political conditions — in context, attempting to improve the lives of working-class people through collective action or political organising.
“we're tryin' to change things... but sometimes I think it's just... pissin' against the wind.”
- madadjectiveChapter 2 →
In British working-class usage, this means mentally unhinged or dangerously unstable — not merely angry, as it is used in American English.
“You're mad. You're mad. You're mad.”
Blood BrothersPlay by Willy Russell