What does bez mean?
Bez is an informal Northern English term, heard mainly in Lancashire and Yorkshire, that refers to an occasion of heavy drinking — what many speakers elsewhere might call a booze-up or a session. Used as a noun, it appears most characteristically in the phrase "on the bez", describing a night spent drinking hard; it can also function as a slangy verb meaning to drink heavily. The word belongs firmly to colloquial speech and carries a convivial, unpretentious connotation rather than any disapproving one, though like similar terms it can imply overindulgence. Beyond its regional slang sense, "Bez" is widely recognized across Britain as the stage name of Mark Berry, the dancer and percussionist famed for shaking maracas alongside Shaun Ryder in the Manchester band the Happy Mondays and later winning Celebrity Big Brother. Because of this celebrity association, many readers encounter the word through popular culture long before its dialectal use.
nounIn Northern English slang, a bez is an occasion of heavy drinking or boozing; the verb form means to drink alcohol heavily.
- An episode of heavy drinking; a booze-up (Northern England, informal).
"They headed out on the bez after payday and didn't get home till dawn."
"It was someone's birthday, so naturally the whole office ended up on the bez."
"After a quiet January they celebrated with a proper bez at the local."
Rarely needed; the plural appears mostly in casual recounting of multiple drinking sessions.
"The stag do consisted of two solid days of bezes."
Best known to most people as the nickname of the maraca-shaking Bez of the Happy Mondays — a man so synonymous with good times that his name became shorthand for the party itself.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
How bez is actually used
Highly colloquial and regional — chiefly heard in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Not appropriate in formal writing.
Easily confused with bez
A fez is a brimless red felt hat of Ottoman origin, whereas bez is Northern English slang for heavy drinking.