Terminology and Slang

Here are some common phrases and abbreviations that you might encounter while playing Zombie Escape.

Phrase	Description
Auto'd	Whenever a Human gets randomly selected to be on the Zombie team.
Boost	When Zombies are pushed or launched into the air towards the team. Alternatively, this can refer to a speed boost gained by either the Humans or Zombies.
Boosting	The act of causing boosts or knocking back Zombies into unfavorable positions such that it endangers the Humans. Alternatively, this can refer to the act of giving fellow Humans or Zombies speed boosts.
Crouch-Jump	To crouch while jumping in TF2. Usually done for extra height to get over certain objects.
Circle Strafing	A specific movement type that can be attained by simply holding A or D keys (enough room to move too) with minimal camera movement to effectively 'strafe' around in a circle. Often called out to perform this action if being chased by Bosses or NPCs.
Delaying	Can be used to either describe the act of stalling out the game by refusing to progress or by being in a position where you can't progress or the act of holding off on a trigger until the team is in a safe position for you to trigger.
Doorhugging	The act of being as far away from the zombies as possible, such as the entrance of the next area not yet accessible. This can be used in negative connotation to indicate players who avoid defending completely, thus risking the lives of their teammates for the benefit of their own "safety." A more neutral usage of it would be in reference to players falling back to obtain items or to activate triggers nearby the entrance to the next area
Doorhuggers	Any Humans who are doorhugging.
Edging	The act of getting too close to the Zombies as a Human such that you are within their reach and could get infected by them.
Edgers	Any Humans who are edging.
Fall Back (FB)	A callout for you and your teammates to retreat when the next area has opened up or when things are getting dangerous.
Holding	The act of maintaining a position and defending it against Zombies.
Item Stack(ing)	Typically meant in a negative connotation; refers to the act of using two Human items simultaneously - usually by bad coordination and can deprive the Human team capability in defending themselves!
NPC	Acronym for Non-Playable Characters. Primarily used in reference for enemies not controlled by a player that you might have to fight in maps.
Overdefending	The act of holding a position against the Zombies longer than necessary. This can be good for specific strategies, but is bad most of the time due to dying by having nobody to cover you on the fallbacks or due to map teleports.
Solo	Referring to scenarios where winning a map is going to boil down to one last Human survivor pulling through - commonly used term in laser maps.
Stalling	The act of delaying the Zombies while the rest of the team retreats.
Teleport (TP)	A callout usually referring to a Zombie teleport. Typically, one would say it in association to where the Zombies will teleport to or to where both the Zombies and the survivors will teleport to. If your teammates call out a certain area as a tp or a marker is placed for the tp, get away!
Trigger	An area or an interactable object a player must access to begin the next event of the map or to move onto a new area.
Triggering	A callout that indicates a player is going to get a trigger or fulfill certain conditions to allow the team to progress through the map
Uber Abusing	The act of a Zombie switching class to kill themself in order to re-spawn with uber invincibility and potentially infect any humans near the zombie spawn/teleport area.
Fast Triggering	The act of triggering the next event or section as soon as possible. This can either benefit the team by lessening the time needed to defend, or be a detriment to the team if it activates events that might kill them while unprepared, (e.g. tps that teleport both Humans and Zombies together.)
Trim	Used in reference to players dying to Zombies or map hazards in a small or large quantity (e.g. small trim/big trim) usually in areas where players are expected to become infected or die.
Zmain	A person who intentionally dies as a Human to become a Zombie. Although the term has been flanderized and now everyone just uses it as a generalization of an an active zombie playing the game.