IF you think the word toxic relates to hazardous chemicals, then a new dictionary edition will change that.

In the wake of the phone hacking scandal, when the now defunct News of the World was referred to as a “toxic” brand – the 12th edition of The Chambers Dictionary claims toxic means a damaging financial asset.

The dictionary, which goes on sale today, also has a new definition for the word flipping which relates to politicians switching from one property to another to avoid capital gains tax.

Other new entries also include bromance – a close, but not romantic or sexual, relationship between two men, and skank – a promiscuous girl or woman.

Terms linked to internet culture such as defriend, which means to remove someone from a friends list on a social networking site, also feature.

The dictionary also includes abbreviations such as OMG (oh my god), BFF (best friend forever) and TMI (too much information).

A spokesman for Chambers said that, as well as adding new words, they have also refused to remove more antiquated phrases.

These include wittle, a man who knows his wife is unfaithful and accepts it, and wagger pagger, a waste paper basket.

The spokesman said: “Popular English dictionaries have a critical responsibility to showcase our historic language, not just the words of the moment.”

The new dictionary, which costs between £40 and £50, also highlights what it believes are cringeworthy and clichéd words and phrases such as tsar, joined-up, and years young.