Funny expressions

lgrapes · Post by **lgrapes** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:11 pm

I was thinking about the incredible diversity of this forum and thought that it would be fun to do a thread with funny expressions. I have seen some of the funniest things in the various threads here and everyday I laugh out loud because I see one that I have never heard before.

Due to the different cultures and countries I am sure there will be an incredible amount of variation on the same words.

Is anyone interested?

Lori

janetgalle · Post by **janetgalle** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:47 pm

Sounds fun..........

Up here in North Dakota they say "Oofda" a lot.
Norwegian in origin.
Meaning..... oh my or my gosh or the like.

jg

rmelin13 · Post by **rmelin13** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:52 pm

I still get a kick out of "sussed it out"...... I'm still going under the assumption that it's a British term? Can anyone verify that?

Also... "the penny dropped" I've read on these boards. Again, is this a British term?

popo · Post by **popo** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:55 pm

Finland has an expression for 'cheers' or 'bottoms up' that sounds like 'get pissed' as in 'drunk'. Don't know how they spell it though.

popo · Post by **popo** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:01 pm

'The penny dropped' is a British term I think, which comes from the era of slot machines for bubble gum and the like. You wouldn't 'get it' until you heard the penny drop in the machine when you turned the knob and your bubble gum came out.

lgrapes · Post by **lgrapes** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:04 pm

Wow, you guys are fast. Did not expect any response for a while. Here are a few that I hear quite often...

Getting drunk: I've heard "Drunker than ten men", "Dirty Stay Out", "Hammered", "Slammed", and my mother in-law used to use "Looks like you've got the Irish Flu" (She was from Ireland).

Expressions relating to brains: "The wheel is turning but the hamster's not in it", "Not the brightest bulb in the box", and my personal favorite..."As sharp as a bowling ball".

OMG or Gosh: "Wholly Moley", "Great Scott", "Whoa", "Shut Up", and another favorite..."Great-Googlie-Mooglie"

Although, I think these are American my favorite expressions are by far British. Let's see what appears here

popo · Post by **popo** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:14 pm

My husband's favourite when he's trying to get through to someone who just doesn't 'get it', is 'it's like plaiting water', meaning it's an impossible task. It's much better said in a Yorkshire accent, 'It's like platting watter'.

lgrapes · Post by **lgrapes** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:29 pm

You mean kind of like "Talking to a brick wall" or "Can you turn your lights on so it will help you see things better"

I need to try my best Yorkshire accent and say it to my husband later...although it will be hard to mask over my Noo-Jezzy accent

Lillian · Post by **Lillian** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:42 pm

When I was in Aberdeen (Scotland) I bought some bread rolls. As I left the shop the shop assistant realised that I had left them on the counter and called out to me " Fit like Quine, you've left your wee softies here"

My mother is from Southern Ireland (Waterford). They have hilarious expressions! If someone has fat legs they say "Beef to the heels like a Mullingar heffer". If someone has taken a really bad photo (e.g. head cut off) they call you "Sticky-back Power".

We have cockney rhyming slang in London - I think "sussed" comes from London. We call London the "Smoke". Try and work some of these out:

Apples and pears
Your Tifta
Dog and bone
Alan Wickers

Frog and toad
Your strides
Your Barnet fair

There are thousands more

Lillie

lgrapes · Post by **lgrapes** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:53 pm

Lillian wrote:"Beef to the heels like a Mullingar heffer"

The first time I heard this was in one of my favorite movies (Circle of Friends) I luv it

I have absolutely no clue what the others mean. I'll wait and see if someone else knows.

Lori

Lillian · Post by **Lillian** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:12 pm

Just thought of a couple more from the Smoke - "Diamond Geezer" and "Top Bird" meaning great bloke and great girl

Lilllie

Lillian · Post by **Lillian** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:24 pm

Another great one is "minging" (say like ringing) You can be a minger if you are a bit dirty, yucky or just look a right mess.

Lillie

popo · Post by **popo** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:33 pm

My mum used to say, 'Come on, up the apples and pears to Bedforshire', and if I got my 'Alan Wickers' in a twist about it she'd give me a 'hiding'.

She also used to tell me to stop 'mythering' when I was getting on her nerves.

And when I wasn't doing something right she'd tell me to 'frame' - I never really understood that one.

lgrapes · Post by **lgrapes** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:37 pm

My mother used to say "Come on light a fire under your butt...we have to make tracks" or "Step on it"

And, when we got on her nerves (she still says this to us occasionally)

"I've got one nerve left and you're on it"

popo · Post by **popo** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:40 pm

You know when someone's having a go at you, and you're behind them pulling faces and 'taking them off'? Well, my mum used to tell me to 'stop mimmimoking'.

I think it was a derivision of 'mimicking'.

lgrapes · Post by **lgrapes** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:53 pm

Only God could help us if we were caught making faces or rolling our eyes. To this day I will not do that to my mother...You know the expression:

I brought you into this world and I can take you out!

Nothing irritates my mother more then attitude when you have done something wrong and are getting the once over for it.

She also likes to say...

Suck it up and smile Pooh Bear...nobody likes a complainer.

popo · Post by **popo** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:06 pm

She also used to say 'If you don't stop crying, I'll give you something to cry for'. Why would she want to do that, it would only make me cry more. Go figure.

Another favourite was, 'You'll have someone's eye out with that'. And when my dad was playing rough with me, my mum would shout, 'There'll be tears before bed time'. I never knew if she meant me or my dad.

mette · Post by **mette** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:18 pm

My favorite expression (in English) is "burning the midnight oil". First time I heard it, I thought the person saying it was nuts or something

When I finally figured it out I was

and

Mette

Cat · Post by **Cat** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:21 pm

My husband Grandmother, would always say

"Can I hope you? Meaning Can I help you! I thought she had went crazy, this was the first time I had every heard it said that way.

I just looked and thought what? Of course my husband laughed at me.

mette · Post by **mette** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:33 pm

Oooh... also "it's raining cats and dogs". I've allways imagined what it would look like if it actually were

Mette

janetgalle · Post by **janetgalle** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:56 pm

How about "Kidspeak"...could be a foreign language sometimes.

Once when Jordan was busy and I interrupted him, he said "Don't brother me now" (as in referring to his brother bothering him) And once when he was angry at me about something..."You better not make me smile til I'm done being mad"

And Dylan loves the piano, can play a few simple pieces, he says "The music just leaks out my fingers" or "Don't sing so loud, my fingers can't hear" or "You have to dance til your feet stop"
He is also a collector, you never know what you might find in his pockets. I asked him once why he had so many things in his pockets...he looked at me like I was nuts and said "Because I have more pockets than hands."

And of course when the two of them are "at" each other you get the old:
He's touching me....he's copying me....he's LOOKING at me!

And one of my fondest memories....when told they had to share one towel after their bath, Jordan said "That's OK, he 's little, he won't collect much water."

jg

lizwiz · Post by **lizwiz** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:37 pm

As much use as a chocolate fireguard, is a favourite, and
That went down like a lead balloon.
Various others spring to mind:-
He only opens his mouth to change feet
He/she looks like a hundred yard loon
My dauaghter when she was only three came home from playschool and told her five year old brother he was "as much use as a poo on the mat."

As far as the rhyming slang is concerned the 'apples and pears' (stairs) were more ofern know as the wooden hill, and we were sent "up the wooden hill to blanket fair".

Liz (the Wiz)

the cat · Post by **the cat** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:40 pm

when i was little, I would sas my dad, He would tell me.
I was going to eat a knuckle sandwich. If I wouldn't eat , he would
ok fold your arms ,,"now eat".Still can't make that work.
My father in law would say wwheat all the time.In norwegian. to set on the toliet.
My grandmother=If my mother would be sleeping,I was to go knock her up.

Gen · Post by **Gen** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:55 pm

My Mom used to refer to a small person as - "they're about as big as a cake of soap after a weeks wash"

When working on the car, my Dad used to say "scotch the tires", meaning put blocks next to the tires to keep the car from rolling.

the cat · Post by **the cat** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:20 pm

My oldest son, when he was about 2. grasshoppers were hoppgrasser,

when i grow up i want to be a fire engine.

if my sister and I didn't do our housework before Mom got home from work,, she said we were laleegagin around.

ann3120 · Post by **ann3120** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 12:03 am

janetgalle wrote:How about "Kidspeak"...could be a foreign language sometimes.

When Mum didn't understand what we were trying to tell her, it was always "You're speaking double dutch".

And when I was primping in the mirror as a teenager she'd say "...and who's going to get off their galloping horse to look at you". She told me the saying came down from my father's mother, who was very Victorian. My father was born in 1902.

An expression my Texan husband uses is "he must have fallen out of an ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down".

Gen · Post by **Gen** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 12:20 am

The cat, we laleegaged too: quit your laleegagin and get busy!

the cat · Post by **the cat** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:06 am

"WOW" I didn't know any one else did it.
Just me and my sister. thats great.That's funny.

What were we doing?

lgrapes · Post by **lgrapes** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 2:44 am

Let's not forget;

Full of piss and vinegar
Busier than a one armed paper hanger
Bull in a china shop
A long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs
Like a chicken with it's head cut off
Looks like 20 pounds shoved into a 5 pound bag
Burning the candle at both ends
Knee high to a grass hopper
Still wet behind the ears
Right off the boat
You must be a rocket scientist

and I can't believe this one hasn't shown up yet...

What, did you just fall off the turnip cart

And regarding "Kidspeak":

My nephew (3 years old) told me once that he was hungry so I asked what he wanted...he said "Pizza Bones". So, I handed him some pizza crust he cried and said "NO! Pizza Bones!" After some trial and error it was discovered that Pizza Bones was Cheese. Who knew

(He is now 15 and communicates a little better)

Lori

Gen · Post by **Gen** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:13 am

Kidspeak - when one of my nieces was in 2nd grade, the teacher had them coming up with words ending in at, et, etc. When they got to it, guess what my niece came up with.