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Original poster

...to think that this expresson is dying out?

441 replies

WalkDontWalk · 05/10/2025 14:25

On another thread someone used the expression 'taking the mick'. And I thought, 'I used to hear that all the time when I was a kid. But I rarely do now.'

So I started to think of others that my dad used but my kids don't.

'Having a kip' or 'I was akip'.

'Yikes' (My daughter says I'm the only non-cartoon that says 'yikes'.)

'Swinging the lead'

'Bunking off'. (Daughter: 'Never heard that. Sounds rude')

'Going Dutch' (Daughter. 'Nope. No idea. Is that rude too?')

'Haven't the foggiest.'

These were all in use in London fifty years ago. Maybe they were always regional.

OP posts:
BellyPork · 05/10/2025 16:58

oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends · 05/10/2025 16:56

Your Mum is losing her marbles.
Syrup (of figs) is a wig.

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Losing your marbles is from the lost boys, Peter Pan.

stuffedpeppers · 05/10/2025 16:57

I do like the Gen Z expression as said by my teen the other day

-taking a fat minute

As in taking a while to do what needed doing, when I asked him why his room was not clean!

oncemoreuntothebeachdearfriends · 05/10/2025 16:56

mcmuffin22 · 05/10/2025 15:37

I use barnet all the time to refer to hair. Yikes and yowzers are still very much in use in my family (yowzers possibly from Inspector Gadget or another 80s kids tv show). My mum uses plenty of rhyming slang (syrup for wife etc) all perplexing to my children.

Your Mum is losing her marbles.
Syrup (of figs) is a wig.

BellyPork · 05/10/2025 16:56

Itiswhysofew · 05/10/2025 16:52

Fair to middling is said where I live in rural Ireland 😄

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My mum (Scottish origin) uses fair to middling. But doesn't that mean mediocre, not worthy of comment?

quantumbutterfly · 05/10/2025 16:56

UnctuousUnicorns · 05/10/2025 16:48

My parents were courting in the mid 60s, which sounds like something out of a Jane Austen novel now!

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funny you should mention her, I came across this extract which surprised me in a regency novel:

that the Musgroves had had the ill fortune of a very troublesome, hopeless son; and the good fortune to lose him before he reached his twentieth year; that he had been sent to sea, because he was stupid and unmanageable on shore; that he had been very little cared for at any time by his family, though quite as much as he deserved; seldom heard of, and scarcely at all regretted... He had, in fact, though his sisters were now doing all they could for him, by calling him 'poor Richard,' been nothing better than a thick-headed, unfeeling, unprofitable Dick Musgrove, who had never done anything to entitle himself to more than the abbreviation of his name, living or dead.”
― Jane Austen, Persuasion

Persuasion Quotes by Jane Austen

712 quotes from Persuasion: ‘I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in ...

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2534720-persuasion

DurinsBane · 05/10/2025 16:55

I use ‘taking the mick’ because I don’t like to swear so don’t like saying ‘taking the piss’. Having a kip I still hear. Bunking off I hear occasionally

Jamesblonde2 · 05/10/2025 16:54

We still use all those phrases in the North.

bogstandardaf · 05/10/2025 16:53

My DC were dumbfounded by me saying something was 'out of order' (for unacceptable etc).

I had no idea it wasn't a phrase used by the young 'uns.

Silverbirchleaf · 05/10/2025 16:53

deirdrerasheed · 05/10/2025 16:24

Oh no I've revived taking the mick as I thought it was a PG version of taking the piss.
To my annoyance my Jen z daughter uses nonce, its having a revival.
I miss dick head.

Nonce, in what context? Doesn’t it mean peadophile?

Itiswhysofew · 05/10/2025 16:52

MagpiePi · 05/10/2025 16:40

‘Well, I went t’ bottom of our stairs’ and ‘couldn’t get mi’ hat on’ for when something is surprising.
Another one I think is dying out is to use ‘middling’ for feeling poorly. ‘Eee, I’m right middling’

Fair to middling is said where I live in rural Ireland 😄

thomasinacat · 05/10/2025 16:51

Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 05/10/2025 16:42

We had "well i'll go t'foot er ar stairs"

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Still use that one a lot, and 'what's that got to do with the price of fish'. Both very useful phrases. We have kips too.

Gorden Bennett is a regular visitor. 'Guts for garters' I thought was one of Shakespeare's, but appear to be mistaken, would make sense to be from around that era though, when men wore garters.

I use the Marie-Celeste one, and 'it's like Blackpool illuminations in here'.

RealEagle · 05/10/2025 16:51

We use to ask our dad where he was going and it was always “to see a man about a dog”.Also you having a bubble was another common one

nosleepforme · 05/10/2025 16:50

Nah I’m younger than 50 and familiar with these

Silverbirchleaf · 05/10/2025 16:50

AutumnGlum · 05/10/2025 15:55

My Mancunian Granny used to say ‘I’ll have your guts for garters’, anyone heard that before?

Yes, but not for a while.

Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 05/10/2025 16:50

PocketSand · 05/10/2025 16:48

I also like malapropisms - I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it - does the pope shit in the woods.

Don't shoot the hand that feeds you

PocketSand · 05/10/2025 16:50

You’ve got egg on your chin - discrete way of saying your fly is unzipped.

SmudgeButt · 05/10/2025 16:49

I say "yee gads" on occasion. Was told off by a religious woman I work with who said it was sacrilegious. Then again she didn't like "jeesh" either. (lovely woman otherwise - I am just a bit more careful around her so as to not offend)

PocketSand · 05/10/2025 16:48

I also like malapropisms - I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it - does the pope shit in the woods.

UnctuousUnicorns · 05/10/2025 16:48

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 05/10/2025 16:36

My Dad used say say "When your Mum and I were winching" which was dating (Glasgow in late 50s )

My parents were courting in the mid 60s, which sounds like something out of a Jane Austen novel now!

VimesandhisCardboardBoots · 05/10/2025 16:47

I said "Ooh, it's looking a bit black over Bills mothers" (meaning the weather was looking a bit grim in the distance) and DP, her sister and DD all looked at me like I was insane.

I'm now wondering if this was something only my parents used to say!

Lou802 · 05/10/2025 16:47

TheignT · 05/10/2025 16:32

Oh yes I remember Bill's mother when I was a child. I also wondered who he was.

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Oh I think I read on here that Bill's mother referred to where Willian Shakespeare's mother lived. I'd never heard of the expression before that.

Pedant5corner · 05/10/2025 16:45

@Callipygion God in Heaven and Flaming Horror, I think. Gor blimey is from God blind me.

FirstNationsEnglish · 05/10/2025 16:44

Charlie's dead - to discreetly advise somebody that their slip (petticoat) was showing below their skirt/dress.

UnctuousUnicorns · 05/10/2025 16:44

AngelicKaty · 05/10/2025 16:42

@WalkDontWalk YANBU OP, but I'm doing my best to keep "Crikey" alive! 😂
To add a couple my dad used to use in the 60's when describing people of dubious character:
"They're as rough as a bear's tail-end", and
"They're as rough as grade A sandpaper".
I love them both, but who knew bears have rough bottoms? 😂

We said "rough as a badger's arse" here!

Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 05/10/2025 16:43

Elsvieta · 05/10/2025 16:41

I suspect "akip" is regional - never heard that.

I've heard "abed". "She's abed" , cambs/Norfolk.