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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:
Dogaredabomb · 06/10/2025 04:11

Terrribletwos · 05/10/2025 17:43

Ah, I still say breeks but this was for trousers, not underpants, where I come from. And hoor was used a lot as in hoor of a shame or hoor of a weather we're having. I am not sure if it was derogatory and actually meant whore?

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Yes 🤣 hoor is whore.

My parents used to say 'she was like a hoolet looking out of a wanbush' (owl looking out of a windbush if someone looked like they'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Dogaredabomb · 06/10/2025 04:03

Winnertrinner · 06/10/2025 02:37

Infra dig (in for a dig - a joke?)

Having it off - sex

A dry shite (dull person)

Big long streak of piss (useless person)

I thought infra dig was from infra dignitatum ie against dignity. So you could say 'wearing jeans to Ascot is rather infra dig'.

Dogaredabomb · 06/10/2025 04:00

BellyPork · 05/10/2025 16:19

How about You're having a giraffe! (in a cockney accent)

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Or a bubble 🤣

BossingItBecky · 06/10/2025 03:38

thisoldcity · 05/10/2025 17:20

Ooh yes, my mum used to say that! Also 'having kittens' to mean panicking, 'spitting feathers' to mean thirsty, and she would also call me a 'daft a'aporth' (which I always thought was a type of ape for many years until I realised it was short for halfpennyworth!) Near Manchester.

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We used “spitting feathers” to mean angry.

BossingItBecky · 06/10/2025 03:15

UnctuousUnicorns · 05/10/2025 16:08

I would find "dishy" cringe worthy too. We used to say, "he's a bit of alright", or "I wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crisps". This would be when we were about twelve or thirteen. 😅

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We ended this phrase with “…unless it was to fuck him on the floor”

another phrase that’s not often used is “I'm not as green as I'm cabbage-looking”

Clonakilla · 06/10/2025 03:08

I’ve heard my parents say most of these, and have also read them in books but not really said them myself. I’m late 40s.

One I’ve never heard again is something my parents used to say. If anyone had done the wrong thing but didn’t own up, they’d say ‘must have been those three boys from Manchester’. I’ve never heard or read it elsewhere and google didn’t help me find the origin either.

Winnertrinner · 06/10/2025 02:55

ThatGlimmeringSea · 05/10/2025 17:02

Chinny reckon

Anyone mentioned Piffy yet?

Chinny reckon had accompanying guesture of stroking your chin and giving the side eye for nor believing someone.

Then it morphed into replacing the words ‘chinny reckon’ with ‘Jimmy Hill’ - still stroking the chin. That was London in the 70/80s.

Winnertrinner · 06/10/2025 02:37

Infra dig (in for a dig - a joke?)

Having it off - sex

A dry shite (dull person)

Big long streak of piss (useless person)

Nothankyou2025 · 06/10/2025 02:11

Nope, they're all in regular use. Might be slightly generational, but still hear them a lot, and they're not London based, they're UK based.

tinylegoscars · 06/10/2025 02:10

This reply has been withdrawn

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

HoppingPavlova · 06/10/2025 01:54

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

Nope, definitely not regional. I’m in Australia and still use all of those, except ‘yikes’. Like you, my kids, who have grown up with DH and I using all of those expressions, and know what they all mean, don’t use them themselves. Why, I have no idea.

When I was a child/young adult, the version of ‘yikes’ here was ‘struth’ (pronounced tooth). I haven’t heard that for decades now though, as we seem to have evolved to using ‘fuck’ wherever we used struth, or if we are trying to be polite we would say ‘shit’. Even my mum in old age had changed over on that one🤣. Also, ‘taking the Mick’ has changed into ‘taking the piss’, you’d have to be in an extremely formal setting to revert back to Mick.

SantiagoShaming · 06/10/2025 01:39

UnctuousUnicorns · 05/10/2025 16:12

"Do you think I came up the Clyde on a banana boat?"

That sounds like a variation of "just stepped off the boat" i.e. unfamiliar with and clueless i.e. naive? My parents would say, "Do you think I was born yesterday?"

Mine said “I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night!”

Heggettypeg · 06/10/2025 01:31

Same to you too with brass knobs on (optional extra: and don't forget to clean them).

See you later, alligator.
Reply: in a while, crocodile.

Worse things happen at sea.

FlorbelaEspanca · 05/10/2025 23:24

OldYorkMum · 05/10/2025 16:22

Bob’s your uncle (and Fanny’s your aunt).

This one can be precisely dated. When Lord Salisbury - family name Robert Cecil - retired as prime minister in 1902 the premiership passed, some thought a little too easily, to his nephew Arthur Balfour. So Bob's your uncle came to be said whenever anything was easily acquired.

FlorbelaEspanca · 05/10/2025 23:10

Dogaredabomb · 05/10/2025 15:50

Iirc Gordon Bennett was a cricketer who did very well one year. I remember in the late 70s someone saying if he didn't do as well again then we'd have to pick another name to say.

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There was an Australian general in WW2 called Gordon Bennett, but I don't know if the expression refers to him.

FlorbelaEspanca · 05/10/2025 23:02

I use haven't the foggiest. A game of mine is to 'translate' idioms literally word for word into other languages, and this is one of them: je n'ai pas la plus brouillardeuse, ich habe nicht die nebelsten.

UnctuousUnicorns · 05/10/2025 22:00

Talltreesbythelake · 05/10/2025 21:18

We still say Ta Ta for goodbye in our family, Yorkshire and Lancashire roots. I've always found it charming.

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Ta ra here (Merseyside).

ItsNotYou852 · 05/10/2025 21:51

UnctuousUnicorns · 05/10/2025 19:48

The rude and childish answer to that was "Time you bought a watch", used by us as children, not by adults.

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Our version was "time you bought a watch and got pregnant so we can all have one"
I know, makes no sense, but...

YourTruthorMine · 05/10/2025 21:44

We were off out to a restaurant the other night and I told my son to get his glad rags on, he looked at me as if I'd lost the plot

Umy15r03lcha1 · 05/10/2025 21:38

AgnesX · 05/10/2025 15:19

Isn't yikes very 70s and Scooby Doo?! I've never heard anyone use it in real life.

Crikey!

Talltreesbythelake · 05/10/2025 21:18

louba85 · 05/10/2025 17:59

Definitely used all those growing up in south London in the 90s.
My 100% South London granny used to say "Ark at that" as in "listen".
She also used to say "Tada" for goodbye. I have never heard these since!

We still say Ta Ta for goodbye in our family, Yorkshire and Lancashire roots. I've always found it charming.

Obeseandashamed · 05/10/2025 21:06

Love this thread… it’s taking me down memory lane and reminding me of various relatives 😊

Davros · 05/10/2025 21:05

I use all those and more. DD (22) loves learning new slang and idioms from me and she puts them into practice

Ballerinacappucine · 05/10/2025 20:56

There’s many a slip t’wixt cup and lip - lots of chances for something to go wrong
gone for a burton- disappeared
spend a penny - go for a wee
Charlie’s dead - underskirt showing
cozzy - swimsuit
plaggy bag - plastic bag
croggy- ride on handlebars of someone s bike!

Heggettypeg · 05/10/2025 20:50

carmak · 05/10/2025 19:13

It's not just sayings, it's strange actions as well. My mum would chase a sailor and touch his collar, for luck. She always rubbed her football pools envelope on her backside before putting it in the letterbox, for luck.

Always said White Rabbits three times on the first of the month....for luck.

I'm seeing a theme here. Grin

Racing to be the first to put your foot on a discarded Woodbines cigarette packet and say '"Willy Willy Woodbine, bring me good luck". A children's thing rather than an adult superstition, perhaps. It had to be Woodbines, not any other brand, goodness knows why.