Charming, old fashioned sayings

[randomer]

My IL used to say they couldn't "get on with " something like a cooker or a book.That used to make me smile.
My mother used to say " Oh I like you in that" meaning that suits you, another one which made me smile.

I remember when doing cadet nurse training, the ward sister saying "Nurse Taylor, you slut!!" when my friend didn't tuck the sheets in correctly!

Piffy on a rock bun
I’ve got a bone in my leg
The sights you see when you haven’t got your gun
He/she’s like a nine penny rabbit (thin)

And many more. Lancashire folk.

@Rainydays14

Prefaced by I’m in my early 60s, but when at school and being obliged to wear skirts as our uniform all the time, if our petticoat slipped to be visible we would say to each other “It’s raining in Paris”.

I have no idea where this came from at all! We also if we needed to borrow sanitary protection would ask if anyone had a Boots bag, which was the universal sign for it.

We used to say 'snowing in Paris' for petticoats showing when I was at school.

I removed “slut” meaning untidy/messy/lazy, particularly around housework.

My grandfather (he’d be over 100 now) used to say “so wet you could shoot snipe of him”. The poor recipient of this slur turned out to be an extremely talented artist and musician, just left kern on rugby and cricket.

• I “remember” slut meaning untidy/messy etc, nit@removed”. Sorry. Typo.

Could someone please enlighten me - I get that it's on a bun ,but what is a piffy ???

My granny when taking a small child’s vest off
‘Skin a rabbit’

Choke up chicken - to a coughing child

I remember slut meaning lazy/ messy too. And would also like to know what a piffy is 😊

Cast no clout ‘til May be out

Is it some sort of joke reference to patience on a monument I wonder?

My FIL used to have a bone in his foot, not his leg. Trust him!

It’s been a while since I heard someone say they were ‘spitting feathers’ i.e. very thirsty.

Casting a clout is taking your coat off, isn’t it? Keep wearing your coat until the hawthorn (may) is in bloom.

@BikeRunSki

Cast no clout ‘til May be out

OMG my Dad used to say this all.the.time - especially in reference to whether I was allowed to divest myself of any of the many, many layers I seemed to have to wear all the time. I had to wear a vest, liberty bodice (don't ask), winceyette petticoat (specially made), a blouse, pinafore dress and cardigan ffs - and then my coat. Fancy wearing all that lot until the end of June! He grudgingly allowed me to take off the cardi but there was such a struggle with the rest.

In fact someone told me that it means the may blossom, not the month of May.

Sorry - until the beginning of June.

@JosephineBaker

It’s been a while since I heard someone say they were ‘spitting feathers’ i.e. very thirsty.

Casting a clout is taking your coat off, isn’t it? Keep wearing your coat until the hawthorn (may) is in bloom.

I keep hearing it meaning to be annoyed - I think this is the wrong meaning though, I agree with you - spitting feathers means thirsty, spitting fire means angry.

If something wasn't any good my grandmother used to say "It's neither nowt nor somat"

@VexedofVirginiaWater ne’er casting a clout is definitely about not taking off warm clothing.
Hawthorn (may blossom) can vary from mid April to mid June (in extremes) depending on the weather. So it’s about keeping your cardi on as your granny told you so you don’t catch cold.

I remember Joe Grundy in the Archers having a go at some poor younger villager on the subject many years back.

And he had a Farmer’s Lung, so he’d know

I use loads of these on here and had no idea they were considered quaint!

A few from MIL

'X o'clock and no kids washed' (when behind with jobs)

'You look like a new-scraped carrot' (when you've scrubbed up well to go out)

'Hark at the rain!' ( I particularly love this one, I think hark is a sadly under-used expression. Used when weather particularly grim/noisy, e.g. rain drumming on the roof.)

"About as useful as a chocolate teapot"
"You'd give an aspirin a headache"
"Oh you'd make a nun swear"
"How longs a piece of string?" In response to us pestering about how long something will be

I heard "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride" a lot as a child.

@Pet8 these have brought back some memories! Me and my mum still use antwacky, sometimes it's the only word that'll do!

I always understood casting a clout to mean “stop wearing a vest”. I might go back to the days when children were sewn into their warm undergarments for winter, and yes, the May tree, although this does usually blossom in the month of May.

Spitting feathers - really angry I thought?

I think 'clout' is an archaic word for 'cloth' so cast ne'er a clout means don't reduce the clothes you wear until the end of May.

My modern version is to leave my winter coat on the peg in case of need during May rather than putting it in the wardrobe. I do usually need it sometimes in May.

Certainly to my grandad and dad it means you were thirsty and desperate for a cuppa/pint. Usually after physical labour.

Spitting tacks meant furious to them.

Those annoying balls of fluff and pet hair which can drift about the house if you don't hoover daily were known as slut's wool.

There’s nowt so queer as folk save thee and me.

And even there’s a little queer.