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.

'You've eaten too much Ket.' - Ket is a Teesside word for sweets. Doubt you'll hear it now

Eee he's like a long streak of vinegar dust!' Again, Northern. Means tall and thin

'Eee Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs!' Means you're surprised

'Heavens to Betsy!' An expression of surprise

Remembered another one...

My mum used to say "she's standing there like the pots on" meaning when someone stood there in a day dream in a useless way. No idea where mum got this phrase from at all !!!

Can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear

What do you want, the moon on a stick?

You'll have every last drop out of me, won't you

I'll just shove a brush up my arse and sweep

Running around like a blue arsed fly

When I would ask my dad where he was going he would always say “ he was off to see a man about a dog”.

Funny re "black over Will's / Bill's / Jack's mother's" regional differences. Will's was a Norfolk thing (for me).

Also remembered when there was some discussion over what someone had died of. My mum always said "shortage of breath".

@Weirdnessabounds I remember that one too

'You've eaten too much Ket.' - Ket is a Teesside word for sweets. Doubt you'll hear it now

I'm pretty sure people do say it still but they sure as hell aren't talking about sweets...

@Devlesko You've just reminded me, my gran would say 'Standing there like Dickie Lewis, he was'

@ViciousJackdaw ha ha yes well of course! The modern meaning is completely different to the meaning it had back in the 40s

My grandmother used to use these expressions:-

Being unwell = having your period

In the family way = pregnant

under the weather = ill

in a tizz = in a temper or confused

Giving someone "Down the banks" = a good telling off

keep your tongue between your teeth = keep quiet

vaccinated with a gramophone needle = too talkative

children should be seen and not heard

your elders and betters

civility costs nothing

My mother says "a man on a galloping horse won't notice it" too!

Dad was always saying “blind man on a galloping horse”

Also “jist like a bought ‘een” used when something you were fixing was perfect for the job.

'Neither use nor ornament' (of a person). Self-explanatory!

Corporation pop - glass of water

Along similar lines with a regional difference - Torry briefcase = plastic bag, Torry milk jug = milk carton (Torry was a dodgy area of the city we lived near)

She’s also complain that she ‘had a bone in her leg’.

Mum always says my grandma would use this as an excuse not to come when they called. Never heard it from anyone else!

I still say, home James!

Me too. DD always finishes it with “and don’t spare the horses”

Does anyone know where that comes from? I know what it means but how did it become a phrase?

Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire, meaning to go to bed.

Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire

Another one of my late Grandma’s. Oh there’s too much nostalgia for me tonight!

My gran used to say either if its or wait and see when asked what was for dinner.
My dad used say, when asked where something was, in a vinager bottle behind the clock.
When asked what the time was, when no watch available, 2 hairs past a freckle.
The TV was known as the haunted fishtank and swimming was known as oggin troggin.

My grandad used to say ' your eyes are bigger than your belly' if we didn't eat all our dinner.
'thats for me to know and you to find out' if we were asking 'what are you doing?' too many times.
'Where are you going?' was answered with 'there and back to see how far it is'
My gran always called dresses frocks and trousers were always 'Slacks'.
People who had a high opinion of theselves were putting on 'airs and graces' or were 'no better than they ought to be'

My dad always says he’s got a bone in his leg. Just means you can’t be arsed

Also don’t hear shit or get off the pot much nowadays unless visiting my parents that is.

@echobelly very Yiddish phrase! Everything is in health, with health, to health or be healthy. My gran claimed this is why us Jews are often hypochondriacs, or as she would say in her thick accent “health is too on zee brain!”

@LApprentiSorcier
The rest of that line was
Rule Britannia, two tanners make a bob, three make 1 & 6 and four 2 bob

[quote Lifeohlife88]@TH22 my grandad used to say that haha. He was full of these brilliant old sayings !

Also "I'll go to the foot of our stairs"
And if we asked what was for dinner, he would say "shit with sugar on"[/quote]
My dad used to say these, and ‘you’re not as green as you’re cabbage looking’ - which I still use now and again

Home James was a song Ambrose ?

Up the wooden hill and down sheet lane to Bedfordshire

You could ride bare-arsed to London on that knife

Rushing around like a blue-arsed fly

All lace curtains and kippers

My grandpa also had a bone in his leg which meant he couldn’t play but his legs worked fine when he went to see a man about a dog ( for which I waited in vain ☺️)

If the wind changes you’ll stay like that (pulling faces).

Calling girls wench, my grandfather born in 1899.

She fell off X - She gave up going.