Sayings that your parents (or grandparents) used but you don't hear anymore.

[Fizbosshoes]

Inspired by another poster explaining their username which was a saying, my parents (mainly my dad) seemed to have lots of sayings that I rarely hear any more . I'm sure I don't have as many that I say to my kids - ill have to ask them in 20 or 30 years! These were some I can remember (they probably said them in the 1980s/90s)

For someone being clumsy or making a meal of something they were like
-a bull in a China shop

• a bull at a gate
• a fart in a collander

If laughing at something they didn't think was funny

• you'd laugh to see a pudden (??) crawl

Describing a child who was very chatty

• they had more mouth than grub to put in it

Describing someone who was probably overweight

• they're built to last

Surprised at something

• Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs

If you wanted something you couldn't have

• if wishes were horses, beggars would ride
• beggars can't be choosers

If someone seemed to be lucky or get away with something

• if they fell in the sea, they wouldn't get wet.

And I can't remember in what context it was used but
-If grandma had wheels she'd be a bus.

I'm sure there were more but I can't think of them all . Does anyone else remember these or have other ones?

“Where do you think this is, Kilroot Power Station?” Said by my mum when one of us had left a light on, or God forbid, the immersion!

'Neither use nor ornament'

"Bent as a nine-bob note" for gay

Glad this one isn't used now!

Good door, bad window if you stand in front of the tv.

My mum used to say mutton dressed a lamb

As

My Grandpa used to say something would be done in '2 shakes of a lambs tail'.

My grandma in the NW used to say 'You're not as green as you're cabbage looking'

Crikey!

He's got a face like a bulldog pissing on a nettle / like a bulldog chewing a wasp - not the most handsome of chaps

Couldn't hurt him with a diamond tipped drill - a rather tough looking chap

Couldn't run a bath / couldn't run a piss up in a brewery - lacking organisational skills

Up there for thinking (while pointing to head), down there for dancing - meant the sayer was declaring they weren't actually an idiot!

Being all san fairy ann about something (when you're not bothered). I think it was 'Ca ne faire rien' filtered through WW1 and the East End.

What's for dinner was 'Air pie and a run round'

What was that for? (random friendly poke on the arm /slap on bum) got the response: 'That's for nothing - start something and see what you get'.

@ElephantandGrasshopper

'shit before the shovel' when allowing someone to go in front of you.

'it'll be a pigs ear in the morning' if you injured yourself.

With the shit before the shovel our grandad told us to always reply no age before beauty.

And one that I only heard once I met my dp, if in the presence of his dm you should say fucking hell her reply would be I hope so

Couldn't hit a barn door .

I said "never in a month of Sundays" the other day. Hadn't heard it in a while.

I still use a lot of these phrases

How about the old cooey (sp?) called out when you popped round to see a neighbour via the backdoor.

@ThatsNotMyGolem

"Bent as a nine-bob note" for gay

Glad this one isn't used now!

We always used that for someone dodgy!

"A cat can look at a king" for when you asked what they were looking at.

"What do you think this is, your dad's yacht?" when asking someone to do something for you.

@DropYourSword

He's got a face like a bulldog pissing on a nettle / like a bulldog chewing a wasp - not the most handsome of chaps

Couldn't hurt him with a diamond tipped drill - a rather tough looking chap

Couldn't run a bath / couldn't run a piss up in a brewery - lacking organisational skills

Up there for thinking (while pointing to head), down there for dancing - meant the sayer was declaring they weren't actually an idiot!

Only his mother would love him -

No oil painting

Air pie and wind pudding

2 left feet - can't dance

You are not so green as you are cabbage looking meaning you are not as daft as you look :-)

"As long as they're clean, they're fit to be seen"

Why you needed to west clean knickers each day in case you were in an accident and had to go to hospital.

@MajorCarolDanvers

"As long as they're clean, they're fit to be seen"

Why you needed to west clean knickers each day in case you were in an accident and had to go to hospital.

I always think after an accident they aren't guaranteed to be clean any more!!

My grandma used to say 'Great Scott!' as an exclamation of surprise. She was born in 1904.

"Look at that sky! It's as black as the devil's nuttin' bag over there, get the washing in" Oxfordshire mother. A nutting bag was a bag for gathering nuts in; the devil's was extra black due to the vast collection of wicked souls he had stuffed inside it. I think I'm the last person on earth to know this. Never heard anyone other than my mother say it.

Most of these posted are still things that people say today.