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?

Lookie, look here - dgf with northern accent

Trouble at mill
Pennies make pounds
It looks like a bomb’s dropped in here

I’ve seen more meat on a butcher’s pencil or built like a racing snake (describing someone skinny
As much use as a chocolate teapot/fireguard Ironically Bettys have made a chocolate teapot for Easter!
I must be old as I still use lots of the ones mentioned

One i have just said to my kids..

None of your beeswax

You know your onions
Don't get your knickers in a twist
You can't polish a turd
You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear
There ready for the knackers yard
Mad as a hatter
That's put a fly in the ointment
What a load of codswallop
Dead as a door nail
As useful as a chocolate kettle
Looks like the dogs dinner
It's all a storm in a teacup
It's like flogging a dead horse
It's not the cough that carried them off it's the coffin they carried them off in
Like a fart in the wind
Bent as a nine bob note
Bobs your uncle Fanny's your aunt
A bit of how's your father
Cold enough to freeze balls off a brass monkey
A mixture of my nan, grandad and parents

So...did the devil just happen to use his nutting bag to collect souls, or did he go nut picking on his days off @longwayoff?
I mean, I reckon The Devil would be able to organise a bespoke soul collecting receptacle. It's much less impressive imagining him turning up with a Tesco bag for life.

And one my do's brother uses which I think he's made up to be honest 😂
Like a goldfish in a kettle

From my GPs:
Sit down, you giddy kipper
I'm tired just watching you
You've got ants in your pants

I love the saying ‘herding cats’!

Dropyoursword bespoke and eternal, I would guess, with an impressive patina due to age and the unending quantity of supply.

There are no pockets in shrouds.

More of my mums

You look like drawn through a hedge backwards
Fish out of water
Its like a dogs dinner
six of one half a dozen of another
Looks like a bomb has gone off
Face like a slapped arse
She is as hard as nails
Rushing around like a blue arsed fly
Put a broom up my arse and I'll sweep the floor too
Bent as a five bob note

I've seen more meat on a sparrows dinner

My Nan was born and raised in Bow and used the term "Cock / Cocker" as a term of endearment. She also used to say "waste not want not" if we left any dinner before scoffing the leftovers .

My other Nan always used the saying "a stitch in time saves nine"

Great heavens above! - when something is surprising.

Running around like a headless chicken - someone who is ridiculously busy.

My grandfather used to say, 'It's like giving a donkey a strawberry' if I was eating a cake.

'Neither fish, flesh nor good red herring'. Which I think is supposed to mean deliberately misleading, but my grandmother used it to mean no use at all. She also used to say 'there's enough blue to make a sailor a pair of trousers' when the sky was clearing after rain.

My mum used to threaten to 'read the Riot Act' or 'bang your heads together' when we were squabbling. I don't remember her actually doing either.

My MIL used to say 'if the Lord spares us' when making plans. And 'you're a long time dead'. OTOH, one of my grandmothers used to say 'DV' when making plans which means Deo Volente - if it's God's will.

I would like to add, “You give me the screaming abdads “ You make me

Cross and “He’s gone doollally tat! “Meaning he’s mad!

I worked with a girl much younger than me and she used a lot of sayings which I always thought made her sound a lot older.. she would say-
Eee I'm up and down like a brides nightie
Last time I saw legs like that they were hanging out a nest( to our boss when he wore shorts!!!!!)
Pale as Marley's Ghost
So tired could sleep on a washing line

she was great

'Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs.'
'It's looking black over Bill's mothers'.
Both from my Lancashire Grandad.

From my grandmother

It's no ill store (meaning it'll come in)

She looks like she's been dug up (usually aimed at her mutton dressed as lamb neighbour!!)

You can’t make a silk purse out a sows ears

Dark as the Earl of hell’s waistcoat

There's enough blue in the sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers! (After it had finished being a bit black over Bill's mother's)

@Okbye

I remember when I was small and when my dad was getting me dressed, when he took off my top he used to say ‘skin a rabbit’ but in a playful way. I never thought anything of it at time and just remembered it as something he used to say.

I said it to my son a few years ago and immediately though ‘eew no!’ And never used it again 😄

Oh God, we used to have the 'skin a rabbit' thing when I was little too! I'd put my arms up straight above my head and whoever was helping me get undressed would peel my top off. I'd forgotten all about that! But yes - ewwww!