Phrases you don’t hear much any more

[BarbaraVineFan]

I was just thinking about the phrase ‘I speak as I find’, which my gran always used to use to mean that she was always honest (sometimes blunt!) and realised that it has been years since I heard it! Any other phrases like this that used to be really common, but now are a dying breed?

Take a long walk off a short pier.

"The actual expression as I later found out is "as "near as damn-it is to swearing". That, I understand."
Oh!! I grew up hearing that and still use it...never knew the second half either. Thanks!

Not a phrase exactly but people seldom go to the effort of saying things like "I should have thought you would have known that". It'd be "I'd've thought you'd've known that". Or "would of", perhaps.

Don't just stand there wi' two arms the wan length

• said if you're gawking not helping

Which is weird because the phrase is "the proof of the pudding will be in the eating"

I feel like "calling a spade a spade" is on the way out because people think it's a slur but I think the full phrase is "call a spade a spade, not a gardening tool"

“Couldn’t stop a pig in a ginnel” means someone with bandy legs. Always makes me laugh.

I frequently say “it’s like the Marie Celeste in here” when the office is quiet. Younger staff look at me like I’ve lost my marbles.

I grew up with lots of these and still use them.

Some of Mums

“She is really getting on my goat” I used to cringe when she said this lol

”He is about as useful as a chocolate teapot”

“Buy cheap, buy twice”

“Cut your nose off to spite your face”

I still say quite a lot of these.

”A moment on the lips; a lifetime on the hips”.

”Was your father a glass-maker?” when you’re standing in front of the TV or blocking someone’s view.

“Mad as a box of frogs.”

No use to man nor beast

What's that mean?

Dave Gorman did a whole episode of "Modern Life Is Goodish" on phrases that had gone bad over the years. Such as "similar elk" and "a bowl in a china shop", and how that had come into use to describe something delicate, as opposed to "a bull in a china shop" meaning someone rather (overly and clumsily) enthusiastic.

He also mentioned (albeit in another program) having seen the words "Belgian Whistles" in an online post.

But weirdly, he was able to thoroughly explain how "a bowl in a china shop" might have been the correct term originally, for all we know.

Means it's going to rain...it's a Black Country expression. "Black over Bill's mothers" is the term.

One looks into the distance and sees the dark clouds gathering over "Bill's Mothers". I don't think it's used across the UK, but I could be wrong.

You make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
A little help’s worth a lot of pity.

“Gob on a stick” (loud/talkative person).
Sitting around/kept waiting like “Piffy on a Rock”.
Both Northern…Never found our who Piffy was!

@Stickykidney
We had FHB! And your granny is right about the original meaning of slut…

Pink to make the boys wink
Oh my Giddy Aunt!
Strike a light!
Well I never
Stroll on!

Close the door I’m not heating the whole estate.

Its like Blackpool illumination in here.

what’s for tea? Shit with sugar & a walk round the table.

keep crying and I’ll give you something to cry for.

I’ll give ya a penny for ya thoughts but I want my change.

If we were caught swearing; I’ll wash ya mouth out with soap!

I haven’t got eyes in the back of my head.

it’s like learning to ride a bike, ya never forget.

rent-a-gob/mouth on a stick. She could give an aspirin a bad head, she could talk the back legs off a donkey! 🤣 I was a chatty child.

shy bairns get nowt; meaning if ya don’t ask you’ll never know.

worky ticket 🤣 when we misbehaved as kids.

They could fall in the Tyne & come up sucking a salmon.

I've got halfway through the thread and love these!! So many I haven't even heard of and also so so many that I know, remember or even I still use myself.

My contribution (hopefully not suggested yet)
"They could fall into a barrel of muck and still come up smelling of roses" = someone lucky.

Lots of these growing up, particularly Gertcha which was always used as a mild threat, sort of with a half hearted hand gesture, as if to slap a perceived slight or misdemeanour out of you.
And, ‘I ain’t as green as I’m cabbage looking’, which was self deprecating, but also a warning- meaning I might look stupid, but I’m not - don’t make that mistake.

Like shit off a shovel
You don’t get owt for nowt

All fur coat and no knickers

Shes no better than she ought to be

Couldn't give a tinkers cuss

Fanny’s your aunt 😂

Gosh, is he out for his Halloween

That skirt is so short you can nearly see her breakfast

You'll catch your death.

My Nanna always replied "shit wi' sugar on" when we asked what was for tea.

Grandad would say "you're like a fart in a bottle" if we were fidgeting or being too rowdy indoors.