Aussie Slang 101

Australian Slang Talk 101. How to be a True Blue, Dinky Di Aussie.

In an effort to teach these ignorant yanks a thing or two, an almost comprehensive list has been compiled of our unique language. (By my Mum and Dad mostly, better give them the credit or I'll be in trouble...)

If you see any glaring omisions either leave a message, or send an email kow_99@hotmail.com

What do you think this is, Bush Week? - (you want me to do it now? You want me to do what?)

-Head like a mongolian trotting duck. This one is my favourite. No-one knows where it came from, or what a mongloian trotting duck is, but you say it when you think someone is really ugly. 'Hasn't he got a head like a mongolian trotting duck!!!'

-This is another favourite -As silly as a wet hen. I've seen wet hens, and they are pretty silly indeed. Or, -As silly as a bit of string. How silly is a bit of string? I don't know but whenever I thought about it I would laugh.
-You want to say everything will be fine, "she'll be right, mate!"

Rhyming Slang
-Tell a porkie pie (lie)
-On the dog and bone (phone)
-A bag of Fruit (suit)
-Hard cheese (means tough luck)
-Tough Bikkies (also tough luck)
-To have a Captain Cook (a look. This is the guy who discovered Australia for the British.)
-Dead Horse (sauce)
-A Joe Blake (snake)
-Billy Lids (kids)
-The Goanna (piano, or pianna)

Name Calling
-A Wally (When someone is being stupid or Akward. "Your such a wally!")
-Look like a stunned mullet (to appear dazed)
-Lights are on but no-one is home (vacant in the head)
-Your an odd bod (unusual person)
-You're dumber than a house brick
-He fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down
-He's slow as a wet week of sundays (not very clever)
-Has crows in the top paddock (empty head)
-Get on ya high horse (to adopt a superior attitude)
-Get on ya bike (go away)
-He's a sausage short of a barbie (intellectually inferior)
-He's a sandwich short of a picnic (intellectually inferior)
-He jumped in the gene pool when the life guard wasn't looking (intellectually inferior)
-He's got a face like a robbers dog (ugly, robbers steriotypically have ugly bull terrior kinds of dogs)
-He couldn't hit the side of a barn from 20 feet. (poor sportsman, can't aim at anything)
-Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. (just way too nice)
-He has a snowball's chance in hell (no chance at all)


-On the other side of the black stump (way out in the middle of no where)
-It's as rare as hen's teeth (uncommon)
-Rough as guts (thrown together haphazardly)
-The pudding club, bun in the oven (pregnant)
-Run's on the smell of an oily rag. (cheap to run, need little fuel)
-Your blood's worth bottling (you're a great person)
-I'd kill for a drink (very thirsty)
-Go for your life (do what you like and enjoy it)
-Don't give up your day job (don't bother trying that, you really suck at it)
-As crooked as a dog's hind leg (suspect person, crook, someone who tells lies and cheats people)
-A Molly Duker (left hander)
-Coppers, Pigs (police)
-Gum Boots. (please let me know if you don't know what these are...)
-You little beauty! (fantastic)
-What do you do for a crust? (how do you earn your living?)
-I'm feeling a bit snakey (cranky) (angry)
-It's as clear as mud (not obvious to me)
-A fag (cigarette)
-She'll be apples (it'll be fine)
-A load of old cobblers (a big lie)
-A bunch of odds and sods (a few bits and pieces)
-As fit as a Mallee bull (healthy)
-More front than Myers (this is a BIG department store, means big and brash)
-As game as Ned Kelly (our most famous bush ranger, also means big and brash, have a lot of nerve)
-You have two chances, Buckley's and none (when you have buckley's chance of something you have no chance whatsoever.)

-to yank someones chain (to fool someone)
-to pull the wool over their eyes (to fool someone)
-to be a Galah (be stupid, thick headed)
-to feel like a dog's breakfast (feel ill)
-to play the fool (to be silly)
-to play the goanna (play the piano, to rhyme with pianna)
-to have a gander (is to have a look, a gander has a really long neck)
-to mosey on over (to go at a slow pace)
-to throw out the baby with the bathwater (don't get rid of the good with the bad)
-to get your nickers in a knot (to get upset)
-to spit the dummy (have a temper tantrum)
-to be within cooee (i'll have to show you what this is, its a call that travels a long way when out in the bush)
-to grasp at straws (try something despite little chance of success)
-to give someone a bell (call on the phone)
-to give them a yell (also a call on the phone)
-to have a blue (a fight)
-to conk out (run out of energy, stop going)
-to bludge (not do any work)
-to do your block (get really angry)
-to stick your beak in (butt into something your not supposed to, like someones argument)
-to have a sticky beak (is to have a look at something)
-to have a quick squiz (a quick look, a squizzy is a look at something)
-to be a slow coach (travel slowly)
-to be crook (sick)
-to be cockeyed (crooked)
-to drive the porcelain bus (to vomit or throw up, because you hold the sides of the bowl like a bus driver holds the steeringwheel)
-to come the raw prawn ( to try to fool someone, you usually say, 'Don't come the raw prawn with me)
-to be cut up (upset)
-to give someone the flick (get rid of them)
-to live out in the sticks (in the bush, as we call the forest areas, or far from civilisation is the outback, the bush, it's all the same kind of.)
-to talk the leg off a table, (what jill was always good at...to talk a lot)
-to yabber on (to talk a lot)

And the Ultimate Question is "how long is a piece of string?". Said when someone asks an impossible question.