Have you ever used a phrase that you think is perfectly normal, but other people have never heard? Languages are weird, and there are so many random sayings that never see the light of day. What are some fun sayings that you use?
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Building castles in the sky. It's what I use to describe people making grandiose, unrealistic plans they will never pursue..
I believe this saying is in the song “Just the Two of Us”! Super cool!
Saying that someone is "a few fries short of a Happy Meal".
a sandwich short of a picnic basket. a beer short of a six pak. a rumaki short of a pu-pu platter (I made up that one)
Not me but my dad. He likes to say "Be careful out there among the English". I googled it once. It's from a movie called "Witness". I never watched it.
"Where is it?" "Up your bum, second shelf to your right."
Oh my dad says up your butt and around the corner lol
My fresh-off-the-boat Irish grandparents moved to coal mining country and their cultures collided into a myriad of these. In my family, we do not have ducks or a row. We have squirrels on a fence, and I am always making sure my squirrels on a fence. When a task is difficult, we say. "I might as well be herding wildcats with a garden hose."
You need Viagra eyedrops... so you can have a good hard look at yourself.
I was raised in WA state but live in CA, where two of my kids were born. When they would say something "wasn't fair", I would always say, "The fair is in Puyallup". Which is where one of the biggest state fairs in the world is held. On our way through the Seattle area one year, there was a billboard advertising it and my kids were AMAZED to see I had been telling them the truth they're entire lives!
Ha! I like to use one of my dad's golden lines when debating with my kids: I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.
"Roly poly"-I saw one on a call with my friend and said so, and he just went "excuse me you saw a what now-"
is it not common outside of the South?
______________ isn't/aren't the brightest cookie in the toolbox.
A combination of brightest crayon in the box, smart cookie, and sharpest tool in the toolbox.
Sexier than boots on a chicken.
When you're working on something and it comes out better than you thought it would, just take a step back and say 'Damn, that's sexier than boots on a chicken'
I cannot for the life of me imagine boots making a chicken look sexy...
"Not my monkey, not my circus". It means not my business, indicates that one is not responsible for controlling or changing a volatile or delicate situation
“Oh well that’s nice” in response to anything violent or disgusting and “that’s pleasant” in response to anything at all and like a bunch of others too haha
Son of a biscuit. Depending on where I am and the company around me. Sometimes that doesn't even matter. Biscuit can be substituted for "jackal" at times as well.
Not exactly a phrase but I always call the bathroom/restroom/toilet a “washroom”. Where I live I have never heard anyone refer to it using that word, so I guess I’m just the odd one out!
I do this too! You are not alone. I am from Canada, where they say washroom all the time, and here in the Midwest that is weird.🤣
A work in progmess.
I have tons of these. I was highly offended the other day however because I saw someone else use one of mine in print. Anyway, so here's a cute one. Randelas. Meaning our currency notes. Because our currency is Rand and the notes have Mandela on them.
Sometimes instead of cursing I say: "Dill, dill, clover". It's a reminescence of an RPG session where I and my crew wondered how do elves curse and decided that they do so by saying random names of plants.
"snamu" "situation normal, all messed up" in the office instead of the military version "snafu". Often represented by a Shamu gif.
When we were younger, my brother and I used to come up with comedic non-swear swears. My favorites were probably "Sorghum flatterbatter!" and "Pillsbury breadbox!"
"Chillax!" Combination of chill out and relax. Used when someone is overreacting :). The wife loves it! (I have to sleep on the couch)
When someone says to me, "I have a question." I answer, "Quest."
When someone says "I have a question" or "Can you do me a favor," my standard response is "What color?"
Jesus Christ on a crutch! Made a cop do a double take with that one. Adding the words “or no” at the end of questions.
“Are you going to the store or no?”
I've always used the term "Normaloid" to describe anyone normal, (as in not Punk/ Goth/ Metalhead/ Hippie/ Autistic/ Depressed/ Queer/ Trans.... And any other assorted freaks and outsiders.) I've haven't been normal since 1984, so "normal society" has always been pretty alien to me.... Thus "Normaloids" ( some type of alien...)
Yiddish phrase geh kaken afen yam, which literally translates to "go s**t in the ocean" but mostly means "get the heck outta here!"
Also easy peezy lemon squeezy
My dad is the only one I know that uses the word "perdner." I think it's a contraction of "pretty near."
"A guy walked out in front of me and I perdner ran him over."
He grew up in the suburbs, but sometimes talks a little hillbilly.
JoJo reference, but every time I wanna get someone's attention I scream ‘SPEEDWAGON’ and then run away.
I also say ‘I hope you have the day/night you deserve’ to anyone that’s particularly rude (walmart cashier job helped me with this phrase)
Salmon taste with a kipper purse. It means that you have expensive taste
Better to fart and waste it than burp and taste it. It's become a family motto.
I make phrases up. Sometimes they stick
Eg “Blue Gherkins!”
Or
“Holy fiduciary”
The weirder or less sensical the better
Scunnered. Scots for I am absolutely, completely and utterly fed up/done with this.
The amazing measurement of a”bawhair” - for example “I’m a bawhair away from being scunnered wae you”
Glakit aka a complete idiot.
Dreich - which is when it’s a full, grey kinda day with that misty rain that leaves you soaked
Outwith - only recently discovered this isn’t used much outside of Scotland - it’s just means outside of. It has recently been adapted to become “outwither” which is a non binary person as they are outwith the usual terms of gender which whether you’re an ally or not I think it’s an awesome phrase for this use. Same with squint, which just means something uneven but doesn’t seem to be used in the same context elsewhere, like a table could be squint but most folk would use a different way of describing it.
Scots is very expressive. I love it. I find dreich in a non-picturesque north German town a lot more pertinent than in Edinburgh, whose slate and granite gleam in the rain. Ooh, gloaming is a beautiful Scots word too.
“Pizza bones” are the part of the crust that some people don’t eat.
My weird little one year old only eats the bones. He doesn't like the rest.
Going to hell in a handbasket......it's the world currently.....
When my (mostly) teenage coworkers make a goofy mistake, I sometime say that they “pulled a boner”. Very oldschool. I also enjoy calling our hot dogs “wieners”.
"OHMIGOSH"(pronounced literally like oh-me-gosh lol) and "eezus jesus"
I often use preposterous questions for said statements. ie. “I’ve had it!”, “You’re a haddock?” And the like. Anything that may somehow sound like you heard it wrong, when you didn’t really.
Cod spammit!
Have a friend that used to call people she didn’t like “purple sheets” as a kid. We use it often now for the same purpose.
There are brown grapes in every bunch. Just choose the fresh ones- meaning not everyone will be good/kind so just accept it as normal, choose those that are and avoid the others.
"Sorry doesn't feed the bulldog!" It's something my dad used to say
You’re not as green as you are cabbage looking.
What’s the time? I don’t know, 4 ft 6.
OMG! I thought my mum was the only person in history to say the cabbage one!
When something is out of place it stands out "like a bagel in a bowl of grits" - got it from my dad.
When I don't want to bother with something conventional or typical, it's "for city people, real people just xyz". This started when my uncle was visiting. I was a teen, my siblings were barely out of toddlerhood. We lived on a farm, my uncle traveled the world and lived off grid in Hawaii, but we're all from Midwest suburbs originally. I used to make a snack for my sibs of a cut in half grapefruit, with the little sections sawed loose, so you could scoop them out with a spoon, with honey drizzled over it. It was a little time consuming to prep but my grandma used to do it for me, so I did it for them.
This is their first time old enough to remember meeting our uncle, and they asked him for a grapefruit, they're maybe, 3 and 5, I was 16 or 17. He handed them a whole grapefruit, unpeeled, uncut, just...the entire intact fruit. The stared at it for a moment, then said, "But we need spoons!"
My uncle in his sorta grumpy voice grouses, "You don't need spoons! Spoons are for city people! Real people just eat grapefruit like this!" Then he took it and just ripped the skin back and took a juicy bite out of it. The kids were confused and mystified since they clearly lived on a farm, not in the city. I was too busy laughing for a bit, then I prepped them their grapefruit after letting them fail to peel one for a few minutes with their tiny little kid fingers.
It's been twenty years, but "x is for city people!" Has been a family saying ever since.
Uncle would really flip out if he found out there is such a thing as a grapefruit spoon.
"and what's that got to do with the price of bread". Used when someone says something random or goes completely off topic.
(He was on it) like a "duck on a June bug". I picked that one up when I lived in the south for a while. Back up north, people laugh when they hear it. I've never heard it from anyone else since.
Responding to a person in the affirmative or acknowledgment via talk or text, "Right on" or "10-4".
"let's burn that bridge when we get there" (instead of "let's cross")
Somehow, I had gotten the idea that this thread was for old-fashioned slang. I recently finished my Doc Savage / Doctor Who crossover ('Paradocs'), set at the 1939 New York World's Fair. These are terms I don't use everyday, but I do greatly enjoy the flavor of the period slang. So here are a few items:
"Give 'im the bum's rush" - Throw him out
"You ain't got no beef" - You have no cause to complain
"Balloon Juice" - Nonsense; 'Don't give me none a' that balloon juice'
"Newshen" - Female reporter
"Tea Party" - Confrontation or gathering, often hostile
"Jake" - OK, all right, acceptable, as in 'You're jake' or 'It's jake with me'
"Applesauce" - Bullsh*t
"Dope" - Information; 'Getting the straight dope on this'
Toots. 23 skidoo. two bits. Let's blow this joint (not a drug reference)
Human is my favorite pronoun for everyone. As in, hello happy humans!
You're just spinning donkeys. As in, what the hell are you doing
Luck may favor the prepared, but it loves the rich.
For the love of bob
"Christ on cracker!"
"Let's blow this popsicle stand" when we've walked around a disappointing shop. Also "I smell what you're stepping in" = right on, I know what you mean.
"gas op die lolly" it roughly translates as "power to the lollypop" I use it as "go forward" instruction for my riders
and "1,2,6" instead of "123" especially when it's taking to long
My family calls my sister "Boss" because she is always telling everyone what to do.
'Allez votre corridor' (French for 'Go your hallway'). It's the direct translation from the Dutch saying 'Ga je gang' which doesn't make sense in French nor in other languages. In Dutch it means 'Be my guest/go ahead'.
response to how are you doing? "peachy keen"
I know it's not unique, but not commonly used.
"Ready when you are, Sergent." Someone once understood the reference and said: "Ew"
"I'm busy watching my nails/hair grow" when people think I do nothing or I'm not busy.
“Hope/wish in one hand, s**t in the other, see which one weighs more.” About how something tangible will always outweigh a wish.
“S/He’s a bubble off,” referring to a bubble level tool. I heard my mom use this phrase once and now I use it when someone’s a little strange in an annoying or unpleasant way.
Not a phrase but a word I'm "trying to bring back" HUZZAH!
Where I currently live, it's quite odd to say "Jesus-Mary-and-Jopseh!" as a reaction when surprised, irritated, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
When installing lights, or simply changing a lightbulb: This is to make sure we can see what we say
toe-eyed cabbage head with the brain of a donkey and the face of a toad
Somethings I made up. When I'm mad at someone I say "You smelly little cheeseburger". When I think someone is being lazy or not doing what they are supposed to, I say "Stop hanging around like a ceiling pickle"
Geez Louise, keep on truck in’, and sh*t a brick … still hear the last one some, but the first 2 … not so much
Keep on Truckin was a R. Crumb cartoon that became a 60s meme. Grateful Dead had a song "Truckin'" and Hot Tuna had " Keep on Truckin "
Oy, with the poodles already.
Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.
Fudge sticks up a fudge tree!
I’m fine as frog hair split three ways.
Son of a monkey wrench!
Not that weird IMO but instead of saying 'Yes', I say 'Aye' - people always look at me like I'm a pirate or something.
Lived in Scotland for the best part of 10 years - it becomes a habit there, too!
When I get really upset i swear: Female Parent Fornicator
..... OH I GET IT. instead of.. well.. yeah! I get it. That's a good one 😆
F***a duck! / F**k. A. Duck. / Fuuuuck a duuuuck. Each version has its own situations.
Heavens forfend!
I thought it was pretty common but I realized that while I'd heard my mom use it pretty frequently, none of my friends knew what it meant lol
If I'm searching in my memory for something, I'm groping for it... Generally makes people pause a little. "What's that word I'm groping for?"
And I'll say meow for now, depending on the situation.
"Mumps", it is something my nephew said when ~ 2 y.o. He would hide and point at X.
There is no "i" in team, but there is one in fired.
Whenever someone says something 'doesn't count', I always retort that 'everything counts... in large amounts'. Thanks Depeche Mode.
"Oh for crying out loud"
Uttered in absolute frustration. Learned from my parents instead of saying FFS!
We used to say "bunt" when referring to any negative situation. Mostly while skateboarding and failing to pull off a trick.
What's that got to do with the price of fish? Its what you say when you are talking about something, or arguing, and the person brings up something unrelated to the conversation.
Also "oop" in place of oops when almost running into someone
In reply to the universally misused greeting "How are you?" I frequently say, "good enough."
"What are we, neckbones and gravy?!)"
Used when someone says that no one is here, obviously ignoring you - and anyone with you.
Me: "Hey!" Them: "Hay is for horses!" Me: "And cows and goats and pigs like you!"
Also: "donkey" instead of "danka" which translates to 'thank you' 🤷🏽♀️.
An ex boyfriend's mother used to say "Have fun storming the castle!" whenever anyone excused themselves to go to the bathroom. (Line from The Princess Bride.)
Don't s**t a squealing worm. Translation: Don't panic or be dramatic.
Stuff I use regularly:
Single word substitution: piehole
Unit of Measurement: c*nthair
Movie quote: "Daniel-san! Dis no tournament! Dis for REAL!!"
Asking someone to wait: Hold yourself
In state of extreme distress, usually directed at objects or situations: F*ck you f*ckin f*ck
Trying to bring back: groovy, far out, greenhorn, piker
In trying to understand/explain emotional/spiritual resources being navigated exactly
like money: emotional currency
Expressing the dynamic of vulnerability, intimacy, and transparency in relationships:
emotional fluidity
Referencing the concept of epigenetics before I learned it existed: emotional heredity
I probably have a whole lot more, will add to comments any good ones I remember
I ALMOST FORGOT -- a Victorian phrase I desperately want to use regularly but always forget: *Got the morbs* - This was used to describe the feeling of temporarily being sad, with "morbs" being short for "morbidness" or "morbid feelings.” Nowadays, we’d say we’re “bummed out.”
"Until that happens, a lot of water will flow down the Rhine."
I live somewhat close-ish to the Rhine (closer to the Ruhr actually) and I use that phrase for things that are not in the immediate future.
I gotta pee like a racehorse
This one and also "russian racehorse" If you have never owned / spent time around horses - they tend to pee hard / a lot. Also I found this on the internet trying to explain the russian part --- "Pee like a Russian (rushin) race horse. Some claim that the expression is negative because Russian trainers (or the Russian mafia) cheating by feeding their horses a lot of water, thus making them heavier, or by somehow preventing them from urinating, thus making them nervous and faster." "In the 70s trainers started giving a drug called "lasix" to their horses. The drug causes the animals to pee urgently and copiously before a race, often in front of the crowd. p**s like a Russian race horse..... Russian horses were bred for the army during the Soviet period."
"That bad Oscar." I've only ever heard my mom say it, and apparently it was a slang she and her friends used in the 70s. Like, say I had difficulty opening a jar, I'd say, "That bad Oscar gave me a workout," or something like that. My mom passed away five years ago, and before that I never in my life uttered this weird phrase. But since she's been gone I find myself saying this constantly, totally unintentionally. It always makes me smile and think of my weird lil mama!😍
Cheese and rice or cheese and sprinkles = Jesus Christ
My friends say cheezit cause none of use are religious but we do believe in snacks
"Where ever you go, there you are!
The Little Rascals, (aka: "Our Gang",) around 1930.
When was this? And I reply "During the time of the WotWots
Horsey Doors (instead of Hors d'oeuvres).
It's basically trolling for grammar nazis who feel the urge to correct you and show how smart they are.
"The cheese slipped off the cracker with this guy." First time I heard this was Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario (Canada) to describe what he considered basically to be a controversial mix of stupidity and insanity. Regardless of what you think of the backstory behind this response (should you look it up), it's a ledgendary phrase in and of itself that makes me chuckle.
"You dug the grave, now go lie in it"
To be honest it's just that I've never heard my version.
"You're like a fart in a hot skillet" It means too much nervous energy.
I use a few without thinking and people always laugh or are confused. I say radical which is well known but apparently not many people say it anymore. When someone says something stupid I say who would've thunk to show them how stupid. I also don't curse which is uncommon as a high schooler lol so I use things like poopy and jimminy crickets and other weird things like that. When I'm referring to something small I say wee like "I want only a wee bit of food" or "it was a wee while ago".
"ah f**k me I guess" ik it's a bit inappropriate but I use it a lot for ridiculous occurrences
At the start of this school year I was in a meeting with other teachers and I said, "This year is going to be a barn-burner." They had never heard the term before and thought it was hilarious. Now everything that happens is a "barn-burner".
This one is weird given the origins. I have heard it used to mean something exciting and such but the origins are literally about being willing to burn it to the ground to get what you want. Maybe that came to mean "willing to really commit" or some such. === from the net - The term barnburner was derived from a folktale about a Dutch farmer who burned down his own barn in order to get rid of a rat infestation.[1] In this case it was applied to men who were thought to be willing to destroy all banks and corporations, in order to root out their abuses.
When I eas in the navy we had a few, all your sh!t in one sock , meaning all together and ready, and d!cking the dog, meaning screwing off.
Are you gonna risk it for the biscuit?
I assume you know what that means
Whatever clinks your cowbell/not the sharpest harpoon in the whale
My grandmother used to say, "She/he makes my a** want a cup of coffee!"
Emphasis on a**. Not, me: my a**, but literally my a**, my bum!
I didn't understand this phrase for at least 10 years after I heard it but now I've experienced this person.
I'm in your balls. It's more unique than in your walls, and catches people off gaurd
Used to be real common (tons of years ago when I was a kid), but U don’t hear it much anymore … “who pooted”, or “U smell like a poot at a perfume counter” ( my Mom absolutely hated the word, and would pop my lil brother or me, anytime we said it )!
My partner always says “it’s hotter than Africa” and “it’s colder than a witch’s titty in an iron bra”
used to hear the second one a lot except without the iron bra part. In fact I've never heard reference to a witch wearing a bra. I think the first part of the phrase comes from stuff like some witches (allegedly) dancing naked in the woods and also flying on brooms at night.
Chow-Down! For when dinner's ready. Also Ho-Dor for Hold the Door (from G. Martins books long before GOT came out.)
"I'm out making groceries" - "I need to make groceries"
When buying at the local grocery market
That's a regional Southern expression, especially in New Orleans
"Bet a nickel" and "Bet a coke". Both used as a way of saying you are sure enough about something to bet on it but you are not really a gambler so the bet is low. The nickel one is a lady I know who was old enough that a nickel used to be worth a little bit more. Maybe kind of like bet a dollar now. === The coke one is from when I was in the navy on aircraft carriers. Some divisions had a fridge and sold cold sodas. The going rate was a quarter. So a lot of card and backgammon games were played for a coke. Not a serious bet - just a modest prize if you won. == A related phrase was "I'll by if you fly". Meaning one person would pay for the sodas if the other person would walk to the other end of the ship to go get them. I've heard that a couple of times in the wild outside the navy and wondered if they were also ex military.
Corn Bodies
i feel like a squeezed lemon. means you feel tired.
Geez Louise
I've started saying "Thank Hecate" instead of "Thank God". (Hecate is one of my deities)
"Higher than giraffe pussy/nuts" to describe someone who's, well, high. That usually gets a lot of laughs. Also, "shiny" from Firefly. I started using it ironically and now it's become a very unironic part of my vocabulary.
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"Higher than giraffe pussy/nuts" to describe someone who's, well, high. That usually gets a lot of laughs. Also, "shiny" from Firefly. I started using it ironically and now it's become a very unironic part of my vocabulary.
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