Idioms and sayings

To go upstairs is to 'go up the dancers'

'There's nowt as queer as folk' really not sure where I first heard this, but use it a lot.

Very overcast sky! "Its looking a bit black over Bill's mothers."

'She's blotted her copybook ...'

When the sky is very overcast ........ as black as Newgate's knocker.

Of a hopeless gadget.........as much use as a concrete parachute.

My dad used to greet his friends with, "Now then, Wacker". Absolutely no idea what a 'wacker' is lol

janeainsworth Oh the beauties of Australian English. Some favourites

"Budgie smugglers" for a man's over-tiny Speedo swimmers.

Daks = trousers
so tracky-daks = tracksuit bottoms

G'day mate: nobody can say it like an Aussie. Said to everyone, male or female, old or young. Heartfelt and expecting nothing back. What a place!

'ow do' was a common greeting when I lived in Lancashire in the 1950's. I used to tell my own children to stop mithering.
When I asked my dad what 'Sez you' meant, he said it was what Joseph said to Mary. I was about eight and had no idea what he meant but my Catholic mother was outraged.
We had a teacher who used to say 'Woe betide you if you....' I was an adult before I understood that one.
We were considered quite posh in our street (in the country of the blind....) and when a girl's ball went down our cellar steps, she asked if she could get
her ball out of our 'cellow'.

Gally, we once took our kids out for a Sunday afternoon walk, culminating in a stop off at a pub down a country lane that allowed children, very rare then. When the kids asked where we were going, hubby said "There and back to see how far it is". Apparently, the next day, in school, my son`s class were asked where they`d been at the weekend, our David said "There and back to see how far it is"!!

isthis my dad's family were from Stockport.
nelliem I always thought 'off like a bride's nightie' was Australian, but then I suppose it could have originated in England!

Nellie

Yuk! nellie...

Picking your nose...he pulling the lining out of his hat.

If you got too big for your boots "he/she has a ha'penny on themselves"

In and out like a fiddlers elbow.

Up and dwen like a whores drawers.

Having a catnap ' inspecting the inside of my eyelids'

There was a female BBC Local news person. (?Pat someone). Who once made the remark that someones political fortune or reputaton, had been..
"up and down more times than a brides nightie!"

This really upset some of the more staid BBC listeners by being considered very coarse.

"How do?" Yes it's a long time since I've heard that! Is it a Yorkshire form of greeting? I don't think I've heard it much in (South) Manchester and it's certainly totally non-Liverpool. In my experience.

isthis As a child I was frequently told not to be so mard, on occasions such as having gravel removed with dettol after grazing my knee.
Dad also used 'nobut a cockstride' and greeted people with 'how do' rather than 'hello'

alie they may have been making a valid point there !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or "as much use as a chocolate teapot"!

Someone said that to me yesterday - about Tony Blair...

sorry whoops sat should be say!

when my old mum used to be frusrated with me , she used to sat " your as much use as a chocolate fireguard". oh to hear her say those words again x

Mithering and mardy were two importantly different but equally undesirable description used by my Manchester mother-in-law.

If she was taken aback by something she'd say "Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs!" But she made it clear she knew that getting a bit close to a Coronation Street cliché.

When I worked in Liverpool there were many great sayings. One was "She loves the bones of him." What a great use of English that is.

Another, which I still use, please excuse the vulgarity, is "He's pissed on his chips" meaning he's spoiled his chances.

And a Londoner I met once described a tinpot braggart as "very Billy-Big-Potaters" which I thought was great.