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What weird phrases do you use?

(90 Posts)
vampirequeen Wed 15-Feb-17 20:08:28

Today I found myself saying, 'Kind words butter no parsnips'....what?????? I know what I mean when I say that but lets be honest it doesn't make sense when taken in isolation.

Does anyone else use daft/odd phrases like this?

grammargran Fri 17-Feb-17 18:45:15

I haven't read all these through but surely we've just had a very recent thread on a very similar theme, because I remember my hair being straight as a yard of pump water, being dragged through a hedge backwards which made me look like the wreck of the 'Esperus, and going to the foot of our stairs ........

joannewton46 Fri 17-Feb-17 18:49:35

I know and use most of these, I remember a boyfriend 50 years ago talking about Fred Carno's Circus - eventually I worked out what he meant. My Dad used to call weak tea "mazee wahter tea" (probably not polite to explain here.) When it's difficult to get people to do something its "like herding cats" and occasionally someone is "mad as a bucket of frogs" (tho' I've never seen a bucket of frogs.
I wonder if other languages do the same?

dihut Fri 17-Feb-17 18:55:26

When someone has very bowed legs we would say "couldn't stop a pig in a passage". Another saying is "the pot calling the kettle black".

joannewton46 Fri 17-Feb-17 18:57:36

My Mum was scared of thunder storms and my Dad was determined I wouldn't be. When there was a storm he would carry me to the front doorstep and we would watch "David moving the furniture round" or "God taking his boots off". It always puzzled me that I couldn't actually SEE David and that God must have very big feet - but I'm not afraid of storms.

CrazyDaisy Fri 17-Feb-17 19:13:10

My Dad used to use a lot of those expression, though it was always 'dark over Will's mother's'. He also used some Cockney rhyming slang. One I especially remember was Gnats (pee) for weak tea.

My mother used to say of a woman with big legs, "They're like the outposts of the Empire!" which I always thought was cruel.

kathcraigs Fri 17-Feb-17 20:00:02

Not mine, but l remember my mam telling me about when she'd been out for a bar meal with my cousin. Apparently a woman on the table next to them had got a mixed grill, and my mam described it as "having everything but a monkey" on it....

lizzypopbottle Fri 17-Feb-17 20:57:40

If someone was standing in the way of the TV or something else my late husband wanted to see he'd say, ' You make a better door than a window!' Translated: Shift!

phoenix Fri 17-Feb-17 23:14:23

To give an alternative to an earlier post, "a face like a bulldog licking piss off a stinging nettle"!

lizzypopbottle Sat 18-Feb-17 18:11:13

My mother would describe a face with over heavy use of black eyeliner and mascara as 'like two burnt holes in a blanket' and a large lady's bottom from behind, 'like two boys fighting in a sack!' She wasn't known for being PC.

JanT8 Sat 18-Feb-17 18:14:05

As a child, if I asked what's for dinner/tea, the answer came 'if it goes round you'll get some'.

grannylyn65 Sat 18-Feb-17 18:19:10

I had one but the wheels came off !!

AlgeswifeVal Sat 18-Feb-17 22:21:44

If someone's got bow legs. he/she wouldn't stop a pig.
Another, she's got a face that would stop a clock.
(Both unkind ones really)

AlgeswifeVal Sat 18-Feb-17 22:39:16

This has been a brilliant thread. Found myself chuckling.
Just thought of another one. When something turns out right it's Lovely Jubely.

Granpe Sun 19-Feb-17 01:07:01

When it rained heavily my lovely Grandma used to say Nice day for ducks.

and Up the wooden hill - when it was time for bed.