Unusual sayings

Infinity2. I’m sorry.
Up here in Glasgow this has been the sunniest year I remember for ages. It’s 33C on our patio! 23C in our front garden. We are inside preparing to go out. Hopefully it’s cooler on the east coast where we’re heading.

'I don't care what they call me as long as they call me for my dinner.'
I used to hear this expression in the early 60's. It was used by a middle aged man from Burnley in Lancashire.

MissAdventure

If something is too loose a fit, courtesy of an ex.
"It's like a cock in a sock".

Oooh er missus!

MissAdventure is obviously making a reference known to rural folk with regard to chickens I think ?

My Grandad used to say” well I’ll go to t foot of our stairs” when he heard about something new or surprising. He was Lancashire born and bred. Another favourite if we did something he didn’t approve of behaviour wise was”raise yer broughtings up “

‘He’s as green as he’s cabbage looking’
As said by my Nanna.

My father used to say when asked where he was going “to Timbuktu and back again”.

If my grandparents were asked to explain what something was for and they didn’t know they’d say ‘It’s a wigwam for winding up the sun’. Goodness knows where that saying came from and I’ve never heard it used outside my own family.

Witsend we said it a bit different “it’s looking black over Wilfs wife’s mother’s “ I read years after that it’s a reference to William Shakespeare and should have been Will not Wolf
If my granddad was going to the pub he always told me he was “off to see a man about a dog”
And if anyone was having a moan about something he’d say
“It’s better than a smack across the belly with a wet fish”
Yes my Nan and grandad used to go the bottom of the stairs
(Leicestershire folk)
Someone a bit uneducated was “sixpence short of a shilling” or “thick as a plank”

'A run round the table and a duck under'. My mother would often say this when asked what was for tea.

My Mil used to say when asked what is for tea 'hair pie and windy pudding' My Grandmother often said 'I can dance and boil cabbage' if someone was bragging about their talents.

My Dad, years ago on a family holiday, shouted across the road to my Mum as he headed to the gents toilets:
"I'm just going to hold my own!"
She was mortified ?

Oh yes, ‘thick as a plank’ I remember well, and my dad going to see a man about a dog. When we were young, we wondered why he never brought one home.
Did you ever look for a patch of blue sky ‘big enough to make a sailor’s trousers’ as a sign that the weather was clearing up?

As thick as two short planks in our house.

Also, along the same lines "You're like a cow with a pitchfork" (my mum watching me using tools, scissors, pens)
"Like a tit in a trance."

I have also heard 'all around Will's mother's / or Robin Hood's barn' in the Midlands.
One of my favourites from a Scottish relative is 'pan loafy' for someone posh ie: could afford the more expensive 'pan' bread.

As a child I often heard 'san ferry ann' as being a bit careless or not worrying about something, and it was applied as if a girl's name (often I am sorry to say to me) as a 'san ferry Ann'.
When I was practicing my French, my mum heard me and said 'oh you're talking about something that you're not bothered about', and I realised she had heard me say 'ca ne fait rien' translated as 'doesn't matter'.
We were both delighted, and thought it must have come over during WW1 as that was when my grandparents first remembered hearing it. However, I only use it occasionally now, and try to do so as a positive, not the critical way I heard it used!

A mouth like the Mersey Tunnel. Used in the Liverpool and Chester area.
I'm not as green as I'm cabbage looking. Yorkshire and Lancashire. Used by my mother.
Fine words butter no parsnips. Also used by my mother.

"Tha wants thee bumps feeling" when coming up with a crazy idea in South Yorkshire

A work mate used to say-
‘Like a dying duck in a thunderstorm’

I can’t remember in what context it was used unfortunately.

asked mum 'what's for dinner' she'd say 'bread an' pullit. and something else starting with 'pigs' can't say the rest on here

"Go home, your rabbit's dead!".

My OH has used this expression for as long as I've known him.
Apparently, his grandmother used to say it to him as a child when she felt it was time he went home (or he had outstayed his welcome)!

I think it was this plain-speaking Yorkshire woman's slightly more child-friendly way of saying "bugger off now and leave me in peace!"

Like a fish needs a bicycle.

Mollygo my mum always said look for a patch of sky "big enough to patch a dutch boy's trousers" to be sure the weather was going to clear.

My dad would say "he'll always go up the down escalator" meaning someone who always did things the hard way.

Being told you were going on holiday to Ourgate... actually meant no holiday

If we asked "What's for dinner? Mum's response was often "Three kicks at the pantry door".

Air pie and kick of the cat was on offer at ours.
Or shit with sugar if mum wasn't in a good mood.