"Old fashioned" expressions that young people have never heard.

Oh my giddy aunt.

My Mum always used to say like piffy on a rock cake. She also used to talk about straining her indy. I never found out where her indy was.
When I asked my Dad where he was going he used to say there and back to see how far it is.

MissAdventure

I like that.
A lop...
I'll have to find some way to weave it into a conversation.

Until I was iny twenties, I'd never heard "Like a piffy on a barmcake", but I love that.
Northern, I'm sure.

We used to say piffy on a rock bun.
I've spent weeks trying to stop DGS (5) saying "what you say" and to use pardon instead.

An emphasis on BEG in I beg your pardon would indicate you regard what's been said as rude, cheeky where I come from.
You're like the coos tail - your slow, hurray up.
Awa an bile yer heid - stop talking rubbish.
Double decker Bus conductors best - Hurrah up and come doon,
Come on, get aff. My GD who speaks Gaelic thought that was hilarious and thinks bus driver/conductors should be taught that nowadays.

I still say this, as well as "in two shakes of a lambs tail"

Georgesgran

I now ask for 2 cod and chips, as asking for ‘twice’ just brings a puzzled look.

Yes this has happened to me when buying chips..What is wrong with people ??!!!

Well, that didn't work!

WithNobsOnIt

Probably get banned from Gransnet for saying this.
But many Northerners used to say this when freezing Winters really set in.

Never ones to mince their words
Bloody hell.

Just been to put rubbish In the bin outside. Eeh! It was as cold as buggery.oot there.

and we sometimes still say it

My offspring think I made this one up but I think my south Yorkshire (and I mean south not South; it was part of the West Riding back then) paternal grandfather used to say it: "Let's 'ave a loook at these 'ere 'errings 'eads" when you want to find out how something works.

dahlia

I still say this, as well as "in two shakes of a lambs tail"

Me too.

And me.

My father, when spotting girls/women dressed in too short/too tight clothes, always said 'the sights you see when you haven't got your gun'!! Probably wouldn't be allowed today!!??

My late husband was in the Fleet Air Arm and also used that phase.

Strangely enough I came across two today. One was ‘companion set’ and another was ‘easel’. They were both donated at the charity shop where I volunteer and two younger people were not familiar with either of these descriptions of the items.

"As tight as a crab's a**e." (For a parsimonious individual)
"She looked like death warmed up."
(For a young lady wearing overly pale/ green tinged face foundation...she looked green...) RAF sayings that I no longer hear. "He had had chips",.. "he kicked the bucket", or " he went for a Burton", and " he bought the farm". (For someone shot down.)
"It was a piece of cake" (Easy peezy...)

Ps Sorry, that should read "He had his chips!"

eazybee

Rain like stair rods.

"snickersnee," an old term for a long knife or knife fight.

Where are you going? There and back to see how far it is!

Enough blue in the sky to make a sailors trousers. (Something like that!)

A tit in a trance. Someone who is disorganised.

I remember so many of these. What great thread.

Couldn't stop a pig in an entry was common round our way when describing someone bow-legged.

I would use that just like that - e.g. ‘if you think I’m cleaning that lot up, you’ve got another thing coming!’

Gosh, is it a veiled threat?

"Punctuality is the politeness of Princes".

Say no more.

Kippers and curtains…….appearing well to do on the outside but couldn’t afford a decent meal in reality !!

Floradora9

eazybee

Rain like stair rods.

"snickersnee," an old term for a long knife or knife fight.

Koko ‘ drew his snickersnee’ in the Mikado!

Three o’ clock, the fleet’s in, and no’ a hoor painted.

A very thin woman would be described as ‘ straight up and doon like the shithoose door’

My father answered any ‘where?’ question with ‘ the Back o’ Bennachie’, and any ‘who?’ question with ‘ Aggie Weston’ or ‘ the man that ett the bilet ham raw’. He also saw many men about many dugs.

I think it’s so sad that such colourful and descriptive speech is disappearing, only to be replaced by every sentence peppered with ‘like’, or every action being ‘ so I went’ or ‘ so I was like’.
I can also remember when people had inventive, amusing nicknames, another thing which seems to have died out, but that’s for another thread!