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Idioms phrases and proverbs

(62 Posts)
Elizabeth1 Thu 08-Feb-18 11:09:02

Let’s have fun
Who knows what Jock Tamsons bairns mean? Please then add an idiom a phrase or a proverb of your own.

indispensableme Sat 10-Feb-18 23:20:26

Words can mean different things in different places. Working in Leeds there was going to be a bus strike on Friday and my class asked how would they get to school. I said that they would have 'leg it, do you no harm for once' and they looked astonished.
It was later that I discovered that what on my side of the Pennines meant 'walk' in Yorkshire meant 'truant', I'd sanctioned a day off.

MamaCaz Sat 10-Feb-18 23:37:53

In my part of Yorkshire (Huddersfield), to leg it means to run away from potential trouble, to scarper.

If I amused my grandma, she used to say, "Ee, you are a cough drop!"
If something surprised her, she said, "Ee , I'll go to our 'ouse", or "Ee , I'll go to 'bottom of our stairs!".

Cherrytree59 Sat 10-Feb-18 23:38:15

grin

lovebeigecardigans1955 Sun 11-Feb-18 08:51:42

Ah MillieBear my late MIL was most definitely nesh! Mum always said that 'you stand need' for whatever had been asked of someone if she thought they had a bit of cheek. When my sister and I were in a giggly mood she say, 'you'd laugh to see a pudding crawl,' indeed I would.

MamaCaz Sun 11-Feb-18 12:04:55

"Go 'ome, yer rabbit's dead!" (North Yorkshire)
Apparently, OH's grandma used to say that to him often when he was a boy, when he had outstayed his welcome at her house. He sometimes says it now, jokingly, to our own dgc.

A saying in my family, if a child was caught picking their nose was
"Cum out, it's not a chip shop!"
I have had plenty of opportunity to pass this one one to my own dgc, as dgd is an avid nose-picker!

MamaCaz Sun 11-Feb-18 12:11:18

My favourite expression, from my grandad, was:
"Thes non reet but thee 'n me, 'n am non suh sure 'bart thee!
Translation: "No one is right (i.e. normal) but you and me, and I am not totally sure about you!"

Bridgeit Sun 11-Feb-18 14:07:43

When being told off:-

You’ll be laughing the other side of your face in a minute!

mcem Sun 11-Feb-18 14:50:09

Or the Billy Connolly classic 'I'll take my hand off your face!'

Janie7779 Sat 24-Feb-18 23:48:27

“A lazy man’s load”
Carrying way too much at once to avoid a 2nd trip.

“Pretty is as pretty does”
You’re only as attractive on the outside as you are on the inside.

“Gravel Gertie”
A person in need of a good scrubbing.

“A few fries short of a Happy Meal”
Not very smart.

Marydoll Sat 24-Feb-18 23:51:10

"Not the full shilling"
Scottish version of not very smart.

grandtanteJE65 Mon 05-Mar-18 10:29:34

They say as the start of a piece of gossip, resulted in a quotation from a poem
"Some say the de'el 's deed and buried at Kirkcaldy"

The next line said " some say he's risen agen to daunce the Hielan' laddie"
Some say he has risen again to dance the Hielan' laddie - a folk dance.

Some say the devil is dead and buried at Kirkcaldy.

There used to be a headstone in the kirkyard in Kirkcaldy, said to be the devil's. I don't know whether it or even the old church yard still exists.