British Slang 4 Flashcards
skip (as in school); play truant
bunk off
“I think I’m just going to bunk off and ride my bike today.”
sit in the street playing an instrument and hoping people will give you money
busk
See also “waster.”
look (Cockney)
butcher’s
Hey, give me a butcher’s at that. ‘From Cockney rhyming slang: “butcher’s hook” / “look.”
clumsy; ineptly executed
cack-handed
Likely derived from a time when the left hand was used for cleaning one’s posterior after movements, and the right hand reserved for anything else. Therefore anything executed with the left hand is perhaps sub-standard. Almost all scatological etymologies are historically false, but they’re more amusing than the polite ones. The sad truth of life is that more of our language derived from the Viking term for “baking tray” than some sort of acronym which spelled “FUCK.”
merry event where people get together in a field and sell the rubbish from their attic, under the secret suspicion that some part of it might turn out to be splendidly valuable
car boot sale
Not entirely dissimilar to a jumble sale. The term stems no doubt from the fact that this is normally carried out using the boot of your car as a headquarters. This sort of nonsense is now largely replaced by eBay, where you can sell the 1950s engraved brass Hitler moustache replica your father was awarded for twenty years’ service in the post office without actually having to meet the freak who bought it.
interj goodbye. Fairly old-fashioned and light-hearted
cheerio
Originates from the 1970s, when one of the favourite killing methods of the Welsh mafia was to intravenously inject the victim with breakfast cereal.
Brit. small writing desk
davenport
Amer. large sofa
davenport
telephone booth (2)
call box, kiosk
dull (of a pencil)
blunt
collision
crash
tied up
engaged
automobile
motor-car
ocean
sea
beach
sea
