Word for Word

This is an archive of some of the many words and phrases covered in early Word for Word Forum discussions, before it collapsed under the weight of its contributors' considerable wisdom (and occasional anarchy or lunacy).


BE WARNED Some of the postings concern words or phrases that you may think are offensive, obscene or blasphemous. If you don't like seeing these spelt out and discussed in a serious manner, DON'T ENTER.
-30-
86
-ers words in British slang
Abbrevies
Abracadabra
Across-acrossed
Aftermath
Aguenon
All but
Aloha
angler
apartment
A real card
Aunt
Australian slang
bandwagon
Barb b que
Barnburner
Bar none
Bc v bce
Bearing
Beating a dead horse
beef
Bee's knees
bellwether
Bet your sweet bippy
Big Apple
Big Apple
Bite the bullet
blackmail
Bleeding heart
Blighty
Bloody blimey peekaboo
Blow job
blue blood
Blue-dog democrat
Blue movie
Bomb them with butter
Bonfire curfew and maverick
Borrowing words
Bought the farm
brass monkey
Brass
broad
Bromide
Brown-noser
Buck
Bucking up
Buggerlugs
Bull pen
Bumper crop
Bungarouch
Bungstarter
Bunji cords
Burlesk
Bye bye
By hook or by crook
Calves
Camptown ladies
Capitalism
catawumpus
raining cats and dogs
catercorner
Cat got your tongue
celery
Chairman
Chance your arm
Charley's dead
Charley horse
Cheese
Cheesed off
China
Chinese auction
Chip off the old block
Chip on his shoulder
Church key
churchkey
Clepsydra
cobber
fair dinkum
knackered
Cocktail
Cold
Cold turkey
colons and colonies
Colonel
Come
Commonly used English words
Continental soldier
continents
Cool
Coolibah and jumbuck
coon's age
Cop
Copacetic
Copperosity
Correct use of final e
Couldn’t care less
Crabgrass frontier
crackerjack
Crazy like a fox
Crux of the biscuit
Cup of joe
Cutie patootie
Cut the mustard
Cut to the chase
daft as a brush
dashboard
Data is v data are
Deadline
Deep pockets
Def
Derogatory terms
Devil in the details
Diamonds on soles of her shoes
Different kettle of fish
Dolly varden cake
dead as a doornail
dressed to the nines
Dressed to the nines
Drinking terms
Drop a dime
Drummer
Dublin = Blackpool
Dutch oven
Dutch treat
earth
East jabip
Eating crow
ecology & agnostic
Edgar Allan Poe & language
Egypt
Elvis has left the building
Embalmed
Ends meet
Epidemic-epidemiology
Everything under the sun
Eye teeth
Fabled automatic
faggot
Women in sociology
Fair to middlin’
fart
Female and woman
Fiasco
filibuster
Fill your boots
Filter
Flow
Follow suit
For cryin’ out loud
For pete’s sake
For what it is
French
Friend, family, art
frog (for French)
Frog in your throat
From left field
Fuck
Fudge
full blown
Geek and nerd
Get fired
gig
Give a hoot
God
God speed
Golf
Grasping at straws
going great guns
Gringo
Halloween
Ham n’ egger
Hand in glove
Happy camper
Have your cake
haywire
Head v heart
Heebee jeebees
Hell bent for election
Here’s mud in your eye
hero
Hillbilly
Hit the sack
Honeymoon
Honkey
hooker
Horny
horse feathers
Humility
Humongus
Hypochondria
Idiomatic expression
In like Flynn
In the catbird seat
Jackass or ass
jazz
jewfish
Jingoism
John Brown
John or Jane Doe
Jolly Roger
Judas priest
Jungle
Junior v the 2nd
Junk trunk
Kewpie
knock on wood
Lambaste
Lame duck
Lead
Life of Riley
Lighted v lit
Like a cheap suit
Like a fox
Like a palindrome
Lily livered
Limbo
Limelight
Litterbug
Little white lies
Living daylights
Lolly column
Loo
Lord love a duck
Lord of the Flies
Lorry
Lose your marbles
Love
Lower the boom
lucky
Lydia Pinkham
Make a decision
Make a rod for your own back
Male ballerina
Mamaw and papaw
Marshmallow
mayday
Meeting minutes
Merkins
Mob and gang
Modern v contemporary
Mom and apple pie
Months of the year
Morrow
Mug and sim
Museum
corny
Never mind
No great shakes
Not to worry
Now, then
Obsession
One fell swoop
On the lam
Oops
New World Order
Outback
Out of the blue
Pack o’ poo ticket
Paddy wack
pair of pants
Pallet
Parliamentarian, governance
Passive receipt
Paying through the nose
peckerwood
Peck of orange peel
picnic
Pinochle and euchre
pipedream
Please
Please don’t shoot the messenger
Poindexter
Pontiac
pooch
Pop Goes the Weasel
potluck party
p's and q's
Pray tell
Preaching to the choir
Problematical
Pronouns
Proof of the pudding
Props
Put me off
Putting fish into the post office
Quo vadis
Raked over the coals
Reclama
red letter day
Red neck
Reduce
Regardless or irregardless
Reggae
Riding out of town on a rail
read the Riot Act
robot
Roger
Rook
Rubber match
Rule of thumb
Sale
Saved by the bell
Scam
scumbag
See a man about a dog
See no evil
Shampoo
Shanks pony
Shell out
Sherbet v sorbet
Shingles have fallen off the roof
Shrink
singularen, pluralen
Sixes and sevens
Skeletons in the closet
23 skidoo
smarty pants
Society
Sodapop
Soldier on
Spade
Spell
Spic and bitch
spitting image
Spot on
Spuds
Squaw
Staging area
Stitch in time
Stools
Strength
Sudden death
Swear words
Take the cake
Tantrum
Taxi dance
Teaming outside
Texas
That v which
The skinny
Thinking outside of the box
This man’s army
Thongtastic
Thug
ticketyboo
Tie one on
Time terms
Tit for tat
To a T
To boot
to boot
Tongue in cheek
speaking in tongues
To the manner-manor born
Touch base
Tow head
Transition
Trigonometry
trivia
Trocadero
Truck farming
Tuesday
Turn up like a bad penny
24/7
Valentine
Walking over your grave
Warlock
pop goes the weasel
Where the sun don’t shine
whippersnapper
Whole kit and kabootle
Wildcatter
With bells on
Word origins from the Civil War
Xmas
Yankee
Ying-yang
Yo
Yom
You don’t know beans
yo-yo
Zeppelin


This archive contains just a few of the thousands of questions and answers lodged at various Word for Word forums over the years. The forums came and went, depending on the ISPs I was using (sometimes forced to use). The postings had to be garnered from sources that used different formats, so the archive is not fully consistent in terms of its looks or its operations. There are double-ups, which will be removed when I'm made aware of them. Most email addresses have been removed to save their owners being spammed. Similarly, the rest of the addresses will be removed when I find them.

Most links should work. If you find a bad one, please let me know.

My thanks to all the regulars who contributed so much wit and wisdom to the forums.

All opinions are those of their owners (natch). If you want to comment or add something, feel free. Just email me.

Cheers, Terry O'Connor

Word for Word Home BrisMail Home