Swim in your own lane.
Blowing up a hoolie.
We grow inward and lose our reason for being.
.............
Swim in your own lane.
Blowing up a hoolie.
We grow inward and lose our reason for being.
.............
Blowing up a hoolie featured on Sky News this morning!!!!
“Plough your own furrow” - countryman’s version of “swim in your own lane”😉
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."
- HENRY DAVID THOREAU, Walden, chapter 18, 1854.
Flattered, but need to comment that your third example is not an expression but part of an original reply.
Chewing you knuckles (this is my own one)
Within a hair's breath
tearing one's hair out
stumped
Chasing your own tail
Sitting on one's hands
One step at a time (several allied to this one)
A blind man would be glad to see it
Cooking up a storm
Flying too close to the sun
Glued to one's chair
Gob-smacked
Star struck
So much more than our history (just now on a TV programme)
There are so many - but not necessarily picked up from this form, though not sure if that was the stricture ?
No, I also meant sayings from Grandparents, Mum & Dad, local expressions.
It’s black over bills mothers , = looks like rain . I’ll swing fer yo, = I could kill you .
my mum used to say it's black over Wills mothers, never heard anyone else use it. I just thought it was another example of her getting things confused.
It’s north derby , I think instead of mother pronounced muther .
“Will’s mother’s” - for sure! My family’s from Hampshire -so used down south as well!
On a sunny/cloudy day - “ enough blue to make a sailor’s shirt or sometimes trousers” . My family said shirt, my hubby’s said trousers. Both lived In same county!
We're right on the Hampshire border! Must be quite widely used I don't get out enough. Know about the sailors trousers too, always assumed because of all the navy around here
If you google it you'll find a load of links for where it comes from. Like
nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam...
or this
phrases.org.uk/bulletin_boa...
Hours of interesting reading on t'internet...
My family are York and Nottingham originally plus way back Cornwall . Reet mix .
There’s one over here (Germany):
He hasn’t got all his cups in the cupboard.
Meaning: She (thought I’d better change the sex this time)😂😂 she’s two pence short of a shilling.
I am often saying "a ha'penny short of a shilling", but these days it seems to myself I am referring to!!!
Wonder which is correct 1/2 penny or 2 pence? Suppose it depends which county you live in!
And NO not “you” it means a bit backward (for our friends who don’t know what the hell we are talking about).😂
Could be an age thing, I’m an old money person haha
Hee hee! Me too (79). I didn’t even notice I had written “pence”.
Speaking of "old money", In 1973 we were looking for a small flat to stay in for a couple of months, in London. We had nearly settled on a place when the price quoted suddenly went from 20 pounds to 20 guineas. I believe even as long ago as that guineas were no longer legal tender. Suppose the landlord thought he could pull a fast one on the callow colonials. We pulled out of the transaction and ended up staying for a couple of months in a B&B (breakfast and evening meal included, my kind of place). "Get to meet the English" proclaimed the adverts for B&Bs. Our landlady was Hungarian, having migrated in 1956 (draftswoman, never grasped English well enough to get a job in UK, so lived in her kitchen and let out all the other rooms). While staying there we met a Frenchwoman, a man from Australia, a couple of Lebanese students....
Brilliant - Much better and fun.
We really enjoyed staying with her. If we were home at lunchtime she'd feed us, no charge. I think she liked us too. Edgeware Road. My husband was doing research at the Public Records Office (original documents more interesting to read than microfilm/fiche copies in Ottawa) and I would walk to the British Museum every day. Attended the many free lectures which were given back then, and took a whole month to look at all the exhibits. Eventually the security guards got used to me and stopped following me around!
Really confuse em - tanner = sixpence
Nowt to do with tanning leather or 'being' a tanner...HaHa
Constance, you mean twopence = tuppence
And, nowt to do with tupping... <LOL>
Up the wooden hill! (stairs) Sound as a Pound. Daft as a Brush.
‘Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire’ was my family’s version
If you tried to wind my dad up he'd say, go take a funny run, I've never heard anyone else use that expression, it could mean something rude, he was a bit of an old cor blimey (cockney)
Take a long run off a short pier ! = 'funny run'
Not rude then, how disappointing.
No Chris, not at all 'rude' <LOL>
Saw that you wanted more of these. I do tend to sort of collect them...and having lived in London, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, have picked up and used a variety of expressions. Am busy digging through memories, so 'wayt o'nt' (wait on it). <G>
I lived in S.Yorks for 20 years still use - mithering - and - having a monk on. Soon found it was no good using rhyming slang, no-one knew what tatters meant. Most of The Sweeney must have gone over their heads!
Lonnie Donegan's 'My Old Man's A Dustman'! That would go down like a bomb now!!!! Daisy Roots.(boots)
What's blowing up a hoolie???? Does ot mean a storm?
In S.Africa we say a Monkey's wedding, when the sun is shining and the rain falls simultaneously.
As scarce as hen's teeth.
As scarce as rocking horse manure.
Sandwiches short of a picnic = not quite all there
Hen's teeth - my secretary used - she always made me laugh
Nithering - Lincolnshire / Yorkshire expression, cold, windy
Mardy : "She's a mardy one" - Sulky / out of sorts (Lincs)
Snap / take your snap = take your food / lunch box as t'were
Dukes / put up your dukes = fists
Mash the tea = let the tea brew, northern English
There are so many, not that we used that many at home, but used by neighbours, colleagues. Fascinating.
If something works for you, but someone else has a different idea about what works, then "Whatever floats your boat!"
Bully off, was one we used at home, meaning get off / go away. From hockey, when one does indeed, 'bully off' !
Also 'Bully for you' - meaning, you did well, good show etc. again, hockey, you won the bully...
Shanks pony - gotta walk !
Spindle shanks = thin legs, thighs... (Shakespearean)
Daft as a brush = lost your marbles = not quite 'all there' !
Right plonker - bit of an idiot
Monkey's outside / brass monkeys = flippin freezing out
Plastered = drunk
Horses for Courses = right person (or whatever) for the job
in other words, can't put a cart horse on the race track or a race horse to run a furrow / to the plough !
Bit of an Anorak = weirdly interested in summat - like train spotting ...!!
Harry starkers = naked (No reference to Prince Harry !!)
Don't get your knickers in a twist = don't get worked up
Dog's dinner = over dressed / derogatory
Bob's your uncle = there ya go & Bob's yr bleedin / for heaven's sake !
Gordon Bennett = for heaven's sake & Core blimey
Knackered = right tired out (like those cyclists must have felt after completing the Tour de France !)
Bee’s Knees = Awesome
Know Your Onions = Knowledgeable
Knows out about it = knows nothing about ....
Right chuffed = right proud, pleased with...
Sudden death = refers to soggy suet pudding with currents in it !!
One from my mother - always made me laugh : "The beautiful Miss Bradies in their private ass and cart" = putting on the 'show'
All good for a larf, innit !
Where we lived in Wales they said they were starving when they were cold.
Yes, 'starving' as in cold, comes from being real hungry, and when right cold, then if hungry, feel the cold even more. So, when cold, hot soup and some carbohydrates will warm you up.
Reminds me : 'Warms the cockles' - of your heart, in regards to a kind person : 'She / he 'warms the cockles' of your heart'.
Growing up, my Dad used to say' Go to the top of the class and sharpen the pencils'.If you had done something good/clever.
Yammering. A word which entered the family vocabulary with the arrival of our third child, son number two, who had to make himself heard over the general activity of the household.
I'll go and have a geek dreckly, the dearofver - I'll go and have a look right now (or later, dreckly is a bit manana-ish) the dear of her. A concerned (or not very) Cornish neighbour
Some want 'more' - OK. IF too much, can always delet some, or, the whole stream - chuntering on...
Twig = caught on to meaning, understanding / twigged = understood
Addle-pate = numbskull
Argy-bargy = interrupting / obnoxious
Balderdash = nonsense (one we used in the family)
Blather = blathering on = twaddle = give over talking nonsense
Corker = WOW / that's a corker. Also, that's a huge lie !
Squelch = sugary, overly 'sweet' story. Also, sticky mud, muddy
Clagged, claggy = stuck in clay, squelch ! Animal, especially sheep, clagged
Clod-hopper = heavy boots, stomping along, noisy footsteps. Also, a peasant : what a 'clod hopper'. (Not P.C. !)
Chipper = perky, bright, doing good, in fine fettle
Palavar = discussions = discussions, usually important, settling matters. India and Africa
Shindy - what a noise, what a shindy, disturbance
Gawk, what a gawk = twit, what a twit (dunderhead)
Gawp = stare blankly : stop gawping at...
Craw, to stick in one's craw = stuck in one's throat : that 'sticks in my craw'. As in chickens and poultry, birds
Hard lines = tough. Shoot. Get on with it, swallow it.
Grockles = tourists, visitors to ... (derogatory)
Scrumping = snitching apples and fruit from orchards (used to do this). Went scrumping !
Snitch = tell on someone (nasty), telling tales ! Not done...
Flummoxed = Ho-Hum; <scratches head>; dunno what to do
Out of kilter = crooked, not straight, feeling unwell / out of sorts - Ah, out of kilter today
Dawdle = walk slowly, dawdle along - Hmmmmm : dawdle along gawking !
Buckle under = get going, go do, get on with it.
Right, enough, before everyone is 'farwelted'.....leave you to check that one out; clue, Lincolnshire dialect...!
This has been fun.
Grockles is Devon, Emmets Cornish! Let's not get into the cream, jam and scone debate
Lived in Exmouth as a kiddy - was at school in Devon - years ago. The school was burnt down - no, way long after I left ! Was a beautiful building, Pomeroy family originally. Now the whole developed into millionaire's paradise.
All fur coat and no knickers - all show no substance
So sharp you’ll cut yourself - when you make a smart come back.
A face like a smacked a*se. - not a happy bunny.
First one was a favourite with my MIL.😀
My m-in-l had one similar, but forget how it went exactly <G>
A couple of kangaroos short of a top paddock.....
"Let everyone feast, but not from my table."