‘not to be able to head a duck’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1890, & New Zealand, 1891—is used, in sports, of slowness, in particular as a disparaging comment on a racehorse
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‘never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear’: meaning and origin
The phrase never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear was explained as follows in Guidelines: Put nothing smaller than your elbow in your ear, published by Industrial Safety & Hygiene News (Birmingham, Michigan, USA) on 10th January 2017: Updated clinical guidelines published the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery say cotton swabs are […]
Read More‘galah session’: meanings and origin
Australia, 1948—a period allocated for private conversation, especially between women on isolated stations, over an outback radio network—by extension (1967): any long chat—‘galah’: a very common Australian cockatoo
Read More‘flat stick’: meaning and origin
New Zealand, 1970—at full speed—perhaps after ‘flat out’ (i.e., with the maximum speed or effort) and after ‘quicksticks’ (i.e., quickly, without delay)
Read Morean Australian use of the expression ‘sick canary’
has been used with reference to feebleness and ineffectualness since the late 19th century
Read More‘wouldn’t give you a fright if he/she was a ghost’: meaning and early occurrences
is used of a miserly person—Australia, 1929—UK, 1934
Read More‘couldn’t pick a seat at the pictures’: meaning and origin
is used of an ineffectual person—Australia, 1984—originally used in sports of team selectors
Read More‘drunk as a pissant’: meaning and origin
extremely drunk—Australia, 1892, as ‘drunk as an ant’—USA, 1925, as ‘drunk as a pissant’ in Manhattan Transfer, by John Dos Passos
Read More‘game as a pissant’: meaning and origin
also ‘game as an ant’, ‘game as a bulldog ant’, etc.—Australia, 1874—plucky, courageous, willing to put up a fight against considerable odds
Read More‘brown Windsor soup’: meaning and early occurrences
UK, 1919—a thick brown meat-based soup of a type now often depreciatively depicted as emblematic of traditional British cookery
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