A | |
4 x 2, 4 by 2 |
2 x 4 length of timber (100 x 50 mm) |
a into g |
To get going (arse into gear) |
adverts |
Media commercials |
afghan | Chocolate-flavoured biscuit, usually containing cornflakes, covered with chocolate icing, topped with a walnut. |
afo / arvo |
Afternoon (Australian) |
after match |
Social occasion after a rugby match |
aggro |
Aggressive person, one "full of aggro". |
amber liquid | Beer. Phrase brought to popularity during the 1970s, possibly via A Week of It comedy show. |
ankle-biter |
Small kid regarded as a (tolerable) nuisance. |
Anzac |
Australia and NZ combined defence forces (from Australia and New Zealand Army Corp, WWI) |
aroha | Maori for love. Covers all the range: romance, love for family, love for a nation or landscape. |
arse |
Rear end, butt, ass |
arseholes, to give (something or someone) |
To attack or compete wholeheartedly, also to revile, to ill-use. |
Arthur or Martha, not to know whether one is |
A gender-confusion rhyme, indicating that one doesn't know whether one is coming or going |
art union |
Once a common term for a lottery, named after early art prizes |
ashfelt |
Tar |
B |
|
bach |
Holiday cottage (anything from a hut to a mansion), shack, supposedly from 'bachelor' |
back blocks |
Remote rural districts |
back of beyond |
Remote, outlying place, the back blocks. |
bags that | Making a claim ahead of someone else. Possibly British poaching term. |
barney |
Rowdy argument or dispute, a quarrel, a fight. |
barrack |
Noisy (usually good humoured) chaff or argument in support of or opposing the actions of others. Also, to jeer or to tease, and to support noisily. |
bash | From the Scots expression "on the bash". A party involving company, alcohol and noise. |
battler |
One who doggedly or courageously struggles or battles on against odds |
beat the feet |
To move, to run |
bench |
Kitchen countertop as well as long seat |
bender |
Drinking spree (eg, on a bender) |
beneficiary |
Welfare recipient |
berm |
Lawn strip outside house alongside footpath |
bidi bid, biddy biddy |
Burr-like seed pod that sticks to clothes. From Mäori dialect, falsely attributed to deliberate Pakeha corruption of Mäori piri piri. Acaena, Hymenophyllum, Haloragis |
big bikkies |
Big bucks - bikkies = biscuits |
big-note |
To act the important person, to try to impress. |
big smoke |
Applied to any city or town, usually by the rural folk around. |
billy |
Billy can - camp pot with wire handle |
bizzo |
Short for business. |
black stump |
Back of beyond, as far as you can go away from civilisation. 'This side of the black stump' = anywhere (eg, The missus's the best sheila this side of the black stump). |
block |
The head. "Lose one's block", "Do one's block" = become excited, angry. "Use one's block" = using the head, acting intelligently. |
blood worth bottling |
To be a valuable, worthy or staunch person (from the practice of preserving fruit in bottles for future use in lean times.) |
blowie |
Blowfly |
blow off, blow out, blow through |
To leave suddenly. |
blow that for a joke! |
Exasperation or dismissal of an unwanted suggestion. |
bludge |
To live off the generosity of others, to sponge |
blue, to make a |
To make a mistake |
blue fit, to have a |
Very angry, shocked, unexpected behaviour. |
Bluff, The |
Southern-most tip of South Island. From Cape Reinga to The Bluff - from one end of NZ to the other. |
boatie |
Someone who runs a small, especially power-driven, boat. |
bobsy-die, to kick up |
To make a great fuss |
bog |
Toilet |
boilover |
An unexpected result |
bomb |
(referring to car) Very old car in disrepair |
bomb out |
To end a relationship |
Bombay Hills, the Bombays |
Demarcation point between Auckland and rest of country, eg, "south of the Bombay Hills they think differently" |
bonnet |
Car hood |
bonzer |
Something or someone outstanding, superior of a kind. |
boo, before one can say |
Very quickly |
boo-hai, boo-ay, boo-eye etc. |
Remote rural districts, eg, "up the boo-ay". From an alteration to Puhoi, a township north of Auckland. |
boot in, to put the |
To kick a prostrate foe, to kick a vulnerable, disabled person |
boots and all |
With no holds barred, wholeheartedly. Often to do with questionable, violent tactics |
booze |
The old English word used as: booze artist (a heavy drinker), boozer, booze barn (former hotel given over to bars for the rapid service of liquor), booze barn mentality (the attitude of swilling large quantities of beer quickly before closing time). |
bot, the |
A passing illness, usually nasal or bronchial. Originated from term for sheep's lung worm. |
bottler |
Someone or something outstanding, excellent, superior. "He's a bloody bottler, a real beaut!" |
bowser | A word now largely out of fashion, but included here because a few of the older generations, especially from the Mainland, still refer to it. This was the first type of petrol pumps in NZ, from the 1920s and '30s. |
box of birds |
Cheerful, happy, very good, healthy, chirpy. Often in reply to a greeting. "How yer getting' on, mate? Boxa birds, eh?" "Boxa birds all right, mate. All shit and feathers, eh." |
box on |
To keep going, to persevere |
box seat |
To be on top of the situation, in a favourable position, to have the upper hand. |
boy-racer |
Young hoon in fast car with loud stereo |
brassed off |
Disappointed, annoyed |
brekkie |
Breakfast |
brickie |
Bricklayer |
brilliant, brill |
Excellent, great, wonderful |
bring a plate |
Bring food |
brown eye |
To display the bare bum in contempt or defiance. Also "down trou" and "mooning". |
Brown's Cows |
"To be all over th' place/road like Brown's Cows". Disorganised, to be behind in a job, to lag, to wander aimlessly. |
buck |
A dollar |
buck at |
To object, be reluctant. |
Buckley's chance |
An Australian expression, occasionally heard in NZ. Little or no chance at all. |
bugger |
Expressing surprise, disbelief or disapproval. A catch-all term in NZ and Australia. "bugger me Charlie," "bugger me days," "bugger that for a game of soldiers," "bugger that for a joke!" |
bugger all |
Not much, very little |
buggered |
Exhausted |
bugger off |
Piss off. Shove off, get out |
bullet |
Bullet-shaped portion of cannabis leaf wrapped for sale. Also: tinny. |
bullshit/dust artist |
One dealing in lies or boastful nonsense, an empty boaster |
bullswool |
Euphemism for bullshit |
bum |
Backside |
bun-fight |
Social gathering with food. Sometimes derogatory. |
bung, to go |
To go bankrupt, to fail (of business), become broken or ruined (of equipment) |
bunrunner |
Person who carries ready-to-eat foods around offices for sale to workers |
burl, to give it a |
To give it a go, a spin, a try. From fishing term burley, bait spread on the water. |
bush |
Native (indigenous) forest |
bush, to go |
To leave urban life for that of the rural outdoors, to revert to a rough, outdoors way of life |
bush, to take to the |
To seek refuge in the bush. |
bush lawyer |
A layman who likes to display, often argumentatively, some knowledge of law or regulations. |
bushman |
Expert in the bush |
bush telegraph |
Rumour circuit, kumara vine |
bust a gut |
Make an intense effort |
buster, to come a |
To come a cropper, to take a fall. |
busy as a blowfly |
Very busy indeed |
buzzy bee |
NZ pull-along wooden toddlers toy painted and shaped like a bee and makes a clicking noise. |
C |
|
cabbage tree |
Several species of palm-like tree of the cabbage family, ti-kouka, Cordyline |
cackhanded |
Left-handed; southpaw |
cadge |
To ask for something that cannot be given back, ie. a cigarette, a cuppa. |
candy floss |
Cotton candy, sold at festivals, A&P shows, etc. |
Captain Cooker |
Wild pig, dark, hairy with tusks, up to 80cm high and 135kg, Sus scrofa, supposedly descendant of those released by the explorer c1769. (Maori for pig is poaka.) |
cardie, cardy |
Woollen, button-up-the-front jersey; cardigan |
carked it |
Died, kicked the bucket |
cheerio |
Small cocktail sausage |
cheers |
Good-bye; thank-you |
chilly bin |
Polystyrene container to keep food cool (called esky in Oz) |
chippy, chippie |
Builder, carpenter. Also a fish-and-chip shop proprietor. |
chocker |
Completely full (also: chock-a-block-full) |
chook |
Slang for chicken. Chook house = hen house, chicken coop. "Here, chook, chook, chook, chook ..." - call at chickens' feeding time. Silly old chook = silly old woman. |
chop, to be not much |
Not up to much, useless. |
Christmas tree, NZ |
The red-flowering pohutukawa tree. NB: "a Christmas tree" is the usual pine tree. |
chuffed |
Pleased |
chunder |
To vomit (Also: ralph) |
clapped out | Exhausted (people); no longer serviceable (machines). |
Clayton's |
Pseudo, sham - from former Australian TV ad for a non-alcoholic drink - "the drink you're have when you're not having a drink" |
clock, to wind back the |
In terms of vehicles, the illegal practice of winding back the odometer (the clock). |
c'mon! |
A cry of encouragement. |
Coaster |
West Coaster (SI) |
cockatoo |
(formerly) Lookout for illegal game poachers, Australian origin. |
cocky |
Farmer; eg, cow cocky, sheep cocky, wheat cocky |
cods wollop |
Untrue statement or remark is referred to as "a load of old cods wallop." |
collywobbles |
Upset stomach |
come again? | "Please repeat what you have just said. More clearly, this time." |
come away | In terms of plants, meaning establish, grow larger, succeed. |
compo |
Compensation. In NZ, Accident Compensation. |
con artist |
A trickster, a shrewdie. |
coo-ee |
A call for attention, within coo-ee - within calling distance (from Oz aboriginal?) |
corker |
Noun: something or someone surpassing excellence, also used ironically.adjective, adverb: fine, enjoyable, very well. |
cot-case |
A person very sick or injured; one incapacitated, especially by liquor. |
cracker |
Fine, excellent, outstanding. |
crib |
Bach, holiday cottage (also miner's lunch) |
crim |
Criminal |
crook |
Wrong, sick (bit crook = UK's "proper poorly"); go crook - become angry. (When playing up some ATMs display "I'm a bit crook" - and who said banks weren't honest?) |
cuff, a bit on the |
Beyond what is normal, excessive |
cuppa |
Cup of tea, coffee, or milo |
curly one, a bit of a |
Difficult, especially of a question. |
cut cat, to go (run) like a |
Speedy withdrawal |
cut out the rough stuff |
Command to cease doing or saying that considered rough by the speaker. Also "don't go the rough stuff" = don't attempt violence. |