Australian Slang - Local Lingo
Unique Phrases - Memorable Quotes - I
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
I AM, YOU ARE, WE ARE AUSTRALIAN – 'We are one, but we are many, and from all the lands on earth we come. We'll share a dream and sing with one voice: I am, you are, we are Australian' - popular Australian song written in 1987 by Bruce Woodley of The Seekers and Dobe Newton of The Bushwackers
I BELIEVE YOU BUT THOUSANDS WOULDN'T - calling out a liar
I DEMAND AN APOLOGY, ONE OF YOUR TEAM MATES CALLED ME A BASTARD - Douglas Jardine to Australian Player. Reply: Which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard? from the movie Bodyline [1984]
I DID BUT SEE HER PASSING BY, AND YET I LOVE HER TILL I DIE - In admiration of Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Robert Menzies famously quoted these lines in 1963 from English poet Thomas Ford’s poem Lady Sweet and Kind
IDIOT BOX - television
IF BLOOD SHOULD STAIN THE WATTLE - from Henry Lawson's poem Freedom on the Wallaby - So we must fly a rebel flag, As others did before us, And we must sing a rebel song, And join in rebel chorus. We'll make the tyrants feel the sting, O'those that they would throttle; They needn't say the fault is ours, If blood should stain the wattle
I FEEL LIKE A TOOHEYS – Tooheys advertising slogan
IFFY - questionable; a bit risky
IF THE BELL TOLLED FOR ISRAEL - 'I know that if the bell tolled for Israel, it would toll also for me as an individual, and for the whole world' - Prime Minister Bob Hawke paraphrasing John Donne's poem - No Man Is an Island
'IF YOU ASK ME, I THINK IT'S THE BIGGEST CHAUVINISTIC EXERCISE IN THE WORLD' (daughter Marie McIntyre) - 'THAT'S WHY NOBODY ASKS YOU, DARLING' (mother Mary McIntyre) - Quote from movie The Dish
I GOT ONLY A FIVER FOR THE SONG, BUT IT'S WORTH A MILLION TO ME TO HEAR IT SUNG LIKE THIS - Banjo Paterson on hearing Waltzing Matilda sung at an army camp at the beginning of WW1
I'LL BE A MONKEYS UNCLE - expression of surprise
I'LL GO THE BASTARD - cause physical altercation
ILLYWHACKER - confidence trickster; sharp operator
I LOVE A SUNBURNT COUNTRY, A LAND OF SWEEPING PLAINS - from Dorothea Mackellar's My Country
I'M ALRIGHT JACK -don't worry about me
I'M EASY - I don't mind one way or another
IMSHEE - begone - take yourself off (soldier slang WW1)
IN THE LOWEST DEEP, A LOWER DEEP - a quote from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1660s) about Hell; included in Joseph Phipps Townsend in his series 'Rambles in New South Wales', referring to the penal settlement at Newcastle c. 182Os
IN A MO - soon
IN A TIZZ - excited
IN GOOD NICK - in good condition
INKED - drunk
INLAND TROUGH - or dry line, is a semi-permanent feature of the synoptic pattern over the interior of Queensland mostly during warmer months
IN LIKE FLYNN - successful (Errol Flynn)
I NEED IT LIKE A HOLE IN THE HEAD - don't need it at all
IN ONE HAND I HAVE A DREAM, AND IN THE OTHER I HAVE AN OBSTACLE. TELL ME, WHICH ONE GRABS YOUR ATTENTION? - Henry Parkes
INSIDE SQUATTER - a squatter residing within the margins of settlement as distinguished from pioneer or outside squatters in the wilder parts of Australia (Leland 1895)
IN THE BOX - In the Front Line (Army 1945)
IN THE STICKS - in the bush; away from civilization
INVESTIGATOR (HMS) - Matthew Flinders sailed from England in the Investigator on his greatest voyage, to circumnavigate the entire Australian continent, 1802
IODINES - Army Medical corps
IODINE VILLA - where the doctor rests his patients (soldier slang WW1)
IRON LUNG - wouldn't work in an iron lung - extremely lazy
IRON RATIONS FOR FRITZ - shells for the enemy (soldier slang WW1)
ISLAM AS A COUNTRY - I don’t oppose Islam as a country, but I do feel that their laws should not be welcome here in Australia. Stephanie Banister, a candidate for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party 2013
ISLE OF THE DEAD - small island adjacent to Port Arthur, Tasmania used as a cemetery for convicts and guards who died in the prisons
I STILL CALL AUSTRALIA HOME - song written by Peter Allen - 'But no matter how far or wide I roam, I still call Australia home'; later Qantas theme song
IT'S A SIGN OF YOUR OWN WORTH SOMETIMES IF YOU ARE HATED BY THE RIGHT PEOPLE - Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin
IT'S BETTER THAN A TICKLE AND A SLAP IN THE BELLY WITH A WET FISH - not as bad as it could be
IT'S DEAD EASY TO DIE; IT'S THE KEEPING ON LIVING THAT'S HARD - Sir Douglas Mawson
IT'S EITHER SYDNEY OR THE BUSH - a final choice or decision
IT'S JUST NOT CRICKET - an unjust or unfair occurrence
IT'S MOMENTS LIKE THESE YOU NEED MINTIES - Advertising slogan 1920s
IT IS A WISE PROVISION THAT YOUTH CANNOT SEE WHAT IT OWES THE PREVIOUS GENERATION. THIS IS A CHICKEN THAT COMES BACK TO ROOST IN HEAVIER YEARS - Miles Franklin
IT IS BETTER TO BE DEFEATED ON PRINCIPLE THAN TO WIN ON LIES - Arthur Calwell, politician.
IVORIES - teeth
I WISH YOU WERE A STATUE AND I WERE A PIGEON - by Yabba, heckler at the Sydney Cricket Ground
I WOULDN'T BE DEAD FOR QUIDS - a reply to Howya going?
I WOULDN'T GIVE TUPPENCE - of no value
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