Australian Slang - Local Lingo
Unique Phrases - Memorable Quotes - T
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
TA - Thanks
TAB - betting agency
TAKE A CAPTAIN - phrase progression - take a look - take a captain cook - take a captain
TAKE TO THE BUSH - absconding convict; bushranger
TAKE TO THE ROAD - bushranging
TAKE TO THE TALL TIMBER - abscond
TAKE A TUMBLE - to understand, comprehend
TAILORS - machine made cigarettes
TALKING THROUGH THE NECK - talking foolishly c. 1895
TALK UNDER WATER WITH A MOUTHFUL OF MARBLES - Very talkative
TALL POPPY - A conspicuously successful person.
TALL POPPY SYNDROME - when successful, high achieving people are resented and critized in an attempt to denigrate and cut them down to the size of everyone else
TALLY - as a hundred is called, one of us calls out tally and cuts one notch in a stick - as every hundred goes through the same process is carried on (Whitney 1870s)
TANGLES - Austalian cricketer and sportsman Max Walker
TANK CAR - a car used for the purpose of safe breaking (criminal slang Sydney 1950s)
TANKS - army boots - soldier slang WW1)
TASMAN BRIDGE COLLAPSE - Part of the Tasman bridge that crossed the Derwent River at Hobart collapsed after the Lake Illawarra, bulk carrier ran into it on 5 January 1975
TASMANIAN TIGER - (thylacine) large carnivorous marsupial now extinct
TAR BOY - in a shearing shed, a boy who had the job of dabbing antiseptic Stockholm Tar on cuts on sheep
TART - promiscuous woman (a contraction of sweetheart) Digger Smith (C.J. Dennis)
TASSIE - Tasmania
TATTS - dice (convict)
TEA – supper
TECHNICOLOR YAWN - vomiting
TEDDY-BEARS - brown boots (c 1915)
TEE-UP - make arrangement
TELL HIM HE'S DREAMING - unrealistic expectations
TELL YOUR STORY WALKING - Whatever you have to say, say it while you are leaving.
TEN POUND POMS - British citizens who migrated to Australia after WW2 under the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme
TENT EMBASSY - On 26 January 1972 four Indigenous men set up a beach umbrella on the lawns opposite Parliament House in Canberra, Describing it as the Aboriginal Embassy
TENTERFIELD ORATION - speech given by Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales at the Tenterfield School of Arts in 1889 when he called for the Federation of the Australian colonies
TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA - the unknown southern land. In early maps
THAT'S BULLSHIT. YOU JUST BULLSHITTED NASA - Quote from movie The Dish Ross Mitchell
THAT'S NOT A KNIFE - THAT'S A KNIFE - Crocodile Dundee
THAT'S THE SHOT - expression of encouragement or approval
THAT'S THE WAY THE COOKIE CRUMBLES - the way things are
THE ALICE - Alice Springs, Northern Territory
THE ALPS - part of the east coast's Great Dividing Range. The Snowy Mountains form part of the Alps
THE ASHES - The Ashes is a cricket competition played between Australia and England since 1882. 'Brown's gravedigger', the bat belonging to J. T. Brown, known as such because when Lord Sheffield's team were defeated in their Test match, some newspapers declared that 'the ashes of English cricket were buried in Australia' and an enthusiastic cricket reported said that Brown dug them up again and brought them back to England when he made his 140, thereby saving Mr. Stoddard's eleven from the fate of Lord Sheffield's eleven
THE BASTARD FROM THE BUSH - an anonymously-authored bawdy rhyme c. 1900s
THE BATTLE OF LONG TAN - the most recognised Australian battle of the Vietnam War. 18 men killed 24 wounded
THE BEST WAY TO HELP THE POOR IS NOT BECOME ONE OF THEM - Lang Hancock
THE BIG AUSTRALIAN - The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP)
THE BIG FELLA - Australian Labour politician Jack Lang was known as The Big Fella
THE BLACK LINE - 1830 - settler force attempted to corral Aboriginal people on the Tasman Peninsula
THE BOYS FROM OLD FITZROY - Theme song of the Fitzroy football club sung to the tune of La Marseillaise
THE CABBAGE PATCH - Derisive NSW term for Victoria, because it was smaller and green, and only good for growing vegetables. 19th century
THE CORNER - the area where the borders of NSW , Qld, and South Australia meet
THE CROCODILE HUNTER - Steve Irwin
THE DISMISSAL - Refers to events on 11 November 1975 when the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), was dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, who then commissioned the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal Party, as caretaker Prime Minister
THE DON - Donald Bradman
THE DREAMING - A western term used to describe the Aboriginal spirituality system.
THE FIRST RULE IN OPERA IS THE FIRST RULE IN LIFE: SEE TO EVERYTHING YOURSELF - Dame Nellie Melba
THE FLAT - prison term for a criminal lunatic asylum (1946)
THE FORGOTTEN CLASS - The middle class - Robert Menzies - But if we are to talk of classes, then the time has come to say something of the forgotten class... the middle class who, properly regarded, represent the backbone of this country
THE FISH - A passenger train that first ran between Sydney and Mt. Victoria. So called because its first driver was John Heron (Herring), its first fireman John Salmon and the first Guard John Pike
THE FLOGGING PARSON - Rev. Samuel Marsden
THE GAP - a sheer cliff near South Head in Sydney; well-known place for suicides
THE GHAN - Train travelling from Darwin to Adelaide. Once derisively known as 'The Afghan Express' (c. 1924)
THE GOLDEN MILE - The Golden Mile at the centre of the Kalgoorlie Goldfield is one of the richest gold deposits in the world
THE GOLD ESCORT - military and semi-military escort to guard gold taken from the gold-fields to the sea ports in gold rush days
THE GONG - Wollongong
THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN ADJECTIVE - A poem by W T Goodge first published in the Bulletin in 1894. The missing word from the poem being 'bloody'
THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN SILENCE - coined by William Edward Hanley Stanner in his 1968 Boyer Lectures entitled After the Dreaming, which reflected on the silence on Indigenous Australians in Australian history after European settlement
THE GREATEST INHERITANCE THAT A MAN HATH IS THE LIBERTY OF HIS PERSON, FOR ALL OTHERS ARE ACCESSORY TO IT - Edward Weary Dunlop
THE HEADS - those in authority (soldier slang WW1)
THE HILL - the grassed area of the Sydney Cricket Ground without seats
THE HILLBILLY DICTATOR - Joh Bjelke-Petersen
THE LIGHTS OF COBB AND CO - famous poem by Henry Lawson
THE LITHGOW FLASH - Marjorie Jackson defeated reigning Olympic 100 and 200 metres champion Fanny Blankers-Koen a number of times in 1949, thus earning this nickname
THE LITTLE DIGGER - Henri, a war orphan smuggled into Australia by air mechanic Tim Tovell at the end of the war 1918
THE LONG PADDOCK - an historic web of tracks linking stock-breeding areas of inland NSW and Queensland etc
THE LUCKY COUNTRY - coined by Donald Horne with intent to portray Australia's climb to power and wealth as based almost entirely on luck rather than strength of political or economic system. 'Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck '. Has come to have a different meaning over the years.
THE MAITLAND WONDER - Boxer Les Darcy. Brother of Frank Darcy
THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER - poem by Banjo Paterson written in 1890
THE MIDDLE CLASS - Thinking ahead, what really happens to us will depend on how many people we have who are of the great and sober and dynamic middle-class - the strivers, the planners, the ambitious ones - Sir Robert Menzies
THE MISSUS - wife
THE NEWCASTLE SONG - Bob Hudson's 1975 hit song about Newcastle youth
THE ODE - Part of a poem of remembrance by Laurence Binyon always used to commemorate Anzac Day - They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.
THE PAST IS SO RELIABLE, SO DELIGHTFUL AND THE BEST PLACE TO LIVE - Barry Humphries
THE PATCH - (the marriage patch) located in the beachside Seaward Village precinct for personnel next door to the SASR's Campbell Barracks
THE PUSH - a band of larrikins early 1900s. Probably ceased c. 1911 when government introduced compulsory military service for men
THE QUACK - Army doctor (WW1 soldier slang)
THE RACE THAT STOPS A NATION - The Melbourne Cup
THE RATTLER - underground railway (criminal slang 1925)
THE RECESSION THAT AUSTRALIA HAD TO HAVE - said by Paul Keating during economic crisis in 1990
THE ROARING DAYS - Bush verse about the gold rush days by Henry Lawson
THE SENATE - The upper house of the Parliament of Australia
THE STAR OF AUSTRALASIA - a poem by Henry Lawson c 1895. From grander clouds in our peaceful skies, than ever there were before, I tell you the Star of the South shall rise - in the lurid clouds of war...
THE SYDNEY PUSH - The Sydney Push was a predominantly left-wing intellectual subculture in Sydney from the late 1940s to the early 1970s.
THE STORE - The Store, also known as the Newcastle and District Co-operative Society.
THE TOP END - northern most part of Australia
THE VIBE OF IT - Quote from the movie 'The Castle', 1997, spoken by actor Michael Caton as Darryl Kerrigan - "It's the vibe of it. It's the Constitution. It's Mabo. It's justice. It's law. It's the vibe and... no, that's it. It's the vibe."
THE WET - period of torrential monsoonal rain in the summer in northern Australia (October to March)
THE WILD ONE - rock and roll singer Johnny O'Keefe
THERE IS WATER IN EVERY LANE, SO IT IS OK. Quote - Ian Thorpe on drawing lane five for the final.
THERE'S MOVEMENT AT THE STATION - first line from Banjo Paterson's from the 'Man from Snowy River' - now sometimes used to signify beginning of change
THEY RE A WEIRD MOB - A 1966 Australian film based on the novel of the same name by John O'Grady under the pen name Nino Culotta
THE STRAIGHT GRIFFIN - the truth; secret reliable information
THE UNDERTAKER - nickname for Paul Keating
THE WANDER LIGHT - Oh, my ways are strange ways and new ways and old ways, And deep ways and steep ways and high ways and low, I'm at home and at ease on a track that I know not, And restless and lost on a road that I know - Poem by Henry Lawson
THINGAMAJIG - a thing
THINGY - a thing
THICK AS A BRICK - dull; slow witted
THICK AS TWO PLANKS - dull; slow witted
THIEVING IRONS - hands (WW1)
THIEVING PRONG - hand (prison slang)
THIMBLE AND THREAD - watch and chain
THINGS ARE CROOK IN TALLAROOK - used to indicate that things are bad or unpleasant.
THIS IS GOING STRAIGHT TO THE POOL ROOM - Darryl Kerrigan in the movie The Castle ;
THIS IS HALLOWED GROUND, FOR HERE LIE THOSE WHO DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY. AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN, AND IN THE MORNING, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM - General Sir John Monash - Inscription on the Rats of Tobruk memorial
THIS IS SCIENCE'S CHANCE TO BE DARING - Quote from movie The Dish
THOMMOS - famous gambling den in Sydney that survived for decades close to police headquarters
THONGS – Flip Flops.
THORPEDO - nick name of Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe
THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND - close to being drunk
THRIPP'NY-BIT - three penny piece
THROW A CHARGE - to escape sentencing in court; to be found not guilty (criminal slang 1950s)
THROW IN THE ALLEY - to surrender
THRUM - a threepenny piece
THUNDERBOLT'S ROCK - near Uralla. Used as a lookout location by bushranger Frederick Ward (Captain Thunderbolt) who escaped from Cockatoo Island in 1863
THUNDER BOX - toilet
TICK - debt
TICKETS ON YOURSELF - to have a high opinion of oneself
TICKEY - threepenny piece (1913)
TICKLE THE PETER - steal, especially from a cash register
TICKLE THE TILL - steal from a cash register
TICKLED PINK - very pleased
TICKLER - difficult to understand; puzzle
TIDDLEY - a threepenny piece
TIGHT ARSE - stingy person; miser; penny pincher
TIGHT AS A FISH'S ARSE - stingy person
TIN - medal (military)
TIN DISH - signifying good-bye
TIN HAT - steel helmet (soldier slang WW1)
TIN KETTLING - marriage custom whereby revellers bash tin cans and other noisy instruments after newlyweds retire for the night
TIN KETTLING - In 1932 when scab labour was used in the mines at Stockton NSW a resident described how women of the town 'tin-kettled' the workers as they made their way to the wharf after work
TIN LIDS rhyming slang for kids
TINNED DOG - canned meat (goldfields)
TINNIE (TINNY) - can of beer
TINNIE (TINNY) - small aluminium boat
TINNY - Luck in gambling and competitions (WW1?) see Trove
TIN POT NAVY - Australian Navy so called in the early days before WW1
TINTOOKIES - Australian children’s theatre puppet show 1950s
TIP - garbage dump
TIP TURKEY - also Bin Chicken - Ibis (bird) considered a pest in Australia because of scavenging
TITFER - tit-for-tat = hat (rhyming slang) 1900s
TO BANDICOOT - to fossick or to dig under a plant without disturbing the top (goldfields term)
TO BE DIRTY ON - to be very angry with
TO CLOCK - to strike with the fist
TO COIL - custom of swagmen to make a station homestead at sundown rather than through the day
TO COME ACROSS - to bestow sexual favours
TO COME GOOD - to improve, after not initially reaching expectations
TOEY - nervous
TOE RAGGER - short sentence man
TOGS - swimsuit, swimmers, bathers
TO HAVE WHITE ANTS (Qld) - wrong in the head
TOLLPUDDLE MARTYRS - six English farm labourers who were sentenced in 1834 to seven years’ transportation for organizing trade-union activities in Tolpuddle, Dorsetshire. Brothers George and James Loveless, James Brine, Thomas Stanfield and his son John Stanfield, and James Hammett
TO LOB - arrive unexpectedly at someone s place
TOM TART - a woman
TOM THUMB - tiny open boat used by Matthew Flinders and George Bass to explore the NSW coast line 1795 - 1796
TOOL - idiot, male
TOORAK TRACTOR - city-based 4WD or SUV that never sees off road driving
TOO RIGHT - agreeing
TO THE LAST MAN - 'should the worst happen, after everything has been done that honour will permit, Australians will stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling' - Opposition Leader, soon to be Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher's declaration on the eve of W.W.1 31 July 1914
TOOTSY - foot; toe
TOP BLOKE - a good guy
TOP END - Northern Territory
TOP OFF - police informer (criminal slang 1950)
TO PUT THE BITE ON - to borrow
TO PUT THE POT ON - to settle an enemy (c. 1920)
TO RAG - to tease
TO RAT -method of removing property from those no long able to use it (WW2)
TO RIP OFF - to extract money by fraudulent means
TO RUBBISH SOMEONE - to insult them
TO SLING OFF - make uncomplimentary remark
TO SLUM IT - to go out with someone who is a social inferior
TOSSED OUT ON YOUR NECK - rejected (Digger Smith, C.J. Dennis)
TOSSER - a jerk
TOSS IN THE ALLEY - give up the ghost; surrender, die
TOUCHED A KICK - steal
TO WEAR - to be on the receiving end of misfortune
TOWELLED UP - beat up severely
TOWN HALL CRAWL - a shuffling kind of dance popular in the Hunter region and in particular at the Palais Royale in Newcastle 1960s - 70s
TRACKIE DAKS - tracksuit pants
TRADITIONALLY, AUSTRALIA OBTAINS ITS IMPORTS FROM OVERSEAS - Kep Enderby, Australian Politician
TRANNIE - portable transister radio
TRAP - police officer or trooper
TRAY BONG - very good (soldier slang WW1)
TREACLE MINER - a man who boasts of his wealth
TREE HUGGER - environmentalist
TREE OF KNOWLEDGE - During The Great Shearer's Strike of 1891, strike meetings in Barcaldine were often held in the shade of a ghost gum in the town's main street. This tree came to be known as the Tree of Knowledge
TREY - threepenny piece
TREZZIE - threepenny piece
TRIANTELOPE - variation of the name Tarantula but a different species, a harmless spider (Morris 1898)
TRIANTI-WONTI-GONGOLOPE - Children's poem by C. J. Dennis. There's a very funny insect that you do not often spy, And it isn't quite a spider, and it isn't quite a fly; It is something like a beetle, and a little like a bee, But nothing like a wooly grub that climbs upon a tree.Its name is quite a hard one, but you'll learn it soon, I hope. So try: Tri- Tri-anti-wonti-Triantiwontigongolope.....
TRICKETT - slang namee for a long drink of beer in NSW after Trickett the NSW champion sculler (Morris 1898)
TRIM - ship's cat who accompanied Matthew Flinders on his voyages to circumnavigate and map the coastline of Australia in 1801–03
TROOPER - Mounted Policeman
TROPPO - mentally affected by tropical weather; also going troppo
TROUBLE AND STRIFE - the wife
TRUE BELIEVERS - stalwart Labour Party supporters
TRUE BLUE (AUSSIE)- patriotic ; genuine Australian
TUCKER – Food
TUCK-SHOP ARMS - flabby upper arms on women
TUG - a rogue; rough uncouth fellow
TURFED OUT - asked to vacate building
TURKEY - ineffectual person; not worthy even of being called a 'bastard'
TURN IT ON - provide beer at a party
TURN IT UP - expression of disbelief in what another is saying
TURN OUT - to become a bushranger
TURN THE JERRY HORNER - turn the corner (rhyming slang 1890s)
TURON WIDOW - Woman left without her husband because he was at the goldfields
TWIG - to observe; to aspy (Digger Smith, C.J. Dennis)
TWIST - criminal (criminal slang 1940)
TWIST AND TWIRL - girl
TWO-UP – A gambling game played on Anzac day.
TWO BOB - two shillings (Franklin)
TWO BOB EACH WAY - hedge your bets; back contradictory points of view; be uncommitted;
TWO-BOB LAIR - exhibitionist, pereson whose clothes are flashy but cheap
TWO BOB'S WORTH - an opinion
TWO DADS - a person with a hyphenated surname (military)
TWO FOR THE VALLEY - Brisbane Qld - Holding up two fingers to signal to a tram conductor to buy Two tickets to Fortitude Valley . Also a symbol of contempt. Equivalent of Up Yours
TWO MICKS - Two tails (two-up)
TWO MINUTES SILENCE - Australian journalist Edward Honey first suggested two minutes silence as the Nation's homage to fallen heroes of W.W.1
TWO PEG - two shillings
TWOPENNY BUNGER - large firecracker
TWO POT SCREAMER - someone who can't hold their drink
TYRANNY - Former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies described the Australian political system as - "people speaking their minds, disagreeing and fighting their battles, and then accepting, at any rate temporarily, the majority. But our greatest inheritance is that Parliament is something above and beyond us all. When it ends, tyranny begins."
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