B304 archived entries

handling the ball in soccer

faintly derisive reference (American in origin) to whites by blacks.

small bottle of a sweet sparkling perry, often accompanied by brandy. A powerful pair.

salt fish(Irish). The Portuguese word for the codfish route for centuries has been "Rota do Bacalhau."

garbage disposal unit in the back wall of a property facing an alley; the garbage could be collected through a metal opening on the other side. Or back pocket in trousers ( keks ) or jeans

a back alley

back yard privy

buggery

derisory name for an inept football (soccer) team

someone very reserved in conversation

a sum passed to someone under the table to guarantee a certain deal

this usually refers to disciplinary cuffs given to a child

a seaman's term for jumping ship or deserting

wicket keeper in cricket.

free, at no cost. The origins of the term are Near Eastern and Anglo-Indian. Buckshee, a later form has come to mean something extra and unexpected.

saucy name for a spicy fruit-loaf known elsewhere by its Welsh name, "bara brith."

to get pregnant

to be vomiting

cheap, inferior liquor, probably watered down as well

a male homosexual partner who is under the protection of another partner. The term seems to have come from Army usage.

protesting, abusive complaining, jeering

a prostitute, but more often used as a general term of teasing or abuse

go off, exit . "Bog off" also occurs regularly. The phrase "to bag off" can also mean to meet someone of the opposite sex, the usual result being a sexual encounter.

to fire, or sack someone

a priest

eluding police

a claim

a trip to the local brothel

a child's utterance, usually to preface some claim to perk or privilege, as in "bags, I sit next to me mam. Bags can also mean lots of, plenty. E.g., Bags of scoff: plenty of food.

any person who presses for payment of a debt.

to strike someone very hard. A person who is "bairstin" is anxious to urinate.

a pastry with jam at the bottom of a custard filling. It is still made in the village of Bakewell in Derbyshire

walk

the day of the week in a household when there is no money until the next paycheck arrives. It usually refers to the day before payday. Other spellings: ballayand, bally hand. In Lancashire "benny-ann" was a "use up" or makeshift meal, which is the kind of things which happens the day or two before payday. "Ask agen and I'll clobber yer. It's ballyand day."

hitting or kicking it into an unusually high arch. This is also called "spooning" the ball

No definition was supplied in the archived entry.

kicking the ball off center so that the spin will result in a curved trajectory, in order to skirt an obstacle or opposing players

locked in a prison cell

a sausage, or an old fashioned, second-hand car It can also refer to a piece of fireworks, usually the kind which makes a loud noise but not a spectacular sight

a pig. Cf. "bangers," meaning sausages

penny sparkler. The name comes from Bengal Light.

a navel. Probably from the walks and marches of rival Catholic and Protestant groups and the banners carried.

pieces of broken pottery used by children as currency in games and for making chalk marks on pavements.

an empty house

a one pound note

a safe place in children's games, a safe house in underworld parlance In children's games, the speaker who declares that he or she is "in barley" is temporarily out of a given game or competition, and is therefore temporarily immune. Cf. "I'm barley. I had me fingers crossed." The usage is rooted in the practice of medieval knights taking a break from the tournament to feed their horse barley. The term came to stand for a temporary truce.

a slightly deranged person. The term is probably a blend of barmy and potty.

a foolish person

yeast cake

stupid Shaw suggests some association with the effects of barm or yeast in bread and this stupidity

head

a dispute; a heated argument

A street trader's handcart

an effort or attempt, as in "have a bash," i.e., have a go at something. To be "on ther bash" is to be on a sexual spree.

another word for the police, frequently used by children

No definition was supplied in the archived entry.

a large number of

police jeep.

the Public Baths. The eighteenth century English "bagnio" probably comes from the Italian "bagno."

sexual intercourse

an inquisitive male, a nosey-parker.

the judge

sex-offender

changing direction in very limited field space. Cf. "turning on a dime."

A Cornish pastie with fruit in one end for dessert.

fleas

an early riser

excellent, perfect

children's sleep. The word used to mean cradle in Lancashire. Cf. Liverpool "bo-bos" on this list, which now can also refer to a General Anesthesia.

a woman having hefty legs

an almost unlimited supply of beer at a certain gathering

local pick up football, strictly for amateurs. The suggestion is that they are working class amateurs, not posh "hooray landed types."

unemployment allowance

pair of boots.

thick legs

short of breath. It may allude to an old street cry, "bellows to mend."

letting a party atmosphere and the drinking which goes with it prevail totally. In America, a total blowout.

vagina

an effort, a blow. It also means sexual intercourse.

the "enforcer" in a coin toss gambling game, or a "toss school."

a ferocious person

the order to shut up

a suspended sentence. The usage may come from the idea of being given an opportunity to "go on a bender," or lengthy drinking spree. Bender: an objectionable term for a male homosexual.

like the banana kick, an off center kick which is to produce a spin and a curving pattern, one which may avoid an obstacle or opposing players.

a dishonest lawyer, needed to facilitate some sort of scam

broken, smashed, completely destroyed.Bent can also mean stolen, or corrupted. One phrase for a homosexual was "bent copper," i.e., not straight..

a young female. Berd-cage can also mean: a girls' school; a nunnery; any room or hall holding an assembly of females. Nuns were referred to as "birds of prey." Berd-watcher: man who ogles the opposite sex

a fool or a dope, someone who is pretentious and snotty.

uncomplimentary terms for the youths living in Birkenhead

a beret or any out of shape hat

urination

best friend

new butter, which cost more than older butter, which was sold at a discount. The best butter would show up on the table. The inferior butter might be used for cooking.

drunk

drink. Yerl get no bevvy here: This establishment is not licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquor.

alehouse

No definition was supplied in the archived entry.

cracker. Ultimately from biscuit, it is regarded as archaic, even a bit simpering today.

a backward, over the head kick in soccer, also called a "scissors kick."

lice. See also "woggies" on this list.

a comb

an elderly woman of scruffy appearance. Red biddy was a mixture of port and meths--a very powerful drink.

thrown away, disposed of

hand-rolled cigarette, which may contain more than tobacco

The Vines Pub, on Lime Street by the Adelphi Hotel

another name for a tiddler, threepenny joey or threepenny bit

the City of London

an essentially useless person who pretends to be formidable

a braggart or a bombastic person

spectacles Eez gorra bike onniz nose

the police

the description of the ball's impact on the net, when a goal is scored

makeshift board and wheels for careening down hills in one's neighborhood

black plastic garbage bag. To be binbagged is to have a spouse or significant other pack your things in that kind of bag and be told to leave the dwelling.

a dim-witted person

No definition was supplied in the archived entry.

spectacles

a girl or a young woman. Spiegl says it comes directly from the Arabic for "girl." Schurr defines a bint as a moll; he says British troops brought it back from the Middle East during World War One, and that it can have the less sinister meaning of "floozy." In any event the phrase "cuchy bint" did mean a loose woman.

prison, or a prison sentence

local name for a Liverpool pub called The Eagle and Child

slang corruption of "to go berserk."

a domestic quarrel

a prison sentence

corned beef sandwich with plenty of mustard

bits and pieces, or male genitalia. It is as likely to have the non-sexual meaning of odds and ends, or a miscelleneous gathering of things

the police, especially police who are looking after prisoners. As the prisoners tell it, these police are always "busy" whenever the prisoners ring for help.

amphetamine or other narcotic, in capsule form

pint of Guinness and mild ale, mixed

caviar "Tapieygo" usually referred to the generic school dessert and was not a particularly popular "afters."

short for Moroccan Black block Cannabis

to refuse to unload it

work and services for pay which are not part of the record and therefore not taxed, usually because they are done on a cash only basis.

a liquorice candy remembered by senior scousers, but no longer available in England. I have seen it for sale in Iceland

nickname for car keys, because of their black rubber tops.

a police van. Derived from "Black Maria."

newspaper

drunk

snatcher, thief. Blagger, to: to tell a fib or to exaggerate

No definition was supplied in the archived entry.

Lancashire will of the wisp.

a residential area north of Liverpool. "She talks Blendellsahnds" means she has an affected accent. Other similar phrases: "she talks cut glass," "she talks like a shillun in the Co-op," " she talks like she got nine outer ten at skule," "she talks like Lady Muck of Muck Hall."

a war wound which will send the recipient homeward, or at least away from the front lines. Schurr says the word once referred to "God's country," i.e., England, and that soldiers used the word to mean "back home," which a certain kind of wound would have been a ticket to. Cf. the music hall song, "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty."

to peek, often to have a sexual peek Minard thinks this may come from Colonel Blimp, a soldier who was constantly adjusting his monocle to get a better look at things. Schurr identifies Colonel Blimp as a pompous, elderly reactionary, from the David Low cartoon character of a retired officer. The neighborhood blimper is the peeping Tom

a word used for emphasis. Nobody could get a blind bit er sense outer 'im. (H)e never took a blind bit of notice. I don know a blind word e says.

meatless stew. Some informants recall that blind scouse was usually eaten on Fridays, with pickled cabbage or beetroot. Eh! Dis is blind scouse! Waiter! There is no meat in my stew.

a piece of bread with nothing on it, or two pieces of bread with nothing in between.

A person addicted to the drinking of wood alcohol, surgical or metholated spirits, which often cause blindness.

to be playing football with tremendous energy and effect

the one who only shows up when the work is over.

to lose one's temper

(as a noun) means head, and also "precinct." Block can also mean cannabis resin or to have sexual intercourse.

stoned on drugs

a bowler or derby hat. Also called a funeral or burial hat and less frequently a plug-hat. Blockerman: foreman, especially on the docks. Spiegl notes that foremen traditionally wore bowler-hats, or "blockers."

compressed cubes of coal-dust, sawdust and cement for keeping household fires going.

a parasite or hanger-on, a loafer

an olley or marble made of red streaked stone

ship passengers, as referred to by the crew. Bloods(now obsolete) once referred to the perks, or "hoodles" enjoyed by senior stewards in return for cash to specific members of the crew. This way, for instance, the people the steward was responsible for seeing served could expect high quality meals, etc.

term of mock-abuse, possibly from the bucket used to fetch blood from the slaughterhouse for blood puddings

perversity, or an appetite for confrontation

someone effeminate, fraudulent, or insubstantial

rest period, but also "relief." Cf. "Gis a blow," meaning spell me.

cannabis

sexual intercourse Cuppa coffee an a blow-through refers to a one night stand

damned, confounded, as in "I'm blowed if I'm gonna pay for you."

a telephone

to be short of breath

Blue label and mild , mixed

insulting reference to male homosexuality

a summons(the duck is actually the Liver Bird). Cf. "duck" on this list.

Everton football fan

prison Also known as the Nick, which makes for the other rhyming component

a five pound note

a poor person's Welsh Rarebit. Scouser Jenny Florence gives the following recipe. Toast one side of the bread, butter the untoasted side, arrange sliced tomato on top, sprinkle with cracked pepper and a little salt. Cover with cheese and grill until it is golden and bubbly and ther tomato is just showing through. Serve with Worcestershire Sauce.

to be put under a general anesthesia. One probable source is "bo-peep," which is rhyming slang for sleep. One "goes bo-bos" when one goes to sleep. I note that there was a Lancashire term, now archaic, for children's sleep: "bee-bo." Michael Ormsby writes that in Indonesia, among children, "bobo siang" refers to an afternoon nap, which would trace the phrase to Empire contacts.

going to sleep "had 'is head down, fast a bo-kip goodnight."

the face

feet, perhaps from gunboats, as a humorous reference to size

the soap

All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween. Cf. Duck Apple Night, and also Lancashire "hanch-apple" on this list. In the game of Bob Apple, the children are usually blindfolded and told to keep their hands behind their backs while they attempt to snare by mouth apples hung before them on strings

one docker works while two or three others watch him, using the break to recover from the strain of heavy work.

something attractive, usually a girl; also the name for a favorite marble

a research scientist. The term has referred to RAF inventors since World War II; it may have been borrowed from the name of a character in Dickens's Our Mutual Friend .

toilet

often a command to leave, to beat it. Probably from "bugger off," the term may come from RAF slang meaning to take off or to depart.

an Irishman, usually not from Cork or Dublin.

askew, confused

large pottery marbles, also called "snot."

to bawl someone out, to read them the riot act. Bollock is another word for testicle.

pushy, confrontational

a great deal of expense, as in " it cost us a bomb." To "bomb along" means to speed with abandon. But to be the bomb is to be superb or the cat's meow, as in "You're the bomb!" or "You're it!"

No definition was supplied in the archived entry.

a bombed out site. Children often played in these during and after World War II and made pretend toys out of the jagged remains.

thoroughly inebriated. A bombard was a leather jug which held eight pints. A full bombard would intoxicate most drinkers, and to do one over the eight would make the world unrecognizable.

Guy Fawkes Night

wood that a family is saving for a bonfire, or bommy

head, noodle. It once referred to a large playing marble, which may have provided the analogy.

a rickety bike, or any uncomfortable means of transportation

Guy Fawkes Night

very good; used less than "der gear."

to take a look at. The term is a clipped form of bo-peep, and is fairly common in New Zealand and Australia

nose

No. Please depart.

the referee records in his book the warnings he gives players for misconduct on and off the field. As he does this, he shows a yellow card for the first warning, a red one for the second. A red card sends the culprit to the showers.

fog horn at Seaforth which made a sound like a cow

roughnecks from Bootle. Merseyside people often have contrasting definitions of a Buck versus a true Scouser.

a bartender

a brewery horse

a drinking bout

a public house

alcohol-driven melancholia or "weltschmerz"

a brewery

solitary drinking at home

we had no idea how young we were, or, those were the days!

desirable, used as the equivalent of the older "gear."

an officious woman, usually in charge of a herd of children

a domineering child

close haircut, which after the twenties was seen as affected

a generic term for a prison, which comes from the name of a famous one. Borstal in Kent is the town in which Britain's original juvenile prison is located.

poise, patience are gone; exasperated

to clutch or lose one's nerve in a risky play. The usage is not limited to the football field. One meaning for "bottle of beer" in rhyming slang is "fear," so there is likely a connection with"bottle" here. Bottle in some contexts means simply one's nerve.

fear The rhyming phrase is bottle of beer

arse The rhyming phrase is bottle and glass

the one who passes the hat or collects from the crowd after a street performance.

another word for "wrecked," i.e., totally ruined by excesses, usually drugs and/or alcohol.

euphemism for farting

boxed in one's coffin or actually buried. Boxer: a coffin-maker.

to go, or move in a certain direction

usually what a parent calls a child who has crossed the line in some way. It's a warning. The term is also used jovially to address or to refer to an adult male. The back slang version of this is "yobbo."

to have an idea occur

money. The rhyme is with cash.

to pay. Brass also means money in Lancashire

stand for cannon balls in the old-time warships. The balls were stacked pyramid style on a brass tringular rack known as "the monkey." When the temperature dropped low enough, the cannon balls would contract and fall from the pyramid. Hence the saying, "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."

a promiscuous woman. The connection may be with the phrase "as bold as brass."

penniless Originally the rhyme was between "boracic lint" and "skint," meaning broke

bread with a layer of butter scraped thin

bread and margarine

for the desperately poor, this was a sandwich with nothing in it.

To be caught in a nefarious act, the eleventh commandment being not to get caught.

broken, defective, or damaged biscuits sold cheaply, usually from a crate or barrel.

breakfast

a prisoner's last meal, breakfast at eight a.m.

born

slope, rise, or hill. Shaw spells this "broo, i.e., brow."

a brick-layer

prison, police lock-up. The word comes from the London term for the main lock-up: originally St. Bride's Well, then bridewell.

a barrister

bread and anything

well, healthy

brilliant

a good-natured insult

Er bristlers. Her bosom. The rhyming components are titties and Bristol Cities

the incline of a hill

umbrella

soft soled shoes, which allow the wearer to pad around noiselessly.

older type of breech-loading rifle

dead

a soldier (RAF, RN), called that because of the color of the uniform. The paratroopers referred to all the other regiments as "crap-hats."

a male prostitute. Also called a joy-boy, ship's Mary. Brownie(obsolete): a copper coin

broom

I am living in sin.

derogatory terms for youths living in Bootle.

a female yobbo, or one of the young women the police have to deal with in groups or singly as they move through the streets.

a very tough fellow. Among some speakers, the term is "buck," which refers to a belligerent, irresponsible local in Liverpool. The Police frequently use the term "bucks" to refer to the young men they have to deal with in groups on the streets. The term is sometimes used to differentiate between anti-social malingerers and the perceived generosity and open-heartedness of the true Scouser.

cocktail with champagne or sparkling white wine and orange juice. It's close to what Americans would call a mimosa.

parakeet

a chief boatswain's mate; also a petty officer

nothing at all, not a god-damned thing

a generally friendly term of address, ultimately of nautical origin. the term meant big-eared.

The Palace Cinema in Marsh Lane

the nose

rolling a joint, sometimes referred to as "building up," as in "building up a spliff."

corned beef. Spiegl writes that this is an African importation, seldom used, but then ironically

to verbally harass, insult. Cf. "putting a red rag to a bull."

sarcastic reference to a weedy, undersized individual

homosexual friend

fanny pack; in Liverpool it sometimes called a "buttie bag."

a condition attributed to persons long in the trunk and short in the legs. Also called duck's disease, because one's arse is too near the water(or to the ground)...

claptrap(from bumfodder, or toilet paper)

short, ill-cut jacket

a short, ill-cut jacket. Also called a bumfreezer

a top hat

extra pay(dockers). Spiegl wonders whether this might come from "bonus," but in Lancashire "to go bunts" is to divide profits. There, "bunts" means shares. In Liverpool, bunce is frequently used to suggest payoff or bribe.

a punch, real or threatened

to whisk away a suspect after a sudden arrest, the suspect sometimes partially covered with blankets.

rifle, shotgun, or air gun

an illegal incentive or bribe, whether in a professional sports deal or in secular society Sometimes it refers to what in American parlance would be "payola." The word originally meant a stop on a keg or barrel. Bung or bungole: cheese

riding without paying

to sneak into the movies without paying

to go truant (from school)

to run off or to sneak off, to disappear, go off on one's own

Porridge, or a thick oatmeal used chiefly by seamen, but often served in the workhouse. Some informants write that burgoo was the same as Hasty Pudding.

cigarettes

lodging house. The term may come from the Parish or Poor House located at Bevington Bush, which was destroyed with great loss of life in the May Blitz of 1941.

lost, bewildered. Raddled and muzzied mean the same. The word can also mean "exhausted," or "bush-whacked."

Nonsense, idle talk. Spiegl believes this to be derived from Australian "bush-wire," speculative gossip.

policemen

a prostitute

a busybody, someone who persistently interferes in someone else's affairs.

said of someone who is using feet and head as well as hands in a fight

fanny pack for traveling, biking, etc. Cf. "bumbag" on this list.

children's game

marbles substitutes.

a sandwich, i.e., buttered bread. In Lancshire, butter cake referred to a slice of bread and butter, hence butty or butty cake.

penis