| Aussie Words |
Definitions |
Comments |
| a over t |
Arse over tit, head over heels |
|
| A'sia |
Australasia (Australia plus New Zealand) |
|
| abo |
Derogatory slang for Aborigine |
|
| act |
Pretending to be something you're not |
|
| aerial pingpong |
Australian Rules football |
|
| agates |
Testicles |
|
| aggro |
Aggressive |
|
| alf |
Stupid person |
|
| alligator |
Freshwater crocodile |
(So those early pommies were no naturalists!) |
| amber fluid |
Beer |
|
| ankle biter |
Small child |
|
| antipodes |
Places on exactly opposite sides of the earth |
|
| ANZAC |
Soldier from Australia New Zealand Army Corps |
|
| apple eater |
Resident of Tasmania |
|
| apples, she'll be |
It'll be alright |
|
| arvo |
Afternoon |
|
| Aussie (pronounced "ozzie") |
Australian |
|
| Aussie salute |
Brushing away flies with the hand |
|
| avagoyermug |
Traditional rallying call, often heard at cricket matches (contraction of "Have |
|
| avos |
Avocados |
|
| award wage |
Minimum pay rate |
|
| B & S |
Bachelors and Spinsters Ball - a dance cum piss-up |
Sorry, the perils of a Latin education (cum = with, in Latin) |
| B-bows |
(Old fashioned) hand shears |
The spring between the 2 blades is shaped like a letter B |
| back of beyond |
Far away in the outback |
|
| back of Bourke |
The middle of nowhere |
|
| backblocks |
The remote interior of the country |
|
| bag |
Lady who is not particularly pleasant |
|
| bail (somebody) up |
To corner somebody physically |
|
| bail out |
Depart, usually angrily |
|
| bail up |
Hold up, rob, earbash |
Comes from dairy farming - 'crushing' cows for milking |
| ball-tearer |
Wonderful thing |
|
| banana bender |
Resident of Queensland |
|
| bandicoot |
Australian marsupial - pointy nose, size of large rat |
Adoption of Indian (Telegu) word 'pandikokku' = 'pig-rat' = bandicota indica |
| barbie (barbecue) |
Like a cook out |
Spanish origin, 'barbacoa, from Arawak language |
| Barcoo |
Far outback (Barcoo R. region of western Queensland) |
|
| barney |
Fight or scuffle |
|
| barrack |
To cheer on a team at a sporting event |
Can also mean: banter, provocative or derisive language - cognate … but to … not derived from borak? |
| bastard |
General form of address which can mean practically anything from highest praise |
|
| bathers |
Swimming costume (Victoria and South Australia) |
|
| battler |
Hard trier, struggler |
|
| bear |
Colonial era: (native) bear = koala |
Koala is a marsupial, not a bear |
| beaut, beauty, bewdie |
Very good |
|
| belt up! |
Shut up! |
|
| berko |
Angry |
|
| bible basher |
Minister, or any proselytising Christian |
|
| bickie |
Dollar |
|
| big mobs |
Large amount, heaps |
|
| big-note oneself |
Brag, boast |
|
| bikies |
Motorcyclists |
|
| bikkie |
Biscuit (also "it cost big bikkies" - it was expensive) |
|
| billabong |
An ox-bow river or watering hole |
East coast Aboriginal languages = dead water |
| billy |
Large tin can used to boil water over a campfire for tea |
|
| bities |
Biting insects |
|
| bitumen |
Surfaced road |
|
| bitzer |
Mongrel dog (bits of this and bits of that) |
|
| bizzo |
Business ("mind your own bizzo") |
|
| black stump, beyond the |
A long way away, the back of nowhere |
|
| black velvet |
(Originally illicit) relations of white male and black female |
|
| block |
Block has a few meanings but the more Aussie one is your head |
|
| bloke |
Person, usually a male |
|
| bloody |
All-purpose intensifying adjective |
|
| bloody oath! |
That's certainly true |
|
| blooming |
Low level intensive (not quite bloody!) |
|
| blow in the bag |
Have a breathalyzer test |
|
| blowie |
Blow fly |
|
| bludge |
Not doing anything or getting things from others |
|
| bludger |
Lazy person |
|
| blue |
A fight |
|
| blue a cheque |
Spend your wages in a glorious booze-up (NOT = blew!) |
Thus "Blued his cheque" not "Blew his cheque" |
| blue, make a |
Make a mistake |
|
| bluey |
A swag, blanket roll |
Army blankets were grey-blue wool |
| bluey |
Blue cattle dog (named after its subtle markings) |
|
| bluey |
Traffic ticket or redhead person |
|
| board |
The timber floor on which sheep are shorn in a shearing shed |
|
| bodgy |
Of inferior quality |
This is from earlier word 'bodger' - self-employed woodworker |
| bonzer |
Great, ripper |
|
| boobook |
Australian bird - ninox novaeseelaniae - in the owl family, but more like a stur |
|
| boogie board |
A hybrid, half-sized surf board |
|
| boomer |
Very large; a particularly large male kangaroo |
|
| boomerang |
Curved flat wooden instrument used by Aborigines for hunting |
Throwing stick: hunting boomerangs don't return. Returning type a thrown to scare birds down to the ground where they are caught. |
| booze |
Alcohol, usually beer |
|
| booze bus |
Police vehicle used for catching drunk drivers |
|
| boozer |
A pub |
Also a drinker |
| borak |
(Borack, borax) nonsense, emphatic negation |
Pidgin, from Wathwurung burag … not from barrack...? |
| bored shitless |
Very bored |
|
| boss of the board |
Shearing contractor or supervisor |
|
| bottle shop |
Liquor shop |
|
| bottle-o |
Liquor shop |
Also a dealer in second hand bottles |
| bottler |
Something excellent |
|
| bottling, his blood's worth |
He's an excellent, helpful bloke |
|
| bowyang (boyang) |
Cord, thong or strap round trouser leg, below knee |
Brit. Dialect 'booyang' |
| brass razoo, he hasn't got a |
He's very poor |
|
| breaker |
Specialist horse tamer/trainer |
Pen-name of poet Harry 'Breaker' Morant |
| brekkie |
Breakfast |
|
| brick shit house, built like a |
Big strong bloke |
|
| brizzie |
Brisbane, state capital of Queensland |
|
| brolga |
Australian native crane - elaborate courtship dance resemble 'quadrille', square |
|
| brown-eyed mullet |
A turd in the sea (where you're swimming!) |
|
| brownie (browny) |
Sweetened currant bread - a 'bush' treat |
|
| brumby |
A wild horse |
|
sj