| Aussie Words |
Definitions |
Comments |
| caaarn! |
Traditional rallying cry at football games (contraction of "Come on!") |
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| cabbage tree hat |
Hat sewn from coil of plaited cabbage tree palm leaf |
Proverbially tough and long-lasting … very expensive … the badge of the native-born colonial |
| camp oven |
Large, cast-iron pot with a lid, for cooking on an open fire |
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| Captain Cook |
To have a look |
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| cark it |
To die, cease functioning |
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| cask |
Wine box |
Australian "invention" - first ones were a collapsing sack inside a tinplate cylinder painted with a cask stave pattern (c. 1966/7?) |
| cheque |
Payment for the season's/job's work (US 'check') |
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| chiko roll |
Australian junk food |
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| choke a darkie |
Defecate |
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| chokkie |
Chocolate |
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| chook |
A chicken (adult domestic fowl / hen) |
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| chrissie |
Christmas |
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| Christmas |
See Bourke Street |
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| chuck a sickie |
Take the day off sick from work when you're perfectly healthy |
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| chuck a u-ey |
Make a U-turn |
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| chunder |
Vomit, drive the porcelain bus, kerbside quiche, pavement pizza, liquid laugh, r |
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| clay pan |
Dry salt lake bed |
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| Clayton's |
Fake, substitute |
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| cleanskin |
Unbranded cattle |
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| click |
Kilometre - "it's 10 clicks away" |
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| cliner |
Girlfriend of a city larrikin, c. 1900 |
(from German 'kleine') |
| clip |
Entirety of the season's wool shorn from sheep |
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| clobber |
Clothes; to hit |
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| cobber |
Friend |
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| cobbler |
Tough, old, wrinkled sheep you shear last (if at all) / the last sheep in a run |
Cobblers' last - sort of rhyming slang |
| cockie |
Farmer |
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| cockroach |
A person from New South Wales |
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| cocky |
Small-scale farmer |
Earlier: 'cockatoo farmer' |
| coldie |
A beer |
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| colonial experience man |
(Usually) English apprentice grazier - working for keep, but learning the coloni |
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| combo |
White man cohabiting with Aboriginal woman |
(Illegal, in early 20th c., under "Native Protection Act") |
| come a gutser |
Make a bad mistake, have an accident |
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| come good |
Turn out all right |
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| compo |
Workers' Compensation pay |
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| conk |
To hit someone (archaic) |
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| cooee |
Bush greeting |
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| cooee, not within |
Figuratively a long way away, far off - England weren't within cooee of beating |
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| coolabah |
Type of box eucalyptus tree |
Not actually providing much shade (Paterson's irony) |
| coolgardie safe |
Box for storing perishable foods, cooled by non-mechanical evaporation |
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| copper |
Policeman |
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| cornstalk |
(Old - colonial period) name for New South Wales resident - refers to height of |
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| corroboree |
Aboriginal meeting, with ceremonial dancing |
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| counter lunch |
Pub lunch |
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| counter meal, countery |
Pub meal |
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| cove |
The boss of a station (~ ranch) - the cove in charge … |
A bit more polite than the Cockney sense of 'rogue' |
| cow |
Also means anything that is difficult |
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| cow cocky |
Small-scale cattle farmer |
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| cozzie |
Swimming costume (New South Wales) |
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| cradle (noun & verb) |
(wash auriferous soil in) riffled tub on curved feet to separate out the gold |
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| cranky |
In a bad mood, angry |
Varies state to state + means 'crazy', 'eccentric' in Tasmania |
| cream (verb) |
Defeat by a large margin |
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| creek |
A (usually) seasonal watercourse |
Not the Scots sense of a bay or inlet on a coast - close to the US sense |
| crook |
Ill, badly made, substandard |
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| crow eater |
A person from South Australia |
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| cut lunch |
Sandwiches |
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| cut snake, mad as a |
Very angry |
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| dag |
A funny person, nerd, goof |
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| dag, daggy |
Dirty lump of wool at the back end of a sheep, also an affectionate or mildly ab |
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| daks |
Trousers |
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| damper |
Bush loaf made from flour and water cooked in a camp oven |
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| Darling pea |
Staggers (usually the stock) from eating poisonous plant |
Appears in 'All For My Grog' |
| dead horse |
Tomato sauce |
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| deadset |
True, the truth |
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| deli |
Delicatessen |
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| demon |
Policeman, detective |
Originally a Tasmanian (Vandemonian) ex-convict recruited into the colonial police force |
| dero |
Tramp, hobo, homeless person (from "derelict") |
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| didgeridoo |
Cylindrical musical instrument played usually by Aboriginal men |
Women are forbidden to play didge in Aboriginal culture because the muscular contractions of playing can cause abortion … ! |
| digger |
A soldier - typically from Australia or New Zealand |
Term is a goldrush legacy |
| dill |
Idiot |
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| dillybag |
Small bag to carry things |
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| dingo |
Australian native dog, (tranf.) an untrustworthy person or coward |
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| dinkum, fair dinkum |
Genuine or honest |
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| dinky-di |
The real thing, genuine |
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| dipstick |
A loser, idiot |
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| divvy van |
Police divisional van |
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| do your nana |
Lose your rag, spit the dummy, lose your temper |
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| dob (somebody) in |
Inform on somebody |
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| docket |
A bill, receipt |
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| doco |
Documentary |
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| dog |
Unattractive woman |
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| dole bludger |
Somebody on social assistance when unjustified |
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| don't come the raw prawn |
Don't try to fool me |
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| donah |
A girl, to a city larrikin, c. 1900 |
(from Portugese 'dona' ?) |
| donger |
Penis |
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| donk |
Car or boat engine |
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| doodle |
Penis |
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| doozey |
Something very pleasant |
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| doughboy |
Flour dumpling |
British dialect / navy slang |
| down south |
The rest of Australia, according to someone north of Brisbane, Queensland |
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| Down Under |
Australia and New Zealand |
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| drink with the flies |
To drink alone |
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| drinking down the cheque |
Drinking alcohol ontil all the wages have been squandered |
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| drive the porcelain bus |
Vomit |
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| drongo |
Worthless or stupid person |
North Australian bird that flies south (towards colder regions!) in summer …? |
| drover |
Person driving large herds of cattle or sheep across Australia |
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| drum |
Information, tip-off ("I'll give you the drum") |
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| drum (hump the) |
(Carry a) swag |
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| Dry, the |
Dry season in the north, April to November |
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| duco |
Car paint |
Brand name |
| duffer, cattle |
Rustler |
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muddy