| Aussie Words |
Definitions |
Comments |
| underdaks |
Underwear |
|
| uni |
University |
|
| unit |
Flat, apartment |
|
| up a gumtree |
In a quandary |
|
| up north |
New South Wales and Queensland, according to someone in Victoria |
|
| up oneself |
Have a high opinion of oneself - "he's really up himself" |
|
| up the duff |
Pregnant |
|
| ute |
Utility truck or vehicle |
Australian 'invention' - Ford Australia (1928?) |
| vedgies |
Vegetables |
|
| vee dub |
Volkswagen |
|
| veg out |
Relax in front of the TV (like a vegetable) |
|
| Vegemite |
Popular vegetable extract used as sandwich spread |
Yeast extract - made from the 'lees' of beer-making! |
| vejjo |
Vegetarian |
|
| velvet |
Highly profitable or advantageous |
|
| waddy |
Wooden club (waddi, waddie, wody, woodah &c) |
Aboriginal word (Dharuk): wadi = tree, stick of wood |
| waffle |
Nonsense |
|
| wag |
To skip school or work |
|
| waggin' school |
Playing truant |
|
| waler |
Bloke from New South Wales (also NSW breed of tough bush horse) |
Not 'whaler' |
| walkabout |
Lengthy walk away from it all |
|
| walkabout, it's gone |
It's lost, can't be found |
|
| wallaby track, on the |
To wander from place to place in search of work (archaic) |
|
| walloper |
Copper, policeman |
|
| waltz matilda |
To carry a swag |
Auf den walz (mit Mathilde) Mathilde is blanket roll or tool roll in German |
| wattle |
Acacia, common Australian species of (typically) shrub |
The original wattle - so named because it was used to build wattle & daub dwellings in Sydney's first settlement, was not acacia, but callicoma serratifolia, which had yellow globular flowers and serrated leaves. Early settlers were no botanists and they thought similar acacias were same genus … |
| weatherboard |
Wooden house |
Strictly: a specific pattern of lapped horizontal wooden cladding |
| West Island |
Australia, to a New Zealander |
|
| Wet, the |
Rainy season in northern Australia |
|
| wether |
Castrated male sheep |
|
| whack |
Fair share, agreed deal |
Turns up in a few songs - old English word |
| wharfie |
Dockworker |
(Stevedore) |
| whinge |
Complain and carry on unnecessarily |
|
| whips (of) |
Lots (of) |
|
| white ant (noun) |
Termite |
|
| white ant (verb) |
Undermine or sabotage |
|
| white pointers |
Topless (female) sunbathers or type of large shark |
|
| whomajigger |
Term for person or thing whose actual name one can't remember |
|
| willy-nilly |
Small dust twister or erratic |
More commonly "willy willy" - a couple of citiatons of williy nilly in Aus. Nat'l Dict. Aboriginal words (Yinji-Barndi) - 'wili wili' |
| Wimmera |
West Victorian region (characterised by wimmera rye grass) |
|
| wobbly |
Disturbing, unpredictable behaviour, as in "throw a wobbly" |
|
| wog |
Flu or trivial illness |
|
| wog |
Mediterranean or Middle European migrant - derogatory |
|
| Wolseleys |
Machine shears (inventor, Fred Wolseley, went on to make cars … in England) |
(Assisted by his shears mechanic … Herbert Austin … who then made his own cars!) |
| wombat |
Somebody who eats, roots and leaves (see also root) |
|
| woomera |
Stick used by Aborigines to throw spears |
|
| woop woop |
Invented name for any small unimportant town - "he lives in Woop Woop" |
|
| wowser |
Straight-laced person, prude, puritan, spoilsport |
|
| XXXX |
Pronounced Four X, brand of beer made in Queensland |
And there's no truth to the story that Queenslanders just can't spell BEER |
| yabber |
Talk (a lot) |
Probably Aboriginal … and/or pidgin from jabber |
| yabby |
Small freshwater crayfish |
|
| yahoo |
Noisy and unruly person |
|
| yahooing |
Boisterous behaviour |
|
| yakka, yakker |
Hard work, an Aboriginal term |
(Yagari language -'yaga') |
| yank |
American regardless of location |
|
| yank tank |
An American car |
|
| yankee shout |
A round of drinks in which everyone pays his own |
|
| yeo |
Ewe, female sheep |
Scots dialect … also ewie or yowie (not the aboriginal forest monster!) |
| yewy |
U-turn in traffic ("chuck a yewy at the next traffic lights") |
I've always spelled it: U-ey … but I'm a bit of a pedant! |
| yobbo |
Uncouth, aggressive person |
Old Cockney 'backspell' slang: yob = boy |
| yonks |
Ages, a long time |
|
| youse |
Plural of you (by the grammatically challenged) |
|
| zarucker |
Police trooper |
(Appears in Manifold's "The Death of Ned Kelly"_ |
| zebra crossing |
Broad-striped pedestrian roadway crossing |
|
| zed |
Australian and British pronunciation of "Z" |
|
| zeds |
Pertaining to sleep (zzz) |
|
| zonked |
Exhausted, rooted |
|
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