entrée

Borrowed from French entrée. Doublet of entrada and entry.

ENTREES AND ENTREMETS. Usually, outside of France, entrees are side or corner dishes. ... In conclusion I again remark, entrees can be made from almost anything, the difference being, they are highly cooked and seasoned. Remember nothing large is served as an entree. There are game entrees, meat entrees, fish entrees, fowl entrees, etc.

1887, Estelle Woods Wilcox, Practical housekeeping: A careful compilation of tried and approved recipes (published in Dayton, Ohio, United States), page 457:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, historical in the US and Canada) A smaller dish served before the main course of a meal.

предястие

dish served before the main course of a meal — see also starter, appetizer


franger

Unknown; perhaps an alteration of french letter.

You have a point. But on the other hand, I didn't run off and tell mum with a six pack in one hand and an open franger packet in the other.

1999 November 4, Egan Blinkhorn, “Pirate Pay TV”, in aus.tv.pay (Usenet):

Ranpaging^([sic]) Roy Slaven & HG Nelson who are comedians of the host broadcaster's Olympic graveyard shift have said that 48,000 of the frangers are for the personal use of the mayor of the Olympic village - 'Richo'. they claim the rest are for the Cuban team who when they have finished their events are going at it like rabbits.

2000 September 22, rhay10, “Sydney 2000 -Too sexy for some.....”, in rec.travel.australia+nz (Usenet):

The barber would say while he was cutting a grown-up′s hair, ‘Do you need any home supplies, sir?’ which is the secret code for a packet of frangers.

2001, Bryce Courtenay, Four Fires, unnumbered page:

Gone are the terms we used in our youth the frenchies, frangers, rubbers, joes, french letters, gumboots, rubbers, johnnies, parachutes and plastic fantastics -- these days they're just condoms.

2002 February 7, Janine Burgess, “Armour against pleasure?”, in The Timaru Herald:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) A condom.


milko

Actually, having been denied the right to employment in my chosen occupation, makin' chemicals, and being now a milko, i can give you the inside information on this story.

1998 August 15, Seagrass, “Lousy Milk”, in aus.general (Usenet):

In the resulting commotion dogs barked and the milko's horse shied, leaving broken bottles and spilt milk all over Hayes St.

1998 December 17, David Bennetts, “Neutral Bay tram line”, in aus.rail (Usenet):

(As a child, I used to love hearing the "clip clop clip clop" of the milko′s horse as he arrived in our street in the morning).

2001 March 11, Brash, “Multiculturalism leaves no place for Australian culture”, in canb.general (Usenet):

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A milkman or milkwoman


bizzo

en-noun

bizzo (countable and uncountable, plural bizzos)

... check the connection bizzos, also check your Microsoft mail settings.

1997 March 11, “Prevent Outlook autodialing?”, in microsoft.public.office.misc (Usenet):

my virus killer bizzos weren't able to handle it...

2000 March 1, “Pretty Park Virus”, in alt.gothic (Usenet):

Good to see that Heskey knows that ball thingy is supposed to go in the net between those post bizzos.

2000 October 16, “Good result but lets not get carried away....”, in uk.sport.football.clubs.liverpool (Usenet):

If I'd had my way, we'da stuck them twoprong bizzos that let you put threeprong bizzos into them into the powerpoint and be done with it.

2000 December 14, “Bands you're too embarrassed to like...”, in alt.gothic (Usenet):

(Australia, New Zealand, countable, slang) An item whose name has been forgotten; a thingumajig.


goodo

“Now we′re cooking! It works!” crowed Bob. “And now before it grows dark let′s pour it off into our storage tanks.”
“Goodo, Bob. We rich now!” Ebony gloated.

1957, Horace Sawyer Mazet, Shark Fishing off the Great Barrier Reef, page 61:

“Goodo,” Picnic said, blinking. “Man, look at the quail.”

1984, Thomas Pynchon, Slow Learner: Early Stories, published 1995, page 40:

Some bantering responses joked about whether David May was connected to Brian May, and the rock group Queen, but most expressed a sense of relief that anyone was willing to come to the small-town, economically struggling club. Jo Tomlinson: ‘Goodo, a signing! Even though we did boo him last year...’

2004, David L. Andrews, Manchester United: A Thematic Study, page 203:

John held both my hands tightly, looking straight into my eyes for several moments. His eyes moistened, “I don′t know how to thank you – it′s been quite a spell since my Janeie has been happy.” Bob gleefully joined in, “Goodo Sport!...Goodo!”

2009, George W. Adams, Under the Southern Cross, page 111:

‘I have a sore elbow...’ I fib in a small whine, as I know she worries sometimes when I have too many nightmares.
‘Goodo. Well, let me “tiss” it better,’ she whispers back, so as not to wake Dad from his heavy, snoring slumber, and with her eyes still closed—as the surrounding bush continues to coo its soft night noises through her open bedroom window—she reaches out, finds my proffered elbow, and applies a kiss.

2010, Peter FitzSimons, A Simpler Time, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) Good; used to show approval or satisfaction.


Seppo

From septic tank (rhyming slang for Yank) + -o (colloquialising suffix).

suffix

‘So, Adam, you have the privilege of being my first Seppo.’
‘Your first what?’
‘Seppo. You′ve gotta learn to speak Aussie, man. You′re a Yank, so –’
‘No, not a Yankee. I′m from –’
‘The You Ess Ay. Makes you a Yank. Yank rhymes with septic tank. But we like to shorten names and then add an O at the end - but only if we like you. So Yank is kind of neutral. Septic tank is rude. But Seppo, well, it′s affectionate. Get it?’
‘No.’

2010, Emily Maguire, Smoke in the Room, page 17:

(Australia, New Zealand, rhyming slang, ethnic slur) An American.


electorate

/ɪˈlɛktəɹət/

From elector (“person eligible to vote in an election; German prince entitled to elect the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire”) + -ate (forms nouns denoting a rank or office, the concrete charge of it).

af

The electorate of Finchley borders on the electorate of Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, splitting the new housing estate of Royal Cupolas.

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand) A geographical area represented by one or more elected officials; a constituency, an electoral district.


glowworm

glowworms (plural)
glow-worm (alternative)

From Middle English glouworm; equivalent to glow + worm.
Compare German Glühwurm.

(Australia, New Zealand) A carnivorous gnat larva in the keroplatid genus Arachnocampa that spins threads to capture insects attracted by its glow.


paddock

The noun is almost certainly a variant of dialectal British parrock (“enclosure; park; croft, small field, paddock”), from Middle English parrok, parrock (“enclosed pasture, paddock; coop; feeding stall; cabin, hut”) [and other forms], from Old English pearroc, pearruc (“fence used to enclose a space; area enclosed by such a fence, enclosure”), from Proto-West Germanic *parruk (“enclosure; pen for animals”), from Proto-Germanic *parrukaz (“fence; enclosure”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *barō (“bar, beam; barrier”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”). Doublet of park.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* Danish park (“pond”)
* Dutch perk (“flowerbed; garden; pen”)
* German Pferch (“sheepfold, sheep-pen”)

cog

(motor racing) An area at a racing circuit where the racing vehicles are parked and worked on before and between races.

varikko

(Australia, New Zealand) A field of grassland of any size, either enclosed by fences or delimited by geographical boundaries, especially a large area for keeping cattle or sheep.

laidun

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand, mining) A place in a superficial deposit where ore or washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) is excavated; also, a place for storing ore, washdirt, etc.

koekuoppa

place in a superficial deposit where ore or washdirt is excavated; place for storing ore, washdirt, etc.


paddock

en-verb

paddock (third-person singular simple present paddocks, present participle paddocking, simple past and past participle paddocked)

term-label

(transitive, chiefly Australia, New Zealand)

paddocks (present singular third-person)
paddocking (participle present)
paddocked (participle past)
paddocked (past)

(also intransitive) To excavate washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) from (a superficial deposit).

kaivaa koekuopasta

to excavate washdirt from (a superficial deposit)


dishonour

en-noun

dishonour (countable and uncountable, plural dishonours)

tlb

(UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa)

dishonours (plural)
dishonor (alternative US)

From Old French deshonor, equivalent to dis- + honour.

negotiable instrument
negotiable instrument

(law) Failure or refusal of the drawee or intended acceptor of a negotiable instrument, such as a bill of exchange or note, to accept it or, if it is accepted, to pay and retire it.


head

pinch punch first of the month (alternative)

en-au-pinch and a punch for the first of the month.ogg

‘Pinch and a punch for the first of the month.’ I nurse my wounded arm and look down at my giggling son.
'You just hit me.'
'No I didn't. That's what you do on the first of the month.'
'Who says so?'
He looks at me exasperated.

2009, Ellie Nielsen, Buying a Piece of Paris: A Memoir, page 208:

(British, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) Said on the first day of a new month, while pinching and punching someone as a prank (especially by children). The victim may respond with "a flick and a kick for being so quick" and the original attacker may reply with "a punch in the eye for being so sly".

It does not seem to be the Minister for the Environment's day, he has really had a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. He received a punch a few minute ago, and now he is being pinched. It is significant that the Bill is intended to come into force on 1 April next year. The Bill was promised in the Speech from the Throne. It has gone back and forth between departments, and ended up in caucus several times, ...

1981, Parliamentary Debates, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, page 3112:

Bugger, this wasn't the goods at all – this was a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. A letter in fact from Fire Commander Bruce stating that although he was in receipt of my application, neither he nor the Fire Commander of IB were certain of the Fire Service Commission's final policy for employment of women as operational firemen.

2007, Anne Barry, Playing with Fire, page 59:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) More generally, a pair of attacks or setbacks at the start of something.


seagulling

As long as he can stay away from the seagulling in the tight games.

2002 May 25, Greig Blanchett, “Re: So. To The ABs”, in rec.sport.rugby.union (Usenet):

Jack has to cut out the seagulling and get in and do the dirty work.

2009 December 28, Steve Hepburn, “Rugby: Oval ball gazing for 2011 World Cup”, in Otago Daily Times:

And while Williams cut down the seagulling, he still wasn't hitting the breakdown with any vigour.

2011 August 29, lord shineything [username], “Re: AB Players”, in rec.sport.rugby.union (Usenet):

(British, Australia, New Zealand, rugby slang) The practice, in Rugby Union, of forwards running in the back line rather than concentrating on their primary positional duties in open play (see rugby union positions).

Sometimes I went down to the Wellington wharves for what was called 'seagulling', where I joined a crowd of other men just before 8 a.m., hoping to be given the nod for a day's work.

1995, Bryan Gould, Goodbye to All That, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 22:

After two months there was a lull on the waterfront, seagulling declined, and I had to seek another job. By this time my hands were hard and I actually looked like a labourer, so the New Zealand Posts and Telegraph department took me on as a linesman.

1997, Phillip Knightley, A Hack's Progress, J. Cape, →ISBN, page 25:

As a young shipwright, I heard old timers warn me against seagulling or bypassing the union hall while seeking work.

2001, Archie Green, Torching the Fink Books and Other Essays on Vernacular Culture, University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, page 180:

(chiefly New Zealand) The practice of working as a non-union casual stevedore.


dotterel

15th century. From dote (“to be foolish; senile”) + -rel (“pejorative suffix”). The bird is so named as it is easy to catch.

suffix

(Australia, New Zealand) Any of various small birds of Australasia thought to resemble the Eurasian dotterel.


expiry

en-noun

expiry (countable and uncountable, plural expiries)

(British, New Zealand, Australia, Canada) End; termination; expiration.

(British, New Zealand, Australia, Canada) Death.

(New Zealand, Australia) Synonym of expiration date.


lino

lino (usually uncountable, plural linos)

Clipping of linoleum, probably influenced by -o (“diminutive suffix”).

But there was nobody at Kig and Kadgit's except the charwoman wiping over the “lino” in the passage.

1919, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Pictures”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 163:

The third thing was the TORN lino in the kitchen, new puppy found it great fun to tear strips of lino off the floor .. first you scrabble like crazy with your claws to start a tear, and then you use teeth to tear off a lovely strip of lino to chew . We are still too scared to replace the lino as the next puppy will probably do the same .

1996 July 20, Malcolm Tippett, “Dogs ...No Way”, in aus.jokes (Usenet):

When we moved here, the people before had dogs, complete with crawling carpet and jumping lino. When we ripped up all the carpet and lino prior to moving in, we also bought half a dozen flea bombs, and bombed UNDER the house.

2002 October 30, Augie, “Frontline or Advantage for fleas?”, in aus.pets (Usenet):

I took up the lino from the kitchen and found this newspaper clipping

2010 April 25, George W Frost, “Found this old paper under the lino of a reno”, in aus.sport.aussie-rules (Usenet):

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, colloquial, informal) Clipping of linoleum.


hullo

There he is, now. Bang went the front door open and shut. Harry shouted: “Hullo, you people. Down in five minutes.”

1918 August, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 126:

“Mr Wooster?” “Oh, hullo, Lady Wickham.”
[...] “Hullo, Bobbie,” I said. “Hullo, Bertie,” she said. “Hullo, Upjohn,” I said. The correct response to this would have been “Hullo, Wooster”, but he blew up in his lines and merely made a noise like a wolf with its big toe caught in a trap.
[...] But as I approached the [telephone] and unhooked the thing you unhook, I was far from being at my most nonchalant, and when I heard Upjohn are-you-there-ing at the other end my manly spirit definitely blew a fuse. For I could tell by his voice that he was in the testiest of moods. Not even when conferring with me at Malvern House, Bramley-on-Sea, on the occasion when I put sherbet in the ink, had I sensed in him a more marked stirred-up-ness. “Hullo? Hullo? Hullo? Are you there? Will you kindly answer me? This is Mr Upjohn speaking.”

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “II, XV, AND XIX”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

(UK, New Zealand) Alternative form of hello (Greeting.)

Suddenly Sydney gave an exclamation. ‘Hullo! — The front door’s closed!’

"Hullo, there's a monkey's wedding," said my wife's niece, a girl of about twenty, born in South Africa […] She was looking out on the lawn, and it was one of those lovely April mornings with sunshine and rain alternating[…]

1939, Country Life, volume 85, page 290:

(UK, dated, New Zealand) Alternative form of hello (expressing puzzlement or discovery)


returned

en-adj

returned (comparative more returned, superlative most returned)

more returned (comparative)
most returned (superlative)

There are about thirty full-blooded returned men in this state whom I believe are not entitled to the old-age pension.

1941, Pearl Gibbs, radio broadcast, in Heiss & Minter, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin 2008, p. 38

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) Back home having been discharged from military service.


pavlova

en-noun

pavlova (countable and uncountable, plural pavlovas)

From Pavlova (a surname), from Russian Па́влова (Pávlova), feminine form of Па́влов (Pávlov), named after Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova (1881–1931). Australia/New Zealand from circa 1930. Both nations lay claim to origination of the dish and the name. According to research undertaken by the Oxford English Dictionary, however, the earliest known attestation for the term is from New Zealand in 1927.

named-after

The pavlova — rich in whipped cream and ice-cream — is a wonderful dessert that should appeal to anyone with a sweet tooth.

2002, Vijeya Rajendra, Sundran Rajendra, Cultures of the World: Australia, page 128:

For a successful pavlova you′ll need a spotlessly clean, dry stainless steel or glass bowl.

2006, Murdoch Books Pty Limited, Lust: Food for Lovers, page 205:

Pavlova, named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, is still just about the most popular party dessert in Australia.

2011, Margaret Fulton, Suzanne Gibbs, Margaret Fulton Favourites, page 194:

Perhaps you lied in the emergency room about eating an entire pavlova and acted like you didn’t know what was wrong with you? If so, make amends by only ever eating a couple of slices of pavlova in one sitting from now on.

2012, Maeve Higgins, “Baby dressed as sushi”, in We Have a Good Time … Don’t We? A Regular Human Girl Decides, Dublin: Hachette Books Ireland, →ISBN, page 205:

Steal the pavlova if you must, but only an April Fool would deem the lamington a Kiwi import.

2021 April 14, David Astle, “Lamington wars: claiming an Australian invention really takes the cake”, in The Age:

(chiefly Australia and New Zealand, foods) A meringue dessert usually topped with fruit and cream.


pav

Contraction of pavlova. Australian from 1966.

Bert Sachse experimented for a month to create the perfect pav.

2003, Stephen Downes, Advanced Australian Fare: How Australian Cooking Became the World′s Best, page 6:

I′m totally biased but I think this is the best pav in the world. It also does nothing to clear up the argument that the pav is in fact from New Zealand and not Australia.

2011, Neil Perry, Rockpool Bar & Grill: Desserts, unnumbered page:

Pavlova, named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, is still just about the most popular party dessert in Australia.[…]The following recipe was given to me by a churchgoer who won acclaim for her ‘pavs’ and made at least five a week for members of the congregation.

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) Clipping of pavlova.


Old Dart

Possibly from the river Dart in Devonshire which enters the sea at Dartmouth, location of a Royal Navy College. Royal Navy officers who were returning to England at the end of a foreign tour of duty referred to going back to the "Old Dart" for further training.
Alternatively a variation of "old dirt" (compare old sod).

J. A. W. has still, I am persuaded, any amount of friends in the Old Dart.

1872, Pen-name Auld Lang Syne, Original Correspondence, Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Beechworth, Victoria, 20 July 1872, page 2:

You recollect that when I left the Colony to visit the old dart, besides the usual allowance granted...

1876, Magguffin, Random Notes, Oamaru Mail, 24 June 1876, page 2:

The ‘Old Dart’ mattered little to German Australians but the empire was another matter and Australia was their home.

2003, John Williams, German Anzacs And The First World War, page 9:

‘I have a whole range of new talents, Dad. I can muster a mob of cattle, break in a horse, speak pidgin, and at a pinch, stitch up someone′s head.’
‘Very useful in the Old Dart,’ he commented dryly and returned to his newspaper.

2003, Di Morrissey, Barra Creek, published 2010, page 432:

Marsh′s experiences during his first days in the Old Dart were no different from most Australian cricketers′.

2004, Mark Browning, Rod Marsh: A Life in Cricket, page 55:

(Australia, New Zealand) Britain, England, London, or Ireland; the Old Country.


lippy

en-noun

lippy (countable and uncountable, plural lippies)

term-label

(originally Australia, now also British, New Zealand, colloquial)

From lip(stick) or lip (gloss) + -y (diminutive suffix).

Like some kind of masonic handshake, Collie passed Vanya a tube of black lippie. She smeared it carelessly across her wide mouth and handed it to me. My parents would have a hissy fit if they knew I put on lipstick but they weren't around.

2007, D. M. Ross, chapter 12, in The Holy Bad, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Vanguard Press, →ISBN, page 52:

I'm worried I'm turning into a 1950s housewife: the other day I found myself tidying up the sitting room and putting on some lippie before Tony got home from work!

2008, Lynn Bertram, “The World of Motherhood”, in Supporting Postnatal Women Into Motherhood: A Guide to Therapeutic Groupwork for Health Professionals, Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Radcliffe Publishing, →ISBN, page 11:

'Sorry—just trying on new lippies for tonight,' she confessed, flashing a crimson smile.

2008, Rachel Power, “Emma Matthews—Opera Singer”, in The Divided Heart: Art and Motherhood, Fitzroy, Vic.: Red Dog Books, →ISBN; republished Fitzroy, Vic.: Red Dog Books, 2012, →ISBN, page 159:

A russet shade of sheer lippy proved the finishing touch to Meghan's latest make-up look. It wasn't a full gloss, but appeared to have a balm-like finish, a pretty touch of shine.

2020 January 9, Annie Vischer, “Meghan Markle’s Latest Make-Up Look Decoded”, in Grazia, London: Bauer Consumer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-01-10:

(uncountable) Lip gloss or lipstick; (countable) a stick of this product.


bouncy castle

(UK, Canada, New Zealand) Synonym of bouncing castle.


handbags at dawn

1980s UK. Jocular derivation from pistols at dawn, replacing pistols with handbags, referring to women hitting each other with handbags during a catfight. The phrase originated in football. It may have been influenced by the phrase "handbagging" meaning "a verbal dressing-down", in reference to the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; and by the Monty Python sketch “The Batley Townswomen's Guild Presents the Battle of Pearl Harbor” (season 1, episode 11. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes to the Bathroom, December 1969), in which the actors flail at each other with handbags in a muddy field.

(New Zealand, informal) Competitors on a sporting field (often in a rugby game) getting into a fight; looking threatening but not really doing any damage.


togs

(Ireland, Queensland, New Zealand) Swimsuits, of either the women's or men's tight-fitting type (in some regions referred to as "speedos").


hammy

He put his palms flat on the ground, then grabbed the back of his knees, stretching his hammies for the millionth time that morning.

1999, Melissa Lucashenko, Hard Yards, University of Queensland Press, page 129:

“A move like this would have been inpossible for me before yoga,” he said. “Flexibilty-wise, I was struggling. My hammies were tight, my groin was tight. My hips have really benefited.”

2003, John Capouya, Real Men Do Yoga: 21 Star Athletes Reveal Their Secrets for Strength, Flexibility and Peak Performance, page 150:

I've noticed that although cycling keeps me reasonably "cardio fit", I am losing general flexibility, e.g. when touching my toes. This is despite me stretching my quads, calves, and hammies during and after my training rides.

2003 June 10, Andrew Swan, “Good complementary exercise to cycling?”, in aus.bicycle (Usenet):

2004, J. L. Roberts, Braggin' Rights: Fantasy Football Rewind 2004 (2003 Season Recap), AuthorHouse USA, page 83,
A slow start and hammy injury were major contributors.

(US, Australia, New Zealand, chiefly sports, slang) The hamstring.

A: I′m only just getting fully fit now after that hammy [hamstring tear].

2000, Mark B. Andersen, Doing Sport Psychology, page 96:

Why he went back on after 3/4 time is beyond me. If he was trying to prove a point he has all season to do that not do your hammy in the first game.

2009 March 26, Phil, “So Cousins does a hammy”, in aus.sport.aussie-rules (Usenet):

(US, Australia, New Zealand, chiefly sports, slang) A hamstring injury.


aluminium foil

en-noun

aluminium foil (usually uncountable, plural aluminium foils)

aluminium foils (plural)
aluminum foil (alternative)

(Australia, British, New Zealand) A very thin, pliable, easily torn sheet of aluminium used for cooking, packaging, cosmetics, and insulation.

鋁箔 /铝箔

very thin, pliable, eaily torn sheet of aluminium


sandfly

sandflies (plural)
sand fly (alternative)

(New Zealand) A small fly of the genus Austrosimulium.


rockmelon

1998, FAO, Pesticide Residues in Food, 1998, Evaluations: Part 1: Residues, Volume 1, page 459,
Australia reported trials on cucumbers, zucchini, rockmelons and watermelons. […] Twenty-four rockmelons were dipped, followed by 24 cucumbers. The dimethoate dip solution was analysed before and after the dippings and contained 409 mg/l and 404 mg/l respectively. Four samples each of rockmelon and cucumber were taken 0, 3 and 7 days after treatment and homogenized.

rockmelon ginger whip
Put 280 g (10 oz/2 cups) chopped ripe rockmelon (or other orange-fleshed melon), 125 ml (4 fl oz/1/2 cup) orange juice, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger and 8 ice cubes in a blender. Blend until smooth and pour into tall glasses.

2004, Michele Cranston, Marie Claire Kitchen, page 41:

Also called ‘netted’ melon (because of the raised webbing on its skin) or muskmelon on account of its glorious smell when ripe, rockmelon has deep, peachy-coloured flesh which is rich in beta carotenes (vitamin A).

2006, Leanne Kitchen, Grower′s Market, page 148:

(Australia, New Zealand) A type of melon, Cucumis melo var. reticulatus, with sweet orange flesh and a rough skin resembling netting.


offence

offence (countable and uncountable, plural offences)

British, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada standard spelling of offense.


hard yakka

From hard + yakka, from Yagara yaga (“work”).

The men who did all the hard yakka believed in a short cut – shoot the bastards; it was cheaper and easier.

1988, Tom Cole, Hell West and Crooked, page 247:

somebody sits down and does the solid, hard yakka of talking his way through with the waterside workers and with the union movement generally

1991, Kim Beazley, Australian House of Representatives

At the age of sixteen, boy it was hard yakka, pouring fifty ton of red hot molten gun metal from the big firebrick lined oil furnace almost every day of the working week.

1998, Keith B. Saunders, Myall Road, page 37:

(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) hard work


clothes peg

clothes pegs (plural)
clothes-peg (alternative)
clothespeg (alternative)

(British, Australia, New Zealand, Canada) An object (usually made of wood or plastic) used to attach wet laundry to a clothesline so that it (the laundry) can dry.

مِشْبَك مَلَابِس

an object used to attach wet laundry to a clothesline


licence

licence (countable and uncountable, plural licences)

In some areas they have attempted to decasualize certain types of employment and to control street-trading by a local licensing system requiring juveniles to obtain their licences through the committees.

1944, The Labour Gazette, volume 44, page 720:

Serlio criticises the artistic licence taken by both ancient and contemporary architects, here specifically related to the confusion created by the rich decoration of the arch–in his illustrations, he stripped the monument of most of its beautifully […]

2017, Allison Sherman, Artistic Practices and Cultural Transfer in Early Modern Italy: Essays in Honour of Deborah Howard, Routledge, →ISBN:

UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore standard spelling of license.


kiddo

Okay, kiddo, I gotta run.

(US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) A close friend; especially used as a form of address.

The books say it's normal. Toddlers often stop napping around this age, and the average amount of sleep needed by a two-year-old is between nine and thirteen hours. My kiddo cuts logs for twelve hours at a stretch, so she's plenty rested.

2008, Robin Dutton-Cookston, The Foggiest Idea: Tales of a Displaced Texan in San Francisco Mamaland, page 51:

(US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) A child.


nong

‘In there, you nong,’ Max said, pointing out a pink-brick home with a 1950s skillion roof.

1983, Robert Drewe, The Bodysurfers, Penguin, published 2009, page 126:

‘You guys are such nongs! Why would you want to face up to Shoaib Akhtar when you could win a World Cup against the young blond Aussie star at the home of cricket?’

2008, Michael Panckridge, Hat Trick! Toby Jones, Books 1-3, published 2010, unnumbered page:

[…]and spend every second Saturday defiant and one-eyed among the opposition nongs at the Barkly Street end.

2010, John Dale, editor, Best on Ground: Great Writers on the Greatest Game, unnumbered page:

(slang, Australia, New Zealand) An idiot.


trolley

trolleys (plural)
trollies (plural)
trolly (alternative)

→ Catalan: tròlei

→ French: trolley

→ Romanian: troleu

→ German: Trolley

→ Welsh: troli

Early 19th century (1823) meaning "cart", of dialectal origin (Suffolk), probably from troll (“to trundle, roll”) + -ey (diminutive ending).

af

About a shopping trolley, I thought I'd let ye know. Ya'd try to push it straight but it never seems ta go. Ya'd wobble through the car park, hopping off the cars. Anyone would think ya had a few auld jars.

2013 March 15, “The Shopping Trolley” (track 10), in Horsing Around, performed by Richie Kavanagh:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland) A cart or shopping cart; a shopping trolley.


merchant banker

en-noun

merchant banker (plural merchant bankers)

(chiefly British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, rhyming slang) A wanker.


hoarding

Making inquiries she came to a hoarding, within which were excavations denoting the foundations of a building; and on the boards without one or two large posters announcing that the foundation-stone of the chapel about to be erected would be laid that afternoon at three o’clock by a London preacher of great popularity among his body.

1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, chapter VIII, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1896, →OCLC:

A hoarding is a legal requirement for the safety of the public on a building site. There are rules about its height and construction. But of course it is also the perfect opportunity: a blank canvas on which to show a vision of the life soon to be lived behind it.

2014 September 25, Hugo Macdonald, “Could those utopian hoardings for new developments get any more nauseating?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

They’re a familiar sight to many: the eye-roll-inducing, over-the-top development hoardings and adverts that celebrate the (inevitably luxury and, to most people, unaffordable) developments soon to be added to the city skyline.

2015 October 2, Francesca Perry, “What are the most ridiculous property development adverts you've seen?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

The west side is one massive building site, although it's hard to appreciate what's going on behind all the hoardings.

2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 57:

(construction, UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A temporary fence-like structure built around building work to add security and prevent accidents to the public.


tara

These are Hine-karoro (origin and personification of the karoro, or black-billed gull), the next born being Hine-tara (the tara, or tern); the next is Hine-tore. The last born of that lot was Punga, the origin of[…]

1909, Royal Society of New Zealand, Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, page 273:

Another account says that a tara (tern) and other birds alighted at Tahunatapu, the first part of the fish to surface, and that Maui greeted its appearance with an incantation that included the words : Appears the great land lying[…]

1977, Alexander Wyclif Reed, Treasury of Maori Exploration: Legends Relating to the First Polynesian Explorers of New Zealand, Raupo:

Most numerous and widespread of the terns of Aotearoa are the tara, or white-fronted terns. Another species, also named tara , is the smaller black-fronted tern.[…]

2003, Margaret Orbell, Birds of Aotearoa: A Natural and Cultural History, Raupo:

Again it is said that the tara (tern) alighted on the new land at Tahunatapu, the first part to emerge from the sea, and was followed by other birds. Māui recited an incantation of welcome which included the words : Appears the[…]

2004, Alexander Wyclif Reed, Ross Calman, Reed Book of Maori Mythology, Raupo:


mauri

We're just cuzzies from down at the marae down the road that are trying to be proactive and look after our whenua, look after our stories, and look after the mauri of our awa, our river.

2021 January 1, “Local hapū to watch over dangerous Omanawa Falls near Tauranga”, in Stuff NZ:

(New Zealand) Life force, according to Maori beliefs.


touch wood

And the reds are going to avoid relegation this year, touch wood.

If it′s ever me (Jesus Christ, touch wood!), I don′t want you bringing me flowers.

1988, Janette Turner Hospital, chapter I, in Charades, page 314:

The English press has been very good to me, touch wood.

2008 March, Anna Friel with Deanna Kizis (interviewer), “A Conversation with: Anna Friel”, in Women′s Health, page 88:

I know I have my faults and one of them is my impatience and I also cannot tolerate people who are ill, mainly because I am so very rarely ill—“Touch wood,” I said out loud and touched my head at the same time.

2009, Lee Hobin, chapter I, in The Male Survival Guide to Pregnancy, page 59:

(idiomatic, UK, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India) Hopefully; said while touching something wooden, to avert superstitious bad luck from what has just been said.


Claytons

From a non-alcoholic drink called Claytons named after the Clayton brothers and promoted in Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s as “the drink you have when you′re not having a drink”. The drink itself did not impress consumers and is now all but forgotten.

Cheer up bro, it was a Claytons test anyway.

2000 April 22, Sir Just Me, “Weekly UK News Bulletin (Apr 17-21)”, in rec.sport.rugby.league (Usenet):

AFL Game Day's Hamish McLaughlin summed up the summer perfectly last Sunday: "There's been new coaches, new presidents, new captains, good trades, ugly trades, suspended CEOs, suspended football managers and coaches, player managers fined, drug allegations, ASADA, WADA, the ACC, capped rotations, Clayton's tanking, the tanking you're having when you're not really having tanking.

2013 March 18, Yahoo!7 Sport, “Let's put the summer of scandal behind us”, in Yahoo!7, retrieved 2013-05-17:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) Inferior substitute, unsatisfactory compromise, or ersatz.


Clayton's

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) Alternative form of Claytons.


Maccas

“Then of course there′s Maccas food, which is uniformly mediocre no matter where you go.”

1998, James Roy, Full Moon Racing, page 25:

Because it was the first-ever Maccas to open in Australia, to commemorate its last day there was going to be a never-seen-before special. It read: ‘bring this flyer in and get a Big Mac for fifty cents’.
Fifty cents! Whoo-hoooo!

2010, Anh Do, The Happiest Refugee, page 103:

2011, Angus Benson, Down South, in University of Technology, Sydney, The Life You Chose and That Chose You: The 25th UTS Writers' Anthology, unnumbered page,
We slowed down just the once to pick up drive-thru from Maccas. I paid for my own food, but Mul and Seano reckoned they had no money.

(Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, slang) Alternative spelling of Macca's (“McDonald's”).


dago

Alteration of diego (“Spaniard”), from Spanish Diego (common Spanish name) by law of Hobson-Jobson.

Sort of dago fellow; leads the orchestra down at the Winter Gardens ... You know the sort, all lah-di-dah and snakeskin shoes.

1932, Dorothy L Sayers, chapter 10, in Have His Carcase:

"Matilda's making us omelettes, that all right, Miss Tomson."
"Are they going to reek."
"Dear me, I hope not. I instructed her to leave out particularly strong ingredients."
"Just so I don't leave here smelling like a dago."

1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 19:

(US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent.


acclimatise

en-verb

acclimatise (third-person singular simple present acclimatises, present participle acclimatising, simple past and past participle acclimatised)

acclimatises (present singular third-person)
acclimatising (participle present)
acclimatised (participle past)
acclimatised (past)

The England manager can be encouraged by more evidence that Rickie Lambert has quickly acclimatised to international football, with another headed goal to add to the one he scored against Scotland, but Welbeck's ban comes at a time when Wayne Rooney and Andy Carroll are already out and Daniel Sturridge is likely to join them.

6 September 2013, Daniel Taylor, “Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban”, in The Guardian:

Non-Oxford British English and New Zealand standard spelling of acclimatize.


stock cube

(Australia, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, UK) A bouillon cube.


bushbash

bushbash (third-person singular simple present bushbashes, present participle bushbashing, simple past and past participle bushbashed)

bushbashes (present singular third-person)
bushbashing (participle present)
bushbashed (participle past)
bushbashed (past)
bush-bash (alternative)

Today she and husband Murray “bushbash” regularly, going camping in remote gorges and creeks.

2008, George Dunford, Matthew D. Firestone, Anthony Ham, The Big Trip: Your Ultimate Guide to Gap Years and Overseas Adventures, Lonely Planet, page 215,
Experienced bushbashing motorcyclists prize the rough roads of Cambodia, Laos and northern Thailand.

2010, Stu Gibson, A queer sort of intelligence, Martin Crump (editor), The Search For The Great Kiwi Yarn, unnumbered page,
So rather than bushbash my way down to the road end, I decided to cut uphill to meet the round-the-mountain track and take the easy way out.

(Australia, New Zealand) To travel or build a route straight across country rather than following an established track, typically involving forcing one's way through forest and/or undergrowth.


fark

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(Australia, New Zealand, vulgar) Pronunciation spelling of fuck, used to express surprise, etc..


hottie

From hot + -ie. Sense “stolen vehicle” perhaps from hot-wired.

(slang, Australia, New Zealand, now rare) Synonym of hotshot.

(informal, originally Australia, New Zealand) A hot water bottle.


bodgie

I comb my hair as best I can. It is in a crew-cut ordered by the chief warder. He must have read that bodgies wear their hair long and decided to do his bit in the fight against juvenile delinquency.

1965, Mudrooroo, Wild Cat Falling, HarperCollins, published 2001, page 17:

Unlike McDonald, Manning noted with dismay that traditional relations between the sexes were broken down in bodgie groups. Bodgies, he argued, were disturbed youth, hooligans, maladjusted.

1993, Lesley Johnson, The Modern Girl: Girlhood and Growing Up, page 100:

The New Zealand public and press largely shared his view of bodgies as juvenile delinquents who posed a social threat. The bodgie soon became a national bogey man, with alarmist newspaper reports about bodgie behaviour.

2001, Roy Shuker, Understanding Popular Music, page 223:

In Toowoomba, Magistrate Kearney was up in arms over the bodgies and widgies in town – those dressed-up teenagers with their spruced hair and polka-dot dresses who loitered around the city streets. They were seen as a threat to society.

2010, William Stokes, Westbrook, page 183:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) A member of a 1950s rock subculture; a teddy boy.


wowser

From UK dialect. In the pro-temperance sense, Australian from early 1900s.
John Norton, an early enemy of wowsers (temperance sense), claimed it to be an acronym for "We Only Want Social Evils Remedied", but that is likely a folk etymology.
A story has it that gospellers in the streets of Clunes, Victoria in the 1870s were called rousers but one of the town councillors had a speech impediment and couldn't pronounce his "R"s, thus giving wowser. (Reference: Bill Wannan, Australian Folklore, Lansdowne Press, 1970, reprint 1979 →ISBN, under "Wowser", page 568.)

“I’d like to come with you one day up to the top end,” she said. “I suppose it’ll have to be after we’re married.”
He grinned. “Plenty of wowsers back in Willstown to talk about it, if you came before.”

1950, Neville Shute, chapter 9, in A Town Like Alice, London: The Reprint Society, published 1952, page 259:

As for the rest, the pay is not bad, coming as it does from the pockets of the three local warlords who hired me: two graziers, one of whom is also a terrible wowser (everyone calls him 'Mr Prophet', though I call him - privately, of course - Mr Brimstone, or Old Blood-and-Thunderguts); the third is the owner of the pub.

1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 65:

When they have paid attention to temperance advocates they have tended to dismiss them as ‘wowsers’ or ‘puritans’ intent on suppressing pleasure.

1999, Anna E. Blainey, “The prohibition and total abstinence movement in Australia, 1880 - 1910”, in Robert Dare, editor, Food, Power and Community, page 142:

Quite simply, to a wowser, adults should not be allowed to see, hear and read as they wished, but should only be allowed to see hear and read that which fully conforms to Australia's Christian heritage[…].

2010, Robert Cettl, Offensive to a Reasonable Adult: Film Censorship and Classification in 'Secular' Australia, page 43:

He's a bit of a prig. A wowser. Very Methodist.

2012, Deborah Burrows, A Stranger in my Street:

(Australia, New Zealand, derogatory) One with strong moral views against excessive consumption of alcohol, gambling, pornography, etc., who seeks to promulgate those views.


beat up

To the people of CQ^([Central Queensland]) the Internet is nothing more than the subject of media beat ups about pornography and bomb making.

1995 September, David Jones, “1000 Users on a 486”, in AUUG ′95 & Asia-Pacific World Wide Web ′95 Conference & Exhibition: Conference Proceedings, page 106:

Media beat-ups and xenophobia are nothing new to the Vietnamese people.

2007, Pauline Nguyen, Luke Nguyen, Mark Jensen, Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart, page 189:

These debates can be difficult to navigate and are all too easily reduced to simplistic reflections of individual taste and vulnerable to journalistic beat-ups.

2009, Ken Gelder, Paul Salzman, After The Celebration: Australian Fiction 1989-2007, page 95:

2009, Newstalk ZB, Hydro project claims "a beat up" - Brownlee, Newstalk ZB.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) An artificially or disingenuously manufactured alarm or outcry, especially one agitated by or through the media.


cut out

cut out (third-person singular simple present cuts out, present participle cutting out, simple past and past participle cut out)

cuts out (present singular third-person)
cutting out (participle present)
cut out (participle past)
cut out (past)

There was little fear that the navigator of the captured Osprey, the man who had lived in Chile and "cut out" cattle on the Carrum Plains, would prove lacking in knowledge of riding, seamanship, or Spanish customs.

1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life, IV.2:

(US, Australia, New Zealand) To separate (an animal) from the herd.


marae

maraes (plural)
marai (alternative)
morai (alternative)

Borrowed from Maori marae and Tahitian marae, from Proto-Oceanic *malaqe.

(chiefly New Zealand) The courtyard of a Maori wharenui or meeting-house, seen as a cultural and spiritual focal point; (by extension) the buildings and people around it; a spiritual or cultural centre.


capsicum

Borrowed from New Latin capsicum, from Ancient Greek καψικός (kapsikós, “like a box”), from Latin capsa (“box”).

نَبَات فُلْفُل

plant of the genus Capsicum (only terms covering capsicum in general apply, NOT species-specific)

Celery is often combined with carrots and onions in gently fried aromatic base preparations for other dishes (French mirepoix, Italian soffritto, Spanish sofregit; in the Louisiana Cajun “trinity” of aromatics the carrots are replaced by green capsicums).

2004, Harold McGee, chapter 6, in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Scribner, →ISBN:

en:any of various Capsicum varieties; their fruit

en:any of various nonspicy Capsicum varieties; their fruit

Capsicum annuum
Capsicum annuum#Translingual

Capsicum frutescens
Capsicum frutescens#Translingual

Any of various tropical American plants, of the genus Capsicum, principally the species Capsicum annuum and Capsicum frutescens, that are cultivated as edible peppers.

(Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore) The non-spicy fruit of the above plants, such as the bell pepper.


chuck up

en-verb

chuck up (third-person singular simple present chucks up, present participle chucking up, simple past and past participle chucked up)

chucks up (present singular third-person)
chucking up (participle present)
chucked up (participle past)
chucked up (past)

She got ridiculously drunk last night and chucked up in the back of the minicab on the way home.

Take it easy on the roller coasters or you're going to chuck up your lunch.

(slang, transitive and intransitive, chiefly British, New Zealand) To vomit; throw up.


tyre gauge

(Australia, British, Ireland, New Zealand) Alternative spelling of tire gauge.


toffy

en-adj

toffy (comparative toffier, superlative toffiest)

toffier (comparative)
toffiest (superlative)

As for that accent of his, his speaking in a toffy English way, it's got toffier since we've known him.

2007, Craig Sherborne, Muck, Victoria University Press, →ISBN, page 16:

Rather it lurks in the now-republished photos of Mr Osborne in the Fauntleroy outfit of the Bullingdon club, a toffy Oxford society of which he was a member at the same time as Mr Rothschild (and of which David Cameron, the Tory leader, is also an alumnus).

2008 October 23, “The king of Corfu”, in The Economist:

She heaves an exasperated sigh that would do a shop assistant in a toffy dress emporium proud.

2012, Paddy O'Reilly, The Fine Color of Rust, Washington Square Press, →ISBN, page 44:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, derogatory) Posh, upper-class; snooty.


snarl-up

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) a traffic jam


ake

The answer given was : — " Friends, this is the reply of the Maori : we shall fight on ake, ake, ake, for ever, for ever, for ever."

1882, B. Francis, Isles of the Pacific: Or, Sketches from the South Seas, page 78:

That was the time when the great wish grew in the heart of Maui, the wish to conquer his powerful enemy Hine-nui-te-po, that Night might die and man may live for ever: ake, ake, ake!—yes, it was his great wish.

1907, Wilhelm Dittmer, Te Tohunga: The Ancient Legends and Traditions of the Maoris:

"Ake, ake, ake," said Von Tempsky, weary over the camp-fire. "Has there been anything like it since the days of the old Greeks? What madness makes you kill such men when you may want them to fight for you some day?"

1938, Edith J. Lyttleton, G. B. Lancaster, Promenade, page 383:

One day Maui visited his parents to tell them of his latest plan — he wished to conquer his powerful enemy Hine-nui-te-po so that the Night might die and man would live forever: ake, ake, ake!

1997, Queenie Rikihana, Paki Waitara: Myths & Legends of the Māori, →ISBN, page 33:


in the nuddy

(British, Australia, New Zealand, childish) Naked or nude.


agisted

agisted (comparative more agisted, superlative most agisted)

more agisted (comparative)
most agisted (superlative)

‘Them Brooks have got your old place now,’ she said to Annabelle. ‘They got cattle agisted on Verbena.’

2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 285:

(now chiefly Australia, New Zealand) That has been put out to pasture (of an animal), especially on hired land not belonging to the animal's owner.


footpath

From Middle English foot path, footpath; equivalent to foot + path. Compare Saterland Frisian Foutpaad (“footpath”), West Frisian fuotpaad (“footpath”), Dutch voetpad (“footpath”), German Low German Footpadd (“footpath”), German Fußpfad (“footpath”).

(Australia, New Zealand, India) A paved path located at the side of a road for the use of pedestrians.


flatting

en-noun

flatting (usually uncountable, plural flattings)

(New Zealand) The practice of living, with others, in a flat.


bowser

bowsers (plural)
bowzer (alternative dated)

From Bowser (“a surname”), after Sylvanus Bowser, US inventor of the first fuel pump; also a trade name of SF Bowser inc., the inventor's company.

‘Kids are breaking into the service station bowsers at night, draining out the dregs of petrol from the bowser hoses, wandering the streets sniffing petrol from Coke bottles all night,’ he said[…].

2001, Michael Gordon, Reconciliation: A Journey, page 18:

I needed at least fifteen litres more petrol in my tank to reach the next major settlement and, unlike China, there were no shiny new gas stations here with bowsers of different types of petrol to choose from, nor were there pretty young gas girls in nice uniforms ready to fill ‘er up – in fact there were no gas stations here at all; petrol was bought and sold strictly off market in private transactions.

2008, Adrian Scott, The Road Gets Better from Here, page 165:

2010, David Nichols, Green Fields, Brown Fields, New Fields, footnote citing 1926 report, page 309,
The Moree Municipal Council decided to devote the revenue derived from the rent of the bowser petrol pumps within the municipality for this year, which amounted to forty guineas.

(now chiefly Australia and New Zealand) A fuel metering/delivery pump at a filling station.


iwi

Borrowed from Maori iwi (literally “bone”), ultimately from Proto-Austronesian *duʀi (“thorn”). Doublet of durian, from Malay.

Through her, the women of my iwi are also beautiful, strong and powerful.

1996, Diane Bell, Renate Klein, Radically speaking: feminism reclaimed, page 505:

Ngati Porou and the related iwi Ngāti Kahungunu were major tribes down the East Coast of the North Island.

2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 78:

(New Zealand) An extended group of Maori kin groups or families, sharing common ancestry; a tribe. (An iwi is smaller than a waka and larger than a hapu.)


tuck shop

tuck shops (plural)
tuck-shop (alternative)
tuckshop (alternative)

One way is to make the sandwiches then choose the three most popular sandwiches to sell in the tuck shop.

1989, Jenny Ridgwell, Louise Davies, Skills in Home Economics: Technology, Heinemann Educational Publishers, page 11:

If possible a school must have a place for a tuck shop.

1996, K. S. Sidhu, “School Organisation And Administration”, in India, Sterling Publishers, page 90:

You had a small amount of pocket money and this increased as you went along and there was a tuck shop where you could spend your earnings.[…]I became a senior boy and then a pefect and it became my responsibility to run the tuck shop.

2005, Susan K. Moore, I Remember Bare Bottoms and Stinging Nettles, page 108:

In this case, the problem is that the tuck-shop has stopped making money and will have to close if you can′t find out what is wrong.

2009, R. Burger, B. P. Carels, S. Els, FET College Series: Life Orientation: NCV 4, South Africa: Pearson Education, page 163:

However, a trend for healthier tuck shops, selling fruit in particular, had already emerged a few years before legislation was introduced.

2009, Maria Cross, Barbara MacDonald, Nutrition in Institutions, UK: Wiley, page 49:

‘That note you′re holding is an order for the Crobost Stores, to restock the tuck shop.’

2011, Peter May, The Blackhouse, UK: Quercus, page 23:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Singapore, India) A shop selling confectionery, especially one in or near a school.


silverbeet

silverbeet (countable and uncountable, plural silverbeets)

silverbeets (plural)
silver beet (alternative)
silver-beet (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-silverbeet.wav

From silver + beet (from the colour of the leaf stalks).

Not so useful in the salad bowl, silverbeet is great sauteed slowly in olive oil, or added to a parmesan-y frittata, or fried with anchovies, garlic and chilli and forked through hot spaghetti.

2001 May 19, Robin Powell, “Lettuce begin”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, number 51,080, Sydney, N.S.W., →ISSN, →OCLC, section 6 (Metropolitan), page 8, column 6:

(Australia, New Zealand) The vegetable Beta vulgaris cicla; chard.


lay-by

lay-by (countable and uncountable, plural lay-bys)

lay-bys (plural)
lay by (alternative)
lay bye (alternative)
lay-bye (alternative)

1930 October 16, Hordern Brothers (Sydney retailer), advertisement, quoted in 1966, Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language, second edition, chapter X, section 2, page 206,
Avail yourself of our Lay-By Service

(Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, uncountable) A method of retail purchase in which the selected goods are set aside and the customer pays for them in instalments, receiving them when fully paid; layaway.


mihi

After acknowledging the mihis of the various speakers, and thanking the donors for their gift, the guest of honour spoke as follows in English: […]

1948, Eric Ramsden, Sir Apirana Ngata and Maori Culture, page 86:

(New Zealand) A greeting, in Maori culture.


DS

DS (countable and uncountable, plural DSs or DSes)

DSs (plural)
DSes (plural)
D. S. (alternative)
D.S. (alternative)

(Australia, New Zealand) Initialism of Douglas Score (point ranking for deer antlers).


chalk and cheese

Attested in variant form since 1393. The surface of some cheeses, particularly unaged ones, resembles the surface of chalk: white, crumbling, but in substance cheese is much softer than chalk. It is interesting to note that lime chalk and cottage cheese forms a glue-like material used in the restoration of ancient half-timbered houses, perhaps suggesting an alternative original meaning.

(British, New Zealand, idiomatic) Said of things that are very different, though possibly superficially alike.

زمین اور آسمان (zamīn aur āsmān, literally “land and sky”)


fiord

At last one gave a deep groan, and another declared that the spirits of the fiord were against them, and there was no doubt that their boat was now lying twenty fathoms deep, at the bottom of the creek; drawn down by the strong hand of an angry water-spirit. [...] Another said he would not go till he had looked abroad over the fiord, for some chance of seeing the boat.

1841, Harriet Martineau, “The Water Sprites’ Doings.”, in Feats on the Fiord. A Tale (The Playfellow; a Series of Tales to be Published Quarterly; 3), London: Charles Knight & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 123–124:

Disenchantment Bay, as the Yakutat Bay inlet is called north of Point Latouche, is bordered on the east by the steep hills of the peninsula and on the west by the main mountain front. Its coast is precipitous and through nearly its entire length it is a true mountain-walled fiord. The two mountain walls approach each other at Point Latouche almost at right angles, and Disenchantment Bay enters between them with a nearly north-south axis.

1909, Ralph S[tockman] Tarr, “General Physiography”, in The Yakutat Bay Region, Alaska (United States Geographical Survey, Department of the Interior, Professional Paper; 64), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, part I (Physiography and Glacial Geology), page 15:

At the head of the fiord, and along its sides, can still be seen the hulks of German destroyers and submarines. These sought shelter in this secluded spot, but the British Navy sought them out and sank them.

1953 June, C. E. N. Watts, “Railway Through Lapland”, in Railway Magazine, page 384:

Fiords are glacially carved oceanic intrusions into land. They are often deep and narrow with a sill in the mouth. Waters from neighboring seas and locally supplied fresh water fill up the fiords, often leading to strong stratification. Fiords with tidewater glaciers also contain glacial ice. During transport into and stay in the fiord, mixing processes modify the properties of imported water masses.

2019, J. N. Moum, W. D. Smyth, “Upper Ocean Mixing”, in J. Kirk Cochran, Henry J. Bokuniewicz, Patricia L. Yager, editors, Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences, volume I (Marine Biogeochemistry), London, San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, →ISBN, page 75:

(now chiefly New Zealand) Alternative spelling of fjord.


mickey

* (potato): From the common Irish name; compare murphy (“a potato”).
* (computer mouse resolution): An allusion to the cartoon character Mickey Mouse.

(Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, informal) The vagina.


buster

Originally a dialectal variant of burster; later influenced by bust + -er.
The combining form of the term has appeared from the early 20th century but been especially prolific during three periods: in the 1930s, owing to the success of the radio series Gang Busters; in the 1940s, owing to its appearance as military slang; and in the 1980s, owing to the success of the movie Ghostbusters.

rebenta-

person or thing that breaks or overwhelms

Dainty... came down ‘a buster’ at the last hurdle, and Scots Grey cantered in by himself.

1874 April, Baily's Monthly Magazine, section 114:

(Australia and New Zealand) A heavy fall; (also performing arts) a staged fall, a pratfall.


backyard

backyards (plural)
back-yard (alternative)
back yard (alternative)

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US) A yard to the rear of a house or similar residence.

The entire beach was my backyard, from the Hiltons' house in the south all the way to Steele Hunter's house in the north.

2005, Christopher Kennedy Lawford, Symptoms of withdrawal: a memoir of snapshots and redemption, →ISBN, page 18:

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US, colloquial) A person's neighborhood, or an area nearby to a person's usual residence or place of work and where the person is likely to go.

However, the region was in the United States backyard and Britain should look passively on with acquiescence in whatever policy the United States saw fit to pursue about Mexico.

1942, Wilfrid Hardy Callcott, The Caribbean policy of the United States, 1890-1920, page 343:

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US, colloquial) An area nearby to a country or other jurisdiction's legal boundaries, particularly an area in which the country feels it has an interest.


cocky

en-adj

cocky (comparative cockier, superlative cockiest)

cockier (comparative)
cockiest (superlative)
cockey (alternative)
cockie (alternative)

From cock (“male domestic chicken”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense of ‘having the quality of’).

suf

And now I think I may be cocky, / Since fortune has ſmurtl'd on me, / I'm Jenny, an' ye ſhall be Jockie, / 'Tis right we together ſud be; [...]

1794, Alexander Ross, [Joseph Ritson, compiler], “Song XXVII. What Ails the Lasses at Me. […] [Billet by Jeany Gradden.]”, in Scotish Songs. In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and J. Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 246:

Pretty girls, indeed, can with impunity, menace their lovers with quitting them; but cocky Waithman, will, if he try it often, soon find, that he cannot play such tricks without having to repent of it.

1819 November 13, W[illia]m Cobbett, “To Henry Hunt, Esq.”, in Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register, volume 35, number 12, London: Printed and sold by William Benbow, […], →OCLC, column 376:

You are a cockie chap to go again a man axing where and what you 'a been when you are axing a place, [...]

1876, [Sarah Tytler, pseudonym of Henrietta Keddie], “What She Came Through”, in Donald McLeod, editor, Good Words, volume XVII, London: Daldy, Isbister & Co. […], →OCLC, chapter XII (A New Day’s-Man at the Manor), page 250:

Hodges has made a great fool of himself, by getting gradually cockier and cockier.

1881 November 29, Ernest Mason Satow, “[Letter to William George Aston]”, in Ian Ruxton, editor, Sir Ernest Satow’s Private Letters to W. G. Aston and F. V. Dickins: The Correspondence of a Pioneer Japanologist from 1870 to 1918: […], [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu Press, published 5 February 2008, →ISBN, page 66:

I wasn't the least bit proud. I dare say I was one of the least cocky creatures in existence these days.

1996, Knut Hamsun, translated by Sverre Lyngstad, Hunger, Edinburgh: Canongate Books, →ISBN; republished Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2016, →ISBN:

When Yvette came out of the bathroom, I said baby turn on the cd player. For what the only singing you gonna hear is your own when I get up in you. She's getting cockey I thought.

2008, V. Montrell Jones, The Grass is Bluer on the Other Side, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 75:

The confidence that was temporarily humbled now returned with a cockier attitude.

2008, Gerard Thomas, Nightwarrior Chronicles: All Girls′ Team, [Bloomington, Ind.]: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 85:

No more being cockie. This is, as of now, an official operation. I do not take anymore chances for foolish reasons. I have to do this job absolutely right the first time. This is the only shot any of us are going to have, I'm afraid.

2009, D. K. Hale, chapter 8, in Curiosity is Deadly, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 112:

You smiling your oh-so-perfect smile and me with the biggest, cockiest grin on my face you can ever imagine. I would have been the cockiest man alive that night knowing you were going home with me.

2011, Melanie Harvey, chapter 30, in Indispensable Friendship & Death Collide, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 204:

Overly confident; arrogant and boastful.


cocky

cockies (plural)
cockey (alternative)
cockie (alternative)

From cock (“male domestic chicken”) + -y (diminutive suffix).

Nay Cocky, Cocky, nay dear Cocky, do not cry, I was but in Jeſt, I was not ifeck.

1693, [William] Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Peter Buck, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 31:

Lu[cretia]. Ah, ah, are we not by our ſelves already, my Cocky? So[phronius]. Let us go out of the Way ſomewhere, into a more private Place.

1725, Desiderius Erasmus, “The Young Man and the Harlot”, in N[athan] Bailey, transl., All the Familiar Colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus, of Roterdam, Concerning Men, Manners, and Things, Translated into English, London: Printed for J. Darby, […], →OCLC, page 196:

Now, cocky, ye may gang about your buſineſs; when ye come back, I'ſe tauk with you in another ſtile.

1757, [Tobias Smollett], The Reprisal: Or, The Tars of Old England. […], London: […] R[oberts] Baldwin, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene ix, page 41:

Hobhouse's insolence to Mr. Hunt is not seen in its true light, unless we remember, that the latter is held under heavy recognizances to keep the peace! The little cocky seems to have been half mad; and well he might.

1825 April 2, “To the Freeholders of Ireland. Letter II.”, in William Cobbett, editor, Cobbett’s Weekly Register, volume LIV, number 1, London: Printed and published by C. Clement, […], →OCLC, column 22:

"Go on board that little cockleshell of yourn?"—pointing to the splendid yacht—"not if I knows it, my cockeys! This old oss is spry to when he is well off—so make tracks and be off, before you gits this old coon's dander up.

1870 July, “Old Calabar” [pseudonym], “A Sporting Story”, in Baily’s Monthly Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, and Turf Guide, volume XVIII, number 125, London: A. H. Baily & Co., […], →OCLC, chapter VI (Mr. Bouncer Brag Composes), page 306:

They're not going to stand for a couple of actors bossing the place [The Old Vic theatre] around any more. We shall be out, old cockie.

1940s, Francis Beckett, quoting Ralph Richardson speaking to Laurence Olivier, “The War and the Old Vic”, in Laurence Olivier, London: Haus Publishing, published 2005, →ISBN, page 72:

Somewhere, somehow, there had to be something more ennobling than that. But how to find it? Ah, there's the rub, my cockies.

2005, Martin Pilcher, chapter 12, in The Banana Skin Tango, [United Kingdom]: Aardvark-Zap Publishing, →ISBN, page 118:

term of endearment
term of endearment#English

(chiefly British, Ireland, Newfoundland, colloquial, dated) Used as a term of endearment, originally for a person of either sex, but later primarily for a man.


cocky

term-label

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand, informal)

The noun is derived from cock(atoo) + -y (diminutive suffix). The verb is derived from the noun.

By that time, the white cockatoo—a beautiful bird, as large as a common fowl—would find out the family gathering-place, and waddle along, calling 'Pretty Cocky! Pretty Cocky!' […] Presently, Cocky ruffles his plumage till he looks half as large again as before; he throws his crest, with its double fan of brilliantly yellow feathers, as far forward as possible, and spreads and closes it rapidly.

1868 October, M. G. Sleeper, “Pets and Sports in Tasmania”, in Merry’s Museum, for Boys and Girls, volume 1 (New Series), number 10, Boston, Mass.: Horace B. Fuller, publisher, […], published 1869, →OCLC, page 399:

"Hello Cocky! What yer want?" This in a more-than-human voice from a fine sulphur-crested cockatoo. "Hello Cocky!" His thick black tongue worked in his narrow mouth. So absolutely human the sound, and yet a bird's.

1923, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Willie Struthers and Kangaroo”, in Kangaroo, London: Martin Secker […], →OCLC, page 229:

Visit the local store at Coles Bay and you're greeted by a talking cocky called Jim. […] [A]s we bid farewell to this environmental showpiece, Jim the talking cocky is again the centre of attention …

2005 August 5, Tim Jeanes, “Town Seeks Environmental Accreditation”, in The World Today, Australian Broadcasting Commission, archived from the original on 2017-10-01:

One afternoon a flock of glossy black cockatoos alights on a cluster of she-oaks in the western corner of the yard where they screech in ear-splitting decibels until dusk. […] [H]e tells her that the arrival of black cockies is a portent of rain. But the rain doesn't come.

2008, Amanda Lohrey, Vertigo: A Novella, Melbourne, Vic.: Black Inc., Schwartz Publishing, →ISBN; Vertigo: A Pastoral, 2nd edition, Melbourne, Vic.: Black Inc., Schwartz Publishing, 2009, →ISBN, pages 57–58:

He smacked his lips a couple of times and grimaced. God, his mouth tastled like the bottom of a cockie’s cage. Probably smelt as appealing too.

2011, Barry Simiana, chapter 15, in A Touch of Evil, [Morrisville, N.C.?]: Nitewriter Media, →ISBN, page 131:

Next comes the rosellas and the cockatoos and the rest of the local parrots. Their singing is much heartier, and they begin to drown out their cousins. Finally Kate can hear a galah, his deep-throated song is interrupted by the cockies, but he is persistent in his welcome to the day.

2012, Samantha Carter, “Hard Won Rewards”, in All Secrets Told, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 61:

(informal) A familiar name for a cockatoo.

'I'll get down among the cockies along the Lachlan or some of those rivers,' said Mitchell, throwing down his swag beneath a big tree. 'A man stands a better show down there. [...] One cocky I worked for wanted me to stay with him for good. Sorry I didn't. [...']

1896, Henry Lawson, “Another of Mitchell’s Plans for the Future”, in While the Billy Boils, Sydney, N.S.W.: Angus and Robertson […], →OCLC, page 110:

We camped one evening at Narrangidgery Creek, close b’ a cocky’s ’umstead.

1907, Barbara Baynton, chapter 2, in Human Toll, London: Duckworth & Co., →OCLC; republished as Human Toll (eBook; no. 0607531h.html), [Australia]: Project Gutenberg Australia, September 2006, archived from the original on 2018-09-13:

Burrawong was one of the larger stations in which much of the good land of the district was locked. The cockies usually had to follow the main road, but since the drought the owners had opened one of their permanent water-holes so that the poorer settlers could cart water to their homesteads.

1946, Miles Franklin, “Back on the Land”, in My Career Goes Bung: Purporting to be the Autobiography of Sybella Penelope Melvyn, Melbourne, Vic.: Georgian House, →OCLC; republished as My Career Goes Bung (eBook; 0900281h.html), [Australia]: Project Gutenberg Australia, March 2015, archived from the original on 2018-09-12:

That chap could be one of them. Or it could be the local butcher or newsagent, or cow cockie. We don't know. We've got to keep going.

2001, Peter Doyle, The Devil’s Jump, Milsons Point, N.S.W.: Arrow/Random House, →ISBN; The Devil’s Jump (A Dark Passage Book), 1st American edition, Portland, Or.: Verse Chorus Press, 2008, →ISBN, page 255:

And stories in the bush may not seem relevant in the big smoke, but try telling that to a cocky.

2001 November 19, Shelley Horton, “Media Dimensions: Episode 15”, in Australian Broadcasting Commission, archived from the original on 2007-11-17:

Now—well, Moura was scarcely Drinkwater, but it was more than just a cocky farm too.

2010, Jackie French, A Waltz for Matilda (Matilda Saga; 1), Pymble, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson, →ISBN:

Joseph was a cockie, a small-scale farmer. Such farmers were called cockies in the early days of European settlement in Australia because, like the cockatoos that weaved and screeched above them, they made their homes on the edges of creeks and permanent waterholes.

2018, Jeremy Ward, “The McCullochs and the Kimlins”, in Dressmakers, Preachers and Cockies: A Family History Memoir, Tingalpa, Qld.: Boolarong Press, →ISBN, page 4:

(also attributively) Clipping of cockatoo farmer (“small-scale farmer”); (by extension) any farmer or owner of rural land.


cocky

en-verb

cocky (third-person singular simple present cockies, present participle cockying, simple past and past participle cockied)

cockies (present singular third-person)
cockying (participle present)
cockied (participle past)
cockied (past)
cockey (alternative)

But if we are bigger built than you blokes, I suppose it's 'coz we—most of us—live away from big cities, and everybody goes in for sport an' all that; plenty of ridin' an' walkin' an' swimmin' and football an' hard work. Most of us are off the land, cockeying, and the blokes who come from the cities, Sydney and places like that, they all go in for surfing an' all kinds of sport.

1919, C. Hampton Thorp, “About Various Things”, in A Handful of Ausseys, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, →OCLC, page 116:

I remained about a year, cockying, clearing land, and herd-recording as a servant of the Department of Agriculture.

1939 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Robertson Scott, editor, The Countryman: An Illustrated Review & Miscellany of Rural Life and Work, volume XX, Idbury, Kingham, Oxfordshire: J. W. Robertson Scott, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 528:

[B]oys these days haven't got the guts to go cockying.

1946, Alan J[udge] Holt, Wheat Farms of Victoria: A Sociological Survey, [Melbourne, Vic.]: School of Agriculture, University of Melbourne, →OCLC, page 150:

When we arrived in Sydney, we were herded together, and a mob of cockies had their pick of us as cheap pommy labor. As assisted migrants, we were more or less doomed to work in cocky country, because bush workers generally don't much like cockying.

1969 December, A[lbert] L[ancaster] Lloyd, Mark Gregory, interviewer, Overland, Footscray, Vic.: O. L. Society, published 1970, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 17, column 1:

Perhaps I ought to try getting a job somewhere cockeying. But I was against this. I was after Hanabeke and, as far as I could work out, Womboolah was the most likely place for him to be.

1983, Dudley St. John Magnus, Hanabeke, London: Angus & Robertson, →ISBN, page 43:

(intransitive, chiefly Australia, informal, historical) To operate a small-scale farm.


chi-ike

(slang, obsolete, Australia, New Zealand) A noisy hubbub


pottle

From Middle English potell, potel, from Old French potel, diminutive of pot; see more at pot.

Outside, I ripped open the bag to reveal the chips were sitting inside a paper pottle. A pottle!

2019, Tara Ward, “The Spinoff Reviews New Zealand #94: Ōkato’s award-winning hot chips”, in The Spinoff:

Did you know that the six and four-pack pottle yogurts – the kind we buy for lunches – can’t be recycled.

2023, Sarah Heeringa, “There's something to know about this yogurt – and it's not what you think”, in Stuff:

In recent weeks, he’s been taken aback by the price of the fresh fruit and vegetables they use for their pottles of raw fish.

2022, Charlotte Muru-Lanning, “What rising supply costs mean for local fish and chip shops”, in The Spinoff:

(New Zealand) A small food container, usually made of plastic or cardboard, typically used for containing hot chips, yoghurt or other foodstuffs.


splendour

en-noun

splendour (usually uncountable, plural splendours)

If the kind of network we envisage is to be established, it would be unwise to begin any of its services hurriedly with older stock, which, however admirable in its day, now has an air of faded Edwardian splendour that is out of joint with the times.

1962 December, “A new Pullman era?”, in Modern Railways, page 362:

British, Canadian, Ireland, South Africa, Australian, and New Zealand standard spelling of splendor.


budgie smugglers

A jocular reference to a man's tight-fitting swimming costume or swimsuit appearing as if he has a budgerigar concealed inside it, i.e. his bulging genitals.

Roughly, the rule goes: if you have just swum, are planning to swim soon or are reasonably proximate to a place where others are swimming, then your budgie smugglers are perfectly acceptable.

2006 July 9, Annabel Crabb, “UK learns rules of Texas hold 'em”, in The Sydney Morning Herald:

"Mr Baillieu has popped out of the water in his budgie-smugglers, but he doesn't reckon that climate change is a problem," Garrett scoffed. "I mean, give me a break."

2006 November 23, Stuart Rintoul, “Bracks's walk was on the wild side”, in The Australian:

“If you think that men in budgie smugglers don’t look good, well all the blokes in this race still have it and they looked great,” she joked.

2012 January 11, Amy Findlay, “Awesome Ironman!”, in Milton Ulladulla Times:

A MAN has been fined and banned from recreational fishing in Victoria after confusing his budgie smugglers for abalone smugglers.

2012 January 12, Kate Starke, “Smuggler hid illegal abalone in underpants”, in Herald Sun:

Next, on with his favourite budgie smugglers. His sequined posing pouch. No winky shrinkage for him.

2023 April 21, John Crace, “Psycho goes down raging: the liberal wokerati finally get to Raab”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, informal) A style of tightfitting men's swimming costume cut like underwear briefs that covers the buttocks and groin but not the legs and reveals the bulge of the genitals; especially worn in surf lifesaving and in swimming races.


fixture

en-verb

fixture (third-person singular simple present fixtures, present participle fixturing, simple past and past participle fixtured)

fixtures (present singular third-person)
fixturing (participle present)
fixtured (participle past)
fixtured (past)

Alteration of older fixure, on the model of mixture.

Other items to be discussed include fixturing from 2012 onwards, preparations for this year's scheduled Champions Trophy and the Indian Cricket League's bid for recognition from the ICC.

2009 January 30, AAP, “Zimbabwe cricket head Chingoka refused entry to Australia”, in Herald Sun:

(transitive, sports, Australia, New Zealand) To schedule (a match).


skerrick

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-skerrick.wav

Unknown. Originally used in British dialect.

He stood in front of Vonnie Kyle and his eyes examined hers with every skerrick of judgment he could muster.’

1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 131:

When he reached this point in his madness, it disabled whatever skerrick of common sense he might have had even to save himself.

2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 117:

"And all I can think is that they're seeing a crumb, a skerrick of what it once was".

2007 April, Kennedy Warne, “Blue Haven”, in National Geographic, section 74:

(now chiefly Australia, New Zealand) A very small amount or portion; the least bit.


carry-on

en-noun

carry-on (countable and uncountable, plural carry-ons)

carry-ons (plural)
carryon (alternative)

handbagage

the luggage which is taken onto an airplane with a passenger

Sometimes all this carry-on about race, religion and sex seems so petty and silly that I cannot take it seriously.

1978 December 9, Nancy Walker, “Sexism and Racism at GCN?”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 20, page 10:

"I love salad",she dared when it came to the next course, and then inwardly cringed when it seemed that that was actually a special order and there was such a carry-on about what kind of salad she wanted.

The stopping, restarting, swearing and routine self-deprecation ("I'm in trouble with the vicar – eternal trouble," quips Martin) is the kind of carry-on that has fans purring with pleasure.

2011 November 27, Kitty Empire, The Observer:

(countable, British, New Zealand) A palaver; a disorderly or absurd situation.


grog

grog (countable and uncountable, plural grogs)

→ Armenian: գրոգ (grog)

→ Azerbaijani: qroq

→ Belarusian: грог (hroh)

→ Bulgarian: грог (grog)

→ Catalan: grog

→ Chinese:

Mandarin: 格羅格酒 /格罗格酒, 格罗格酒 (géluógé jiǔ)

→ Dutch: grog

→ Finnish: grogi

→ French: grog
→ Romanian: grog

→ Georgian: გროგი (grogi)

→ German: Grog

→ Hebrew: גְּרוֹג (grog)

→ Italian: grog

→ Japanese: グロッグ (guroggu)

→ Korean: 그로그 (geurogeu)

→ Macedonian: грог (grog)

→ Polish: grog

→ Portuguese: grogue

→ Russian: грог (grog)

→ Spanish: grog

→ Ukrainian: грог (hroh)

An allusion to Admiral Edward Vernon (nicknamed “Old Grog” after the grogram coat he habitually wore), who in 1740 ordered his sailors' rum to be watered down.
Alternatively, from Old Catalan grog or groch, modern groc, meaning "yellow" (ultimately from Latin crocum (“saffron”); after the name of the resulting color of the watered down rum sold all over the Mediterranean. The ration of rum tot could also come from Catalan tot meaning "full", "whole".

գրոգ

alcoholic beverage made with rum and water

I quite understood their drift, and after a stiff glass of grog, or rather more of the same, and with each a sovereign in hand, they made light of the attack, and swore they would encounter a worse madman any day for the pleasure of meeting so 'bloomin' good a bloke' as your correspondent.

1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, published 1993, page 142:

(by extension, Australia, New Zealand) Any alcoholic beverage.

1950, Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice [The Legacy], New York: William Morrow, Chapter 5, p. 138,
Joe […] told them how he had been nailed up to be beaten, and they shouted another grog for him.

(countable, Australia, New Zealand) A glass or serving of an alcoholic beverage.


flax-stick

flax-sticks (plural)
flax stick (alternative)

Rafts, or canoes, or “catamarans,” are still occasionally improvised by travellers or explorers in primitive parts of New Zealand, e.g. by Haast, who reports constructing “catamarans” of dead trees when flax-sticks were not obtainable.

1869, W. Lauder Lindsay, On the Economical Value and Applications of the Leaf-Fibre of New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax, Forst.): The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, volume 7, page 46:

(New Zealand) The flowering stem of the New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax or Phormium cookianum).


cuts

‘I′ll give you something to keep you awake, McFadyen!’ Ape shouted.
Meat was taken off to the staff room and given the cuts.

1995, Bill Marsh, Ape: Old Yanconian Daze, page 110:

He reckons that about 80% of the boys in the school regularly received the cuts from Mr Saunders so he didn′t feel as if he was being unduly picked on.

2001, Lyall Ford, Poorhouse to Paradise: The Adventures of a Pioneering Family in a North Queensland Country Town, page 55:

My greatest happiness is that Sebastian is having a good time at school and has never been given the cuts.

2008, Gaynor McGrath, Lemniscate, page 250:

(Australia, New Zealand, dated or historical, with "the") Corporal punishment at school.


fossick

en-verb

fossick (third-person singular simple present fossicks, present participle fossicking, simple past and past participle fossicked)

fossicks (present singular third-person)
fossicking (participle present)
fossicked (participle past)
fossicked (past)

Probably from dialectal fossick (“to ferret out”), fossuck (“troublesome person”), fussick (“to potter over one's work”), fussock (“to bustle about”), further origin uncertain. Compare fuss.

[T]he honorable member went to the Railway department, and fossicked about for information, and he found, forsooth, that there had been a little rise in the salary of a son of a member of the House.

1872 May 28, Francis Longmore, “Address in Reply to the Governor’s Speech”, in Victoria. Parliamentary Debates. Session 1872. Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, volume XIV (Comprising the Period from April 30 to September 4), Melbourne, Vic.: John Ferres, printer, →OCLC, page 389, column 1:

(intransitive, Australia, British, New Zealand) To search for something; to rummage.

(intransitive, Australia, British, New Zealand specifically) To elicit information; to ferret out.

To search for something; to rummage.
To elicit information; to ferret out.

The "fossicker" is one who wanders about old diggings, armed with a knife and pan, and who seldom sinks or drives, but "fossicks" or searches about the old heaps of dirt, or in the bottoms of deserted shafts and drives, keen-eyed after unobserved gold.

1862 December, J. A. Patterson, “Mining and Miners”, in The Gold Fields of Victoria in 1862, Melbourne, Vic.: Wilson & Mackinnon, 78, Collins Street East; G[eorge] Robertson, Elizabeth Street; Sands & MacDougall, Collins Street West, →OCLC, page 317:

In New South Wales the bureau has been able to dispose of a large contingent of the workless by sending them to fossick for gold on old or deserted goldfields.

1902, William Pember Reeves, “The Labour Question”, in State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand, volume 2, London: G. Richards, →OCLC; republished as State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand (Cambridge Library Collection), New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 2011, →ISBN, page 221:

The best way to fossick on old dumps is to either sieve material from untouched areas (you'd do this on the opal fields) or drag down the sides with a rake. You can also find gemstones by closely examining the surface without necessarily disturbing it.

1994, Ron Moon, Viv Moon, et al., Outback Australia: A Lonely Planet Australia Guide, Hawthorn, Vic., Oakland, C.A.: Lonely Planet Publications, →ISBN, page 118, column 2:

In order to fossick you must first obtain a fossicking permit (free). They are available from the tourist offices in Darwin and Alice Springs, or Gemtree […] in the Harts Range. Permission to fossick on freehold land and mineral leases must be obtained from the owner or leaseholder.

2006, Paul Harding, Susannah Farfor, Lindsay Brown, Northern Territory & Central Australia, Hawthorn, Vic.: Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 52:

(intransitive, Australia, British, New Zealand specifically) To search for gems, gold, etc., on the surface or in abandoned workings.

I dined alone and sat after dinner in the smoking-room, for Odell never suggested the library, though I would have given a lot to fossick about that place.

1924 July, John Buchan, “Our Time is Narrowed”, in The Three Hostages, London: Hodder & Stoughton, published January 1926, →OCLC, page 227:

I could have built a better fire myself but I was too cold when we arrived to fossick around for twigs. I went back to the warm car and let Neil and Henry fossick. Playing the dumb broad is profitable too.

1980, Barbara Pepworth, Early Marks, Sydney, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson, →ISBN, page 178:

How strange it was to see men do something beautiful. Something pointless and elegant. There wasn't much room for beauty in the lives of our men. The only exception was the strange Yuri Orlov who carved lovely, old-world toys from stuff he fossicked up from the forest floor.

2008, Tim Winton, chapter 3, in Breath, Picador, published 2008, pages 23-24:

He began to fossick again, shifting the bars of soap around until he became aware of something moving behind him.

2010, Marlish Glorie, chapter 7, in The Bookshop on Jacaranda Street, North Fremantle, W.A.: Fremantle Press, →ISBN, page 42:

Back in the kitchen, and with his mother off fossicking around for place mats, he tried to start the oven a couple of more times, then stood back scraching [sic] his head.

2014 October, P. S. Wall, chapter 58, in A Gift: A Novel, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 198:


booze bus

1982 December 2, Police 'booze buses' gear up for the start of random breath tests, Sydney Morning Herald, page 16, quoted in 1985, G. A. Wilkes, A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, second edition, Sydney University Press, →ISBN.

(Australia, New Zealand) A police vehicle used for administering blood-alcohol tests (to drivers), generally a mid-size bus converted or fitted out for the purpose.


dob

dob (third-person singular simple present dobs, present participle dobbing, simple past and past participle dobbed)

dobs (present singular third-person)
dobbing (participle present)
dobbed (participle past)
dobbed (past)

I’ll dob on you if you break in.

You dobbed me in! — I never did!

Students often claimed that an act of informing was just ‘dobbing as a joke’ and therefore ‘not really dobbing’.

1983, James Macpherson, The Feral Classroom, page 107:

1998, Supreme Court of Victoria, Council of Law Reporting in Victoria, Victorian Reports, Volume 4, page 372,
The deceased “dobbed” him in about drugs to police on two occasions. This resulted in police seizing some of his drugs. She “dobbed” him in because he would not give her amphetamines. He may have told people that she “dobbed” him in.

Alex was concerned that if others thought he had dobbed, things would get even worse for him. Dobbing was the worst thing a student could do.

2006, Ian Findley, Shared Responsibility: Beating Bullying in Australian Schools, page 67:

(slang, chiefly Australia, New Zealand) To report (a person) to someone in authority for a wrongdoing.


cleanskin

Mr McKenzie said that two years ago a decent bottle of sauvignon blanc sold for $15 to $20, but today prices were down to $10 a bottle. "More cleanskins entering the market is the first indication there is too much SB out there," he said.

2010 April 16, Teresa Ooi, The Australian:

In 2009, Back Label commissioned Voice to design a label for its cleanskin.

2010, Terry Lee Stone, Managing the Design Process Implementing Design: An Essential Manual for the Working Designer, page 47:

My eye-whites still woke up bright and clear despite the night before's two bottles of cheap cleanskin wine.

2011, Craig Sherborne, The Amateur Science of Love, page 64:

(Australia, New Zealand) An unlabelled bottle of wine.


she'll be right

she’ll be right (canonical)
she'll be all right (alternative)
she'll be alright (alternative)

/ʃɪəl bi ɹʌɪt/

So there’s shuffling, like, and a bit o’ coughing and spitting, and someone else says: ‘She’ll be right, mate. She’s on her way if you’ll hang on a tick. You’re at the party.’

1988, Janette Turner Hospital, Charades, page 77:

“Nah, she’ll be right. You go.”
“You’ll have to start mixing with the others at some point, you know.”
“It’s not just that, I got homework to do. Gotta catch up.”

2001, Anthony Eaton, A New Kind of Dreaming, page 122:

In a whisper, I suggested to Ian that we reattach the winch cable to a tree in the clearing, but of course his reply was, “Naaahh, she’ll be right, mate.”

2010, Robin Easton, Naked in Eden: My Adventure and Awakening in the Australian Rainforest, page 77:

(idiomatic, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) OK, no problem, everything will be all right.


go on

Go on! You can do it!

(especially Australia, New Zealand) Expressing encouragement, see come on.


marquee

From marquise, from French marquise. Ultimately from same root as march (“border country”), margin (“edge”). Ultimately cognate with marque.

(British, Australia, New Zealand) A large tent with open sides, used for outdoors entertainment.


tapu

en-noun

tapu (countable and uncountable, plural tapus)

Borrowed from Maori tapu. Doublet of kapu.

Spies were sent to test the Moriori’s mettle by violating tapu & despoiling holy sites.

2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:

(New Zealand) Alternative form of taboo.


tapu

en-verb

tapu (third-person singular simple present tapus, present participle tapuing, simple past and past participle tapued)

tapus (present singular third-person)
tapuing (participle present)
tapued (participle past)
tapued (past)

Tapuing seeds and fields are types of the English laws for protecting out-door property; women tapued to men is matrimony; tapuing sick persons is analogous to the quarantine orders against lepers, the plague and the yellow fever.

1859, Arthur Saunders Thomson, The Story of New Zealand: Past and Present, page 105:


tinnie

Or swapped them for some tinnies, a bottle of El D?

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 25:

(New Zealand, slang) Small package of drugs wrapped in foil.


pollywog

(New Zealand, slang, ethnic slur, offensive) A person of Polynesian (usually Samoan) descent.


sparrow-fart

en-noun

sparrow-fart (countable and uncountable, plural sparrow-farts)

sparrow-farts (plural)
sparrowfart (alternative)
sparrow fart (alternative)
sparrow's fart (alternative)

From sparrow + fart. In the dawn sense, apparently UK dialect (Yorkshire) from ante 1828.

“I was sick of working from sparrow fart as station cook and general dogs-body.”

1993, Patti Walkuski, No Bed of Roses: Memoirs of a Madam, page 111:

‘Took a girl to the flicks, had to get her back to Birkenhead, some goon in a tin hat and armband ordered us to take shelter in the Underground. No bloody option. So I didn′t get her home until sparrow-fart and her father didn′t believe us, turned quite nasty.’

2005, Alexander Fullerton, Non-Combatants, Hachette UK, unnumbered page:

2005, Edward Canfor-Dumas, The Buddha, Geoff and Me: A Modern Story, page 110:

It felt unnaturally early, sparrowfart time of day by the feel and sound of it.

2008, Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News?, page 324:

‘Tomorrow. Sleep over, then off at sparrow-fart. And the car will have plates.’

2012, Gerald Seymour, The Outsiders, Hachette UK, unnumbered page:

(uncountable, UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) A time very early in the day; dawn.


yabber

en-verb

yabber (third-person singular simple present yabbers, present participle yabbering, simple past and past participle yabbered)

yabbers (present singular third-person)
yabbering (participle present)
yabbered (participle past)
yabbered (past)

Dating back to 1855. Most likely a modification of Woiwurrung yaba (“to speak”).

Fair dinkum! Will you stop yabbering at me?

(Australia, New Zealand) To talk, jabber.


doof

en-noun

doof (countable and uncountable, plural doofs)

Onomatopoeic, from the sound of a bass drum.

onomatopoeic

Onomatopoeic

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, uncountable) A type of music with pronounced bass, typically associated with the modified car scene.

Dynamics of play and creativity are a prominent catalyst of social relations at both doofs and raves.

2004, Graham St John, editor, Rave Culture and Religion, page 138:

Similar themes emerged in the ‘doofs’ of Australian rave culture.

2006, Christopher Hugh Partridge, The Re-Enchantment of the West: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture, volume 2, page 110:

2007, Australian National University Dept of Pacific and Southeast Asian History, Aboriginal History, Volume 31, page 76,
The bush doof is a unique product of post-rave culture and is particularly suited to the expansive Australian landscape.

(Australia, New Zealand) An outdoor dance party, held in bushland in a remote area or on the outskirts of a city.


paua

“Hey, we got paua for tea, Himi!” he calls, and comes to the base of the cliff.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 203:

(New Zealand) Any of several large, edible abalones of New Zealand, especially Haliotis iris, whose shell is used to make jewelry.

(New Zealand) The shell of this mollusc.

(New Zealand) A fish hook made from this shell.


stockings

(Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, plural only) pantyhose


under the pump

Unclear. As an idiom, identified only in Australian and New Zealand English.
* Originally a sailing term for when the ship is taking in water and the ship is literally being bailed out to stay afloat. In the days of yore, the crew had to work 24 hours a day pumping out the ship until the ship reaches safe harbour for repairs.
* Also possibly as a punishment.
* Also suggested has been an origin in the construction industry:
Workers can be quite literally under the pump if a concrete pour is occurring and the steel reinforcing and form-work is still being finished. The concrete pump would be reaching out above the workers, who would be completing their duties at a frantic pace. Once the concrete has been delivered, the ‘pour′ must occur as soon as possible, or it may begin to set. Hence, being under the pump describes the situation of working at feverish pace to meet a specific deadline.

c. 1970s, Doug Walters, quoted in 2008, Ashley Mallett, One of a Kind: The Doug Walters Story, 2010, ReadHowYouWant, page 219,
I think all the Australian batsmen who came back from South Africa felt a bit under the pump. We simply had to perform or not stay in the side.

Nick was under the pump. He was underdone, and the selectors wanted to replace him with James Stewart.

2003, Harry Gordon, The Time of Our Lives: Inside the Sydney Olympics, page 13:

(Australia, New Zealand) Under pressure to perform, e.g. at work or in a sports contest.


quinella

en-verb

quinella (third-person singular simple present quinellas, present participle quinellaing, simple past and past participle quinellaed)

quinellas (present singular third-person)
quinellaing (participle present)
quinellaed (participle past)
quinellaed (past)
quiniela (alternative)

From American Spanish quiniela (“sporting bet or pool”); US from 1942.

bor

Smith provided the winner of twenty-one Mares Produce Stakes and quinellaed the event nine times.

2003, John O′Hara, Big River Racing: A History of the Clarence River Jockey Club 1861-2001, page 35:

Gai quinellaed the Doncaster in 1997 with Secret Savings and All Our Mob.

2008, John Ellicott, Waterhouse and Smith: The Rise to Power of Two Racing, page 273:

Not only did he win his first Cup with the 30/1 chance Tawriffic, but in the finest Cummings′ tradition he quinellaed the race with Super Impose.

(Australia, New Zealand) To have two team members, horses, etc., finish first and second in the same event.


loo roll

en-noun

loo roll (countable and uncountable, plural loo rolls)

We need to buy some more loo rolls; we've run out.

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, informal) toilet roll


bog roll

bog roll (countable and uncountable, plural bog rolls)

tlb

(Australia, British, Ireland, New Zealand, informal)

This week on The Amazing Prize Giveaway Show, the grand prize is 10,000 bog rolls!


lost and found

en-noun

lost and found (countable and uncountable, plural lost and founds)

lost and founds (plural)
lost-and-found (alternative)

Well, if you can't find your glasses, then go to lost and found and ask if anyone turned them in.

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A department, service or location where items that are found can be claimed by their owners.

遺失物取扱所

いしつぶつとりあつかいじょ


toa

The toa or brave who distinguished himself was thought very highly of.

1902, Journal of the Polynesian Society, volume 11, page 211:

Thus in Polynesia, the toa (warrior) could challenge the ariki (priest/chief).

2011, Robert N. Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution, page 261:


meat pie

meat pie (countable and uncountable, plural meat pies)

meat pies (plural)
meat-pie (alternative)
meatpie (alternative)

(a) Meat pie is cooked meat with or without cereal, condiments seasoning and water, enclosed in a case of pastry.
(b) Meat pie shall contain not less than twenty-five parts per centum of meat when determined by the prescribed method.

1979, John L. Goldring, L. W. Maher, Consumer Protection Law in Australia, page 119:

Meat pies are an Australian favourite and are sold in cake and sandwich shops from one end of the land to the other. The classic version is simple – an individual, 2-crust pie full of chopped beef in a rich gravy.

2005, Margaret Fulton, Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery: The Complete Kitchen Companion from A to Z, Revised edition, page 444:

If you think the major ingredient in most meat pies is meat you’re in for a disappointment. But some brands are meatier than others.

2006 May, Australian Consumers′ Association, Choice, page 9:

(Australia, New Zealand) A hand-sized pot pie containing largely minced meat and gravy and typically consumed as a takeaway food snack.


postcode

poskode

sequence of letters and numbers added to a postal address

(Australia, New Zealand) A four-digit number added to a postal address to sort and deliver mail.


muru

(New Zealand) An act of retaliatory theft among the Maori.


niu

(New Zealand, historical) A tall pole with yardarms from which hung ropes, circled by worshippers in the Pai Mārire religious movement.