dog's dinner

to make a dog's dinner (of)

The Polizei had made a dog's dinner of this. Vera would have done better, no doubt of it. It now remained to be seen whether the Law would do better.

She must look like a real dog's dinner. No wonder he'd been looking over her head to the girl who took the coats.

1997, Norma Harrs, Where Dreams Have Gone:

Just think; without that Mrs Pankhurst and her wrecking crew jumping under racehorses (phwooar!) and chaining themselves to railings (kinky!), these young women would be out getting an education and respecting their own sexuality, not getting themselves up like dog’s dinners and being the passive playthings of men.

2004 March 6, Julie Burchill, “Welcome to the world of the Stepford Sluts”, in Times Online, retrieved 2010-11-29:

The folio text is unevenly spaced (the compositor made a dog's dinner of setting the text), with three spaces closed up...

2007, Mark Bland, Early Modern Manuscript and Printed Book Studies:

(Ireland, UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) A complete mess.


theatre

en-noun

theatre (countable and uncountable, plural theatres)

From Middle English theater, theatre, from Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “a place for viewing”), from θεάομαι (theáomai, “to see, watch, observe”).

der

Mother[…]considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

City's players and supporters travelled from one end of the emotional scale to the other in those vital seconds, providing a truly remarkable piece of football theatre and the most dramatic conclusion to a season in Premier League history.

2012 May 13, Phil McNulty, “Man City 3-2 QPR”, in BBC Sport:

But the picture was different elsewhere - Theatre Royal Windsor recorded full houses, although the managing director stated that the actors had trouble getting to and from the theatre.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 31:

(chiefly Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK) Alternative spelling of theater.


turn to custard

en-verb

turn to custard (third-person singular simple present turns to custard, present participle turning to custard, simple past and past participle turned to custard)

turns to custard (present singular third-person)
turning to custard (participle present)
turned to custard (participle past)
turned to custard (past)


crash hot

en-adj

crash hot (comparative more crash hot, superlative most crash hot)

more crash hot (comparative)
most crash hot (superlative)
crash-hot (alternative)

Perhaps a nonstandard adverbial usage of crash (“extremely”) + hot (“performing well”).

Well well well, don′t you look crash hot in your new sunnies!

I'm sorry boss, I can′t come in to work today, I′m not feeling too crash hot.

Certainly Nick isn′t too crash hot on the old pen, something which he admits freely.

1991, Antonio Casella, The Sensualist, page 28:

I collected the semen, and while it didn′t look crash hot (Australian for “great”), it was okay.

2005, Elizabeth Woolsey Herbert, Horse Doctor: An American Vet's Life Down Under, page 11:

In any event, Gout wasn′t the most crash hot golfer going around so he needed to use gamesmanship as much as he could.

2006, Nick Ireland, The Popondetta Butterfly, page 65:

You should know that your reputation isn′t crash hot either. No-one likes you, Hicks.

2010, Tanya McKechnie, Honour Bound, page 59:

(slang, Australia, New Zealand) Very good, excellent; very well.


chase up

en-verb

chase up (third-person singular simple present chases up, present participle chasing up, simple past and past participle chased up)

chases up (present singular third-person)
chasing up (participle present)
chased up (participle past)
chased up (past)

Could you chase up last month's invoices?

The band chased the video up with an acoustic redux of the track, as well as performances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Macy’s annual Fourth Of July Spectacular in New York.

2021 July 23, Ellie Robinson, “Coldplay shoot for the stars with their cinematic new track ‘Coloratura’”, in NME:

(British, New Zealand, transitive) To follow up, so as to ensure completion.


warehou

(New Zealand) Any of the three medusafishes: Seriolella brama (the common warehou), Seriolella caerulea (the white warehou), and Seriolella punctata (the silver warehou).


hori

Borrowed from Maori Hōri (“George”), itself from English George.

“I'm a typical hori after all, made to work on the chain, or be a factory hand, not try for high places.”

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 230:

(New Zealand, slang, sometimes derogatory) A Maori.


dogman

From dog (“part of a crane that holds the items to be lifted”) + -man (suffix denoting someone (possibly implied male) who is an expert in an area, who is employed or holds a position in an area, or who takes part in an activity), from the fact that such a person would often ride on the load lifted by the crane when carrying out their duty.

suffix

Throughout 1970 there were repeated calls, particularly from Brian Hogan and Owens, for the banning of dogmen riding hooks, a demand firmly resisted by employers unwilling to hire the extra dogmen required. Accordingly, during 1972 the union embarked upon a concerted campaign to enforce the use of two dogmen on each crane.

1998, Meredith Burgmann, Verity Burgmann, “Civilising the Industry”, in Green Bans, Red Union: Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers’ Federation, Sydney, N.S.W.: University of New South Wales Press, published 2000, →ISBN, part 2 (A New Concept of Unionism), page 108:

The usual crane crew required for operation of the site was one crane driver and two dogmen, but the BLF insisted that the builder keep a relief crane driver and a relief dogman permanently on site.

2005, Henry Pollack, The Accidental Developer: The Fascinating Rise to the Top of Mirvac Founder Henry Pollack, Sydney, N.S.W.: ABC Books for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, →ISBN, page 243:

The only work I had done as a dogman was to use a crane on the back of a truck ‘slinging loads’ and work the crane and truck myself.

2011, Raymond D. Clements, Aussie Rogue, Bangkok, Thailand: Bangkok Book House, published 2017, →ISBN, page 59:

(Australia, New Zealand) An assistant to a crane operator, responsible for securing the crane's load and directing the operator.


sausage sizzle

From sausage + sizzle, referring to the item most likely to be cooked.

2007, Terry Carter, Lara Dunston, Perth & Western Australia, 5th edition, Lonely Planet, page 233,
The friendly management picks guests up from their bus, provides shuttle buses into town, hosts free sausage sizzles and rents surfboards, bikes and scooters.

2009, Cyril Ayris, Gulf to Gulf: The Long Walk, Jeff Johnson, Australia, page 227,
The interview went well. It was unhurried, I felt confident for a change, and Jodie seemed genuinely interested in DeafBlind and the reason for my walk. When it was over she invited me to an outside broadcast the following day at which there would be a sausage sizzle.

2010, H. I. Larry, Zac Power: Fossil Fury, Hardie Grant Egmont, Australia, page 3,
As Zac walked over to the sausage sizzle, he noticed something strange. The guy flipping the sausages was staring right at him.

(Australia, New Zealand) A barbecue, where the primary food item is a sausage served on a piece of bread, and especially one held for fundraising purposes.

(Australia, New Zealand) A sausage from such event.


karearea

Falco novaeseelandiae
Falco novaeseelandiae#Translingual

(New Zealand) Falco novaeseelandiae, the only falcon endemic to New Zealand.


weta

We came to know by heart […] her excitement on her first day at school at seeing a weta crawling on brother Willy's knee (‘Oooh, look on Willy's knee!’) […].

1982, Janet Frame, An Angel at my Table, Virago, published 2024, page 5:

It also carried […] the forebears of wētā insects and the worm-caterpillar peripatus.

2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 10:

(New Zealand) Any of about 70 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae, endemic to New Zealand, resembling katydids or crickets.


poaka

When I write that scores of houses have been burnt, whole villages renovated, kaingas fenced in, poakas and dogs fenced out […]

1904, Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives..., New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, page 62:

(New Zealand, among the Maori people) A pig.


cask wine

en-noun

cask wine (countable and uncountable, plural cask wines)

At the end of the 1970s, a production line for cask wines was introduced.

2003, Nicholas Faith, Australia's Liquid Gold, unnumbered page:

Also, the big wine companies of the eastern states have put cask wine on supermarket shelves tor less than it costs local Swan Valley to produce, let alone sell. And it must be said that the big company cask wine can be easier to live with the morning after.

2006, James Halliday, Wine Atlas of Australia, page 263:

In this context, bottled wine is a premium product and not generally drunk in the same way or for the same reasons as cask wine.

2009, Ralph Horne, Karli Verghese, Tim Grant, Life Cycle Assessment: Principles, Practice, and Prospects, page 37:

(Australia, New Zealand) Wine that is sealed in a plastic bladder and packaged in a cardboard box.


accident and emergency

(chiefly British, New Zealand) The department of a hospital that deals with injuries and medical emergencies.

спешно отделение

department of a hospital that deals with injuries and emergencies


friand

I lug my stuff out to the ute and drive out of this lovely surburb with its old trees and young cafés, espresso and friands, poodles and BMWs.

2005, Amanda Hampson, The Olive Sisters, unnumbered page:

I decided to try a bite of Bertrand′s friand. I instantly spat it out.

2007, Charles Firth, American Hoax, page 140:

So now, I rearranged the friands, made sure the coffee was hot and tidied the stack of course notes I′d arranged on the welcoming table.

2011, Lisa Walker, Liar Bird, unnumbered page:

Blueberry & lemon friands
If you have never heard of friands, then you are in for a treat. They originate from Australia and are cousins of the French Financiers, the delicious moist egg-white cakes.

2011, Julia Thomas, Cake Angels: Amazing Gluten, Wheat and Dairy Free Cakes, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand) A type of cake, similar to the French financier, but with the addition of fruits or other flavourings; commonly eaten with coffee.


chiplike

en-adj

chiplike (comparative more chiplike, superlative most chiplike)

more chiplike (comparative)
most chiplike (superlative)

...the chemical structure required for the generation of chiplike flavor during deep fat frying of methionine is specific.

1987, William F Talburt, Ora Smith, Science:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Resembling or characteristic of a chip (wedge of fried potato).


noa

The power of the spoken word has meant that some dangerous things are not mentioned by their "real" names, but by noa terms, like gullfot (literally "golden foot") for "wolf", or tallbjörn (literally "pine bear"), granoxe (literally: "fir ox"), trädräv (literally: "tree fox") or granälg (literally: "fir elk") for "squirrel".

(New Zealand, among the Maori) Non-sacred; such that it must be kept separate from what is taboo.


gold coin

(Australian or New Zealand $1 or $2 coin): From the golden appearance of these coins, which are in fact varieties of bronze.

sense

TIME... 7:30 PM
 ADMISSION BY GOLD COIN.

1995 November 9, Adam C. Schofield, “Children's Bookroom...”, in aus.education (Usenet):

Entry is with a gold coin donation.

1998 July 11, Wayne Roberts, “10 Days to Go to Bi Con.”, in alt.personals.bi (Usenet):

And where was the wine and cheese. For a gold coin entry fee we could of at least expected some coon and a cask of something nasty!!!

2003 July 25, Rossco, “Music”, in aus.hi-fi (Usenet):

Everyone is invited to join in from 5pm on Sunday, December 31, with a gold coin donation to support the local Rural Fire Service brigades.

2023 December 21, The Central Coast Community News, NSW, page 16, column 2:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A one-dollar or two-dollar coin.


maldison

Our tests have shown that the maldison/grain bait may be mixed well in advance, if it is then stored in drums or[…].

1977, Victorian Department of Agriculture, The Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria, volumes 75-76, page 23:

1985, R. H, Blank, D.S. Bell, M. H. Olson, Insecticide baits for control of the black field cricket (Teleogryllus commodus), New Zealand Journal of Experimental Agriculture, Volume 13, page 267,
The sawdust maldison mixture appeared to be more effective in paddocks with short pasture than in long rank pasture.

(Australia, New Zealand) The pesticide malathion.


bush fire

Australia has always been prone to bush fires due to its woody landscape.

1910 March, Metal Beaters for Extinguishing Bush Fires, Popular Mechanics, page 363,
Bush fires in Australia are usually fought by gangs of men who drive the flames back with hide, fiber, or metal beaters, the latter being a new invention consisting of a flexible metal beard or switch attached to a stout wooden handle.

The Australian bush fires of January 1994 were the result of a combination of factors: intense heat during the day (>40°C), for a number of days, causing plants to ignite later; lightning; littering of cigarettes; arson; and the dry weather, which made the vegetation extremely dry.

Hunting occurs during the dry season and frequently results in bush fires which burn out of control and cause extensive property damage and mortality each year.

2010, Peter Speth, Impacts of Global Change on the Hydrological Cycle in West and Northwest Africa, page 262:

(Australia, New Zealand) Alternative form of bushfire.


afternoon tea

en-noun

afternoon tea (countable and uncountable, plural afternoon teas)

After afternoon tea we all combine again for a plenary session, followed by the UniForum NZ AGM.

In looking at meal structures, Douglas (1972) made a clear distinction between the afternoon tea which is a snack and the high tea which is classified as a light meal.

1995, David Marshall, Food Choice and the Consumer, page 270:

(Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong) A small meal or snack eaten between lunch and dinner (supper); a period of time set aside for this purpose, taken as a break from work or from a conference.

下午茶

light meal or snack taken in the mid to late afternoon


morning tea

morning tea (countable and uncountable, plural morning teas)

1993 December, AUUGN: AUUG Inc. Newsletter, Volume 14, Number 6, page 53,
Thursday usually opens with a keynote session prior to morning tea and then breaks to stream sessions before and after lunch. […] The only thing it doesn′t include is breakfast, and many delegates just wait for our scrumptious morning teas anyway.

2000, Maggie Alderson, Pants On Fire, Penguin Books Australia, unnumbered page,
‘You know what this means, don′t you?’ said Maxine, smiling broadly.
‘No?’ I wondered if I had to pack up my office straight away.
‘You have to buy morning tea.’
‘What?’
‘Morning tea. A cake. A big cake for all of us. […] ’

2004, Coralie Mathews, Healthy Children: A Guide For Child Care, 2nd Edition, Elsevier, Australia, page 187,
He rushes in every day, greeting the staff and other children, and is busy with a variety of activities until morning tea time. He helps pack up the tables that are needed for morning tea and wipes them over before going to wash his hands. Morning tea comes on a trolley and Almeido happily places platters of fresh and dried fruit and individual bowls on each table.

(Australia, New Zealand) A small meal or snack eaten between breakfast and lunch; a period of time set aside for this purpose, taken as a break from schoolwork, work, a conference, etc.

早茶

a light meal or snack taken mid morning after breakfast and before the midday meal


checkout chick

From checkout (“a place at a supermarket where transactions take place”) + chick (“(slang) a girl or woman”).

As I set my purchases on the counter, I forget myself and slip into my old Aussie greeting and say “G′day!” to the middle-aged Asian checkout chick. She looks at me curiously but just starts adding up my purchases, then finally proclaims, “$148.76.”

2005, Melody Carlson, Fool′s Gold: Color Me Consumed, unnumbered page:

2005, Anna Krien, Trouble on the Night Shift, Robert Dessaix (editor), The Best Australian Essays 2005, page 305,
Checkout chicks are hassled into letting their family pass through the register without paying.

‘Passenger! It′s like Roy Orbison had teamed up with a checkout chick from Tesco′s.’
‘Except I′m sure some checkout chicks can sing,’ Beryl added.

2006, Ben Elton, Chart Throb, Black Swan, published 2007, page 354:

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand, informal) A supermarket cashier.


yeah, no

(emphatic, colloquial, especially Australia, New Zealand and California) Used sarcastically to answer "no" to a question where the negative answer should have been obvious.


tauhou

Also in this group is the tauhou or silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) and two honey-eaters […]

1973, Walter Imber, Kenneth Brailey Cumberland, R B Rains, New Zealand: Pacific land down under:

There was one tauhou preternaturally wary and, somehow, knowing […]

1997, Jenny Bornholdt, Gregory O'Brien, Mark Williams, An anthology of New Zealand poetry in English:

(New Zealand) A silvereye, a bird of species Zosterops lateralis.


rawaru

(New Zealand) A fish, the blue cod (Parapercis colias).


cheeky monkey

(UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, idiomatic) An impudent person, usually a child.


c/-

(Australia, New Zealand) Alternative form of c/o; care of


wine gum

(UK, Canada, New Zealand) a chewy, pastille-like jelly candy, usually brightly coloured and fruit flavoured.


foxie

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

He was a spare fellow, eager as a foxie, with the remains of a good profile and some remnants of grey curl.

1979, Thea Astley, Hunting the Wild Pineapple, Nelson, page 21:


frypan

frypans (plural)
fry-pan (alternative)
fry pan (alternative)

On the afternoon in question the Jensens were using an electric frypan on the table in the annexe to cook a roast dinner. The source of electric power for the frypan was a power point situated near the stove inside the caravan.

1995, Queensland Supreme Court, Queensland Reports, volume 2, page 147:

Place beef in frypan and cook for 1 minute on each side. Remove beef from pan and cover. Place reserved marinade in frypan, add mushrooms and simmer until marinade has reduced and mushrooms are soft.

1997, Donna Hay, Marie Claire cooking, page 103:

It has 20 pieces (including a 6-piece tool set and a non-stick frypan) and costs $150.

2003, The Editors of Consumer Reports, The Buying Guide 2004, page 257:

A pile of assorted kitchen gear—a heavy frypan dark with soot, several spoons and forks stuck tidily in a clean pot, a kettle as blackened as the frypan, and a large pot that tilted benignly to one side—rested against the side of the firepit.

2004, Faith Richardson, Fay Lapka Richardson, Hoverlight, page 200:

(US, Australia, New Zealand) A frying pan.


quadrella

2003 March 22, Craig Sherborne, Footy′s Man of Passion, The Herald Sun, republished in 2003, Garrie Hutchinson (editor), The Best Australian Sports Writing 2003, page 79,
Demetriou is an inveterate punter with a miraculous instinct for picking big quadrellas.

2009, H. G. Nelson (Greig Pickhaver), Sprays: A Collection of Verbal Touch-Ups, unnumbered page,
Imagine jagging a couple of nice trifectas or the quadrella and squaring the Christmas credit-card bill, with a little extra left for a three-week holiday at Victor Harbor. Magic!

2010, Stephen Barkoczy. Australian Tax Casebook, 10th Edition, CCH Australia, page 416,
Instead, the taxpayer relied on his own intuition, placed bets mainly on the totalisator or with on-course bookmakers and was more inclined to place “higher risk” bets such as trifectas and quadrellas.

(gambling, horse racing, Australia, New Zealand) A bet where the bettor must pick the winners of four nominated races at the same track.


fair go

Fair go mum! Let me go to the party tonight!

‘Fair go, mate,’ protested Al, as the man dropped to his knees and attempted to pull the sturdy army-issue boots from the private′s feet.
George, catching on, directed Al′s gaze to a row of neatly stacked shoes and Aloysius begrudgingly relented.

2010, Colin McLaren, Sunflower: A Tale of Love, War and Intrigue, page 62:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) Used in protest to implore or demand that someone act with more fairness or reason, or desist in something considered outrageous.


fair go

He said he wanted a fair go to apply for the scholarship.

But for this government to load up funding to the wealthiest schools in this country is anathema to the great Aussie notion of a fair go for all.

1944, Australian Parliament, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Representatives, volume 266, page 32254:

‘We have heard about a fair go for Labor,’ Fraser told the crowd in his peroration. ‘A fair go for the most hopeless Government in our history? A fair go for the party that created the first depression for forty years?[…]’

1976, Laurie Oakes, Crash Through or Crash: The Unmaking of a Prime Minister, page 241:

1983, Australian Parliament, House of Representatives Weekly Hansard, Issues 4-5, page 2677,
The people of the Northern Territory do not want any special deals. They are not looking for privilege or preferential treatment. All they are after is a good old-fashioned fair go.

The traditional ethic of the fair go was resurrected, the light on the hill reignited, and the government promised that those currently unemployed would not be left to stagnate.

2002, Francis Gordon Clarke, The History of Australia, page 186:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A reasonable or equitable opportunity to attempt something.


mufti day

“Is it Halloween already?”
 “Erm, no…” spluttered Zoe. “It’s, er, mufti day at school, you know, where you can wear whatever you like.”

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(Australia, British, New Zealand) A day on which school pupils are allowed to wear casual clothes which would on any other day be against the school's uniform policy.


kauri

kauri (countable and uncountable, plural kauris or kauri)

Borrowed from Maori kauri from Proto-Polynesian *kauquli, from *kau (“tree”) + *quli (“black”), originally referring to Samoan ebony ("Diospyros samoensis").

There is an ancient legend that if the kauris disappear from New Zealand, the Maoris will also disappear.

1956, Frank Clune, Roaming round New Zealand: the story of a holiday trip:

Constructed from the native timbers rimu, kauri, or matai, the interior has been refurbished in sympathy with the era of the home.

2008, “The Peppertree”, in Friars Guide to New Zealand Accommodation for the Discerning Traveller 2009, Auckland: Hodder Moa, page 150:

(New Zealand) A conifer of the genus Agathis, found in Australasia and Melanesia, especially Agathis australis.


Tall Blacks

Derived from All Blacks, the nickname of the New Zealand national rugby union team, with "All" replaced by "Tall" in reference to the often well-above-average height of basketball players.

the men's national basketball representative team of New Zealand


ning nong

Hilda explains everyone in ′Strilia imagines England now country hardly fit to graze saltbush weaners, bosses continually coming the raw prawn with trade union larrikins, mind you, her dad gets as mad as a mule with a squib up its arse as he comes the bludger with that bunch of ning nongs – ta darl, she says, Andy handing her a half-pint glass of gin and ton.

1982, Richard Gordon, Doctor Gordon′s Casebook, published 2001, page 48:

(Australia, New Zealand) Alternative form of ning-nong.


All Whites

From the all-white strip traditionally worn by the team. Modelled after the All Blacks, the New Zealand national rugby union team.

association football
association football

(New Zealand) The men's national association football (soccer) representative team of New Zealand.


bushwalking

Eight years later she married a fellow member, Leo Luckman, and the two of them played leading roles in the Tasmanian bushwalking movement, exploring the most remote parts of the state, developing new routes through difficult terrain, pioneering the club′s skiing activities, and shouldering executive responsibilities.

1999, Drew Hutton, Libby Connors, A History of the Australian Environment Movement, page 70:

Victoria has some great bushwalking.

2002, Chris Rowthorn, Alex Landragin, Kate Daly, Victoria, page 77:

Kakadu is excellent but tough bushwalking country.

2003, Susannah Farfor, David Andrew, Hugh Finlay, Northern Territory, page 150:

This significant chunk of wilderness, just 7.2 mi/12 km north of Sydney, provides excellent bushwalking within a few minutes of the Manly Beach coastline.

2009, Holly Smith, Sydney & New South Wales, unnumbered page:

Phillip Island also offers nice beaches, good bushwalking, fishing, and Seal Rocks.

2012, Marc Llewellyn, Lee Atkinson, Ron Crittall, Lee Mylne, Frommer′s Australia, page 675:

(Australia, New Zealand) The activity of hiking or backpacking.


ranga

Extracted from (o)rang(utan), with -er suffix; in use since 1990s; to a certain extent popularised by the ABC television show Summer Heights High (2007).

You′re looking down upon ‘rangas’ crossing at the traffic lights below. What a cheap but satisfying form of Dublin entertainment! With the sun out, the redheads of Dublin glow like copper wire.

2009, David Foster, Sons of the Rumour, unnumbered page:

2010, Mungo MacCallum, Punch & Judy: The Double Disillusion Election of 2010, Large Print 16pt Edition, page ii,
Indeed, Julia Eileen Gillard may not even be the country′s first ranga prime minister; since all the old ones appear only in black and white, we can′t tell.

3. I will not call Blue ‘Ranga Girl’.

2010, Katrina Nannestad, Red Dirt Diary, HarperCollins Australia, unnumbered page, Fez′s resolutions: […]

Joy and Lydia and Izzy despised the rest of the girls, from their plucked little threesome, disgusted by Yolanda's hairy calves, the faint down over a lip, Verla's ranga armpits.

2015, Charlotte Wood, The Natural Way of Things, Allen & Unwin, published 2018, page 183:

SID: Yeah, all my friends hate me, I don't know why. MR. INCREDIBLE: Maybe it's because you're a fucking ranga you cockhead. SID: What the fuck did you just say, cunt? MR. INCREDIBLE: I said; ranga. SID: I am not a ranga!

2018, Aussie Disney (YouTube), Aussie Incredibles

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) An orange-haired or red-haired person.


bumfluff

From bum + fluff, from its resemblance to the sparse hair on the buttocks.

bum fluff (alternative)
bum-fluff (alternative)

He still had bumfluff on his cheeks, he was that young. About once a month he used to shave it off, and come skiting about it. I smiled at the memory of him all lathered up, grinning at me through the mirror as he went to work on the bumfluff.

1983, John Carroll, Token Soldiers, Boronia, Vic.: Wildgrass Books, →ISBN, page 247:

Dad'd kill me for doing this. It's so obvious that I mustn't touch his shaver, he's never even told me not to. […] His shaver came closer to the bumfluff on my upper lip ... closer ... It bit me! I unplugged it. Oh God. Now my bumfluff had a ridiculous patch missing.

2006, David Mitchell, Black Swan Green: A Novel, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN:

There was a basic core of twelve: hard, canny females, with a few young males coming into their strength, just beginning to grow manes: bumfluff lions.

2008, Simon Barnes, How to be Wild, London: Short Books, →ISBN, page 18:

In my peer group I looked the oldest because I had bum fluff. Who can forget bum fluff? Wispy growths of hair around your chin that you thought made you look like Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

2008, Christian O'Connell, The Men Commandments: The Bible for Blokes from the Daddy of Breakfast Radio, London: Collins, →ISBN:

Sometimes the post-pubertal life stage of a young male figure is indicated by the appearance on his cheeks of ‘bum fluff’ or an incipient beard. […] The pictorial context would, therefore, suggest that the representation of ‘bum fluff’ on the cheeks of a male youth usually indicates that he has passed beyond the limits of minority status and has already reached at least his eighteenth year when in civic, legal, military and social terms he was accorded new roles and responsibilities not appropriate to the status of those who were still paides, or boys.

2012, Lesley A. Beaumont, Childhood in Ancient Athens: Iconography and Social History (Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies), London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 27:

There was me, Eddie, Wilco and a guy called Bobby Thomlinson who we never went around with much because he wore a lot of crushed velvet and had bumfluff. Our thinking was he could get the tickets because, thanks to the bumfluff on his face, he looked much, much older than the fourteen-years-old that he was.

2013, Rikki Brown, Frankie Vaughan Ate My Hamster: Growing Up in the East End, Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, →ISBN:

There was no way I was twenty-one. I looked nineteen at a push. Maybe sixteen-and-a-half, which is what I was. Big though – not fat – but tall. No baby-face and no bum-fluff moustache. The fisher boys had their bum-fluff moustaches and they looked total pricks.

2016, James Yorkston, Three Craws, Glasgow: Freight Books, →ISBN:

(Australia, British, New Zealand, derogatory) The first, sparse beard growth of an adolescent.


iceblock

About this time I′m getting real thirsty and need an iceblock bad so I get on up and go into the dairy and take me a lemonade one, plus an aniseed wheel to keep up my energy.

1989, Mary Paul (editor, New Women′s Fiction, page 63:

We meet at Robson′s corner for an iceblock — Josh, Elliot, Ryan, Finn, and me — searching for something to do.

2010, J A Mawter, So Feral!, unnumbered page:

Of course my daughter said today was iceblock day, which happened to be Friday, so iceblocks became a Friday after-school treat.

2010, Karen Fischer, Healthy Family, Happy Family: The Complete Healthy Guide to Feeding Your Family, page 58:


and that

Are we meeting Tom and that?

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) And the others; used after a name to denote the friends or social group of that person.


harakeke

(New Zealand) New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax


tomoz

From tomorrow + -z. Compare appaz (“apparently”), soz (“sorry”).

(UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Clipping of tomorrow.


tomoz

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Clipping of tomorrow.


offsider

Kidman, riding hell for leather and carrying a heavy stockwhip, caught up with him soon after, or rather with his offsider, who was tailing the mob, and demanded an explanation for their trespassing.
“Don′t ask me,” said the offsider. “You see the boss.”

1987, Jill Bowen, Kidman: The Forgotten King, published 2010, unnumbered page:

With the 2005 incarnation of Temptation, Livinia Nixon has completed the trifecta of TV seconds: variety offsider, game show hostess and weather girl.

2006, Michael Roberts, 50 Years of Television in Australia, page 59:

Tom also brought an offsider. I will never forget the look on the faces of the airline staff when Big Tony hauled his shooter out and slammed it on the counter. Tom and his sidekick did the same. I couldn′t believe these blokes were armed and how cool everyone was about it.

2007, Andrew Fraser, Court in the Middle, published 2010, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A partner, assistant, or deputy.


onkus

en-adj

onkus (comparative more onkus, superlative most onkus)

more onkus (comparative)
most onkus (superlative)

Unknown. Australian from 1903, New Zealand from 1909. Compare slightly earlier onky.

The soup was crook. It was onkus. A yellow-bellied platypus couldn′t drink it […]

1981, Herman Charles Bosman, The Collected Works of Herman Charles Bosman, page 101:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, dated) Inferior; unpleasant; unacceptably bad.

(New Zealand, slang, rare, obsolete) Good; acceptable; okay.


trackie

From tracksuit + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

Dylan was wearing a light trackie top in the colours of the flag.

2005, Peter Docker, Someone Else′s Country, ReadHowYouWant, published 2010, page 300:

‘I′ve fucking had it with this town,’ she said. ‘I go into the super last night, they reckon they seen me taking frozen stuff out of me trackie at the car. So I′m gonna walk around with fucking frozen peas down me trackie, right? Right?’

2005, Peter Temple, The Broken Shore, page 99:

Carriages crammed with more sportswear than JD, including what looks like an orange and black trackie, similar to Casey′s; some dad out with his kid. You get a better class of person in Wembley.

2006, Niven Govinden, Graffiti My Soul, Penguin, page 69:

Pulling on a pair of trackie pants and a jumper, she quietly unclipped the flyscreen and pushed up the old window and climbed through, landing outside with a hollow thud.

2009, Fleur McDonald, Red Dust, ReadHowYouWant, page 118:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) A tracksuit.


state house

state houses (plural)
statehouse (alternative)

(New Zealand) A house built and operated by the government, usually of relatively low price and lived in by people on low incomes.


poker machine

In New South Wales poker machines were legalized in clubs in 1956.

1973, Francis Keble Crowley, Modern Australia in Documents: 1939-1970, page 351:

Lotteries, horse-racing and poker machines loom large in the life experience of many Australians.

1974, Donald Ernest Edgar, Social Change in Australia: Readings in Sociology, page 23:

At that time Ainsworth had been manufacturing and selling poker machines in NSW for nineteen years.

1991, Queensland Legislative Assembly, Parliamentary Papers, volume 4, page 303:

He approached people who were not in the criminal world, including his poker machine attendant, to acquire firearms or arrange hitmen for him.

2008, Malcolm Brown, editor, Cold Blooded Murder: True Crimes That Rocked Australia, unnumbered page:

I was also shocked that the poker machines (which we call pokies back home) were on full display, as in Australia, they legally have to be in a separate room.

2023 July 21, Billie Schwab Dunn, “I Tried Wetherspoons Food for the First Time-I Feared I'd Get Scurvy...”, in Daily Star:

An electronic machine used to play games of chance for money, especially

(Australia, New Zealand) Synonym of slot machine.


deprogramme

en-verb

deprogramme (third-person singular simple present deprogrammes, present participle deprogramming, simple past and past participle deprogrammed)

deprogrammes (present singular third-person)
deprogramming (participle present)
deprogrammed (participle past)
deprogrammed (past)

British and New Zealand standard spelling of deprogram.


range hood

range hoods (plural)
rangehood (alternative)

(US, Australia, New Zealand) An electrical kitchen device fitted over a cooker and connected to a flue designed to suck off any vapours from cooking.


meatworks

A modern abattoir and meatworks, which will supply meat for local consumption and export, will be established at Kadina, in South Australia. The Premier (Mr. Playford) announced recently the project would cost about £500,000.

1953, Modern Refrigeration, volume 56, page 176:

The effluents used for the irrigation schemes included discharges from most sections of the meatworks and from yards and roofs; in the Islington works some separate soakaways in the gravels were used for strong chemical discharges.

1970 August, N. Wells, J. S. Whitton, “The Influence of Meatworks Effluents on Soil and Plant Composition”, in G. J. Neale, editor, New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, volume 13, number 3, page 499:

In addition, a rigorous inspection of all meatworks, export or otherwise, continued to be enforced in all States.

1983, Grolier Society of Australia, The Australian Encyclopaedia, volume 2, page 199:

Isolation from the nearest meatworks at Wyndham and Broome was a major impediment to marketing beef. Blythe took up the idea of killing cattle at an abattoir on Glenroy and air-freighting the carcasses to a meatworks, thus eliminating the loss of condition inevitable in droving cattle long distances.

2007, G. C. Bolton, “Blythe, Lindsay Gordon (1908-1986)”, in Diane Langmore, Darryl Bennet, editors, Australian Dictionary of Biography: Volume 17 1981-1990: A-K, page 116:

(Australia, New Zealand) A slaughterhouse or meat processing plant.


gurgler

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) A toilet.


po-po

po-pos (plural)
po-po (plural)
popo (alternative)

→ Dutch: popo

Green's Dictionary of Slang
Police officer

From various words by shortening and reduplication.
The "posterior" sense may be reduplication of the initial syllable of that word, with modification of the vowel according to its spelling. Compare German Popo (“bottom”) from Latin pōdex (“anus”).
The "police" sense may come from either the initial syllable of police or the initial letters of the words police officer. Compare PO.

Feet up, pat him on the po-po
Let’s hear him laugh
Ain’t seen a babe like this before
He’s so good-lookin’, gonna have some more
Feet up, pat him on the po-po

1952, Bob Merrill, “Feet Up (Pat Him on the Po-Po)”:

[He] gets jelly on his head, jelly on his po-po, jelly on his.... well, you know what rhymes with jelly. If your Junior starts singing this in public he’ll show you up.

1953, Gramophone Record Review, page 564:

He once asked me how a particular customer was doing, sometime after I had executed a sale. […] Then he added, so as not to appear to be admonishing me, “Go and give them a pat on the po-po and see what is going on.”

2014, Michael Hotchkiss, Preparation Breeds Success, page 61:

(informal, US) One's posterior, bottom, buttocks.

“Actually I prefer kids referring to their po-pos rather than their outer labias. Maybe I’m just old fashioned.”

1962, Phillip Roth, Letting Go, page 269:

On one Monday morning, one of the two children, Becky, complained about irritation around her “po-po.” […] This child indicated that Daddy had touched her there and she cried when he pushed on her sore spot.

1991, Kevin McGovern, “Was there really child sexual abuse or is there another explanation?”, in Michael Robin, editor, Assessing Child Maltreatment Reports: The Problem of False Allegations, page 123:

By contrast, a North Carolina court upheld the conviction of a father after a four-year-old, who had told relatives and authorities that her father had put his “ding dong” into her “po po,” pointed to a doll vagina and a doll penis and used the same terms to describe the alleged event.

1992, Richard Green, Sexual Science and the Law, page 163:

“If you tell anyone what happens in this house, HRS will take you away. Do you understand? They’ll put you with people that will hurt your po-po.”
I broke out in a sweat. Po-po was Mom’s word for between my legs.

2011, Tara Overzat, Reverse Psychology, pages 8-9:

(childish) Genitals, especially the vulva.

Runnin’ from the po-po
Runnin’
Just got my cash on
Now I gotta get my dash on

1997, Rik ‘G’, “Runnin’ From the Po Po” (0:23 from the start), in Rik ‘G’, Oakland, CA: Del Paso Heights:

Yo, po-po, man. Shut it down.

2006 September 10, David Simon & al., “Boys of Summer” (00:23:44 from the start), in The Wire, season 4, episode 1:

The cops had busted us for selling hot designer bags up on Utica Avenue for some cat who figured we was too young to get knocked if we got caught, but two fat white po-pos said fuck how young we was, and threw us in a cell for damn near three days until they could contact Noojie to come get us out.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 134:

“Shit,” Brian breathed. “Who called the po-po?”

2012, Liz Talley, Under the Autumn Sky, page 151:

(colloquial, mildly derogatory, US) The police; a police officer.

en:prison officer, corrections officer, prison guard

(by extension) A prison officer, corrections officer, prison guard.


tiggy

The teacher tried to encourage him to join in, and would tell Jamie to go and play 'tiggy' with the others.

1996, M. J. Carr, Murder: Past Tense,, page 67:

Everyone raced to catch squid hiding under floating leaves or wood, or tried to catch seahorses as well as playing tiggy in the water.

2006, Fiona Doyle, “Wet Season Time”, in On Country: Stories of Nyrlotte, Univ. of Queensland Press, page 15:

In the day they would walk along, playing tiggy and talking, and in the evening they would swim and surf

2009, Kirsty Anderson, TATSLINA - The Gipsy Princess, Valerie Yule, Literacy Innovations, page 35:

(Australia, North Island New Zealand) The children′s game tag.


mahi

It's^([sic]) spokesperson Leonie Howie did not want to be interviewed but said they "will do the mahi" when it comes to trying to both encourage vaccinations as well as managing any health risks to the community when visitors arrive.

2021 December 2, “Unvaccinated private boat owners a risk to Aotea's community - iwi”, in Radio NZ:

(New Zealand) the work required to complete a task


pūkeko

pūkeko (plural)
pūkekos (plural)
pukeko (alternative)

I had my place to sit, on the fallen birch log by the creek, where I could watch the pukeko, the ducks and the eels, and look through the sheltering willows to the paddock […].

1984, Janet Frame, An Angel at my Table, Virago, published 2024, page 211:

(New Zealand) The purple swamphen, Porphyrio porphyrio.


bring-and-buy

There was a bring-and-buy on in the village green.

(UK, New Zealand) A small-scale sale where people bring items to sell and buy others' items. The money raised usually goes towards charity.


bottlo

My local bottlo tells me that the sales of ready-to-drinks have slightly decreased but there has been a sharp increase in the sale of 750-millilitre bottles of straight spirits.

2008, Australian House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates Australia: House of Representatives, volume 13, page 3169:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A shop that sells alcoholic beverages.


pokie machine

From pokie (“slang for poker machine”) + machine.

During the contest, participants sit at pokie machines and accurately insert coin after coin into the smallest of holes, while all the time consuming more and more schooners. This grueling sport can go on for many hours, though the winner is always the pokie machine.

2000, Ken Ewell, No Worries, Mate: A Manly Adventure in the Land Down Under, page 68:

Australian clubs allow instant membership to anyone, so keen are they to share the diverting pleasures of the pokie machine.

2001, Bill Bryson, In a sunburned country, page 19:

In 2005, New Zealanders lost $2.027 billion through all forms of gambling. Roughly half of that, $1.027 billion, was lost on non-casino pokie machines.

2008, Susan St. John, Donna Wynd, Left Behind: How Social & Income Inequalities Damage New Zealand Children, page 120:

A casino is one big pokie machine, programmed to pay out less than a dollar in a dollar.

2009, Marcus Padley, Stock Market Secrets, page 124:

(Australia, New Zealand) Synonym of slot machine (“gambling machine”).


old mate

Old mate dropped by and we watched the cricket for a bit.

(colloquial, Australia, New Zealand, UK) In general, any person, whose specific identity can be deduced from context.


snarler

Summer snarler comes up trumps, Manawatu Herald: "A Woodville Beef & Blue Cheese sausage has triumphed over out-of-town rivals in a fry-off."

(New Zealand, informal) A sausage, particularly a barbecued one.


kaikomako

(New Zealand) Pennantia baylisiana, a rare tree of New Zealand.


fuel poverty

(chiefly UK, Ireland, New Zealand) The inability of a household to keep adequately warm at a reasonable cost.


fuel-poor

en-adj

fuel-poor (comparative more fuel-poor, superlative most fuel-poor)

more fuel-poor (comparative)
most fuel-poor (superlative)

(chiefly UK, Ireland, New Zealand) Unable to keep one's dwelling adequately warm at a reasonable cost.


housie

Aficionados continued to play housie for the rest of the decade, but always under the threat of criminal prosecution.

1994, David Grant, On a Roll: A History of Gambling and Lotteries in New Zealand, page 138:

She ran raffles, card games and housie to raise money for Māori welfare.

2001, Patricia Grace, Irihapeti Ramsden, Jonathan Dennis, The Silent Migration: Ngati Poneke Young Maori Club, 1937-1948, page 119:

Thursday night was housie night at St Monica′s hall.

2010, Kate Howarth, Ten Hail Marys, University of Queensland Press, page 98:

2010, Michael Caulfield (editor), The Voices of War: Australians Tell Their Stories from World War I to the Present, unumbered page,
He was very officious—universally hated—and bingo, then called housie, was illegal, because we had a housie game and we used to play this on deck and we were all up on deck in our shorts and we′d give warning if he was coming.

(Australia, New Zealand) A gambling game similar to bingo.


boofhead

From (obsolete) bufflehead (“buffalo-head, stupid person”). Boofhead was the name of a cartoon character in a Sydney newspaper during the 1940s.

'And he looks fit. Strong. I worry about you here alone. There are some real boofheads in this building.'
'Harmless boofheads. Anyway, I'm safer with boofheads down the hall than some religious nut-job muscle man in the flat with me.'

2010, Emily Maguire, Smoke in the Room, page 2:

"Stop it, you daft thing." He draws me into a warm hug. "I might be a bit of a boofhead but I do understand."
My arms wrap tightly around him. "You′re not a boofhead. You′re a very nice man and I′m glad you′re my friend."

2010, Cathryn Brunet, Three Over Par, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) An idiot; a fathead.


Kransky

Kranskies (plural)
kransky (alternative)

Borrowed from Slovene Krȃnjskā klobasa (“Carnolian sausage”).

bor+

Just frying up a shitload of blinis. Fried up some kranskies to put on them. Just trying to figure out which vodka to drink with them. It's a tough life.

1998, Timo Nieminen, “blinis”, in alt.drunken.bastards (Usenet):

At a food vendor's stall I bought a Kransky to munch on as Sally and I walked through the cavernous terminal...

2006, Ernie Palamarek, Along Came a Swagman, page 168:

The afternoon before making cheese kranskies, the butcher cuts the meat into large cubes. He uses a mixture of pork and beef. The cheese is cut into cubes and the correct amounts of spices are measured out.

2007, Carol Jones, “Sausage”, in Education, Australia: Macmillan, page 12:

...making a cut along and through the underside of the penis as far as the urethra, a bit like preparing a Kransky sausage for pan-frying.

2010, Nicholas Evans, Dying words: endangered languages and what they have to tell us, page 245:

Old-fashioned things are back at this main street butcher, where you can buy relishes and sauerkraut to go with your kranskies.

2012, Elizabeth Meryment, K. Gibbs, Foodies′ Guide 2012: Sydney, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand) A Slovenian-style sausage.


mutton bird

mutton birds (plural)
mutton-bird (alternative)
muttonbird (alternative)

He dubbed them mutton-birds, for they came like lambs to the slaughter.

1941, Ernestine Hill, My Love Must Wait, A&R Classics, published 2013, page 186:

Mutton Bird (Puffinus tenuirostris) Ornithosis
Early in 1953 Dr. D. L. Serventy sent us twelve mutton birds from the Bass Strait Islands for another investigation. One of these birds died shortly after reaching Adelaide.

1959, Monographiae Biologicae, volume 8, page 422:

The oil he sprayed on his customers was derived from the oil glands of mutton birds hunted in the islands of the Bass Strait by the descendants of nineteenth-century sailors and the Tasmanian Aboriginal women they had kidnapped.

1983, Robert Drewe, The Bodysurfers, Penguin, published 2009, page 17:

Thousands of small birds, Tasmania′s entire population of mutton birds, take flight at the crack of dawn, headed toward Antarctica.

2000, Donna Eden, David Feinstein, Brooks Garten, Caroline Myss, Energy Medicine, page 260:

Puffinus griseus
Puffinus griseus#Translingual

Puffinus tenuirostris
Puffinus tenuirostris#Translingual

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand) Any of various seabirds whose flesh is said to taste like mutton when cooked, especially Puffinus griseus, Puffinus tenuirostris, or a petrel of the genus Pterodroma.


PAT

en-noun

PAT (countable and uncountable, plural PATs)

electrical engineering
electrical engineering

portable appliance testing
w:portable appliance testing

(electrical engineering, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia) Initialism of portable appliance testing.


spellathon

A feasibility study has revealed that $8,500 would be needed to bring the camp site up to standard. A mammoth spellathon or a walkathon have been suggested.

1972, The Educational Magazine, volume 29, page 20:

Old standbys like walkathons, spellathons, and candy and light bulb sales are common.

1978, Lawrence W. Prakken, The Education Digest, volume 44, page 37:

1998, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, The United States and India, 1776-1996: The Bridge Over the River Time, page 284,
The annual Spellathon organised by the Scripps-Howard group of publications is the nation′s premier spelling contest and about 8 million students across the nation participated.

2007, Australian House of Representatives, Parliamentary debates (Hansard): House of Representatives, Volume 289, page 18,
Most of us who are parents know that it takes a lot of pie and lamington drives, spellathons and school fetes to generate the money needed to complete many worthwhile school projects.

‘My words were hard too.’ Katrina sighed. ‘It′s not like the spellathon. They don′t tell anyone if they′re right or wrong.’

2008, Sherryl Clark, Tracey Binns Is Trouble, University of Queensland Press, page 89:

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand) A spelling bee held to raise money for charity.


slinter

Originally South African slang, borrowed from Afrikaans slenter (“scam”) from Dutch schlenter (“trick”)

Ah, never a mother's love they'll rob, By working a slinter — s'elp me Bob!

1929, New Zealand Railways Magazine - Volume 4:

...or he might work a slinter if you gave him half a chance .

1976, Frank Sargeson, Sunset Village, page 30:

It may be able to work a slinter on the young people who will now have to carry the burden of this extra taxation.

1976, New Zealand. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates. House of Representatives:

Front-line men like Gray would come to feel that some 'drafted to Stationary and Base Hopitals and Hosp. Ships... work all manner of "slinters" [tricks] to stay there for the duration' and 'should be given a chance to show their prowess at stretcher bearing and whizband doging...There is absolutely no comparison between the 2 kinds of work.'

2018, Anna Rogers, With Them Through Hell, →ISBN, page 14:

(New Zealand, South Africa, Australia) A scam or deception; fast one.


sheeprun

From sheep + run (“animal enclosure; place where something can run”).

1900, William Bulfin, Tales of the Pampas, quoted in 2003, Katherine Mullin, James Joyce, Sexuality and Social Purity, 63,
Over the richest sheepruns in the province of Buenos Ayres you may gallop during every hour of the summer without crossing a single rood of land that is not owned by some son of the Emerald Isle.

1910, Catherine Helen Spence, Jeanne Young (posthumous completion), Catherine Helen Spence: An Autobiography, 2004, page 26,
It had surprised him when he travelled overland to Adelaide to see from Willunga 30 miles of enclosed and cultivated farms, and it surprised me to see sheepruns close to Melbourne.

1978, Juliet Astley (Norah Lofts), Copsi Castle, page 67,
Here was she, cancelling her visit to the sheeprun, that part of Sheppey Lea of which she was most proud since it had been reclaimed literally from a waste of near-derelict land, all bracken and gorse and coarse grass.

When contemporaries complained that the extension of sheepruns left a trail of deserted villages they were commenting on the enclosures of the previous century, but later complaints bear witness to a more profound upheaval.

1979, Joan Simon, Education and Society in Tudor England, page 169:

The irony was that many of the Scottish Highlanders found themselves manning sheepruns in the antipodes having been eliminated from their own economy by precisely the same forces that had caused the Highland clearances.

1993, Eric Richards, “Margins of the Industrial Revolution”, in Patrick O′Brien, Roland Quinault, editors, The Industrial Revolution and British Society, page 221:

(UK, New Zealand, Australia) A sheep farm.


muppetry

(UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) The behaviour of a muppet; foolish incompetence.


backblock

backblocks (plural)
back-block (alternative)

I speak solely for the backblock roads, and I contend that the time has arrived when the Government should turn its attention to the metalling of these roads.

1931, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, volume 229, page 281:

It has happened in other districts that new settlement has turned the old centres into isolated backblocks.

1955, Helen Wilson, My First Eighty Years, page 185:

Backblocks hardship is a very real thing, but Mary Scott expresses it somewhat too much in the Victorian ‘There′s a tear on your eye’ mode, little graves on the hillside and old servants, horses and dogs, faithful to the last.

1991, Robin Hyde, Gillian Boddy, Jacqueline D. Matthews, Disputed Ground: Robin Hyde, Journalist, page 225:

The weeping man was an emancipist who had a backblock in the next valley & sometimes came over to see his cobber the shepherd, both being Roscommon men.

2001, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish, Vintage, published 2016, page 82:

(Australia, New Zealand, usually in the plural) A remote tract of land in the interior; hence (in plural) sparsely populated country far from major cities and lacking conveniences common in urban areas.


Chch

(New Zealand) Abbreviation of Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand.


meat tray

And the raffle prizes are always big red meat trays, (not a vegetarian amongst them), or cartons of tinnies.

2002, Cheryl Kernot, Speaking for Myself Again Four Years of Labour and Beyond, unnumbered page:

On Tuesday nights, there′s a $10 meal deal from a limited menu (and you automatically go in the draw for a $50 meat tray).

2011, Lee Mylne, Frommer′s Melbourne Free and Dirt Cheap, page 70:

The Dog wasn′t remotely interested in the raffle even though winning the occasional fruit and vegie basket or meat tray has helped our constricted budget at times.

2012, June Loves, The Festival by the Sea, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand) A tray of meat given as a prize in a raffle.


hikoi

Borrowed from Maori hīkoi (“ceremonial march”).

Although the coalition was fragile, it was a signal achievement for the Tainui contingent and the main body of the hikoi to arrive at Waitangi on the same day.

1987, Ranginui Walker, Jacqueline Amoamo, Nga Tau Tohetohe: Years of Anger, page 88:

The idea of the hikoi was conceived at the General Synod of the Anglican Church but soon came to involve Christians of all persuasions.

1999, W. R. Atkin, Katrine Evans, Human Rights and the Common Good: Christian Perspectives, page 148:

"There is a proud tradition of hikoi in Aotearoa. We have marched as tangata whenua for our land, for our sovereign rights, for our sacred kai moana, and now we march to honour Papatuanuku and keep her free from GE interference."

2005, Cathie Dunsford, Ao Toa: Earth Warriors, page 84:

(New Zealand) A protest march, typically involving a long journey.


hikoi

en-verb

hikoi (third-person singular simple present hikois, present participle hikoiing, simple past and past participle hikoied)

hikois (present singular third-person)
hikoiing (participle present)
hikoied (participle past)
hikoied (past)

Then in March Ngāti Kahungunu announced that they would hikoi to Wellington with a view to arriving around the time that the Foreshore and Seabed Bill was due to come before Parliament.

2004, Aroha Harris, Hīkoi: Forty Years of Māori Protest, page 29:

(New Zealand) To participate in a hikoi.


have on

have on (third-person singular simple present has on, present participle having on, simple past and past participle had on)

has on (present singular third-person)
having on (participle present)
had on (participle past)
had on (past)

Near-synonym: have a laugh

Are you having me on?

Fifty quid for that piece of junk? He's having me on he is!

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) To trick or deceive deliberately; to play a prank on.


palagi

From Samoan pālagi, variant of papālagi (“white person, European”). Compare earlier papalagi.

‘Serves him right for trying to act like a palagi!’ she muttered to herself.

1979, Albert Wendt, Leaves of the Banyan Tree:

Then Ione said: "Jerry, you are the only honest palagi I ever met."

After 170 years this is the closest Auckland has come to having a brown mayor. Sure he's a Palagi. But his name is Brown, he's run Manukau for a long time and there's heaps of brown people there so he's gladly owned by many in the Pacific Community.

2010 October 10, Oscar Kightley, New Zealand Herald:

(Western Polynesia, New Zealand) A white person; a Caucasian.


know from a bar of soap

know from a bar of soap (third-person singular simple present knows from a bar of soap, present participle knowing from a bar of soap, simple past knew from a bar of soap, past participle known from a bar of soap)

knows from a bar of soap (present singular third-person)
knowing from a bar of soap (participle present)
knew from a bar of soap (past)
known from a bar of soap (participle past)

After she won the lottery, Marge had long-lost relatives she didn't know from a bar of soap come up to her to ask for money.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, idiomatic, informal) To know; to be acquainted with (a person).


acclimatisational

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


toheroa

Borrowed from Maori toheroa (literally “long tongue”).

(New Zealand) Paphies ventricosa, a large edible bivalve mollusc endemic to New Zealand.


slabby

From slab (“solid object that is large and flat”) + -y.

af

The employer shall supply the sawyer and tailer-out at breast bench, workers operating goose-saws, and slabbies with suitable leather aprons for use while so employed. When requested by the worker a suitable apron shall be supplied to timber stackers, lorry drivers, and machinists.

1982, New Zealand. Arbitration Court, Awards, Agreements, Orders, and Decisions Made Under the Industrial Relations Act, the Apprentices Act, and Other Industrial Legislation for the Year ..., volume 82, number 3, page 2167:

'My husband worked in a sawmill,' said Gran. […] 'And his brother. Slabbies, both of them. What sort of work was that for men with brains?'

2018, Kate De Goldi, Love, Charlie Mike:

(New Zealand, informal) A worker who deals with timber in the form of slabs.


dacks

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


art union

New bookkeeping regulations have been framed by the New South Wales Auditor-General's Department, at the request of the Attorney-General, to control the present loose state of affairs in regard to art unions.

1923 April 5, Barrier Miner, Broken Hill, NSW:

The Attorney-General (Mr. N F Macgroarty) yesterday described as absolutely inaccurate a statement that the Art Union Regulations provided for the Justice Department collecting a fee of 21 per cent of the gross receipts of art unions in excess of £100, this amount being allowed is an exemption...

The result was that the Government of the day had a spate of applications for permits to hold art unions.

1956, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 278:

A person who conducts a trade promotion art union must ensure that a prize in the art union is delivered to the winner of the prize within 1 month of the drawing of the art union.

1992, the ART UNIONS AND PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS REGULATION 1992, promulgated by the government of Queensland

What exactly is an art union I hear you ask? Well it is simply an official term used by regulation boards such as the Queensland Office of Gaming Regulation that describes a lottery where the total value of the prizes exceeds $20,000 and the game is operated by a non profit organisation.

Annually the Association conducts 10 major art unions with prizes from $80,000 - $120,000 each art union. Tickets are only $2 (AUS) each and the winner can choose any combination of prizes.

2011, Sporting Wheelies Organisation website

(Australia, New Zealand) A raffle run to raise money for a charity.


akiraho

(New Zealand) Olearia paniculata, a flowering plant.


pihoihoi

The pihoihoi live in the island's interior, and the torea on its rocky shore.

2003, Margaret Rose Orbell, Carolyn Lagahetau, Birds of Aotearoa: a natural and cultural history:

(New Zealand) Anthus novaeseelandiae, the Australasian pipit.


body corporate

en-noun

body corporate (plural bodies corporate or body corporates)

bodies corporate (plural)
body corporates (plural)

From Middle English body corporat, body corporate (also body incorperate), equivalent to body + corporate (adjective) and modelled on Middle French corps corporat.

Rules governing the behaviour of residents or tenants are set in two ways: by legislation and by the body corporate creating its own rules of management.

2011, Stephen Raff, The Body Corporate Handbook:

This commission is not paid by the body corporate and does not come out of the levies paid by lot owners. Rather, it is a commission paid by each lot owner of the apartments that the onsite letting agent manages as real estate agent.

2011, Jeff Ball, Buying An Apartment Off The Plan in Queensland:

Units in blocks of more than two are almost always part of a body corporate.

2012, Melissa Opie, Find the Right Property, Buy at the Right Price, page 78:

The owners elect representatives from among themselves to sit on a body corporate committee, and the committee collects an annual levy from the owners. It then uses that levey to run the building, paying for things like maintenance, repairs and insurance.

2017, Maria Slade, Buyer Beware: A New Zealand Home Buyer's Guide:

(Australia, New Zealand) An organization of individuals that jointly own a shared housing facility such as a condominium or set of townhouses under a community titles scheme.

業主法團 /业主法团

organization of individuals owning a shared housing facility


kawaka

(New Zealand) A New Zealand tree, Libocedrus plumosa.


pahautea

(New Zealand) A New Zealand tree, Libocedrus bidwillii.


cutty grass

cutty grass (usually uncountable, plural cutty grasses)

Any of many species of sedge or grass that have leaves with sharp, serrated edges, including

(informal, New Zealand) Any grass species of the genus Austroderia (toetoe).


nut out

en-verb

nut out (third-person singular simple present nuts out, present participle nutting out, simple past and past participle nutted out)

nuts out (present singular third-person)
nutting out (participle present)
nutted out (participle past)
nutted out (past)

From nut (“(slang) the head”) + out, referring to thinking or working something out in one’s head.

[A] chronic optimistic faith in pragmatic experiment to overcome deficiencies in the knowledge of these experts (rather than set up an expensive preparatory research program) was responsible for the difficulties that immediately occurred when the factory began to produce glass in July 1962. An Auckland newspaper reporter transmitted the parochial attitude of the technical management when he boasted that the finer points of glassmaking “had to be nutted out by Kiwis on the spot.”

1965, William J[ames] Cameron, “From Adversity to Diversity”, in New Zealand (A Spectrum Book), Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, →OCLC, page 136:

On the Monday afternoon, at about four o'clock, Mervyn said, “Well, we’re doing a lot of sitting around gas, gas, gas, but it seems to me we’ve got everything there is to nut out, nutted out.[…]”

1974, Ronald Hugh Morrieson, Predicament, London: Robert Hale, published 1982, →ISBN, page 89:

In ’86 Frank helped Ian [Roberts] nut out his first contract—$26,000 a year—[…]

1997, Paul Freeman, Ian Roberts: Finding Out, Milsons Point, N.S.W.: Random House Australia, →ISBN, page 70:

An inquiry takes place and more often than not all sides of politics—I should use ‘all’ rather than ‘both’ with the member for Cunningham sitting opposite—get together and nut out something, compromising a little bit here or there to come up with a final result.

2003 November 25, Gary Nairn, “Economics, Finance and Public Administration Committee: Report”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Representatives (Australian House of Representatives), volume 259, Canberra: […] Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, →OCLC, page 22823:

Nutting out our own way of doing things may take some work, but we get there.

2010, Stefan Korn, Scott Lancaster, Eric Mooij, Being a Great Dad for Dummies (For Dummies), Australian & New Zealand edition, Milton, Qld.: Wiley Publishing Australia, →ISBN, page 273:

(transitive, Australia, New Zealand, informal) To find a solution (for something), especially in a group discussion; also, to work out the finer details (of something).


taniwha

Doom! doom! the taniwha hath come!

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 168:

(New Zealand) A spirit or monster in Maori mythology, especially one that dwells in the water.

(New Zealand) A person who embodies the spirit of a taniwha.


deadhouse

(Australia, New Zealand, historical) A room or building behind a bar (drinking establishment) where excessively drunk customers may be taken to sober up.


boil up

(cooking, New Zealand) A traditionally Maori soup/stew made with potatoes, pork and other ingredients.


gidday

“Giidday, gidday, welcome aboard, one and all!” There he stands, grinning, larger than life, a nutbrown teddy bear in a black G-string and a cowboy hat, champagne cocktail in one hand, the other held out to hoist us aboard.

2002, William Brandt, The Book of the Film of the Story of my Life, page 190:

“Oh, gidday, Stan”, I said.

2004, James Roy, Billy Mack's War, page 106:

“Gidday”, she says, grinning happily.
“Gidday”, he replies, with a grin for her: it flits over his face and is gone by the time he looks at Joe.

2005, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, page 132:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) Alternative form of g’day.


shoot through

shoot through (third-person singular simple present shoots through, present participle shooting through, simple past and past participle shot through)

shoots through (present singular third-person)
shooting through (participle present)
shot through (participle past)
shot through (past)

He did not mind the new store, but when some stirrer said that there was a motel coming, he shot through to find a better hole further inland, muttering that 'the place is getting as big as one of them southern city places!’

1977, Valmai Phillips, Romance of Australian Lighthouses, unidentified page:

He shoots through to Australia, and I'm left with the kid.

1982, James K. Baxter, Howard McNaughton., Collected Plays, page 123:

But on learning it was twins he shot through to Queensland into – I later discovered – the waiting arms of his lover.

2008, Elizabeth Bruce, A Show Off, Just Like Your Father, page 68:

What Father Nelson must have made of our all-too-candid (and slightly embellished) responses is anybody's guess, but it wasn't long before he shot through to New Guinea to work as a missionary with the kind of tribesmen who wear penis gourds.

2010, Stephen Lacey, Henry Loves Jazz: The Diary of a Reluctant Father, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) To leave.

Play your didgeridoo, Blue / Play your didgeridoo / Ah, like, keep playin' 'til I shoot through, Blue / Play your didgeridoo

1957, Rolf Harris, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) To die.


jack-a-dandy

(New Zealand) A small patch of light reflected from a shiny surface onto another surface such as a wall or ceiling.


puggy

en-adj

puggy (comparative puggier, superlative puggiest)

puggier (comparative)
puggiest (superlative)

(Australia, New Zealand) sticky, claylike


prad

Borrowed from Dutch paard (“horse”). Doublet of palfrey.

Horse Stealers, they go together always the Day before, to look over the Grounds for a good Prad or Prads […]

1754, John Poulter, The Discoveries of John Poulter, alias Baxter, Sherborne, page 39:

We had fixed our eye on a horse-dealer, and had some conversation with him about the purchase of a prad; but we could not agree, and parted, on account of a deeker, who was eyeing us closely, and I observed him speak to the jockey.

1821, David Haggart, The Life of David Haggart, written by himself while under sentence of death, London: W. and C. Tait, page 22:

'Just send somebody out to relieve my mate, will you, young man?' said the officer; 'he's in the gig, a-minding the prad. […]'

1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “chapter XXXI”, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

1893, Ernest Favenc, "Bunthorp's Decease" in Tales of the Austral Tropics, London: Osgood, MacIlvaine & Co., 1894, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600691h.html
"Not a bad sort of a prad that brown one," he remarked; "looks a little gone in the near fore-leg."

So smooth of face, so fine of eye, so much a beautiful part of his beautiful chestnut prad.

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XIII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 212:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal, dated) A horse.


sharebroker

(especially Australia, New Zealand) A stockbroker.


rangatira

Stout commoners on the left side, and real rangatira on the right distaff side. A New Zealander through and through.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 99:

Defeated and captured rangatira became slaves, but they could regain their former status if they succeeded in escaping from their captors or eventually obtaining an honourable release.

2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 68:

(New Zealand) A hereditary Māori leader of a kinship group; a chieftain or high-born Maori.


larrikinism

I would have thrashed him well at the start but for the letters I constantly received from home warning me against giving offence to the parents, and knew that to set my foot on the children's larrakinism would require measures that would gain their mother's ill-will at once.

1901, Miles Franklin, “To Life—continued”, in My Brilliant Career, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 251:

The apparent decline of larrikinism in Sydney in the late 1890s provides a specific illustration of the ambiguous relation between official policies, socioeconomic change, and change in deviant behavior.

1977, Ted Robert Gurr, Peter N. Grabosky, Richard C. Hula, The Politics of Crime and Conflict: A Comparative History of Four Cities, page 382:

Good quality homes promised deliverance from the problems of illegitimacy, divorce, larrikinism, wife-desertion, general immorality and crime.

1978, Peggy Gwendoline Koopman-Boyden, Families in New Zealand Society, page 9:

(Australia, New Zealand) The behaviour of larrikins (hooligans); impertinent and disrespectful behaviour.


pilchers

(Australia, New Zealand, dated) Synonym of plastic pants (“an undergarment worn over a diaper/nappy (or underwear) to prevent leakage.”).


knawel

From German Knauel, Kneuel (“ball of thread, coil”) (see Knäuel). Compare clew.

A low, spreading weed of the genus Scleranthus, especially

(Australia, New Zealand) Scleranthus biflorus


frostfish

en-noun

frostfish (plural frostfishes or frostfish)

From frost + fish. In the case of the tomcod, so called because it is abundant on the New England coast in autumn at about when frost comes.


weka

[…] riroriros would be twittering overhead, with a shy weka peeping round a tree trunk. Wekas were very common then; they were our weather forecasters. Before rain their calls were always louder and repeated more frequently.

1964, Forest and Bird (issues 151-170, page 15)

Thin darned socks, and old old clothes. The greatcoat. A superb weka feather cloak.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 374:

(New Zealand) The Lord Howe woodhen or woodhen, a flightless bird of New Zealand.


head

EN-AU ck1 couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.ogg

En-au-couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.ogg

Presents an example of a minimally simple project that the person or group described is presumed unable to accomplish.

“Deladrieux should have stayed an accountant,” Murphy sighed. “He's got three people working for him but they're just administrative clerks, pencil-pushers, they couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery. That's what you get when you assign engineering jobs to non-engineers.[…]”

2006, G. C. Lemans, Chantier: A tribute to the world's engineers and their partners in life, page 60:

'It'll be a sad day when the British leave. You lot couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery without the Queen, God bless her'.

2023 January 28, Martin Thiebaut, The Nomad Letters, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN:

But, a tip for everyone reading this, don't use Visa Machine, as it couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery! And I should know, as I have had three breweries and I can!

2018 December 11, Ian Rogers, London to Magadan, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 47:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang, idiomatic) Is unable even to organise a project that requires no planning; is incompetent; used to describe someone as greatly incompetent.

couldn't organise a bun fight in a bakery


The Ditch

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) The Tasman Sea, separating Australia and New Zealand.


nup

I've suggested many jobs she could do but nup no way. She just was happy getting her freeloading money. I realised what a freeloader she really was when she started ranting about losing money when she got married to a guy with a job.

2013 December 4, u/singloud, “Did anyone else have chronically unemployed parents or even parents who were just always at home?”, in Reddit, r/raisedbynarcissists, archived from the original on 2023-09-28:

(colloquial, originally US, now chiefly Australia, New Zealand) No, nope.


use a sledgehammer to crack a nut

en-verb

use a sledgehammer to crack a nut (third-person singular simple present uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut, present participle using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, simple past and past participle used a sledgehammer to crack a nut)

uses a sledgehammer to crack a nut (present singular third-person)
using a sledgehammer to crack a nut (participle present)
used a sledgehammer to crack a nut (participle past)
used a sledgehammer to crack a nut (past)

/ˌjuːz‿ə ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmə tə ˌkɹæk‿ə ˈnʌt/

/ˌjuz‿ə ˈslɛd͡ʒhæmɚ tə ˌkɹæk‿ə ˈnʌt/

En-au-use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.ogg

The analogy dates back to at least the middle of the 19th century: see, for example, this quotation from Levi Carroll Judson’s work Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution (1851): “He at once became the nucleus around which a band of patriots gathered and formed a nut too hard to be cracked by the sledgehammer of monarchy.”

nb...

In Two Parts: Including the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Two Hundred and Forty Three of the Sages and Heroes are Presented in Due Form: And Many Others are Named Incidentally.

This last mentioned consideration involves the concept in Community law (derived principally from German law) called "proportionality". In plain English it means "You must not use a steam hammer to crack a nut, if a nutcracker would do."

[1983 January 20, Lord Diplock [i.e., Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock], Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, House of Lords, “Regina, respondent, and Goldstein, appellant [[1983] 1 W.L.R. 151]”, in The Weekly Law Reports, volume 1, London: Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 155:

Today, Mr [Anthony] Worthington, an engineer, said: 'Sending three officers over simply to give a warning about kids playing football in the street is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.[…]'

2010 September 21, “‘A sledgehammer to crack a nut’: Three police officers and a patrol car rush to … children playing football in the street”, in Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-06:

In our view the Public Order Bill is an attempt by the Government to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. At a time when we should be focusing on rebuilding trust in the police, this Bill risks stoking further mistrust and undermining their vital role in protecting the public.

2022 December 17, Martin Evans, quoting Mike Barton et al., “Law to curb Just Stop Oil protests ‘a sledgehammer to crack a nut’, say ex-police chiefs”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-02-18:

(intransitive, Australia, British, New Zealand, idiomatic, informal) To use disproportionate or significantly excessive force to carry out an action; to do something overzealously.

to use disproportionate or significantly excessive force to carry out an action

高射炮打蚊子 (gāoshèpào dǎ wénzi, literally “to use an anti-aircraft gun to hit a mosquito”)

割雞焉用牛刀 /割鸡焉用牛刀 (gējī yān yòng niúdāo, literally “when killing a chicken, why use an ox cleaver?”)

牛鼎烹雞 /牛鼎烹鸡 (niúdǐngpēngjī, literally “to use a cauldron for a cow to cook a chicken”)

ಗುಬ್ಬಿ ಮೇಲೆ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಸ್ತ್ರ (gubbi mēle brahmāstra, literally “to strike a sparrow with the brahmāstra”)

пали́ть из пу́шки по воробья́м impf (palítʹ iz púški po vorobʹjám, literally “to fire a cannon at sparrows”)

పిచ్చుక మీద బ్రహ్మాస్త్రము (piccuka mīda brahmāstramu, literally “to strike a sparrow with the brahmāstra”)

ขี่ช้างจับตั๊กแตน (kìi-cháang-jàp-dták-gà-dtɛɛn, literally “to ride an elephant to catch a grasshopper”)

when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail


hangi

en-noun

hangi (countable and uncountable, plural hangis or hangi)

The ovens were used to cook food in identical fashion to the Maori hangi and the Papuan stone ovens.

2018, Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu, Scribe, published 2020, page 134:

(New Zealand) A traditional Māori pit oven, in which (suitably wrapped) raw food is lain on a base of heated stones.

He glanced at the formal setting in front of him, wishing he could be at a marae eating hangi right now.

(New Zealand, uncountable) Food cooked in this way.


inanga

(New Zealand) A fish, the jollytail (Galaxias maculatus).


no duff

From the RAF slang expression "duff gen" meaning bad information; no duff, by extension means accurate, also: stop operations until ordered otherwise.
No Duff comes from the term "No Direction Finding" in the British Army in regards to radio/signals procedure. It was used when in training or on exercise to pass a message true in nature but not related to the aims of the exercise. This could be an accident, change of exercise requirements etc. This means the message to be sent should not be subject to radio direction finding to locate the transmitting station by either the blue or red side. ie
"Hello zero this is two one alpha, NO DUFF message over".
"NO DUFF two one alpha this is zero, roger out to you, hello all stations this is zero stand by for NO DUFF message out, two one alpha send NO DUFF over".
"NO DUFF hello zero this is two one alpha, two one bravo has rolled their rover over, over".
Normally followed by laughter or expletives from the zero's CP.

“Sunray, No Duff, No Duff, No Duff. We need a medic, we’ve got a man down. Wound to the upper arm, and major blood loss. Over.” ¶ All the other chatter on all the radios went dead with the ‘No Duff.’ It was the signal for a medical emergency.

2001, Ska Child, David Harris, Skavoovee, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, page 152:

“Someone grabbed me from behind and said ‘No duff,’ which means this is real,” said LCdr. Wong. “That’s what everybody heard, ‘Plane crash, 737,’ and all of us started running to our posts,” he told reporters after Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived here to commend those who raced to the scene.

2011 August 24, Gloria Galloway, “When troops heard ‘no duff,’ they knew Resolute Bay rescue wasn’t an exercise”, in The Globe and Mail:

(UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, military slang, radio voice procedure) Indicating that this is not a drill or training exercise.


no duff

“Get him in here, and radio a ‘no duff’ [casualty] to HQ.”

1999, Scott Taylor, Canada at War and Peace: A Millennium of Military Heritage, volume 3, Ottawa: Esprit de Corps Books, page 140:

[p 224] I called on the radio and — this was the most horrifying part of this — I couldn’t reach my observation post where my guys were. But I did get the command post in the middle of Srebrenica. I told them, “This is a no duff situation. You’ve got two men down and we’re on the trail.’
[p 236, glossary] No duff The radio code words used to get people off the air because a serious incident has occurred.

2003, “Jordie Yeo: Master Corporal” in John Wood ed., The Chance of War: Canadian Soldiers in the Balkans, 1992–1995, Dundurn Press

(UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, military slang, radio voice procedure) An incident that is not a drill or training exercise; an emergency. Also end of exercise. Stop drill immediately. As a ‘tap out’ called by during physical training. Sim munitions training in Australian Swat ‘end ex’.


ruru

Borrowed from Maori ruru. First use in English appears c. 1842.


kick the tyres

en-verb

kick the tyres (third-person singular simple present kicks the tyres, present participle kicking the tyres, simple past and past participle kicked the tyres)

kicks the tyres (present singular third-person)
kicking the tyres (participle present)
kicked the tyres (participle past)
kicked the tyres (past)

The tests give the market the chance to kick the tyres of some of Europe's weaker financial institutions, so you might expect the City to be enthusiastic about them.

2011 July 15, Harry Wilson, “Stress tests are a chance for market to kick the tyres of Europe's banks”, in The Telegraph:

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, idiomatic) Alternative form of kick the tires.


poupou

(New Zealand) A wall panel located under the veranda of a wharenui, generally carved with ancestral emblems.


runholder

/ˈɹʌnhəʊldə/

/ˈɹʌnˌhoʊldəɹ/

From run (“rural landholding for farming, usually for running sheep”) + holder. Run (noun) is derived from run (“(chiefly Australia, New Zealand) to allow (cattle, sheep, etc.) to graze and move freely on land; to raise (livestock)”, verb).

compound

Edward Stafford […] was a member of the Anglo-Irish gentry and had arrived in Nelson in 1843 to become a runholder.

2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 193:

(chiefly New Zealand) A person who leases or owns a run (“rural landholding for farming”), especially one for raising sheep.


bushwalk

There are also bushwalks in Sassafras Gully.

2003, Margo Daly, Rough Guide to Australia, page 225:

The 24-sq-km Porongurup National Park is 12km long and has 1100-million-year-old granite outcrops, panoramic views, beautiful scenery, large karri trees and excellent bushwalks.

2007, Terry Carter, Lara Dunston, Perth & Western Australia, page 138:

Some offer a guided coach tour during which you just stretch your legs, while others let you get your circulation going with a couple of longish bushwalks.

2008, Marc Llewellyn, Lee Mylne, Australia for Dummies, page 176:

(Australia, New Zealand) A hike; an off-road walk in the countryside, possibly wearing a backpack, undertaken as a leisure activity.


bushwalk

en-verb

bushwalk (third-person singular simple present bushwalks, present participle bushwalking, simple past and past participle bushwalked)

bushwalks (present singular third-person)
bushwalking (participle present)
bushwalked (participle past)
bushwalked (past)

In 1913, Myles Dunphy and Bert Gallop had bushwalked through the area when it was still a wilderness, its paths and depths known only to the locals.

1999, Drew Hutton, Libby Connors, A History of the Australian Environment Movement, page 115:

When he′d grown tall and lanky, he bushwalked on Magnetic Island, with its secluded bays and hiking trails to Mt. Cook through groves of coconut palms and tamarinds and mangoes.

2002, Patricia McCune Irvine, A Tinkling Cymbal, page 30:

2008, Alan Murphy, Justin Flynn, Paul Harding, Olivia Pozzan, Queensland & the Great Barrier Reef, Lonely Planet, page 61,
Throughout the state you can also go bushwalking in rainforests, camping on isolated tropical islands, horseriding along coastal beaches, and wildlife-spotting in the plethora of national parks and reserves.

(Australia, New Zealand) To undertake an off-road walk in the countryside.


akeake

Borrowed from Maori [Term?] (“forever and ever”), from its durability.

Dodonaea viscosa
Dodonaea viscosa#Translingual

(New Zealand) The tree Dodonaea viscosa; aalii.

(New Zealand) The tree Olearia traversiorum.

(New Zealand) The tree Olearia avicenniaefolia.


your guys's

tlb

(chiefly Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, chiefly proscribed)

2000, Linkin Park Web Interview http://www.pushmeaway.com/linkinwebint.html
I know that in your guys's official bio from Warner that it says you would tour with anyone because your music touches so many genres.

“I don’t believe that a seven-year term of office for our president should be of any particular concern to you, Mr. Kelly.”
“Well, it is, but that is your guys’s problem.[”]

2005, Megan, Age 14, in Weight Loss Success Stories http://www.blubberbuster.com/board/success_37.html
I still have about 30 lbs to lose, which I would love to lose in 3 months..and after reading all your guys's stories I have gained even more motivation.

2006, Tony Kapel, A Letter to the Parents of http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1411685172&id=_ThYMEfjATgC&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&vq=your+guys%27s&dq=%22your+guys%27s%22&sig=IJ9Q8OivUhTnAasdJNFyGTc9Www
“Man your guys’s room is bigger then mine — man you got a balcony — I don’t have a balcony.”


wool classer

(Australia, New Zealand) A person who sorts and assigns grades to wool according to its quality.


taua

Late that night, while the Hauraki people were celebrating their deliverance, Hongi and his tauā returned to attack under cover of darkness and killed some 60 people still within the pā.

2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 125:

(New Zealand) A group of Maori warriors sent out as a war party.


green bag

green bags (plural)
green-bag (alternative)

See green (“ecologically friendly”). The bags are not always green in color.

(Australia, New Zealand) A reusable shopping bag; a bag for life.


clothes line

(UK, New Zealand) Alternative spelling of clothesline.


greenbone

greenbones (plural)
green-bone (alternative)

From green + bone, because the bones are green when boiled.

(New Zealand) A common food fish, Odax pullus.


koha

en-noun

koha (countable and uncountable, plural kohas or koha)

Borrowed from Maori koha (“regard, respect; gift, present”).

nb...

14, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London; and 20, South Frederick Street, Edinburgh.

Koha are commonly given at the conclusion of a powhiri (a Maori welcome onto a marae (meeting place)). [Mary Anne] Salmond explains that "great pride is taken in being able to present a generous gift to the hosts." Koha that are given at the conclusion of a powhiri are not payments for goods or services.

2001, Kevin Holmes, “Gifts and Windfall Gains”, in The Concept of Income: A Multi-disciplinary Analysis (Academic Council Doctoral Series; 1), Amsterdam: IBFD Publications, →ISBN, page 427:

The speaker then sits down and a person from the marae side walks over to collect the koha and acknowledge it.

2003, Hirini Moko Mead, “Te Takoha: Gift Giving”, in Tikanga Māori: Living by Māori Values, Wellington: Huia Publishers, →ISBN, page 188:

Mana Party leader Hone Harawira is standing behind his party's by-election candidate saying Pakeha don't understand koha if they have a problem with him keeping the $12,000 raised for his surgery.

2013 June 19, Kate Chapman, “Pakeha don’t get koha”, in The Press West Coast:

In the old days the koha would be food to help with the running of the event, like baskets of kumara, [Michael] Skerrett said.

2015 November 11, Dave Nicoll, “The etiquette of koha – it’s all about respect”, in The Southland Times (reproduced on Stuff.co.nz):

(New Zealand) A Māori tradition of reciprocal giving of gifts.

koha

There was considerable opposition to any advance for this mill being charged as against "Koha." […] In respect to the Turakirae Block, Manihera and Wi Kingi claimed "Koha" for Taita, Mangaroa, and Pakuratahi, stating that the purchase extended over those lands, and even to the source of a stream falling to the West Coast.

[1873 December 31, “Wairarapa Five Per Cents., (Report on the Payment of Balances on the). Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency. [No. 1. Major Heaphy to the Hon. the Native Minister.]”, in Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand. […], volume II, Wellington: Government Printer, published 1874, →OCLC, page 2:

Unfortunately, some of our young people have come to the conclusion that koha as a system is out of date. Several times I have heard it said by young people that they are going to a hui but, not to worry, the Government will fund it. […] I believe that we ought to be attending hui, and ought to make contributions by way of koha.

1986 April 29, Peter Tapsell, “Te Pire Mo Te Reo Maori—Maori Language Bill”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): Second Session, Forty-first Parliament, 1986: House of Representatives, volume 470, Wellington: V. R. Ward, government printer, →OCLC, page 1460:

In and Out of Context is a free/koha event and for everyone! Bring the whole family, bring someone you’re keen to impress, if they’re impressed make a donation!

2012 December, “In and Out of Context: A Street Light Circus”, in Scoop: Independent News:

The event is free but organisers say a koha would help with resettlement.

2016 January 8, Matthew Theunissen, “Concert to greet Syrian refugees”, in The New Zealand Herald:

The Fair is a registered charity that donates funds raised by koha, raffle or bake sales to charities in the community.

2016 January 11, “Gisborne goes arty at the Arts and Craft Fair: Crowds flock in to support local artists”, in Gisborne Herald:

(New Zealand, by extension) A voluntary donation given for a service that has been provided.


transit lane

(Australia, New Zealand) A freeway lane reserved for vehicles with a set minimum number of occupants.


mulga wire

en-noun

mulga wire (countable and uncountable, plural mulga wires)

/ˈmʌlɡə ˌwaɪə/

/ˈmʌlɡə ˌwaɪ(ə)ɹ/

/ˈmɐlɡə ˌwaɪə/

From mulga (“any of a number of small acacia trees, especially Acacia aneura, forming dense scrub in dry inland areas of Australia; (by extension) the outback”) + wire (“telecommunication wire or cable”), possibly modelled after bush telegraph.

compound

There is a really good sketch of Micky, the lonely boundary rider, whose wonderful stock of news comes by "the mulga wires," who is full of scandal about the squatter's rams, and is "follered" by a phantom hut of leopard-wood slabs.

1899 December 30, “An Australian Pastoral: ‘The Well-Sinkers: An Australian Pastoral.’ By Edith Quin. London: Fisher Unwin. [Over-Seas Library.] 2s. 6d. [book review]”, in The Outlook: In Life, Politics, Finance, Letters, and the Arts, volume IV, number 100, London: Outlook Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 724, column 1:

Lumps of silver as big as your head they're picking up. So the mulga wires say.

1937, Ion L[lewellyn] Idriess, The Cattle King: The Story of Sir Sidney Kidman, Sydney, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson, →OCLC, page 82:

"How did he receive word about the sick lubra?" / "I don't know. Mulga wire, I suppose."

1938, Arthur Upfield, “A Stranger to Opal Town”, in The Bone is Pointed, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clio Press, published 1993, →ISBN, page 36:

That night, diggers from all over the field, having learnt by ‘mulga wire’ that one of their number had married Harry Albury's girl, gathered round the hut making cacophonous celebration […]

1987, Brian Ernest Matthews, Louisa, St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, published 1998, →ISBN, page 72:

In the meantime, I had been receiving worrying reports about Nancy by mulga wire but could not find out for sure what was wrong.

1990, Lennie Wallace, “Christmas on the Road”, in Bow Waves in the Bull Dust […], 3rd edition, Brisbane, Qld.: Boolarong Press, published 2012, →ISBN, page 139:

‘The mulga-wire’s not working too good,’ he said by way of greeting. ‘I had no idea. When did you get back?’

2007, Kerry McGinnis, The Waddi Tree, Camberwell, Vic.: Penguin Group Australia, →ISBN:

An informal gossip network, especially in a rural area such as the outback; also, a component in the network (either a person or an imagined wire).

Tom had been been out early, or had got what we call a bush telegraphy or mulga wire, for when they reached the Four Lanes he said—[…]

1913, Henry Lawson, “The Little Man with the Smile”, in Triangles of Life and Other Stories, Melbourne, Vic., Sydney, N.S.W.: Lothian Book Publishing Co, published 1984, →OCLC, page 90:

"What else did Nero say?" / "Nothin'. Only to tell you when you came home. Wandin sent him the mulga wire, I suppose."

1938, Arthur Upfield, “Beside a Little Fire”, in The Bone is Pointed, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clio Press, published 1993, →ISBN, page 72:

A message or story transmitted through such an informal network, especially one containing false information.


Passion Pop

Truncation of passionfruit + pop (“fizzy drink”); a brand name originally owned by Miranda Wines, and later bought by Australian Vintage; from 1978.

2002, Rachael Treasure, Jillaroo (published in the UK, 2008, as River Run Deep), unnumbered page,
Emma sat with her rounded knees collected up to her ample chest and held her bottle of Passion Pop in her outstretched hand.
‘Come and have a drink with us, dogwoman!’ she called to Bec. Emma raised the bottle against the skyline. Rebecca smiled at them, whistled her dogs into the pens and trudged up the hill to meet them so that the three of them became silhouettes in the evening sky. Three young women, a shopping trolley and a bottle of Passion Pop.

2011, Rosie Cintio, Odds, in University of Technology, Sydney, The Life You Chose and That Chose You: The 25th UTS Writers′ Anthology, unnumbered page,
Donna had taught Chelsea how to bleach her hair without it going orange, how to insert a tampon, how to drink a whole bottle of Passion Pop without stopping.

2011, Sally Breen, The Casuals, HarperCollins Publishers, Australia, unnumbered page,
I meet Karen while watching the Melniks busk in the Queen Street Mall but we don′t really bond until some cute guy called TJ has a party in Wilston and we buy and consume four bottles of Passion Pop in less than two hours.

(Australia, New Zealand) A brand of sweet, fruity (especially, passionfruit-flavoured) fizzy wine, noted for being cheap and popular among teenage girls.


black beetle

black beetles (plural)
blackbeetle (alternative)
black-beetle (alternative)

(New Zealand) A similar roach native to New Zealand, of species Maoriblatta novaeseelandiae (syn. Platyzosteria novaeseelandia), Maori bug.


lolly scramble

There were plenty of children out that way - where are they not when a big lolly scramble is on?

1898 July 30, The Warwick Examiner and Times, Qld, page 7, column 1:

To kick it all off, there's a street parade through the Todd Mall, followed by a full-day of competitions with a lolly scramble for the kids[.]

2022 August 1, Off the Leash, Darwin, NT, page 6, column 1:

(New Zealand, Australia) An event where lollies are thrown on the ground for children to pick up, often at parades, school galas, community events, etc.

whiuwhiu rare

An event where lollies are thrown on the ground for children to collect, often at parades, school galas, community events, etc.


long drop

(Australia, New Zealand) An outhouse; a pit latrine.


crescent spanner

en-noun

crescent spanner (plural crescent spanners)

(Australia, New Zealand) An adjustable hand tool for tightening and loosening nuts and bolts.


biddi-biddi

Irregular formation from Maori piri-piri.

biddy-biddy (alternative)
biddy-bid (alternative)
bidibid (alternative)

Two days ago in the Duke, and still the hooks in that conversation stick in her throat like a half-swallowed bidibid.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 136:

(New Zealand) The burr of the piri-piri plant.


suck the kumara

en-verb

suck the kumara (third-person singular simple present sucks the kumara, present participle sucking the kumara, simple past and past participle sucked the kumara)

sucks the kumara (present singular third-person)
sucking the kumara (participle present)
sucked the kumara (participle past)
sucked the kumara (past)

Presumably because both a buried corpse and a kumara (“sweet potato”) are found under the earth.


hokey pokey

en-noun

hokey pokey (usually uncountable, plural hokey pokeys)

honeycomb toffee
honeycomb toffee#English

(New Zealand) A confection made from golden syrup, white sugar, and baking soda; honeycomb toffee

(New Zealand) Vanilla ice cream with small pieces of honeycomb toffee.