fulla

While we was wanderin round the stalls tryin, in vain it turns out, ta find a food stall that sold tucker with meat in it, we came across a stall sellin didjeridoos, or yidakis as the fulla sellin em liked to call em.

2012, Gayle Kennedy, Me, Antman and Fleabag, →ISBN:

Pick me up later young fulla, ten past five.

2013, Patricia Grace, The Dream Sleepers, →ISBN:

'Too many of our own fullas like that as well,' Brayling said darkly.

2018, Ngaio Marsh, Stella Duffy, Money in the Morgue, →ISBN, page 242:

(Australia, New Zealand) Man, especially one of indigenous descent.


blank cheque

(Australia, New Zealand, British, Canada) Alternative form of blank check.


ratbag

He says he was a ratbag at school and the entire teaching staff hated him except the English and economics teachers.

1986, Ursula Woodhouse, A very rich ratbag:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, sometimes endearing) A mischievous person, especially a child.


jack up

en-verb

jack up (third-person singular simple present jacks up, present participle jacking up, simple past and past participle jacked up)

jacks up (present singular third-person)
jacking up (participle present)
jacked up (participle past)
jacked up (past)

* Sense of “hoist with a jack” is from 1885; then, “increase prices, etc.” (1904, American English); both ultimately from noun jack (“mechanical device used to raise heavy objects”)
* “Screw up, mess up” sense derived from, or influenced by fuck up, as a bowdlerization; also possibly influenced by jacked up (“high, intoxicated”)
* First dialectal idiomatic meaning: “abandon, give up” (1873), possibly a corruption of chuck up, as chuck up the sponge (“give up, concede, give token of submission”)


dinkum

en-adj

dinkum (comparative more dinkum, superlative most dinkum)

more dinkum (comparative)
most dinkum (superlative)

Unknown. Earliest recorded use in the phrase fair dinkum in 1879, from Australia. Also recorded (slightly later) from Derbyshire and Lincolnshire dialect. Perhaps related to Gloucestershire dialect ding (“to work hard”).

Hon. Sir Ross McLarty: We were always dinkum.
Mr. MAY: The ultimate result showed how dinkum the hon. member was.

1956, parliamentary debates (Western Australian Parliament), page 2194:

The dinkum Aussie everyone talks about, almost always with a certain unreal sentimentality, is clearly a worker.

1966, Craig McGregor, Profile of Australia, page 21:

Larry's jeep was behind mine, and as I went past an intersection, I saw a lot of their chaps around a dinkum super Mark VI tank — p'raps a Mark VII or VIII. I didn't have a chance for a proper dinkum look-see, what?

2004, A. J. Liebling, Direction: Paris: Mollie and Other War Pieces, page 242:

He explained that he was due to have a game of hazards that night with a couple of Italian prospectors and that he was doctoring the dice so that they would do just what he wanted them to do.
‘Tim, is this game dinkum?’ asked Ted.
Highly indignant that such a suspicion should arise, he replied angrily:
‘Of course it's dinkum. They'll have loaded dice too!’

2006, Ron Fitch, Australian Railwayman: From Cadet Engineer to Railways Commissioner, page 65:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Genuine, true, honest, on the level.


dinkum

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, rare, obsolete) Hard work.

You look real jockey — thats' the dinkum.

1917, Ralph Albert Parlette, The Lyceum magazine, volume 27, page 20:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, dated) Truth.


truck driver

truck drivers (plural)
truckdriver (alternative)
truck-driver (alternative)

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

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A person employed to drive a truck, especially a tractor-trailer or other large industrial truck.


trundler

The supermarket, its turnstiles and trundlers, gave substance to hopes as desirable and distant as heaven.

1989, Trudie McNaughton, In Deadly Earnest: A Collection of Fiction by New Zealand Women, 1870s-1980s, Century Hutchinson, page 153:

A North Shore town centre is being ringed by an electronic fence in an attempt to stop thefts of supermarket trundlers.

2010, Wayne Thompson, “Electronic war on trolley thieves”, in New Zealand Herald:

A device that is trundled (pushed or pulled on wheels).

[…] I couldn’t see where I was going and banged into a baggy old lady pulling a trundler full of shopping,

1996, Tina Shaw, chapter 17, in Birdie, Auckland: David Ling, page 129:

Taking the blue canvas shopping trundler from the alcove in the hallway […] Mattina walked to where she hoped the dairy might be,

1988, Janet Frame, The Carpathians, New York: G. Braziller, Part 1, Chapter 4, p. 24:

(New Zealand) A foldable shopping bag with a light frame and wheels.

[…] many golf trolleys, or trundlers as the Australians call them, are equipped with a small seat upon which to rest between shots.

1988, Brian Morgan, “Australia, New Zealand and the Far East”, in A World Portrait of Golf, New York: Gallery Books, page 96:


tramper

It's a popular spot for hikers, or trampers as they call them here.

2007 December 29, Linda Barnard, “Train trek carries travellers over New Zealand's alpine backbone”, in Toronto Star, page T9:

(chiefly New Zealand) A recreational hiker.


soccer player

soccer players (plural)
soccer-player (alternative rare)

(soccer, US, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) One who plays soccer, especially professional soccer.


Gentle Annie

Possibly related to the Celtic goddess Anann (an aspect of the Mórrígan responsible, among other things, for culling weak cattle) or to the Stephen Foster song Gentle Annie (1856).

Gentle Annie Hill, New Zealand

Gentle Annie Rise, Tasmania

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A long uphill road or trail without a resting place.


rager

From Middle English rager, raiger, ragere, equivalent to rage + -er.

Clearly, the kernel of inspiration behind this whole out-of-control rager was nostalgia for less politically correct times.

2016 December 7, Peter Debruge, “Film Review: 'Office Christmas Party'”, in Variety (magazine), Los Angeles, C.A.: Penske Media Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-15:

Part of the Born X Raised story, almost unintentionally, has become their big — and growing only bigger — ragers.

2022 March 17, Julissa James, “Inside most legendary streetwear brand party in Los Angeles”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, L.A.: Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-07:

Experts urged interventions to break the fever, but unlike the last mini-mania, in 2016-17, policy makers pretty much did nothing while the Bank of Canada, understandably concerned about the pandemic-beset economy, made sure money stayed cheap. The house party kept on partying. It was a rager, and no one called the cops.

2022 June 10, “Canada’s housing frenzy was the party of all parties. Get ready for a hangover”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, O.N.: The Woodbridge Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-29:

The homeowner theorized that the intruders saw that the house was up for sale and targeted it for their rager.

2022 June 22, Selim Algar, “Incensed owner of $8M Florida mansion ransacked by teens wants them prosecuted”, in New York Post, New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-03:

(slang, US, Australia, New Zealand) A boisterous and out of control party.


minivan

→ Japanese: ミニバン (miniban)

→ Korean: 미니밴 (minibaen)

→ Russian: минивэ́н (minivɛ́n)

→ Thai: มินิแวน (mí-ní-wɛɛn)

A small van, especially (Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) one primarily used for family transport.


wowzer

(New Zealand, Canada, slang) Something of great interest or beauty.


(Australia, New Zealand) a transit lane restricted to vehicles with a minimum of two occupants.


pull one's head in

en-verb

pull one's head in (third-person singular simple present pulls one's head in, present participle pulling one's head in, simple past and past participle pulled one's head in)

pulls one's head in (present singular third-person)
pulling one's head in (participle present)
pulled one's head in (participle past)
pulled one's head in (past)

Perhaps from the habit of soldiers poking their heads out of army troop trains to make smart remarks, or in reference to a turtle drawing its head inside its shell for protection. Australian from circa 1930.

I really should have pulled my head in once they produced that evidence.

“Come on. Get yer gear off. Get yer gear off like mine,” the fanstopper Australian shouted, standing and pointing to his own bare chest. Two of his friends pulled him back down into his chair.
“Pull your head in,” one of them said.

1968, John Rowe, Count Your Dead, published 2003, page 68:

‘But you have got to pull your head in a little bit,’ he said. ‘We love your aggression and your toughness, but all the other stuff is hurting you – we need to pull you into line.’

2011, Barry Hall, Michael Cowley, Pulling No Punches, unnumbered page:

Denis also told me to me pull my head in on The Footy Show, but that was never going to happen. I loved being the class clown on that show too much.

2012, Brendan Fevola, Adam McNicol, Fev: In My Own Words, unnumbered page:

(figurative, Australia, New Zealand) To withdraw; to discontinue what one is doing or saying; to back off.


kumara

[ˈkʰʉːm(ə)ɹʷɐ]

They introduced the gourd, taro and kumara from the Polynesian Islands to the New Zealanders.

1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 98:

“And once, a woman threw a piece of cooked kumara at me and I ducked, and laughed…”

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 368:

In contrast to everything else that these migrant people had lugged from island to island, the kūmara had not come from the west.

2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 21:


aua

When the eyes of those who fish for eels are closed, the eyes of those who fish for the aua are open.

1855, Richard Taylor, Te Ika a Maui: Or, New Zealand and Its Inhabitants, page 133:

The Picton Herring, a dried fish commonly known throughout the colony, is the Aua preserved by smoking.

1872, Frederick Wollaston Hutton, Sir James Hector, Fishes of New Zealand: Catalogue with Diagnoses of the Species:

(New Zealand) Aldrichetta forsteri, a mullet of the family Mugilidae.


kehua

An old man explained to me, “The spirits of dead persons are afflicting such sufferers. These kehua control them. If the afflicted person survives he will be the medium of that [evil] spirit. Some people become demented when so affected.”

1906, Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, page 228:

1924, Elsdon Best, Māori Religion and Mythology: being an account of the cosmogony, anthropogeny, religious beliefs and rites, magic and folk lore of the Māori folk of New Zealand, Part 2, 2005, Te Papa Press, page 42,
The other aspect of the "etheric double" of the theosophist, that is the wraith or apparitional spirit seen after the death of the body, is the kehua of the Maori.

We'd say, 'Ready? Steady. Go!' And we'd run past his bedroom. Grandpa would be in his armchair looking out. We'd flash past crying out, ‘Kehua! Kehua!’

2001, Patricia Grace, Irihapeti Ramsden, Jonathan Dennis, The Silent Migration: Ngati Poneke Young Maori Club, 1937-1948, page 17:


acclimatisation

en-noun

acclimatisation (countable and uncountable, plural acclimatisations)

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


snavel

en-verb

snavel (third-person singular simple present snavels, present participle snavelling, simple past and past participle snavelled)

snavels (present singular third-person)
snavelling (participle present)
snavelled (participle past)
snavelled (past)

Probably related to snaffle, which may be from Dutch snavel.

Paul tried to snavel Dan′s chair from under him.

1915, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 472,
This was in his constituency, and he believed the idea was to go straight through the reserve eventually — that if they snavelled this piece now they would snavel more of this playground a little later on, and completely spoil the reserve.

These primitive merchants lost the Booradeela Timber Reserve when it was snavelled up even before the Depression by the Kincomba Building Combine with a wheedled government contract.

1986, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, page 26:


resection

resection (third-person singular simple present resections, present participle resectioning, simple past and past participle resectioned)

resections (present singular third-person)
resectioning (participle present)
resectioned (participle past)
resectioned (past)

According to Dyson LJ, mental health professionals will be acting unlawfully in resectioning a patient following discharge by a tribunal if 'the sole or principal ground on which they rely is one which in substance has been rejected by the tribunal.'

2002, Legal Action: The Bulletin of the Legal Action Group, page 12:

After just three weeks at home, with yet more 'abuse in the community' I am resectioned, and Helen re-admitted the same night.

2009, Simon Richard Lee, The Fourth Helen of the Apocalypse!, →ISBN, page 28:

He argued that the only way that his client could be retained in the hospital was if she was resectioned altogether. To be assessed for a new section she had to show fresh evidence of mental disorder and risk to others.

2013, Rod Madocks, Ship of Fools, →ISBN:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) To readmit involuntarily into a mental hospital.


little boy

(Australia, New Zealand) A small saveloy often consumed with tomato sauce at parties, also known as a cocktail sausage or a cheerio.


shinplaster

From shin + plaster.
Probably coined during the American War of Independence (1775–1783). Named for its resemblance to, and suitability for makeshift use as, a bandage for dressing the shin.

(historical, US, Australia, , and New Zealand informal) An essentially worthless note of paper money.


blackfish

en-noun

blackfish (plural blackfishes or blackfish)

The creek was reputed to contain blackfish and Nathan […] arranged the extraordinary collection of American lures he had inherited from an uncle.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 337:

(Australia, New Zealand) Any of various dark-coloured fishes of Australasia, especially the luderick (Girella tricuspidata), and a freshwater fish, Gadopsis marmoratus.


where there's smoke, there's fire

en-au-where there's smoke, there's fire.ogg

with a grain of salt
with a grain of salt

(UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand) If there is a hint of something occurring it could indeed be true, but such rumors should be taken with a grain of salt.

لَا دُخَانَ بِلَا نَار

if there is a hint of something occurring it could indeed be true, but rumors should be handled with skepticism


air marshal

(British, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, military) A military rank between that of air vice-marshal and air chief marshal, equivalent to an army lieutenant general.


slaggy

en-adj

slaggy (comparative slaggier or more slaggy, superlative slaggiest or most slaggy)

slaggier (comparative)
more slaggy (comparative)
slaggiest (superlative)
most slaggy (superlative)

2005, Maria Beaumont, MissFit, Arrow Books, UK, page 175,
This evening I′ve been the cheapest, slaggiest slag ever.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, derogatory) Resembling or characteristic of a slag; slutty, promiscuous.


Godzone

Contraction of God’s own country, modelled after zone (“area or region of the world”). The word was possibly modified from the title of the poem “God’s Own Country” (1890) by the New Zealand poet and politician Thomas Bracken (1843–1898).

It always looks so ridiculous, Joe hefty and twice his child's size – but that's the way we do it in good old Godzone.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 95:


barracking

The only really unique aspect of Australian barracking is its idiom, the distinctive language and humour involved.

1988, J. A. Mangan, editor, Pleasure, Profit, Proselytism: British Culture and Sport at Home and Abroad 1700-1914, page 266:

I had by then explained to him my custom of occasionally listening to Australian Rules Football on our shortwave radio of a Saturday afternoon; how, despite my barracking for Essendon, I thought a player from Geelong, Gary Ablett, the best I had ever seen.

2009, Roger Averill, Boy He Cry: An Island Odyssey, page 115:

‘So to me barracking for the footy I identified with my father, although nobody barracked for Essendon.’

2010, John Cash, Joy Damousi, Footy Passions, page 75:

(Australia, New Zealand) The act of cheering for or supporting a team.


sunbake

en-verb

sunbake (third-person singular simple present sunbakes, present participle sunbaking, simple past and past participle sunbaked)

sunbakes (present singular third-person)
sunbaking (participle present)
sunbaked (participle past)
sunbaked (past)

Such diversion as Podson could extort from his isolation was soon vitiated by repetition. He surfed. He sun-baked - with discretion till his skin had peeled and given him a harder cuticle.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 90:

'I saw her,' said Neptune, 'sunbaking topless.'

1985, Joan Morrison, Share House Blues, Boolarong Publications, page 43:

2003, Caroline Daley, Leisure and Pleasure, Auckland University Press, page 132,
Ancient precedents were important in establishing the long, lost history of the benefits of sunbaking. Journalists noted that ‘The ancients′ had recognised the importance of sunlight as a cure for disease; now modern New Zealanders had to do the same.

It was spent supervising sandcastles and shell collections, soggy towels and gritty kids, with hardly a minute to ourselves for sunbaking.

2006, Sharyn Munro, The Woman on the Mountain, ReadHowYouWant, published 2010, page 249:

The boat carries only 14 passengers and makes a stop at Michaelmas Cay where you can get off the boat, sunbake on the cay, swim in the shallow waters, and snorkel off the beach.

2007, Lee Mylne, Frommer′s Portable Australia′s Great Barrier Reef, page 66:

Inspired, I spent the summer holidays practising Chopin instead of sunbaking by Sophia′s pool.

2009, Anna Goldsworthy, Piano Lessons, page 105:


sunbake

It was a simple affair. We were camping down the south coast and one of my friends leapt out of the surf and slammed down onto the beach to have a sunbake – marvellous. We made the image and it's been around, I suppose as a sort of icon of the Australian way of life.

(Australia, New Zealand) A session of sunbathing.


bunnet

(Scotland, New Zealand) A style of flat cap traditionally made from wool, commonly worn by farmers and country gentlemen in cool climates.


wop-wops

Comes from the fact that you tend to go to these places in a bush helicopter (such as a MD500) which makes a 'wop wop' noise. The onomatopoeia is being used as a noun.

wop wops (alternative)
wops (alternative)
Woop Woop (alternative)

Still, things could happen out here in the wop-wops.

1979, Essie Summers, Lake of the Kingfisher, →ISBN, page 44:

(New Zealand) An out of the way place; the boondocks or backcountry.


cheap as chips

From being inexpensive, similar to chips (“French fries”).

(British, New Zealand, Australia, simile) Very cheap, not costing much.


morepork

moreporks (plural)
morepoke (alternative)

/ˈmɔɹˌpɔ(ə)ɹk/

The word is imitative of the bird's call.

onom

imitative

[T]he eye of the Morepork or Greater Night Jarr,^([sic]) which I lately had the opportunity of examining, is wonderfully adapted for enabling it to see the insects in the dark, on which it feeds.

1843, James Backhouse, chapter XVIII, in A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. […]; York, Yorkshire: John L. Linney, […], →OCLC, page 213:

Although the living figure of our owl may be unknown to most persons, from the nature of its habits, yet few, perhaps very few, of the older settlers are unacquainted with the human-like cry of the More-pork.

1871 May, T[homas] H[enry] Potts, “Art. XI.—On the Birds of New Zealand. … (Part II.)”, in James Hector, editor, Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, 1870, volume III, Wellington: James Hughes, printer, […]; London: Trübner 7 Co., […], →OCLC, page 61:

[I]t was better fun wandering about with the old man at night than moping in my hut, listening to the morepoke.

1876, Richard Rowe, “The Bunyip”, in A Child’s Corner Book: Stories for Boys and Girls, London, Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo. […], →OCLC, page 182:

When Heke and Kawiti were making an attack on the Europeans in the Bay of Islands, the native parties, in taking up their positions before daybreak, communicated their movements to one another by imitating the cry of the morepork, which the sentries were accustomed to hear, and of which they therefore took no notice.

1909, F[rederick] W[ollaston] Hutton, James Drummond, “[Aves.] The Morepork.—Kuru or Koukou. Ninox novae-zealandiae.”, in The Animals of New Zealand: An Account of the Dominion’s Air-breathing Vertebrates, 3rd revised and enlarged edition, Christchurch, Wellington, Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs, →OCLC, page 170:

Moreporks and laughing owls were both recorded from the Punakaiki karst in small numbers, although the presence of laughing owls was inferred only from prey remains. [...] Because moreporks were extremely rare in fossil deposits, Millener (1991) suggested that they were recent colonists. In Punakaiki, one of the morepork records is of bones beneath an entrance tomo.

1993 September, T[revor] H[enry] Worthy, R. N. Holdaway, “Quaternary Fossil Faunas from Caves in the Punakaiki Area, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand”, in Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, volume 23, number 3, Wellington: SIR Publishing, Royal Society of New Zealand, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 216:

I remember that at night there was usually a morepork in the tree, whose eerie calls scared me as I lay still in bed, with firmly closed eyes, waiting for a possible attack.

2000, L. C. Woods, “Growing Up”, in Against the Tide: An Autobiographical Account of a Professional Outsider, Bristol, Philadelpha, Pa.: Institute of Physics Publishing, →ISBN, page 1:

[T]wo New Zealand Moreporks (Ninox novaeseelandiae) were introduced to Norfolk Island in 1987, where only one individual of the closely related Norfolk Island Boobook (Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata) survived [...]. Nest boxes were erected across the island to supplement the dearth of natural hollows. By early 1995, the population had risen to 11 birds [...].

2002, Philip Gibbons, David Lindenmayer, “The Role of Nest Boxes in Research and Management”, in Tree Hollows and Wildlife Conservation in Australia, Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, published 2003, →ISBN, page 146:

I heard the harsh rasping of a weta, a mega-cricket. Then a pair of Morepork owls began a duet. Few birds are as aptly named as the Morepork. From dusk to sun-up and from forest to suburban garden, this medium-sized owl emphatically calls for "more pork."

2008, David Stirling, “Belly Up in the Kauri Trees”, in Birds, Beasts and a Bike under the Southern Cross, Victoria, B.C.: Agio Publishing House, →ISBN, page 14:

Moreporks’ inquisitive, searching eyes, / scan the hiding places, search the ground, / it stares ’round … from flattened rounded face.

2012, Robert Taylor, “Predators”, in Driftwood: Another Voice, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 47:

We were a family of odd bods and every summer we spent by the river. At night the morepokes called again and again.

2016, Brigid Lowry, “My Inky Life: Thoughts about Writing Memoir”, in Still Life with Teapot: On Zen, Writing and Creativity, North Fremantle, W.A.: Fremantle Press, →ISBN:

(chiefly New Zealand) The Tasmanian spotted owl (Ninox novaeseelandiae), a small brown owl indigenous to New Zealand and Tasmania.

It is interesting that the Opposition morepork is starting to chirp. [...] We have all heard about the "gang of four and a half"—the morepork brigade.

1985 July 16, Ken Shirley, “Appropriation Bill (No. 2)—Financial Statement: Second Reading”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): First Session, Forty-first Parliament (House of Representatives), volume 464, Wellington: V. R. Ward, government printer, →OCLC, page 5636:

(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, derogatory) Used as a mild term of abuse.

A foolish person; also, a person who is wearisome.

Where's that old morepoke? O, you're there, are you? Fetch the jack off o' your wagon—come! fly roun'! you're (very) slow for a young fellow.

1903 August 1, Tom Collins [pseudonym; Joseph Furphy], chapter 1, in Such is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins, Sydney, N.S.W.: Bulletin Newspaper Company, →OCLC; republished Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin House of Books, 2012, →ISBN:

A person who is lazy or slow; a slowcoach, a slowpoke.


VN

VNs (plural)
V.N. (alternative)
V. N. (alternative)

But in addition, he adds to the tags of certain assistants the designation, “V.N.,” meaning veterinary nurse.

1963, American Veterinary Medical Association, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, volume 143, page 179:

Veterinary nurse applicants wanting to work for the Society have to follow the VN course (see Chapter One for details).

1999, Victoria Pybus, Working with Animals: The UK, Europe and Worldwide:

Alison Young joined a small animal practice in 1998 as a student veterinary nurse and whilst there gained her VN qualification.

2006, British Small Animal Veterinary Association, BSAVA Congress 2006: Scientific Proceedings, page 20:

(veterinary, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) Initialism of veterinary nurse.


durry

Unknown. Perhaps from Bull Durham (an American tobacco brand) + -y (“diminutive suffix”).

“Fire-head lady, you got a smoke?” asks the younger of the two men. “You got a durry. Cigarette.”

2003, C. C. Saint-Clair, Far from Maddy, page 224:

He pulled a tobacco pouch out of his pocket with a plastic bag containing what had to be a mind-altering substance. “You′re welcome to join me in a durry,” he said, rolling himself a cigarette.

He thought for a moment as he deftly rolled the paper and tobacco into a durry, licked the edge and stuck it down.

2007, Kevin Hallewell, Woop Woop, page 151:

This was the first thing Yolanda knew in the dark morning. (That and where's my durries?)

2015, Charlotte Wood, The Natural Way of Things, Allen & Unwin, published 2018, page 3:

(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A cigarette, especially a roll-your-own.


arsey

en-adj

arsey (comparative more arsey, superlative most arsey)

more arsey (comparative)
most arsey (superlative)
arsy (alternative)


pot plant

pot plants (plural)
pot-plant (alternative)
potplant (alternative)

Pot-plants on spindle-legged stands lurked in wait for an incautious gesture.

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 60:

Then there was the sound of transport, too heavy a sound for a private car, and headlights showed up the withered pot-plants in Crabbe's porch.

1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 494:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A plant growing in a flowerpot; a houseplant.


ring road

ring roads (plural)
ringroad (alternative)

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand, UK) A circumferential highway around a town, city, or other conurbation.


chundering

[…] – you don't get through the average possession without the odd gastric fiesta – but previous chunderings were picnics compared to the . . . the surrealist free-for-all to which I gave myself over that evening in my bathroom.

2007, Glen Duncan, I, Lucifer: Finally, the Other Side of the Story:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, slang) The act of vomiting.


shotties

Shotties for the drink, man

(New Zealand, slang) thanks, thank you, shot

(New Zealand, slang) I acknowledge your greatness (or skill), that's great.


choko

Variant of chocho, used in the Caribbean.


kero

‘Need a bit more kero,’ he'd say. ‘How about trotting down to town for it?’

1979, Thea Astley, Hunting the Wild Pineapple, Nelson, page 129:

The hessian hut glowed yellow with the light of a kero lamp.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 293:

(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) Kerosene.


hard case

(New Zealand, slang) An amusing, funny, witty, or possibly strange person.


tokoeka

Apteryx australis
Apteryx australis#Translingual

(New Zealand) A kiwi, Apteryx australis.


stoush

Possibly from stash. Australian from 1893; Boer War military slang. Also may be derived from stushie or stooshie, a Scottish term for a commotion, rumpus, or row.

1996, Elizabeth Knox, Glamour and the Sea, Victoria University Press, New Zealand, page 166,
Barry explained that his friend wasn′t drunk, he′d been in a stoush, had a ding on his head and was covered in money.

Now Henry knows dead cert he′s in for a stoush, but Snake-hips says he should go with him, and out on Nymagee-street Henry Lawson refuses a twenty-pound note, and the two men shake and Henry accepts the next billiards game, doubles with Snake-hips (who plays even worse than Henry), the Minister for Public Instruction, and the Austrian chappie.

2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 200:

She and Anna used to reproduce Veronica′s stoushes with Pat, conducted with gusto over the fence but never brought into the confining space of either house where they might smoulder and flare.

2004, Jay Verney, Percussion, University of Queensland Press, page 151:

2008, Anna Haebich, Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia 1950-1970, Fremantle Press, page 63,
Melbourne almost lost the event when union go-slow tactics and a stoush over federal and state funding responsibilities seriously delayed work on the construction of the Olympic Stadium and Village.

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A fight, an argument.


driver's licence

en-noun

driver's licence (plural driver's licences or drivers' licences)

driver's licences (plural)
drivers' licences (plural)

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand) An official identification document which states the recipient may drive a motorized vehicle.


cark it

en-verb

cark it (third-person singular simple present carks it, present participle carking it, simple past and past participle carked it)

carks it (present singular third-person)
carking it (participle present)
carked it (participle past)
carked it (past)
kark it (alternative)

A slang shortening of carcass + it. Not related to cark (“to worry”). Used frequently in Australia.

The guy was running, then he had a heart attack and carked it.

He′d always bragged about carking it before he hit twenty. When he turned twenty, he escalated the date of his demise to twenty-five.

1989, Kathy Lette, Girl′s Night Out, →ISBN, page 86:

If I hit the little shit too hard his parents could even sue me. There′s a fine line between self-defence and pure and simple mayhem. The little bastard might even cark it.

1998, Barry Westburg, Glenda & Me & Meathead Go For Broke: Rage of Angels: Expatriate Tales, page 74:

“Hi Bill. Zorah told you about Kate?”
“That she carked it? Yeh.” Translation: That she died. Yeah.
He flapped his hand in a go-away gesture and started toward the koalas, but not before I saw a haunted look in his eyes. Did he still care for Kate?

2010, Betty Webb, The Koala of Death, page 10:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To die.


campervan

campervans (plural)
camper van (alternative)

(Australia, New Zealand, British) A vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation.


shit off

shit off (third-person singular simple present shits off, present participle shitting off, simple past shat off or shit off, past participle shat off)

shits off (present singular third-person)
shitting off (participle present)
shat off (past)
shit off (past)
shat off (participle past)

Old lady'd be shat off if she knew I was just around the corner.

The three of them decided they would go camping at the Cotter reserve and, just to shit them off, Eric and I said we would go too.

1998, Rod McLean, Eric and Ian Get a Life, →ISBN, page 22:

There was no English on it. It was all Hebrew script and I remember it shat me off that I couldn't read it.

2005, Christos Tsiolkas, Dead Europe, page 252:

It's not hosing blood that shits me off – it's Angelus itself; I'm going nuts here.

2006, Tim Winton, Big World: The Turning: Stories, page 2:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, vulgar, transitive) to annoy


puckeroo

Borrowed from Maori pakaru (“broken”).http://books.google.com/books?id=lx5W9QiztAcC&pg=PA52&dq=%22puckeroo%22


King's Counsel

head

King's Counsel (plural King's Counsel or King's Counsels, abbreviation KC)

King's Counsel (plural)
King's Counsels (plural)
KC (abbreviation)

When the case eventually came to court in December 1903, Wellcome’s team, headed by Moulton, contained three King’s Counsel; they had marshalled seventy-two witnesses and intimated that they could produce as many again.

1994, Robert Rhodes James, “‘A Morbid Misery’”, in Henry Wellcome, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 292:

Arrayed in front of him was a very expensive line-up of London’s best legal brains. Each director had his own team of two, and in some cases three, defence barristers. Including two King’s Counsels who represented the Official Receiver, there were a dozen silks in court.

2011, Martin Vander Weyer, “[Misfeasance] Wilful Neglect?”, in Fortune’s Spear: The Story of the Blue-Blooded Rogue Behind the Most Notorious City Scandal of the 1920s, London: Elliott and Thompson Limited, →ISBN, page 256:

(UK, Canada, New Zealand, occasionally Australia) An honorific status officially conferred on senior or meritorious barristers (and occasionally other kinds of lawyer) during the reign of a king.


kainga

kaingas (plural)
kaik (alternative)
kaika (alternative)

Borrowed from Maori kāinga, probably from kā (“to burn, be alight”) + -nga (“deverbal noun suffix”).

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:

He's not on the first beach round from the kaika.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 235:

(New Zealand, now chiefly historical) A Maori village.


reefing

Alluvial goldfields and quartz reefings are in its vicinity, and good indications of coal.

1924, Newspaper Press Directory, page 387:

[…]instead of taking a “leap in the dark” — a mistake which impulsive young men sometimes make in other relations of life, as well as in quartz reefings.

1977, William Kelly, Life in Victoria: or, Victoria in 1853, and Victoria in 1858, page 218:

(Australia, New Zealand) A reef (seam of quartz).


philosophise

en-verb

philosophise (third-person singular simple present philosophises, present participle philosophising, simple past and past participle philosophised)

philosophises (present singular third-person)
philosophising (participle present)
philosophised (participle past)
philosophised (past)

"Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it was intolerably dull, pompous, and tedious; and having hte fear of her schoolmistress greatly before her eyes, Miss Sedley did not venture, in her presence, to give way to any ebullitions of private grief."

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) Alternative spelling of philosophize.


rabbit board

rabbit boards (plural)
Rabbit Board (alternative)
rabbit-board (alternative)

You speak of rabbit boards in the other colonies.[…]You have had nothing to do with the rabbit boards in Queensland?

1899, South Australian Parliament, Proceedings of the Parliament of South Australia, volume 3, page 227:

1907, Western Australian Department of Agriculture, Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Western Australia, Volume 15, Issue 1, page 325,
I think the time is not too far distant when there will need to be rabbit boards appointed to deal with the pest locally, and with that in view I have had a draft of a new Act prepared by the Crown Law Department making provision for such, and have submitted it to you for your approval.

Infested districts are proclaimed by the Governor, and thereupon a rabbit board shall be constituted to carry out the provisions of the Act.

1909, The Legislation of the Empire: Being a Survey of the Legislative Enactments of the British Dominions from 1898 to 1907, volume 1, page 471:

There are about fifty or sixty Rabbit Boards in New Zealand, controlling a tremendous area of land, and it is necessary for them to supply farmers with certain poisons,[…].

1936, New Zealand Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, volume 243, page 235:

Most notable in this regard have been the Rabbit Boards of Queensland[…].

1976, Tom Lee McKnight, Friendly Vermin: A Survey of Feral Livestock in Australia, volume 21, page 6:

1980, Royal Australian Historical Society, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Volumes 66-67, page 139,
These bodies—pastures protection boards, stock boards, rabbit boards, and so on—discharged various reserved functions of local government, and made up a parallel hierarchy.

(Australia, New Zealand) An authority responsible for the management and control of wild rabbits.


ropeable

en-adj

ropeable (comparative more ropeable, superlative most ropeable)

more ropeable (comparative)
most ropeable (superlative)
ropable (alternative)

1903, Tom Collins (Joseph Furphy), Such is Life: Being Certain Extracts From The Diary of Tom Collins, 2004, page 19,
′On′t ole Martin be ropeable when he sees that fence!

As soon as I hit the cold air I got even more ropeable. The garage door caught when I was dragging it back and I gave it a God-almighty heave. There was a sharp crack and it came off the hinges.
I wanted to smash something, tear something apart with my bare hands, aet fire to the bloody house.

2003, Dal Stivens, Jimmy Brockett: Portrait of a Notable Australian, page 115:

The phone rang a couple of hours later and it was Di. I have never heard her more ropable in my life; it is the only tongue-lashing I ever remember getting from her and it was excoriating.

2009, Sean Dooley, Cooking with Baz, page 115:

I was already angry that he had gone out and left me to clean all his shit up but to then find out he had gone off to see his little tart got me even more ropeable.

2009, Roberta Williams, Roberta Williams: My Life, unnumbered page:

As the weeks wore on and the toddler′s tantrums continued, the mother reached her wits′ end and the father became ropeable.

2011, Christopher Green, New Toddler Taming, page 2:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Angry to the point of needing to be restrained from violent action.


God Save the King

Based on an Old English translation of 2 Kings 11:12 likely made by Dunstan for King Edgar's coronation in 973.

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK) An expression of one’s patriotism and hope for the long life of the monarch, especially in his presence.


Scotch fillet

Scotch fillets (plural)
scotch fillet (alternative)

2004, Ben Canaider, Greg Duncan Powell, Cooking Under the Influence: Food to Drink To, Murdoch Books Australia, page 83,
When in need of protein and the essential amino acids required to run our bodies, when our hair or nails won′t grow, or when we have to drink young cabernet, scotch fillet is the answer.

2006, Jared Ingersoll, Danks Street Depot, Murdoch Books Australia, page 62,
Scotch fillet is a great roasting meat, but only if it is of exceptional quality and has been allowed to hang, otherwise it can be a little tough.

2007, Sharon Lurie, Cooking With the Kosher Butcher′s Wife, New Holland Publishing (South Africa), page 10,
It is in this section of the ribs that the tender Scotch fillet or rib-eye muscle is housed.

2010, Veechi Curtis, Lynley Averis, Bookkeeping For Dummies, Australian & New Zealand Edition, page 213,
If you forget someone′s superannuation payment, that employee simply misses out. And yes, when that person retires and ends up eating porridge rather than scotch fillet, it′s you that′s to blame.

(Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) A ribeye steak.


stonker

en-verb

stonker (third-person singular simple present stonkers, present participle stonkering, simple past and past participle stonkered)

stonkers (present singular third-person)
stonkering (participle present)
stonkered (participle past)
stonkered (past)

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, transitive) To defeat decisively; to trounce.

This sort of stonkers me, but I says to him: […]

2018, Arthur W. Upfield, Kees de Hoog, Up and Down Australia Again:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, transitive) To baffle or dumbfound.


pasher

My boyfriend is such a good pasher!

‘And seeing you told me you′re such a good pasher, you can kiss me goodnight if you like.’

2003, Barry Crocker, The Adventures of Barry Crocker: Bazza, page 76:

Ms Fitzgibbon turned her attention back to the pashers, who had now separated. That didn′t last long. They were walking back to camp, holding hands.

2005, Andrew Daddo, Youse Two, unnumbered page:

2009, Andrew Cox, Settling for It, Tamara Sheward, Jenny Valentish (editors), Your Mother Would Be Proud: True Tales of Mayhem and Misadventure, Allen & Unwin, Australia, page 407,
Nevertheless, I was off and running and thereafter enjoyed a period as one of this country′s most promiscuous pashers. With a minimum of sweet-talk almost anyone could kiss me, I was so fucking easy.

(Australia and New Zealand, slang) One who pashes (snogs, kisses).


snig

snig (third-person singular simple present snigs, present participle snigging, simple past and past participle snigged)

snigs (present singular third-person)
snigging (participle present)
snigged (participle past)
snigged (past)

(Australia, New Zealand, forestry) To drag a log along the ground by means of a chain fastened at one end.


greenstone

en-noun

greenstone (countable and uncountable, plural greenstones)

greenstones (plural)
green-stone (alternative)

(New Zealand) The pounamu, the green-hued minerals of New Zealand used by the Māori to make tools, ornaments and weapons (any of three varieties of nephrite jade or one variety of bowenite).


Blu-Tack

It was an April Fool hoax, of course. 31200 had been rigged up with a single lightweight wooden [name] plate (loosely held on by Blu Tack).

2024 January 10, Chris Gilson, “RAIL's famous five...”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 27:

(British, New Zealand, Australia) A solid putty-like adhesive, originally blue in colour, used to secure items to walls and other surfaces.


Blu-Tack

en-verb

Blu-Tack (third-person singular simple present Blu-Tacks, present participle Blu-Tacking, simple past and past participle Blu-Tacked)

Blu-Tacks (present singular third-person)
Blu-Tacking (participle present)
Blu-Tacked (participle past)
Blu-Tacked (past)

The power switch wasn't seated properly, and so I blu-tacked it into place.

(British, New Zealand, Australia) To fix with Blu-Tack.


clacker

Possibly a deformation of cloaca. Alternatively of imitative origin, from the sound of farting or testicles clacking.

(Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) The anus.


boonga

(New Zealand, slang, ethnic slur, offensive) A person of Polynesian origin.


club sandwich

Said to have originated at the Union Club in New York City.


play silly buggers

play silly buggers (third-person singular simple present plays silly buggers, present participle playing silly buggers, simple past and past participle played silly buggers)

plays silly buggers (present singular third-person)
playing silly buggers (participle present)
played silly buggers (participle past)
played silly buggers (past)
play silly beggars (alternative)

"Look," he said, "it's just fate playing silly buggers with you. With me. With us. It's a complete coincidence."

1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 95:

(British, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, idiomatic) To act in a stupid or reckless manner.


daks

From DAKS, trademark for a brand of trousers originally made in the 1930s by Simpsons of Piccadilly; formed from the initials of Alexander Simpson and the first and last letters of the name of his business associate Dudley Beck.

The usual stuff – sports jacket, a couple of pairs of daks, one brown and one grey, three pairs of socks, though I only had need for one sock in the meantime, two white shirts and a decent pair of shoes, though again, only one shoe being useful in my present predicament.

2004, Bryce Courtenay, Brother Fish, published 2008, unnumbered page:

2008, Dave Sabben, The Scorpion Dance, Denny Neave, Soldiers' Tale: A Collection of True Stories from Aussie Soldiers, page 144,
But the pain′s still there, so I begin to drop my daks to investigate the territory.

“Look, I'll pull the bloody leeches off you. Okay? They won't hurt you. They′s only trying to suck your bloody blood. Why waste a pair of clean dacks?”

2010, Robin Easton, Naked in Eden: My Adventure and Awakening in the Australian Rainforest, page 43:

They were still there the next morning, flapping in the breeze. Filthy, grease stained pair of daks. The crotch half rotted away.

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) Trousers or underwear.


biccy

biccies (plural)
biccie (alternative)
bickie (alternative)
bicky (alternative)
bikkie (alternative)
bikky (alternative)

From a clipping of biscuit + -y (forming diminutives).

Unnoticed, little Wayne, having finished his second choccy biccy, had moved off […]

Max had a gorgeous round, pale face surrounded by light brown curls, and he would say things like, "May I have a biccy, Mummy?"

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, colloquial, sometimes childish) Alternative form of biscuit: a cookie.


gibbed

They had also seen a Lockwood show home utilizing a mix of timber and gibbed walls.

2014 August 10, “Mangamingi Magic”, in Live magazine:

They were also clear about the things they didn’t want. No white gibbed walls, for instance. Instead, they have chosen rough-sawn cedar for rustic warmth, embossed wallpapers for texture, wood panelling for Asian drama.

2012 December, Sue Hoffart, “Seaside Wellington cottage”, in NZHouse&Garden:

(New Zealand) Finished with plasterboard, as opposed to some other surface material.


cat's eye

en-noun

cat's eye (countable and uncountable, plural cats' eyes or cat's eyes)

cats' eyes (plural)
cat's eyes (plural)
cat's-eye (alternative)
catseye (alternative)

An allusion to the way a cat's eyes will appear to glow when illuminated in the dark. In mineralogy, a calque of French œil de chat.

(countable, New Zealand) A sea snail, Lunella smaragda


microneighbourhood

UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa spelling of microneighborhood.


come at

en-verb

come at (third-person singular simple present comes at, present participle coming at, simple past came at, past participle come at)

comes at (present singular third-person)
coming at (participle present)
came at (past)
come at (participle past)

Nah, mate – I'm not going to come at that again. Too risky.

Mr. O'Loghlen: Do you think a factory would come at that?

1922, Australian Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, volume 100, page 1139:

Somehow I don′t think ausadmin or news server managers at large would come at that idea.

2000 October 24, Gary Meadows, “Is Scott Steel neutral in act-b? (was: The Great Australian Confusion)”, in aus.culture.true-blue (Usenet):

[…]he would have liked to be a roving correspondent for both the ABC and the BBC, but the BBC would not come at that arrangement.

2006, Kenneth Stanley Inglis, This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1932-1983, page 174:

(Australia, New Zealand, transitive, slang) To accept (a situation); to agree to do; to try.


sandshoe

sandshoes (plural)
sand shoe (alternative)

He was clad in a shabby khaki-drill suit and grubby panama and sandshoes, and wore neither socks nor shirt, and was unshaven.

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter III, in Capricornia, page 36:

1986, Pete Thomas, The Coalminers of Queensland, Volume I: Creating the Traditions, Queensland Colliery Employees Union, page 325,
Later, however, the union ran into a problem of a severe shortage of sandshoes in Queensland. The rationing authorities, in reply to a union request on this, said that the Chief Inspector of Coalmines had condemned use of sandshoes in mines as being “not conducive to health or safety.”

2003, Peter Plowman, Across the Sea to War: Australian and New Zealand Troop Convoys from 1865 through two World Wars to Lorea and Vietnam, Rosenberg Publishing, Australia, page 387,
Sandshoes had been issued for shipboard use, to avoid damage to the decks by hob-nailed boots.

2007, Melissa Harper, The Ways of the Bushwalker: On Foot in Australia, UNSW Press, page 272,
The sandshoe versus the boot; this is an issue that has stirred the blood of bushwalkers for more than fifty years. […] The demise of the ubiquitous hob-nailed boot (circa 1950s) in favour of a boot with a patterned rubber sole generated concern, but the popularity of a boot that combined a rubber sole and a canvas upper with no ankle support simply went too far for some.

But because yer sandshoes, if they were dirty, it was a point off yer team, so ye were just to try yer hardest.

2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 81:

(Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Northern England) A sports or walking shoe with canvas upper and rubber sole; a sneaker.


possie

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

I'm just sitting in my possie, my place, waiting for something to happen.

1990, Matthew Kentridge, An unofficial war: inside the conflict in Pietermaritzburg:

'There is a beautiful odour in the possie where we are,' HG Clark wrote to his family...

2005, Matthew Wright, Western front: the New Zealand Division in the first World War, 1916-18:

Away from the firing line, these possies and dugouts could be made larger...

2006, Wesley Olson, Gallipoli: the Western Australian story:

(Australia, New Zealand, military slang, Digger slang) A firing position.

1984, Garrie Hutchinson, A Practice Game at the Old Home Ground, from From the Outer, reprinted 2001, David Headon (editor), The Best Ever Australian Sports Writing: A 200 Year Collection, page 289,
The fans seem happy to be back, finding their formerly favourite possies in the stands, or around the strangely sunken perimeter fence.

1998, Business Review Weekly, Volume 20, Issues 47-49, page 102,
Of course, it helps if you are very rich and regularly pay more than $40,000 for a couture outfit to be guaranteed of a near-front-row possie at the bi-annual parades (winter and summer collections).

It′s in a good people-watching possie and if you have an early dinner between 3pm and 7pm you get a 40% discount.

2009, Andrew Bain, Ethan Gelber, Cycling Australia, Lonely Planet, page 346:

(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A position or place, especially one that is advantageous.


governor general

en-noun

governor general (plural governors general)

governors general (plural)
governor-general (alternative)

/ˈɡʌvənɚ ˌdʒɛn(ə)ɹəl/

/ˈɡʌv(ə)nə ˌdʒɛnɹəl/

[ˈɡɐv(ɘ̃)nɜ ˌdʒẽnɹɯ]

حَاكِم عَامّ

governor or viceroy possessing some military authority

In 1968, as one of the projects sponsored by the federal Centennial Commission, Irma Coucill was asked to add drawings of all the Governors General and Prime Ministers since Confederation.

2005, Irma Coucill, Preface: Canada′s Prime Ministers, Governors General and Fathers of Confederation, page 7:

But in a minority government scenario, the governor general might still be called upon to play a part.

2009, Rand Dyck, Canadian Politics, page 320:

(Canada, Australia, New Zealand) An official appointed by the reigning British monarch to govern a Commonwealth realm as the monarch's representative.


plughole

plugholes (plural)
plug hole (alternative)
plug-hole (alternative)

The plughole started to slurp loudly as the water went down it.

2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 28, in Small Island, London: Review, page 295:

He jabbed his fingers into his hair and worked the dirt from the follicles, watched it swirl away down the plughole, sandy granules, flakes of dust and ash.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 199:

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand, British) The hole at the bottom of a bath, sink or tub, which can be blocked using a plug; a drain (US)


good on someone

good for someone (alternative)
onya (alternative)

You got married? Good on you!

And he had a big smile like he really liked us and our wall. Black old teeth. Fat stomach. Well good on you. Good on all of you and your wall. Hee, hee, hee, hee.

1989, Patricia Grace, “Six by Six: Short Stories by New Zealand's Best Writers”, in Bill Manhire, editor, The Wall:

I have never forgotten his smile and the look in his eyes as he said, ‘Good on you, little brother.[…]’

2004, Willem Dijkstra, May You Live In Interesting Times, volume 1, page 301:

2009 October 27, House of Lords European Union Committee, Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers: 3rd Report of Session 2009-10, Volume II: Evidence, page 88,
Lord Renton of Mount Harry: […] I do not wish to be rude in saying this, but it is very easy for you as BlackRock because you are already a global, very big company and you are obviously hugely successful — good on you — but what about the alternative investment fund manager in one of the EU countries who wants to grow, wants to become more established in other countries, et cetera, surely for them there has to be some other international means, not just standing on national status and national passports.

(UK, Ireland, New England, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand) An exclamation of encouragement or congratulation: well done.

You brought coffee? Good on you mate!

(Australia, New Zealand) Used to express thanks.


king hit

king hits (plural)
king-hit (alternative)

2001, Robert Manne, Exclusionary Nationalism, Peter Craven, The Best Australian Essays 2001, page 60,
Yet still, in the cultural area, at this time it had not yet delivered the populist king hit.

‘Yeah, he says he′s sorry for stealing your scooter but you deserved it, and he wants you to take him on in a fair fight,’ said Dror. ‘No king hits and no guns.’

This is what the Australian lacks, the integrity of being itself and coming at its political opponents front-on. In its current guise, it is throwing cowardly king-hits, so much so that a mild, civilised figure such as Bob Brown has labelled it “the hate media.”

2011, Mark Latham, “Correspondence: Bad News”, in Andrew Charlton, editor, Quarterly Essay, page 112:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, also figurative) A blow intended to incapacitate in one hit, often delivered without warning.


king hit

en-verb

king hit (third-person singular simple present king hits, present participle king hitting, simple past and past participle king hit)

king hits (present singular third-person)
king hitting (participle present)
king hit (participle past)
king hit (past)
king-hit (alternative)

He king hit from behind and his victim fell to the floor.

2003 March 19-30, Cameron Stewart, The Lion King - The Lethal Touch, in The Australian Magazine, republished in Garrie Hutchinson (editor), The Best Australian Sports Writing 2003, unnumbered page,
His most notorious transgression – and his greatest regret – was the day in 1985 when he king-hit Geelong player Neville Bruns, breaking his jaw.

2007August 11, Passengers say dead man (was) ‘king hit’ in fight over $20, Sydney Morning Herald,
Passengers leaving P&O's Pacific Sun yesterday told how a man who died on board the ship had been king hit following an alcohol-fuelled fight with another man over $20.

Michael Smith came up to the plaintiff and king hit him ... he was unconscious before he hit the ground,” Mr Karimi′s lawyer, Philip Doherty, SC, told the court.

2007 August 6, “Man sues club and bouncers after king hit”, in Sydney Morning Herald:

She came up to where Tilly was shaking me like a rag doll and, without a word, she king-hit Tilly Devine and then sat on her in the street.

2008, Larry Writer, The Australian Book of True Crime, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, also figurative) To attack a victim and knock them unconscious with a single punch.


spinner

From Middle English spynnere; equivalent to spin + -er.

(Australia, New Zealand) The coin thrower in a game of two-up.


byelection

byelections (plural)
by-election (alternative)
byeelection (alternative)

(Canada, New Zealand, often UK) Alternative form of by-election.


scarfie

From scarf + -ie, from the signature blue-and-yellow scarf such a person wears to show their support for their home rugby team (especially the Otago Rugby Football Union).

(New Zealand, slang) A university student, especially one from the University of Otago.


pushbike

pushbike (third-person singular simple present pushbikes, present participle pushbiking, simple past and past participle pushbiked)

pushbikes (present singular third-person)
pushbiking (participle present)
pushbiked (participle past)
pushbiked (past)
push bike (alternative)
push-bike (alternative)

The noun is derived from push + bike. The verb is derived from the noun.

It makes me miserable when I think of the number of poor surveyors still push-biking their daily round.

1913, Surveyor, volume 43, London: [Taylor & Francis?], →OCLC, page 1001, column 2:

Recently two of us had to go into Makeni to collect copper for the men's December pay, and as walking would have taken at least two days, and for any degree of comfort four, we push biked along the bush track from camp to Kamabai, about six miles, and covered the remaining twenty odd miles by railway trolley (West African pump-car).

1930s, “Homo” [pseudonym; Harold James Holmes], Behind Mount Lion: Treks and Tours in Sierra Leone: Compiled from the Letters of “Homo”, Andover, Hampshire: Published at the “Advertiser” Printing Works, →OCLC, page 50:

Dr. Smith is making a tour of the world "push-biking" from place to place, forwarding whatever he finds interesting along his travels.

1932, Herbert N. Smith, “English Personalities”, in Year Book of Optometry, New York, N.Y.: New York State Optometric Association, →OCLC, page 249:

First of all it was very early in the morning—it was about by this time between 4 and 6 a.m. everybody still asleep—so I went on and start push biking around the house till I decide that its not too early.

1964, Jerzy Zubrzycki, Settlers of the Latrobe Valley: A Sociological Study of Immigrants in the Brown Coal Industry in Australia, Canberra, A.C.T.: Australian National University, →OCLC, page 205:

In South East Nigeria I knew him only slightly between 1923 and 1948; a self-effacing but self-sufficient figure pushbiking about the country in khaki shorts, white shirt and plimsolls, always purposeful, seldom interested in the whisky, gin, and bridge sessions that passed for evening society in bush stations.

1971, African Arts: A Quarterly Journal Devoted to the Graphic, Plastic, Literary and Performing Arts of Africa, Los Angeles, Calif.: African Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 93, column 1:

Apart from a wireless-repair van parked a few yards off and a vicar's-wife type, energetically push-biking past in bright yellow oilskins, the streets were deserted.

1994, Kingsley Amis, You Can’t Do Both, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN; republished London: Vintage Books, 2004, →ISBN, page 318:

It was cloudy, cool and misty as he [Thomas Edward Lawrence] push-biked up the long hill into Elsfield village.

1996, Paul [J.] Marriott, Yvonne Argent, The Last Days of T. E. Lawrence: A Leaf in the Wind, Brighton, East Sussex, Portland, Or.: Alpha Press, →ISBN, page 64:

The other thing about the time he pushbiked from Hereford back home was that when he stripped off, his body underneath was black.

1998, Gordon Burn, Happy Like Murderers, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN; republished London: Faber and Faber, 2011, →ISBN, page 167:

(intransitive, Australia, New Zealand, UK, informal) To travel by pushbike.


rark up

rark up (third-person singular simple present rarks up, present participle rarking up, simple past and past participle rarked up)

rarks up (present singular third-person)
rarking up (participle present)
rarked up (participle past)
rarked up (past)

(New Zealand, slang, transitive) To tell (someone) off.

Helping to rark-up the crowd at any world series event is MC John McDonald.

2019 August 23, “Top darts players converge on Hamilton”, in Radio NZ:

(New Zealand, slang, transitive) To provoke or hurry (someone) into doing something.

I know I rark up the neighbours a bit . . . I'm settling down a bit now though.

2016 June 6, “Nightmare neighbour promises to tidy up his act”, in Stuff:

(New Zealand, slang, transitive) To make (someone) angry or annoyed.


rark up

I lived to tell the tale, but after I got dragged out of the crevasse, I got a bit of a rark-up, which was totally reasonable.

2016 September 26, “'Bit of a rark-up' from Sir Ed”, in Otago Daily Times:


rarked up

en-adj

rarked up (comparative more rarked up, superlative most rarked up)

more rarked up (comparative)
most rarked up (superlative)


gingerism

/ˈd͡ʒɪnd͡ʒɚɪzm̩/

Gingerism is popular with comedians and audiences, and just as addicts take methadone instead of heroin, ginger gags are a safe, controlled substitute for ....

1997, Oliver Double, Stand Up!: On Being a Comedian, page 219:

A young girl asked the website: "What is the difference between racism, gingerism and sexism? "Nothing, that's what.

2004 July 22, “Red alert over an annoying prejudice.”, in Huddersfield Daily Examiner:

Gingerism in the workplace could form the basis of formal grievances or constructive dismissal cases, an employment lawyer has warned.

2007 June 14, “Red hair bullying cases could end up in court”, in The Register:

(British, Australia, New Zealand) Prejudice or discrimination against people with red hair.


pataka

The brown grass that Barry cut for us / With the new sickle, is lying in heaps / Between the house and the door of the pataka / Where we stuck our mattresses.

1972, James K. Baxter, ‘Autumn Testament’, Selected Poems, Te Herenga Waka University Press 2023, p. 281

(New Zealand) A Maori storehouse for food, typically raised above the ground.


sarking

en-noun

sarking (usually uncountable, plural sarkings)

Much housing work lies within this area, and to avoid high maintenance costs the Department is building many houses with plaster exteriors upon diagonal sarkings.

1947, New Zealand House of Representatives, Appendix to the Jounals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, volume 3, page 18:

1997, Ann Ross, Jonathan Hetreed, Architect′s Pocket Book, 2011, 4th Edition, Elsevier, UK, page 248,
Sarkings are weatherproof membranes laid over rafters and below battens to draught-proof and weatherproof the roof against driving rain or powder snow that may penetrate the tiles or slates.
Traditional sarkings of reinforced bitumen felt have been largely superseded by lighter, breathable sarkings that can be laid to form an effectively draught-proof roof but still allow free dispersal of water vapour to avoid roof space condensation; such mterials generally avoid the need for eaves, ridge and roof slope ventilators. Where they are laid directly over insulation between rafters, or over a permeable sarking board, tiling battens are raised clear of the sarking by 25 x 50 counter battens nailed down to the tops of the rafters.

A house in Moorabbin listed for sale with Better House Removers would cost its buyer "about $75,000-$90,000" to move, including the house, restumping, rejoining, new roof, sarking and metal batons, and council permits, Mr Bernardo estimated.

2009 January 25, Caroline James, “Traps to avoid when relocating a home”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 2009-06-29:

(chiefly Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, architecture) Wood, felt, or other material placed under the shingles of a roof in order to provide support or insulation; the practice of furnishing roofs with such material; an installation of such material.


Stanley knife

From a brand name owned by the US tool manufacturer formerly known as Stanley Works; from Stanley (“surname”) + knife.

Hotels expect to lose ashtrays, coat hangers and towels, for me it was Stanley knives. I didn′t mind a bit! If anyone bought a ₤35 a carpet, they were more than welcome to a 50 pence knife.

1988, Dennis Sloan, The Twenty-Third Little Varmint, published 2005, page 126:

[…]the trams floating slowly down Swanston Street, paper-sellers cutting open bundles with Stanley knives, the smell of ground coffee from the downstairs cafe,[…].

2002, Guy Rundle, “Up from the Dead”, in Peter Craven, editor, The Best Australian Essays 2002, page 187:

He gripped his Stanley knife and swung open the door almost detaching it from its hinges.

2003, Anthony Hulse, Insanity Never Sleeps, Mediaworld, UK, page 30:

Manchester′s ‘golden boys’, Joy Division, had recently been devastated by the death of their singer, Ian Curtis: that good-looking, sad young man had made a spectacular exit by carving a smile on his face with a Stanley knife before hanging himself.

2004, David Bret, Morrissey: Scandal & Passion, page 34:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A type of retractable utility knife with a replaceable blade.


varroa

These bees are resistant to varroa.

Swarms were reasonably common place in rural areas when New Zealand had a large feral bee population but few wild bees now survive due to varroa disease.

2009 January 29, Don Farmer, “Shop forced to shut as bees swarm”, in Wairarapa Times-Age:

(beekeeping, chiefly New Zealand) Infestation with the mite Varroa destructor, or the disease caused by such mites.

varroatosis

condition of infestation of a colony by Varroa mites


bolter

trap

antonym(s) of “missed landing on an aircraft carrier”

(New Zealand, sports) In team sports, a relatively little-known or inexperienced player who inspires the team to greater success.


coronial

1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter XIV, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600641.txt
When the station was reached the doctor, of course, said that Garfield's death had been instantaneous, and as he was vested with coronial powers a formal inquest was held before burial.

But, overturning the 1961 coronial finding, Victorian coroner John Olle ruled Ms Kramer's mother, Phyllis Loomes, had put the bag over Margaret's head.

2009 January 22, Melissa Iaria, “Cleared of killing after 48 years”, in Herald Sun:

(chiefly Australia and New Zealand) Of, by or pertaining to a coroner.


scratchie

I sat on the balcony with my cup of coffee and my inhaler and I scratched my Scratchies. I won $6.

2009, Marja Harris, My Memoirs: A Period in the Life of Marja Harris, page 47:

Approximately half of the respondents had bought instant scratchies.

2010, Charlotte Fabiansson, Pathways to Excessive Gambling: A Societal Perspective on Youth and Adult Gambling Pursuits, page 119:

Grandparents and great-grandparents are big buyers of scratchies and lottery tickets — for their grandkids and great-grandkids.

2011, Ashley Ormond, How to Give Your Kids $1Million Each!: (And It Won't Cost You a Cent), page 40:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A scratch card.


dischuffed

en-adj

dischuffed (comparative more dischuffed, superlative most dischuffed)

more dischuffed (comparative)
most dischuffed (superlative)

Lafayette was dischuffed but unsurprised, and left the building in what I would describe as a quality huff.

2007, Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, →ISBN, page 217:

(New Zealand, British, informal) Very displeased or unsatisfied.


money machine

One minute later, it shows she made the withdrawal at the ANZ money machine for the same amount.

2019, Deena Coster, “Woman left out of pocket for two weeks after ATM failed to deliver”, in Stuff:

automated teller machine
automated teller machine#English

(New Zealand, US) Synonym of automated teller machine.


makutu

In some instances Māori were ‘Christian’ in some contexts – a wedding or a church service, say – and ‘Māori’ in others, such as combating mākutu or performing rituals prior to planting crops or felling trees.

2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 240:

(New Zealand) Witchcraft, black magic; a spell or curse.


placegetter

1981, New Zealand Department of Agriculture, New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, page 65,
Second placegetter will receive a Honda ATC200 Farm Trike and third and fourth placegetters a Sachs Dolmar Chain Saw each.

As Table 1.18 also shows, it has by far the highest proportion living in cities larger than 750 000 people: 69% compared with second placegetter, the United States, having 55%, and an 18-country mean of 37%.

2004, Rodney Tiffen, Ross Gittins, How Australia Compares, page 15:

Finally, he managed to stop giggling long enough to say, ‘When this medal is announced the chief judge says, “I award my medal to the third placegetter in the Best Rooster Under Two Years Category.[…]To my mind the courage this particular man has shown in naming the third placegetter after Sir Winston Churchill shows great character and loyalty to His Majesty the King and deserves the highest commendation. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I award Meneer Pietrus Prinsloo the Chief Judge′s medallion!”’

2005, Bryce Courtenay, Whitethorn, unnumbered page:

The second placegetter will receive an Outward Bound course, Swazi® Apparel, a Fruitfed Supplies gift voucher and a NZ horticultural magazine subscription of their choice.

2007, New Zealand Fruitgrowers′ Federation, The Orchardist, volume 80, page 56:

(Australia, New Zealand) A race competitor or competition entrant who places among the top three (or other number chosen to receive recognition and/or a prize), or in a specified position (place).

2008, Mike Keenan, The Shadows of Horses, 2009 Large 24pt Edition, Read How You Want, page 96,
I was utterly unprepared for the reception I received when I trotted up towards the stall reserved for the second placegetter, in the Saddling Enclosure.

Last year's Caulfield Cup placegetter is rated a $6 chance and will be ridden by champion Irish jockey Michael Kinane.

2009 February 13, Tim Habel, “Time to put best foot forward”, in Herald Sun:

Essentially, punters who played the placecards — usually in a local pub — had to pick a placegetter in each of the four feature races on a Saturday. So, if it was races five, seven and eight, you had to correctly select just one of the three placegetters in each race to win.

2011, Nichola Garvey, Beating the Odds, unnumbered page:

(horse racing, Australia, New Zealand) A horse that finishes among the first three of a race, or in a specified place.


doorknock

Sometimes they were raffles, mostly they were doorknocks. I went on one of the doorknocks after Wendy talked me into it.

1981, Graham Jackson, Square Crib, page 98:

To run a doorknock you need volunteer collectors — lots of them. But because there are so many doorknocks each year, collectors are overloaded and it is difficult to recruit new ones.
So what is the answer?

1995, John Montague Gurney, N. E. Renton, Successful Clubs, page 53:

[…] mobile phone providers have sent text messages to Victorian customers warning them of the conditions, in what has been described as an "electronic doorknock".

2009 March 2, Holly Ife with AAP, “CFA and DSE warn of fires threatening Victoria, deny exaggeration”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 2009-03-06:

(Australia, New Zealand) A campaign of going from house to house knocking on doors, such as for a charity appeal.


doorknock

en-verb

doorknock (third-person singular simple present doorknocks, present participle doorknocking, simple past and past participle doorknocked)

doorknocks (present singular third-person)
doorknocking (participle present)
doorknocked (participle past)
doorknocked (past)

1979, Fatma Dharamsi, et al., Harlesden Community Project, Community Work And Caring For Children: A Community Project In An Inner City Local Authority, page 440,
During the doorknocking local residents had talked about other issues.

With some exceptions, doorknocking is likely to elicit a large number of small donations but relatively few large donations.

2007, Philip Hughes, Alan Black, Peter Kaldor, Building Stronger Communities, page 156:

‘He doorknocked thirty-two thousand houses,’ Thérèse says. ‘I doorknocked with him at weekends. That′s one way to get fit, especially when every house that I doorknocked was high-set, but I took the formal period of the campaign off.’

2007, Robert Macklin, Kevin Rudd: The Biography, unnumbered page:

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand) To participate in a campaign of going from house to house knocking on doors; to knock on the door (of a house) during such a campaign.


by gum

“You mean all’s lost?” I asked.
“Aye, by gum, I do!” he answered.

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

Couldn't hear the brass / Couldn't hear the drum / He was in a class by himself, by gum!

1937, Rodgers and Hart, “Johnny One Note”:


movie theatre

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


shedhand

1950, Graziers' Association of New South Wales, The Graziers′ Annual, page 187,
Thus if an employee is engaged as a woolpresser and shedhand he must for the whole of his work be paid at the woolpressers′ weekly rate, since that is higher than the shedhands′ weekly rate.

1980 September 11, Paul Hudson, Technology brings home the wool harvest, New Scientist, page 768,
The sheep still have to be mustered and penned in a shed; the shearer still grabs sheep from the pen and shears them; the shedhands remove the fleece and pieces.

The Board can be kept much cleaner if two shedhands work together.

1996, John Fowler, Australian Woolclassing, page 23:

Shearers took the best cook and accommodation, refusing to share either with the shedhand.

1999, David Palmer, Ross Shanahan, Martin Shanahan, Australian Labour History Reconsidered, page 26:

(Australia, New Zealand) A worker in a sheep-shearing shed.


gutful

gutfuls (plural)
gutsful (plural)
gutsful (alternative)

I've had a gutful of politics lately.

By Monday afternoon we were finished - loadwise, physically, mentally, you name it, we'd had a gutful of it.

2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 114:

He starts mouthing off a bit, then Priz says, “Pipe down while we′re trying to eat,” and then Dogga looks up and puts in, “I′ve had a gutful of ye.”
‘So then Barrowclough, the uraguhne, says, “Well, I′ve had a gutful of ye,” and adds, “I′ll break yer bleedin′ kneck.”

2002, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Lady of the Sorrows, page 199:

I told the captain what had happened and that the only reason the second rower hadn′t been sent off was because he missed. Then I added that I′d had a gutful and I′d start getting rid of blokes if it kept up.
The captain said, ‘You′ve had a gutful! Well, we′ve had a gutful of you.’

2003, Bill Harrigan, Harrigan: The Referee in a League of His Own, unnumbered page:

I looked at him and thought, ‘[…]He is, he′s exposing himself!’ I abandoned my shopping trolley, marched over to him and screamed, 'I′ve had a gutful! Do you understand me? I′ve had an absolute gutful of men and their dicks.[…]’

2008, Denise Scott, All That Happened at Number 26, page 141:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) As much as one is willing to hear or experience; as much as or more than one can bear; too much; a surfeit.


gutsful

Come on now and let me have some fun out of you to prove it’s not a gutsful of grunts you are.

1934, Norman Lindsay, chapter 16, in The Cautious Amorist, London: T[homas] Werner Laurie Ltd, […], published 1938, page 191:

(chiefly New Zealand) Alternative form of gutful.


primage

en-noun

primage (countable and uncountable, plural primages)

From Late Latin primagium. (The French word post-dates the English.)

1932, E. T. McPhee (Commonwealth Statistician), Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia: No. 25 - 1932,
The rate of primage duty was subsequently increased to 4 per cent. as from the 6th November, 1930.

(Australia, New Zealand) An additional import duty levied by customs.


barracouta

(Australia, New Zealand) The snoek, Thyrsites atun, a foodfish.


mangemange

/ˈmæŋiˈmæŋi/

(New Zealand) The fern Lygodium articulatum


soapie

1988, Gunther Kress, Communication and Culture, New South Wales University Press, page 177,
The conventions include […] impossibly complicated interrelationships (most characters in soapies are either related or married or have slept together, and in celebrated instances, all three).

In terms of its general mood, the average Australian soapie, in comparison with the American soap, is less intense, less subjective, and certainly a good deal less angst-ridden.

1994, Gaile McGregor, EcCentric Visions: Re Constructing Australia, page 187:

CHANNEL 7 has censored a lesbian kissing scene in its popular family soapie Home and Away after a viewer backlash.

2009 March 28, Amanda Meade, “Seven censors lesbian kiss”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 2009-03-31:

(Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, informal) A soap opera.


munted

en-adj

munted (comparative more munted, superlative most munted)

more munted (comparative)
most munted (superlative)

Possible etymologies:
* From a Germanic language; compare Danish munter, German munter, Old High German muntar, all meaning "lively" or "merry".
* From Scottish Gaelic mùin (“to urinate, piss”), thus analogous to the sense "pissed".
* Blend of monged + cunted.

der

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Intoxicated (by drugs or alcohol).

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, by extension) Disgusting.

[…] "Our main sewer [trunk] is seriously munted ... I believe that is the technical term."

2011, Bob Parker, Mayor of Christchurch, to TVNZ (wryly) following a severe earthquake NZ Herald on line edition, 22-25 February 2011 (see 09:46)

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, by extension) Damaged or unusable.


pōhiri

Borrowed from Maori pōhiri or pōwhiri (“to beckon; to welcome”) from whiri (“to wave; to whisk; to plait; a fan”).

pohiri (alternative)
powhiri (alternative)
pōwhiri (alternative)

(New Zealand) A Maori welcoming ceremony involving speeches, dancing, and singing.


clearway

The traffic lanes of the sea can be clearways for thousands of miles.

1975, Institute of Marine Engineers, Marine Engineers Review, page 190:

The red cross means no stopping, not even to pick up or set down passengers. The sign is used to indicate a 24-hour clearway (usually on a rural road) or may be incorporated into other signs with the words “No stopping” (e.g. the “no stopping except local buses” sign at bus stops. On a 24-hour clearway, the prohibition of stopping applies only to the main carriageway. You may stop in a lay-by unless there are signs to say otherwise. A 24-hour clearway does not have any special road markings, but there should be smaller repeater signs at approximately one mile intervals.

2007, UK Department for Transport, Know Your Traffic Signs, page 55:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A road or other path that is kept free of obstructions, or on which stopping is strictly regulated, in order to maintain free flow of movement.


mapau

(New Zealand) Any of several trees of New Zealand, especially in the genus Myrsine.


at a pinch

/ˌæ.təˈpɪnʃ/

(Australia, New Zealand, British, informal, idiomatic) by a small margin or amount


scroggin

Tonight scroggin, cheese and dried fruit will do.

1999, Julia Leigh, The Hunter, Faber & Faber 2012, p. 49

And don′t forget your scroggin – a mixture of dried fruit and nuts (and sometimes chocolate) for munching en route.

2010, Charles Rawlings-Way, Brett Atkinson, New Zealand, Lonely Planet, page 76:

Trail mix or ‘Scroggin’, is a mix of dried fruit, nuts and sometimes chocolate that′s popular with hikers.

2010, Warwick Sprawson, The Overland Track: Cradle Mountiain to Lake St Clair, Australia: Red Dog Books, page 179:

(Australia, New Zealand) A pre-prepared mixture of dried fruit and nuts to eat as a snack while bushwalking.


lest we forget

From Rudyard Kipling's 1897 poem Recessional.

(Australia and New Zealand) Used on ANZAC Day memorials as a caution against forgetting those who fell in the First World War


smell of an oily rag

We have found them in the remote corners of Asia Minor, sans souliers, sans culottes, often in rags, living on the smell of an oily rag or a raw onion, trying their best to preserve order where their own miserable officials have brought shame and disgrace upon their tarnished colours.

1896, Dayrell Davies, "Sport with the Brigands of Macedonia," The Badminton Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Longmans, Green, and Co., no. XII (July to December 1896), v. III, pg. 65

Full of bog, goes anywhere you want to go, don't pay for insurance, runs on the smell of an oily rag.

1998, Ian Shaw, quoted in Richard Strauss, Up for Rego: A Social History of the Holden Kingswood, Pluto Press Australia, pg. 33

... they did not prepare someone for the smell-of-an-oily-rag budgets and ratings-driven world of Australian commercial television.

1999, Stephen Alomes, When London Calls: The Expatriation of Australian Creative Artists, page 133:

They're prone to giving away their rations and living off the smell of an oily rag.

2008, Susan Napier, Accidental Mistress, page 59:

"We did it on the smell of an oily rag", says Danielle Kootman of Tourism Queensland.

2009 May 1, Nick Bryant, “'Selling' Queensland with a dream job”, in BBC News:

They had the smell of an oily rag to work on.

2010, Gai Waterhouse, Gai In My Words, page 146:

There remains ABC Radio, which is the best known example of the relationship between the smell of an oily rag and the will to keep going.

2012, John Clarke, A Dagg at My Table: Selected Writings, page 88:

(idiomatic, Australia, New Zealand) A very small amount, or the absolute minimum (usually of money).


matagouri

From Maori tūmatakuru, with loss of first syllable. Compare tumatakuru.

Willowglen was surrounded on three sides by paddocks of matagouri, of swamp, and on one side there was the railway line leading south out of Oamaru.

1984, Janet Frame, An Angel at my Table, Virago, published 2024, page 181:

(New Zealand) A thorny shrub, Discaria toumatou.


pozzy

From position + -y (“diminutive suffix”), with spelling shift; variant of possie.

1916, various ANZAC soldiers, The Anzac Book, page 10,
[…] and Jerry O′Dwyer had shot two crows from the new sniper′s pozzy down at the creek-—and so on.

1942, Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Volume III: The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1916, 13th(?) Edition, page 340,
Brown himself, unaware even that there was an officer among his captives, picked up his rifle, went back to his “pozzy,” and dismissed the incident from his mind […]

They had also wonderful confidence in their leaders — they knew the best pozzy would be taken up.

1975, William D. Joynt, Saving the Channel Ports, 1918, page 84:

(Australia, New Zealand, military slang, Digger slang) A firing position.

So I says to him, no, I can′t go back to the pozzy I′m sharing with Snowy Fisher and the late Pap.

1971, Herman Charles Bosman, Cold Stone Jug, page 36:

Stretching his legs has been good for him, and this Pitt-street pozzy near the GPO is a splendid spot for a sandwich and a good book.

2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 62:

(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A position or place, especially one that is advantageous.


horoeka

Horoekas inch their way skyward like this for as many as 20 years before maturing, flowering profusely, and bearing black berries.

2000 December 12, Fodor's, New Zealand: Where to Stay, Eat, and Explore, Smart Travel Tips from A to Z Plus Maps and Color Photos, Fodor's, →ISBN:

(New Zealand) The lancewood tree, Pseudopanax crassifolius.


slagginess

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, derogatory, of a person) The condition of being slaggy, or sluttish.


whakapapa

en-noun

whakapapa (usually uncountable, plural whakapapas)

/ˈfɑːkəˌpɑːpə/

What are you crying for? asks the Kati Kahukunu (he's probably my 23rd cousin but we haven't swapped whakapapa yet).

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 98:

(New Zealand) Genealogy, as a fundamental principle of Māori culture that is critical in establishing one's identity.


winge

en-verb

winge (third-person singular simple present winges, present participle wingeing or winging, simple past and past participle winged)

winges (present singular third-person)
wingeing (participle present)
winging (participle present)
winged (participle past)
winged (past)

Mostly, they were wingeing about the lousy cook and the same thing served too often

1992, Sky Phillips, Secret mission to Melbourne, November, 1941, page 45:

His wife will winge her bloody head off, but Nev will come good.

1993, Michael Fisher, The Nightmare Man, page 169:

"I'm miserable," Sam proclaimed, plodding behind with his shoelace flapping. "Nobody ever gives me butter-pies when I need them." / "Shut up," said Jonathan. "Stop wingeing."

2002, Diana Wynne Jones, A Tale of Time City, page 41:

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, slang) Alternative form of whinge.


scungy

en-adj

scungy (comparative scungier, superlative scungiest)

scungier (comparative)
scungiest (superlative)

1975, The Bulletin, Issues 4951-4963, page 44,
[…] bewitched by the culinary oddities introduced by migrants from the scungier sections of the Old World.

“[…]I have been saving up the scungiest, most disgusting fix-up and cleanup jobs just for you.”

1990, Rob Kantner, Made in Detroit, page 3:

1990 September, Byron Coley, Underground, Spin, page 86,
The cassette collects outtakes, demos, and scungier droppings, so it′s only about as intrinsically interesting as the leftover's from Ric Menck's Groovy Strum comp must be.

2007, Nigel Latta, Into the Darklands and Beyond, 2010, HarperCollins New Zealand, unnumbered page,
They lived in a scungy state house that was far scungier than it needed to be.

And while for most people, talk of “green” fridges might conjure up images of hygiene disasters in scungy student flats, the revolutionary invention is not on the nose.

2009 January 13, AAP, “Enviro-friendly fridges”, in Herald-Sun, archived from the original on 2009-09-09:

That is a scungy lawn in front of the rented flat down the road.

(Australia, New Zealand, US, informal) Dirty, messy; sordid.


boardies

I find them a curiously confronting sight, dressed in thongs, boardies and Victoria Bitter singlets, and shrouded in Australian flags.

2009, Paul Daley, Beersheba: A Journey Through Australia's Forgotten War, page 313:

Sadly he was later parted from his beloved leopard print boardies when he left them drying on his tent in Rome, and a bypasser took off with them. More sadly that meant that someone else out there also thought that leopard print boardies were a ‘must have’ fashion item.

2010, Shannon Meadows, Road Wench - It's A Tour, Not A Holiday, unnumbered page:

Every so often families in bikinis, boardies and sarongs traipse past on their way back from the beach and look in.

2010, Matt Preston, “A Pilgrimage to El Bulli”, in Don George, Janet Austin, editors, A Moveable Feast, Lonely Planet, page 121:


piwakawaka

(New Zealand) The New Zealand fantail, Rhipidura fuliginosa, a small insectivorous bird of the South Pacific.


aue

Ah hell, the fucking word has its place, but all the time?…aue.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 12:


tradie

Historically, the education of secondary technical school trade teachers (‘Technology Studies’ teachers in the new Ministry of Education nomenclature; “tradies” is their preferred term) has been seen as best conducted through a master-apprentice system.

1993, Lawrence B. Angus, Education, inequality, and social identity, page 160:

This show is a thinly veiled advertorial posing as a competition between tradies to be crowned King Gee Jack of All Trades.

2007, Catherine Deveny, It's Not My Fault They Print Them, Black Inc., page 175:

As soon as you know the settlement date for the property, you need to phone all your tradies and book them in for the dates you've worked out in your timetable. When each tradie starts you′ll have to show up and brief them.

2011, Patrick Bright, The In$ider′s Guide to Renovating for Profit, Brolga Publishing, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A tradesman, tradesperson.


fart-arse

en-verb

fart-arse (third-person singular simple present fart-arses, present participle fart-arsing, simple past and past participle fart-arsed)

fart-arses (present singular third-person)
fart-arsing (participle present)
fart-arsed (participle past)
fart-arsed (past)

No good fartarsing about, […]

2008, Tom Holt, Falling Sideways, Orbit books, →ISBN, page 24:

For the last couple of years, the coaches at the Raiders have never given him much of a chance. They've been fart-arsing him around.

2009 May 29, David Campese, “Terry Campese's made it on own merits”, in Herald Sun:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To waste time or opportunities; to dawdle.


bushwalker

In the following years the Kanangra country became the object of a mild form of cult worship as bushwalkers discovered its many delights[…].

1997, Peter Prineas, Henry Gold, Wild Places: Wilderness in Eastern New South Wales, page 66:

There are numerous stories of bushwalkers spending several hours up a tree waiting for a wild pig to go away.

2007, Claire Smith, Heather Burke, Digging It Up Down Under: A Practical Guide to Doing Archaeology in Australia, page 98:

The anthropologist Lisa Palmer has written about an analogous but different situation in her study of non-indigenous bushwalkers in Kakadu. She writes very eloquently about the conflicts that have emerged in Kakadu where the Bininj/Mungguy have attempted to limit bushwalker access to the stone country in particular.

2008, Chris Healy, Forgetting Aborigines, page 191:

(Australia, New Zealand) A hiker or backpacker.


whanau

en-noun

whanau (usually uncountable, plural whanau or whanaus)

whanau (plural)
whanaus (plural)
whaanau (alternative)

From Maori whānau (“extended family; genus”).


hens' night

hens' nights (plural)
hen night (alternative)

2004, Helen Denkha, Private Purgatory, Llumina Press, Florida, page 63,
The cruises were very popular for Hens’ nights, and the girls would really let their hair down.

Among the so-hip-it-hurts couples and civilians, hens’ night group (bachelorette party) there; all giggles and squeals in the corner.

2006, Stacey DeMarco, Witch in the Bedroom: Proven Sensual Magic, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, page 33:

2008, Catherine Deveny, Say When, Black Inc., Melbourne, page 25,
The hens’ night, the wedding and the marriage seem to boil down to slut for a night, princess for a day and slave for the rest of your life.

Tiaras are common accessories at school dances, kids’ birthday parties and hens’ nights.

2008, Karen Brooks, Consuming Innocence: Popular Culture and Our Children, University of Queensland Press, page 239:

2010, Barbara Elsborg, Digging Deeper, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Ohio, page 31,
Flick hoped Stef married someone rich.
Willow chatted about her hens’ night.

2008, David P. Reiter, Primary Instinct, Interactive Publications, Queensland, page 32,
His sister, who had called me sister from the day we were engaged, and shared her most private thoughts with me regarding her bi-sexual fantasies on my Hens’ Night, has never called me since.

(US, Australia, New Zealand) A hen night.


hen's party

They actually call out to male strippers at hen′s parties, ‘Show us your tits.’ I would have thought that it would be more appropriate to yell, ‘Show us your vital male equipment’ or words to that effect. But no.

1996, Kerry Cue, Australia Unbuttoned, part i, page 34:

A few of us from school went to her hen′s party, which was a new experience for me and the other Westerners at the school. One of the best things about the party was the advice for new brides she received — all of it traditional Tanzanian wisdom which bore a distinct resemblance to The Auatralian Women′s Weekly circa 1928.

2007, Gemma Sisia, Saint Jude′s: A girl from Guyra, a school in Africa and the patron saint of hopeless causes, Pan Macmillan Australia, page 197:

2011, Jacqueline Lunn, Under the Influence, Random House Australia, page 16,
In Sarah′s book, big events were for weddings, birthdays, christenings and hen′s parties, not funerals. They were for the good stuff.

2011, Garry Disher, Whispering Death, Text Publishing Company, Victoria, page 60,
The diners, this Friday evening, were a mix of locals and weekender tourists. Young, middle-aged, old. Kids on a first date, a hen′s party of shire office workers, the Waterloo postmaster and his wife, a family singing Happy Birthday to an ancient crone.


chicken salt

Look at that man, eating No Name chicken salt from a noodles packet; not bothering to chase after the packet being blown by the wind towards the forest.

1999, Peter Craven, editor, Best Australian essays:

‘Chicken salt. That′s all it was. He wanted chicken salt and he got ordinary salt and so he whinged at me.’

2005, Bill Condon, chapter IC, in No Worries, page 62:

“Yes, twenty six small cheeseburgers with diet coke. Oh, and some medium fries. Err... About ten bags. No, I don′t want chicken salt! I never want chicken salt! I hate chicken salt!”

2010, Reece Hauxby, chapter IC, in Justin Gale Deals with Death, page 119:

monosodium glutamate
monosodium glutamate

(Australia, New Zealand) A seasoning comprising table salt blended with herbs, spices, flavourings, and sometimes monosodium glutamate, often containing chicken extracts.


karamu

He shuts his eyes, and drops the twig of karamu he holds in his left hand.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 340:

(New Zealand) Any of several species of Coprosma trees and shrubs found in New Zealand.


moki

(New Zealand) A trumpeter fish, of the genus Latridopsis.


common room

He was […] none of your free-and-easy companions, who would scrape their boots upon the fire-dogs in the common room, and be not at all particular on the subject of spittoons; […]

1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 10.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 289:

Any expected permanent way checks are indicated daily on a map in the enginemen's common room.

1950 June, N. H. Bousfield, “Angers, a French Provincial Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 371:

(UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand) A shared lounge found in dormitories, universities, military bases, etc.


kaikawaka

(New Zealand) Libocedrus bidwillii, the New Zealand cedar, an evergreen coniferous tree.


0800 number

the 0800 number advice line receives over five hundred calls a year

1995, Sheena Carmichael, Business Ethics: the new bottom line, →ISBN, page 41:

It is an alternative to a 0800 number where the callee bears the full cost of the call.

2002, Julie K. Petersen, Fiber optics illustrated dictionary, →ISBN, page 1046:

The important point about direct response is that it should not just be advertising with an 0800 number

2006, Frances Brassington, Stephen Pettitt, Principles of marketing, →ISBN, page 838:

(UK, New Zealand) A telephone number beginning with 0800; these numbers are free for the caller because the call is paid for by the company or organisation being called.


swaggie

The swaggie shifted on his heels. His attitude was uncertain.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber & Faber, published 2003, page 40:

Gentry or not, the swaggies would go from place to place in the hope of being given work, a meal and somewhere to sleep.

2015, Patricia Grace, Chappy, →ISBN, page 25:

(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A swagman.


koekoea

(New Zealand) The long-tailed cuckoo, Eudynamys taitensis, which breeds in New Zealand and migrates to the islands of the western Pacific in the winter.


wairua

(New Zealand) A spirit associated with a person or thing, according to Māori beliefs.


biffo

There was too much biffo going on at that club, so I left.

Barrett's working class man is simply one who enjoys his beer, his rock music (like Norton, he's a man in his early thirties), and a bit of biffo.

2006, Christine Matzke, Susanne Muehleisen, Postcolonial Postmortems: Crime Fiction from a Transcultural Perspective, page 236:

We all liked a bit of biffo and gunplay, so when the telecast was broken for a newsflash, everyone groaned.

2005, William McInnes, A Man's Got to Have a Hobby, unnumbered page:

Things peaked a year later with a Sunday afternoon biffo pitting a good-sized detachment of rockers against a combined force of surfies and clubbies.

2010, Matt Warshaw, The History of Surfing, page 207:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Violence, fighting; a fight.


laughing gear

2005, Brian Castro, The Garden Book, Giramond Publishing, NSW, page 110,
His dumb face made me believe him. I told him if he saw anything unusual to come and tell me. Sure, Mr Damon, he whimpered. Sure, Mr Damon...I could have knocked out his laughing-gear.

Wrap your laughing gear around these luscious Lebanese swamis (meat and spice wrapped in Lebanese bread).

2007, Danny Palmerlee, South America on a Shoestring, Lonely Planet, page 801:

You will recognize him instantly — a man with his laughing gear permanently attached to a liquor bottle.

2008, Teri Louise Kelly, Sex, Knives and Bouillabaisse, South Australia: Wakefield Press, page 59:

Wrap your laughing gear around fresh bread and tasty spreads to set yourself up for the day.

2008, Charles Rawlings-Way, New Zealand:

‘Get your laughing gear round that lot,’ Frank drawled as he put the chops, steaks and bangers on the table.

2009, Mark Abernethy, Second Strike, NSW: Allen & Unwin, page 586:

Despite having pretty mean teeth, it lacks the laughing gear of the pike and thus smaller baits tend to be used.

2012, Peter Kaminsky, Fishing For Dummies, UK: John Wiley & Sons, page 63:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, humorous, slang) The mouth.


superette

(New Zealand, South Africa) A convenience store.