principal

en-noun

principal (countable and uncountable, plural principals)

principals (plural)
principall (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.

Principal (education)
Principal value
principal

The important administrative figure to the teacher is the school principal.

1971, Louis Kaplan, Education and Mental Health, page 413:

The problem was neatly summed up by one principal in Australia who said recently: ‘There is no incentive for me to develop my best teachers to become my successor.[…]’

2008, Brian Dive, The Accountable Leader: Developing Effective Leadership Through Managerial Accountability, page 212:

Now renamed Teaching Australia, its officers are undertaking exploratory steps in developing professional standards for school leaders. A National Standards Drafting Group of volunteer principals is currently drafting principal standards (Teaching Australia, 2007).

2009, Colin J. Marsh, Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum, page 132:

2011, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2011-2012, page 45,
Principals are now being held more accountable for the performance of students and teachers, while at the same time they are required to adhere to a growing number of government regulations.

(Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) The chief administrator of a school.


te reo

Borrowed from Maori te reo (“Māori”, literally “the language”).

bor+

Currently, many Kiwis are learning te reo.


rage

en-noun

rage (countable and uncountable, plural rages)

From Middle English rage, from Anglo-Norman rage, from Late Latin rabia, from Classical Latin rabiēs (“anger, fury”). Doublet of rabies.
Displaced native Middle English wode, from Old English wōd ("madness, fury, rage"; compare Modern dialectal English wood (“mad, insane, furious, raging”)); and Middle English hotherte (“anger”), from Old English hātheort (“fury, anger, wrath, rage”).

gl

"madness, fury, rage"; compare Modern dialectal English <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">wood</i> (“mad, insane, furious, raging”)

ncog

That evening, Felix and Trish Homer invited me to the Sundancer for "a bit of a rage."

2013, Larry M. Edwards, Dare I Call It Murder?: A Memoir of Violent Loss, San Diego, C.A.: Wigeon Publishing, →ISBN, page 95:

(slang, US, Australia, New Zealand) An exciting and boisterous party.


rage

en-verb

rage (third-person singular simple present rages, present participle raging, simple past and past participle raged)

rages (present singular third-person)
raging (participle present)
raged (participle past)
raged (past)

From Middle English ragen, from Old French rager, ragier, from the noun (see above).
Displaced native Middle English weden (“to rage with anger”), from Old English wēdan (“to rage”), and Old English iersian, among other synonyms.

ncog

These events are all about raging hard, getting as fucked up as you can. Not necessarily even about dancing, just being a face in this giant extravaganza.

2012 August 2, Simon Reynolds, quoting Nathan Messer, “How rave music conquered America”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-02-13:

(slang, US, Australia, New Zealand) To party hard; to have a good time.


tyke

From Middle English tike, tyke, from Old Norse tík (“female dog”), from Proto-Germanic *tīkō. Compare Icelandic tík, Faroese tík, and Swedish tik, all meaning “bitch”.
Sense 5 (“Roman Catholic”) is an alteration of taig, and was first used in writing in the early 20ᵗʰ century.

(Australia, New Zealand, informal, derogatory) A Roman Catholic.


vivid

Learned borrowing from Latin vividus (“animated, spirited”), from vivere (“to live”), akin to vita (“life”), Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”).
The noun sense (a type of marker pen) was genericized from Bic's Vivid Marker brand.

lbor

(New Zealand) A felt-tipped permanent marker; a marker pen.


wheelie bin

wheelie bins (plural)
wheelie-bin (alternative)

From wheelie, presumably as a variant of wheely (“wheeled”) + -ie, and bin.

Instead we switched from dustbins to wheelie bins which required equally significant investment in new bins and refuse vehicles. However because the wheelie bins were larger and easier to collect they actually increased the volume of unsegregated waste.

1999, David Rudlin, Nicholas Falk, Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood, UK: Elsevier, page 95:

You see the occasional frustrated libidinous lunatics walking along Johnson Street kickboxing at the wheelie bins and spreading the contents all over the road.

2005, John Chalmers, Byron Bay Taxis And Lunacies, page 85:

It collects waste materials, including paper, glass, plastics and metals, in the blue-topped recycling wheelie bins from more than two million households each week.

2009, James Kirby, Rod Myer, Richard Pratt: One Out of the Box: The Secrets of an Australian Billionaire, page 49:

She likes to go into town using her wheelchair. It can be difficult when people leave their wheelie bins out on the pavement and she has to go into the road to get past.

2011, Peter Beresford, Jennie Fleming, Catherone Bewley, Michael Glynn, Suzy Croft, Supporting People: Towards a Person-Centred Approach, UK: The Policy Press, page 271:

The next Monday afternoon Daryl hooked his wheelie bin onto the ute′s tow bar. He was just about to tow it up the driveway when Doris yelled out, telling him to go to the shops and grab some milk. With his wheelie bin in tow Daryl set off.

2012, John Bryant, Great Australian Ute Stories, HarperCollins Australia, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland) An outdoor rubbish bin on wheels for easier movability.


brickie

(British, New Zealand, Australia, slang) A bricklayer.


billy

Uncertain, but probably extracted from Scots billypot (“a type of cooking pot”), perhaps originally from the name Billy, a diminutive of William.
The condom sense from the E-Rotic song Willy, Use a Billy... Boy, referring in turn to Billy Boy, a German brand of condoms.

cog

Let's get the billy and cook some beans.

We had been absent from civilisation, so long, that our tin billies, the only boiling utensils we had, got completely worn or burnt out at the bottoms, and as the boilings for glue and oil must still go on, what were we to do with billies with no bottoms?

1889, Ernest Giles, Australia Twice Traversed, published 2004, page 239:

Oh there once was a swagman camped in the billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he looked at the old billy boiling,
'Who'll come a'waltzing Matilda, with me.'

1895, “Waltzing Matilda”, Banjo Paterson (lyrics):

Mother prepared a splendid picnic. […] Rugs, food and the black billy for making tea, were packed into the old baby buggy and we trundled it straight down Simcoe Street.

1942, Emily Carr, “Loyalty”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

Over the fence, in a shallow gully 100 metres away, this guy and his wife were living on the dirt in the open weather with just a blanket, billies, a dog and a transistor radio. They didn't even have water.

2011, Rod Moss, The Hard Light of Day: An Artist's Story of Friendships in Arrernte Country, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand) A tin with a swing handle used to boil tea over an open fire; a billycan; a billypot.

kēna

A billycan, a small pot for heating water over a fire


willy

Originally northern British usage, from the 1960s. Probably the simple use of a proper name as a pet name; compare dick, fanny and peter. Unlikely to be a contraction of Latin membrum virile, male member (that is, the penis), a Latin term used in English in the nineteenth century.

Little Johnny got his willy stuck in his zipper.

Everybody knows your mum is a whore / Getting 'round Piccadilly looking for willy / Punters pull up and say "don't be silly"

2016 March 7, “Road Rage (Freestyle)”, performed by Little T (Josh Tate):

(hypocoristic, slang, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, childish) the penis.


sally

sallies (plural)
salley (alternative obsolete)

(New Zealand, slang) A member of the Salvation Army.


utility

en-noun

utility (countable and uncountable, plural utilities)

From Middle English utilite, from Old French utilite, utilitet (“usefulness”), from Latin ūtilitās, from uti (“to use”). By surface analysis, utile + -ity.

Tim Archer got into the utility and drove[.] The car was a 1946 Chevrolet, somewhat battered by four years of station use, a sturdy practical vehicle with a coupé front seat and an open truck body behind.

1952, Nevil Shute, chapter 1, in The Far Country, Melbourne: Heinemann:

(Australia, New Zealand) A coupé utility, or ute; an automobile with an open tray or bed behind the passenger cabin.


arvo

/ˈɑː(ɹ).vəʊ/

Clipping of afternoon + -o (“diminutive suffix”).

“Rope and tomahawk,” explained Col. “We put them here this arvo when I came down and whistled first time.”

1960, John Gunn, The Humpy in the Hills, page 46:

The usual reaction of a footsoldier observing such incidents is well summed up by the comments of Private Derrick in the Salient at Tobruk: ‘Seen a human side of the war yesterday arvo Red Cross partys [sic] burying dead & treating wounded one of our partys were fired on by enemy & I will always remember it’.⁵⁰

2000, Mark Johnston, Fighting the Enemy: Australian Soldiers and their Adversaries in World War II, page 33:

‘We'll fly you out at seven this arvo—but bring them down a little early, just in case we need to think of something else.’

2010, Chris Bray, The 1000 Hour Day: Two Adventurers Take on the World's Harshest Island, unnumbered page:

“Yeah, he only works on a Saturday arvo,” Kelly told her. “I think the place is packed on that day, because girls come from everywhere just to get a glimpse of him. He's hot as.”

2010, Rebecca Iannone, The Invisible String: The Secrets That Bind, page 55:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) Afternoon.


suss

en-adj

suss (comparative more suss, superlative most suss)

more suss (comparative)
most suss (superlative)
sus (alternative)

2001, Mo Hayder, The Treatment, 2008, Bantam, UK, page 244,
‘Yes – OK, OK. Try not to struggle, Tracey. It just makes you look even more suss.’

2009, Barbara Ward Smith, Dead Centre: Murder Mystery, AuthorHouse, UK, page 191,
I think it was Amber Johnson dressed up said Marc, but its proving it, we don′t have much to go on according to her said Jan her friend has been driving her car, yes very convenient said Marc and it′s even more suss that this friend has gone on holiday, did she ever give us the name of this mystical friend? Asked Jan.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, US, colloquial) Suspicious.


suss

en-verb

suss (third-person singular simple present susses, present participle sussing, simple past and past participle sussed)

susses (present singular third-person)
sussing (participle present)
sussed (participle past)
sussed (past)
sus (alternative)

From suspect; originally suss out (“to discover or figure out”).

Think we're standing for injustice / White gets two and black gets five years / Well it took me quite a while to suss this

1993, “Emergency On Planet Earth”, performed by Jamiroquai:

This David did without the crook knowing he had been sussed out.[…]When David returned home after sussing this new crook, he made sure one or two key people were informed about his true nature, and they were all then further protected.

2007, Alex Caldon, The Quest for Truth, page 107:

For some other guys who′ve sussed me out, it′s taken them quite some time. A certain regular of mine comes through three or four times a night, but not every night.[…]That said, this regular never sussed for a hell of a long time.

2007, Jenny Ainslie-Turner, Jolene: A Fiery Redhead Who Loves Talking Dirty: True Life Autobiography of a 1-2-1 Chat Girl, page 43:

2008, David Burchell, Trying to find the sunny side of life, Tony Jones, Best Australian Political Writing, page 275,
It occurred to me that Matt′s mates, far from being proper objects of solicitation and sympathy, actually must feel they had life sussed.

(transitive, UK, Australia, New Zealand, often with "out") To discover, infer or figure out.

(transitive, UK, Australia, New Zealand) To study or size up, to check out (examine).


aggro

en-adj

aggro (comparative more aggro, superlative most aggro)

more aggro (comparative)
most aggro (superlative)
agro (alternative)

From a clipping of aggravation + -o (diminutive suffix), influenced by aggressive.

“The Chuckster say you two be finding aggro idiot who kilt Long,” said Dude.
I thought I understood but looked at Charles for help.
“Aggro means pissed off.” translated Charles. He still hadn't cracked a smile. Tardiness made Charles aggro.

2011, Bill Noel., The Marsh: A Folly Beach Mystery, page 70:


limey

In adjectival senses, by surface analysis, lime + -y.
In the sense of Englishman, reduced from the 19th century term lime-juicer (“British ship”), from the lime juice British ships carried to ward off scurvy.

Ya look like anything ’cept a tourist who’s come to lose his wad and they get a bad case of nose trouble. Take yaself. Anyone can see ya’re a Limey even before ya start talking.

1956, Ian Fleming, chapter 15, in Diamonds Are Forever:

(US, Australia, New Zealand, slang, ethnic slur) An Englishman or other Briton, or a person of British descent; an English or British immigrant.


pongy

pongy (comparative pongier, superlative pongiest)

pongier (comparative)
pongiest (superlative)

2001, Ken Campbell, Home, in John O′Connor, Scripts and Sketches, Heinemann Educational, UK, page 79,
Look, they′ve even put a pair of old pongy socks exactly like mine in the corner by the door, exactly like I bunged them last Sunday. Mind you, they are a bit pongier than I remembered. But mind you, they would get pongier over the week.

Moments later, a small, sobbing figure would emerge—dirty as a rat and smelling pongier than the rottenest egg.

2005, James Duncan, Sweets That Eat Children!, page 2:

In France, Époisses is known as the pongiest of its 500-odd cheeses; in the UK 19 humans and an electronic nose voted Vieux-Boulogne the world's smelliest cheese.

2010, Lonely Planet staff, The Europe Book: A Journey Through Every Country on the Continent, page 57:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Having a bad smell.


hongi

(New Zealand) The Maori greeting of touching noses.


hongi

en-verb

hongi (third-person singular simple present hongis, present participle hongiing, simple past and past participle hongied)

hongis (present singular third-person)
hongiing (participle present)
hongied (participle past)
hongied (past)

[I]f I knew you better , or I was a warmer person, I would hongi, but…

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 88:

(New Zealand) To perform the Maori greeting of touching noses.


whare

Borrowed from Maori whare (“house, hut”).

The dwellings of the chiefs are surrounded with enclosures of pole-fences; and the Whares and Wharepunis, some of them exhibiting very fine specimens of the Maori order of architecture, are ornamented with grotesque wood-carvings.

1867, Ferdinand von Hochstetter, translated by Edward Sauter, “Ngawhas, and Puias; boiling springs, solfataras and fumaroles”, in New Zealand: Its Physical Geography, Geology and Natural History […], Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta, →OCLC, page 423:

We were on the brow of the hill, and below us there was a whare roofed in with corrugated iron.

1912, Katherine Mansfield, The Woman at the Store:

At the far end of the whare there's a wooden bed.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 348:

(New Zealand) A Maori house or other building.

Many New Zealanders will know that a whare is a house. But in this context, the whare were being built for a summer hunting and gathering expedition. It was the 1880s, so timber houses also featured, but here the whānau were travelling to tribal lands and building makeshift whare to camp in.

2014, Tina Makereti, “He Taonga te Reo: How ngā Kupu Māori Contribute to New Zealand Writing in English”, in Jolisa Gracewood, Susanna Andrew, editors, Tell You What: Great New Zealand Nonfiction 2015, Auckland: Auckland University Press, →ISBN, pages 118–119:

(New Zealand, now historical) A rough shack or hut built (by Europeans) using traditional Maori techniques; a workman's shack.


bonzer

en-adj

bonzer (comparative more bonzer, superlative most bonzer)

more bonzer (comparative)
most bonzer (superlative)
boncer (alternative)
bonza (alternative)

Entered use 1890s, origin unknown.
In 2020 James Lambert reviewed previous theories, and supports derivation from:
* boncer (“large marble”) < bouncer (“something prodigiously large”)
Lambert also notes as not supported by evidence:
* bonanza
* French bon (“good”)
* "more fanciful" suggestions:
** born star
** Japanese 万歳 (banzai, “long live..., huzzah, hurrah”)
** bonnie

unk

unknown

der

To see their faces brighten and to hear their 'Thanks Cobber, that was bonzer!' was a joy

1915, Young Men's Christian Associations. International Committee, For the millions of men now under arms, volume 2:

To all the earth she gives the soft glad-eye;
She picks no fav′rits in this world o′ men;
She peeps in nooks, where ′appy lovers sigh,
To make their joy more bonzer still; an′ then,
O′er Spadger′s Lane she waves a podgy ′and,
An′ turns the scowlin′ slums to Fairyland.

1916, C. J. Dennis, "In Spadger′s Lane", in The Moods of Ginger Mick, 2009, Sydney University Press, page 36

You’ll make the bonzerest couple ever seen this side the Tropic.

1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XIII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 220:

By cripes, you couldn′t have a more bonzer place for doing the thing in style with girls.

1945, Douglas Stewart, editor, Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1945, page 51:

Inside sat one of the most bonzer sights she′d ever seen.

1991, Noel Virtue, Always the Islands of Memory, page 148:

The sadness about his father left his face, and he smiled. He seemed pleased to have something positive to do. / 'That's bonzer, Annie. Thanks' he said. 'You're a good sort. And as for Ches, well, he's real bonzer too.'

2006, Philippa Todd, Dangerous Dating, page 110:

If playin' hero is so bonzer, what're you doin' in this job? Y'oughta be workin' for one o' those scandal rags, or with a crowd o' do-gooders, or for some investigation outfit or somethin'.

2007, Eric Stone, The Living Room of the Dead, page 252:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) Remarkable; wonderful; excellent; terrific.


bonzer

bonzers (plural)
boncer (alternative)
bonza (alternative)

unk

unknown

King Ned is a "bonzer".

1904 August 28, The Truth, Sydney, page 1, column 7:

(Australia, New Zealand, informal, obsolete) An excellent person or thing.


dogger

From dog (“part of a crane that holds the items to be lifted”) + -er, from the fact that such a person would often ride on the load lifted by the crane when carrying out their duty. Created as a gender-neutral substitute for the older term dogman.


jigger

→ Catalan: gigre

From jig + -er (agent suffix). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”).

(New Zealand) A short board or plank inserted into a tree for a person to stand on while cutting off higher branches.

(rail transport, New Zealand) A railway jigger, a small motorized or human powered vehicle used by railway workers to traverse railway tracks.


moll

From Moll, an archaic nickname for Mary (see also Molly).

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) Bitch, slut; an insulting epithet applied to a female.

The bikies ‘molls’ included Susan Lloyd as Tart; Victoria Anoux as Flossie; and Rosalind Talamini as Sunshine.

1979, Eric Reade, History and Heartburn: The Saga of Australian Film, 1896-1978, page 209:

‘Oh God!’ groans Julie who once was a bikie moll back in the early seventies. ‘Hope it′s no one I know.’ But the Machismos turn out to be based on a New Zealand gang, which assembled in Australia after her time.

1995, Debra Adelaide, The Hotel Albatross, page 76:

Gilling first appeared as the biker′s moll Vanessa in Stone (1974) and the beautiful, evil cabin attendant in Number 96 (1974).

2009, Albert Moran, Errol Vieth, The A to Z of Australian and New Zealand Cinema, page 142:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) A girlfriend of a bikie.

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) A girlfriend of a surfie; blends with pejorative sense.


piker

From pike + -er. In some senses, it has been linked etymologically to the word pikey as well as to Pike County in eastern Missouri https://web.archive.org/web/20051111194645/http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/p/p0300200.html. In the latter instance the term originally denoted poor immigrants to California.

Mate, don't be a piker! Come to Angie′s birthday party tonight!

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) One who refuses to go out with friends, or leaves a party early; a spoilsport or "chicken".

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) One who pikes (quits or backs out of a promise).


poi

Warriors formerly used poi actions to maintain wrist flexibility, but poi have developed as a women's dance. Classic poi dances and songs are reputed to have been those of the people of the Taranaki, Rotorua, and Whanganui tribal areas, but poi are now performed everywhere in Aotearoa.

2008, Ellen Koskoff, “Haka poi”, in The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Routledge, →ISBN, page 738:

A couple of days later Trico announced that, if I were to travel with them, it was imperative that I learn some form of malabares, or circus skill. The available options were poi, staff or juggling. ‘Poi’, the form of malabares that Sandra played, are two balls at the end of chains which are spun in patterns around the body. When the balls are replaced by wicks soaked in gasoline and set alight, the poi ‘spin fire’.

2013, Catriona Rainsford, The Urban Circus: Travels with Mexico's Malabaristas, Bradt Travel Guides, →ISBN, page 18:

(New Zealand) A small ball made of leaves and fibres, attached to a string.

(New Zealand) A traditional dance performed by Maori women involving the rhythmic swinging of such a ball.


pug

en-verb

pug (third-person singular simple present pugs, present participle pugging, simple past and past participle pugged)

pugs (present singular third-person)
pugging (participle present)
pugged (participle past)
pugged (past)

The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly:
* related to southern Dutch puggen (“to hit hard”), German pucken (“to beat, thump”), possibly ultimately imitative; or
* related to poke (verb).
It is also uncertain whether the various senses are derived from the same source.
The origin of the noun is also uncertain; it is probably related to the verb.

(chiefly Australia, New Zealand, archaic) Of cattle, etc.: to trample (the ground, a place, etc.) until it becomes muddy and soft; to poach.


rigger

(New Zealand) A plastic bottle of beer, typically between 1 L to 2.5 L volume.


rumpus

Unknown. First use appears c. 1745. The OED indicates: "perhaps an arbitrary formation". Possibly an alteration of rumbustical or rumbustious (“boisterous, noisy”) + Latin -us (“nominative suffix”). The use of the verbal form first appears c. 1839.

(New Zealand, Australia, Canada) A rumpus room.


septic

Short form of Cockney rhyming slang septic tank (“Yank”).

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

Typical septic. Can't understand why the rest of the world thinks he's a fuck-knuckle.

1998 April 21, Justin Downey, “Re: rachel is awful cute!”, alt.nuke.the.USA, aus.flame.usa, and alt.flame

“Didn′t enjoy the septics,” he says jokingly about the Americans.

2011, Roger Rees, Out of Calamity: Stories of Trauma Survivors, unnumbered page:

“What′s the septics′ Achilles heel?” I said using the slang septic tank, meaning Yank.

2012, John Righten, The Benevolence of Rogues, page 97:

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


servo

Two hours later Susan pulled the Pajero off the road onto the floodlit apron of the servo at the end of the Bowen bypass.

2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 83:

Crude oil is purchased in US dollars, so the price of the petrol at your local servo is heavily influenced by the rate of exchange between the greenback and the Aussie dollar.

2011 July 16, “Beechboro servo bandit escapes with cash”, in The West Australian:

2011 July 17, “Teen arrested over servo robbery”, in Illawarra Mercury:

(Australia, New Zealand) A service station, being a place to buy petrol for cars etc., as well as various convenience items, with or without actual car service facilities.


swag

en-noun

swag (countable and uncountable, plural swags)

New Zealand wasted a swag of chances to lose their opening women′s hockey World Cup match.

2010 August 31, “Hockey: Black Sticks lose World Cup opener”, in The New Zealand Herald:

(countable, Australia, New Zealand) A large quantity (of something).


toby

(British, New Zealand) The valve that mediates the connection between a mains water-supply and a premises's own plumbing.


bail

From Middle English beyle, from Old English bīeġels, from bīeġan + -els.

But until he had poured enough milk into the vat above the separator, I drove unmilked cows into the bail where he had previously milked and released one. He moved from one bail to the other to milk the next one I had readied. I drove each cow into the empty bail, chained her in, roped the outer hind leg then washed and massaged the udder and teats.

2011, Bob Ellis, Hush Now, Don't Cry, page 153:

(chiefly Australia and New Zealand) A frame to restrain a cow during milking or feeding.


bail

en-verb

bail (third-person singular simple present bails, present participle bailing, simple past and past participle bailed)

bails (present singular third-person)
bailing (participle present)
bailed (participle past)
bailed (past)

(Australia, New Zealand) To secure (a cow) by placing its head in a bail for milking.

pērapu

To secure an animal before performing some action on it

The transition over the rooftop would have been quicker if Sellers had not been bailed up by a particularly hostile spiritual presence speaking Swedish.

2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 128:

While celebrating our “graduation”, a handsome Scot bailed me up outside a pub and insisted I help him solve the cryptic crossword.

2023 January 31, Clem Bastow, “My bad trip – I met a handsome Scot with a crossword and thought it was true love”, in The Guardian:

(Australia, New Zealand, usually with up) To keep (a traveller) detained in order to rob them; to corner (a wild animal); loosely, to detain, hold up.


creek

creeks (plural)
crick (alternative North-American dialectal)
crik (alternative pronunciation-spelling)

Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin: kriki

Sranan Tongo: kriki

From Middle English creke, kreke, creake, of unclear origin.
Additional etymological information
It existed alongside a second variant in Middle English cryke, krike, cricke, from Old Norse kriki. The first form possibly continues Old English *creca (attested in the diminutive crecca (“creek, bay, wharf”) also found in Anglo-Latin as creca, crecca), from Proto-West Germanic *krekō, from Proto-Germanic *krekô, *krekuz (“corner, hook, angle, bend, bight”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, to wind”).
See also Old Dutch creka, crika (“inlet, cove, creek”), Old Norse kriki, krikr (“angle, corner, nook, bight”), Old Norse kraki (“pole with a hook, anchor”), and possibly Old Norse krókr (“hook, bend, bight”). Modern cognates include West Frisian kreek (“creek”), Dutch kreek (“creek, cove, inlet, bight”), and French crique (“cove”) (borrowed from Germanic).
Early British colonists of Australia and the Americas used the term in the usual British way, to name inlets; as settlements followed the inlets upstream and inland, the names were retained and creek came to be used to refer to any small waterway. A similar semantic development occurred in Dutch and French, where the word originally meant "bay" but came to mean "stream" especially in the French and Dutch colonies (French Guiana, Dutch Guiana and Indonesia).

unk

unclear origin

cog

We all feel it Looming, even when we're awake, out there ahead someplace, the way you come to feel a River or Creek ahead, before anything else,— sound, sky, vegetation,— may have announced it.

1997, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 67, in Mason & Dixon, 1st US edition, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, part Two: America, page 650:

(Australia, New Zealand, Canada, US) A stream of water, typically a stream of freshwater smaller than a river; in Australia, also used of river-sized bodies of water.


gap

en-verb

gap (third-person singular simple present gaps, present participle gapping, simple past and past participle gapped)

gaps (present singular third-person)
gapping (participle present)
gapped (participle past)
gapped (past)

From Middle English gap, gappe, from Old Norse gap (“an empty space, gap, chasm”), from gapa (“to gape, scream”), from Proto-Germanic *gapōną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to open wide, gape”). Related to Danish gab (“an expanse, space, gap”), Old English ġeap (“open space, expanse”); compare English gape.

cog

[Article title:] 'They've just gapped it': Duo fled quarantine authorities after gang funeral

2020 June 17, “'They've just gapped it': Duo fled quarantine authorities after gang funeral”, in Newstalk ZB, archived from the original on 2022-10-13:


hoot

A variant of utu (influenced by etymology 1), borrowed from Maori utu (“payment, revenge, payback”).

bor+

On the construction you could make a pot of hoot in no time. You oughter be able to get two or three quid a day when things is busy.

1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Sydney, N.S.W.: A&R Classics, published 2013, →ISBN, page 304:

(New Zealand, slang) Money, especially in the form of cash given as payment.


mall

en-noun

mall (countable and uncountable, plural malls)

→ Russian: молл (moll)

Probably from The Mall, a major street in London, England, which was originally a pall mall alley.

The preliminary plans provide for one million square feet of selling space in three main buildings and a double row of shops along a central shopping mall.

1950 August 15, Philip Hampson, “Field's Plans 15 to 20 Million Shopping Center for Skokie”, in Chicago Daily Tribune, page 1:

America′s first pedestrianized shopping mall opened in 1959 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Like most later pedestrian malls, it was intended to revive what everybody thought was a decaying downtown.

2002, Alexander Garvin, The American City: What Works, What Doesn′t, page 179:

(chiefly Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand) A pedestrianised street, especially a shopping precinct.


marge

marge (usually uncountable, plural marges)

Or probably all meals coalesced with him in an orgy of thick bread-and-marge and an array of sauce-bottles.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 246:

(informal, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada) Margarine.


muster

From Middle English musteren, borrowed from Anglo-Norman mostrer, Middle French monstrer, moustrer (whence the noun monstre, which gave the English noun), from Latin mōnstrō (“to show”), from moneō (“to admonish”). Cognate with French montrer (“to show”), Italian mostrare (“to show”), Spanish mostrar (“to show”). See also monster.

McGuire took the two of them out to Kidman's Bore on the Sylvester River where about two dozen stockmen from different stations had gathered to tend the muster along the edge of the Simpson Desert.

2006, John Gilfoyle, Bloody Jackaroos!, Boolarong Press:

(Australia, New Zealand) A roundup of livestock for inspection, branding, drenching, shearing etc.


muster

en-verb

muster (third-person singular simple present musters, present participle mustering, simple past and past participle mustered)

musters (present singular third-person)
mustering (participle present)
mustered (participle past)
mustered (past)

(transitive, Australia, New Zealand) To gather or round up livestock.


packer

From Middle English pakker, pakkere, packare, equivalent to pack + -er.

(New Zealand) An object inserted to hold a space open for the purpose of alignment; a spacer or shim.


revise

revise (third-person singular simple present revises, present participle revising, simple past and past participle revised)

revises (present singular third-person)
revising (participle present)
revised (participle past)
revised (past)

Borrowed from Middle French réviser, from Latin revīsō, from re- + vīsō (“examine”), frequentative of videō (“see”).

I've only just begun to revise for my exams.

In revising your notes, you can also reorganize them so that they are more legible, better arranged, and in a more useful condition for subsequent reviews.

1957, Clifford Thomas Morgan, James Deese, How to Study, McGraw-Hill, page 16:

4 Is it necessary to revise vocabulary (= study it again for a second or third time)?
5 Is it better to revise vocabulary occasionally for long periods of time, or is it better to revise regularly for short periods of time?

2003, Stuart Redman, English Vocabulary in Use: Pre-Intermediate & Intermediate, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, page 5:

2008, Tom Burns, Sandra Sinfield, Chapter 19: How to build your memory and revise effectively, Essential Study Skills: The Complete Guide to Success at University, SAGE Publications, UK, page 273.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) To look over again (something previously written or learned), especially in preparation for an examination.


shout

From Middle English shouten. Further origin uncertain. Possibly related to Middle English shooten (“to shoot (out)”) or from or akin to Old Norse skúta (“to chide, scold”), Old Norse skúti, skúta (“a taunt”). See also the second, rare sense of the verb scout (“to reject with contempt”).

cog

“I′ll get my wine though,” taking out her wallet.
“No. This is my shout,” holding up his hand as though to ward her money off.

1984, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, page 290:

Cut to the pub on a lads night out,
Man at the bar cos it was his shout

2008, George Papaellinas, The Trip: An Odyssey, re.press, Australia, page 6,
It was always my shout down the pub with Theo.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) A round of drinks in a pub; the turn to pay the shot or scot; an act of paying for a round of drinks.


shout

en-verb

shout (third-person singular simple present shouts, present participle shouting, simple past and past participle shouted)

shouts (present singular third-person)
shouting (participle present)
shouted (participle past)
shouted (past)

After shouting me a plate of noodles and limp vegetables, he helped me change money by introducing me to the stallholder who offered the best exchange rates.

1999, Peter Moore, The Wrong Way Home: London to Sydney the Hard Way, page 301:

2003, Peter Watt, To Chase the Storm, Pan MacMillan Australia, unnumbered page,
‘I have not seen my cousin Patrick in years,’ Martin answered defensively. ‘I doubt that, considering the way our lives have gone, an officer of the King′s army would be shouting me a drink in Mr O′Riley′s pub these days. […] ’

Anyhow, he obviously bore no grudge against Kiwis, for he shouted me a beer and opened another one for himself, punctuating the operation with a spectacular and resounding fart that by all the laws of physical science should have left his trousers flapping in smouldering shreds.

2005, George G. Spearing, Dances with Marmots: A Pacific Crest Trail Adventure, page 32:

2010, Ivan Dunn, The Legend of Beau Baxter, HarperCollins Publishers, New Zealand, unnumbered page,
Truth is, I notice the other blokes who have been shouting me nodding among themselves and thinking they′d better get in the queue if I am buying. Not likely. I am out of there.

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) To pay for food, drink or entertainment for others.


slater

From Middle English sclater, equivalent to slate + -er.

(Scotland, Australia, New Zealand) Any terrestrial isopod crustacean of the genus Porcellio and allied genera; a woodlouse.


slice

From Middle English sclise, sklise, from Old French esclice, esclis (“a piece split off”), deverbal of esclicer, esclicier (“to splinter, split up”), from Frankish *slitjan (“to split up”), from Proto-Germanic *slitjaną, from Proto-Germanic *slītaną (“to split, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyd- (“to rend, injure, crumble”). Akin to Old High German sliz, gisliz (“a tear, rip”), Old High German slīzan (“to tear”), Old English slītan (“to split up”), modern French éclisse. More at slite, slit.

der

(Australia, New Zealand, UK) Any of a class of heavy cakes or desserts made in a tray and cut out into squarish slices.


snap

From Dutch snappen (“to bite; seize”) or Low German snappen (“to bite; seize”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *snappōn, from Proto-Germanic *snappōną (“to snap; snatch; chatter”), intensive form of *snapāną (”to snap; grab”, whence Old Norse snapa (“to get; scrounge”)), from Proto-Indo-European *snop-; compare Lithuanian snãpas (“beak, bill”). (One alternative hypothesis links the Germanic words to *snu-, an expressive root deriving words meaning “nose”, “snout”, “sniff” etc., but this is phonetically unsound.) In any case influenced by onomatopoeia; note expressions such as snip-snap, containing the formally unrelated snip.
Cognate with West Frisian snappe (“to get; catch; snap”), German schnappen (“to grab”), Swedish snappa (“to snatch”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

gloss

”to snap; grab”, whence Old Norse <i class="Latn mention" lang="non">snapa</i> (“to get; scrounge”)

sound-symbolic

expressive

onom

onomatopoeia

cog

—Wasn't that John? —Wasn't that John? —Snap!

(British, Australia, New Zealand) Used after something is said by two people at exactly the same time.


squirt

en-noun

squirt (countable and uncountable, plural squirts)

From Middle English squirten, squyrten, of uncertain origin; probably onomatopoeic. Akin to swirl. Compare Low German swirtjen (“to squirt”) and Swedish water onomatopoeias skvala, skvalp, skvimpa, and skvätta; Icelandic skvetta; and Norwegian skvette.

Hey squirt! Where you been?

1986, Alethea Helbig, Agnes Perkins, Cutlass Island, entry in Dictionary of American Children′s Fiction, 1960-1984: Recent Books of Recognized Merit, page 137,
Hurd returns with Mal, Mr. Eph, and Gumbo, the “town squirt” of twelve, and the boys′ activities come out.

2010, Karen Witemeyer, A Tailor-Made Bride, Bethany House Publishers, US, page 66,
How the child managed to converse and fold at the same time was a marvel, yet the shirt lay in a tidy rectangle by the time she came up for air.
“Thanks, squirt.” He winked at her and she giggled.

(UK, Ireland, US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, slang) A small child.


swagger

There were now more swaggers passing down Ferry Street and more coming to ask for food […].

1982, Janet Frame, An Angel at my Table, Virago, published 2024, page 25:

She looked down in her half-dreaming state and thought they might be swaggers. There were lots of them that year, camped out on the riverbank netting for whitebait, then fanning out around the streets selling their catch door to door.

2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, →ISBN, page 66:

(Australia, New Zealand, now historical) Someone carrying a swag; a swagman.


boozer

From booze + -er (agent noun suffix) or (pub) + -er (relational noun suffix).

Zoe’s dad went to the same boozer every day, a flat-roofed pub on the edge of the estate, with the cross of St George hanging above the door and a ferocious-looking Rottweiler tied up outside.

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

During the week, the players were just as likely to be spotted out together in a local pub such as the Four in Hand. It was even known for them to frequent the Marksman off Carters Green, one of the town’s roughest boozers.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) A public house, pub.


pipi

Borrowed from Maori pipi (“Paphies australis”).

She chuckles, and prises another shrinking pipi from its shell.

1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 124:

(New Zealand) The edible saltwater clam Paphies australis, of the family Mesodesmatidae, endemic to New Zealand.


cuppa

Contraction of cup of (with “tea” or sometimes “coffee” implied). See also a (“of”), pinta (“pint of milk”).

I’ve just put the kettle on – fancy a cuppa?

[…] we covered the hundred yards to the lawn where the tea table awaited us. […] Only Bobbie was present when we arrived at the trough. Wilbert and Phyllis were presumably still in the leafy glade, and Mrs Cream, Bobbie said, worked in her room every afternoon on her new spine-freezer and seldom knocked off for a cuppa.

1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter III:

1992, Machine Knitting Monthly, Maidenhead: Machine Knitting Monthly Ltd.,
Back home safely, I made a cuppa and sat for a good hour revelling in my favourite magazine.

‘Here,’ said Clancy as he sat up and dangled his legs over the edge of the bed, ‘You sit down and take it easy. I′ll boil the billy for a cuppa’.

2007, Kevin Hallewell, Woop Woop, page 35:

2017 Mrs. S. "Guillotines Decide" Orphan Black
Get Kira up. I'll pour you a cuppa.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A cup of tea (or sometimes any hot drink).

Similes were not my cuppa, anyway. My classmates tended to overload their writing with them (all-time record: six in one paragraph) and they stuck out like violins in a rock tune.

2001, Gabrielle Bauer, Waltzing the Tango: Confessions of an Out-of-step Boomer, page 210:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) Whatever interests or suits one; one's cup of tea.


seagull

en-verb

seagull (third-person singular simple present seagulls, present participle seagulling, simple past and past participle seagulled)

seagulls (present singular third-person)
seagulling (participle present)
seagulled (participle past)
seagulled (past)
sea gull (alternative)
sea-gull (alternative)

From sea + gull. The second element is from a Brythonic language. Compare Welsh gwylan, Breton gouelan.

[…] and when you need cover for the fullback because of the bombs raining down, when the walking maul requires every forward to quit seagulling and actually do some hard graft, then the rest of the game opens up.

2002 September 24, Greig Blanchett, “Re: The Immorality of the Drop Goal”, in rec.sport.rugby.union (Usenet):

On hand was seagulling number eight Dave Hodges to cross for the all-important try.

2002 December 13, “Sharks beached at Stradey”, in BBC Sport:

That occurred in the 12th minute when flanker George Smith, seagulling out wide, enjoyed the rewards of a two-man overlap to score.

2003 November 2, Greg Growden, “Australia survives scare”, in The Age:

France was full of running and continued to spread the ball wide or kick in behind the defence, where towering right-winger Aurelien Rougerie and the seagulling French back row had a height advantage contesting the high ball.

2003 November 10, Mark Fuller, “Impeccable France outclasses Ireland”, in The Age:

Samo seagulled for Australia's final try two minutes from time.

2011 September 24, Darren Walton, “Injuries sour Wallabies 67-5 win over USA”, in MSN NZ:

(British, Australia, New Zealand, rugby slang, of a forward) To run in the back line rather than concentrate on primary positional duties in open play.

Bill had been seagulling on the wharf since he got back from the war.

1964, O. E. Middleton, A Walk on the Beach, M. Joseph, page 215:

At that time many of them seagulled on the Mt Maunganui wharf to make a crust in order to carry on with their ideal of kiwifruit as a major exporting industry.

1981, Parliamentary Debates, volume 437, page 374:

The only stories he told of his life were of how hard he had worked, seagulling on the wharf, standing in blood and guts at the Works, loading trucks with sacks of fertiliser and grain at the Farmers' Co-op.

1993, Beryl Fletcher, The Iron Mouth, Spinifex Press, published 1993, →ISBN, page 60:

(New Zealand) To work as a non-union casual stevedore.


butty

Clipping of buttered sandwich or bun + -y. Compare Saterland Frisian Buutje (“buttered bread (sandwich)”).

cog

Let's have a bacon butty!

(UK, chiefly Northern England, New Zealand, Ireland) A sandwich, usually with a hot or cold savoury filling buttered in a barmcake. The most common are chips, bacon, sausage and egg.


burger

Clipping of hamburger, rebracketing it as ham + burger. From around 1939. The "American" sense is likely a back-formation from Burgerland.

/ˈbɜː(ɹ)ɡə(ɹ)/

(Australia, Fiji, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, UK) Any sandwich that uses two bread rolls or buns (in North America it only refers to a sandwich with two buns or bread rolls and a meat patty).


aeon

aeons (plural)
æon (alternative)
Aeon (alternative)
Æon (alternative)
aion (alternative)
Aion (alternative)

From Latin aeon, from Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, “age, era”).

When Earth's last picture is painted, and the tubes are twisted and dried,/ When the oldest colors have faded, and the youngest critic has died,/ We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it -- lie down for an aeon or two,/Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew.

1892, Rudyard Kipling, When Earth's Last Picture is Painted (L’Envoi to 'The Seven Seas'):

(Australia, New Zealand, British) Alternative spelling of eon.


bush

en-noun

bush (countable and uncountable, plural bushes)

→ Dutch: bush, bushbush

From older Dutch bosch (modern bos (“wood, forest”)), first appearing in the Dutch colonies to designate an uncleared district of a colony, and thence adopted in British colonies as bush. Could alternatively be interpreted as a semantic loan, as bush (etymology 1) is cognate to the aforementioned archaic Dutch bosch.

bushman

not derived from bush but separately derived from cognate Dutch

en:tracts of land with largely wild vegetation; the vegetation itself

(often with "the") Tracts of land covered in natural vegetation that are largely undeveloped and uncultivated.

(New Zealand) An area of New Zealand covered in forest, especially native forest.


nang

I reckon the thing that brings on a trip the quickest is definitly^([sic]) a nang (nitrous oxide bulb) while listening to REALLY intense music

1996 March 5, Justin O'Brien, “how long before you peak on acid?”, in alt.drugs (Usenet):

"helicopters" these days refers to those silly hats with propellers on top, which come with a free ounce of smack at any local K-mart.^([sic]) Y'know, next to the nangs (or bulbs - nitrous oxide for whipped cream).

1998 October 18, “noise” from hello.net.au and start.net.au, “H ?”, in alt.drugs.hard (Usenet):

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) A metal bulb filled with nitrous oxide gas, inhaled for its disassociative effects, normally intended as a propellant for whipped cream.


barrack

en-verb

barrack (third-person singular simple present barracks, present participle barracking, simple past and past participle barracked)

barracks (present singular third-person)
barracking (participle present)
barracked (participle past)
barracked (past)

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, intransitive) To cheer for or support a team.


banger

→ Estonian: bänger

→ Finnish: bängeri

From bang + -er. The sausages were so called because of their excess water content and impervious skin, leading to the risk of explosion if not punctured before cooking.

(British, New Zealand, Australia, food, slang) A sausage.


twink

Genericized trademark of Twink, a brand of correction fluid in New Zealand.

(New Zealand) Correction fluid or correction tape.


todger

A variant of tadger, perhaps related to dialectal todge (“anything of a thick consistency”), todgey (“short and fat”).

2005, Alexis James, Into the Woods: Erotic Fairytales and Other Stories, Lulu, US, page 150,
A virgin you are and a virgin you will remain until your 18th birthday, whereupon you shall crave your first cock, taste your first todger, knuzzle your first knob and this shall be your undoing.

2008, Ashley Hames, Sin Cities: Adventures of a Sex Reporter, Tonto Books, UK, page 66,
I′ve even been in bed with a girl who, on clapping her eyes on my todger, looked up at me. ‘Your willy′s not very big is it?’ she said.

2011, Calvin Wade, Forever Is Over, AuthorHouse, UK, page 8,
As stated previously, boys think with their todgers and I had become a decent looking young girl, so I naturally understood my vagina had magnetic charms to a penis.

I showed him my todger, softened by Elizabeth Arden.

2023, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Spare, Penguin Random House, →ISBN:

(UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, colloquial) A penis.


eh

Natural exclamation; first recorded mid-16th century. Perhaps an unstressed variant of aye (“yes, yeah”).
The Philippine sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog e and/or Spanish eh.

onomatopoeic

exclamation

ay (alternative)
ehh (alternative)
ehhh (alternative)

These hot dogs are pretty good, eh?

Well, what dost thou think then of seeing the world? Do ye wish to go round Cape Horn to see any more of it, eh? Can’t ye see the world where you stand?

(informal, chiefly Canada, Northern US, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Ireland, South Africa, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Commonwealth) Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said.


op shop

The Lutherans, who have an Op Shop not far from ours, made friendly comparisons with the kind and quality of the goods. They had to get in through our Op Shop to the lower vestry and as they passed looked at our shelves and said ‘Amazing what people bring in’ and ‘We get quite a few of them too’.

2001, Gwen Harwood, John Harwood, G. C. Kratzmann, editors, A Steady Storm of Correspondence: Selected Letters of Gwen Harwood, 1943-1995, page 446:

The Red Cross Op-Shop was the best. It didn′t have that op shop smell, even, and for once there were young people working there. Not that I′m against old ladies in op shops, but I think it′s pretty cool to walk into an op shop where the radio is tuned to FM and there′s an essential-oil burner on the counter.

2005, Catherine Bateson, Millie And the Night Heron, page 21:

I was in the op shop with Dad because we needed something to make me look like a pineapple for the school concert, which was about the five food groups. Dad was looking for green clothes that could be the top of the pineapple.

2006, Sofie Laguna, Bird and Sugar Boy, unnumbered page:

2007, Cate Kennedy, Everything $2 on this Rack, Lindy Cameron (editor), Scarlet Stiletto: The First Cut, unnumbered page,
Op-shops always have a rack like this - it′s where they put unusual stuff. Once, in a small country op-shop in New South Wales, I found a fabulous red ballgown made in 1952... but I digress.

(Australia, New Zealand) A shop, usually operated by a charity, to which new or used goods are donated, for sale at a low price.

oppie

shop where donated goods are sold cheaply


that'll be the day

/ˌðætl̩ biː ðə ˈdeɪ/

/ˌðætl̩ bi ðə ˈdeɪ/

Originally referring to a significant day in the future regarded as worth waiting for.

I’m going to get into work on time today. — That’ll be the day!

Transmission from Klingon ship: Federation ship Enterprise. Surrender and prepare to be boarded. / Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart): That will be the day.

1990, Trent Christopher Ganino, Eric A. Stillwell, “Yesterday's Enterprise”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 3, episode 15, spoken by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart):

(originally Australia, New Zealand, idiomatic, informal) Said in reply to something that one believes will never happen.

sen päivän kun näkisi

said in reply to something that one believes will never happen

ζήσε Μάη μου να φας τριφύλλι (zíse Mái mou na fas trifýlli, literally “(of a donkey in winter) live till May and eat clover”)

когда́ рак на горе свистнет (kogdá rak na gore svistnet, literally “when the crayfish will whistle on the mountaintop”)


police

en-noun

police pl (normally plural, singular police)

Southern US, African-American Vernacular, Indic

From Middle French police, from Latin polītīa (“state, government”), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía). Doublet of policy and polity.

(law enforcement) A public agency charged with enforcing laws and maintaining public order, usually being granted special privileges to do so, particularly

(Australia, New Zealand) Any of the formally enacted law enforcement agencies at various levels of government.


dunny

dunnies (plural)
danna (alternative)
dunnee (alternative)

A clipped form of English cant dunnakin (“outhouse”) + -y (suffix forming affectionate diminutives). Dunnakin, dunnekin, etc. are of uncertain etymology, but probably from some form of English cant danna (“dung”) + ken (“house”, pejorative slang). The Scottish and North English senses may derive from Etymology 4 below, either under influence from English cant or as its original source.

There was one leaning dunny down the back and, if you stayed very quiet, on a very still day you could hear the white ants as they chewed the wood.The bottom boards were already eaten through, and I avoided using the dunny at all costs.

2008, Judith L. McNeil, No One's Child, page 95:

‘Until you wake up to yourself, you can live in the old dunny for all I care.’
‘All right, I will,’ said Tony.

2010, Christopher Milne, “The Boy Who Lived in a Dunny”, in The Day Our Teacher Went Mad and Other Naughty Stories for Good Boys and Girls, page 108:

(Australia and New Zealand slang, also dated Scotland and Northern England) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.

The dunny was another place to go to get out of class. You got to go there by raising your hand in class and asking Miss if you could go to the lav.

2010, Kathleen M. McGinley, Out of the Daydream, page 47:

(Australia and New Zealand slang) Any other place or fixture used for urination and defecation: a latrine; a lavatory; a toilet.


grouse

en-adj

grouse (comparative grouser, superlative grousest)

grouser (comparative)
grousest (superlative)

Uncertain; possibly from British dialectal groosh (“excellent, very good”) (Lothian (Scotland)), grosh (northeast Lancashire) and groshy (“having thriving vegetation; juicy and tender; of weather: good for vegetation, rainy”) (Lancashire, Yorkshire), grushie (“having thriving vegetation”) (Scotland); from Scots groosh (“excellent, very good”) (Lothian, obsolete), grush (obsolete), grushie, grushy (“growing healthily or lushly; excellent, very good”) (both archaic), from gross (“lacking refinement, coarse; fat; large”) + -ie (suffix meaning ‘rather, somewhat’).

I had a grouse day.    That food was grouse.

Real grouse birthday this. First time he's had a party.

1965, Mudrooroo, Wild Cat Falling, HarperCollins, published 2001, page 99:

They were the grousest ladies she′d ever met.

1991, Tim Winton, Cloudstreet, Scribner Paperback Fiction, published 2002, page 182:

Not a question but the gag of Mulder pissing on the ID4 poster was grouse.

1998 July 23, Stujo, “SPOILER FTF - questions”, in aus.tv.x-files (Usenet):

I know, but I moved from riding bikes to flying and it is a great move. All riders without a fear of heights I know that flew with me thought it was grouse- and there are no coppers or speed limits up there.

2003 October 4, Leeroy, “FS Ultralight Aircraft”, in aus.motorcycles (Usenet):

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Excellent.


tutti-frutti

en-noun

tutti-frutti (countable and uncountable, plural tutti-fruttis)

tutti-fruttis (plural)
tutti frutti (alternative)

From Sicilian tutti frutti (“all fruits”), so attested in 1838 for a kind of sorbet.

(New Zealand, drugs) A type of inhalable, powdered drug.


barbie

Clipping of barbecue + -ie (diminutive suffix).

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, informal) A barbecue (apparatus for grilling).

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, informal) A barbecue (event: cookout).


waka

On occasion this orientation would extend to wider tribal units […] or even to waka federations such as Tainui, Te Arawa or Mataatua.

2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 235:

(New Zealand) A broad Maori community consisting of numerous Maori tribes, all sharing common ancestors thought to have come to New Zealand in a particular canoe. (A waka is divided into several iwi.)


roommate

→ Japanese: ルームメイト (rūmumeito)

→ Japanese: ルームメート (rūmumēto)

→ Korean: 룸메이트 (rummeiteu)

I live with Marsha. We’re roommates.

2016, “Learning English (public domain)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 2017-09-18:

(US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Canada) A person sharing the same home albeit not the same room (but generally not a family member or spouse).


flatmate

huisgenoot

a person with whom one shares a rental property

It had been weeks since all the flatmates had sat down together for a meal. Communication was breaking down. Written notes had begun to appear all over the house; please don′t touch this food, I bought it especially for Hermione[…].

1993, Beryl Fletcher, The Iron Mouth, page 190:

One night, one of the flatmates (the one who owned the house) was ranting and raving all night about her girlfriend.

2003, Jen Birch, Congratulations! It′s Asperger Syndrome, page 51:

The position may have been different when your client was living in the house with the flatmates.

2007, CCH New Zealand, Top 100 Questions and Answers on Taxing Land Transactions, page 97:

(UK, Ireland, New Zealand) A person with whom one shares any rental dwelling, not necessarily a flat.


warrant

warrant (countable and uncountable, plural warrants)

warrants (plural)
warraunt (alternative)

→ Cantonese: 窩輪 /窝轮 (wo¹ leon⁴⁻²), 花令

→ Italian: warrant

→ Malay: waran

The noun is derived from Middle English warant (“protector; guard, shield, protection”), from Anglo-Norman warrant, Old Northern French warant, warand, a variant of Old French guarant, garant, garand (“assurance, guarantee; authorization, permission; protector; protection, safety”) (modern French garant), from Frankish *warand, present participle of *warjan (“to fend off; to stop, thwart”). The word is cognate with Old High German werento (“guarantor”).
The verb is derived from Middle English warrant, waranten (“to give protection; to protect, shield; to assure, pledge, promise; to guarantee”), from Anglo-Norman warantir, warandir, warentir, and Old Northern French warandir, warantir, variant forms of Old French guarantir (“to protect”) (modern French garantir), a Romance formation from the noun guarant: see above.

inh

Some years ago he had bought a motor vehicle with a warrant issued the same day only to find that the hand brake was not functioning properly and only one brake drum had any lining on it. He had recently heard of a similar case of a vehicle which had been issued with a warrant by the Christchurch City Council testing station, and the purchaser had to pay $60 to have the hand brake and hydraulic brake equipment fixed and the brakes relined.

1968 October 22, Norman Eric Kirk, “Appropriation Bill—Estimates”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): Second Session, Thirty-fifth Parliament: House of Representatives, volume 357, Wellington: A. R. Shearer, government printer, published 1969, →OCLC, page 2502:

She had inherited from Rufus a 1994 Nissan Vanette that routinely failed its warrant and was always breaking down;

2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 55:

(New Zealand, road transport, countable) A document certifying that a motor vehicle meets certain standards of mechanical soundness and safety; a warrant of fitness.


cheerio

/ˈtʃɪəɹ.i.əʊ/

/ˈt͡ʃɪəɹ.i.oʊ/

The man who has gone around the cocktail circuit pounding cheerios to the end of time did not come in here and open his mouth once on the Bill.

1978, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 4230:

(Queensland, New Zealand) A small saveloy often consumed with tomato sauce at parties.


cordial

/ˈkɔɹ.d͡ʒəl/

Inherited from Middle English cordial, from Old French cordial, from Medieval Latin cordiālis (“of the heart”), from cor (“heart”).

der

Both supplement and taste-matched placebo were consumed in 70 ml of fruit cordial and 150 ml of water, which were drunk within a 5-min period.

2024 May 31, Andrew John Chappell, Adrien Parry, Trevor Simper, “The Acute Effect of Citrulline Malate Loading in Resistance Trained Males on: Anaerobic Muscular Endurance, Force Recovery and Muscle Soreness”, in Journal of Science in Sport and Exercise, →DOI:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A concentrated non-carbonated soft drink which is diluted with water before drinking.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) An individual serving of such a diluted drink.


plaster

en-noun

plaster (countable and uncountable, plural plasters)

plasters (plural)
plaister (alternative)
plastre (alternative)

From Middle English plaster, plastre, from Old English plaster, from late Latin plastrum, shortened from Classical Latin emplastrum (“a plaster, bandage”); later reinforced by Anglo-Norman plastre.
The verb is from Middle English plastren, from the noun.

(countable, British, New Zealand, Canada) A small adhesive bandage to cover a minor wound; a sticking plaster.


bottle-o

bottle-os (plural)
bottlo (alternative)
bottle-oh (alternative)

(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A bottle shop.


bloke

blokes (plural)
bloak (alternative archaic)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-bloke.wav

Origin unknown; the following borrowings have been hypothesized:
* From a modern Celtic language, such as Irish bloc (“block”) or Scottish Gaelic ploc (“large, stubborn person”, literally “block of wood”), themselves borrowings from English block
* From Hindustani لوک (lok) / लोक (lok, “people, folk”) or Shelta loke (“man”).

bor

‘The Bloke’ is a certain kind of Australian or New Zealand male. […] The Classic Bloke is not a voluble beast. His speech patterns are best described as infrequent but colorful. […] The Bloke is pragmatic rather than classy. […] Most of all, the Bloke does not whinge.

2000 May 5, Belinda Luscombe, “Cinema: Of Mad Max and Madder Maximus”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2010-11-27:

Strong, bronzed, attractive, and, above all, incredibly Australian, Bloke’s Blokes bestride the world like colossi, less men than living gods, stepping from the pages of mythology into our hearts, and guiding us like mighty beacons upon the right and proper path of Blokedom.

2012, Ben Pobjie, “Bloke’s Blokes”, in The Book of Bloke, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

My name is Charlie Staunton. I'm a bloke. […] In Australia, a bloke is the masculine archetype, associated with the country's national identity. […] And if you're a good bloke, you'll understand what sportsmanship, and life, should be about. A sense of fair play. For me, it's not a prerequisite to be a law-abiding citizen to be a good bloke. It's about social qualities. It's about being reliable, trustworthy, loyal and true to your beliefs.

2019, Charles Staunton, “Cop this Bloke”, in The Good Bloke: An Incredible True Story, Sydney, N.S.W.: Pan Macmillan Australia, →ISBN:

(Commonwealth, especially Australia and New Zealand) An exemplar of a certain masculine, independent male archetype.


post

posts (plural)
poast (alternative obsolete)

→ Bulgarian: пост (post) (Internet)

→ Chinese: po, PO

Cantonese: pou¹

Mandarin: pōu

Min Nan: pho͘

→ French: post

→ Irish: post

→ Italian: post

→ Malay: pos

→ Maori: pōhi

→ Polish: post

→ Portuguese: post

→ Russian: пост (post)

→ Scottish Gaelic: post

→ Spanish: post

→ Swahili: posta

→ Welsh: post

Borrowed from Middle French poste, from Italian posta (“stopping-place for coaches”), feminine of posto (“placed, situated”).

der

sent via post; parcel post

I take it too as an opportunity of sending you the fair copy of the poem on Dullness, which was not then finished, and which I should not care to hazard by the common post.

1707, Alexander Pope, Letter VII (to Mr. Wycherly), November 11

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) An organisation for delivering letters, parcels etc., or the service provided by such an organisation.

Royal Mail worker Evette Chapman gathered a team of 12 colleagues to deliver post in fancy dress and raise money for a nurses' charity and patients in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton.

2020 November 18, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, page 71:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A single delivery of letters; the letters or deliveries that make up a single batch delivered to one person or one address.


post

en-verb

post (third-person singular simple present posts, present participle posting, simple past and past participle posted)

posts (present singular third-person)
posting (participle present)
posted (participle past)
posted (past)
poast (alternative obsolete)

→ Finnish: postata

Mail items posted before 7.00pm within the Central Business District and before 5.00pm outside the Central Business District will be delivered the next working day.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) To send (an item of mail etc.) through the postal service.


cobbler

cobblers (plural)
cobler (alternative obsolete)

→ Irish: caibléir

Inherited from Middle English cobeler, cobelere (“mender of shoes, cobbler”) [and other forms]; further origin unknown. The word appears to be derived from an early form of cobble (“to mend roughly, patch; (specifically) to mend shoes, especially roughly”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns), but is attested much earlier than the verb which suggests that the verb may be a back-formation from cobbler.
Sense 2 (“sheep left to the end to be sheared”) is a pun on cobbler’s last (“tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes”); while sense 3 (“clumsy workman”) is derived from cobble + -er: see above.

suffix

the cobbler always wears the worst shoes

the cobbler's children are the worst shod

(Australia, New Zealand, agriculture, slang) A sheep left to the end to be sheared (for example, because its wool is filthy, or because it is difficult to catch).


dog shit

(vulgar, slang, Australia, New Zealand) Rigged (sometimes shortened to dog).


shanty

From Canadian French chantier (“lumberjack's headquarters”). An alternative theory that the word derives from Irish seantí (meaning "old house") is not considered likely by lexicologists.
* (unlicensed pub): New Zealand from 1848.

bor

The shanty-keeper is not, as a rule, a bachelor.

1881, Henry W. Nesfield, A Chequered Career; Or, Fifteen years in Australia and New Zealand, page 351:

(Australia, New Zealand) An unlicensed pub.


rort

Probably a back-formation from rorty (“boisterous or rowdy, saucy, dissipated, or risqué”). Originally slang but now in common usage.

back-form

2008, Australian House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), page 4067,
Not all of the projects were bad or rorts; the majority were no doubt valuable to their communities.

It′s one of the great rorts in Australia that for overstaying your welcome (even by five minutes) in a space that may cost only a few dollars to park in, local councils are prepared to fine you anywhere from $50 to $120.

2009, Justine Vaisutis, Australia, Lonely Planet, page 81:

The rort was that South Australia and Western Australia, who controlled their grounds, were allowed to double-dip. In Perth, for instance, the WACA sold season tickets, which they marketed in the form of memberships, to everything at the ground, including football. They had a huge membership and were rolling in money, but because they′d sold their tickets in memberships, they declared a loss on the cricket Test match. At the end of the season, though, they′d get the same twofourteenths^([sic]) of Pool Two as Queensland.

2011, Malcolm Knox, Greg Chappell, Fierce Focus, unnumbered page:

(Australia, New Zealand) A scam or fraud, especially involving the misappropriation of public money or resources.


rort

en-verb

rort (third-person singular simple present rorts, present participle rorting, simple past and past participle rorted)

rorts (present singular third-person)
rorting (participle present)
rorted (participle past)
rorted (past)

He wants to change the system for the benefit of all and wants to stop the incredible rorting that has occurred within the prisons system.

1992, Victorian Legislative Assembly, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), page 496:

SINGLE pensioners living together will come under scrutiny from Centrelink looking for same-sex couples rorting welfare.

2009 January 30, Ben Packham, “Same-sex couples accused of cheating system”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 2009-02-02:

York is then alleged to have rorted the doctor out of his share.

2011, James Morton, Susanna Lobez, Kings of Stings: The Greatest Swindles From Down Under, page 118:

(Australia, New Zealand, transitive) To cheat or defraud.


sheila

‘I didn’t like that sheila that tried to latch onto him, but.’

1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 16:

He was a real gentleman and although he never asked any personal questions as to why ‘a couple of sheilas’ was hitch hiking to Perth, he said he was glad of the company.

2009, Rosemary Van Den Berg, Clogs and Bare Feet, page 208:

“[…]You know I counted no less than fifty-five sheilas out on the street today, all screaming when you guys played.”

2010, Deke Rivers, The Singer and His Songs, page 22:

I definitely didn’t think about getting married. I was real scared of sheilas back then.

2011, Kate Shayler, Burnished: Burnside Life Stories, page 8:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) A woman.


kerb

kerbs (plural)
curb (alternative)
kirb (alternative)

From curb (“raised border or frame”) [from mid-17th c.]. Doublet of curve.

Mobile starting-gates and horse-boxes stand parked along the kerbs, and behind every large house, it seems, is a red brick stableyard, gleaming with fresh black-and-white paint and polished steel.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164:

(British, Australia, New Zealand) The raised edge between the pavement and the roadway, typically made of concrete though originally consisting of a line of kerbstones.

縁石

えんせき, enseki, ふちいし, fuchiishi, へりいし, heriishi


hoon

Capricornia (novel)
Kelmscott, Western Australia
The Australian National Dictionary
Xavier Herbert

Uncertain; used initially as a general term of abuse. It first appeared in print in Capricornia (1938) by Australian writer Xavier Herbert (1901–1984); in a 1941 letter Herbert stated he had heard the term in his youth.

'You flash hoon,' he went on, 'Kiddin' you're white, eh?[…].'

1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia: A Novel, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, →OCLC:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) A worthless person; a hooligan or lout.

Police have impounded an average of 10 cars a day since hoon laws were introduced by the State Government in June 2006. Hoon related offences include burnouts, doughnuts, drag racing, repeated driving while disqualified and high-level speeding. Offences are detailed in section 84C of the Road Safety Act 1986.

2008 July 30, “Hoon Laws”, in Victoria Police, archived from the original on 2009-05-15:

The hoons piled out of the wreck brimming with righteous road rage, and were settling to the task of beating the shit out of Wozza, Mutton and the hapless wheelman when they discovered the plastic bag.

2009, Damien Broderick, Rory Barnes, I'm Dying Here: A Comedy of Bad Manners, New York, N.Y.: Point Blank, →ISBN, page 29:

[T]here is an overwhelming sense of youth as a social group with nowhere to go and nothing to do. […] Predictably, this has produced a series of strategies among young people through which to counter the boredom and frustration they often experience. One of the more spectacular – and illegal – examples of this is "hooning" (a localized term for dangerous driving) by young males. […] [H]oons transform the quiet, often sleepy streets of neighborhoods on the Gold Coast into playscapes of their own. […] Equally salient in the context of the present discussion is the random night-time appropriation by hoons of particular streets and neighborhoods on the Gold Coast in which to enact the collective rituals that give the hoon culture both internal cohesion and local notoriety.

2012, Sarah Baker, Andy Bennett, Patricia Wise, “Living ‘The Strip’: Negotiating Neighborhood, Community, and Identity on Australia's Gold Coast”, in Chris Richardson, Hans A[rthur] Skott-Myhre, editors, Habitus of the Hood, Bristol, Chicago, Ill.: Intellect, →ISBN, pages 109–110:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) A person who drives excessively quickly, loudly or irresponsibly; a street drag racer often driving heavily customized cars.

wegpiraat

young man who drives badly or excessively quickly

The stars of Happytime Murders give Kiwi slang a hoon

2018 August 28, “stars give kiwi slang a hoon”, in The Rock (radio station):

Havin' a hoon on TVNZ's new OnDemand platform

2015 February 13, “TVNZ OnDemand platform”, in TVNZ Ondemand:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) An attempt or go at something.


hoon

hoon (third-person singular simple present hoons, present participle hooning, simple past and past participle hooned)

hoons (present singular third-person)
hooning (participle present)
hooned (participle past)
hooned (past)

[…] you've hooned off – it's fair to say hooned off – at quite a high speed.

2003, Western Australian Reports: Authorized Law Reports of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, volume 28, Sydney: Published for the Council of Law Reporting of Western Australia by Butterworths, →ISSN, page 249:

Cruising, hooning and street machining all involve the social use of public space where young people can exert agency by independently engaging with their surroundings. Young people use public space to meet their needs, and not always in the way a specific space was designed for. One example is that an industrial area may be used as a prime site for hooning and street racers to congregate because it is less frequently under the gaze of authorities.

2012, Rob White, “The Making, Shaking and Taking of Public Spaces”, in Carol Jones, Elaine Barclay, Rob [I.] Mawby, editors, The Problem of Pleasure: Leisure, Tourism and Crime, Abingdon, Oxon, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN:

Any Smokey in his Pig-pen within fifty kilometres had hooned up and down the streets towards the chase, sirens and tyres screaming, whether they could get into the actual pursuit or not, and all the criminals were glued to their TV's for the endless repeats of the demise of the gunmen in a mid-air ball of fire, […]

2015 November 20, Jim Ore, Crime is Everywhere (Solaris Saga; 4), Worcestershire: C. Bosley Publishing, →ISBN, page 244:

(especially Australia, New Zealand) To drive excessively quickly, loudly or irresponsibly.

avtoşluq etmək

to drive excessively quickly, loudly or irresponsibly


cadet

Borrowed from French cadet, from Gascon capdet, from Late Latin capitellum (“small head”). Attested in English from 1634.
Doublet of caddie, cadel, capital, capitellum, caudillo, and Kadet.

doublet

(New Zealand, historical) A young gentleman learning sheep farming at a station; also, any young man attached to a sheep station.


mousetrap

en-noun

mousetrap (countable and uncountable, plural mousetraps)

mousetraps (plural)
mouse trap (alternative)

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

From Middle English mouse-trappe, mous trappe, mouse trape, equivalent to mouse + trap. Cognate with Dutch muizetrap, muizentrap (“mousetrap”), German Low German Muustrappe, Muustrapp (“mousetrap”). In the Internet sense, refers to a computer mouse.

(New Zealand) A slice of bread or toast topped with cheese and then grilled or microwaved.


fizzy

(New Zealand) A non-alcoholic carbonated beverage.


Vegemite

Named as a result of an Australian national competition. The name was chosen in part for its similarity to Marmite.

I said, "Do you speak-a my language?" / And he just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich

1980, Colin Hay, Ron Strykert, “Down Under”, performed by Men at Work:

This story introduces the reader to Australian food. A baby possum named Hush eats many kinds of food to become visible again after Grandma Poss uses magic to make him invisible. He even eats a vegemite sandwich.

1998, Desiree Webber, Travel the Globe: Multicultural Story Times, page 5:

Breakfast tends to be substantial, with eggs, steak or sausages, toast, sometimes baked beans or chips; Vegemite (a vegetable-based salty spread) on toast.

2007, Jeanne Jacob, Michael Ashkenazi, The World Cookbook for Students: Afghanistan to Cook Islands, page 48:

Nunzio improves his prospects with members of the dominant team by swapping his salami or crayfish sandwiches for ‘more normal′ Australian Vegemite delights.

2007, Ron Davidson, Fremantle Impressions, Fremantle Press, page 60:

Such advertising campaigns have done more than merely sell Vegemite, Mortein or cricket; they have played an important role in reflecting and defining Australian national identity.

2008, Robert Crawford, But Wait, There′s More...: A History of Australian Advertising, 1900-2000, Melbourne: University Press, page 258:

(Australia, New Zealand) An Australian food paste made from brewers' yeast.


tucker

tucker (countable and uncountable, plural tuckers)

(uncountable, colloquial, Australia, New Zealand) Food; tuck.


pommie

From pom + -ie (“diminutive suffix”). Australian from 1912.

“It′ll be a long time before I do that,” the pilot said grimly. “She′s my Queen as well as yours, you know. I′m not a bloody Pommie.”[…]“Too right, it′s difficult,” the Australian said. And then he added, “All Pommies aren′t bloody. I used that as a kind of figure of speech.”

1953, Nevil Shute, In the Wet, published 2010, unnumbered page:

A Pommie. They were sending him to England to work with a Pommie. After all that he had done for this country they were shipping him off to a cold, rain-infested, windy little isle to work a case with a Pommie.

There are a lot of Pommies in Australia; travelling round, looking for work, and Dad reckoned you could pay them peanuts.[…]If Sissy couldn′t go back to school, I thought she should help out more, then we wouldn′t have to hire a Pommie house girl.

2011, Ali Lewis, Everybody Jam, unnumbered page:

(colloquial, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, sometimes pejorative) An English immigrant; a pom.


pommie

See citations at pommy.

(Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, sometimes derogatory) English; British.


drongo

From an Australian racehorse named Drongo, apparently after the bird (specifically, after the spangled drongo, Dicrurus bracteatus). The horse (foaled 1920, retired 1925) never won a race, and by transference anyone slow-witted or clumsy became a drongo.
* Alternatively, from putative RAAF slang drongo (a recruit), similarly after the bird.
* Another suggested derivation is the Scottish Gaelic drongair (“drunkard”).

In another story, the drongo is working for a farmer when the boss decides it is time to build another windmill. The drongo agrees to help but asks the farmer if he thinks it really makes sense to have two windmills. ‘What do you mean?’ the farmer asked. ‘Well, says the drongo, ‘there′s barely enough wind to operate the one you already have, so I doubt there′ll be enough to work two of them.’

2010, Graham Seal, Great Australian Stories: Legends, Yarns and Tall Tales, page 191:

One drongo executive can do harm enough, but things get worse when they start recruiting people like themselves.

2010, John Timpson, Upside Down Management: A Common Sense Guide to Better Business, unnumbered page:

I'd rather sit in this daggy bathtub than get a hug from you, you drongo..

2020, "Moments of Silence", in Taskmaster, series 10, episode 8, Channel 4, script for Sam in The Smart Steak

(Australia, New Zealand, slang, derogatory) A fool, an idiot, a stupid fellow.


Oscar

(rhyming slang, Australia, New Zealand) cash; money.


jug

jug (countable and uncountable, plural jugs)

→ Welsh: jwg, jẁg, siwg

From Middle English jugge, of uncertain origin. Possibly a variant of Middle English jubbe, jobbe, iubbe, geobbe, itself of unknown origin; or perhaps continuing (in altered form) Old English ċēac (“pitcher; jug”). Compare also jug (“a low woman, maidservant”), from Jug, familiar form of Joanna.

the jug goes to the well until it breaks

(Australia, New Zealand) An upright electric kettle.


high tea

high tea (countable and uncountable, plural high teas)

It was brawn and shape for high tea.

1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus, published 2014, page 111:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) A late afternoon or early evening meal, typically consisting of a cooked dish with bread and butter and tea.


touch cloth

en-verb

touch cloth (third-person singular simple present touches cloth, present participle touching cloth, simple past and past participle touched cloth)

tlb

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand)

touches cloth (present singular third-person)
touching cloth (participle present)
touched cloth (participle past)
touched cloth (past)

(intransitive, slang) To be just on the point of soiling oneself.


verge

Borrowed from Middle French verge (“rod or wand of office”), hence "scope, territory dominated", from Latin virga (“shoot, rod stick”), of unknown origin. Earliest attested sense in English is now-obsolete meaning "male member, penis" (c.1400). Modern sense is from the notion of 'within the verge' (1509, also as Anglo-Norman dedeinz la verge), i.e. "subject to the Lord High Steward's authority" (as symbolized by the rod of office), originally a 12-mile radius round the royal court, which sense shifted to "the outermost edge of an expanse or area." Doublet of virga.

bor

The shoulders are graded and the verges cleared well back to lessen the chances of hitting stray stock.

2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 129:

(UK, Western Australia, New Zealand) The grassy area between the footpath and the street; a tree lawn; a grassed strip running alongside either side of an outback road.

accotement

grassy area between the sidewalk and the street


casual

casuals (plural)
casuall (alternative)
cazh (alternative)

/ˈkɛʒ(ʉː)əl/

From Middle French casuel, from Late Latin cāsuālis (“happening by chance”), from Latin cāsus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”) (whence English cadence).

der

(British, Australia, New Zealand) A worker who is only working for a company occasionally, not as its permanent employee.

brigádník

a worker who is only working for a company occasionally


biscuit

en-noun

biscuit (countable and uncountable, plural biscuits)

Tok Pisin: bisket

→ Bengali: বিস্কুট (biskuṭ)

→ Burmese: ဘီစကွတ် (bhica.kwat)

→ Cebuano: biskuwít, biskwit

→ Fiji Hindi: biskut

→ Gujarati: બિસ્કિટ (biskiṭ)

→ Hausa: bìskît

desc

ביסקוויט//בִּיסְקְוִיט

→ Hebrew: ביסקוויט /בִּיסְקְוִיט (bískvit)

→ Hiligaynon: biskwit

desctree

→ Hindi: बिस्कुट (biskuṭ)
→ Jarawa: biskuʈ (“biscuit”)

→ Indonesian: beskit, biskit

→ Japanese: ビスケット (bisuketto)

→ Korean: 비스켓 (biseuket)

→ Malay: biskut

→ Marshallese: petkōj

→ Punjabi: ਬਿਸਕੁਟ (biskuṭ)

→⇒ Scottish Gaelic: briosgaid

→ Spanish: bísquet, bísquete

→ Swahili: biskuti

→ Sylheti: ꠛꠤꠍꠇꠥꠐ (bisókuṭ)

→ Tagalog: biskuwit

→ Thai: บิสกิต (bís-gìt)

→ Urdu: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)
→ Ushojo: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)

→ Yoruba: bisikíìtì

→ Zulu: bhisikidi

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

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From earlier bisket, from Middle English bisquyte, from Old French bescuit (French biscuit); doublet of biscotto.

Weighed myself at the gym and have hit 10st 8lb, a sure sign of things getting out of control—so I can’t even console myself with a chocolate biscuit.

(UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, sometimes Canada, rare in the US and the Philippines) A small, flat, baked good which is either hard and crisp or else soft but firm; a cookie.

koekie

small, flat baked good — see also cookie, cracker


ute

Clipping of utility vehicle, originating from the 1930s term coupé utility

The Reverend John Flynn, a man of simple tastes, was always recognisable in the outback, dressed in a suit, driving an old ute and puffing on a pipe.

2007, Sheryl Persson, The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, Australia: Exisle Publishing, →ISBN, page 40:

Still, given the choice between being stuck behind a ute in tropical scenery and spending four to five hours driving through stretches of semi-desert, I′d rather have the ute-plus-heart-attack.

2008, Penelope Adams, Why Women Are Stupid, Lulu, →ISBN, page 105:

A sample body was made in 1933 and the first utilities, or ‘utes’, rolled off the production line next year. Dubbed ‘the Kangaroo Chaser’ by Henry Ford when Bandt displayed two examples in Detroit, United States of America, in 1935, the ute was quickly recognised as the ideal farmers' vehicle.

2009, Damian Veltri, “Bandt, Louis (Lewis) Thornett (1910–1987)”, in Dianne Lingmore, Darryl Bennet, editors, Australian Dictionary of Biography, volume 17 1981–1990: A–K, →ISBN, page 55:

Paramedics rushed Melissa Dennis to the Royal Adelaide hospital with serious injuries after she was hit by a ute at Medindie on Saturday night.

2023 December 31, Matthew Weaver, “Rohan Dennis charged over death of wife, fellow cyclist Melissa Dennis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(Australia, New Zealand, automotive) A small vehicle based on the same platform as a family car but with a unibody construction and a built-in open tray area for carrying goods; similar but not identical to a pick-up truck.

皮卡車 /皮卡车

small vehicle with a built-in open tray area for carrying goods


verandah

[…]and yet, though desirous to be gone, she could not quit the Mansion House, or look an adieu to the Cottage, with its black, dripping, and comfortless verandah, or even notice through the misty glasses the last humble tenements of the village, without a saddened heart.

1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:

Therefore the safe return of the Roper party was the usual topic of our nightly conclaves in the verandah.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 104:

It is almost impossible to say what the heat is in the sun, but in the shade of the verandah it rarely registers more than 80° to 85° , and inside the house it is usually in the daytime 70° to 72°, and at night in the house about an average of 68°.

1908, Charles W. Hattersley, Uganda by Pen and Camera, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States: Union Press, page 36:

There was no moon, only stars set brilliantly in the soft black onyx of the sky : a black night and very silent on Cimiez ; and a black and silent prospect from the verandah […]

1922, Michael Arlen, “3/7/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

We didn't eat in the dining room no more. There was a side porch, a sort of verandah thing with glass windows, with a door to the dining room and a door to the kitchen, and we all ate there after that.

1953, Theodore Sturgeon, More than human:

Constructed from the native timbers rimu, kauri, or matai, the interior has been refurbished in sympathy with the era of the home. The five bedrooms are individually designed, all with private balconies or verandahs.

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

(archaic or Australia and New Zealand) Alternative spelling of veranda.


scone

Originally Scots, possibly from Middle Low German schö̂ne (“fine flour bread”), or Middle Dutch schoonbroot (“fine bread; a kind of flat angular loaf”), from schoon (“fine”) + broot (“bread”); alternatively, Scottish Gaelic sgonn (“lump, mouthful”).

der

…the white ball left a 5cm gash on his scone despite a floppy white hat absorbing some of the impact.

2011 February 2, “Power hitting Pakistani leaves mark on lensman”, in Hawke's Bay Today:

After Essendon coach James Hird tumbled off his bike and hit his scone on the unforgiving South Yarra terrain on Monday night, the chances are he was administered the Cogstate concussion test.

2015 July 15, “Cogstate can count on rich pipeline of cognitive test trials”, in The Australian:

(informal, Australia, New Zealand) The head.


scone

en-verb

scone (third-person singular simple present scones, present participle sconing, simple past and past participle sconed)

scones (present singular third-person)
sconing (participle present)
sconed (participle past)
sconed (past)

2004 December 3, “Sconed by a space rock - and then the headaches started”, in The Sydney Morning Herald:

(transitive, slang, Australia, New Zealand) To hit on the head.


berm

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

From Dutch berm (“strip of roadside grass, verge”), probably via French berme, from Middle Dutch barm, baerm, barem (“verge, bank”), from Old Dutch *barm, from Proto-West Germanic *barm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz (“edge, border, seam”).

der

The sun soaked our street in hot yellow, and the berms were gasping for water.

2003, Emma Espiner, There’s a Cure for This: A Memoir, Penguin, page 15:

(Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Zealand) A strip of land between a street and sidewalk.


slipper

en-verb

slipper (third-person singular simple present slippers, present participle slippering, simple past and past participle slippered)

slippers (present singular third-person)
slippering (participle present)
slippered (participle past)
slippered (past)

1981, Andrew Loudon, Staffroom mole leaks secret of his school's beatings book, Daily Mail and General Trust, World Corporal Punishment Research
"One boy was slippered five times in four days for offences such as missing detention, fooling about and being out of bounds."

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) To spank with a plimsoll as corporal punishment.


township

Portuguese: township

From Middle English towneship, townschip, tounshipe, tunscipe, from Old English tūnsċipe (“the inhabitants of a town; township”), equivalent to town + -ship.


spoof

Origin unknown; perhaps imitative of the spurting of a viscous liquid. Compare splooge, spoo (US slang), spooge, spaff.

unknown

Origin unknown

‘Holy-Jesus-fuckin’-Christ! I’m comin’! I’m shootin’ me bolt! I’m gonna fill ya twat with spoof!’

1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 141:


spoof

en-verb

spoof (third-person singular simple present spoofs, present participle spoofing, simple past and past participle spoofed)

spoofs (present singular third-person)
spoofing (participle present)
spoofed (participle past)
spoofed (past)

unknown

Origin unknown

[T]he release of semen from the penis predominantly symbolizes a forceful masculine operation, an orgasmic ‘rush’ – ejaculate refers to a sudden happening, an ejection – while the ‘loss’ of blood during menstruation is viewed as a more or less passive occurrence. Even the metaphors employed to depict these two aspects of corporeality serve to situate them on differently gendered poles. Man ‘spoofs off’ or ‘shoots his load’, while woman ‘gets her visitor’, ‘has got her monthly’.

2002, Annie Potts, “Innerspace”, in The Science/Fiction of Sex: Feminist Deconstruction and the Vocabulares of Heterosex, Hove, East Sussex, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part 2 (The Vocabularies of Heterosex), page 180:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) To ejaculate, to come.


rates

(British, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong) Taxes, usually on property, levied by local government.


stubbie

2006, Tom Conyers, Morse Code for Cats, 2008, Zeus Publications, Australia, page 59,
Joe drank his lone stubbie of light beer like it was poison – which isn′t far wrong.

Every time you throw your Coke can or your stubbie, or leave your McDonald′s wrapper on the beach, you spoil our beautiful pristine coastline.

2002, Patsy McCarthy, Caroline Hatcher, Presentation Skills: The Essential Guide for Students, Australia: Allen & Unwin, page 99:

The communal area is constantly cruisey, whether you′re slung low in a hammock or sipping your BYO stubbie in the cool, cushioned area with a frayed map in hand.

2009, Justine Vaisutis, Australia, Lonely Planet, page 384:

In PNG we would buy beer wholesale at around 10 cents per stubbie or can, and sell it to ourselves at 20 cents per stubbie or can.

2011, S. J. Waddell, Exploration Days: An a to Z of Ways of Dying in Mineral Exploration, Xlibris, page 76:

(Australia, New Zealand) A small beer bottle with a distinctive squat shape; a stubby.


boy racer

By this time in the evening, the city was mainly quiet, with one exception, boy racers; young men out to impress each other, as well as the city's young females, periodically tore along the street, in a variety of cars, booming out ‘musical’ bass rhythms, apparently oblivious of the speed limits and any concern for anybody else.

2006, Geoff Porter, Little Bites of Australia, page 240:

He and his boy racer mates used to spend every Friday and Saturday nights spreading diesel across the roads and racing their cars.

2006, Jan Colley, Melting the Icy Tycoon, page 51:

2011, Andy Frankham-Allen, Seeker, Untreed Reads, unnumbered page,
The sound of music pumping from the arcades was one thing, this was a standard sound expected in a seaside resort, but the cacophony of the boy racers was not.

(UK, New Zealand) A young man who drives recklessly fast, especially one who participates in gatherings of car-culture enthusiasts and/or in illegal street racing.

เด็กแว้น

young man driving recklessly, participating in illegal street racing, etc.


nugget

en-verb

nugget (third-person singular simple present nuggets, present participle nuggetting, simple past and past participle nuggetted)

nuggets (present singular third-person)
nuggetting (participle present)
nuggetted (participle past)
nuggetted (past)

Uncertain, first attested in reference to animals & people in Scotland and in reference to ore chunks in Australia. Possibly from southern English nug (“lump, block”) or Scottish knudge/nudge (“short, sturdy person or animal”) + -et (“forming diminutives”) or from rebracketed alteration of an ingot as a ni(n)got.

affix

Among the complaints to Dart, “blackballing” or “nuggetting” was the most common form of sexual abuse carried out by recruits, and referred to a boy being forcibly held down “while boot polish, toothpaste or another substance was forcibly smeared on his genitals or anal area, sometimes with a hard brush.”

2014 June 17, Helen Davidson, “Blackballing and blanket beatings: decades of abuse at defence training school revealed”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(slang, Australia, New Zealand) To smear a male's genitals or anus with boot polish or similar substance against his will.


flog

en-verb

flog (third-person singular simple present flogs, present participle flogging, simple past and past participle flogged)

flogs (present singular third-person)
flogging (participle present)
flogged (participle past)
flogged (past)

From Middle English *floggen (suggested by flogge (“hammer, sledge”), from Old English *floggian, a stem variant of Proto-Germanic *flukkōną (“to beat”), itself a secondary zero-grade iterative with unetymological -u-, derived from *flōkaną.
The original zero-grade iterative *flakkōną had been misinterpreted as an o-grade. See flack (“to beat”), also as a dialectal noun "a blow, slap". Cognate with Scots flog (“a blow, stripe, flogging”, noun), Scots flog (“thin strip of wood”), Norwegian flak (“a piece torn off, strip”).
Alternatively, a back-formation from flogger, from Low German flogger (“a flail”).

cog

(transitive, Australia, New Zealand) To steal something.

The Swannies got on a real roll over rounds 16/17 & 18 of 1987. In consecutive SCG matches, they flogged the Eags 30.21 to 10.11, followed that with a 36.20 to 11.7 demolition of the Dons and finally a 31.12 to 15.17 thrashing of Richmond.

1999 August 16, Mr Ripper, “Nothing to Crow About”, in rec.sport.football.australian (Usenet):

Anyone with cable watch this on ESPN "History of Cricket" last night? Australia got flogged by an innings in the fourth test.

2001 June 9, Cas., “Eng v Aus 1977”, in aus.sport.cricket (Usenet):

It'll make the Raiders look good. Getting flogged by a team that got flogged by a team that got flogged by the Bulldogs.

2004 June 5, Greg Vincent }:c{, “POLISER- Roosters v Bulldogs”, in aus.sport.rugby-league (Usenet):

(transitive, Australia, New Zealand) To defeat easily or convincingly.