Australian slang can be tricky to wrap your laughin’ gear around. But strewth, mate; learning these bonzer terms and phrases will endear you to every true blue Aussie. You beaudy!
[A]
Ace! : Excellent! Awesome!
Arvo : afternoon
Avagoodwun : have a pleasant day (salutation)
[B]
Banana bender : a person from Queensland, where many bananas grow
Barbie : barbecue (noun)
Barrack : to support (eg: barrack for a footy team)
Battler : someone working hard and only just making a living
Beaut, beaudy : great, fantastic (“You beaudy!”)
Belter : an absolute beaudy
Big smoke : a big city, especially Sydney or Melbourne. Definitely not Hobart.
Billabong : an smallish country lake often used by swagmen to camp by
Bingle : motor vehicle accident (also Michael Clarke’s ex-fiancée)
Bloody oath! : that’s certainly true
Bloke : a gentleman
Blowie : a large noisy fly (insect)
Blue : fight (“he had a blue with this Kiwi bloke”)
Bluey : a person with red hair
Bogan : a person who takes little pride in their appearance, spends their day slacking and drinking beer. Usually has a mullet hair-cut, wears a blue singlet and drives a ute.
Bog-roll : Toilet paper
Bonzer : great, wonderful
Booze bus : police vehicle used for catching and testing drunk drivers
Bottle-o : liquor shop
Brekkie : breakfast
Brickie : bricklayer
Brick it : panic (derived from ‘shitting bricks’)
Brisvegas (or Brissie) : Brisbane, state capital of Queensland
Buckley’s chance : no chance
Budgie smugglers : men’s swimming costume
Bundy : short for Bundaberg, Queensland, and the brand of rum that’s made there
BYO : unlicensed restaurant where you have to Bring Your Own booze
[C]
Cack : Very funny, entertaining (Johnno is a total cack)
Cactus : dead, not functioning (“My television is cactus”)
Cane toad : a person from Queensland, where there are many said amphibians
Cark it : to die, cease functioning
Chewie : chewing gum
Choccie : chocolate
Chockas: full, packed (“The car park was chockas”)
Chook : a chicken
Chrissie : Christmas
Chuck a sickie : take the day off sick from work when you’re perfectly healthy
Chunder : vomit
Clacker : anus (from Latin cloaca = sewer)
Click : kilometre (“we’re 60 clicks away”)
Clucky : feeling broody or maternal, like an egg laying chook
Coathanger : The Sydney Harbour Bridge
Cobber : friend
Coldie : a beer
Come a gutser : make a bad mistake, have an accident
Cooee! : traditional bush call to locate another person, or to be located yourself. Hence also used as a measure of distance – eg. “not within cooee of the cops’ watchful eyes”.
Corker : something excellent. In cricket, a bowler might deliver a ‘corker of a yorker’
Cozzie : swimming costume
Cracker: An absolute belter
Crack onto (someone) : to make romantic overtures to another person
Crack the shits : get angry, to lose your lollie
Crack-up : hysterically funny
Crikey : exclamation of surprise or emphasis (“Crikey, that Steve Irwin was a bonza bloke”)
Crock (of shit) : lies
Crook : sick, or of poor quality
Cut lunch : to interrupt someone cracking onto another person. Also result of a man wearing tight footy pants
Cut snake, mad as a : very angry
[D]
Dag : a funny person, nerd, goof. Also poo that hangs from a sheep’s bum
Daks : trouser pants. Tracksuit pants are known as ‘tracky daks’
Dart: cigarette (“Just popping outside for a quick dart”)
Deadset : the absolute truth
Dero : tramp, hobo, homeless person (from ‘derelict’)
Digger : a soldier (originally used to describe World War I veterans who dug trenches)
Dill : a bit of an idiot
Dinky-di : true blue, genuine. derive from ‘fair dinkum’
Dipstick : see ‘dill’
Divvy van : Police vehicle used for transporting criminals. Named after the protective ‘division’ between the driver and the villains.
Dob (somebody) in : whistle-blower, a tattle-tale
Docco : documentary
Dodgy : of questionable character
Dole bludger : somebody on social welfare when unjustified
Dropped guts : very unpleasant flatulence (Oh seriously, mate – did you just drop your guts?!”)
Drongo : a fool, a dag, useless person
Dropkick : idiot (“Claire’s new boyfriend is a total dropkick”)
Dunny : toilet
Durry : tobacco cigarette. Don’y drop them in the dunny; it make them hard to light, mate.
[E]
Earbashing : nagging, non-stop chatter
Easy peasy : simple
El cheapo : sophisticated and exotic term for a low cost alternative
Esky : cooler-box for drinks and food, but mostly beer
Exy : highly or overly priced
[F]
Face, off one’s : drunk (“He was totally off his face”)
Fair dinkum : true, genuine
Fair go : a chance (“Give the bloke a fair go”)
Fair suck (of the sav): exclamation of wonder, awe, disbelief
Feral : disgusting
Flake out : drop out of an activity, usually last-minute
Flamin’ galah : fool, silly person, one who resembles a colourful yet idiotic parrot native to Australia
Flat out : Progressing at full speed (“he was goin’ flat out like a lizard drinking)
Flick, give the : get rid of it or him/her – end a romantic relationship (“I couldn’t stand his rudeness any longer, so I gave him the flick”)
Footy : Australian rules football, or rugby league, or rugby union
Franger : condom
Fremantle Doctor : the cooling afternoon breeze that arrives in Perth from the direction of the satellite town of Fremantle (Freo)
Frog in a sock (going off like a) : going crazy, usually with reference to a party (“We went to Oktoberfest and the Hofbrau tent went off like a frog in a sock, mate!”)
Furphy : a red herring rumour. False or misleading
Next week: Australian slag dictionary [G-Q], featuring crackers like ‘grundies’, ‘‘pash-rash’ and ‘no wukkers’.
Go to: Complete Dictionary of Australian Slang
By Rob Flude with Bryce Lowry