Ca
- cack
- 1 excrement
- The baby cacked its nappy.
- 2 a person or thing that is extremely funny
- That guy is such a cack.
- 3 to laugh uncontrollably
- We were cacking ourselves!
- cackhanded
- left‐handed
- cackle berry
- a chickens egg
- cactus
- not working, ruined
- That thing is cactus, mate.
- camp
- 1 stay somewhere temporarily
- You can camp at my place until next week.
- 2 an effeminate homosexual man
- He's as camp as a row of tents.
- 3 a homosexual man whether effeminate or not
- Replaced by the word gay since the '70s.
- camp oven
- cast-iron pot
Used for cooking on a camp fire.- canary
- unroadworthy certificate
- The cops put a canary on my car!
So called because it is printed on yellow paper. - cane it
- to drive fast or accelerate
- cane toad
- a player for qld
- In the State of Origin rugby competition.
Hence, any Queenslander. As opposed to a cockroach. nrl slang
- caper
- 1 an occupation or job
- What caper are you in?
2 behaviour - There was singing and dancing, all that kind of caper.
3 whatever is happening - What's the caper?
- captain cook
- a look
- Let's have a bit of a captain cook around the town..
rhyming slang: captain cook for look
- carcass
- your body or yourself
- Park your carcass on the sofa, mate!
- cardie
- a cardigan
- cark it
- to die, to fail or break down completely
- carn!
- come on!
- A sporting barrackers cry.
Carn the Blues! since the 1960s
- carnie
- 1 an agricultural show worker
- 2 a carnation
- carry on like a pork chop
- make a fuss about nothing
- cask
- a cardboard box for storing and serving wine
Invented by Thomas Angrove, the wine cask contains a lining which collapses as the wine is drawn off, thus preventing contact with air.See goon for more information.since 1965
- cashed-up
- having ready money
since the 1930s
- cat's piss ∼ mean as …
- mean, stingy, uncharitable
- cattle duffing
- the thieving of cattle
- Generally involving the alteration of brands.
since the 19th century
- celler dwellers
- the team at the bottom of a footy competition table
- Also known as easybeats.
footy slang
Ch
- chain ∼ drag the chain
- to shirk or fall behind in one's share of work or responsibility
colonial slang
- chain ∼ on the chain
- serving one's sentence as part of a chain gang
colonial slang
- chalkie
- a schoolteacher
- But most people just call them teachers.
aussie diminutive
since the 1940s- chardonnay socialist
- a derogatory political label
- Said of someone who pays lip service to left-wing views while enjoying an affluent lifestyle.
- charge
- to surf extremely well
surfing slang since the 1970s
- chasey
- a schoolyard game
- Also known as chasings, tag, tiggy, tig, tip
- chateau cardboard
- cask wine
- A euphemism for cask wine.
- chatty
- rough, dirty, in poor condition
- Originally convict slang meaning infected with lice.
since the 1940s
- checkout chick
- female working at a supermarket cash register
- cheerio
- 1 goodbye
- Cheerio, I'm gunna hit the frog and toad.
- 2 a cocktail frankfurt in qld & northern nsw
- cheesed off
- very annoyed
- chewie on your boot!
- a cry intended to disconcert a footy player taking a kick
aussie rules slang
- chew & spew
- takeaway food shop
- chiack
- to taunt or tease
- chief cook and bottle washer
- the person in charge who does every other thing as well
- chigger
- a flannie-clad, mullet-sporting yobbo
- From the name of the Hobart suburb of Chigwell
Qld: bevan∼bogan NSW: westie Vic: scozzer Tas: chigger tassie slang
- chinless wonder
- a feeble, pathetic male
- chippie
- carpenter
- Chloe As drunk as Chloe
Entered the Australian vernacular to describe an extremely pissed person
(i.e. a person who is drunk enough to take off all their clothes in public).
Chloé was purchased by a local surgeon and hung in the National Gallery of Victoria, before puritanical Melburnians successfully campaigned for her removal. She has graced magazine covers, had wine named after her and poems written to her. She has experienced fame and adoration and has won high acclaim from critics. Her career began, like the many models after her, in Paris. She was created and moulded by a Master. She is a Melbourne icon, mascot for the HMAS Melbourne, an extremely fine work of art; she is an ingénue, a nymph, a celebrity. She is Chloé, the famous nude portrait which has graced the walls of the Young and Jackson Hotel since 1909.
Throughout her life, Chloe has kept company with artists, poets, wharfies, Prime Ministers and drunks, soldiers, sailors, celebrities, bushies, labourers and art connoisseurs. Her history involves transformation, death, intrigue, love, war, depression and passion.
Chloe now hangs in Chloe's Bar, so you can enjoy a drink or a meal while you admire this true Australian icon.chloé has hung in the public bar of young & jackson hotel since 1909
- chockers
- 1 completely full
- I couldn't eat another thing, I'm chockers.
2 packed or overcrowded - The restaurant was chockers.
- chockie
- chocolate
- I've brought you a box of chockies.
- choko
- a pear‐shaped light green fruit eaten as a vegetable
- From a South American vine, often grown in backyards.
Said about someone who is totally useless:
He couldn't train a choko vine up a dunny wall. - choof
- marijuana
- See yarndi for a related term.
- choof off
- to leave
- It's getting late, I might choof off now.
- chook
- a chicken or a fowl
- A chook raffle is a fund-raising in which the prize is a chook.
Who wants a ticket in the chook raffle? It can also mean a situation where the fortunes can go either way.
I might get the job, but it's a chook raffle. - See headless chook for more.
- chop & change
- to change repeatedly
- I wish she'd make her mind up, she keeps choppin and changin.
- chuffed
- very happy
- chuck
- 1 to vomit
- He's chuckin' up.
2 to contribute to the cost of something - We're all chuckin' in for the beer.
3 to throw - In the imperative it is never followed by the personal pronoun me.
You never chuck me anything – you always chuckus.
Chuck us that spanner, Joe.
If the spanner is broken beyond repair, it is chucked out, but not
by a chucker out … - chuck a leftie
- turn left
- chuck a right
- turn right
- chuck a uey
- do a u-turn
- chuck a wobbly
- display sudden anger
- Truth be known, Aussies don't really approve of people losing their temper — it is seen as overreacting — and this phrase is meant to belittle the behaviour.
There is a veritable plethora of put-downs on this same theme, including
chuck a mental—chuck a nana—chuck a spaz—chuck a willy - chucker out
- a bouncer
- Someone who removes undesirables from a pub or club.
- chunder
- to vomit
- There are two different views on the origin of this term.
- 1 a contraction of ‘watch under’
- Supposedly shouted by upper-deck passengers, warning those below, before vomiting over the rails.
- 2 rhyming slang for ‘spew’
- Derived from Chunder Loo, a cartoon character created by the Australian artist Norman Lindsay in 1909, advertising boot polish.
aussie slang
- circle work
- creating circular skid marks with the tyres of a motor vehicle
- A popular entertainment aussie-wide.
Cl
- clapped out
- old , worn out
- clayton's
- 1 a proprietory name for an alcohol-free drink
- Famous from a 1980s TV ad campaign featuring Jack Thompson.
The drink you can have when you're not having a drink.
2 no choice at all - We've got clayton's choice of where to drink, now the only other pub burnt down.
3 false , fake , substitute - These shark fillets are a claytons for coral trout.
aussie slang
- cleanskin
- 1 an unbranded animal
- 2 an unbranded wine
- clear as mud
- confusing
- clobber
- 1 clothes or gear
- 2 to hit someone
- Say that again and I'll clobber you!
- clod hoppers
- a heavy boot or shoe
- clubbie
- a member of a surf-lifesaving club
- clucky
- feeling broody or maternal
- clued-up
- well-informed
- cluey
- smart , shrewd , well-informed
- Ask Joe, he's pretty cluey about boats.
Co
- coachwood
- an australian tree
- A light tough wood used for furniture
- coathanger
- the sydney harbour bridge
- cobber
- a friend , a mate
- Most likely from the Yiddish chaber, meaning comrade.
since the 1890s
- cobbler
- an eel-tailed catfish
wa slang
- cockeyed bob
- a violent squall or storm
- Different to a willy-willy, which is a dry wind and generally less powerful.
wa and nt slang
- cockatoo
- someone who gives the alert
For example, when the police arrive.
So called in reference to the sulphur-crested cockatoo, a parrot which noisily warns the feeding flock of any danger.since 1827
- cock jogs
- a brief men's swimming costume
- See speedos for a full set of synonyms.
- cock up
- something that has gone wrong
- cockie
- a farmer
- cocky ∼ like the cocky on the biscuit tin
- not in it at all
- cockroach
- a player for nsw
- In the State of Origin rugby competition.
Hence, any person from NSW. As opposed to a cane toad. nrl slang
- codger
- an unusual , peculiar person
- Often used affectionately.
- coldie
- a beer
- I can't wait to get home and crack a coldie.
since the 1950s
- collect
- a winning bet
- I got a nice collect on the Cup.
racing slang
- collywobbles
- a condition affecting the collingwood afl team
- An affliction which causes them to consistently lose premiership matches.
See Collingwood FC for more information. aussie rules slang coined by lou richards
- come in spinner
- 1 a timely call to spin the coins in ‘two-up’
- 2 denoting a subterfuge
- Usually a successful swindle or fraud.
- compo
- a payment made under a workers' compensation scheme
- Dad was on compo after his injury at work.
- conk
- the nose
since 1812
- conk out
- 1 to break down
- The engine's conked out again.
2 to collapse from exhaustion - I'm buggered, I'll just conk out on the sofa for a while.
- connie
- 1 a tram conductor
- Formerly an institution of Melbourne's tramways, prior to the automation of their duties.
- 2 a playing marble
- 3 a condom
- 4 a small stone suitable for throwing
- There are a number of similar words from all over the country for this same item, all of which come from Aboriginal languages.
- In Vic they have the brinnie, Qld has the gonnie,
SA has the ronnie, all along the east coast there is the connie,
whilst in WA they have the boondie, which also means a large rock, or a sand bomb used by kids. WA also has the coondie. - Australia-wide there is the goolie, and the gibber, the only one for which a definite origin is known.
- conservatorium
- a school of music
-
aussie term
- convict stain
- the symbolic memory of the convict era
For Australians the word convict only ever means a prisoner transported to Australia’s penal colonies.
Elsewhere in the English-speaking world it is a common term for a criminal convicted of an offence and serving time for it. The First Fleet arrived in Sydney in 1788 and within a year convicts sentences started to expire. Within five years, 85% of this cohort were emancipated, and once emancipated they could qualify for land grants. At its heart, convict society contained this central dynamic driving it towards freedom and normality. Most of those transported would spend far more of their lives at liberty than in chains, real or metaphorical. Once emancipated, most ex-convicts stayed in Australia and joined the free settlers, with some rising to prominent positions in Australian society. However, convictism carried a social stigma, and for some later Australians being of convict descent instilled a sense of shame and cultural cringe. The convict taint was anathema to polite society, and social distinctions were drawn between free settlers and freed convicts.
This quotation from a novel of the 1890s encapsulates the social anxiety of a young man in love with the wrong kind of girl:
Not until well into the twentieth century did it become common for people to acknowledge convict ancestry with pride, and by that time prisoner was long established as the common word to describe incarcerated criminals. Perhaps the uneasy history of convictism in Australia meant that, following the end of transportation, our forbears just wanted to forget about it. In colonial times a convict was often called a public servant, and this was later applied to anyone who worked for the government.Love her! my God, I do love her!
But if there is this convict stain, what am I to do?- coo-ee
- greeting call from a distance in the bush
- cooee ∼ within cooee
- at hand, imminent
- Are we within cooee of getting this done?
- coondie
- a rock
- Either too large to move or small enough to pick up and throw.
Also called a connie or yonnie. wa slang
- coolibah
- a eucalypt tree
Best known from the opening lines of Banjo Paterson's 1895 lyrics for the song Waltzing Matilda.
Often referring to the blue-leaved Eucalyptus microtheca found across central and northern Australia, a fibrous-barked tree yielding a durable timber and occurring in seasonally flooded areas.from yuwaaliyaay language of northern nsw
- Cootamundra wattle
- a graceful wattle tree with bluish grey foliage
Acacia baileyana is indigenous to the Cootamundra- Wagga Wagga area of southern NSW, but it has been naturalised as an environmental weed in other areas of Australia and overseas. It is often mistaken for local wattles and planted in gardens. cootamundra-wagga wagga map
- cop
- to get or receive
- As in; He copped a $200 fine.
- To cop a feel is to instigate or allow sexual fondling.
- To cop a gong is to be awarded some recognition, such as a medal.
- To cop the lot is to bear the brunt of some misfortune or to suffer multiple misfortunes at the same time.
- To cop it sweet is to get what is coming.
The cops busted me; I had to cop it sweet. - copper
- a policeman
- Recorded in Britain and the USA in the 1840s.
since the 1880s
- cop shop
- a police station
- An aussie original, now used in Britain and the USA.
since the 1940s
- corella
- a white australian cockatoo
The little corella (Cacatua sanguinea), also known as the short-billed corella, bare-eyed cockatoo, blood-stained cockatoo, and little cockatoo is a white cockatoo native to Australia and southern New Guinea.
They are relatively small cockatoos and all have pale bills. While most show yellow-tinged underwings and some red to the face, none has conspicuously coloured crests. It was known as Birdirra among the Yindjibarndi people of the Pilbara. They would keep them as pets, or traditionally cook and eat them. The downy feathers are used in traditional ceremonies and dances where they adorn head and armbands.- corker
- something excellent
- corner country
- the region where the borders of qld, sa, nt, and nsw meet
- Also called the Corner
- corroboree
- an aboriginal dance ceremony with song and music
- cossie
- swimming costume
- Also spelt cozzie.
- cot
- a bed
- It's time to hit the cot.
Someone who is incapacitated and is only fit for bed is a cot case. since the 1930s
- country dunny
- an outside lavatory
- Located well away from the house on a rural property.
Hence, to be all alone like a country dunny is to be totally alone. iconic australiana
- country member
- derogatory
- He's a cunt, remember?
- counter lunch
- pub lunch
- cow
- 1 a contemptible person
- You miserable cow.
2 a bad-tempered woman - She was a mean old cow.
3 something unpleasant or annoying - I've had a cow of a day.
since the 1890s
- cow cocky
- a small-scale cattle farmer
Cr
- crack a fat
- get an erection
- crack a tinnie
- to open a can of beer
- crack a wave
- to catch a wave and ride it
surfing slang since the 1940s
- crack the whip
- tell people to hurry up and get something done
- crack onto
- to pursue someone romantically
- cranky
- ill tempered
- crash hot
- something that is very good
- crate
- a run-down, dilapidated vehicle
- crawbob
- a yabby
- Known by this name in coastal Qld & north-east NSW.
Also called a crawchie.
See yabby for more information. - crawler
- a person who acts ingratiatingly to another
- One of the worst epithets you can apply to someone.
Nearly as bad, and just as common, as a dobber. since the 1920s
- crescent
- a shifting spanner in wa and tas
- crib
- 1 a lunch box or bag
- Also called a crib bag, crib box, or crib tin.
Hence, a packed lunch or the lunch break.
Originally Cornish dialogue, meaning a barred receptacle for fodder.
2 illegally moving your hand over the line - When shooting in a game of marbles.
- crikey!
- expression of astonishment
- A euphemism for the blasphemous exclamation Christ!
- crim
- a criminal
since the 1940s
- cripple
- 1 among surfers, a derisive word for a kneeboarder
- Because, of course, they can't stand up.
2 something totally amazing - It crippled me when Johnno did a three-sixty on that wave.
Such a thing is known as a crippler. - croak
- to die
- Originally aussie slang, now used elsewhere.
since 1812
- crock of shit
- nonsense, lies
- crook
- 1 bad, unpleasant, inferior
- The weather's crook.
2 ill, injured - I'm feeling a bit crook today.
3 angry - The boss went crook at me.
4 a stolen item - An Aussie original, also used in NZ.
5 a criminal - Originally US slang from the 1870s.
- crooked on
- angry with
- The boss is crooked on me for being late to work.
since the 1940s
- cross-country ballet
- a derisive term for australian rules football
- Not to be confused with cross-country wrestling, which is Rugby League or Union.
- crow
- Used in phrases such as :
- The land where the crow flies backward
meaning any remote outback place - As the crow flies
a measure of distance in a straight line. - To draw the crow
is to be given the worst job. - Stone the crows!
is an exclamation of surprise or delight.
Meaning, Heavens Above! Good Lord! since the 1920s
- crow eater
- a person from south australia
since the 1880s
- crust ∼ make a crust
- to earn a living
Cu
- cuddy
- a horse
- From a British dialect where it meant a donkey, not a horse.
since the 1890s
- cunning ∼ as a shithouse rat
- very cunning
- cunning kick
- a secret pocket for hiding cash
- cunt
- 1 a contemptible person
- You cunt!
2 any person - He's a lucky cunt
3 something annoying or frustrating - I can't get this cunt of an engine to run.
4 the vagina - Avoided in polite conversation, the word has given rise to the rhyming slang words berk and drop-kick
- Cup ∼ the Cup
- the melbourne cup
The Race that Stops a Nation is held annually on the first Tuesday of November at Flemington in Melbourne, Vic. - cuppa
- a cup of tea or coffee
- cut lunch
- a packed lunch, usually sandwiches
- cut-lunch commando
- a derisive term for a member of the australian army reserve
military slang since the 1950s
- cut snake ∼ mad as a cut snake
- very angry
it's theThe Illustrated Dictionary of
Australian English
Words and Phrases in Afferbeck Lauder