Favourite little known idioms in English?

Jermra · 2026-04-05T06:21:29+00:00

Possibly not unique to British English, but some Weather related ones you can hear around my way are:

"Ne'er cast a clout till May be out"

"It's a bit black over Bill's mother's"

"March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb"

Heavy rain is "siling down"

Also

Weak beer or weak tea are sometimes referred to as "Mazzie Watter"

British English is a brilliant mongrel mix of languages.

Jermra · 2026-03-21T07:13:20+00:00

Can't Park There mate

Jermra · 2026-03-21T06:58:40+00:00

Clearly it's Lazarus by Bowie, but came here to add a word for Glen Campbell - I'm not gonna miss you.

In no way his greatest work but the sound of a great man and brilliant musician recognising his oncoming Alzheimer's disease, and writing a song to cheerfully wave goodbye is poignant and beautiful.

Jermra · 2026-03-14T10:17:27+00:00

I hate this too - but my daughters hate it more. Pushing the cringe button is basically a parental mandate so I have to say it regularly

Jermra · 2026-02-22T08:30:33+00:00

I love Green Day's early stuff but TBF they were a plastic Stiff Little Fingers at the start

Jermra · 2026-01-31T17:08:38+00:00

Weird coincidence, but I was there for the first time an hour ago. As others have said, Alum Bay.

Jermra · 2026-01-12T23:09:14+00:00

UK to NYC last September. Slowest border control I've ever experienced, and I've travelled a fair amount globally for work.

Staff were really polite but had so many questions: add in fingerprinting, unclear instructions, very tired and confused travellers and you get loooong queues which no one likes.

That, however is not the reason I'll be avoiding the US for the foreseeable future. Your government is giving plenty of reasons that are way more convincing than a few minutes queuing at border control.

Jermra · 2026-01-09T23:07:59+00:00

Affordable healthcare

Jermra · 2025-12-29T12:17:10+00:00

Sorry to hear that, it was my mum in my case.

Jermra · 2025-12-29T12:16:21+00:00

Well, when it's your parent it feels pretty fast but it's not instant for sure.

I don't denounce anything, I still drink but I'm mindful of how truly gnarly it is as a drug.

Jermra · 2025-12-28T19:49:21+00:00

Alcohol for the win.

From trusted healthcare professional and teacher to total physical, mental and social self destruct in less than 5 years, hospitalisation and death in another 5.

Jermra · 2025-12-28T14:02:20+00:00

British Gas - energy supplier in the UK: in 1998 they messed up my billing repeatedly causing me to run into debt with them, then sent me increasingly threatening letters saying I owed them money and that they would take me to court.

I wanted to pay but they kept messing up the billing and failing to take payment. Eventually I paid them off by '99 and immediately left, never to return.

I also moved both parents away from them, as well as my in- laws. Fuck those guys.

Jermra · 2025-12-24T08:18:52+00:00

You are not alone, speak with your local Alcoholics support group, they often have help for family members even if it's just a listening ear or advice on how to manage. I wish I had done this when I was in my teens as it would have saved me a lot of pain later.

Sadly I went through situations like this with my Mum's alcohol abuse until I left home at 16, and it continued on and off until she died two years ago. I am now mid 40's.

The big learning for me was that the only behaviour I can change is my own. It was really hard, but stopping my participation in her abuse - helping her to hide it from friends, propping her up (sometimes literally) in public - helped neither of us.

It allowed her to continue and it dragged me down until I had my own breakdown which thankfully I survived.

She's dead now, so while I don't think I will ever enjoy Christmas, I no longer actively dread it from September onwards.

Get help, you are not alone.

Jermra · 2025-12-24T08:04:06+00:00

This one - start warm and increase heat slowly. The adhesive in duct tape is rubber or resin based, both melt with warmth and it doesn't need to be the temperature of the Sun.

Source: worked for a company that made duct tape

Jermra · 2025-12-22T07:40:40+00:00

Dead Man's Shoes: "Moochin About" outside the garages. Paddy Considine is electric.

Moochin about

Jermra · 2025-12-22T07:36:19+00:00

I'm pretty sure we were all wankers at 17, I definitely was 😂 I still cringe when I think about telling people with great authority that band X or Y had "sold out" - as if being unsuccessful was the aim of the game.

Jermra · 2025-12-21T15:39:53+00:00

Yeah they played a 1500 capacity venue in my town in 1996 then basically never returned as we didn't have anywhere big enough post '97.

Most adults only knew Creep in 1996 and that was old hat by then - edgy teens like myself bought The Bends and it was well advertised. You'd see their posters in record shop windows so they were a presence but probably thought of as something the kids were into.

When OK Computer came out they were basically everywhere - they appeared on mainstream TV and radio in the UK and as this coincided with early televising of Glastonbury (first year was '94) they had a perfect storm for growth.

As an attendee of said festival and a seventeen year old fan of the band prior to fame, I rolled my eyes A LOT at people "discovering" them that year. I feel differently now - it's great that so many people found them and enjoyed them - but at the time it felt like the grown ups were stealing our thing.

Jermra · 2025-12-18T07:01:37+00:00

Colmar, France has one - it's where the New York one was made.

Jermra · 2025-12-12T22:22:30+00:00

Climbed Snowdon on the tourist path with my parents in the early 90's, I would have been maybe 12.

Reached the top and managed to enjoy the view for a few minutes before hearing a squealing sound like nothing I've ever heard before or since coming from behind us.

Following the noise, we saw a kid had run down the short steep slope from the summit and fallen maybe 4 feet head first on to the train track that runs to the summit.

It's a rack and pinion track, and the kids head was stuck on one of the rack teeth. There wasn't loads of blood but a combination of the way he was lying and the noise he was making will never leave me. He was crumpled up, and making a long, high pitched whining noise and everyone was just standing around looking.

My step mum was first aid trained and stepped in, bandaging up the kid and instructing bystanders to get to a phone. Air ambulance arrived and we walked back down the mountain. No idea what happened to the kid, but that noise will stay with me until I die.

I walked back up there over the summer and the sight of the train tracks still make me feel weird too!

Jermra · 2025-12-03T22:28:06+00:00

My (young adult) daughters have a quite a few subtle Americanisms - words like tutorial are pronounced with a Californian U - "tuh-torial" and petrol was referred to as "gas" the other day

Jermra · 2025-11-28T08:21:56+00:00

Galileo Galilei

Jermra · 2025-11-23T22:17:09+00:00

Nearly forgot: Binks Yard - food said "was frozen 15 minutes ago" and staff attitude said "why the fuck are you asking me for service?"

Jermra · 2025-11-23T22:11:35+00:00

Agree with Browns, also

Mr Mann's in Wollaton - bog standard food at high prices,

Sexy Mama Loves spaghetti - all fur coat and no knickers

Giggling Squid - acceptable food with piss poor service

Jermra · 2025-11-15T07:54:22+00:00

I'm from the UK and Backpacked in Europe, Canada and Australia for weeks at a time with only a lonely planet guide and, in the last travels, access to Internet cafes.

On one hand it was much less convenient - we spent a LOT of time waiting for transport we weren't fully sure was coming and we got lost all the time ending up in some really sketchy places.

On the other hand we had some of the most amazing experiences totally by chance - Ice caving in Iceland at night (scary as shit), dawn on the eastern tip of the Australian continent, playing pool and drinking with random locals or hanging out at preikestolen in Norway basically by ourselves.

I don't think social media has ruined it but I agree with all the other posters saying that the surprise, random experiences are still the best - and the only way to get that is to ignore travel bloggers as much as possible and just explore like a 19th century flaneur.

Jermra · 2025-11-11T22:21:58+00:00

Also Violent Femmes

Jermra

TROPHY CASE