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Phrases and sayings

American English

Brits generally recognise most American phrases due to media exposure.

  • Bail: To leave, often without warning.
  • Bought the farm: Dead.
  • Cut the cheese: To fart.
  • For the birds: Unimportant.
  • Going Dutch: Splitting a food bill equally.
  • I could care less: I couldn't care less.
  • John Doe: Joe Bloggs - a generic male name.
  • John Hancock: Someone's signature.
  • Jonesing: Craving or desperate for something.
  • Making a move: Romantically approaching someone, often to spend the night with them.
  • Monday morning quarterback: Someone who criticises decisions in hindsight.
  • Pissed: Angry.
  • Shoot the breeze: Spend time idly chatting.
  • Sweet: Good or nice.
  • Table something: To postpone something. Opposite meaning from the UK.
  • Take a raincheck: Postponing something to a later date.
  • Touch base: Briefly talk to someone.

British English

Be very careful saying these in America. Many can be misconstrued.

  • Airing dirty laundry: Discussing private matters in public.
  • Balls up: Same as cock up, something went wrong.
  • Blighty: The UK, generally in a positive light.
  • Bob's your uncle: To illustrate something is finished with relative ease. *"Just add a dash of cheese and Bob's your uncle!"
  • Cock up: Something has gone wrong - a complete shambles.
  • Cut the cheese: To literally slice up cheese.
  • Damp squib: Something very unsuccessful, often prefixed with "a bit of a".
  • Dodgy: Wrong, illegal, or just suspicious.
  • Donkey's years: A very long time.
  • Gobsmacked: Very surprised.
  • Going to see a man about a dog: Going somewhere I'm not talking about.
  • Got the hump: A person/animal is mildly annoyed.
  • Gutted: Distressed/torn up.
  • Hunky-dory: As expected and going well.
  • I couldn't care less: I could care less.
  • Joe Bloggs: John Doe - a generic male name.
  • Kerfuffle: A fight or argument, but usually not very physical.
  • Knackered: Very tired/exhausted.
  • Making a move: To leave somewhere when it's late or you have other things to do.
  • Mate: Friendly greeting/pronoun. Put it where you might put "bro".
  • Peckish: Hungry.
  • Pissed: Drunk (sometimes means angry).
  • Rubbish: Either literal garbage or that something is bad.
  • Table something: To bring something up in a meeting. Opposite meaning from the US.
  • Tad: A little bit.
  • Taking the piss: Making fun of someone.
  • The dog's bollocks: It's great.

Compliments

British English relies heavily on sarcasm and self-deprecation, while Americans will often take things at face value (moreso the further west you are). Some examples:

UK Meaning Notes
Quite good Awesome The more "quite good" is emphasised, the better the thing is.
That's lovely/great Please stop talking Generally when someone is telling you something very boring. If "lovely/great" is stressed, though, it means it is actually good.