The Atheist Blogger

Absolutely nothing to do with atheism, but I had this idea after watching a clip of Hugh Laurie on the Ellen DeGeneres show, and after finding the “List of British words not widely used in the United States” article on Wikipedia. Basically this is for my US readers, can you match up the British slang to the meanings? After you’ve attempted to match them all up, click the “Show Answers” button (JavaScript needed) and see how you did!

The Slang

manky
minger
chav
pear-shaped
bugger all
argy-bargy
throw a wobbly
higgledy-piggledy
take the piss
knackered
spot on
chuffed
jammy git
footie
fringe
boffin
rat-arsed
bob’s your uncle
witter
gobsmacked

The Meanings

to go drastically or dramatically wrong
it’s that simple
exhausted
in disarray
utterly astonished
scientist or engineer, geek, nerd
proud, satisfied, pleased
exactly
to make fun of somebody
to continue to talk trivially about a subject long after the audience’s interest has gone
to lose one’s temper
little or nothing at all
slob, someone who is unattractive
extremely drunk
typically a working class person of lowish intelligence who wears designer label copies and is a trouble-maker
football (soccer)
bangs, as in describing collective strands of hair covering part or all of the forehead
pushing-and-shoving or outright fighting
feeling ill, rough, out of sorts; filthy, dirty, rotten.
lucky person