I was having a discussion with my fifteen year old nephew this summer about idioms (more interesting than it sounds!). He said that there were many slang terms and idioms for breasts, penises, being drunk or drugs. I remember noticing the same thing when I moved to Sweden, but it was not something that people talked about or taught in language classes. So, in the interest of language learning, here are some English idioms and slang words for those things. I would say enjoy reading but avoid using! One of my students had been taught to say ‘do you want to water your horses?’ for asking if people needed to use the facilities. It may have been common use somewhere at some time but nothing I’d ever heard.
Breasts
- knockers
- jugs
- hooters
- rack
- baps
- tits
Penises
- willy
- winkie
- tool
- todger
vaginas
- fanny (UK)
- pussy
- front bottom
bottoms
- bum
- buns
- fanny (US)
- rump
having your period
- having the painters in
- surfing the red tide
- surfing the crimson wave
- that time of the month
- monthlies
- Aunt Flo
Being slightly drunk
- merry
- tipsy
- happy
- tiddly
Being very drunk
- sloshed
- hammered
- trollied
- three sheets to the wind
- pissed
- wasted
- in your cups
- legless
- bladdered
- blind (with “drunk” – as in ‘blind drunk’)
- Pickled
- sozzled
- leathered
- wasted
- sauced
- liquored up
- wrecked
- stiff
- intoxicated
- under the Influence
- had a skinful
- on the cuff
- messed up
- blasted
- loaded
- stinko
- toasted
Being pregnant
- knocked up
- up the pole
- up the spout
- up the duff
- in the family way
going to the toilet (number one)
- whizz
- tinkle
- pee
- wee
- take a leak
- see a man about a horse
- point percy at the porcelain
- pass water
- see a man about a dog
Going to the toilet (number two)
- dropping the kids off at the pool
- taking a dump
- pooh
- poop
- crap (named after Sir Thomas Crapper who invented the flush toilet)
farting
- cut the cheese
- break wind
- float an airbiscuit
- trouser cough
vomiting
- hurl
- spew
- toss your cookies
- blow chunks
- puke
- parking tigers (that one I have never understood)
- talking to god on the great white telephone
- driving the porcelain bus
- ralphing
- saying hello to Ralph
Of course there are many more. They differ according to region, age, upbringing. If you hear or read something like this and are too embarrassed to ask, here are two websites