Phrases from the past, some thankfully extinct

  • I don’t care was made to care and made to care was hung
  • If wishes were horses, beggars would ride
  • Gag me with a spoon
  • Where’s the beef?
  • Peachy keen
  • Gimme just left town and Wanna ran after him
  • Take a chill pill
  • Gnarly
  • Mind your Ps and Qs
  • Smoking or Non-smoking section?
  • Cruisin’ for a bruisin’
  • Runs like a Singer (sewing machine)
  • Naked as a jaybird
  • Hold the phone
  • When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
  • Bee’s knees
  • I’ll be there with bells on
  • Slow as molasses
  • Dollars to Doughnuts.
  • I need to see a man about a horse.
  • You don’t know sh*t from Shinola
  • Bob’s yer uncle
  • Darby and Joan
  • Heavens to Murgatroyd!
  • Lookin’ like the wreck of the Hesperus
  • Heavens to Betsy”
  • Don’t take any wooden nickels
  • He’s the cats pajamas
  • Take a long walk off a short pier
  • None of your beeswax
  • Bee in her bonnet
  • Idle hands are the devil’s playground
  • Keep your hair on
  • Waste not, want not
  • You can’t eat your cake and have it too (later it became turned around but the original is better)
  • Children should be seen and not heard
  • Get them on the blower
  • You’re such a pill
  • See ya later, alligator….in a while crocodile
  • Busier than a one armed paper hanger
  • Groovy

Author: Janet Carr

Fashion, beauty and animal loving language consultant from South Africa living in Stockholm, Sweden.

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