Cockney English

A light-hearted look at English as spoken by Londoners (Cockneys)

During the 19th Century, the criminal underworld in London developed their own secret language.
Much of it was based on rhyming slang.
A few of the more common and interesting words and expressions are tabulated here.

Enjoy ...

Rhyming Slang

Expression	Meaning	Notes / Examples
have a butchers	take a look	from butcher's hook = look as in "take a butchers at that"
north and south	mouth
plates	feet	from plates of meat = feet as in "you've got big plates"
boat race	face	as in "nice legs, shame about the boat race"
skin and blister	sister
trouble	wife	from trouble and strife = wife as in "going home to the trouble"
dustbin lids	kids / children
whistle	suit	from whistle and flute = suit as in "do you like the whistle?"
Adam and Eve	believe	as in "would you Adam and Eve it?"
Rosie Lea	tea	as in "I'd love a cup of rosie"
Mutt and Jeff	deaf
oily rag	fag = cigarette	as in "I'm going for an oily"
jam jar	car
mince pies	eyes	as in "feast your mincers on this"
pen and ink	stink	as in "cor! what a pen and ink"
porky	lie	from pork pies = lies as in "he's telling porkies"
Barnet	hair	from Barnet Fair = hair as in "he's losing his Barnet"
Brahms	pissed (i.e. "drunk")	from Brahms and Liszt = pissed
Gregories	glasses / spectacles	from Gregory Pecks = specs
Titfer	hat	from tit for tat = hat
apples and pears	stairs
Jimmy	urinate	from Jimmy Riddle = piddle
borassic	broke / skint	from borassic lint = skint as in "can't go out, I'm borassic"
two and eight	state	as in "he's in a bit of a two and eight"
Bertie Woofter	gay man	from Bertie Woofter = poofter
China	mate / friend	from China plate = mate as in "how are you, my old China"
Khyber	buttocks	from Khyber Pass = arse
rabbit and pork	talk	as in "Don't rabbit so much"
tea leaf	thief
potato mould	cold	as in "it's a bit taters in here"
dog and bone	phone	as in "you're wanted on the dog and bone"
loaf	head	from loaf of bread = head as in "Use your loaf"
brown bread	dead
battle cruiser	boozer	boozer = pub = public house (a place to drink)
elbows and knees	trees
gold watch	Scotch	Scotch = whiskey
pride and Joy	boy	Take the pride and joy to the match
current bun	Sun	I'm going out to get a bit of current bun
dicky	shirt	from dicky dirt = shirt
pots and pans	hands
Peckham Rye	tie	named after a place in London
Hampstead Heath	teeth	named after a place in London
jugs	ears	from jugs of beers = ears
Errol Flynn	chin
almonds	socks	from almond rocks = socks
ones and twos rhythm and blues	shoes
daisies	boots	from daisy roots = boots
bird	prison	from bird lime = time as in "doing bird"

Other London Slang

Expression	Meaning	Notes / Examples
leave it out	stop it
the filth	the police	"look out it's the filth"
doing porridge	serving a prison sentence
beak	judge	"going up before the beak"
screw	prison officer	"the worst thing about porridge is the screws"
fence	handler of stolen goods
gladrags	best clothes	"get your gladrags on; We're going out"
nark	police informer	"he's a copper's nark"
grass up	to inform on	"I was grassed up"
nonce	sexual offender
snout	tobacco
sussed out	found out	"I was sussed out by the filth"
rumbled	found out	"We've been rumbled"
stitched up	set up	"We've been stitched up"
loan shark	unofficial money lender
bother	a fight	"Are you looking for bother?"
guv	boss

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Slang
Slang in the English language.