Deeecent North American Words, Phrases & Idioms

From idiots to idioms, this is an antidote to the Irritating Americanisms thread. Post North American expressions that you approve of, or even God forbid, like.


'I got you' - Admittedly, when used casually, e.g. to pay for a friend's beer, it doesn't have much dramatic impact, but in times of actual crisis those words can be an extremely comforting expression of solidarity and friendship.

'Raggedy Ass' - Of inferior quality. Sh1te, basically. Can be applied to people, things and ideas: e.g. 'Git your raggedy ass off my lawn or Ima start shooting.'

Ima - a very useful contraction of 'I am going to' (see above)

'The Mistake By The Lake' - Used to refer to any lakeside U.S. city/town pretty much, but most notably Cleveland. How Dublineseque is dat? maybe we do speak the same language, after all...

What are yours?

fergiesfolly

A day late and a dollar short.

Ekerot

"Have a nice day." - Mick Foley

frag420

My bad- means ima cûnt

Gregor Samsa

Uff da! Ya, you betcha!

silverharp

Bob Ross - Happy Accident

NSAman

Free refill?

Ubbquittious

I'll eat my God Damn hat

Bust a cap in yo ass

Tastes like ass.

You dig? - Do you understand?

Fun fact
You dig? actually comes from the Irish phrase 'An dtuigeann tú' Do you understand.

Stack of dimes (= small mickey)

whisky_galore

Chicago typewriter.

Terry..

Double Nickel .. speed limit

Takeaway .. take on an issue

whisky_galore

whisky_galore wrote: »

Chicago typewriter.

Had to look that one up!

iamstop

Lit

Badly Drunk Boy

"How d'ya like them apples?!?" - "What do you think of that?!?"

Gorteen

Bang for your buck

Rothko

Terry.. wrote: »

Double Nickel .. speed limit

Double nickels on the dime

Tilden Katz

I know I use and like lots of Americanisms but I can’t for the life of me think of any right now.

Omackeral

Fixing to. As in “I’m fixing’ to whoop your ass boy”.

dohouch

City-Billy
hint- this came to my attention during recent saturation coverage of a certain somebody's 80th birthday.

iamstop

Omackeral wrote: »

Fixing to. As in “I’m fixing’ to whoop your ass boy”.

In Chicago this is shortened to finna.

"I'm finna go to the store to pick up a six pack."

Terry..

Who've you got ... What's your pick

Hot take. ...quick summary

Ridiculous ... V good

Tony EH

To "double down" on something. Usually meaning you fucked up and then proceeded to fuck up even more.

Although, technically, it's a Blackjack term and therefore not an Americanism as such in the true sense.

But 99.9% of their phrases, especially the newly coined stuff, drives me up the bloody wall.

pappyodaniel

A modern one I like is to call an overly demanding,self entitled female a "Karen"


it's simple but it just works.

Hangdogroad

Son of a gun.

Son of a bitch.

Goddam son of a bitch.

Terry..

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Son of a gun.

Son of a bitch.

Goddam son of a bitch.

Mutthafukka

Fr Tod Umptious

411 is my favorite.

"can someone give me the latest 411 on the Cillian O' Connor knee injury ?"

It is derived from dialing 411 on the phone, which is/was the number for Information/Director Enquires.

whisky_galore

Dumpster fire.
Apt for so many things.