cockney rhyming slang

london cockney rhyming slang words, expressions, meanings, translations, explanations and origins, and australian rhyming slang expressions

Cockney rhyming slang is an amusing and much under-estimated part of the English language. Originating in London's East End in the mid-19th century, Cockney rhyming slang uses substitute words, usually two, as a coded alternative for another word. The final word of the substitute phrase rhymes with the word it replaces (for example - the cockney rhyming slang for the word 'look' is 'butcher's hook'). When only the first word of the replacement phrase is used, as is usual, the meaning is difficult to guess (ie 'butchers' = 'look'). Rhyming slang began 200 years ago among the London east-end docks builders. Cockney rhyming slang then developed as a secret language of the London underworld from the 1850s, when villains used the coded speech to confuse police and eavesdroppers. Since then the slang has continued to grow and reflect new trends and wider usage, notably leading to Australian rhyming slang expressions, and American too. Many original cockney rhyming slang words have now entered the language and many users are largely oblivious as to their beginnings. If you want to learn more about cockney rhyming slang, the Cockney Rabbit book below is highly recommended. For additional entertainment try the excellent free online translation site at whoohoo.co.uk where you can translate phrases and emails into cockney rhyming slang (as well as other slang styles).

See also the cliches origins section on this website for other amusing and interesting derivations, definitions and origins of expressions and words. See also cockney money slang, money history and other money slang expressions, meanings and origins in the money slang article.

The best book I've seen about Cockney rhyming slang is Cockney Rabbit (A Dick'n'Harry Rhyming Slang) by Ray Puxley. It's the most complete dictionary of Cockney rhyming slang you could wish for. Written with humour and lots of useful side information about the roots of these wonderful cockney rhyming words and meanings.

Cockney rhyming slang is a significant and colourful presence in the English native language. Many Londoners and British people will be surprised to learn that some of the best known English expressions originated from cockney rhyming slang. This cockney rhyming slang listing is not a full dictionary, it shows the most common expressions and meanings, with cockney rhyming origins, and examples of more recent rhyming slang expressions. If you are easily offended, avert your eyes from the rude ones. Explanations of old and new interesting or amusing cockney rhyming slang not listed here are always welcome - send missing interesting old or new common cockney rhyming slang expressions, meanings and origins.

cockney rhyming slang meanings and definitions

This is not a full list of all cockney rhyming slang expressions and meanings - just a selection of the more interesting expressions, including many that have entered everyday language. How many of these commons expressions did you know were originally derived from cockney rhyming slang?

Adam and Eve = believe ('would you adam and eve it?')

Alan Wickers = knickers (of more recent origin, as featured in the film 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels': "keep yer alan's on...")

Apples and pears = stairs

April (April in Paris) = Aris (from Arstotle = Bottle, from Bottle and glass = Arse)

Aris = arse (from Aristotle, see above, or Bottle)

Attila (Attila the Hun) = two-one (2i, an upper 2nd class UK university degree)

Barnet (Barnet fair) = hair

Barney (Barney Rubble) = trouble, now also means argument

Basil (Basil Fawlty) = balti (curry)

Battle Cruiser = Boozer (public house - apparently used in the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - 'Battle and Cruiser' and 'Battleship and Cruiser' are other versions, all dating back to the 1930s, first recorded, pre-dated by actual usage)

Berk or Burk (Berkeley Hunt/Berkshire Hunt) = (yes you guessed it - now you know what you're really saying when you call someone a Berk - sources vary as to whether Berkeley or Berkshire came first. Burlington Hunt is another less common version)

Bird (bird lime) = Time (prison)

Boat (boat race) = face

Bobble (Bobble hat and scarf) = laugh ("you're having a bobble", ie., you cannot be serious)

Bottle (Bottle and glass) = arse (also meaning courage, from the allusion to loss of rectal control under pressure)

Bowler Hat = Cat

Brahms (Brahms and Liszt) = pissed

Brass Tacks = Facts ('let's get down to brass tacks')

Brassic (boracic lint) = skint (penniless)

Bread (bread and honey) = money

Bristols (Bristol Cities) = titties (breasts)

Brown Bread = dead

Bubble (Barf/Bath) = laugh ('you 'avin' a bubble?..')

Bubble (and Squeak) = Greek (a Greek person), or a magistrate or judge (beak) or wife (based on rhyming bubble with trouble, from trouble and strife)

(Buckshee is not cockney rhyming slang for 'free', as some sources suggest, including here previously. I am grateful to Huw Thomas for pointing me in the right direction about the actual origins of Buckshee.)

Butchers (butchers hook) = look ('give us butchers..')

Canoes = shoes

Chalfonts (Chalfont St Giles) = piles (Haemorrhoids)

Charlie (Charlie Hunt) = (yes you guessed it again - remember it next time you call someone a right charlie)

Chewy toffee = coffee

China (china plate) = mate ('me old china')

Christmas crackers = knackers (testicles)

Christmas crackered - knackered (worn out, exhausted, broken, etc)

Cloud seven = heaven

Cobblers (cobblers awls, or cobblers stalls) = Balls ('you're talking cobblers')

Coco/Cocoa = say so (see variations below)

Cream crackers/crackered = knackers/knackered (testicles/worn out - also producing the expression 'creamed' meaning exhausted or beaten)

Crust (crust of bread) = head

Daisy Roots = boots

Desmond (Desmond Tutu) = two-two (2ii, a lower 2nd class UK university degree)

Dickie Bird = word

Dickie Dirt = shirt

Ding dong = sing song (now evolved to mean argument or fight)

Dipstick = prick (bet you never knew that was rhyming slang)

Dog and bone = phone

Douglas Hurd = third (third class university degree) or turd

D'Oyly Carte = fart

Duch (duchess of Fife) = wife ('me old Duch')

Duke of Cork = talk

Dunlop Tyre = liar

Dustbin lids = kids

Earwig = twig (understand, to catch on - now evolved to mean eavesdrop)

Elephants (elephants trunk) = drunk

Farmers (farmer Giles) = piles (haemorrhoids)

Flying duck = (yes you guessed it - and now more commonly evolved back to give the expression 'couldn't give a flying fuck')

Frog and Toad = road

Gary Glitter = Bitter (the beer, as in 'a pint of Gary')

Geoff Hurst = first (a 1st class university degree)

German band = hand (particularly used in plural: 'Germans' for hands - apparently German bands were commonly seen in London in the early 1900s - I am grateful to C Isaacson for confirming that 'Germans' was a common expression for hands in 1950s London)

Greens (greengages) = wages (money)

Ginger (ginger beer) = queer (homosexual)

Gipsy's (gipsy's kiss) = piss (urination - this is the noun sense of a piss rather than verb 'to piss'. First recorded in the 1970s the original usage was for example "I need a gipsy's" although more recently usage can drop the apostrophe-S, so that the word gipsy stands alone to mean piss, and the full expression is inaccurately interpreted as 'gipsy kiss'. Other less common cockney rhyming slang kiss associations meaning piss include French kiss, cuddle and kiss, ta ta kiss, and goodnight kiss.)

Half inch = pinch (steal)

Hampstead Heath = teeth

Hillman Hunter = punter (customer - Hillman Hunter was a car from the 1960s)

Hit and miss = kiss or piss

Holy ghost = toast

Iron (iron hoof) = poof (homosexual)

Jack Jones = alone, (on your own - 'On your Jack')

Jacob's (Crackers) = knackers (testicles)

Jackanory = story (tall tale)

Jam jar = car

Jimmy (Jimmy Riddle) = piddle (see more explanation at the cliches origins section)

Jimmy Choos = shoes (very recent slang, probably since 1996 given the launch of the Jimmy Choo shoe brand in that year, prior to which Jimmy Choo was a couture shoe-maker in London's East End. Please contact me with your earliest recollections of the Jimmy Choo rhyming slang, and especially if this is commonly shortened to Jimmies, or Jimmy's?..)

Joanna = piano (cockney pronunciation of piano would be 'piana')

J Arthur (J Arthur Rank) = wank (masturbate)

Jodrell Bank = wank

Joe Soap = dope (stupid man)

Kettle (and hob) = watch (fob watch - Ack M Kelsey - 'Kettle' means 'watch'. A fob is actually a small pocket in the waistline of the trousers or in a waistcoat, in which a pocket-watch would be kept, often connected and secured via a fob chain. The anachronistic nature of the association today provides an example of how language evolves from something recognisable into something seemingly illogical. For the same reason in years to come people will wonder why we say the 'telephone is ringing', or why flushing the toilet is referred to as 'pulling the chain'.)

Khyber (Khyber Pass) = arse

Lionel Blairs = flares (flared trousers)

Loaf (loaf of bread) = head ('use your loaf')

Marbles (marbles and conkers) = bonkers (mad - probably the root of the expression 'lost your marbles' meaning gone mad)

Merchant banker = wanker

Mother's ruin = gin

Micky/Mickey (Micky Bliss/Mickey Bliss) = Piss (almost certainly the origin of 'taking the micky/mickey'. Incidentally if you know or can suggest who Mickey Bliss/Michael Bliss/Mike Bliss was - 1940s or earlier - please let me know)

Minces (mince pies) = eyes

Moby Dick = sick

Mutton (Mutt and Jeff) = deaf (originally from an American fictional pair of bungling characters called Mutt and Jeff, popularised by the cartoonist HC 'Bud' Fischer in the 1930s)

Nellie Duff = puff (breath, evolved into 'not on your nellie' - puff being breath, and breath being life)

Niagra Falls = balls (testicles)

North and south = mouth

Nutmeg = leg (leading to the soccer term 'nutmeg', meaning to play the ball between your opponent's legs)

Oily rag = fag (cigarette - first recorded in 1930s)

Old bag = hag (horrible woman - bet you never knew that was rhyming slang)

On the floor = poor

Orchestra stalls = balls (testicles)

Oxo (Oxo cube) = tube (the London Underground train system)

Peckham (Peckham Rye) = Tie (as in necktie - incidentally Peckham Rye orginally referred to the parkland in the Peckham area of South-East London, now within the Nunhead and Peckham borough, London SE15. Much of the parkland remains. Peckham is derived from Old English peac and ham, basically combining peak meaning hill and ham meaning homestead. The Rye part derives from Middle English rithe and Old English rith, meaning stream.)

Pen (pen and ink) = stink

Plates of meat = feet

Pipe (pipe and drum) = bum

Pipe your Eye = cry

Plate (plate of ham) = Gam (perform oral sex, from the French term, Gamahucher)

Pony (pony and trap) = crap

Poppy (poppy red) = bread (= money, from Bread and honey)

Porky (pork pie) = lie (fib)

Rabbit (rabbit and pork) = talk

Raspberry (raspberry tart) = fart (evolved to include 'blowing a raspberry' with the tongue)

Raspberry ripple = cripple (today completely offensive, although interestingly prior to the mid-1900s the word 'cripple' was not considered an especially offensive term - unless of course directed as such - otherwise it was a correct acceptable word for a person unable to walk properly due to physical handicap)

Razzmatazz = jazz (evolved to mean general excitement)

Richard the Third = turd

Rhythm 'n' blues = shoes (apparently now in use, of uncertain age - any idea anyone when this started, and if this is commonly shortened to 'rhythms'? Contact me.)

Rosie (Rosie Lee) = tea ('cup of rosie')

Rubber/rubber dub (Rub-a-dub-dub) = Pub (or club)

Ruby (Ruby Murray) = curry

Sausage and mash = cash

Scarper (Scapa Flow) = go, run away (also derived from Italian slang, parlyaree, where the word 'scarpare' means to escape)

Sherman tank = wank

Skin and blister = sister

Sky rocket = pocket

Sweeney Todd = Flying Squad (The Sweeney was a big TV police series in the 1970s)

Syrup (syrup of fig) = wig (leading to 'golden syrup' meaning a really awful wig)

ta-ta = (au revoir - goodbye. Au revoir is French for goodbye. Note this particular rhyming slang is not substantiated and is included here purely for its interest value in having possible cockney rhyming slang connections or influence. Ta-ta meaning au revoir and goodbye via rhyming slang is suggested or inferred by some sources to be a possible origin or contributory factor in the development of the ta-ta or tar-tar slang for goodbye. The precise origins of ta-ta and similar variations, such as tatty-bye, are unknown, and the cockney rhyming link is not proven and likely to remain merely a possibility. Ta-ta meaning goodbye was first recorded in 1837. Ta-ta has other possible links with the theatrical expression, normally shown as ta-dah. Ta-ta is also mainly linked with nursery slang because it is easier for very young children to say than goodbye. If you are able to shed any useful light on this matter - i.e., any possible cockney rhyming connections between ta-ta and au revoir and goodbye - please get in touch.)

Taters (potatoes in the mould) = cold

Tea leaf = thief

Tiddly (tiddly wink) = drink (now evolved to mean drunk)

Thora Hird = third (3rd class university degree)

Titfer (Tit for tat) = hat

Toby jugs = lugs (ears)

Tod (Tod Sloane) = on your own, also alone ('on your tod' means on your own)

Toe rag = slag (originally meaning a girl of easy virtue, but now evolved to mean an unpleasant person)

Tom (tomfoolery) = jewellery ('Tom' now means any stolen goods)

Tom and Dick = sick

Tom (Tom Tit) = shit

Trolley (trolley and truck) = yes you guessed it... used in the verb sense of fornicating, rather than the oath expletive form (according to Cassell's this also gave rise round 1910 to the naval slang expression of 'trolley-oggling' referring to voyeurism - see also 'off your trolley')

Trombone = phone

Trouble (trouble and strife) = wife

Turkish bath = laugh

Two and eight = state ('in a right old two and eight')

Uncle Dick = sick

Vera Lynn = gin

Weasel (weasel and stoat) = coat

Whistle (whistle and flute) = suit

(Thanks Lyndon, Daryle, AP, F Miller, G McLaughlin, R Sennah, M Kelsey, C Isaacson, P Morris, N Sutherland, C Gunderson, R Anderson, C Foster, S Barnard, P Lavery, S Philpott for contributions.)

cockney rhyming slang variations and rhyming slang 'secondaries' and 'tertiaries'

These more complex constructions are worthy of special explanation.

Apple = Piss (derivation: Apple and Pip = Sip. Sip has long been backslang for Piss)

Aris = Arse (derivation: Aristotle = Bottle. Bottle and Glass = Arse)

April = Arse (with anxious or frightened connotations, derivation: April in Paris = Aris. Aristotle = Bottle. Bottle and Glass = Arse)

Bunny = Talk (derivation: Bunny = Rabbit. Rabbit and Pork = Talk)

Charlie = Berk (derivation: Charlie Smirke, a leading English jockey from the 1930s-50s = Berk. Berk, from Berkeley Hunt (see above), and see more explanation at the cliches origins section.

Cocoa = say so (derivation: unusually uses the rhyming part of coffee and cocoa or tea and cocoa)

Colin = Todd (from Tod Sloane = alone, or on your own - thanks N Halsey for reminding me that Colin Todd was well-known England international and club footballer in the 1970s) If anyone has more information/dates/regional usage for Colin Todd meaning 'on your tod' please let me know.

Flash/flashy = a show off, showy dresser (derivation: Flash of light = sight - 'what a sight he looked')

Grass = informant (derivation: evolved from original Grasshopper = copper - a policeman)

Hampton/Wick (Hampton Wick) = prick (Hampton and Wick both evolved from the one phrase, giving rise - no pun intended - to the jocular names for the male member, Hugh Jampton, and Lionel Hampton - after the famous vibes playing jazz musician . Also lead to expressions to 'dip your wick' - have sex - and 'get on your wick' - cause annoyance.)

Macaroni = crap (to have a crap - derivation: Macaroni = pony. Pony and trap = crap. Also means £25 - 'A Pony' being the old english slang phrase for this sum of money.)

Poppy = money or cash (derivation: Poppy red = Bread. Bread and honey = money.)

(Thanks to N Halsey, S Hartill and Adam for contributions)

australian rhyming slang

Some of these Australian rhyming slang expressions have origins in England. Many have Australian origins. If you know other Australian rhyming slang expressions please send them.

Adrians (Adrian Quist) = pissed (drunk) (Adrian Quist 1913-91, Australian tennis champion of 1936, 1940 and 1948, and prolific doubles winner - including ten consecutive Australian championships with partners Jack Crawford and Don Turnbull, 1936-40 and 1946-50, either side of the 2nd World War. In all Quist won 17 majors including doubles at Wimbledon, US, French and Australian.)

After darks = sharks

Al Capone = phone

Almond rocks = socks

Annalise (Annalise Braakensiek, Australian glamour model, pronounced Brak-en-sak) = 'crack, back and sac' (hair removal from intimate male body parts by waxing)

Asteroids = haemorroids (piles)

Babbler (babbling brook) = cook

Barry/Bazza (Barry/Bazza Crocker) = shocker (something awful or shameful - after Australian comedian Barry Crocker, who became a household name in the 1960s-70s. He also sang the original Neighbours soap opera theme song, and is credited with the expression 'technicolour yawn' meaning vomit, among many and various other comedic achievements.)

Bat and ball = stall (a car)

Bag of fruit = suit

Barney (Barney Rubble, the Flintstones character) = trouble

Bib 'n' bub = pub

Billy lids = kids

Billygoat = tote

Blood and blister = sister

Blundstone (Blundstone Boot is a workman's boot) = ute (Australian and NZ abbreviation of a workman's 'ultility vehicle' - either a sedan/saloon car comprising cab and flat-bed or tray back, or a more rugged US-style 'pick-up' small truck.)

Bob Hope = soap/dope (marijuana)

Bowl of fruit = suit

Brace and bit = shit, or arguably more commonly tit (breast)

Brittos/Britneys (Britney Spears) = beers

Bulli pass = arse (Bulli is pronounced Bull-eye)

Butchers (butchers hook) = crook/look (Larry Hall, Oct 2007 says: "...Butcher's hook in Australian rhyming slang means only crook (in turn meaning sick, off-colour, hung-over), as in for example, '...Struth I'm butchers, I'm as crook as Rookwood...' - Rockwood being the oldest and major Sydney cemetery. Butcher's hook is never used for 'look' as it is in Cockney slang; Captain Cook is used for 'look'...")

Captain Cook = look

Cat's hiss = piss

Charlie (Charlie Wheeler) = woman (sheila)

Comic-cuts = guts

Country cousin = dozen

Dad 'n' Dave = shave

Daptoes (Dapto Dogs) = wogs (offensive racist term - Dapto is a Dog track in NSW - the following additional information is provided by Larry Hall, October 2007: "...I was raised in Dapto; a town notable only for its greyhound race-track. The weekly event was known simply as the Dapto dogs. The derogatory term 'Dapto dogs' was used only as a slang euphemism for 'wogs' meaning Mediterraneans, not for blacks. Also 'chockoes' = chocolate frogs. MacRobertson’s chocolates made a small chocolate frog for kids named 'Freddo' so freddo-frogs, or freddoes for short, also became a derogatory term in the post-war immigration period for Italians, Greeks, Yugoslavs, etc...")

David Gower = shower (as in a bathroom or changing-room shower - David Gower, English cricketer and great batsman, played many times against Australia. Many will remember him also for notoriously 'buzzing' the field of play flying a Tiger/Gypsy Moth biplane while his team-mates batted against a Queensland side towards the end of England's 1990-91 tour.)

Dead horse = (tomato) sauce

Dickory dock = clock

Dog and bone = phone

Dog's eye = pie

Dry rots = trots (diarrhea)

Ducks and drakes = shakes

Ducks and geese = police

Eau de cologne = phone

Fiddly-dids = quids

Gay and hearty = party

Germaine Greer = ear

German band = hand (particularly used in plural: 'Germans' for hands - this slang originated in England, among some others in this list)

Gin sling = ring (eg., phone ring)

Ginger Meggs = legs

Goose's neck = cheque

Gregory Peck = cheque/neck

Grey-nurse = purse (a grey-nurse is a type of shark)

Ham and eggs = legs

Hammer (hammer and tack) = back

Hard hit = shit

Harold (Harold Holt, Australian Prime Minister who disappeared while swimming) = bolt (run away)

Hey-diddle-diddle = middle; piddle

Hoffman brick = dick (penis)

Horse and cart = fart

Horse's hoof = poof (offensive term for a male homosexual)

I suppose = nose

Jam tart = heart

Jack and Jill = bill (restaurant bill)/pill (contraceptive)

Jatz crackers = knackers (testicles - the wife of a hen-pecked husband is said to have his jatz crackers in her grey-nurse (meaning purse - grey-nurse is a type of shark)

Jimmy Britts = shits

Jimmy Dancer = cancer

Joe Blake(s)/Joey Blake(s) = snake/shake(s)

Joe Hunt = (unmentionable)

Johnny Bliss = piss

Johnny Horner = corner

John Hopper = copper (policeman)

King Hit = shit

Lemon squash = wash

Lionel Rose = nose (Lionel Rose was Australia's first Aboriginal world champion boxer. He became Bantamweight champion in 1968.)

Loop-the-loop = soup

Mal Meningas = fingers ( Mal Meninga was a prominent rugby league footballer in the 1980s and 90s.)

Mallee root = prostitute

Metric miles = piles (haemhorroids)

Mickey Fritt = shit

Mickey Mouse = grouse

Mollo/molly the monk = drunk

Moreton Bay fig = wig (Moreton Bay is the large bay near Brisbane. It was originally Morton's Bay, named by Captain Cook in 1770 after James Douglas, Earl of Morton, the Past-President of the Royal Society, but the spelling changed by about the 1880s. Ack TW)

Mort's dock = cock (penis - Mort's dock was a shipping berth in Sydney harbour for loading export wool from the major wool dealers Elders, Smith, Goldsborough, Mort Ltd., ack Larry Hall.)

(on the) Murray Cod = (on the) nod (on credit)

Mystery bags = snags (sausages)

Nanny-goat = tote

Near and far = bar

Ned Kelly - belly

Niagaras (Niagara Falls) = balls (testicles)

Noah's Ark = shark

Now is the hour = shower

Oliver Twist = pissed

Onka (Onkaparinga) = finger (thus Onkaparingas = fingers - Onkaparinga is the brand name of a high quality Australian wool blanket, ack L Hall.)

Optic nerve = perve (pervert)/look (have a look)

Oxford scholar = dollar

Pat Malone = alone (on my own/on your own)

Piccadily = chilly

Pig's ear = beer

Pot of good cheer = beer

Red hot = pot (of beer)

Red hots = trots (horse-racing)/(diarrhea)

Reginalds (Reg Grundies) = undies (underwear)

Rhodes scholar = dollar

Rifle range = change

Rodney Hogg = Bog (toilet or related verb meaning - Rodney Hogg was an Australian fast bowler who played in tests 1978-85.)

Rubbity-dub = pub

Sandy McNab = cab

Saint Louis Blues = shoes

Seppo/Septic tank = yank

Snake's hiss = piss

Soldiers bold = cold

Spanish dancer = cancer

Steak and kidney = Sydney

Sticky beak = peek

Stiff shitty = city

Stock and die = pie, or arguably more commonly tie (neck tie)

This and that = hat

Tin tank = yank

Titfer (Tit for tat) = hat

To and from = pom

Tom Tits = shits (diarrhoea)

Trams and trains = brains/drains

Tray bits = shits (diarrhoea - in pre-decimal currency days a tray bit or trizza, trizzy was a three-penny coin - see the slang money page glossary of slang money words)

Trizzy bits = shits (diarrhoea - see tray bits - a trizzy bit was slang for a threepennny coin)

Wally (Wally Grout, Australian wicket-keeper) = shout (turn to pay, normally to buy a round of drinks)

Warwicks (Warwick Farm) = arms (arm)

Williamstown piers = ears (Williamstown is a port town in the state of Victoria boasting a number of historically significant piers)

Woolly woofta = (offensive term for a homosexual)

(No) Wucking Furries = (no flipping worries - polite version - actually this is a spoonerism rather than conventional rhyming slang)

You beaut = ute (utility vehicle - predates Blundstone by 50 years, ack Larry Hall)

Young and old = cold

Zubrick = prick (penis - possibly related to Arabic? If you know please contact us.)

(Thanks for contributions: P Hosford, K Mitchell, C Scott, S Yates, T Webster, R Harland, J Brown, J Cox, D Cart, LF, J Duffield, and particularly thanks to Larry Hall for his many contributions and several helpful corrections.)

american rhyming slang expressions?..

Apparently other rhyming slang expressions originated in the USA. This one below is suggested (ack RH) as having originated in 1930s USA. Know any more?

Oily rag = hag

If you have suggestions or queries about cockney rhyming slang, Australian rhyming slang or American rhyming slang please contact us.

See also the cockney money slang and other money slang expressions, meanings, and history.

See also the words, cliches and expressions origins section.

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