craking on: Talking incessantly.
craythur: Creature. Equivalent of North American “critter.”
craythur, a drop of the: Whiskey.
crick in the neck or back: Painful strain.
crúibins: Irish. Pronounced “croobeens.” Boiled pigs’ trotters (hooves), served cold and eaten with vinegar.
culchie: One who does not live in Dublin. A hick or rube. See Jack.
cuppa: Cup of, usually tea.
cure, wee: Hair of the dog.
cut: Really drunk.
cut to the onion: Emotionally wounded very deeply.
dab hand: Skilled at.
damper: Device for restricting the flow of air to a coal or turf fire to slow the rate of burning.
dander: Literally, horse dandruff. Used to signify either a short leisurely walk (“I took a wee dander over to Jimmy’s”) or anger (“He really got my dander up”).
dead: Very.
dead on: A strong affirmative or excited acceptance of good news or a measure of complete accuracy. Equivalent to “I totally agree,” “That’s marvelous,” or “Absolutely correct.”
dead wheeker: Wonderful or marvellous.
deerstalker: A tweed hat with fore and aft peaks and earflaps that can be tied under the chin. Sherlock Holmes is often portrayed wearing one.
dibs: First claim upon.
dicky: Cockney rhyming slang. Dicky bird: word.
diddling: Cheating.
didny; didnae: Did not.
dinner suit: Tuxedo.
divil: Devil.
divil the bit: None. For example, “She’s divil the bit sense.” (She’s stupid.)
divilment: Devilment. Mischief.
doddle: A short distance or an easy task.
dogs are barking: Feet are sore. Cockney rhyming slang. Dogs meat: feet.
do-ray-mi: Money. Equivalent of North American “dough.”
dosh: Money.
dote: Something adorable.
dote on: Worship.
doting: Losing your marbles.
do with the price of corn: Irrelevant.
double-breasted gun: Double-barreled shotgun.
dozer: Fool.
dozer, no: No fool.
drip: Intravenous.
drop of the pure: Drink of whiskey or poitín.
double: Spirits are poured in Ulster as singles (one ounce), the standard measure if simply “a whiskey” or “a gin” is ordered. A double is two ounces.
doubt: Doubt used alone, “I doubt we’ll get there,” means “I don’t think we’ll get there.” Used with a following “not,” as in “I doubt we’ll not get there,” also means “I don’t think we’ll get there.”
drouth: Pronounced “drewth.” Thirst. “I’ve a terrible drouth.”
drouth, he’s a raging: He’s an alcoholic.
drúishin: Irish. Pronounced “drisheen.” Dish made of cows’ blood, pigs’ blood, and oatmeal. A Cork City delicacy.
drumlin: From the Irish Droimin (little ridge). Small rounded hills caused by the last ice age. There are so many in County Down that the place has been described as looking like a basket of green eggs.
D.Sc.: Doctor of science. Postgraduate degree equivalent to a Ph.D.
dudeen: Short-stemmed clay pipe.
dulse: Seaweed that when dried is eaten like chewing gum.
dummy tit: Baby’s pacifier.
duncher: Cloth cap, usually tweed.
dunder: Forcible thump.
dungarees: One-piece coveralls.
dunging out: Cleaning a stall, barn, or byre by removing the old straw and dung.
Dun Laoghaire: Port near Dublin. Pronounced “dun leery.” Literally, Leary’s Fort.
ECG: Electrocardiogram. In the U.S. and Canada, EKG.
eejit: Idiot.
egg-bound hen: A hen with an egg that cannot be laid stuck in the oviduct. Applied to a person, it suggests extreme distress.
eggs, on: Extremely worried.
elected: Have won or have been chosen, usually to receive good things.
ex-serviceman: Veteran.
fag: Cigarette.
fair play to you: To be fair or well done.
fall off the perch: Die.
feck: Steal. See also fecking.
fecking: Dublin corruption of “fucking.”
fenian: Catholic (pejorative).
fiddle, on the: Rigging, embezzling, achieving an end by dubious means.
finagle: Achieve by cunning or dubious means.
fist of, make a good: Do a fine job.
fit to be tied: Very angry.
flat: Apartment.
flex: Plug-in cable of an electrical appliance or light cord.
flies, none on: Smart. Streetwise.
florin: Silver two-shilling piece about the size of a silver half-dollar. Worth about 40 cents today.
flue, up the: Literally, up the chimney. Can be used to signify being in difficulty or being pregnant, usually unplanned.
flutter: Bet on a horse race.
fly (out) half: Player who in rugby football receives the ball from the forwards, usually from the scrum-half (quarterback), and sets the backs in attacking motion.
flying: Drunk.
for having none of it: Not allowing.
for it: About to be in deep trouble.
form, racing: Known performance of a racehorse.
fornenst: Beside.
forward: Impertinent.
foundered: Chilled to the marrow.
frigging: Euphemism for “fucking.”
full: Drunk.
full of beans: Energetic.
full of it: Either stupid or excessively flattering.
furlong: Archaic measure. One-eighth of a mile, or 220 yards.
gaiters: Leg protectors that run from the knee to the ankle and are held to the shin by straps and buckles.
gander: Look.
garage: A shed for housing a car, or a service station, often with the services of a mechanic.
garsún: Irish. Pronounced “gossoon.” Boy.
gas: Originally, Dublin slang. Fun.
gas, great: Great fun.
gas man: Bit of a wit. See gas for origin.
gawp at: Ogle.
gee-gee: Childish expression for horse. Often used by adult horse fanciers to mean racehorse.
get (away) on with you: Don’t be stupid.
get on one’s wick: Get on one’s nerves.
get your head examined: How can you be so stupid?
give over: Stop it.
git: From “begotten.” Bastard.
glaur: Glutinous, muddy mess.
glipe, great: Stupid (or very stupid person).
gnat: Tiny flying insect of the suborder Nematocera.
gobshite: Dublin slang. Literally, dried nasal mucus. Used pejoratively about a person.
God’s (honest) truth: Emphatically absolutely true.
good head: Decent person.
good man ma da: Good man my father. Expression of approval.
goolies: Testicles.
gormless: Witless.
grand man for the pan: One who really enjoys fried food.
great: An Ulster accolade; can be used to signify pleased assent to a plan.
Great Hunger: In the nineteenth century the potato crop in Ireland often failed. The disastrous failure from 1845 to 1849 is known as the Great Hunger (An Gorta Mór). Also called the Famine.
grotty: English slang. Run-down and dirty.
grub: Food.
guard’s van: Caboose.
gub: Mouth.
gub, a good dig in: A punch in the mouth.
gullet: Throat.
guinea: Archaic sterling, worth one pound and one shilling.
gumboil: Dental abscess.
gun: A hunting member of a shooting party.
gurrier: Dublin slang. Street urchin.
guttees: Canvas, rubber-soled shoes so called because when they were first introduced the soles were made from gutta percha. In t
he class-bound Ulster society of my youth they were also known as “Plimsolls” by the gentry and “mutton-dummies” by the working class.
guttersnipe: Ruffian; usually preteen.
hairy bear: Woolly caterpillar.
half ’un, wee ’un: Drink of spirits.
half-cut: Drunk.
hand, to take out of: Mock or get a rise from.
handbag: Woman’s purse.
hand’s turn: Absolute minimum amount of work.
hang about: Wait a minute.
haver: Vacillate.
haverer: One who vacillates.
having me on: Deceiving me.
having none of it: Not allowing.
head staggers, he’s taken the: Explanation for making a very stupid decision. Literally, a parasitic disease affecting the brains of sheep and causing them to stagger.
heart of corn: Very good-natured.
heifer: Young cow before her first breeding.
heels of the hunt: When everything has been concluded.
heeltap: Drink slowly so as to avoid having to buy a round.
Henry’s: Cockney rhyming slang. Henry Hall’s means balls. Henry Hall was a famous band leader of the thirties and forties.
hide nor hair: Not a trace.
highheejin: Very important person, often only in the subject’s own mind.
hirpled: Walked awkwardly, favouring a sore leg or back.
hirstle: Chesty wheeze.
hit the spot: Fill the need.
HMS: Abbreviation for His Majesty’s Ship.
hobby-horse shite: Literally, sawdust.
hobby-horse shite, your head’s full of: You’re being stupid.
holdall: Canvas sports bag.
hold your horses: Wait a minute.
hooker: The player in rugby football who is in the centre of the three-man front row in an eight-man scrum (scrimmage) and whose job it is to use his boot to hook the ball into his side’s territory.
hooley: Party.
hot flushes: Hot flashes.
houseman: Medical intern.
How’s (a)bout ye?: How are you? Or good-day.
humdinger: Something extraordinary.
hump, to take the: To take offence.
hunkers: Haunches.
I’m your man: I agree to and will follow your plan.
in soul, I do: Pronounced “in sowl.” Emphatic.
in the doghouse: In someone’s bad graces.
in the stable: A drink already paid for, to be poured later.
jabs or jags: Needles. Inoculations or injections.
Jack, Jackeen: Slang terms for a Dubliner used by natives of Ireland from places other than Dublin (who themselves are called culchies by Dubliners).
jam jar: A glass vessel for holding homemade preserves. Mrs. Kinkaid used one- and two-pound sizes.
jar: An alcoholic drink.
jammy: Lucky.
jammy, dead: Incredibly lucky.
jaunting car: An open, high, two-wheeled vehicle. The passenger accommodation was two benches, arranged along either side so the passengers sat with their backs to the cart bed. By the sixties it was rarely seen except in the most rural parts of Ireland or as a tourist attraction.
jigs and reels, between the: To cut a long story short.
keek: Look.
kerb: The border between a footpath (sidewalk) and the road or street.
knackered: Very tired. An allusion to a horse so worn out by work that it is destined for the knacker’s yard, where horses are destroyed.
knickers in a twist (or knot): Anxiously upset.
knocking: Having sexual intercourse.
knocking shop: Brothel.
Lambeg drum: Massive bass drum carried on shoulder straps by Orangemen and beaten with two sticks, sometimes until the drummer’s wrists bleed.
laughed like a drain (or sieve): Utterly incomprehensible simile describing someone laughing uncontrollably.
length and breadth of it: All the details.
lepp: Leap.
let the hare sit: Leave the thing alone.
liberty bodice: Emancipation bodice. Boneless, sleeveless woman’s upper-body undergarment worn to avoid wearing a boned corset.
lift: Elevator; a free ride in a vehicle.
lifted: Arrested by the police.
like the sidewall of a house: Huge (especially when applied to someone’s physical build).
liltie: A madman. An Irish whirling dervish.
load of cobblers’: A load of rubbish. In Cockney rhyming slang, “cobblers’ awls” means balls.
loaf: Head.
looney bin: In the sixties, a residential psychiatric institution was still called a lunatic asylum, which was corrupted to “looney bin.”
lorry: Truck.
lough: Pronounced “logh,” almost as if clearing the throat. A sea inlet or large inland lake.
lugs: Ears.
lummox: Stupid, clumsy creature.
main: Very.
make a mint: Make a great deal of money.
malarkey: Nonsense.
managing director: CEO.
manky: Tattered and torn.
marmalising: Destroying.
match, not at the: Not playing with a full deck.
me arse: My ass. Rubbish.
medical degrees: In Ireland the degrees awarded after medical school are: M.B., bachelor of medicine; B.Ch., bachelor of chirurgery (surgery); and B.A.O., bachelor of the art of obstetrics. The M.D., doctor of medicine, degree is only awarded after a period of postgraduate study and submission and acceptance of a thesis describing a piece of original research. Specialty diplomas (memberships and fellowships) are awarded after a set residency of several years and the passing of the examinations set by one of a number of Royal Colleges. For example, Professor Dunseath is M.D., F.R.C.S. (Royal College of Surgeons), F.R.C.O.G. (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists). These are equivalent to National Board Certification. There are also lesser diplomas awarded after six months’ study to GPs who have taken further training. D.R.C.O.G. (Diploma of the R.C.O.G.) is an example.
melodeon: Button accordion.
Melton Mobray pie: Savoury pork-and-bacon pie with a thin layer of aspic between the filling and a buttery pastry casing. Best eaten cold with Branston pickle.
mended, well mended: Recovered from an illness.
messages: Errands.
mickey or Mickey Finn: Originally a drink laced with a drug (usually chloral hydrate) used to incapacitate the victim.
mind: Remember.
mission, no: No chance.
MM: Military Medal. Army award for gallantry given to other ranks. Officers got the Military Cross (MC).
money in the bank: Guaranteed.
moping: Indulging in self-pity.
more power to your wheel: Very good luck to you; encouragement.
mortified: Embarrassed beyond belief.
muffler: A long woolen scarf.
muggy: Hot and humid.
mullet, stunned: To look as stupid or surprised as a mullet, an ugly saltwater fish.
Mullingar heifer, legs like: Cows from Mullingar were said to have “beef to the ankles.”
my shout, it’s: I’m buying the drinks.
nap: The selection of the day, made by tipsters or racing correspondents, at a horse race. To “go nap” is to take their advice and bet accordingly.
nappies: Diapers.
National Hunt: The body in Ireland and the UK governing steeple-chasing; horse racing over a series of obstacles.
near took the rickets: Had a great shock.
nice one: Congratulations.
nicky tams: Scottish, but used in Ulster. Leather thongs tied above the knee to lift trouser cuffs above the mud.
niggling: v: Irritating under the surface. adj: Of an amount: meanly small.
nobble: Of a horse: prevent it winning, often by drugging, sometimes by pulling.
no offence (or harm) ’til ye, but: I intend to offer a diametrically opposed opinio
n.
no dozer: Clever.
no goat’s toe, he thinks he’s: Not stupid. Has an overinflated sense of his own importance.
no joy: No luck.
nose, on the: A bet placed that will be paid only if the horse wins. See both ways.
nose out of joint: Miffed.
no side: No maliciousness.
no spring chicken: Getting on in years.
not as green as you’re cabbage looking: More clever than you appear to be.
not at myself: Feeling unwell.
not on: Unacceptable.
not put it past: Would not be surprised if.
och blether: Expression of disappointment or frustration.
Old Nick: The devil.
on side: Has agreed to join in.
on the mend: Getting better from an illness.
Orange Order: Fraternal order of Protestants committed to loyalty to the British crown.
Orange and Green: The colours of Loyalists and Republicans. Used to symbolize the age-old schism in Irish politics.
Osler, Sir William: Canadian-born physician described as the father of modern medicine.
ould goat: Stupid old man, often used very affectionately.
out of kilter: Out of alignment.
oxter: Armpit.
oxter-cog: To carry by supporting under the armpits.
pacamac: Cheap, transparent, plastic raincoat carried in a small bag.
Paddy: Diminutive of Patrick. Generic term for an Irishman, akin to Limey for an Englishman, but not regarded as pejorative by most sensible Irish people and certainly not by me. It is, after all, my name.
Paddy hat: Soft-crowned, narrow-brimmed, Donegal tweed hat.
Paddy’s market: A large disorganised crowd.
pan loaf: Loaf of ordinary bread.
pass-remarkable: Prone to making unwarranted observations about other people.
pavement: Sidewalk.
peace, hold one’s: Remain silent.
peakèd: Unwell.
peakèd, looking: Looking unwell.
peat (turf): Fuel derived from compressed vegetable matter. Burns with the most evocative scent.
pebble-dash: A method of decorating outside house walls with sea-smoothed pebbles embedded in stucco before it has dried.
peely-wally: Scots. Under the weather; unwell.
pelmet: Valance.
penny bap: A small bun, usually dusted with flour.
petrified: Terrified.
physical jerks: Gymnastics.
piece: Bread and spread (butter, jam, lard, banana, etc.) or a sandwich.