| British
| American
|
| abseil | rappel (to descend on a rope)
|
| anti-clockwise | counter-clockwise
|
| arse* | ass* (buttocks)
|
| [to fall] arse over elbow (alternatively arse over tit/tip) | [to fall] head over heels (physically, not metaphorically)
|
| aubergine | eggplant (can also refer to an eggplant-like color in British English)
|
| balls-up* | fuckup*
|
| banger | sausage, old car
|
| barrister | a lawyer who appears in higher courts (distinction in English law) NOT a barista (coffee preparer), which is a near homophone.
|
| beck | small watercourse; stream; creek. Used especially in the Lake District
|
| Belisha beacon | orange ball containing a flashing light mounted on a post at each end of a zebra crossing
|
| bespoke[n] | custom[-made], made-to-order, tailored
|
| to bimble | to wander aimlessly
|
| Birmingham spanner (slang) | a hammer (Note: this is insulting to inhabitants of Birmingham)
|
| black pudding | blood sausage
|
| [to] blag | to obtain or achieve by deception, to bluff, to scrounge, to rob (usually with violence), robbery (usually with violence), tall story, bluff, deception
|
| bloke | guy
|
| boffin | scientist or engineer, geek, nerd
|
| bog standard* | plain vanilla, completely average, no distinguishing features
|
| bollocks* | balls* (testicles)
|
| bollocks* | bullshit* (nonsense, baloney)
|
| brass monkeys ("cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey") | very cold weather
|
| bristols* (Cockney rhyming slang) | boobs (breasts; from Bristol Cities = titties)
|
| brook | small watercourse; stream; creek.
|
| bubble and squeak | dish of cooked cabbage fried with cooked potatoes
|
| [to] bugger off* | [to] fuck off*
|
| to bugger up* | to fuck up*
|
| to bull (boots, esp. military) | to polish to a high shine
|
| bum bag | fanny pack
|
| to bunk off | to truant
|
| to burgle | to burglarize
|
| the business (from "bees knees") | very good; top quality
|
| to busk | to beg for money by entertaining the public (American English doesn't have an exact equivalent for the verb, but busker might be "street musician" or "street performer".)
|
| butty (N England colloqualism) | sandwich
|
| candy floss | cotton candy
|
| car park | parking lot
|
| chancer | shark (opportunist)
|
| chuffed | proud, satisfied, pleased
|
| chump | idiotic man, buffoon
|
| to cop off with
| to successfully engage the company of someone, usually of the opposite sex, for a period of time.
|
| courgette | zucchini
|
| coving | crown molding
|
| Crimbo | Christmas
|
| [potato] crisps | [potato] chips
|
| current account | checking account
|
| dodgy | sketchy (Mid-Atlantic and Northeast), fake (e.g. "dodgy money"), possibly (but not definitely) illegal, of dubious origin, acting suspiciously (e.g. "he looks a bit dodgy"), poorly done or in poor condition (e.g. "a dodgy car", which could also mean it was possibly stolen)
|
| the dog's bollocks ("bees knees" is a more polite version) | excellent; top quality
|
| dosh | money
|
| "double #" | "##"
|
| draughts | checkers
|
| drawing pin | thumb tack
|
| duff | a type of steamed pudding e.g plum-duff; or adjective describing something that isn't working properly or a poor choice e.g. "Don't use that bike, one of the pedals is duff.".
|
| dustbin | trash can, wastebasket
|
| duvet | comforter
|
| engaged tone | busy signal
|
| ex-directory | unlisted (phone number)
|
| fairy cake | cupcake
|
| fell | mountain or high rocky outcrop. Used especially in the Lake District
|
| fizzy drink | soda or pop
|
| flat | apartment
|
| fortnight | two weeks
|
| fourpenn'orth | two cents
|
| full stop | period
|
| gaol | jail, prison
|
| gearbox | [automobile] transmission
|
| gen (short for "intelligence") | information
|
| git | scumbag, idiot
|
| go (noun) | try (e.g. "let me have a go"), turn in a game (e.g. "whose go is it?")
|
| [to] gob | mouth, [to] spit
|
| to go pear-shaped | to go South; i.e, for a process to suddenly go wrong
|
| gogglebox | television set
|
| green fingers | green thumb
|
| hash (#) | pound (#)
|
| helter-skelter | a helical slide found in fairgrounds
|
| high street | main street
|
| [to] hoover | vacuum [cleaner], to vacuum (In the US, Hoover is a brand name only.)
|
| hosepipe | garden hose
|
| inverted commas | quotation marks (Although the punctuation is different, the concept of quotation is analogous, especially since British English speakers sometimes refer to things formally (or ironically) by using the phrase "in inverted commas" in conversation.)
|
| invigilator | proctor
|
| jammy | lucky
|
| [to] kip | [to] sleep
|
| launderette | laundromat
|
| lav | lavatory, toilet
|
| loo | toilet
|
| lorry | truck
|
| loudhailer | bullhorn
|
| mains power, the mains | house current, main power
|
| mangle | clothes wringer
|
| marrow (vegetable) | squash
|
| (the) match (football) | (the) game (American football)
|
| maths | math (The British put the "s" at the end of "maths" because "mathematics" itself is plural. But this pattern is found among US English speakers when referring to the academic field of statistics as "stats".)
|
| MD (managing director) | CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
|
| minder | personal bodyguard (as of 2004 this has gained some usage in the US media)
|
| minge* | female genitals or pubic hair
|
| minger | slob, someone who is unattractive
|
| motorway | freeway
|
| naff | lame
|
| [to] naff off (obscure slang Polari made popular by prison sitcom Porridge) | [to] shove it
|
| nark | police informant
|
| to nark | to irritate
|
| nonce | pedophile, child molester, idiot
|
| nookie | sex
|
| (oilseed) rape | canola
|
| on the piss | drinking heavily; going out for the purpose of drinking heavily
|
| to orientate | to orient (most often seen in its noun form, "orientation"; While an American in a new city would try to "orient" himself, a British English speaker would need to "orientate" himself.)
|
| parkie | park-keeper
|
| parky | cold
|
| pelican crossing (PEdestrian LIght-CoNtrolled) | pedestrian crossing with traffic lights operated by pedestrians
|
| petrol | gasoline
|
| piss poor | poor quality or effort
|
| plonker | fool
|
| [to] ponce | [to] pimp, fop, fruit, someone with airs and graces
|
| to ponce about/around | to act like a fop or homosexual, to wander about aimlessly without achieving anything
|
| to ponce off | to mooch, to hit up
|
| poof/poofter (derogatory) | fag/faggot (derogatory)
|
| pram (perambulator) | baby-carriage
|
| prat (derogatory) | foolish person
|
| pud | short for pudding, which may mean dessert or occasionally a savoury item such as yorkshire pudding or black pudding
|
| pukka | legitimate, the real thing, of good quality
|
| pushchair | stroller
|
| queue | line (for waiting in)
|
| randy (also horny) | horny
|
| to reverse [the] charge[s] | to call collect
|
| to ring someone (also to call someone) | to call someone (on the phone)
|
| roundabout (fairground ride) | carousel, merry-go-round
|
| roundabout (in the road) | traffic circle, rotary (roundabout is used in some parts of the US, including on signs.)
|
| sarky | sarcastic
|
| sarnie, sarny | sandwich
|
| Sellotape | Scotch tape
|
| serviette | napkin
|
| settee (also couch) | couch, sofa
|
| shillelagh (Irish) | club, cudgel
|
| shindig, shindy | party
|
| skew-whiff | skewed, uneven, not straight
|
| skip | dumpster
|
| to skive [off] | to slink [away], to sneak off, avoid work
|
| to slag off | to diss, to badmouth
|
| slaphead (slang) | bald man
|
| slapper (possibly from flapper) | bitch, skank
|
| to snog | to make out, to kiss
|
| spanner | wrench, idiot (colloquialism)
|
| sticking plaster, Elastoplast | bandage, Band-Aid
|
| strop | bad mood or temper
|
| stroppy, to have a strop on | recalcitrant, in a bad mood or temper
|
| to suss [out] | to figure out
|
| swede | rutabaga
|
| sweets | candy
|
| ta | thanks; TA also standing for thanks awfully (rare)
|
| tannoy | loudspeaker, PA system
|
| tarn | Small mountain lake. Used especially in the Lake District
|
| telly, tele (also TV) | TV
|
| to throw a wobbly | to lose one's temper, throw a tantrum
|
| titfer (Cockney rhyming slang) | hat (from tit-for-tat)
|
| toad-in-the-hole | batter-baked sausages
|
| to toss [off]* | to jerk off*
|
| tram | streetcar, trolley-car, trolley
|
| twopenn'orth/tuppenn'orth | two cents
|
| via | by way of, through
|
| waistcoat | vest
|
| wally | buffoon, fool -milder form of idiot. (1980s slang that may now bestow more ridicule on the user than the accused)
|
| to wank [off]* | to jerk off*
|
| wanker* | jerk-off* (masturbator; term of abuse)
|
| to welch/welsh | break the terms of a deal (Note: many Welsh people find this insulting)
|
| whilst | while
|
| whirligig | rotary clothes line
|
| your man/woman (Irish) | whatshis/hername
|
| "zed" (Z) | "zee" (Z)
|
| zebra crossing | pedestrian street crossing marked with broad white stripes
|
A number of these are used in American English. Randy is widespread. Dodgy is less common.
