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British Idioms That Left These Americans Totally Confused!
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- Published on Mar 6, 2026
- What do "Bob's your uncle" and "chuffed to bits" even mean?! In this video, we dive headfirst into the wonderfully weird world of British idioms-and our American brains are NOT ready 😂 From charmingly odd phrases to completely baffling sayings, we try to guess the meanings and learn what they really mean across the pond.
Whether you're British, American, or just here for a laugh, you're in for a good time! 🇬🇧🇺🇸
💬 Got a favorite UK idiom we missed? Drop it in the comments-we're always up for more confusion.
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Link to the source material used in this video:
Weird British Idioms
• • Weird British Idioms
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I always wanted to say that! I’m not saying it, but I am thinking about it as I write it!
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#british #uk #languagelearning #reaction
🇬🇧 Who knew the British had so many utterly bonkers ways to say the simplest things? 😂 Got a favorite idiom we missed? Drop it below!
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Cheers, legends! 🫶
DIANA ANKUDINOVA! 🎉❤ RETURN THE MEMORY! CHILLS!
hi there pls react to 'Jay Foreman' aka MAP MEN thank you 🙂
Hair of the dog actually works for a hangover.
@Killermcknight There was an episode of Community where I think it was Jon Oliver says "in England everything means vagina". He's not far wrong, it's either that or it means drunk :) If you can end the word in "ed", you can probably use it to mean drunk and everyone will understand from context
Me and a mate or should I say a friend and I went to the USA many years ago when I was around 21 22 years old he had family out there so to save some dosh we stayed with them , well it was thanks giving as you call it (Christmas 😂) and there was a big party round one of his relatives house, at a later point in the evening one of the blokes went out for some elephant beer because he thought your beer wasn’t doing it for us bless him , well we was having a chat and one of our US cousins came out with something he thought was funny and no one laughed , so he looked at me and said “well that went down like a lead zeppelin, well I must have looked at him a bit confused because he said ain’t that what you Brit’s say I laughed and said you meant that went down like a lead ballon , enjoyed your RUclips and yes we have some strange saying most of them have a lot of history behind them
English, NOT British English.
English is the language, American English the variation (dialect)
Americans speak Pidgin English.
It`s English, from England spoken by the English. It isn`t a version, its original source English.
It's not British English its English!
nope.. lots of countries speak english, england speaks anglo English.. scotland speaks scottish english, america american etc etc.. the languages diverge over time.. just as english derives from a germanic language..
the English language spoken in Scotland is the Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English... you must be aware americn english has a lot of differences in spelling from us like color v's colour.. british english is used to describe the whole of the uk scotland wales england ireland etc
*English English
There is no such thing as British English! It's English!
Knackered comes from the knackers yard where worn out horses were taken to be killed
Cream crakered is the rhyming slang version
As a non brit, rhyming slang is such a hoot 😂
(Dutch)
I believe Knackered originally meant tired from sex. Once a horse had been put out to stud and couldn't perform any longer they would be sent to the knackers yard.
@sp6060 ...nah.
@sp6060 Nope. Knacker means "to kill, castrate" comes from1855. The person who did that was a knacker (n.) "one who slaughters old or sick horses" and comes from 1812. Knackered meaning "worn out, tired," 1883, past-participle adjective from knacker (v.). You could be knackered from sex but that's not the origin of the word.
@readMEinkbooks when I was young I always got told off for saying I was knackered as it was considered swearing.
The hair of the dog is the drink after the hangover, not the hangover itself!
Hair of the dog is when you have a hangover and you have a drink to cure the hangover
If it was *after* the hangover, then it's just another drink. How long after the hangover? The next day? The next week? The hair of the dog is a drink you have when you still have the hangover, as it is seen as a cure. Why cure something that has just ended? If that's how you've been using it your whole life, then you've been wrong your whole life. :)
The hair of the dog that bit you the night before.
'I'm Hank Marvin' - I'm really hungry
Talking about squash other than the game and the veg, in the uk we call a drink that’s a concentrated liquid that we dilute with water squash, a bit like cordial.
He's wrong on some of it. Bottling it comes from losing your bottle, which means to lose your coursge and probably refers to the idea of alcohol making you brave. No arses involved.
Bottle=aristotle=arse
As far as I know, "Bottle" is the shortened version of "Bottle and glass", rhyming slang for arse.
To have one's bottle is to have one's nerve. Whilst it is tangentially related somewhat to "Dutch courage" and one who loses their bottle has effectively lost their source of courage, one who loses their courage can also lose their arse (shart thyself).
To my nth generation Cockney ears "can't be bottled" also doesn't sound right, unlike the (potentially Scouse) "can't be arsed" and the Cockney "can't be 'arissed", however this connotation to me is more one of disinterest than nerve. As I can't think of any rhyming slang equivalent to the British expression "bricking it" that doesn't involve food poisoning, "bottling it" could originate in rhyming slang as a contraction of losing one's bottle (when I think "He lost his bottle", I don't hear it in a received pronunciation accent).
Bottle and glass is rhyming slang for arse, Aristotle is rhyming slang for bottle (and glass), with Aristotle almost always shortened to Aris. Add in some Cockney H-mispronunciation and doubling of the consonant when used as an -ed verb and you have Aris/Arris and even Harris with an aspirated H, as in "get of your 'arris" and "can't be 'arissed". A more pure Aris/Arissed may be preferred over an aspirated H to avoid sounding like you're from the West Country.
Given arse and Aris sound a little alike, it could simply be that "losing his bottle" won out over "losing his aris" because when it comes to figurative speech the former doesn't conjure the imagery of Tia Maria.
@robcrossgrove7927Yes you are correct. From an old cockney.
Yes. Nothing to do with Cockney. Somebody made that up.
“Lost his bottle”, “no bottle”, etc. meaning lost courage, was in use 200 years ago.
6:54 I think what you were thinking of is 'button it' (which does mean shut up)
Its English!!! 🏴🇬🇧
12:44 "a computer that is knackered" is just old and crappy, not broken per se, but it can be, I use it as old and almost broken usually
I would say that "that takes the bicuit" is more like "I've had enough of this" when something else goes wrong after a string of things going wrong.
-yeah it's just another way of saying "the last straw".
The straw that broke the camel's back!
The guy making this language video should do his research.
@spurstrex When it comes to the crunch.
This banker you were watching should really zip it.
Telling someone to shut-up or say nothing is “button it”
Hey guys, one thing I don't get the whole British English, I'm English and speak English, I mean do the Spanish speak Spanish Spanish or just Spanish. Anyhoo, just an observation.. time to carry on with the vid...
True. Do Mexicans speak Mexican Spanish or Spanish?
French Canadian? 🤔 Think they would say they speak French, no?
Exactly.
We don't call the Welsh language, British Welsh.
The only reason the term British English exists is because ignorant Americans think they invented the language. Correctly there is English then other countries' VERSIONS of English. But our English, i.e. British English, IS English, by definition. Britain as a whole invented English, almost as a collaborative effort, but predominantly done by England (obviously), therefore they are the owners of English. Everyone else merely has derivations.
Agree. Or do people say Mexican Spanish or Argentinean Spanish?
If it is a thing then am I wrong when I say, in answer to a question, oh, they speak Spanish in Mexico?
There's no such thing as British English, it's just ENGLISH, we're it's country of origin and other languages in the same area are different forms of English
Full of beans is full of energy. Think of jumping beans
Stopppp "comes in a box" 😂😂😂 Top tier innuendo, Taylor 👏
😂
@Killermcknight You missed the one at 22:16 when talking about never saying 'cream crackered' again ;)
Cream pies....out of a box?
Yes please.
(Seen on the shelf in Tesco)😂
Its raining cats and dogs , its chucking it down, its pissing down!! All heavy rain.
Another old version is coming down stair rods. The brass rods that used to hold stair carpets in position.
But still all different strengths of heavy rain.
There are officially 368 types of rain in the UK, all with different results depending on where you live. For northern England & above only 3 types are worthy of wearing your big coat for.
Surprised he didn't mention some other obvious and well used ones such as;
"Just not my cup of tea..." - "Hit the nail on the head!" - "Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt" - "I'm off to spend a penny" 😂
'Pulled up stumps' 'had a good innings' 'on a sticky wicket' 'big girls blouse' and a family favorite 'forget that for a game of soldiers'
@MatronsS
Good one', especially "big girl's blouse..."
Cat on a hot tin roof, gift horse in the mouth, raining cats and dogs
@TheDiabolicalDannyDo-Bad
TBH & FYI: The phrase "like a cat on a hot tin roof" is American and originates from Tennessee Williams's 1955 stage play, 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' _(later made into a film in 1958 with Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives)._ He altered a much older British idiom _"like a cat on hot bricks",_ which in turn comes from an earlier version of the phrase _"like a cat on a hot bake-stone,"_ which appeared in John Ray's Book of Proverbs in 1678.
@StewedFishProductions didn’t know that i just heard it about and just assumed it was british, pretty cool to know
Talking of weird, that bloke has a weird voice
Very much so. Odd voice and accent.
@bestboy1986
Not do much "weird" as the fact he has a problem pronouncing his 'th' sounds and says instead 'f' somewhat like 'Thoughty2' (another RUclipsr who makes informative videos). ...but this guy sounds like he's _trying to sound_ like a better-spoken person than he actually is...!!
Hair of the dog is if your hung over off night before you need another drink to put you right
Not happy with his reference to `British English'; it's just English for goodness sake. By all means say American English to denote its difference from the original language, but it's a bit of an insult to suggest British English is a divergence from something more `pure'.
It grinds my gears too.
For goodness' sake.
If you're going to claim the moral high ground on language, at least get it right.
@Faithpearlgenie Which is why I used parentheses.
British English is just a form of english, of which there have been hundreds throughout history. Its a 20th century development, english existed before england was even a country.
It's all just a bastardisation of Gods language of Yorkshirian anyway
I think it is 'The hair of the dog, that bit you', so if you were drinking beer, have another beer in the morning, i.e. drink the same drink that you were drinking yesterday.
Best hair of the dog treatment is a low alcohol lager - this is well founded advice from a 46 years professional brewer.
He literally explained this in the video... 🤔
@Dunbardoddy I find a Bloody Mary is the perfect hair of the dog after consuming a gallon of beer,or even a bucket of spirits!
@bucklberryreturns he said “bites”. That was wrong.
Well done! You watched the video... and had just enough brain cells to "think it is" the correct explanation! Impressive! lol.
We'd day "Button it" to tell someone to can it.
😂That even more helpful 😂😂
Button it - keep quiet/shut up.
Or Zip it
It’s just the English language from England ,so there’s no British English language
@robertlangley1664 i prefer to call it United Kinglish
@dangerousdaz89 don’t talk rubbish
@robertlangley1664 Absolutely.
If it wasn't for the British, America would be speaking an entirely different language
- take your pick from Spanish, German or French ??
The only other contender would have been to learn the native American language - how do you think you would have got on with that???
To 'bottle it up' usually means to hide your emotions.
(and probably some other meaning I'm forgetting right now.)
But to 'bottle it' does tend to mean 'backing out of something difficult or scary'.
eg. When a friend is trying to jump across a small stream, but fails to go for it 'Ahh, mate, you totally bottled it!'.
I think it's a phrase that has been slowly going out of fashion, or maybe I'm just older now. lol
Taylor actually referenced hair of the dog in the reaction you did to the innuendos in the show This Morning. I just watched that one after watching this one 😂
Oh how funny, I didn’t even remember doing that lol, but I knew I knew it haha
The American idiom "put a horse out to pasture" can be somewhat translated to the British idiom "send a horse to the knacker's yard", although a more literal translation of the latter is the idiom "put a bullet in its head".
Etymologically, knacker made its way into English from the Old Norse words hnakkur (saddle) and hnakki (back of the neck), with knacker originally referring to one who makes saddles, gradually taking on the meaning of one who sells horses, and eventually referring to to one who dispatches and repurposes worn out horses (glue, dog food, etc.).
The switch from horse to automobile means knacker's yard is a synonym of breaker's yard (US English: junkyard/wrecking yard/salvage yard/etc.).
"As easy as flicking shit up a ladder with a whip." = Something difficult/impossible.
Or 'plaiting fog'
Knackered come from the knackers yard where they sent horses that were at the end of their life and they were then made into glue or gelatin.
The hair of the dog is the drink you have after a long night of drinking, not the the name of the hangover.
By the way, I've never ever ever ever ever ever heard of "Blood biscuit" - has anyone else?
There was a jammy dodger on the screen, might have been that? Or one of the Tunnocks wrappers
Never in my life lol
I'm guessing the Jammy Dodger, red heart in the middle (heart+blood)?
75 year old English woman here. Never heard of it
Nope. I'm 70 and had a mother who was very strong on using colourful idioms and proverbs, so I know a lot, but never heard that one.
Creampies & boxes... I'm saying nothing 😂😂😂
I love that it took him so long to realise what she was laughing at 😂😂
😂😂
Blimey, wrong again! We are talking about the English language, so it is full of energy!
the fact he is saying British English is annoying to me its just English
Absolutely. We speak English. The language of the English.
Americans speak a particularly bad dialect of English
It really takes the biscuit if you lose your bottle while being off your trolley 😉
First view, hooray for me. Having " hair of the dog" as we speak. Queen Taylor ..your laughing is priceless. " GOSH.. Super super super" ..gets me every time. Love from South Africa.
Never seen a couple have so much fun together....never stop making each other laugh, it's the secret 'cream' sauce
Stop saying British English!
Its English! Plain and simple!
And of course there are mistakes....
_Hair of the dog_ means once hungover & feeling bad, a friend tries to get you out for more drink by saying _"Hair of the dog?"_ followed by excuses that it'll make you feel better.
_Bottle it_ means to chicken out. But, if you've got a lot of bottle, you are brave.
Bloodletting was based on the medical understanding of the time of Ancient Rome and Greece taken from Hippocrates (the guy the Hippocratic Oath is named for). They believed that human health was down to a balance of the four major bodily fluid types - blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile - collectively known as the four humours. Bloodletting was an attempt to restore the balance of these fluids when they believed that too much 'bad blood' was having an effect by literally removing some of the 'excess' blood. You'd need to be pretty low-class and poor to do it yourself with a knife though, and rather it was often done with 'medical' leeches applied to the patient, or via specific blood letting instruments that made a surgeon of the times seem all sciencey and well equipped.
Beat me to it, well done my friend 👍❤️🏴😊
That man sounds like he's escaped from somewhere...
To tell someone to be quiet we say Button it, as in button your lip.
the hair of the dog - that bit you
The full saying is "a hair of the dog that bit you."
don't be a richard cranium,. lmao, i need that T-shirt lol
In the movie The Shining, Jack Nicholson says to the hotel bartender "hair of the dog that bit me" before he asks for a whiskey. That’s the only time I’ve heard an American say it.
Trust me, we don't all speak like that lol.
I have heard "the hair of the dog" used in old American cowboy movies.
Bottled it means scared
'The hair of the dog' is in a 2024/Grammy winning Lainey Wilson country song. The full phrase is 'the hair of the dog that bit me'.
British English? Oh, he means English.
.. " “Bite the bullet” was first used as an expression by Rudyard Kipling in his book, “The Light That Failed” in 1891. Read on to learn about its meaning and origin. The expression “bite the bullet” is usually used when one has to make the decision to go through a difficult, uncomfortable or awkward situation " hehe
VERY curious to see if all of the Patreon vid made it in 😁
The hair of the dog is another drink to lessen the effects of the hangover from the night before
Omg seing you with the peperami plush after seing you lose it from the advert got me giggling all over again (only saw that video last week)
Guess what?? I have two now 😂😍😍
Did you open it on video?
The aspect as to why the backside is seen as cowardly traces its roots way back to times of antiquity as being killed with a blow to the back was seen as a sign that you were running away.
British English is English English.
Bottle is slang for courage as in "You've got a lot of bottle to stand there", or "She's got some bottle!", so 'losing one's bottle' is to lose courage, which eventually got even further slang-ified into "That guy totally bottled it" said in pretty much the exact tone of voice you'd say "That guy shat his pants".
Also to "bottle up", is to keep quiet. "he bottled up his emotions until he couldn't handle it anymore."
If someone has lost their bottle, they have lost (control of) their arse. Brown trouser time.
@raindancer6111if you bottle it, you chicken out and don’t do something you said you would
You can also bottle it by bigging yourself up and then failing or by having a big lead and losing
Hair of the dog(that bit you).
Knackered is from the place used to slaughter cattle, pigs and old horses, the "knackers yard"
I was hoping to hear about gordon bennet.
Take the biscuit is pretty much switched out as “taking the piss” rather than it being the final straw which seems to be how he explains it.
Point Percy at the porcelain used for little boys 😂 an old one but a good one when toilet training.
At 11.00 my dogs woke up and barked as Queen went ultrasonic.
It is possible to drink yourself sober as I witnessed my sister do so on her 18th birthday.
Aussies say knackered just as often as the Brits.
Our English is ENGLISH not British english
Damn. All hail Queen Taylor.
Full of beans, you're full of energy 😊
Marmite is an idiom too meaning a subject of debate ie people will either love it or hate it
i live in the north east of england and we have an idiom that is only really used in this part of the uk, 'Workie Ticket'. its a phrase used to describe someone who is mis behaving or being mischevious, as far as im aware it comes from the armed forces where someone would deliberatly be insubortinate in order to be discharged and sent home early i.e. work their ticket home.
15:29 there’s also “give it (all of ) the beans” which means to put some effort/energy into something
The best things in life come in a box 🤣🤣🤣
11:00 I see what you did there. Also turned into a mouse apparently :)
I'm binge watching all your videos as a new sub and I love how she has a peperami stuffed toy (oh gosh)
I believe 'bite the bullet' comes from the days when the paper cartridge had to be opened before loading!
@timhannah4 I think I heard somewhere recently that it was a requirement of men serving during the American civil war that they had a tooth to do that.
To bite the bullet, is an actual instruction for a person who is in pain due to being injured and is told to take a bite on any handy article that is hard enough to resist the bite but soft enough that it won’t damage the teeth. When applied to a soldier who was in pain in the early days of firearms the most available item would have been a musket ball and later the bullet from a cartridge, which being mainly made of lead would be hard enough to resist a bite so it would not be swallowed but soft enough so that it could be deformed. The admonishment was so that a doctor or surgeon could be heard by his assistants when asking for the instruments that he needed next, remembering that at the time when the phrase came into general use an injured person would have had no anaesthesia or pain relief other than getting incredibly drunk, such a condition would not normally be advisable due to the time it would take for the patient to drink sufficient alcohol to render them unconscious or incapable of fighting the medical staff and possibly injuring them.
Definitely much older than paper cartridges.
Now it can mean to grit your teeth and get on with it.
comes in a box , lol 😆👍
The blue bottle jobs 😂😂😂
It comes in a box... 😂
Rhyming slang - they only use that in East London.
There are other accents in other parts of London.
I died with 'creampies' and then I transcended with 'comes in a box'!!! 😂
😂😂
Blood letting was a form of lowering blood pressure. This was thought to cure many illnesses but opened people up to infection from the utensils and doctors because antibiotics had not been developed
There’s a British term used when you have been overcharged for say car repairs or a hefty meal bill… it’s “they really took my trousers down” or “they took my pants down on that deal” took me to the cleaners.. same.
Oh Taylor... Innuendo Queen 😂
❤ from Northeast England ❤
😁❤️
bottle it can also be used to say shut your gob
It’s properly ‘the hair of the dog that bit me'. Bizarrely, it goes back to ancient Greece, where it was believed that a touch of the spear that wounded you would also cure you. BTW, it seems to work.
It’s just English. 🏴. Anything else is a slang version of it.
That guys accent is just weird. Only he speaks like that.
I love the idea of Renaissance Fair - or 'fayre' - 'squash' that's more like medieval football but with very small tems and no life-changing injuries...
He's having a giraffe innit? He doesn't know what he's talking about so why is he talking? He definitely doesn't know his onions.
Modern rhyming slang for "He's having a laugh". (rhymes with Giraffe) ie; he's being sarcastic or he's making fun of somebody/something.
Have you even got a Danny? He's having a bubble.
The original cockney for laugh was “having a tin bath”, then it morphed into “having a bubble…” and then “having a giraffe” which makes no sense at all as the whole point of Cockney rhyming slang is having the two words that relate to each other! Like jam jar, frog n toad, cat n mouse, apples n pears….
“Having a giraffe …” noooooooo! It’s either tin or bubble bath!
Yeah, ees talkin' out of 'is aris! Though it was funny hearing someone so posh, trying to explain Cockney rhyming slang, like he was on some kind of anthropological expedition! :)
Hair of the dog that bit you
I’m in the US and have always heard “Hair of the dog” and “full of beans”. In the US it’s “takes the cake”, not that much difference.
When I was a child; well, dont that just take the cake, was a euphemism for something said, or done, that was funnier or more surprising. A bit hard to explain but, as an example.
You are trying to work out how to put something together and having difficulties. Someone comes alone and taps a button or shifts something or makes a comment and ... it's fixed or produces a laugh.
Why's he saying British English there's no such thing it's just English ffs (the English language)🤔😡
There are many types (dialects) of English. For example: hiberno-english (the English spoken in ireland), AAVE is African American English.
The list goes on....
'Hair of the dog that bit you' is the same thinking as homeopathy.
It seems "I'll definitely slide it in" went over both your heads when discussing 'Cream Crackered' 😂
Hahah oops
Your horse is knackered and so so is this geezer. Full of beans tha means you are healthy.Being a Grumble and Grunt is for you to figure out❤😊