The three sheets are the two ropes attached to the jib sail and the single rope attached to the main sail, if they are 'let fly' it can be very difficult to get them back on board, the vessel is completely uncontrollable with the sails out to one side and no easy means of hauling them back inboard (other than to lower the sails)
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- Thread starter Sharky
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The three sheets are the two ropes attached to the jib sail and the single rope attached to the main sail, if they are 'let fly' it can be very difficult to get them back on board, the vessel is completely uncontrollable with the sails out to one side and no easy means of hauling them back inboard (other than to lower the sails)
Top dog. Underdog.
From the days when planks were cut by hand from tree trunks. The trunk was held over an open pit with one bloke at the top of the long saw and on the top of the tree trunk with another in the pit at the other end of the saw.
The poor old underdog had to put up with all the saw dust dropping all over him. The top dog could just stand and laugh.
From the days when planks were cut by hand from tree trunks. The trunk was held over an open pit with one bloke at the top of the long saw and on the top of the tree trunk with another in the pit at the other end of the saw.
The poor old underdog had to put up with all the saw dust dropping all over him. The top dog could just stand and laugh.
My Nan had a colourful turn of phrase, and she was always being tutted at by my mum in case we kids pick anything up.
She had a saying........It was as Black as Nookahs knocker.
It dawned on me later on that what she was saying was a corruption of ........Newgate's Knocker. As in Newgate Prison.
She had a saying........It was as Black as Nookahs knocker.
It dawned on me later on that what she was saying was a corruption of ........Newgate's Knocker. As in Newgate Prison.
classic33
Leg End Member
Here, Monsoon.
Nothing to do with dog fighting then?
Winning dog on top makes more sense to me.
Why call a guy, with a saw, a 'dog'?
Vapin' Joe
Formerly known as Smokin Joe
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
The phrase, "Freeze the balls off a brass monkey", is actually a misquote of the original saying, which is "Freeze the balls on a brass monkey". A monkey being the term for a triangular stack of brass cannonballs on the gun deck of a ship, and in very cold weather they used to freeze together.
"You lookin' at my bird?" is a traditional old east end saying that preceeds a smack in the teeth.
"You lookin' at my bird?" is a traditional old east end saying that preceeds a smack in the teeth.
U
User482
Guest
My Granddad's stock answer to "what's for tea" was "bread and pull it". He never explained what he meant, and a google search suggests it's a play on "pullet" i.e. a chicken. That seems highly unlikely - he was from a dirt-poor family and chicken was a luxury item in those days. An alternative, more likely explanation is that you would stretch cheap bread so it could be served to more people.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
Not worth a light, used to refer to the small children who would open and close the trap doors to/from the coal face to allow the rail trucks in and out, the job wasn't deemed to be of monetary value so they weren't given a light and had to work in the dark.
Andy_R
Hard of hearing..I said Herd of Herring..oh FFS..
- Location
- County Durham
Not so much an explanation of Geordie phrase origins, more of an up to date example of usage
*Edit: Being from God's own county Durham, I only recognise half of this. It's like living in Kent and trying to explain French to a Lundunar
*Edit: Being from God's own county Durham, I only recognise half of this. It's like living in Kent and trying to explain French to a Lundunar
A Powder Monkey was a young boy whose job it was to bring up the gunpowder in cloth charge sacks, up from the magazine below the waterline to the guns on deck. They could only carry one or two charges at a time in case of sparks.
A Brass Monkey, (brass does not spark) was the triangular frame the cannon balls sat in next to the guns. In freezing weather the brass contracts, the balls fall off the frame.
Moon bunny
Judging your grammar
- Location
- Basking in my own brilliance.
It was a comedian called Harry Tate in the 1930s who had a routine involving a courting couple being interrupted, each time they would move apart and the man ask the woman "How's your father?"
vernon
Harder than Ronnie Pickering
- Location
- Meanwood, Leeds
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
Mine resides in the Lavatory book collection for when one has a few moments to ponder ....