Other Britishisms that have rubbed off on me and which I’ve come to use routinely over here include “knackered” for “exhausted” and “spanner” for “wrench” (really like that one). I’ve even been heard to utter the occasional “shite.”
Have never goten used to “bloody” as a curse word, though.
Am very familiar with “donkey’s years” and did not even think about it being a Britishism.
Bollocks, as Hale & Pace rightly point out, is a very handy word.
It’s perhaps not something you’d casually throw around in front of a Maiden Aunt, but it’s not as bad as “Shit”, and depending on context, it can mean anything from “Crap”(“Oh, bollocks, it’s gone wrong”) to “I don’t believe you” (“What a load of bollocks”) to indicating a SNAFU ("Well that’s bollocksed that up, hasn’t it?) and many other things.
Seems to me I’ve heard the phrase “cocked it up” on British TV which is a polite way of saying “fucked it up” and the same as the US version “screwed it up”.
On a similar note, saying you’re “stuffed” after eating a meal in the US mean you’re full but the word used in the UK is slang for “fucked”.
Well “stuffed” is slang for “in an irretrievably bad situation”, as is “fucked”. But I don’t think “stuffed” means “fucked” literally. And it can also mean “full”, just like in the US.
In the US, “kike” is a very offensive term for Jewish people. I’m unfamiliar with any other meaning for the term, so I wouldn’t understand your question.
I’d recommend against using this expression around Americans.
It can mean “fucked” literally, as played upon by a second-handshake of mine whose hobby was taxidermy. She was at one of these management courses where you get to introduce yourself to your fellow students, and her standard opening line was “Hello boys, I’m Lindy and I’ve probably stuffed more birds than you have…”
Dammit, I knew I would mess that up! Ignorance fought.
Another one: I’ve noticed in House Hunters International, folks refer to what an American would call the yard or backyard as the “garden”. Over here, a garden is an area intentionally planted with flowers or vegetables, rather than simply a grassy area around the house. What do they call an intentionally planted area? A “flower garden”??
You might see an ornamental-type garden, some area designed specifically for the public to come and view, described as a flower garden. But generally a garden could refer to a backyard with flowerbeds and pots everywhere, a simple grass lawn, or an entirely paved patio.
They are just called front and back gardens, no matter what is planted in them. Some older town houses have what is called a “yard” at the back of the premises. This is just a small area covered over with some sort of hard paving or cobble-stones.
On that subject, concrete or natural stone paving slabs are sometimes called “flagstones”, probably because of their shape.
Well, well, my apologies for any offense - as far as I’ve heard it used it means “let’s have a look” - yet I can find no reference to it at all other than as a derogatory term for Jew, or a cockney cake! Obviously I’ve only used it in the “have a gander” sense. Wonder where I got it from then, I thought it was London.