# What's Cockney rhyming slang and how does it work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-cockney-rhyming-slang-and-how-does-it-work/693888 "2014-07-23T23:28:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-cockney-rhyming-slang-and-how-does-it-work/693888/1 "2014-07-23T23:28:22Z")
I’m rather 😕 by the current topic in the [Baker’s Dozen Game](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=573445&page=278) in TGR – what in god’s green earth is that all about? ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-cockney-rhyming-slang-and-how-does-it-work/693888/2 "2014-07-24T00:21:13Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > I’m rather 😕 by the current topic in the [Baker’s Dozen Game](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=573445&page=278) in TGR – what in god’s green earth is that all about? Supposedly it was a way for lawbreaking Cockney’s to communicate without the Old Bill(police) knowing what was being said. Im not Cockney so what I say may not be totally corrrect. Apart from a handful of phrases its spoken less than it was in the past. I am also convinced that 99% of Cockney Rhyming slang you find on the internet is used by absolutely no-one in real life. They are made up by sad bastards on the interweb or maybe by the occassional professional Cockney down the pub. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-cockney-rhyming-slang-and-how-does-it-work/693888/3 "2014-07-24T00:21:32Z")
There has been at least one thread about this before. Try a bird. Mystifying! I don’t even pretend to “get it”. Seems like people go out of their way to be misunderstood! Excuse me, I’ve got to go take a drill… ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-cockney-rhyming-slang-and-how-does-it-work/693888/4 "2014-07-24T00:33:07Z")
I intend to post to this this thread in 2024. It will be a real Trafalgar. Trafalgar Square, fox and hare, needle and stitch, Abercrombie and Fitch, Abercrombie… zombie! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-cockney-rhyming-slang-and-how-does-it-work/693888/5 "2014-07-24T01:28:34Z")
It’s how they disguise ribald phrases with innocuous subtle rhymes like “smother pucker” or “shard clock up my mass” to mean “a frustrating situation”. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-cockney-rhyming-slang-and-how-does-it-work/693888/6 "2014-07-24T01:42:32Z")
You haven’t gotten any actual answers to your question - but I suppose that’s what you get when you won’t do a five-second search on [cockney rhyming slang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang).