Australian Slang - Local Lingo
Unique Phrases - Memorable Quotes - J
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
JACK - detective (criminal slang 1940)
JACKASS - a kookaburra, renowned for its cackling laugh; someone who laughs at anything
JACK UP - refuse to do something
JACK UP - to plead not guilty before a Magistrate (Criminal slang 1950s)
JACK OF IT - had enough of it; exasperated
JACKEROO - a city boy or an Englishman working on a property. 'Young gentleman getting the 'colonial experience' in the bush are called jackeroos by station hands. (1873)
JACKIE DOW'S MUTTON - living off the country
JACKING UP - objecting
JACK OR JACKMAN - lazy digger or one who places himself above others
JACK MCNAB - scab = jack (rhyming slang)
JACKS - military police WW1
JACK SCRATCH - got a match? (soldier slang WW1)
JACK SHAY - a tin quart pot used for boiling tea in and contrived so as to hold it within a tin pint pot c. 1895
JACK THE PAINTER - an adulterated green tea used in the bush, produced by the use of the copper drying pans in its manufacture
JACKIE HOWE - John Robert Howe - gun shearer. At Alice Downs station outside Blackall, Jackie set the record for hand shearing 321 sheep in just seven hours and forty minutes.
JACKIE HOWE - sleeveless, singlet worn by shearers
JACKIE - 19th century term for an Aborigine
JACK SCRATCHES - matches (rhyming slang)
JACKY WINTER - vernacular name in NSW of the Brown Flycatcher (Morris 1898)
JAFFAS - chocolate coated orange lollies first made in 1931
JAFFLE IRON - Device used to make toasted snacks by heating over a fire. Designed, named and patented in Australia in June 1949 by Dr Ernest E. Smithers from Bondi
JAMPOT - very high, starched stand-up collar worn by dandies c. 1895
JATZ CRACKERS - Rhyming slang for knackers; male genitalia
JELLY CAKES - small cakes covered in jelly and rolled in coconut
JERILDERIE LETTER - 56 page document written by bushranger Ned Kelly as a justification of his actions in the year before his death
JERRY - understand
JIB - face - prison slang c. 1893
JIFFY - a brief period of time
JIGGER - small wireless sets manufactured by prisoners (Long Bay gaol 1946)
JIGGERED - broken
JILLAROO - a young female version of a jackaroo
JIMMY DANCER - cancer
JIMMYGRANTS - immigrants. Often used mid century re Italian and Greek newcomers
JIMMY WOODSER - a man who drinks alone. From a poem by Barcroft Boake, published in The Bulletin of 7 May 1892
JINDALEE RADAR SYSTEM - developed in 1995 to detect stealth aircraft through monitoring sea and air movements.
JINKER - wood carrier; vehicle
JOB - strike a blow
JOCK - Scottish soldier (WW1)
JOE BLAKE - snake
JOE BLAKES - shakes (rhyming slang) - after a drinking sessions
JOE BLOW - an average sort of bloke
JOES or JOE BLAKES - the blues or delerium tremens (WW2)
JOES - Gold fields - Licence boundaries for mines were strictly enforced, and the approach of the police was signalled by the cry of Joe! Joe! as miners without licences scrambled to escape the grasp of the law. Joe or Charlie Joe were terms of derision for the Lieutenant-Governor Charles Joseph Latrobe
JOEY - young marsupial. Also pinkie
JOEY - a fake (Army 1945)
JOEY or JO JOS - another name for bindi-eyes. Used around Newcastle Hunter Valley
JOHN DORY - J.D. - story. What's the JD. What's the story, what's happening? (rhyming slang)
JOHN HOP - cop - police officer (rhyming slang)
JOINT - a place of business. Jump the joint is to take command of the situation
JONNICK also JANNOCK - fair, honest, true (1870s)
JORN - the Jindalee Operational Radar Network. Stretching from Queensland to Western Australia, JORN is a state-of-the-art Over The Horizon Radar (OTHR) network that monitors activity across thousands of kilometres invisible to conventional radar
JOURNO - journalist
JUG - prison
JUICE - petrol
JUMBUCK - sheep, from an aboriginal word for a white mist, which a flock of sheep resembled. First used in 1824
JUMPER - sweater
JUMP THE JOINT - take command of a situation
JUST ROCK UP - come whenever
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