Just For Fun - Part 1

Americans are great lovers of the euphemism. Especially in the Old West, the average man would rather say someone was “beef plum to the hock” instead of just saying “he’s big and fat.” Here are a few of those old phrases and sayings – just for fun.

Part 1: A-M

About East: about right

Above my bend, above my huckleberry: beyond my capabilities

Acknowledge the corn: to admit the truth and acknowledge the falsehood

Across lots: in the quickest, shortest way, via shortcuts

A-going and a-coming: utterly, all the way, thoroughly

All hands and the cook: the whole outfit, everybody

Anti-godlin: in a sideways, crooked or round about way

Bald-faced shirt, boiled shirt: a white (dress) shirt

Bandbox: a conceited dandy given to big words and showing off his knowledge

Barking at a knot: trying to do the impossible

Billy Hell: a whole lot of hell; really raising Cain

Bugged up: dressed up

Button, doorknob, hen wrangler, pistol, weaner, whistle, yearling, younker: a boy

Chew it finer: say it in simpler terms

Chew the dog: to visit or pass the time of day

Cock-a-doodle-doo: the ranch foreman

Come off the rimrock: to back away from a sensitive conversation and get friendly again

Cupid’s cramps: the ache a cowboy feels when he is in love

Dashboards: a cowboy term for someone else’s big feet (cowboys prided themselves on their small feet.

Dofunny: a doodad or trinket such as a cowboy might carry in his war bag (bag for personal belongings)

Dressed up like a sore toe: dressed up in fancy duds and feeling embarrassingly conspicuous

Excuse me, ma’am: a bump in the road

Feed off your range: to be nosy or inquire inappropriately into someone’s affairs

From who laid the chunk: something terrifically done

Gazook: a gawky, awkward person

Get there with both feet: be very successful

Gravel in his gizzard: a brave man

Hair in the butter: a delicate spot

Haul in your horns: back off or back down

Hobble your lip: shut up

Holler calf-rope: to surrender, acknowledge defeat

Keep that dry: keep it secret

Knock in a cocked hat: to knock out or surprise

Line your flue: to eat

Live dictionary: a schoolmarm

Low-neck clothes: Sunday-go-to-meeting duds

Mail-order cowboy or mail order catalog on foot: an Eastern dude dressed in what he thinks a cowboy wears Out West

Make hair bridles: to spend time in jail (where they did that to pass the time)

Make smoke: to shout

Mossy horn: an old cow with wrinkled horns; an old cowhand

Sources:

A Dictionary of the Old West, Peter Watts, 1977

Dictionary of the American West, Win Blevins, 1993

J.E.S Hays

www.jeshays.com

hays.jes@gmail.com