silly as…, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

silly as… adj.

used in phrs., usu. meaning extremely silly or foolish.

In phrases

...a bag (of worms) (also ...a pailful of worms)(Aus./N.Z.)

1952		S.J. Baker in Sydney Morn. Herald 18 Oct. Sat. Mag. 9/2: Note, now, the variety of themes opened up in the following phrases: [...] ‘as silly as a bag of worms,’ ‘as silly as a two-bob watch’.
1954		Sun (Sydney) 23 Apr. 26/1: ‘No imagination or initiative - silly as a bag of worms, everyone of ’em,’ she will snort derisively .
1959		Baker Drum.
1961		Sydney Morn. Herald 8 Oct. 53/4: He’s mad — silly as a pailful of worms.

...a box of lights

(UK) extremely silly.

1956

P. Wildeblood Way of Life 132: Silly as a box of lights, he is.

...a brush (Aus.)

1999

G. Seal Lingo 88: Bodily and mental afflictions, real, imagined or fervently wished, also feature strongly in Lingo. One can be [...] silly as a brush.

...a chook (with its head cut off) (also silly as a curlew)(Aus./N.Z.)

1. extremely silly.

1938		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 26 Feb. 11/4: I’ve just seen inside a book / A poem silly as a chook.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 87: Here are a few more similes snatched from our environment: [...] silly as a curlew.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 128: The word [silly] also appears in a number of insulting Lingoisms, such as [...] silly as a chook with its head cut off.
1999		Age (Melbourne) 24 Nov. 75/2: Colourful expressions came from the bus: the back o’ Bourke, [...] silly as a curlew, rare as hen’s teeth.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

2. tipsy, drunk.

1982

G. Newbold Big Huey 110: It was by far the best brew I’d ever sampled in jail [...] Pretty soon we were all as silly as chooks.

...a cut snake (Aus./N.Z.)

1938		X. Herbert Capricornia 197: There was that old fool, blind as a bat and drunk as a jigger and silly as a cut snake.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xl 4/5: silly as a cut snake: To describe an idiot.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 132: The exasperating person who is [...] ‘silly as a tin of worms (or a cut snake)’.
1993		Age (Melbourne) 3 Apr. 9/4: The entry on ‘Folk Humor’ gives ‘Silly as a hatful of arseholes. ’ ‘Silly as a cut snake’.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 88: Bodily and mental afflictions, real, imagined or fervently wished, also feature strongly in Lingo. One can be [...] silly as a brush or a cut snake; silly as a wet weekend.

...a hatful of arseholes [arsehole n. (1)] (Aus.)

1993		Age (Melbourne) 3 Apr. 9/4: The entry on ‘Folk Humor’ gives ‘Silly as a hatful of arseholes. ’ ‘Silly as a cut snake’.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 233: ‘That bloke’s as silly as a hatful of arseholes. He’s been committed for psychiatric assessment’.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 128: The word [silly] also appears in a number of insulting Lingoisms, such as [...] silly as a hatful of arseholes (walking down pitt street backwards with their shoes off).

...a hatful of worms (also ...tin of worms)(orig. Aus.)

1957		Sydney Morn. Herald 17 Sept. 18/5: ‘Poor, bloody George! He’s as silly as a hatful of worms!’.
1959		Baker Drum.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 132: The exasperating person who is [...] ‘silly as a tin of worms’.

...a two-bob watch (also crazy as a two-bob watch, mad as…, silly as a Woolworth’s watch)(Aus.)

1922		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 1 Apr. 17/7: ‘Blimey, he’s as silly as a two-bob watch’.
1945		Aus. Women’s Weekly 17 Nov. 5/2: ‘He was as silly as a two-bob watch - just the way he is now. Nobody ever knew what he was goin’ to do next - and you can bet your life he didn’t ’.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 87: Here are a few more similes snatched from our environment: mad as a goanna, [...] mad as a beetle, (the similes mad as a dingbat or a Chinaman or a two-bob watch are also worth noting).
1949		Maryborough Chron. (Qld) 25 May 3/3: Australian welterweight champion, Tommy Burns, stopped his address to the boxing crowd and asked a ringside interjector to repeat a statement which he alleged to have been: ‘You’re as silly as a two-bob watch’.
1952		S.J. Baker in Sydney Morn. Herald 18 Oct. Sat. Mag. 9/2: Note, now, the variety of themes opened up in the following phrases: [...] ‘as silly as a bag of worms,’ ‘as silly as a two-bob watch’.
1963		(con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 192: Crazy as a two-bob watch. Should have reported it, corporal.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 140: He’s there on his Pat Malone, see, talking to himself, silly as a two-bob watch.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 15: ‘As silly as a two-bob watch’ remains a common synonym for silliness and takes no more account of either inflation or metrication than does ‘not the full quid’ or ‘a shilling short’.
1990		Tampa Trib. (FL) 9 Sept. 107/4: [In New Zealand] [a]n eccentric is sometimes said to be ‘as silly as a two-bob watch’.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 66: ‘Take a look in the mirror, gate [...] you’re ratbag number one. You’re silly as a two-bob watch’.
2001		J. Baker Shooting in the Dark (2002) 81: Miriam said I’m crazy as a two-bob watch.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 189: silly as a two-bob watch/[...]/a Woolworth’s watch Very silly indeed, ‘bob’ meaning the imperial shilling. ANZ mid C20.

...a (wet) hen (Aus./N.Z.)

1. extremely foolish; mentally unstable.

1905		Tocsin (Melbourne) 31 Aug. 7/4: Legal Wet-Henism. That the law is an ass everybody has hitherto been prepared to admit, but Parliamentary law appears to be something worse. It is as silly as a wet hen.
1911		Dly News (Perth, WA) 6 June 8/3: ‘Just as we wus wonderln’ what we’d do, along comes this cove; silly as a wet hen’.
1925		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 26 Sept. 20/5: [cartoon caption] ‘Bai Jove, you know I felt as silly as a wet hen’.
1932		Townsville Dly Bulletin (Qld) 24 Nov. 4/2: The old goat looked as silly as a wet hen, and I thought it was time to save him making a bigger ass of himself.
1945		Stand Easy 50: Troppo. First day out and silly as a wet hen.
1956		T. Sutherland Green Kiwi 123: He described him [...] as being ‘as silly as a wet hen’.
1959		Baker Drum.
1973		P. Wilson N.Z. Jack 145: He’s as silly as a wet hen.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 102/2: silly as a wet hen than which little comes sillier.
1997		Syndey Morn. Herald 4 Oct. 30/6: La Moylan, silly as a et hen, heaped insult upon injury.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

2. drunk.

1947

P. Newton Wayleggo (1953) 93: Boss produced a bottle of whisky, and [...] one decent nip had me silly as a hen.

...a wet weekend (Aus.) eccentric

1999

G. Seal Lingo 88: Bodily and mental afflictions, real, imagined or fervently wished, also feature strongly in Lingo. One can be [...] silly as a brush or a cut snake; silly as a wet weekend.

...a wheel (also ...a square wheel, ...wheels)(Aus.)

1931		Northern Star (Lismore, NSW) 23 Dec. 9/3: Old fossicker, a Hatter, silly as a wheel, carries a gun, liable to shoot anybody goin’ over for a yarn.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 28: He’s only a boy, and he’s silly as a wheel.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 124: She’s as silly as a wheel, she’s like her mother was.
1965		Sydney Morn. Herald 10 July 14/5: A galah is ‘any human being as silly as a square wheel’.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 166: He’s still a kid really, silly as a wheel.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 159: ‘He really shouldn’t have had a drink. He’d be as silly as a wheel’.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 240: ‘Is it because AM radio executives think women will go as silly as wheels once a month [and] talk about knitting’.

...a whip snake

(Aus.) drunk.

1934

Narromine News (NSW) 26 Oct. 6/1: You know you are as silly as a whip-snake when you get a few under your ‘Jacky Howe’.