like a..., phr. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

like a... phr.

a variety of similes, all of which are fig./joc. uses of SE or sl.

1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 71: They’ve got them are wheels going now like a buz.
1837		‘Nights At Sea’ Bentley’s Misc. June 625: There I was a-capering ashore, and jumping about like a ring-tail monkey over a banana.
1877		E.L. Wheeler Deadwood Dick in Beadle’s Half Dime Library I:1 85: ‘It’s that scarlet chap, Frank Fearless!’ he announced, hopping about like a pig on a hot griddle.
1894		G.F. Northall Folk-Phrases of Four Counties 19: Like a frog in a fit. Said of one tipsey.
1947		R. Goffin Horn of Plenty 255: ‘Oh boy,’ wailed Zutty. ‘Ah’m tired like a million.’.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 38: Th’ Israelites are beltin’ across like men with ten legs.
1968		(con. WWII) D. Westheimer Song of the Young Sentry (1969) 20: It goes down like razor blades and horseshit!
1969		L. Hadow Full Cycle 139: If there’s any blue this time, I’m heading north like a go up a tree. They can stick this joint.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 17: ‘Enjoying yourself?’ ‘Like a flea in a honeymooner’s bed.’.
1978		S. Longstreet Straw Boss (1979) 318: We’ll be for yo like a nigrah for a watermelon.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 152: I know the horrors like a nigger knows the blues.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 146: Glenys and me are getting along like peaches and cream.
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 142: Don’t hang around here like a lost fart in a thunderstorm.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 7: like a big dog – with great effort and intensity: I was running like a big dog to catch my bus. Like crazed weasels – in frantic activity: They were partying like crazed weasels.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 127: like a daisy in a bull’s mouth Tasty morsel [...] like a dog golloping tripe Noisy sexual activity. [...] like a dog lying on a bag of nails Unhappy. [...] like a hawk in an onion sack Very uncomfortable. [...] like a maggot on a hot plate Fidgety.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] Like a long-tailed cat in a room full of socking chairs, I was pretty nervous.

In phrases

like a...

see also under relevant n.

like a beer bottle on the Coliseum

(Aus.) conspicuous.

1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1040/1: dating from [...] 1945.
2002		J. Van Eekert weblog 🌐 I’m a pretzel logicus a crazy diamond, wonder of wonders, a bird of like rarest spun heavenmetal, ... Brilliance has been defined – the supreme realist ... too real for real life ... too good for goodies ... like a beer bottle on the Coliseum.

like a cattledog in a sausage shop

(Aus.) indicative of overwhelming pleasure/satisfaction.

1996

J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 134: ‘Better get into the kick again Oscar,’ said Uncle Ern with that little grin he used to flash like a cattledog in a sausage shop.

like a cock-maggot in a sinkhole

very angry, infuriated.

1902

H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

like a dog on chips

very fast.

2014

T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] She’ll be on us like a dog on chips.

like a gravedigger

extremely busy.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Grave Digger. like a Grave digger up to his Arse in Business, & dont know which way to turn.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Like a grave digger; up to the a-se in business, and don’t know which way to turn.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

like a hen on a hot griddle

see under hot adj.

like a lily on a dustbin (also like a lily on a dirt tin)(Aus.)

utterly incongruous or inappropriate.

1982

N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 14: One woman says to look like a lily on a dustbin (or garbage or dirt bin) is to dress inappropriately for an occasion and/or to wear over-fussy, frilly clothes. [...] Another uses it for a variety of incongruous matters: an informal or poor family meal table might have newspaper instead of a cloth and cracked and battered utensils, and one pretty milk jug stands in the centre of it like a lily on a dustbin.

like a lord’s bastard

in great luxury, usu. fig.

1958

(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 283: Smoking like lord’s bastards.

like a midget in a urinal [play on ‘on your toes’]

(Aus.) alert, aware.

2015

N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] ‘YOU GOTTA BE LIKE A MIDGET IN A URINAL - YOU GOTTA BE ON YOUR TOES’.

like a nigger girl’s left tit [alt. versions, varying as to chronology, substitute the name of a contemporaneously celebrated black woman]

(orig. US) used of something that, punningly, is ‘neither right nor fair’.

1986–7

Maledicta IX 195: This article and series devoted to sexual slang would be incomplete without some notice of catch phrases, both British and American: […] like a nigger girl’s left tit (neither right nor fair).

like a pakapoo ticket (also like a packapoo ticket, (like a) pack of poo tickets) [Chinese pidgin pak-ah-pu ticket, a form of betting slip used by Chinese gamblers; properly known as pai-ke-p’iao, it was a small square of paper marked with 80 Chinese characters; the gambler chose some of these, usu. ten, and, depending on how many matched that day’s winning combination, would make a small profit for their sixpenny stake]

1. (Aus.) said of anything untidy, complex, incomprehensible.

[1948		‘Big Mattie from New London’ 🎵 Me win Peaka Peow de odder day].
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 78: ‘What a pay-book,’ he sighed. Dooley grinned. ‘Like a pak-a-poo ticket,’ he agreed.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 86: You wouldn’t have a clue where to start once you got a pen in your hand – your paper ’d be marked like a pakapoo ticket!
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 81/2: pakapoo ticket, look / marked like a something confusing or incomprehensible; from Chinese lottery ticket with its (to Europeans) incomprehensible markings. Housie-type game played in illegal gambling and opium dens such as those in Haining Street, Wellington; eg ‘This ruddy exam’s marked like a pakapoo ticket!’.
1993		Aus. Word Map 🌐 pack of poo tickets a mess; something in a state of chaos; randomly thrown together: This room is a pack of poo tickets.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 145: Other games typically enjoyed by gamblers included pak-a-pu or Chinese lottery, a very similar game to modern lotto-type gambling with the odds stacked just as highly against the punter. This game has also left its traces in Lingo where sayings include to go up like a packapoo ticket (inflammable) and to be marked like a packapoo ticket (difficult or impossible to understand).
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

2. (Aus.) of the skin, irregularly marked.

1945

Sporting Globe (Melbourne) 28 Nov. 16/1: By the start of the seventh round Narva’s face looked like a pak-a-poo ticket, with blotches everywhere.

like a rope-dancer’s pole (with) lead at both ends

a phr. used of a person considered very stupid and slow.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Pole. He is like a Ropedancer’s Pole, Lead at both ends; saying of a stupid & Sluggish fellow.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

like a shag on a rock [SE shag, a cormorant]

(Aus.) conspicuous; also various phrs. denoting solitariness, e.g. lonely/miserable as a shag on a rock.

1952		T.A.G. Hungerford Ridge and River (1966) 4: I’m getting tired of standing here like a shag on a rock – so’re the others.
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 208: Couldn’ handle the work after you shot through an’ left me like a shag on a rack.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 195: Why did yer have to shoot through, an’ leave me there like a shag on a rock?
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 98/1: shag in phr. like a shag on a rock alone, abandoned, forlorn.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 177: He lacked tactics and strategies, and was betrayed and left like a shag on a rock by many of his so-called close personal friends.
2002		S. Maloney Something Fishy (2006) 167: No man is an island [...] but I certainly felt like one [...] I was a shag on a rock.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 135: miserable as a shag on a rock Forlorn or depressed. ANZ.
2018		R. O’Neill ‘Ocker’ in The Drover’s Wives (2019) 181: [S]he felt like a shag on a rock when some dodgy bloke came [...] looking for tucker.

like a wet week

(Aus.) looking depressed; usu. as have a face like a wet week, look like a wet week.

1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 283: What’s up, Deb? [...] Got a face on you like a wet week.
1952		B. Pym Excellent Women (1994) 311: ‘Hullo! You look like a wet week at Blackpool,’ Sister Blatt’s jolly voice boomed out.
1966		P. Boyle At Night All Cats Are Grey 108: Mooching around from Billy to Jack with a neb on her like a wet week.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 91: A gloomy person has got a face ‘like a wet week’.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 27: LES: Woss er problem? Got a face like a wet week.
1992		R. Park Fence Around the Cuckoo 265: That’s why he’s looking like a wet week.

like a winter’s day – short and dirty

a pej. description for an unpopular person.

1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.