American Slang
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englishteacher551
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:05 pm
American Slang
Below is a list of some common American slang used on a daily basis:
Bail — Intransitive verb for leaving abruptly.
Feeling blue; have the blues — A feeling of depression or sadness.
A buck — The American dollar.
By the skin of (my/your/his/her) teeth — just barely.
Creep (n.) — An unpleasantly weird/strange person.
Couch Potato — A lazy person who spends the bulk of their time engaged in things that can be done while sitting on a couch.
Cram — To study feverishly before an exam typically done after neglecting to study consistently.
Crash — To abruptly fall asleep, or to show up without invitation.
Down to earth — And adjective for practicality.
Drive up the wall — To irritate.
For Real — A proclamation of honesty.
Going Dutch — When each person, usually in a dating scenario, pays for his/her own meal.
The cold shoulder — A metaphor for deliberately ignoring someone.
Give a ring — To call someone on the telephone.
Hyped (adj.) — A very excited state.
Hang out — To casually gather together or spend time with someone in a social manner.
Jack up — An abrupt increase, typically in the price of something.
Knock — To speak negatively, to disparage, to badmouth.
Lighten up — Advice given to someone who needs to relax and take things less seriously. Typically stated as an appeal to someone who is acting uptight.
Pass the buck — To put responsibility onto someone else.
Piece of cake — A metaphor to describe something that is easy or effortless.
Pig out — A metaphor for binge eating.
Plead the fifth — References the fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allows a witness in court to refuse questions on the grounds that they risk self-incrimination.
Screw up — To make a mistake, i.e. mess up.
Sweet — An adjective that describes something that is good, or nice.
Tight — An adjective that describes closeness between competitors, i.e. a tight competition.
Trash — Can be used as an intransitive verb for destruction. e.g. “He trashed the car.”
Uptight — Stuffy, persnickety, the opposite of relaxed.
Wrap (something) up — To finish or complete something.
Zonked — Completely exhausted.
Other somewhat commonly used slang:
Jonesing — To want, crave, or desire something intensely
Take a raincheck — Commonly used as a metaphor for postponing or rescheduling a meeting between people to some later date that is more convenient.
Spill the Beans — An American idiom for divulging secret information.
Shoot the breeze — An idiomatic phrase for killing time with idle chit-chat
John Hancock — A person’s signature
Ride Shotgun — The person who rode in the seat next to a driver whose job was to fend off any would-be bandits with a shotgun (coming from the American Wild West).
Bail — Intransitive verb for leaving abruptly.
Feeling blue; have the blues — A feeling of depression or sadness.
A buck — The American dollar.
By the skin of (my/your/his/her) teeth — just barely.
Creep (n.) — An unpleasantly weird/strange person.
Couch Potato — A lazy person who spends the bulk of their time engaged in things that can be done while sitting on a couch.
Cram — To study feverishly before an exam typically done after neglecting to study consistently.
Crash — To abruptly fall asleep, or to show up without invitation.
Down to earth — And adjective for practicality.
Drive up the wall — To irritate.
For Real — A proclamation of honesty.
Going Dutch — When each person, usually in a dating scenario, pays for his/her own meal.
The cold shoulder — A metaphor for deliberately ignoring someone.
Give a ring — To call someone on the telephone.
Hyped (adj.) — A very excited state.
Hang out — To casually gather together or spend time with someone in a social manner.
Jack up — An abrupt increase, typically in the price of something.
Knock — To speak negatively, to disparage, to badmouth.
Lighten up — Advice given to someone who needs to relax and take things less seriously. Typically stated as an appeal to someone who is acting uptight.
Pass the buck — To put responsibility onto someone else.
Piece of cake — A metaphor to describe something that is easy or effortless.
Pig out — A metaphor for binge eating.
Plead the fifth — References the fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allows a witness in court to refuse questions on the grounds that they risk self-incrimination.
Screw up — To make a mistake, i.e. mess up.
Sweet — An adjective that describes something that is good, or nice.
Tight — An adjective that describes closeness between competitors, i.e. a tight competition.
Trash — Can be used as an intransitive verb for destruction. e.g. “He trashed the car.”
Uptight — Stuffy, persnickety, the opposite of relaxed.
Wrap (something) up — To finish or complete something.
Zonked — Completely exhausted.
Other somewhat commonly used slang:
Jonesing — To want, crave, or desire something intensely
Take a raincheck — Commonly used as a metaphor for postponing or rescheduling a meeting between people to some later date that is more convenient.
Spill the Beans — An American idiom for divulging secret information.
Shoot the breeze — An idiomatic phrase for killing time with idle chit-chat
John Hancock — A person’s signature
Ride Shotgun — The person who rode in the seat next to a driver whose job was to fend off any would-be bandits with a shotgun (coming from the American Wild West).