Britishism

Britishism are expressions peculiar to British English. See also List of British English words not used in American English. The word Britishism is an Americanism.

• As much use as a chocolate fireguard (or teapot) - useless.
• BBC English - the version of Received Pronunciation once considered typical of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Today regional dialects are frequently heard on BBC.
• Belisha beacon - pole-mounted lights indicating a zebra crossing (see below)
• Bubble and Squeak - Mashed potato fried with chopped boiled cabbage
• Chips - french fries (British chips are usually cut slightly larger than North American ones)
• Dodgy - Unsafe; suspicious; peculiar; odd.
• Devils on horseback - sausages covered in bacon
• Egg-cosy or cozy - meal-time egg warmer, usually knitted.
• Hit for six - to hit mightily, to trounce (to hit a cricket ball off the field without a bounce, scoring 6)
• Nowt so queer as folk - people are unpredictable.
• Pear-shaped, as in It all went pear-shaped - it all went catastrophically wrong
• Pelican crossing - variety of pedestrian crossing: Acronym for PEdestrian LIght-CoNtrolled crossing
• Swings and roundabouts - gains in one area will equal losses in another (short for "what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts")
• Tea-cosy or cozy - teapot warmer, usually knitted.
• That's not cricket - that's not fair
• Toad-in-the-Hole - sausages baked in batter.
• Yorkshire pudding - A baked savoury batter dish, traditionally served with roast beef.
• Zebra crossing - pedestrian crossing with black and white horizontal lines painted on the road on which pedestrians have the right of way once they have commenced crossing the street.