Ever been on an airplane when an infant spits the dummy? This Australian slang expression, meaning to throw a fit, comes from the Aussies use of the word dummy to mean pacifier or binky.
A relative recent phrase, having joined the Aussie lexicon in the 1980s, to spit the dummy means to throw a tantrum. Aussie slang features plenty of colourful ways of saying someone is throwing a tantrum or losing their temper.
spit the dummy Definitions and Synonyms
phraseAustralianinformal. DEFINITIONS1. to behave in a childish or unreasonable manner. Synonyms and related words. To be, or to become crazy or stupid.
to behave in a bad-tempered and childish way. He spat out the dummy when his wife said that she wanted to go on holiday without him. Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary.
A "dummy" in Australia is what Americans call a "pacifier": To "spit the dummy" is a colourful expression that invokes an image of a baby getting so upset that it has to spit out its dummy/pacifier so it can cry and howl loud enough to get everybody's attention.
The exact origin of the name “pacifier” is unclear, but it may have come from the first baby comforters, which were sold in the U.S. as “pacifiers.” In Canada and Britain, pacifiers are also commonly called “dummies.” This may have originated from an article published in 1915 in The British Journal of Nursing ...
If you're feeling unwell, you could say you are crook. If someone is angry, you could say they've 'gone crook'.
Spit Junction and The Spit - named after the tip of the peninsula jutting into Middle Harbour. It was known to the Aborigines as Parriwi, a name which is recalled in Parriwi Road and Parriwi Park. Very little development took place until 1902 when the area was subdivided.
plural dummies. Synonyms of dummy. dated, offensive : a person who is incapable of speaking. : a person who is habitually silent. : a stupid person.
You can tap the dummy gently when it's in your baby's mouth to encourage sucking. When your baby is sucking you can gently pull on it to encourage them to suck harder.
Aussie Word of the Week
Chuck means, among other things, to vomit, as in he chucked up on my carpet! Lovely. Thankfully chuck also has some less gross meanings. In Australia certain things are chucked rather than 'done' or 'taken'.
PS: Binky – a spontaneous, ecstatic jump for joy, performing by rabbits.
Servo = Service or Gas Station
“I need to fill up at the servo” A servo is a service or gas station, as in, a place where you fill up your car with petrol.
Contributor's comments: The word "bubs" was short for "babies".
For example, in the United Kingdom, pacifiers are referred to as “dummies.” In Australia and New Zealand, they are called “soothers.” In Germany and Austria, they say “Schnuller.” In France, they are called “sucettes.” And lastly, in Spain and Latin America, they are called “chupetes.”
When can dummies be used for babies? Research suggests that it's best to avoid dummies in the first weeks after birth. That's because they're associated with shorter duration of exclusive breastfeeding (Adair, 2003; Kronborg and Vaeth, 2009).
slang a stupid person; fool.
Pacifiers have many different informal names: binky or wookie (American English), dummy (Australian English and British English), piece, paci, bo-bo, nookie, teething ring, device, sugar tit, teether, comforter, soother (Canadian English and Hiberno-English), and Dodie (Hiberno-English).
noun. plural dummies. Britannica Dictionary definition of DUMMY. 1. [count] chiefly US, informal : a stupid person.
A spit-take is a comedic technique or reaction in which someone spits a drink, or sometimes food, out of their mouth as a reaction to a surprising or funny statement. An essential part of the spit-take is comedic timing.
Spurn Head, low-lying sand and shingle spit on the North Sea coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire unitary authority, Eng. It projects for 4 miles (6.5 km) south across the mouth of the Humber Estuary, itself a major North Sea inlet.
It is connected to the mainland at one end. A spit thus has two ends. The end jutting out onto the water is called the distal end, and the one attached to land is called the proximal end.
In 2002, Michelle Griffin discussed the fact that "bogan" is no longer just being used as an insult, but is in fact a way to identify with the "Aussie" culture that many Anglo‐Saxon Australian citizens are proud of. In the past, bogan was a term of disdain, but nowadays it has become "cool" to be a bogan.
Chook comes from British dialect chuck(y) 'a chicken; a fowl' which is a variant of chick. Chook is the common term for the live bird, although chook raffles, held in Australian clubs and pubs, have ready-to-cook chooks as prizes.
"Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi" is a cheer or chant often performed at Australian sport events.