Glossary: “Dyin’s Easy”

British Slang, Circa 1939.

Snap — Picture
Kit — A soldier’s equipment
Bags/Goolies — Balls
Humping tackle — Cock and balls
Manky — Rotten
Mother — The Queen
Browned off — Killed
Welsh fiddle — The itch
Abigail’s — Women
Bouncers — A woman’s breasts

Cloth—headed — Hungover
The Beano — Comic strip
Welsh rabbit — Bread and cheese
Doss house — Whore house
Barney — Fight
Have a piss — Goodbye/Piss—off
Sod on/off — Carry on/Get lost
Give us a tic — Give us a second
Jollop — Sticky situation
Cat—Lick — Catholic

Staff weens — Desk sods
Mahogany Spitfires — Staff desks
Yen — Craving
Fizzer — Disciplinary charge
Gormless — Worthless/Stupid
Nickers — Woman’s underwear
Bumf/Bollocks — Bull shit
Flap wagon — Ambulance
Cobber — Mate
Under the Rose — Operating in secret