‘May
yer giving han’ never fail!’
‘Her
house?! I wasn’t even axed had I a mouth
on me!’
‘Now
Biddy, ye always had eyes bigger nor yer belly!’
‘Aye! I’ll ate anythin’ that doesn’t talk back to
me!’
‘Thon
boy? He luks like a fella that had his
fill tae ate, and his time ta’ take it!’
‘True! Ye cud crack a flea on he’s belly’. (tight as a drum, you see!)
‘None
of yer aul buck now!’
‘What
a do!?! We had lashings and
lavings. I’m not fit to stir!’’
‘It’s
manners to wait till you’re axed!’ (asked)
‘If
you believe all you hear, you’ll ate all you see!’
‘A
watched pot never boils.’
‘Aye,
skinny melink, is it? He’s seen more
dinnertimes than dinners.’
‘If
it doesn’t fatten, it’ll fill’. (of a
light ‘feed’).
‘Time
for bed, said Sleepy-Head:
‘Time
enough! Said Slow:
‘Put
on the pot!’ says greedy-guts
We’ll
ate before we go!’
Of Ghosts and the like:
‘She’s
no right woman!’ (supernatural being?)
He’d
wrestle a ghost for a ha’penny (mean)
As
pale as a ghost
‘Have
ye no nearer friends to appear till nor me?’
..asked
of one seldom seen, and thus assumed dead and gone!
That
hoor’s ghost!’ Deprecatory remark!
‘He
could sell scares till a ghost’.
Ghosts? I never seen anything worse than myself, not
missing it!’
..
the final phrase meaning, ‘and I’m the better for it.’
‘Don’t
you come down that ladder ..
for
I’m after taking it away!’
‘Wait
till I be after telling you ..’ [totally
meaningless remark!]
Finally,
a few more street rhymes .. expressions ..
‘How
far would ye be if I hadn’t stopped ye?’ Rhetorical question, of course!
‘Further
away from the fool!’
‘Little
amuses the innocent: far less, the fool!’
..
he’s more knave than fool .. ah, give him a fool’s pardon .. on a fool’s
errand.