Old Drumble
Page 15
mooch To wander or stroll.
mosey A look around.
nag Horse.
nick Run or take a shortcut.
nicker A pound in the old money.
nineteen to the dozen Talking very fast without stopping.
not on your Nelly Rhyming slang: Not on your Nelly Duff = puff = life. So it means “Not on your life!” or “Not likely!”
nut case A mad person.
on the swag Carrying a swag, that is being a swagger—on the road.
out the monk Asleep, drunk, or unconscious.
over the moon Excited.
pagan Non-Christian.
Phar Lap A famous racehorse which was born in New Zealand, won lots of races including the Melbourne Cup in Australia, and died—perhaps of poison—in the U.S.A. You can see his stuffed hide in the Melbourne museum, or his skeleton in Wellington museum.
perked up Cheered up.
pie funnel A china support for a piecrust during cooking. It usually has a hole for letting out steam.
Pied Piper If you don’t know it, ask your teacher to read you “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” a poem by Robert Browning.
pikau A big sack sewn up at both ends, split open across the middle of one side, and thrown over a horse’s back to make a large bag either side. Also the usual name for a sugarbag used as a backpack. Pikau is a Maori word meaning to carry on the back, to piggyback somebody.
piss Alcohol, usually beer.
pisshead A drunkard.
plastered Drunk.
Plymouth An American car.
Plymouth Brethren A Christian religious movement.
point the finger To accuse somebody.
pointers The two bright stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri, which seem to point to the Southern Cross, and to move around it.
pooks Pukekos.
poorman’s orange Grapefruit.
possie A safe place of your own, a favourite spot, sometimes a hiding place.
poultice Something soft and hot that is bandaged on to a wound or sore to relieve pain and stop infection. People said a hot poultice would “draw” a boil.
province A region of New Zealand, for example, the Waikato Province.
pub-crawl Having a drink in every pub in a street or town.
puku Belly.
punt A flat-bottomed, shallow, square-ended boat, usually poled rather than rowed.
push A bunch or gang of people.
quack Doctor.
quid One pound in old money.
rampage To behave violently, out of control.
raupo A tall New Zealand swamp plant, a bulrush.
Rawleighs Man A travelling salesman for the Rawleighs Company, selling many household and medical items to people who couldn’t get to town.
rheumatism What we now call arthritis.
Rhode Island Red A breed of hen.
ringbark To chop a ring of bark from around a tree, killing it.
rubbing strake A length of timber to protect the side of a boat from rubbing against a wharf.
run-in Trouble, an argument.
saddle-tweed A thick woollen material used for men’s trousers. They were warm and hard-wearing.
saleyards Wooden-fenced yards where stock are sold.
sand-shoes Cheap canvas shoes like sneakers, worn by many people without jobs during the 1920s and 1930s.
scow Flat-bottomed sailing ship common on the New Zealand coast up to about the Second World War.
School Journal A reader or magazine in New Zealand schools.
schooner A very tall beer glass that holds a lot.
setting A number of eggs set under a clucky hen for hatching.
shambles A mess.
shelter-belt A row of trees for breaking the wind.
shy off Avoid doing something.
skedaddled Ran off.
skewer To pierce something; to look sharply at somebody.
skinful Enough to make somebody drunk.
skittle Knock over.
skulduggery Dishonest trick.
sleepers Heavy hardwood beams that railway lines used to be laid upon. Nowadays, they’re often concrete.
Soldiers’ Settlement A district of farms settled by returned soldiers after the Great War.
sool To set a dog on to somebody.
spab Sparrow.
spalpeen A boy.
sprag A sharp piece of wire.
Stan Goosman The owner of a large fleet of trucks. He became a member of parliament, Minister of Railways and Public Works, and was knighted.
steer Castrated bull.
stock route A road or track for driving stock. Stock routes used to take mobs of sheep and cattle around the backs of towns and settlements, where they had the right of way over vehicles.
stone-bruise Children went bare-foot, without shoes on the metalled roads, and got bruises which sometimes became infected and had to have poultices put on them, or be lanced.
strainer post A heavy, stayed fence post that takes the strain of the wires, especially at the corner or the end of a fence.
“Strike a light!” Like saying, “Heck!” or “Gee!”
strong-eye A dog, usually a border collie, that can hold sheep with its eye, and control them.
struck, to strike To grow a plant cutting to the stage where it has roots.
stud A little metal device that went through buttonholes and kept your separate collar attached to its shirt.
suet pudding A scrumptious boiled pudding made from flour and white kidney fat.
sugarbag A bag of fine sacking holding 70 pounds or about 32 kilograms of sugar.
swaggers Men without work, carrying their swags and walking the roads.
swing the billy Hang the billy over the fire to make a brew of tea.
taihoa Hold on, take it easy.
tank Most people used to catch the rain off roofs in tanks, for cooking, washing, and drinking.
tankstand The wooden frame that a tank stood upon. It was often enclosed to make a shed.
taradiddle Nonsense.
tatie A potato.
tenner Ten pounds in old money.
Tom Sawyer The boy in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. It’s a marvellous book! Tell your teacher I said she had to read it to you.
tomahawk A small, short-handled axe.
totara A big New Zealand tree. Its red wood was used for piles, the short posts that houses stood upon, because it didn’t rot in the ground.
trap Mouth.
Tuppenny A nickname made from tuppence or two pence (pennies) in our old money.
umpteen Lots.
vicar The minister of the local Anglican church.
Waikato Times A Hamilton newspaper.
wash-house An earlier name for a bathroom, usually one that had a bath and hand basin, as well as a copper and tubs for doing the washing.
wax matches Wax matches were easier to light, harder to blow out, and were thought to cause fires, so we stopped making them many years ago.
Weekly News, The Auckland Weekly A magazine very popular throughout New Zealand for its local news and its photographs. It was often used as wallpaper.
wet fly A trout hook made to look like a sunken fly, and usually cast or fished downstream.
whopper A big lie.
works The freezing works where sheep and cattle are killed and their meat frozen.
windy Scared.
yahoos Louts, hooligans.
year dot, the A long time ago.
About the Author
Jack Lasenby lives and works in Wellington, spinning yarns and telling tales to delight children of all ages. He grew up in Waharoa, and watched drovers and their dogs, so he knows what he’s talking about.
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Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in 2008
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublisher
s (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1, Auckland
Copyright © Jack Lasenby 2008
Jack Lasenby asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Lasenby, Jack.
Old Drumble / Jack Lasenby.
ISBN 978 1 8695 0674 2 (pbk.)
ISBN 978 0 7304 0128 5 (ePub)
[1. Farm life—Fiction. 2. Livestock—Fiction. 3. Waharoa (N.Z.)—Fiction.]
I. Title.
NZ823.3—dc 22
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