This week’s Word of the Week is dedicated to your granny. How many times did she catch you with your hand in the biscuit tin? When you made your granny mad she roused on you. In other words she slipped into her thickest brogue and scolded you with a heat hotter than a boiled kettle. Ouch.
There are plenty of other Aussie ways of giving you a good telling off. Pay out and chew out are classic Aussie versions of rouse on, while to chuck off at someone is a now-outdated term that originated in the 1900s.
A good basting isn’t just for your Christmas turkey; it also means to denounce or scold vigorously, while to blow up at someone means to vehemently scold them, as in he blew me up for being late.
So unless you want your granny to blow up, do us a favour and keep your hand out of the biscuit tin.
Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.
