What are some of your favorite phrases. Another one of mine is "Gooder n new" As in, I'll fix that item gooder n new. The first time I ever heard this phrase I thought, now that's hilliganese at it's best. Oh, it needs to be said as one word.

 

Are american stereotypical phrases/language accepted ?

Like "Y'all mo**erf***ers better get off my lawn before I call the cops on ya' b**cha*s!" ?

If not I'll go with "that guy stiffed me!".

Is it supposed to have only positive meaning ?

 

Dumber than a box of rocks
That guys a half bubble off plumb
The chances of that are slim to none, and slim's on his horse headed west

 

"Fahgeddaboudit" - it's the NJ version of the island phrase "no worries mahn".

"A few sandwiches short of a picnic" - crazy or off their rocker.

"Shit or get off the pot" - credit to my grandmother for introducing me to this phrase, meaning make a decision and go with it or get out of the way.

 

Looks like I'm gonna need a toilet if I don't manage to sell the watches I've invested in for the past month.

 

This one is somewhat lost in translation into English, my grandparents used something to the effect of “you're like the egg lecturing the chicken” whenever we, when much younger, sometimes behaved like wise-guy-know-it-alls to them.
Another few come from my parents when speaking in English but retaining the Slavic syntax (which tends to be closer to, say, French than English):
- “bridge under the water” (bastardization of water under the bridge, but adds a fun new meaning akin to “the damage is done, cannot be fixed, best move on”)
- “the early worm gets the bird” (bastardization of “the early bird gets the worm”, one lesson of which could be to avoid being the early worm

 

All variants of not being "the brightest bulb":

"Not the fastest moped on the harbour front"
"Not the hardest d**k in the sauna"




...the obscured word in the second example isn't "duck", by the way.

 

One that I enjoy using is, "tougher than a two dollar steak". Someone with a great deal of grit.

 

This is boring: Not my circus, not my monkeys.

 

I always liked "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

 

I have this posted in my office, not really a phrase, but close enough:

If you want it bad, you get it bad.
The worse you want it, the worse you get it.
So, how bad do you want it?

 

"I wouldn't buy spats for a hummingbird from so and so!"

"Dumber than a sand dune."

"He wouldn't know (expletive) from Shinola!"

"I'm not as green as cabbage-looking!"

"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!"

"Some do, some don't, some will, some won't, she might!"

 

For some reason this one reminds me of one of American cinema's finest quotes:

"It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning"

(or, one that's better, "Racing.... it's life; everything that happens before or after... is just waiting")

 

Not the brightest bulb on the Christmas Tree.

 

Go t'foot of our stairs

 

One fry short of a Happy Meal.

 

He's a handle. Not smart enough to be a mop handle or a broom handle. Just a handle.

 

"Customers are like grapes. They come in bunches!"

"The man who owns one watch, knows the time. The man with two watches is never certain!"

"Some people would kick, even if they didn't have legs!"

"Three methods of communication. Telephone, telegraph, tell a woman!"

"The north end of a cow who is heading south!"

"Observe the mistletoe on my coat tails!"

"The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!"

"Time was invented so everything didn't have to happen at once!"

"Once a king, always a king, but once a knight's enough!"

"I drink to steady my nerves. Sometimes I get so steady I can't get myself up off the floor!"

"I use a 3-foot long cigarette holder because my doctor told me to stay away from tobacco!"

"Smart as a sack full of hammers!"

Enough?

 

If you're not first, you're last.

 

...and of course, Yogi is the King of quotable sayings...

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/09/the-50-greatest-yogi-berra-quotes