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© Copyright 2002, Jim Loy
Rhyming slang is the most colorful and famous of Cockney slang. An example, if you "take it on the Gunga," then you took it on the chin, because "Gunga" is short for "Gunga Din," which rhymes with "chin." It's not always easy to decipher, which is one reason that people use slang, so some people will not understand them. Here are a few famous examples of rhyming slang (from a couple of sources):
slang full version which means comment Adam and Eve believe almonds almond rocks socks apples and pears stairs April showers flowers ball of chalk walk Barnet Barnet fair hair boat boat race face (little) Bo Peep sleep brassic boracic lint skint (moneyless) brass tacks facts no longer slang brown bread dead butcher's butcher's hook look Cain and Abel table cherry cherry hog (pit) dog chicken chicken perch church china china plate mate cloud seven heaven (happiness) source of cloud nine? cocoa coffee and cocoa say so Daisy Roots boots derby (Derby Kell) Derby Kelly belly Dicky Dirt shirt dog and bone phone dustbin dustbin lid kid elephant elephant's trunk drunk frog frog and toad road gold watch scotch (whiskey) grass grasshopper copper (informant) Gunga Gunga Din chin half inch pinch (steal) Hampstead (Hamp) Hampstead Heath teeth Hobson's Hobson's choice voice hopping hopping pot lot (quota) Jack Jack Jones alone Jack the Ripper kipper Joe Blake steak (or stake) kangaroo Jew knife and fork pork Lord Mayor swear Mickey Mouse house minces mince pies eyes mother's ruin gin north and south mouth old bag hag no longer slang on the floor poor Peckham Peckham rye tie (necktie) pen and ink stink pig's ear beer plates plates of meat feet porky pork pie lie (falsehood) rabbit rabbit and pork talk river Ouse (ooz) booze rose rosebud spud salted salt junk drunk scarper Scapa Flow go (exit) skin and blister sister sky sky rocket sorry sorry and sad bad no longer slang sugar sugar and honey money sweaty sock jock (Scot) taters potatoes in the mould cold tea leaf thief Tom and Dick sick trombone phone trouble and strife wife Uncle Ned bed whistle whistle and flute suit Woolwich ferry sherry
Some of these don't rhyme, even if you're Cockney. There are hundreds more. Quite a bit of slang (not illustrated here) is naturally concerned with insults, obscenities, and bodily functions. Cockney also has a form of slang called backslang. This is where a word is pronounced backward, as in "revif" for "fiver" or "kayrop" for "pork."