Britishism are expressions peculiar to British English. See also List of British English words not used in American English. The word Britishism is an Americanism.

  • As much use as a chocolate fireguard (or teapot) - useless.
  • BBC English - the version of Received Pronunciation once considered typical of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Today regional dialects are frequently heard on BBC.
  • Belisha beacon - pole-mounted lights indicating a zebra crossing (see below)
  • Bubble and Squeak - Mashed potato fried with chopped boiled cabbage
  • Chips - french fries (British chips are usually cut slightly larger than North American ones)
  • Dodgy - Unsafe; suspicious; peculiar; odd.
  • Devils on horseback - sausages covered in bacon
  • Egg-cosy or cozy - meal-time egg warmer, usually knitted.
  • Hit for six - to hit mightily, to trounce (to hit a cricket ball off the field without a bounce, scoring 6)
  • Nowt so queer as folk - people are unpredictable.
  • Pear-shaped, as in It all went pear-shaped - it all went catastrophically wrong
  • Pelican crossing - variety of pedestrian crossing: Acronym for PEdestrian LIght-CoNtrolled crossing
  • Swings and roundabouts - gains in one area will equal losses in another (short for "what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts")
  • Tea-cosy or cozy - teapot warmer, usually knitted.
  • That's not cricket - that's not fair
  • Toad-in-the-Hole - sausages baked in batter.
  • Yorkshire pudding - A baked savoury batter dish, traditionally served with roast beef.
  • Zebra crossing - pedestrian crossing with black and white horizontal lines painted on the road on which pedestrians have the right of way once they have commenced crossing the street.