1920s Slang — The Jazz Age
The bee’s knees, the cat’s pajamas, giggle water — flapper-era and Prohibition slang from the speakeasies and dance halls of the Roaring Twenties.
36 words
A fiery, spirited young woman with attitude and energy to spare.
Nonsense, lies, or foolish talk, the meaty cousin of 'applesauce.'
An illegal Prohibition bar, where the 'juice' flowed despite the law.
Everything's fine and in order, a smooth, satisfying word whose origin nobody can fully prove.
Completely wrong or mistaken, the 1920s way to say you've got it backwards.
Prohibition-era nickname for liquor, named for the loose, laughing mood it brought on.
Flapper brush-off meaning no more kissing or canoodling tonight, fella.
A beat-up, rattletrap old automobile held together by hope and tape.
Top-shelf praise of the Jazz Age, the best of the best, right up there with the cat's meow.
Delightful, darling, or just dandy, a sweet word of approval from the flapper set.
A hidden illegal bar of the Prohibition era where you spoke easy to get in.
Excellent, first-rate, or wonderful, a go-to word of approval in the jazz age.
A flapper's flirty question: do you want to kiss me now or later?
Honest, fair, and on the up-and-up, no tricks, no double-dealing.
Your finest party clothes, the beaded, fringed, dressed-to-kill outfit you saved for a night out.
A flapper-era dandy, the smooth, idle ladies' man who lived for parties and easy charm.
America's affectionate nickname for the Ford Model T, the car that put the nation on wheels.
The back seat of a courting couple's car, where a flapper had to 'struggle' to keep things proper.
Flapper slang for plastered, all buzz and no balance.
To pine for someone who doesn't love you back, your flame still burning alone.
A rude raspberry blown to show contempt, named for New York's loudest borough of hecklers.
The gold standard of Twenties praise, the most stylish, splendid thing going.
The boss, the head honcho, the most important person in the room.
Roaring Twenties praise for the absolute best thing or person around.
A Prohibition speakeasy dressed up as a sideshow, you paid to see the 'tiger' and got a drink free.
Jazz-age slang for the coolest, classiest, most wonderful thing going.
Roaring Twenties for blind drunk, one of dozens of comic synonyms born under Prohibition.
A 1920s cry of 'nonsense!' since horses have no feathers in the first place.
Jazz Age for nonsense and slick flattery, popularized by a hit comic strip.
Flapper-era way to call something nonsense, like saying 'baloney' or 'bunk.'
A Jazz Age layabout, a young man who slept all day and dodged work, the original slacker.
Cheap bootleg liquor, the rough stuff that flowed through Prohibition speakeasies.
Twenties slang for so drunk you've gone stiff as bone.
Jazz Age for just right, pleasing, or pleasingly attractive, everything's swell.
A glamorous, alluring young woman of the jazz age, the female counterpart to a sheik.
A smooth, romantic young ladies' man of the 1920s, named after Valentino.