Western Slang, Lingo, and Phrases – A Writer’s Guide to the Old West – Page 15

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Begins with “U”

Ugly as a Mud Fence – Used to describe someone who was very ugly.

Uncorkin’ a Bronc – Breaking a horse.

Unmentionables – Underwear.

Unsalted – Fresh, green, young, inexperienced.

Unshucked – Cowboy talk for naked. An unshucked gun is one that’s out of the holster.

Unwound – A horse bucking.

Up a Tree, Treed – In difficulty, cornered, unable to do anything.

Uppish – Proud, insolent.

Upper Story – The brain, the head. “He’s not right in his upper story.”

This farm was left to go “up the spout” after the dust bowl days. Image from 1938 near Dalhart, Texas.

Up the Spout – Gone to waste or ruin.

Up Stakes – To depart in a hurry. Same as “cut stick.”

Up To The Hub – To the extreme point.

Up To Snuff – To be flash, to be shrewd.

Up the Spout – Imprisoned.

Up To Trap – Knowing, shrewd.

Begins with “V”

Valley Tan – A kind of liquor sold in Mormon Country.

Vamoose – To disappear or leave quickly.

Vaulting House – Brothel.

Velvet Couch – A cowboy’s bedroll.

Vamos – A Spanish word signifying let us go.

Varmint – A corrupt pronunciation of the word vermin.

Vission Quest – An attempt to achieve a vision of a future guardian spirit, traditionally undertaken at puberty by boys of the Plains Indian peoples, typically through fasting or self-torture.

Vum – A form of swearing. “I vum!” similary to “I vow!”

Begins with “W”

Wabble – Make free use of one’s tongue, to be a ready speaker.

Waddy – One of the words for cowboy, especially a cowboy who drifted from ranch to ranch and helped out in busy times.

Wag-tail – A prostitute.

Wait On – To court.

Wake Snakes – To raise a ruckus.

Wake up/Woke up the Wrong Passenger – To trouble or anger the wrong person.

Walk The Chalk – Walk straight.

Wall – Roll your eyes.

Wamble-Cropped – Sick at the stomach, and figuratively, wretched, humiliated.

Wampum – In the Massachusetts Indian language, this word means white, or the color of shells.

Wap – To throw quickly, to flap

War Bag – Cowboys traveled light, and stored their meager worldly possessions in his “war bag”. Inside was generally everything he owned, typically an extra set of clothes, extra ammunition, spare parts for equipment, playing cards, bill of sale for his horse, and maybe a harmonica or a few precious letters. Also called a “war sack” and a “yannigan bag.”

War Bonnet – Hat.

Washy – Weak, not firm or hardy.

Wasp Nest – Light bread.

Wattles – Ears.

Wax – In a rage.

Way-Bill – A list of the passengers in a stage-coach, railroad car, steamboat, or other public conveyance.

Wearing the Bustle Wrong – Referring to a pregnant woman.

Weather-Breeder – A cloudless sky, after a succession of rainy weather, denotes rain, and is said to be a weather breeder.

Tobacco was often referred to as “weed.”

Weed – A common term for tobacco.

Well To Live – To be in easy circumstances, to live comfortably.

Whack – To share.

Whacker – Anything very large, same as a “whopper.”

Whale Away – To preach, talk or lecture continuously or vehemently.

Whang – Sinews of the buffalo or another animal, or small strips of thin deer-skin, used by the dwellers and hunters of the prairies for sewing.

Whaling – A lashing, a beating.

Whaler – A big, strapping fellow.

Whap – A quick and smart stroke.

Whapper or Whopper – Anything uncommonly large, as, ‘That’s a whopper,’ meaning a monstrous lie.

Whapping – Very large.

What in the Tarnation – A polite way of saying “What the hell?”

To Wheal – To swell.

Wheel-Horse – An intimate friend, one’s right hand man.

Whelk – An old name for a pustule, a pimple. The word is not much used in America.

Whelky – Protuberant, rounded.

Whim-Wham – A toy, a freak, a strange fancy.

Whip-belly – Bad beer.

Whistle Berries – Beans.

White Eye – Maize whiskey.

White-Eyed – Exhausted.

White Liner – An alcoholic.

White Tape, White Wine – Gin

Whitewash – To gloss over or hide one’s faults or shortcomings.

Whittled – Drunk

Who-Hit-John – Liquor, beer, intoxicating spirits. “He had a little too much who-hit-John.”

Whole Hog – All the way, all of it. “Go the whole hog!”

Whole Kit and Caboodle – The entire thing.

Whomper-jawed – Uneven.

Whoremonger – A man who frequents prostitutes.

Whuppin‘ – Spanking.

Wicket – A place of shelter, or camp made of the boughs of trees.

Widow – The gallows.

Widow Maker – A very bad or “outlaw” horse.

Wigging – A rebuke.

Wild Mare’s Milk – Whiskey.

Wild West Weekly – Pulp or “dime” novels.

Windies – Tall Tales.

Winsome – Lively, cheerful, gay.

Wipe Your Chin – Be quiet.

Wolfer – A man with a large appetite or a hard drinker.

Wolfish – Savage, savagely hungry.

Wood – Saddle.

Wooding-Place – A station on the banks of a river where the steamboats stop to take in supplies of wood.

Woolies – Sheep

Woolsey – A cheap hat, usually made of wool.

Worm-Fence – A rail fence laid up in a zig-zag manner.

Worse Than a Cat in a Roomful of Rockers – Someone who is really nervous.

Wrathy – Very angry.

Wrapper – A loose dress or gown.

Wrinkle – Whim, fancy, a cunning trick or artful dodge.

Wrinkled His Spine – A horse bucking.

Begins with “X”

Begins with “Y”

Old West Greetings Postcard at Legends’ General Store

Yack – A stupid person.

Yam – To eat.

Yammerin’ – Talking. “Drink yer coffee an’ quit yer yammerin’.”

Yannigan Bag – A bag in which the cowboy carried personal items, also known as a “war bag.”

Yarn – A story.

Yeath – For earth.

Yegg (or John Yegg) – Bandit chief

Yellow Belly – A coward.

Yellow Hammer – Gold coin.

Yellows – Often pronounced yallers. A disease of horses and cattle, which is indicated by a yellow appearance of the eyes, inside of the lips, etc.

Yer – You

Yere – Here

Yourn – A form of ‘yours’, as in “This un’s mine, that un’s yourn.”