Macquarie Dictionary

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Classic Aussie Slang: Stunned mullet

Something smells fishy and a little bewildered at Macquarie Dictionary office today. Must be the stunned mullet, a classic piece of Aussie slang from the 1950s that refers to a person who is completely and utterly stunned, amazed, dazed or otherwise stonkered.

During World War I, stunned was a slang term for drunk. Since then, Australia has developed an extensive drinking vocabulary. Other slang words for drunk include legless, plastered, rinsed, rotten and many other terms that have fallen in and out of use over the years.

Want to explore more Aussie slang? Check out our Australian Word Map, where you can search slang terms by region. 

Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.

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