Image: Pixabay by chrissharkman
About This Quiz
The world of truckers and CB radio came into the public eye in the 1970s and has been a fascinating sort of subculture ever since. The language they use is funny and weird to outsiders, but is it that different from any other niche group that has their own lingo? Everyone from hockey players to scientists to tech geeks has their own specialized slang that sounds like gibberish to people on the outside, so why not truckers? It just so happens that truckers do it over the radio, and they really double down on the code names for some of the most colorful conversations you'll ever hear. It makes sense when you think about it. Wouldn't you want to make every conversation a little more interesting if you were alone in a truck for hours at a time driving across the country?
If you're the kind of person who knows what we mean when we talk about a County Mount and how that's different from a Kojak with a Kodak or an angry kangaroo from a dragon wagon, then this is definitely the quiz for you. So why not settle into that beaded seat cover and tune up your CB handle and take the quiz!
Skidding into the woods
Paying a ticket
Feeding the bears is a cute way to refer to paying a fine or a ticket. The bears are police, so when a cop pulls you over and gives you a ticket, you're feeding them when you get around to paying it off.
Losing cargo off the back of the truck
Missing your exit
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Is anyone listening?
Even though CB radio seems like a bit of a zoo at times, there are still some etiquette and rules involved. When you want to speak to someone, you don't just start blabbing on a channel; you can ask if anyone is listening by asking if they have their ears on. You can also just say "break channel."
Is this a private channel?
Is the volume too loud?
Can you quiet down for a minute?
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Your CB nickname
Handle is another ubiquitous term that has evolved beyond CB usage ad turns up on places like Twitter. Your handle is your codename, the cool name you thought up for yourself. The term dates back to the 1870s when you'd add a handle like "sir" to your name in the way you'd add a handle to an axe. Just a little something extra.
What kind of truck you're driving
What kind of radio you use
Your destination
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A residential street
A country road
A dirt road
The slow lane
On most highways, the left lane is the fast lane, and the right lane is the slow lane. People pass on the left, and the right is where, no offense to all the grandmothers out there, the grannies do their driving.
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You're going to take back roads.
You're switching to an unused channel.
You'll see them on the return trip.
Backslide is a term that refers to the return leg of a trip. It's kind of a curious term to use since, in every other context, a backslide is a bad thing. It's used to refer to relapsing into bad behavior and, in a religious context, to forgetting faith and backsliding into sin.
You'll meet up at a diner.
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An ambulance was going by.
Any driver knows to pull over when a meat wagon is on the way, but it's just that we don't all call them meat wagons. Meat wagon is a bit of an insensitive slang term for an ambulance. When the sirens are on, you should pull over and let them pass.
They stopped at a food truck for lunch.
A cop pulled them over.
They need to check a lot of food in the back.
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Unmarked police cars
Fog
Ground clouds are what you call an accumulation of fog thick enough to be noteworthy. Truckers tend to look out for each other and can quickly communicate issues like weather with poor visibility to others who might be coming down the road.
Potholes
Broken glass
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A curve in the road
You may have heard the term "hairpin turn" before, and that's what we're talking about here. It's a sharp curve in the road, and it's dangerous to take at high speeds, especially if you're driving a huge truck that could risk flipping over.
A diner
A flatbed
A CB antenna
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Traveling across five states and back
Doing two jobs at once
Driving double time
Driving 55 miles per hour
When you're doing a double nickel, you're driving at 55 miles per hour. In 1974, the federal government passed a law that mandated the maximum speed on any interstate to be 55 miles per hour in response to the 1973 oil embargo. That's changed since, but for a time, everyone was doing double nickles.
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Phoenix, Arizona
The Sticker Patch is a nickname for Phoenix, Arizona, not because of decals and anything sticky per se but because of the local plant life. Sticker Patch is a reference to the cacti you can find all across the landscape around Phoenix.
Los Angeles, California
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Las Vegas, Nevada
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Trash talk
Coffee
A cup of mud may be just the thing to perk you up first thing in the morning or after a few hours on the road. It's a slang term for coffee, and you can assume, based on the choice of words, that it's not in reference to particularly good quality coffee.
Diesel
Diner food
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Nap time
End of the road
Bathroom break
The 10 code is pretty common among truckers, and most people are at least familiar with the term "10-4," which has made its way into everyday language as a way to agree with or acknowledge you've heard someone. 10-100, however, is what you say when you need to hit up the bathroom.
Dinner
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Exactly what they said is going on.
A speed trap
Rain
It may not be the smartest thing you ever heard, but a free car wash is just another way to say there's some rain ahead. You can also tell someone that they're going to be washing their windows if there's a rainstorm.
Flooded street
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The tarps came loose.
Sometimes a load on a flatbed truck needs to be secured with tarps, so they stay clean and dry. That said, if a tarp comes loose during travel, it's going to be flapping in the breeze sort of like a skirt in the wind. It's also pretty dangerous and should be fixed.
The mudflaps fell off.
There's a rattle under the hood.
The trailer is swaying.
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A kicker
When someone uses a linear amplifier to boost their signal, they're using a kicker. Generally, that's an illegal way to boost a radio signal, and most truckers and CB users aren't cool with it. Its often done by stationary users, though, who have a home-based setup.
A slug
A riff
A base
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You're moving fast.
Any reference to a hammer almost always refers to the gas pedal and speed. If the hammer is down, your foot is down, and you're going fast. Likewise, the hammer lane is the fast lane on the left side of the road.
You're out of gas.
You got pulled over.
The truck has been unloaded.
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Tires
Garbage
Alcohol
Nothing
Once you offload whatever you're shipping, then you have an empty truck, right? If you don't have another load to pick up, then you're hauling fencepost holes, which is a fancy way of saying nothing, your truck is empty.
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An amusement park
A diner
Walmart
This is not exclusively trucker slang by any means but often used by truckers because of its universality. Wally World is a slang term for Walmart because, unlike many regional stores, Walmart can be found almost everywhere.
A cheap motel
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Literally driving through a forest
Driving downtown in a large city
Leaving the interstate
Nearly all trucks drive on the main highways and interstates because it's fast and convenient, of course. When you leave the interstate, you're now heading through the woods, a reference to "Over the River and Through the Woods."
Hitting up a drive-thru
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Mr. MMA
Hulkster
Schwarzenegger
Rambo
A radio tough-guy is known as a Rambo, obviously after the Sylvester Stallone movies. This is a lot like what happens when someone talks tough on the internet since it's all done at a safe distance, and no one ever has to back it up in real life.
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Horrible coffee
A weak radio signal
Driving while sick
Truck stop
Truck stops aren't always renowned for their high quality, so when you get to a low-quality one, you might call it a choke and puke. That's a reference to trying to force yourself to eat the food that they provide.
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Durham, North Carolina
Amarillo, Texas
Biloxi, Mississippi
Charlotte, North Carolina
There's no big secret behind the reason Charlotte is called Queen City. The city was named after Queen Charlotte, wife of England's King George III. It's a pretty common nickname for the city and isn't just exclusive to truckers.
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Heading to a hotel
Ready to unload cargo
En route to your home
This is an advanced one because we're throwing two at you here. 10-8 is a 10 code for being en route somewhere while stack of bricks is just a slang term for your own house. So if you're 10-8 to your stack of bricks, it means you're heading home.
Looking for your destination
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Hawaii
Florida
If truckers can give something a nickname, they absolutely will give it a nickname. Most major cities have them, and so do states. Florida is what they call the Bikini State, and as nicknames go, it's a pretty self-explanatory one.
California
South Carolina
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They're on the way.
They have a question.
They need you to repeat yourself.
They're signing off.
Part of the 10 code that can cover a lot of different messages in a simple way, a 10-7 is the code you use to let someone know you are signing off the radio completely. That's different than a 10-10, which means you'll be on the radio still but not talking.
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Portable barnyard
Any truck that's hauling livestock from chickens to cows to horses can be called a portable barnyard because that's technically what they are. You want to avoid getting stuck behind one as they don't tend to smell that great.
Meat wagon
Burger buggy
Flying farm
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Mudskipping
Loafing
Squatting
Sandbagging
Someone is said to be sandbagging if they're just listening to the conversation but not participating in it. For this term to be used properly, the person sandbagging has to have the ability to speak, but they're just choosing not to.
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Scrapers
Salt shakers
Snowplows are referred to as salt shakers sometimes since part of their job is to salt the roads as they go. It's always good to see one on the road clearing the way, but on the other hand, it can suck to get stuck behind a slow one.
Ice Capades
Skid rigs
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The road is icy.
Cops are everywhere.
This one goes back to the bear thing again, with cops being referred to as bears. Thank to Winnie the Pooh, we all know that bears love honey, so if someone spilled honey on the road, there would be bears, or in this case, cops, everywhere.
There's a traffic jam.
There's been an accident.
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Clippers
Fingers
Wraps
Jewelry
Tire chains are illegal in a lot of places, but in others, they're considered a necessity for gaining traction when you're on an icy or snowy road. When you don't feel like referring to them as tire chains or snow chains, you can just call them jewelry.
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Someone who won't drop an argument
Someone who says inappropriate things
Someone who's always interrupting
Someone with a weak signal who keeps trying to talk
Mud ducks are CBers who have weak signals and can't really be heard by anyone else as a result. Despite that, they keep trying to talk, which leads to them making noise on a channel and just being a nuisance.
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Sidewinder
Zagger
Wobbly pop
Bear bait
When another driver is speeding or being erratic on the road, you might be inclined to call them bear bait. That plays off of some already established trucker slang, which refers to police officers as bears. Therefore, bear bait is someone baiting a cop with their erratic driving.
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Going home
Channel 19 on the CB
Some people refer to channel 19 on the radio as Sesame Street, and it's often the busiest channel in any given region. It's an excellent place to find someone to talk to if you're new in the area. Channel 22, sometimes called the Two-Two Zoo, is also popular in many areas.
A busy truck stop
Los Angeles
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You're going at 55 miles per hour.
You understand perfectly.
The radio signal is clear.
You may have heard the term "5 by 5" in movies before; it's famous from "Aliens," for instance. It comes from a military background and refers to signal strength and signal clarity rated on a scale of one to five. A 5 by 5 signal is strong and clear.
Your speed is electronically limited.
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Jabberwocky
Clubber
Marble mouth
Alligator station
Someone who just can't seem to stop talking is referred to as being an alligator radio or alligator station. Why an alligator? Because, like an alligator, the person seems to be all mouth and no ears when they're on the radio.
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You Got:
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