How Well Do You Know Midwest Slang?

Corn should be knee high by the Fourth of July so that you can harvest it on time. Plus, it looks good in the barbecue pictures!

Crawdads are freshwater crayfish. They look like sea lobsters but they are much smaller. They are just as yummy, though.

Tough tomatoes are bad luck because tomatoes shouldn't be tough. It means you picked them before they were ripe, which is a shame.

It's a term that will be understood in most of the USA. However, "front room" is mostly only used in the Midwest.

Hotdish is a kind of casserole that has a mushroom cream sauce. You can vary the other ingredients according to what you prefer. One of the classics uses tater tots.

It's a light that tells you when to stop, and when to go. Thus, it's a stoplight or a golight!

Cornhole is a bit like boules mixed with hackeysack. It's a summer game played on a lawn at parties in the region.

A restroom is a gender-neutral and entirely G-rated way of saying you need a bathroom. It will also be understood across the rest of the USA.

A lightning bug is actually the same thing as a firefly. However, in the Midwest, it has this even more awesome name. Fortunately, it's just pretty and doesn't bite.

If you're schnookered, you're very drunk. This is reminiscent of how, in snooker, you are possibly unable to function if you are in fact snookered.

A rummage sale is what you do when you're thinning out the useless things in your house. It's a great way to get rid of stuff you don't need and remember that your trash may be somebody's treasure!

This is a tradition from local farmers' markets and fairs. It's not very common these days, which is a shame.

A sweeper is a vacuum cleaner. It's really a fancy modern broom, hence the origin of the name.

Pop doesn't just mean Coke, Sprite or any specific drink. It's the generic term for any fizzy or soft drink in the region.

This nonsense word is part of a local superstition. You're supposed to say it while you pat the roof of the car. Last one to do this is in trouble

It's similar to "put up or shut up". If you put something up, you've put it away - which ironically means you probably had to put it down too!

This is a gender-neutral expression that people all over the US understand. It's most common in the Midwest, however.

Puppy chow is not dog food. It's a regional snack involving rice, peanut butter, chocolate and a lot of deliciousness.

Caramel has only two syllables in the Midwest, with the first being emphasized. It tastes the same however you say it, of course!

A forecast usually just means the weather. In Indiana in particular, it means a prophecy that is not going to come true.

This delicious snack or dessert is basically the same as a donut. However, its name shows the Midwest's strong Eastern European cultural legacy.

This is a contraction of "oops". It's what a Midwesterner says to indicate that they realize they have screwed up!

A coney can mean a rabbit or an island off New York City. It also means a particular kind of hotdog!

It's an interstate, a highway, or a freeway elsewhere in the USA. But in the Midwest, it's an expressway!

In the UK, a pasty is the same thing as it is in the Midwest. It isn't the rather cheeky thing that a New Yorker might think it means!

The devil's strip is named because it belongs to no one. One of the things that makes froniter life work - which the Midwest once was - is knowing who owns what, so you don't fight over it and someone takes care of it. Hence, unclaimed land is a place bad things happen.

Gym shoes are the shoes you wear at the gym. Of course, these days you might wear them almost anywhere.

This is mainly a Minnesota term. It's a more literal translation of the original Swedish name of the game.

A bubbler is just a water fountain, anyplace else. In the Midwest, it has a much more fun name!

It comes from a Norwegian expression meaning "goodness me!" This is most common in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

"Oh, for cute" is similar in construction to a variety of other Midwest sayings. For example, if something is very fun, you might say "Oh, for fun!"

Just say "did you eat" quickly enough and eventually you will get to "jeet?" If a Midwesterner is trying to feed you, this is what they'll say.

A hair binder is the same thing as a hair tie. It's just a slightly more descriptive way of saying the same thing!

There's an old superstition in the area that cows that were sick literally had hollow tails. Hence, a holler tail is what you have if you're not well.

Leaving out a few keywords is a regional idiosyncrasy. Don't worry if you don't remember the missing word after a while; people will understand you.