Canadabunnyhug
noun · Regional
A hooded sweatshirt. Confined almost entirely to Saskatchewan, where it is the ordinary word and 'hoodie' sounds imported.
Canada
Canadian Slang for Everyday Things
19 Canadian slang terms for everyday things, each with its meaning, how it is pronounced and an example of it in use.
Informal names for ordinary things and ordinary activities — the domestic layer of slang that rarely makes phrasebooks but comes up constantly.
chesterfield
noun · Dated
A sofa. Once the standard Canadian word and now genuinely receding — mostly used by speakers over sixty, with couch having taken over.
cottage
noun · Colloquial
A holiday house on a lake. Going to the cottage is a summer institution in Ontario; Quebec says chalet and Western Canada says cabin, for the same thing.
dart
noun · Informal
A cigarette.
dépanneur
noun · Regional · day-pah-NUR
A corner shop or convenience store. Universally shortened to dep by English-speaking Quebecers.
garburator
noun · Colloquial
A waste disposal unit fitted under the kitchen sink. Called a garbage disposal in the US and almost unknown in Britain.
gitch
noun · Regional
Underwear, usually men's. Prairie vocabulary; gonch is the Alberta and British Columbia variant.
hydro
noun · Colloquial
Electricity, and specifically the electricity bill. The hydro's out means the power has gone.
kerfuffle
noun · Colloquial
A commotion or fuss, usually over something minor. Common in Canada and Britain alike, and notably mild-mannered — it downgrades whatever it describes.
klick
noun · Informal
A kilometre. Also used for kilometres per hour: doing a hundred klicks.
out for a rip
phrase, idiom · Informal
Out for a drive or a ride purely for the enjoyment of it — on a snowmobile, a quad, a motorbike or in a car.
parkade
noun · Regional
A multi-storey car park. Standard in Western Canada; Ontario tends to say parking garage.
runners
noun · Colloquial
Trainers; sneakers. The default Canadian word, distinct from both American 'sneakers' and British 'trainers'.
serviette
noun · Colloquial · ser-vee-ET
A paper napkin. The French borrowing is ordinary Canadian English, where American English says napkin throughout.
the Six
noun · Informal
Toronto. Popularised by Drake in the mid-2010s, and used with varying degrees of irony by Torontonians themselves.
the States
noun · Colloquial
The United States. Canadians say 'the States' far more often than 'America' or 'the US', and going down south means crossing the border, not heading for the tropics.
ting
noun · Informal
A thing; a situation or a matter. 'What's the ting?'
+1 more sense
toque
noun · Colloquial · TOOK
A knitted winter hat. Called a beanie in the US and Australia and a woolly hat in Britain, but in Canada it is simply the word for the object.
washroom
noun · Colloquial
A public toilet. The standard polite Canadian term, where Americans say restroom and Britons say the loo or the toilets.