Ask Me Help Desk - Need a killer word. In UK we say rumbled. In US you say?

Need a killer word. In UK we say rumbled. In US you say?

Imagine a situation at a party where a guy is claiming that he is a professional footballer but then a girl steps in and tells everyone the guy is actually a car salesman!

In the UK we'd say the guy had been RUMBLED. But in the USA that would mean he'd been in a fight.

So what SINGLE word would people in the US use to describe this situation?

Thanks

BUSTED has a similar meaning in the USA.

Busted

Owned

So tell me... what is wrong with being a used car salesman?

Dissed?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alty

Dissed?

Na, different meaning entirely..
Dissed = Disrespected

Rumbled is more Discovered or Found Out

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curlyben

Na, different meaning entirely..
Dissed = Disrespected

Rumbled is more Discovered or Found Out

Darnit, and here I thought I was being so cool and hip.

I'll go back to my knitting now. :(

I can think of many phrases that would fit this, but not a single word that hasn't already been mentioned.

Wondered about busted.
It's what we brits would say swell.
But reading online US dictionaries I got the impression Busted more referred to being apprehended by the police.
So would older people use the term busted?
I need to write something suitable for all US age groups.

He was outed

His cover was blown

Used car salesmen are cool and darn cute!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrdavidkerr

Wondered about busted.
It's what we brits would say swell.
But reading online US dictionaries I got the impression Busted more referred to being apprehended by the police.
So would older people use the term busted?
I need to write something suitable for all US age groups.

I like busted. I'm 42, and I'd use busted in this situation.

Busted can mean arrested but that's a little outdated. These days we use busted in the US when we are talking about getting caught at something. For example, if a man walked in on his girlfriend having sex with someone else, she'd be busted. Or if a mom caught her son lying to him, he might tell his friends, "my mom found out I lied, I'm so busted!"

Otherwise, we'd just say something like "caught in a lie".

Thanks everyone. This has been my first post on this site and you've all been great! I'd started with busted days ago and the darn dictionaries had put me off. Should have come straight to you lot!

If anyone comes up with another word I'd love to hear it.

It's gone midnight over here, I'm off to bed!

Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrdavidkerr

Thanks everyone. This has been my first post on this site and you've all been great! I'd started with busted days ago and the darn dictionaries had put me off. Should have come straight to you lot!

If anyone comes up with another word I'd love to hear it.

It's gone midnight over here, I'm off to bed!

Cheers

Welcome to the site. Stick around, you'll find we're a pretty great bunch, and the collective knowledge we have is unsurpassed. Ask anything, and someone will have an answer. :)

He was "called out" for trying to bamboozle others.

I agree with "busted" - and even though I'm a baby boomer I'm not tool old to understand it.

To me the term "outed" is too closely linked with gay people who are forced "out of the closet" against their will - the phrase for this is "so-and-so was outed."

Quote:

Originally Posted by ebaines

I agree with "busted" - and even though I'm a baby boomer I'm not tool old to understand it.

To me the term "outed" is too closely linked with gay people who are forced "out of the closet" against their will - the phrase for this is "so-and-so was outed."

I agree that the current way of thinking of it is the way you say, but in the olden days, the word was more generic.

I like "cover blown." "Busted" is okay too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wondergirl

I agree that the current way of thinking of it is the way you say, but in the olden days, the word was more generic.

Yep - that's how language evolves. In the olden days if someone was described as "gay" it meant they were cheerful or happy.

Going with all everyone has said I think busted is definitely the word.
But just to probe a little further;

In the states do you ever use the word sussed? And would you write he was sussed or he was suss'd?

I never use it... what does it mean?

I do overuse the F word though!

No sussing going on in this country! (What does it mean?)

Sounds like something with downhill skiing -- the sussing sounds that are made.

This is so weird isn't it!

It's like a python sketch.

Sussed is such a standard word over here. If you suss someone it means you have figured him out. Sussed and rumbled are much the same though I think rumbled has come more from the London gangster films. Next time your watching any Guy Ritchie films (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch etc.. ) listen out for it.

We don't use the F word - we're British you know!

(presume your inferring Feet and inches!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrdavidkerr

We don't use the F word - we're British you know!

(presume your inferring Feet and inches!)

OK, getting off topic, but I can't resist - the way the Brits mix up their units of measure is really quite amusing. In most of the world people use the metric system. In the US we use the imperial system, which is bizarre but at least we're consistent. But in the UK you have a very strange mix of measurements:

Milk, water, etc are sold in litres, but beer is sold in pints and gasoline in gallons (which are different than our gallons by the way).

Length is in metres, unless you're on the motorway in which case it's in miles and sometimes yards.

Weight is in kilos, unless you're talking about how much a person weighs, in which case it's stones.

But back to the question about "sussed" - I must admit I've not heard it, though I deal regularly with folks in the UK who use terms like "it's gone pear-shaped" and "bespoke" (I had to look that one up when I first came to work here). And I have learned that the way we pronounce the word "solder" here in the US makes my British friends smirk. ;)

On measurements your missing the whole point;

When we're talking we use feet, miles, pints etc because everyone knows them.
When we're doing maths or measurements we go modern & metric. Cus it's so bloomin easy!

As to pronunciation, I can win the whole thing for the UK with one word;

Aluminium! :)

OOOOH dear, I feel I may have started something.

Aluminium?

How do you guys say it?

I'm in Canada, here we say Ah-loo-mi-num.

I'd love to here the Brit pronunciation. :)

Note the extra "i" in his word, so a lu MIN ni um.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wondergirl

Note the extra "i" in his word, so a lu MIN ni um.

I copied it and still didn't notice it. Interesting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrdavidkerr

Aluminium! :)

Aluminum vs. Aluminium

I had the good fortune to attend the Royal Henley Regatta a few years back and sit in the steward's enclosure with all the hoity-toity. It's perhaps te most famous week of crew races in the world, but being England it's also the kind of sporting event where gentlemen are required to wear jacket and tie and women dresses (below the knee). I was reading the program and noticed a team entered from Shrewsbury. Now having been raised in New England I was aware that Shrewsbury Academy in Massachusetts has a crew, so I said to my wife "I wonder if this team listed from Shrewsbury is from the States?" pronouncing "Shrewsbury" like a good American - just as the word looks, "shrews - berry." At which point the rather stately gentleman sitting in front of us turned around and said "Young man, it's pronounced Shrowsbru - get it right, you're hurting my ears!" I guess he'd have enough of the American tourists invading his space!