Slang phrases (and where you heard them) for u-turn?

September 23, 2015 6:46 AM

Hi, I'm interested in any slang words or phrases you have heard for making a u-turn. I'll share the two I've heard; I'd love to hear what you have heard.

Okay! So the two I know are:
1. whip a shitty - heard in Wisconsin, USA, from a lifelong resident
2. flip a bitch - heard in New York State, USA, from a lifelong resident

Lay 'em on me!

posted by rachelpapers to Writing & Language (62 answers total)

Bang a You-ee. -- Boston
posted by bondcliff at 6:47 AM on September 23, 2015 [21 favorites]

Flip a U-ey - I have no idea where this came from. My mother, I think but while I was raised in Texas, she was raised in Maryland.
posted by youcancallmeal at 6:47 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I may be the only one, but I've started using "Michigan left" to stand in for any U-turn, even one where I'm only making the U-turn.
posted by Etrigan at 6:48 AM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Chuck a u-ey. Various parts of Australia by lifelong residents.
posted by wwax at 6:49 AM on September 23, 2015 [5 favorites]

Hang a U-ey - Philly/South Jersey
posted by dayintoday at 6:51 AM on September 23, 2015 [5 favorites]

Confirming that "You-ee" is standard terminology for a u-turn in Boston and most other parts of New England. You can certainly "Bang a you-ee" as bondcliff mentions, but other verbs are possible - make, take, etc - it's not only found in that phrase.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:51 AM on September 23, 2015 [7 favorites]

Hang a Louie--Michigan in the 70s.
posted by not that girl at 6:53 AM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Came to say "Hang a You-EE" - Philly native
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 6:54 AM on September 23, 2015

Western NYS - still use "u-ey," but with the verb "take."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:00 AM on September 23, 2015

Pull a U-ber, pull a U-ee - Northern VA.
posted by PussKillian at 7:01 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Chuck a u-ey (Canada)
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:02 AM on September 23, 2015

The verb I've heard/used in front of u-ey is "make."
posted by radioamy at 7:06 AM on September 23, 2015

My experience is the same as Rock Steady's: "[verb] a u-ey." "Bang" is the standard Boston verb, but "make" and other verbs are more common outside of New England. I've lived in NC, Iowa, and Chicago before moving to Boston; I'd heard of plenty of u-eys until then, but they were made rather than banged.

"Louie" is left.
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:07 AM on September 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Hang a U-ie, bang a u-ie.

NJ.
posted by rachaelfaith at 7:08 AM on September 23, 2015

Always said "hang a u-ie" or "pull a u-ie" - Northern VA/DC
posted by capricorn at 7:13 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Bootleg. Western NC, a maneuver usually reserved for when you are being shot at. People who do this for fun are idiots.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 7:13 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Turn back where possible" is how my GPS tells me it is disappointed in me.
posted by soelo at 7:16 AM on September 23, 2015 [20 favorites]

Bust a U, bust a you-ee - Central NJ
posted by pyro979 at 7:20 AM on September 23, 2015

Close to one in your post: the horribly offensive "whip a bitch." Told to me by my wife, which she heard growing up in Oklahoma.
posted by The Deej at 7:26 AM on September 23, 2015

I will confirm your Wisconsin vernacular, though I'm not sure where in the Midwest I picked it up.
posted by aimedwander at 7:29 AM on September 23, 2015

I hadn't heard "bang a u-ey" until I moved to Massachusetts, but I grew up with "flip a u-ey" (in the Bay Area). Also sometimes "make," but that seems more generic.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 7:30 AM on September 23, 2015

Another vote for "make/flip a u-ey" - grew up in the mountain west.
posted by superfluousm at 7:32 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Do a u-ey in Georgia. I'm very good at them!!!
posted by pearlybob at 7:35 AM on September 23, 2015

Pull a u-ey up here in Vancouver.
posted by invokeuse at 7:43 AM on September 23, 2015

Pull a u-ey in Pittsburgh.
posted by specialagentwebb at 7:47 AM on September 23, 2015

Another Bang a You-ie. Boston.
posted by jdl at 7:49 AM on September 23, 2015

Also Australian: Fang a U-ey.
posted by tabubilgirl at 8:12 AM on September 23, 2015

Here's Quinion's take on it. Ulysses?
posted by Rock Steady at 8:12 AM on September 23, 2015

For the record, if you care, I've never heard any of these and I can't think of another way to say "make a U-turn." I'm from upstate NY but have lived in multiple cities across the country.
posted by AppleTurnover at 8:25 AM on September 23, 2015

Pop a u-ey.
Learned from my Mother: Texan.
posted by oneaday at 8:29 AM on September 23, 2015

Flip a bitch is common in the Eastside San Jose area.
posted by samthemander at 8:42 AM on September 23, 2015

"pull a u-ee" is one i heard in Kansas City also, mid-2000s.
posted by dismas at 8:46 AM on September 23, 2015

I may be the only one, but I've started using "Michigan left" to stand in for any U-turn, even one where I'm only making the U-turn.

The only time I've heard of a Michigan Left was in reference to a weird-ass (yet legal) traffic-flow arrangement where, instead of turning left onto a street at the intersection, you are directed to go past the intersection and make a u-turn at a purpose-made cut in the dividing median. It's weird as hell and utterly confusing, but Indianapolis just put one of these in at a busy intersection on the north side. Everyone calls it a Michigan Left.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:54 AM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Huh. I'm from Wisconsin and have never heard whip a shitty. We always said flip a bitch.
posted by Weeping_angel at 8:59 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Bang a U-ey. Boston suburbs.
posted by jessamyn at 9:10 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've only heard it once, but "make a FULL left" struck me enough to remember it (but never use it).
posted by AugustWest at 9:29 AM on September 23, 2015

"flip a U-ey" and "flip a bitch" were both used in California.
posted by like_neon at 9:30 AM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

"a Michigan Left" is the reality here.
posted by BostonTerrier at 10:42 AM on September 23, 2015

Also heard "flip a bitch" growing up in Philly.
posted by medeine at 10:43 AM on September 23, 2015

My wife, from southwest Arkansas, says "flip a dick".
posted by madcaptenor at 12:11 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I have heard multiple geeky people say "do a j-squared".

(a u-turn is multiplying your vector by minus one, in engineering the square root of minus one is called "j" not "I" (which is current), so minus one can be called j squared).
posted by w0mbat at 12:14 PM on September 23, 2015 [6 favorites]

"Shoot up around the gip" is one I heard from a friend from Atlantic Canada -- can't remember if she was from New Brunswick (most likely I think), Nova Scotia or Newfoundland.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:52 PM on September 23, 2015

(Oh, and the "g" in "gip" is hard like in "gas" or "green".)
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:53 PM on September 23, 2015

I've heard "whip a tit" from a friend who was in the Army in 80s/90s. She said women she swrved with who drove large streeing-wheeled trucks did essentially that action.
posted by wiskunde at 1:45 PM on September 23, 2015

Pop (or sometimes hang) a u-ey: New York.
Bang a u-ey: Boston.
posted by breakin' the law at 2:04 PM on September 23, 2015

I always heard "make a u-ey" and I've lived all over the US. My husband introduced me to "u-ball" which I'd never heard anywhere else. But he's a cop and you know how those guys are....
posted by Beti at 2:20 PM on September 23, 2015

Via a quick office poll:

From Kansas, "Flip a U-ee"
From California, "Pull a U-ee"
posted by PussKillian at 2:56 PM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have always said "take a youie."

In New Jersey there are a lot of divided highways and they have jughandles so people can take "Jersey lefts" - a sanctioned youie.

I may be the only person I know who calls the three point turn a K-turn. I don't know where I got that one.
posted by sockermom at 3:09 PM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Chuck a u-banger: Australia.
posted by geek anachronism at 3:23 PM on September 23, 2015

Growing up in Los Angeles, I heard/said both "flip a bitch" and "full a U-ee," with the occasional "bang a U-ee."
posted by Countess Sandwich at 3:32 PM on September 23, 2015

I've heard "bust a U-ey" and "flip a bitch", both for the first time circa 1997, in the SF Bay Area (California).
posted by aecorwin at 5:02 PM on September 23, 2015

Hang a u-ey (Vancouver BC)
posted by seawallrunner at 6:19 PM on September 23, 2015

Variations on the "U-ey" theme are common in NZ, as is "doing a 180".
posted by HiroProtagonist at 7:46 PM on September 23, 2015

I may be the only person I know who calls the three point turn a K-turn. I don't know where I got that one.

sockermom, I learned that as well -- I *think* from drivers ed class in Kansas in the early 80s.
posted by hapax_legomenon at 7:50 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I grew up in rural Minnesota, and "whipping a shitty/whipping shitties" was reserved for spin-outs/doughnuts in an icy parking lot. Oh, yeah!

Er, and "do a you-ee" for the actual question.
posted by pepper bird at 8:19 PM on September 23, 2015

I've heard flip a bitch - Bay Area
posted by gt2 at 9:22 PM on September 23, 2015

@sockermom, in NJ as well, and I've always called that a K-Turn (likely from driver's ed).
posted by pyro979 at 1:30 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Chuck a u-bolt (Ipswich/Brisbane, Qld, Australia)
posted by h00py at 7:58 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Grew up in Wisconsin and always heard the term "pull a u-ey," but my brother definitely says, "whip a shitty."
posted by SugarAndSass at 9:32 AM on September 24, 2015

My New Orleans Mama always says "make a u-ee", perhaps a vestige of "make groceries" etc.
posted by sazerac at 10:25 AM on September 24, 2015

Both of my parents (in North Carolina) always referred to them as "Bat Turns!" (announced loudly in the car as they are being made) but I think this really has more to do with my father's enthusiasm for the Adam West "Batman" than any particular regional slant.
posted by thivaia at 4:48 AM on September 25, 2015

My Oregon parents would always say "pull a cookie."
posted by soonertbone at 7:06 PM on September 26, 2015