30 Different Ways to Say “Fart”

Over the course of history, humanity has come up with many delightfully creative ways to describe the act of breaking wind. From regional terms to old-timey phrases, here are 30 ways to say fart that you should work into conversation whenever toots come up.

According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, an air biscuit is “an extremely malodorous fart or belch.” The phrase dates back to the early ‘90s and originated in the south, but clearly needs to be used everywhere. The act of farting or belching is known as floating an air biscuit, by the way.

Don’t call it a fart; call it a bottom burp. Green’s notes that this is “generally a children’s usage,” but it was “popularized on BBC TV’s 1980s comedy The Young Ones.”

Fartkin, from the early 1900s, means “a small act of breaking wind”—in other words, a tiny toot. You can also use the term fartkin. Scientists, by the way, have determined that the median weight of a fart is around 90 milliliters.

According to Green’s, “an instance of breaking wind.”

A ‘40s term for “a stench, [especially] a fart,” according to Green’s. It’s also sometimes puffoon.

Once a term for a person who made cheese, according to Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, cheeser has meant “a strong smelling fart” since 1811. It’s not the only cheese-related fart term, either: Perhaps you’ve asked “Who cut the cheese?” when you’ve smelled a particularly nasty odor. According to Green’s, this phrase for farting relates to ”the pronounced odor of certain cheeses,” and the Oxford English Dictionary dates oral usage back to 1959. Squeeze cheese is another delightful phrase, seemingly born of the internet, meaning “To fart, flatulate loudly.”

A 1920s term for an open-topped car, and also an early ‘70s Australian term for a fart.

Horse and cart, raspberry tart, hart and dart, and D’Oyley Carte are all ways to say fart, many originating in England. Welcome to the wonderful world of rhyming slang!

Ringbark is a term used in New Zealand for breaking wind. Green’s cites the 2003 Reed’s Dictionary of New Zealand Slang, which helpfully notes that “ring is old slang for the anus.” Shoot a bunny is another New Zealand way to say fart.

This phrase is what you say in New Zealand after you’ve farted in public. Farting in public is embarrassing, of course, but it’s arguably better than the alternative: Holding in a fart could cause the gas to leak out of your mouth.

This word, meaning “to fart,” dates back to the 15th century. It’s also been used as a noun since the early 20th century. Either way, it’s derived from the sound of a trumpet, which makes total sense.

In early 1600s, the word foist was used to describe something that smelled less than fresh—and before that, in the late 1500s, it was a verb meaning “to break wind silently.” In other words, a more polite way to describe flatulence that’s silent but deadly.

This word, which originated in the 16th century, originally meant “to defecate.” But by the mid-17th century, fizzle (also spelled fisle) had acquired an additional meaning: “to fart.” Want to know how to use it in a sentence? Consider this example from 1653: “The false old trot did so fizzle and foist, that she stunk like a hundred devils.”

Prat (derived from pratfall) is a 16th-century British cant or slang word for the buttocks. Whid is a cant word meaning “to speak or tell” or “to lie.” So this phrase for breaking wind literally means “buttock speaks.”

This UK term dates back to around 1660.

An Irish slang term for a fart from the mid-1960s.

Opened one’s lunchbox is an Australian phrase for fart that, according to Green’s, debuted in the “Barry McKenzie” comic strip. You can apparently also say upon tooting that you dropped your lunchbox.

According to Green’s, this is a prison slang term from the ‘80s for “a silent but foul-smelling fart,” helpfully noting that “the fart slides from the rim of the anus.” (Emphasis, it must be said, is Green’s.)

According to the OED, this obsolete phrase for a fart dates back to 1604.

Rouser, meaning “a loud fart,” first appeared in 1713, according to the OED. Jonathan Swift used it memorably in his 1731 poem “Strephon and Chloe”:

“He boldly sent his hand in quest
(Inspired with courage from his bride)
To reach the pot on t’other side;
And, as he fill’d the reeking vase;
Let fly a rouser in her face.”

This isn’t technically a slang term for a fart, but it is toot-adjacent, and we couldn’t resist including it: It’s the “flaring effect produced by breaking wind next to a lit match,” and reportedly comes from college campuses in the late ‘80s.

When you make a fart noise with your mouth, that’s called a Bronx Cheer—a term that dates all the way back to 1908.

A version of this story ran in 2020; it has been updated for 2023.