What it means
Properly fed up or annoyed, usually after something’s been winding you up for ages. Same vibe as cheesed off or brassed off, just a different colour for the mood. You use it when your patience has run out and you’re ready to have a moan, whether it’s the commute, a boss chatting nonsense, or a mate being a pain. Bit old-school, but it still pops up.
Usage examples
"I’m browned off with this traffic, mate. Been sat on the M25 twenty minutes and we’ve moved about three inches. Proper doing my nut in."
"I am proper browned off with this Wi-Fi at the cafe, every time I get the work email open the connection drops, and the barista just shrugs like it is the weather doing it."
"Gran got browned off with the new shopping list app the kids set up for her, deleted it after one Friday, and went back to the paper list on the magnet in the kitchen."
Where it comes from
Started life as RAF and British forces slang during World War Two, when browned off named the feeling of being fed up, scuffed and tarnished by too many bad days. The phrase travelled out of the barracks into civilian English and kept its mild, grumbling quality through the decades that followed.
Other ways to say it
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