Refers to da friendly wave, nod,. smile, etc. dat you courteously preform in response to a passing motorist/pedestrian who honks or calls hello to you, but you are unable to identify said greeter because the person has already moved too far away by the time you "get turned around" to see who it was.
A sportsman friend of mine experienced a classic case of "generic greeting" whenever he visited my area --- "The only thing I can figure is that I must have a vehicle that looks a lot like a local resident's, because everyone waves eagerly to me when I drive through town, and yet I don't really know anyone here. But heck, that's perfectly okay with me --- I dunno why they wave, but I just always wave back!"
by QuacksO August 5, 2019

It’s a greeting in elementary school when you moo to your friends and then the teacher shouts milking time and then you milk the shit out of your bunk buddy.
by BigSloppyMcGayBoi May 6, 2018

You come knock on my door, im grabbing a fucking knife and shanking you with it.
Thats called a Banbury Greeting.
Thats called a Banbury Greeting.
by Jenesh January 7, 2022

by Baslix October 20, 2017

Refers to a non-startling strategy employed whenever you are unable to unobtrusively get someone's attention or make eye-contact with him for whatever reason (maybe he's deep in a book, concentrating hard on a household/carpentry task, or using noisy equipment, and thus he does not look up/around occasionally or hear/observe your presence) and so you start out to say hello by speaking very quietly, and then cautiously raising your voice little-by-little (like some modern-day alarm-clocks do so as to wake you "gently" instead of startling you out of a sound slumber with a full-blast ringer right away) till the previously-oblivious person eventually becomes aware of your proximity and glances up.
I'd wanted to ask my elderly neighbor about my possibly carpooling with him on his grocery-shopping trip the next day, but he was so busy using his riding lawnmower that he never noticed me despite my circling around in front of him several times, so I eventually used the gradual-ramp-up-volume greeting to finally get his attention.
by QuacksO August 22, 2018

by Wermgear July 20, 2019

by Hope Fully May 16, 2025
