I had used tcsh as my default shell with my last couple of installs because we use it work (used to be an SGI shop, so that's just a holdover now that we're a linux shop)

I'm trying to convert my ~/.alias file from tcsh aliases to bash aliases, and alot of my variations of 'ls' use \!*, like:

alias la='ls -ah \!*'
alias ll='ls -lh \!* '
alias lla='ls -lah \!* '
alias l='ls -loah \!*'
alias latr='ls -1atrh \!*'
alias lltr='ls -ltrh \!*'
alias lr='ls -1trh \!*'
alias lsd='ls -ldh \!*' # list directories on

these don't work because bash isn't interpreting them correctly. I know it's probably pretty simple, but I don't know how to describe what \!* does, (I know how it functions) to look for the concept on google/linux or on here.

Thanks.

Try remove \!* and change your alias syntax so it looks like :

alias ll="ls -lh"

From man csh :
Aliases can be used to introduce parser
metasyntax. For example, `alias print 'pr \!* | lpr''
defines a ``command'' (`print') which pr(1)s its arguments
to the line printer.

So anyway you did not need \!* in csh for your aliases of ls