A-Z Database
Alternative expression to down the drain dates from the early 20th century, where a chute or slide is really an open pipe or drain. In Australia, from...
Lost, wasted, a British colloquialism from the late 19th century.
An American drinking toast that means down the throat and is first attested from the 1930s, It derives from obvious nautical origins where the hatch o...
Alternative expression to down the drain from the early 20th century where the pan referred to is of course the lavatory pan.
The American equivalent of down the pan from the mid-20th century, where the tubes are the soil pipes that run from the lavatory pan.
see To a “t”
see Get down to brass tacks
see Cut/pare something to the bone
When a game or contest of some sort is described as going down to the wire, it means that it is going to be so close that the outcome cannot be foreca...
It appears that down the swannee or up the swannee variously spelt 'swanee', 'swannie', or 'swanny', sometimes with one 'n' sometimes with two, are Br...
In the sense of a tedious or tiresome person or pastime is American from the early 19th century. In the sense of men dressing in women’s clothing, thi...
Vulgar form of drag one’s feet from c. 1920.
Metaphor for being slow, lazy or unenthusiastic dates from the early 20th century.
The racing of specialist automobiles over short distances, which started in America just after WWII and is so-called because drag was criminal slang f...
see Haul/drag/rake someone over the coals.