A-Z Database
Act in a submissive and apologetic manner, especially after committing a transgression, dates from the early 19th century but it all starts from the m...
To eat like a horse or have an appetite like a horse, are similes that mean to have a very large appetite and date from the late 19th century, derivin...
Commit suicide by shooting oneself in the mouth with a gun, an American expression that dates from the late 20th century.
A boast that is rarely carried out, first appears in Dickens Pickwick Papers (1836), “If I knew as little of life as that, I’d eat my hat.” The OED ma...
To grieve inconsolably or to be sorely vexed, eating one’s heart out is a very ancient concept that is found in Homer’s Odyssey (c.850 BC) and the wor...
To take something back, to retract, recant or apologise for what one may have said is an expression that dates from the late 1500s.
Someone who eats you out of house and home consumes resources faster than they can be provided. Shakespeare is credited with coining this expression (...
see Eat one’s heart out
The source of this is the Bible and although not the exact wording, something similar is mentioned in four books from both Old and New Testaments. Ecc...
Eating in the sense of something engrossing or preoccupying one, as in what’s eating you is American dating from the late 19th century. Eat as in to p...
If someone is eating out of your hand, he or she is docile, compliant and under control, rather like a tame animal. The expression dates from the earl...
To listen in on someone else’s conversation dates from the early 1600s and derives from the eaves of a house, which are the parts of the roof that ext...
This adjective derived from the noun edge dates back in its literal meaning of sharp or sharpened to the late 18th century. It then developed a figura...
This is just one of literally thousands of children’s counting-out or selection rhymes that exist in almost every language throughout the world. This...
This is a British expression from c. 1930 and means to use bad language. The effing part is of course the f word, whereas blinding means swearing in g...