A-Z Database
Poor old Hector of Troy, once thought of as a hero of the Trojan War and who, according to Homer’s Iliad, was killed in single combat by Achilles. Fro...
To hedge one’s bets is to take protection against potential losses, dates from the latter half of the 1600s. The figurative meaning of hedge as a barr...
This is an American expression dating from the early 1920s for an unpleasant, sometimes scary, negative feeling about something or someone. Its etymol...
American slang for a low, contemptible person dates from the early 20th century and derives from earlier 19th century American slang, ‘heeler’, who wa...
see Hostages to fortune
Flat out, at break-neck speed, dates from the late 19th century and is a hyperbole derived from riding a horse so hard that it is hell or extreme dure...
The actual quotation is, “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” The source is William Congreve The Mou...
see Going to hell in a hand basket/handcart
see Come hell or high water
see Devil to pay
Fiercely determined, an Americanism that dates from the early 19th century. Its literal meaning is of course hell-bound and is used as a hyperbole for...
This expression has been in use since the early 19th century and variously means at great speed as in to go like hell’s bells or sometimes used as a m...
Hello originally was not a form of greeting but more an expression of surprise and dates in this sense from about 1840 and grew out of earlier cries l...
Disordered haste, a confused state of affairs dates from the late 16th century and is a rhyming jingle like harum-scarum, hurly-burly, etc. The OED sa...
see Um and ah