A-Z Database
Signifies an indeterminate length of time, approximately seven and a half months actually but the expression is never used literally. It dates from th...
The twelve months of the year, as we know them, derive from the Julian calendar named after Julius Caesar who reformed the Roman calendar in 46 BC Jan...
This is a good example of a perfectly respectable word from The Middle Ages evolving into modern slang. From around the mid-1400s, deriving from Old F...
A metaphor for a preposterous impossibility as in, it is like believing that the moon is made of green cheese. Or, one might say after hearing a ridi...
To do a moonlight flit is a British expression that dates from the 19th century and means to abscond, usually under cover of darkness, to avoid paying...
Taking on a second job to supplement one’s income, usually at night, hence the name, dates in this sense from 1957 according to the OED. Earlier but...
Meaning illegally distilled alcohol in America is first attested from the late 19th century. Before this, moonshine meaning foolish or empty talk, is...
A moot point means a topic or subject that is open to debate and thus undecided. This usage dates from the late 17th century and frequently appears in...
Military slang for clearing out pockets of enemy resistance, usually after the main attack has gone through, dates from the First World War.
A metaphor for one's ethical values, based on the allusion, of course, to a compass that steers one in the morally right direction. First attributed t...
see Fear itself
This expression using a number of different collective nouns for monkeys e.g. cage, box, wagonload, barrel-load, etc has been around since the mid-19t...
Over-hasty action can often result in slow progress, a very ancient proverb known to both the Greeks and Romans and probably to earlier civilisations....
To have more than one option or talent appears in John Heywood Proverbs (1546) when it was already old proverb with the obvious allusion to archery.
The more people who attend a social gathering the happier it will be, an old proverb that first appears in John Heywood Proverbs (1546).