A-Z Database
‘To filch’ is British slang for ‘to steal’ and dates from the mid-1500s. It is recorded in Thomas Harman’s glossary of thieves’, vagabonds’ and rogues...
Today, its meaning is largely restricted to America where it is a verb or noun describing the practice of obstructing legislation or someone who does...
This expression means to help oneself to as much as one likes and these days appears to be an expression favoured by sports commentators. Footballers...
see Fit the bill
The gunwales or ‘gun walls’ were originally where the guns of a ship were placed and the word date in this sense from the 1400s. The correct spelling...
see Give something a fillip
see Trailer (movie)
see Filthy rich
This expression for describing wealthy people developed out of the expression filthy lucre. Lucre is a medieval word for money and was used by both Ch...
see Put a nail in someone’s coffin
see Last/final straw
see Needle in a haystack
see Found wanting
To find one's feet means to get accustomed to a new situation, a new environment, or a new skill or pastime. It derives from the concept of an animal...
Means first rate, splendid or excellent and is first attested in this sense from the late 19th/early 20th century. Before this, from the late 18th cen...