A-Z Database
As in a 'fly person' or a person who is 'a bit fly' is an adjective that describes a knowing or artful person. According to the OED, it is slang that...
Slang from the early 19th century meaning to raise money by means of a promissory note or cheque, particularly one that is worthless. See also Kite/ki...
Improvise, adjust and correct as one goes along, an Americanism that has its origins from the early days of flying when there was little or no instrum...
A small but irritating problem that threatens to spoil everything, the source is the Bible Ecclesiastes 10:1, “Dead flies cause the ointment of the ap...
To fly off the handle is to lose self-control or give vent to uncontrollable anger. The expression is originally American and dates from the mid-19th...
A brilliant if now over-used metaphor for an undetected observer or listener, more often than not expressed as a wish to be a fly on the wall directed...
To ‘fly the coop’ is a metaphor for departing suddenly or escaping from confinement and is originally American from the early 20th century, although ‘...
see Under the radar
Originally, from the late 18th century, this expression was an insulting term applied to women, implying that they were witches who flew by night on b...
see Come home with flying colours
see Not give a flying fuck
The fog of war means the uncertainty of war, and Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian war strategist, defined the concept, if not the actual phrase, in h...
see Old fogey
see Have not the foggiest idea/notion
Trust one’s instincts or proceed in the most obvious direction dates from the 15th century and perhaps derives from hunting dogs.