A-Z Database
Domineered by a nagging wife, dates from the late 17th century, although the grooming of the farmyard cock by attentive hens, whence the expression de...
The complete expression is as rare or as scarce as hens’ teeth for the simple reason that hens do not have teeth. It is a jocular Americanism that dat...
see Hip
Like herding cats is a simile that means trying to control an uncontrollable situation based on the fact that cats are independent creatures and resis...
Supposedly Oliver Hardy’s catchphrase in the Laurel and Hardy movies of the 1930s but in reality it is a slight misquotation. He actually said, “Here’...
This famous catchphrase spoken by Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman in the movie Casablanca (1942) was not in the original screenplay, it was simply a...
see Mud in your eye
To be het up is to be sorely vexed or excited about something and American sources date the expression from the early 20th century. The OED on the oth...
This word originates in America from Pennsylvanian German hexe meaning a witch and dates from the mid-19th century. By the early 20th century, it mean...
Hey is probably the oldest form of greeting in the English language and the OED says it first made its appearance c. 1225. Today, it is not so much a...
Hey presto, usually followed by an exclamation mark, means 'suddenly as if by magic' and is first recorded from the late 18th century as a stock phras...
Hi is one of the oldest forms of greeting in the English language. It is very much older than hello. The OED says that hi is a parallel form of hey, w...
This catchphrase is from the seven dwarfs’ song in the Walt Disney animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Did you know that 85.7% of dwarfs...
This was the Lone Ranger’s catchphrase when summoning his horse Silver. The American radio series of the Lone Ranger ran from 1933-1954 and the TV ser...
see Neither hide nor hair