A-Z Database
The first figurative use of this idiom, meaning to work or perform at maximum efficiency is recorded in America from 1912. It obviously derives from t...
see Touch base
To have dibs or first dibs is to have the right to choose or share something and is first recorded in this sense in America during the 1930s. Earlier,...
see Neither fish nor fowl
Out of place, in an uncomfortable environment, no doubt a very ancient metaphor of which the first known use is Chaucer Canterbury Tales c. 1385.
To embark on a fishing expedition means to trawl for information and dates in this figurative sense from the 1930s.
A loud, coarse woman, and dates in this sense from the mid-1600s. Originally, however, a fishwife was simply a woman who sold fish, and this literal m...
Questionable, dubious or shady dates from the 19th century, presumably from the smell.
Celebratory gesture made with a clenched fist, the phrase and probably the gesture dates from the 1960s in America but seems to have spread throughout...
Very fit, very healthy, from the assumption that a butcher’s dog is well fed on meat scraps and is therefore very fit and healthy, dates from the mid...
In the late 16th century, from when the expression dates, fit meant fine or seemly and had nothing to do with physical fitness. A fiddle or a violin w...
In Britain these days one hears and sees this phrase used widely. It grew out of consumer protection law in the early 21st century in the sense that a...
see Dish fit for the gods
Fit the bill means to fulfil or measure up to the required standard and dates from the early 20th century. It is thought to derive from an earlier Ame...
By fits and starts means spasmodically in irregular patterns and dates from the late 1600s. Fits, of course, are paroxysms and starts, since at least...