A-Z Database
see Put a nail in someone’s coffin
To go at something hammer and tongs is to go at it with the utmost exuberance, zest or enthusiasm. The figurative use dates from the late 17th/early 1...
Rhyming slang for teeth, Hampstead Heath/teeth, dates from the mid-20th century. Hampstead Heath is area in North London.
This is rhyming slang for prick (penis), from Hampton Wick/prick and dates from the late 19th century. Hampton Wick is a place name in the Greater Lon...
see Wait on someone hand and foot
To be in league with or to be on intimate terms with somebody dates from the 17th century. It was listed as ‘hand and glove’ in Catalogue of English P...
see Cookie jar
Hand over fist means quickly or rapidly as in ‘making money hand over fist’, and acquired this figurative meaning from the mid-19th century. The expre...
see Wait on someone hand and foot
This word is a contraction of ‘hand in cap’, which then became ‘hand i’cap’ before evolving into the current word handicap by the mid-17th century. ‘H...
Handle, meaning a name or nickname, is an Americanism and dates from the 19th century. To get a handle on something to acquire a basis knowledge or un...
see Treat someone with kid gloves
To win hands down means to win easily and is first cited in the early 19th century from horseracing when a winning jockey would relax his hands downwa...
This means that goodness or success is defined by good or successful acts, and was already an old English saying when first cited in John Ray English...
Meaning to delay, hesitate or hold back and dates in this figurative sense from the late 18th/early 19th century. Before this, to hang fire goes back...