A-Z Database
This expression originated in Australia or New Zealand during the late 19th century. There are two contenders for its origin. The first is the Austral...
Happy camper is an American phrase for a person in a generally good mood, and makes its first appearance outside the context of camping in the early 1...
The custom of bars serving drinks at discounted prices and calling it happy hour originated in America. The phrase is first cited in 1961 and the cust...
Means paradise or heaven in Native American legend and culture, first attested c. 1830 and very soon after that used figuratively to describe any frui...
A harbinger is a forerunner or announcer, generally with an inferred negative association as in the harbinger of bad news. This usage dates from the m...
Originally, a nautical expression, as in making a ship hard and fast, mooring or anchoring it securely. By the mid-19th century, it was used figurativ...
Unyielding, harsh, pitiless, impervious to pain, dates from the late 19th century.
British expression for bad luck, in comment, commiseration or exclamation, sometimes in the form of ‘hard Cheddar’ dates from the late 19th century. S...
see Tough day at the office
Old-fashioned British expression for hard or bad luck dates from the early 19th century but the origin of the ‘lines’ part is obscure. The OED venture...
see Tough/hard nut to crack
To do or put in the hard yards is to contest or compete in a contest, game or project to the maximum of effort. The expression is originally Australia...
American slang for an erection of the penis dates from the late 19th century; soon adopted (the expression that is) in Britain and elsewhere.
see Play hardball
A foolish, giddy, reckless person, scheme, or plan. Dates from the mid-1500s and derives from the perceived giddy, pointless and mad antics of hares....