A-Z Database
see Good/bad books
see Bad workman always blames his tools
see Tough day at the office
This American expression was given significant prominence when it was used in the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1992 when Buffy says to the one-ar...
Describes a rascal or scoundrel and the expression is British from the late 19th century. Quite why the word ‘hat’ is used in this context remains obs...
A bad news bear is a person who brings bad news or bad luck, an American expression that derives from the 1976 comedy movie The Bad News Bears starrin...
This is a very old proverb. Plutarch (46 - 120 AD) wrote, “That old proverbial saying, ‘bad news travels fast and far’”. Many years later, Thomas Kyd...
The full expression is a bad penny always turns up where a bad penny is an unwanted, no-good person who will always make repeated appearances and intr...
The metaphoric use of this expression, which means having suspicions or misgivings in relation to a situation or person dates from the early 19th cent...
This is a very old proverb, which is first cited in French from the 13th century in the form of “a bad workman can never find a good tool”. The expres...
A bad or rotten egg is a rascal or scoundrel, obviously based on a literal bad or rotten egg, which no one likes. Bad or rotten egg has been used figu...
To badger is to persistently worry or persecute someone. The origin is from the medieval sport of badger hunting. Badgers defend their burrows fiercel...
A very thin, emaciated person, the expression dates from the early 19th century.
Rhyming slang, bag of fruit/suit, as in clothes, possibly of Australian origin, dates from the latter half of the 20th century. See also whistle and f...
About as useful as a bag of hammers or dumber than a bag of hammers are examples of American slang that date from the early 20th century.