A-Z Database
To sit out or sit through something means to stay until the very end and this usage dates from the early 18th century.
To sit something out, as in refraining to take part, dates from the mid-1600s and has a slightly different to sit out something, which means to stay u...
see Sit out something
To sit tight means to bide one’s time and take no action until more information is available, dates from the late 19th/early 20th century.
A shortening of ‘situation comedy’ a genre of comedy radio and TV series featuring the same characters on a repetitive basis. An Americanism first at...
An easily accomplished task, usually in a sporting context i.e. an easy catch, shot, etc dates from the late 19th century in the first instance for a...
Used metaphorically for an easy target or prey since the 1940s before this of course it related to duck shooting and thus could be hundreds of years o...
Sitting pretty means to be in an advantageous or winning position and is an Americanism that dates from the early 20th century.
This expression meaning so little difference as to be the same thing dates from the early 19th century. It appears in several different formats e.g. s...
To be at sixes and sevens means to be in a state of disorder or confusion and the expression has been around in its singular form ‘six and seven’ sinc...
This has come to mean the crucial or ultimate question that needs to be addressed in any quest or endeavour. It is usually written in number form 64,0...
see Cheapskate, and also Get one's skates on
Whether to skate, tread, or walk on thin ice is very risky and can put one in a perilous situation. The expression is attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerso...
To skedaddle is to depart the scene in a great hurry and first appears in America at the time of the Civil War (1861-65) when troops on either side wo...
The figurative use of skeleton meaning a basic, structural outline, stripped down to its bare essentials, dates from the early 17th century, from the...