A-Z Database
Derives from the superstition that when the palm of one’s hand itches, money is on the way, often illicitly. Shakespeare is sometimes credited with th...
see Tickle the ivories
Some maintain that the origin of this expression meaning divorced from reality is the Bible, Song of Solomon, 7:4 “Thy neck is as a tower of ivory” bu...
Ivy League is the name given to eight universities in the north-eastern United States that are renowned for their high academic standing and reputatio...
Rhyming slang for wank, J Arthur Rank/wank, dates from the 1950s, from the British cinema company of the same name. See also Sherman tank.
see Yarpie
A Jabberwocky is a fantasy monster created by Lewis Carroll in a poem of nonsense verse called Jabberwocky which appears in Through the Looking Glass...
Jack o’Lantern is another name for will o’ the wisp from about the mid-17th century but, from the mid-19th century, it also became the name for the ca...
American slang for masturbate and dates from the early 20th century, the expression that is, rather than the action it describes.
see Before you can say Jack Robinson
Slang for sailor since the late 1600s, sometimes shortened to jack or tar. The reference to tar derives from the caulking work that sailors had to do...
British expression for a brash young man, a chancer, dates from the 1840s. The expression may be a reference to the famous Jack Sheppard, an immensely...
Someone who is handy in many different tasks or disciplines, dates from the 1600s, sometimes followed by the phrase ‘and master of none’, which rather...
If someone knows jack, or knows shit, they know nothing, but if they know jack-shit, they well and truly know nothing at all. It is American slang dat...
Jack denoting any common fellow whose real name was not known has been in use since the 14th century, as has jack meaning a hoist. Jack as in Union Ja...