A-Z Database
These days always appears in the plural form and the current meaning for a jackanapes is a mischievous, impertinent person. It dates in this sense fro...
Is a British children’s TV series that started in 1965 and was still running at time of press. The title is borrowed from an 18th century nursery rhym...
Australian informal for an inexperienced newcomer to any trade or mode of farming. It dates from 1880 and was originally applied to inexperienced immi...
Originally, jackass was a term for a male ass or donkey, Jack being a common name for a male of any description, as in ‘jack rabbit’, jack of all trad...
This expression has several meanings. The first as in to jack up prices comes from America in the late 19th century, from jack meaning to hoist or rai...
These days it simply refers to any big prize or achievement, but the origin of this American expression is supposedly from the game of poker, c. 1880,...
British informal from the North of England for buttocks or backside, dates from the late 19th century, derives from Jackie the diminutive of Jack but...
Jaffa was originally the name of the ancient city on the site of the modern city of Tel-Aviv in Israel. Jaffa is also a girl's name in Hebrew and mean...
see Bird
US slang for a battered old car from c. 1920. Perhaps from Jalapa a Mexican town where, supposedly, many old American cars ended up; otherwise the ori...
British slang for clear profit, good fortune or luck dates from the late 19th century when jam was considered a treat or luxury. Jam as preserve i.e....
Jam jar is rhyming slang for car, jam jar/car, dates from the 1920s.
British expression for something pleasant or something extra, believed to have originated in the navy from the late 19th/early 20th century. See also...
see Jam
British expression that means something promised that never comes, rather like pubs that have signs that proclaim, “Free beer tomorrow”. Why jam? The...