A-Z Database
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...
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