A-Z Database
see Connect/join the dots
Intimately or closely aligned, an American expression dates from the 1960s with obvious allusion to Siamese twins.
A British expression that describes upper-class girls, typically, from English public schools and gently pokes fun at their hearty, sporty, and often...
No one knows for sure why the black and white pirate flag, depicting a skull and crossbones, is called the Jolly Roger. It is first cited as the pirat...
British sailors’ have had a superstition since the 1600s that a certain member of their crew could be a Jonah and therefore bring them and the ship ba...
The word derives from Anglo-Chinese Pidgin English from the early 18th century and originally meant an idol and was a word picked up and used by sailo...
A jot means the least or very little amount of anything, as in expressions like ‘not worth a jot’, which means that something or other is virtually wo...
This familiar English word for a distance travelled dates from the 1400s and is a loan word from the French journée meaning day. Its original meaning...
This familiar English word for a distance travelled dates from the 1400s, and is a loan word from the French 'journée' meaning day. Its original meani...
The meaning of this word is linked to that of journey in that it also dates from the 1400s and means a workman who has completed his training or appre...
Joystick the control lever in an aeroplane or more latterly in video games dates from c.1910 and its origin is obscure. It is also slang for penis fro...
see Don’t judge a book by its cover
A large, overpowering, destructive force or object of any kind dates in this sense from the 1600s. The word derives from the Hindi Jagganath, the idol...
Originally American slang for alcohol dates from the early 19th century and still current in expressions like jungle juice and hooligan juice, alcohol...
see Months of the year