A-Z Database
Khaki is a dusty, brown colour and the colour of the field dress used by the British army since 1899. The word dates from the mid-19th century and der...
British slang for lavatory dates from the late 19th century. The origin is uncertain but there are two schools of thought. The first is that it is of...
Rhyming slang for arse, Khyber Pass/arse, dates from the late 19th century.
Perhaps more widely known from the First World War song, Who Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser? To put the kibosh on someone or something is slang for to r...
This expression derives from the pricks or goads used to urge on and drive animals. For example, a horse that kicks against the pricks is one that ref...
To defeat soundly, American slang dates from the 1940s. Also used as an adjective as in a kick-ass idea which means a winning idea.
To kick one’s heels is to be kept waiting and dates in this sense from the mid-18th century, from the obvious allusion to having nothing better to do...
Means to cast off restraint, authority or control and derives from the leather harness or traces to which a horse is attached when harnessed to a vehi...
Means of course to die and in this figurative sense dates from the 18th century. Before this, from the 16th century, a bucket was the beam or yoke fro...
US informal expression that means to put off or postpone what should be done now by seemingly making random or desultory progress. Derives from the li...
A discount or payback, sometimes illegal or fraudulent, American colloquialism dates from the early 20th century.
see Treat someone with kid gloves
If anyone behaves like a kid or child in a candy store it means they are over excited, over indulgent and possibly out of control. 'Candy store' is Am...
Besides its meaning a young goat, kid is also slang for a young child since the late 1600s. To kid someone i.e. to make him or her believe something t...
To steal a child for money or ransom dates from the late 1600s and derives from kid, a young child + napper, which is a variation of nabber, someone w...