A-Z Database
see Off the hook
American term for a prostitute dates from around 1830 and derives from the way such women catch or hook their clients, much in the same way as an angl...
As in to play hookey or play truant, is American from the 1840s. Americans have three theories about the origin; the Dutch hoekje meaning to hide, pla...
A British term for a ruffian or thug dates from the late 19th century and supposedly derives from an Irish surname Hooligan, Houligan or perhaps even...
This expression for a noisy, obnoxious and generally upper class moron became very popular in Britain from the 1960s and was perhaps inspired by Damon...
These particular shouts of approbation, encouragement or exultation date back to the late 17th century. According to the OED, hurrah is the literary a...
Meaning a laugh or something funny, as in an absolute hoot dates from the early 20th century and derives from hooting with laughter, which dates from...
Hooter is British slang for nose from the 1930s, from hooter being an alternative word for trumpet, from the allusion that trumpet-blowing and nose-bl...
To keep on hoping in extremis i.e. even when abandoned by hope itself, coined by St Paul in his letter to the Romans 4:18 when referring to Abraham, “...
see Not a hope in hell
The full quotation is “Hope springs eternal in the human breast” coined by Alexander Pope in An Essay on Man (1733-1734) and soon became proverbial.
Jumping up and down with rage dates from the early 1800s.
Children’s street game, various forms of which date back to Roman times. The word hopscotch dates from the 18th century but in earlier centuries it wa...
see Make a (complete) Horlicks of something
To horn in on somebody or something is to interrupt or intrude rudely and aggressively. It is American cowboy slang from the late 19th century (c.1880...