A-Z Database
To become embroiled in an argument or conflict is of American origin from the early 19th century, after the way bulls, stags and other horned animals...
Means the whole thing or the complete package and dates from the early 19th century with the allusion of course to early firearms, which were generall...
A locum is a physician or clergyman standing in temporarily for another. It is an abbreviation of the Latin locum tenens, which means ‘holding the pla...
To be at loggerheads with someone is to be in dispute or conflict and the expression dates from the late 17th century. Tracing it back, in Shakespeare...
Acronym for laugh out loud used mainly in written, digital communications like text messaging and email. The OED found instances of its usage dating f...
Lolly is an abbreviation of lollipop, a form of boiled sweet usually on a stick, and dates from the mid-19th century. Lollipop is first attested from...
The long and the short of it means the totality or summation of something or other. Shakespeare used the expression in The Merry Wives of Windsor Act...
see Not by a long chalk
A long face is an expression of sadness or disappointment, and dates from the mid-18th century.
Long in the tooth is an idiom for old, often used in the context of describing that someone is too old to be engaging in something or other. The expre...
Sports jargon for long arms or sometimes long legs. Cricket commentators are fond of using the expression but not before the 21st century. In biomecha...
see Not by a long shot
Loo is a popular British colloquialism that is now Standard English for toilet or lavatory but its origin remains one of the mysteries of the English...
see Gift horse
This admonition to investigate the facts of the matter before taking purposeful action first appears in Proverbs by John Heywood in 1546.