A-Z Database
See Daggers/daggers drawn
There are many forms and versions of this idiomatic phrasing that describes a simple form of reasoning that has come to be known as 'The Duck Test'. O...
Loony is a slang corruption of lunatic and dates from the late 19th century, just as loony bin is slang for the mental asylum that houses loonies.
Loopholes as small, narrow apertures in the walls of fortifications have been around since the early Middle Ages. The word has been used figuratively...
Originally, this adjective was Scottish dialectical for full of loops, twists or turns and therefore deceitful and untrustworthy; in this sense dates...
Describes a dangerous, reckless person, especially in business or politics, the expression is originally American from the late 19th century and makes...
see At a loose end
To loose or release the shackles, or to say 'the shackles have come off' are figurative uses of shackle, which means that one is free, and can cut loo...
A loan word derives from the Hindi lūt meaning spoils or booty, also a verb to pillage or plunder, hence a looter, a person who engages in such activi...
British colloquialism for stuck-up, affected people who put on airs and graces, pretending to be upper-class nobility, dates from the late 19th centur...
see Love a duck
British for truck dates from the early 19th century and originally was the name given to a kind of rolling stock consisting of a long flat wagon witho...
To lose face means to be humiliated or lose one’s reputation and originated amongst the British community in China during the late 19th century as a t...
According to the OED, the figurative use of grip, meaning control or mastery of something or other, dates from 1450. 'Lose one's grip' meaning failing...
British slang for lose one’s virginity dates from the late 19th century mostly refers to girls but sometimes includes boys, derives from the supposed...