A-Z Database
Naked here means uncovered, stripped of all concealment and this usage of the word dates from the late 14th/ early 15th century as in a naked sword i....
A namby-pamby is a weak, insipid, spineless person. The expression first appears in 1725 as the title of a poem by Henry Carey (1687-1743). In this po...
To have one's name in lights means to be famous or noted for something or other and dates from the early 1900s. It derives from the days of music hall...
The figurative meaning of mud as something worthless or polluting dates from the 1500s, but this specific construction was first cited in the early 19...
British slang for a silly fool dates from the mid-20th century and is a children’s abbreviation of banana.
To sleep for a short time, usually during the day, derives from an Old English word knappian that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times. See also Catch some...
British army slang for 'enough', 'no more', or often used to describe something that is finished and no longer of any use. It is a corruption of the F...
British slang from the late 19th century for a police informer as in ‘a copper’s nark’. The OED gives its origin as the Romany word, nak, meaning nose...
see Piece of work
Once considered slang but is now Standard English for smart or spruce, as in nattily dressed. It dates from the late 18th century and has etymological...
The nature of the beast is an expression that refers to the usually undesirable inherent or essential quality or character of a person, thing, event,...
Now part of Standard English (in Britain at least) navvy is an abbreviation of navigator and is first attested from the early 19th century. These days...
Elite special operations unit of the US Navy founded in 1961. SEAL is an acronym for SEa, Air and Land.
A primitive species of man, which was first discovered in 1856 in the Neanderthal Valley in Germany.
Language or behaviour that borders on the indecent is sometimes described as a bit close to the bone or knuckle. The 'bone' version dates from the mid...