A-Z Database
Nobby is slang for smart or elegant and dates, according to the OED, from 1810. Nobby is the slang adjective that derives from the slang noun nob that...
Indicates there is no need to say anymore because no further elaboration or explanation is required. The expression dates from the 1600s but the origi...
Besides its obvious original meaning of an affirmative head movement, it also means to sleep as in to nod off. This latter usage dates from the late 1...
Slight, incomplete, superficial knowledge of someone dates from the early 19th century when first applied to persons who were greeted with no more tha...
The original meaning is a small mug, cup or drinking vessel, dates from c.1630 and is of unknown origin. Towards the end of the same century, it came...
Mild racist South African slang for an African person because dark skin does not reflect light, dates from the late 1980s.
Mild racist British slang for an Afro-Caribbean person because of their supposed aversion to aquatic pastimes, dates from the 1990s.
see U and non-U
It is curious how English throws up little idiosyncrasies where obsolete words only exist in certain idioms; nook and cranny is a prime example. Nook...
British slang for sexual intercourse dates from the late 19th century and probably connected to quiet, shady nooks or corners where such activity migh...
To put someone’s nose out of joint is to dislocate or hurt their feelings and dates in this figurative sense from the 1600s. It can often be just as p...
This expression has many variants. We have been keeping or holding our noses or other people’s to the grindstone since the early 16th century. The all...
This expression for an overly inquisitive and prying person is first recorded in the late 19th century, which puts Matthew Parker, who was Archbishop...
British slang for food dates from the late 1950s and derives from the Yiddish nashn, (Middle High German naschen) meaning to chew or nibble.
A British expression that means a person so described is decidedly unhappy or annoyed about something. It is first attested from the late 1980s/early...