A-Z Database
see Live on the smell/sniff of an oil/oily rag
This can be a verb, meaning to inform or to tell tales, or it can be the person that does so. It dates in this sense from the late 18th century and de...
British slang for a kiss or kissing session dates from the late 1930s and is possibly a variant of snug in the sense of snuggling up.
Originally, means the loud exhaling of breath through the nose of a man or animal and dates from mid-14th century. Later, during the 17th century, it...
Originally a person or an animal that snorts i.e. makes a loud, noisy exhaling of breath from the nose. (See also Snort.) This usage dates from the 14...
Royal Navy slang for a midshipman. Dates from the late 19th century, and is thought to derive from the buttons worn on the sleeves of midshipmens' uni...
British slang for cigarette since the late 19th century, originated amongst prison inmates where the touching of one’s nose was a silent request for a...
This expression is so old and so often cited that it is difficult to nail down an exact origin. Suffice to say that the Bible, Chaucer, and Shakespear...
American slang for overwhelm or inundate dates from the late 19th century from the sense of literally being snowed under. More recently from the 1940s...
see Not a snowball’s chance in hell
see Up to snuff
British informal expression that means to die. It dates from the mid-19th century from the allusion to snuffing out or extinguishing a candle. There i...
This is a metaphor for being wrapped up, warm and cosy, rather like an insect feels when it finds a warm, cosy home in a small carpet. It is first cit...
see Eat a horse
A timeless cliché if ever there was one. Some sources ascribe the original thought to ancient Roman texts but there would be no surprise if it was eve...