A-Z Database
To rush around like a blue-arsed fly means to be very busy at a hectic pace, usually without purpose or effectiveness. The origin is American, and the...
The current darling or favourite, blue-eyed boy in this context appears to have been coined by P.G. Wodehouse in Damsel in Distress (1919), “He’s the...
The author first came across this phrase in a pub in Exeter, Devon, called The Long Bar during the 1960s, where a blue-plate special was a value-for-m...
Feeling or looking blue or sad dates from the 1500s and from this we have the origin of The Blues, the American music genre that has its roots in the...
see Blue
Originally a short publicity notice, as on the dust cover of a book, but can now refer to any piece of printed matter or writing. It was coined by the...
Rhyming slang for face, boat race/face, dates from the 1960s.
British slang for a shilling since the late 1700s, the exact origin is not known. During the latter half of the 20th century, it has come to mean mone...
Taken together these words constitute a boxing term from the early 19th century for evasive tactics. Bob is an old word from the 14th century for quic...
The origin of ‘Bob’s your uncle’ sparks debates between etymologists to this day. There is no controversy over its meaning, which is ‘everything is pe...
British slang for a police officer, from about 1851, after Robert Peel who founded the police force in 1828. Bobby of course is short for Robert but b...
Chiefly British and Australian informal expression for someone who is excellent and puts on a good, sometimes showy, performance, in any field of ende...
An American expression for short, ankle-length socks as worn by adolescent girls; dates from the early 1940s. Bobbysoxer, which dates from a little la...
see Bobby socks
Bodge is not slang it is merely a variation of botch. Both words mean more or less the same thing i.e. to provide slapdash, makeshift or sub-standard...