A-Z Database
Over the top' means excessive, exaggerated or beyond the norms, and derives from the military practice of going over the top of the trenches in WWI. O...
To over-embellish, exaggerate or spoil something dates from the late 20th century and the allusion is to baking where adding too many eggs can spoil t...
see Go overboard
To go beyond accepted norms or standards, derives from sporting contests, shooting etc where a mark defines a position from which the sporting contest...
An obvious conflation that refers to either Oxford or Cambridge universities or both, sometimes to distinguish them from redbrick universities. First...
Rhyming slang for the tube, The London Underground, Oxo cube/tube, dates from the mid-20th century.
An oxymoron is a figure of speech by which contradictory terms are joined together yet still resulting in meaning and relevance. For example, the phra...
see World is my oyster
Meaning to carry as in pack horse dates from the 1890s and is of American origin. “Are you packing?” common in North America meaning, “Are you carryin...
To carry or bear a forceful impact dates from the late 19th century and is of American origin.
British slang for desist or refrain from doing something dates from the 1940s and derives from the earlier sense of packing up i.e. gathering things t...
Pack has been a collective noun for animals, especially dogs, wolves etc, since the 1300s. Extended to playing cards in the 1590s, to ice as in pack i...
see Filled/full to the gunwales/gunnels
Rafters are the sloping beams that support the roof of a house, be it slates, tiles, thatch etc. Packed to the rafters, ceiling or roof are hyperboles...
Meaning something has ceased to work or function dates from the early 20th century from the figurative sense of having gathered one’s things to desist...