A-Z Database
In the sense of to seek out or select someone for adverse attention, dates the 1300s.
To talk to someone in order to get useful information or advice, from the allusion to picking meat from bones, dates from the mid-19th century.
An exhortation or challenge to someone to find fault with something that has just been put forward or promulgated. It dates from the late 19th century...
see Low hanging fruit
In the sense of to pick up a woman or man for sexual purposes, dates from the late 17th century.
In the sense of accelerate or increase the speed, dates from the early 20th century.
In the sense of quickening one’s stride or speeding up a process dates from the late 19th/early 20th century.
see In a pickle
British slang for drunk or intoxicated dates from the early 19th century, sometimes appears as soused, soused and pickled being the same thing. It may...
Picky means choosy or fastidious when it comes to making choices, as in pick and choose. Picky in this sense dates from the late 19th century, and is...
This well-known expression needs no explanation of its meaning but its origin is very interesting. The earliest citation for it is in an address to th...
Originally British slang for to urinate or pass water and dates from the late 18th/early 19th century, perhaps an unconscious blend of piss and puddle...
As in, a piddling amount, piddling here is a perfectly respectable word that means trifling or insignificant and dates from the 1600s. As such, it has...
The OED gives three alternative spellings, pidgin, pigeon, and pidjin. All three refer to a form of simplified English originally spoken by Chinese do...
An empty wish or promise, an unrealistic objective, an American expression dates from the early 20th century from the union song The Preacher and the...