A-Z Database

A-Z Database

All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Pie-eyed

Extremely drunk or extremely tired from the wide, staring eyes of those afflicted, resembling the tops of pies, dates from the late 19th/early 20th ce...

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Piece of ass

North American slang for a woman as a sexual object, dates from the 1940s.


Piece of cake

An easily accomplished task, an American expression, dates from the 1930s, from the allusion to something that is easy to eat. Although this particula...

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Piece of one’s mind

To give someone a piece of one’s mind is to give frank, severe censure or criticism. The expression dates from latter half of the 16th century.


Piece of piss

British, vulgar variant of piece of cake, an easy, routine task, according to Eric Partridge it is RAF slang from c.1940.


Piece of the action

see Piece/slice of the pie


Piece of work

The most famous instance of this phrase is Shakespeare Hamlet Act II, Scene II, “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in f...

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Piece/slice of the pie

A share of the proceeds or profit, American expression dates from the late 19th century. Its more modern counterpart, piece of the action, dates from...

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Pig in a poke

This idiom usually appears in the form of an injunction 'don't buy a pig in a poke'. Poke is an Old English word from the 13th century for a small bag...

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Pig in clover

see Happy as a pig in clover


Pig in shit

see Happy as a pig in shit


Pig iron

Pig iron, is wrought iron with a high carbon content that comes straight from the furnace in irregular shapes. These shapes are called pigs because th...

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Pig out

To pig out is to indulge oneself and eat lustily, like a pig. It is a fairly modern expression that dates from the 1970s.


Pig’s ear

Rhyming slang for beer, pig’s ear/beer, dates from the late 19th century.


Pig/Pigs

Originally, British slang for the police from the early 19th century but revived more latterly in America from the 1960s. ‘Bacon’ is a more modern Ame...

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