A-Z Database
Since the 17th and 18th centuries, this word has enjoyed two meanings. Firstly, as in to install a spanking new kitchen, which means a fine, exception...
To put or throw a spanner in the works is to cause a disturbance, just as a spanner would if it were thrown deliberately into the workings of machiner...
South African name for the orange-fleshed cantaloupe melon derives from the Afrikaans Spaanse spek, which means ‘Spanish bacon’. It was so-called when...
see Stand out like a spare prick at a wedding
This ancient concept on childcare appeared in different forms in both Greek and Latin, but with essentially the same meaning, long before it appeared...
Spark or spark off meaning to start, trigger or initiate something dates from the early 20th century, from the obvious allusion of a spark starting a...
British slang expression (some sources say Australian) for dawn, presumably when small birds like sparrows wake up at dawn and pass a little wind. The...
To split open and dress a fowl ready for cooking dates from the late 18th century. The OED maintains the etymology cannot be disassociated with to spi...
This is an extract from the marriage service in The Book of Common Prayer first published in 1549.
see Tell the truth and shame the devil
Said of a person who when spoken about, suddenly appears by coincidence and dates in this sense from the early 20th century, but it has a long history...
This is an ancient proverb, which extols the value of silence over and above the value of spoken words. The concept, but not the actual expression, ap...
To spend a penny is a polite euphemism for to go to the toilet or use the bathroom, and dates from the time when public toilets were coin operated dur...
This odd expression is based on words that individually have long gone out of use in the language. Spick and span meaning smart, trim, and new dates f...
All these expressions are metaphors for divulging or confessing all and, curiously, are all Americanisms that date from the early 20th century. There...