A-Z Database
In America, rocks can mean precious stones, ice cubes and, equally precious, testicles. The precious stones connotation is from the late 19th/early 20...
Mad, crazy, insane, an Americanism dates from the late 20th century.
see Make a rod for one’s own back
see Rule with a rod of iron
Roger has been slang for penis since the 1600s, deriving from Old Norse/Germanic words where roger means ‘spear’. As a verb meaning to copulate with a...
see Hit the hay/sack
see Red-carpet treatment
Means to skilfully absorb aggression and deflate a situation. This figurative use dates from the 1950s from an earlier boxing term from the 1940s.
This metaphor for having so much money that one could repeatedly turn over and luxuriate in it dates from the late 1500s. Perhaps the earliest example...
An ancient Greek and Roman proverb first mentioned in the works of Publius Syrus, also referred to as Plublilius Syrus, c. first century BC, Maxim 524...
If spoken words roll or trip off the tongue, it means they come easily, and/or are pleasant to say, i.e. the words flow without effort. The origin is...
A Roman holiday has come to mean a situation or occasion where the enjoyment or profit is at the suffering or expense of others. The expression derive...
This is an old proverb that means important projects need time. Its origin is not known but it first appears in English in John Heywood Proverbs (1546...
Rook meaning to cheat or swindle, or a person who does so, dates from the 16th century and derives from the bird, who like the jackdaw, is known for i...
A rookie meaning a raw recruit or novice was originally a British army colloquialism from the late 19th century, possibly deriving from the word recru...