A-Z Database
This British working class expression for a weakling or an ineffectual male is thought to have originated in the North of England around the mid-20th...
Its figurative meaning for pre-eminent, important persons or heavyweights dates from the mid-19th century. Charles Dickens used the metaphor in a lett...
More modern version of big gun and dates from c. 1930.
This American expression as in to hit the big time means to ascend the upper echelons of a pursuit or profession e.g. Hollywood stardom, fame etc and...
An important, influential person, an Americanism that dates from the mid-20th century from the analogy of wheels turning, going forward, and making th...
American campus slang for the toilet bowl, more specifically, to be on the big white telephone is to be drunkenly sick in the toilet, dates from the 1...
see See the big/bigger picture
This expression means that one has better, more important things to do and first appears in English as “other fish to fry” in Peter Motteux’s c. 1700-...
A self-opinionated, conceited person, originally an Americanism that dates from the late 19th century.
Important, influential person often used contemptuously dates from the 18th century when important people, aristocracy etc wore powdered wigs. The exp...
The bikini as a two-piece bathing costume for women only came into existence after the Second World War. The word dates from c.1946. Bikini was origin...
see Old Bill
To nuzzle affectionately and whisper endearments dates from 1816 according to the OED but that would be its first appearance in print. Billing and coo...
As in expressions like “that hurt like billy-o” or “he ran like billy-o”, billy-o has become a colloquial way of expressing a superlative or an extrem...
Biltong is South African dried/cured meat, similar to American jerky, and was once a staple food for early Dutch pioneers but now considered a treat o...