A-Z Database
A sporting tournament, in which all competitors play against one another in turn, dates in this sense form the late 19th century. Before this, as reco...
Mad, crazy, insane dates from the 1600s, derives from bending or twisting something out of true.
see Around the houses
A roundhouse punch in boxing is a wild, swinging punch dates from the late 19th century. The origin is American where roundhouses were the circular bu...
A widespread amorous interest in the opposite sex dates from the 18th century.
see Not worth a hill/row of beans
Royal as an adjective has been used to denote large size or scale since the late 1400s, as in a royal mess or a royal feast etc. From the allusion tha...
British slang for police officer dates from c. 1870. It is thought to derive from the Scottish dialect rooser meaning ‘braggart’ or the Romany roozlo...
Rub of the green is simply a synonym for luck, either good or bad. It is a very old expression, deriving from the game of lawn bowls from the late 16t...
Means to make an already painful experience even more painful and dates from late 19th century when salt was no longer rubbed into wounds as a matter...
To rub shoulders means to come into contact or make acquaintance with someone. It dates from the mid-17th century from the obvious allusion to physica...
Means to irritate or annoy someone and dates from the late 19th century. The expression derives from rubbing a cat or dog’s fur in the opposite direct...
Rhyming slang for pub (public house), rub-a-dub/pub, dates from the late 19th century. Rub-a-dub-dub is a nonsense expression dating from the late 18t...
Originally American slang for condom that dates from the late 19th century because 19th century condoms were in fact made from rubber (latex condoms w...
To rubberneck is an American colloquial expression that means to look about or stare with over-curiosity and dates from the late 19th/early 20th centu...