A-Z Database
This figurative expression for days of inexperienced youth or sometimes better days is pure Shakespeare. They are Cleopatra’s words in Antony and Cleo...
British and Australian slang for an obese, overweight person who typically avoids healthy foods, dates from the 1990s.
This 17th century word meaning remuneration for services rendered has its origin from Roman times and derives from the Latin salarium, which in turn d...
Rhyming slang for snout, which is slang for a cigarette, thus salmon and trout/snout. Salmon and trout is also used to mean stout, a type of beer and...
This phrase from the New Testament is used in a praiseworthy sense to describe people with good basic human qualities. In ancient times, salt was a ve...
To be in the same boat means to be in the same circumstances, predicament, or sharing the same fate, from the obvious allusion that everyone in a boat...
This oxymoron has become popular since the mid-20th century. Same difference actually means no difference. For example, a friend might say to another...
Same old, same old' is an informal way of expressing that one's life and circumstances in general have not changed, and are repeatedly routine and ord...
To sandbag someone is American slang for putting someone in dire or disastrous circumstances. This figurative meaning dates from the late 19th century...
The allusion is to the hourglass filled with sand by which time used to be measured. The history of the hourglass is obscure. Some say it dates back t...
The ubiquitous food snack comprising slices of bread between which a variety of fillings are placed is named after John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandw...
Meaning a fool or simpleton is from the early 19th century and is short for the older and now obsolete expressions ‘sap-skull’ or ‘sap-head’, which da...
Literally, a sapper is one who digs a sap, which is a trench or tunnel. A sapper is a private in the Corps of Royal Engineers, a rank that was first i...
British slang, an abbreviation for sandwich as in, for example, 'a bacon sarnie'. It dates from 1961, according to the OED. For some unknown reason, a...
see Days of the week