A-Z Database
US slang for alcohol, dates from c. 1940.
see What’s good for the goose is good for the gander
As a noun or adjective meaning impertinent, naughty or cheeky, it has been used figuratively in this way since the early 1500s, derives from the conce...
Rhyming slang for cash, sausage and mash/cash, dates from c. 1870, according to Eric Partridge, and has evolved into the expression not a sausage whic...
Slang/vulgar expression from the late 20th century for vagina. See also Hide the sausage
To save someone’s bacon is to rescue someone from harm. It dates from the mid-1600s when a side of bacon was a precious commodity in a household and w...
This expression has come to be used figuratively as a last-minute rescue from some misfortune. Its origin is from boxing during the 19th century and h...
A rainy day has been a metaphor for hard times or times of misfortune since the late 1500s. Since then, prudent people have been putting money away in...
see Would not say boo to a goose
The slogan of the Society of American florists dates from 1917.
The title of a song by Irving Berlin composed in 1921.
A scallywag is a disreputable fellow, originally an American expression from the early 19th century but anglicised by the mid-1800s. Early citations g...
American slang for a fraudulent scheme or swindle dates from the 1960s and adopted across the rest of the English-speaking world during the 1970s. Its...
Scampi is the plural of scampo the Italian for shrimp or prawn. Strictly speaking, scampi should specifically refer to Dublin Bay Prawns, nephrops nor...
A scapegoat in its current, everyday usage is a person who is blamed or punished for the wrongdoings of others and first makes its appearance in this...