A-Z Database
Be aware of another person’s duplicity dates from the 1400s. To see something through i.e. to complete or finish it dates from about the same time, wh...
see Cookie crumbles
Since the 1980s, this has become a euphemism for cunt, an acronym for C U Next Tuesday.
First appears as a word meaning a back and forth motion rather than an up and down one and dates from the early 1600s. It is thought to derive from a...
see Would not be caught, found, or seen dead
see Carpe diem
To sell someone down the river means to betray, mislead or swindle someone and dates in this sense from the early 20th century. The expression derives...
see For a song
In great demand and selling fast dates from the mid-19th century when freshly baked cakes and pies sold quickly at fairs and markets, as indeed they s...
Dismiss someone summarily and ignominiously as with all his or her belongings dates from the 1500s and was a common expression in the time of Shakespe...
see Flea in the ear
Originally, an American expression for committing someone to prison as in sending someone up for five years and dates from the mid-19th century, becom...
To be ostracised and shunned for some transgression or other dates from the 18th century. Its origin is obscure but common sense suggests it must have...
Means to distinguish between mature professionals and mere novices. The expression is of American origin and dates from the 1930s. It is ascribed by s...
Separate or sort out the good from the not so good, the source is the Bible, Matthew 25: 32, “Ass a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.”