A-Z Database
As in expressions like ‘shades of what happened before’, this use of shade means nuances or undertones of similarity and dates from the early 19th cen...
see Beyond/without a shadow of doubt
When used colloquially to mean disreputable, or of dubious character, it dates from the mid-19th century, from the allusion of being dark or shadowy.
Popular British vulgarism for sexual intercourse and according to some sources dates from at least the 16th century. Its first appearance in print is...
Meaning to hurry up or dance is from the late 19th century.
Shamble is an old Anglo-Saxon word for stool or table and by the 1300s it had become a stall or table for the display and selling of meat. By the 1500...
British slang for disorderly or chaotic dates from the late 1960s/early 1970s, a portmanteau word, which derives certainly from shambles and possibly...
As in shammy leather, a soft pliable leather made from the skin of Chamois, a European breed of mountain goat/antelope from which shammy is a perverse...
Derives from the Hindi chhampo, which is the imperative form of the Hindi word for press, dates from c. 1762 when shampoo originally meant a rub or a...
Mixture of beer and lemonade or ginger beer and is first cited from the late 19th century as a shortened form of ‘shandygaff’, which dates from a litt...
Shank’s pony is a jocular expression that means on foot, and dates in various forms, ‘shank’s nag’, ‘shank’s mare’ as well as ‘shank’s pony’ from the...
Shape meaning condition i.e. in good/bad shape etc is American from the mid-19th century. See also Get into shape, lick into shape.
Meet the required standards is American from the early 20th century.
This expression is first attested from the mid-1950s and is originally from the US military, an order directed at troublesome personnel to conform, do...
Meaning of course to share equally. The expression originally was share and share like, which is first attested in Richard Edwards’ comedy Damon and P...