A-Z Database
American slang for overwhelm or inundate dates from the late 19th century from the sense of literally being snowed under. More recently from the 1940s...
see Not a snowball’s chance in hell
see Up to snuff
British informal expression that means to die. It dates from the mid-19th century from the allusion to snuffing out or extinguishing a candle. There i...
This is a metaphor for being wrapped up, warm and cosy, rather like an insect feels when it finds a warm, cosy home in a small carpet. It is first cit...
see Eat a horse
A timeless cliché if ever there was one. Some sources ascribe the original thought to ancient Roman texts but there would be no surprise if it was eve...
An expression that emphasises quietness to such a degree that one could hear something as light and small as a pin fall to floor. It dates from the ea...
Originally, so-and-so meant something unspecified and dates in this sense from the late 1500s. Much later, it became a euphemistic term of abuse and h...
Means mediocre and dates from the early 1500s. Shakespeare defined it in As You Like It (c. 1598) Act V, Scene I, “‘So so’ is good, very good, very ex...
An American expression for a radio or TV series depicting the inter-connected lives of many characters in a sentimental and melodramatic way dates fro...
One supposes that sobriety is the essence of good judgement so it is not surprising that judges should be singled out as epitomes of being sober and h...
Soccer was originally upper class student slang for association football dating from the 1890s. It is amusing that such upper class British slang shou...
This is a relatively recent synonym for the so-called Murphy’s Law. Sod’s Law is first cited in Britain during the late 1960s. Murphy’s Law, of course...
Besides being a piece of lawn or turf, sod is also a British swear word that derives from an abbreviation of Sodomite. When it first appeared in the l...