A-Z Database
Blackleg has become a derogatory term for a strike breaker i.e. a worker willing to work for an employer whose other workers are on strike and this us...
A blacklist as a written record of censure is first recorded from the late 1500s. As a verb, to blacklist someone is first recorded from the early 18t...
At first glance, one would think that this word must have something to do with threatening letters of extortion but this would be far from the truth....
Means persuasive flattery and derives from the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in Ireland. Legend has it that kissing the Blarney Stone endows one wit...
Blast and blasted are expressions of annoyance or frustration that date from the 1500s and are synonyms for damn, damned or spoiled. Blast as in ‘a go...
This expression was coined by American disc jockeys in the 1960s to describe replays of erstwhile hit records. It is not known who actually coined the...
To blaze a trail is to be a pioneer or the first to do something and set an example or standard for others to follow. The expression dates in this fig...
As in expressions like, “Where the blazes did I put my book?” Blazes is simply a euphemism for hell dating from the late 18th/early 19th century. Thus...
Bleeding is a British slang euphemism for the swear word bloody and dates from the mid-19th century. Hence the word bleeder, which means a bloody fool...
A term of endearment, usually directed towards children that dates from the late 19th/early 20th century. It is simply another form of “bless his/her...
The original expression is thought to be God bless you and the practice of blessing someone after a sneeze has been around for a long time, in the Chr...
A blessing in disguise is a good or fortunate outcome from an ostensibly bad or adverse situation, and according to the OED is first cited from 1896.
A blighter is literally one who blights or spoils something. It is a colloquial British word from the late 19th century meaning rogue or rascal, often...
Blighty is British army slang for Britain or home, the word’s origin lies in British rule in India, as bilāyatī, a regional variant of vilāyatī, an Ur...
This expression of surprise or disgust dates from the late 19th century and is a contraction of the very much older oath, “May God blind me”. Sometime...