A-Z Database
see Tread on someone’s toes
Means to take up a challenge or take action in response to an opportunity or crisis and dates in this sense from the mid-19th century. The expression...
Sterling as in pounds sterling refers to British money but the word sterling on its own is first cited from the late 1400s when it referred specifical...
To stew meaning to be left to suffer the natural consequences of one’s own actions dates in this sense from the mid-17th century. To stew in one’s own...
See Dip / put / stick one’s toe / toes in the water
A stick in the mud is a spoilsport or an overly staid, conservative person and this usage dates from the mid-19th century and derives from the obvious...
Means to take a risk, expose oneself to danger and is American from c. 1920, the neck having been long associated with risk and vulnerability, as in e...
To interfere needlessly into someone else’s affairs or business, dates from the mid-19th century.
A metaphor for adhering to one’s beliefs or convictions and not wavering, dates in this sense from the mid-19th century but long before this it was ob...
Stick to the knitting is an American business adage that means concentrate on one’s core business or on what one knows best and is first cited in this...
US slang that dates from 1905 for a robbery or a hold-up, where a criminal brandishes a gun and orders the victim to stick up or hold up their hands.
see Good stick
Stick or sticks, collective nouns for trees or timber, date from 1748, according to the OED. Sticks referring to masts or yards of sailing ships dates...
To bat on a wet, sticky wicket in cricket meant disaster for the batting side and dates from the late 19th century. Since the 1930s, the expression ha...
This expression has become so definitive of the British phlegmatic character, especially the British military that it comes as a surprise to find that...