A-Z Database
A very old proverb meaning to betray confidences first appears in John Heywood Proverbs (1546) indicating that it is very much older.
This was a well-known saying long before Shakespeare used it in Henry IV Part I Act III, Scene I, “While you live, tell the truth and shame the devil!...
As in, a telling remark or a telling blow means effective, forcible or striking and this usage dates from the mid-19th century. It is all that remains...
see Storm in a teacup
The name of the game derives from the Old French tenes, which in its modern French form would be tenez the imperative form of the French verb tenir. I...
Latin for solid ground has been in vogue as a Latin saying since the 1600s.
see All she wrote
see Cookie crumbles
see Absent are always wrong
see Blues
see Fat is in the fire
The catchphrase that came to typify Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. She actually used these words to describe her attitude of resolve in sticking...
see Law is an ass
see Medium is the message
see Mind-boggling