A-Z Database
This figurative expression meaning to curtail one’s expenditure or endure hardship stoically dates from the early 20th century from the obvious allusi...
see Put the screws on
see Until the cows come home
Means wasting time and effort with imaginary obstacles and first appears in the form of ‘fighting with windmills’ from the mid-17th century. The expre...
see River of time
This is an ancient proverb meaning that man has no control over time or the tidal movements of the world’s oceans, and as such it has existed in many...
This ancient proverb is attributed to the roman poet Terence (c. 190-159 BC), who wrote in Latin, Diem adimere aegritudinem hominibus which means lite...
Time immemorial simply means so long ago that it is beyond memory or record. (It is one of the very few phrases in English where the adjective appears...
see River of time
This well-known expression was coined by Benjamin Franklin in 1748 in his work Advice to a Young Tradesman, “Remember that time is money.”
In this context, the phrase ‘of the essence’ means extremely important. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations maintains the saying itself is anonymous and do...
This expression, in the sense of having excess time at one’s disposal, dates from the late 18th century.
This is a very old aphorism, probably coined by Euripides (485-406 BC) in Aeolus when he wrote, “Time will explain it all.”
Those wishing to show off can say at the next opportunity that Tin Pan Alley is a synecdochism i.e. a grammatical term where a place name becomes syno...
The full form of the expression is something or someone is not worth a tinker’s damn or tinker’s curse or tinker’s cuss. Take your pick. They all mean...