A-Z Database
This is originally an American metaphor, dating from the late 19th century, which means ‘invent the next great thing or come up with a better idea’. I...
see Castles in Spain/in the air
This American slang expression from the early 20th century has spread around the English-speaking world. It was originally a derogatory description fo...
Bull meaning to deceive dates from the 1500s and is thought to derive from the Old French boler or bouler meaning to deceive. It has nothing whatsoeve...
Rhyming slang for a row, bull and cow/row, dates from the mid-19th century and is still in use.
To go at something like a bull at a gate is to behave with uncontrolled impetuosity, rather like a bull trying to smash down a restraining gate. A gre...
see Take the bull by the horns
This expression is used to describe inordinate clumsiness and dates from the early 19th century. It seems to be one of those figurative expressions th...
South African euphemism for bullshit dates from the mid-20th century.
see Bite the bullet
see Fire someone, Get the sack and Give someone the bullet
This metaphor expresses the fatalistic view that a bullet is about to strike a person, usually with fatal results, and dates from the First World War....
Eloquent but baseless rhetoric; originally American slang dates from the early 20th century, from bull meaning to deceive, cheat or fraud that dates b...
Mainly British officers’ catchphrase dates from WWII that gave rise to the jocular Latin version, “Excrementum vincit cerebellum.”
This word originally, from the early 16th century, meant lover, sweetheart or darling and was a general term of endearment for both men and women. The...