A-Z Database
A walkover is an easy or unopposed victory and dates in this figurative sense from c. 1830. Before this, during the 18th century, the original, litera...
See Looks like a duck, swims like a duck etc.
In the colloquial sense, a wallflower is a shy woman who sits by the wall or the fringes of a dance or party for want of a partner. According to the O...
British slang for beer dates from the early 20th century (the OED gives 1936), rarely heard these days but was popular just before and after WWI; insp...
This is an admonishment to be careful because conversations can sometimes be overheard. The expression dates in this form from the early 1600s but the...
British slang for a fool or simpleton but with connotations of disparagement because a ‘wally’ is usually quite obnoxious. It dates from the 1970s and...
British vulgar slang for masturbate as performed by males, dates in the spoken language from the late 19th century. Despite the word’s popularity and...
This is one of Britain’s finest slang words. It literally means one who masturbates, but now means so much more. It can means twit, wally, berk, prat,...
Well known and often used simile for feeling warm and cosy, dates in this form from the early 19th century, but ‘hot as toast’ is first recorded from...
This is one of the most expressive idioms in the language meaning to suffuse with a warm glow of pleasure. The expression has been around since the mi...
Warts and all, as in the statement, “You have to accept me, warts and all,” means that the speaker is making an appeal for acceptance, inclusive of hi...
To disown or disassociate oneself from a particular state of affairs; the source is the New Testament, Matthew 27:24 when Pontius Pilate literally was...
A disappointing failure this figurative usage dates from the late 19th/early 20th century.
Lacking in colour, animation or vigour this figurative usage dates from the mid-19th century.
Washed up meaning finished, defeated, or a failure, is American and first attested from the 1920s. See also Take a bath and cleaned out. There may be...