A-Z Database
There is a whole host of proverbs that proclaim that what is good for a man is equally good for a woman and they all date back to The Middle Ages and...
This expression means, ‘what’s going on?’ or ‘what’s happening?’ and derives from the 18th century use of the word pot in the sense of to make or manu...
Bugs Bunny made this catchphrase popular from the Bugs Bunny cartoons and comic strips that started in the late 1930s. The catchphrase itself was firs...
Almost a nonsense word with various spellings, except that it is in fact a compressed form of ‘what you may call it' and describes something, the name...
see Float someone’s boat
This was coined by Shakespeare in King Lear, Act V, Scene III, when Edmund says, “Thou hast spoken right, t’is true; the wheel has come full circle; I...
This expression signifying a complexity of forces or influences is taken from the Bible, Ezekiel 1:16. “As it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.”
Modify one’s behaviour and manners in accordance with local practice. This saying was coined by St Ambrose (c. 340-397 AD) when he wrote, “Si fueris R...
see Crunch
The earliest citation found for this is Fernando De Rojas (c.1465-1538) in La Celestina Act XV, “When one door closes, fortune will usually open anoth...
"When pigs fly or have wings is an expression or retort that means much the same thing as 'when hell freezes over.' In other words, it emphasises some...
When push comes to shove means it is time for more force or commitment to resolve a situation, and is first recorded in America from the late 19th cen...
When the chips are down signifies the critical moment of truth in any situation or endeavour. It is originally an American expression dating from the...
This is a very old English metaphor for a long, indefinite period of time, deriving from the long, slow time that it takes cows to return from the fie...
see Penny drops