A-Z Database
To be in a blue funk is to be cowering with fear. To be in a funk, meaning to be afraid, is slang that dates from the mid-18th century, with the inten...
Usually in the form of doing something or other until blue in the face meaning putting in maximum effort to no avail, dates from the early 19th centur...
see Scream blue murder
Means friendly fire, which is probably one of the most evil euphemisms ever coined by the military. It means of course being fired upon accidently by...
Visionary thinking, sometimes with the implication that it is not based in reality dates from the early 20th century, of American origin.
The OED informs us that from 1788, this expression is usually used contemptuously to describe intellectual but pedantic women and yet, somewhat ironic...
‘Light the blue touch-paper and retire to safe distance’ has been the standard safety warning on all fireworks from the late 19th century onwards. Tou...
see Wide/wild blue yonder
To rush around like a blue-arsed fly means to be very busy at a hectic pace, usually without purpose or effectiveness. The origin is American, and the...
The current darling or favourite, blue-eyed boy in this context appears to have been coined by P.G. Wodehouse in Damsel in Distress (1919), “He’s the...
The author first came across this phrase in a pub in Exeter, Devon, called The Long Bar during the 1960s, where a blue-plate special was a value-for-m...
Feeling or looking blue or sad dates from the 1500s and from this we have the origin of The Blues, the American music genre that has its roots in the...
see Blue
Originally a short publicity notice, as on the dust cover of a book, but can now refer to any piece of printed matter or writing. It was coined by the...
Rhyming slang for face, boat race/face, dates from the 1960s.