A-Z Database
British slang for a shilling since the late 1700s, the exact origin is not known. During the latter half of the 20th century, it has come to mean mone...
Taken together these words constitute a boxing term from the early 19th century for evasive tactics. Bob is an old word from the 14th century for quic...
The origin of ‘Bob’s your uncle’ sparks debates between etymologists to this day. There is no controversy over its meaning, which is ‘everything is pe...
British slang for a police officer, from about 1851, after Robert Peel who founded the police force in 1828. Bobby of course is short for Robert but b...
Chiefly British and Australian informal expression for someone who is excellent and puts on a good, sometimes showy, performance, in any field of ende...
An American expression for short, ankle-length socks as worn by adolescent girls; dates from the early 1940s. Bobbysoxer, which dates from a little la...
see Bobby socks
Bodge is not slang it is merely a variation of botch. Both words mean more or less the same thing i.e. to provide slapdash, makeshift or sub-standard...
This word is acknowledged as an etymological mystery. According to the OED, it first appears in 1941 as “an elderly naval officer” and then by 1945 it...
This phrase meaning basic standard with no frills is of British origin and has been prolifically used since the 1980s but no one is quite sure of its...
'To Bogart a joint' is an American expression that means to selfishly keep a joint ( a marijuana cigarette) to oneself rather than share it, and it da...
A bogey in golf, signifies any score over par, dates from the c.1895 and derives from the much older meaning of bogey or bogeyman dating from the earl...
see Brass
see To boldly go where no man has gone before
Although its modern usage is now a rather vulgar synonym for rubbish or nonsense as in, “what a load of bollocks”, this was once a perfectly acceptabl...