A-Z Database
Bollywood is the popular name given to the Indian film industry that is mainly based in Mumbai. Bollywood is first attested from the 1970s and is a co...
All current uses and connotations of the word bolt come from the projectile that was fired from a crossbow. This was known as a bolt or quarrel. By th...
A bolt from or out of the blue, is a complete surprise, something unexpected. The allusion is to a thunderbolt from a bright blue sky, which of course...
See Bolt
To bomb meaning to move rapidly or at great speed, as in “bombing along” is British slang from the 1950s. Bomb meaning a large sum of money as in “to...
A bone of contention is a problematical issue that needs to be discussed and/or resolved; dates from the mid-16th century. Bones, especially fish bone...
As everyone has experienced, bones, especially fish bones, can be problematical. Therefore, bones have been synonymous with problems or difficulties a...
To bone up is American student slang from the late 19th century, derives from Henry Bohn (1796-1884) the publisher of translations of Greek and Latin...
Means utterly dry; dates from the early 19th century. From at least the 14th century, “to the bone” meant to the very extremity. The literal concept o...
Bone-idle means utterly or extremely lazy; dates from the early 19th century, probably from lazybones, which is very much older, from the late 16th ce...
Bone has been slang for an erect penis since the mid-19th century. Boner is simply a more modern American version of the same phenomenon from the 1950...
To have sexual intercourse dates from the 1970s and thereafter became a vogue word, which appeared liberally in the press and broadcast media. The ori...
Bonkers meaning crazy or mad is British slang from the mid-20th century. It is often used with intensifiers as in “stark raving bonkers”. Its origin i...
see Not say boo to a goose
The first known meaning of ‘boob’ is American from c. 1907 where a ‘boob’ is an awkward, stupid person or a simpleton. In this sense it is an abbrevia...