A-Z Database
To stop talking or keep quiet about something dates from the mid-19th century.
To buttonhole someone is to detain them in conversation against their will and dates from the late 19th century. Before this, it was ‘button-hold’ in...
British slang that dates from the mid-19th century for a page or hotel attendant, from the numerous jacket buttons on tunics or uniforms worn by such.
Originally, Liverpool slang for buttered bread dates from the late 19th century but, in more recent times, spread throughout the North and much of Bri...
see Bought/sold a pup
see For a song
see Bought the farm
Buzz is a busy little word. Buzz meaning a busy rumour dates from the early 1600s but made a revival in America in the 1950s when it took on the meani...
see By/to/within a hair’s breadth/whisker
see Not by a long chalk
see Not by a long shot
see Streets ahead
see By/to/within a hair’s breadth/whisker
Certainly or for sure, dates from the 15th century where means signifies methods. Thus, if something can be done by any manner or sort of method, it s...
In the 1400s, by and by meant a succession of things or events, one by one or one after another but by the 16th century it came to mean before long or...