A-Z Database
To set the cat among pigeons is to cause a disturbance as indeed a cat would if it was put into a dove or pigeon cote. The origin is obscure but someo...
This expression has given rise to many fanciful origins ranging from eastern despots feeding the tongues of their victims to cats, to nautical tales o...
see Make a cat laugh
see Cat on hot bricks
To behave like a cat on hot bricks is to be very nervous, skittish or ill at ease, as a cat would be if walking on hot bricks. The expression dates fr...
see Bee’s knees
This very strange word with its many alternative spellings, beside the three above, including 'cattywampus', 'kittywampus' etc. is of American origin,...
A false stroke in rowing where the oar is put too deep into the water and cannot easily be extracted, as if held there by a large crab, dates from the...
This poetic phrase was coined by John Donne (1571-1631) in Song, Stanza I, “Go, and catch a falling star.”
see Z’s
Take someone unawares as if he or she were napping or sleeping, this figurative usage dates from the 1500s. See Nap for the origin.
The title of Joseph Heller’s satirical American novel published in 1955 about US Army Air Force bomber crews in WWII. The best way to get out of bombi...
To have a tiger by the tail is to be in a very precarious and dangerous situation. The earliest citation for having a tiger by the tail is c.1930 and...
A catchphrase is a phrase caught up and repeated in common everyday speech. According to the OED, it first appeared in print c. 1922. It is derived fr...
see Would not be caught, found, seen dead