A-Z Database

A-Z Database

All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Mean business

To mean business is to be serious or earnest in intent or determined to take positive action about something or other and dates from the mid-19th cent...

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Meat and drink (to me)

When someone says that something is ‘meat and drink to me’ they mean one of two things - either something that gives them intense pleasure or somethin...

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Meat pie

Australian/NewZealand rhyming slang for a try (in rugby), meat pie/try, dates from the late 20th/early 21st century.


Meathead

An ungainly, oafish, loud, obnoxious person, an Americanism first cited from the mid-19th century.


Medium is the message

The medium is the message has become a 20th century aphorism that describes the way that both the content of modern electronic media and the consumpti...

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Mega/Megabucks etc

Mega- as a prefix (meg- before a vowel) derives from the Ancient Greek mega meaning great or large. As a prefix measuring large units its usage dates...

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Melting pot

Melting pots have literally been around from time immemorial, but in the sense of a metaphor for a place where a variety of races, cultures, or indivi...

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Mensch

An honourable person of integrity; dates from the early 20th century and is of Yiddish/German origin, where mentsh means man.


Mental

Mental has come to mean mad, crazy, or angry, as in 'to go mental', which is usually used in the figurative sense, as opposed to describing a certifia...

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Meritocracy

Government or the holding of power by people selected according to merit, was coined by Michael Young, British politician and sociologist, in his essa...

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Merry dance

see Lead someone a merry dance


Merry way

see Go on one's merry way


Method in madness

A warning from Shakespeare not to discount behaviour that might appear mad because sometimes there may be reason or truth behind it comes from Hamlet...

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Mettle

see On one’s mettle


Mexican standoff

A pointless, inconclusive situation where no one can win, an American expression that dates from the late 19th century. Mexican is used in many Americ...

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