A-Z Database
To champ at the bit is to be eager and impatient to start something or other, and dates in this figurative sense from the mid-1600s. It obviously allu...
Take a chance or take a calculated risk, this British expression dates from the late 19th century and there are at least three theories about its orig...
An informal UK expression usually said when something is wished for or postulated but is unlikely to happen. For example, the statement, “I would hate...
The figurative meaning of this old nautical term indicating a change of conduct, argument, strategy or action, as opposed to its original meaning of c...
To change one’s tune means to change one’s mind, story or argument and dates in this figurative sense from the early 1500s.
This expression is usually used in the negative i.e. don’t change horses in midstream and is a warning not to alter one’s tactics while in the middle...
Colloquial expression for a fellow or a lad since the 18th century but derives from a much older English word chapman, which in The Middle Ages meant...
This phrase was originally the exact reference to a passage of scripture in the Bible but by the early 1600s was being used figuratively to refer to a...
see Charwoman
British rhyming slang for ‘horse’, Charing Cross/horse, because Cockney Londoners pronounce the word cross as ‘crorse’, which rhymes with ‘horse’. It...
In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah was carried into heaven by a chariot of fire. “Chariots of Fire” was also the title of a famous British film...
This aphorism that kindly, caring principles and behaviour should have root in one’s home life before being extended to the world is attributed by mos...
British informal, prevalent among schoolchildren since c. 1945, indicating that a girl’s slip or petticoat is showing beneath the hem of the skirt. Th...
A right Charlie or a proper Charlie is British slang for a fool or idiot and dates from around the 1930s. There are three theories about its origin, a...
To lead a charmed life is to enjoy a period of good fortune as if by means of a charm or spell. The expression was coined by Shakespeare in Macbeth (1...