A-Z Database
This oxymoronic phrase means hardly any comfort at all and first appears in early English alliterative poems during the 14th century, as “cold was his...
There have been many unproven attempts to attribute a naval origin to this expression. There is rather more evidence that the expression is a literal...
Many people say, “You know the old saying, cold hands, warm heart” only it is not that old, dating only from the early 1900s.
If you have cold hands, it is said that you have a warm heart. It simply means what it says. Many people say, “You know the old saying, cold hands, wa...
To view something in the cold light of the day is view it dispassionately and objectively without prejudice. The expression dates from the late 19th c...
To give someone the cold shoulder is turn away from them dismissively. The expression dates from the early 19th century.
This American expression from the early 20th century was first used within the context of alcohol and drug rehabilitation, when going cold turkey was...
see Cold as/colder than a witch’s tit
To make a collar is to arrest or capture and dates, according to the OED, from 1613 i.e. the first citation. The word derives from the Latin collum me...
Sometimes referred to as a touch of the collywobbles, which the OED describes as a pain or looseness in the bowels. The expression dates from the earl...
see Blimp
Common euphemism for sexual climax dates from at least the mid-17th century. As a noun for semen, it dates from the early 20th century; often written...
This metaphor is used to describe both physical and emotional disintegration dates from the early 20th century and derives from a garment that is fall...
If something or other comes back and bites a person, then that person is guilty of saying or doing something in the past that has triggered unfortunat...
This American expression from the late 19th/early 20th century meaning to make full and transparent disclosure, obviously borrows from expressions lik...