A-Z Database
see Go on one's merry way
To upset or ruin someone’s chances of success, sometimes to kill. The expression dates from the early 19th century but its origin is unknown. It is, h...
To cook the books is to falsify accounts and the expression is first attested from the mid-20th century, although this figurative use of cook in the s...
Cookie is American for biscuit from the early 18th century and derives from the Dutch Koekje, which means little cake. It is also US informal for a pe...
Slang term, origin unknown from the 1920's in America. Used to underline a failure of an action, or dissapointment in reaching an undesired result, wi...
Cookie jar is American for biscuit barrel. To be caught with one’s hands in the cookie jar is to be caught red-handed doing something wrong, especiall...
The complete expression that is still sometimes heard is, “Now you’re cooking with gas” which dates from the early 20th century. It means making advan...
The figurative, common usage of 'cool' as a general term of approbation is first attested from the late 19th century in Black American slang. Its usag...
The expression, cool as a cucumber, describing someone as calm and unruffled has been around since the 18th century. Cut cucumbers are indeed cool to...
see Cool
To cool one’s heels is to be kept waiting, usually beyond the bounds of accepted courtesy. The original literal meaning was to cool or rest one’s feet...
This has been a popular cliché since the late 19th century according to the OED, which gives a first citation for 1885 when it appeared in a law journ...
Offensive, Southern States American slang for a black person dates from the early 19th century from an abbreviation of raccoon, a black-faced animal p...
An act of reneging or avoiding the issue, an American expression dates from c.1940. See also Cop/copper.
Cop is an abbreviation of copper, slang for a police officer, which dates from the mid-19th century. Copper, as in police officer, derives from the di...