A-Z Database
see For crying out loud
An adverse situation or event that is so bad it can reduce one to tears, dates from the 1600s.
Extremely easy to see or understand, from the allusion to the high transparency of crystal glass, and dates in this figurative sense from at least the...
A snug place or small closet and in this sense dates from the 19th century, but derives of course from a place where cubs or young animals would nestl...
see Off the cuff
This French phrase meaning bottom of the bag passed into English during the 18th century and describes a blind alley, either literally or figuratively...
Now part of men’s formal dinner dress as a sash worn around the waist, dates from the early 17th century, the OED gives the first citation from 1616....
Originally, the female pudenda and the word was inoffensive and in wide usage from at least the early 13th century. At this time, Gropecunte Lane was...
Low term of abuse for an ugly person dates from the late 19th century.
Enamoured of women, low colloquialism dates from the late 18th century.
Tea only started to become popular in Britain during the latter half of the 17th century but now of course it is very much the national drink. After o...
A curate’s egg is something that is partly good but partly bad and therefore not satisfactory. The expression derives from a cartoon in Punch in 1895,...
Curfew derives from the 14th century Old French cuevre feu (modern French couvre feu) literally translated as ‘cover fire’. It was a sort of metal pla...
This expression means that inquisitiveness can often have dangerous consequences. The expression was originally ‘care killed the cat’ when the word ‘c...
A niggardly, churlish, bad tempered person dates from the late 16th century; The OED gives 1577 as the first citation. Despite many attempts to link i...