A-Z Database
A dash was originally a violent blow as in 'to dash to pieces' or an impetuous, fast movement of some kind, as in 'to dash off', dates in both these s...
Originally a wooden board or a leather strip placed horizontally in front of the driver and passengers of a horse-drawn vehicle to prevent dashes or s...
A dastard is a malicious or cowardly person, and dastardly describes his or her malicious or cowardly behaviour. Both words date from 1552.
A David and Goliath contest is one that seems heavily mismatched, with the implication that the seemingly weaker opponent will triumph. The allusion i...
In seamen’s mythology, Davy Jones’ locker is the bottom of the sea, the resting place of dead mariners but exactly who the original Davy Jones was is...
This expression means too little too late, and is obviously an American expression from the use of the word dollar and dates from the late 19th centur...
The source is the Bible where the day of reckoning is another form of the Day of Judgment, mention of which appears throughout the Bible.
This expression has only been around since the early 20th century and therefore has nothing to do with the window tax imposed by William III in 1696,...
The figurative use daylight in the sense of a perceptible and significant space between two things e.g. between two sports scores or between two runne...
Date from Anglo-Saxon times i.e. prior to the Norman invasion of 1066. Sunday is the day of the sun, Monday is the day of the moon. Tuesday is the day...
The full quotation is, “They are not long, the days of wine and roses.” It derives from the poem Vitae Summa Brevis written by Ernest Dowson in 1896.
The flightless bird, the dodo, from the Portuguese doudo meaning simpleton and now extinct, was last seen on the island of Mauritius during the late 1...
This very old expression has been around since the mid-14th century where it first appears in Pier’s Plowman (1350) and refers to the heavy studded na...
A curious simile because mutton is slaughtered sheep and could not be anything but dead, nevertheless it dates from the late 18th century.
A ball that is out of play or deemed out of play - first known usage according to the OED is 1658.