A-Z Database
see Square/square deal/square meal etc
see Put the best foot forward
see Cart before the horse
see All sewn up
This catchphrase has passed into the language and has come to epitomise the world of popular music. Most of the lyrics and subject matter of popular m...
Shack meaning a cabin or shanty dwelling dates from the late 19th century, probably a derivation of ramshackle. To shack up with someone, meaning to c...
Shade as in lamp shade dates from the late 18th century. As in to win by a narrow margin dates from the mid-19th century. Shade is also American slang...
American informal for sunglasses dates from the 1950s.
As in expressions like ‘shades of what happened before’, this use of shade means nuances or undertones of similarity and dates from the early 19th cen...
see Beyond/without a shadow of doubt
When used colloquially to mean disreputable, or of dubious character, it dates from the mid-19th century, from the allusion of being dark or shadowy.
Popular British vulgarism for sexual intercourse and according to some sources dates from at least the 16th century. Its first appearance in print is...
Meaning to hurry up or dance is from the late 19th century.
Shamble is an old Anglo-Saxon word for stool or table and by the 1300s it had become a stall or table for the display and selling of meat. By the 1500...
British slang for disorderly or chaotic dates from the late 1960s/early 1970s, a portmanteau word, which derives certainly from shambles and possibly...