A-Z Database
Traditionally, in the Royal Navy, the day is divided into five four-hour watches and two dogwatches of two hours each. These two shortened dogwatches...
A small, ornamental table mat, usually made of lace, used as protection for fine furniture, dates from the late 17th century and named after a London...
The sweet life was coined by the Italian poet Dante (1265-1321) in his poem The Divine Comedy (Paradiso), “L’esperienza di questa dolce vita” “The exp...
To be in the doldrums is to be miserable or in low spirits and is first attested from 1811. The OED says the origin is obscure but that it was probabl...
A dolly is a very easy catch in cricket and dates from the late 19th century, usually used when such a catch is dropped e.g., “the fielder has dropped...
see Not give a monkey's
see Move a muscle
A modern American idiom that has come to mean, be adequately prepared or equipped for any confrontational situation. The origin is the movie The Untou...
see Change horses in midstream
see Counting chickens
see Crossing bridges
see Cry over spilt milk
see Cut off one’s nose to spite one's face
see Die wondering
An American expression often wrongly attributed to J. K. Kennedy (JFK’s father) simply because it appears in Conversations with Kennedy (1975) by Ben...