A-Z Database
This has been a much sought after delicacy in Chinese cuisine for over 400 years. The nests in question are made from the saliva of two Indonesian spe...
This proverb dates from the 16th century. Early citations in print were often in the form of “birds of a feather fly together” but flock eventually re...
Jocular expression for nakedness, as in ‘the suit’ in which one was born, dates from the early 18th century, c. 1734. It is not known who coined the e...
To take the bit between one’s teeth means to take control of a situation with resolution and determination. This is odd in the sense that if a horse t...
British, possibly Australian, slang for a woman or girl, dates from the early 20th century; the OED cites 1903 as its first usage. Derives possibly fr...
see Another bite at the apple/cherry
Take on more than one can handle. This is an American expression dating from the mid-19th century and derives from the once popular habit of chewing t...
Refrain from speaking out. The expression dates from the 16th century. Shakespeare was fond of the expression and used it in three of his plays. First...
To bite or chew someone's head off is to berate someone severely, or to snap back angrily. It is first cited from the mid-19th century.
To die, American informal dates from the 1970s and derives from a literal interpretation of bite the bullet.
This expression means to steel oneself to perform or finish a task, often unpleasant, that one may have been avoiding or putting off and this figurati...
Although frequently heard in Western movies, the expression is not of American origin. Sometimes found in the form of “kiss the dust” or “lick the dus...
This means to show ingratitude to someone who has helped and sustained you. It has been attributed to John Addison in The Spectator 1711.
To bite or chew someone's hand off means to be eager or in a hurry to get at, or to do something or other. The allusion is to feeding a hungry dog who...
To bite or chew your arm off for something means that one would go to any lengths to achieve a desired objective even at the cost of your arm. The exp...