A-Z Database
see Keep/put something on the backburner
Answering back impudently to someone in authority, backchat is thought to be an informal British expression, deriving from the military and dates from...
British slang for diarrhoea dates from the late 19th century. Backdoor has been a euphemism for anus since the 18th century. Hence, 'a gentleman or us...
Today backlog means arrears but this meaning only dates from the early 20th century. Before then, it meant something held in reserve. Going further b...
Sometimes expressed as backs against the wall, this expression is from warfare and dates from the 16th century. It now means any desperate, last ditch...
Bacon is modern, 21st century American slang for the police, a development from pig/ pigs, which dates from the 1960s. See also Bring home the bacon a...
see Rotten apple
American slang for a bad, dangerous person, dates from the 1950s.
The origin of this well-known metaphor for ill feeling, animosity or antipathy between people has its roots in the ancient practice of bloodletting in...
see Good/bad books
see Bad workman always blames his tools
see Tough day at the office
This American expression was given significant prominence when it was used in the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1992 when Buffy says to the one-ar...
Describes a rascal or scoundrel and the expression is British from the late 19th century. Quite why the word ‘hat’ is used in this context remains obs...
A bad news bear is a person who brings bad news or bad luck, an American expression that derives from the 1976 comedy movie The Bad News Bears starrin...