A-Z Database
Ostentatious, showy and generally poor taste, US black origin from the late 1990s and was popularised by the black American rapper BG, Baby Gangsta. I...
Sometimes in the form of ‘blanking’ a mild form of swearing, possibly a euphemism for bloody; dates from the late 19th century.
As in the expression “blithering idiot” which is a colloquial expression from the late 19th century. Blithering derives from blither, which is a varia...
Emerged from the Second World War, a shortening of blitzkrieg, which is German for lightning war, the violent, concentrated, tank-led warfare employed...
Although now part of Standard English for a sustained snowstorm, the word itself is of unknown origin. It first appears in American English during the...
This word is now commonly used to describe a movie or any entertainment event that breaks records in terms of its cost or takings, or both. This meani...
A stupid person dates from the mid-1500s and means wooden head. Only later, from the late 17th century, did it refer to a wooden block resembling a he...
Blog is an abbreviation of weblog, which is the posting information, opinions, etc on the worldwide web, and is first attested from c. 1999.
British slang for a fellow or a chap dates from the mid-19th century and which the OED says derives from Shelta, the Irish travellers’, tinkers’ and g...
Marked by great zeal, determination and violence, as in blood-and-guts movies/novels, blood-and-guts football etc dates from the 1930s. Blood and guts...
Military force rather than diplomacy the phrase is attributed to Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, when he addressed the Prussian House of Dep...
This expression is often used by sports commentators to describe a style of play that has much passion but little skill or finesse. It seems to have f...
see Make one’s blood boil
Usually expressed as a resigned impossibility in expressions like “you cannot get blood from a stone”. This way of expressing the impossible is very o...
Meaning that family ties are the strongest is an old proverb that has been around in many different forms. In German, it has been known since the 12th...