A-Z Database

A-Z Database

All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Bonkers

Bonkers meaning crazy or mad is British slang from the mid-20th century. It is often used with intensifiers as in “stark raving bonkers”. Its origin i...

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Boo to a goose

see Not say boo to a goose


Boob/boobs

The first known meaning of ‘boob’ is American from c. 1907 where a ‘boob’ is an awkward, stupid person or a simpleton. In this sense it is an abbrevia...

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Booby trap/prize

Since the First World War, a booby trap has come to mean a lethal explosive device triggered by touching or moving a seemingly harmless object. Before...

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Boodle

Boodle is originally American colloquial for a large quantity, especially money with the connotation of graft or illegal money. It dates from the earl...

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Boondocks

This is American slang from the early 20th century for an isolated, remote region, the sticks or the middle of nowhere. It was a word originally picke...

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Boot (a computer)

see Re-boot


Boot (of a motor car)

It is obliquely related to the boot one wears on the feet because from the early 1600s it referred to part of a horse-drawn coach, a sort of running b...

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Bootlegger

A maker or distributor of illicit alcohol, an American expression dates from the late 19th century, so-called because flasks of alcohol were once smug...

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Booty

Plunder or spoils of war, but why is it called booty? Simply because it derives from Old Norse byta meaning to deal out, exchange or share, which of c...

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Booze

‘Booze’, which is slang for alcoholic liquor or to drink heavily is first cited in Middle English during the 14th century, but the spelling was ‘bouse...

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Boracic lint

Boracic lint is a surgical dressing saturated in a solution of boracic acid and glycerine that has been in use since the 19th century it is also rhymi...

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Bored shitless

see Shitless


Born great

see Greatness


Born in a barn

This expression is a catchphrase that is usually shouted to people who leave doors open, usually the form of a question, “Were you born in a barn?” Th...

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