A-Z Database
Late 19th century British slang for a spree or a merry time, a shortened form of bean feast.
To act like a bear with a sore head is to be very gruff and irritable. Since the expression is of American origin and dates from the late 18th/early 1...
This expression is used figuratively to confront danger or adversity head-on without fear. There are two sources, both biblical. The first is from Sam...
To beat about or around the bush was originally a hunting expression that dates from as long ago as the 15th century. By the 17th century, it was also...
An old expression dating from at least the 18th century for a severe beating, which raises black and blue welts on the skin.
see Lick into shape
To gain an advantage over someone by reacting faster. This figurative usage dates from the late 19th century and derives, of course, from the allusion...
Do or say something just before someone else does. This figurative usage dates from the 1920s and derives from boxing where an expert boxer tends to d...
see Knock/beat the stuffing out of someone
This means to win a game or a match by such a wide margin that makes it no contest. The expression has been around since the 17th century and hollow i...
From the mid-18th century, ‘daylights’ was slang for ‘the eyes’. ‘To beat/scare the living daylights out of someone’ means either administer a mercile...
Coined by the American media in the 1950s to describe members of the so-called Beat Generation that evolved out of rock ‘n roll. The Russian suffix wa...
The concept behind this expression, if not the actual words, that beauty is perception rather than objective reality, is very old and can be traced ba...
Inner qualities are equally if not more important than the shallow quality of beauty, according to Bartlett’s Familiar quotations was coined by John D...
The concept of beauty sleep dates from the early to mid-19th century (Merriam-Webster cites 1828) when it was thought that sleep during the hours befo...