A-Z Database
To have carte blanche means to have full discretionary power and dates in this sense from the mid-18th century, borrowed from the French carte blanche...
This phrase describing a business or a brand with high market share in a stable market and so delivering a regular source of income was coined by mana...
see Pay on the nail/pay cash on the nail
Both spellings caster and castor are acceptable with the OED favouring castor, but why is it called castor sugar? For the simple reason that the sugar...
This expression means daydreaming or wasting time on pipe dreams. The expression was originally French from the 13th century and first appeared in Jea...
As in cool cat or hep cat is American jazz slang that dates from the 1920s.
To set the cat among pigeons is to cause a disturbance as indeed a cat would if it was put into a dove or pigeon cote. The origin is obscure but someo...
This expression has given rise to many fanciful origins ranging from eastern despots feeding the tongues of their victims to cats, to nautical tales o...
see Make a cat laugh
see Cat on hot bricks
To behave like a cat on hot bricks is to be very nervous, skittish or ill at ease, as a cat would be if walking on hot bricks. The expression dates fr...
see Bee’s knees
This very strange word with its many alternative spellings, beside the three above, including 'cattywampus', 'kittywampus' etc. is of American origin,...
A false stroke in rowing where the oar is put too deep into the water and cannot easily be extracted, as if held there by a large crab, dates from the...
This poetic phrase was coined by John Donne (1571-1631) in Song, Stanza I, “Go, and catch a falling star.”