A-Z Database
British rhyming slang for ‘horse’, Charing Cross/horse, because Cockney Londoners pronounce the word cross as ‘crorse’, which rhymes with ‘horse’. It...
In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah was carried into heaven by a chariot of fire. “Chariots of Fire” was also the title of a famous British film...
This aphorism that kindly, caring principles and behaviour should have root in one’s home life before being extended to the world is attributed by mos...
British informal, prevalent among schoolchildren since c. 1945, indicating that a girl’s slip or petticoat is showing beneath the hem of the skirt. Th...
A right Charlie or a proper Charlie is British slang for a fool or idiot and dates from around the 1930s. There are three theories about its origin, a...
To lead a charmed life is to enjoy a period of good fortune as if by means of a charm or spell. The expression was coined by Shakespeare in Macbeth (1...
Charwoman is a British term for a domestic servant, a woman hired by the day who does house cleaning and odd jobs around the house. The term dates fro...
see Chit-chat
Today, this word seems to be reserved for male chauvinists, men who denigrate or doubt the abilities of women from a sexist point of view. In its wide...
A term for low class youth is British slang from the early 21st century. The word is thought to derive from Romany chavi meaning child. The Sunday Tel...
This word for a miserly, contemptible person is of American origin from the late 19th century. The word skate in America during the 19th century meant...
Now often means to block or foil but originally refers to the winning move in a game of chess, which goes back in English to The Middle Ages but is mu...
Meaning crowded together, literally cheek by jaw, jowl being on old word for jaw. The expression dates from the 16th century.
From the early 19th century, the cheese was slang for the best, the fashion or the correct thing and some sources ascribe this to the Hindu or Urdu wo...
British military slang for fed up or annoyed dates from mid-20th century. The origin is obscure but probably related to hard cheese meaning hard or ba...