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
Down to the wire

When a game or contest of some sort is described as going down to the wire, it means that it is going to be so close that the outcome cannot be foreca...

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Down/Up the swannee

It appears that down the swannee or up the swannee variously spelt 'swanee', 'swannie', or 'swanny', sometimes with one 'n' sometimes with two, are Br...

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Drag

In the sense of a tedious or tiresome person or pastime is American from the early 19th century. In the sense of men dressing in women’s clothing, thi...

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Drag one’s arse/ass

Vulgar form of drag one’s feet from c. 1920.


Drag one’s feet/heels

Metaphor for being slow, lazy or unenthusiastic dates from the early 20th century.


Drag racing

The racing of specialist automobiles over short distances, which started in America just after WWII and is so-called because drag was criminal slang f...

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Drag someone over the coals

see Haul/drag/rake someone over the coals.


Drag someone’s name through the mud/mire

see Name is mud


Drain the lizard/python/snake

Drain the lizard is Australian slang for urinate and was coined by Barry Humphries’ cartoon strip Barry McKenzie in Private Eye magazine during the la...

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Drat/dratted

The seemingly mild exclamation drat has an interesting origin in that since the late 16th century it was used in the form of Od rot, which was a minc...

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Draw a bead on

American colloquial expression from the early 19th century means to take aim. Bead is Kentucky slang for the foresight on a rifle.


Draw a blank (stare)

To get nowhere in some speculative effort derives from lotteries in the 16th century when blank lottery tickets were losing tickets. To draw a blank s...

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Draw a line in the sand

To draw a line in the sand means to set a boundary or limit, beyond which, one will not go and is first attested from the 1950s. There have been some...

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Draw a line under or between something

To draw a line under something is to close something off or end something. To draw a line between things is to separate and distinguish between them....

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Draw a picture

see Paint/draw a picture


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