A-Z Database
This expression has only been around since the early 20th century and therefore has nothing to do with the window tax imposed by William III in 1696,...
The figurative use daylight in the sense of a perceptible and significant space between two things e.g. between two sports scores or between two runne...
Date from Anglo-Saxon times i.e. prior to the Norman invasion of 1066. Sunday is the day of the sun, Monday is the day of the moon. Tuesday is the day...
The full quotation is, “They are not long, the days of wine and roses.” It derives from the poem Vitae Summa Brevis written by Ernest Dowson in 1896.
The flightless bird, the dodo, from the Portuguese doudo meaning simpleton and now extinct, was last seen on the island of Mauritius during the late 1...
This very old expression has been around since the mid-14th century where it first appears in Pier’s Plowman (1350) and refers to the heavy studded na...
A curious simile because mutton is slaughtered sheep and could not be anything but dead, nevertheless it dates from the late 18th century.
A ball that is out of play or deemed out of play - first known usage according to the OED is 1658.
These are American colloquial expressions from the early 19th century, now usually referring to a human corpse but originally from hunting.
In the sense of a road or passage without an exit, dates from the late 19th century. In the sense of a dead-end job or pastime, dates from the early 2...
If something is dead in the water it means it is incapable of further progress and dates in this figurative sense from the mid-19th century, but deriv...
A dead letter is originally a statute or law that is no longer observed, dates from the mid-1600s. Later, from c. 1700 it referred to unclaimed mail t...
A handle or switch that stops a train or other machinery if the operator releases it. They are so-called because if solo train drivers or operators we...
A method of estimating the position of a ship and navigating it based purely on calculation i.e. compass direction, speed and time elapsed since the l...
Dead ringer is an American expression dating from the late 19th century meaning an exact duplicate. 'Dead' here is used simply as an intensifier to ad...