A-Z Database
see Disc Jockey
Rhyming slang for a lower second university degree, Desmond Tutu/2.2 or two-two, dates from the late 1980s.
A desperado is an outlaw or reckless criminal and derives from the Spanish adjective desperado meaning despairing or without hope. Its first use in En...
Deuced bad luck is often used as an exclamation, usually to describe misfortune or mishap and is perhaps more acceptable to some ears than damnable ba...
Derives from the earlier expression ‘God is in the detail/details’ meaning that finding God, goodness or perfection in some task or project requires t...
Old English proverb from the 16th century meaning that idleness leads to sinfulness.
This saying means 'to hell with anyone who lags behind or comes last' and, of course, no one likes to lag behind or come last in any endeavour. It is...
The allusion here is to some pact with the devil, in the sense of having to pay the devil for services rendered. It is usually used in the form, “Ther...
see Devil to pay
To play devil’s advocate means to plead or argue the opposite case, not necessarily to refute it, but to test its validity. It derives from Medieval L...
A culinary term dates from the late 18th century and refers to food, especially steaks, chops, kidneys etc that have been devilled. Devilled is used f...
This was the title of one of the James Bond novels written by Ian Fleming in 1956, subsequently made into a 1971 movie starring Sean Connery, in which...
In the 16th century, anyone working on a diatribe would be working on a dissertation or a discourse of some kind. It used to be a word with no adverse...
see First dibs
Dice as a verb meaning to race or drive a car dangerously dates from the early 1950s and was originally connected with grand prix racing where drivers...