A-Z Database
Usually in the form of a conversation between two people, an intimate, frank and sincere exchange, dates from the early 19th century, coined by Sir Wa...
If something is a bit Heath Robinson or is a Heath Robinson device, it usually describes an absurdly complicated contraption, especially one that has...
Originally, a nautical expression dates from the 14th century, used communually by sailors at work, pulling up anchors, hauling on sails etc. To give...
To make heavy going or heavy weather of something is to struggle or complicate matter, usually unnecessarily and dates in this figurative sense from t...
see Heavy going/weather
A vogue word that means great or awesome used mainly by adolescents since c. 2000.
Poor old Hector of Troy, once thought of as a hero of the Trojan War and who, according to Homer’s Iliad, was killed in single combat by Achilles. Fro...
To hedge one’s bets is to take protection against potential losses, dates from the latter half of the 1600s. The figurative meaning of hedge as a barr...
This is an American expression dating from the early 1920s for an unpleasant, sometimes scary, negative feeling about something or someone. Its etymol...
American slang for a low, contemptible person dates from the early 20th century and derives from earlier 19th century American slang, ‘heeler’, who wa...
see Hostages to fortune
Flat out, at break-neck speed, dates from the late 19th century and is a hyperbole derived from riding a horse so hard that it is hell or extreme dure...
The actual quotation is, “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” The source is William Congreve The Mou...
see Going to hell in a hand basket/handcart
see Come hell or high water