A-Z Database
see Devil to pay
Fiercely determined, an Americanism that dates from the early 19th century. Its literal meaning is of course hell-bound and is used as a hyperbole for...
This expression has been in use since the early 19th century and variously means at great speed as in to go like hell’s bells or sometimes used as a m...
Hello originally was not a form of greeting but more an expression of surprise and dates in this sense from about 1840 and grew out of earlier cries l...
Disordered haste, a confused state of affairs dates from the late 16th century and is a rhyming jingle like harum-scarum, hurly-burly, etc. The OED sa...
see Um and ah
Domineered by a nagging wife, dates from the late 17th century, although the grooming of the farmyard cock by attentive hens, whence the expression de...
The complete expression is as rare or as scarce as hens’ teeth for the simple reason that hens do not have teeth. It is a jocular Americanism that dat...
see Hip
Like herding cats is a simile that means trying to control an uncontrollable situation based on the fact that cats are independent creatures and resis...
Supposedly Oliver Hardy’s catchphrase in the Laurel and Hardy movies of the 1930s but in reality it is a slight misquotation. He actually said, “Here’...
This famous catchphrase spoken by Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman in the movie Casablanca (1942) was not in the original screenplay, it was simply a...
see Mud in your eye
To be het up is to be sorely vexed or excited about something and American sources date the expression from the early 20th century. The OED on the oth...
This word originates in America from Pennsylvanian German hexe meaning a witch and dates from the mid-19th century. By the early 20th century, it mean...