A-Z Database
Handle, meaning a name or nickname, is an Americanism and dates from the 19th century. To get a handle on something to acquire a basis knowledge or un...
see Treat someone with kid gloves
To win hands down means to win easily and is first cited in the early 19th century from horseracing when a winning jockey would relax his hands downwa...
This means that goodness or success is defined by good or successful acts, and was already an old English saying when first cited in John Ray English...
Meaning to delay, hesitate or hold back and dates in this figurative sense from the late 18th/early 19th century. Before this, to hang fire goes back...
Hang in means to persist with something despite adversity, is originally American and dates from the 1960s.
Hang out means to frequent, stay at a place, or reside, is originally American and dates from the early 19th century.
Call it a day; to finish work, sometimes to retire from work, is originally an American expression that dates from the 19th century. American men were...
A hang-dog look is a furtive, guilty or apologetic expression on someone’s face and dates in this sense from the late 1600s. In those days, a dog refe...
Hang-up as in a psychological fixation is American from the late 1950s, whereas to hang up the phone dates from the early 1900s.
Hang as in to spend time or relax, is American teen slang from the late 1950s. To 'get the hang of something' is also American from c. 1834 meaning to...
As in, hanged if I know, dates from the 16th century, a synonym for damned if I know. Hanged or damned sounds fairly terminal either way.
see Sword of Damocles
see Sword of Damocles
This word for the adverse after-effects of alcohol is owed to the Americans who first began using it in the 1890s, from the allusion to something that...