A-Z Database
Get such a fright that one could literally leap out of one’s skin or body, an American metaphor that dates from the early 20th century. See also Play...
To desert from a ship or leave it without permission dates from the late 19th century; used figuratively to leave an organisation or situation in favo...
American slang for sexual intercourse from a crude male perspective dates from the 1960s.
The gun referred to is the starter’s pistol that was first used to start races during the late 19th century and along with trying to beat the gun or b...
Push in front of others in a queue, dates from the mid-20th century. The US equivalent is jump the line.
As in a jumped-up person meaning pretentious and arrogant, dates from the early 19th century, and derives from the allusion of someone jumping or risi...
Jumper as the name of a loose, outer garment dates from the mid-19th century. It has nothing to do with the physical act of jumping. The OED says it p...
This is a curious one because of its apparent misspelling. 'Jumping Jehosphat' is a mild, American expletive that expresses surprise or adulation. It...
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Jungle is a word of Indian origin from the Hindi jangal originally a dry, arid wasteland but in Anglo-Indian usage any wild, overgrown tangled vegetat...
British armed services slang for an Afro-Caribbean person dates from the 1950s.
Originally, in the early 18th century, junk meant a lump or piece of anything. The etymology is uncertain, but the OED ventures it perhaps derives fro...
Junket is an old word for a feast or merry-making and dates from the mid-1500s. As a word for a schoolboy spree, it enjoyed a revival in Britain durin...
US slang for drug addict dates from about 1923, from junk, which was also US slang for narcotics in general in the early 1920s, but is less heard in t...
This familiar expression meaning a deserved outcome or comeuppance is often misspelt as desserts and indeed Just Desserts is the title of a recipe boo...