A-Z Database
The actual quotation is, “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” meaning that violent or nefarious actions will reap similar reward...
see High on the hog
see In the lap of luxury
Survive or get by on very little income, appears to be of Australian/New Zealand origin and dates from the 1950s. The expression was later applied to...
The origin of this expression, usually used in the context of there was not a living soul to be seen or don’t tell a living soul, is the Bible, Genesi...
see Life of Reilly/Riley
Rhyming slang for head, loaf of bread/head, dates from the late 19th century, but is now almost Standard English in phrases such as use your loaf.
To idle, dawdle or laze about, hence one who does so, an Americanism that dates from the early 19th century. The OED maintains that it is “probably fr...
A loan shark person is a person who lends money at exorbitant interest rates and is an American expression first attested from the early 20th century....
To become embroiled in an argument or conflict is of American origin from the early 19th century, after the way bulls, stags and other horned animals...
Means the whole thing or the complete package and dates from the early 19th century with the allusion of course to early firearms, which were generall...
A locum is a physician or clergyman standing in temporarily for another. It is an abbreviation of the Latin locum tenens, which means ‘holding the pla...
To be at loggerheads with someone is to be in dispute or conflict and the expression dates from the late 17th century. Tracing it back, in Shakespeare...
Acronym for laugh out loud used mainly in written, digital communications like text messaging and email. The OED found instances of its usage dating f...
Lolly is an abbreviation of lollipop, a form of boiled sweet usually on a stick, and dates from the mid-19th century. Lollipop is first attested from...