A-Z Database
Originally, this adjective was Scottish dialectical for full of loops, twists or turns and therefore deceitful and untrustworthy; in this sense dates...
Describes a dangerous, reckless person, especially in business or politics, the expression is originally American from the late 19th century and makes...
see At a loose end
A loan word derives from the Hindi lūt meaning spoils or booty, also a verb to pillage or plunder, hence a looter, a person who engages in such activi...
British colloquialism for stuck-up, affected people who put on airs and graces, pretending to be upper-class nobility, dates from the late 19th centur...
see Love a duck
British for truck dates from the early 19th century and originally was the name given to a kind of rolling stock consisting of a long flat wagon witho...
To lose face means to be humiliated or lose one’s reputation and originated amongst the British community in China during the late 19th century as a t...
According to the OED, the figurative use of grip, meaning control or mastery of something or other, dates from 1450. 'Lose one's grip' meaning failing...
British slang for lose one’s virginity dates from the late 19th century mostly refers to girls but sometimes includes boys, derives from the supposed...
American colloquialism for throw up or vomit dates from the 1940s.
This is an American expression from the late 19th century meaning to lose one’s sanity or wits. It derives from the allusion of a child losing his or...
To lose one’s rag is to lose one’s temper and seems to be a modern expression i.e. first of the 20th century. It is used on both sides of the Atlantic...
In the sense of to suffer great financial loss dates from the 1930s, and derives from the earlier expression to bet one’s shirt on something, typicall...
see On one’s plate