A-Z Database
British expression that means money for nothing dates from the First World War when the troops were given cheap, inferior quality jam, which the troop...
Means easy money and dates from the 19th century when rope was big business in the days of sail ships. Sailors would get money for old rope that was n...
Yet another quotation from the Bible, The New Testament, I Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Note that that the original...
see Put your money where your mouth is
Jocular expression for a wealthy person dates from the 17th century.
Street slang for name since the mid-19th century and appears in various spellings, for example, the OED favours monicker, Eric Partridge prefers monak...
British slang for varying amounts of money, from fifty, five hundred to even fifty thousand pounds, presumably because of inflation. It dates from at...
see Have a monkey on one’s back
Describes a task or a mentality that is so basic that even an animal with limited intelligence could accomplish or succeed simply by observing and the...
see Not give a monkey's
This meteorological phenomenon occurs when the sun is shining at the same time as a rain shower. It seems, however, that it is only known as a monkey’...
see Not give a monkey’s
Signifies an indeterminate length of time, approximately seven and a half months actually but the expression is never used literally. It dates from th...
The twelve months of the year, as we know them, derive from the Julian calendar named after Julius Caesar who reformed the Roman calendar in 46 BC Jan...
This is a good example of a perfectly respectable word from The Middle Ages evolving into modern slang. From around the mid-1400s, deriving from Old F...