A-Z Database
see Flat spin
In Britain, this admonishment is to mind one’s manners, whereas in America it can also mean to be alert and on top of one’s form. While the meaning is...
This well-worn phrase is a eulogy to the power of thought over material substance and first made its appearance in English during the mid-18th century...
see Mind one's P's and Q's
A phrase describing something stupendous and wonderful made popular in America and elsewhere during the 1960s deriving from drug culture. A more recen...
Mind boggling and its sister expression the mind boggles derive from the 16th century meaning of boggle meaning to alarm or frighten. We get the words...
Shakespeare’s famous metaphor for the ability to imagine, visualise or remember something was coined in Hamlet Act I, Scene II, “In my mind’s eye, Hor...
According to the OED, the figurative use of the word mine to mean a source of abundant supply dates from 1541, but no citation is given for mine of in...
British slang for female genitalia dates from the 19th century, thought to be of Romany origin. It re-gained popularity as an expression from the 1950...
As new, or like new, first cited from the early 20th century from the allusion to a newly minted coin. A postage stamp in mint condition means unused...
In US law the Miranda rights are the legal requirements of reading the rights to a suspect before arrest and custody. They start with ‘you have the ri...
A hodge-podge, a medley or jumble, dates from the mid-1400s, a reduplication of mash, which is an even older word for a mixture and, more latterly fro...
This expression is usually used in the negative i.e. a person who never misses a trick is someone who is never fooled by trickery. The expression date...
A miss is as good as a mile means that a miss, whether a narrow one or one a mile away, amounts to the same thing i.e. a miss is a miss no matter by h...
To miss the boat is to miss an opportunity, miss the point or meaning or to be late for something and dates from the early 20th century when sea trave...