A-Z Database
An old, anonymous Latin proverb nunc aut numqam dates in English from the 1500s, possibly before.
see Wink wink
US military slang for nuclear weapon first attested in 1959. The verb, to attack with nuclear weapons, is attested from 1962. Nuke meaning to heat or...
When one’s number is up it means doomed to die, British army slang from WWI, with allusion to a soldier’s military number or dog tag.
This word is perhaps best known in Britain as a cricketing term when batsmen will sometimes nurdle the ball around the ground for ones and twos. Batsm...
see Nut/nuts
Since the 1500s, nut has enjoyed a figurative meaning for a problem and gave rise to the later metaphor tough/hard nut to crack. By the mid-18th centu...
Since about the 1970s, to nutmeg a goalkeeper in Association Football is to score a goal through the goalkeeper’s legs. There are many theories about...
The basic or essential fundamentals of something; dates from the late 1940s.
see In a nutshell
British colloquialism for mad person dates from the late 1950s derives from nuts meaning crazy.