A-Z Database
To be one up is to be ahead of one’s rivals and derives of course from sports where numbers denote scores. Thus, one could be one goal up in football,...
British slang for the goals used in Association Football, from the allusion that the netting behind the goal resembles the bags typically used for oni...
see Know your onions
This strange word is American slang for lots of something and dates from the latter half of the 19th century, origin unknown, perhaps from the whole c...
These are both nonsense words used to describe things for which one cannot remember the name, like whatyoumacallit. They date from the early 20th cent...
This expression is mostly used as an exclamation to indicate a mistake or mishap and sometimes excitement or exultation. It has been in use since the...
To address or attempt to resolve a complicated issue that is fraught with problems and is therefore best left alone, dates from the early 1950s and is...
An open and shut case is one that is so simple and straightforward as to be a forgone conclusion, originally an American expression from the 1840s.
To present opportunities for advancement as in ‘open door’ policies, policies without restrictions, dates from the mid-19th century.
Hospitality for all is first attested during the early 19th century.
see Pandora’s box
This has come to mean an open door that unfailingly affords access or success in any endeavour and has been used in this metaphorical sense since the...
Remove all restrictions, to unleash a large quantity of something or other in the figurative sense dates from the 15th century.
Taking opportunities as they arise is a very ancient concept and appears in many literary works down the ages but ‘opportunities knock but once’ is fi...
Used as an exclamation of disbelief or to emphasise the veracity or certainty of what one has said, dates in this sense from the mid-18th century. Dur...