A-Z Database
In a risky and isolated position, American expression dates from the late 19th century, presumably alludes to tree climbing.
Since the 1960s is American slang for not paying attention or not attending to the task at hand, from the allusion to taking long lunches off work.
In the sense of completely, totally, thoroughly and is also used as an adjective in the sense of complete or utter, as in an ‘out-and-out’ scoundrel....
see Think outside the box
To strip is now a largely archaic word dating from the 1400s meaning to move quickly. To outstrip means to outrun and leave someone behind and dates f...
To have someone over a barrel is to place him or her in an awkward or compromising situation. This figurative use dates from the late 19th century and...
This is just a way of saying that something or other is really over, finished, the end. Where it comes from, or when, remains a mystery, but there is...
see Haul/drag/rake someone over the coals
Past one’s best and in decline, dates from the early 20th century, built on the analogy of life being like a hill or mountain. When one has reached th...
Over the moon means wildly excited or elated, the source is the anonymous nursery rhyme, Hey Diddle Diddle, which dates from the late 1700s, where the...
Over the top' means excessive, exaggerated or beyond the norms, and derives from the military practice of going over the top of the trenches in WWI. O...
To over-embellish, exaggerate or spoil something dates from the late 20th century and the allusion is to baking where adding too many eggs can spoil t...
see Go overboard
To go beyond accepted norms or standards, derives from sporting contests, shooting etc where a mark defines a position from which the sporting contest...
An obvious conflation that refers to either Oxford or Cambridge universities or both, sometimes to distinguish them from redbrick universities. First...