A-Z Database
see Go on one's merry way
To be or to keep on one's toes means to be ready or alert for some action or purpose. It may derive from foot racing when one toes the starting line a...
To be on one’s beam-end or beam-ends is to be destitute or almost destitute and dates in this figurative sense from the 1830s. The origin is almost ce...
see Jack/Jack Jones
see Last legs
To be on one’s mettle means to be ready and primed to perform at one’s best and the expression dates in this sense from the late 16th century. Mettle...
One can have enough, a lot, too little or too much on one’s plate, meaning on one’s agenda. This figurative allusion to a plate of food dates from 192...
see Tod
Reduced to poverty an American informal expression that dates from the late 18th/early 19th century from the allusion to being reduced to the upper pa...
On song is a British informal expression that dates from the 1960s and means to operate at peak efficiency, most often found in a sporting context, es...
In a state of agonising suspense, the expression dates from the mid-18th century but is preceded by an earlier expression ‘on tenters’ meaning the sam...
see Keep/put something on the back burner.
To be on the back foot can mean to hang back, to be on the defensive, or to be unprepared, while to be on the front foot means the opposite. When the...
This American expression dates from the early 20th century. Its origin is baseball where pitchers would put something on the ball to make it swerve an...
Usually used to describe a machine or appliance that is not working properly or perhaps not working at all, dates from the late 19th century when prim...