A-Z Database

A-Z Database

All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
One for the road

A drinking proposition that urges a final drink before the journey home. It was originally a British expression that soon took hold on both sides of t...

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One good turn deserves another

The intrigue here is not the meaning that kindness should be repaid with kindness but rather the origin. It is fist cited as an old English proverb fr...

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One in the eye

Meaning a misfortune, setback, snub or insult dates from the late 19th century. David Cameron, as reported by Sky News 30 July 2012, on hearing that t...

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One man’s meat is another man’s poison

An old proverb that is first cited in English from about the mid-1500s, and means that what is good for one person, may not be so for another. The con...

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One of life’s little ironies

see Life’s little ironies


One over the eight

Intoxicated having had one drink too many is British military slang that dates from the 1920s and refers to eights pints of beer, which today seems a...

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One picture is worth more than a thousand words

see Picture is worth more than a thousand words


One swallow does not make a summer

An ancient proverb, attributed to Aristotle (384-322 BC) that expounds the basic principle of induction, namely that one cannot infer a general rule f...

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One-armed bandit

US slang for a gambling slot machine, dates from the 1930s. The machine always wins and robs more people than it rewards.


One-eyed trouser snake

see Trouser snake


One-horse race

A contest where one entrant or competitor wins easily, and is so superior as if no other entrants or competitors were taking part. The expression is f...

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One-horse town

A very small town of little or no interest, an Americanism that dates from the mid-19th century.


One-night stand

A performance for one night only. In its original theatrical sense, the expression dates from the mid-18th century, in its sexual sense, it dates from...

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One-up, one-upmanship

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,...

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Onion bag

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...

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