A-Z Database
A pig in a poke denotes something that is worthless. Poke is an Old English word from the 13th century for a bag or sack. The injunction is do not buy...
see Happy as a pig in clover
see Happy as a pig in shit
Pig iron, is wrought iron with a high carbon content that comes straight from the furnace in irregular shapes. These shapes are called pigs because th...
To pig out is to indulge oneself and eat lustily, like a pig. It is a fairly modern expression that dates from the 1970s.
Rhyming slang for beer, pig’s ear/beer, dates from the late 19th century.
Originally, British slang for the police from the early 19th century but revived more latterly in America from the 1960s. ‘Bacon’ is a more modern Ame...
Referring to a small, storage compartment in a desk or cabinet, it dates from the late 18th century from the obvious allusion to the holes made for pi...
A piggy bank is a pig-shaped, metal, ceramic, or plastic container with a slit in the back, in which coins can be saved. Piggy banks were first attest...
Piggyback is a corruption of the earlier expression ‘pick-a-back’, which means to carry someone or something on one’s back. Therefore, it really has n...
see From pillar to post
British informal expression for a stupid person, dates from the 16th century derives from ‘pillicock’ an archaic word for penis.
Taking what people say with a pinch or grain of salt implies that they exaggerating or lying and the allusion is that a pinch or grain of salt will ma...
Sometimes spelt pinky is originally Scottish dialect for the little finger, dating from the late 18th/early 19th century. It comes from the Old Dutch...
The verb to pink meaning to stab, pierce or prick dates from the 14th century and comes from the Latin pungere meaning the same thing. Hence, pinking...