A-Z Database
To rub shoulders means to come into contact or make acquaintance with someone. It dates from the mid-17th century from the obvious allusion to physica...
Means to irritate or annoy someone and dates from the late 19th century. The expression derives from rubbing a cat or dog’s fur in the opposite direct...
Rhyming slang for pub (public house), rub-a-dub/pub, dates from the late 19th century. Rub-a-dub-dub is a nonsense expression dating from the late 18t...
Originally American slang for condom that dates from the late 19th century because 19th century condoms were in fact made from rubber (latex condoms w...
To rubberneck is an American colloquial expression that means to look about or stare with over-curiosity and dates from the late 19th/early 20th centu...
Rhyming slang for a curry, Ruby Murray/curry, dates from the early 1960s. Ruby Murray was a popular British singer in the 1950s.
A row, quarrel or disturbance is of American origin from the late 19th century but has now passed into Standard English. The origin remains uncertain...
Ruddy became an inoffensive euphemism for bloody from the late 19th/early 20th century but the original word is Old English from before the 1100s and...
American theatre slang for a wig or hairpiece dates from c. 1940.
Rugger is upper class student slang for rugby and is probably one of the first examples of what lexicographers call ‘The Oxford –er’. Soccer from asso...
Means a rough and ready estimation, measurement or way of working and dates from the 17th century. Therefore, it has nothing whatsoever to do with any...
To rule the roost is to dominate, to be in control and dates in this form from the 18th century. Before this, from at least the early 1500s, the expre...
Means to manage or govern with strict or harsh discipline. The source is the New Testament Revelation 2: 27 “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron...
US slang for a street or gang fight dates from the 1940s.
Rumbled is British informal for being found out or caught out, especially when doing something dubious or illegal. It dates from the late 19th century...