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
Stick in the mud

A stick in the mud is a spoilsport or an overly staid, conservative person and this usage dates from the mid-19th century and derives from the obvious...

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Stick one’s neck out

Means to take a risk, expose oneself to danger and is American from c. 1920, the neck having been long associated with risk and vulnerability, as in e...

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Stick one’s nose in

To interfere needlessly into someone else’s affairs or business, dates from the mid-19th century.


Stick to one’s guns

A metaphor for adhering to one’s beliefs or convictions and not wavering, dates in this sense from the mid-19th century but long before this it was ob...

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Stick to the knitting

Stick to the knitting is an American business adage that means concentrate on one’s core business or on what one knows best and is first cited in this...

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Stick, as applied figuratively to people

see Good stick


Sticks

Sticks is early 20th century slang c.1905 for trees. Hence, out in the sticks has come to signify a remote rural area, presumably with a preponderance...

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Sticky wicket

To bat on a wet, sticky wicket in cricket meant disaster for the batting side and dates from the late 19th century. Since the 1930s, the expression ha...

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Stiff upper lip

This expression has become so definitive of the British phlegmatic character, especially the British military that it comes as a surprise to find that...

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Still small voice

see A still small voice


Still waters run deep

This appears to be a very old proverb, possibly from Greek or Roman times, which also appears in Medieval Latin during the 1400s where it was already...

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Sting

A confidence trick designed to cheat or rob someone, slang that dates from the early 19th century, c.1812 according to the OED.


Sting in the tail

A sting in the tail is a metaphor for an unpleasant, problematic and generally unforeseen ending and dates from the early 18th century from the obviou...

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Stinker

General term of abuse for anything obnoxious or objectionable dates from the early 1600s. Stinker, in the sense of a tough question, in exams etc, dat...

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Stinking rich

Extremely and offensively wealthy; this is the American version of filthy rich. It is first cited in America from the 1920s.


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