A-Z Database
This British expression means 'with consummate ease, skill or efficiency' and is often used to express a superlative of any kind but the origin is obs...
see Sweet Fanny Adams
Since the early 20th century, the expression, sweet Fanny Adams, from the initials FA, has become sweet FA, which is generally understood in Britain a...
Sweet nothings are whispered endearments or words of affection shared between lovers. It sounds Shakespearean but in fact sweet nothings are of fairly...
Coined in 1957 by Ernest Lehman (1915-2006) a screenwriter who wrote screenplay adaptations for many Hollywood movies, including 'The Sweet Smell of S...
To have a sweet tooth means to be fond of sweet-tasting foods or beverages. The OED maintains the expression is first attested from 1591 but other sou...
Sweetie pie is an American term of endearment that dates from the early 20th century. Sweetie, as the diminutive of sweet, has been around since the 1...
This expression meaning sweet things, not necessarily sweets or candies, for one’s loved one was coined by Shakespeare Hamlet Act V, Scene I, “Sweets...
A swell can mean a stylish, elegant, wealthy person of high social standing and dates in this sense from the late 18th/early 19th century. There it re...
see Sweep the board
Swimmingly means moving smoothly with ease, as a good swimmer might, and this figurative usage dates from the early 17th century. During the 19th cent...
Swing is slang for to hang, as in by the neck, and dates from the early 18th century. To take a swing at i.e. to strike or attempt to strike someone d...
Usually used in the sense of not enough room or space to swing a cat and is generally thought to be a reference to the cat o’ nine tails. Naval shipbo...
To swing the lead means to malinger or shirk work and this usage and meaning dates from the early 20th century. Some sources maintain the origin is na...
This is a shortened version of the fairground proverb, “what you lose on the swings, you’ll gain on the roundabouts” which first came into use during...