A-Z Database
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...
See No room to swing a cat
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...
Derives from sweep, hence to take a swipe is to deliver a sweeping blow with one’s fist or with an oar, a baseball bat or cricket bat and dates from t...
see Turn on
British slang for a fraud or swindle dates from c. 1875. The origin is unknown but is thought to be an abbreviation of swizzle, a corruption of swindl...
A swizzle stick is special cocktail stick for stirring alcoholic drinks dates from the late 19th century. It is now the only existing swizzle, a collo...
If someone says the sword of Damocles is hanging over them or that something or other is hanging over them like the sword of Damocles, it means that s...
To beat or turn swords into ploughshares is to take up peaceful pursuits instead of war; the source is the Bible Isaiah 2:4, “They shall beat their sw...
see zounds
Most people have heard of this sexually transmitted disease but relatively few know that the word was coined in 1530 by an Italian physician and poet,...
Rhyming slang for wig, from syrup of fig/wig, or syrup of figs/wigs, dates from the mid-20th century and has since evolved into a ‘golden syrup’ which...