A-Z Database
First cited in 1904, scrumpy is West Country dialect for rough, homebrewed cider. The same dialect word also denotes a small, overripe apple from whic...
Underwater swimming and diving using oxygen tanks. Scuba is an acronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus and is first recorded from 19...
A very old word from the 13th century meaning a thin layer of foam or froth that forms on top of a liquid. From there it evolved into a thin layer of...
US slang for condom dates from the 1960s and also US slang for a despicable person dates from the 1970s.
In the sense of wrecked or ruined, e.g. ‘my plans were scuppered’ dates from the late 19th/early 20th century and derives from earlier military slang...
Mainly a US expression meaning gossip or idle chatter; dates in this sense from the late 19th/early 20th century. Originally, from the late 18th/early...
Describes a fundamental, major or considerable change and dates from the 16th century, coined by Shakespeare in The Tempest (1610) where Shakespeare d...
see Navy SEALs
An American expression from the late 19th/early 20th century used to imply that the speaker has no knowledge of some fact or no idea what course to ta...
see Another bite at/of the cherry/apple
see Play second fiddle
A habit or characteristic not exactly innate but so long practised or acquired that it seems so, dates from the 14th century and is an abbreviation of...
see Another string to one’s bow
To have second thoughts is to reconsider or revise an opinion that may have been hurried, hence also the negative 'don't give it a second thought', wh...
This expression dates from the mid-19th century and is a euphemism for whatever a man has in mind to do without being explicit. In America it is somet...