A-Z Database
Means to follow or imitate someone’s example, dates from the late 18th/early 19th century and the word book here is used in the metaphorical sense of...
see Nap
Since the late 18th century, slang for urinate, but before this from at least the 1300s was a respectable expression for the same bodily function. See...
see Punt
Take a running jump is an impolite way of telling someone to go away or leave. British informal that dates from the early 20th century.
see Two bites of the apple/cherry
Means to take a liking or fancy to someone or something, an American colloquial expression from the early 19th century derives from the attractive rad...
This expression meaning to use unnecessary measures to tackle small problems is originally American from the mid-19th century, from the obvious allusi...
see Sprat to catch a mackerel
see Centre stage
Means to humble or deflate someone’s excessive ego. There are several variants such as take down a notch, come down a peg or take someone a peg lower....
This expression derives from baseball and dates from the latter half of the 20th century c. 1970, and means that a player takes a pitch on the body in...
see Hats off
see Dose/taste of one’s own medicine
Vulgar slang for urinate dates from the mid-19th century but there is strong evidence that leak meaning to urinate was neither slang nor vulgar from a...