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
Touch/touching wood

Touching wood is a ritual or superstition for either bringing good luck or warding off bad luck. Despite etymological attempts to link it to the woode...

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Touched

Touched as in the sense of stirred emotionally dates from the 1300s. Touched as in slightly deranged, in the sense that someone has a touch of madness...

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Tough as old boots

A simile for toughness or durability that is often applied to food (meat) as well as people, and has largely replaced the earlier expression 'tough as...

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Tough day at the office

This expression was probably once a literal reference to a troublesome, stressful day at one’s office of work but it was soon adopted as a figurative...

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Tough luck

North American version of hard luck, dates from the late 19th/early 20th century.


Tough shit

Vulgar version of tough luck dates from WWII.


Tough titty

British vulgar version of the American tough luck dates from the 1970s.


Tough/hard nut to crack

A commonplace metaphor for a difficult problem to solve or a difficult situation to overcome; dates from the early 1700s.


Tower of strength

This familiar metaphor for physical and/or moral fortitude was coined in 1591 by Shakespeare in Richard III, Act V, Scene III, “the king’s name is a t...

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Toy boy

Colloquial expression for a young lover, usually of an older woman, dates from the 1980s.


Tracer bullet

see Like a tracer bullet


Trade wind

Some people misconstrue the meaning of trade wind as a wind that facilitates trade as in commerce. First attested from the mid-17th century, trade win...

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Trailblazer

see Blaze a trail


Trailer, movie

An excerpt from a forthcoming feature film is called a trailer because in the early days of the cinema there were always two movie pictures shown: the...

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Trashed

Intoxicated, drunk, an American slang expression that dates from the late 1920s. Trashed meaning destroyed or libelled in the press dates from the 197...

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