A-Z Database
see Like a thief in the night
see Into thin air
see As thin as a rake
By definition, the thin or pointed end of a wedge is the smallest part, hence the meaning of this expression as being hard-done-by, getting the worst...
see Skating/treading/walking on thin ice
An ancient proverb from Roman times, non semper es sunt quae videntur. It first appears in the writings of Phaedrus c. 8 AD.
Unexplained and unnerving sounds heard at night derives from an anonymous Scottish prayer c. 1800, “From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggety beasti...
Nonsense words used when one cannot recall the exact name of a thing or person. They derive from the word ‘thing’. According to the OED, it all starte...
To think outside the box is to think creatively or innovatively outside of accepted norms, and has become something of a cliché these days, especially...
Put on one’s thinking cap is a metaphor for giving something or other due thought or consideration. In this form, it dates from the early 19th century...
To give someone the third degree is to subject them to intense interrogation and the expression is American from the late 19th century. Since The Midd...
Third man is a fielding position in cricket behind the slips and on the boundary. It was so-called because usually a slip was pushed back to this posi...
British student rhyming slang from the late 1980s for a third class university degree, Thora Hird/third, after Dame Thora Hird, the British actress (1...
This figurative expression for a particularly troublesome obstacle or problem is attributed to St Paul, Corinthians II, 12:7, “there was given to me a...
This was what the gladiators used to say in the arena in Roman times and was first recorded by Suetonius in his history Life of Claudius c. AD 70-140....