A - Z Database
This famous line is from the 1939 movie Gone with the Wind starring Clark Gable as Rhett Butler and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara. Rhett Butler deli...
A pirate or lawless adventurer who lives off plunder, anglicised during the late 16th century from the Dutch vrijbuiter which means free booty. See al...
A competition, dispute, or brawl, open to all-comers and usually with no rules. Also a chaotic situation, lacking rules and structure, dates from arou...
An uncontrollable descent or decline as in expressions like, “the economy is in free-fall” is thought to derive from the language of early parachuting...
To give free rein is to give people their head and let them do as they wish, as one would with a horse. The expression dates from the 1500s and is the...
One who works at set or hourly rates rather than employed fulltime. It was originally written as two words and was coined by Sir Walter Scott in his n...
see Chinese cut
A passionate sexual kiss with tongues touching or inserted in mouths, the phrase dates from the time of the First World War and reflects the general B...
A hackneyed expression meaning new areas of interest or activity derives from a misquotation from Milton’s Lycidas written in 1638. Milton actually wr...
Slang for condom dates from the mid-19th century because condoms back then were folded like envelopes and were described as French because of the prev...
see Days of the week
There is distinct cynicism in this ancient proverb, namely that friends needing our help suddenly become very friendly indeed. This cynicism, however,...
see Out of one’s wits
Back in the late 19th century, US college students were throwing empty, circular pie tins made by the Frisbie Baking Company of Connecticut. They were...
British slang for a French person, dates from the late 18th century from the allusion to the French habit of eating frogs’ legs.