A - Z Database
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations attributes 'gentleman of leisure' and its female corollary to Thorstein Veblen (1827-1929) the American economist and s...
This was the title of a book written by Anita Loos in 1925. It was made into a movie in 1953, starring Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell and Charles Coburn...
A first class university degree, from rhyming slang, Geoff Hurst/first, student witticism from the 1980s. Geoff Hurst scored the winning goal when Eng...
Rhyming slang for draught, George Raft/draught, as in close the door, there’s a bit of a George Raft in here. It dates from the 1950s after the Americ...
To define or rig election districts so as to give one political party more representational seats by concentrating the voting strength of the oppositi...
see Handle
Exhortation to look at or listen to something, American slang dates from the early 20th century.
see Blood from a stone
see Cold feet
Get a move on, get started; its meaning is not a problem but its origin is debatable. For example, the OED dates the expression crack along, meaning t...
see Brass tacks
An Americanism dates from the 1960s, was primarily used by Black American speakers that means the start or beginning. It is derived from the phrase to...
American black slang dates from the 1970s meaning to party or dance.
This expression derives from a figurative use of the word froth as in frothing at the mouth meaning to get agitated and angry, dates from the late 17t...
see Tizz/tizzy