A - Z Database
see Bust/busted/bust up
To let something go by the board is to finish with it or let it pass or go, as in to throw overboard. It was originally a nautical expression dating f...
see Cap in hand
see Lead balloon
see Fall down like ninepins
Means to resist to the very end with all one’s vigour and resources; dates from the 18th century in this metaphoric sense, but in its literal sense, w...
Means to pay for oneself, at a restaurant etc, dates from the early 20th century and derives from a slightly earlier Americanism a Dutch treat which m...
American slang expression dating from the 1940s telling someone to mind his or her own business or that they are of no further use and must get lost o...
see For a song
see Gone for a burton
This American expression means all or nothing and derives from gambling where everything is risked on one bet. It was in widespread use from the 1950s...
Take the opportunity or opening as presented is a recent expression from the 1960s but still represents the original meaning of the word gap as a phys...
Make an aggressive, unrestrained attack to secure comprehensive victory, used in this figurative sense since the early 1980s.
see Haywire
see Hell’s bells