A - Z Database
A stupid person or sometimes rubbish, nonsense or something of little worth, American slang dates from the early 19th century. The British version is...
see Straight from the horse’s mouth
This is a French culinary term that literally means ‘outside or apart from the main work’. In other words, a food dish that is apart from the main cou...
Sometimes appears in the form of not being held hostage to fortune which means refusing to be placed in a compromising or perilous situation. The sour...
see Full of hot air
Earliest citations for this expression describing a state of agitation and anxiety are from the 1920s. Therefore, it may well have been coined by Rudy...
To press the hot button or buttons is to accelerate or fast-forward an issue; an American expression that dates from the early 1960s. It also has sexu...
This famous American snack, a hot, Frankfurter type sausage in a long bread roll has spread all over the world. The name first made its appearance in...
To set a hot or quick pace, to move quickly, dates from the 1400s.
A hot potato is a contentious or controversial issue that one might drop like a hot potato. Both expressions date from the 1850s.
Ready, willing and eager to get going, originally for sex and then later by extension for any activity. It derives from US black jive talk in the 1950...
Annoyance or anger from the uncomfortable heat of anger under one’s collar or around one’s neck, dates from the late 19th/early 20th century.
To be in hot water is to be in trouble, dates from the early 16th century.
Originally, early 1600s, a bed of earth heated by fermenting manure for raising or encouraging plant growth, figurative use and meaning for the rapid...
see In cold blood