A - Z Database
To bark up the wrong tree is originally an American expression that dates from the early 19th century for any endeavour that has run off course, and...
Since the mid-19th century, barmy is British slang describing a weak-minded idiot. Barm is an Old English word, from before 1150, for the alcoholic sc...
Rhyming slang for hair, Barnet Fair/hair. It is one of the oldest examples of rhyming slang, first recorded in 1857. By 1880, its ‘clipped’ form ‘Barn...
Barney has been British slang for an argument, a fight or trouble in general and dates in this sense from the late 19th/early 20th century. This meani...
This expression is American from the early 19th century and is a combination of barn and the figurative sense of storm as in excitement or commotion....
This informal idiom for fun or jollity is originally American and dates from the early 19th century but its usage soon spread to the rest of the Engli...
This word meaning to mock or jeer an opponent, especially in a sporting context, dates from the late 19th century. Although there is still some contro...
Bash meaning to strike with a blow dates from the 16th century and the OED says it derives from combining the words bang and smash. In the late 19th/e...
Usually occurs in the negative as in did not bat an eye/eyelid, which means to show indifference or lack of reaction. Bat is an old word from the 1400...
Some claim that it can be traced back to Aristophanes The Birds 414 BC. “Then that bat of a Chaerephon came up from hell to drink the camel’s blood.”...
Means holding ones breathing in expectation of something important or dramatic and as such it is one of the most frequently miss-spelt phrases in the...
see Take a bath
The spelling in America would be battle-ax and it is originally American slang from the late 19th/early 20th century for a formidable or domineering w...
Rhyming slang for boozer (pub), battle cruiser/boozer dates from c. 1940. Before this, it was battleship and cruiser then battle and cruiser, which bo...
see Won on the playing fields of Eton