A - Z Database
see Song and dance
Means to take opportunities when presented, a very old proverb that alludes to the difficulty of haymaking in wet weather, first listed in John Heywoo...
see Cannot make head or tail of something.
see Heavy going/weather
Used figuratively to annihilate or destroy someone, usually in a contest of some kind, and dates in this sense from the late 17th century. It derives...
see Molehills into mountains
For centuries, bones have been a problem in food, especially fish bones. Thus, from at least the 15th century, and probably before that, bones came to...
In this particular format, the phraseology has only been around since the early 19th century whereas the concept of one’s blood boiling as in getting...
Describes the sensation of fear and is most often attributed to Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels (1726), “Something in their countenance made my fles...
Hackles is an old English word that dates back to the 1400s for the feathers or fur on the neck of cockerels, pigeons, dogs etc, which are raised or e...
This very old metaphor describes extreme fear or frustration. There are two sources. One is the Bible Job 4:15 “Then a spirit passed before my face; t...
see Make one’s flesh/skin creep
To get going, usually in a hurry, originally American from c. 1830, and passed into Standard English from about 1860.
An American idiom meaning to cause trouble or rock the boat, dates from the early 1960s.
see Fair hands