A - Z Database
see On the wagon
Originally an American expression for crazy or eccentric dates from the late 1960s and probably derives from unexpected shots off the wall in handball...
see Going to hell in a hand basket/handcart
This phrase is attributed to Rudyard Kipling Under the Deodars (1888) “He became an officer and a gentlemen, which is an enviable thing.”
see In the offing
see Dear/dearie me
see My word
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practise to deceive” is the complete quotation from the epic poem Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field (1808) by S...
Rhyming slang for a fag (cigarette), oily rag/fag, dates from the 1930s.
Sometimes spelt 'okay', takes pride of place as the most widely used expression in the English language. For the British, it may come as a surprise if...
Informal, light-hearted versions of OK that date from around 1930.
Here is a trivial pursuit question for you. How old was Methuselah when he died? The answer, according to the Bible, is 969 years. The expression, as...
Most hills are indeed very old and the first reference to this hardly amazing fact is from the Bible, Job 15: 7, “Art thou the first man that was born...
No one knows for sure why London’s Metropolitan Police are called the Old Bill. The police website at www.metpolice.co.uk gives thirteen possible orig...
see Crock