Put one’s head in the lion’s mouth

Put oneself in a potentially dangerous situation or face up to something bravely, derives from circus lion-tamers’ practice of literally putting their...

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Put one’s nose out of joint

see Nose out of joint

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Put one’s skates on

see Get one’s skates on

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Put one’s toe in the water

See Dip / put / stick one’s toe / toes in the water

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Put someone’s lights out

Since the 1600s this was Standard English for to kill or murder someone but from the early 19th century onwards it was considered low or colloquial. T...

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Put someone on the spot

Put someone in a difficult or awkward situation is American and dates from the 1920s.

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Put someone’s nose out of joint

see Nose out of joint

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Put something on the back burner

see Keep something on the back burner

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Put that in your pipe and smoke it

This quaint American expression dates from the early 19th century and is simply a more expressive way of saying ‘take that’ or ‘ponder that’ usually a...

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Put the cart before the horse

see Cart before the horse

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Put the hammer down

To put or drop the hammer down, sometimes with the word ‘down’ omitted, has come to mean to exert maximum pressure or attention to some task or other....

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Put the icing on the cake

see Ice the cake

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Put the mockers on something or someone

see Mockers

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Put the screws on

To exert pressure, to coerce, especially in the sense of extracting a confession or information, dates from the 1600s and derives from thumbscrews, in...

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Put the wood on/over someone

see Have the wood on/over someone

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