A - Z Database
see Move/shift the goalposts
The word shifty dates from the late 16th century when it meant full of moves, expedients or changes. It did not have the derogatory meaning of sly or...
To vacillate or display indecision dates from the late 17th/early 18th century and derives from a fanciful reduplication of ‘shall I?’
A shindig is a noisy dance party, an Americanism that dates from the late 19th century. The origin is obscure. Some source maintain it derives from an...
American slang for a black person dates from the late 19th/early 20th century.
This expression has come to describe people or experiences of a fleeting, inconsequential nature. The source is Longfellow (1807-1882) Tales of a Ways...
Arranged neatly and compactly, as things on board ship should be. Shipshape was more likely to be shipshapen in the late 16th/early 17th century, but...
Australian slang for a male homosexual dates from the 1960s.
see Keep your shirt on
An ancient word from at least c.900 meaning dung or excrement, common to all Teutonic languages. For centuries, it was a perfectly acceptable word but...
Originally, from the 19th century, this low vulgarism described defecation after a period of constipation. From the early 20th century, it had become...
During the 19th century this was slang for the stomach. Only from the early 20th century did it become figurative for an unpleasant person.
An Americanism that describes a very stupid person dates from the early 1970s.
As in does not know shit from Shinola, meaning either very ignorant or very innocent is US military slang from WWII. Shinola is a popular brand of sho...
Slang for the rectum dates from the 19th century but since the early 20th century is more frequently used to describe an unpleasant place.