A - Z Database
This expression is generally reserved these days to describe a large, hearty meal, which was also known in the early 19th century as a slap-bang meal...
British slang for urinate dates from the 1930s and is thought to be purely echoic.
Originally slang but now has colloquial status, to slate is to criticise or reprimand severely and dates from the 1840s. The origin is obscure but it...
see Take a sledgehammer to crack a nut
Verbal banter used in team sports to unsettle and distract opponents, the word dates from the 1960s and is thought to have originated in Australian cr...
To sleep soundly. This very old simile was most probably inspired by the immobility of a log of wood and dates from the 1600s. Some sources maintain i...
To sleep like a top means to sleep soundly and is an odd expression because children’s tops or spinning toys are hardly so stationary as to seem an ap...
see Wink of sleep
This expression dates from the latter half of the 19th century and simply means sleep well and soundly. Strictly speaking, it should be sleep tightly...
A sleeveless errand is a fruitless quest or a pointless exercise and dates from at least the 14th century. In those days, sleeveless meant futile or i...
see City slicker
Slim in this sense means meagre or slender and means little chance or hope. This usage of slim dates from the mid-17th century. Curiously, it means th...
US slang for a despicable person dating from the1980s.
British slang meaning shove off or go away, usually said to an annoying person, dates from the 19th century, most probably nautical in origin from one...
see Suffer the slings and arrows of misfortune