A - Z Database
Vulgar slang for an obnoxious, objectionable person that dates from the mid-17th century, but became widely used in North America during the 18th cent...
Gunsmiths struggled for centuries to manufacture truly straight gun barrels, and it was only from the mid-1700s that really straight gun barrels were...
To identify or explain something with precision or certainty, often used in the negative, dates from the late 19th century
US colloquial to inform on someone to the police, dates from the late 19th century.
To muck about or muck around is a British colloquial expression that means to act or behave in a pointless, unproductive way, and dates from the late...
To talk to someone in order to get useful information or advice, from the allusion to picking meat from bones, dates from the mid-19th century.
To have or to get cold feet is to experience feelings of apprehension, doubt or reluctance, strong enough to prevent a person from going through with...
Take a running jump is an impolite way of telling someone to go away or leave. British informal that dates from the early 20th century.
An impolite way of telling someone to go away or leave. US informal that dates from the 1940s.
Not to have a bean is to be penniless, and dates from the late 19th century. Bean or beans has been British slang for money since the 1850s.
Bean has been British slang for a guinea since the early 19th century, and then slang for money in general from the 1850s. Not to have a bean is to be...
Not to be able to do something 'for toffee', as in ‘he can’t play tennis for toffee’ is a British colloquialism (the OED says slang) for incompetence,...
Bird brain is US informal for a stupid person, a scatterbrain, a person who lacks the faculties of focus and attention, dates from the 1920s, from the...
Dumb is US colloquial for foolish or stupid, and dates from 1823. Dumb as an ox is a simile for a stupid person that dates from the late 17th/early 18...
Means to be at liberty, without obligations, and dates from the late 17th/early 18th century, from the allusion to birds that can fly to wherever they...