A - Z Database
See Looks like a duck, swims like a duck etc.
This saying, which means that things that happen in real life are often more bizarre than anything that could be imagined, has achieved proverbial sta...
American colloquialism for sleep, dates from the late 19th century. Some sources attribute the origin to Hans Christian Anderson who wrote a story, wh...
To have one's name in lights means to be famous or noted for something or other and dates from the early 1900s. It derives from the days of music hall...
This metaphor expresses the fatalistic view that a bullet is about to strike a person, usually with fatal results, and dates from the First World War....
Get out of Dodge is an American colloquial expression meaning that it's time to get out of a dangerous or compromising situation. It dates from the 19...
To two-time is a verb that means to cheat, to betray, or to deceive, sometimes in a romantic or sexual context. It is of American origin and is freque...
The full expression is 'more fun than a barrel (full) of monkeys' and it is originally American from the latter half of the 19th century. The first kn...
An American idiomatic expression that has come to mean questionable, risky, possibly immoral, or even sexually deviant behaviour. The origin is from a...
See Get off on the wrong/right foot
Not reported or not recorded, unofficial, possibly clandestine, shady or even illegal, dates from the mid 1970s.
This expression is usually in the form of the imperative, 'pull your socks up', originally an admonishment to smarten up, probably directed at school...
A catchphrase, usually in the form of an exhortation, encouraging someone to take firmer control of a situation, or reality or life in general. It da...
"This has become an ubiquitous catchphrase that only began to take off in the early 1980s, some years after the singer's premature death in 1977, aged...
"When pigs fly or have wings is an expression or retort that means much the same thing as 'when hell freezes over.' In other words, it emphasises some...