A - Z Database
A colloquial, sporting expression used in baseball or cricket when a pitcher gets hit for several home runs in baseball, or for several boundaries in...
We have purposely left the expression unfinished because there are countless ways of finishing the expression, all of which mean 'better than nothing'...
An ungainly, oafish, loud, obnoxious person, an Americanism first cited from the mid-19th century.
See Coyote ugly
To bite or chew someone's hand off means to be eager or in a hurry to get at, or to do something or other. The allusion is to feeding a hungry dog who...
To bite or chew someone's head off is to berate someone severely, or to snap back angrily. It is first cited from the mid-19th century.
Just as it is always pleasing to find new, genuine first citations for idioms, it is even more pleasing to find new, authentic evidence for their orig...
Long in the tooth is an idiom for old, often used in the context of describing that someone is too old to be engaging in something or other. The expre...
See Bundle
To fall or to land in butter, or a tub of butter, is an expression that means to be lucky or fortunate in the sense of being able to enjoy the finer t...
An adynaton is figure of speech in the form of a hyperbole that expresses an impossibility or an impossible situation. An example of an adynaton is th...
British slang for rainwater, and poor, watery soup. First cited in Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition 1778.
To have second thoughts is to reconsider or revise an opinion that may have been hurried, hence also the negative 'don't give it a second thought', wh...
British rhyming slang for feet, dog's meat/feet, first attested from the early 20th century c. 1913. See also Dog/dogs
Originally an American coinage for the beaten dog in a dog fight, where the beaten dog usually lies under the winning dog. First usage in a dogfightin...