A - Z Database
Originally US slang, an abbreviation of 'dividend', dating from around 1877, meaning a share in something or other. Can also be used as a verb as in...
Hermann Ebbinghaus, the German psychologist, coined this term in 1855, to explain a mathematical graph where the vertical axis measured a person's pro...
When someone says, 'I'm putting my foot down' they are using an expression that could have several meanings depending on the context. If, for example,...
To feel sheepish or to act sheepishly is to feel or act awkwardly in a shy, embarrassed, out of countenance or diffident manner. This usage dates from...
To make ends meet means to live within one's income, and this meaning dates from the late 1600s in the form of 'making both (or two) ends meet'. The o...
If something is described as 'beside the point' or often 'besides the point', it means that it is irrelevant to the point or matter under discussion o...
When this word is used on its own, usually at the beginning of a sentence, it means 'in addition' or 'moreover' and dates from 1588, according to the...
A marked man is one whose actions are carefully watched with suspicion or hostility and dates from 1833, according to the OED.
A marker as in a standard to be attained, dates from the mid 1400s, and the expression 'put or lay down a marker' dates from around the same time.
A put-down in its figurative sense means a snub, as in putting someone in their place. The OED gives a date of origin from 1860, but Google N-Grams sh...
US slang that dates from 1905 for a robbery or a hold-up, where a criminal brandishes a gun and orders the victim to stick up or hold up their hands.
This idiom is a metaphor that describes something bad or unpleasant that appears or happens quite suddenly. The origin is obscure, but it first appear...
This well-known phrase describes British foreign policy following the Napoleonic Wars, and during the rest of the 19th century. It was coined by the C...
A style of energetic swing or jazz dancing that originated in Harlem. New York in the early 1920s. It originated from a similar style of dancing calle...
To have or get the 'jitters' is to feel frightened or nervous and is an American word that was coined circa 1925. Its etymology remains unknown but is...