A - Z Database

A - Z Database

Corridors of power

This expression refers to the higher echelons of government and administration with undertones of intrigue and covert influence, to wit confidential d...

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Corridor of uncertainty

This expression has become much loved by cricket commentators in the 21st century and describes a notional area on or just outside the off-stump, in w...

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Cost an arm and a leg

see Arm and a leg


Cottaging

British homosexual slang dates from the 1950s for making contact through soliciting in public toilets, which euphemistically resembled cottages. Cotta...

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Cotton on

To cotton on is to understand or realise that something is the case and this particular usage dates from the early 20th century. The OED gives several...

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Cotton socks

see Bless his/her cotton socks


Couch potato

American informal for a lazy, television addict, from the allusion of being a vegetable that almost never leaves the couch in front of the television....

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Couldn’t give a continental

see Not give/worth a continental


Couldn’t give a fig

see Not give a fig


Couldn’t give a flying fuck

see Not give a flying fuck


Couldn’t give a monkey’s

see Not give a monkey’s


Couldn’t give a toss

see Toss


Could not sleep a wink

see Wink of sleep


Count me in/out

‘Count me in’ or ‘count me out’ are exhortations to include or exclude the speaker from some endeavour or other and are first cited in America from th...

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Count your blessings

This is an everyday saying taken very much for granted these days, but it was coined in a hymn entitled Count Your Blessings by an American, Johnson O...

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