A - Z Database
As in 'the die is cast', meaning that a crucial and probably irreversible decision has been taken. The most obvious derivation is from the throw or ca...
see Straight as a die
A die-hard is a person or attitude that resists stubbornly to the last, from the literal sense of resisting until death. Thus, people had been dying h...
This catchphrase is usually in the negative form of not to die wondering or the injunction don’t die wondering, which means to get on with whatever it...
Some sources attribute the coining of this phrase to Muhammad Ali in 1966 when describing his repertoire of punches, as was quoted in a US newspaper a...
Dig as in to like or understand something is Black American slang from the 1930s.
To work doggedly and intensively, the expression dates from the 19th century. It can also to eat heartily, a colloquial usage from the late 19th/early...
To adopt a firm, obstinate stance, the expression dates from the 19th century.
This is a very old expression meaning to get oneself into trouble. Its source is the Bible Psalms 7:15, “He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen i...
British slang from the 1970s for an idiot or stupid and foolish person. The origin is obscure. Some say it is an abbreviation of dildo or dilly, while...
In the late 18th/early 19th century, a dilly was a stagecoach. In US slang from c. 1935, dilly was a shortening of delightful and is still used in thi...
Dilly is simply a reduplication of dally, which dates from The Middle Ages and means to loiter or spend time idly. According to the OED, dilly-dally i...
A reduplicated word imitative of course of the sound of bells; dates from the late 16th century. Its figurative use as in a ding-dong battle or contes...
Pronounced derng-is dinges is South African informal for thingummy from the Dutch/Afrikaans ding meaning thing. Like its English counterpart thingummy...
Derives from the Hindi dingi meaning a small boat, typically a rowing boat but can describe a small boat with a single sail, dates in English from the...