‘to put (something) where the monkey put(s) the nuts’
UK—1879 “where the monkey put the shells”—1892 “where the monkey put the nuts”—with reference to the anus, this slang phrase expresses contemptuous rejection
Read MoreYear: 2020
‘my giddy aunt!’: meaning and origin
UK, 1890—the dated jocular exclamations ‘my giddy aunt!’, ‘my sainted aunt!’, etc., express surprise, consternation, etc.—they are extended forms of the exclamation ‘my aunt!’
Read More‘in the grip of the grape’: meanings and early occurrences
1941 in the sense ‘under the influence of alcohol’—aided by the phonetic similarity of ‘grip’ and ‘grape’, this phrase has, in the course of time, been coined on separate occasions by various persons, independently from one another
Read More‘up to pussy’s bow’: meanings and origin
Australia, 1944—to the greatest possible extent; sated with food—refers to a large floppy bow worn at the neck
Read More‘up to dolly’s wax’: meanings and origin
Australia, 1909—to the greatest possible extent; sated with food—dolls used to have modelled wax heads with a neck shaped so that it could be sewn to a stuffed rag body
Read More‘like a Bondi tram’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1940—means ‘speedily’—refers to the tram service between Sydney, New South Wales, and Bondi Beach, a popular beach located 4 miles east of Sydney city centre
Read More‘Fiji uncle’: meaning and early occurrences
Australia, 1888—defined by Wilkes in A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms (1990) as “An imaginary rich uncle overseas, backing some venture in which the unwary may be persuaded to invest.”
Read More‘paper yabber’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1888—denotes a letter (i.e., a written message)—‘yabber’: as a noun, denotes speech, language, talk; as a verb, means to talk—from an aboriginal stem ‘ya’, meaning to speak
Read Morea theatrical phrase: ‘it will be all right at night’
British English, 1843—The theatrical phrase it will be (or it will come) all right at night (or all right on the night) means the opening night will go well.
Read More‘“Hell!” said the duchess’: meanings and origin
originated (1915) as the jocular beginning, destined to grip the reader’s attention, of a hypothetical novel or short story—soon (1919) came to be also used either without precise meaning or as a jocular exclamation
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