‘the night’s (only) a pup’: meaning and origin
colloquial, Australia, 1910—‘the night’s (only) a pup’, or ‘the day’s (only) a pup’, means the night, or the day, is young—refers to ‘pup’ in the sense of a young dog
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‘Malley’s cow’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1951—used of someone who has departed and left no indication of their present whereabouts—purportedly from the story of one Malley, who was told by his boss to hold a cow; on the boss’s return, the cow had disappeared, and Malley said “She’s a goner!”
Read More‘(as) fit as a mallee bull’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1960—very fit and well, in robust health—the image is of a bull strengthened by his living in one of the semi-desert areas of Australia in which the principal vegetation is mallee, i.e., low-growing bushy eucalyptus
Read More‘figures won’t lie, but liars will figure’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1872—the first clause refers to accurate calculations, the second punningly refers to the manipulation of those calculations—based on the figure called chiasmus, i.e., in which the order of words in the first clause is inverted in the second
Read More‘scarlet letter’: meanings and origin
a representation of the letter A in scarlet cloth which Hester Prynne is condemned to wear in The Scarlet Letter (1850), by Nathaniel Hawthorne—soon came to be used figuratively in the sense of a stigma, a mark of infamy
Read More‘to chew nails and spit rust’: meaning and early occurrences
This phrase is applied to someone who is very strong and resilient in the face of hardship or pain. It originated in the USA in 1918; it has been used in British English since 1933.
Read More‘to come up with the rations’: meaning and origin
military slang, derisive—of military medals and decorations: to be awarded automatically, without regard to merit—coined during the First World War
Read More‘Nacht und Nebel’: meanings and origin
the name of a decree issued in Nazi Germany in December 1941, under which individuals suspected of resistance or other underground activities were arrested and deported suddenly and without trace, frequently during the night—by extension: any situation, event, etc., characterised by mystery, obscurity or secrecy
Read Morenotes on ‘slobber-knocker’ and ‘slobber-knock’
USA—‘slobberknocker’ (1967): an American-Football player with a particularly aggressive style of play—from ‘slobber-knock’ (1964): of an American-Football player, to hit with extreme force—the image is of knocking the slobber out of somebody
Read More‘to be all hat and no cattle’: meanings and origin
USA, 1937—to have or cultivate a particular image or reputation which has no basis in reality; to engage in empty talk—now often thought of as referring to Texans, but originally attributed to Native Americans
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