‘like a bandicoot on a burnt ridge’: meaning and origin
1894—in Australian English, the noun ‘bandicoot’, which designates an insectivorous marsupial native to Australia, has been used in numerous similes denoting deprivation or desolation
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‘to piss in someone’s pocket’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1953—to flatter someone or to (seek to) ingratiate oneself with someone, to curry favour with someone—cf. 19th-century British phrase ‘to piss down someone’s back’ (to flatter someone)
Read More‘the Hungry Mile’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1925—a section of Sussex Street, on the Sydney waterfront, along which, in the 1920s and 1930s, unemployed wharf-labourers trudged, waiting to be handpicked for the few available jobs
Read More‘a hatful of arseholes’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1957, as ‘a hatful of bronzas’—used in similes expressing notions such as ugliness and silliness
Read More‘silly as a wheel’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1931—extremely silly—the underlying notion is probably that anything is silly that does all the hard work
Read More‘to dot the i’s and cross the t’s’: meaning and origin
USA, 1820—with reference to cursive writing: to pay attention to every detail, especially when finishing off a task or undertaking; to be accurate and precise
Read More‘glitterati’: meaning and origin
the celebrities of the fashionable literary and show-business world—USA, 1944—blend of ‘glitter’ ((to make) a brilliant appearance or display) and of ‘literati’ (intellectuals)
Read More‘to have a shot in the locker’: meanings and origin
to have something in reserve but ready for use; to have a chance or opportunity remaining—nautical, USA, 1789—‘shot’: a projectile designed for discharge from a firearm—‘locker’: the compartment for keeping ammunition on a ship
Read More‘when the band begins to play’: meaning (and origin?)
UK, 1879—when matters become difficult or serious—of obscure origin—perhaps originally in reference to a music-hall song of that title, interpreted from 1870 onwards by Annie Adams
Read More‘not with a bang but a whimper’: meaning and origin
early 1930s—in an anti-climactic, disappointing way (used of something that comes to an end)—alludes to the last line of The Hollow Men (1925), by T. S. Eliot
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