‘to sit on one’s hands’: meanings and origin
USA, 1878 (of an audience, an assembly, etc.): to withhold, or be sparing of, applause—USA, 1883: to be inactive, to take no action
Read MoreCategory: public affairs
‘very like a whale’: meaning and origin
is used of something that is very improbable—USA, 1768—alludes to Hamlet (Act 3, scene 2), by Shakespeare
Read More‘one might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb’: meaning and origin
if the punishment for a minor wrongdoing is to be the same as for a major one, there is no reason for not committing the greater offence—1678 in a collection of proverbs
Read More‘whingebag’: meaning and origin
a person who habitually complains or whines—UK, 1985—one of the compounds in which the second element ‘bag’ denotes a person displaying the undesirable quality denoted by the first element
Read More‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’: meaning and origin
USA, 1962—if something is successful, effective or not obviously defective, there is no need to change or replace it
Read More‘to burn one’s bridges behind one’: meaning and origin
to commit oneself to a course from which there is no retreat—U.S. politics, 1852—from a military tactic in which an army cuts off its means of retreat by destroying the route by which it might be pursued
Read More‘café-hopping’: original meaning
USA, 1917—the practice of enjoying the nightlife of a city or town by visiting multiple bars and nightclubs
Read More‘the green fairy’: meaning and origin
absinthe—UK, 1882—loan translation from French ‘la fée verte’ (1864)—‘fée’ refers to the potency of absinthe, which induces an altered state of consciousness
Read More‘cafeteria court’: meaning and origin
USA, 1923: a court in which a perpetrator of a minor offence may sentence themself and their fellow offenders—USA, 1925: a court in which a perpetrator of a minor offence may pay a fixed fine without having to stand trial
Read More‘twenty-four carat(s)’: meaning and origin
something or someone that is unalloyed, throughgoing, trustworthy—USA, 1848—refers to gold with the complete purity of twenty-four parts out of twenty-four
Read More
