‘Flypaper Act’ | ‘to be under, or on, the flypaper’
UK slang, 1906—‘Flypaper Act’: the Prevention of Crimes Act—‘to be under, or on, the flypaper’: to be subject to the Prevention of Crimes Act
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meaning of ‘hit me now with the child in my arms’
Irish-English phrase—first recorded in 1892—used to express pretended fear of, and/or provocation to, a physical attack
Read Moremeanings of ‘to give the cat another goldfish’
USA, 1919—‘spare no expense’—also ‘go all out for it’, ‘hand victory on a platter’, ‘allow yourself more of what you want’ (South Africa)
Read More‘must you stay? can’t you go?’: origin and meanings
UK, 1897—alteration of ‘must you go? can’t you stay?’ in Collections and Recollections, by G. W. E. Russell—originally used in reference to guests’ departure
Read Moremeanings of ‘more holy than righteous’
1) a seemingly devout or respectable person who lacks virtue—2) (with a pun on ‘holey’, i.e., full of holes) jocularly applied to holey things such as clothes
Read More‘God bless the Duke of Argyll’: meaning and origin
UK, 1825—the Scots, allegedly verminous, were said to rub themselves against posts erected by the Duke of Argyll and to bless the Duke when doing so
Read More‘since Pontius was a pilot’: meaning and origin
meaning: ‘for a very long time’—UK, 1944—with a pun on ‘Pilate’, originated in the British Royal Air Force during the Second World War
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘curse you, Red Baron!’
colourful way of railing at someone—USA, 1967—from Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts: Snoopy as a WW1 fighter pilot falls victim to German ace Manfred von Richthofen
Read Morenotes on ‘all fur coats and no knickers’
UK, 1963—ostentatious vulgarity in social life—from the literal sense of a fashionably dressed woman whose appearance covers vulgarity
Read More‘bread always falls with the buttered side down’
USA, 1829—expresses picturesquely the supposed law of nature according to which, for any given situation, the worst of possible outcomes will inevitably occur
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