‘comet wine’ | ‘comet vintage’: meaning and origin
a wine, or a vintage, produced in a year in which a notable comet appeared, and therefore thought to be of superior quality—UK—‘comet wine’ 1817—‘comet vintage’ 1819
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‘sleeping policeman’ | ‘gendarme couché’
a raised band across a road, designed to make motorists reduce their speed—1961—based on the image of a policeman lying asleep in the middle of a road—in early use often with reference to Jamaica
Read More‘to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat’ | ‘to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory’
‘to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat’: to win a battle, contest, etc., when defeat seemed inevitable—‘to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory’: to be defeated in a battle, contest, etc., when victory seemed inevitable
Read More‘flopbuster’: meaning and origin
a film which fails to achieve the commercial success that was expected—UK, 1986—from ‘flop’ (a failure) and ‘-buster’ in ‘blockbuster’ (a film which achieves great commercial success)
Read More‘the university of life’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1854—the experience of life regarded as a means of instruction, in contrast to formal (higher) education—now often used with the implication that life experience is of greater benefit than formal education
Read More‘talking head’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1963—frequently in plural: a person on television who is shown merely speaking, as in a newscast or an interview
Read More‘to drive a coach and horses through something’: meaning and origin
1691—to expose the flaws in something such as a law, a policy, an argument or a belief—these flaws are likened to holes large enough to drive a coach and horses through them
Read More‘blue funk’ (British and Irish usage)
a state of extreme nervousness or dread—UK, mid-19th century—‘blue’ is an intensifier of ‘funk’, denoting a state of extreme nervousness or dread
Read More‘ugly duckling’: meaning and origin
a person or thing, initially ugly or unpromising, that changes into something beautiful or admirable—New Zealand, 1848—from Hans Christian Andersen’s story about a supposed ugly duckling that turns out to be a swan
Read More‘twelve good men and true’: meaning and origin
a jury in a lawcourt—17th century—but the selection of twelve good men and true to form a jury was mentioned in the 16th century
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