‘doesn’t buy (the) groceries’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1911—is applied to an act or activity that brings in no money—is often preceded by the third-person singular pronoun ‘it’
Read MoreCategory: United Kingdom & Ireland
‘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‘Energizer bunny’: meaning and origin
USA, 1990—a persistent or indefatigable person or phenomenon—refers to ‘Energizer Bunny’, the name of a battery-operated toy rabbit represented as never running out of energy, featured from 1988 in a television advertising campaign for batteries
Read More‘cucumber sandwiches on the lawn’: meaning and origin
Since the mid-20th century, with reference to garden tea parties, the phrase ‘cucumber sandwiches on the lawn’ and its variants have been used to characterise traditional Englishness.
Read More‘ignorance is bliss’: meaning and origin
means that, if one is unaware of an unpleasant fact or situation, one cannot be troubled by it—coined by the English poet Thomas Gray in An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, first published in 1747
Read More‘I hope your rabbit dies’: meaning and early occurrences
UK, 1918—a malediction, typically uttered as a parting shot after a quarrel—seems to have originated as one child’s threat to another—the reason the word ‘rabbit’ was chosen is unknown
Read Morenotes on the phrase ‘your head’s on fire’
UK, 1785—has been used to address a red-haired person—sometimes followed by the retort ‘there’s enough water in yours to put it out’ and variants
Read More‘pester power’: meaning and origin
USA, 1979—the children’s ability to pressurise their parents into buying something, or doing something for them, by continuing to ask for it until their parents agree to do it—originally referred to television advertising targeting children
Read More‘to put (something) where the monkey put(s) the nuts’
UK—1879 “where the monkey put the shells”—1892 “where the monkey put the nuts”—with reference to the anus, this slang phrase expresses contemptuous rejection
Read More
