‘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
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‘to run on fumes’: meanings and origin
of a vehicle or engine: to operate with little or no fuel in the tank (USA, 1952)—hence, of a person or team, originally in sports: to function despite having little or no energy left (USA, 1959)
Read More‘gelotometre’: meaning and origin
a notional laughter gauge—UK, 1828, coined by Walter Savage Landor—from ancient Greek ‘γέλωτ-’(i.e., ‘gélōt-’), meaning laughter, and the suffix ‘-metre’, forming nouns designating measuring instruments
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‘truth or dare’: meaning and origin
USA, 1927—a game in which each participant, in turn, has to either answer truthfully a question put to him or her by one of the other players, or fulfil an alternative requirement put to him or her by one of the other players
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‘to have a canary’: meaning and origin
chiefly Irish—to lose one’s composure, to be extremely upset—UK, 1970—probably a humorous play on ‘to have a coronary’ (i.e., to have a heart attack)
Read More‘to spit feathers’ (to be angry): early occurrences
Australia, 1940 (?)—UK, 1963—origin unknown—either somehow derived from the sense ‘to be parched’ of the phrase ‘to spit feathers’ or a distinct phrase which happens to be identical in form
Read More‘to spit feathers’ (to be parched): origin and early occurrences
USA, 1850—based on the image of a thirsty person whose mouth is so parched that it feels as if it were filled with feathers and that the person thus feels choked
Read More‘ice-cream headache’: meaning and origin
USA, 1892—severe but usually short-lived headache induced by the consumption of very cold food or drink
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