‘squeaky clean’: meanings and origin
USA, 1938—(of hair) washed and rinsed so clean that it squeaks—by extension: completely clean—figuratively: above criticism, beyond reproach
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‘Mr. Plod’: meaning and origin
UK, 1963—‘Mr. Plod’, also ‘P.C. Plod’, ‘Plod’: a humorous or mildly derogatory appellation for a policeman or for the police—alludes to ‘Mr. Plod’, the name of the policeman in stories by the English author of children’s fiction Enid Blyton
Read More‘a spare tyre around the waistline’: meaning and origin
USA, 1929—UK, 1933—in the phrase ‘a spare tyre around the waistline’, and its variants, the noun ‘spare tyre’ denotes a roll of fat
Read More‘bimbette’: meaning and origin
USA, 1978—a young woman or teenage girl who is regarded as sexually attractive, but unintelligent or frivolous—from ‘bimbo’ and the suffix ‘-ette’
Read More‘Vatican roulette’: meaning and origin
USA, 1957—the rhythm method of birth control, as permitted by the Roman Catholic Church—with allusion to the unpredictable efficacy of this contraceptive method: from ‘Vatican’, denoting the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and ‘Russian roulette’
Read More‘short-arm inspection’: meaning and origin
USA, 1917—originally and chiefly military slang—an inspection of the penis for venereal disease or other infection—the image is of the penis as an additional, but shorter, limb
Read More‘unshirted hell’: meaning and origin
‘serious trouble’—USA, 1866—from the image of taking off one’s shirt before getting into a fight, and from ‘hell’ in the sense of ‘a severe reprimand’, as in ‘to give someone hell’
Read More‘gobsmacked’: meaning and origin
‘flabbergasted’, ‘astounded’—1925, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, north-eastern England—in reference to the shock effect of being struck in the mouth, from the noun ‘gob’, denoting ‘the mouth’, and the adjective ‘smacked’, meaning ‘struck’
Read More‘caught in the headlights’: meanings and origin
used of a person who is frozen with fright or surprise, or is trying to flee, as a result of suddenly becoming the focus of attention—alludes to the habit of deer and rabbits of stopping still when dazzled by the headlights of a motor vehicle, or of running away within the headlight beam
Read More‘like the back (end) of a bus’: meaning and origin
UK, 1934—used of a person regarded as physically unattractive or sexually undesirable
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