‘to lose the dressing room’: meaning and origin
1993—Used of the coach or manager of a soccer team, the British- and Irish-English phrase ‘to lose the dressing room’ means to lose the players’ respect.
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‘handbags at ten paces’: meaning and origin
UK, 1978—(soccer players) a confrontation that does not lead to serious fighting—based on the cliché ‘pistols at ten paces’—the substitution of ‘pistols’ with ‘handbags’, which evokes women fighting with their handbags, expresses the histrionic character of the confrontation
Read More‘mahogany reef’: meanings and origin
USA, 1924—(jocular, nautical) a bar, i.e., a counter in a pub, restaurant, etc., across which alcoholic drinks are served—also used as the name, or nickname, of an actual drinking establishment—skiers’ corresponding phrase: ‘mahogany ridge’
Read More‘bark mitzvah’: meaning and origin
USA, 1966—a (13th-birthday) party held for a dog—a blend of ‘bark’ (the sharp explosive cry of a dog), and of ‘bar mitzvah’ (the coming-of-age ceremony for a 13-year-old Jewish boy), or ‘bat mitzvah’ (the equivalent ceremony for a Jewish girl)
Read More‘as scarce as rocking-horse manure’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1937—very scarce—‘rocking horse’: a toy horse mounted on rockers or springs for a child to sit on and rock to and fro—this phrase has come to be also used in British English and American English
Read More‘interview without coffee’: meaning and origin
UK, 1990—a British-Army euphemism for a severe reprimand by a senior officer—also, by extension, any ‘dressing-down’
Read More‘to spit the dummy’: meanings and origin
Australia, 1979—to lose one’s temper or composure; to give up contesting or participating—the image is of a baby spitting out its dummy in a tantrum
Read More‘as scarce as pork chops in a Jewish boarding house’ | ‘like a pork chop in a synagogue’
with reference to the Jewish prohibition of the eating of pork—‘as scarce as pork chops in a Jewish boarding house’ (USA, 1907) means ‘extremely rare’—‘like a pork chop in a synagogue’ (USA, 1915) means ‘out of place’; also ‘unwelcome’ or ‘unpopular’
Read More‘flat out like a lizard drinking’: meanings and origin
Australia, 1930—a humorous extended form of ‘flat out’, meaning ‘with the maximum speed or effort’ (apparently with wordplay on ‘flat out’, meaning ‘lying stretched out’)—has occasionally been used in the opposite sense
Read More‘the ant’s pants’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1928—an outstandingly good person or thing—variant of the synonymous jocular expressions, of U.S. origin, based on various parts of animals’ real or fanciful anatomy and other attributes, such as ‘the bee’s knees’ and ‘the cat’s whiskers’
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