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- Rugile
- Cat Got Your Tongue. Meaning: Said to someone who remains silent when they are expected to speak. Origin: There are two stories on how this saying came into being.
- The Walls Have Ears. Meaning: Be careful what you say as people may be eavesdropping. Origin: The face Louvre Palace in France was believed to have a network of listening tubes so that it would be possible to hear everything that was said in different rooms.
- Bury The Hatchet. Meaning: End a quarrel or conflict and become friendly. Origin: During negotiations between Puritans and Native Americans men would bury all of their weapons, making them inaccessible.
- Cold Feet. Meaning: Loss of nerve or confidence. Origin: This idiom originates from a military term, warriors who had frozen feet were not able to rush into battle.
The meanings and origins of thousands of English phrases, sayings, idioms, expressions and proverbs that we use daily.
- 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely' - the meaning and origin of this phrase
- The origin of the phrase 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'
- Phrases coined by Shakespeare.
- 'Go pound sand' - the meaning and origin of this phrase
- 'Early to bed and early to rise makes and man healthy, wealthy and wise' - the meaning and origin of this phrase
- 'The bee's knees' - the meaning and origin of this phrase
- 'Familiarity breeds contempt' - the meaning and origin of this phrase
- 'For whom the bell tolls' - the meaning and origin of this phrase
- 'Tilting at windmills' - the meaning and origin of this phrase
- 'Beyond the pale' - the meaning and origin of this phrase
- Fly off the handle. In the days before mass merchandising, poorly fastened axe heads would fly off while they were in use. The result was dangerous, hence why the phrase is used to describe risky behavior with unpredictable results.
- Steal someone’s thunder. In the early 1700s, English dramatist John Dennis invented a device that imitated the sound of thunder for a play he was working on.
- Chew the fat. Originally a sailor’s term, this phrase refers to the days before refrigeration when ships carried food that wouldn’t spoil. One of them was salted pork skin, which consisted largely of fat.
- White elephant. Legend has it, kings of Siam (now Thailand) used to give actual white elephants to people they wanted to punish. Yes, the elephants were valuable and respected, but that also meant they were expensive to take care of, so the kings hoped the present would drive the recipient into financial ruin.
The meanings and origins of thousands of phrases, sayings, proverbs, idioms and expressions.
- Not enough room to swing a cat. A very small space. This is a nautical term and derives from a ‘cat-o-nine-tails’, a whip used to punish sailors onboard ships.
- Rubbing someone up the wrong way. To irritate or annoy. In America in the 16-century, slaves had many tasks to carry out. One was to rub the wooden floors of their master’s houses, first with a wet cloth, then with a dry one.
- Lost your bottle. Cowardly behaviour. You’ll never guess where this phrase originates from. It comes from bare-knuckle fighters in the 20-century and their bottle men.
- Let your hair down. To relax. In Parisian society, it was the done thing to have an elaborate hair-do. These hairdos took hours to achieve so at the end of the evening it was a huge relief to let them down.
But every phrase, saying or proverb starts somewhere, and thanks to the Phrase Finder, we’ve uncovered the (often disputed) authors, meanings and stories behind some of the most commonplace ...
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Jan 7, 2016 · From 'bite the bullet' to 'break the ice' do you know the history behind these idioms and their origins? Find out the fascinating stories behind 30 English idioms and phrases that you use every day.
