'A Phrase A Week' is a free service - we e-mail an explanation of the origin of a commonly-used English phrase each week.

We research the origins of phrases continuously and publish them in our idioms and phrases section. Here are some recent additions:

Warts and all
As easy as pie
In a cleft stick
Come a cropper
Chip on your shoulder
As happy as...
Tide over
Crop up
Have an inkling
Hedge your bets
An Englishman's home is his castle
In limbo
Jump pn the bandwagon
Graveyard shift
Dressed to the nines
Worth one's salt
A piece of the action
Make no bones about it

archived posts...

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