Saved from great danger.
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The Phrase Finder
The meanings and origins of phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions.
Look up any phrase - we'll tell you what it means, where it came from, and how it's been used. 2327+ meanings, 363+ idioms, 10,636+ thesaurus entries.
Meaning of the day
Out of the jaws of death
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153 published notes correcting and extending our entries.
To bite the bullet may have been used literally in antiquity. However, I think its usage, at least historically in America, is that biting the bullet is choosing to put a firearm…
Hi Gary, I enjoyed your page on "one-hit wonder" and wanted to pass along two earlier citations I found while searching the newspaper archive at worldradiohistory.com, both of…
A common version in popular usage in (at least) the British Royal Navy in the 1960s and 70s is the briefer expression "Green Rub", which is used in cases of a hindrance or…
Spotted something we have got wrong, or know an earlier use? Every entry has a form at the foot of the page.
From the Phrase Finder Digest
- The Political Phrases That Say Nothing About Politics
Party conference season fills the air with slogans like 'politically correct' and 'open season'. None of these phrases started out meaning what conference-goers now use them to mean.
23 September 2026
- Harvest Time Brings Out Three Old Farming Phrases
As the equinox brings harvest festivals and the season's brightest full moon, three phrases rooted in fields and grain still turn up in offices and arguments. Their origins are stranger, and older, than most people assume.
16 September 2026
Based on Google Books usage over the last ~25 years. Refreshes each build.
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- MeaningA sweet toothA strong liking for sweet foods such as sugar, cakes and sweets.
- MeaningA zero-sum gameA situation in which one side's gain is matched exactly by another side's loss, so the total gained and lost across everyone involved comes to nothing.
- MeaningAn open bookSomeone or something whose thoughts, feelings or details are so easy to read or discover that nothing is hidden.
- MeaningGreen fingersHaving a natural talent or skill for making plants grow well.
- MeaningHold one's ownTo maintain one's position or perform competently, especially when facing pressure, competition or opposition.
- MeaningMind like a steel trapSomeone described as having a mind like a steel trap grasps, remembers, or reacts to things with unusual speed and sharpness.
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Phrases.org.uk has been documenting the meaning and origin of phrases, sayings and idioms since 1997. Every entry is researched and written by Gary Martin, with citations to the earliest printed use we can find.
It's a reference, not a forum. No ads of the in-your-face kind. No sign-up. Just the phrases.