Carry on with what you are doing - it will give me an excuse to behave badly.
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An exact quote of Aaron Hill's verse about grasping a nettle can be found in the 1990 computer RPG Ultima VI: The False Prophet, as a line uttered by the Shrine of Valor when…
Examples of this expression can be found from the 17th century: 1677: "if his Fortune fall short, curses his confidence; and to eke out his revenge, takes forth a Capias for his…
The analysis is off by 247 years. The expression appeared almost exactly in its modern form way back in 1631 in a work entitled "Occasional Meditations" by Joseph Hall: "Outward…
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From the Phrase Finder Digest
- We Are In The Dog Days. They Have Nothing To Do With Dogs
Late July is when Britain reaches for the phrase 'dog days'. The Romans who coined it were not thinking about exhausted labradors on hot pavements.
22 July 2026
Based on Google Books usage over the last ~25 years. Refreshes each build.
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- Meaning About time Literally, nearly the right time. Said with feeling, as in "it's about time", it means long overdue, that something should have happened well before now.
- Meaning My humble abode A mock-modest way of referring to your own home, almost always said with a wink when welcoming guests.
- Meaning Three for three A perfect record: three successes from three attempts, borrowed from the way baseball box scores count hits against times at bat.
- Meaning Who'da thunk it A jokey, deliberately ungrammatical way of saying 'who would have thought it?', expressing surprise - or, just as often, mock surprise at something entirely predictable.
- Meaning A run for your money To give someone a run for their money is to push them hard in a contest; to get a run for your money is to get a real contest or fair value for your outlay.
- Meaning Box your ears To box someone's ears is to cuff them sharply round the side of the head, and the old threat of an ear-boxing now survives mostly as a joke.
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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.
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