What's the origin of the idiom "to be left holding the bag"?
2017年3月10日 · Left holding the bag - It actually dates back to the middle of the eighteenth century in Britain. The original version was to give somebody the bag to hold. You can imagine …
Origin of "old bag"? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
old bag noun. an unattractive or unloveable old woman, UK 1949. Disparaging; possibly a variant of OLD BAT, cognisant of OLD BAG (elderly prostitute) which itself may derive from OLD BAT. …
Expression: Bag of hammers - English Language & Usage Stack …
2013年5月17日 · In recent decades, bag of hammers is almost exclusively American (where it's normally used to mean dumb, stupid), and bag of spanners is British (invariably used to mean …
the usage and origin of the expression "I bags that"
2021年1月23日 · 1914 Concise Oxf. Dict. Add. 1045/2 Bag, (also, in school slang) claim on the ground of being the first to claim (I b., but usu. bags I or bags, first innings!). 1923 J. Manchon …
orthography - Free stuff - "swag" or "schwag"? - English Language ...
Earlier senses of "bulky bag" (c.1300) and "big, blustering fellow" (1580s) may represent separate borrowings from the Scandinavian source. Stuff We All Get is a later "backronym". The first …
What is the etymology of "cornhole"? - English Language & Usage …
cornhole synonymous with "do anal intercourse" by 1930s, apparently the reference is to a game played in the farming regions of the Ohio Valley in the U.S. from 19c., in which players take …
Why is a woman's purse called a "pocketbook"?
Pocketbook is in the same, um, bag. It’s a perfectly good word—maybe even a better word for her than handbag if she, like me, slings the thing over her shoulder." It’s a perfectly good …
prepositions - When should I use "in" or "on"? - English Language ...
When the preposition indicates the position of the object it is a bit easier to decide which one to use, but as it requires thinking from me, I still say things like "I put the bill in the fridge", "my …
Is it right/appropriate to say "double bag it?"
This is a fairly standard phrase (although it would usually be hyphenated: "double-bag it, please.") However, almost every phrase you can imagine has, at one time or another, been given a …
Idiomatic expression or word for a very heavy thing
So, "a bag of bricks" would not be the equivalent of a common idiom, but would be more likely recognized from this commonly used bit of banter. – user79850 Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 2:43