down the line
at a future point in time
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down the pan
To fail or be wasted completely
down the road
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
down the road, not across the street
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
down the toilet
completely wasted or lost
down the track
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
down the tubes
Completely failed or lost
down to a fine art
To have perfected a skill or activity through practice
down to the ground
An American rendering of the word entirely; as, "that suits me DOWN TO THE GROUND."
down to the short strokes
near the end of a process or project
down to the wire
Until the very last moment or deadline
down under
Australia or New Zealand
down with the kids
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
down with your shot
Your reckoning or quota, your money. See SCOT. As the fund of our pleasure, let us each pay his shot. BEN JONSON.
downer
A sixpence; apparently the Gipsy word, TAWNO, "little one," in course of metamorphosis into the more usual "tanner."
Downing College
A college at Cambridge, founded by the will of Sir George Downing (c. 1684-1749) (a grandson of the Sir George of Downing Street, <?.v.). The college was chartered in 1800, after much litigation. He also founded the chair occupied by the Downing Professor, the Professor of the Laws of England at Cambridge.
Downing Street
A name often given to the heads of the British Government collectively.
Downright Dunstable
Very blunt, plain speaking, straightforward; like the Dunstable road (a part of the Roman Watirag Street), which runs very evenly from London and lias many long, straight stretches. Hence also the phrase Plain as the road to Dunstable. As Shakespeare says, "Plain as way to parish church.
downs
Tothill Fields’ Prison.
downtown
The human genitalia.
downy
Knowing or cunning; "a DOWNY COVE," a knowing or experienced sharper. Literally, a DOWNY person is one who is "DOWN to every move on the board." In Norfolk, however, it means low-spirited, i.e., DOWN in the mouth.
dowry
A lot, a great deal; "DOWRY of parny," lot of rain or water.—See PARNY. Probably from the Gipsy.
dowser
Vulgar pronunciation of DOUCEUR.
dowsers
Men who profess to tell fortunes, and who, by the use of the divining rod, pretend to be able to discover treasure-trove.—Cornish.
doxies
She beggars, wenches, whores.
doxy
The female companion of a tramp or beggar. In the West of England, the women frequently call their little girls DOXIES, in a familiar or endearing sense. Orthodoxy has been described as being a man’s own DOXY, and heterodoxy another man’s DOXY.—Ancient Cant.
drab
Poison.
drab
A nasty, sluttish whore.
drab
A vulgar or low woman.—Shakspeare.
draft on aldgate pump
An old mercantile phrase for a fictitious banknote or fraudulent bill.
drag
To go on the drag; to follow a cart or waggon, in order to rob it. CANT.
drag
A cart of any kind, term generally used to denote any particularly well-appointed turnout, drawn by a pair or four horses, especially at race meetings.
drag ass
to move or work slowly
drag lay
Waiting in the streets to rob carts or waggons.
drag on
to continue for too long
drag one's balls across
to do something with great difficulty or reluctance
drag one's feet
To delay or procrastinate in taking action
drag the chain
to delay or procrastinate
drag through the mud
To unfairly criticize or slander someone
dragging
Robbing carts, &c., by means of a light trap which follows behind laden vehicles. Cabs are sometimes eased of trunks in this way, though it is hard to say whether with or without the complicity of the cabmen.
dragging time
The evening of a country fair day, when the young fellows begin pulling the wenches about.
draggletail
A dirty, dissipated woman; a prostitute of the lowest class.
Dragon's Blood
A picturesque name given to no more awesome substance than the red resinous exudation from the fruits of a number of palms. It was formerly used as an astringent in medicine, and is still employed as a colour- ing matter for varnishes.
Dragon's Hill
A site in Berkshire where one legend has it that St. George killed the dragon. A bare place is shown on the hill, where nothing will grow, for there the blood of the dragon ran out.
dragooning it
A man who occupies two branches of one profession, is said to dragoon it; because, like the soldier of that denomination, he serves in a double capacity. Such is a physician who furnishes the medicines, and compounds his own prescriptions.
drain
Gin: so called from the diuretic qualities imputed to that liquor.
drain
A drink; "to do a DRAIN," to take a friendly drink—"do a wet;" sometimes called a "common sewer."
drain the dragon
To urinate.
drain the lizard
To urinate.
drain the main vein
To urinate.
drain the python
completely eliminate or solve a complex problem
drain the snake
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
dram
A glass or small measure of any spirituous liquors, which, being originally sold by apothecaries, were estimated by drams, ounces, &c. Dog's dram; to spit in his mouth, and clap his back.
dram-a-tick
A dram served upon credit.
drama king
Someone who overreacts to situations
drama queen
Someone who overreacts to situations
dramatic unities
The three dramatic unities, viz. the rules governing the so-called "classical** dramas, are founded on Renaissance miscon- ceptions of passages in Aristotle's Poetics, and are hence sometimes, though very in- correctly, styled the Aristotelean 'Unities.
draper
An ale draper; an alehouse keeper.
Drapier's Letters
A series of letters written by Dean Swift to the people of Ireland and published in 1724, advising them not to take the "copper money coined by William
draw a line
set a boundary or limit
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