The ancient of Days
The ancient of Days :
Ancient as the hills = Old as the hills
Of very long standing or very great age
Hills are used in the Bible as a metaphor for permanence.
The ancient of Days
A biblical title for God taken from Daniel 7 : 9
The angel in the house
A woman who is completely devoted to her husband and family
This was the title of a collection of poems on married-love by Coventry Patmore (1823-96) and it is now mainly used ironically.
On the side of the angels
On the side of what is right
In a speech in Oxford in November 1864 the British statesman Benjamin Disraeli alluded to the controversy over the origins of humankind then raging in the wake of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) : Is man an ape or an angel?
Now I am on the side of the angels - The Times - 26 November 1864
Angry young man
A young man who feels and expresses anger at the conventional values of the society around him
Originally, this term referred to a member of a group of socially conscious writers in Britain in the 1950s, in particular the playwright John Osborne. The phrase, the title of a book (1951) by Leslie Paul, was used of Osborne in the publicity material for his play Look Back in Anger (1956) in which the characteristic views of the angry young men were articulated by the anti-hero Jimmy Porter.
The answer's a lemon
The response or outcome is unsatisfactory – informal
A lemon here is used to represent a bad, unsatisfactory or disappointing thing, possibly because the lemon is the least valuable symbol that can be achieved by playing a fruit machine.
A dusty answer
A curt and unhelpful reply – British
The source of this expression is probably a passage in George Meredith's Modern Love (1862) : Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul when hot for certainties in this our life!
Up the ante = Raise the ante
Increase what is at stake or under discussion, especially in a conflict or dispute
Ante comes from Latin, in which it means before. As an English noun it was originally (in the early 19th century) a term in poker and similar gambling games, meaning'a stake put up by a player before drawing cards.
1998 - New Scientist - This report ups the ante on the pace at which these cases need to be identified and treated.
Have ants in your pants
Be fidgety or restless - Informal
Not be having any of it
Be absolutely
Unwilling to cooperate - informal
Anyone’s game
An evenly balanced contest
Be anyone's
(Of a person) be open to sexual advances from anyone – informal
The ancient of Days :
Idioms Index – Previous Page
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