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The P drawer
96 phrases beginning with P.
- Packed like sardines Pressed tightly together in a cramped space with no room to move comfortably, typically of people in a train, lift, room or vehicle. The comparison is…
- Paint the town red Go out and celebrate in a conspicuous, lively, or boisterous way, often involving drinking.
- Pandora's box A source of troubles that, once opened, cannot be closed again - a situation, decision, or line of inquiry that looks containable and releases far…
- Panic Sudden, overwhelming, contagious fear that sweeps a crowd - or a single mind - and destroys judgement. Panic is fear with the thinking switched off…
- Paparazzi Freelance photographers who aggressively pursue celebrities to take and sell candid pictures, often working in packs and without consent. The Italian…
- Paper over the cracks To deal with a problem, disagreement or defect only superficially, making the situation look acceptable while leaving the underlying difficulty…
- Paper tiger A person, state, or institution that looks menacing or powerful but proves weak or ineffectual when tested, a threat that is all show. Usually…
- Paradigm shift A fundamental change in the basic assumptions, concepts, and practices of a field or activity, in which one whole framework of thinking replaces…
- Parasocial Describes a one-sided relationship in which a person feels a sense of intimacy and connection with a media figure, celebrity, influencer, or fictional…
- Part and parcel An essential, expected, or inseparable component of a larger activity, system, or experience. Most often appears after be: something is part and…
- Pass muster To come up to the required standard; to be good enough under inspection. The phrase carries a faint judicial air - something is being examined and…
- Pass the buck Shift responsibility, blame, or an unwelcome decision to someone else. Informal and usually critical, because it implies avoidance rather than…
- Pass the hat To take up a collection of money from a group of people, typically in an informal, spontaneous way for a shared gift, a colleague in difficulty, or…
- Pavlovian Automatic, conditioned, triggered rather than chosen - the response that arrives before thought does, like salivation at a dinner bell. The word…
- Pay dirt A source of profit or valuable results; most often used in 'hit pay dirt' or 'strike pay dirt' for making a worthwhile discovery or finally getting…
- Pay lip service To express agreement, respect, or support for a principle, cause, or person in words while doing nothing to act on it; hollow verbal endorsement…
- Pay through the nose To pay an extremely high or excessive price for something; to be charged far more than it is worth. Usually said with irritation or resignation about…
- Peaches and cream Describes something idyllically pleasant, easy, or trouble-free, most often in assertions like 'everything is peaches and cream' and frequently in…
- Pecking order The informal hierarchy within a group, in which everyone's rank by power, seniority, or status is tacitly understood. Used of workplaces, schools…
- Pell-mell In disorderly confusion or at a headlong pace, with people or things mixed together unpredictably. Can describe both confused arrangement and rapid…
- Penny dreadful A cheap, sensational serial story or magazine of Victorian Britain, sold at a penny an instalment and packed with crime, horror and adventure; the…
- Penny pincher A person who is extremely careful with money and reluctant to spend even the smallest sums; the verb form means to economize severely. It implies…
- Penny wise and pound foolish Careful over small savings while wasteful or imprudent about much larger costs. Hyphenation varies. It can criticise any small saving that creates…
- People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones People who have glaring faults or vulnerabilities of their own should not attack others, since any retaliation would expose or ruin them; in practice…
- Perp walk The deliberately public escorting of a handcuffed suspect by police, timed so cameras can film the procession from door to vehicle. The phrase covers…
- Persona non grata A person who is not welcome: in strict diplomatic use, a foreign envoy the host government formally expels or refuses to accept, and in everyday use…
- Photo finish A result so close that only a photograph of the finishing line can settle it - and, by extension, any contest, election, or tender decided by the…
- Pick someone's brain To question someone in order to extract their knowledge, ideas, or advice, usually because they know more about a topic than you do. Commonly used in…
- Pie in the sky Something pleasant that is promised or hoped for but is unrealistic and unlikely ever to materialize; a fanciful reward or empty promise. Usually…
- Piece of cake An informal way of saying that a task or activity is very easy or requires little effort.
- Pied-à-terre A small secondary dwelling kept for occasional use, typically a city apartment occupied for work weeks or short stays rather than as a main home. The…
- Piggy bank A small container, traditionally pig-shaped, with a slot for dropping in coins; by extension, any modest store of personal savings built up bit by…
- Pigs might fly A sarcastic retort meaning that whatever has just been predicted or promised is so unlikely that it will never happen; used to mock over-optimistic…
- Pile-on An occasion when a large number of people attack or criticise one person online, typically for something they said or did, usually in a way that is…
- Pin money A small sum of money for incidental personal spending. Historically it meant an allowance a husband gave his wife for her own purchases, a sense now…
- Ping me To send someone a brief electronic message, or to check that they are reachable, usually over chat, text, or email; in workplace speak it simply means…
- Pink slip American informal term for a notice of dismissal from a job: to get, receive or be handed a pink slip is to be fired or laid off, the slip…
- Pipe down Become quiet, or tell someone firmly to stop talking or making noise. Informal and often brusque. Directed at a person, it can sound ruder than…
- Piping hot Very hot, especially of freshly cooked food or drink served steaming. It is used almost exclusively of things that are meant to be hot, not of weather…
- Plain sailing Used to say that a task, process, or stretch of progress is easy, straightforward, and free of obstacles once it is under way. The form 'plain…
- Platonic Loving or affectionate without sex - the friendship that is warm, deep, sometimes passionate, and deliberately stops short of the physical. Applied to…
- Play cat and mouse To toy with an opponent - letting them almost escape, or almost succeed, before closing in again. The phrase covers a pursuer who could finish things…
- Play hooky Stay away from school or another obligation without permission. Current informal expression Regional use: United States, later North American English.
- Play it by ear To handle something without a set plan, adapting as it unfolds.
- Play second fiddle To take a lesser or supporting role, overshadowed.
- Play to the gallery To perform or behave in an exaggerated, crowd-pleasing way calculated to win popular applause, rather than acting with subtlety, judgment or…
- Plead the Fifth To refuse to answer a question because the answer might incriminate you - in American English, by invoking the Fifth Amendment's protection against…
- Pleased as Punch Delighted, and often visibly or self-satisfiedly so; usually in the fuller form 'as pleased as Punch'. The comparison is with Mr Punch of the Punch…
- Plough the sands To labour hard at something that cannot possibly succeed; effort poured into an undertaking as barren as a field of sand, since sand turned by the…
- Poacher turned gamekeeper Someone who switches sides, taking on the enforcement or defence of the very thing they once attacked or evaded. The reformed hacker now catching…
- Pocket money A small sum of money for minor, day-to-day expenses. In British, Irish, and Commonwealth usage it chiefly means the small regular allowance given to…
- Poetic justice An outcome in which people get exactly what they deserve, with virtue rewarded and wrongdoing punished, especially when the punishment arises…
- Poker face A face that betrays nothing - the deliberately blank expression of a player who does not want opponents reading joy or despair in it. By extension…
- Political capital The stock of goodwill, credibility and influence an office-holder or party builds up, conceived as spendable currency: it can be earned in an election…
- Pomp and circumstance Ceremonial splendor and ostentatious display - the full show of grandeur, formality, and parade that surrounds an important occasion, often with a…
- Pop the question To propose marriage - informally, abruptly, and usually with far more nerve than ceremony. The question is understood without being named, and the coy…
- Pop your clogs A humorous British euphemism meaning to die, roughly equivalent to 'kick the bucket'. Informal and strongest in British, originally northern English…
- Pork barrel Used as a modifier, as in pork-barrel spending or pork-barrel politics: government money channelled into local projects whose real purpose is to win a…
- Posh Smart, elegant, or luxurious in an upscale, upper-class way; in British English especially of accents, schools, clothes, and venues, and frequently…
- Post-truth Relating to or denoting circumstances in which facts matter less than emotional appeal and personal belief in shaping public opinion, especially in…
- Prima donna Originally the leading female singer of an opera company; in modern English almost always a vain, temperamental person who demands special treatment…
- Promethean Boldly creative or defiantly original, at whatever risk - the spirit of the fire-giver who took from gods what humans needed and paid for it. The word…
- Pull out all the stops To go all out with maximum effort or flair, holding nothing back.
- Pull someone's leg To tease or mislead someone playfully, telling them something untrue as a joke rather than to harm them. Almost always used in the progressive or…
- Pull the other one, it's got bells on A jokey retort telling someone that you do not believe a word of what they have just said: the claim is so absurd it must be a wind-up. It elaborates…
- Pull the plug To put a stop to something by withdrawing whatever was keeping it going - usually money, backing, or broadcast capacity, as when a network cancels a…
- Pull the wool over someone's eyes To deceive or hoodwink someone, especially by preventing them from noticing what is really going on; to trick a person so they cannot see the truth…
- Pull the wool over your eyes Deceive someone or prevent them from seeing the truth.
- Pull your finger out A blunt, informal British and Australian demand meaning 'stop dawdling and start making a real effort'. Almost always imperative, addressed to someone…
- Pull your punches To hold back - to criticise or compete less forcefully than you could, softening blows you are perfectly capable of landing. The phrase lives almost…
- Pull your socks up To make a real effort to improve your behaviour, work, or performance after falling short; a brisk reprimand or urging to try harder. British and…
- Puppy love Intense, idealizing romantic infatuation typical of children or young adolescents - the schoolyard crush. It flares quickly and usually fades quickly…
- Purple prose Writing so ornate, overwrought or ostentatiously flowery that the decoration overwhelms the sense; a critical term of abuse for excessive metaphor…
- Push the boat out To celebrate or spend much more generously than usual, laying on a lavish meal, party, round of drinks, or treat; also of doing something in notable…
- Pushing up daisies Dead and buried - the garden's-eye view of the grave, where the occupant's only remaining duty is horticultural. Of all the euphemisms for dying, this…
- Put a damper on To dampen or spoil the mood, cooling the fun.
- Put a sock in it A blunt demand to shut up or stop making noise, stuffing chatter like a sock jams a gap-crude but effective.
- Put all your eggs in one basket To risk everything on a single venture, so that one failure would be catastrophic. It occurs overwhelmingly in the negative warning 'don't put all…
- Put in your two cents To offer an opinion, especially one nobody asked for, framing it as modest and of small value. Closely tied to 'my two cents' worth' - the nominal…
- Put on your thinking cap To begin thinking carefully and seriously about a problem, especially one needing sustained concentration rather than a quick reaction. Very often an…
- Put paid to To end or kill off.
- Put the cart before the horse Do things in an illogical or ineffective order, especially by dealing with a result before the preparation or cause on which it depends.
- Put the comether on Charm, coax or cajole someone, sometimes in order to deceive them. Regional and dated. The phrase can imply either attractive persuasion or dishonest…
- Put the heart crossways in someone Give someone a sudden severe fright or shock. Informal and emphatic. Often used immediately after a startling noise or unexpected appearance. Regional…
- Put the kibosh on Stop, suppress, or bring an activity or plan to an end.
- Put the screws on To press or squeeze hard, forcing it.
- Put the wind up To spook or rattle someone, all nerves.
- Put through the wringer To be squeezed hard, worn out.
- Put up your dukes Raise your fists and prepare to fight, either as a real challenge or as a theatrical imitation of one. Dated and often playful. In a real…
- Put wood in the hole Shut the door, usually because an open doorway is letting in cold air. Regional, informal and increasingly associated with older speakers. The 'oil'…
- Put your back into it To work at something with maximum physical or mental effort; to throw all your energy into a task. Usually addressed to someone as an exhortation to…
- Put your best foot forward To lead with your strongest effort, shining.
- Put your foot down To assert authority firmly and refuse to yield, especially in order to stop something from happening ('she put her foot down about the late nights')…
- Put your foot in it Say or do something tactless by mistake and thereby embarrass or upset someone. This is chiefly the British form; North American English usually says…
- Put your money where your mouth is To back your words with action or cash, proving it.
- Put your oar in To butt in or meddle, sticking your bit.