Searching 725 entries, their variants, meanings, and origins

“luck”

10 matches

  1. Where there's muck there's brass

    Meaning Dirty, unpleasant or unglamorous work can produce worthwhile profit or prosperity. Informal and often approving of practical enterprise, though it can also criticize profit made from pollution or squalor…

    Also known as Where there's muck there's luck · Where there's muck there's money

  2. On the pig's back

    Meaning Doing great or riding high, all luck.

    Also known as Pig's back

  3. When your ship comes in

    Meaning When luck or wealth hits, big time.

    Also known as Ship comes

  4. No dice

    Meaning A flat refusal or failure, no chance or luck.

  5. Hold thumbs

    Meaning Hope for good luck or wish that something will succeed. The local equivalent of cross your fingers. It can refer either to the gesture or simply to hoping. Regional use: South Africa and neighbouring southern…

    Also known as Hold thumbs for someone · Keep your thumbs held · Thumbs held

  6. Off the hook

    Meaning … trouble, or obligation, escaping a sticky situation with relief or luck. It carries a tone of liberation or sly evasion, used for dodging blame, chores, or peril, blending triumph with a hint of dodging…

  7. Knock on wood

    Meaning … tapping wood, after mentioning good fortune or a hope for the future, as a playful or superstitious attempt to avoid bad luck. The wording is chiefly North American; British English usually has touch wood…

    Also known as Knock wood · Touch wood

  8. On a wing and a prayer

    Meaning Barely scraping by with slim hope, relying on luck.

    Also known as On wing prayer · Wing and prayer

  9. Long may your big jib draw

    Meaning May you enjoy good luck and favourable conditions for a long time. Traditional toast or farewell; now also used ceremonially Regional use: Newfoundland and Labrador, with related Atlantic Canadian awareness.

    Also known as and long may your big jib draw · deed I is, me old cock, and long may your big jib draw

  10. Like a cat with nine lives

    Origin From 16th-century England, tied to cats; nine lives in lore, slang by 1580s in a play for luck. A 1660s text uses it for a save.

    Also known as Nine lives