Nearby Words

push up daisies

[dey-zee] Origin

dai·sy

[dey-zee]
noun, plural -sies.
1.
any of various composite plants the flowers of which have a yellow disk and white rays, as the English daisy and the oxeye daisy.
2.
Also called daisy ham. a small section of pork shoulder, usually smoked, boned, and weighing from two to four pounds. Compare picnic (def. 3).
3.
Slang. someone or something of first-rate quality: That new car is a daisy.
4.
a cheddar cheese of cylindrical shape, weighing about 20 pounds.
5.
push up daisies, Informal. to be dead and buried.

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Push up daisies is always a great word to know.
So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English dayesye, Old English dægesēge the day's eye

dai·sied, adjective

dais, daisy, days.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

daisy
O.E. dægesege, from dæges eage "day's eye," because the petals open at dawn and close at dusk. In M.L. it was solis oculus "sun's eye." Daisy-cutter first attested 1791, originally of horses that trotted with low steps; later of cricket (1889) and baseball hits that skim along the ground.
EXPAND
Daisy-chain in the "group sex" sense is attested from 1941. Pushing up daisies "dead" is attested from 1918, but variant with the same meaning go back to 1842.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

daisy definition


  1. n.
    an excellent thing. (See also doosie.) : I want a daisy of a haircut. Something unusual with bangs or something.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

push up daisies

Be dead and buried, as in There is a cemetery full of heroes pushing up daisies. This slangy expression, alluding to flowers growing over a grave, was first recorded about 1918, in one of Wilfred Owen's poems about World War I.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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