ball’s in your court, the

It’s your turn. The expression comes from sports and became current in the United States and Canada in the mid- twentieth century. It is sometimes put as “It’s your ball.” David Hagberg has
it in Countdown (1990): “‘No,’ the DCI agreed, ‘As I said, the ball is in your court.’”

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alpha and omega, the

The sum of something, the beginning and the end, symbolized by the first (alpha) and last (omega) letters of the Greek alphabet. The Book of Revelation (1:8) states: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord.” The modern equivalent is a to z. See also FROM SOUP TO NUTS.

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along for the ride, to go/to come/just

To take part but passively. The phrase, originating in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, implies some of the acquiescence of go along with but makes it clear that one
is not IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT.

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a long face, to wear/draw/pull

To look sad or dissatisfied. A common expression in the nineteenth century, it no doubt came from the elongated look resulting from the mouth being drawn down at the corners and the eyes downcast.

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almighty dollar, the

The power of money; by extension, crass material- ism. The term was used by Washington Irving in The Creole Village (1836)
(“The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion”), perhaps echoing Ben Jonson’s sentiment of two centuries earlier (“That for which all virtue now is sold, and almost every vice—almighty gold”).

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all wool and a yard wide

Genuine, not a sham. The expression comes from the yard-goods industry, where a seller would claim that a piece of cloth was 100 percent wool and measured fully a yard, in contrast to infe- rior material and short measures.

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all wet, to be

To be completely mistaken. The expression is American slang that became current in the first half of the twentieth century. It is not known what wet refers to—soaked from a rainstorm or dunking, drunk and therefore incapable of good judgment, or something else.

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