Meaning
QT means quiet.
Origin
The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson states:
“A British broadside ballad (1870) contained the line ‘Whatever I tell you is on the Q.T.’”
Meaning
This is used for an unemployed person who uses state benefits.
Origin
This came up as a slang in UK since World War I.The Daily Mail in 1919 used it as:
“You won’t draw your out-of-work dole of 29s. this week.”
Meaning
This phrase is used when something is on the threshold that is between success and failure and slight change can lead to either a win or a loss.
Origin
The first citation was in 1970 in The Lima News:
“On the ‘bubble’ is rookie Steve Krisiloff whose 162.448 m.p.h. was the slowest qualifying speed last weekend. With only six spots open, Krisiloff’s machine would be ousted if seven cars qualified at a faster speed this week end.”
Meaning
This phrase is used when some one is very happy.
Origin
The first use of this phrase was in 1718 in Charles Molloy’s The Coquet, or, The English Chevalier:
“Tis he! I know him now: I shall jump over the Moon for Joy!”
Mother Goose’s Melody also had this phrase dated 1760:
High diddle diddle,
The Cat and the Fiddle,
The Cow jump’d over the Moon,
The little dog laugh’d to see such Craft,
And the Dish ran away with the Spoon.
Meaning
This phrases is used when we have to say that something is achieved by an individual’s own efforts.
Origin
Henry Thomas Waghorn used it for the first time in Cricket Scores, 1742:
“The bets on the Slendon man’s head that he got 40 notches off his own bat were lost.”