rock and roll

/ˈɹɒk ən(d)ˈɹəʊl/

From rock (move back and forth) + and + roll; originally a verb phrase common among African Americans, meaning "to have sexual intercourse"; it was a euphemism that appeared in song titles since at least 1914 (Trixie Smith's "My Man Rocks Me With One Steady Roll").
As a name for a specific style of popular music from the early 1950s, popularized by disc jockey Alan Freed in reference to the euphemistic use in song titles.

(military, slang, US) The full automatic fire capability selection on a selective fire weapon.


to and fro

en-noun

to and fro (plural to and fros or tos and fros)

to and fros (plural)
tos and fros (plural)

My life's a maze of seeming traps, A scene of mercies and mishaps; A heap of jarring to and fros, A field of joys, A field of woes.

1849, Ralph Erskine, Gospel sonnets; or, Spiritual songs, page 233:

(dated) The movement (of someone or something) forward followed by a return to the same position. May refer to a concept such as an emotional state or a relationship as well as a physical thing.


hide and seek

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hide and seek.wav

I would sometimes lie down, and let five or six of them dance on my hand; and at last the boys and girls would venture to come and play at hide-and-seek in my hair.

1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels:

(playground games) A game where the players have to hide and one has to seek them out.


now and then

Compare Dutch nu en dan, West Frisian no en dan.

Call your mother now and then and let her know you care.

I'm a writer first, but I do have my HGV licence, and I use it every now and then.

2024 March 6, Pip Dunn, “Freight's future is in ISO containers”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 36:

(idiomatic) Synonym of occasionally, sometimes, intermittently.

af en toe

(idiomatic) sometimes; occasionally; intermittently


trial and error

trial and error (usually uncountable, plural trials and errors)

Navigating by trial and error may get you there eventually, but using a map is faster.

Trial and error was a big part of the process: "We need to fail down here so we don't fail up there," [Neil] Armstrong insists, though even some of the mistakes and malfunctions at ground level cause devastating casualties.

2018 October 9, A. A. Dowd, “The Star and Director of La La Land Reunite for First Man’s Spectacular Trip to the Moon”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2020-06-16:

The process of finding a solution to a problem by trying many possible solutions and learning from mistakes until success is attained.


black and white

black and white (plural black and whites)

The police car sense reflects a traditional livery scheme for such cars.

[T]he news bunny ran up to him, saying, "Officer, did you have trouble catching up with Batman? Was it an exciting chase?" The surfer cop struck a semi-heroic pose for the camera and said, "Weak sauce." Then he quickly walked Batman to the black-and-white, where he was put into the backseat.

2006, Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Station […], New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 237:

(US, slang, law enforcement) A police patrol car.


back and forth

back and forth (countable and uncountable, plural back and forths)

Roll the ball to your child, who then rolls it back to you. After a few back-and-forths, roll the ball to a nearby corner of the room or other hiding place.

2009, Dorothy Rich with Beverly Mattox, Megaskills for Babies, Toddlers, and Beyond: Building Your Child's Happiness, page 43:

vaivé

movement (of someone or something) forward followed by a return to the same position


ups and downs

[...] speed barely exceeded 30 m.p.h. until well beyond Kelty and from the front end the ups-and-downs of the track occasioned by pitfalls are very noticeable.

1960 August, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 463:


fore-and-aft

(nautical, of the orientation of the sails of a ship) parallel with the keel, that is, going from bow to stern (as opposed to square-rigged).


hither and thither

/ˌhɪðəɹ‿n̩ ˈðɪðə/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hither and thither.wav

/ˌhɪðɚ‿n̩ ˈðɪðɚ/

The adverb is derived from hither + and + thither. The verb is derived from the phrase “to come hither and go thither”.

All alter, nothing finally decayes: / Hether and thether ſtill the Spirit ſtrayes; / Gueſt to all Bodies: out of beaſts it flyes / To men, from men to beaſts; and neuer dyes.

1626, Ovid, “The Fifteenth Booke”, in George Sandys, transl., Ovid’s Metamorphosis Englished […], London: […] William Stansby, →OCLC, page 308:

Noailles, Cogny and Company hang well back upon the Hill regions, and strong posts which are not yet menaced; or fly vaguely, more or less distractedly, hither and thither; not in the least like fighting Karl, much less like beating him.

1864, Thomas Carlyle, “Preliminary: How the Moment Arrived”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume IV, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book XV, page 11:

Thou shalt read the hearts of men as an open writing, and hither and thither shalt thou lead them as thy pleasure listeth.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Spirit of Life”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 304:

And the passion that held Strickland was a passion to create beauty. It gave him no peace. It urged him hither and thither. He was eternally a pilgrim, haunted by a divine nostalgia, and the demon within him was ruthless.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LIV, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 283:

The Stirling-Oban line has an even more sinuous course, as it winds hither and thither to obtain a passage through the depths of the mountains.

1951 January, Robert M. Hogg, “Crossing Scotland's Mountain Barriers by Rail”, in Railway Magazine, page 17:

“A kleptomaniac,” I said. “Which means, if the term is not familiar to you, a chap who flits hither and thither pinching everything he can lay his hands on.”

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

In contrast, the Westminster Gazette in 1912 was much more positive about railway staff, praising the "… army of porters hustling and bustling hither and thither with barrows groaning under the weight of bags and baggage and … the ever-patient and long-suffering guards, courteously giving information and advice to the querulous passengers … to the porter the Christmas season means a continuous round of heavy labour, extremely tiring to both nerves and temper, and this fact the public too often seem either to forget or ignore."

2022 December 14, David Turner, “The Edwardian Christmas getaway …”, in Rail, number 972, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 35:

To here and to there, one place after another; in different directions.

andej-këtej

to here and there, one place after another


ladies and gentlemen

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There are quays there and lamps and some squares of grass; a ladies and gentlemen, and a cinema.

1941, Joyce Cary, chapter XLIV, in Herself Surprised, page 108:

(rare and euphemistic) Public toilets: a ladies' room and a gentlemen's room.


here and there

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Before we study his ideas, it is useful to note here again that extraterrestrial powers intervened here and there in his life, as early as his birth, then his baptism […].

2009, John Bogard, The Message from the Cosmos, page 63:

Yep. Since nineteen sixty, or thereabouts. Missed a few years, here and there.

2011, R. E. Donald, chapter 23, in Slow Curve on the Coquihalla:

(uncommon) From time to time; intermittently, occasionally.


high and low

(dated, obsolete) People of high rank or status.


fore and aft

(nautical) From the bow of a ship to the stern; lengthwise.


up and down

He swore up and down that he hadn't taken the money.

Christina is straight up and down fuckable.

(idiomatic) staunchly, unwaveringly, obstinately

por activa y por pasiva (colloquial; usu. preceded by decir)


hither and yon

And I saw askant the armies, / I saw as in noiseless dreams hundreds of battle-flags, / Borne through the smoke of the battles and pierc’d with missiles I saw them, / And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody, / And at last but a few shreds left on the staffs, (and all in silence,) / And the staffs all splinter’d and broken.

1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:

(literary, dated) In, at or to various places.