go to the bathroom

en-verb

go to the bathroom (third-person singular simple present goes to the bathroom, present participle going to the bathroom, simple past went to the bathroom, past participle gone to the bathroom)

goes to the bathroom (present singular third-person)
going to the bathroom (participle present)
went to the bathroom (past)
gone to the bathroom (participle past)

He had been married to Vi for twenty-one years, and he still found it impossible to go to the bathroom when she was in there with him.

Calvin had spilled orange juice on his lap during breakfast and worried that someone might think he had gone to the bathroom in his pants.

1995, Louis Sachar, Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger:

It seems that Chris [a dog] squatted to go to the bathroom on the carpet and Chuck panicked and jumped up, rushed over, and managed to catch the droppings in his hand.

2009, Marcia Stedron, My Roller Coaster Life as an Army Wife, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 57:

(euphemistic, chiefly US) Synonym of use the toilet: to urinate or defecate, especially (but not exclusively) while visiting a bathroom.


vag

Out the cab flash the vag / Set the women's movement back

2012, “Ke$ha Die Young PARODY! Key of Awesome #65”, The Key of Awesome (lyrics), Ke$ha (music):

My vag squirt aloe vera / Yo' vag look like Tony Danza

(US slang, chiefly vulgar) Vagina (or, by extension, vulva).


cleverly

en-adv

cleverly (comparative more cleverly, superlative most cleverly)

more cleverly (comparative)
most cleverly (superlative)

“I ain't a-goin' ter let leetle Mose be kep' up hyar till midnight a-waitin' for you-uns ter milk the cow. It's cleverly dark now.”

1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 6:


brusk

en-adj

brusk (comparative brusker or more brusk, superlative bruskest or most brusk)

brusker (comparative)
more brusk (comparative)
bruskest (superlative)
most brusk (superlative)

Whether it were the absence of Theodora or some other cause, he was brusk, ungracious, scowling, and silent, only nodding to the Bishop who benignly saluted him, […]

1870, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter XV, in Lothair. […], volume II, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 161–162:

(British, obsolete or US) Alternative spelling of brusque


notary

From Middle English notarie, from Old French notarie (French notaire), from Latin notārius.

The giving of legal advice by notaries and others who are not admitted to practice law is, in its opinion, dangerous to the welfare of the community, because such persons have not demonstrated their capacity [...]

1904, The Bulletin of the Commercial Law League of America, volumes 9-18, page 29:

Although signed by a notary in New York, it lacked a physical description or documentation. It could have been issued to anyone, or resold to anyone willing to change his name.

2001, Christopher H. Pyle, Extradition, Politics, and Human Rights, →ISBN, page 33:

"In 1961, there was a case Torcaso v. Watkins, in which a public notary in Maryland refused to take the oath, “so help me God,” and the court said he wasn't required to acknowledge God [although] the Maryland law said you were."

2004, Richard J. Rolwing, My Daily Constitution, volume IV, →ISBN, page 182:

This was completely unofficial, of course, since a notary in Vermont can only swear in people who plan to be working in Vermont, and they might as well have stayed in bed, but for a public relations ploy you couldn't beat it, […]

2007, Barbara Holland, Hail to the Chiefs, →ISBN, page 175:

(law, Canada, US) A notary public, a public officer who serves as an impartial witness to the signing of important documents, but who is not authorised to practise law.


grizzly

Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond
w:Rossiter W. Raymond

(Canada, US, dialect) In mining, a grating used to sieve stones by size, so as to keep stones out of the sluices (in hydraulic mining) or to control stone size in the feed to the ore crusher.


ground beef

en-noun

ground beef (usually uncountable, plural ground beefs)

(Canada, US) Beef that has been finely chopped; minced beef.

kjøttdeig

under 14 percent fat, not necessarily beef

standards of identity
standard of identity

(US standards of identity) Chopped fresh or frozen beef without the addition of beef fat as seasoning, with no more than 30 percent fat, and with no added water, phosphates, binders, or extenders.


linkage

linkage (countable and uncountable, plural linkages)

Genetic linkage
Linkage (linguistics)
Linkage (mechanical)
Linkage (policy)
linkage

(US, politics, historical) A United States foreign policy, during the 1970s détente in the Cold War, of persuading the Soviet Union to co-operate in restraining revolutions in the Third World in return for nuclear and economic concessions.


chin-chin

chin-chin (countable and uncountable, plural chin-chins)

Duplication of chin in its various senses. Compare chinwag.

I haven't had so much chin-chin for years.

1877, Mark Twain, letter published in Love Letters (1949), p. 198

Mum and Mrs. Martin had a good chin-chin at the fence about sickness and husbands.

(US, informal, archaic) Discussion, conversation, talk.


aluminum hydride

aluminium hydride
aluminium hydride#English

(US, inorganic chemistry) Alternative spelling of aluminium hydride


redshirt

/ˈɹɛd.ʃəː(ɹ)t/

Redshirt (college sports)
Star Trek: The Original Series
Starfleet
redshirt (stock character)

Calque of Italian camicia rossa, equivalent to red + shirt. In later senses with reference to the uniforms or outfits worn by such people. The fandom slang sense emerged from the tendency of red-uninformed Starfleet officers to die in episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series.

(US, sports) A college athlete who spends a year not participating in official athletic activities, but does not lose his or her eligibility to participate in following years.

(US, military) A person responsible for loading and unloading weapons, artillery, and equipment from aircraft.


redshirt

en-verb

redshirt (third-person singular simple present redshirts, present participle redshirting, simple past and past participle redshirted)

redshirts (present singular third-person)
redshirting (participle present)
redshirted (participle past)
redshirted (past)

/ˈɹɛd.ʃəː(ɹ)t/

Being asked whether I was going to be redshirted had some status associated with it.

2004, George R. Mills -, A View from the Bench, →ISBN:

The university decided to redshirt the freshman linebacker to give him an extra year to build up his bulk.

(US, collegiate sports) To place an athlete in a status wherein the athlete will spend a year not participating in official athletic activities, but will not lose his or her eligibility to participate in following years.

Hillman, who had come to Indiana without a scholarship (he now had one) from a Los Angeles suburb, wanted to redshirt so that he would have two years of eligibility left after Alford graduated. Smith didn't want to redshirt, he wanted to play.

2012 -, John Feinstein, Season on the Brink, →ISBN, page 62:

(US, collegiate sports) To take on a status wherein one will spend a year not participating in official athletic activities.

1985, March 1, "Some Educators Oppose Redshirting 5-Year-Olds," The Omaha World-Herald
Parents who redshirt their 5-year-olds instead of enrolling them in kindergarten are a concern to some Nebraska educators who are trying to reverse the trend of holding children back until age 6 to start school.

(US) To hold a child out of kindergarten for one year in the hope that the child will do better academically and socially.


chickenhawk

/ˈt͡ʃɪkɪnˌhɔk/

From chicken + hawk. The political sense is derived from figurative meanings of "chicken" (coward) and "hawk" (militarist).

(US politics, derogatory) A draft dodger, especially in the Vietnam War, who nonetheless currently supports United States overseas military engagements.

knapenschenner

adult man who seeks out boys as his sexual partners


six o'clock

She had the straight, flat figure which Bianca would have described as "a six-o'clock girl, straight up and straight down", and I thought how clever it was of Mascarenhas to have picked her to be in attendance, […]

1992, Edith Templeton, Murder in Estoril, Fourth Estate Classic House:

His shoulders were no wider than his hips; he had what is called a six o'clock figure, straight up and straight down, a skimped and scanty physique, as though the fairy of miserliness had presided over his conception.

2004, Édith Templeton, Gordon: A Novel, Vintage, →ISBN, page 40:

Rena Mae was still an attractive woman, but now she was considered a six o'clock woman instead of a woman with big hips, […]

2011, Creasie M. Washington, The Crossing of Yamacraw, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 141:

Her body was void of pliable curves; instead, [she] was hard and angular, what dirty-minded high school boys once called “a six o'clock figure.” As for the rest of Tish, what should have been, just wasn't. Her hair (blonde? brown?) was frizzy, ...

2016, Donald L. Kaufmann, O Brave New Eve: Genetic Fantasy, →ISBN:

(US, especially black slang, of a woman) Straight up and down, without curves, like the hands of a clock.


MDT

Coordinate term: EDCA

w:Mutual Defense Treaty (United States-Philippines)

(US, Philippines, military, politics) Initialism of Mutual Defense Treaty (United States-Philippines).


ZIP

For the fifth consecutive year, the 94027 ZIP code (primarily Atherton) led the nation with a median list price of $7.75 million. Two more California ZIPs — both picturesque, coastal communities — made the top 10: 92657 (mostly Newport Coast), at $4.965 million, and 93108 (primarily Santa Barbara), at $4.85 million.

2024 November 28, Josh Ocampo, “Expensive ZIP Codes Have Something in Common”, in The New York Times:


ZIP

Zone Improvement Plan
w:Zone Improvement Plan

(US) Acronym of Zone Improvement Plan. (see ZIP Code)


RAP

(US, law enforcement) Acronym of record of arrest and prosecution.


day one

Raise a cup up for all my day ones; two middle fingers for the haters […]

2017 March 17, G-Eazy and Kehlani, "Good Life", from the soundtrack for The Fate of the Furious

RONALD:”I look at you like a day one. Real talk.”

2018 November 1, Ben Ketai, 23:00 from the start, in Start Up, season 3, episode 1, spoken by Ronald Dacey (Edi Gathegi):

A very special thank-you to my brilliant band—especially my day ones, Jelly Bean Johnson and Monte Moir. We go back like rocking chairs. My main man Ricky Freeze Smith, Tori “Freak Juice” Ruffin, Thomas Austin, and Jeffery McNeely.

2019, Morris Day, On Time: A Princely Life in Funk, Da Capo Press, →ISBN:

To my day ones: Jude Viaud, Roberto Franco, Antonio Wormley, and Jared Allen. The crazy times and memories that we all share together near and far will never be forgotten.

2019, Keith Sarasin, Chris Viaud, Farmers Dinner Cookbook: A Story in Every Bite: A Story in Every Bite, Cider Mill Press, →ISBN, page 297:

Pistols was my dawg, my day one, my right hand, so I didn't ever want us to be out because of me not being able to keep my dick in my jeans.

2019, Liv Reshelle, Dymond & Pistols: Forever & Always, Sullivan Group Publishing:

(US, slang) A close, longtime friend, one who has been around since the beginning.


common loon

great northern diver
great northern diver

(US, Canada) The great northern diver (Gavia immer)


Arctic loon

black-throated diver
black-throated diver

(Canada, US) The black-throated diver bird.


red-throated loon

en-noun

red-throated loon (plural red-throated loons)


screamer

I had seen the track of the bear they were after, and I knowed he was a screamer.

1917, David Crockett, “The Bear Hunt”, in Maurice Garland Fulton, editor, Southern Life in Southern Literature:

(obsolete, US, hunting) A healthy, vigorous animal.


low-doc loan

low-doc loans (plural)
low doc loan (alternative)

2006, The Bulletin, Issues 6536-6544, page 61,
“You can see it here in mortgages. Low-doc loans used to carry at least 1% or more of risk premium. As everybody [piled] in, that has been driven down to half a percent. These people do not have a verifiable income, and yet you can only expect them to be charged half a percent more on the interest rate.”

In a no-doc or low-doc loan, the lender doesn′t require you to bring proof of your income, but you will usually have to pay a higher interest rate or extra fees to get the loan. Lenders generally charge more for no-doc/low-doc loans.

2007, Barry Leonard, Consumer Handbook on Adjustable-Rate Mortgages, page 9:

This kind of “no-doc loan” and its cousin, the “low-doc loan,” became quite prevalent. By 2006, low-doc loans accounted for more than one-third of all subprime mortgage originations.

2011, Robert W. Kolb, The Financial Crisis of Our Time, page 56:

(US, Australia, banking, finance) A loan or mortgage where the borrower provides only limited proof of their income.


buy out

en-verb

buy out (third-person singular simple present buys out, present participle buying out, simple past and past participle bought out)

buys out (present singular third-person)
buying out (participle present)
bought out (participle past)
bought out (past)

You always manage to buy out at the last second.

(intransitive, US, dated, slang) To avoid a punishment or escape a difficult situation.


the Rock

* (Gibraltar): From the Rock of Gibraltar

(US) Nickname of the prison on Alcatraz Island, USA.

San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay#English

(US) Nickname of the island of Alcatraz. An island in San Francisco Bay, Pacific, of California, United States


first grade

first grades (plural)
1st grade (alternative)

(US, education) The first or second year of grade school depending on classification, the period in school that comes after kindergarten and before second grade. Children usually begin first grade at age six.


base communications

(telecommunications, military, US) Communications services, such as the installation, operation, maintenance, augmentation, modification, and rehabilitation of communications networks, systems, facilities, and equipment, including off-post extensions, provided for the operation of a military post, camp, installation, station, or activity.


bleah

You bought that green station wagon? Bleah!

Reviewing my list of ickisms - yuck, yecch, bleah, ew and ick - the linguist [David McNeill] observes, "Negative words having to do with disgust seem to be embodied in the experience of expelling unwanted, possibly poisonous, materials from the mouth. […]

2005 September 25, William Safire, “The Ick Factor”, in The New York Times:

(slang, US) Expresses negative feeling. The quality of the emotion expressed is more negative than that of blah and has a slight feeling of disgust, verging on nausea.


brass ring

Some fairground carousels offer a prize to a rider who manages to grab a brass ring.

He's going for the brass ring.

Another Kennedy Reaches for the Brass Ring [title] The latest entry in the political Irish sweepstakes is Teddy Kennedy, the President's 30-year-old brother.

1962 March 11, James Reston, “Another Kennedy Reaches for the Brass Ring”, in New York Times, page 8E:

I'm holdin' on / I can't fall back / Now that big brass ring / Is a shade of black

1967, Bob Gaudio, Peggy Farina (lyrics and music), “Beggin'”, performed by The Four Seasons:

As a perversion of freedom it was, like any perversion, erotic; as alienation it carried the frisson of having just missed the brass ring, a sensation that always brought one back for more.

1989, Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:

The one thing considered the brass ring in selling insurance was making a sale on a cold canvass. Cold canvassing was the most dreaded exercise for most insurance salesmen.

2019, Kelly D. Harrison, Air Force Cop: An Autobiography, page 100:

The key on immigration — and I’m anti- any immigration. I want a moratorium on all immigration right now because I want American citizens to get a shot at the brass ring.

2025 January 31, Ross Douthat, quoting Steve Bannon, “Steve Bannon on ‘Broligarchs’ vs. Populism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US) A prize or goal, often a chance to advance in one's career.


mojado

Borrowed from Spanish mojado (literally “wet”), from espalda mojada.

“They're trying to mess around with us,” said a 33-year-old carpenter who identified himself as Alfredo. “But there will still be work, and as long as there's work there will still be ‘mojados.’”

1984 June 24, Richard J. Meislin, “To Mexicans, Law on Aliens Is Cruel Joke”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Mr. Davis provides his own (at times overly folksy) narration, telling us that since a 1994 federal law stepped up immigration patrols in urban centers, people like these mojados have been forced to reroute through the desert, resulting in more than 2,000 deaths from exposure, dehydration and injury in the last 10 years.

2005 May 18, Dana Stevens, “Pilgrimage Across the Border That Tempts but Dodges Fate”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


divided

en-adj

divided (comparative more divided, superlative most divided)

more divided (comparative)
most divided (superlative)

From Middle English divided, devided, devidid, past participle of Middle English dividen (“to divide”), equivalent to divide + -ed.

a house divided against itself cannot stand

(US) (of a road) separated into lanes, that move in opposite directions, by a median


blackbirder

Runaway slaves and free blacks were constantly being kidnapped by New York City’s many “Blackbirders,” slave-catching bounty hunters who deported their captures to the plantations.

2011, Colin Woodard, chapter 22, in American nations, New York: Penguin, →ISBN:


flat out

flat outs (plural)
flat-out (alternative)


funny money

(informal, US) A highly inflated currency.


gee whiz

You only got 10% in the test. Gee whiz – you'll get over it.

When people would get off they always gasped out: 'Gee whiz, what a horse! Gee whiz, did you ever see anything like that! '

1905, Lloyd Osbourne, Baby Bullet: The Bubble of Destiny, page 116:

Gee whiz, how do people have fun when they're married and have a family?

1959 April 23, “Beaver's Newspaper”, in Leave It to Beaver, season 2, episode 30 (television production), spoken by Theodore Cleaver (Jerry Mathers):

That's the way I feel now; I just wrote the novels and made up the languages, and gee whiz, they make sense!

1979, Walter Breen, The Darkover Concordance:

(US, dated) An expression of surprise, enthusiasm, or annoyance: wow or so what?


get down to brass tacks

en-verb

get<,,got,gotten:got> down to brass tacks

get down to brass tacks (third-person singular simple present gets down to brass tacks, present participle getting down to brass tacks, simple past got down to brass tacks, past participle gotten down to brass tacks or got down to brass tacks)

gets down to brass tacks (present singular third-person)
getting down to brass tacks (participle present)
got down to brass tacks (past)
gotten down to brass tacks (participle past)
got down to brass tacks (participle past)

Uncertain. Earliest attestation in 1863 US, specifically Texas. One theory is that it comes from the brass tacks in the counter of a hardware store or draper’s shop used to measure cloth in precise units (rather than holding one end to the nose and stretching out the arm to approximately one yard). Another possibility is the 19th-century American practice of using brass tacks to spell out the initials of the deceased on the top of their coffin.

1863, January 21, 1863, The Tri-Weekly Telegraph, newspaper of Houston, Texas
When you come down to brass tacks – if we may be allowed the expression – everybody is governed by selfishness.

"But I called here with a purpose. I expect you are a busy man and I know that I am, so I'll get down to the brass tacks."

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

1935, Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty
That's no answer. Get down to brass tacks.

1972, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Let's get down to brass tacks here. How much for the ape?

1979, Stephen King, The Dead Zone
We're gonna stop playing games with these Arabs and get down to brass tacks!

You must be Jules, which would make you Vincent. Let's get down to brass tacks, gentlemen. If I was informed correctly, the clock is ticking. Is that right, Jimmie?

1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by The Wolf (Harvey Keitel):

And if the government got a grip, got down to brass tacks and started doing their actual job, all these things could be avoided.

2023 April 2, Pippa Crerar, Robyn Vinter, quoting Lisa Nandy, “Suella Braverman denies Brexit to blame for Dover queues of 14 hours”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(idiomatic, chiefly US) To start to discuss or consider the most important details or facts about something.


zob

Claimed by Swedish scholar Jan Ivarsson (quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang) to derive from French zob (“dick, cock”), itself from Arabic زُبّ (zubb).

And the same thing goes for that crowd of crabs and snobs Down East, and next time you hear some zob from Yahooville-on-the-Hudson chewing the rag and bulling and trying to get your goat tell him that no two-fisted enterprising Westerner would have New York for a gift!

1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXV, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC, section III, pages 415–416:

(US, slang, derogatory, dated) A good-for-nothing person.

Green's Dictionary of Slang
Jan Ivarsson


digital brownshirt

en-noun

digital brownshirt (plural digital brownshirts)

From digital + brownshirt, coined by former U.S. vice president Al Gore in 2005.

coin

(slang, US, derogatory) A right-wing blogger.


casebook

casebooks (plural)
case-book (alternative)
case book (alternative)

From case + book. First use appears c. 1675.

(US, law) A kind of book, used in law schools, containing the text of court opinions in legal cases accompanied by analysis and related materials.


grade crossing

In 1968 there were 1547 grade crossing fatalities. Two-thirds of the total fatalities associated with railroad operations occurred at grade crossings.

1969, United States Congress, Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1969:

(chiefly US) An at-grade crossing between a railroad line and an ordinary road, with tracks and road at the same level.


greaser

From grease + -er. Applied to mechanics because they frequently become greasy during the course of their work. Applied to toughs because they frequently greased their hair, and, like greaseball, to Italians for the same reason. Applied to Mexicans because, at the time the phrase originated, they commonly worked greasing the axles of carts.

A pair of Greasers were ahead of me, but I could see only their outlines, and they didn't seem to interfere any with the scenery.

1907, Stewart Edward White, chapter 11, in Arizona Nights:

(US, offensive, ethnic slur) A Latin American, especially a Mexican.

(US, offensive, ethnic slur) An Italian.


the whole caboodle

US slang, attested in 1848. From an earlier (1830s) "the whole boodle".

When you're packing for our camping trip, don't forget the essentials. You know, deodorant, ant killer, condoms, baby wipes and the whole caboodle.

"'Yes, sir, these other burgs are our true partners in the great game of vital living. But let's not have any mistake about this. I claim that Zenith is the best partner and the fastest-growing partner of the whole caboodle. […]


noneuclidean geometry

en-noun

noneuclidean geometry (countable and uncountable, plural noneuclidean geometries)

non-Euclidean geometry
non-Euclidean geometry#English

(geometry, US) Alternative form of non-Euclidean geometry


no-see-um

(US, chiefly Southern US) Any biting midge (family Ceratopogonidae), small flies (1–4 mm long); sometimes the species Leptoconops torrens in particular.


lyceum

From Ancient Greek Λύκειον (Lúkeion) (the name of a gymnasium, or athletic training facility, near Athens where Aristotle established his school), from Λύκειος, from Proto-Greek *λύκη), "light." The meaning of the epithet "Lyceus" later became associated with Apollo's mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia (Λυκία) and who was identified with the wolf (λύκος). Doublet of lycée.

We burst out laughing. She told me that one of her teachers at the "lyceum" used to say that whenever any of the students got up to anything.

2021, Pedro Mairal, The Woman from Uruguay, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 109:

(US, historical) A school, especially European, at a stage between elementary school and college, a lycée.


ghetto bird

Had to pull a strap on a fool named Louis the Third
Cuz I'm getting chased by the ghetto bird

1993, Ghetto Bird, Ice Cube, Lethal Injection

(slang, US, idiomatic) A police helicopter, specifically in the context of patrolling or searching impoverished, high-crime urban areas (the ghetto).


zot

Sound effect in the comic strip B.C., first published in 1958, associated with both (1) the rapid tongue of an anteater character and (2) lightning bolts.


zot

(US) The characteristic sound made by an anteater's tongue or by lightning.


goodwill

goodwill (usually uncountable, plural goodwills)

goodwills (plural)
good-will (alternative)

From Middle English *goodwille, good wille (“goodwill”), perhaps from Old English *gōdwille (“goodwill”); compare Old English gōdwillende (“well-pleased”); also Scots guidwilly, guidwillie (“displaying goodwill”), equivalent to good + will. Cognate with Scots guidwill (“goodwill”), Middle Low German gūtwille (“goodwill”), Old High German guotwilligi (“goodwill”), Old Danish godvilje (“goodwill”), Icelandic góðvilji, góðvili (“goodwill”), Icelandic góðvild (“goodness”). The sense "thrift shop" is a genericized trademark of a US chain of such shops.

cog

(countable, also capitalized, Canada, US) A thrift shop.


baby carriage

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-baby carriage.wav

(US) A cart that is designed for moving a baby around in a lying position.


Holy Trinity

holy Trinity (alternative)
holy trinity (alternative)

From Middle English holy Trinitee, a partial translation of earlier hali þrumnesse, haliʒ ðrymnesse (“holy trinity”, literally “holy threeness”), from Old English hālgu þrines. Equivalent to holy + Trinity.

(US, informal) Three prestigious colleges in the US: Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

(US, informal) Celery, bell peppers and onions, three important ingredients in Cajun cuisine.


caregiver

caregivers (plural)
care-giver (alternative)

Coordinate term: practitioner

‘Caregivers in this role can suffer as much as the patients. It can be very stressful.’

2020, Avni Doshi, Burnt Sugar, Hamish Hamilton, page 76:

(Canada, US, Philippines) A carer; a person who looks after another person.


Mason jar

Mason jars (plural)
mason jar (alternative)

Named after American tinsmith John Landis Mason (1832–1902), who first invented and patented it in 1858.

named-after

Yesterday, I went outside / With my momma's mason jar / Caught a lovely butterfly

1996, Rivers Cuomo (lyrics and music), “Butterfly”, in Pinkerton, performed by Weezer:

(Canada, US) A glass jar with a screw top, often used for preserving food.


fussbudget

fussbudgets (plural)
fuss-budget (alternative)

/ˈfʌsˌbʌd͡ʒɪt/

Their three-year-old daughter can be quite a fussbudget, but she's cute.

The nation's 50 million smokers remain at liberty to vote en bloc for a fussbudget-free Congress. Are the polls ready to accommodate smokers?

2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, quoting Russell Seitz, chapter 5, in Merchants of Doubt:

(colloquial, derogatory, Canada, US) One who complains or fusses a great deal, especially about unimportant matters; a fusspot.

мрънкало

One who complains a great deal, especially about unimportant matters


put the bee on

en-verb

put the bee on (third-person singular simple present puts the bee on, present participle putting the bee on, simple past and past participle put the bee on)

puts the bee on (present singular third-person)
putting the bee on (participle present)
put the bee on (participle past)
put the bee on (past)

When Carmen quipped in, “Well, Mr. President somebody has to put the bee on them,” the General asserted, “It won't be me, never.”

2001, Travis Beal Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia, Transaction, page 152:

(slang, transitive, chiefly US) To finish off; to beat.

Sometimes I'd see a woman in the backyard, and, if she had a kind face I'd put the bee on her.

1938, Clifford Robe Shaw, Henry Donald McKay, “et al.”, in Brothers in Crime, University of Chicago, page 157:

I don’t want to be the kind of a guy that would take advantage of him. You know one time I put the bee on him for a buck.

(slang, transitive, chiefly US) To beg from; to borrow money from.


tonite

(US, informal, entertainment industry) Alternative spelling of tonight


heah

‘Yeah, uh store right heah in town wid everything in it you needs.’

1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Virago Press (2018), page 46:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(US, historical, colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of here, representing African-American Vernacular English.


(US, Internet slang, leetspeak) Censored spelling of ass.


duffel bag

duffel bags (plural)
duffle bag (alternative)

After the Belgian town of Duffel, which produced the thick cloth from which early duffel bags were made.

(US, Australia, often military) A large, cylindrical, duffel cloth bag used to carry personal gear, especially by soldiers.

õlapaun

large duffel cloth bag used to carry personal gear


Marion

en-prop

Marion (countable and uncountable, plural Marions)

From Middle English Marion, from Old French Marion, a diminutive of Marie, used in England since the Middle Ages.

"I spose you want to be a cattleboy," drawled the multicolored beard whose name was Carrol Day, a curiously feminine name, thought Martin, not yet acquaintanced with the bearded Marions, Fannys and Abbys of Texas who, saddled by their unthinking mothers with dainty names, built savagely masculine frames of character.

2002, Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole, →ISBN, page 81:

(chiefly US) A male given name transferred from the surname, or by folk etymology seen as a masculine form of Mary.


suicide jockey

In reference to the risk of death if the vehicle crashes.

Listen, you wanna put that microbus in behind that suicide jockey?
Yeah, he's haulin' dynamite, and he needs all the help he can get.

1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:

(slang, US) A semi-trailer driver pulling a tanker trailer with gasoline or other explosive or hazardous substance.


chinook

Borrowed from Lower Chehalis c̓inúk (“the name of a Chinook village on the Columbia River”).

bor+

(Canada, US, physics, meteorology) The descending, warm, dry wind on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains that generally blows from the southwest and can rapidly increase the temperature due to the much warmer air it brings.

chinook-tuuli

the descending, warm, dry wind on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains


GSU

(US, military) Initialism of geographically separated unit: a military unit not at the same physical location or base as its parent unit.


big-ticket item

en-noun

big-ticket item (plural big-ticket items)

The term is derived from the idea that the price is high (big).


scratch

en-verb

scratch (third-person singular simple present scratches, present participle scratching, simple past and past participle scratched)

scratches (present singular third-person)
scratching (participle present)
scratched (participle past)
scratched (past)

From Middle English scracchen, of uncertain origin. Probably a blend of Middle English scratten (“to scratch”) and cracchen (“to scratch”). More at scrat and cratch.

scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist

you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours

(billiards, dated, US) To score, not by skillful play but by some fortunate chance of the game.


scratch

en-noun

scratch (countable and uncountable, plural scratches)

(archaic, US, slang) A shot which scores by chance and not as intended by the player; a fluke.


rustler

(US, especially Western US, slang, dated) An alert, energetic, driving person.


thumper

thumper (countable and uncountable, plural thumpers)

(US, military, slang) The Vietnam-era M79 grenade launcher (due to its distinctive report).


sawyer

From Middle English sawyer, sawier, sawior, equivalent to saw + -yer. Doublet of sawer.

‘A’most used-up I am, I do declare!’ she observed. ‘The jolting in the cars is pretty nigh as bad as if the rail was full of snags and sawyers.’

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC:

(US) A large trunk of a tree brought down by the force of a river's current.


radiclib

Shortening. The coinage is generally attributed to US vice president Spiro Agnew. It was used by the Nixon administration to attack the political opposition, implying that the liberals in the Senate were subversive. Several people on Nixon's Enemies List were identified as radiclibs.

1970. September 12, H. R. Haldeman, Haldeman's Diary,
Next, a front that sounds like SDS to support the Democratic candidates and praise their liberal records, etc, publicize their 'bad' quotes in guise of praise. Give the senators a 'radiclib' rating.


calm wind

(US, aviation) Wind that is slower than 3 knots.


sunshine agenda

sunshine agenda (plural sunshine agendas)

(US, government, law) An agenda on which an item has been placed for which the decision-making body will not entertain discussion or commentary.

(US, government, law) A public agenda on which an item for decision has been placed for which the decision-making body will not entertain commentary, discussion or influence during a certain defined time-frame prior to the decision, in order to give the body "a period of repose" in which to make decisions.


DOGSO

The referees failed to spot the shirt pull from Jackson during play but after VAR review he was correctly awarded the DOGSO red card.

(soccer, US, Canada) Acronym of denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.


barney

Etymology unknown. Often incorrectly thought to be Cockney rhyming slang from Barney Rubble (“trouble”, from the character Barney Rubble on The Flintstones), it actually dates back to the 19th century and its origin is unknown.

unk

Etymology unknown

There goes that fuckin' Barney right now, with his fuckin' "skiin' trip." We should'a kicked that dude's ass.

1997, Damon, Matt, Affleck, Ben, Good Will Hunting, spoken by Morgan O'Mally (Casey Affleck):

(US dialect, Boston) A student at Harvard University.


barney

From the character Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show.

She called the town Mayberry. She said Barney Fife was in charge.

2005 March 3, “Scott Peterson's sister speaks out”, in MSNBC:

(US, pejorative slang) A police officer, usually one who is inferior or overzealous.


roughness

en-noun

roughness (countable and uncountable, plural roughnesses)

From Middle English roughnes, roughnesse, equivalent to rough + -ness. Compare Old English hrēohnes (“roughtness”).

With this latter implement, the corn stalk fodder, shucks, oats, hay and other "roughness" may be finely cut up […]

1855, Southern Cultivator, volume 13, page 258:


hern

From Middle English hiren, hirne, from the same source as her. The -n was added (especially in the speech of the Midlands and Southern England, starting in the 1300s) by analogy with mine and thine. (Compare ourn.) Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, hers, which see for more. Cognate with West Flemish heurn (“hern”).

(obsolete outside British and US dialects, especially Appalachia) Hers; her own.


gunzel

Burton Lazars
Dashiell Hammet
Michael Quinion
Newsweek
Random House

Origin uncertain; possibly from gunsel (“stupid or contemptible fellow, creep; young man kept for homosexual purposes, catamite”), from Yiddish גענדזל (gendzl, “gosling”), from Middle High German gensel,
diminutive of gans (“goose”) (compare German Gänslein (“gosling”), from Gans (“goose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”)).
There is an unverified suggestion that the word was first used in the 1960s by staff of the Sydney Tramway Museum in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to describe shabbily dressed trainspotters. They were apparently influenced by the word gunsel (“a gun-carrying hoodlum”), which had been popularized in the film The Maltese Falcon (1941) based on the 1929 novel of the same name by American author Dashiell Hammet (1894–1961).


open a can of whoop ass

en-verb

open a can of whoop ass (third-person singular simple present opens a can of whoop ass, present participle opening a can of whoop ass, simple past and past participle opened a can of whoop ass)

opens a can of whoop ass (present singular third-person)
opening a can of whoop ass (participle present)
opened a can of whoop ass (participle past)
opened a can of whoop ass (past)
open a can of whup ass (alternative)
open a can of whoop-ass (alternative)
open up a can of whoop ass (alternative)
open up a can of whoop-ass (alternative)

From English whoop (variant of whip) + ass.

I'm gonna open up a can of whoop-ass on ya.

Chan stars in his first all-American production as chan as Hong Kong Detective Inspector Lee, a noble, innocent and caring police officer who can really bust open a can of whoop-ass when given the chance.

1998, Robert Fletcher, “No rush to see new Chan”, in University Wire:

(idiomatic, slang, vulgar, US) A good-humored threat of physical harm.


stockyard

No foe shall gather our harvest,
Or sit on our stockyard rail.

29 June 1940, Mary Gilmore, "No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest", in The Australian Women's Weekly (Sydney), p. 5

(US, Australia) An enclosed yard, with pens, sheds etc. or stables, where livestock is kept temporarily before being slaughtered, treated, sold, or shipped etc.


gentlewoman

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gentlewoman.wav

From Middle English gentilwoman, modelled after gentilman (“gentleman”), equivalent to gentle + -woman.

'The gentlewoman from California.' Or 'the gentlewoman from Texas.' Gentlewoman?

1998 December 11, “GENTLEWOMEN AND GENTLEMEN DON'T SAY 'LADY'”, in Daily Press:

House of Representatives
House of Representatives

(US, politics) A female member of a legislature, especially a female member of a House of Representatives.


outlying field

outlying fields (plural)
OLF (alternative)

(military, chiefly US) An airfield outside of the homebase.


DIS

(military, US) Defense Investigative Service


jim-dandy

Uncertain. Possibly a reference to the song Dandy Jim of Caroline (words by Silas Sexton Steel and music by J. Richard Myers), which was popular in the 1840s, around the time the term emerged. It was subsequently popularized by sports announcers in the late 1800s.

jimdandy (alternative)
jim dandy (alternative)

As its speed increased, and the black masses of chaparral went whizzing past on either side, the express messenger, lighting his pipe, looked through his window and remarked, feelingly: "What a jim-dandy place for a hold-up!"

c. 1900, O. Henry, The Passing of Black Eagle:

We could not wait for Atticus to come home for dinner, but called and said we had a big surprise for him. He seemed surprised when he saw most of the back yard in the front yard, but he said we had done a jim-dandy job. "I didn't know how you were going to do it," he said to Jem, "but from now on I'll never worry about what'll become of you, son, you'll always have an idea."

1960 July 11, Harper Lee, chapter 8, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:

(chiefly US, colloquial) Excellent, outstanding.


jim-dandy

jim-dandies (plural)
jimdandy (alternative)
jim dandy (alternative)

The tattered man stood musing.

1895 October, Stephen Crane, chapter X, in The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 100:

(chiefly US, colloquial) Something that is a very superior example of its kind.


crapshoot

(US, idiomatic) A venture with a highly risky or unpredictable outcome.


Dixieland

(US, informal) The southern states of the US; Dixie.

(US, informal) The southwestern corner of Utah; Dixie.


could care less

head

could care less (past perfect could have cared less)

An alteration of couldn’t care less (which is first attested slightly earlier), either:
* by deliberate irony, or
* by hyponegation, perhaps influenced by forms such as “as if I could care less”, “no one could care less”, and “to know little (or nothing) and care less”.

Farmers knew that dead fish made plants go better. They could care less about why that happened. Scientists could not sleep until they found out why.

1967, American Cooperation, Washington, D.C.: American Institute of Cooperation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 235:

We do work [...] to develop some strength and testing standards so that the industry can be assured that safe products are being produced. The person who is doing a knockoff could care less about that, and so they will just produce the product with virtually no field or laboratory testing and ship it out.

1995 October 10, Thomas McGann (witness), Trademark Counterfeiting: Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Fourth Congress, First Session on S. 1136: A Bill to Control and Prevent Commercial Counterfeiting, and for Other Purposes […] (Serial No. J-104-49), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published 1997, →OCLC, page 33:

As someone who lives 30 miles away as the crow flies [...] from New York City, I could care less that New York City or New York State has a sense of jurisdiction. I would want to know whoever is most capable would be able to step in without any jurisdictional battle.

1999 June 23, Christopher Shays, Subcommittee Chairman, Combating Terrorism: Role of the National Guard Response Teams: Hearing before the Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs, and International Relations of the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session […] (Serial No. 106-32), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 64:

Maybe it wasn't only time to move away from a job that was killing her spirit, but from people who could care less about her as a person, who saw her only as the good girl from next door, the one who would never do anything to upset anyone, who totally underestimated her.

2003, Donna Hill, If I Could (Dafina Books), New York, N.Y.: Kensington Publishing, →ISBN, page 58:

(US, nonstandard) To not care at all; to have no concern or interest; to be apathetic.


crock

From Middle English crok, crokke (“earthenware jar, pot, or other container; cauldron; belly, stomach”) [and other forms], from Old English crocc, crocca (“crock, pot, vessel”) [and other forms], from Proto-Germanic *krukkō, *krukkô (“vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *growg- (“vessel”).
The English word is cognate with Danish and Norwegian krukke (“jar”), Dutch kruik (“jar, jug”), regional German Kruke (“crock”), Icelandic krukka (“pot, jar”), Old English crōg, crōh (“crock, pitcher, vessel”). See also cruse.

That's a bunch of crock.

The story is a crock.

(slang, Canada, US, countable and uncountable) Silly talk, a foolish belief, a poor excuse, nonsense.


krumping

(US, especially Los Angeles) A free, expressive and energetic style of hip-hop dancing.


REMF

Back at the PXs, the REMFs (rear-echelon motherfuckers) […] were indulging in black-market schemes and pleasures while Stone and his buddies out humping the boonies did the fighting, putting their lives on the line.

2004, Martin Torgoff, “Next Stop is Vietnam”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 175:

(slang, US, UK, military) Initialism of rear-echelon motherfucker; a soldier far from the front line, especially during the Vietnam War.


heroics

/hɪˈɹəʊ.ɪks/

Of if we have an elderly person who is unconscious and not responding, we discuss using heroics with the family, and they often say no heroics.

1976, Ronald E. Alexander, Lawrence P. Wilkins, Medical-legal dilemmas in the care of the critically ill:

Her daughters argue that no heroics should be used to prolong her life.

1988, American College of Legal Medicine, Legal Medicine: Legal Dynamics of Medical Encounters, page 122:

No Heroics. Do not use respirators, ventilators or administer medication other than those medications necessary to prevent infection, provide comfort or alleviate pain.

1998, George Watson, Emily Watson, The Calling: A Journey on the Path of Parent Care, page 29:

(US, medicine) Emergency intervention to save a patient's life.


buns

Wow, that's a pain in the buns.

Here I am freezing my buns off at 9 in the morning, about to jump into ice water and drown.

1986 July 22, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic):

(Canada, US, euphemistic, childish) The buttocks.


gas up

en-verb

gas up (third-person singular simple present gasses up or gases up, present participle gassing up, simple past and past participle gassed up)

gasses up (present singular third-person)
gases up (present singular third-person)
gassing up (participle present)
gassed up (participle past)
gassed up (past)

I can close down this bar / I can gas up my car / I can pack up and mail in my key

1977, “Bartender’s Blues”, in James Taylor (lyrics), JT, performed by James Taylor, Columbia Records:


Benedict Arnold

en-noun

Benedict Arnold (plural Benedict Arnolds)

From Benedict Arnold, famous for betraying the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

A Negro hotelkeeper in a free city of the North views with disdain a Benedict Arnold in the colored camp who crosses the lines to a "white" hotel.

1945, William Worthy, Jr., “Non-Fraternization: American Style”, in The Crisis, volume 52, number 11, page 323:

I am no longer an American; I am a traitor, a Judas, a Benedict Arnold.

2008, Nick De La Pena, The Contagion, page 299:

Within a group, Benedict Arnolds attempt to prevent the group from accomplishing its goals

2009, Charles Zastrow, The Practice of Social Work: A Comprehensive Worktext, page 204:

What if we are already under investigation from someone covertly talking with the cops? What if there is a Benedict Arnold in the group?

2012, Nicholas Campanella, Traglamoor's Journey:


grubby

(US, dialect) Any species of Cottus; a sculpin.


baby bond

(US) Any bond, issued with a value less than $1,000, intended for small investors.


douchebag

douchebags (plural)
douche bag (alternative)

That douchebag ruined my shrimp cocktail.

Why doesn't that guy get a job? He’s a regular douchebag.

It's fine to help your friends eat healthy, but don't be a douchebag and harass them about it.

(US, slang, vulgar, humorous) A jerk or asshole; a mean or rude person; someone seen as being arrogant, snobby or obnoxious.

That pocket protector makes you look like a douchebag.

(US, slang) Any social misfit; a doofus, dork, or nerd.


mourning cloak

(US) A large butterfly, Nymphalis antiopa, native to Eurasia and North America.


obligated

en-adj

obligated (comparative more obligated, superlative most obligated)

more obligated (comparative)
most obligated (superlative)

Under a provision of a larger piece of legislation, popularly known as the Customs Bill, that has been approved by the House and is expected to soon pass the Senate, American officials will be obligated to treat the settlements as part of Israel in future trade negotiations.

2016 January 26, “When ‘Made In Israel’ Is a Human Rights Abuse”, in The New York Times, retrieved 2016-01-26:

(Canada, US, Scotland) having an obligation; obliged


butt monkey

1993 May 18, Martin J Hannigan, "I LIKE YOUR NEW ORGANIZATION BUNG BOY", talk.bizarre, Usenet
I still prefer Butt Monkey User Group myself.

1993 July 8-9, "Insecure faggots.": "Butt monkeys", alt.sex, Usenet
"ad980": the autopsy has concluded that indeed, the monkey did have a banana shoved up his butt
Kevin Walsh: All this talk about butt monkeys makes me wonder if you see yourself as the organ grinder.
"ad980": Oddly enough, the butt monkey in question is you.

1994, Mike Judge, Beavis and Butt-Head
Beavis: Butt-munch / Monkey Spank / Dillweed / Turd wipe / Dumbass / Butt Monkey
Butt-Head: Chode / Waste of Bum Wipe / Dillhole / Fartknocker / Dumb Beavis / Butt-Head, no wait

You have my promise that everything in our power will be done to catch this psycho butt monkey, but...I just don’t think you could distance yourself from this level of personal involvement.

2000 October 13, Edward Hancock II, Splintered Souls, Xlibris Corporation, page 90:

Uh-oh, Butt Monkey alert

2001 March, “The Butt Monkey”, in Adopt-A-Pet of Victoria, Texas:

2002 May 9, "i [sic.] know theres no great plan here...", Meagan's Journal http://dreamstarblue.livejournal.com/30128.html
eric decided to be a butt monkey and start shit about cory.

Butt Monkey, you didn't tell congress [sic.] you were going to spy on everyone.

2006 January 29, “Achtung! Where are your papers?”, in Picks Commentary:

2006 April 19, 'And let the Church say, "AMEN!"', Defiance http://laurielou2.blogspot.com/2006/04/and-let-church-say-amen.html
I was pontificating on the ecstasy of the prospect of not having to listen to the butt monkey fumble and stammer through another round of explanation for the unexplainable.

Some bloody butt-monkey rear-ends me.

2006 May 15, Fan-Bloody-Tastic, Insanity Reigns Supreme http://rider.net.nz/modules/wordpress/?author=1

(Canada, US, slang, often humorous) An annoying and irksome person.

2000 September 26, Marti Noxon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 5, Episode 79: “Buffy vs. Dracula”
Xander: I'm sick of being the guy who eats insects and gets the funny syphilis. As of this moment, it's over. I'm finished being everybody's butt monkey!

they can while away their time being Bubba's butt monkey for the next 50 years.

2006 February 6, “I don't think they should execute terrorists”, in First and Last and Always:

I'm getting pretty tired of being the comic book industry's butt-monkey.

2006 March 25, “Issue #16 Review. Not.”, in Legion Abstract:

But being at butt monkey status means that I don't have a voice to express my displeasure.

2006 April 27, “Work worries and a quote”, in World's Easiest Quiz:

Con's about as far from the standard Alpha as he could get--he's the Unseelie [sic.] butt-monkey

2006 May 5, “In defence of the Beta Male”, in DAYS of the INSANE:

Don't do wrong to others and it should come back to you tenfold. OK, so there are several years that I was Karma's butt-monkey for not obeying that simple rule.

2006 May 14, “Karma gives me a handjob”, in Pissing and Moaning:

(Canada, US, slang, often humorous) An object of abuse and ridicule; sometimes, especially, a prison bitch.


switchback

The noun is derived from switch (“to turn (a train) from one railway track to another using a switch”, verb) + back (“so as to reverse direction and return”, adverb).
The verb is derived from the noun.

compound

Coordinate term: horseshoe curve

Already, we enter some airport bathrooms through a brief switchback of walls, so that we don’t ever grasp a door handle.

2019 April 25, Samanth Subramanian, “Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-21:

(chiefly Canada, US, road transport) A sharp bend in a path or road which causes a traveller to almost reverse their direction of travel, especially one of a series of such bends on an incline; a hairpin bend; also a path or road having such a series of bends.


congresswoman

When they got to talking, these five would-be congresswomen realized that they had a lot in common, despite being from different parts of the country: they all had careers in national security they were trying to parlay into elected office.

2019 September 28, Dana Bash and Bridget Nolan, “These five freshman congresswomen changed history by becoming unlikely leaders on impeachment”, in CNN:

Representative Nancy Pelosi, our California congresswoman, has affirmed that the United States stands “unwaveringly” by Israel as it conducts its defense[…]

2023 October 18, “We’re anti-Zionist Jews and we see genocide unfolding in Gaza”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday chose Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who became one of his most enthusiastic backers, to serve as the director of national intelligence.

2024 November 13, Julian E. Barnes, “Trump Chooses Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2024-11-16:

(US) A female member of the House of Representatives.


sure thing

That horse is a sure thing in the race at 3:30.


Jody

Jodies (plural)
Jodi (alternative)
Jodie (alternative)

From a blend of Jo or Joe with Jody or Judy. Doublet of Ivanka, Jan, Janelle, Janet, Janey, Janine, Jeanette, Jeanie, Jeannette, Jeannine, Jen, Jenna, Jenny, Jessie, Jo, Juanita, Shanae, Sinead, and Vanna in relation to most derivations of Jo as a female name.

doublet

Even today in the Marine Corps or the Army, one calls a jody, not a marching chant. For the trainee, Jody is the clever civilian who brutally divorces the soldier from the civilian world by appropriating all his possessions and loved ones.
Ain't no use in callin home. Jody's on your telephone.
Ain't no use in lookin' back.
Jody's got your Cadillac.
Ain't no use in goin' home.
Jody's got your girl and gone.
Ain't no use in feelin' blue.
Jody's got your sister too.

2004, Carol Burke, Camp all-American, Hanoi Jane, and the high-and-tight, page 31:

“What is Jody? a Jody is the guy back home with your wife or your girlfriend. That is what a Jody is,” Harris explained.

2008, Richard Engel, War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq, page 298:

(US, military and prison slang) The man who seduces a soldier or inmate's wife or girlfriend during his absence.


Darlene

A 20th-century coinage from darling and names like Charlene and Marlene.

Darlena (alternative)
Darleen (alternative)

(chiefly US and Australia) A female given name from English.


recon

en-noun

recon (countable and uncountable, plural recons)

During a scan of the Phoenix system asteroid field, you detected an odd energy reading that Tali determined was quarian in nature. She led a recon team into the asteroid field, where she discovered an abandoned freighter.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Carbonaceous Asteroid, Phoenix:

(chiefly US, military slang) reconnaissance.


recon

en-verb

recon (third-person singular simple present recons, present participle reconning, simple past and past participle reconned)

recons (present singular third-person)
reconning (participle present)
reconned (participle past)
reconned (past)

(chiefly US, military slang) reconnoiter.


BDU

(US, military) Initialism of battle dress uniform.


supermajority

supermajorities (plural)
super-majority (alternative)
supramajority (alternative)

From super- (“above, greater than”) + majority.

af

It was in order to exclude not water, but the light of day, that the Roblin Government kept its super-majority on the Public Accounts Committee working under such heavy pressure, with two foremen on the job, Taylor and Coldwell, who kept them so hard at it that the Liberals were prevented from getting at the full facts of the Kelly work on the new Parliament buildings and the Roblin Government work on the Provincial Treasury in connection with Kelly.

1915 April 2, “‘Caisson Disease’ in a Severe Form”, in Manitoba Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, page 9, column 2:

The Texas Senate operates on a supermajority, too. Under ordinary circumstances, it takes approval from two-thirds of the 31 senators to bring a bill to the floor for debate.

2013 November 30, Ross Ramsey, “Supermajority Poses Dilemma for Both Parties”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The defining political fact of our time is not polarization. It’s the inability of even large bipartisan majorities to get what they want on issues like these. Call it the oppression of the supermajority.

2019 March 5, Tim Wu, “The Oppression of the Supermajority”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The failure on Wednesday to overturn Mr. Cooper’s veto was among the most dramatic consequences of Democratic legislative victories in North Carolina last November, which broke Republican supermajorities in both chambers and made it easier for Mr. Cooper’s vetos to survive.

2019 May 6, Richard Fausset, “North Carolina Legislature Fails to Overturn Governor’s Veto of Anti-Abortion Bill”, in The New York Times:

Launching his new political party, Alba, he [Alex Salmond] claimed he could help secure a “supermajority” for independence in the next Scottish parliament, which would significantly weaken Westminster’s opposition to a second independence referendum.

2021 April 15, Libby Brooks, “Could Salmond’s ‘Supermajority’ Talk Harm the Scottish Independence Cause?”, in The Guardian, London:

(chiefly Canada, US) A majority of the items being counted that reaches some preset threshold significantly greater than 50 percent, such as two thirds.

غَالِبِيَّة عُظْمَى

majority that reaches a preset threshold level


popover

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-popover.wav

(US) A light hollow muffin, resembling an individual Yorkshire pudding.


Luther

(chiefly US) A male given name transferred from the surname, originally in honor of Martin Luther.


adz

The adz is used in reducing the camphor tree to chips, which can be placed into retorts for the distillation process (see illustration on the next page).

March 1920, Alice Ballantine Kirjassoff, “FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL”, in National Geographic Magazine, page 267:

(chiefly US) Alternative spelling of adze


adz

en-verb

adz (third-person singular simple present adzes, present participle adzing, simple past and past participle adzed)

adzes (present singular third-person)
adzing (participle present)
adzed (participle past)
adzed (past)


billfold

Lenny had so many pictures of his family stuffed into his billfold that it barely fit into his pocket.

(US) A small, folding sleeve or case designed to hold paper currency, as well as credit cards, pictures, etc.


GRI

(US) Initialism of Graduate of the Realtor Institute


sappy

en-adj

sappy (comparative sappier, superlative sappiest)

sappier (comparative)
sappiest (superlative)

From Middle English sappy, sapy, from Old English sæpiġ (“full of sap, succulent”), equivalent to sap + -y. Cognate with West Frisian sappig (“juicy”), Dutch sappig (“juicy, succulent”), Middle High German saffic, seffec ("juicy, succulent"; > German saftig), Danish saftig (“juicy”), Swedish saftig (“juicy”). Doublet of zaftig.

gloss

"juicy, succulent"; > German <i class="Latn mention" lang="de">saftig</i>

He was a good deal of a character, and much better company than the sappy literature he was selling.

1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 23, in Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC:

To himself, already beginning to resent the new employer as all that morning he had been resenting the old one, Dr. Planish groaned, “He’s getting saintly on me! A careerist in holiness! I'll never be happy till I've got an organization where I’m sole boss—unless it’s one run by a fellow like Colonel Marduc, who has real brains and power—and cash!—and not a lot of sappy sentimentality like Vesper or psychopathic malice like Sneaky Sandy—Oh dear!”

1943, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 23, in Gideon Planish:

It was a sappy love song, but it reminded them of their first dance.

(US) Excessively sweet, emotional, nostalgic; cheesy; mushy. (British equivalent: soppy)

embafador

excessively sweet, emotional, nostalgic; cheesy; mushy


lunch kettle

(US, dated, chiefly eastern Pennsylvania) A lunchbox.


Chicano

/t͡ʃɪˈkɑːnəʊ/

/t͡ʃɪˈkɑnoʊ/

From Mexican Spanish chicano, from mechicano, a dialectal variant of mexicano (“Mexican”).

When Chicanos think about us at all, they perpetuate the stereotypes. Gabacho depiction of us as emotionally unchecked, sultry women lusting after pale bodies is just an extension of the fantasy they have about all women. Such dishonest portrayals are why Chicanas are "breaking the silence," as Rita Sánchez calls it.

1980, [Juan D.] Bruce-Novoa, “Bernice Zamora”, in Chicano Authors: Inquiry by Interview, Austin, Tex., London: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 214:

(chiefly US) Of a person: American but of Mexican descent, especially if conscious of one's political identity in the U.S. body politic.


Chicano

/t͡ʃɪˈkɑːnəʊ/

/t͡ʃɪˈkɑnoʊ/

pachuco

subset of Chicanos from the early 20th century


Chinese overtime

(US, idiomatic) Any form of overtime in which increasing the hours worked reduces the hourly rate.

九九六 (9-to-9 workday and six-day workweek)


bump off

en-verb

bump off (third-person singular simple present bumps off, present participle bumping off, simple past and past participle bumped off)

bumps off (present singular third-person)
bumping off (participle present)
bumped off (participle past)
bumped off (past)

"Well, he's been wrong ever since I had to bump off Tim Harrigan. Talks about a fair break. As if I had a chance to let the old man get to a gun."

1921, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 34, in Gunsight Pass:

The snow goons aren't moving! They're asleep! Now's our chance to go bump 'em off!

1990 January 12, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic):

In Match Point, when a mistress is about to blab to a wife, threatening a man's comfortable life, his solution is to bump off the girlfriend.

2006 February 8, Caryn James, “CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Ordinary Killers: A Theme of the Movie Moment”, in New York Times, retrieved 2008-12-27:

(chiefly US, idiomatic) To kill, especially to murder.


chipper

Someone who or something which chips (e.g. wood).

(in particular, US) A machine that reduces organic matter to compost; depending on size, whole tree trunks are reduced to sawdust; a woodchipper.

štěpkovač

(US, smoking) An occasional tobacco user, or more generally drug user.


coat tree

(US) An upright pole having hooks on which to hang coats or other clothing


loc

en-adj

loc (comparative more loc, superlative most loc)

more loc (comparative)
most loc (superlative)


word up

tlb

(US, originally African-American Vernacular)

What's up?; what's happening?; what's the word?


word up

en-verb

word up (third-person singular simple present words up, present participle wording up, simple past and past participle worded up)

words up (present singular third-person)
wording up (participle present)
worded up (participle past)
worded up (past)

(Christianity) To pray, remain spiritually oriented and/or behave congruently with Christian doctrine.


(US) Initialism of money supply, the amount of coin and banknotes in circulation


en-noun

M1 (countable and uncountable, plural M1s)

(US, money supply) The amount of cash in circulation plus the amount in bank accounts.


(US) (money supply) the amount of cash in circulation plus bank accounts, savings accounts and small deposits


(US) The amount of cash, all bank accounts, etc., plus foreign currency in circulation.


gumball

(US, slang) The flashing lights on top of a police car.


acyclovir

acyclovir (countable and uncountable, plural acyclovirs)

(pharmacology) US and UK spelling of aciclovir.


hazmat

hazmats (plural)
haz-mat (alternative)
Haz-Mat (alternative)
HAZMAT (alternative)
HazMat (alternative)

Coordinate term: biohazard

hazmat suit

No, but one day I got a letter in the mail, I opened it up and a puff of powder came all over my face and my chest. […] They said, “Don’t move, stay in the room.” And they got the hazmat people. So they came, they sprayed me down and all that.

2021 January 24, Donald G. McNeil Jr, “Fauci on What Working for Trump Was Really Like”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, often attributive) Hazardous material(s).


wait up

en-verb

wait up (third-person singular simple present waits up, present participle waiting up, simple past and past participle waited up)

waits up (present singular third-person)
waiting up (participle present)
waited up (participle past)
waited up (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-wait up.wav

Hey, wait up! I forgot my umbrella.

We have to wait up for Steve.

(colloquial, often used in the imperative, US) To wait.


daycoach

(US, rail transport) A normal railway car with seats, but no sleeping arrangements.


conventional mortgage loan

en-noun

conventional mortgage loan (plural conventional mortgage loans)

(US, finance) A fixed- or adjustable-rate, fully amortized loan secured by a mortgage or deed of trust that is not insured or guaranteed by an agency of the federal government (such as FHA or VA). (Source: Office of Thrift Supervision https://web.archive.org/web/20060618191009/http://www.ots.treas.gov/glossary/gloss-c.html)


WAG

(informal, business or military slang, US) A wild-assed guess; a rough estimate.


grain elevator

By analyzing the costs of operating a country grain elevator these advantages, if any exist, should appear.

1922, Joseph Bernard Kenkel, The Cooperative Elevator Movement: A Study in Grain Marketing at Country Points in the North Central States, Catholic University of America, pg. 97

Interest in the safety and health of workers in grain elevators has increased substantially since the series of recent grain elevator explosions and fires.

1980, United States Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Education and Labor. Subcommittee on Health and Safety, A staff report on the oversight of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration with respect to grain elevator fires and explosions, U.S. Govt. Print. Off. pg 3

As the grain elevator and other industrial structures became more common on the plains, they redefind the traditional pastoral image of the American landscape.

1996, Lisa Mahar-Keplinger, Grain Elevators, Princeton Architectural Press, pg. 9

(agriculture, Canada, US) A large structure for the storage of grain. It is more specialized than a regular granary in that in uses an elevating mechanism to hold the grain in one of many different bins, and that it it designed to fill large trucks and train cars for shipping grain in bulk.

ardaitheoir gráin

a large structure for the storage of grain


cotillion

cotillions (plural)
cotillon (alternative)

/kəʊtɪlˈjɒ̃/

Circa 1750, in the sense of the dance, from French cotillon (“petticoat”), extended to the dance because of the distinctive lift of dress revealing the petticoat, from cotte (“dress”) + -illon (diminutive). Said to derive from the then-popular song Ma commère, quand je danse, mon cotillion va-t-il bien.

"Well," I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, "he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one." / "So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?" / I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 51:

At a desk outside the [Bernsteins’] door … I said, ‘Tom Wolfe,’ and sure enough, there he was, Tom Wolfe, listed on a yellow legal pad … Like any boy who has been instructed at cotillion to pay his respects to the host and hostess first … I sought out Leonard and Felicia Bernstein and introduced myself.

2018 May 29, Christopher Bonanos, “The Making of Tom Wolfe’s ‘Radical Chic’”, in Vulture:

(US) Ellipsis of cotillion ball.; a coming-of-age party meant to present girls newly transitioned into womanhood to the community for courtship.


burnout

burnout (countable and uncountable, plural burnouts)

burnouts (plural)
burn-out (alternative)

→ Dutch: burn-out

→ Finnish: burnout

→ German: Burn-out

There’s no way we can hire that guy. He’s a total burnout—he can't do the work.

Then in his late 30s, he [Neal Cassady] was already a visibly ravaged shadow of Kerouac’s heroically defiant rebel and well on his way to becoming the kind of babbling burnout you don’t want to sit next to on any bus trip, magical or not.

2011 August 4, Stephen Holden, “Stoned Archive: Wild Ride Of the Merry Pranksters”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, slang) Someone whose brains have figuratively been burned out by drugs.


aluminum foil

aluminum foil (countable and uncountable, plural aluminum foils)


FCA

Farm Credit Administration
w:Farm Credit Administration

(US) Initialism of Farm Credit Administration.


go down the tubes

en-verb

go down the tubes (third-person singular simple present goes down the tubes, present participle going down the tubes, simple past went down the tubes, past participle gone down the tubes)

goes down the tubes (present singular third-person)
going down the tubes (participle present)
went down the tubes (past)
gone down the tubes (participle past)
go down the tube (alternative)

The entire plan went down the tubes when they found they couldn't get strawberries in December.

Meanwhile, Susan's own workplace shut down, and she found herself "on the street with no job and a two-year-old kid. I was trying my damndest and I was going right down the tubes."

1990 February 4, Pam Mitchell, quoting Susan Moir, “Pro-Union And Queer”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 17:

go down the toilet
go down the toilet#English

(euphemistic, idiomatic, US) Synonym of go down the toilet: to fail; to degenerate rapidly.


roughneck

From rough + neck, originally "someone who works a manual labour job".

Coordinate term: redneck

LaTisha has long wanted to show Carole sheʼs not the roughneck she used to be, the roughneck who wasnʼt good enough to be her friend.

2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books (2020), page 202:

(colloquial, chiefly US) Someone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person.

грубиян

someone with rough manners; a rowdy or uncouth person

(colloquial, chiefly US) An ironworker; a dirty or low-paid worker, a labourer.

This first ship had a small geophysical-type drilling rig mounted over the side of the ship with a steel grid runround for the roughnecks, who stood in knee-deep water while making connections or pulling the drill string.

1992, Elmer P. Wheaton, “William Bradford Whitehill Rand”, in Memorial Tributes: Volume 5, page 234:

As for the minerals, there has been a good deal of drilling along the big river; trucks and roughnecks no longer garner any notice.

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 286:

(colloquial, chiefly US) A labourer on an oil rig.


drawing room

drawing rooms (plural)
drawing-room (alternative)
drawingroom (alternative)

(US) A private room on a railroad sleeping car.


unified

(US, of a school district) that serves all grade levels between kindergarten and twelfth grade.


prime mover

Originally in translation of Latin primum mobile.

(US) A military or heavy construction vehicle.


Becky

We were smoking weed in the park, but then some Becky called the cops on us.

Last year, native Hawaiian activists grew angry after news that Aloha Poke’s attorneys were sending cease and desist letters to poke shop owners who used the word “aloha” in their restaurants’s names. Native Hawaiians felt the Chicago company was trying to regulate their language and culture. Boycotters have taken to calling Aloha Poke food “Becky Bowls.”

2019 September 30, Ashok Selvam, “Aloha Poke CEO Says Company Was Confused by Appropriation Backlash”, in Eater:

(US, colloquial, derogatory) A (usually white) woman held in contempt by the speaker because she is basic or unaware of, or is taking advantage of, her social privilege (white privilege).


practicum

en-noun

practicum (plural practicums or practica)

From Late Latin, neuter of practicus (“practical”), from Ancient Greek πρακτικός (praktikós, “of or pertaining to action, concerned with action or business, active, practical”), from πράσσω (prássō, “I do”).

uder

Eromin has provided clinical practicum placements for students seeking advanced degrees in social service professions.

1984 April 21, Joyce Baker, “Eromin Center Closing: A Tragic Loss”, in Gay Community News, page 5:

(US) A college course designed to give a student supervised practical knowledge of a subject previously studied theoretically.

(US) A science exam in which students are questioned about specimens or other objects placed in front of them.


earworm

earworms (plural)
ear worm (alternative)
ear-worm (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-earworm.wav

/ˈɪ(ə)ɹˌwɚm/

From ear + worm; senses 1 and 3 (“tune that keeps replaying in one’s head”; “earwig”) are a calque of German Ohrwurm (“tune that pops up in one’s memory all the time; earwig”) (from the idea of a creature burrowing into the ear, an erroneous belief where earwigs are concerned), while sense 2 (“moth larva”) refers to the fact that these pests infest, among other things, ears of maize or sweet corn.

calque

I had planned in mind to tell you [...] how I protected, that is, guaranteed, Evergreen sweet corn against the bud worm and the ear worm; [...]

1924 January–March, Martin V. Calvin, “Agricultural Research”, in Annual Report of Georgia Department of Agriculture for 1923 (Quarterly Bulletin of the Georgia Department of Agriculture; serial no. 95), Atlanta, Ga.: Georgia Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 44:

The number of bollworms or ear worms increases greatly as the season advances. This indicates a need for hastening the maturity of all crops affected.

1929 June, F[red] C[ory] Bishopp, “Control Measures”, in The Bollworm or Corn Ear Worm as a Cotton Pest (U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; no. 1595), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 7:

Encouraging progress is being made, however, in the search for and utilization of earworm-resistant strains of both field and sweet corn. We mentioned the protection of ears from earworms, weevils, and grain moths by tight husks that extend beyond the tip of the ear.

1952, C. M. Packard, John H. Martin, “Resistant Crops, the Ideal Way”, in Alfred Stefferud, editor, The Yearbook of Agriculture 1952: Insects, Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture; United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 434, column 1:

The fall armyworm and the corn earworm attack sweet corn as earworms. [...] Although they may sometimes eat through the husk to attack the side of the ear, most earworms feed on the silks and enter through the silk channel to attack the tip of the ear. The earworm population may be almost completely composed of corn earworms or of fall armyworms, or of a mixture of the two species.

1967 February, Victor L. Guzman et al., “Insects and Their Control”, in Sweet Corn Production on the Organic and Sandy Soils of Florida (Bulletin (Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Florida); no. 714), Gainesville, Fla.: Agricultural Experiment Stations, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, →OCLC, pages 27–28:

A single earworm may seriously damage or destroy the bud of a cole crop plant, causing the plant to be disfigured or to produce several secondary buds. Earworms may disfigure the heads of cabbage plants by their feeding and tunneling [...].

1980 October, C. S. Creighton, J. E. Halfhill, “Caterpillars and How They Damage Plants”, in Control of Caterpillars on Cabbage and Other Cole Crops (United States Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin; no. 2271), Washington, D.C.: Science and Education Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 10, column 2:

[I]nsects exert undesirable influence on tropical maize production, with stem borers, ear worms and weevils being the most ubiquitous groups.

1984, J. M. Fajemisin, S. K. Kim, Y. Efron, M. S. Alam, “Breeding for Durable Disease Resistance in Tropical Maize with Special Reference to Maize Streak Virus”, in Breeding for Durable Disease and Pest Resistance […] (FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper; 55), Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization, published 1985, →ISBN, page 49:

(originally US) Short for corn earworm (“larva of the moths Helicoverpa zea (syn. Heliothis zea) and Helicoverpa armigera, which are agricultural pests”).


drafter

(US) A person who writes a legislative bill.


joint-stock company

en-noun

joint-stock company (plural joint-stock companies)

合股公司

company with transferable ownership and unlimited shareholder liability

(business, finance, law, US) A company with transferable ownership interests and unlimited shareholder liability.


flatbed truck

(US) a truck with no sides, used to carry large, heavy objects


bracing

bracing (countable and uncountable, plural bracings)

(US) A form of the military attention stance.


Founding Father

Founding Father (plural Founding Fathers)

At the heart of it, I thought of the Great Society as an extension of the Bill of Rights. When our fundamental American rights were set forth by the Founding Fathers, they reflected the concerns of a people who sought freedom in their time. But in our time a broadened concept of freedom requires that every American have the right to a healthy body, a full education, a decent home, and the opportunity to develop to the best of his talents.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 104:

United States of America
United States of America

American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War

(chiefly US) Any of the men who were responsible for the founding of the United States of America. Chiefly used to refer to political leaders who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, and to military leaders who fought in the American Revolutionary War.


decedent

From Latin decedens, present active participle of decedere (“to depart, die”).

“A check of the nightstands revealed large amounts of prescription medication in the decedent’s name,” the coroner’s notes said, according to TMZ.com.

2009 December 22, New York Post, “‘Dangerous drug mix’ likely killed Brittany”, in The Herald Sun:

A 2020 study found that MAiD recipients in Ontario tended to be wealthier, less likely to be in institutional care, and more likely to be married than the average Ontario decedent.

2023 January 10, Sara Miller Llana, Whitney Eulich, Dominique Soguel, “As assisted dying broadens, countries wrestle with new ethical lines”, in The Christian Science Monitor:


T-bone

en-verb

T-bone (third-person singular simple present T-bones, present participle T-boning, simple past and past participle T-boned)

T-bones (present singular third-person)
T-boning (participle present)
T-boned (participle past)
T-boned (past)
t-bone (alternative)

From the ⊤ shape produced by the vehicles involved in such a collision, with allusion to T-bone ¹.

Holmes, who was a lap ahead and in 6th spot, couldn’t avoid T-boning him and in the coming together they were both out.

1984, R and T, volume 35, CBS Publications, page 187:

Its hood had already been accordioned from T-boning somebody else[.]

1993, Car and Driver, volume 39, Hachette Magazines, Inc., page 25:

They get to an intersection when suddenly the limo gets T-boned and everything gets thrown around all over the car.

2007, Paul Myers, It Ain’t Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues, Greystone Books, →ISBN, page 77, →ISBN:

(transitive, slang, Canada, US, of a motor vehicle) To collide perpendicularly with the side of another vehicle.


halftime

en-noun

halftime (countable and uncountable, plural halftimes)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-halftime.wav

If the employment is halftime, $12.50 plus 12 of the next $75 is disregarded. If the employment is irregular or occasional, the allowance is adjusted to be consistent with the situation.

1966, United States Congressional Serial Set, page 903:


skid row

skid row (countable and uncountable, plural skid rows)

skid rows (plural)
skidrow (alternative)
Skid Row (alternative)

/ˌskɪd ˈɹəʊ/

An alteration of skid road (“road along which logs are dragged or skidded; (Canada, US, informal) downtown streets where loggers go for recreation on their time off”). In 1852, skid road was first applied to a slum area at the loggers’ part of town in Seattle, Washington, USA, and before 1900 it had come into common usage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Over time, the variant skid row came to refer to a district or slum frequented by alcoholics and hobos, even in areas without a lumber industry.

(derogatory) An especially dilapidated section of a city, characterized by abandoned or run-down buildings and vices such as drug dealing and prostitution, and frequented by homeless people.


honorary

honoraries (plural)
honourary (alternative)

From honor + -ary, modelled after French honoraire, from Latin honōrārius.

/ˈɑn.əˌɹɛɹ.i/

(US) A kind of secret society that operates in name only, with membership given to honor some achievement.


on the down-low

on the down low (alternative)
on the DL (alternative)
on the low (alternative)
on the downlow (alternative)

I'll tell you, but keep it on the down-low.

en:in secret or nearly so, on a need-to-know basis

(US, idiomatic, slang, euphemistic) In secret or nearly so, on a need-to-know basis.

(US, idiomatic, slang, euphemistic) Secretly sleeping with someone other than one's partner.


NEP

(US, government) Initialism of non-English proficient.


hot flash

hot flashes (plural)
hotflash (alternative)
hot-flash (alternative)


hotfoot

From Middle English hot-fot, hot fot, equivalent to hot + foot.

(US) The prank of secretly inserting a match between the sole and upper of a victim's shoe and then lighting it.


shellac

shellac (countable and uncountable, plural shellacs)

From shell + lac, calque of French laque en écailles (literally “lac in scales/shells”).


shellac

en-verb

shellac (third-person singular simple present shellacs, present participle shellacking, simple past and past participle shellacked)

shellacs (present singular third-person)
shellacking (participle present)
shellacked (participle past)
shellacked (past)

(informal, US, transitive) To beat; to thrash.

In 1964 Goldwater ran rambunctiously, flat-out against government. He got shellacked.

1987, George F. Will, The New Season: A Spectator's Guide to the 1988 Election, Simon and Schuster, page 21:

In another the Mets were shellacked, 9-1, with a stray ninth-inning home run by Strawberry after two outs, preventing a shutout.

1987, Tim McCarver, Ray Robinson, Oh, Baby, I Love It!, Villard Books, page 220:

(informal, US, transitive) To inflict a heavy defeat upon.


patootie

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-patootie.wav

Possibly a variant of potato; compare uses like hot patootie (similar to hot potato) and sweet patootie (sweet potato). However, the adjectives hot and sweet are often collocated with words for the buttocks (regardless of which such noun), which limits the strength of that comparison; meanwhile, it is also possible that the similarity to the words toot and tooter may not be coincidental.

… He got on Forty-second Street, and he was kinda fresh from the start. At Sixty-sixth he came sasshaying^([sic]) right down the car and said ‘Hello, patootie!’ Well, I drew myself up …

1920 April 10 – August 28, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter 11, in The Little Warrior [Jill the Reckless], New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 8 October 1920, →OCLC, section 1, page 194:

(dated) An attractive woman; also, a girlfriend.


powder room

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-powder room.wav

In reference to lavatories, an indirection developed under the influence of powder one's nose (“euphemism for use a toilet”). Compare boudoir.

If you'll excuse me, I need to visit the powder room to see a man about a dog.

They are the authors of the small powder room in the Hofbrau House at Broadway and Fifty-third Street, New York, a very modern creation.

1927, E.A. Park, chapter IX, in New Backgrounds for a New Age, page 173:

(originally US, euphemistic) Synonym of ladies' room: a lavatory intended for use by women.


internal affairs

(US, law enforcement) A division of a law enforcement agency investigating incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force.


Pioneer Day

(US) A Utah state holiday celebrating the arrival of Mormon pioneers in what became Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1847.

день пионеров

Utah state holiday celebrating the arrival of Mormon pioneers in what would become Salt Lake City


new math

(US, education, historical) A dramatic and short-lived change in the teaching of mathematics in grade schools in the 1960s, focusing on abstract topics such as symbolic logic, to the detriment of simple arithmetic etc.


freeman

From Old English frēomann, equivalent to free + -man and paralleled by similar constructions in other Germanic languages. Doublet of preman.

(US and Canada, historical) An independent fur trapper.

A free person
An independent fur trapper.


nighthawk

The swallows circled around and I watched them and the night-hawks flying above the roofs and drank the Cinzano.

1929, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, Folio Society, published 2008, page 91:

Chordeiles minor
Chordeiles minor#Translingual

(US) A New World nightjar of the genus Chordeiles, especially Chordeiles minor.


kit and caboodle

kit and kaboodle (alternative)
whole kit and caboodle (alternative)

1954, Gordon Allport, cited in 2005, Steven J. Bartlett, The Pathology Of Man: A Study Of Human Evil, page 243,
If I can put the Catholics into another category and reject them kit and caboodle, my life is further simplified.

Lincoln moved its corporate headquarters, kit and caboodle, from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Philadelphia in 1998.

After burying Hiram she packed them up kit and caboodle and moved them to Tuskegee, the nearest big city, so she could find work.

2009, Scharlie R. Martin, Mayhem and Mischief Most Foul, page 161:


area code

(US, Australia, Philippines) A prefix appended to a telephone number indicating the geographical area.


railroad tie

Holonyms: railroad track, rail track, railway track, train track, permanent way

(rail transport, US) A heavy, preserved piece of hewn timber laid crossways to and supporting the rails of a railroad or a member of similar shape and function of another material such as concrete.

траверса

piece supporting the rails of a railroad


standardize

standardize (third-person singular simple present standardizes, present participle standardizing, simple past and past participle standardized)

standardizes (present singular third-person)
standardizing (participle present)
standardized (participle past)
standardized (past)

US and Oxford British English standard spelling of standardise.


butcherbird

From butcher + bird, from its habit of hanging its prey.

(US) Any of the shrikes in the genus Lanius.


owie

If it's an "owie" that has the child upset, check him from head to toe for injuries.

1997, K. D. Kuch, The Babysitter's Handbook, Random House, page 58:

2008, May 16, Bil Keane, The Family Circus (daily comic) in the Kokomo Tribune
Daddy! Our car has an owie! [Billy, pointing to a small dent.]

(colloquial, Canada, US, childish) A painful but minor injury.


SLA

en-noun

SLA (countable and uncountable, plural SLAs)

Symbionese Liberation Army
w:Symbionese Liberation Army

(Maoism, politics, US) Initialism of Symbionese Liberation Army.


EIR

(US, law) Initialism of establishment inspection report.: a report issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration following the inspection of a facility where goods under the authority of the agency are manufactured, held, or sold.


rito

Many small streams and ritos flow down the slopes feeding the Rio Puerco, Chama and Jemez Rivers.

1961, New Mexico Wildlife, volumes 6-10, page 3:

[…] to form tiny rills that descended and gathered into larger rititos that rollicked and frollicked as they tumbled down into the ritos that carried the spring run-offs and summer rains across alpine meadows […]

1994, Roberto Andrés Lucero, Sangre Del Monte, page 125:

On this day all the waters of the earth are blessed, the seas, the rivers and the ritos, the clear forest streams and all the muddy acequias meandering through the fields.

2010, A. Kyce Bello, The Return of the River, page 192:


corn salad

corn salad (countable and uncountable, plural corn salads)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-corn salad.wav

From corn + salad; plant so called from being commonly found as a weed in grain fields.

(US) Any of various types of salad made using corn (maize).

Palmer's corn salad (Valerianella palmeri


tha

(US, African-American Vernacular) Eye dialect spelling of the.


the sticks

Possibly derived from 1800s Chinook Jargon stick (“tree, forest”), from English stick.

She grew up in the sticks and later moved to the city.

Most of the farming at present is done in the "sticks," that is, in the large, dead, and often blackened trunks of trees standing in most of the cultivated fields around. There are but few new towns in the Delta where the "sticks" are not to be seen, and much damage is sometimes done when these old "deadenings," as they are called, are set on fire.

1904 The American Missionary, "A Town of Colored People in Mississippi" by Rev. B.F. Ousley, vol. 58, no. 9 (November, 1904), p. 295

Next day after school, I drove over to the town hall and found out where Hay was building their dinky little shoebox of a house. It was out in the sticks, out past the old gristmill. I drove out there around dusk. The place was framed; the chimney was up. Overhead was a pockmarked moon.

2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.1, at p.11

(Canada, US, informal, derogatory) A remote, rural area; a place that is removed from civilization such as the boondocks.


nightstick

nightsticks (plural)
night stick (alternative)

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(US, law enforcement) A long, narrow, polelike club carried by police and security personnel, for use in self-defense.


courthouse

(US) The public building where most American counties have their county offices.


badman

Billy the Kid was a badman.

(historical, US) A violence-prone man who has had run-ins with the law; especially one from the Old West days of U.S. history.


blacktop

blacktop (countable and uncountable, plural blacktops)

blacktops (plural)
black top (alternative)
black-top (alternative)

Then I was around the hill on the blacktop and in another country.

1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 284:

(US, uncountable) Asphalt concrete or similar bituminous black paving material used for the surface of roads (e.g., tarmacadam, tarmac).

At one time, students were able to play basketball on the blacktop behind the school building, and teachers were also able to park on campus. Now, teachers park on the streets, and there is no place for students to let off steam with casual, non-organized sports before or after school.

2008, Terrence E. Deal, Ted Purinton, Daria Cook Waetjen, Making Sense of Social Networks in Schools, Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press and the American Association of School Administrators, →ISBN, page 64:

From the dismissive receptionist in the main office to the lines on the school blacktop for dropping off and picking up children, schools often make parents feel that they must justify their presence.

2020, Soo Hong, Natural Allies: Hope and Possibility in Teacher-Family Partnerships, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Education Press, →ISBN:

(US, countable) A paved area on a schoolground reserved for recess activities, often doubling as a parking lot.


blacktop

en-verb

blacktop (third-person singular simple present blacktops, present participle blacktopping, simple past and past participle blacktopped)

blacktops (present singular third-person)
blacktopping (participle present)
blacktopped (participle past)
blacktopped (past)
black top (alternative)
black-top (alternative)

The county first blacktopped that road decades ago


custodian

From a shortening of Latin custōdiānātus, from Latin custōdia (“a keeping, watch, guard, prison”), from custōs (“a keeper, watchman, guard”). By surface analysis, custody + -ian.


betting parlor

(US) A business establishment for the placing of wagers on athletic competitions and horse or dog races.


sauterne

en-noun

sauterne (countable and uncountable, plural sauternes)

An intentional misspelling by American vintners of the name of the famed French wine region Sauternes and the wines they produce.

(US) A wine imitating those of Sauternes.


ashcan

(US, slang) A kind of large firecracker.


cater-corner

/ˈkeɪtəˌkɔːnə/

/ˈkætəˌkɔɹnɚ/

Presumably a clipped form of cater-cornered, from cater + cornered, q.v., although catty-cornered is attested earlier (1838).

catacorner (alternative)
catercorner (alternative)
catty-corner (alternative)
kitty-corner (alternative)

The Empire State Building and the old Altman's Department store are catercorner, at Fifth Avenue and East 34th Street, with the ESB at the southwest, and Altman's at the northeast.

From my living room, I trained my binoculars on the redbrick monstrosity catercorner from me.

2012, Stephen King, chapter 20, in 11/22/63, page 531:

(US, Canada) Of or pertaining to something at a diagonal to another; of four corners, those diagonal to another.


cater-corner

/ˈkeɪtəˌkɔːnə/

/ˈkætəˌkɔɹnɚ/

Altman's is sited catercorner to the ESB.


Freddie

(US, slang, derogatory) An employee of the United States Forest Service.


idiot box

From idiot + box, an allusion to the supposed mind-reducing nature of television programming or its lack of educational value.

During the long, dreary, wet winter I amused myself by watching college and Pro basketball on the idiot box.

2003 March 31, Bill Litchfield, “Basketball Fans”, in rec.gardens (Usenet):

(idiomatic, chiefly US and Canada) Television.

дебили́зор

contamination of "деби́л"(retard) and "телеви́зор" (TV set)


Fourth of July

/ˌfɔːθ‿əv d͡ʒʊˈlaɪ/

/ˌfɔɹθ‿əv d͡ʒəˈlaɪ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Fourth of July.wav

The proper noun is probably derived from the phrase “the fourth day of July”. The common noun is derived from the proper noun.

(chiefly US) A cocktail containing one part grenadine syrup, one part vodka, and one part blue curaçao, reminiscent of the red, white, and blue colours of the United States flag, often poured in layers so that the colours do not mix when the drink is served.


lambrequin

lambrequins (plural)
lambrekin (alternative)

Lambrequins dependent from gaudy boxings of beaten tin, gilded.

1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC:

[…]the mirror over the mantel rested on a fringed mantel-cover of green reps, and heavy curtains of that stuff hung from gilt lambrequin frames at the window; […].

1885, William Dean Howells, chapter XVI, in The Rise of Silas Lapham:

A suite in Paris, immense high grave rooms, with lambrequins and a balcony.

1920, Sinclair Lewis, Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:

(US) A short decorative drapery for a shelf edge or for the top of a window casing.


redcap

redcaps (plural)
red cap (alternative)
red-cap (alternative)

From red + cap.
In sense of "porter", 1890s US; compare contemporary Japanese 赤帽 (akabou), Chinese 小紅帽 /小红帽 (Xiǎo Hóng Mào). On Labor Day, 1890, John Williams, an African-American railway porter, tied a red ribbon to his black uniform cap to stand out from the crowd at Grand Central Terminal. The strategy was so successful that it was soon adopted by others in the profession, leading to the synecdochic use of redcap as a term for all railway porters.

(US, rail transport) A porter in a US railway station.


Baldwin

From Proto-West Germanic *Balþawini, from Proto-Germanic *Balþawiniz (“bold friend”).

der

(US) A reddish, moderately acid, winter apple.


zep

Anywhere else, it might be called a hoagie, or a sub, or a hero. In Two Mills it's a zep. And even though at first it might look like the others, it's not. Like, you'll never find lettuce on a zep. Or mayonnaise.

1991, Jerry Spinelli, Dump Days, page 10:

(US, dialectal) A certain type of submarine sandwich


jello shooter

(US) An alcoholic snack served at parties, nightclubs or bars, made from Jell-O but substituting vodka or rum for all or part of the water. Normally cut into small cubes (~1.5 oz.) or frozen and sold individually.


buckeye

en-noun

buckeye (countable and uncountable, plural buckeyes)

The name stems from Native Americans, who called the nut "hetuck," which means "buck eye" (because the markings on the nut resemble the eye of a deer).

(US, slang) A native or resident of the American state of Ohio.

(US) A confection made from peanut butter fudge partially dipped in chocolate to leave a circle of peanut butter visible, supposed to resemble the nut of the Ohio buckeye tree.


Twinkie defence

Twinkie defence (plural Twinkie defences)

Twinkie defences (plural)
Twinkie defense (alternative)

From the 1979 trial of defendant Dan White for the murders of San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk and mayor George Moscone. White's defense was that he suffered diminished capacity as a result of his depression; his change in diet from healthy food to Twinkies and other sugary food was said to be a symptom of this depression.

(US, colloquial, law) A legal defense of diminished responsibility based on a claim that irregular behavior is caused by a poor diet or junk food.


blow this popsicle stand

en-verb

blow this popsicle stand (third-person singular simple present blows this popsicle stand, present participle blowing this popsicle stand, simple past blew this popsicle stand, past participle blown this popsicle stand)

blows this popsicle stand (present singular third-person)
blowing this popsicle stand (participle present)
blew this popsicle stand (past)
blown this popsicle stand (participle past)

Either from a cult named the "Kindred Spirits" bombing popsicle stands in major cities, or from an old Humphrey Bogart movie in which he is being ejected from a speak-easy, and yells “let’s blow this pop stand”

Well, we've been at this bar for two hours; let's blow this popsicle stand and go to the nightclub.

(US, slang, humorous) To leave an establishment speedily.