Greek yogurt

en-noun

Greek yogurt (countable and uncountable, plural Greek yogurts)

Greek yogurts (plural)
Greek yoghurt (alternative)

So called due to its association with Greece, due to this type of yogurt being eaten by people from the Levantine region and Greece, and later it being mainly exported from Greece to the various parts of the English-speaking world by brands like Fage. Attested since at least 1968.

A form of yogurt that has been strained to remove the whey, resulting in lower fat content and higher protein content.


sea pork

(US, colloquial) Any of various colonial tunicates which resemble salt pork when found washed up on the beach.


UDT

UDT (countable and uncountable, plural UDTs)

Underwater Demolition Team
w:Underwater Demolition Team

(US, military, historical) Initialism of Underwater Demolition Team.


shad-waiter

(US, dialect) A lake whitefish; the roundfish (Prosopium cylindraceum).


femifascist

/ˌfɛmɪˈfæʃɪst/

Blend of feminist + fascist, perhaps coined as an alternative to feminazi to avoid the genocidal connotations of Nazi.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:femifascist.

(US, offensive, rare, derogatory) A radical or militant feminist who is intolerant of opposing views.


cottonocracy

The whole school argue political or national economy as a party question: it is Cottonocracy versus Cornocracy — the nation is to be crucified between them.

1840, Robert Owen, The New Moral World, volume 7, page 1027:

Make a question between our nation and England about fifty desarters^([sic]), and if the ministers of the day only dared to talk of fighting, the members of all the manufactoren^([sic]) towns in England, the cottonocracy of Great Britain, would desert too!

1855, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Nature and human nature, page 23:

The Lancashire cottonocracy was still waiting for El Dorado, and was quite prepared to believe that the opium trade was delaying its arrival.

1996, Bill Schwarz, The Expansion of England: Race, Ethnicity and Cultural History:

(US, historical) A government dominated by the cotton industry, as in the United States prior to the Civil War.


sawbelly

Every few minutes an eagle would reach daintily into the water and pluck a dead sawbelly from the half-frozen soup. Sawbellies, or alewives, are fish that do not grow that big. A full day of dipping one’s naked talons into frigid slush might yield a decent mealful.

1990 January 2, Rick Marsi, “The Russian bear can’t beat the Tier’s gray fox”, in Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, N.Y., →ISSN, page 1D, column 4:


runround

This time it was my "runround;" and before she took off her bonnet, she had brought me a cup of ashes and water, and put my finger in soak.

1871, Oliver Optic, Our Boys and Girls - Volumes 9-10, page 504:

The ulcerative form resembles ingrowing nail, but in the syyphilitic disease the matrix is usually involved first, and not secondarily, as in ordinary ingrowing nail, or in common runround.

1880, Edward Lawrence Keyes, The Venereal Diseases: Including Stricture of the Male Urethra, page 175:

Runround is always the result of an injury which may be very trivial.

1907, Carl Reissig, The Standard Family Physician:

I have a horse that had a runround on its hoof, about four months ag . A new hoof has grown out about two inches, but it is still sore at back of hoof and pus forms in the parts affected, and sometimes the leg swells.

I have a very painful thumb, a runround has caused it to ache violently, so I must close.

2000, Eron Rowland, Varina Howell, Volume 1: Wife of Jefferson Davis, page 412:

(US, pathology, informal, dated) A felon or whitlow.


Billy Yank

American Civil War
American Civil War#English

(US, dated) A soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War.


slavocracy

slavocracies (plural)
slaveocracy (alternative)

This pressure brought the Southern slavocracy into conflict with Northern business interests. Slaveowners precipitated a war to defend the slave system and its accompanying way of life.

1993, Melvin M. Leiman, Political Economy of Racism, Pluto Press, →ISBN, page 35:

Close on their heels was any Texan who had ever said a word against the slaveocracy, or the cotton men, or was suspected of voting for Lincoln.

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 440:

(US, chiefly historical) The persons or interest representing slavery politically, or wielding political power for the preservation or advancement of slavery.


Internal Revenue Code

(finance, US) The domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States.


hognut

(US) A pignut or hickory tree (Carya glabra of family Juglandaceae).


chank

en-verb

chank (third-person singular simple present chanks, present participle chanking, simple past and past participle chanked)

chanks (present singular third-person)
chanking (participle present)
chanked (participle past)
chanked (past)

Expressive verb akin to champ, chomp; probably alteration of champ.


center of attention

en-noun

center of attention (plural centers of attention)

centre of attention
centre of attention#English


tax bite

tax bites (plural)
taxbite (alternative)

(US, derogatory) The amount or rate of taxes.


dragbar

Those elements may result in applied forces and torques only (e.g. springs, dampers) or they may constrain the motions of the system as well (e.g. dragbars, wheels).

1985, Helmut Neunzert, The Road-vehicle-system and related mathematics:


pre-approval letter

pre-approval letter (plural pre-approval letters)

(US, finance) An official document confirming that an applicant for a mortgage has been qualified to borrow a certain amount of money at, or below, a specific interest rate.


take the pledge

en-verb

take the pledge (third-person singular simple present takes the pledge, present participle taking the pledge, simple past took the pledge, past participle taken the pledge)

takes the pledge (present singular third-person)
taking the pledge (participle present)
took the pledge (past)
taken the pledge (participle past)

(US, dated) To promise to abstain from alcohol.


tweep

tweep (third-person singular simple present tweeps, present participle tweeping, simple past and past participle tweeped)

tweeps (present singular third-person)
tweeping (participle present)
tweeped (participle past)
tweeped (past)

From TWEP, acronym of terminate with extreme prejudice, a US military intelligence and CIA euphemism for "kill, assassinate" that was first used in the 1960s.

Robert Maheu, tough, astute, dynamic, was the perfect professional to implement the CIA scheme to tweep Fidel Castro.

1997, William B. Breuer, Vendetta!: Fidel Castro and the Kennedy Brothers, John Wiley, →ISBN:

(US, intelligence, euphemistic) To kill; to assassinate.


mom and apple pie

Mom and apple pie (alternative)
motherhood and apple pie (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-mom and apple pie.wav

(US, symbolically) Wholesomeness and traditional (American) values.

(politics, US) Something that cannot be questioned because it appeals to universally-held beliefs or values.


flag, motherhood and apple pie

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-flag, motherhood and apple pie.wav

(US, symbolically) Patriotism and traditional US values.


Black English

Perhaps Black English will yield a new neutral term for wokeness.

2021 November 16, John McWhorter, “‘Woke’ Went the Way of ‘P.C.’ and ‘Liberal’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

African-American English
African-American English#English

Any of several varieties of English spoken by or associated with Black people, especially people of African origin or in Africa.

(US) Synonym of African-American English (“AAE”), sometimes specifically African-American Vernacular English (“AAVE”).


knock into a cocked hat

knock into a cocked hat (third-person singular simple present knocks into a cocked hat, present participle knocking into a cocked hat, simple past and past participle knocked into a cocked hat)

knocks into a cocked hat (present singular third-person)
knocking into a cocked hat (participle present)
knocked into a cocked hat (participle past)
knocked into a cocked hat (past)

A cocked hat is one with the brim turned up to form two or three points (a bicorn or tricorn). The verb may refer:
* to someone or something being knocked or hit out of shape like such a hat, or a person having a cocked hat forced on to their head; or
* to a person knocking down all but three pins in a game of ninepins, or to the similar game called “cocked hat” in which only three pins are set up in a triangle, although these may simply be allusions to the shape of a tricorn. It has been pointed out that evidence linking these games to the verb is lacking.

Tho' I'll tell ye what, stranger, I'm none your mealy mouthed fellows, and I'm little jubus [dubious] that you're one of them there [John Quincy] Adams men. And I've just seen the time that I'd knock sich a fellow into a cocked hat as quick as name it. But [Andrew] Jackson is safe enough and he's jist the chickin what's able; Adams is done for til he's made over.

1830 November 13, “A rencounter. From the Connersville, Ind. Political Clarion.”, in Frederick-Town Herald, volume XXIX, number 27, Fredericktown, Md.: […] William Ogden Niles, →OCLC, page 4, column 3:

[…] I jumped up and told Tom a short horse was soon curried, and I'd knock him into a cocked-hat if he said another word. And that broke up the conversation.

1832, [James Kirke Paulding], “A Voyage, a Story, and a Land Adventure”, in Westward Ho! […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: […] J[ames] & J[ohn] Harper, […], →OCLC, page 123:

A N. York paper giving the details of a riot which occurred in that city, says that "a person was struck with a brick-bat, and knocked into a wheel-barrow." We have before heard of persons being "knocked into a grease spot," and of others who had been threatened with being "knocked into a cocked hat," but this is the first time we ever heard of any one being "knocked into a wheel barrow."

1833 June 27, Charles Gordon Greene, editor, The Boston Morning Post, volume IV, number 90, Boston, Mass.: Charles Gordon Greene, →OCLC, page 2, column 3:

[A] fortunate accident […] happened to me when I was a very little boy. A good-hearted old Irish nurse (whom I shall not forget in my will) took me up one day by the heels, when I was making more noise than was necessary, and, swinging me round two or three times, d——d my eyes for "a skreeking little spalpeen," and then knocked my head into a cocked hat against the bed-post. This, I say, decided my fate, and made my fortune.

1840 February, Edgar A[llan] Poe, “Peter Pendulum, the Business Man”, in William E[vans] Burton, Edgar Allan Poe, editors, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and American Monthly Review, volume VI, number II, Philadelphia, Pa.: William E. Burton, […], →OCLC, page 87:

A German astronomer says, that in twenty millions of years the earth will be destroyed by a comet! People may doubt and jeer at the idea: but wait till the time comes, and you’ll see that prophet, as the comet whisks along, knocking the earth into a ‘cocked hat,’ hanging by its tail, exclaiming, ‘I told you so, I told you so!’ But who will hear him?

1855 September, [Lewis Gaylord Clark], “Editor’s Table”, in Lewis Gaylord Clark, editor, The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XLVI, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Samuel Hueston, […], →OCLC, page 328:

Basil sprang up with dancing eyes, and with three blows like battering-rams knocked the footman into a cocked hat.

1904 July 9 and 16, Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “The Eccentric Seclusion of the Old Lady”, in The Club of Queer Trades, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, published April 1905, →OCLC, page 247:

(transitive, originally US, colloquial, dated) To beat up or seriously injure (a person); to badly damage (a thing).


muchos gracias

Spanish muchas gracias (“many thanks”) but with muchos in the more familiar (and grammatically incorrect) masculine form.

Muchos gracias, my friend. —The girls are in the kitchen, Bimbo told Vera.


banner carrier

(US) A local or regional airline that operates as separate part of a larger company


PERSTAT

(US military) Abbreviation of personnel status report.


hall pass

hall passes (plural)
hallpass (alternative)
hall-pass (alternative)

To freely move around the school when you should be in class requires an official hall pass. Those are guarded like government-issued official travel documents. Most teachers don't just hand them out to anybody who asks.

2018, Erica Catherman, Jonathan Catherman, The Girls' Guide to Conquering Middle School, Revell, →ISBN:

(US) A permit to be out of class during school hours.


gotsta

gotsta (third-person singular simple present gotsta, no present participle, no simple past or past participle)

(US, nonstandard) Alternative form of gotta


rain day

We used to keep a rain day reserved for this issue. However, nine times out of ten it rained on that day, too.

2008, Sandy Puc’, The Sandy Puc’ Guide to Children's Portrait Photography, Amherst Media, Inc,, →ISBN, page 78:

(US) An alternative later date for an outdoor event in case of inclement weather.


snow bunny

(Canada, US, slang) An inexperienced, usually female skier.

(Canada, US, slang) A young, attractive, female skier; a sexually active young woman attracted to the promiscuous après-ski way of life.


urgicenter

From urgent + center. Compare surgicenter, emergicenter.

Jonathan and Cathy took their daughter Millie to a West Side urgicenter.

1986 September 8, New York Magazine, volume 19, number 35, page 36:

(US) A medical facility, not part of a hospital, where emergency treatment can be given.


auto shop

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

(US, Canada) A shop that deals in the repair of automobiles

(US, Canada) A school class dealing with the repair of automobiles.


wood shop

(US, Canada) A shop that deals in woodworking or carpentry

(US, Canada) A school class dealing with woodworking or carpentry


senior high school

en-noun

senior high school (countable and uncountable, plural senior high schools)

(US) An institution which provides secondary education, typically in grades 10, 11, and 12, and often also in grade 9.


tetched

en-adj

tetched (comparative more tetched, superlative most tetched)

more tetched (comparative)
most tetched (superlative)
teched (alternative)

"His mind was as keen as a razor, an' as straight-edged, 'xcept jest on one subject. On that he was, so to say, a little—wal—a little tetched."

1889, Laura E. Richards, chapter 9, in Queen Hildegarde:

Just because he has trouble with the last verse of the Star Spangled Banner doesn't mean he's tetched. Maybe he has a mental block because you've been hammering him over the skull for three years about it.

1959 April 21, Ann Landers, "Oh Why Can't He See 'Dawn's Early Light'?, St. Petersburg Times (USA) (retrieved 26 June 2012)

There's a murderer about, but how can you spot him when everyone is moon-tetched?

1982 Sep. 27, Mary Cantwell, "Books Of The Times" (review of Goosefoot by Patrick McGinley), New York Times (retrieved 26 June 2012)

(chiefly US, colloquial) Touched: mildly deranged, somewhat mentally dysfunctional.

"They ain't bin tetched or handled by any one but the Kempany's agents."

1899, Bret Harte, “Dick Spindler's Family Christmas”, in Mr. Jack Hamlin's Mediation and Other Stories:

"That bullet never tetched ye!"

c. 1900, O. Henry, The Reformation Of Calliope:

(chiefly US, colloquial) Touched: physically contacted, impacted, or handled.


aww yeah

[ɔː˧˧˦ jɛː˨˩ə˩]

Aww yeah, I got a new video game!

(informal, slang, Canada, US) an exclamation of excitement or joy


LPI

Lunar and Planetary Institute
w:Lunar and Planetary Institute

(astronomy, US) Initialism of Lunar and Planetary Institute.


MPPG

Mars Program Planning Group
w:Mars Program Planning Group

(astronomy, US) Initialism of Mars Program Planning Group.


RBSP

Radiation Belt Storm Probes
w:Radiation Belt Storm Probes

(space science, US) Initialism of Radiation Belt Storm Probes. (A spacecraft for NASAs LWS program.)


laugh in one's sleeve

en-verb

laugh in one's sleeve (third-person singular simple present laughs in one's sleeve, present participle laughing in one's sleeve, simple past and past participle laughed in one's sleeve)

laughs in one's sleeve (present singular third-person)
laughing in one's sleeve (participle present)
laughed in one's sleeve (participle past)
laughed in one's sleeve (past)
laugh up one's sleeve (alternative)

Nixon boastfully called the seven days he spent on the Chinese mainland "the week that changed the world"–without, however, specifying whether the change was for the better or for the worse. The way he humbled himself before Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai reminded me of the tribute-bearing foreign emissaries of the previous centuries who went to Peking to pay homage at the Chinese Imperial Court. Nixon's hosts must have laughed in their sleeves at his behavior during their meetings.

1983, James C. H. Shen, “Beginnings of Endings”, in Robert Myers, editor, The U.S. & Free China: How the U.S. Sold Out Its Ally, Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books Ltd., →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 7:

(US, Canada, idiomatic) to laugh in secret or to oneself, usually gloatingly

смея́ться в кула́к impf (smejátʹsja v kulák, literally “to laugh in one's fist”)


ghetto lottery

en-noun

ghetto lottery (plural ghetto lotteries)

The experts all agree that sports betting and the numbers game—the ghetto lottery—are the biggest sources of income for the mob, and this money is used to finance other rackets like narcotics, loansharking, pornography, and the infiltration of legitimate businesses and unions.

1977, Jack Newfield, Paul Du Brul, The Abuse of Power: the Permanent Government and the Fall of New York, Viking Press, page 258. (link)

Marcia’s father, known in his neighborhood as “Duke,” became quite a gambler, betting on horses, dogs, boxing matches, and even policy, or “playing the numbers,” which was the ghetto lottery, so to speak.

2003, Michael Eric Dyson, Why I love black women, Basic Civitas Books, page 234. (link)

It's called the ghetto lottery. Perp got handled a little too rough by a cop? He calls the People's Law office and sues the department for millions.

2009 September 12, “Michelle”, “Garage break-in Final [Rant]”, in chi.general (Usenet):

(idiomatic, figurative, US) A financial windfall obtainable by a socioeconomically disadvantaged person.


libtard

Blend of liberal + -tard, equivalent to lib (“liberal”) + -tard.

[…] The libtards in Washington closed down the mines and your pa died with eight dollars in his pocket."

2009, Noel Hynd, The Prodigy, Damnation Books, published 2009, →ISBN, page 76:

(US, slang, derogatory, politics) A stupid liberal or progressive; a person who presents or advocates liberal views in a stupid or illogical manner.


libtard

From libertarian + -tard, equivalent to lib (“libertarian”) + -tard.

again, libtard randroids would have argued that the only civil rights are property rights and would have seen no problem.

2006 December 18, sirblob, “Re: a far right ayn rand propaganda documentary for intellectually challenged fascist creeps to wank away with”, in rec.arts.movies.past-films (Usenet), message-ID <1166355507.050324.207600@16g2000cwy.googlegroups.com>:

I guess the libtard is against corporations "Stealing" but sees nothing wrong when it comes to the government. How are these "Rich corporations" Stealing from the people and how is Ron Paul eliminating these regulations?

2011 April 27, fergo, “Re: Trump: "I'm the last person? Obama wants to run against"”, in alt.usenet.kooks (Usenet), message-ID <Qv-dndMhuK9fIirQnZ2dnUVZ_vKdnZ2d@westnet.com.au>:

(US, slang, derogatory, rare) A stupid libertarian.


conservatard

Aren't Republican conservatards supposed to be in favor of *smaller* government?

2002 August 25, Hawkeye [username], “Re: Congressman: Time to go high-tech to secure borders”, in alt.california.illegals (Usenet):

(US, slang, derogatory, politics) A stupid conservative; a person who presents or advocates conservative views in a stupid and/or illogical manner.


red dog

red dog (countable and uncountable, plural red dogs)

(countable, US, American football) A blitz.


red dog

en-verb

red dog (third-person singular simple present red dogs, present participle red dogging, simple past and past participle red dogged)

red dogs (present singular third-person)
red dogging (participle present)
red dogged (participle past)
red dogged (past)


dog soldier

(US, historical) Any of the members of a Cheyenne Indian military society in the mid 19th century.


Strait of Juan de Fuca

Named by English explorer Charles William Barkley in 1787, in honour of Juan de Fuca, a Greek explorer who probably sailed the strait in 1592.

(US) A strait that runs between the southern end of Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula.

Détroit de Juan de Fuca

strait between Vancouver Island and Olympic Peninsula


turkey shoot

turkey shoots (plural)
turkey-shoot (alternative)

Behind his barricade of barrels, Sam heard and shivered like a gun-shy collie at a turkey shoot.

1913, B. M. Bower, chapter 3, in The Uphill Climb:

[H]e had seen a thirteen-year-old boy named Jim Clanton win a turkey shoot against the best marksmen of the hill country.

1919, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 3, in A Man Four-Square:

Debbie Houk said Jordan, a hunter, knew a lot about guns and was a good shot. On Valentine's Day, he beat out many older and more experienced hunters at a turkey shoot. "I'll never cook that turkey. It's the same gun that killed my daughter," she said.

2009 February 25, “Boy held in Pa. killing to go to juvenile facility”, in USA Today, retrieved 2012-07-16:

(chiefly US) A hunt or hunting competition, using rifles or shotguns, in which wild turkeys are the prey; a marksmanship contest in which a turkey is the prize.


JPBM

Joint Policy Board for Mathematics
w:Joint Policy Board for Mathematics

(mathematics, US) Initialism of Joint Policy Board for Mathematics.


beway

From by way equivalent to be- + way. Compare German wegen (“because of, by reason of”).

cog

[...] an' then hee'l turn him roon behint-afore an' play treeks, till collie gems at him; an' then beway o' makin friens again, hee'l Btreek an' pat him, [...]

1832, the mirror of literature, amusement, and instruction:

Be gannies," suggested Larry, " I think the best way would be for the three iv us to give the artichokes at the fire below, a warm reception beway iv a do sure, an' it'll soften the bargain wid ould Hardrade."

1857, Celtic Union, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

[...] is waistit and destroyit be divers personis that slais the dere and cunyngis thairof, and pasturis bestis thereintill masterfully beway of dede, [...]

1864, John Fullarton, Historical memoir of the family of Eglinton and Winton:

This young man afterwards became a member of Parliament from Scotland, and was for many years Grand Master of the [...] that week into as good English as he can and write it beway of version, being allowed to paraphrase it in his own way, [...]

1951, American Classical League, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

Wan was in front, beway he was the ginral, walkin' wid his chin up, proud as a paycock.

(dialectal, Ireland, Scotland, US) By way; because.


turkey trot

turkey trots (plural)
turkey-trot (alternative)

(US) A footrace held on or around Thanksgiving Day.


jive-ass

en-adj

jive-ass (comparative more jive-ass, superlative most jive-ass)

more jive-ass (comparative)
most jive-ass (superlative)
jiveass (alternative)

He's failed at every jive-ass money hustle he's ever tried.

You a damn' fool, you jive-ass turkey!

(US, derogatory, slang) Of or related to jiving, characterized by dishonest foolishness or low-class hustling.


jive-ass

jive-asses (plural)
jiveass (alternative)

The other guy, Private Appleton, White calls a “Detroit jive-ass” with a chip on his shoulder for everyone.

2002, A Bad Attitude: A Novel from the Vietnam War, by Dennis Mansker, page 88


mugwumpish

mugwumpish (comparative more mugwumpish, superlative most mugwumpish)

more mugwumpish (comparative)
most mugwumpish (superlative)

(US, politics, slang) Resembling or characteristic of a mugwump.


gobo

Uncertain; possibly from go-b(etween) (“intermediary, middleman”) + -o (suffix forming informal terms).

suffix

At the other extreme, with limitless budgets all they have to do is dream up amazing lighting rigs to be constructed and operated by the huge team of gaffers and sparks, with their generators, discharge lights, flags, gobos and brutes.

1999, Des Lyver, Graham Swainson, Basics of Video Lighting, page 103:

(film, photography, television) A screen (often in disc form) placed between a light and an illuminated actor or object in order to diffuse the glare.

filtro

screen placed between a light and an illuminated actor or object in order to diffuse the glare


fallway

In existing buildings where no flue is available either large enough to provide a fallway or located conveniently for hopper doors, a basement-fed KERNERATOR provides all of the advantages except the hopper-door convenience

1940, “School Building Problems Solved by Kernerators”, in American School & University, volume 12, page 113, column 2:

(US) A well or opening, through the successive floors of a factory or warehouse or the decks of a ship, providing access for goods, material, or people.


carmel

en-noun

carmel (countable and uncountable, plural carmels)

Variant of caramel, influenced by two-syllable pronunciations of that word.

(US, uncommon, nonstandard) Alternative form of caramel


RDC

The virtue of the R.D.C. is that it can be used for short inter-city trips such as this, or for branch services, or even for commuting. It is a pity that its spartan accommodation makes it unsuitable for long runs; the introduction by the C.P.R. of an "improved" service between Medicine Hat and Vancouver (nearly 1,000 miles stopping at almost all stations), using an R.D.C., got the hostile press reception it deserved.

1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 553:

(rail transport, US, Canada) A Budd Rail Diesel Car, a self-propelled railcar for passengers.


capology

Caps create a pseudoscience, "capology," where it seems that everyone tries to avoid it.

2005, Walter T. Champion, Sports Law: Cases, Documents, and Materials, page 188:

The 'Team Payroll Range System" and the "upper limit" now require skilled "capology" as managers must calculate the "payroll room" available at particular times, familiarize themselves with the detailed accounting rules that deal with the averaging of payments and comply with other linits on compensation.

2010, John Barnes, The law of hockey, page 403:

The leaders of our capology division were our president, Bob Vander Weide, who has an extremely acute financial mind, player personnel director John Gabriel, and director of finance Scott Herring.

2014, Pat Williams, Ahead of the Game: The Pat Williams Story:

(US, business sports) The study or science of salary caps, the rules regulating the total amount of player compensation.


caponomics

(US, business sports) The economics of salary caps.


truck stop

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

Any teamster pulling into a truck stop today will almost surely be vastly outnumbered by nonunion drivers.

1996 December 18, Dirk Johnson, “Nostalgia Shaped Some Teamster Votes”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-27:

Nestled in the rolling hills of Lancaster County, the town of Gap is a sprawling collection of clapboard houses, strip malls and a truck stop named Touch O' Home.

2001 June 24, Nadya Labi, “Amiss Among The Amish”, in Time:

(chiefly Canada, US, Australia) A roadside service area, usually consisting of a restaurant and service station and sometimes a motel or hotel, where drivers of long-haul trucks can stop to refuel, eat, and rest.


autocycle

(US) A three-wheeled vehicle with an enclosed cabin, where passengers ride in seats instead of astride the body.


bazoo

Probably from Dutch bazuin (“trumpet”). First attested in the mid 19th c..

It goes against the grain to toot one’s own “bazoo”

1894, “Splendid work of the National Association of Dental Faculties”, in Dominion Dental Journal, volume VI, page 221:

Born Charles Westover in Coopersville, Michigan, on 30 December 1939, he learned to play the bazoo, ukulele and, eventually, the guitar.

2012, Sharon Davis, Every Chart Topper Tells a Story:

The bully girl with a crystal optic and tin horn was at the jollification. She “tooted her bazoo” in concert with Hon. Nelson’s horn, and wanted “White husbands or none.”

2017 May 1, Peter Jensen Brown, quoting Leavenworth Weekly Times, July 21, 1870, “Bazoo, Kazoo, Bazooka”, in Early Sports and Pop Culture History Blog:

(Canada, US, dated) A simple wind instrument, such as a kazoo or tin horn.

If any galoot in the mob knows of anything that mout block the game ef tuk to a higher court, let him now toot his bazoo, or else keep his jaw to himself now and forever more.

1881, Paul the Pilgrim, “A Wyoming Wedding”, in Wit and Wisdom, page 12:

"As for the screechin', one bazoo's as good as a dozen, if so be ye blow it fierce enough."

1902, Francis Lynde, The Master of Appleby, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 504:

No doubt you have heard the expression, “He blows his bazoo too much.” In Arkansas that is said of a “windy” guy who talks too much.

2013, Charles Earle Funk, Thereby Hangs a Tale:


lobster pound

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

So sing (if you listen closely) some 5000 lobsters rushed by air freight daily direct from a 1,000,000-capacity lobster pound in Clark's Harbour in the southernmost tip of Nova Scotia to Sea 'n Surf Restaurant on Rte. 9, Framingham.

1963 September 29, “Lobster Fit for Queen At Sea'n Surf”, in Boston Globe, USA, retrieved 2012-07-28, page B18:

The new lobster pound under construction on the east side of Pero Point is expected to begin receiving its first lobsters during the annual fall lobster harvest in November.

1987 March 27, Clayton Beal, "Lobster pound being built on east side of Pero Point," Bangor Daily News (Maine, USA), p. 8 (retrieved 28 July 2012)

Digby County lobster fisherman Paulin Robichaud, who lost 35,000 lobsters in an apparent case of deliberate poisoning last month, is getting out of the business and won't be restocking his lobster pound.

2007 August 8, “Pound won't reopen, says lobster fisherman”, in CBC News, Canada, retrieved 2012-07-28:

(chiefly Northern Atlantic region of Canada, US) A large commercial enclosure filled with circulating water in which lobsters are kept alive pending sale.


thrillcraft

(US) Any of various craft used in extreme sports.


what it takes

You don't know what it takes to succeed at competitive frisbee.

She's precocious, and she knows just / What it takes to make a pro blush

1974, Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon, “Bette Davis Eyes”, in Mistaken Identity, performed by Kim Carnes, published 1981:

(US, idiomatic) Everything that is required, especially skill or endurance.


AAF

(military, US, dated) Initialism of Allied Air Forces.

(military, US, dated) Initialism of Army Air Forces.

Army airfield
w:List of United States Army airfields

(military, US, dated) Initialism of Army airfield.


A.A.U.

Amateur Athletic Union
w:Amateur Athletic Union

(US, sports) Initialism of Amateur Athletic Union; also AAU.


magrums

Huntington's disease
Huntington's disease


horned lark

(US) A lark, Eremophila alpestris, with distinctive facial markings.


station house

station houses (plural)
stationhouse (alternative)
station-house (alternative)

(US) A structure or other area set aside for storage of fire-extinguishing equipment.

The arrests, in morning raids in California, Florida and New York capped an investigation by San Francisco police into the murder of Sgt. John V. Young, who was killed by a shotgun at a desk in the Ingleside stationhouse on Aug. 29, 1971.

2007 January 24, Jesse Mckinley, “8 Arrested in 1971 Killing of San Francisco Police Officer”, in New York Times:

(US) The headquarters of a police force or unit for a specific district; a police station.


leaf-raking

Sense regarding employment: from the nature of some of the activities of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression in the US.

Relief was essential and began under Hoover; then, under Roosevelt, relief turned into leaf-raking, and leaf-raking turned into constructive enterprise.

1955, Robert L. Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economists, page 225:

public agencies were to plan building programs that would do the job and preserve communities from “the necessity of feeding hungry men through the expediency of 'leaf-raking' projects or the dole or soup lines.

1991, Robert Dallek, Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960, volume 1:

Yet neither man came close to realizing his early political promise, or to forgiving the tendency of the average voter to sell his birthright for a leaf-raking job or Social Security card.

2003, Richard Norton Smith, The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955, page 63:

(US, usually derogatory) Marginally productive government-financed employment.


assbrain

Back in a few hours, assbrain.

2002, Andre Perkowski, Along the Edges of Electric Disgust: An Exciting Novel of Tomorrow, page 4:

You, me, all those other assbrains in there, throwing our dollars at Max Hunter.

1993, James W. Hall, Hard Aground, page 4:

It was in the newspapers and on TV how cops all over the country were looking for Buddy, and here this assbrain wanted to know if he was sending postcards, or calling up to chat, or whatever dumb fucking thing she thought.

1993, James Neal Harvey, The Headsman, page 218:

(Canada, US, slang, sometimes considered, vulgar, derogatory or offensive) An idiot; a fool.


MSL

Mars Science Laboratory
w:Mars Science Laboratory

(space science, US, NASA) Initialism of Mars Science Laboratory.


mosquito hawk

mosquito hawks (plural)
mosquitohawk (alternative)

(US, regional) A crane fly (US) / daddy longlegs (UK), a large, mosquito-like insect in the suborder Tipulomorpha


UCSD

University of California, San Diego
w:University of California, San Diego

(education, US) Initialism of University of California, San Diego.


MER

Mars Exploration Rover
w:Mars Exploration Rover

(space science, US, NASA) Initialism of Mars Exploration Rover.


momager

momagers (plural)
momanager (alternative)

A growing category of “bad” mother is the so-called “momager,” the woman who interferes with her famous children's affairs, exploits them, and contributes to their tarnished reputations—[...]

2010, Andrea O'Reilly, Encyclopedia of Motherhood:

The most fitting occupation for my mother is no longer a stage actress or momager or anything like that; she would make—she is—a fantastic nurse.

2012, Sarah Wylie, All These Lives, page 184:

The scope of ambition of the Hadids can be seen in the increased visibility of Yolanda, who accompanied Gigi to the Fashion awards, because you are no one without a momager.

2016 December 13, Jess Cartner-Morley, The Guardian:

It seems even Kris Jenner has got the pink memo. The momager followed up Kim's post with her own, sharing a throwback pic of herself in a neon pink '80s swimsuit.

2023 June 14, Alexandria Dale, “Kim Kardashian relaxes poolside in a bright pink thong bikini”, in Women's Health:

(US, slang) A showbusiness manager who is also the performer's mother.


auto park

(US) A parcel of land that has been zoned via local regulation for commercial uses related to automobile sales and maintenance.


biowaiver

(US) An exemption, granted to a biopharmaceutical company, to show bioequivalence to a product


stageable

en-adj

stageable (comparative more stageable, superlative most stageable)

more stageable (comparative)
most stageable (superlative)

(US, medicine) Of a wound or ulcer, able to be assigned to one of the stages described in the National Pressure Ulcer Staging System.


poor white trash

In the south, there are no servants but blacks; for the greater proportion of domestics being slaves all species of servitude whatever is looked upon as a degradation; and the slaves themselves entertain the very highest contempt for white servants, whom they designate as ‘poor white trash’.

[1835 May 30, The London Literary Gazette; and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c.of the collected Literary Gazette […] for the year 1835, number 958, London, page 338:

“Huccome po’ w’ite trash buy any niggers? Dey ain’ never owned mo’n fo’ at de mostes’.”

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part I, page 17:

(US, obsolete, ethnic slur, used by black slaves) White person or people employed in a servile position, for example, as a butler.

Good nutrition's given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?

1991, Ted Tally, The Silence of the Lambs (motion picture), spoken by Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins):

(US, modern, derogatory, ethnic slur) White trash; poor, uneducated white person or people of low social status.


whitegirl

en-noun

whitegirl (countable and uncountable, plural whitegirls)

My lovers have always been the environment that defined my color. With a Black lover in apartheid Boston I was seen as a whitegirl.

1999 July, Cherríe Moraga, The Last Generation, Cambridge: South End Press, →ISBN, page 116:

She walked deliberately up to the couple, and in a most coquettish way that would make any Latina feel enormous envy at the style which this gringa whitegirl was displaying, she patted Omaha on the arm.

2004 November 4, Edgardo Vega Yunqué, The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow Into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle, Overlook Press, →ISBN, →OL:

I hope it is a Whitegirl who's stolen from me, but that's unlikely. Someone would have seen her. A Whitegirl going in three Blackgirls' room. Even a friendly Whitegirl.

2009 September 30, Angela Jackson, Where I Must Go, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 155:

(countable, US, slang, mildly pejorative) A young Caucasian female.


women's room

women's rooms (plural)
woman's room (alternative)

Probably a generic variant of the earlier-attested ladies' room (“a waiting room for women”).

Women were expected to use the toilet provided for the general public... Plans have been made for a women's room at this station.

1918 May 16, US Department of Labor, Monthly Labor Review:

(chiefly US, euphemistic) Synonym of ladies' room: a public lavatory intended for women.


make nice

en-verb

make nice (third-person singular simple present makes nice, present participle making nice, simple past and past participle made nice)

makes nice (present singular third-person)
making nice (participle present)
made nice (participle past)
made nice (past)

And now he had to go make nice with the good doctor's grandma.

1999, Gina Wilkins, Doctor in Disguise, page 18:

[H]e either had to make nice with the guards or make nice with the prisoners. And frankly, the way the prisoners made nice scared the bejeesus out of him.

2002, Dee Davis, Dark of the Night, page 31:

“A jackass? I'm trying to make nice.” “I don't need your nice. Go make nice with Angela.”

2010, Catherine Wade, Let's Dish, page 76:

(US) To be friendly or conciliatory towards another, often in the context of maintaining good relations or resolving a conflict with the other person.


slab-sided

en-adj

slab-sided (comparative more slab-sided, superlative most slab-sided)

more slab-sided (comparative)
most slab-sided (superlative)

"Oh! Cousin Clarence," he exclaimed, "there is a Yankee peddler here; the longest, lathiest, queerest slab-sided being you ever saw in all your life."

1859, James Hungerford, The Old Plantation: And what I Gathered There in an Autumn Month:

(US, archaic, colloquial) tall, or long and lank


blue John

bluejohn (alternative)
blue john (alternative)
blue-john (alternative)
blue-John (alternative)
Blue John (alternative)

Lee went up front to his icebox and brought back a jar of milk. The cream had been skimmed from it. I said, “This tastes like blue-john to me.”


scalie

While we were there a couple of scalies came out and started up the street, but seeing the strikers there they turned around and went back into the saloon.

1908 November, “On the Firing Line”, in Machinists' Monthly Journal, volume 20, number 11, page 998:

In the car department we would repair cars that were disabled and placed in bad order by a bunch of scalies taking the place of striking switchmen, engineers, Firemen, etc.

1911 March, “From Brittania Lodge, No. 361”, in Railway Carmen's Journal, volume 16, number 3, page 129:

In Dallas, women scalies cursed women pickets; four pickets went to jail for disorderly conduct while the scalies went on to work.

1935, International Stereotypers' and Electrotypers' Union Journal, volume 30, page 830:

(Canada, US, dated, derogatory, slang) A strikebreaker.

About the same size as the valley quail and the Gambel's quail, the scaled quail is often referred to as the "drab shirttail relative." Gray-blue in color (often known locally as "blue quail"), with a slight black tipping of the chest and breast plumage that creates scalelike markings, (hence the nickname "scalies"), […]

2003, Durwood Hollis, Hunting Upland Game & Waterfowl, Krause Publications, →ISBN, pages 40–41:

I sensed the birds' presence, but I had no idea if they were Gambel's or scalies, even though the habitat read scaled quail.

2003, Ben O. Williams, Winston: The Life of a Gun Dog, Willow Creek Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 165:

Then the exploding whirr of wings in the wind — a mixed covey of bobwhites and scalies.

2007, Jeffrey Engel, Sherol Engel, & James A. Swan, Chasing The Hunter's Dream: 1,001 of the World's Best Duck Marshes, Deer Runs, Elk Meadows, Pheasant Fields, Bear Woods, Safaris, and Extraordinary Hunts, HarperCollins, published 2007, →ISBN, page 212:

Scalies are more prone to be in open grass away from cover.

2008, Tom Arnhold, Web Parton, Wingshooter's Guide to Kansas Upland Birds and Waterfowl, Wilderness Adventures Press, Inc., published 2008, →ISBN, page 56:

Callipepla squamata
Callipepla squamata#Translingual

(US, informal) A scaled quail (Callipepla squamata).


winninger

"Apparition is then of a monster-task in a policy carving new fashions, The winninger course than the rule of force, and the springs lured to run in a stream; [...]"

1895, John Mackinnon Robertson, G. Astor Singer, The University magazine and free review:

I ask it : for the question ariseth of itself to my mind because of the crass facts of my predicament; yet my heart knoweth it, Lord God, to be the grumble of an ingrate: for a hidden thing is, that is winninger than wife, or child, or the shining of any light, [...]

1948, Matthew Phipps Shiel, The best short stories of M. P. Shiel:

Denver Winninger Than Some, Losinger Than Most

2007, Jason Bane, 5280, The Denver Magazine:

(US) More winning; more attractive or successful; (sports) having more wins.


Southern-fried

Southern-fried (comparative more Southern-fried, superlative most Southern-fried)

more Southern-fried (comparative)
most Southern-fried (superlative)
Southern fried (alternative)
southern-fried (alternative)

Because the particular style of frying is seen as characteristic of the Southern United States.

(chiefly US, not comparable) Coated in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs and then deep-fried.

(US, comparable) Characteristic of the South of the United States; authentically Southern.


cazh

cazh (comparative more cazh, superlative most cazh)

more cazh (comparative)
most cazh (superlative)
cajj (alternative)
cas (alternative)
caszh (alternative)
caz (alternative)
kasj (alternative)
kazh (alternative)

(Australia, US, colloquial) Casual, laid-back; casually pleasant.


freshman fifteen

I gained the dreaded "freshman fifteen," whereas Ophi became unnaturally thin from eating too little.

1997, Tali Edut, with Dyann Logwood and Ophira Edut, “HUES Magazine: The Making of a Movement”, in Leslie Heywood, Jennifer Drake, editors, Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 85:

Having gained the regulation freshman fifteen meant that my skirt that day fit.

1999 August 4, Alice Sebold, Lucky, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, →OL, page 37:

The freshman fifteen is the stuff of urban legend — a horror story that wreaks havoc on the psyches of high school seniors everywhere, for fear that it too might touch their lives, leaving them crying in the Sears dressing room shopping for pants two sizes larger.

2012 August 9, Tiana Kupinski, “Getting mean on the Freshman 15”, Sun Belt Collegiate, in Explorer:

(colloquial, US, Canada) The amount of body weight (thought to be 15 pounds) gained by a student during their first year of college.


CDI

en-noun

CDI (countable and uncountable, plural CDIs)

Lauren turned to him and said, “I grew up on Army bases, so I know what CDI means. Chicks Dig It. The average male thinks things that go boom have a higher CDI than the hard work of diplomacy.”

2013, Anne Calhoun, Uncommon Pleasure, Heat, →ISBN:

(US military slang) Ellipsis of CDI factor.


RMIC

Republican Majority Issues Committee
w:Republican Majority Issues Committee

(US, politics) Initialism of Republican Majority Issues Committee.


lieutenant governor

lieutenant governor (plural lieutenant governors)

lieutenant governors (plural)
lieutenant-governor (alternative)

United States of America
United States of America

(US, government) The next-in-line to the chief executive of a primary political division of the United States of America, such as a state, second to the governor.


rily

en-adj

rily (comparative more rily, superlative most rily)

more rily (comparative)
most rily (superlative)

(dated, UK, dialect or US, colloquial) roily; turbulent


Webelos

An invented term that originated in the Boy Scouts of America c. 1954. The Bear Cub Scout Book of 1954 claims that "Webelos" is an American Indian tribe of which Akela is chief, and that the name comes from "Wolf, Bear, Lion, Scout." The rank of Lion Scout was later dropped, but the term "Webelos" was kept. Through folk etymology, it is now commonly stated that the term derives from "we'll be loyal Scouts," although this was not the term's original meaning.http://books.google.com/books?id=Nf0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA4&dq=webelo+scout+%22wolf%22+bear+lion&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fXSNUN_-C9S80QHW6IGYAg&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=webelo%20scout%20%22wolf%22%20bear%20lion&f=false

(US) A young scout in the Boy Scouts of America who is working his way up to the Boy Scouts.


rally cap

rally caps (plural)
rally-cap (alternative)

His cap was turned backwards in the manner of a catcher or a rally-cap, though he had no intention of catching and there certainly wasn't a rally going on.

2001, Melissa M. Dudek, Wildfire Summer: A Season With the Wyoming Wildfire, page 56:

"It's a rally cap! It's a rally cap!” shouted her father teasingly, rubbing her head with every base runner.

2005, Allen St. John, chapter 9, in Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument, page 89:

[…]Brian always wore a Detroit Tigers baseball cap. He would turn his cap into a "rally cap" when anyone needed a bit of a rally in their lives.

2007, April 16th: Virginia Tech Remembers, page 207:

(US, baseball) A baseball cap worn inside-out and backwards, or in another unconventional manner, by players or fans, as a talisman in order to will a team into a come-from-behind rally late in the game.


Eastwood

Maniac, lunatic, call him Snoop Eastwood.

1992, “Deep Cover”, in Deep Cover, performed by Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg, SOLAR Records:

The name is Dre Eastwood, when I'm packing a gun.

1992, “A Nigga Witta Gun”, in The Chronic, performed by Dr. Dre, Death Row Records:

Bustin' raps for my snaps, now they call me Eastwood.

1992, “Stranded on Death Row”, in The Chronic, performed by Dr. Dre, Kurupt, Lady of Rage, RBX, and Snoop Doggy Dogg, Death Row Records:

I'm the maniac in black, Mr. Snoop Eastwood.

1992, “Bitches Ain't Shit”, in The Chronic, performed by Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg, Death Row Records:


Which is precisely why I'd volunteered as point man on this little jaunt, prowling and growling up the unlit stairwell of a Cairo slum at 0-dark-hundred to catch my quarry napping on his bedroll.

1996, Richard Marcinko, John Weisman, Green Team: Rogue Warrior III, page 4:

It's late, and we have to get up at 0-dark-hundred to got to Paris in the AM.

2011, Diane L. Sheridan, Don't Forget the Flippin' E: A Memoir, page 290:

(chiefly US military slang) An otherwise unspecified time of night; some time when it is dark out.


In the very early morning--0-dark-30--the veterans have the Wall entirely to themselves, which is the main reason that we go at that hour.

2002, Jonathan Shay, Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming:

(chiefly US military slang) Half an hour past 12(am) midnight, or more formal and exact would be 00:30; The practice of adding “dark” and “thirty” (30) can be used sometimes as a slang term in place of an otherwise specific time a time of night, meaning some time when it is dark out between 00:01 - 05:00 hours local time.


pot-walloper

(US, slang, dated) One who cleans pots; a scullion.


bobby pin

bobby pins (plural)
bobbypin (alternative)

From bob haircut, which the bobby pin was designed to keep under control.

[H]e still didn't like looking down the drain. The brass cross-hatch inside that was supposed to catch things like clots of hair or dropped bobby-pins had disappeared years ago, and so there was only a dark hole rimmed by a circle of tarnished steel.


zoomies

I wouldn't go back there unless you want to get some zoomies!

How many zoomies did you get today?

(US military slang) Nontechnical units of radiation, such as are present in a compartment containing or near nuclear weapons or a nuclear reactor, or are picked up on a dosimeter.


sprew

Compare Dutch sprouw, spruw, whence English sprue.


high-holder

(US, dialect) A kind of small woodpecker; the flicker.


speckled-belly

Mareca strepera
Mareca strepera#Translingual

(US, dialect) The gadwall (Mareca strepera).


moving violation

en-noun

moving violation (plural moving violations)

Under present law, the Department of Public Safety can suspend a license from 30 to 90 days when the holder accumulates three moving violations.

1959 May 20, Taking Violators Off the Road, St Petersburg Times, p. 8A

(US, Canada, Australia, law enforcement) Violation of the law by the driver of a vehicle while in motion.

Verkehrsverstoß

violation of law by the driver of a moving vehicle


overparked

en-adj

overparked (comparative more overparked, superlative most overparked)

more overparked (comparative)
most overparked (superlative)

/əʊvəˈpɑːkt/

I was long overparked, but the cops were too busy carrying girls and blowing whistles to bother about that.

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 32:

(US) Parked for longer than allowed by road markings, meter regulations etc.


microaggression

en-noun

microaggression (countable and uncountable, plural microaggressions)

From micro- + aggression, coined by American psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970.

coin

At McGill, someone has established a McGill Microaggressions website inviting students and staff to report instances of “sexism, heteropatriarchy, transphobia, classism, racism [and] ableism.”

2014 February 18, Graeme Hamilton, “McGill student forced to apologize for racial ‘microaggression’ after emailing joke Obama clip”, in National Post, retrieved 2014-02-19:

Two terms have risen quickly from obscurity into common campus parlance. Microaggressions are small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless.

2015 September, Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt, “The Coddling of the American Mind”, in The Atlantic:

For many of us, microaggressions are so commonplace that it seems impossible to tackle them one at a time. Psychologists often compare them to death by a thousand cuts.

2020 March 3, Hahna Yoon, “How to Respond to Microaggressions”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Ask whether microaggressions merit the same response as physical assault and the Elect do not receive this as a challenging query.

2021, John H. McWhorter, chapter 6, in Woke Racism, New York: Forum, →ISBN:

(sociology, chiefly US) Any small-scale verbal or physical interaction between those of different races, cultures, beliefs, or genders that may have no malicious intent, but that can be interpreted as an aggression.

microagressió

everyday interaction interpreted as aggression


loogan

loogans (plural)
Loogan (alternative)
lugan (alternative)

‘You think he sent that loogan after you?’
‘What's a loogan?’
‘A guy with a gun.’

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 160:

‘Excuse me,’ I said. ‘Marcelonas? Is that your name, Doyle Marcelonas?'
‘Marcelunis,’ he said.
‘That's a real Chicago name,’ I said. ‘Right?’
‘Marquette Park,’ he said.
‘A South Side boy,’ I said.
‘South Side loogan,’ he said. ‘Grew up in Marquette Park and I live in Beverly now.’
I thought I had him sidetracked. Loogan meant he was Lithuanian, and I wanted to take the conversation in that direction. Didn't get the chance.

2003, Donald Lehmann, “Thirty-two”, in Inc., iUniverse, page 30:


cut swathes

en-verb

cut swathes (third-person singular simple present cuts swathes, present participle cutting swathes, simple past and past participle cut swathes)

cuts swathes (present singular third-person)
cutting swathes (participle present)
cut swathes (participle past)
cut swathes (past)

Those were all landmark moments to cherish. Just as appealing was the manner in which Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner cut swathes down either flank, albeit through flustered full-backs who had looked poorly positioned and horribly jittery from the start.

2012 September 7, Dominic Fifield, “England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova”, in The Guardian:

cut a wide swath
cut a wide swath#English

(chiefly US, idiomatic) Synonym of cut a wide swath


watap

en-noun

watap (usually uncountable, plural wataps)

wataps (plural)
watape (alternative)
wattape (alternative)

(US, Canada) The root of the spruce, and sometimes also of the pine, split lengthwise into strips and used in the construction of baskets and canoes.


wejack

From Cree ocêk, otchek (“fisher”) or Ojibwe ojiig (“fisher, marten”). Doublet of woodchuck and woodshock.

Pekania pennanti
Pekania pennanti#Translingual

Martes pennanti
Martes pennanti#Translingual

(US, Canada, rare) A fisher, Pekania pennanti, syn. Martes pennanti.


whiskey jack

(US) Alternative form of whisky jack (gray jay, Canada jay).


shatting on one's uppers

‘She has to blow and she's shatting on her uppers. She figures the peeper can get her some dough.’

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 188:

(US slang) Completely out of money; broke.


meeching

For quotations using this term, see Citations:meeching.

(uncommon, US, dialectal, possibly obsolete) sneaking, sneaky


meech

en-verb

meech (third-person singular simple present meeches, present participle meeching, simple past and past participle meeched)

meeches (present singular third-person)
meeching (participle present)
meeched (participle past)
meeched (past)

(rare, US, dialectal, obsolete) Alternative form of mitch.


mocuck

From an Algonquian language, probably Ojibwe makak (“semi-rigid container, birch bark basket, box”).

cog

The Huron of Canada expanded the use of mocucks from cookery to the warming of squash seed over a fire […]

2004, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of Kitchen History, page 660:

(US) A box-like container made from birch-bark, especially one in which sugar is stored.


moonack

Borrowed from Unami munhake, from a root meaning "to dig".

(US, Maryland, Virginia, possibly dated) A woodchuck.

With close-shut eyes she listened to the steps of the devils and moonacks as they gradually went away from the house.

1898, Alice Morse Earle, In old Narragansett: romances and realities, page 74:

(US, Maryland, Virginia, possibly dated) A frightful mythical forest creature.


wokas

From the Klamath-Modoc word for the plant's seeds, wokas.

wocus (alternative)
wokus (alternative)
wocas (alternative)

(US, regional) A large yellow water lily (Nuphar polysepala) found in the northwestern United States.

(US, regional) seeds of this water lily, eaten by the Klamath and others.


wocus

From the Klamath-Modoc word for the plant's seeds, wocus.

wokas (alternative)
wokus (alternative)
wocas (alternative)

(US, regional) The seeds of this water lily, eaten by the Klamath and others.


rub elbows

en-verb

rub elbows (third-person singular simple present rubs elbows, present participle rubbing elbows, simple past and past participle rubbed elbows)

rubs elbows (present singular third-person)
rubbing elbows (participle present)
rubbed elbows (participle past)
rubbed elbows (past)

/ɹʌb ˈɛlbəʊz/

From rub + elbows, suggesting people standing so close together that their elbows touch.

[I]f any of the officers have but mentioned love to my wife, I'll challenge and fight such of them one by one; and if any of the common soldiers have so much as rubbed elbows with her, I'll beat them like dogs from one end of the regiment to the other.

1823, James Hogg, “Peril First. Love.—Continued. Circle [IX]. Letter I.”, in The Three Perils of Woman; or, Love, Leasing, and Jealousy. […], volume II, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], →OCLC, pages 260–261:

We have in fact nothing to say against the worthy purveyor, further than that he is an intruder when he rubs elbows with the regular audience, and that the utmost personal contact to which he should aspire, is that which makes an ice, a jelly or some other delicacy, the disconnecting instrument between his own hand and that of a customer.

1833 June 22, “Theatricals”, in Figaro in London, volume II, number 81, London: […] W. Molineux, […] [for] W. Strange, […], →OCLC, page 100, column 1:

One right peal of concrete laughter at some convicted flesh-and-blood absurdity, one burst of noble indignation at some injustice or depravity, rubbing elbows with us on this solid Earth, how strange would it have been in that Kantean haze-world, and how infinitely cheering amid its vacant air-castles and dim-melting ghosts and shadows!

1851, Thomas Carlyle, “Coleridge”, in The Life of John Sterling, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, part I, page 74:

[S]adness and poverty are never more intolerable than when hope and wealth rub elbows with them.

1893, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, “The King of Navarre”, in A Gentleman of France […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 27:

It was distasteful enough to rub elbows with an illiterate and vulgar white man of no ancestry,— […]

1901 October, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, “A White Man’s ‘Nigger’”, in The Marrow of Tradition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 87:

He just wanted to rub elbows with this throng of young people. This was the joy of life he had imagined he had missed while in France.

1922, Zane Grey, chapter VIII, in The Day of the Beast, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 152:

Cowboys in ten-gallon hats and snakeskin boots rub elbows with yuppies dressed for success.

2001 June 24, Jacob V. Lamar, “Look Away, Dixieland”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-04-16:

(idiomatic, intransitive, chiefly US) Usually followed by with: to associate closely; to consort, mingle, or socialize.

bump elbows

to touch elbows with another person as a greeting, as a substitute for shaking hands; not to be confused with rub elbows


Californication

/ˌkælɪˈfɔːnɪˈkeɪʃən/

/ˌkælɪˈfɔɹnɪˈkeɪʃən/

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

Californication (TV series)
Californication (song)

From Californ(ia) + -ication. First use appears c. 1947. Especially popularized by the use as title for a song (1999) and a TV series (2007–2014). Rebracketing as Cali + fornication is superficially apparent and is ineluctably mixed into some percentage of the word's usage, in some cases as humorous word play and in others as a connotational taint damning by association (as for example in hellfire preaching in which California, and by extension modernity, is portrayed with Sodom and Gomorrah overtones).

It's also culturally unique, its natives resisting many elements of "californication", the "glintzy" urban sprawl typified by Los Angeles.

a. 1981, Coda: Poets and Writers Newsletter, page 17:

If the intermountain West, from New Mexico to Montana, is today running scared of growth and Californication, the Great Plains is a large slice of the West that does not share that particular fear.

1996, Dan L[ouie] Flores, “A Long Love Affair with an Uncommon Country: Environmental History and the Great Plains”, in Fred B. Samson, Fritz L. Knopf, editors, Prairie Conservation: Preserving North America’s Most Endangered Ecosystem, Washington, D.C., Covelo, Calif.: Island Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Value in Prairie), page 5:

Thirty years ago, voters in Portland, Ore., adopted strict growth limits to prevent “Californication” of their landscape. Circumscribed by the nation's first “urban growth boundary,” the Portland region made itself an artificial island on the land with the explicit goal of not becoming another L.A.

2000 March 3, D. J. Waldie, “Do the Voters Really Hate Sprawl?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, derogatory, urban studies) The large-scale development of land; urban sprawl.


NAFC

National Association of Free Clinics
w:National Association of Free Clinics

(US) Initialism of National Association of Free Clinics.


Chicago overcoat

en-noun

Chicago overcoat (plural Chicago overcoats)

concrete overcoat
concrete overcoat#English

(US, slang) Synonym of concrete overcoat or synonym of cement shoes.


woodshock

From the same Cree term ocêk, otchek (“fisher, marten”) or Ojibwe term ojiig (“fisher, marten”) which was taken into English as wejack in reference to the marten and as woodchuck in erroneous reference to the groundhog. Woodchuck may derive from woodshock.

(US, Canada, dialects, obsolete) The marten, or its pelt.

(US, Canada, dialects, obsolete) The groundhog, or its pelt.


oldermost

It would drive its ball through even the oldermost of the tribe of Ephraim, or, if you preferred, bark a squirrel at nearly any distance.

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 18:


olykoek

(US, Hudson Valley New York dialect) A doughnut.


peart

en-adj

peart (comparative pearter, superlative peartest)

pearter (comparative)
peartest (superlative)

1586, William Warner, Albion's England, Booke VI, Chapter XXXI, 1810, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume IV, page 579,
There was a tricksie girle, I wot, // Albeit clad in gray, / As peart as bird, as straite as boult, // As fresh as flower in May.

I smiled; and she went on to say I looked a little more peart; maybe I would not be such a slow coach after all.

1856, Alice Carey, Married, not Mated; Or, How they lived at Woodside and Throckmorton Hall, page 109:

"[…]No young man could 'a' ben more peart and alive than that, Dotty."

1893, Lynde Palmer, A Question of Honour, page 88:

"Yore pa don't hold to card playin' but you needs to have quiet and rest. I'm pleased to see Annie's up to playin'. Baby looks a little more peart this mornin' too."

1979, Marguerite Noble, Filaree: A Novel of an American Life, published 1985, page 109:


meetin' seed

en-noun

meetin' seed (countable and uncountable, plural meetin' seeds)

meetin' seeds (plural)
meeting seed (alternative)

Outside the door were a bed of fennel — meeting seed — and some rose bushes. Close by was the country store and post-office.

1906, Newell Meeker Calhoun, Litchfield County Sketches, page 134:

[…] fennel, dill, and caraway furnished meeting seed fresh from June to October, and dry from October to June again.

1916, Catharine Melinda North, History of Berlin, Connecticut, page 43:

Puritans tucked dill “meetin' seeds” into their Bibles to appease their appetite during long services. Dill perfumes soap and occasionally goes into perfume. The seeds make a good breath freshener.

2016 April 27, Kathi Keville, The Aromatherapy Garden: Growing Fragrant Plants for Happiness and Well-Being, Timber Press, →ISBN, page 152:

(US, dialects) A seed from any of various herb plants (especially fennel, but sometimes caraway, dill, or anise), formerly eaten during church meetings to foster wakefulness, freshen the breath, or keep hunger pangs at bay.


yokeag

From Mohegan-Pequot yoakheage, yok'hig, shortening of yok'higan (“(that which is) made soft”), related to Abenaki nokhigan (“flour”) (see nocake) and Quiripi *rōhkhīk (see rokeag).

Tables were arranged inside and the festival was held Wednesday and Thursday and many visitors appeared for the midday meal, clam chowder, oyster stew, succotash and the famous traveling food—yokeag, made of mortars of pepperidge wood. Yokeag was used by hunters and warriors. It was light to carry and nourishing. We have been told that a small quantity was placed in a deerskin sack to be placed at the waist of the warrior or hunter and with water served as a meal.

1995, Melissa Jayne Fawcett [Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel], The Lasting of the Mohegans: Part I, The Story of the Wolf People, Uncasville, Conn.: Mohegan Tribe, →OCLC, page 55:

She lingers over the Aquinnahs' continued love of yokeag, the food made from white flint corn that has been parched and pounded—the fine cornmeal the Narragansetts shared with Roger Williams, the same food that Thomas Stanton must have eaten on his long walk to Boston three centuries earlier.

2006, Patricia Klindienst, The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans, Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, →ISBN, page 235:

The Mohegan were farmers and fishermen and they provided vegetables (mostly corn), meat and fish for the [Annual Brush Arbor or Wigwam] Festival. One ceremonial food was "Yokeag." One year old yellow corn kernels were parched and ground to fine meal. Every family had a wooden mortar and stone pestle and the men worked long hours in preparing this. Traditionally it was known as "Traveling Food" and was carried by hunters and warriors.

2014, Gladys Tantaquidgeon, “An Affectionate Portrait of Frank Speck”, in Siobhan Senier, editor, Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England, Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 584:


bulldog edition

bulldog edition (plural bulldog editions)

Uncertain. One popular theory is that competition mainly drove the term; publishers "fought like bulldogs" to "get out editions that would catch the mails going out of town." Another theory suggests that it comes from the nautical term dogwatch (“evening shift”), as printers had to work late in the evening to put out an early edition for the morning paper. Numerous other theories have been proposed.

The Detroit Mirror, morning tabloid, which has been under the same ownership as The Chicago Tribune and The New York Daily News, suspended publication with its early bulldog edition today.

1932 August 5, “The Detroit Mirror, a Tabloid, Suspends”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-09-14:

In journalism, a "bulldog edition" is an edition of a daily newspaper printed early for transportation to distant points.

1970 June 10, “Today in History”, in Owosso Argus-Press, Michigan, USA, retrieved 2012-09-14, page 23:

Larry Holmes marched into view at 20 minutes before the hour of 11 a.m. . . . The guys with the cameras could snap away, and everybody would have a story for the 6 O'Clock News or the bulldog edition.

1980 October 2, Bruce Keidan, “Ali-Holmes strike out before bout”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 2012-09-14, page 9:

He took us on evening walks. […] On the way home, he'd stop at the corner next to the subway stop, get the bulldog edition of the Inquirer and chat with the guy selling the papers.

2008 April 10, Chris Matthews, “Philly Politicos Kick it Old-School”, in Time:

(chiefly US, newspapers, publishing) The earliest edition of a periodical publication, especially a daily newspaper.


pocosin

pocosins (plural)
pocoson (alternative)
pocosen (alternative)
poquoson (alternative)

From an unknown Algonquian word, sometimes suggested to be one meaning "opening out" (the widening of a river, related to Ojibwe baakisin (“it is left open”)), or "swamp on a hill". Alternatively, perhaps related to Abenaki pôgwaso (“very shallow”).

(US) A low, wooded swamp in (especially coastal) Eastern Maryland, Virginia or the Carolinas; a palustrine wetland with deep, acidic peat soils.


pooseback

From papoose and back, with the form perhaps influenced by piggyback.

Poquannum, then, took it pooseback, and carried it rapidly fifty rods further, […]

1857, Putnam's Monthly, volume 10, page 228:

The hero who valiantly cudgeled his cruel Greek foes back,
While safely he brought off his aged old ancestor pooseback?

1870, A free and independent translation of the first and fourth books of the Aeneid, page 10:

(US, dialects, possibly dated) piggyback


muckawis

Probably from Mohegan-Pequot múckkowheesce.


pauhagen

Related to poghaden; probably ultimately from Abenaki or Penobscot.


poghaden

Related to pauhagen; probably ultimately from Abenaki or Penobscot.


kooyah

Borrowed from Shoshone kuya (“tobacco root, Valeriana edulis”).

bor+

(US, Great Basin and Northwestern dialects) Valeriana edulis, or the large, internally bright yellow, edible root of this plant, which tastes and smells like tobacco until cooked, when it becomes sweet.


quoddy

From the placenames, which are named for the tribe; the tribe's name is an Anglicization of their autonym, and the word is thus ultimately from Malecite-Passamaquoddy.

[…] spending his summers along the Penobscot River and the rocky coastline, fussing with boats, hunting for clams, fishing for quoddies.

2006, Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West, page 311:

(US, dialectal, very rare) Herring, especially if caught and cured (or smoked) near any of the various northeastern American places named Quoddy or Passamquoddy.


klootch

Either a shortening of klootchman, or simply from the Nootka łuuč (“female”); that is, from the first part of that word without the addition of the second part.

(US, Canada, western dialects, uncommon) klootchman: woman, wife (especially if Native American).


anywheres

(US, nonstandard, slang or dialectal) anywhere


squantum

Apparently from a placename, from Massachusett.

(US, Nantucket dialect, possibly dated) A picnic on the beach, a clambake.


wankapin

Nelumbo lutea
Nelumbo lutea#Translingual

(rare, US, dialect) Nelumbo lutea, the American lotus, the water chinkapin.


burocracy

/bjʊˈɹɑːkɹəsi/

… 1962 Style Book, p63, specifies the following: aging, altho, ameba, analog, apolog, burocracy, burocratic, …

1963, Henry Louis Mencken, The American language: an inquiry into the development of English in the United States., Digitized edition, published 2009, page 491:

In this way, inter-unit relationships can be specified in order to define at communication level some well-known agent organizations model such as hierachies, burocracies, federations, etc.

2009, Joan Cabestany, Francisco Sandoval, Alberto Prieto, Bio-Inspired Systems: Computational and Ambient Intelligence, Springer, →ISBN, page 525:

Burocracy is a choice!

2010, Bert Hedeman, Gabor Vis van Heemst, Hans Fredriksz, Project Manaagement Based on Principle2, 2009, Van Haren Publishing, →ISBN, page 173:

… namely the non human structure that enables a country generate future benefits: business structure, burocracy, …

2011, Geoff Turner, Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on on Intellectual Capital, Academic Conferences Limited, →ISBN, page 190:

But still more, even Marx himself in his criticism of Hegel's Theory of the State recognized the actual behavior of burocracy in contradiction …

2012, Armando P Ribas, Rule of Law: The Path to Freedom, Stockcero, →ISBN, page 107:

(US) Alternative spelling of bureaucracy


Neshannock

Named for the place in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, where it was first produced. The placename means "place of two streams" in Unami: from nisha (“two”) + a root meaning "stream" (compare tànkhane (“narrow stream”), wëlàhëne (“nice stream”) + the locative suffix -k.

(US) A white-fleshed variety of potato, suitable for table use, which was popular in the 1800s.


no go

no gos (plural)
no goes (plural)
no-go (alternative)

(informal, slang, US) Something which should not or cannot be done.

no go

something which should not or cannot be done


spinetail

Oxyura jamaicensis
Oxyura jamaicensis#Translingual

(US, dialect) A ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis).


high muckamuck

From Chinook Jargon hiyu muckamuck (“plenty of food”). Compare muckamuck.

He would become well when he reformed his eating habits and submitted himself to the regimen prescribed by Dr. John HArvey Kellogg and the high muckamucks of health.

1993, TC Boyle, The Road to Wellville, Penguin, published 1994, page 94:

(Canada, US, colloquial) A person in a position of power, authority, or status.


stonebird

(US, dialect) The yellowlegs or stone snipe.


skokeberry

skokeberries (plural)
skoke berry (alternative)

Perhaps a half-translation of an Algonquian term for "red berry" (compare Abenaki mkw-, mskw- (“red”)), in reference to the berries' red colour. Alternatively, perhaps a half-translation of an Algonquian term such as Penobscot *skokimin (“snake berry”), in reference to the fact that the plant is poisonous. Compare scoke.

Phytolacca americana
Phytolacca americana#Translingual

(US) A pokeberry or pokeweed plant (Phytolacca americana) or its dark red or purple fruit.


squaw winter

squaw + winter. The Narragansett word squaw was applied by Europeans to a large number of unrelated things; see the Derived terms section of the entry squaw.

(US, New York) An early onset of winter, an early (October) cold snap, often followed by flurries of snow.


paulin

Plain white paulins, made of duck without seams. Furnished with snaps and rings or grommets.

1938, Victor M. Linoff, Saddle and Western Gear Catalog, page 121:

The complainant's tents and paulins were manufactured and packed according to detailed specifications.

1956, L. K. Strouse, Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Reports and Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States, volume 294, page 114:

The sawmill was expected soon, and in the meantime fatigue details were erecting picket huts for temporary use — rows of raw logs stood on end in trenches forming rectangles, with roofs also of wood, covered by paulins and daubed with a layer of dirt.

2000, Richard Irving Dodge, edited by Wayne R. Kime, The Indian Territory Journals of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, page 207:


breakthru

/ˈbɹeɪkθɹuː/

a breakthru technological advance

The Breakthru Battalion

2010, Voris Weldon McBurnette, editor, The 108th Training Command, Government Printing Office, →ISBN, page 68:

(US, nonstandard) Alternative spelling of breakthrough


breakthru

/ˈbɹeɪkθɹuː/

The curfew decree comes as the latest of a list of steadily tightening home front controls ordered since the German breakthru in Belgium.

1945 February 20, “Byrnes Clamps War Curfew on Amusement”, in Tribune, Tribune:

A successful breakthru opens a "window of opportunity" to perform a variety of tactical maneuvers, many of which can leave the enemy at a disadvantage.

2012, “Breakthru”, in Axis and Allies, archived from the original on 2012-07-14:

(US, nonstandard) Alternative spelling of breakthrough (advance through enemy lines).

The role of aluminum native oxide breakthru was studied.

1998, Michael Engelhard, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Thin Film Materials, Processes (Technology and Engineering), The Electrochemical Society, →ISBN, page 145:

Tenuous breakthrus were made in the U.S.

2007, Stuart Ward, Strange Days Indeed: Memories of the Old World (Fiction), →ISBN, page 202:

New ZPE Breakthru—Magnetic Resonance Amplifier

2008, Paul A. LaViolette, Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion, Inner Traditions, →ISBN, page 477:

The have made the desert bloom … they have achieved more breakthrus in technology and in agriculture.

2008, Franz Ucko, My God Works Miracles for Me, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 201:

(US, nonstandard) Alternative spelling of breakthrough (major progress, great innovation).


pooquaw

Shortening of the earlier spelling pequaock, from Narragansett poquauhock.

'Pooquaws,' says he, 'I'm hunting for pooquaws for a shearing pie, but they seems to be so scarce I guess I'll go off and drive up my sheep.'

1881, Harriet B. Worron, "Trustum" and his grandchildren, page 89:

"And a mess o' pooquaws in case your auntie fancies a bit o' fish. Is she any better today?"

1999, Joan Aiken, Nightbirds on Nantucket:

(US, Nantucket dialect) Hard-shelled clam.


scringe

Any teenager who, like myself, has ever got the gooseflesh at the flush and scringe of Hopkins's assonances and alliterations proves this upon his or her pulses .

[…] to the scringe of bedsprings as the old landlady shook herself awake and reached for her false teeth,

1994, Briege Duffaud, Nothing Like Beirut, page 41:

But Bill would have none of this: it grated upon his sensibility, like the scringe of chalk upon a slate in the schoolroom, or like our collie dog at home in Garvaghey, who, when Aunt Freda played the piano, would raise his noble nose and howl derisively.

2014, John Montague, The Pear is Ripe: A Memoir:

(dialect, UK and US) The act or sound of scratching or scraping.

Well, on that June day I embraced her with a slight scringe, and, seating her in my armchair, threw myself down upon the floor, out of reach of her arms, with my hands clasped around my knees.

1859 March, “My "Intimate Enemy"”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 18, number 106, page 511:

Take courage, brother: you are making better progress than we are, for I cannot even get a scringe.

1882, Richard Brodhead Westbrook, The Bible, Whence and what?, page 228:

A scringe of pain brought the German back to the present .


scringe

en-verb

scringe (third-person singular simple present scringes, present participle scringing, simple past and past participle scringed)

scringes (present singular third-person)
scringing (participle present)
scringed (participle past)
scringed (past)

It made me scringe to hear her, Sir, " said she, adding, with a change of tone, " but I must scringe for myself yet; for , oh dear! how can I talk about other people's sins, and I such a sinner!

1854 December, “Real Scenes of Gipsy Life”, in The Two-penny post:

Yes, if you put your hand on him he might scringe around a little .

1907, Supreme Court Appellate Division, page 94:

It allus made him scringe to have me speak of the Banty woman in the tone I used when I wanted to make him scringe, and I had a notion that flauntin ' his full name wouldn't soothe him much;

1914, Robert Alexander Wason, Happy Hawkins in the Panhandle, page 369:

But scringe from him, an' as Shakespeare says, clad in a little brief authority, that houn' dawg'll bite you when you ain't a-watchin' out.

1926, Rose Wilder Lane, Hill-Billy, page 15:

(dialect, UK and US, intransitive) To cringe or shrink.

When a boy sharpens his slate-pencil with a knife, he says it makes his teeth 'scringe'.

1893, English Dialect Society, Publications - Volume 36, page 40:

Knee joints were beginning to scringe.

2010, Bernard MacLaverty, Matters of Life & Death, page 56:

All her life Gert Kavanaugh had had to scringe and scrape to make ends meet while Marta May — a spoiled brat if Gert had ever seen one — had been the darling of the countryside.

(dialect, UK and US, intransitive) To scrape.


for days

Her legs went on for days.

(US, Canada, informal) For a large amount or distance; a lot.

She has legs for days.

That kid has charisma for days.

(US, Canada, informal) To a great degree; very much.


asimina

From an Algonquian word *assimin or *rassimin (the second element of which is -min, "berry, fruit"), via Cajun French assiminier.

[…] but it still contains an excellent collection, some fine specimens of magnolias, asiminas, crataegusus, […] and other foreign trees and shrubs, and is conducted with the greatest liberality.

1838, John Claudius Loudon, Arboretum et fruticetum Britannicum; or, The trees and shrubs of Britain, volume 1, page 79:

Of the asiminas, or so-called pawpaws, — which are also anonaceous plants, — there are several species in the United States.

1911, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Sketch of the evolution of our native fruits, page 443:

Asimina triloba
Asimina triloba#Translingual

(US, dated) The pawpaw (Asimina triloba), a fruit-bearing plant.


methy

From Woods Cree mathay (“burbot”); compare Cree miyay.

The occow, or river perch, termed also horn-fish, piccarel, or doré, is common, but is not so much esteemed as the attihhawmeg. It attains the length of twenty inches in these lakes. The methy is another common fish; it is the gadus lota, or burbot, of Europe.

1824, John Franklin, Narrative of a journey to the shores of the Polar Sea, volume 1, page 144:

In addition to the sturgeon, the fishery occasionally yields the white-fish, pike, various kinds of trout, the methy, and several sucking-carp.

1836, Richard King, Narrative of a journey to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, volume 1, page 53:

Our Loche or Methy is not a fashionable fish, […]

1873, Anual Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, for the year ending the 30th June, 1872, page 191:


CPB

Corporation for Public Broadcasting
w:Corporation for Public Broadcasting

(US) Initialism of Corporation for Public Broadcasting.


tentpole movie

tentpole movies (plural)
tent-pole movie (alternative)

An allusion to the manner in which a supporting tentpole holds up the structure of a tent.

United Artists hasn't prospered in recent years, so a box office hit from its tentpole movie franchise is essential.

1995 August 11, Steve Persall, “Critic's Notebook: Previews whet our cinematic appetites”, in St. Petersburg Times, page 6:

Just coincidentally, it also provides the opportunity for the sorts of extravagant computerized effects that create tentpole movie attractions these days.

2005 December 3, Todd McCarthy, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, in Variety, retrieved 2012-09-28:

The tentpole movie is an attraction popular and exploitable enough to prop up the entire moviegoing tent for several weeks or even months.

2007 May 25, “The 1997 Summer Movie Review”, in Washington Times, retrieved 2012-09-28:

“We've never seen a high-profile film—a film of this budget, a tentpole movie with this box office potential—leak in any form this early,” he said.

2009 April 1, Brian Stelter, “Piracy Puts Film Online One Month Before Open”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-09-28:

Variety is reporting that del Toro will direct the flick with Watson cast as its titular Beauty. . . . So we’re thinking big tentpole movie versus introverted indie.

2012 February 14, “Guillermo del Toro to direct Emma Watson in “Beauty and the Beast””, in IFC, retrieved 2012-09-28:

(US, idiomatic, film) A major motion picture which is expensive to produce but expected to generate significant revenue for its studio and investors.


AAU

Amateur Athletic Union
w:Amateur Athletic Union

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(US, sports) Initialism of Amateur Athletic Union; also A.A.U.


kettle chip

(US) A potato chip made in a small batch in oil that, at the start of the batch's cooking, is not very hot.


wild as a Tuckernuck steer

en-adj

wild as a Tuckernuck steer (not comparable)

“Sounds wild as a Tuckernuck steer,” he observed. “What brings Peleg here now, Sister Abby? Thee said his last letter told thee of his fine new job ..."

1939, Enid Johnson, Anne Merriman Peck, Ho for Californy!:

[…] and went hand over hand, a knife in his teeth — wild as a Tuckernuck steer, Fred was — out the line, cut away the lashings, […]

1942, Elizabeth Hollister Frost, This side of land: an island epic, page 89:

"Davy was born as wild as a Tuckernuck steer and time ain't chastened him none."

The shock of the frigid sea made my nerves wild as a Tuckernuck steer. I felt freeze-dried as the icy cold electrified my vitals.

2007, Michael Hite, The Last Boat, →ISBN, page 2:

(rare, US, simile) Wild, reckless, harum-scarum.


fershur

"They all say they like to fish, too," says Sandi. Well, this could revolutionize Park Cities social life, fershur.

1997 April 20, Helen Bryant, “The Dallas Morning News: Dallas opens its doors to Hollywood; and these friends deserve a standing ovation”, in Dallas Morning News:

Dave Stare was born in Wisconsin; Kim's grandfather lived most of his life in Columbus, Wis. And now the family makes seriously tasty wines, fershur.

2010 February 14, “Sailing along”, in Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

It's fershur a nuisance. But you better hold on to it, cause if we run into Joe in that cave, we're gonna need all the weapons we can lay our hands on.

2011, Julius Raper, Deepest France: Mysterious Days: Paired Novels, page 57:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(US) Pronunciation spelling of for sure.


Shaysite

(historical, US) A follower of Daniel Shays during his 18th-century armed rebellion in New England.


huey

Derived from Huey, applied by extension to all helicopters, during the Vietnam War.


sozzle

en-verb

sozzle (third-person singular simple present sozzles, present participle sozzling, simple past and past participle sozzled)

sozzles (present singular third-person)
sozzling (participle present)
sozzled (participle past)
sozzled (past)

From a variant of sossle, equivalent to soss + -le (frequentative suffix).

A sandpiper glided weet weeting along the shore; she ran after it, but could not catch it; she sat down and sozzled her feet in the foam

(US, dialect) To splash or wet carelessly.


sperling

sperlings (plural)
spirling (alternative)
spurling (alternative)

(US, dialect, obsolete) A young herring.


jadrool

jadrools (plural)
chadrool (alternative)

From Italian cidrule, a dialectal form of cetriolo (“fool”, literally “cucumber”).
Mostly like "citrullo" (cucumber), that is meant to be understood as "not exceptionally smart".

Hey chadrool you don't-a have to go to school / Just make it with a big bambino / It's like vino

1954, “Mambo Italiano”, Bob Merrill (lyrics), performed by Rosemary Clooney:

So he says, "My wife’s a pain in the ass. She's always bustin’ my friggin’ agates. My daughter’s married to a jadrool loser bastard. I got a rash so bad on my ass, I can't even sit down. But you know me, I can't complain."

1998, The Big Lebowski, spoken by Tony the Chauffeur (Dom Irrera):

(slang, US, Italian American) A loser; a bum.


ODP

Office for Domestic Preparedness#English

(US) Initialism of Office for Domestic Preparedness.


stump speech

From a bucolic image of a politician touring little settlements with his boilerplate speech which he delivers standing atop the stump of a chopped-down tree.

A week ago, two or three events a day was the norm for each candidate. They have shortened their stump speeches and are spending less time greeting supporters.

2008 November 3, John M. Broder, Julie Bosman, “In States Once Reliably Red, Palin and Biden Tighten Their Stump Speeches”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

“You're hungry and you want a burrito,” [Jeff] Jarvis exclaimed during one of his frequent stump speeches.

2014, Astra Taylor, The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN:

(politics, chiefly US) A standard speech by a politician running for office.


get off one's ass

get off one's ass (third-person singular simple present gets off one's ass, present participle getting off one's ass, simple past got off one's ass, past participle gotten off one's ass)

gets off one's ass (present singular third-person)
getting off one's ass (participle present)
got off one's ass (past)
gotten off one's ass (participle past)

Mr. Braddock: But after a few weeks, I believe that person would wanna take some stock in himself and his situation, and start to think about getting off his ass!

I was sick of bands I liked not having any records out. I had wanted to put out records for a long time and one day I finally got off of my fat ass and did it.

1994, Chris Dodge, quotee, “Slap a Ham Records”, in Chaotic Noise, number 3, Roanoke, Va., [https://archive.org/details/chaotic_noise_3/page/n43/mode/2up?q=ass page [44]]:


say uncle

say uncle (third-person singular simple present says uncle, present participle saying uncle, simple past and past participle said uncle)

says uncle (present singular third-person)
saying uncle (participle present)
said uncle (participle past)
said uncle (past)

Unknown. Uncle may be an anglicization of Irish anacal (“protection”).

(US, idiomatic) To admit defeat; indicate submission, such as when wrestling; to ask for mercy.


Obamaton

I loved it when the Obamatons started chanting "Yes we can yes we can yeswe can" in the middle of it as if it were some sort of religious ritual.

2008 November 5, Rabid Weasel Lawson [username], “Re: O'bamma gives acceptance speech”, in rec.martial-arts (Usenet):

Rather than following the MSM lead and merely parroting the Obamatons' talking points after the release of previously-classified memos this week, Thiessen actually examined the documents.

2009 August 27, Obama Nation Is An Abomination [username], “Re: America's Top 10 Enemies' List”, in alt.non.racisml (Usenet):

You just know the Obamatons will blame Bush.

2010 July 2, Frogwatch [username], “Lost hope, No Change”, in sci.military.naval (Usenet):

(US, slang, derogatory) A person who follows U.S. president Barack Obama blindly.


joy house

‘You try her,’ Nulty said. ‘I ain't been in a joy house in twenty years.’

1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 18:


fakeloo

A fakeloo artist, a hoopla spreader, and a lad who had his cards rolled up inside sticks of tea, found on a dead man.

1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 107:

All those fakeloo bummers and ink merchants, they bedazzle a girl. She's only human.

(US, slang, dated) A made-up story; a con.


high pillow

‘There were a couple solved for the record, but they were just rappers. Some punk took it for the high pillow.’

1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 203:

(US, slang, dated) The boss; the man in charge.


feedstore

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

Coordinate term: foodstore

In the twentieth century most of these vegetables were planted from seeds purchased from feedstores.

2009, Vynola Beaver Newkumet, Hasinai: A Traditional History of the Caddo Confederacy, page 33:

I bought them in bulk at the health food store because the local feedstores didn't carry organic grains.

2012, Stephanie Marohn, What the Animals Taught Me, page 122:


blue-sky

In that connection, when he is heard, I wish you would ask Mr. Commissioner Thompson in regard to his experience with the blue-sky cases; that is, the issuance of fake stock.

1919, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary, High Cost of Living as Affected by Trust and Monopolies, page 12:

Senator KENYON. Do you have any blue-sky laws in Illinois?
Mr. FORGAN. Yes, sir; we have.
Senator KENYON. Are they pretty satisfactory in preventing the fake stock?

1921, Reconstruction and Production: Hearings Before the Select Committee on Reconstruction and Production, United States Senate, Sixty-sixth Congress, Third Session, page 970:

(US, finance, dated) Involving or relating to fake stocks and bonds.


freight car

Coordinate term: passenger car

(US) A railway wagon for carrying goods.


yutz

From Yiddish, probably from יאָנץ (yonts).

(US, derogatory) A foolish, incompetent, awkward, or contemptible person.


box social

(US) A fundraising event in which boxes are decorated and filled with meals for two (traditionally by women) and others (traditionally men) bid on them, anticipating a meal with the preparer.


vacationgoer

New Jersey was reeling on Wednesday from the impact of Hurricane Sandy, which has caused catastrophic flooding here in Hoboken and in other New York City suburbs, destroyed entire neighborhoods across the state and wiped out iconic boardwalks in shore towns that had enchanted generations of vacationgoers.

2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, New York Times, retrieved 2012-10-31:


Boston butt

(US) A cut of pork from the upper part of the shoulder from the front leg.


chud

From the science fiction horror movie C.H.U.D. (1984). The abbreviation in the title of aforementioned film stands for "Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers."
For Sense 2, apparently coined by podcast Chapo Trap House, partly for need of an insult unrelated to any known slur (in an American cultural context; apparently unaware of Etymology 4), inspired by the monsters from the film. First attested in the late 2010s.
For ironic/positive usage, perhaps compare history of Yankee.

But, Rhyanon, all I want to do, is to build a rapport,
And that's when you call me, a fat smurf whore.
"Useless fuckwipe, a pudley, a chud and a sackashit,
Green card cunt, snarling wolverine bitch," you throw a fit.

2001 July 15, Chive Mynde, “Rhyanon, Rhyanon, where are you my love?”, in alt.religion.wicca (Usenet):

At least you don't have to be a fugly fuckheaded chud who's bad at math!

2007 April 5, David bin Bedlam, “yet more narcissistic drivel”, in alt.angst (Usenet):

How fucking hedious^([sic]) of a chud must this guy be in order for him to feel that mug shot is a positive representation?

2007 November 4, Odious, “SNL Lampoons Mystery”, in alt.seduction.fast (Usenet):

Lower your standards far enough and always remember to double wrap and even a chud like me got some on a regular basis when I lived there.

2010 September 13, Va Beach Hokie, “Steve Spurrier's retirement island paradise”, in rec.sport.football.college (Usenet):

SDCC is crowded enough without a few hundred more chuds in rascal scooters cutting in line and taking up space on the public walkways because they heard the cast of The Big Bang Theory was going to be here or something.

2014 July 28, Jeremy Azevedo, “Actually, Comic-Con Is Fucking Awesome”, in Vice:

(US, slang) A gross, physically unappealing person.

Some chud on Twitter said The Wall Street Journal was liberal propaganda. (pejorative)

Unlike all those cuckservatives in Congress, this guy's a true chud. (positive)

emotional intelligence
emotional intelligence

(chiefly US, Internet slang, usually derogatory) A person, usually male, who holds sociopolitical views seen as reactionary; strong connotations of being an incel with low emotional intelligence.


rumspringa

en-noun

rumspringa (countable and uncountable, plural rumspringas)

Borrowed from Pennsylvania German rumspringe (“to jump around”). Compare German rumspringen.

bor+

At stake for the Amish community in the rumspringa process is nothing less than the survival of their sect and way of life. For if the unbaptized children who venture into the world at sixteen do not later return to the fold in sufficient numbers, the sect will dwindle and die out.

2007, Tom Shachtman, Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish, North Point Press, →ISBN:

(US) A period of adolescence for some members of the Amish that begins around the age of 14–16 and ends when a youth chooses baptism within the Amish church or instead leaves the community.


assholish

en-adj

assholish (comparative more assholish, superlative most assholish)

more assholish (comparative)
most assholish (superlative)

(vulgar, Canada, US, informal) Like an asshole; objectionable, confrontational, etc.


Abscam

Short for Arab scam, later re-explained as Abdul scam after the name of the fictitious company involved, in response to complaints from the American-Arab Relations Committee.

(US, historical) A code name for a sting operation set up by the FBI in the 1970s to thwart bribery in Congress.


whips and jingles

(US, idiomatic) A state of torturous delirium, particularly delirium tremens.


five-o

From the police procedural television series Hawaii Five-O (first aired in 1968), so named because it is set in Hawaii, which is the 50th U.S. state.

Five-oh caught me, now I'm going to the mountains / Said good-bye to my girl, my lawyer and accountants

1989, “Car Thief”, in Paul's Boutique, performed by Beastie Boys:


refrigerator mom

en-noun

refrigerator mom (plural refrigerator moms)

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

(Canada, US, informal) refrigerator mother


ACH

Automated Clearing House
w:Automated Clearing House

(banking, US) Initialism of Automated Clearing House, an electronic banking network often used for direct deposit and electronic bill payment.


ACH

Advanced Combat Helmet
w:Advanced Combat Helmet

(military, US) Initialism of Advanced Combat Helmet.


limpsy

en-adj

limpsy (comparative more limpsy, superlative most limpsy)

more limpsy (comparative)
most limpsy (superlative)
limpsey (alternative)


Renaissance fair

en-noun

Renaissance fair (plural Renaissance fairs)

Renaissance fairs (plural)
Renaissance faire (alternative)

"A Renaissance fair with a purpose": that is how one spokesman describes the Fair Housing Faire which will be held Sunday, April 21 fronn 10 am to 6pm.

1974 April 17, “Housing Faire emphasizes civil rights, discrimination”, in Daily Bruin, volume XCII, number 15, Los Angeles, C.A.: University of California, Los Angeles, page 10:

(chiefly US) An outdoor gathering that recreates the European Renaissance or Middle Ages.