chiplike

en-adj

chiplike (comparative more chiplike, superlative most chiplike)

more chiplike (comparative)
most chiplike (superlative)

Psyllie Snacks: I know these sound strange, but this chiplike snack made from psyllium fiber—the same fiber used in Metamucil—is remarkably good. Remember that they′re fiber, and go easy!

2003, Dana Carpender, chapter I, in How I Gave Up My Low-Fat Diet and Lost 40 Pounds..and How You Can Too, page 226:

[…]which broke whatever final layer of ice needed melting with these two strangers in front of us, their eyebrows pierced and their fingertips stained orange from some triangular chiplike snack they were sharing.

2004, Elinor Lipman, chapter I, in The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, page 55:

Puri is a soft, puffy bread, and papadam is round, crispy, and chiplike.

2008, Bill Goodwin, chapter I, in Frommer′s South Pacific, page 93:

(US) Resembling or characteristic of a chip (thin, crisp, baked piece of vegetable).


candy store

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Boys hung around her by the score / But she loved the boy next door / Who worked at the candy store

1958, Jack Clement (lyrics and music), “Ballad of a Teenage Queen”, performed by Johnny Cash:

(US, Philippines) A store that sells principally candy.


queerdo

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

I don't look like Indhira Ghandi yet. / Dummy-heado, stupid queerdo. / Holden, Howard and No Hands.

1985, “[Untitled]”, in Lake Forest College Yearbook, page 143:

A club for queerdos and weirdos featuring electro, indie, R&B, '80s, hip-hop, punk, and more.

2005 October 19, Laurie Koh [complier], “Events Listings”, in The San Francisco Bay Guardian, page 81:

[…] and a burning urge to write something. Anything — it just needed to be queer. Why? Because this l'il queerdo had been a longtime Gay Place reader […]

2020 February 14, Beth Sullivan, “Qmmunity”, in The Austin Chronicle, page 60:

(US, slang) A particularly strange LGBTQ+ person.


sedentarize

en-verb

sedentarize (third-person singular simple present sedentarizes, present participle sedentarizing, simple past and past participle sedentarized)

sedentarizes (present singular third-person)
sedentarizing (participle present)
sedentarized (participle past)
sedentarized (past)
sedentarise (alternative)

(US, anthropology) to settle a nomadic population through sedentism


eat my shorts

/ˈiːt maɪ ˈʃɔːɹts/

Popularized by the TV series The Simpsons (1989), where it is a catchphrase of Bart Simpson.

Notre Dame boys greeted one another with "Eat It" to be answered by "Eat It Raw" or "Eat a Big One" or "Eat My Shorts," sometimes "Eat My Crusty Shorts."

[1977, James P. Leary, The Boys from the Dome […] , page 69:

Mickey: You could be the biggest fairy of them all!
Meat: Eat my shorts!

1983, Roger Swaybill, Alan Ormsby, Bob Clark, Porky's II: The Next Day (motion picture):

Richard Vernon: You're not fooling anyone, Bender. The next screw that falls out will be you.
 John Bender: Eat my shorts.
Richard Vernon: What was that?
John Bender: Eat... My... Shorts.

1985, John Hughes, The Breakfast Club (motion picture):

Her eyes are telling me, "Eat my shorts, you precocious little fart." I definitely haven't made a friend.

1988, Greg Matthews, The Gold Flake Hydrant, page 232:

For instance, Bart often expresses his irreverence toward authority on "The Simpsons" by exclaiming "Eat my shorts."

[1996, Douglas Rushkoff, Media Virus! […] , page 186:

(idiomatic, chiefly US, vulgar) An irreverent rebuke or dismissal.


gun lobby

Congress must stand up to the gun lobby.

1981 September 25, James J. Kilpatrick, “Proposals On Handguns And Bail Would Help To Stem Violent Crime”, in St. Petersburg Independent, retrieved 2010-02-02, page 19A:

But efforts like Woods' are up against powerful headwinds — and not just because of the powerful gun lobby that often strangles gun-control laws.

2009 April 20, Michael A. Lindenberger, “Ten Years After Columbine, It's Easier to Bear Arms”, in Time:

(chiefly US, politics) An organized group which attempts to influence public policy and law with respect to firearms, especially as an advocate of ownership of and access to firearms by individual citizens.


play with a full deck

play with a full deck (third-person singular simple present plays with a full deck, present participle playing with a full deck, simple past and past participle played with a full deck)

plays with a full deck (present singular third-person)
playing with a full deck (participle present)
played with a full deck (participle past)
played with a full deck (past)

I think we all realize he's not playing with a full deck.

Someday our grandchildren will look up at us and say, "Where were you, Grandma, and what were you doing when you first realized that President Reagan was, er, not playing with a full deck?"

1987 April, Barbara Ehrenreich, “The Unfastened Head of State”, in Mother Jones, volume 12, number 3, page 10:

[E]very single person, who Grandma said were family members, appeared to be either mentally ill, retarded, or strung out on drugs. Grandma seemed to be playing with a full deck, but no one else was.

2009, Julie Lyons, chapter 1, in Holy Roller, →ISBN:

“My father’s favorite saying was, ‘Are you alright?’ and ‘Are you playing with a full deck?’” recalled Darren.

2014 June 4, Cary Shuman, “Former Chelsea High Football Standout and Pop Warner Coach Joe Leonard Dies at 84”, in Chelsea Record, US, retrieved 2015-10-14:

(idiomatic, chiefly US and Canada, of a person, chiefly in the negative) To behave in a manner suggesting that one is of normal intelligence, alert, and mentally stable.


S.O.L.

en-adj

S.O.L. (comparative more S.O.L., superlative most S.O.L.)

more S.O.L. (comparative)
most S.O.L. (superlative)
s.o.l. (alternative)

(Canada, US, vulgar slang) shit out of luck, meaning that luck has run out; an impasse has been reached (figuratively or literally)


striploin

en-noun

striploin (countable and uncountable, plural striploins)

striploins (plural)
strip loin (alternative)

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


behind the curve

(US, military) Not making the progress required.


Johnny-one-note

Johnny-one-notes (plural)
Johnny one note (alternative)
Johnny one-note (alternative)
Johnny One-note (alternative)
Johnny One Note (alternative)

Babes in Arms
Johnny One Note
Rodgers and Hart

Derives from the show tune Johnny One Note, from the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms (1937), in which the lyrics tell a story of a male vocalist named Johnny who sang with a band and could sing only one note, but sang that note extremely well.

(idiomatic, chiefly Canada, US) A person (or organization) who often expresses a strong opinion or viewpoint on a single subject or a few particular subjects.

Whether his boss (Hearst) had told him to get off his Johnny-one-note of hate toward labor leaders, foreigners and New Dealers, or whether Pegler had decided all by himself to change his tune, no one knew.

1945 July 9, “The Press: Confessions of a Grouch”, in Time, volume 46, number 1, archived from the original on 2013-08-06:

(idiomatic, chiefly Canada, US) An opinion or viewpoint on a single subject or a few particular subjects which is frequently expressed by a person or organization.


dogface

Yass. I never got above the rank of shavetail. We were the dogfaces who gave ’em hell at Chateau Thierry.

1962, Joseph Commings, “The X Street Murders”, in The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes & Impossible Mysteries, published 2006:

(US military, slang) A foot soldier, especially during World War II.


bust out

en-verb

bust out (third-person singular simple present busts out, present participle busting out, simple past and past participle busted out or (colloquial) bust out)

busts out (present singular third-person)
busting out (participle present)
busted out (participle past)
busted out (past)
bust out (colloquial participle past)
bust out (colloquial past)

(US, informal, intransitive) To reveal, to show.

They decided it was time to bust out the good hooch.

(US, informal) To bring out; to take out.

(US, informal, nonstandard) To burst out (laughing).


chew up

chew up (third-person singular simple present chews up, present participle chewing up, simple past and past participle chewed up)

chews up (present singular third-person)
chewing up (participle present)
chewed up (participle past)
chewed up (past)

The Yankees chewed up the Dodgers.

(US, slang, transitive) To defeat utterly.


bring on

bring on (third-person singular simple present brings on, present participle bringing on, simple past and past participle brought on)

brings on (present singular third-person)
bringing on (participle present)
brought on (participle past)
brought on (past)

Not that Briggs was capable of bringing it on. He got in, maybe, one really good shot: a right to Foreman's ample belly

1997 November 24, “The Judges May Have Done Foreman Favor”, in Richmond Times Dispatch, Virginia:

Kevin Frey and Lucas Johnson stared back and gestured to bring it on.

1998 March 13, “Bringing it on: Maine W. vs. New Trier”, in Chicago Tribune:

Christina Aguilera has a strong voice (she really brought it on in "Lady Marmalade," but I'm afraid her hairdo wouldn't make it past the security devices

2001 October 3, “Getting Vocal About Anthems”, in Los Angeles Times:

It's the performances, and thus far only Big Daddy truly brings it on.

2005 October 27, “A Truly Big Daddy”, in San Jose Mercury News, California:

We have a very young team and I think they've really brought it on strong at the end.

2005 October 28, “First-year coaches already making impact”, in Anniston Star, Alabama:

We have some good defensive players and Breanna Mails is really bringing it on as a pitcher

2007 March 27, “Lady Warriors jump out to a strong beginning”, in Ruidoso News, Ruidos, NM:

"She really brought it on when she needed it," Rockets Coach Watson Prather said of his pitcher.

2010 May 8, Alan Goldenbach, “Hutchinson, Richard Montgomery top Blair, 1-0”, in Washington Post:

(idiomatic, intransitive, US, informal, often as imperative) To pose a challenge or threat; to attack; to compete aggressively.


ANT

en-noun

ANT (countable and uncountable, plural ANTs)

(US) Initialism of Aids to Navigation Team, as used in the United States Coast Guard.


BLM

The latrines and community showers are sinful indulgences, compared to her BLM cabin, with its frigid sponge baths on the porch at night.

2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 176:

Bureau of Land Management
w:Bureau of Land Management

(US) Initialism of Bureau of Land Management: an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering public lands, created in 1946.


FIN

(telecommunications, US) Initialism of facility ID number.


MDA

Missile Defense Agency
w:en:Missile Defense Agency

(military, US) Initialism of Missile Defense Agency.


MSR

Mars Sample Return mission
w:Mars sample return mission

(space science, US, NASA) Initialism of Mars Sample Return mission.


applauseometer

applauseometers (plural)
applausometer (alternative)

/əˈplɔːzəʊˌmiːtə/

Its four-color animation board has message capabilities, angled lenses for easy daytime viewing, and an applauseometer, which measures the crowd’s Longhorn-cheering levels.

1989, Nov.–Dec., The Alcalde, volume 78, № 2, page 24

Again, there was scattered applause. I looked into the crowd at Nelson. He told me he was bringing a new invention — an applauseometer — to the debate.

2000, Marshal Scott Younger, The Great Kidsboro Takeover, Review and Herald Publishing Association, →ISBN, page 93, →ISBN:

Is the best measurable? If so, by what kind of instrumentation? Certainly not by an “applauseometer,” as used to record the volume of applause on the “Major Bowes Amateur Night Talent” shows during the heyday of radio. I know of no universal empirical devices, but I do believe that the best is discernible to the observant eye.

2001, Stanley Marcus, Quest for the Best, University of North Texas Press, →ISBN, page 27, →ISBN:

(informal, US) A device of dubious accuracy used to measure the volume of an audience’s applause.


23 skidoo

From twenty-three (“get lost; get out; leave”) + skidoo (“to depart, especially quickly”). Exact origin unknown; many theories exist, though none have been universally accepted. See the Wikipedia article for more information.

scram

to leave quickly, especially at an advantageous time

... the 'varsity quarter, who at the close of each meeting discards the conventional "I move we adjourn, sir,'" for the more modern "23, skidoo."

1908, George Washington University student publication, The Cherry tree: published by the students at George Washington university, page 348:

I can imagine nothing more shocking than to hear some one use a slang expression current ten years ago, such as ‘23 skidoo’ or ‘you’re off your base.’

1928, Henry Robinson Luce, Time, volume 11:

(idiomatic, archaic, chiefly US) To leave, particularly quickly or at an advantageous time.

(idiomatic, archaic, chiefly US) To be forced to leave quickly.


wapato

wapatos (plural)
wapatoes (plural)
wapatoo (alternative)
wappato (alternative)

(US, Canada) Broadleaf arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia), or its edible bulbous root.


23 Skidoo Street

"Apply at once to XYZ, 23 Skidoo St., New York."

1908, The New music review and church music review, volume 8, page 395:

Olive Oyl: 23 Skidoo Street, driver.

1954, 2:00 approx from the start, in Taxi-Turvy, Director: Seymour Kneitel (actor), Paramount Pictures: A Famous Studios Production:

(idiomatic, dated, rare, chiefly US) A fictitious place or a generic place that could refer to any location.


pizza store

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

(Canada, US) A restaurant specializing in pizza.


bloody nose

(US) A nose that is bleeding internally.


interlocking tower

en-noun

interlocking tower (plural interlocking towers)

(rail transport, US) A building or room that houses controls for switches.


what are you like

(UK, Ireland, colloquial, US, obsolete) Expressing mock despair at somebody's outrageous behaviour.


stink-cat

stink-cats (plural)
stinkcat (alternative)

From stink + cat, probably a calque of German Stinkkatze.


you and what army

you and whose army
you and whose army#English

(US) Alternative form of you and whose army


government cheese

(US, food, historical) A poor quality processed cheese, similar to regular American cheese produced and stored in the 1970s and 1980s from excess dairy milk production from dairy subsidies, created by the U.S. government to support the milk industry, and for long term storage

(US, food, historical) Processed cheese provided to welfare and food stamp recipients in the United States during the 1980s and early 1990s.

(US, politics, economics, by extension) Welfare in general.


dinge

dinge (countable and uncountable, plural dinges)

‘A dinge,’ he said. ‘I just thrown him out. You seen me throw him out?’

1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 3:

‘You made a hit with the dinge,’ Bob was saying.

1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, New York, published 2007, page 46:

(US slang, dated, countable) A black person.


assfucker

(Canada, US, vulgar, slang) Synonym of top: the active partner in anal sex.

(Canada, US, vulgar, slang) A nasty, rude, mean, stupid or horrible person.


dude up

en-verb

dude up (third-person singular simple present dudes up, present participle duding up, simple past and past participle duded up)

dudes up (present singular third-person)
duding up (participle present)
duded up (participle past)
duded up (past)

No real hand would ever dude himself up in Wild West clothes, like chaps with silver conchas and fifty-dollar boots so skintight the man's feet were starting to curl like a ram's horns.

2014, Penelope Williamson, The Outsider, page 168:

He’s up against the wall, duded up like the Marlboro Man, his hips cocked and his hat tilted low.

2015 October 8, Ben Brantley, “Review: ‘Fool for Love,’ a Kinship That Breaks Hearts and Knuckles”, in New York Times:

(US, ambitransitive) To dress up; to dress in smart or special clothes.


LCpl

(military, US) Abbreviation of lance corporal.


elevator talk

(US) brief, polite, superficial conversation, like that which occurs in elevators.


balls-out

Usually said to be from the maximum-speed state of a ball governor, whose balls are swung out to the near-horizontal position. Neither balls-out nor balls to the wall is connected with the vulgar sense of balls (“testicles”) except connotationally via folk etymology. (In that vein of apparent vulgar innuendo, see also rock out with one's cock out.)

He's making a balls-out run for Motor City by nightfall.

1976, CBer's Handy Atlas/Dictionary, page 9, column 2:

(US, idiomatic, slang) Extreme; extremely great.


balls-out

a synonymous term whose proposed etymologic connection to this one has been challenged

(US, idiomatic, slang) With great abandon.

(US, idiomatic, slang) At the fastest possible speed.


lie with

lie with (third-person singular simple present lies with, present participle lying with, simple past lay with, past participle lain with)

lies with (present singular third-person)
lying with (participle present)
lay with (past)
lain with (participle past)

That task lies with you.

(transitive, US) To be the responsibility or duty of (someone).


`num`

Derived from the abbreviation lb for Latin libra (“pound”), via the medieval convention of indicating abbreviations with a bar, ℔.

3# ― three pounds

(US, food packaging) Pound (unit of weight).


tank town

From the practice of steam locomotives stopping at small towns to take on water.

Nothing ever happens in this little tank town.

In 1884 four masked bandits held up a Southern Pacific passenger train as it stopped at the little tank town of Panitano for water.

2004, Thomas Penfield, Dig Here!: Lost Mines & Buried Treasure of the Southwest, Adventures Unlimited Press, page 143:

(originally US) A small, unimportant, place.


asswad

MARIBEL: You can't cuss

2004, Catherine Trieschmann, crooked [play], Samuel French, 2009 American ed., p. 30

LANEY: I didn't cuss, I just said asswad.

In later seasons of DC [Dawson's Creek], it seemed like the writers finally caught on to what we'd known all along: Dawson is an asswad […]

2006, Tara Ariano, Sarah D. Bunting, Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) about TV, Quirk Books, →ISBN, page 73:

“Everyone's a stupid little shitbag when they're kids.” “Really?” “Uh-huh, and if you're not a sitbag, well, then you're a cumstain.” “Or an asswad.” “That's right.”

2024 August 12, Grace Parra Janney, “The Educational Sprinkler Device” (17:07 from the start), in Solar Opposites, season 5, episode 4, spoken by Jesse (Mary Mack):

(Canada, US, slang, mildly vulgar, derogatory or offensive) An obnoxious person; a jerk.


hurt locker

(US, slang) A state of severe physical or emotional injury.


splanch

We barely see the world at such a level, for we are surburbing in our splanches, looking for ledges to set down our plastic menorahs for all the gentiles to see.

2005, Mathias B. Freese, The i Tetralogy, page 213:

(US, architecture) A house with three levels inside a two-level skin.


sigogglin

en-adj

sigogglin (comparative more sigogglin, superlative most sigogglin)

more sigogglin (comparative)
most sigogglin (superlative)

Apparently from side + goggling, from goggle (“to stare at with wide eyes”), indicating that something had to be stared at sideways to appear straight. Compare antigoglin.

(US, Appalachia, dated) Not built correctly; crooked, skewed, or out of balance.


gas generator

(engineering, US) An electrical generator that runs on gasoline.


driveaway

en-noun

driveaway (countable and uncountable, plural driveaways)

(US, Canada) A variation of car rental in which the driver contracts to deliver the vehicle to a specified location.


tire bead

(Canada, US) the edge of a tire that sits in a groove in the rim.


fragger

The public read about the fraggers, the drug users and the unit that balked in combat. It heard little about the much more numerous draftees and short‐term enlistees who routinely spent their nights aggressively patrolling in the mud of the Delta and much of their days voluntarily helping villagers near their fire bases build roads and houses.

1973 April 18, L. James Binder, “An Army Come Home”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

They were not a band of rebellious “fraggers” assassinating their officers or marauding killers piling up body counts of the innocent in a haze of marijuana smoke.

2017 April 11, James Wright, “The Baby Boomer War”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US military slang) One who frags (deliberately kills a superior officer with a fragmentation grenade).


brillo pad

From a trademark, probably related to brilliant; the company has claimed that the name derives from a Latin word for "bright".

(offensive, slang, ethnic slur, US) The hair on the scalp of a black person.

(offensive, slang, ethnic slur, US) A black person.


punk-ass

en-adj

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

more punk-ass (comparative)
most punk-ass (superlative)

I hate when guys address women as bitches, I be wanting to give his punk-ass stitches.

2014, Kim Prout, “Punkass”, in A Black Man's Inner Thoughts: 4:

Snitches get stitches for being punk-ass bitches,

2015, Scott Hildreth, Making the Cut (Selected Sinners MC, #1):

(US, slang, derogatory) Obnoxious, stupid or otherwise unworthy of respect.


pumpkin head

(idiomatic, US, prison slang) A severe head injury resulting from a beating.


blow down

en-verb

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

blows down (present singular third-person)
blowing down (participle present)
blew down (past)
blown down (participle past)

(transitive, US, slang, dated) To kill (someone) with a gun.

(transitive, US, slang, dated) To signal to someone by blowing into a whistle.


flow control

(environmental engineering, US) Laws, regulations, and economic incentives or disincentives used by waste managers to direct waste generated in a specific geographic area to a designated landfill, recycling, or waste-to-energy facility.

(aviation, US) The practice of holding aircraft on the ground in anticipation of congestion at destination airspace and airports.


redd up

redd up (third-person singular simple present redds up, present participle redding up, simple past and past participle redd up or redded up)

redds up (present singular third-person)
redding up (participle present)
redd up (participle past)
redd up (past)
redded up (participle past)
redded up (past)

There, sir, you are redd up and made decent.

(dialect, chiefly Scotland or US, western Pennsylvania) To clean up, especially a room.


yinz

tlb

(US, dialectal, especially Western Pennsylvania and Appalachia)

Contraction of you ones or ye ones. Compare you-uns, yens.

yins (alternative)
yuns (alternative)
yunz (alternative)

the list of other second-person pronouns in you


cracka

(US, derogatory, ethnic slur, slang) Alternative spelling of cracker (impoverished white person)


ObamaCare

/oʊˈbɑ məˌkɛəɹ/

Blend of Obama (“Barack Obama”) + healthcare or Medicare and perhaps influenced by earlier HillaryCare.

blend

Obamacare (alternative)
Obama-care (alternative)
Obama Care (alternative)

For some reason, Obama's senior economist, Austan Goolsbee, chooses not to believe this about Obamacare, possibly because he figures the private-but-regulated health-care plans in Obama's National Health Insurance Exchange would be more generous than Obama's public health-care plan.

2007 July 5, Timothy Noah, “Edwardscare: A Trojan Horse, in Slate Magazine”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

This is a trick. This is a trick that's going on here. This idea that, that whether it's HillaryCare, or ObamaCare, or EdwardsCare, that idea that it's not socialized medicine is a trick. It's a massive growth in government control of medicine.

2007 September 26, Rudy Giuliani, address to the New Jersey Republican Party (about 12 minutes 30 seconds in)

Those who designed ObamaCare were willing to sacrifice marriage for the sake of seeming to be “progressive and equitable,” even though social science research reveals a clear link between single motherhood and poverty.

2010, Richard McKenzie Neal, We the People: A Christian Nation, page 161:

This book will tell you what is right and wrong with Obamacare and will offer solutions to improve healthcare in our country so that it remains of high quality and sustainable financially in the future for all Americans.

2011, Tony Maglione, Obamacare: A Doctor's Guide to Saving Healthcare:

Of course ObamaCare is socialism. It has been designed along explicitly socialist lines[…]

2011, Kevin Williamson, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism, page 237:

Tonight, for our main story, we’re going to look at Obamacare. Basically, the opposite of this photo which is more “Obama don’t give a fuck”!

2017 March 12, “American Health Care Act”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 5, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

(US, neologism, originally derogatory) Any of various healthcare plans seen as associated with Barack Obama before or during his tenure as U.S. President; especially, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590): a healthcare reform plan that was passed in 2010 and signed into law by him.


sunfast

en-adj

sunfast (comparative more sunfast, superlative most sunfast)

more sunfast (comparative)
most sunfast (superlative)

(US) Colorfast in a way that will not fade in sunlight.


truther

From truth + -er (occupational suffix) or + -er (“supporter”). For sense 2, directly from name of the 9/11 Truth movement.

A liar can't begin to start the riots a truther can.

(US, colloquial) Someone who tells the truth.

[signed] 9/11 Truther

2005 February 14, "Gold9472", “BREAKING NEWS: Dick Cheney Behind 9/11 Attacks - MUST READ - PLEASE”, in talk.politics.theory (Usenet), retrieved 2019-01-29, message-ID <b3feba8653cd9959ed2080c10a1ed1d0@localhost.talkaboutgovernment.com>:

Therefore, virtually every press release or statement about 9/11 should include a reference to the poll to show people that many Americans are 9/11 truthers who scoff at the 9/11 Commission as a fraud and that demand a real 9/11 investigation.

2006, George Washington, Social Proof, George Washington's Blog, 26 May

The Iranian president is even a "truther," insisting that there was a hidden hand behind Sept. 11, 2001. "Could it be planned and executed without coordination with intelligence and security services — or their extensive infiltration?" he mused in the letter to Bush.

2009 September 20, David Ignatius, “Reading Iran by the Letter”, in The Washington Post:

(colloquial, chiefly US) Someone who believes that the US government was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.


firstie

WEST POINT, N.Y., May 22 — The graduating cadets of the United States Military Academy spent their final days here like scores of seniors, or firsties, before them: packing foot lockers and showing their mothers around gray buildings and sweeping lawns.

2007 May 25, Michael Wilson, “Iraq Presents Graduating Class at West Point With New Challenges”, in New York Times:

(US, military, informal) A first-class cadet.


tippy

tippy (comparative tippier, superlative tippiest)

tippier (comparative)
tippiest (superlative)

(Canada, US) Tending to tip or tilt over; unstable.


ham sandwich

en-noun

ham sandwich (countable and uncountable, plural ham sandwiches)

ham sandwiches (plural)
hamsandwich (alternative)
ham-sandwich (alternative)

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

but did you ever hear of a young man, who becomes a millionaire in the approved style, starting life on a farm, studying by the light of a tallow dip, and coming to the city with forty-five cents and a ham sandwich

1900, Charles A. Conant, “The Financial Future of the United States”, in The Bankers magazine, volume 61, page 603:

One of last year's speakers, in distinguishing types of true research worth while from investigations unworthy of the name, held up to ridicule a hypothetical investigation of a ham sandwich and the pseudo-scientist who would attempt a monographic treatment of such a subject.

1920 April 15, Dr. Albert F. Blakeslee, “letter on Sexuality in Mucors”, in Science, page 375:

But regardless of how enamored you may be of Green's manner and his potential, it has to come as a shock to you that he's the starter. A month ago you could have had him for a ham sandwich

1998 September 15, Tony Kornheiser, “Up for the Game, Down for the Count”, in Washington Post:

After all, nothing is better than eternal happiness, and a ham sandwich is certainly better than nothing. Therefore a ham sandwich is better than eternal happiness.

2004, David J. Darling, The universal book of mathematics: from Abracadabra to Zeno's paradoxes, page 106:

Even without the typing bit, the grand jury indicted her; one has to keep that in mind. / This was the Cold War, and we always remember the old line for prosecutors that you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.

2008 September 15, “Jury Papers Cast Doubt On Rosenberg Conviction”, in Talk of the Nation (NPR):

It's sports-car fast, has a big leather-trimmed interior, and costs as much as a ham sandwich.

2009 June, Ezra Dyer, “The Car That Should Save GM”, in Esquire, volume 151, number 6, page 28:

(countable, US) Something utterly commonplace, of modest value.


passthru

(US) Alternative spelling of passthrough


there's a sucker born every minute

a sucker is born every minute (alternative)

(US, slang) There is a great number of fools in the world who can be easily swindled, and they will always exist.

дурако́в не се́ют, не жнут — са́ми родя́тся (durakóv ne séjut, ne žnut — sámi rodjátsja, literally “fools are not sown or reaped – they come into the world themselves”)

nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people


flower power

Coined by American poet and writer Allen Ginsberg.

coin

The hippies, meanwhile, seem to be flagging. Just for a moment, during the Flower Power summer of 1967, it looked as though they might matter but ever since they've been gradually losing momentum and last summer's Isle of Wight/Bob Dylan Festival, which should have signaled a revival, fell distinctly flat.

1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Those crazy years, that was the time / Of the flower power

1980, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus (lyrics and music), “Our Last Summer”, in Super Trouper, performed by ABBA:

The Beetle's cheap, frugal and functional nature attracted legions of flower-power fans and the little Vee Dubs became symbols, moving protests and even works of art.

2012, Ivan Berg, Nik Berg, Top Gear: Motor Mania:

“Flower Power” by Bernie Boston—one of two iconic images of the 1960s flower power movement taken on the same day during an anti-war protest at the Pentagon in 1967. Here George Harris places carnations into gun barrels.

2023, Stephen Forbes, A Cultural History of Plants in the Modern Era, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 139:

(US, historical) A counterculture movement that started in the United States in the 1960s, advocating peace and love over militarism and materialism.


flower child

While the men in the family have made their mark in the world, Mrs. McBride has simply lurked around the house becoming an aging flowerchild and spaced-out heroin addict.

1977 April 9, Don Shewey, “Guare's Rich and Famous”, in Gay Community News, page 11:

(US, historical) A hippie involved with the flower power movement.


freshie

en-noun

freshie (countable and uncountable, plural freshies)

From fresh + -ie. In the sense of an immigrant, shortened from fresh off the boat.

You've got a swell chance to make this [baseball] team, you have, not! Third base is my job, Freshie. Why, you tow-head, you couldn't play marbles.

1911 March, Zane Grey, “Out on the Field”, in The Young Pitcher, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 64:

(countable, colloquial, US, Philippines) A freshman.


NRO

National Reconnaissance Office
w:National Reconnaissance Office

(military, US) Initialism of National Reconnaissance Office.


Arizona room

From its use in and association with homes in the southwestern desert state of Arizona in the United States. Cf. Florida room.

It has two kitchens and pantries, a firewood room, an Arizona room, screen porches, closets, and no telling what else.

2005, J. P. S. Brown, The Blooded Stock: The Arizona Saga, Book I:

(US) A semi-outdoor recreation room, typically an enclosed patio or sunroom used as a sleeping patio before the advent of air conditioning.


frypan

frypans (plural)
fry-pan (alternative)
fry pan (alternative)

On the afternoon in question the Jensens were using an electric frypan on the table in the annexe to cook a roast dinner. The source of electric power for the frypan was a power point situated near the stove inside the caravan.

1995, Queensland Supreme Court, Queensland Reports, volume 2, page 147:

Place beef in frypan and cook for 1 minute on each side. Remove beef from pan and cover. Place reserved marinade in frypan, add mushrooms and simmer until marinade has reduced and mushrooms are soft.

1997, Donna Hay, Marie Claire cooking, page 103:

It has 20 pieces (including a 6-piece tool set and a non-stick frypan) and costs $150.

2003, The Editors of Consumer Reports, The Buying Guide 2004, page 257:

A pile of assorted kitchen gear—a heavy frypan dark with soot, several spoons and forks stuck tidily in a clean pot, a kettle as blackened as the frypan, and a large pot that tilted benignly to one side—rested against the side of the firepit.

2004, Faith Richardson, Fay Lapka Richardson, Hoverlight, page 200:

(US, Australia, New Zealand) A frying pan.


cop-killer

From the bullet's (bullets') supposed ability to penetrate body armor, thus endangering police officers.


suck ass

en-verb

suck ass (third-person singular simple present sucks ass, present participle sucking ass, simple past and past participle sucked ass)

sucks ass (present singular third-person)
sucking ass (participle present)
sucked ass (participle past)
sucked ass (past)
suck arse (alternative)

(Canada, US, stative, vulgar, slang) To be terrible; be of extremely poor quality.


land grant

land grants (plural)
land-grant (alternative)

(US) A grant of land by the US government to encourage the development of western states, especially land transportation and practical higher education.


pokerish

en-adj

pokerish (comparative more pokerish, superlative most pokerish)

more pokerish (comparative)
most pokerish (superlative)

From poker + -ish. See poker (“evil spirit”).

John even went so far as to admit that it "looked kind of pokerish," and he was glad they were in so comfortable a place.

1860, William Taylor Adams, Little By Little:

(US, archaic, colloquial) unsafe, dangerous


salty dog

From the salt of the sea. Compare old salt and seadog.
Sexual sense may be due to association of sailors with sexual promiscuity, or may be separate development, salty (“spicy”) and dog both suggesting promiscuity.

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

(US, Navy, Marines) An experienced sailor.

(US, slang, dated) A sexually promiscuous man; a male sexual partner.


crack train

1988 Lawrence Davis, Pullman porter in the 1940s, quoted on Different Trains, by Steve Reich.
The crack train from New York.

(US, dialect, dated) Fastest express train between two stops.


get one's freak on

en-verb

get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> one's freak on

get one's freak on (third-person singular simple present gets one's freak on, present participle getting one's freak on, simple past got one's freak on, past participle (UK) got one's freak on or (US) gotten one's freak on)

gets one's freak on (present singular third-person)
getting one's freak on (participle present)
got one's freak on (past)
got one's freak on (UK participle past)
gotten one's freak on (US participle past)


N.A.

Citibank, N.A.

(banking, US) Initialism of national association – a national bank, as defined in the National Banking Act


Five Nations

Iroquois Confederacy
Iroquois Confederacy#English

(Canada, US) Ellipsis of Iroquois Confederacy of Five Nations. (the original the Iroquois Confederacy; the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca)

Iroquois Confederacy of Five Nations

Five Civilized Tribes
Five Civilized Tribes#English

(US) Synonym of Five Civilized Tribes (the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole)


Six Nations

(Canada, US) Ellipsis of Iroquois Confederacy of Six Nations. (the Five Nations adding the Tuscarora to make Six in the Iroquois Confederacy)


flutterboard

(US) A buoyancy board made of foam, used to support the body when in water.


gallinipper

18thC. Origin unknown. Earlier forms were gurnipper and gal-knipper. Second element is probably nipper; first element may have become influenced by galley.

And when darkness comes and they leave off, the mosquitoes and the gallinippers join hands to take their place and suck out blood and annoy us until the first day brings its light.

2011, Roger Abrahams, African American Folktales: Stories from Black Traditions in the New World, page 55:

(US) Any large insect that bites, for example, certain large mosquitos.


proponency

The chairman of the committee will be very glad to give you the opportunity to express your views, whether of proponency or opponency.

1935, “letter”, in Department of science, art and literature: Hearings before the Committee on Patents, page 112:


bullpup

bullpups (plural)
bull pup (alternative)
bull-pup (alternative)

From bull + pup. The firearms sense originated from firearm designers in the United States during the 1930s. The unconventional configuration of bullpup rifles was compared by analogy to bulldog puppies, which were considered "squat, ugly, but still aggressive and powerful".

He brought with him the holsters of his young master, wrapped up in the fragment of a blanket. “I tink, Mass Willie,” said he, “dat you better hab dese little bullpups yer, onder you own han'. Dere's no telling how soon you may want 'em. De swode is good 'nough, when you hab dem tory in chopping reach, but de pups kin keep guard on door and winder.”

1855, William Gilmore Simms, The Forayers:

"Gone for his two little bull-pups," said Stubbs. That was what the Parson called his silver-mounted derringers.

1875, Joaquin Miller, First Fam’lies in the Sierras:

In an Iowa murder case two witnesses swore to seeing the defendant forty rods off draw his revolver, when it was proven that they were so near-sighted that they could not tell a pistol from a bull-pup fifteen rods away.

'Bust me, Blaine! you ain't a-goin' to murder this-yer young innercent ez mebbe never toted a derringer in his life, an don't know the difference atween a bowie-knife an' a bull-pup, air you?' interposed Colonel Jefferson.

(US, obsolete) A handgun smaller than a bulldog.


southron

Likely from a Northumbrian alteration of earlier Old English suþern, suþærn. The switch from -ern to -ron is likely due to the influence of Old Norse rann (“place, house, home”) on Old English ærn (“home, place”).
More at southern.

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

(US, archaic) Alternative form of Southern: of or related to the American South, particularly (historical) the Confederate States of America.


southron

To the natural impressibility of the southron, the Louisianian adds the enthusiasm of the Frenchman.

1890, T. C. DeLeon, Four Years in Rebel Capitals:

(US, archaic) Alternative form of Southerner: someone from the American South, particularly (US, historical) a Confederate citizen or soldier.


DADT

don't ask, don't tell
don't ask, don't tell#English

(US, politics, military) Initialism of don't ask, don't tell.


reparate

reparate (third-person singular simple present reparates, present participle reparating, simple past and past participle reparated)

reparates (present singular third-person)
reparating (participle present)
reparated (participle past)
reparated (past)

/ˈɹɛpəˌɹeɪt/

(transitive, chiefly US) To make reparation to; compensate.


AMI

(economics, public policy, US) Initialism of area median income.


suck my balls

(idiomatic, chiefly US, vulgar) An irreverent rebuke or dismissal.


na-na na-na boo-boo

/ˈnæːnəˌnæːnə ˈbuːˌbuː/

Apparently from the longer childish playground taunt sung to a tune particular to the taunt:
: I'm better than you,
: na-na, na-na, boo-boo,
: stick your head in doo-doo.
Na-na and boo-boo may be imitations of sounds a baby or young toddler might make.
Boo-boo may also indicate boo-boo, a minor injury which leaves a mark on a child such as a scraped knee.

na na na na boo boo (alternative)
nanny nanny boo boo (alternative)
na-na na-na na-na (alternative)
na na na na na na (alternative)
nanny nanny moo moo (alternative)
neener (alternative)

... is that the educators out there aren't aware of this, they don't know it or what?
Ms. Bolinger. It's like na na na na boo boo, make me do it.
[Laughter.] ...

1992, Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, first session, Oversight on the status of special education in Iowa: hearing before the Subcommittee on Disability Policy of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, first session, examining the major issues facing students, parents, teachers, related ..., Alternate ISBN: →ISBN, →ISBN, page 82:

[Translator's note by David R. Slavitt] ...here is to make clear that this is a display of Schadenfreude, an elegant cocking of the snooks, a protracted "Na-na, na-na, boo-boo," a symphonic Bronx cheer!

1998, Aeschylus, edited by David R. Slavitt and Palmar Bovie, Aeschylus, 2: The Persians. Seven against Thebes. The Suppliants. Prometheus bound, Alternate ISBN: →ISBN, →ISBN, page 5:

(Canada, US, idiomatic, colloquial, childish, derogatory, taunt, often humorous) A taunt or putdown, typically used to indicate that the speaker believes he or she has beaten the listener in a competition or is better in some other way or in a general sense; or an expression of satisfaction that the listener has received some supposedly deserved minor punishment or misfortune (that is to say, schadenfreude).


ecodefence

Coined (as ecodefense) by David Foreman in his 1985 book Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching, from eco- + defence.

eco-defence (alternative)
eco-defense (alternative)
ecodefense (alternative)

⁽¹⁾ Ecodefence is a provocative call to those deeply concerned with the need for immediate protection of the limited wilderness areas remaining in Canada and the U.S.
⁽²⁾ Foreman concedes that ecodefence is not the only answer to the defence and promotion of wilderness.
⁽³⁾ The guide includes contributions from several different authors who, with the exception of Foreman, remain anonymous because the ecodefence tactics they advocate are acts of civil disobedience or crimes against property.
⁽⁴⁾ […] who should be included in the ecodefence groups, and how to ensure one’s own safety and the safety of those engaged in the activities one is trying to prevent. [¶] Despite the space dedicated to the safety issue, one walks away with the sense that ecodefence may be a very dangerous activity.

1987: University of Waterloo Faculty of Environmental Studies, Alternatives, volume 14, unknown pages: (1), (2), (3), (4) (Trent University)

Ecodefence groups are seen, generally unfavourably, as a mix of ‘Green Luddites’ and ‘Green Guerillas’ (neither comparison is very satisfactory; the latter description is inept, given that they generally avoid violence, in ordinary senses, and intend none, carry no weapons, and only venture out on occasional forays). One reason for the controversialness of the tactics is that ecodefence activities conflict, through direct commission, with the laws of the state, which are commonly arranged to allow, or even encourage, environmental devastation and vandalism.

1994: Richard Sylvan [aut.] and David Bennett [aut., ed.], The Greening of Ethics, page 211 (White Horse Press; →ISBN, 9780816515042)

The front page leads with an editorial about the Gandalf trial under a typically confrontational headline: ‘Fuck you, pigs!’. The following three pages are taken up with the magazine’s regular ‘diaries’: of animal liberation, ecodefence and ‘community resistance’. Each attempts to list all examples of actions (both violent and peaceful) that have taken place in support of these causes since the previous issue.

2002, Chris Atton, Alternative Media, page 124:

(originally US) Collectively, actions intended to disrupt human activities perceived to be damaging to the environment, typically including civil disobedience and illegal sabotage.


wall plug

wall plugs (plural)
wallplug (alternative)


piece of tail

You've got a piece of tail. I want a piece of tail too.

1960, Graham Greene, The Quiet American, page 38:

(US, idiomatic, colloquial, slang) Synonym of piece of ass


table board

en-noun

table board (countable and uncountable, plural table boards)

table boards (plural)
table-board (alternative)
tableboard (alternative)

(US) The provision of daily meals; board (separate from rooming).


kelter

Fiscal—Something has been out of kelter at Washington these two years with regard to the rigid application of appropriations, at least in the Indian Department.

1851, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers:

—All over, resemblance to a particular object, as a ship in bad kelter: "she's a privateer all over."

1867, William Henry Smyth, The Sailor’s Word-Book:

It was intimated to me that such "frivolousness" was out of kelter with the profession of a Christian.

1910, Alexander Irvine, From the Bottom Up:

(British dialectal, US, chiefly in the negative) Archaic form of kilter (“(good) condition, form, or order; fettle”).


tanglefoot

They never seemed to want anything, even at the sutler's store, though the Lord knows there wasn't much there they could want except tanglefoot and tobacco.

But Dooley's Irish blood was up, five fingers of tanglefoot tingling in each fist and bubbling in his brain.

1906, Charles King, Tonio, Son of the Sierras:

In the following year blight appeared again, but at another point, and after cutting it out I put on tanglefoot, simply because I happened to have some with me when passing the tree.

1917, Various, Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the:

(US, archaic, colloquial) Low-quality whiskey, especially home-brewed.


special election

special election (plural special elections)

(politics, government, Philippines, US) An election scheduled at other than the usual date for a specific purpose, often to fill an office that has become vacant before the incumbent has completed the term.


candy corn

candy corn (usually uncountable, plural candy corns)

(US, Canada) A confection of sugar and corn syrup or honey, supposed to resemble a kernel of maize.


like fun

"Of course it might happen that the hull kit-and-boodle might start and run, if some big fighting came first-off, and then again they might stay and fight like fun.

1895 October, Stephen Crane, chapter I, in The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 16:

"The railway's begun The Mormons are cutting / And grading like fun."

c'''. 1868, James Crane, a song, in Nothing like it in the world: the men who built the transcontinental railroad, Stephen E. Ambrose, 2001, page 286

Do they think I have a million dollars and spend it? Like fun I do. Not with the kind of discipline my parents believe in.

1927 October 7, “Chess Championship.”, in Ottawa Citizen:

"Give me that gun!" "Like fun I will," Leigh snapped.

a.''' 1946, Raymond J. Healy, J. Francis McComas, editors, Adventures in time and space: an anthology of modern science-fiction stories, page 607:

(as response, US, dated) Definitely not.


GWB

On the real, just to show proof, hit the GWB and blow the whole roof off the toll booth, bitch ass nigga!

2003, “Get It on the Floor”, in Kasseem Dean, Earl Simmons (lyrics), Grand Champ, performed by DMX, Ruff Ryders Entertainment:

George Washington Bridge
w:George Washington Bridge

(US, New York, New England, New Jersey) Initialism of George Washington Bridge.


Victor Charlie

From the US military phonetic spelling alphabet for VC, the acronym for Vietcong.

Watch out for Victor Charlie — they're everywhere.

As for Victor Charlie here, we captured him and disarmed him.

(US, military slang, historical) The Vietcong (the group or its members collectively); a member of that group.


buttlicker

(US, slang, derogatory) A contemptible person; an ass-kisser.

(US, slang) Someone who performs anilingus.


assless

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

(Canada, US, vulgar) devoid of sexual intercourse

assless chaps

(Canada, US, of trousers or chaps) uncovered at the rear


tennies

The Moore Brothers is a white-boys blues band almost stereotypical in its composition: an energetic, toothpick-chewing drummer; a scrawny, ascetic bass player who stood shorter than his upright bass; a clean-cut Charlie in polo shirt and tennies fingering some classic blues solos--sans painful facial expressions--and the leader, an Andy Renko sort singing and occasionally diddling on harp and keeping things fresh with a remarkable collection of esoteric blues standards.

1989 June 30, Ted Cox, “South Bend, IN”, in Chicago Reader:

Baby Duffy's tennies, jeans, and polo shirt--each borrowed from the grown-up vocabulary for down time--are scaled small, colored bright, and retrofitted with patches at elbow and knee.

1995 September 1, Leah Eskin, “Fashion Statements: the young and the cautious”, in Chicago Reader:

In 1989 she performed a solo called Fame & Fortune in a pink Afro wig, a tutu, and tennies.

2003 April 11, Laura Molzahn, “Jan Erkert”, in Chicago Reader:


CCM

CCM (countable and uncountable, plural CCMs)

Combined Cypher Machine
w:Combined Cypher Machine

(military, US) Initialism of Combined Cypher Machine.


come down the pike

en-verb

come down the pike (third-person singular simple present comes down the pike, present participle coming down the pike, simple past came down the pike, past participle come down the pike)

comes down the pike (present singular third-person)
coming down the pike (participle present)
came down the pike (past)
come down the pike (participle past)

From pike, short for turnpike (“toll expressway”).

"[T]hey're the finest football leaders that ever came down the pike."

1902, Ralph Henry Barbour, chapter 11, in Behind the Line:

Alfred Stieglitz was the best photographer ever to come down the pike.

1949 November 14, “Art: Many Ways”, in Time, archived from the original on 2016-03-07:

“For me, it's a harbinger of larger cultural changes coming down the pike.”

2014 May 26, Amy Verner, “From Humble Sneaker to Luxury Icon”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

“I knew it was coming on down the pike, just not at the rate it hit us,” said Sheree Renée Thomas, the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which was founded in 1949.

2023 February 23, Michael Levenson, quoting Sheree Thomas, “Science Fiction Magazines Battle a Flood of Chatbot-Generated Stories”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(chiefly US, of an event, thing, person) To emerge, come up; be about to happen; to approach or arrive on the scene; to present (itself or oneself).


ride someone's ass

ride someone's ass (third-person singular simple present rides someone's ass, present participle riding someone's ass, simple past rode someone's ass, past participle ridden someone's ass)

rides someone's ass (present singular third-person)
riding someone's ass (participle present)
rode someone's ass (past)
ridden someone's ass (participle past)

If he doesn't quit riding my ass, I'm gonna punch him right in his face.

(Canada, US, slang, vulgar) To find fault with someone, to constantly criticise.


man ho

I dont like man hoes.

2006 June 22, Broken heart, “Re: I can't do this anymore”, in alt.suicide.methods (Usenet):

“He’s kind of a man ho,” she says, confirming my suspicions. […] ¶ “How many girls has he slept with?”

2007, Jo Edwards, Go Figure, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 91:

How about, all you care about are man hos that plow, plant, reject and abandon that which they have helped create by encouraging women to murder the babies?

2007 May 6, "willow" (username), "Re: Why isn't J Young used as a 'test rodent' for untested chemicals", in alt.abortion and other newsgroups, Usenet

Aphrodite snorted. “I bet it was him feeling the list, not them. No one wants a guy who’s a man ho, no matter how hot he is.”

2008, P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast, Untamed: A House of Night Novel, St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 215:

“Man, you crazy,” said Mikel. “ […] You just a straight up man ho, yo. You can’t be a playa for ever though.”

2010, Clifton G. Pickard, Jr., Stronger Than Gravity, Dorrance Publishing, page 223


smog check

(US, California) A test for emissions produced by a vehicle, required for vehicle registration.


HMX

(military, US) Abbreviation of Marine Helicopter Squadron One.


lifeway

From Middle English *lif-wei (attested as lifes wege, lives wegas), from Old English līfweġ, corresponding to life + way.

And as under colonialism, in most cases ‘traditional’ values and lifeways were treated as a barrier to economic growth and social progress, and were often purposefully eradicated.

2017, Jason Hickel, “Neoliberalism Comes Home”, in The Divide […] , London: William Heinemann, →ISBN:

(now chiefly Canada, US) One's path through life; a lifestyle or behaviour, now especially when seen as traditional.


antifilibuster

(US, politics) Opposing or preventing filibuster.


NOD

Night Optical/Observation Device
w:Night Vision Device

(military, US) Initialism of Night Optical/Observation Device.


dunzo

If Ryan and I were actually really, truly dunzo, I was going to have a hell of a time trying to get over him.

2012, Karina Halle, The Devil's Metal, Diversion Books, →ISBN:

Confused and wondering what I'd done wrong, I eventually realized that if you say no to nakedness, especially with Bruce Weber, you're pretty much dunzo in the modeling business.

2014, Courtney Robertson, I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends: Confessions of a Reality Show Villain, HarperCollins, →ISBN:

I pulled open my dad's bedside table and looked through the pill bottles to find something I could munch on. Heart medicine, arthritis medicine, blister pack of Viagra. I thought about grabbing some for later, because why not, but I checked the expiration date and they were dunzo two years ago.

2015, Karolina Waclawiak, The Invaders, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:


make like

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

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

Originally a US regionalism; compare earlier make as if.

Make like we're getting married and repeat after me, "2004 is the year I will moisturise daily".

2004 January 3, Hannah Pool, “The new black”, in The Guardian:

(colloquial, chiefly US, with clause) To behave as though.

In his office is an eight-foot bull whip; Ed likes to snap it around and make like a slave-driver.

1947 February 10, “The Great Salesman”, in Time:

(colloquial, chiefly US, with a noun) To behave in the manner of.


re-up

re-up (third-person singular simple present re-ups, present participle re-upping, simple past and past participle re-upped)

re-ups (present singular third-person)
re-upping (participle present)
re-upped (participle past)
re-upped (past)
reup (alternative)

"Reenlist" sense is a possible blend of re-enlist + sign up


rammy

en-adj

rammy (comparative more rammy, superlative most rammy)

more rammy (comparative)
most rammy (superlative)


hit the skids

en-verb

hit the skids (third-person singular simple present hits the skids, present participle hitting the skids, simple past and past participle hit the skids)

hits the skids (present singular third-person)
hitting the skids (participle present)
hit the skids (participle past)
hit the skids (past)

After all, if these measures could've succeeded, they would've been implemented five years ago when the world economy hadn't yet hit the skids.

2010, Ganesh Rathnam, Mises Daily, “A Greek Tragedy in the Making”, in Mises Institute:

A metaverse backlash, already fully rooted, began to bloom. Microsoft’s military contract hit the skids, Disney laid off its entire metaverse team, and even Zuckerberg’s own employees seem not to have much time for the technology.

2023 June 6, Ian Bogost, “The Age of Goggles Has Arrived”, in The Atlantic:

(intransitive, originally US) To fail; to decline.


cash bar

The party included a reception, a dance, and a cash bar.

A dance w/ Sqeeze Louise will follow the performance awards. Very limited seating—tickets for the entire event only. The Saints collective will run a cash bar during the dance.

1983 February 5, “Classified advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 28, page 14:

(US) A bar at a social event where guests are required to pay for their own individual drinks.


porkish

en-adj

porkish (comparative more porkish, superlative most porkish)

more porkish (comparative)
most porkish (superlative)

Congressional leaders are frank about using their clout for porkish purposes, and DeLay is no exception.

(US, politics, informal) Relating to pork barrel funding.


full bar

BYOB

antonym(s) of “A restaurant licensed to serve alcohol”

(US, of a bar or restaurant) Serving hard liquor, instead of only beer and wine.


scrub oak

(US) Any of numerous dwarfish species of oak (genus Quercus, principally in the United States.

California scrub oak (Quercus berberidifolia)

coastal scrub oak (Quercus dumosa), variously circumscribed.

Quercus coccifera
Quercus coccifera#Translingual


Broad Street Bullies

From the location of home ice, the hockey rink "The Spectrum" on Broad Street, and their style of play, reminiscent of bullying.

(ice hockey, Canada, US, dated) nickname of the Philadelphia Flyers of the 1970s era


subway series

(baseball, US) a cross-town playoff battle between the New York Mets and New York Yankees

(baseball, US, dated) a crosstown baseball series playoff between two New York City baseball clubs; the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, and New York Yankees.


Frozen Four

(ice hockey, US, informal) The four regional champions of the NCAA Division I tournament, one of whom will become the national champion.

(ice hockey, US, informal) The final two rounds of the NCAA Division I tournament.

These two teams have an amazing number of Frozen Fours between them.

(ice hockey, US, informal) An appearance in the Frozen Four.


Bronx Bombers

(US, baseball) nickname of the New York Yankees


White Sox

From white + sox, the footwear worn by the members of the team.

(US, baseball) The Chicago White Sox, an American baseball club.


Triple Crown

(horse racing, US) The three greatest thoroughbred races of the year restricted to three-year-olds: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes


Motor City

In reference to its early influence on the automotive industry.


prex

(US, university slang) A president, especially of a university.


spange

en-verb

spange (third-person singular simple present spanges, present participle spanging, simple past and past participle spanged)

spanges (present singular third-person)
spanging (participle present)
spanged (participle past)
spanged (past)

Blend of spare + change, from stereotyped phrase “spare change?”, “[can you] spare any change?”

1996, Tim “Salvage”, quoted in Ian Fisher, “Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold.”
I don’t spange much because I really don’t like doing it. I eat out of trash cans a lot.

2009, Kelly Myers, 33, quoted in Joe Deegan, “Nowhere To Go”, San Diego Reader
Then my father would send all us kids out to ‘spange’ [beg for spare change]. You could sometimes make $50 a day by spanging. Other days you might make a dollar.

(US, intransitive) To beg, particularly using the phrase “spare change?”


geezerdom

As the wealthiest generation in US history approached geezerdom, drug companies, health care, and nursing homes were beneficiaries.

2001, John Rothchild, The Davis Dynasty: fifty years of successful investing on Wall Street:


megaprimary

(informal, US) A primary election for president that takes place on the same day across a wide geographic area covering many voters.


goat milk

en-noun

goat milk (countable and uncountable, plural goat milks)

goat milks (plural)
goatmilk (alternative)

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

From Middle English gayte mylke, goot mylk, gote milke, from Old English gāte meolc; equivalent to goat + milk.

(now chiefly US) Alternative form of goat's milk.


it figures

figures (alternative)
that figures (alternative)

(idiomatic, Canada, US) Used to indicate that a preceding event or statement by another is an unsurprising accompaniment of known facts and circumstances.


dimeless

A bunch of dimeless promoters and sponges have been buzzing around him, the kind who can smell a sucker faster than a buzzard can sight a corpse.

1975, Donald H. Dunn, Ponzi!: The Boston swindler:

Since my friends and I were usually dimeless, we had to choose between climbing the pool fence, hopping the subway turnstile, jumping off one of the docks...

2000, Herbert Grossman, Emotional and behavioral problems in the classroom: a memoir:


jawblock

en-verb

jawblock (third-person singular simple present jawblocks, present participle jawblocking, simple past and past participle jawblocked)

jawblocks (present singular third-person)
jawblocking (participle present)
jawblocked (participle past)
jawblocked (past)

The first time we began to jawblock we found out that we were all from the jazz school, and that made us friends right away.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “They Found the Body in a Ditch”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 61:


butter-and-egg man

en-noun

butter-and-egg man (plural butter-and-egg men)

He puffed on the big cigar that he always had stuck in his face and posed back like a big butter-and-egg man.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Them First Kicks are a Killer”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 69:

(US slang, dated) A prosperous dairy farmer (or other wealthy rural citizen), seen as coming into the big city and ostentatiously living it up.


touch labor

(US) The hands-on production or technical aspects of a task or service at the operational level of an organization.


cracky wagon

They knew the lineage of all the boys and girls who crowded into old cracky wagons, rode four to a horse or footed it out to the lake.

1936, August 18, The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana, volume 10, Section 4, Page 16

(US, Western Pennsylvania) A one-horse wagon without springs.


grainer

(rail transportation, US) A type of railroad car that carries grain.


vetoproof

en-adj

vetoproof (comparative more vetoproof, superlative most vetoproof)

more vetoproof (comparative)
most vetoproof (superlative)

(US, politics) Having a strong enough majority to override any presidential veto.


kvell

en-verb

kvell (third-person singular simple present kvells, present participle kvelling, simple past and past participle kvelled)

kvells (present singular third-person)
kvelling (participle present)
kvelled (participle past)
kvelled (past)

From Yiddish קוועלן (kveln), from Middle High German quellen, from Old High German quellan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwellan. Cognate with German quellen and English quell (“source, spring”).

‘Magnificent residence,’ she pretended to kvell, ‘maybe I'm in the wrong business?’

2013, Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge, Vintage, published 2014, page 4:

(intransitive, US slang) To feel delighted and proud; to boast; to gloat.


struggle-buggy

My struggle-buggy was getting to look like a rinky-dink old tin can on wheels, so when I got back to Chicago that Fall I traded it in for a Willys Knight brougham sedan.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Tea Don’t Do You that Way”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 87:

(US slang) An old or beat-up motor vehicle.


zuke

But please use tender young squash. The zuke someone overlooked in the garden until it was the size of a rolling pin will be too bitter for this casserole.

2005, Beth Hensperger, Julie Kaufmann, Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook:

By the time she was nine, Nina was traveling to distant markets on her own to sell her family's fresh tomatoes, beans, squash, zukes, cukes, peppers[…]

2009, Dev Patnaik, Peter Mortensen, Wired to care: how companies prosper when they create widespread empathy:


orthœpy

Nonstandard use of the ligature œ in place of an oe sequence that represents two vowels pronounced in separate syllables.

Of what does orthœpy treat?

1892, Report, Ohio: Department of Education, page 191:

(US, rare, obsolete, hypercorrect) Nonstandard spelling of orthoepy.


hashhouse

‘We went out about three-thirty or so to get something to eat at the hashhouse around the corner,’ Hench said.

1943, Raymond Chandler, The High Window, Penguin, published 2005, page 86:

In the big town, no job, has to deal 'em off the arm in hashhouse again, sad.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Tea Don’t Do You that Way”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 88:

(US, colloquial) A cheap diner or eating-house.


beef trust

Originally the name of a conglomerate of beef producers; later adopted ironically by US carnival showman WB ‘Billy’ Watson, who used it as the name for his sideshow of overweight women.

The beef trust was out in full force – these landladies were all shaped up like barrels, wherever there wasn't a crease in their meat there was a dimple.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Tea Don’t Do You that Way”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 91:

(US slang) A group of overweight or obese people.


chutes and ladders

snakes and ladders
snakes and ladders#English


patdown

patdowns (plural)
pat-down (alternative)

To avoid such charges, airline screeners moved to random processes that led to patdowns of congressional representatives and mild-mannered elderly women...

2006, Yoram Wind, Colin Crook, Robert E. Gunther, The power of impossible thinking:

(US, informal) An act of patting somebody's clothes to check for concealed weapons, etc.


prelaw

Coordinate term: pre-med

(US) Any course of study taken by an undergraduate in preparation for study at a law school.


light-duty vehicle

en-noun

light-duty vehicle (plural light-duty vehicles)

gross vehicle weight rating
gross vehicle weight rating

(US) Any motor vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) or less.


quarterless

(US) That does not require quarters (coins) to operate


thioguanine

thioguanine (countable and uncountable, plural thioguanines)

/ˌθʌɪ.ə(ʊ)ˈɡwɑː.niːn/

(pharmacology) US and UK spelling of tioguanine.


trash drawer

[On a checklist of things to have in the kitchen:] Pull-out cabinet trash drawer

2008, Susan Lang, Designing Your Dream Home: Every Question to Ask, Every Detail to Consider, page 182:

Another very useful kitchen feature is a trash drawer. This is a tall drawer that can house a large trash container.

1999, Jeanne Jones, Jeanne Jones' Healthy Cooking: For People Who Don't Have Time To Cook, page 7:

A pull-out trash drawer gives you a place to hide kitchen waste and recyclables.

1996, James A. Hufnagel, Kathie Robitz, Barbara Sabella, Kitchens: design, remodel, build, page 28:

And a big trash drawer down below for wastebasket loads.

1981, House and Garden, Vol. 153, Issues 1-6, p. 44

(Canada, US) A tall drawer, usually found in a kitchen, in which a garbage can or garbage bag can be placed, for the collection and disposal of trash.


informatization

Probably borrowed from French informatisation. By surface analysis, informat(ion) + -ization or informatize + -ation.

surf

Oxford British English and US standard spelling of informatisation.


commodity meat

en-noun

commodity meat (countable and uncountable, plural commodity meats)

I have used my last can of commodity meat.

Always the cheese, peanut butter, and rice from the commodity program. Or commodity meat — chicken, beef, pork — fried in a heavy iron skillet.

1970, John Fetterman, Stinking Creek, page 70:

(US, dated) Meat distributed through the USDA commodity food distribution program.


EZ

Phonetic rendering from the letter names.

(US, informal, mostly in names of products and services) Abbreviation of easy.


clomiphene

clomiphene (countable and uncountable, plural clomiphenes)

(pharmacology) UK and US spelling of clomifene.


I lost my keys

(US) Indicates that the speaker has lost his or her keys.

我兮鎖匙拍無去 /我兮锁匙拍无去

góa ê só-sî phah-bô--khì / góa ê só-sî phah-bô--khìr

我兮鎖匙拍毋見 /我兮锁匙拍毋见

góa ê só-sî phah-m̄-kìⁿ / góa ê só-sî phàng-kìⁿ / góa ê só-sî phàng-kiàn


crimebusting

(chiefly US, informal) The work of a crimebuster; the thwarting of criminal activity.


crackleberry

All the crackleberries had spilled out on the floor.

(US, dialectal) The high-bush huckleberry, Gaylussacia baccata, native to eastern North America, or the fruit of this shrub


gyno

gyno (countable and uncountable, plural gynos)

(UK, US, Australia, informal) Clipping of gynecologist.


skunk cabbage

From skunk + cabbage, from the strong odor produced when the leaves are broken or torn.

It was May before the skunk cabbage began to push up through the ooze of the swamps, before the rhubarb reddened to the back corner of the garden and the spring peepers finally emerged and began abrading the edges of the night with their lovesick vibrato.

1993, TC Boyle, The Road to Wellville, Penguin, published 1994, page 297:

Symplocarpus foetidus
Symplocarpus foetidus#Translingual

(Canada, US) Any of several leafy, foul-smelling plants, especially Symplocarpus foetidus, a low-growing plant native to the wetlands of eastern North America, but also denoting Lysichiton americanus and Lysichiton camtschatcense.

臭菘

any of several leafy, foul-smelling plants


applianced

(US, of a kitchen) Furnished with appliances


hat rack

hat racks (plural)
hatrack (alternative)
hat-rack (alternative)

(US) A piece of furniture used to store hats and clothing, consisting of a pole with pegs on a moderately broad base; a hatstand.

hattuteline

furniture for storing hats and clothing on


coat stand

coat stands (plural)
coatstand (alternative)
coat-stand (alternative)

(chiefly US) A pole with pegs for temporary storage of clothing; a coat rack.


flanger

(US) A mechanical device used to remove ice and snow from railway lines.


learnfare

(US) A welfare system in which a person must attend college etc. in order to receive payment.


pandowdy

pandowdy (countable and uncountable, plural pandowdies)

(US) A pudding of spiced, sliced apples (or other fruit), sugar and butter, baked with a crumble topping in a deep dish.


June gloom

(weather, US, Southern California) Any of several gloomy weather conditions present during June mornings, especially conditions of clouds, cool temperatures, fog, or drizzle.


military time

Tip: If you're frustrated that the Mac is showing you the 24-hour “military time” on your menu bar (that is, 17:30 instead of 5:30 p.m.)—or that it isn't showing military time when you'd like it to—click the Clock tab and turn “Use a 24-hour clock” on or off.

2009, David Pogue, Mac OS X Snow Leopard (The Missing Manual), O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 320:

Again, Bravo pointed. “Look!” As they watched, they saw a ghostly shape rising slowly out of the sea. Jenny, glancing at her watch, said, “One, five, three, zero. Fifteen-thirty—it's military time! Three-thirty in the afternoon.

2014, Eric Van Lustbader, The Testament, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(military, US and allied forces) A specific system of denoting and pronouncing the times of the 24-hour clock.


spoilsman

Cameron's notoriety as a spoilsman who had been in turn a Democrat, a Know-Nothing, and had flirted with Whiggery, militated against his candidacy among delegates concerned that the party should appear to be as pure as Caesar's wife.

1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 217:

(US) A politician who serves only for a share of the spoils.


uncredentialed

(US) Alternative spelling of uncredentialled


upzone

en-verb

upzone (third-person singular simple present upzones, present participle upzoning, simple past and past participle upzoned)

upzones (present singular third-person)
upzoning (participle present)
upzoned (participle past)
upzoned (past)

For example, a neighborhood of single-family homes may be upzoned to multifamily residential or a mixed-use (commercial plus residential) zone.

2001, Randal O'Toole, The vanishing automobile and other urban myths:

(US, transitive) To rezone for more intensive use.


upzoning

en-noun

upzoning (countable and uncountable, plural upzonings)


bros before hoes

2010, The Big Bang Theory, episode “The Spaghetti Catalyst”
Sheldon: Howard made it very clear that my allegiance should be to male comrades before women who sell their bodies for money.
Leonard: Is it possible that he said Bros before hoes?
Sheldon: Yes, but I rephrased it to avoid offending the hoes.

(US, vulgar, slang) A man should prioritize his male friends over women.

不要重色輕友 /不要重色轻友

a man should prioritize his best friends over his girlfriend or wife

cf. пе́рвым де́лом, пе́рвым де́лом — самолёты, ну а де́вушки?! а де́вушки — пото́м (pérvym délom, pérvym délom — samoljóty, nu a dévuški?! a dévuški — potóm) (a popular movie song, lit. "the airplanes, the airplanes — first of all, what about the girls?! well, and the girls — later")


leppy

When those big bands take off, the mares never come back for those leppies. We were branding one time and saw a little bunch move out and a mom left a leppy behind.

2006, Paula Morin, Honest Horses: Wild Horses in the Great Basin, page 105:

Out on the range, he would have been a stunted leppy.

2003, American Cowboy, volume 10, number 4, page 90:

I have heard a famous rodeo announcer crack the same old joke every year, "A leppy is a little calf whose ma has died, and whose pa has run away with another cow."

1978, Sarah E. Olds, Twenty Miles From a Match: Homesteading in Western Nevada, page 44:

(slang, US) A young animal, particularly a cow calf or bull calf, a lamb, or a colt, which has been abandoned or orphaned.


fiddlefuck

en-verb

fiddlefuck (third-person singular simple present fiddlefucks, present participle fiddlefucking, simple past and past participle fiddlefucked)

fiddlefucks (present singular third-person)
fiddlefucking (participle present)
fiddlefucked (participle past)
fiddlefucked (past)
fiddle fuck (alternative)


shit just got real

From the movie Bad Boys II (2003), where it was spoken by Martin Lawrence.

(Canada, US, slang, vulgar) The situation suddenly became much more dangerous or serious.


crowbait

(US, often attributive) An old, emaciated horse.


CQC

(military, US) Initialism of close quarters combat.


understored

en-adj

understored (comparative more understored, superlative most understored)

more understored (comparative)
most understored (superlative)

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

(US) Having fewer stores (shops) than are needed by the available market


osnaburg

en-noun

osnaburg (countable and uncountable, plural osnaburgs)

From Osnaburg, the former English name of the German city of Osnabrück (from which it may have been first imported into English-speaking countries).

[I]f he attended those solemn meetings at which the price of freight or the quality of Osnaburghs was discussed, he turned the venerable persons of the old merchants and grocers into ridicule […].

1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview, published 2004, page 258:

(now chiefly US) A plain, coarse textile fabric made from flax, tow or jute yarns.


osnaburg

en-adj

osnaburg (comparative more osnaburg, superlative most osnaburg)

more osnaburg (comparative)
most osnaburg (superlative)

So that winter morning, I put on my osnaburg shirt and pants.

2019, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer, Penguin Books (2020), pages 11–12:

(now chiefly US) Designating or made from this fabric.


Ma Bell

Like Ma Bell, I've Got The Ill Communications

1994, “Get it together”, in Ill Communication, performed by Beastie Boys:

(US, telecommunications, informal, historical) Collectively, the family of companies associated with American Telephone & Telegraph, providing telephone service in the United States for many years through 1983.


blinky

blinky (comparative more blinky, superlative most blinky)

more blinky (comparative)
most blinky (superlative)

No proper place for cooling milk in summer meant not only blinky milk unfit to drink, but no sweet cream for the cream jug that most of them had, and neither good butter nor buttermilk could come from milk not properly cooled.

1960, Harriette Simpson Arnow, Seedtime on the Cumberland:

She took a swallow of milk and made a face. "This milk is blinky."
Mrs. Willet frowned. 'It shouldn't be. I just got it yesterday." She opened the top of the icebox and looked into the ice compartment. She groaned. "The block of ice I got yesterday is almost melted."

I mean really, who needs a date stamped on the jug to tell you when milk has gone bad? It’s got a built-in warning system. First, you get that little whang in the taste. It’s gone blinky. Time to think about getting more.

2013 October 12, Steve Blow, “Beward of toxic milk — and other expiration-date silliness”, in The Dallas Morning News:

(US, dialectal) Of milk: turned somewhat sour.


e-thumb

Oh, I'll never have an e-thumb, no matter how long I stay at it. Nothing ever seems to work for me. Every program I launch crashes.

(US, idiomatic) A natural skill for tinkering with electronics; or computers.

I should ask the e-thumb next door what he recommends for my BSOD.


octavofinal

From octavo- + final, after quarterfinal.

The Americans finish top of the group. They’ll meet Ghana, Germany, Serbia or Australia in the octavofinals as the knockout phase begins.

2010 June 23, Jeff Z Klein, “Goal: World Cup Blog”, in New York Times:

(sports, US) A match or game between two of the last sixteen competitors in a given tournament or sporting competition.


guidette

guidettes (plural)
Guidette (alternative)

(slang, US, ethnic slur) An Italian-American female; an American female of Italian descent.


nutsedge

(US) Any of certain species of invasive perennial sedge, of the genus Cyperus, that have edible, nutlike tubers.


count coup

en-verb

count coup (third-person singular simple present counts coup, present participle counting coup, simple past and past participle counted coup)

counts coup (present singular third-person)
counting coup (participle present)
counted coup (participle past)
counted coup (past)

count + coup (“quick, brilliant, and highly successful act”) (from French coup (“blow, hit, strike”), ultimately from Ancient Greek κόλᾰφος (kólăphos, “a buffet, a blow”)).

der

dǐ ki, v. t., to strike, to whip, to "count coup."

[1873, Washington Matthews, “dǐ ki”, in Grammar and Dictionary of the Language of the Hidatsa (Minnetarees, Grosventres of the Missouri). With an Introductory Sketch of the Tribe (Shea’s Library of American Linguistics; ser. 2, no. 1), New York, N.Y.: Cramoisy Press, →OCLC, page 80, column 1:

Sitting Bull, on horseback, with his brother behind him, counts "coup" on the soldier, and adds a new feather to his war bonnet and variety to the color of his legging fringes.

1876 July 29, Porte Crayon [pseudonym; David Hunter Strother], “Sitting Bull.—Autobiography of the Famous Sioux Chief.”, in Harper’s Weekly. A Journal of Civilization, volume XX, number 1022 (supplement), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 627, column 2:

No Sioux may wear an eagle's tail-feather unless he has counted a coup, or stroke, upon an enemy, dead or alive.

1915, Charles A[lexander] Eastman (Ohiyesa), “The Language of Feathers and Ceremonial Dress”, in Indian Scout Talks: A Guide for Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, →OCLC, pages 127–128:

A small band of Indians had ridden onto this irresistible opportunity and had counted coup with the whites' own unguarded guns.

1954, David Lavender, Bent’s Fort: A Historical Account of the Adobe Empire that Shaped the Destiny of the American Southwest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, →OCLC; Bent’s Fort, Bison Book edition, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, March 1972, →ISBN, page 90:

Only a damn fool counts coup on a kill he ain't sure of. That hombre could have us under his gun this very minute.

1994, Ralph Compton, “Prologue”, in The Shawnee Trail (The Trail Drive Series; 6), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Paperbacks, →ISBN, page 2:

I told him what I had done, how I had counted coup in a Pottawattomie, and he shook hands and said that he too had counted coup and that he was going to wear a head ornament.

1999, Sam Blowsnake, “I Take a Trip to Nebraska”, in Paul Radin, editor, Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of an American Indian, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 153:

To count coup a warrior had to strike an armed and fighting enemy with his coup-stick, quirt, or bow before otherwise harming him, or take his weapons while he was yet alive, or strike the first enemy falling in battle, no matter who killed him, […] [I]f a warrior was wounded in counting coup, the feather he wore to mark the event must be painted red to show that he bled.

2002, Frank B[ird] Linderman, chapter 3, in Plenty-coups: Chief of the Crows, new edition, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 31:

To a Plains Indian warrior "to count coup" meant, literally, "to touch the enemy." To count coup, a warrior might kill an enemy, injure him, struggle with him, or merely touch him.

2006, Joseph Medicine Crow, Herman Viola, Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Children's Books, →ISBN, page 21:

In this sham battle, Crow men pretend to count coup on their old enemies, the Piegan.

2012, Lillian Bullshows Hogan, Barbara Loeb, Mardell Hogan Plainfeather, “Memories of Youth”, in The Woman Who Loved Mankind: The Life of a Twentieth-Century Crow Elder, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 120:

The belief that a warrior could obtain some of the soul of his enemy, as well as some of his strength, courage, and energy, motivated warriors to count coup whenever the opportunity arose.

2012, GaWaNi Pony Boy, “Horse and Native American: The Relationship Begins”, in Ruth Berman, editor, Out of the Saddle: Native American Horsemanship, Irvine, Calif.: BowTie Press, →ISBN, page 28:

(intransitive, US, historical) To win prestige in battle by performing an act of bravery in the face of the enemy (such as touching him and escaping unharmed), a ritual of the Plains Indians of North America.


broomie

In the lead of the broomies ran a beautiful cream buckskin, with black mane flying proudly!

1927, David M. Newell, Cougars & Cowboys, page 134:

1972 August, Adrienne Richard, Sundance and the Princess, Boys' Life, page 22,
A broomtail, we called it, and usually broomies had their tails “pulled,” trimmed up, when they were broken to saddle, but I didn't want Sundance′s tail cut.

One day after corralling a bunch of broomies in a pole corral, I roped a big blue-roan mare that wore a brand.

1989, Stella Hughes, Hashknife Cowboy: Recollections of Mack Hughes, page 165:

(informal, US) A broomtail (unbroken range mare).


animal fries

Thousand Island dressing
Thousand Island dressing

(chiefly Canada, US) French fries that are served with melted cheese, grilled onions, and Thousand Island dressing or special sauce instead of ketchup.


masturbatorium

en-noun

masturbatorium (plural masturbatoriums or masturbatoria)

masturbatoriums (plural)
masturbatoria (plural)

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

From masturbate + -orium, probably by analogy with words like auditorium and sanatorium.

The fact is that we are all censors, whether we operate the amnesic sedative of shock, faint from pain, deceive ourselves into thinking things are better than they are, or simply find a coherent message incomprehensible. Imagine smuggling a small child into one of Fun City’s new masturbatoria where only skin-flicks are screened, where those who jiggle may be gratified and those who giggle may be maimed.

1971, Nancy Keesing, editor, Transition: An Australian Society of Authors Anthology, Sydney, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson Ltd, →ISBN, pages 85–86:

It is reported that upon deposit in the usual standard mechanical coin box, it got for its spender a few minutes of a pornographic movie, in a booth large enough to seat two (or more) people comfortably. Each of these tokens appeared in what can only be called commercial masturbatoria, and not old fashioned whorehouses.

1983 fall, Bartholomew Lee, “‘Brass Checks’ Return: An Excursus in Erotic Numismatics, or The Spintriae Roll Again”, in The Journal of Popular Culture, volume 17, number 2, page 145:

As for the rape, well, Dr. Finch did seem like a pretty horny old fat man. I thought back to his masturbatorium, his many “wives.”

2002, Augusten Burroughs, Running with Scissors, St. Martin's Publishing Group, published 2010, →ISBN, page 313:

Among the arguments advanced to support homosexual marriage is that homosexuals can have children. Yet, as the attorney/author Lori Andrews states in “The Clone Age,” such “parenthood” entails the use of glassware and sperm, purchased from catalogs, and “generated” for quick cash by strangers who view pornography in “masturbatoria” with vinyl sofas.

2004 March 21, Mark Oshinskie, “[Letters to the editor] Government must ban sperm and egg sales”, in Home News Tribune, New Brunswick, N.J., page A14, column 5:

The Hewitt [Centre] has dedicated facilities for everything, including two purpose-built “masturbatoria” – rooms where male patients produce sperm samples assisted by cable TV pornography.

2010 October 14, Jonathan Guthrie, “IVF proves fertile ground for cuts”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-04-02:

I wish Jerry Rothwell’s movie [Donor Unknown] went further than the “dear diary” tones in which a set of well-adjusted teens – central character JoEllen and her adventitious kinsfolk – meet an apparently well-adjusted beach bum. Doesn’t anyone in this America have a problem? Isn’t there something strange, even tragic, about a guy who spent his years of desire doing three-times-a-week sessions in “masturbatoria”?

2011 June 8, Nigel Andrews, “Deja vu of a mundane kind”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC:

The distinguished female author and I were now unabashedly getting drunk. As we ate, I told her the story of my visit to the masturbatorium, and I had her cracking up; we were laughing loudly enough to draw some stares from other tables.

2014, Ben Lerner, 10:04, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 126:

At his clinic, sports are on TV in the waiting room, and the walls are painted dark. The room Dr. Turek calls the “masturbatorium” has a lava lamp, framed Playboy magazines and a photo of a vintage Maserati (his own).

[2018 July 25, Nellie Bowles, “The Dawning of Sperm Awareness”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, rare) A room in which a person masturbates; for example, a private room in a clinic where a sperm donor masturbates to produce semen.


mithridatize

en-verb

mithridatize (third-person singular simple present mithridatizes, present participle mithridatizing, simple past and past participle mithridatized)

mithridatizes (present singular third-person)
mithridatizing (participle present)
mithridatized (participle past)
mithridatized (past)
mithridatise (alternative)
mithradatize (alternative)

/mɪˈθrɪdətʌɪz/

From Mithridates + -ize, in reference to Mithridates VI of Pontus.

Our constitutions adapt themselves to the slow poison of the world till we become mithridatized at last.

Poisonous snakes are... ‘mithridatised’ in regard to their own poison.

1890, E.R. Lankester, The Advancement of Science, page 114:

Her experiences in high school gradually mithridatized her to the ways of men.

(US) To make immune to a poison by administration of gradually increasing doses.

Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridatization
Pontus


pattypan

pattypans (plural)
pattipan (alternative)

(chiefly Canada, US) A small variety of squash with a scalloped rim and creamy white flesh; a pattypan squash.


superstation

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

(US) A television station that broadcasts nationwide via a satellite carrier


chickaree

Onomatopoeia from its cry; compare chickadee.

We heard the sound of the chickaree

1864, Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods:

(Canada, US) A small squirrel, one of the species of Tamiasciurus, that lives in evergreen forests of North America.


ass-rape

en-noun

ass-rape (countable and uncountable, plural ass-rapes)

ass-rapes (plural)
assrape (alternative)
ass rape (alternative)

(Canada, US, slang, vulgar) The act of forcing anal sex upon another person.


ass-rape

en-verb

ass-rape (third-person singular simple present ass-rapes, present participle ass-raping, simple past and past participle ass-raped)

ass-rapes (present singular third-person)
ass-raping (participle present)
ass-raped (participle past)
ass-raped (past)
assrape (alternative)
ass rape (alternative)

(Canada, US, slang, vulgar) To force anal sex upon another person.

(Canada, US, slang, vulgar) To dominate in a contest.


trustbuster

America’s top trustbusters mean to make their policing presence felt. Lawyers, bankers and financiers now “recognise that there are cops on the beat…that we’re vigorously looking to protect the American public from illegal mergers,” says Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which enforces consumer-protection and competition laws.

2023 June 21, “Why Joe Biden’s trustbusters have fallen short of their ambitions”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

(US) A person or entity responsible for breaking up trusts or monopolies.


trustbusting

(US) The breaking up of trusts or monopolies.


hackie

There was a taxi stand there and I yanked open the door. ‘He goes first,’ the hackie said, jerking a thumb at the cab ahead.

1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 9:

[…]a taxi came along and I flagged it and we got in. I told the driver, "Nine-eighteen West Thirty-fifth," and he started.[…] The poor girl didn't know what to do.[…] If she kicked and screamed I would merely give the hackie another address.

1955, Rex Stout, “Die Like a Dog”, in Three Witnesses, Bantam Books, published 1994, →ISBN, page 163:


adrip

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


turnback

en-noun

turnback (countable and uncountable, plural turnbacks)

(US) A cadet at a military academy who fails a class and has to retake it.


hot check

From sense hot (“illegal, stolen”) – compare hot property (“stolen goods”).

And you don’t go writing hot checks down in Mississippi,

1978, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang”, in I Would Like to See You Again, Columbia Records:

(US, Texas) A check with non-sufficient funds (not enough money in the bank to back it up), written fraudulently.

bad check

check with insufficient funds, written fraudulently


WAE

(US, government) Initialism of when actually employed.


klootchman

klootchman (plural klootchmans or klootchmen)

klootchmans (plural)
klootchmen (plural)

Borrowed from Chinook Jargon, from Nootka, see below.

(US, Canada, western dialects) Woman, wife (especially if Native American).


tighty whities

tight whites (alternative)
tighty-whiteys (alternative)
tighty-whities (alternative)
tightie-whities (alternative)
tightie whities (alternative)
tighty whiteys (alternative)
tightie whiteys (alternative)
whitey tighties (alternative)

Here are 5 more reasons to hate Chris Jefford: 5 He’s the only date that’s truly from hell. 4 He THINKS that his body his cool. 3 He wants his dates to to tell him so 2 “I want to have sex”. 1 Cool guys don’t wear "tightie-whities". - Someone else who knows.

1988 November 16, The Observer (Notre Dame and Saint Mary's), page 5:

[W]hat do you females (lurkers included :-) think of boxers as opposed to the traditional Fruit-O-The-Loom/Hanes "tighty-whities"?

1990 March 11, Chris Cleeland, “Large breasts”, in alt.sex (Usenet):

Forbes, in his tighty whities and black socks, seems an incongruous apparition against the sense of home the kitchen implies.

1999, Noah Hawley, A Conspiracy of Tall Men, page 345:

It would indeed be great if my red socks and my tighty whities declared themselves to my washer.

2000, Edward Lerner, Creative Destruction, page 29:

I brushed and flossed my teeth, and got in bed with only my tighty-whities on.

2008, Justin Pinnick, Another Funny Memory, page 62:

Temple was laid out with a cold. Ada hoped she hadn't brought baby Jarius's bug out to him. As soon a Ada had gotten the toilets cleaned and the soup on the stove she rubbed her daddy down with a lemon cut in half, then lowered him (wearing purple tighty whities) into a hot bath she had spiked with red pepper flakes and Tabasco. When Temple was up to his shoulders in the water, Ada gave him a shot of whisky.

2012, Alice Randall, Ada’s Rules: A Sexy Skinny Novel, page 97:

We never had time to do laundry, so I would rinse my tighty-whiteys in the sink and hang them to dry inside the van during the next day’s ride.

2016, NOFX, Jeff Alulis, NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories, page 198:

Tiny carried a bag of nails tucked into the back of his jeans, worn low to show off his tighty whiteys.

2021, R.J. Linteau, The Architect, page 203:

(originally US, colloquial, often derogatory) Men's or boys' traditionally white briefs.


rosemaling

/ˈɹəʊzəˌmɑːlɪŋ/

/ˈɹoʊzəˌmɑlɪŋ/

Borrowed from Norwegian Bokmål rosemaling (“rose painting”), from rose (“rose”) + maling (“painting”) (from male (“to paint”) (cognate with Old Danish malæ (Danish male), Old Norse mála, Old Swedish mala (Swedish mala), from Middle Low German mālen (“to paint”)) + -ing (suffix used to form nouns from verbs)).
The form rosemåling is borrowed from Norwegian Nynorsk rosemåling with unadapted script.

bor

Rosemaling is the most recent of the Norwegian peasant crafts.

1957, Sons of Norway, volume 54, Minneapolis, Minn.: Grand Lodge, Sons of Norway, →OCLC, page 209:

The recent ethnic and arts and crafts revivals are reflected directly in what has happened among the Norwegians in Minnesota. For them the movement began with rosemaling, which in Minnesota has roots going back to about 1940. No rosemaling was done in Minnesota previously on which to base the movement. It was a direct extension of a slightly earlier rosemaling revival in Wisconsin, […]

1989, Marion J. Nelson, “Folk Art in Minnesota and the Case of the Norwegian American”, in Circles of Tradition: Folk Arts in Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn.: Published for the University of Minnesota Art Museum by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, →ISBN, page 38:

Among the traditions the immigrants [from Norway to the US Upper Midwest] brought with them was rosemaling, decorative painting of stylized flowers and scrolls, with occasional figures. Originally painted onto the interior walls of peasant homes in Norway, rosemaling also adorned furniture, such as the Amerika trunks the immigrants used for storing valuables over their ocean voyages to the New World.

2006, Philip Nusbaum, “Rosemaling”, in Richard Sisson, Christian Zacher, Andrew [R. L.] Cayton, editors, The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 410:

You've probably seen rosemåling before, even if the word is new to you. It's a style of Norwegian folk painting that features leaves, flowers, geometric patterns, and lush scrollwork. Since my family is very proud of its Norwegian heritage, and since both my mom and nana were really interested in folk painting when I was growing up, I've been surrounded by rosemåling for as long as I can remember.

2016, Melissa Bahen, “Afternoon Fika”, in Scandinavian Gatherings: From Afternoon Fika to Midsummer Feast: 70 Simple Recipes & Crafts for Everyday Celebrations, Seattle, Wash.: Sasquatch Books, →ISBN, page 78:

(US) A Norwegian style of stylized floral decoration with scrollwork and geometric elements.


roanoke

/ˈɹəʊ.ə.nəʊk/

Borrowed from Powhatan rawrenock (“things rubbed smooth by hand”).

bor+

Cuscarawaoke, where is made so much Rawranoke or white beads that occasion as much dissention among the savages, as gold and silver amongst Christians […]

1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 94:

Pohatan, King of Virgiania's habit all embroidered with shells, or Roanoke (p. 47); Virginian purses imbroidered with Roanoake (p. 51)

1656, John Tradescant, Musaeum Tradescantianum, pages 47 and 51, different spelling as printed

The king of Machepungo was ordered to deliver over twice as much roanoke in graduated payments over the course of eight months.

1993, Joseph Douglas Deal, Race and class in colonial Virginia: Indians, Englishmen, and Africans on the Eastern Shore during the seventeenth century, page 23:

(US, historical) White beads of low value made from shells, formerly used for ornaments and currency by Native Americans of colonial Virginia.


terabuck

(US, colloquial) One trillion (10¹²) dollars.