pass through

(US) A framed, window-like aperture in the interior wall of a house, usually between a kitchen and dining room, through which items (especially food) can be passed. A serving hatch.


bad egg

An allusion to an egg that has gone bad or turned rotten.

"Dat's right!" piped up the newsboy who had brought the policeman. "I see him do de trick jest a minit ago!"
"This is a plot against me!" fumed the swindler.
"Dat feller is a bad egg!" went on the newsboy. "His name is Bill Butts. He's a slick one, he is. Hits de country jays strong, he does!"

I've been a fairly bad egg, Byrne, for a great many years; but, by George! I'm not entirely rotten yet.

1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter X, in The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC:

My son had a drug problem and hired a bad egg as a chief accountant […]

"And the fifth immortal we know tried to kill you." "He is a bad''' egg. We stick to good eggs."

2017 May 26, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Friday, May 26, 2017:

(British, US, idiomatic) Someone whose behaviour is reprehensible or irresponsible; a rogue.


labor union

labor unions (plural)
labour union (alternative)

(Canada, US) A continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment; a trade union.


blue law

Years ago, because of the Blue Laws, we couldn't serve drinks on Sunday over the bar, so we set up tables in the aisles. And we'd have different acts on a stage up front.

1976 February 7, Rose Flower, quoting Jimmy McGrath, “Playland: The Friendliest Place In Town”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 32, page 13:

(Canada, US, now historical) A restrictive religious-based law in colonial New England, especially preventing leisure activities on a Sunday.

[I]t's actually a way around the Swiss blue laws demanding that shops close from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. The laws apply everywhere but the airport, so they built a massive supermarket in the Swiss Air terminal.

2001, David Sedaris, diary entry January 22, in Theft by Finding, Back Bay Books 2017, p. 441

(Canada, US) By extension, any puritanical or restrictive law, especially one that prohibits or restricts commercial activity on a Sunday.


storekeeper

(US, colloquial, dated) Any unsaleable item.


combined statistical area

en-noun

combined statistical area (plural combined statistical areas)

(US) A metropolitan area with one or more other metropolitan and or micropolitan area components defined with it.


coppish

en-adj

coppish (comparative more coppish, superlative most coppish)

more coppish (comparative)
most coppish (superlative)

From cop + -ish (suffix meaning ‘being like, similar to, typical of’, forming adjectives from nouns).

suffix

“Are you a policeman?” Conroy said. I gave him my most coppish deadpan stare.

2002, Robert B[rown] Parker, chapter 30, in Widow’s Walk, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 136:

"I know I'm going to sound suspicious and very policelike—" / "You're allowed to sound coppish … it's in your DNA," Laura assured him.

2011, Holly Jacobs [pseudonym; Holly Fuhrmann], chapter 5, in A Father’s Name (Harlequin SuperRomance), Toronto, Ont.: Harlequin, →ISBN, page 106:

(chiefly US, slang) Characteristic of or resembling a cop (“police officer”).


diplomatic pouch

en-noun

diplomatic pouch (plural diplomatic pouches)


cutie pie

cutie pies (plural)
cutie-pie (alternative)
cutiepie (alternative)

Her daughter is such a cutie pie!

Not a chance, Cutie-Pie! I'm still in th' hands o' my Oculist!

1916 November 28, Dopey Dan, “Twixt Love and Safety”, in The Washington Herald, page 14:

“Huh! The story book says ‘little boys’ belong in that category. Come, Bill, out with it!”
“Well, then, cutie pie,—Uncle Michael is a secret service man.”

1933, Dorothy Wayne [pseudonym; Noel Everingham Sainsbury], Dorothy Dixon and the Double Cousin:

(chiefly US) A cute person, often female.


mosey

en-verb

mosey (third-person singular simple present moseys, present participle moseying, simple past and past participle moseyed)

moseys (present singular third-person)
moseying (participle present)
moseyed (participle past)
moseyed (past)
mosy (alternative)
mozey (alternative)
mozy (alternative)

Unknown. Originally attested in Southern US dialects. Suggested origins include:
* Spanish vamos (compare vamoose)
* British dialectal mosey about (“walk around at leisurely pace”)
* an Algonquian term for "walk" (compare Ojibwe bimose (“she or he walks along”))

Haven't got time. I must mosey up to the North End to see a man who has got a lovely throat. Nobody can find out what is the matter. He has puzzled all the doctors.

1910, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “chapter 1”, in Kilmeny of the Orchard:

(chiefly US, dialectal, intransitive) To set off, get going; to start a journey.

(chiefly US, dialectal, intransitive) To go off quickly: to hurry up.

We'll mosey along toward the river. Kinder take it easy an' drift the herd down slow so as to let the cattle put on flesh.

1919, William MacLeod Raine, “chapter 6”, in A Man Four-Square:

(chiefly US, dialectal, intransitive) To amble; to walk or proceed in a leisurely manner.


PMEE

(military, US, air force) Acronym of prime mission electronic equipment.

(military, US, air force, informal) The people who operate this equipment, such as the crewmembers aboard the Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft.


valley boy

(US, slang) A young man who lives in the "Valley", specifically the San Fernando Valley.

(US, slang) A young gay man who listens to 1970s genre music.


risque

en-adj

risque (comparative more risque, superlative most risque)

more risque (comparative)
most risque (superlative)

But despite being the first episode of The Simpsons to feature Marge’s naked butt, there’s nothing particularly risque about any of the nudity—if anything, the pitchfork-wielding farmer’s threat of “ass-forking” feels the most over the line.

2016 January 24, Les Chappell, “TV: Review: The Simpsons (Classic), “Natural Born Kissers” (season nine, episode 25, originally aired 05/17/1998)”, in The Onion AV Club:


birth control glasses

BCG (alternative)
BCGs (alternative)
birth-control glasses (alternative)

(plural only, US, military slang) The brown-framed prescription eyeglasses issued to new recruits in the U.S. military, or similar glasses issued to inmates at certain state or federal prisons, and perceived as notoriously unattractive.


screen door

1970 Joni Mitchell - "Big Yellow Taxi" (Lyrics) from "Ladies of the Canyon"
Late last night I heard the screen door slam. / And a big yellow taxi took away my old man.

He's got this book tour- what's the subtitle of his book? 'Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival'. This is about as subtle as a screen door on a submarine. It's pretty clear what's going on here, but he says he's not going to announce until June.

2023 February 28, David Axelrod, 3:57 from the start, in Axelrod calls out the 'brazenness' of DeSantis' 'non-campaign', CNN, archived from the original on 2023-02-28:

(US) A light door of mesh, outside of another door, used to prevent ingress by insects.


primary offense

en-noun

primary offense (plural primary offenses)

(US, law) An offence of such seriousness that a police officer may arrest the person involved, or impose an instant fine.


off base

off-base (alternative)
offbase (alternative)

A Virginia lawmaker wants to improve off-base living conditions for enlisted troops with families.

2009 September 21, Bill Maze, Bill would expand off-base housing options, retrieved 2010-09-26:

(not comparable, US) Situated or happening outside the boundaries of a military base.


anchovy toast

anchovy toast (countable and uncountable, plural anchovy toasts)

(US, uncountable) A form of bruschetta topped with mashed anchovies and other ingredients.


payola

payola (countable and uncountable, plural payolas)

Perhaps a blend of pay + Victrola, equivalent to pay + -ola.

(US, Philippines) A bribe given in exchange for a favor, such as one given in exchange for the promotion of goods or services (originally one given to a disk jockey to play a record).


c-note

(banknote): From the Roman numeral C (“100”) (which was printed on it) + note. Attested from the 1920s.

If he ran now, leaving Zygmunt to forfeit the hundred, he'd have to stay on the run. It would be the super's c-note Zygmunt had put up, he wouldn't be able to go back to work on Division Street till he'd squared that hundred.

1949, Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm:

(US, informal) A one-hundred dollar banknote.


green card

(US) A US work permit, officially known as United States Permanent Resident Card.


blank check

blank checks (plural)
blank cheque (alternative)

(literal) A signed check of the type used to draw money from a bank account, containing no information as to the amount to be paid with it, so that any amount can be filled in.

чек на предъяви́теля

без обозначе́ния су́ммы опла́ты


BEA

Bureau of Economic Analysis
w:Bureau of Economic Analysis

(government, US) Initialism of Bureau of Economic Analysis.


massage parlor

massage parlors (plural)
massage parlour (alternative)

A place that offers a happy ending (a hand job) after the massage; a front organization for a brothel.


cathouse

cathouses (plural)
cat-house (alternative)
cat house (alternative)

Do you know how he spent years watching the droopy chicks in cathouses, listening to his cellmates moaning low behind the bars […]?

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Don’t Cry, Ma”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 5:


dayroom

(informal, US, slang) A person who switches up or acts fake


renig

en-verb

renig (third-person singular simple present renigs, present participle renigging, simple past and past participle renigged)

renigs (present singular third-person)
renigging (participle present)
renigged (participle past)
renigged (past)

My partner held the winning trick, and when the last card was on the board the score stood four to four. […] [T]he next gentleman will kindly follow suit — there is no renigging in this game — and the gentleman on my right will do the same.

1897, Munsey's Magazine, volume 16, page 559:

[…] cutting, shuffling, playing, revoking, discarding, renigging.

1900, William Hardcastle Browne, Odd Derivations of Words, Phrases, Slang, Synonyms and Proverbs:

[…] but so far the girls have at the fatal moment renigged.

1916, Phi Alpha Gamma Quarterly, volume 15, number 2, page 41:


exploratory committee

en-noun

exploratory committee (plural exploratory committees)

(US, politics) An organization established to help determine whether a potential candidate should run for an elected office.


Houston, we have a problem

A misquotation of the phrases “Houston, we’ve had a problem here” and “Houston, we’ve had a problem” said by the American astronauts Jim Lovell (born 1928) and Jack Swigert (1931–1982), who were crew members of the Apollo 13 moon flight, to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, on April 13, 1970, after an oxygen tank triggered an explosion which led to the mission being aborted.
The phrase in the form “Houston, we have a problem” was popularized by the film Apollo 13 (1995). The American screenwriter William Broyles Jr. (born 1944) altered the original phrases as he felt that “[t]he past perfect tense wasn’t as dramatic”. However, the phrase has been used earlier, for example, as the title of a 1974 television movie about the Apollo 13 mission.

Houston, we have a problem. We're running out of oil! The petroleum that fuels our daily lives is getting harder to find.

2002, Dan Ramsey, Complete Idiot’s Guide to Solar Power for Your Home (Complete Idiot’s Guide), Indianapolis, Ind.: Alpha Books, →ISBN, page xvii:

(US, humorous) Used to report that a (major) problem has occurred.

Apollo 13
Jack Swigert
Jim Lovell
The Washington Post
William Broyles Jr.

Հյուսթոն, մենք խնդիր ունենքէ

used to report that a (major) problem has occurred


dite

A “dite” is a Maine measurement, somewhere between a smidge and a bit.

Two carpenters were moving a small building onto a new foundation, and one of them says, “Shove it my way a dite!” The other shoved, but shoved a little too hard. “Nope — too much! I said a dite!”

2019, John Gould, This Trifling Distinction: Reminiscences from Down East, Down East Books, →ISBN, page 95:

“Set your calipers a dite bigger’n the hole so’s they’ll fit good and snug.”

1993, Ralph Moody, The Fields of Home, U of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 80:

(US, Maine) A trifling quantity or amount.


homolog

homologs (plural)
homologon (alternative)
homologue (alternative)

/ˈhɑːməlɑːɡ/

/ˈhoʊməlɑːɡ/

Borrowed from French homologue, From Ancient Greek ὁμόλογος (homólogos, “agreeing, of one mind”), equivalent to homo- + -log.

der

Something homologous; a homologous organ or part, chemical compound, chromosome, gene, or cultural element.

(linguistics) A phoneme, morpheme, or word shared by two languages or dialects, via cognation or naturalization.

TP53 is the human homolog of murine Trp53.

Detecting remote homolog by protein similarity network.

2008, Chan-seok Jeong, Minho Lee, Dongsup Kim, edited by Ratko Magjarevic, World Congress of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2006, Volume 1 (Biomedical Engineering), →ISBN, page 171:

A more complex mechanism is used by Vibrio cholerae toxin and by the homolog heat-labile enterotoxin secreted by ETEC strains.

2012, Phillip Smith, Thomas MacDonald, Principles of Mucosal Immunology, page 407:

(biology, genetics, medicine) One of a group of similar DNA sequences that share a common ancestry, or the peptides or proteins that they encode; the counterpart gene or protein in another taxon evolved from a common ancestor (molecularly it may be either identical or similar).

(organic chemistry) A member of a homologous series.

cultural anthropology
cultural anthropology

(cultural anthropology) A belief, practice, concept, or artifact that has a counterpart in another culture.


incenter

incenters (plural)
incentre (alternative)

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

(US, geometry) The point formed at the intersection of the three angle bisectors of a triangle; also the centre of the incircle.


bachelorette

/ˌbæt͡ʃləˈɹɛt/

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


a whole nother

/ə ˈhəʊl ˌnʌðə/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-a whole nother.wav

/ə ˈhoʊl ˌnʌðəɹ/

From a + whole + nother (“different, other”). Whole has been inserted by tmesis, while nother is a variant of other, rebracketed from an other. Compare also dialectal tother from Middle English þe toþer (“the other”).

"Will the fog be gone by to-morrow morning?" said Patty, disconsolately. "I don't know what we shall do if we have to be a whole 'nother day in the house and in the dark."

1887 October 29, [Mary Louisa] Molesworth, “The Mysterious Guide: A Story of a London Fog”, in [Charles Peters], editor, The Girl’s Own Paper, volume IX, number 409, London: “The Leisure Hour” Office, →OCLC, page 67, column 3:

It's a whole nother bunch of folks over beyond the trees 'cross the tracks.

1992, Thulani Davis, chapter 6, in 1959 […], New York, N.Y.: Grove Weidenfeld, Grove Press, →ISBN, page 282:

They say she look like she have a turtle shell on her back and the healing woman healed that. But that's a whole nother story.

1998, Gayl Jones, chapter 1, in The Healing, Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, →ISBN, page 18:

The problem is when you physically try to impede my progress—then it moves up to a whole 'nother level that you probably can't handle me on. If it's just words, mean little things, I'm not [Joseph] Stalin, say what you want. Get in my way, it's a whole 'nother thing.

2004, Michael W. Dean, quoting Henry Rollins, “Interviews”, in $30 Music School, Boston, Mass.: Muska & Lipman, Course Technology, →ISBN, page 457:

The breeze taps my face with a robe-corner. A lazy blueness, from a whole nother age, is spread all above me.

2004, Margo Lanagan, “Rite of Spring”, in Black Juice, London: Gollancz, published 2007, →ISBN, page 195:

Executing it all well, with the feel, look and operation of a real luxury car, is a whole nother ball of wax.

2009 October 1, Don Chaikin, “Long-Term Test Cars: Azera, Sedon M35, Highlander Hybrid, Liberty Sport CRD, Cobalt SS”, in Jim Meigs, editor, Popular Mechanics, New York, N.Y.: The Hearst Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2013-10-01:

(US, informal) An intensified form of another: an entirely different; a whole other.


flat tire

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

Sam scowled at him. “You're always such a flat tire. Live a little for once.”
A twinge of pity for Judd made Carrie speak. “He's not a flat tire. He just doesn't want to.”

2020, Nancy Shew Bolton, Love Stumbled In:

(US, slang, dated) A bore; a person who is no fun.


canalize

en-verb

canalize (third-person singular simple present canalizes, present participle canalizing, simple past and past participle canalized)

canalizes (present singular third-person)
canalizing (participle present)
canalized (participle past)
canalized (past)

US and Oxford British English spelling of canalise


stickpin

His stickpin was gone and so was his watch-chain.

1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post:

The green stone in his stickpin was not quite as large as an apple.

1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 20:

(US) An ornamented pin used to secure a necktie's end flat against the shirt, a tie tack.


canebrake

canebrakes (plural)
canebreak (alternative)

While roving carelessly from canebrake to canebrake, and admiring the rank growth of vegetation, and the variety of timber which marked the fertility of the soil...

1865, Cecil B. Hartley, Life and Times of Colonel Daniel Boone, page 52:

(US) A dense thicket of sugarcane, bamboo or similar plants.


shellacking

en-noun

shellacking (countable and uncountable, plural shellackings)

From shellac + -ing. Shellac is used in floor polish; compare polishing, as in "the other boxer in the match polished the floor with me; I took quite a polishing".

The News baseball team defeated the Press-Guardian outfit, 8 to 4, in a recent game, which squares accounts for the shellacking the News received a year ago.

1929 July, The Typographical Journal, volume 75, page 49:

Mourned Candidate La Guardia: "What a shellacking they gave me!"

1929 November 18, “National Affairs: Vote Castings”, in Time:

Our baseball team got off to an indifferent start at the beginning of the season, but […] "Steve" Newman gave Gonzalo another shellacking that he won't forget for some time.

1929 The Leatherneck, vol. 12 (December, 1929), p. 21

Unity and democracy are still taking a shellacking here on the home front, despite our successes in the Marshall Islands and in Italy.

1944 Frank Marshall Davis, "Defeats of the Home Front" (news article, February 23, 1944; reprinted in Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice of the Black Press, University Press of Mississippi, 2009, p. 126)

After many months of watching its public image take a shellacking as a result of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, Congress finally started to move on lobby reform.

2009, Lee Hamilton, Strengthening Congress, page 69:

[C]learly Obama hopes that just as Clinton recovered from his party's midterm shellacking in 1994 to win re-election two years later, so can he.

2010 Peter Baker, "What Does He Do Now?", The New York Times Magazine, October 17, 2010

Bochy was speaking for the masses, who watched a supposed duel of Cy Young award winners evolve into a full-fledged shellacking.

2010 Ben Shpigel, "Charmed Giants Take a Big First Step," The New York Times, October 28, 2010

Now, I'm not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like I took last night.

2010 November 4, Barack Obama, comments at a press conference, after his political party lost control of the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections

(informal, US) A heavy defeat, drubbing, or beating; used particularly in sports and political contexts.


thruway

… not less than 20 miles per hour on all portions of the thruway system.

2012, Office of the Federal Register, editor, Code of Federal Regulations, Title 23, Revised, 2012 edition (Transport), Government Printing Office, →ISBN, page 337:


slot machine

As an illustration of a general technique for calculating odds, suppose you are playing a 25-cent slot machine.

2005, Benjamin Crowell, The Modern Revolution in Physics:

Any machine operated by placing a coin or token into a slot, especially:

(chiefly US, UK) A machine so operated to play games of chance for money, especially those with a lever and three or more rollers used to achieve combinations.


ripshit

en-adj

ripshit (comparative more ripshit, superlative most ripshit)

more ripshit (comparative)
most ripshit (superlative)

I couldn't understand it, but it was like Benny alternated between humbling himself and pleading, and then getting really ripshit furious and yelling with the red under his eyes glaring.

1976, Beth Powning, “Benny”, in The Tamarack Review, volume Summer 1976, Toronto, Canada, retrieved 2017-05-19, pages 58–75:

(US, slang, vulgar) Enraged or otherwise highly emotional.


FORACS

The USN originally operated five FORACS ranges at Barking Sands, Hawaii, San Clemente Island, California, Fisher's Island, New York, Andros Island, Bahamas and St Croix, US Virgin Islands.

(US, military, naval) Acronym of Fleet Operational Readiness Accuracy Check Site.: a facility for measuring the bearing and range accuracy of sensor systems on ships, submarines, and aircraft.


hatchet man

hatchet men (plural)
hatchetman (alternative)
hatchet-man (alternative)

(US, historical) A male hatchet-wielding participant in a Chinese-American tong war.

斧頭仔 /斧头仔

hatchet-wielding participant in a tong war


signboard

(US) A board carrying a sign, or on which signs may be posted.


tea wagon

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

(US) A table on wheels used to take food or drinks from the kitchen to the dining-room.

(US, film, slang) An audio mixing console on wheels.


careerism

en-noun

careerism (usually uncountable, plural careerisms)

In addition, military aviators' concerns about careerism as well as their lack of professionalism and personality clashes added to the friction against program.

(chiefly US) The perception that being a member of the military is a career, rather than an obligation to serve one's country.


carfare

carfare (countable and uncountable, plural carfares)

Last year, organized crime was directly responsible for more than one hundred murders, and mafiosi participated indirectly in several hundred more, either by lending the killers carfare or by holding their coats.

Anyhow, I'll have to keep out lunch money and carfare, and so will Edith.

1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, A Poor Wise Man:

(US, dated) The passenger fare charged for riding on a streetcar, bus or similar public transit.

jízdné

the passenger fare charged for riding on a streetcar or bus


carhop

I ended my aimless-roaming-short-term-odd-jobs lifestyle and joyfully went to work at a local restaurant in Langley Park, Maryland, as a carhop.

(US) A waiter or waitress who serves customers, especially in their vehicles, at a drive-in restaurant, sometimes on rollerskates.


packaged petroleum product

packaged petroleum product (plural packaged petroleum products)

(especially US military) A petroleum product (generally a lubricant, oil, grease, or specialty item) other than fuel, which is packaged (normally by a manufacturer).


hotcha

en-adj

hotcha (comparative more hotcha, superlative most hotcha)

more hotcha (comparative)
most hotcha (superlative)
hot-cha (alternative)

‘It seems he run Sternwood's hotcha daughter, the young one, off to Yuma.’

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 53:

(US, slang, dated) Flashy, vivacious, attractive, desirable.

I've got a job down at the hotcha night club as a featured entertainer.

1935, The Collegiate, Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School, Sarnia, Ontario, May 1935, page 143

‘Here come the hotcha gals from Havana.’

1933, Havana Widows (motion picture press book), Warner Bros. publicity dept., New York, page 11:

‘It becomes a hotcha curb-service by girls with bare thighs.’

1942, Bulletin of The American Association of University Professors, October 1942, page 542::


hotcha

(US, slang, dated) An attractive young woman.


hotcha

Hotcha! Here comes a serving of beer.

La Mezcla, Armijo High School, Fairfield, Calif., June 1933, p. 17

Did you ever see her in a bathing suit? Hotcha!

John O'Hara, Appointment in Samarra, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1935, p. 21

(US, slang, dated) An exclamation of excitement, delight or high approval.


carryall

(Canada, US, dated) A light, covered carriage drawn by a single horse

(US) Any of several types of automobile, usually a station wagon or van built on a truck chassis.


assume the position

en-verb

assume the position (third-person singular simple present assumes the position, present participle assuming the position, simple past and past participle assumed the position)

assumes the position (present singular third-person)
assuming the position (participle present)
assumed the position (participle past)
assumed the position (past)

A day or two later we took down another seller and this time the rookie performs the search. Assume the position! he tells the guy. So the guy leans against the side of the car.

2002, James Harper Walker, Inside Your Local Police:

(idiomatic, US, law enforcement) To turn away, with one's hands in a visible and unmovable position, so that one can be searched.


elementary school

en-noun

elementary school (countable and uncountable, plural elementary schools)

On one offshore island Wuciou (also Wuqiu), the song of the only elementary school had these lyrics:
We are the little friends of the frontier, good students of Wuciou elementary school. We are not afraid of stormy winds and frightening waves; bravely and [with] perseverance, we advance forward. Our school is erected on the lonely island of the ocean. We will study hard, and are not afraid of gongfei on the opposite shore.

2015, Language, Politics and Identity in Taiwan: Naming China, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 32:

(Canada, US, historically UK) A school for children, typically older than toddlers and younger than adolescents. In the U.S., elementary schools cover grades 1 through 5, and the ages of the children are usually 6-11 years. At a minimum, elementary schools will teach basic reading, writing, arithmetic, and history.


dumpster diver

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

“Trying not to be sexist,” Kurt said. “Are there female dumpster divers?”

2005, Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town:

(US) A person who practices dumpster diving.


dumpster diving

Alan crawled to the back of the store, to Kurt’s den, sure that his friend would have been back there, worn out from a night’s dumpster diving.

(US) The act of recovering, for any purpose, discarded items that would otherwise be sent to a landfill.


rowhouse

rowhouses (plural)
row house (alternative)
row-house (alternative)

(especially US) One of a row of houses situated side by side and sharing a common wall.


grayslick

(US, dialect, Maine, nautical, rare) Glassy, calm seawater.


bench jockey

As verbal jousting is frequently called "riding", the "rider" sitting on a bench came to be known as the "bench jockey".

(US, idiomatic, slang, baseball) A player, coach or manager who verbally annoys and distracts opposition players and umpires from his team's dugout bench.


buppie

Blend of black + yuppie or an abbreviation of black urban professional, modelled on yuppie (“young urban professional”).

abbreviation of

In Spike Lee’s story of interracial romance, Jungle Fever (June), Wesley Snipes plays a young buppie New York architect whose affair with his Italian-American secretary (Annabella Sciorra) threatens his marriage and her relationship to her family.

1991 June, Ella Taylor, “Identity crises”, in The Atlantic:

(US, slang) A black urban professional; an African-American professional or executive in their late twenties or early thirties.


bury the hatchet

en-verb

bury the hatchet (third-person singular simple present buries the hatchet, present participle burying the hatchet, simple past and past participle buried the hatchet)

buries the hatchet (present singular third-person)
burying the hatchet (participle present)
buried the hatchet (participle past)
buried the hatchet (past)

The phrase is an allusion to the figurative or literal practice of putting away the tomahawk at the cessation of hostilities among or by Native Americans in the Eastern United States, specifically during the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy, and in Iroquois custom in general. Weapons were to be buried or otherwise cached in time of peace.

They need to calm down and bury the hatchet before someone gets hurt.

(US, idiomatic) To cease fighting or arguing; to reach an agreement, or at least a truce.

tengamos la fiesta en paz (set phrase; usu. admonitory)


catbird seat

The expression may originate in regard to the gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), as it was in use in the 19th century in the southern United States. It was featured in the 1942 short story "The Catbird Seat" by James Thurber, and popularized by baseball commentator Red Barber, and often referred to baseball. The expression, according to James Thurber, comes from the observation of the catbird (an Australian bird) of the family Ptilonorhynchidae. Some of the male birds will assemble several hundred colored rocks or shells, arranging them in a remarkable artistic display, in order to build a "seat" atop which his mate will eventually be enthroned.

With a big victory in the primary, he was sitting in the catbird seat.

(US, idiomatic) An enviable position, often one of great advantage.


dang it

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

(chiefly US, informal, minced oath) An expression used to show displeasure. A less emphatic, less profane version of dammit.


ke-mo sah-bee

Of unclear origin; sometimes supposed to derive from a Native American term meaning "trusted friend". It was popularized by the American show The Lone Ranger, in which characters sometimes addressed each other as Kemo Sabe.

kemo sabe (alternative)
kemosabe (alternative)

(US, slang) An address to a friend, said to mean "my trusted friend".


Duluth pack

Duluth pack is a brand name of the Duluth Tent and Awning Co. They were designed in the early 1880s, but the term is commonly used to refer to any packs of the same style.

(US, Canada) A traditional piece of luggage used in canoe travel, particularly in the Boundary Waters region of northern Minnesota and Ontario. A specialized type of backpack, made of either heavy canvas or nylon, that are approximately square in order to fit easily in the bottom of a canoe.


East Overshoe

I don't get to see Jim much since he moved. Now he lives somewhere out in East Overshoe.

(slang, US) Often used to refer to a place moderately far away. It generally is used in place of a city or town name when that name is unknown or cannot be recalled.


catty-cornered

(US, Canada) Alternative form of catty-corner: cater-corner.


catty-cornered

(US, Canada) Alternative form of catty-corner: catercorner.


Gaspesian

Derived from the Mi'kmaq word Kespek, + -ian.

(US, Canada) The Mi'kmaq people of Gaspé.


cornpone

en-noun

cornpone (countable and uncountable, plural cornpones)

cornpones (plural)
corn pone (alternative)
corn-pone (alternative)

Coordinate term: corn pudding

The Harvard man went back into the kitchen and sat down at a rickety table covered with a red-checked oil-cloth. On it were spread the spoiled ham, a dish of poke salad, a corn pone, and a pot of weak coffee.

(US, Appalachia) A form of cornbread made without milk or eggs.


spumoni

spumoni (countable and uncountable, plural spumonis)

From Italian spumoni, plural of spumone, from spuma (“foam”).

‘Oh, I see.’ A slice of spumoni wouldn't have melted on her now.

1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 2:

(US) An Italian style of ice cream dessert made with layers of different colors and flavors (typically cherry, pistachio, and vanilla or chocolate) and usually containing candied fruits and nuts.


Arbor Day

(US) The national day of observance of the need to protect trees, celebrated by planting a tree.


riprap

riprap (countable and uncountable, plural ripraps)

ripraps (plural)
rip-rap (alternative)
rip rap (alternative)

Apparently a reduplication (with vowel dissimilation) of rap (“blow, stroke”).

(chiefly Canada, US) Rocks or other materials used to shore up an embankment, deter or prevent erosion, guide shipping, or serve as a temporary mooring.


surveil

en-verb

surveil (third-person singular simple present surveils, present participle surveiling or surveilling, simple past and past participle surveiled or surveilled)

surveils (present singular third-person)
surveiling (participle present)
surveilling (participle present)
surveiled (participle past)
surveiled (past)
surveilled (participle past)
surveilled (past)

1903. Back-formation of surveillance (but compare also French surveiller and the variant surveille).

The plaintiff also stresses that the store as a whole, and the customer exits especially, were closely surveilled.
Alexandre of London v. Indem. Ins. Co., 182 F. Supp. 748, 750 (United States District Court for the District of Columbia) (1960), cited in Bryan A. Garner. A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (2nd ed., 2001) p. 861

(transitive, US) To keep someone or something under surveillance.


lubritorium

1957, United States Congress House Select Committee on Small Business, Distribution Practices in The Petroleum Industry, page 34,
Thus, whether stations have or do not have inside lubritoriums, affords a ready means for a gemeral classification of gasoline outlets as to the adequacy of their facilities.

We estimate the size of the building and platform, not counting the outside, maneuvering and parking areas, in excess of 50,000 square feet, plus, as you have inquired, a “lubritorium” which is postal parlance for a post office garage.

1963, United States Congress, Hearings, volume 18, page 367:

The Lubritorium was now a basic part of the American gasoline station, with the moneymaking services it generated a welcome boost to sagging fuel sales.

1992, Michael Karl Witzel, American Gas Station: History and Folklore of Gas Stations in America, page 85:

[…]neon-lit motels began to dot the highways; the grocer′s shop became a supermarket, the garage a lubritorium; the ‘bottle-oh’ and the ‘ice-man’ sold their yards and saw them transformed into candy-striped Chicken-Inns or pre-owned car showrooms with more pennants than at Agincourt.

1975, John Ritchie, Australia as once we were, page 247:

The Norfolk & Western′s Lubritoriums were considered by many to be the ultimate development of the engine house.

2001, Martin J. McGuirk, The Model Railroader′s Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals, page 49:

2007, Jenny Gregory, Keys, George Eric Maxwell, entry in Diane Langmore, Darryl Bennet (editors), Australian Dictionary of Biography: Volume 17 1981-1990 A-K, page 624,
His study was nicknamed ‘the lubritorium’; there he oiled the wheels and smoothed over difficult situations.

(US, Australia) A facility where vehicles can be oiled.


diagonalization

en-noun

diagonalization (countable and uncountable, plural diagonalizations)


Black Law

(US) Any one of a series of laws, passed before the American Civil War, sharply discriminating against free blacks who wished to emigrate to a northern state and become citizens there.


pocket money

(US) A small sum of cash, carried on the person, for small, daily expenses.


longe

en-verb

longe (third-person singular simple present longes, present participle longeing, simple past and past participle longed)

longes (present singular third-person)
longeing (participle present)
longed (participle past)
longed (past)
lunge (alternative)

From French allonger (“to lengthen”), or Latin longa (“long”), i.e. the long rope.

(US, transitive) To work (a horse) in a circle at the end of a long line or rope.


high cotton

The term "high cotton" or "tall cotton" originates from the rural farming community in the antebellum (pre-Civil War) South when "high cotton" meant that the crops were good and the prices were, too. The term has generalized to mean one is doing well or is successful.

We're in high cotton now.

(US, Southern US, slang, idiomatic) The best of times; a time of well being.


lot lizard

The term was popularized by the 2000 novel Sarah, a fictional account of the life of a truck stop prostitute.

Maybe he's doin' a run to Shakey Town where some lot lizard checks his dip stick.

1986, University of Kansas City Review, volume 53:

[…] the most famous "lot lizard", or truck stop whore, in the business.

Virginia was a lot lizard from F.L.A. / She had a compound fracture in the trunk.

“I'm not a lot lizard,” I say. “I'm just passing through.”

2019, S. J. Maher, Social Misconduct, page 241:

(slang, US) A prostitute at a truck stop.

In discussing the “lot lizards” who hang out in car lots Lisa comments: This will amaze you. A lot of professional athletes have bought car lots, used dealerships. There [are] girls that hang out in car lots.

1994, Steven Michael Ortiz, When Happiness Ends and Coping Begins, page 238:

Then there are the lot lizards: Locals attracted to the danger and anonymity of a carny sexual encounter.

2003, Bret Witter ·, Carnival Undercover, page 195:

He arrived in the middle of the night and looked for spun out lot lizards that couldn't sleep. He lured them to one of his comrade's tents with pharmaceuticals, and then he had his way. But he never ventured inside the festival.

2009, J. J. Colagrande, Headz, page 141:

(slang, US, by extension) A girl who loiters at any location that can be described as a lot, looking for a sexual encounter.

Carl Sewell, CEO of Sewell Village Cadillac in Dallas and other automobile dealerships, tells the story of how Sewell Village "lot lizards” significantly improved their performance.

1989, Leonard L. Berry, David R. Bennett, Carter W. Brown, Service Quality: A Profit Strategy for Financial Institutions, page 177:

Managers can be fine-tuned individuals, molded and bred from managerial schools, but more often they have worked their way up from "lot lizard."

1990, Chris Harold Stevenson, Auto Repair Shams and Scams: How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off, page 36:

My last lot lizard wasn't even shaving yet .

2005, Automobile Magazine - Volume 20, page 32:

Lot lizard to lot lizard, "I'd like to take her for a test drive," the new guy said as Chita walked off.

2017, Michael Bronte, The Dealership, page 274:

(slang, US) A salesperson at an automobile dealership.

A 'lot lizard' was somebody who walked the sales lot and looked at every car and still didn't buy.

2000, James Morgan, The Distance to the Moon: A Road Trip Into the American Dream, page 309:

Do these ads actually move their lipstick-colour cars to the tirekickers and lot lizards and lay downs and strokers?

2001, Keith Harrison, Islands West: Stories from the Coast, page 247:

Some salespeople also avoided interacting with another type of previous customer that they sometimes called “lot lizards.” A 48-year-old salesman with 8 years of experience described these people: These people are professional shoppers.

2014, Michael W. Kramer, Managing Uncertainty in Organizational Communication, page 123:

(slang, US) A customer at an automobile dealership to whom a vehicle is difficult to sell.

(slang, US) A snowboarder or Skier that tailgates in the parking lot of a ski resort on a nice spring day.


showboat

And Agnes Moorehead henpecks with stern persistence as Parthy, the captain's loving wife. The sets, which include a full-sized showboat with belching double stacks and sternwheel, are in the best Metro tradition, which means as sumptuous as sumptuous can be.

1951 July 20, Bosley Crowther, “THE SCREEN: A MUSICAL FAVORITE AT RADIO CITY; 'Show Boat,' Metro Remake of Hit, With Kathryn Grayson in Lead, at Music Hall 'Never Trust a Gambler,' New Feature of Palace Theatre, Has Dane Clark in Cast”, in The New York Times:

Mr. Sterling was born in Baltimore on June 24, 1915, to Jack Sexton and Edna Cable, veteran performers in vaudeville, showboats and stock companies.

1990 November 2, Peter B. Flint, “Jack Sterling, 75, Host on Radio For 18 Years in New York, Dies”, in The New York Times:

Lowriding emerged in the 1950's in California, as Mexican-American youths -- in what may have been a reaction to the hot-rod culture dominated by whites -- transformed their cars into fantastical, ground-hugging showboats.

2000 May 21, Dan Neil, “Victory to the Low and Slow”, in The New York Times:

(US) A river steamboat having a resident theatre.

Well, I was a little upset at first. I mean, obviously people are going to think I'm a showboat, and a little bit of a prick.

2004, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, spoken by Steve Zissou (Bill Murray):

After the President fired his FBI director in early May, he dismissed Comey as “a showboat,” “a grandstander” and a “nut job.”

2017 June 8, Maeve Reston, “Trump meets the ultimate adversary in James Comey”, in CNN:

(informal, chiefly US, by extension) A showoff.


showboat

showboat (third-person singular simple present showboats, present participle showboating, simple past and past participle showboated)

showboats (present singular third-person)
showboating (participle present)
showboated (participle past)
showboated (past)

Out: Trash talk, dirty play, crybabying, showboating and players who can't be bothered to show up for games or keep their shoes on.

1995 June 15, Scott Ostler, “SCOTT OSTLER -- Hakeem Sets Old Standard”, in San Francisco Chronicle:

Their duel had something often lacking in this memorable era of men’s tennis: an edge, as Kyrgios showboated and intentionally smacked balls at Nadal’s body, ignoring the glares that Nadal sometimes fired back.

2019 July 4, Christopher Clarey, “Rafael Nadal Doesn’t Fall for Nick Kyrgios’s Bag of Tricks”, in The New York Times:

(informal, chiefly US, ambitransitive) To show off.


Hail Mary

en-noun

Hail Mary (plural Hail Marys or Hail Maries)

Hail Marys (plural)
Hail Maries (plural)

From Middle English Heil Marie. The extended figurative sense alludes to the notion of saying a prayer that the action will succeed.

Hail Mary deal

Silk Road was, in some sense, a last heave—a Hail Mary in the parlance of Ross's football-mad hometown.

2015, Nathaniel Popper, chapter 6, in Digital Gold, 1st edition, New York: Harper, →ISBN, →OCLC:

Trump administration files Hail Mary appeal to derail youth climate lawsuit [title]

2017 June 13, Natasha Geiling, “Trump administration files Hail Mary appeal to derail youth climate lawsuit”, in ThinkProgress:

SoundCloud finally secured a Hail Mary deal that included $170 million of new funding from the Raine Group and Singapore’s Temasek in August of 2017.

2018 February 23, Janko Roettgers, “Twitter’s Annual Report Reveals That Its $70 Million SoundCloud Investment Was a Bust”, in Variety:

“I have traveled across continents to come to the jungle to do psychedelics,” marveled Mr. Gonsior, who had steered clear from drugs his whole life. “I guess this is what might be considered a Hail Mary.”

2020 August 30, Ernesto Londoño, quoting Rudy Gonsior, “‘A Hail Mary’: Psychedelic Therapy Draws Veterans to Jungle Retreats”, in The New York Times:

With each passing day, Facebook’s metaverse aspirations look more like a Hail Mary fantasy, a beleaguered CEO’s escape attempt to a 3-D virtual world where he might leave behind the misery of his dull 2-D version.

2022 December 29, Brian Merchant, “The End of the Silicon Valley Myth”, in The Atlantic:

(figurative, usually attributive, US) A risky last-ditch effort with great benefit but little chance of success; one whose success would require divine intervention; a Hail Mary pass.


Mexican breakfast

Mexican breakfast (plural Mexican breakfasts)

Supposedly because it is all that Mexicans can afford.

(idiomatic, US) A breakfast consisting of a cigarette and a glass of water.


nosh

nosh (countable and uncountable, plural noshes)

From Yiddish נאַשן (nashn), from Middle High German naschen (“nibble”) (which is also the parent of German naschen), from Old High German naskōn (“to nibble; parasite”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnaskwōn (“to weaken; make soft; tenderise”). Doublet of nesh.


Renascence

(US) Alternative spelling of Renaissance


like a cat in a strange garret

Well, mass'r, I can't say for Lucinda and Dinah, but I should feel like a cat in a strange garret.

1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC:

1862 Annual Report of the Secretary of the Vermont Board of Education
Mothers cannot conveniently leave home to get about, and fathers, to use their own expression, "feel like a cat in a strange garret," when screwed up in one of the seats to the school house.

(US, simile) Having a feeling of uncertainty and misapprehension due to being in an unfamiliar situation.


raghorn

From rag + horn, describing the animals as non-prime trophy specimens, i.e. "rags". Another explanation is that it is descriptive of how the new antlers have a velvety covering that sloughs off each year and can hang like rags.

(US, informal) Any male elk (bull) with antlers between one and six points, non-inclusive, on either side. Also called an "intermediate bull" (bulls with two, three, four or five points on either side).


rain check

rain checks (plural)
raincheck (alternative)
rain-check (alternative)
raincheque (alternative)
rain cheque (alternative)
rain-cheque (alternative)

1877 US in baseball; metaphorical usage from 1896, more generally from 1930. From at least 1870, baseball teams would reissue tickets in case of postponement due to rain, which became known as rain checks.

改天

an extension or postponement of an offer

With trembling fingers he pulled out his watch. The hands pointed to five minutes to three. A blessed vision came to him of a moist and disappointed crowd receiving rain-checks up at the Polo Grounds.

1920 March – 1921 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Summer Storms”, in Indiscretions of Archie, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, publishers […], published 1921, →OCLC, page 167:

Feel so bad / Feel like a ball game on a rainy day / Yes, I got my rain check / Shake my head and walk away

1954, Chuck Willis (lyrics and music), “I Feel So Bad”:

The St. Louis club is the only nine in the league which gives its patrons the right to see a full game or no pay. In Chicago and other cities, after the first inning is interrupted by rain the spectators are supposed to have received their money’s worth. In St. Louis ‘rain checks’ are issued in such cases.

2010, Peter Morris, Chicago Times, July 8, 1877, quoted in A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball, →ISBN, 15.1.3 Rain Checks, pages 411–412:

(originally US baseball) A reissue, at no extra charge, of a ticket for a baseball game or other outdoor event postponed or interrupted because of rain.


Rewson

(US, military) Acronym of Reconnaissance, Electronic Warfare, Special Operations, Navy.


rex-pat

rex-pats (plural)
rex-patriate (alternative)

Blend of repeat + expat. Attributed to Alan Levy, an expatriate who edited The Prague Post from 1990 until his death in 2004.

A rex-pat is a returning expatriate, an ex-pat has been here, goes home to America, takes a job, maybe goes to law school, maybe does well in America but can't get Prague out of his or her blood and returns to Prague to live again.

2004, Alan Levy, in the film Rex-patriates, and quoted by The Prague Post: What's a Rex-pathttps://web.archive.org/web/20090105165432/http://www.rexpatriateproductions.com/experts.html

(US, informal) A repeat expatriate; one who becomes expatriated again.


Rockwellesque

en-adj

Rockwellesque (comparative more Rockwellesque, superlative most Rockwellesque)

more Rockwellesque (comparative)
most Rockwellesque (superlative)

It's an oasis in the midst of a concrete jungle,' said Dowd, a gaunt, ruddy-faced Norman Rockwellesque figure.

Afterward, there is a Norman Rockwellesque church supper.

I saw a rather disturbing cartoon on the Opinion page today..a Norman Rockwellesque family sitting down to a serving of bin Laden.

(chiefly US) Characteristic of the artwork of Norman Rockwell, particularly his idealistic, quaint, or sentimental portrayals of American life.


schwing

The term is an onomatopoeia of the sound a sword makes when drawn from a metal scabbard. Popularized by the Wayne's World sketch on the television show Saturday Night Live.

What a babe! Schwing!

(slang, US) An exclamation of excitement or physical attraction.


scissorbill

(US, archaic) Synonym of razorback: a variety of pig.

(US, derogatory) A fool, an incompetent; a yokel, a hick.


shanks' mare

en-noun

shanks' mare (countable and uncountable, plural shanks' mares)

The expression -- believed to be Scottish in origin -- derives from shanks' nag (shanks-naig 1774), referring to the use of shank to refer to the part of the human leg between the knee and ankle. One theory cites "shank's mare" derived from a horse-drawn lawn mower, manufactured by Shanks & Company Ltd. (founded 1853) which required that the human operator walk behind the device to guide the horse; however, references to the phrase in Scottish literature pre-date the existence of the Shanks lawn mower.

“Well! Well! Here's Aunt Cannie. Waiting for your car?”
“No suh, Mr. Henry. Shank's mare is plenty good fer me. I been ridin' dis ol' mare for more'n a hund'ed years.”

1923, Harris Dickson, “The Proof”, in The Red Book Magazine, volume 41, number 6:

Once they take to Shanks' mare, they are all equal.

1942. Transit Journal, McGraw Hill, page 173http://books.google.com/books?id=7GcTAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Shanks'+mare%22&dq=%22Shanks'+mare%22&lr=&ei=4plgR9OWE5KetAOy0sGDBw&pgis=1

A public exhibition of the velocipede [a predecessor of the bicycle] ... will never come into general use in competition with Shank's mare.

1869. The Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, Iowa, May 1869

The last thing we'd want to be seen doing...is using shanks mare, even though the day is holding up well.

2003. John O'Flaherty, Rafferty, p. 77http://books.google.com/books?id=ZD0F4lbP9EIC&pg=PA77&dq=%22shanks%27+mare%22&lr=&ei=aJpgR-zhHo2msgOt3cHzBg&sig=J03Vw4E0LOtgDggPIwMke5IlAyY

(US, idiomatic) One's own legs used for walking; to "travel by shanks' mare" or "ride [on] shanks' mare" is to walk to your destination.

ir en el coche de San Fernando, un ratito a pie y otro caminando


shovelbum

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

(US, archaeology, humorous) A professional excavator on cultural resource management projects, who has done extensive field work.


shovelbum

en-verb

shovelbum (third-person singular simple present shovelbums, present participle shovelbumming, simple past and past participle shovelbummed)

shovelbums (present singular third-person)
shovelbumming (participle present)
shovelbummed (participle past)
shovelbummed (past)

(US, archaeology, humorous) To excavate, to do archaeology digs.


steely-eyed missile man

en-noun

steely-eyed missile man (plural steely-eyed missile men)

From steely-eyed (“having a hard, strong, and determined mentality or mindset”) + missile + man, probably popularized by its use in the book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 (1994) by the American astronaut Jim Lovell (born 1928) and the American author and journalist Jeffrey Kluger (born 1954); and the film based on the book, Apollo 13 (1995), where capsule communicator 1 Andy (acted by Brett Cullen) says to a technician (Walter von Huene) whose team has devised a solution to a problem with the spacecraft’s carbon dioxide filters: “You, sir, are a steely-eyed missile man.” The book implies that the term was in use at least during the early years of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which was established in 1958: see the quotation.

compound

The "hold" in the countdown of a rocket firing has a long and infamous history. It doubtless is as old as the "countdown" itself. We Brevardians have seen thousands upon thousands of pictures of countdowns in progress, of green lights flashing, green buttons being pushed, fuming LOX [liquid oxygen] boiling off, steely-eyed missile men battening hatches and astronauts climbing aboard.

1973 May 13, Emsley Armfield, “Picture this … a countdown stops”, in Brevard Sentinel: An Edition of the Orlando Sentinel Star, Orlando, Fla.: Sentinel Star Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 4:

Among the men in the Canaveral blockhouse and the Houston control room, there was no greater tribute a controller could be paid than to describe him, in the rough poetry of the rocketry community, as a "steely-eyed missile man." There weren't many steely-eyed missile men in the nasa family. [Wernher] Von Braun was certainly one, [Christopher Columbus] Kraft was certainly one, [Gene] Kranz was probably one too. John Aaron, a twenty-seven-year-old wunderkind from Oklahoma, had recently become one as well.

1994, Jim Lovell, Jeffrey Kluger, chapter 6, in Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 157:

At first glance, the stolid engineers and impassive pilots of the Apollo program weren't colorful movie characters. As [Ron] Howard [director of Apollo 13 (1995)] got to know the stoic astronauts and "steely-eyed missile men" of Mission Control, he saw their sense of humor, their wilder sides and the doubts they carry like everyone else.

1995 June 28, Jane Summer, “Tom Hanks, co-stars relive ‘NASA’s finest hour’”, in Dave Long, editor, Pharos-Tribune, volume 151, number 153, Logansport, Ind.: Logansport Newspapers, page A10, columns 5–6:

When [Ron] Howard toured nasa, he learned that the visitors' favorite question was: How do you pee in space? "Well," he decided, "that means we'll have to show it in the movie." So they do. Added [Tom] Hanks: "Maybe in the sequel we'll show how they go doo-doo." Spoken like a steely-eyed missile man.

1995 July 3, Richard Corliss, “Hell of a Ride: With Tom Hanks as the Pilot, Apollo 13 is a Stirring Tribute to the Heroes who Fly High in the Face of Failure [film review]”, in Time, volume 146, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 53, column 1:

“Message reads: ‘Houston, be advised: Rich Purnell is a steely-eyed missile man’.” / “What?” Brendan asked. “Who the hell is Rich Purnell?”

2011, Andy Weir, chapter 16, in The Martian, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishing Group, published 2014, →ISBN, page 213:

NASA Entry Flight Director Tony Ceccacci said the motto in Mission Control is "flight controllers don't cry." He tried to remain stoic – like a steely eyed missile man – after his team guided Atlantis and its crew through an era-ending atmospheric re-entry. "This will be the last time this team will be together," Ceccacci said, struggling to maintain his composure.

2012 February, Elaine E. Liston, “July”, in Chronology of KSC [Kennedy Space Center] and KSC Related Events for 2011 (NASA/TM-2012-216309), Merritt Island, Fla.: John F. Kennedy Space Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, page 210:

The three astronauts – Commander Yuri Malenchenko, a steely eyed missile man and veteran of six space flights; Tim Kopra, the American NASA flight engineer, who doesn't seem to mind being 'the other Tim,' for today at least; the man of the moment, Major Tim Peake, second flight engineer, the first British ESA [European Space Agency] astronaut, who is grabbing all the headlines in the UK – have a busy morning ahead of them.

2017, Dallas Campbell, “Preface”, in Ad Astra: An Illustrated Guide to Leaving the Planet, London: Simon & Schuster UK, →ISBN, page 10, column 1:

D[avid] M[arshall]: […] Tell me about your steely-eyed missile man nickname. […] J[ohn] A[aron]: Well you know, I ran across the term, steely-eyed missile man a year before that. There was a group of thinkers even back in the—maybe it goes all the way back to military that they were kicking around this thing called steely-eyed missile man. […] I think it, particularly in the early days of NASA, […] it just had to do with the way people react when calamities happen. If they act calmly. It was not a term that was used much in Houston. In fact, it was not even a term that they coined, I don't think, having to do with anything I did in real time. It just kind of evolved. People kind of discovered that term. […] DM: Did anyone call you that at NASA? JA: No. Unh-uh. […] I probably didn't go through all the wickets to deserve that reputation. I mean, I probably do fit the mold. But I'm not the only guy there who was a steely-eyed missile man.

2017 October 26, John Aaron, interviewee, David Marshall, interviewer, Oral History Interview of John Aaron (NASA Interview Project), Lubbock, Tex.: Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, archived from the original on 2024-03-15, pages 65–66:

(US, astronautics, often humorous, slang) An astronaut or engineer who quickly comes up with a solution to a difficult problem while under extreme pressure.

Apollo 12
Apollo 13
Brett Cullen
Jeffrey Kluger
Jim Lovell
John Aaron
NASA
YouTube


thermokinetic

From thermo- + kinetic, the former element referring to thermodynamics.

(US) Pertaining to two related subjects which are often taught simultaneously in most undergraduate physical chemistry courses, typically before the students learn quantum mechanics.


UMOC

(US university and university slang) Initialism of ugly man on campus.


Tinker to Evers to Chance

Baseball's Sad Lexicon
New York Evening Mail

A reference to a double play completed by Chicago Cubs shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance, famously eulogized in a poem.

The sonarman picks up the enemy, shoots the position to the radar controller sitting near him, and the radar controller, in a Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance play, vectors a hovering helicopter to the spot.

1957 September, “Can we defend our coasts against Russian subs?”, in Popular Science, volume 171, number 3, page 161:

It was like Tinker to Evers to Chance. Colson-Chance then flipped the good news to Hugh Scott, who read Mrs. Beard's denial on the Senate floor that same day.

1974, Carl Bernstein with Bob Woodward, All the President's Men, page 256:

When it comes to computers, though, systems integration is too often more reminiscent of the Keystone Kops than Tinker to Evers to Chance.

Prothrombin-to-thrombin-to-fibrin had a Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance simplicity that was 100 percent American in some way.

1998, Allen B. Weisse, The staff and the serpent, page 61:

Spiegel caught the names Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg, whom he gathered were a kind of upscale Tinker to Evers to Chance.

2001, Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark, page 204:

... a financial Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance operation involving Bankers Life and Casualty, plus an old company called Hotel Men's Mutual Benefit Association, ....

2008, Nancy Kriplen, The eccentric billionaire: John D. MacArthur-- empire builder, reluctant, page 67:

(US, idiomatic) A task accomplished quickly by well-executed teamwork; those involved in the teamwork.


WARNO

Information not available for inclusion in the initial WARNO can be included in subsequent warning

2006. Mir Bahmanyar, Shadow Warriors: A History of the US Army, Page 216 http://books.google.com/books?id=SXv32iVfb1kC&pg=PA216&dq=warno&ei=U49LR-HuOqDktQOGgI3wBg&sig=aZzxJSAvgCueY0iyJiVls7f4hZ8

Only address if essential to the WARNO.

2007, U. S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army Ranger Handbook, page 16:

(US, military) Abbreviation of warning order.


checkoff

en-noun

checkoff (countable and uncountable, plural checkoffs)

Frye can help Seattles defense recognize formations, checkoffs and tendencies.

2007 November 4, The Associated Press, “Early Trade Turned Browns Season Around”, in New York Times:

(US) The collection of union dues or other fees from employees via deductions from their wages.

(US) The optional allocation of part of a citizen's income tax towards the presidential election campaign fund.

(US) A tax on sales of agricultural goods in order to finance a generic commodity marketing program.


checkroom

(US) A room where outdoor clothing or luggage may be temporarily stored.


coziness

coziness (usually uncountable, plural cozinesses)

cozinesses (plural)
cosiness (alternative)

(chiefly Canada, US) The state or quality of being cozy.


Plains

(US, with "the") The Great Plains region of North America.


truthiness

From truthy + -ness. Modern sense coined by American comedian Stephen Colbert 17 October 2005 on his show The Colbert Report.

coin

'Cause you're looking at a straight-shooter, America. I tell it like it is. I calls 'em like I sees 'em. I will speak to you in plain simple English. And that brings us to tonight's word: truthiness.

[2005 October 17, Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, season 1, episode 1 (television production):

Even in the halls of Congress, economic arguments against immigration are losing their aura of truthiness, so pro-enforcement types are focusing on national security.

2006 August/September, “Immigration now, immigration tomorrow, immigration forever: reason's guide to reality-based reform”, in Reason, Reason Foundation, →ISSN:

Like the contemporary urban myth, tales of stomach frogs and "bosom serpents" persisted because they have truthiness.

(US, colloquial) Superficial or asserted truthfulness, without recourse to evidence.


intermissionless

For roughly the next hour of the play's intermissionless 100 minutes, this sense of song weaving awkwardly through the prosaic, repetitive business of a party that changes little from year to year is wonderfully sustained, and it is a compliment to say that you are rarely aware of the period scenery (David Jenkins), costumes (Jane Greenwood) or the subtly shifting lighting (Jennifer Tipton). - http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9C03E2D71138F93AA15753C1A96F958260

(US) Without an intermission; without a pause between acts in the performance of a play or in a film on television


Bronx cheer

/ˌbɹɒŋks ˈt͡ʃɪə/

/ˌbɹɑŋks ˈt͡ʃɪɹ/

Believed to originate from the making of the sound during sporting and other events in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York, USA.

Princeton's defeat by Annapolis is regretted here as the Staggs say if they win in the East it won't be held as such-a-much, whereas if Chicago loses the East will grin and give Western football the jolly old Bronx cheer.

1921 October 19, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., page 16, columns 4–5:

There is no reason, no sound reason—forgetting once more the beer-weeping—why our restaurants should not step out and claim the world's championship, give the homemade product the Bronx cheer, and have done with all this nonsense.

1937 April, Donald Hough, “Keep the Home Pies Burning: There’s Nothing so Soggy, so Flavorless or Indigestible as Home-cooked Dinner on the Farm”, in Arnold Gingrich, editor, Esquire: The Magazine for Men, volume VII, number 4 (number 41 overall), Chicago, Ill.: Esquire, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 164, column 3:

"Why doesn't he write a few words to you? Or you could write a few words to him." / "A Bronx cheer on you." / "It's my letter," Teddy said. / "I don't care who writes it," said Newman. "I could write a message for you wishing him luck. I could say you hope he gets out of here soon." / "A Bronx cheer to that."

1973, Bernard Malamud, “The Letter”, in Rembrandt’s Hat, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published 1986, →ISBN, page 105:

In London or New York in the late 1970s dada meant what it meant in Paris and New York at the end of the First World War: a not-quite-naked prank, a jape clothed in the barest g-string of aesthetic authority, a Bronx cheer in three-part harmony, Tzara's affirmation of the right “to piss and shit in different colors.”

1989, Greil Marcus, “The Art of Yesterday's Crash”, in Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:

The original ending [of Charles Ives's Symphony No. 2] is preferable; the final dissonance in the published version is a Bronx cheer completely out of the spirit of the rest of the work.

1990, J. Peter Burkholder, “‘Quotation’ and Paraphrase in Ives’s Second Symphony”, in Joseph Kerman, editor, Music at the Turn of Century: A 19th-century Music Reader (California Studies in 19th-century Music; 7), Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, footnote 34, page 53:

He [Louis XIV of France] lost major battles and wars, signed ruinous treaties, handed over territories to his enemies, and so completely undermined his personal reputation that in 1715 his corpse was greeted with Bronx cheers as it went to its resting place.

2004, Steven Englund, “Power (III): Naming It (From Citizen Consul to Emperor of the French)”, in Napoleon: A Political Life, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, book III (Contre nous, de la tyrannie), page 247:

As I walked up to the stage, numerous members of the audience recognized me and mostly yelled out, "Good luck," though there were some Bronx cheers. I felt like a heavyweight fighter approaching the ring to the cheers and boos of the crowd.

2014, Doug Kass, “Buffett Watch”, in Doug Kass on the Market: A Life on the Street, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 409:

raspberry

(US, idiomatic) Synonym of raspberry (“a sound intended to resemble flatulence made by blowing air out of the mouth while the tongue is protruding from and pressed against the lips, used humorously or to express disdain or scorn”)


swagman

From swag (“items stolen by a thief; unlawfully obtained goods; (Australia, New Zealand) bundle of personal items carried by a tramp, traveller, etc.”) + man.

compound

He is, in the street talk, a swagman, one of perhaps hundreds of hustlers in the city who distribute an estimated $5-million worth of goods ripped off each year at New York's airports, waterfronts, factories and truck parts. [...] According to Tommy, the mob uses swagmen like himself as down-the-line distributors for these large jobs.

1971 November 22, Frank E. Emerson, “They Can Get It for You BETTER Than Wholesale”, in Clay S[chuette] Felker, editor, New York, volume 4, number 47, New York, N.Y.: NYM Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34:

(US, slang) A middleman who buys and sells stolen goods; a fence.


puchito

The Spanish word pucho evolved in Bierzo, a sub-region of Castile and Leon. Normally used as slang for "buddy", it has also loosely been used as a descriptor for a smaller, lesser person by adding the suffix -ito.


brown-bag

en-verb

brown-bag (third-person singular simple present brown-bags, present participle brown-bagging, simple past and past participle brown-bagged)

brown-bags (present singular third-person)
brown-bagging (participle present)
brown-bagged (participle past)
brown-bagged (past)

John brown-bagged it today.


tranquillizer

(US) Alternative spelling of tranquilizer


love letter

Dr Martin says the address the package has been sent to will likely get a "love letter" in the post from Customs.

2016 August 2, Nick Jarvis, “What Happens if You're Caught Getting Drugs in the Mail?”, in Vice:

(US, slang) A notice from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection informing about the seizure of a personal shipment as contraband.


wet boy

(idiomatic, US, slang) A contractor assassin or hit man


sorehead

en-noun

sorehead (countable and uncountable, plural soreheads)

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

From sore + head, perhaps specifically from the simile like (or mad as) a bear with a sore head.

In most of these areas there was improvement between 1920, the year of the second Farmer-Labor ballot and the last election in which the coalition was able to use sorehead tactics, and the special senatorial election of 1923.

1989, Richard M. Valelly, Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American Political Economy, page 41:

Officials walked a tightrope because disappointed voters could join or, if need he, form an opposing coalition, and they could cozy up to "soreheads" who were encouraging merger with Chicago.

2002, Louise Carroll Wade, Chicago's Pride, page 331:

2007, Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago, Volume III: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893, page 341,
Despite the opposition of professional politicians of unsavory reputation and men the Tribune described as “irresponsible soreheads,” the Medill ticket swept into office with a flatteringly large vote.

(derogatory, US, political slang) A politician who is dissatisfied through failure, lack of recognition, etc.


assfuck

assfucks (plural)
arsefuck (alternative)

Too much wetness ruins a good assfuck. The friction is part of what gets me off.

2001, Penthouse Magazine, Letters to Penthouse XII: It Just Gets Hotter, page 124:

And they go on, hanging around me in the pit, talking loudly about assfucks and who spits, who swallows, and how loud they can be when they come.

2001, Phyllis Coletta, Prior Bad Acts, page 43:

(Canada, US, vulgar) Sodomy, anal sex, an act of anal intercourse.

He'd cruised in after work, the week's aggravating assfucks sloughed off...

2005, Michael Amorel, Horror Between the Sheets, page cdxxxviii:

Can't anyone take a nice warm and relaxing bubblebath without some assfuck ruining it?!

Eat my dust, assfuck!

1996-99, Daniel Curzon, "Drivers from Hell", Collected Plays of Daniel Curzon, Volume VI, page 199

(Canada, US, vulgar) A jerk; an obnoxious person.

(Canada, US, vulgar) An act of stunning betrayal.


assfuck

en-verb

assfuck (third-person singular simple present assfucks, present participle assfucking, simple past and past participle assfucked)

assfucks (present singular third-person)
assfucking (participle present)
assfucked (participle past)
assfucked (past)
arsefuck (alternative)

But she can't look away, either, when Barbara and Jack start to assfuck. To Agnes, it looks grotesque. The angle is wrong, like the angle of a broken limb.

2001, Patrick Flynn, Agnes Among the Gargoyles, page 32:

(Canada, US, vulgar) To engage in anal intercourse.

"You boys tried to assfuck me," he said softly, menacingly, "...and it backfired."

2000, Francis Dipietro, Nest: 28 Tales of Pulp Fiction, page 78:

We assfuck their minds.

1997, Meredith Sue Willis, Trespassers, page 218:


graduate student

en-noun

graduate student (plural graduate students)

(Canada, US) A university student, usually already possessing a four-year degree, who is working on a master's degree or Ph.D.


MSM

Meritorious Service Medal
w:Meritorious Service Medal

(military, US) Initialism of Meritorious Service Medal.


potato chip

I'll take a potato chip, and eat it!

2007 December 8, “目線 [Glare]”, in デスノート [Death Note], spoken by Light Yagami (Brad Swaile), Ocean Productions, via Adult Swim:

(Canada, US, Australia, Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong, New Zealand) A potato crisp, a thin slice of potato that has been fried.


dookie

dookie (countable and uncountable, plural dookies)

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

Dookie
Green Day
No Holds Barred (1989 film)

Probably clipping of doo-doo + -kie (diminutive suffix), later repopularized by the 1989 film No Holds Barred and later still the 1994 Green Day album Dookie.

"He stepped in some cow waste; it serves him right. Look at him dancing to get that dookie off those ruined sneakers! Ha-ha-ha! Get down homie!"

2002, – Ashaki Boelter, Hate Begets Hate, page 69:

"That stuff won't be worth a lump of dookie in court. It wouldn't be at all hard for Geale to pull a few strings and get documented permission for having each one of those items."

2002, – Jarrett Oliver, Private Eyes, page 125:

So Alley found a job
Scooping up dookie on the streets

2005 – Ashaki Boelter: In the Name of Love!: All-4-Love Series 2 of 3 http://books.google.com/books?q=%22So+Alley+found+a+job+Scooping+up+dookie+on+the+streets%22&btnG=Search+Books (Reckless Review)

2000 – The Simpsons episode "Little Big Mom"
Bart: Can I go to the bathroom?
Otto: Uh-uh! Say it in snowboard lingo.
Bart: Uh... I've gotta blast a dookie?
Otto: Dook on!

(US, slang, African-American Vernacular) Feces.


dookie

2000 – Ugly Duckling song "Exclusive Snipps": "[Young] Einstein got a dookie gold rope"

(US, slang, African-American Vernacular) Of jewelry: ostentatiously thick.


chocha

/ˈt͡ʃoʊt͡ʃə/

Mienda, with cash flowing like Sosa / And a Latin chick transporting in her chocha

1997, “It's All About the Benjamins”, in No Way Out, performed by Puff Daddy:

Call before you come, I need to shave my chocha

2002, Missy Elliott & Timbaland (lyrics and music), “Work It”, in Under Construction, performed by Missy Elliott:


Colored People's Time

“Colored People's Time,” King said with a grin. “It always takes us longer to get where we're going.”

1967 January 27, Martin Luther King, Jr., quoted in Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound (1994), p. 338

(US, dated derogatory slang, sometimes reclaimed) A notional system of time (or time zone) which others sometimes derogatorily ascribe to African Americans, and which they sometimes jocularly ascribe to themselves, to account for their supposed tendency to be tardy.


in for a dime, in for a dollar

/ɪn fɔɹ ə ˈdaɪm ɪn fɔɹ ə ˈdɒ.lɚ/

en-au-in for a dime, in for a dollar.ogg

Alteration of “in for a penny, in for a pound”, adapted to the denominations of the American currency (£ & d → $ & ¢). Nevertheless, “in for a penny, in for a pound” is used in the United States as well.

In for a dime, in for a dollar, he thought crazily, and said what he had to say in a voice he forced to stay level and calm.

In for a dime, in for a dollar. I whispered to Gerry, “Count me in”. Heroin was unromantic, neither sacred nor satanic; it was simply inevitable.

1998, Ellen Miller, Like Being Killed, page 47:

This obligation flows from the principle recognized in virtually all jurisdictions that when the policyholder is required to defend any one claim, all elements of the case must be defended (i.e., “in for a dime, in for a dollar”).

1999, David A. Gauntlett, Insurance Coverage for Intellectual Property Assets, page CCXCI:

I had bought some of Cemp’s MGM stock for myself. “Listen”, I told Edgar, “in for a dime, in for a dollar”. There was no point in selling at $8. If we were going to lose we might as well lose the whole thing.

2003, Leo Kolber, Leo: a life, page 183:

in for a penny, in for a pound
in for a penny, in for a pound

(US) Americanized form of in for a penny, in for a pound.

one may as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb


oftentime

Inherited from the Middle English oftyntyme; equivalent to often + time. Compare oftentimes.

(chiefly US, uncommon) (elsewhere, archaic) Synonym of oftentimes


oftentime

(chiefly US, rare) (elsewhere, archaic) Synonym of frequent


pea-time

pea-time (countable and uncountable, plural pea-times)

(US, uncommon) The time when peas ripen: pea season.


petameter

petameters (plural)
petametre (alternative)

(US) (metrology) An SI unit of length equal to 10¹⁵ meters; alternative spelling of petametre.


fitted cap

(US) A baseball cap that is not elasticated or adjustable at the back.


Lincoln Logs

Named after Abraham Lincoln; instructions for building a model of his cabin were originally included.

(US) A construction toy consisting of miniature, notched logs from which log cabins and similar buildings may be made.


no-trade clause

no-trade clause (plural no-trade clauses)

(US, sports) A clause in a contract by players who do not wish to be traded without their consent.


sexile

en-verb

sexile (third-person singular simple present sexiles, present participle sexiling, simple past and past participle sexiled)

sexiles (present singular third-person)
sexiling (participle present)
sexiled (participle past)
sexiled (past)

As a happening dude or lady with a happening roommate, you should be prepared to get "sexiled" from your bedroom while someone gets intimate.

2000, Harvard Lampoon, The Harvard Lampoon's guide to college admissions: the comprehensive, authoritative, and utterly useless source for where to go and how to get in, Warner Books, page 123

We promised to never "sexile" each other (kick your roommate out of the room for the purposes of hooking up).

a'''2004, unnamed college student, Heather Alexander, quoted in Sharing Spaces: Tips and Strategies on Being a Good College Roommate, Surviving a Bad One, and Dealing with Everything in Between, Simon and Schuster (2004), page 137

Charlotte arrives intent on doing just that, and at first asserts her lil' backwoods self against the bitchy Groton roommate who "sexiles" her from their dorm room the night before an exam.

2004 November 28, Jacob Weisberg, “'I Am Charlotte Simmons': Peeping Tom”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

I guess I was being sexiled all three times and didn't realize it.

2006, Teresa Botial Richardson, Am I Black Or Right, AuthorHouse, page 11

(US university slang) To banish somebody, usually one's roommate, from the room for the privacy to have sex.


Internal Revenue Service

the Internal Revenue Service (canonical)

(US, finance, taxation) The United States government agency that collects taxes and enforces the internal revenue laws.


tax clinic

(US) A volunteer organization where income tax returns are prepared for qualifying low income tax payers.


watchstander

(US) A person who is on watch on a ship.


dimensional lumber

en-noun

dimensional lumber (usually uncountable, plural dimensional lumbers)

(US) Lumber that is finished/planed and cut to standardized width and depth specified in inches.


ASROC

(US, military, nautical) Abbreviation of Anti-Submarine Rocket (an antisubmarine missile system)


midnight chow

1917, in United States Marine Corps, The Marines Magazine, C. A. Ketcham (1917), page 27,
After the ball was over and the taxi-cab was underway some one suggested midnight chow, permitted by the censor.

1957, Walter Sullivan, Quest for a Continent, McGraw-Hill, page 217,
Chief Petty Officer Paul Saylor, an electronics technician, and one of his men set out from the Operations Hut for their midnight chow. It was broad daylight, even at that hour, but visibility was literally zero.

2007, Michael C. Hodges, A Doctor Looks at War: My Year in Iraq, Tate Publishing, →ISBN, page 188,
After quick greetings to those who were still awake, some of our group went to eat at the midnight chow, some went to use the phones, some went to shower, and others, like me, just went to sleep.

(US, military, informal) A meal served in the mess hall around midnight or later.


Irish pennant

(US, British) A loose thread of a naval or military uniform; also the loose end of any knot not tied properly


thrift shop

thrift shops (plural)
thriftshop (alternative)

Some thrift shops, glutted with flimsy, synthetic wares, have stopped accepting fast-fashion donations.

2021 February 6, Rachel Monroe, “Ultra-fast Fashion Is Eating the World”, in The Atlantic:

(US) A shop which sells mainly used goods (especially clothes) at low prices.


rounder

It becomes quite apparent that not all first rounders are created equal. A sixth-overall pick is approximately twice as valuable as a 30th-overall selection, which would be important for NHL front offices and outside observers to keep in mind when they casually discuss the idea of trading pending UFA rental players at the cost of a first-rounder.

2015 February 24, Stephen Burch, “Analyzing the value of NHL draft picks”, in Sportsnet:

(Canada, US, informal, in combination) A sports league draft selection in a specified round or the player drafted with that selection.


twomp

The name derives from hip hop. It may also come from resembling a thwomp (rectangular stone enemy character) from the Super Mario series. It takes this appearance when it is tightly packed into a small plastic bag and the edges become ruffled.

However, last night we scored a twomp (20 sack) of this extremely chronic weed, and we hotboxed Shaun's car...I was GONE. Just out of it. Almost uncomfortably stoned.

1998 July 21, "TSmith6235", “Re: Those new Partnership for a drug-free America commercials...”, in alt.drugs.pot (Usenet):

[…] twomp is twenty, so a twomp-sack is a 20 sack, generally a tiny bit over a gram of green (prices are outrageous).

1998 August 23, Alexander Carlton, “Re: Doser aka A. Carlton vs. WUZ”, in rec.music.hip-hop (Usenet):

[replying to: Resell value is very high for weed...mmmmm] You're telling me. $20 a twomp? Fucking outrageous.

1999 February 13, "Michelle", “Re: shitty tips in the past week”, in alt.pizza.delivery.drivers (Usenet):

HAHAHAHAHAHA i ^([sic]) get at leat ^([sic]) 6 grams in a twomp […]

2000 January 13, "BilG4", “Re: How long does a $20 sack last you?”, in rec.drugs.cannabis (Usenet):

(US, slang) 20 U.S. dollars' worth of marijuana.

it's only gonna cost a twomp, right? hella cheap.

1999 April 7, Edmund Lee, “uop's banquet”, in ucd.org.fraternity.a-phi-o.d (Usenet):


dittany

dittany (countable and uncountable, plural dittanies)

From Old French ditan (French dictame), from Latin dictamnum, from Ancient Greek δίκταμνον (díktamnon), reportedly from Δίκτη (Díktē, “Dicte”), a mountain in Crete on whose slopes the plant grew.

common dittany, stone mint, frost mint, American dittany

(US) A fragrant herb in the mint family native to the eastern United States (Cunila origanoides).


alternate energy

alternative energy
alternative energy#English

(US) Alternative spelling of alternative energy


black belt

black belts (plural)
Black Belt (alternative)

From black + belt, originally named after the dark soil.

Bernard Cosman found that in Georgia, it was the black belt whites who gave Goldwater his largest percentage of the vote.

1992, Hanes Walton, The Native Son Presidential Candidate: The Carter Vote in Georgia, →ISBN, page 5:

(US, southern) A geographic region where the residents are predominantly or exclusively African-American.


time-traveler

(US) Alternative spelling of time-traveller


tract home

True, there were a dismaying number of these in Rockland County, and each year brought more as high-rise condominiums and $2 million tract homes were being constructed along the scenic river or gouged out of rolling farmland.

2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age : A Romance, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 63:

They were referring, of course, to that vast expanse of tract homes and backyard barbecues that is the San Fernando Valley.

2002 April 20, Joseph Kahn, “San Fernando Valley Looks To a Life After Los Angeles”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


Cadillac

en-adj

Cadillac (comparative more Cadillac, superlative most Cadillac)

more Cadillac (comparative)
most Cadillac (superlative)

From French Cadillac, from Occitan Cadilhac.
Most places or objects named Cadillac are named for Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, a French explorer who founded the eponymous city in Maine and later the city of Detroit, Michigan.

Red Wiggler, the Cadillac of worms.

(US) Describing a brand representing the most luxurious or highest quality example in its class. (derived from the GM car brand Cadillac)


number 2 pencil

en-noun

number 2 pencil (plural number 2 pencils)

number 2 pencils (plural)
№ 2 pencil (alternative)

I snapped to rigid attention when the teacher barked, "Clear your desks, get your number two pencils out, and get ready for your exam." Exam! What exam?

1990, Allender Crabb, Lawrence J. Crabb, Larry Crabb, Dan B. Allender, Encouragement: The Key to Caring, page 30:

You shall not, I repeat, not, touch them with your finely sharpened number-two pencils or any other marking instrument until you are explicitly told to do so.

2003, Trey Ellis, Platitudes: & the New Black Aesthetic, page 64:

In using this system, absentee voters were instructed to mark their ballots with number two pencils. The optical scanner rejected ballots which were marked with instruments other than number two pencils.

2006, Barry H. Weinberg, The Resolution of Election Disputes: Legal Principles That Control Election, page 128:

"Mrs. Landry, I forgot to bring my number two pencils! Does that mean I flunk this test?" Big tears filled Joey's eyes.

2006, Barbara Slater Stern, curriculum and teaching dialogue: V. 8, page 33:

(US, Philippines) A pencil which produces a specific shade of dark gray. One can usually identify a number 2 pencil by looking for the number "2" conspicuously emblazoned on the pencil. Often required for test-taking and the completion of official forms.

How would that yellow number 2 pencil look as an ornament, inserted through a pierced ear-lobe or nasal septum?

1997, Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, page 1:

Stand back as we attempt to capture and charm the most poisonous lead on your desk — the diamondback Number 2 pencil!

2002, Irv Furman, Amazing Irv's Handbook of Everyday Magic, page 78:

I do the actual writing on my computer, of course, but I find that jotting down notes with a number 2 pencil gets my brain working in a new way, helps me see the facts from a different angle.

2004, Kate White, 'Til Death Do Us Part, page 28:

(US) A standard, ordinary pencil; one which is not colored or mechanical or in any other way unusual.


sock hop

sock hops (plural)
sockhop (alternative)
sock-hop (alternative)

Because dancers were required to remove their shoes to protect the varnished floor of the gymnasium.

But unlike any other nostalgia film, American Graffiti has been able to supply the details and step quickly beyond them—after the opening scenes, they're just assumed pieces of background. The words are there […] and the staging of a sock hop in the gym is virtually flawless, but they are part of a total experience, not the experience itself.

1973 October, Joseph Kanon, “On the Strip”, in The Atlantic:

I had no idea then how boys wooed girls. I guessed it was a matter of joshing and shared nothings and hours of scuffing through autumn leaves and even more hours of clenches during the slow numbers at the sock hop.

2005 June 13, Edmund White, “My Women”, in New Yorker:

“I Knew You Were Trouble,” one of the year’s great pop songs, begins like a sock-hop anthem, with jaunty guitars.

2012 October 24, Jon Caramanica, “No More Kid Stuff for Taylor Swift”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, historical) In the 1950s, informal sponsored dance at American high schools, typically held on the grounds of the high school itself in the gymnasium or cafeteria.


stuffed animal

(US, Canada) A soft toy in the form of an animal.


mountain hare

Lepus americanus
Lepus americanus#Translingual

(Canada, US) Any of various hares found in mountainous country, especially the snowshoe hare, Lepus americanus, and the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendi).


soup sandwich

An expression of military origin, calling to mind a picture of soup being poured over bread.

That's as messed up as a soup sandwich.

That guy is a big soup sandwich.

“Right now it’s all still very much a soup sandwich,” said the Army official of the ongoing planning efforts, “but we expect to trot the whole thing out in April.”

2005 January 27, Jon R. Anderson, “Army wrapping up work on final draft of 1st Infantry Division relocation plan”, in Stars and Stripes, retrieved 2009-09-08:

(US, idiomatic) Someone or something that is not as it should be; something disorganized or unfinished.


pumpjack

pumpjacks (plural)
pump jack (alternative)

(US) The ground-based drive for a submerged pump in an oil borehole.


Vice President

Vice Presidents (plural)
Vice-President (alternative)

Section. 4. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

1787 September 17, Constitutional Convention, “Article II”, in Constitution of the United States, Philadelphia, page 3:

The only responsibility and power of the Vice President under the Constitution is to faithfully count the electoral college votes as they have been cast.
The Constitution does not empower the Vice President to alter in any way the votes that have been cast, either by rejecting certain of them or otherwise.
How the Vice President discharges this constitutional obligation is not a question of his loyalty to the President any more than it would be a test of a President’s loyalty to his Vice President
whether the President assented to the impeachment and prosecution of his Vice President for the commission of high crimes while in office.
No President and no Vice President would—or should—consider either event as a test of political loyalty of one to the other.
And if either did, he would have to accept that political loyalty must yield to constitutional obligation.
Neither the President nor the Vice President has any higher loyalty than to the Constitution.

2021 January 5, J. Michael Luttig, Twitter, archived from the original on 2021-01-05, 2:39:10; republished as The Washington Post, 2021 January 5:

(US) The holder of the secondary office to the President of the United States, who is first in line of succession to the President, and also acts as presiding officer of the United States Senate.


pizza pie

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


stump dump

(US) a landfill site consisting of wood waste, such as tree stumps.


punching bag

/ˈpʌnt͡ʃɪŋ ˌbæɡ/

/ˈpʌnt͡ʃɪŋ ˌbæɡ/

A tough bag, usually cylindrical, filled with air, sand, or other material, often suspended so that it swings freely, which is punched or kicked when practising sports such as boxing or martial arts.

كيس ملاكمة

tough bag punched or kicked when practising sports such as boxing or martial arts


stubby

While most stubbies looked alike, there was one distinct stubby brought out by Carling-O′Keefe.[…]The era of the stubby was short, however. Although a superior container, it was not chic enough for the 1980s drinker.

1998, Randy Ray, Mark Kearney, The Great Canadian Trivia, page 201:

Annie looked at him a bit surprised and came in, and he realized she carried a bottle of beer with her. Not a stubby, but a long neck.

2002, A. S. Finney, Gully Ghost, US: Eloquent Books, page 74:

Near the memorial were some wine casks and an unopened stubby of beer, whose label was yet to fade, which had been left to slake the thirst of the deceased.

2004, Michael McGirr, Bypass: The Story of a Road, Pan Macmillan Australia, published 2005, page 117:

Another notable thing that happens this month is the debut of Spycatcher on Star TV.[…]But come Wednesday night, he sits in the TV room with his stubby of Foster′s beer and watches Steve Nolan catch dirty foreigners (called Commies) selling secrets to some Russian organization called the KGB.

2005, Vikas Swarup, Q & A, Black Swan, published 2006, page 133:

I had everything planned, and later I kept a stubby behind the spare tire of my ′37 Ford until the bottle was better aged than the beer. I don′t know what happened to it but I′m surprised that it didn′t explode with the heat of that summer.

2008, Albert Drake, The Age of Hot Rods: Essays on Rods, Custom Cars and Their Drivers from the 1950s to Today, US: McFarland & Co, page 45:

A schooner (425ml in Queensland), when you allow for the collar, is not much more beer than a stubby. A stubby of home brew costs me 25 cents.

2008, Ron Bowden, The Lazy Brewer′s Handbook, Australia: BOOKSnTHAT, page 4:

The Liquor Trades Union member concedes that both dogs are quite clever, but says his is even cleverer. His dog, named Measure, is told to go and fetch a stubby of beer and pour seven ounces into a ten-ounce glass. It does this perfectly.

2009, Graham Seal, Great Australian Stories: Legends, Yarns and Tall Tales, ReadHowYouWant, published 2010, page 253:

Anyhow, so I goes into the bar and there′s the donkey having a beer with a tourist. See, the way they done it was, they′d hold up the stubby and the donkey would just guzzle it down, like there was no tomorrow.

2009, Bill Marsh, Great Australian Stories: Outback Towns and Pubs, published 2011, unnumbered page:

(Australia, Canada, US) A small, squat beer bottle.


meat and potatoes

The complete attacking secrets of Harry Kane would be a slim volume. His game at its best is beautifully simple: high-energy, highly effective meat and potatoes. He just looks very tired.

15 September 2018, Barney Ronay, “Finely tuned Liverpool are really getting into Jürgen Klopp’s groove”, in The Guardian:

(US, informal) The essential part or parts of something.


chippie

(US, slang) An officer of the California Highway Patrol.


skivvy

Then dark blood squirts from a little hole in Sergeant Gerheim's chest. The red blood blossoms into his white skivvy shirt like a beautiful flower.

1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 30:

I put my wetsuit and skivvy on a tree to dry, and laid out my other gear on some grass.

1998, Tom Byron, The History of Spearfishing and Scuba Diving in Australia, page 191:

‘He looks so good. He shouldn′t be allowed to wear a black skivvy. Doesn′t he have the most amazing muscles?’

2005, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This?, page 224:

The button-down shirts and plain coloured skivvies were replaced by beads, fringed shawls and loose fitting Asian-style tops.

2006, Iain McIntyre, Tomorrow Is Today: Australia in the Psychedelic Era, 1966-1970, page 41:

(US, Australia, New Zealand) A close-fitting, long-sleeved T-shirt with a rolled collar.


slipper chair

She moved over to a slipper chair and put her head back against a white cushion that lay along the back of the chair against the wall.

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, pages 241–2:

I was intellect itself, weighing the possibility of blocking the door with the dresser and bed, surveying the room for weapons – the elegant old hat-rack, the slipper-chairs.

1981, John Gardner, Freddy's Book, Abacus, published 1982, page 48:

(US) An upholstered chair with a low seat and a high back.


colonizer

Don't scare me like that, colonizer!

2018 January 29, Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole, Black Panther, spoken by Shuri (Letitia Wright):

"Howard University is supposed to be a safe space for black people and we don't need you colonizers infiltrating it," said Charlemagne, radio personality and the co-host of The Breakfast Club.

2019 April 25, Dream McClinton, “Dog walkers at Howard University infringe on 'black Mecca', students say”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 2021-11-06:

"Disgusted isn't even close to a word for it," they wrote. "How?? how is this okay?? she was a REAL LITTLE GIRL — to do this her, to us, over and over again… i am just at a loss. disgusting. does she not deserve rest? reclamation? honor? you colonizers make me vom," she wrote.

2022 March 9, Samantha Ibrahim, “Marvel switching 'King Conan' character after indigenous community backlash”, in New York Post, archived from the original on 2022-03-15:

Jokes and memes about colonizers' bland-ass food resonate, and not because of their originality or comedic genius; implicit in those quips is a declaration of allegiance with people whose ancestral lands were once plundered by colonial powers for spices and other riches.

2022 August 23, Jenny G. Zhang, “What We Talk About When We Talk About "White People Food"”, in Bon Appétit, archived from the original on 2022-12-14:

(US, Canada, slang, derogatory, neologism) A white person.


processioning

Harris said N. Bacon, in the said line and processionings, did not constitute such an adverse possession, as would enable N. Wilkinson or those claiming under him, to maintain trespass against Izard Bacon

1823, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of Appeals:

(US) A proceeding prescribed by statute for ascertaining and fixing the boundaries of land.


complected

light-complected ― with a light complexion

The station agent was a barrel-shaped man deep in his middle age, pasty-complected and soft.

2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet (2017), page 181:

(US, in combination) Having a specified complexion; complexioned.


eighth note

(Canada, US, music) A note having one-eighth the duration of a whole note; a quaver.


call the ball

en-verb

call the ball (third-person singular simple present calls the ball, present participle calling the ball, simple past and past participle called the ball)

calls the ball (present singular third-person)
calling the ball (participle present)
called the ball (participle past)
called the ball (past)

- Maverick, call the ball.

(US naval aviation) When landing on a US aircraft carrier: to sight the lights from the multi-colored optical landing system that shows a pilot to be on the correct approach path or how to correct the approach path.


committeeman

(US) A man who is a local leader of a political party


committeewoman

(US) A woman who is a local leader of a political party.


vacation home

(US) A building or piece of property used as a secondary residence for vacation purposes; may be rented to others when not in use.


concertize

concertize (third-person singular simple present concertizes, present participle concertizing, simple past and past participle concertized)

concertizes (present singular third-person)
concertizing (participle present)
concertized (participle past)
concertized (past)

I have been concertizing for the last three years, and studying alone.

Of the great romantic pianists, Vladimir Horowitz and Serkin are the only ones still actively concertizing.

1988 October 14, Dennis Polkow, “Serkin and Solti”, in Chicago Reader:


concertmaster

From concert + master, as a calque of German Konzertmeister.

(music, US) The first violin in a symphony orchestra; normally plays violin solos

канцэртма́йстар

the first violin in a symphony orchestra


milo

en-noun

milo (countable and uncountable, plural milos)

Probably related to Portuguese milho (“millet”). In early European accounts, millet and sorghum were often confused.

When he does talk, it's always about the farm: the milo is doing poorly this year, the corn has a blight[…]