normalcy

en-noun

normalcy (countable and uncountable, plural normalcies)

The homosexual dismisses heterosexual love as a distasteful bondage to normalcy and bourgeois domestication, but the Platonic lover of the soul is dismissing all sexuality as bondage to the physical world.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 193:

I’ve been consistently awed by how good designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures.

2001, Jeffery Veen, The Art & Science of Web Design, →ISBN, page 104:

(US) The state of being normal; the fact of being normal; normality.

κανονικότητα f (kanonikótita, literally “regularity”)


boy in blue

(UK, US, slang, chiefly in the plural) A policeman.


finif

finifs (plural)
finiff (alternative)
finnif (alternative)
finniff (alternative)

From Yiddish פֿינף (finf, “five”). Doublet of five.

“Kid, I got a finif [a five-dollar bill],” Orlando said. “I'll split it with you.”

2004, Leigh Montville, Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero, →ISBN:

(US slang, dated) A five-dollar bill (note).


cowboy caviar

(US, informal) Baked beans (of various different recipes).

(US, informal) Bean salad (of various different recipes).


fark

en-verb

fark (third-person singular simple present farks, present participle farking, simple past and past participle farked)

farks (present singular third-person)
farking (participle present)
farked (participle past)
farked (past)

From the name of the popular website Fark, because when it links to a small website from its main page, the small site is often subjected to so much new traffic that it is rendered inoperable due to server failure.

(Internet, transitive, US) To subject a website to a high volume of requests, such that the server stops responding.


boonies

Clipping of boondocks + -ies, as if a singular *boony (“remote place (singular)”). It was shortened as such by 1964 originally among U.S. troops serving in the Vietnam War in reference to the rural areas of Vietnam, as opposed to Saigon.


Cesarian

From Caesar + -ian, but see also Caesarean section § Etymology.


speller

(US) A book used to learn how to spell properly.


validation

en-noun

validation (countable and uncountable, plural validations)

/ˌvæl.əˈdæɪ.ʃən/

From Middle French validation.
Morphologically validate + -ion

(US) The process of identifying a new prisoner's gang affiliation.


distill

en-verb

distill (third-person singular simple present distills, present participle distilling, simple past and past participle distilled)

distills (present singular third-person)
distilling (participle present)
distilled (participle past)
distilled (past)

There is ſome ſoule of goodneſſe in things euill, / VVould men obſeruingly diſtill it out.

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 83, column 2:

My doctrine ſhall drop as the raine: my ſpeach ſhall diſtill as the deaw, as the ſmal raine vpon the tender herbe, and as the ſhowres vpon the graſſe.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 32:2, column 2:

So vvhen tvvo Boars, in vvild Ytene bred, / Or on VVeſtphalia’s fatt’ning Cheſt-nuts fed, / […] / In the black Flood they vvallovv o’er and o’er, / ’Till their arm’d Javvs diſtill vvith Foam and Gore.

[1716], [John] Gay, “Book III. Of Walking the Streets by Night.”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], →OCLC, page 56:

The wine which from yon wounded palm on high / Fills yonder gourd, as slowly it distills, / Grows sour at once if Lorrinite pass by.

1810, Robert Southey, “The Enchantress”, in The Curse of Kehama, London: […] [F]or Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], by James Ballantyne and Co. […], →OCLC, page 113:

Carbonic acid is a limpid colourless body, extremely fluid, and floating upon the other contents of the tube. It distills readily and rapidly at the difference of temperature between 32° and 0°.

1823 November 30, Michael Faraday, “LXXXVI. On Fluid Chlorine. […]”, in Alexander Tilloch, Richard Taylor, editors, The Philosophical Magazine and Journal: Comprehending the Various Branches of Science, the Liberal and Fine Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, volume LXII, number 307, London: […] Richard Taylor, […]; and sold by Cadell; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; […], →OCLC, page 419:


SPC

St. Petersburg College
w:St. Petersburg College

(US) Initialism of St. Petersburg College.

Storm Prediction Center
w:Storm Prediction Center

(US) Initialism of Storm Prediction Center (United States NOAA)

Southwest Preparatory Conference
w:Southwest Preparatory Conference

(US) Initialism of Southwest Preparatory Conference.


dub sack

(US, slang) A bag of marijuana worth twenty dollars.


neoconservatism

en-noun

neoconservatism (countable and uncountable, plural neoconservatisms)

Coordinate term: paleoconservatism

(US) A right-wing political movement that opposes liberalism in economic areas and supports an interventionist foreign policy.

新保守主義 /新保守主义

(US) a right-wing political movement that opposes liberalism in economic areas and supports an interventionist foreign policy


boodle

boodle (countable and uncountable, plural boodles)

From Dutch boedel. Doublet of bottle (in the sense of "house").

He pulled off his coat and threw it down, and declared he'd fight the whole boodle of 'em

January 4 1833, Jack Downing, letter to Ephraim Downing:

(US, dialect) The whole collection or lot; caboodle.

Send the first boodle in an airtight container so that there is a place for the storage of future packages […] Suggestions for Boodle: cookies, candy, individual packets of drink mixes (sugar-free), raisins, nuts, gum.

1986, The Parent's Guidebook to West Point, page 62:

(US, slang, West Point) Candy and snacks.


pentasulfide

(US) Alternative spelling of pentasulphide


catamount

catamounts (plural)
catty-mount (alternative)

Clipping of catamountain (“leopard, panther; ocelot; man living in the mountains”), from Late Middle English catamountain, from Middle English catte of the mountayne, cate of þe mounttaynne (“leopard, panther”).

clipping

Uncle Charley's voice was very soft and there was a weary note in it. "Great snarlin' catamounts, but I'm tired."

1920, Peter B[ernhard] Kyne, chapter VIII, in The Understanding Heart, Toronto, Ont.: The Copp Clark Co., →OCLC, pages 144–145:

'He would have rid that horse, too,' pa says, 'if I hadn't a stopped him. A durn spotted critter wilder than a catty-mount. A deliberate flouting of her and me.'

1930, William Faulkner, “Darl”, in As I Lay Dying (Penguin Modern Classics), Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books in association with Chatto & Windus, published 1980, →ISBN, page 81:

Puma concolor
Puma concolor#Translingual

(US) A wild animal of the family Felidae, especially the cougar, mountain lion or puma (Puma concolor).


counteroffensive

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

As the war slogs on, a growing flow of Western weapons over the summer is now playing a key role in the counteroffensive, helping Ukraine significantly boost its precision strike capability.
Since the counteroffensive began, Ukraine said, its forces have reclaimed more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region.

2022 September 11, Yuras Karmanau, “Ukraine pushes major counteroffensive as war marks 200 days”, in AP News, archived from the original on 2022-09-11:


counteroffensive

en-adj

counteroffensive (comparative more counteroffensive, superlative most counteroffensive)

more counteroffensive (comparative)
most counteroffensive (superlative)


spunky

spunky (comparative spunkier, superlative spunkiest)

spunkier (comparative)
spunkiest (superlative)


meagerness

en-noun

meagerness (countable and uncountable, plural meagernesses)

meagernesses (plural)
meagreness (alternative)


unsalable

unsalables (plural)
unsaleable (alternative)


incorporated company

incorporated company (plural incorporated companies)

(US) a company that has been granted a charter legally recognizing it as a separate entity having its own privileges, rights, and liabilities distinct from other businesses and persons.


pimpernel

From Anglo-Norman pimpernele et al., Middle French pimpinelle (“burnet saxifrage”) et al., from Medieval Latin pimpinella, pipinella, most likely from piper (“pepper”) because its fruit resembled peppercorns, although variants may suggest other derivations, bipinnella the bipennis (“two-winged”).

der

(Canada, US) A yellow pimpernel (Taenidia integerrima)


butt pirate

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

(US, slang) A person who engages in anal sex.


jack off

jack offs (plural)
J-O (alternative)
J/O (alternative)

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

Nonstandard spelling of jackoff (“a jerkoff”).


kabob

en-verb

kabob (third-person singular simple present kabobs, present participle kabobbing, simple past and past participle kabobbed)

kabobs (present singular third-person)
kabobbing (participle present)
kabobbed (participle past)
kabobbed (past)


milkweed bug

(US) an insect, of the family Lygaeidae, that mostly feeds on the seeds and tissue of the milkweed plant (Asclepias).


alfalfa weevil

(US) A European weevil (Hypera postica) that infests alfalfa crops.


-ite

From French -ite, from Old French, from Latin -ītēs, from Ancient Greek -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs).

-iet

used to form names of minerals and rocks

-lainen

a native or resident of a specified place

Brooklynite, Delhiite, Jerusalemite, Keralite, New Jerseyite, Seattleite, Seoulite, Sydneyite, Wisconsinite, Wyomingite; also see ashramite, hostelite

(chiefly US, India) Used to form demonyms.


cut out

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

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

There was little fear that the navigator of the captured Osprey, the man who had lived in Chile and "cut out" cattle on the Carrum Plains, would prove lacking in knowledge of riding, seamanship, or Spanish customs.

1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life, IV.2:

(US, Australia, New Zealand) To separate (an animal) from the herd.


superintendent

From Ecclesiastical Latin superintendens, a calque of Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos); thence being distantly related to English bishop.


throughway

throughways (plural)
thruway (alternative)

From through + way. Compare thoroughway.

(US) (Normally and officially spelled thruway) A broad highway fit for high-speed traffic; a thoroughfare.


throwback

en-noun

throwback (countable and uncountable, plural throwbacks)

Under the throwback rule, sales into a state where the taxpayer is not taxable are “thrown back” from the destination state to the origin state by adding the nontaxable sales to the numerator in the apportionment factor.

2005, LeAnn Luna, “Throwback rules, multistate corporations”, in Joseph J. Cordes, Robert D. Ebel, Jane G. Gravelle, editors, The Encyclopedia of Taxation & Tax Policy (Second Edition), The Urban Institute Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 436:

The effect of the throwback rule is to distribute income according to sales in the origin state. The effect of the throwout rule is to distribute income according to the taxpayer’s overall activities as measured by the other apportionment factors.

2006, Joann Martens-Weiner, chapter 4, in Company Tax Reform in the European Union: Guidance from the United States and Canada on Implementing Formulary Apportionment in the EU, Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., →ISBN, →LCCN, page 53:

Attributing the gross receipts to the Member State of origin (i.e. applying a throwback rule) constitutes a benefit for that state that is not justified by the rationale of the gross receipts factor.

2009, Stefan Mayer, chapter 4, in Formulary Apportionment for the Internal Market (Doctoral Series; 17), IBFD, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 220:

(US, accounting) A practice to avoid untaxed nowhere income by instead taxing such income in the originating state for a given transaction.


shoulder check

en-verb

shoulder check (third-person singular simple present shoulder checks, present participle shoulder checking, simple past and past participle shoulder checked)

shoulder checks (present singular third-person)
shoulder checking (participle present)
shoulder checked (participle past)
shoulder checked (past)

(intransitive, Canada, US) To look backwards over one's shoulder while driving or biking, before changing lanes or making a turn, to see if any vehicles are in one's blind spots.


shoulder check

(Canada, US) An instance of looking backwards over one's shoulder while driving or biking, before changing lanes or making a turn, to see if any vehicles are in one's blind spots.


biddy

“Was it in buckets or them little biddy cans?”

1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 210:


supervisor

supervisors (plural)
supervisour (alternative)

Attested since the 15th century C.E.; from Middle English supervisor, supervisour, supervysor, supervysour, from Latin supervīsor, from supervideō, in turn from super + videō. By surface analysis, supervise + -or.

board of supervisors
board of supervisors

(US) In certain states, an elected member of the governing body for a county which is called the board of supervisors.


yada yada yada

Lenny Bruce
Oscar Hammerstein II
Richard Rodgers
Seinfeld
The Yada Yada

Probably influenced by (or perhaps an alteration of) yatter or yatata; perhaps onomatopoeic of blather; or perhaps derived from the Norwegian expression jada, jada which has a similar pronunciation and interpretation. Sometimes popularly attributed to Yiddish, but this is dismissed by etymologists.
"Yatter, yatter" is British (specifically Scots) English for "continuous chatter, rambling and persistent talk, nagging". S. R. Crockett, The Men of the Moss-Hags (1895) xxix: "The woman's yatter, yatter easily vexed me." Yadder is a Cumberland word meaning "to talk incessantly; to chatter".
Various variant forms appear in the US 1940s–60s; for example, the 1947 American musical Allegro by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers contains a song called “Yatata, Yatata, Yatata,” about cocktail party chatter; see talk page for additional citations.
The phrase "yadda yadda" was first popularized by the comedian Lenny Bruce in his standup bit "Father Flotsky's Triumph," the closing track on his 1961 album "Lenny Bruce - American." It gained renewed popularity in the US in the late 1990s on the television show Seinfeld, where it appears as a catchphrase, initially in Season 8, Episode 19, entitled “The Yada Yada”, originally aired on April 24, 1997, which centers on the phrase (in the duplicative “yada yada” form).

yada, yada, yada (alternative)
yadda yadda yadda (alternative)
yadda, yadda, yadda (alternative)
yadi-yadi-ya (alternative)
yadi yadi yada (alternative)


cuss

cuss (third-person singular simple present cusses, present participle cussing, simple past and past participle cussed)

cusses (present singular third-person)
cussing (participle present)
cussed (participle past)
cussed (past)

American English dialect pronunciation of curse. For the phonetic development compare American ass (“buttocks”) for other English arse.

I went over the fence like a shot, and ran like one o'clock for the trap, cussing and swearing as I went.

1899, H. G. Wells, Mr. Brisher's Treasure:

(chiefly US, colloquial) To use cursing, to use bad language, to speak profanely.


cuss

Seemingly here was an intruder who was violating custom. Moreover, the partners had come to look upon this exceedingly rich district as their exclusive property. And so their indignation was extreme.
"The low-down, ornery cuss!" said Dobbs. "The nerve of him, crowdin' in on us, just as if there wasn't lots of other places for him to go!"

1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate:

"Proud young cuss, aren't you?" "Apparently - I don't know." "Or is it you are just pig-headed?"

1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter I, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, page 6:

Talk about the boy saying to the girl,
“Golly, baby, I’m a lucky cuss!”

1949, “Happy Talk”, in Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Richard Rogers (music), South Pacific:

Dawn Run's owner, Charmian Hill, who had insisted on trainer Paddy Mullins 'jocking off' his son Tony and putting up Jonjo O'Neill to ride her in the Gold Cup, was an awkward cuss too.

2012, Robin Oakley, Britain and Ireland's Top 100 Racehorses of All Time:

(dated, chiefly US, colloquial) A fellow, person.


totalizator

totalizators (plural)
totalisator (alternative)

(US) A computer-like machine, at a racecourse, that registers bets and distributes the total amount bet among those who win.


DEROS

(US) Acronym of date eligible/estimated to return from overseas.


tire gauge

tire gauges (plural)
tire gage (alternative)
tyre gauge (alternative)

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

(US, Canada) A device used to measure the pressure of vehicle tires.


tire-pressure gauge

en-noun

tire-pressure gauge (plural tire-pressure gauges)

tire-pressure gauges (plural)
tyre-pressure gauge (alternative)


tire-pressure

tire-pressures (plural)
tyre-pressure (alternative)

(US, Canada) the pressure of the air in a vehicle tire


pachuco

pachuco (countable and uncountable, plural pachucos)

/pəˈt͡ʃuːkəʊ/

From Mexican Spanish pachuco (“flashily dressed”).

bor

Now they saw that Terry was Mexican, a Pachuco wildcat; and that her boy was worse than that.

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 13, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 1:

I moved farther and farther into the Chicano community. I took Spanish in school and found willing tutors among my friends, who taught me a real-life version of the standard textbook language. I began to dress and comb my hair in the pachuco style of the day. I acquired the social customs and mannerisms of those around me.

1984 February 4, David Morris, “Different Origins: Joto Güero del West Side”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 15:

They asked him if he was a pachuco. He said all the pachucos he knew of lived in El Paso. He told em he didn’t know any Mexican pachucos.

1998, Cormac McCarthy, Cities of the Plain:

(US, countable) A Mexican American, especially a juvenile delinquent in the Los Angeles area.


passel

That child will like as not come here with a passel o' things borrowed from the rest o' the family. She'll have Hannah's shoes and John's undershirts and Mark's socks most likely.

1903, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm:

A fist-pumping, howling passel of Bush administration officials.

2022, Marisol Cortez, “Ambivalent Anality: Revisiting the Queer Ecology of "the Jackass Moment"”, in Media+Environment:

(US, informal) An indeterminately large quantity or group.


chingadera

1946, My Darling Clementine, dir. John Ford, written by Samuel G. Engel, Winston Miller
“There goes that chingadera again.”

“The chingadera was heavy. […]”

2003, Richard Yañez, El Paso del Norte: Stories on the Border, University of Nevada Press, page 27:

“What is this chingadera, Son?”

2008, Margo Candela, More Than This: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, page 187:

“Back in the old days they used any kind of chingadera to make a whatever. […]”

2009, B. C. Legans, Cerro, iUniverse, page 237:

(US, vulgar, Spanglish) A miscellaneous object for which one does not know, or has forgotten, its proper name; a doohickey, contraption, thingamabob, or widget.


livery

en-noun

livery (countable and uncountable, plural liveries)

liveries (plural)
liveray (alternative)
liverie (alternative)

From Middle English livery, liveree, from Anglo-Norman liveree, from Old French livree. Compare modern French livrée.


toll plaza

(US) a row of toll booths on a toll road or turnpike


hard lemonade

hard lemonade (countable and uncountable, plural hard lemonades)

From "Mike's Hard Lemonade", a North American brand of shandy.


tomato juice

tomato juice (countable and uncountable, plural tomato juices)

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

standards of identity
standard of identity

(US standards of identity) A food obtained from the unfermented liquid extracted from mature tomatoes of the red or reddish varieties of Lycopersicum esculentum P. Mill, strained free from peel, seeds, and other coarse or hard substances, containing finely divided insoluble solids from the flesh of the tomato.


some more

some mores (plural)
s'more (alternative)

(US) Toasted marshmallows and chocolate between graham crackers.


airhead

From air + head, in the sense of having one’s head filled with air instead of a brain; compare empty-headed.

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

Sometimes people tell you directly that you aren't very smart, but most of the time they ignore your attempts to display your intelligence, or they kid you about being a "space case" or an "airhead." After a while you are bound to see yourself as not very intelligent, particularly if the people who have been sending you those messages about yourself are important to you.

1989, Lynne Kelly, Arden K. Watson, “The Process of Communication”, in Speaking with Confidence and Skill (Speech Communication Series), Lanham, Md., London: University Press of America, →ISBN, page 11:

Yeah. Well, Tammi is a bit of an airhead, I guess, but I feel sorry for her.

1996, Mary Ann Scott, chapter 4, in Doris Cowan, editor, Ear-witness: A Jessica March Mystery, Toronto, Ont., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Boardwalk Books, Dundurn Group, →ISBN, page 24:

He would be thrust into the invidious position of subordinate host, welcoming all the dorks and dweebs and airheads that he saw far too much of in school.

2000, Brian McNaughton, chapter 4, in Downward to Darkness, Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Wildside Press, →ISBN, page 37:

So, just why couldn't I be an oblivious airhead with absolutely no patience and piles of fury, just so I could fit in and rush everything in order to cause who knows what?

2015 March 9, John Friesen, Six Bosnian Marks: The Oppressive Price of Pondering & Pontification, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 262:

(originally US, informal, derogatory) A foolish, silly, or unintelligent person.


top dollar

top dollar (countable and uncountable, plural top dollars)

Within six months, Goodie was back in radio, earning just about the top dollar for a writer ($3,000 weekly) as Danny Kaye's chief scripter.

Consumers are willing to pay top dollar for distinctive, rare, traditional cheeses.

2006 December 6, “Many ways to say cheese”, in Toronto Star, page F2:

(chiefly US, idiomatic) The maximum amount of money that an item, service, or worker is worth; a very high price.


Chippewa

Chippewas (plural)
Chippewa (plural)
Chippeway (alternative)
Chippewe (alternative)

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

From Ojibwe ojibwe (“Ojibwe”)/ᐅᒋᑉᐌ, specifically an eastern dialect with a reduced initial vowel. Compare earlier Ojibwa. Attested in English from the mid 18th century.


Chippewa

Chippeway (alternative)
Chippewe (alternative)


debenture

Originally debentur, from Latin debentur (“there are owing”), supposedly the first word of such a document in early times.

(finance, US) A type of debt instrument secured only by the general credit or promise to pay of the issuer, not involving any physical assets or collateral, now commonly issued by large, well established corporations with adequate credit ratings.

debentuuri

finance: type of debt instrument secured only by the general credit of the issuer


clothespin

At a hundred and thirty pounds, Altman is poised as a clothespin, fierce as a horned owl.

2016 October 3, Tad Friend, “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny”, in The New Yorker:

(US, Canada) A clip or fastener used to secure garments to a clothesline while drying, and sometimes for other applications requiring holding or pinching.


romp

en-verb

romp (third-person singular simple present romps, present participle romping, simple past and past participle romped)

romps (present singular third-person)
romping (participle present)
romped (participle past)
romped (past)

If I romp down on the gas, it'll do sixty in six seconds.

Coach Smith had to romp on 'em to get 'em out of a losing streak.

(transitive, US) (Often used with down) To press forcefully, to encourage vehemently, to oppress.


traffic circle

(US, Canada) an intersection with a circular shape and, usually, a central island


charrette

charrettes (plural)
charette (alternative)
charret (alternative)

Borrowed from French charrette, from Middle French charrete, from Old French charrete, from char + -ete (“diminutive”), from Latin carrus. Sense “work to meet a deadline” from French, probably from architecture students loading their work into a cart (pulled by the youngest member) on the day of an exposition.

(US) A period of intense work, especially group work undertaken to meet a deadline.


slant

Late Middle English, from a variant of the earlier form dialectical slent, from Old Norse or another North Germanic source, cognate with Old Norse slent, Swedish slinta (“to slip”), Norwegian slenta (“to fall on the side”), from Proto-Germanic *slintaną. Probably influenced by aslant.

kalteva lokero

depression with sloping bottom to hold watercolors

(US, obsolete) A sarcastic remark; shade, an indirect mocking insult.

vinoilu

sarcastic remark; indirect mocking insult

It was a well written article, but it had a bit of a leftist slant.

(originally US) A point of view, an angle.

All batters looked alike to him—I don't believe he ever took a slant at the averages;

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

`What do you want?' `Just a slant at the weapon,' said Fenner.

1920 June 25, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 213, column 1:

(US, ethnic slur, derogatory) A person with slanting eyes, particularly an East Asian.


tramway

→ French: tramway

→ Russian: трамва́й (tramváj) (see there for further descendants)

→ Portuguese: trâmuei

→ Spanish: tranvía

(US) The system of cables that supports a cable car.


foreman

→ Gulf Arabic: فورمن (fōrman)

From Middle English foremon, forman; equivalent to fore- + man. Compare West Frisian foarman, Dutch voorman, German Vormann, Danish formand, Swedish förman, Icelandic formaður.

(US, historical) A slave assistant to the white overseer who managed field hands.


xerox copy

xerox copies (plural)
xeroxcopy (alternative)
zerox copy (alternative)

Bring a xerox copy of your driver's licence.

(slang, US, Philippines) A xerox; a photocopy.


high school

en-noun

high school (countable and uncountable, plural high schools)

high schools (plural)
highschool (alternative)

Inherited from Middle English hyȝ scole (“school for higher education”), equivalent to high + school. Cognate with Dutch hogeschool (“academy, university, graduate school”), German Hochschule (“academy, college, university”).

cog

(Canada, US, Philippines, Australia, Scotland) A secondary school.


solicitation

en-noun

solicitation (countable and uncountable, plural solicitations)

/səˌlɪsɪˈteɪʃən/

From Middle French sollicitation, from Latin sollicitātiō.

(US, law) an inchoate offense that consists of a person offering money or inducing another to commit a crime with the specific intent that the person solicited commit the crime


dooky

(US, slang) Alternative spelling of dookie


beaner

From bean + -er. Literally "a person who eats beans".
Beans are a staple of Mexican cuisine.

You're gonna work out good, Dave. I was afraid they were gonna hire another nigger or a beaner.

1999, Gregory Alan Norton, There Ain't no Justice, Just Us, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 32:

Hey bro I'm a beaner, we ain't good at math. Jeez, dawn 'ju watch TV?

2003, Roy Yelverton, “chapter 2”, in Shovelhead Red – The Drifter's Way, archived from the original on 2007-08-04:

I'm a beaner, and I'm telling you white people, that's a bullshit number right off the bat!

(US, ethnic slur, offensive, by extension) Any Hispanic or Latino person.


beaner

From bean + -er; see bean (“(slang) head”).

Gee, that would be a beaner of a sign for education

1942, Forrest Edwin Long, Philip Westcot Lawrence Cox, The Clearing House, page 527:

Pride, indeed, Esther thought — that was a beaner! There was more purse than pride in Mayme's repentant heart

1949, Martha Ostenso, The Sunset Tree, Dodd, Mead, page 106:

(US, slang, dated) A superior or admirable person; something excellent.


initiative

From French initiative, from Medieval Latin *initiativus (“serving to initiate”), from Late Latin initiare (“to begin, Latin initiate”), from Latin initium (“beginning”), from ineo (“enter, begin”). By surface analysis, initiate + -ive.

der

The second row shows that initiative states fill more constitutional offices by election than noninitiative states, and the difference is statistically significant after controlling for region and population.

a. 2008, John G. Matsusaka, "Direct Democracy and the Executive Branch", in, 2008, Shaun Bowler and Amihai Glazer, editors, Direct Democracy's Impact on American Political Institutions, Palgrave Macmillan, page 122 http://books.google.com/books?id=J6swcucKdNIC&pg=PA122&dq=initiative

(US) In which voter initiatives can be brought to the ballot.


glazed

Krispy your Kremes with fresh, non-corporate cakes and glazeds in such flavors du jour as Pistachio, Tres Leches, Meyer Lemon, and Blackout (a nod to the star attraction of the long-gone Ebinger's Bakery).

2010, Ayun Halliday, Zinester's Guide to New York, page 65:

She had to herd them into Bruce's Coffee and Doughnut and stuff them with chocolate glazeds to get the story […]

2012, Patricia Bow, The Starry Window, page 34:

And since I know you probably didn't have breakfast, I left a couple of glazeds on a napkin on your sorry excuse for a desk.”

2014, Marilyn Baron, Homecoming Homicides:

(US, colloquial) A glazed donut, one with a coating such as sugar or chocolate.


flicker

1808, American English, probably echoic of the bird's call, or from the white spotted plumage which appears to flicker.

onomatopoeic

echoic

(US) Any of certain small woodpeckers, especially of the genus Colaptes.


fellowship

en-verb

fellowship (third-person singular simple present fellowships, present participle fellowshipping or (US also) fellowshiping, simple past and past participle fellowshipped or (US also) fellowshiped)

fellowships (present singular third-person)
fellowshipping (participle present)
fellowshiping (US also participle present)
fellowshipped (participle past)
fellowshipped (past)
fellowshiped (US also participle past)
fellowshiped (US also past)

From Middle English felowschipe, felawshipe, felaȝschyp, equivalent to fellow + -ship; or perhaps adapted from Old Norse félagskapr, félagsskapr (“fellowship”). Compare Icelandic félagsskapur (“companionship, company, community”), Danish fællesskab (“fellowship”), Norwegian fellesskap (“fellowship”).

cog

The megachurch he attends is too big for making personal connections, so he also fellowships weekly in one of the church's small groups.

After she got married, she stopped fellowshipping with the singles in our church.

Oure lorde Jesu came in manere of a pilgrym and felauschipped [Aldh felischippede] with hem.
Our lord Jesus came in the manner of a pilgrim and fellowshipped with them.

c. 1410, Hans Kurath quoting Nicholas Love (translator), The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, fifth edition (1989), quoted in Middle English Dictionary, translation of Meditationes Vitae Christi by Pseudo-Bonaventura, (Gibbs MS. c.1400), page 463

(intransitive, now chiefly religious, especially in Canada, US) To join in fellowship; to associate with.


quill

en-verb

quill (third-person singular simple present quills, present participle quilling, simple past and past participle quilled)

quills (present singular third-person)
quilling (participle present)
quilled (participle past)
quilled (past)

From late Middle English quyl, which is first attested in the early 15th century with the meanings "fragment of reed" and "shaft of a feather", probably from Low German and Middle Low German quiele, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to pierce, stick”).
Compare Middle High German kil (“large feather, quill”), which is derived from the Low German term.

cog

For quotations using this term, see Citations:quill.

(US and Canada, especially Appalachia and the Prairies, transitive) To subject (a woman who is giving birth) to the practice of quilling (blowing pepper into her nose to induce or hasten labor).


simon

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

Uncertain. One theory suggests derivation from a joke based on the bible verse Acts 9:43, rendered as “Peter lodged with Simon a tanner”, a pun on the meanings of lodge (“stay in a place; put away money”). Partridge suggests that this not possible given the dates, however, and suggests instead derivation from some unknown person’s name. Attested from the late 17th century, with synonymous tanner attested from the 18th. Compare also simony, from a different biblical figure, Simon Magnus.
The “US dollar” sense derives from the earlier “sixpence”, perhaps influenced by the $ symbol.


thanks a bunch

Thanks a bunch for that great Christmas card you got me!

(US, idiomatic) An unsarcastic thank you.


Fibber McGee's closet

en-noun

Fibber McGee's closet (plural Fibber McGee's closets)

From the radio show Fibber McGee and Molly, where the door to an overstuffed closet would be opened and the contents would spill out for many episodes from 1940 to 1959.

(US) A source of clutter, especially a messy area or room.


hippodrome

/ˈhɪpəˌdɹəʊm/

Borrowed from French hippodrome, from Latin hippodromos, from Ancient Greek ἱππόδρομος (hippódromos), from ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) + δρόμος (drómos, “course”). By surface analysis, hippo- + -drome.

(US, slang, sports) A fraudulent sporting contest with a predetermined winner.


hippodrome

en-verb

hippodrome (third-person singular simple present hippodromes, present participle hippodroming, simple past and past participle hippodromed)

hippodromes (present singular third-person)
hippodroming (participle present)
hippodromed (participle past)
hippodromed (past)

/ˈhɪpəˌdɹəʊm/

(US, slang, sports, especially baseball) To stage a sporting contest to suit gamblers.


headquarter

headquarter (third-person singular simple present headquarters, present participle headquartering, simple past and past participle headquartered)

headquarters (present singular third-person)
headquartering (participle present)
headquartered (participle past)
headquartered (past)

(US, transitive) To provide (an organization) with headquarters.

toimia pääesikuntana

To provide an organization with headquarters

(US, intransitive) To establish headquarters.


trolley park

(US) A recreational area at the end of a streetcar line.


trucking

en-noun

trucking (countable and uncountable, plural truckings)

(US) the conveyance of freight by trucks.


dinky

en-adj

dinky (comparative dinkier, superlative dinkiest)

dinkier (comparative)
dinkiest (superlative)

1780-90; compare Scots dink (“neatly dressed, trim”) (of obscure origin); sense shift perhaps: trim > dainty > small > insignificant; + -y.

They stayed in a dinky hotel room, but they had a great trip.

(informal, US) Tiny and insignificant; small and undesirable.


fat city

(US, slang) An extremely comfortable situation or condition of life.


stoplight

stoplights (plural)
stop light (alternative)

(US, Philippines) A traffic control signal, traditionally consisting of three lights, colored green, yellow/amber, and red, meaning proceed, prepare to stop, and stop, respectively.


greenhorn

From Middle English grene horn, which is attested for “horn of a recently killed animal” and as the name of a horse. It may also have been used of young horned animals. In all cases “green” refers to the idea of “fresh, young, recent”, taken from plants and used in Middle English for all kinds of things irrespective of their colour, e.g. wounds, leather, fish, cheese (see green cheese). Figurative use for people dates from the 17th century. Compare semantically German Grünschnabel (literally “green-beak”).

cog

The powers of the Canadian voyageurs and hunters in the consumption of meat strike the greenhorn with wonder and astonishment; and are only equalled by the gastronomical capabilities exhibited by Indian dogs, both following the same plan in their epicurean gorgings.

1847, George Frederick Augustus Ruxton, Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, page 267:

All you greenhorns who wanted to see Covenant up close...this is gonna be your lucky day.

2001 November 15, Bungie, Halo: Combat Evolved, v1.0, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: The Pillar of Autumn:

(chiefly US) An inexperienced person; a novice, beginner or newcomer.


worshiping

worshipings (plural)
worshipping (alternative)


prep school

(US) A private or public school intended to prepare its students to gain admission into prestigious universities.


preppy

en-adj

preppy (comparative preppier or more preppy, superlative preppiest or most preppy)

preppier (comparative)
more preppy (comparative)
preppiest (superlative)
most preppy (superlative)
preppie (alternative)

I'll pick you up after the party. Let's see, there'll be all that deep preppy conversation, preppy dancing, piles of preppy fun. Party starts at nine, I'll pick you up at nine fifteen.

1983, Alan Eisenstock, Larry Mintz, High School U.S.A. (motion picture), spoken by Jay-Jay Manners (Michael J. Fox):

So, Jam, who did your wardrobe, Tad the preppie sailboat captain?

1999, Carl V. Dupré, Detroit Rock City (motion picture), spoken by Trip (James DeBello):

(US, often derogatory) Being or relating to something (such as clothing) that is typical of students at prep schools.


preppy

Coordinate term: (UK) prepper


draftsman

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


Allen wrench

Allen, the name of Allen Manufacturing Company, and wrench.


hubby

hubby (comparative hubbier, superlative hubbiest)

hubbier (comparative)
hubbiest (superlative)

A road that has been frozen while muddy is hubby.


Wall Street

From wall + street. The term is the name of a street in Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.A., where the palisade of New Amsterdam was once located. The street is known for the many major U.S. financial institutions located there.

The causes of income stagnation are varied and lack the political simplicity of calls to bring down the deficit or avert another Wall Street meltdown.

2012 October 23, David Leonhardt, “Standard of living is in the shadows as election issue”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-11:

financial institution
financial institution

(originally US, metonymically) American financial institutions or financial markets as a whole; (by extension) big-business interests.


tonk

Origins are unknown, but definitely predate the use of metal flashlights, contrary to the most quoted description of origin.
It is probable that the origin relates to Chinese immigration, as the first law to restrict immigration from a particular country was enacted in 1882 to limit the numbers of Chinese coming to the United States. It is said that many of the illegal immigrants made their way to the US via the Gulf of Tonkin area of what is now Vietnam. It is also possible that the term is related to the Chinese "tong" mob.

1990: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary, Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments: Hearings Before the Committee - An agent, Larry Moy, when asked to define the derivation of the term “tonk,” replied: “...it's the sound of flashlight hitting somebody's head, tonk". [This "derivation" is incorrect - see Etymology]

1998: Cirenio Rodriguez & Enrique T Trueba, Leadership, education and political action, in Ethnic Identity and Power: Cultural Contexts of Political Action in School and Society - "Catch as many tonks as you guys can. Safely. An alien is not worth busting a leg."

2005: EMF (poster on The QandO Blog in response to Illegal immigration made easy, read at https://web.archive.org/web/20060528001651/http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=789 on 27 May 2006) - The pissed off Arizona land owner who snipes the tonks with a high powered rifle.

(slang, derogatory, chiefly US) An illegal immigrant of any country.


trade-last

American adolescents regularly deal in "trade-lasts," compliments in exchange for another. They will tell you something flattering about yourself after you tell them a flattering remark you have heard about them.

1979, Robert Kirk Mueller, Board Compass, page 102:

So autobiographical was The Children's Hour that there are even “TL's” between the children, those “trade lasts” in which people must come up with compliments they have heard about each other, a game which amused Lily […]

1997, Joan Mellen, Hellman and Hammett, page 71:

(US) A compliment heard about another person, offered to be repeated to that person in exchange for another repeated compliment about the speaker.


serviceberry

serviceberries (plural)
service-berry (alternative)
service berry (alternative)

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

Compound of service (“sorb tree”) + berry. (The first part is from Latin sorbus, not English service (“assistance”).)

com+

(Canada, US) Any plant of the genus Amelanchier of small deciduous trees and large shrubs in the family Rosaceae.


sideshow

sideshows (plural)
side show (alternative)

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

sideshow
sideshow (automobile exhibition)

The spontaneous street party is the center of Oakland's recently developing Hyphy culture, but has a long history in Oakland car culture and hip hop. A sideshow is essentially a spontaneous street party in which one might “ghostride the whip” (get out while driving), “gas brake dip,” or even “scrape” (spin donuts in the middle of the street).

2009, Mickey Hess, editor, Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, volume 1, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 274:

During their patrol, the Officers found an approximately twenty-car sideshow taking place in the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet parking lot.

2021 January, Kim McLane Wardlaw writing for the Ninth Circuit, Villanueva v. Cleveland:

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed a law in October threatening a six-month suspension of a driver’s license for participating in a sideshow, even as a spectator.

2022 September 4, Bradley Berman, “In Street Takeovers, Young Stunt Drivers Outmaneuver the Police”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

But a bodega owner in the area said that crime seemed to be rising, and that at night, the neighborhood became a backdrop for drug use and occasional sideshows.

2023 April 7, Kate Conger, Shawn Hubler, “Stabbing of Cash App Creator Raises Alarm, and Claims of ‘Lawless’ San Francisco”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US slang) An incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time.


enemy combatant

en-noun

enemy combatant (plural enemy combatants)

(US, military) Any person in an armed conflict who may be properly detained under the laws and customs of war.

vihollistaistelija

anyone who may be properly detained under laws of war


democrat wagon

democrat wagons (plural)
Democrat wagon (alternative)

(US, dated) A light flatbed farm wagon or ranch wagon that has two or more seats and is usually drawn by one or sometimes two horses.


Flag Day

A day commemorating the adoption of a national flag.

(US) June 14, for the adoption of the US flag in 1777.


horsefeathers

The "nonsense" sense, a euphemism for horseshit, is horse + feathers, a nonexistent item as only birds have feathers. Compare hen’s teeth.
The "horse hair" sense notes the similarity of that hair to bird feathers.
Regarding the roofing sense, compare feathering strip and horsefeathers.

Horsefeathers! You knew it was a bad idea and now you're just making excuses about it.


horsefeathers

Dismissing the rumors as "horsefeathers", he advised everybody to disregard them.

The most notorious of these was Templeton Rye: Said to be from Iowa, it was purportedly distilled using a Prohibition-era recipe that was a favorite of none other than Al Capone who, according to legend, called it "the good stuff." The story turned out to be such a load of horsefeathers that Templeton was found guilty of deceptive marketing, and forced by a judge to issue partial refunds to its customers.

2015, Tony Sachs, “The Delicious Secret Behind Your Favorite Whiskey: The Best Spirits from MGP”, in Serious Eats:

(euphemistic, US) Nonsense; indicates disbelief.


chee chees

Probably from Spanish chichis (“breasts”).

(US, slang) Breasts, tits, titties. plural of chee chee.


chee chee

chee chees (plural)
chee-chee (alternative)

(US, slang, chiefly in the plural) A breast, tit.


two by four

Well, Moses stood on the Red Sea shore, And smote the water with a two by four

1959, Nat King Cole, Oh, Mary, don't you weep.:

Date debatable, Ledbelly - from a traditional folk song, Linin' Track
Moses stood on the Red Sea shore, smotin' that water with a two by four

(chiefly Canada, US) A length of sawn wood of cross section approximately 2 inches by 4 inches, most often employed as structural framing lumber (dimension or dimensional lumber).

бичме́

A length of sawn wood 2 inches by 4 inches

He'll plan a two by four/But not for me.

1930, George, Ira Gershwin, But Not for Me:

(chiefly Canada, US, dated) A small, modest building.


snow day

(US) A day set aside on a school calendar in certain climates, assuming a closure will occur during a given time period.


peckerwood

peckerwoods (plural)
peckawood (alternative)

Inversion of woodpecker. Application to white people is due to the perception that the woodpecker is a symbol of whites, whereas the crow or blackbird is a symbol of blacks.

All the time I was stretched out on the infirmary cot I kept looking at the blank walls and seeing the mean, murdering faces of those Southern peckerwoods when they went after Big Six and the others with their knives.

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 16:

Just as prejudiced as a Mississippi peckerwood when it comes to colored people.

1967, John Oliver Killens, 'Sippi, New York: Trident Press, →LCCN, →OL, page 50:

(US, offensive, slang, ethnic slur) A white person, especially a Southerner, or one who is ignorant, rustic, or bigoted.


Calvin

Latinization of Norman-Picard Cauvin, a nickname for a chauve (“bald”) person.

Marty McFly: Calvin? Wh… Why do you keep calling me Calvin?
Lorraine Baines: Well, that is your name, isn't it? Calvin Klein? It's written all over your underwear.

1985, Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Back to the Future:

(chiefly US) A male given name transferred from the surname.


Chen

From Mandarin 陳／陈 (Chén). Doublet of Tan, Chan, and Tran.

(US, ethnic slur, offensive) A Chinese person whose name is not known to the speaker.


gabfest

But he could as well have been talking about the confabulations of the food summit in Rome earlier this year or the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg next month. I have no doubt critics are dusting off the cliches for that one, preparing to denounce one more gabfest.

2002 July 29, Shashi Tharoor, “In Defense of Gabfests”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Oh, we've been talking about constitutional reform since 1927. I've been going to these gabfests since the fifties.

(slang, chiefly US) An occasion (such as a meeting) where people talk at length.

седянка

an occasion (such as a meeting) where people talk at length


YBYSAIA

(Canada, US, slang) Initialism of you bet your sweet ass I am: a strong affirmative response.


Tylenol

(Canada, US, pharmacology) A brand of acetaminophen (“paracetamol”)


Tylenol

Tylenol (countable and uncountable, plural Tylenols)

(Canada, US, uncountable) Alternative form of tylenol (genericized trademark) (the pharmaceutical drug acetaminophen (“paracetamol”))

tylenol

(Canada, US, countable) Alternative form of tylenol (a tablet containing this drug)


Clydesdale

Named because they were bred in the valley of the Clyde in Scotland; see dale.

(US) A heavier than usual athlete (Over 200 lbs for men, over 145 lbs for women)


johnny house

From the use of john in American slang as a synonym for toilet.

(chiefly US) An outhouse or portable toilet.


rez

2016, Kalina Newmark, Nacole Walker, James Stanford, ‘The rez accent knows no borders’: Native American ethnic identity expressed through English prosody, Cambridge University Press, Published online.

(US, slang) Clipping of reservation (“tract of land set apart for native people”).


buzzer

→ Japanese: ブザー (buzā)

I flipped my wallet open on her desk and let her look at the buzzer pinned to the flap.

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 28:


boardwalk

A man, whom we had noticed walking rather uncertainly, as if not sure whether he was going up or down hill, at this crisis came to a pause, staggered off the boardwalk, and leaned against the fence.

1865 June, “Godey’s Arm-chair”, in [Louis Antoine Godey and Sarah Josepha Hale], editors, Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, volume LXX, Philadelphia, Pa.: L[ouis] A[ntoine] Godey, →OCLC, page 557, column 2:

[A]bout the beginning of the war the greatest concern of [Ulysses Simpson] Grant was to get a good boardwalk laid from his house to the store. […] It is related, that after one of his great victories, some gentlemen of Galena had the walk laid, and telegraphed the General: "Rest easy, the walk is down."

1868, James S[anks] Brisbin, chapter III, in The Campaign Lives of Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax, Cincinnati, Oh.: C. F. Vent & Co., publishers; […], →OCLC, page 57:

From the height of the boardwalk the sea lay before them, silver and stony, fold on fold of it, stretching east into the mist and clouds.

1963 winter, Josephine W[inslow] Johnson, “Coney Island in November”, in The Virginia Quarterly Review, volume 39, number 1, Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 453:

Oh when the sun beats down and burns the tar up on the roof / And your shoes get so hot you wish your tired feet were fire proof / Under the boardwalk, down by the sea, yeah / On a blanket with my baby is where I'll be

1964 June, Kenny Young, Arthur Resnick (lyrics and music), “Under the Boardwalk”, performed by The Drifters:

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

2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, “New Jersey reels from storm’s thrashing”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2012-11-01:

A slightly elevated path for pedestrians over sandy or swampy ground, typically made out of wood; specifically (Canada, US) one running alongside a body of water or beach.


gypsy cab

(colloquial, US, sometimes offensive) An unlicensed taxi, especially in the Northeastern United States.


Dutch oven

Dutch (“substitute, inferior, ersatz”) + oven. See Dutch for more information on the now obsolete sense that the term is derived from.
The cigar sense is said to originate in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

I heard the most uncommon and unaccountable noise that can be imagined. It was, in fact, occasioned by the clattering of tin pattypans and a Dutch oven against the sides of the panniers.

Cast-iron cookware is in the spotlight. Having started with skillets, producers are now introducing Dutch ovens. Despite already owning pots from Staub and Le Creuset, I could not resist the new Dutch oven by Finex Cast Iron Cookware, an American company that makes distinctive octagonal pieces with a dark bronze finish.

2018 April 16, Florence Fabricant, “Get a Workout With a New Dutch Oven”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US) A large metal cooking pot with a tight-fitting lid.


granola

en-adjective

granola (comparative more granola, superlative most granola)

more granola (comparative)
most granola (superlative)

Globe Pequot Press
Graham flour
Granula
James Caleb Jackson
Will Keith Kellogg
granola

Earlier, with a capital g, it was a proprietary name for a kind of breakfast cereal, registered in 1886 by Will Keith Kellogg and in use into the early 20th century. It was initially known as Granula and renamed Granola to avoid legal problems with James Caleb Jackson, who invented a similar cereal in 1863, named Granula after the granules of Graham flour, the main ingredient. The food and name were revived in the 1960s. By 1967, it appears in American English, probably from Italian grano (“grain”) or granular, with the commercial suffix -ola.

You see more and more of the granola hippie activist types these days.

[…]behind them a granola-looking mom in denim overalls and a t-shirt was pulling in to do her drop-off . . . from a Prius.

2013 November 21, Jame Schaefer, Tobias Winright, Environmental Justice and Climate Change, page 228:

Rather, the anti-vax movement is almost entirely a phenomenon of the affluent crunchy granola Left—as everyone across the political spectrum acknowledged until the last week or so.

2015 February 13, Dennis Saffran, “The Orwellian Campaign To Project Anti-Vaccination Onto Republicans”, in The Federalist:

Yet some experts believe that voices from the far right are beginning to drown out those of the crunchy granola crowd.

2020 June 18, Kiera Butler, “The Anti-Vax Movement’s Radical Shift From Crunchy Granola Purists to Far-Right Crusaders”, in Mother Jones:

(chiefly Canada, US, of a person) Eating healthy food, supporting the protection of the environment, and having liberal views.


sanitarian

(US) A public health or sanitation worker.


chin music

(folk music): The name jokingly refers to "playing" the mouth as if it were an instrument.


yearling

From Middle English yerling, yerlyng, equivalent to year + -ling. Cognate with Dutch jaarling (“yearling”), German Jährling (“yearling”).

"But is a plebe forbidden to stroll here?"
"If a plebe did have the brass to try it," replied Anstey slowly, "I reckon he would have to fight the whole yearling class in turn."

1910, H. Irving Hancock, Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point, page 84:

As a yearling, he admitted to doing his part in ensuring that plebes knew their place at the Academy, […]

2014, Michael E. Haskew, West Point 1915 (page 57)

(US) A sophomore at West Point military academy.


sunchoke

Jerusalem artichoke
Jerusalem artichoke#English

(chiefly US) Synonym of Jerusalem artichoke


sump pit

(chiefly US) A hole dug in the ground, beneath the basement of a house, in which rainwater or other moisture collect.


ticked

en-adj

ticked (comparative more ticked, superlative most ticked)

more ticked (comparative)
most ticked (superlative)

(Canada, US, slang) Ticked off; annoyed.


crud

en-noun

crud (countable and uncountable, plural cruds)

From Middle English crud, crudde (“coagulated milk; curd; any coagulated or thickened substance; dregs”), from Old English crūdan (“to press”). Doublet of curd.

(uncountable, slang, US, military and students) Venereal disease, or (by extension) any disease.


teamster

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

(US) A person who drives a cargo truck (see Teamster).


oftentimes

Inherited from the Middle English oftentymes; equivalent to oftentime + -s. Compare oftentime.

But because this is oftentimes dangerous, and much hurt hath been received thereby through casualty of fire, I advise the sticking four stakes into the earth, at least five feet above the ground […]

1804, Robert Wissett, On the Cultivation and Preparation of Hemp:

Pique and linen also accented several coats and oftentimes were both detachable and formed an overcollar covering a collar made from the coat fabric.

1967, Ann Helen Stroup, An Investigation of the Dress of American Children from 1930 Through 1941 with Emphasis on Factors Influencing Change, page 195:

Over the past decade, the very nature of organized crime has changed, with many groups diversifying their income beyond drug trafficking, and large cartels splintering into smaller, oftentimes more nimble groups.

2023 January 10, Whitney Eulich, America Armenta, “Mexico arrests son of ‘El Chapo’: Why don’t citizens feel safer?”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

(chiefly US, elsewhere archaic) Frequently; often.


buckshot

buckshot (countable and uncountable, plural buckshots)

Coordinate term: birdshot

Our men were all well armed with Colt's revolvers and Mississippi yagers, which last, carried a bullet, and two buckshots.

1879, Buffalo Bill, The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill, page 58:

(chiefly US) Lead shot used in shotgun cartridges, made of larger pellets than birdshot and suitable for hunting larger game. [from 18th c.]


bangs

bangs pl (normally plural, singular bang)

From bang (“to cut [hair], dock [an animal's tail]”), probably from the sudden manner in which docked hair appears to burst out explosively when it's cut (i.e. "with a bang"). Ultimately from bang (“to strike noisily, explode”).

(chiefly US, Philippines) Hair hanging over the forehead.

(chiefly US) A hairstyle including such hair, especially cut straight across the forehead.


CDM

CDM (countable and uncountable, plural CDMs)

charge description master
charge description master#English

(US, healthcare) Initialism of charge description master.


bull ring

bull rings (plural)
bull-ring (alternative)
bullring (alternative)

(US, horse racing) An unusually short track, typically six furlongs or less for one lap.


flivver

Judge Rummy
Tad Dorgan
The Sun (New York City)

Unknown, early 20th c.; in 1919, cartoonist Tad Dorgan claimed to have created the term in his comic strip "Judge Rummy".

Billy being too poor to own a car, had hired a cheap flivver for the day, and was purposely ten minutes behind the time, but to his disgust found the procession not yet started.

1920 July, Lyman Seelye, “Quite a Picnic”, in The Overland Monthly:

These workers were often joined by impoverished small farmers from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri who pooled their resources to buy a flivver and follow the harvest into the Dakotas and Canada.

1998, Nigel Anthony Sellars, Oil, Wheat & Wobblies: The Industrial Workers of the World in Oklahoma, 1905-1930, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 180:

(colloquial, dated, Canada, US) An automobile, particularly one which is old and inexpensive.

(US, military, nautical, historical, slang, derogatory) A destroyer of the United States Navy with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons.


hardscrabble

his hardscrabble peanut farm

In the case of Allegheny Briskow, poverty, the drought, the grinding hardships of these hard-scrabble Texas counties, had dwarfed the intellect, the very soul of a splendid young animal.

1922, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter V, in Flowing Gold:

Villages in the more remote and hard-scrabble regions, including some mountain areas, are being abandoned, and nature is starting to creep back.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 286:

(Canada, US, of land) Requiring much work to farm, and ultimately not very productive.

He leads a hardscrabble existence.

Being the savage’s bowsman, that is, the person who pulled the bow-oar in his boat (the second one from forward), it was my cheerful duty to attend upon him while taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead whale’s back.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 72, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

While Rose tried to keep up with Westbrook, the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony struggled mightily, going 4 of 19 for 18 hardscrabble points.

2016 November 28, Mike Vorkunov, “Despite Flash of Rose’s Prime, Knicks Are Dazed by Westbrook and Thunder”, in The New York Times:

Grace and her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) lost their mother during birth, and their alcoholic father during their hardscrabble childhood.

2024 October 23, Jacob Oller, “Clay weepy Memoir Of A Snail crawls through a gauntlet of misery”, in AV Club:

(Canada, US, by extension) Involving hard work and struggle.


gump

Perhaps related to gumption. The term long pre-dates the slow-witted character from the 1994 film Forrest Gump.

[…] the young ignorant gump hearing his father or mother who perhaps may be ten times more ignorant, in point of literature than himself, extoling his learning, struts about in the full assurance, that his attainments in literature are sufficient to take him through the world, when in fact, he has scarcely any learning at all!!

1829, David Walker, Walker’s Appeal, Boston: for the author, page 33:

[…] I’d no idee of going to be shot at for money, like these ’ere fools and gumps that goes down to the Florida swamps, to be shot at all day by Ingens, for eighteen pence a day.

1839, Charles Edwards Lester, Chains and Freedom: or, The Life and Adventures of Peter Wheeler, a Colored Man Yet Living, New York: E. S. Arnold, Book 2, Chapter 3, pp. 225-226:

Low, coarse, undiscerning simpletons, they are all animal sensibility, and have not yet developed the ability to pick truth from error, reality from show, and fraud out of its fine garments of honesty; gumps and boobies, they are pleased with a rattle and tickled with a straw.

1893, Frederic Scrimshaw, chapter 36, in The Dogs and the Fleas, Chicago: Douglas McCallum, page 222:

Every fond mama is gump enough to think that every Greek god she sees looks like her own boy, even if her own happens to squint and have two teeth missing―which mine hasn’t, thanks the Lord!

1913, Edna Ferber, chapter 1, in Roast Beef, Medium, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, page 18:

“I’m a gump, Keith,” he exclaimed. “Someone ought to kick me. I never was so plumb mistook in all of my born days.”

1925, T. C. Bridges, chapter 31, in The River Riders: An Exciting Lumberjack Story, London and New York: Frederick Warne:

The toad stared balefully at his reflection and puffed himself up to show that he wasn't really frightened. "'Tis thou, thou gump," grinned Catweazle evilly, and put Touchwood down on the soap dish.

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 22:


emote

en-verb

emote (third-person singular simple present emotes, present participle emoting, simple past and past participle emoted)

emotes (present singular third-person)
emoting (participle present)
emoted (participle past)
emoted (past)

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

The verb is a back-formation of emotion. The noun is derived from the verb.

In the Latin category, dancers begin the round in carnival mode, bouncing and curving voltas traveling down the length of the floor, emoting happy celebration in a Brazilianesque samba.

2017, Laurie Frederik, “Painting the Body Brown and Other Lessons on How to Dance Latin”, in Laurie Frederik, Kim Marra, Catherine Schuler, Showing Off, Showing Up: Studies of Hype, Heightened Performance, and Cultural Power, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 55:

To display or express (emotions, mental states, etc.) openly, particularly while acting, and especially in an excessive manner.

přehrávat

to display or express (emotions, mental states, etc.) openly, particularly while acting, and especially in an excessive manner

She doesn't smile much; she doesn't emote. Shannen is still.

1993 November, Lynn Hirschberg, “Brat on a Hot Tin Roof”, in Vanity Fair:

Clint Eastwood, huh? You don't see him emoting all over the place, and what woman doesn't want to get down with "Dirty Harry," huh?

1999 November 14, Remi Aubuchon, “Fear and Loathing in Gotham”, in Jack & Jill, season 1, episode 7:

To display (excessive) emotion, especially while acting.

přehrávat

to display (excessive) emotion, especially while acting

There aren't many chances to see your character in Borderlands 3, but one of them is when you're emoting. Emoting allows your character to perform a gesture like a wave or a thumbs up, and it shifts the camera to a third-person view while they do.

2019 September 17, Austen Goslin, “Borderlands 3 guide: How to use emotes”, in Polygon, archived from the original on 2023-02-02:

Lords of the Fallen is yet another entry in the action-RPG soulslike craze, complete with an unsettling fantasy setting, other players invading your game for some co-op or PvP goodness, and, of course, lots of dying. It makes use of the same sort of deadly third-person combat system full of dodge rolling, posture meters, and emoting over fallen enemies as a sign of utmost disrespect.

2023 October 12, Travis Northup, “Lords of the Fallen Review”, in IGN, archived from the original on 2023-11-07:

(video games) To perform a short action, such as a gesture or a dance move, which may be seen by other players but does not have any effect on gameplay.


emote

She replied with an emote: "*hugs* I'm sorry"

(Internet, text messaging) A virtual action expressed to other users as a graphic or reported speech rather than a straightforward message.

emovimiento

virtual action expressed to other users as reported speech rather than a straightforward message

(Internet, Twitch-speak) Short for emoticon.

Many video games allow players to purchase emotes for real-life money.

Juggernaut franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield are trying to capitalize on the success of Fortnite, but battle-royale games aren't just about skins and emotes.

2018 June 14, Carter Melrose, “Why Battle Royale Games Like Fortnite Are Everywhere (It’s Not Just Money)”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-10-08:

As old maps return to Fortnite, so do old battles over who owns some of the emotes used in-game.

2023 November 4, Wes Davis, “The copyright fight over Fortnite dance moves is back on”, in The Verge, archived from the original on 2023-11-10:

(video games) A short action, such as a gesture or a dance move, which may be seen by other players but does not have any effect on gameplay.


bombardier

Borrowed from Middle French bombardier, from Old French bombarder (“a stone throwing engine”), equivalent to bombard + -er.

der

The bombardier then checked the gyroscopic stabilization of the bombsight and clutched in the electrical motor.

1990, Charles W McArthur, Operations Analysis in the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force in World War II, American Mathematical Society, →ISBN, page 142:

(Canada, US) A bomber crew member who sights and releases bombs.


From 1, used to dial long-distance numbers and 800, which was, for a long time, the only North American toll-free area code.

866-555-1234... that's a 1-800 number, isn't it?

FEMA has got a 1-800 number.

1994, Bill Clinton, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, William J. Clinton:

We provided a 1-800 hot line and a new food stamp tool kit which I would also like to provide for the record.

Exhibit 9.2 represents a 1-800 customer ordering process.

2001, David Wade, Ron Recardo, Corporate Performance Management:

Once when her husband had got a 1-800 number she used to get calls from all sorts of lonely weirdos who had nothing better to do late at night than call up people they didn't know.

Many people have profited from providing easy services that others do not like to do, such as a simple service like barbeque cleaning, superscoopers for cleaning up after dogs, an errand service, or a 1-800 tele-tutor service for school-age children who need assistance with their homework.

2002, Elaine Dundon, The Seeds of Innovation, page 115:

“I got a 1-800 number. I could check your credit card right now, and get an approval code, or find out if it's stolen or not. Just dial a 1-800 number and deal with computers."

2003, Bambi Vincent, Bob Arno, Travel Advisory!: How to Avoid Thefts, Cons, and Street Scams While Traveling:

(Canada, US) A toll-free number or a long-distance telephone numbers; using any of North American toll-free area codes 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844 or 833.


checked

a checked tie

At that moment a long, scraggy individual in a checked suit poked his head into the bar, looked around portentously, whistled mysteriously to my informant, and jerked his thumb and head in the direction of the door.

1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 121:

Later that day, all X's friends put on their red and white checked overalls and went over to see X.

1978, Lois Gould, X: A Fabulous Child's Story, New York: Daughters Publishing Co., →ISBN:

(Canada, US) Having a pattern of checks; checkered.


deacon

Inherited from Old English diacon, from Ecclesiastical Latin diāconus, from Ancient Greek διᾱ́κονος (diā́konos, “servant, minister”).

(US, animal husbandry) A male calf of a dairy breed, so called because they are usually deaconed (see below).


deacon

en-verb

deacon (third-person singular simple present deacons, present participle deaconing, simple past and past participle deaconed)

deacons (present singular third-person)
deaconing (participle present)
deaconed (participle past)
deaconed (past)

(US, animal husbandry) To kill a calf shortly after birth.

The blanc mange was lumpy, and the strawberries not as ripe as they looked, having been skilfully 'deaconed'.

It's like buying a barrel of apples that's been deaconed — after you've found that the deeper you go the meaner and wormier the fruit, you forget all about the layer of big, rosy, wax-finished pippins that was on top.

1902, George Horace Lorimer, Old Gorgon Graham:

(US, slang) To place fresh fruit at the top of a barrel or other container, with spoiled or imperfect fruit hidden beneath.

(US, slang) To make sly alterations to the boundaries of (land); to adulterate or doctor (an article to be sold), etc.


someplace

We can't find the damned thing, but it must be someplace.


mickey

* (potato): From the common Irish name; compare murphy (“a potato”).
* (computer mouse resolution): An allusion to the cartoon character Mickey Mouse.

I slipped him a mickey.

(US, slang) A Mickey Finn; a beverage, usually alcoholic, that has been drugged.

We roasted mickeys over a fire with two-foot sticks.

(US, slang, dated, Depression Era) A potato.


buster

Originally a dialectal variant of burster; later influenced by bust + -er.
The combining form of the term has appeared from the early 20th century but been especially prolific during three periods: in the 1930s, owing to the success of the radio series Gang Busters; in the 1940s, owing to its appearance as military slang; and in the 1980s, owing to the success of the movie Ghostbusters.

rebenta-

person or thing that breaks or overwhelms

The buster must be careful to keep well away from sheds and timber.

Some busters caught their horses for the first time over the head, and snubbed or choked them until they fell gasping.

1964, John Hendrix, If I Can Do It Horseback: A Cow-Country Sketchbook, page 40:

(chiefly colloquial, with 'of') Someone who or something that 'breaks', tames, or overpowers a specified person or thing.

(US, in particular, dated, slang) A broncobuster.

In that state he is called a ‘Buster’, bursting his shell.

1855 October 18, Henry A. Wise, letter in J.P. Hambleton's Biographical Sketch of Henry A. Wise (1856), 448

Restaurant August... serves contemporary French cuisine prepared with Louisiana ingredients like buster crabs, shrimp and oysters.


yardman

A worker in any of several types of yard, as:

(chiefly Canada, US) A laborer hired to do outdoor work.


whacked

en-adj

whacked (comparative more whacked, superlative most whacked)

more whacked (comparative)
most whacked (superlative)

After that all-night party, we were all whacked.


backyard

backyards (plural)
back-yard (alternative)
back yard (alternative)

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US) A yard to the rear of a house or similar residence.

The entire beach was my backyard, from the Hiltons' house in the south all the way to Steele Hunter's house in the north.

2005, Christopher Kennedy Lawford, Symptoms of withdrawal: a memoir of snapshots and redemption, →ISBN, page 18:

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US, colloquial) A person's neighborhood, or an area nearby to a person's usual residence or place of work and where the person is likely to go.

However, the region was in the United States backyard and Britain should look passively on with acquiescence in whatever policy the United States saw fit to pursue about Mexico.

1942, Wilfrid Hardy Callcott, The Caribbean policy of the United States, 1890-1920, page 343:

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US, colloquial) An area nearby to a country or other jurisdiction's legal boundaries, particularly an area in which the country feels it has an interest.


congressman

For strained metaphor this has not been equaled since a bloviant congressman began his eulogy upon Senator Vance with the words […]

1919, Celebration Legal Essays: To Mark the Twenty-fifth Year of Service of John H ...:

There was a stampede as the congressmen jumped the banister in their hastes to be the first to sign away their souls.

2017, Russell M. Peterson, The Armies of Forever, page 368:

Two US congressmen on Tuesday made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan as the US races to evacuate as many people as possible from the country in the remaining days of the US military presence there, taking Democratic leadership by surprise and drawing swift criticism.

2021 August 24, Devan Cole, Ryan Nobles, Zachary Cohen and Oren Liebermann, “Two congressmen traveled to Afghanistan amid frantic evacuation efforts”, in CNN:

The committee’s investigation into Gaetz began in 2021 but was put on hold while a separate, yearslong federal sex-trafficking investigation into the former congressman was underway.

2024 December 23, Sarah Ferris and Jeremy Herb, “House Ethics report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid thousands for sex and drugs including paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017”, in CNN:

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


paycheck

paychecks (plural)
pay check (alternative)
paycheque (alternative)
pay cheque (alternative)

From pay (“wages or salary”) + check (“means of payment”).

af

Coordinate term: payslip

He was delighted after getting his first paycheck, but subsequently blew it all on the horses.

The teachers are not there to help you. Most oft them are still freelancers and the last thing they want is more competition. They are there because they need a steady paycheck and they hope to score some pussy!

1991, Daniel Clowes, Art School Confidential:

They took my whole paycheck and I know why / 'Cause I got high, 'cause I got high

2001, “Because I Got High”, in Because I Got High, performed by Afroman:

With the help of some low-end boosting, Dinklage musters a decent amount of kid-appropriate menace—although he never does explain his gift for finding chunks of ice shaped like pirate ships—but Romano and Leary mainly sound bored, droning through their lines as if they’re simultaneously texting the contractors building the additions on their houses funded by their fat sequel paychecks.

2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in AV Club:

We're a super sad generation / Killing time and losing our paychecks

2019, “Super Sad Generation”, performed by Arlo Parks:

(US) Money received on payday as payment for work performed.

заплата

money received on payday as payment for work performed


momma

Alternative spelling of mama; see further etymology there.

My momma’s so great: she bakes me cookies every week.


jeopardize

en-verb

jeopardize (third-person singular simple present jeopardizes, present participle jeopardizing, simple past and past participle jeopardized)

jeopardizes (present singular third-person)
jeopardizing (participle present)
jeopardized (participle past)
jeopardized (past)
jeopardise (alternative)

After having an affair with a junior, her chances of promotion were seriously jeopardized.

This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

1968, Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey, spoken by HAL 9000:


reschedule

reschedule (third-person singular simple present reschedules, present participle rescheduling, simple past and past participle rescheduled)

reschedules (present singular third-person)
rescheduling (participle present)
rescheduled (participle past)
rescheduled (past)

/ɹiːˈʃɛd͡ʒuːl/

/ɹiˈʃɛd͡ʒuːl/

Judge Young had been considering a petition filed to have marijuana rescheduled under federal law.

1997, Mary Lynn Mathre, Cannabis in Medical Practice, page 25:

Moreover, marijuana could only be brought to market if it were rescheduled to acknowledge its “accepted medical use,” according to DEA standards.

2000, Marijuana As Medicine?: The Science Beyond the Controversy:

(transitive, US, law) To reclassify; to change the schedule (division into which something is classified) of.


overtime

en-noun

overtime (countable and uncountable, plural overtimes)

That last-second shot ties the game 99-99 and sends it to overtime!

(sports, countable, US) An extra period of play when a contest has a tie score at the end of regulation.


jurist

/ˈd͡ʒʊəɹ.ɪst/

/ˈd͡ʒəɹ.ɪst/


inelastic

en-adj

inelastic (comparative more inelastic, superlative most inelastic)

more inelastic (comparative)
most inelastic (superlative)

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

(US, politics) Resistant to swings during elections; predictable.


anyplace

It’s funny, I’ve never felt anyplace was home before.

1956, James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room, Penguin, published 2001, Part 2, Chapter 2:

(informal, chiefly US) At a non-specific place; anywhere.


dumpster

Genericized brand name, from blend of dump + Dempster. The original brand (and some associated things) are no longer trademarked, because the three trademarks involved have either expired or been cancelled. By surface analysis, dump + -ster.

He realized with a brief shudder that Kurt probably used this flashlight while nipple-deep in dumpsters, had an image of Kurt transferring it from his gloved hands to his mouth and back again as he dug through bags of kitchen and toilet waste, looking for discarded technology.

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

[…]with the uncanny ability to always look like he just woke up in a dumpster

2020 December 27, Dave Barry, “Dave Barry's Year in Review 2020”, in The Washington Post Magazine:

(Canada, US) A large, usually metal trash receptacle designed to be hoisted up by a garbage truck in order to be emptied.


coaster

From coast (“edge of the land where it meets an ocean, sea, gulf, bay, or large lake”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Coast is derived from Middle English coste (“rib; side of the body, flank; side of a building; face of a solid figure; coast, shore; bay, gulf; sea; concavity, hollow; boundary, limit; land; country; district, province, region; locality, place; division of the heavens; compass direction; direction; location with reference to direction, side”) [and other forms], from Old French coste (“rib; side of an object; coast”) (modern French côte (“rib; coast; hill, slope”)), from Latin costa (“rib; side, wall”), from Proto-Indo-European *kost-.

navegador (de costas)

sailor who travels only in coastal waters

Salvelinus fontinalis
Salvelinus fontinalis#Translingual

(Canada, US) Short for coaster trout (“the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in Lake Superior and Maine”).

coaster trout

The ranch's rangy coasters, the only saleable cattle they then held, could not compete with cattle from a growing number of Midwest farmer-feeders or with competitors stocking the northern ranges.

2020, Michael M. Miller, XIT: A Story of Land, Cattle, and Capital in Texas and Montana, page 119:

2021, Ernest Haycox, Karl May, Zane Grey, 50 Westerns
But our market required a better quality than coasters and Mexican cattle, and we turned back up the country.

(US) A cow from the coastal part of Texas.


coaster

Hollywood Dream – The Ride
Universal Studios Japan

From coast (“to glide along without adding energy; to make a minimal effort; to slide downhill (especially, to slide on a sled upon snow or ice)”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Coast is derived from Middle English costeien (“to travel along a border or coast; to go alongside (something), skirt; to accompany, follow; to travel across, traverse; to be adjacent to, to border;”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman [Term?], Old French costoier (“to be at the side of”) [and other forms] (modern French côtoyer (“to pass alongside; (figuratively) to rub shoulders”)), from Latin costicāre, from costa (“rib; side, wall”); see further at etymology 1.
The sense 2.1 (“small stand or tray”) is from the fact that the object and the decanter or wine bottle on it “coast” or travel around a tabletop from person to person. The sense 2.2.2 (“useless compact disc or DVD”) refers to the fact that the object is only useful as a drink coaster.

nb...

cost, costay, coste, costey, costie, coost, coostie, costen, costien

kelkka

something that coasts or is used to coast

It was cold but still, and Polly trotted down the smooth, snow-covered mall, humming to herself, and trying not to feel homesick. The coasters were at it with all their might, and she watched them, till her longing to join the fun grew irresistible.

1869–1870, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “Polly’s Troubles”, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1870, →OCLC, page 42:

(US, winter sports) A person who uses a sled or toboggan to slide down a slope covered with ice or snow; a sledder, a tobogganist.

Something that coasts or is used to coast.


hotshot

hotshots (plural)
hot shot (alternative)
hot-shot (alternative)

Indeed, development proceeded so rapidly thereafter that Mopac, for instance, was rebuilding a series of 10-year-old Woodard 2-8-4's into 4-8-4's by 1940 - not because they couldn't steam but because their 63-inch drivers couldn't roll the hotshots fast enough.

1959, David P. Morgan, editor, Steam's Finest Hour, Kalmbach Publishing Co.:

(US, rail transport) A fast freight train.


interstate

[ˈɪɾ̃ɚˌsteɪ̯t]

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

From inter- + state, originally as an adjective only; the noun is by (ellipsis) from interstate highway. The noun also serves adjectivally as a (noun adjunct) in such collocations as interstate construction and interstate rest stops.

I (alternative)
IH (alternative)
IR (alternative)
Int. (alternative)
ISR (alternative)

interstate commerce

interstate reciprocity

The difference between intrastate and interstate prison transfers, Justice Blackmun said, "is a matter of degree, not of kind," while confinement in a mental hospital is qualitatively different than an ordinary prison sentence.

1983 April 27, “STATES CAN TRANSFER PRISONERS TO OTHER STATES, COURT HOLDS”, in The New York Times:

(chiefly US and Australia) Of, or relating to two or more states.


interstate

[ˈɪɾ̃ɚˌsteɪ̯t]

The truck driver drove interstate to unload.

(chiefly US and Australia) Crossing states (usually provincial state, but also e.g. multinational sense).


interstate

interstates (plural)
I (alternative)
IH (alternative)
IR (alternative)
Int. (alternative)
ISR (alternative)

Chicago
Interstate 290
Interstate 90
Interstate 94

[ˈɪɾ̃ɚˌsteɪ̯t]

The speed-limit increase would not apply to Delaware, where the interstates are all near populated areas.

1987 March 19, Bernard Weinraub, “HOUSE BACKS A SPEED LIMIT OF 65 FOR RURAL INTERSTATES”, in The New York Times:

There was no reason to pull off the interstate and drive twenty miles down a bumpy local road, just to stay in a dilapidated no-tell motel.

2013, Robin Wasserman, Seven Deadly Sins, volume 1: Lust; Envy, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 120:

(US) A freeway that is part of the Interstate Highway System.


bossy

Diminutive of dialectal English boss, as used in the term boss-calf (which, like buss-calf, is a variant form of boose-calf, a calf kept in a boose (“stall”)).

A week before, while riding the prairies, Raidler had come upon a sick and weakling calf deserted and bawling. Without dismounting he had reached and slung the distressed bossy across his saddle, and dropped it at the ranch for the boys to attend to.

1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 174, column 1:


horse trailer

(US, Canada) a wheeled transport for horses


valedictorian

Formed 1759, from valedictory (“of a speech made when leaving”) + -an.

suffix

Coordinate term: salutatorian

Our oldest son was valedictorian of his high school class and went to a top university. But right about this time two years ago, our second son told us he wasn’t interested in college.

2020 July 2, Arthur C. Brooks, “A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life”, in The Atlantic:

At first, it seemed a joyous occasion. There was an audible gasp in the room, then boisterous cheering and applause when the announcement was made: Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple had been named 2021 valedictorian and salutatorian for West Point High School.

2021 June 11, Stephanie Saul, “Two Black Students Won School Honors. Then Came the Calls for a Recount.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, Canada, properly) The individual in a graduating class who delivers the farewell or valedictory address, often the person who graduates with the highest grades.

(US, Canada, colloquial) The individual in a graduating class who graduates with the highest grades.


apartment complex

en-noun

apartment complex (plural apartment complexes)

(US) a set of buildings containing many apartments and ancillary functions


goofer dust

(US) A powder used to cast a spell in hoodoo practices.


grody

en-adj

grody (comparative grodier, superlative grodiest)

grodier (comparative)
grodiest (superlative)
groady (alternative)

From groady, apparently a clipping of grotesque + -y (intervocalic /t/ and /d/ are similar in American English). Compare British grotty, of the same origin, and gro.
Popularized by Moon Unit Zappa in song "Valley Girl" (1982) in phrase "grody to the max", as archetypal Southern California Valleyspeak; song also popularized "gag me with a spoon".

I wouldn't set foot in that bar; the floor looks grody.

And the lady, like, goes / "Oh, my god, your toenails are, like, so grody" / […] / It’s like grody / Grody to the max / […] / Gross!

1982, Frank Zappa, Moon Zappa (lyrics and music), “Valley Girl”, in Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch:

Oh wait. It's just grody and rotten. The Cheat, will you please freaking clean up after yourself?

2002 October 31, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Strong Bad Email #48: ghosts”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman):

(US, informal) Nasty, dirty, disgusting, foul, revolting, yucky, grotesque.


quarterly court

en-noun

quarterly court (plural quarterly courts)

(US) a county court held every three months.


excelsior

From Latin excelsior, comparative of excelsus (“high”). The name of the stuffing material was originally a trademark.

(US printing, dated) The size of type between Norse and brilliant, standardized as 3-point.

These little mangers, with baby dolls representing Jesus, porcelean Josephs and Marys, wide-eyed cows of papier-mâché, and excelsior for straw, were purchased by pious parents for well-behaved children at Christmas-tide.

1942, Elliot Paul, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Sickle Moon, published 2001, page 91:

Working both [of them] at Kroll's then, she selling candy and cashews in a white smock with "Jan" stitched on her pocket and he lugging easy chairs and maple end tables around on the floor above, hammering apart packing crates from nine to five, the itch of the packing excelsior getting into his nose and eyes and making them burn.

1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 13:

Each Pet Rock came in a cardboard carrying case, complete with air holes, tenderly nestled on a bed of excelsior.

2015 March 31, Margalit Fox, “Gary Dahl, Inventor of the Pet Rock, Dies at 78”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(Canada, US) Stuffing material (as for furniture and mattresses) made of slender, curled woodshavings, as a substitute for hair.

lastuvilla

stuffing made of slender, curled wood shavings


garbage truck

(US, Canada) A vehicle for the collection and removal of domestic waste


pomelo

pomelos (plural)
pomeloes (plural)
pommelo (alternative)
pummelo (alternative)
pomelow (alternative)
pummaloe (alternative)
pummelow (alternative)
pomello (alternative)
pomolo (alternative)
pumelo (alternative)

→ French: pomélo, pomelo

→ German: Pomelo

→ Italian: pomelo

→ Polish: pomelo

→ Portuguese: pomelo

→ Spanish: pomelo

Of uncertain etymology, though possibly a variant of earlier pampelmoes, from French, Dutch, Portuguese sources ultimately equivalent to "thick lemon" or transcribing the Tamil பம்ப ளிமாசு (pampa ḷimācu, “big citrus”). Alternatively, possibly from pome (“apple”) + melon or some cognate; though such a compound is currently unattested, some early variant spellings seem to show influence from pome.

SHADDOCK, AND POMELO, OR GRAPE-FRUIT. (Citrus aurantium decumana.*) The cultivation of these fruits is extendiug gradually, especially of the pomelo, which is a first-class marketable fruit, very valuable in the spring and early summer.

1888, Bulletin, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Pomology, page 78:

Pomelo.* — Much larger than an orange and smaller than a shaddock; a delicious fruit, preferred by many to the orange. Skin smooth, pale yellow; subacid. The membrane dividing the pulp is bitter, and must be removed before eating the pulp. Also called "grape-fruit" from its habit of growing in clusters.

1891, Bulletin No. 1-10, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Pomology, page 79:

POMELO (syn. grape fruit).—A variety of shaddock; fruit very large, from two to five pounds each, pale yellow, resembling the citron; skin smooth; pulp sub-acid. / SHADDOCK.—Tree inclined to be dwarf; fruit very large, with smooth skin, pale yellow and very glossy; the rind is very thick and spongy, and very bitter; ornamental only

1891 March, R M Lelong, “From Seed to Grove”, in The Great Southwest, page 3:

Pomelo (Citrus decumana) — The commercial term grape fruit is synonymous with pomelo, while shaddock, a term sometimes reserved for these fruits, is more properly applied to a large pyriform or necked variety of the pomelo. This variety sometimes reaches a weight of 15 pounds or more. Within the last few years the smaller pomelo has become very popular in Northern markets and extensive orchards are being rapidly set out in Florida, which is the state of largest production. The pomelo is somewhat larger than the orange and of a pale yellow color.

1904, Earley Vernon Wilcox, Clarence Beaman Smith, Farmer's Cyclopedia of Agriculture, page 241:

The pomelo has unfortunately been marketed under the name “grape-fruit,” and it is doubtful whether the correct name, pomelo, will ever displace the trade name.

1911, Good Housekeeping Magazine, page 106:

(US, Caribbean, archaic) The grapefruit.


weedwhacker

(US, horticulture, landscaping) A device used to cut grass and destroy weeds; a string trimmer.


bodacious

en-adj

bodacious (comparative more bodacious, superlative most bodacious)

more bodacious (comparative)
most bodacious (superlative)
bardacious (alternative)
boldacious (alternative)
bowdacious (alternative)

Southern American slang, implied by bodaciously, 1837, either from bodyaciously (“bodily, totally, root and branch”)
(as in “the pigs broke into my fence and destroyed the potato patch bodyaciously”), South Carolina, or a blend of bold and audacious.

If you’re going to lie, you might as well tell a bodacious lie.

1898, Emma M. Bachus, “Tales of the Rabbit from Georgia Negroes” in Journal of American Folk-Lore (Vol 12, No 45), page 115. Google Book page link.
Then that bodacious Brer Rabbit, he go softly through the bresh, and just creep inside that pig and lay hisself down, and he lay out to keep he eye open and watch out for the cart, but ’fore he know hisself he fall asleep.

As far as I was concerned, the Panthers were ‘baaaaaad’. The Party was more than bad; it was bodacious. The sheer audacity of walking onto the California Senate floor with rifles, demanding that Black people have the right to bear arms and the right to self-defense, made me sit back and take a long look at them.

1987, Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography, London: Lawrence Hill, →ISBN, →OL, page 203:

Bodacious living is evident everywhere, but it's easy not to notice the remarkable people and happenings that are present all around.

2002, Margie Little Jenkins, You Only Die Once: Preparing for the End of Life with Grace and Gusto, page 209:

Modestly titled ‘Appeal’ with a more particular subtitle, Walker’s text was probably the most bodacious expression of cultural discontent and disavowal of slavery that American society had ever known.

2007, Darryl Scriven, Daphne Rolle (foreword), A Dealer of Old Clothes: Philosophical Conversations with David Walker, Preface, page xiii

You, sir, are a bodacious scoundrel.

bodacious - Extremely strong, as in reference to an incoming signal.

1976, CBer's Handy Atlas/Dictionary, page 12, column 1:

Twenty meters in diameter to match the bore of the huge Japanese ore drilling machines, the floor had been leveled by an equally bodacious milling robot, and the shiny metallic walls seemed to stretch on to infinity.

1999, Leo Frankowski, A Boy and His Tank, Baen, First Hardback Printing, pg. 1

You can find the most bodacious barbecue and a library designed by noted postmodernist architect Michael Graves.

2008, Judy Colbert, Off the Beaten Path Virginia: A Guide to Unique Places, page vii:

(Australia, US, slang) Impressively great in size, and enormous; extraordinary.


bodacious

Well, he knows by this time, I reckon, that the fastest man afoot can’t noways match speed with a hornet. He taken out through the bresh and thickets, yelpin’ and hollerin’ and hoppin’ most bodacious. He run in a circle, too, for in three minutes he come bellerin’ back, gave one last hop and dove back into the thicket. By this time I figgered he’d wore the hornets out, so I came alive again.

1935 October, Robert E. Howard, “The Riot at Cougar Paw”, in Action Stories:


disoriented

disoriented (comparative more disoriented, superlative most disoriented)

more disoriented (comparative)
most disoriented (superlative)

From dis- + oriented or disorient + -ed.

(US) Alternative form of disorientated Having lost one's direction; confused.


low-key

en-adv

low-key (comparative more low-key, superlative most low-key)

more low-key (comparative)
most low-key (superlative)
lowkey (alternative)
low key (alternative)
lowk (alternative)
LWK (alternative)
lwk (alternative)

I'm low key salty about the way that nigga did you but it seems like he still cares about you.

2015, Lady Onyxx, Started From The Top Now I'm Here 3, page 81:

Before I open the messages, I disable the activity notification so no one will know I'm low-key obsessed with a party I didn't get to attend.

2018, Rachel Vincent, Strange New World:

(chiefly Canada, US, colloquial) Kind of.


caretaker

(chiefly Canada, US) Someone who takes care of a person; a parent, carer or other guardian.


bismarck

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

Named for the German statesman Otto von Bismarck.

(Manitoba) A doughnut filled with cream, often with chocolate icing.

(Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northern US, Midwestern US) A jelly doughnut: a doughnut filled with jam and coated with sugar.

Alberta; Saskatchewan; Alberta; Saskatchewan

(Midland US) A fried cruller, or a sort of pancake.

A dessert pastry:
A fried cruller, or a sort of pancake.


ramada

Borrowed from Spanish ramada, from rama (“branch”).

They sat in the shade of the pole and brush ramada in front of the place and sipped their drinks and looked out at the desolate stillness of the little crossroads at noon.

1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses:

As protection against the fierce heat, he caused a ramada to be constructed over and around his tent, which he employed only for sleeping.

2006, Wayne R Kime, Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, page 23:

The well- built structure suggested that the occupation was not temporary, and the presence of the ramada indicated that at least part of the occupation was during warm weather.

2008, Sally Binford, Lewis Binford, Archeology in Cultural Systems, page 155:

(US) A simple arbour or open porch, typically roofed with branches.


projects

/ˈpɹɑˌd͡ʒɛkts/

My friend Larry Gray never gangbanged with us but was from the projects and to your rival, that meant you were one

2008, Donovan Simmons, Terry Moses, Bloods and Crips: The Genesis of a Genocide, page 128:

(US, usually preceded by the) One or more high-density urban housing developments for residents having low incomes.


riata

From Spanish reata, from reatar (“to retie”). Compare lariat.

“You double-crossing devil,” the young man growled. “[…] Hereafter you'll trot ahead of me at the end of a riata, while I keep you on the jump with a four-horse whip. Right now you're scattering my dunnage from hell to breakfast, […]”

1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter I, in The Understanding Heart:

A few blocks from the capitol we stripped him, cut off everything hanging between his legs, then fixed him with a riata and dragged him up and down Congress.

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 429:


waitstaff

en-noun

waitstaff (usually uncountable, plural waitstaffs)

waitstaffs (plural)
wait staff (alternative)
waiting staff (alternative)

(US, Canada) Collectively, staff employed to wait at tables in a restaurant.


trailer park trash

I didn't wear my “Trailer Park Trash” T-shirt that day.

1996, Annalee Newitz, White Trash: Race and Class in America:

I swear, this whole thing sounds like we're talking about some hillbilly trailer park trash.

Eric's remark about “trailer park trash” is strictly his. I have some very good friends who live in trailers and they are not trash.

2004, Sam Warren, Tales from the Tijuana Jails II:

(US, idiomatic, derogatory) Alternative form of trailer trash


springing

(law, US, characterizing the power of attorney) That takes effect only after the incapacity of the grantor or some other definite future act or circumstance.