removalist

Highly incensed at this treatment of their standard, the removalists flew to their arms,[…].

1999, Sherman Day, Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania, page 220:

Some individuals called opportunists wanted Indians removed from their lands for availability, and they did not care about the Indian Problem. These views put many Christians and humanitarians on one side and removalists on the other. Among the removalists were opportunists who took advantage of the displacement of Native groups to reservations.

2012, Donald L. Fixico, Landmarks of the American Mosaic: Bureau of Indian Affairs, page 47:

(chiefly US, historical) One who advocates the removal of native populations from their land.


Michigander

[ˈmɪ.ʃəˌɡæn.dɚ]

]
Attributed to Abraham Lincoln, in a speech of July 27, 1848, as pejorative reference to Lewis Cass, Michigan politician:
: There is one entire article of the sort I have not discussed yet; I mean the military tale you Democrats are now engaged in dovetailing onto the great Michigander.
Ostensibly coined as a blend of Michigan + gander (“male goose, simpleton”) (punning on “tale” and “(dove)tail(ing)”). Alternatively from and/or later reanalyzed as Michigan + -d- (epenthetic) + -er (“resident of”).

blend

United States of America
United States of America

(US) A native or resident of the state of Michigan in the United States of America.


drop off

en-verb

drop off (third-person singular simple present drops off, present participle dropping off, simple past and past participle dropped off)

drops off (present singular third-person)
dropping off (participle present)
dropped off (participle past)
dropped off (past)

Can you drop the kids off at school?

I'll drop off your books when I see you tonight.

After dropping off travellers at Foregate Street, my train terminates at Shrub Hill - a station which boasts one of the best selection [sic] of semaphore signals left in the country.

2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 67:

(idiomatic, transitive, especially US) To deliver; to deposit or leave; to allow passengers to alight.


windjammer

→ Dutch: windjammer

→ Russian: винджа́ммер (vindžámmer)

From wind + jammer? The nautical senses were originally used contemptuously by sailors on steam vessels.

(US, slang, dated) One who plays a wind instrument, especially a bugler in the army.

(US, slang) A windbag, a loquacious person.


heller

1890–95, Americanism; short for hell-raiser.

(US, Cornwall) A noisy, rowdy, troublesome person; a hellion.


valedictory

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From Latin valedictum + English -ory (suffix forming nouns meaning ‘that which pertains to’, or adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). Valedictum is the accusative supine of valedīcō (“to bid farewell; to give a valediction”), from valē (“farewell, goodbye”) (the imperative of valeō (“to be healthy or well; to be strong; to have influence or power”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“powerful, strong; to rule”)) + dīcō (“to say, speak”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to point out”)). By surface analysis, valedict + -ory.

der

(Canada, US) Of or pertaining to a valedictorian (“the individual in a graduating class who delivers the farewell address, often the person who graduates with the highest grades”).


valedictory

(specifically, Canada, US) A speech given by a valedictorian at a commencement or graduation ceremony.


Knuckles

(US, archaic) A nickname for a man employed for his fistfighting skill.


NPC

National Physique Committee
w:National Physique Committee

(US) Initialism of National Physique Committee.

National Petroleum Council
w:National Petroleum Council

(US) Initialism of National Petroleum Council.


NTS

(US) Initialism of National Transportation System.


Hershey squirts

In reference to Hershey's, an American chocolate company.

It wasn't any kind of physical illness, not measles or chicken pox or even the Hershey Squirts, the most humiliating and debilitating of them all.

But if the Goddess chose to help you by giving Miss Hoover the Hershey squirts, such is her divine wisdom.

2009 November 29, “Rednecks and Broomsticks”, in The Simpsons, season 21, episode 7, spoken by Gwendolyn Nightshadow (Neve Campbell):


saditty

en-adj

saditty (comparative more saditty, superlative most saditty)

more saditty (comparative)
most saditty (superlative)
hasadity (alternative)
sadity (alternative)
saddity (alternative)
sadiddy (alternative)
seditty (alternative)
seddity (alternative)
siditty (alternative)
siddity (alternative)

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Uncertain. Perhaps an alteration of sedate (see quotation below) or another word. Attested from the 20th century.

This desire for the group was voiced by its president in her attempts to get the girls to be “ladies and cultivated”—or, as frequently stated by them, to be more “seditty” (sedate), a colloquialism referring to the respectable and controlled behavior associated with middle-class standards.

1948, Grace Longwell Coyle, Group Work with American Youth: A Guide to the Practice of Leadership, page 39:

I would stop the car when we reached the kiosk and put on my siddity air. I would speak to him like the peasant he was. I would order him to start the car and then tip him a quarter or even a dollar from Dad’s pocket before driving on.

1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 30, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →LCCN, page 232:

You know who I mean – them saditty splibs, them e-lites that's so hung up on bein white that they cant even pronounce stuff right. They be talkin bout marking bird insteada mockin bird.

1970, Al Young, “Snakes”, in Ishmael Reed, editor, 19 Necromancers from Now, page 355:

(US, slang, chiefly African-American Vernacular) Acting snobbish, arrogant, or superior; uppity; perceived to be trying to associate with a higher social class.


boughten

From bought + -en (past participle ending of some verbs).

suffix

Is that a boughten chair?

Poor people had to wear homespun on Sundays, and Royal and Almanzo wore fullcloth. But Father and Mother and the girls were very fine, in clothes that Mother had made of store-boughten cloth, woven by machines.

1933, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy, Harper, published 1971, →ISBN, page 86:

(After the children's mothers cut their hair): "It's all right for you guys to laugh. You're in the same room at school and you can stick together, but I'll be the only one in my room who doesn't have a boughten haircut."

1954, Beverly Cleary, Henry and Ribsy, 2001 1st Scholastic edition, page 113

"Did you build it all by yourself?"[…]
"I have a boughten one at home," said Mitchell, indignant at the way he was being treated. "I just wanted to see if I could make one that would work."

1967, Beverly Cleary, Mitch and Amy, HarperCollins, published 2009, →ISBN, page 17:

(rare, archaic or dialectal, West Country, Cornwall, Canada, US) Having been purchased or bought (rather than homemade), storebought.


BOGO

BOGOF (alternative)
BOGOFF (UK) (alternative)

(chiefly US) Acronym of buy one, get one (free).


lallapalootza

lallapalootzas (plural)
lollapalooza (alternative)
lalapalooza (alternative)

Origin unknown. Probably a fanciful formation.

unk

unknown

Saturday night we had our final parade with the fireworks finish, and it was a lallapalootza!

1904, Hugh McHugh, I'm from Missouri (They had to Show Me), New York: G.W. Dillingham, →OCLC, page 89:

(US, slang) Something very good of its kind.


baggie

(US) A small bag, especially a small, clear, plastic bag.


upscale

en-adj

upscale (comparative more upscale, superlative most upscale)

more upscale (comparative)
most upscale (superlative)

This strategy [of rotating the garage with respect to the street] has become popular in many upscale housing developments nationwide primarily becaues it de-emphasizes the garage and makes the house look more like their traditional counterparts from the turn of the last century.

2002, Sarah Susanka, Not So Big Solutions for Your Home:

In Rio de Janeiro, thousands protested in a gritty area far from the city’s upscale seaside districts. In other cities, demonstrators blocked roads, barged into City Council meetings or interrupted sessions of local lawmakers, clapping loudly and sometimes taking over the microphone.

2013 June 18, Simon Romero, “Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-06-21:

(US, of a place) expensive and designed to appeal to rich consumers.


foley

en-noun

foley (countable and uncountable, plural foleys)

From the surname Foley, itself from Irish Ó Foghlú and Old Irish Ó Foghladha (“plunderer”).
The meanings related to sound effects are named after sound effects pioneer Jack Foley.

named-after

(uncountable, US) The creation of sound effects, and their addition to film and TV images.


foley artist

(US) A person who creates sound effects and adds them to film and TV images.


pickup

en-noun

pickup (countable and uncountable, plural pickups)

pickups (plural)
pick-up (alternative)
pick up (alternative)

Chinese:

→ Mandarin: 皮卡 (píkǎ)

→ Finnish: pick-up

→ French: pick-up, pickup

→ German: Pickup

→ Indonesian: pikap

→ Japanese: ピックアップ (pikkuappu)

desc

→ Khmer: ភីកអាប់ (pʰiik’ap), ពីកឺប (piikəɨp)

→ Korean: 픽업 (pigeop)

→ Portuguese: pickup, pick-up, picape (Brazil)

→ Russian: пика́п (pikáp)

→ Spanish: pickup, picop

→ Thai: ปิคอัพ (bpìk-àp)

→ Turkish: pikap

→ Uyghur: پىكاپ (pikap)

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Franklin is beside himself, revving up the engine in the pickup.

2009, Chinle Miller, Desert Rats: Adventures in the American Outback, page 35:

Coordinate term: gain

The returns from the election show Apple Party candidate Jane Doe has made a pickup in the district of City West defeating Orange Party Incumbent Joe Smith

(US, Canada, politics) The act of a challenging party or candidate winning an electoral district held by an incumbent party or candidate.


cartwheel

(US, historical, obsolete slang) A silver dollar of the larger size produced before 1979.


like gangbusters

From the American true crime radio drama Gang Busters (1936–1957), which opened abruptly with loud sound effects of police sirens, machine guns, etc.

"Put an actress in knock-out clothes and she'll come through like gangbusters."

1954 December 9, Hedda Hopper, “Chandler, Baxter 'Spoilers' Costars”, in Los Angeles Times, page B12:

Chromebooks are selling like gangbusters, but the party could be coming to an end [title]

2021 July 14, Paul Lilly, “Chromebooks are selling like gangbusters, but the party could be coming to an end”, in PC Gamer:

Wearing its politics heavier on its sleeve is Being the Ricardos, a late-breaking Amazon Studios film from Aaron Sorkin that played like gangbusters at industry screenings in New York and Los Angeles.

2022 January 7, Richard Lawson, “The Best-Picture Race: Sure Things, Crowd-Pleasers, and the Late-Breaking Potential Upsets”, in Vanity Fair:

(simile, colloquial, originally US) Vigorously, rapidly, zealously, or forcibly; in a manner which has considerable impact.


quinceañera

quinceañeras (plural)
quinceanera (alternative)
quince (alternative)

/ˌkɪnsənˈjɛɹə/

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

Borrowed from Spanish quinceañera (literally “fifteen-year-old”), feminine of quinceañero, from quince años (“fifteen years”) + -ero.

bor+

Any given night will find moms with their shoulders mounded with chrysanthemums and daughters decked out in quinceañera lace.

(chiefly US) The fifteenth birthday and particularly the celebration and ceremony surrounding it for a young Latina woman.

fête des quinze ans

fifteenth birthday celebration for a young woman


homeroom

en-noun

homeroom (countable and uncountable, plural homerooms)

ja-r

ホームルーム (hōmurūmu)

Japanese: ホームルーム (hōmurūmu)

(US) A classroom where school pupils of the same age gather for registration, or for other purposes that are unrelated to class content.

(US) The collection of pupils who gather in such a room.


corpsman

The corpsman prescribed Motrin to the sick marine for his symptoms.

(US, military, nautical) A hospital corpsman.

(deprecated, US, military) An enlisted person in the U.S. Army who works as a field medic.


nard

Alteration of nuts (“testicles”) or nads (“gonads”).

The soccer ball hit me right in the nards!

I’m sure whoever was in charge must have been one of the last of the Fulda Fucktards, you know, those generals who spent their nard-drop years training to defend West Germany from Ivan.

(US, 1980s, slang, usually in the plural) A testicle.


hipshot

en-adj

hipshot (comparative more hipshot, superlative most hipshot)

more hipshot (comparative)
most hipshot (superlative)

No degree of the allegorical avoided an excuse to present an impudently hipshot youth, or a captive maiden in some appealing form of restraint

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 686:

(US, colloquial) Standing with one hip lower than the other.


nep

(US, slang, derogatory) One who engages in nepotism, usually to the one who benefits from it.


stroller

(US, Canada, Australia) A seat or chair on wheels, pushed by somebody walking behind it, typically used for transporting babies and young children.


ameboid

ameboid (comparative more ameboid, superlative most ameboid)

more ameboid (comparative)
most ameboid (superlative)


feds

Which leaves the states in an awful hole. The Feds have ripped $80 billion out of their budgets over the next 10 years.

2016 February 10, Peter Martin, “State governments are about to hike up taxes”, in The Sydney Morning Herald:

(US, Australia, slang, government) The federal level of government, viewed as a collective group of people. Typically its law enforcement agencies and officers.


analyzer

analyzers (plural)
analyser (alternative)

(US) an instrument for the analysis of something


all-fired

Probably a euphemistic form of hell-fired.

It's an all-fired outrage to tell any human creature that he's bound to hell.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 16, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

(chiefly US, informal) Extreme, excessive.


all-fired

Of course, I was only stringing Jerry . . . he thinks he's so all-fired cute and smart.

1909, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 14, in Anne of Avonlea:

Latha dear, she said resolutely, once in your life you'll just have to quit being so all-fired superstitious.

1970, Donald Harington, Lightning Bug, published 2005, page 32:

Sometimes I'm tired and I wonder / What's so all-fired important / About being someplace at some time

1972, Carole King (lyrics and music), “Bitter with the Sweet”, in Rhymes & Reasons:

(chiefly US, intensifier, informal) Extremely, thoroughly, very.


White House

From the Executive Mansion ("house") of the United States of America having been painted white, giving its appearance of a white house; having been painted to cover up the damage from the War of 1812 when the British burned the mansion down.

Withuis

the official residence of the President of the United States of America

(US) The official home and workplace of the President of the United States of America.

The White House announced its support for the new law.

U.S. President Joe Biden held a joint call Friday with both Niinisto and Andersson where, according to a White House statement, he “underscored his support for NATO’s Open Door policy and for the right of Finland and Sweden to decide their own future, foreign policy and security arrangements.”

2022 May 14, Jari Tanner, “Putin warns Finland NATO membership would harm relations”, in AP News, archived from the original on 2022-05-14:

(US, metonymically) The US presidency and its administration.

Little White House

White House of the Confederacy

(US, by extension) Any executive residence


honor system

honor systems (plural)
honour system (alternative)

Our local beekeeper leaves jars of honey for sale in his driveway. There's a coffee can for the money, and payment is on the honor system.

(US, alternative in Canada) A system, policy or understanding based on trust in the honesty, honor, or integrity of others.


hair space

(typography, US) The narrowest space appearing between letters and punctuation.


ocupado

(US, humorous) occupied (said of a toilet stall)


sheepskin

en-noun

sheepskin (countable and uncountable, plural sheepskins)

[…] he took his sheepskin with a bow and a gesture that extinguished several of his companions;

1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 32, in Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: R.F. Seymour, page 302:


haul ass

en-verb

haul ass (third-person singular simple present hauls ass, present participle hauling ass, simple past and past participle hauled ass)

hauls ass (present singular third-person)
hauling ass (participle present)
hauled ass (participle past)
hauled ass (past)

It's the cops! Haul ass!

trucks hauling ass on the interstate, trying to make up time

(US, vulgar, slang) To hurry; to move quickly, especially to leave.

either one's own ass or someone else's ass as pronominal direct object


dependa

(US, military, slang, derogatory) Clipping of dependapotamus.


sparky

The headlines ground out big and black at home, but by the time they had gone out on the Fleet broadcast circuits, been picked out of the air by Mr. Woodside′s sparkies in the radio shack, whacked onto a stencil and run through a mimeograph machine by Harry Dolliver, they were not nearly so impressive.

1964, Arnold S. Lott, Brave Ship, Brave Men, published 1994, page 77:


redline

redline (third-person singular simple present redlines, present participle redlining, simple past and past participle redlined)

redlines (present singular third-person)
redlining (participle present)
redlined (participle past)
redlined (past)

From red + line, originating with the frequent use of red pen or pencil to mark corrections on drawings and documents (1), and the red markings on a tachometer (2).

Already ‘redlined’ by profit-hungry telcos, the inhabitants of poor inner city areas can be shut out of the new on-line services through lack of money.

1995 September, Richard Barbrook, Andy Cameron, “The Californian Ideology”, in Mute, volume 1, number 3, →ISSN:

(Canada, US, urban studies) To deny or complicate access to services (such as banking, insurance, or healthcare) to residents in specific, often racially determined, areas.


flavored

en-adj

flavored (comparative more flavored, superlative most flavored)

more flavored (comparative)
most flavored (superlative)

This is only grape-flavored soda. The flavoring is artificial; real grape juice tastes much richer.


Mother's Day

Mother's Days (plural)
Mothers' Day (alternative)
Mothers Day (alternative)

From Anna Jarvis's campaign in the early 20th century, which insisted on using a singular spelling in order to associate the day with observants' particular mothers.

عِيد اَلْأُمّ

a day in honor of one's mother or all mothers, on whichever day

(US, Canada) A day in honor of one's mother on the second Sunday in May in the United States and Canada.


kitty-cornered

He’s king of all these wigged men sitting with their hosed legs kitty-cornered under their desks.

1987, Martha Barron Barrett, God’s Country, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 67:

(US) Synonym of kitty-corner (“cater-corner”).


hot damn

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(Canada, US) A minced oath from "god damn".


hot shift

(historical, US, automotive) An early mechanism that synchronized the speeds of gear wheels when changing gear in an automobile.


hot squat

to get the hot squat

"Hell," repeated Mr. Ogden. "Well, listen. They opine that in this country you don't get the hot squat, not without you earn it good and plenty."

1936, Ngaio Marsh, Death in Ecstasy, New York, N.Y.: Jove Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 151:


ki-yi

en-verb

ki-yi (third-person singular simple present ki-yis, present participle ki-yiing, simple past and past participle ki-yied or ki-yi'd)

ki-yis (present singular third-person)
ki-yiing (participle present)
ki-yied (participle past)
ki-yied (past)
ki-yi'd (participle past)
ki-yi'd (past)


ki-yi

(US) the howl of a dog; a whoop or similar shout of excitement


JATO

en-noun

JATO (countable and uncountable, plural JATOs)

(uncountable) Acronym of jet-assisted takeoff, a method of using booster rockets to allow heavily-loaded aircraft to lift off more quickly and use less runway length for takeoff.


polarized

en-adj

polarized (comparative more polarized, superlative most polarized)

more polarized (comparative)
most polarized (superlative)
polarised (alternative)

When the polarizers are aligned in the same direction, they block the same state of polarization, i.e. they both block horizontally polarized light, and both let the vertically polarized light through. The second polarizer therefore has no effect on the light. When the polarizers are aligned perpendicular to one another, one will block the horizontally polarized light and the other will block vertically polarized light — no light at all gets through the pair!

2013 July 16, skullsinthestars, “Simple fun with polarizers!”, in Skulls in the Stars:

(US) Of a group or situation, being at two or more extremes.


polarize

en-verb

polarize (third-person singular simple present polarizes, present participle polarizing, simple past and past participle polarized)

polarizes (present singular third-person)
polarizing (participle present)
polarized (participle past)
polarized (past)
polarise (alternative)

/ˈpəʉ.lə.ɹɑɪz/

/ˈpɐʉ.lə.ɹɑɪz/

From French polariser, equivalent to polar + -ize.

To polarize, and indeed, to artificially distinguish between the secular and the religious is to dismiss the inarguable Judeo-Christian foundation of contemporary secular institutions.

1979 August 11, Lisa Capaldini, “Lessons From History”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 4, page 4:

(transitive, US) To cause to have a polarization.

The deal has polarized Twitter employees, users, and regulators over the power tech giants wield in determining the parameters of acceptable discourse on the internet and how those companies enforce their rules.

2022 April 26, Cara Lombardo, Meghan Bobrowsky, Georgia Wells, “Musk Strikes Deal to Buy Twitter”, in The Wall Street Journal, volume 279, number 96, Dow Jones & Company, News Corp, page 1:

(transitive, US) To cause a group to be divided into extremes.

polaritzar

to cause a group to be divided into extremes


jerkwater

From jerk (“to move with a sudden movement”) + water. Refers to the need to supply the boilers of steam trains with water. In rural areas and small towns with no water tower, where the train did not stop, this was done by scooping ("jerking") water from a track pan. First appears c. 1852, in the Miami County Sentinel (Peru, Indiana).

compound

[…] by bailing from near streams with buckets, (the brake-man called this operation jerking water) and from this the road gets its name of jerkwater road.

1975 Mar, Indiana Historical Society, Indiana Magazine of History, volume 71, number 1, page 355:

(US, historical) A train on a branch line.


jerkwater

en-adj

jerkwater (comparative more jerkwater, superlative most jerkwater)

more jerkwater (comparative)
most jerkwater (superlative)

(US, colloquial, derogatory) Of an inhabited place, small, insignificant, and backward.

ма́ленький

of an inhabited place, small, insignificant, backward


liveaboard

“We′re going to move aboard, sail around the world and do some writing,” the letter goes. “How are our chances?” It′s a common question from readers who know that my husband and I support our liveaboard life through writing and photography.

1975, From Tiller to Typwriter: The Rudder, volume 91, page 227:

This marina is the closest to the ocean and has a surprisingly liberal liveaboard policy (10 percent of the total population; children, pets, okay).

Pat and Kelly′s was the haven for the liveaboard community and had acquired a legendary reputation for a salty ambiance involving a couple of parrots, a raccoon, dogs and independent liveaboards who had little time for established governments.

2000, David Schaefer, Sailing to Hemingway′s Cuba, page 40:

2008, Zoe Simpson, A Matter of Degree, Fossil-Imprints, UK, page 132,
‘None of the boats around you have liveaboards, do they?’ put in Mum.

Liveaboards come in all kinds of shapes and sizes: monohulls, catamarans, and trimarans, from less than 30 feet to over 100. A liveaboard serves as hotel, restaurant, and dive shop all in one — and sometimes even as a photoprocessing lab, too.

1999, John Newman, Michael Newman, Scuba Diving & Snorkeling for Dummies, page 219:

(US) A boat designed or modified to allow people to live on board, compared to similar boats which do not have this feature.


jobholder

(US) Someone who is employed in a regular job


gormy

Either:
* from gorm (“fool; one who is undiscerning”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’); or
* a variant of gaumy (“awkward”), from gaum (“to stare idly or vacantly; to gape, gaze; to be awkward or stupid; a lout; a gaping, idle fellow”) + -y.

suffix

And not always with finesse — the Lombard clanked and churned, and a man who is like a regular Lombard may be a bit gormy and sometimes apply brute strength when he might do the work easier if he'd stop and think a little.

1990, John Gould, There Goes Maine!: A Somewhat History, Sort of, of the Pine Tree State, New York, N.Y.: Norton, →ISBN, page 1187:

Kimball was never one to argue with a comrade's eyes and ears, not even those of a gormy jeezer like Connolly.

1990, Maurice Shadbolt, Monday’s Warriors: […], Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 5:

The Killian boy was carrying a chair, and making difficulties with it; he was what old-time Yankees would have called "a gormy lad."

2009, Stephen King, chapter 23, in Under the Dome: […], New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 682:

Just the sort of place gormy Eugene would pick to hold a family get-together.

2010 March, Pat Cunningham, chapter 4, in A London Werewolf in America, [Austin, Tex.]: Siren-BookStrand, →ISBN, page 32:

(British, chiefly Northern England, US, chiefly New England) Awkward, clumsy, klutzy, ungainly.


gormy

From gorm, gaum (“to smear; grime (noun)”) + -y.

The first thing you have got to do is to wash them gormy 'ands [...]

1914, Edward [Henry] Peple, The Prince Chap: A Comedy in Three Acts, New York, N.Y., London: Samuel French, →OCLC, act II, page 50:

When I bought my tamarinds I eat one or two and then discovered that I had left my handkerchief at home, my hands were a little gormy, so I washed them in Frog Pond.

1916 June 22, Abigail Clarke, quoting Edward Everett Hale, “Edward Everett Hale at Harvard College. IV. (1835–39.)”, in The Christian Register, volume 95, number 25, Boston, Mass.: Christian Register Association, →OCLC, page 583, column 1:

(British, US, chiefly Southern US) Alternative spelling of gaumy (“sticky, smeared with something sticky; grimy”)


cut-out

When the stray men have worked the herd, it is drove off a ways and turned loose. The calves in the cut-out groups are then branded and turned loose with their mothers; the strays are thrown into the stray herd or day herd.

1958, Fay E. Ward, The Cowboy at Work: All about His Job and How He Does It, with 600 Detail Drawings by the Author, New York, N.Y.: Hastings House, →OCLC, page 24:

(US, agriculture) The separation of a group of cattle from a herd; the place where they are collected.


dynamiter

Would you say it was fair to describe these salesmen that were in your crews as dynamiters, or suede shoe salesmen?

1954, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking and Currency. Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs, FHA Investigation: Hearings, page 2397:


armo

→ Armenian: արմո (armo)


beat it

en-verb

beat it (third-person singular simple present beats it, present participle beating it, simple past beat it, past participle beat it or beaten it)

beats it (present singular third-person)
beating it (participle present)
beat it (past)
beat it (participle past)
beaten it (participle past)

(idiomatic, US, Canada, vulgar, colloquial) To masturbate.


voluntarism

en-noun

voluntarism (countable and uncountable, plural voluntarisms)

(US) A reliance on volunteers to support an institution or achieve an end; volunteerism.


volunteerism

volunteerism (countable and uncountable, plural volunteerisms)

(US) Reliance on volunteers to perform a social or educational function.


Lafayette

en-proper noun

Lafayette (countable and uncountable, plural Lafayettes)

Lafayettes (plural)
Fayette (alternative)
LaFayette (alternative)
laFayette (alternative)
la Fayette (alternative)
La Fayette (alternative)
deFayette (alternative)
de Fayette (alternative)
De Fayette (alternative)
DeFayette (alternative)
Defayette (alternative)
de la Fayette (alternative)
De La Fayette (alternative)
de La Fayette (alternative)
De la Fayette (alternative)
delaFayette (alternative)
DeLaFayette (alternative)
DelaFayette (alternative)
deLaFayette (alternative)
deLafayette (alternative)
DeLafayette (alternative)
Delafayette (alternative)
de Lafayette (alternative)
De Lafayette (alternative)
De LaFayette (alternative)
De laFayette (alternative)
de laFayette (alternative)
dela Fayette (alternative)
DeLa Fayette (alternative)
Dela Fayette (alternative)
deLa Fayette (alternative)

/ˌlɑːfiːˈɛt/

French surname from Occitan, "the little beech tree".

(US, countable) A male given name transferred from the surname, originally in honor of the Marquis.


nimrod

In most English-speaking countries, Nimrod is used to denote a hunter or warrior, because the biblical Nimrod is described as "a mighty hunter". In American English, however, the term has acquired a derogatory meaning of "idiot"; there are various hypotheses as to why. Most examples suggest an intermediate form where Nimrod is used deliberately to mock a hunter. Whether this usage was widespread, or how it influenced the final meaning where the hunter connotation is unintended, might be beyond reach.
Possible reasons for the shift from "hunter" to "idiot":
One suggestion is that Bugs Bunny's references to Elmer Fudd as a "poor little Nimrod", while most likely using the term's "hunter" sense, contributed to the development of a sense "one who is easily confounded".
An alternative explanation of this sense is that it derives from the John Steinbeck memoir Travels with Charley: In Search of America, in which Steinbeck used the term sarcastically while describing an inquest that was held after a hunter accidentally shot his partner: "The coroner questioning this nimrod..."
The Oxford English Dictionary, in turn, cites a 1933 writing as the first usage of nimrod to refer to a fool, predating Bugs Bunny by at least five years and Steinbeck by nearly thirty: in Hecht and Fowler's Great Magoo, someone remarks "He's in love with her. That makes about the tenth. The same old Nimrod. Won't let her alone for a second." However, this could still have been used in the sense of a hunter (i.e. someone pursuing a love interest).
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary suggests that because the legendary Nimrod was associated with the Tower of Babel, a disastrous idea, nimrod acquired the meaning of "a stupid person."
Another possible source of the sense is the play The Lion of the West by James Paulding. First performed in 1831, it features a comedic characterization of Davy Crockett named Col. Nimrod Wildfire who attempts to woo a young French woman.
Another possibility is that there was an unattested dialectal or slang term for an idiot similar to Australian English ning nong, and that it became conflated with the more respectable term, perhaps as a euphemism.

col-top

Don't stick your fingers in the fan, you nimrod!

Jules, if you give this nimrod fifteen hundred bucks, I'm gonna shoot 'em on general principle.

1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Vincent (John Travolta):

“I can't keep doing this. Uh, I can't keep pretending to be Mr. Charisma to all these nimrods. It's awful.” “But the Energy Vampire Council said we have to win, or else.” [exhales] “No. No. No. Enough. It ends now.”

2023 July 27, Max Brockman & Shana Gohd, “The Campaign” (17:54 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 4, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch):

(chiefly US, informal, derogatory) A foolish person; an idiot.


booze cruise

1998 November, Queen City Chronicle: Wedding Belles, Cincinnati Magazine, page 13,
I was still a little tipsy, see, because Tony proposed to me on a booze cruise. You know a booze cruise? That′s where they take a fishing boat and wash all the fish guts off of it at night and turn it into a party boat.

“Goddamnit, Petey, you know I hate booze cruises at the best of times. A bunch of drunken assholes that make a piss-up at home look like a Tupperware Party.”

2004, Joseph D. Oliver, Nancy E. Oliver, On the Rebound, page 108:

They told us the corporation had taken their top salesmen to the Bahamas on a luxury liner booze cruise. Actually it had been a themed booze cruise, under the banner “The Best Damn Mortgage Company. Period.”

2009, Larry McDonald, Patrick Robinson, A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Incredible Inside Story of the Collapse of the Lehman Brothers, page 185:

(US, Australia) A recreational trip on a cruise ship or boat usually tailored to young people, with the expectation of heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages.


ear candy

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

Mumba's music is ear candy: it crunches, it bubbles, it melts in the mouth.

2000 November 27, Christopher John Farley, “Irish Spring”, in Time, →ISSN:

I wanted it to just be something fun to listen to, like ear candy. I think that's what we got.

2013, Mathew Klickstein, quoting Rachel Sweet, Slimed!, Penguin, →ISBN, page 129:

(US, colloquial, music) Light popular music that has an instant appeal but no lasting impact or significance.

korvakarkki

light popular music that has an instant appeal but no lasting impact or significance


hyssop

en-noun

hyssop (countable and uncountable, plural hyssops)

Via Latin hȳsōpum, from Ancient Greek ὕσσωπος (hússōpos), of Semitic origin.

(obsolete, US) The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.).


HM

HMs (plural)
H.M. (alternative)
H. M. (alternative)

(military, US) Abbreviation of hospital corpsman.


Mr President

(US, politics) Nonstandard form of Mr. President.


desnuda

Borrowed from Spanish desnuda, the feminine singular of desnudo (“naked, nude, undressed”), ultimately from Latin nūdus (“naked, nude, undressed”) and Proto-Indo-European *negʷ- (“bare, naked”).

der

She shielded her nipples until they were cloaked with brush strokes[.] […] This was part of Ms. Ovalles’s daily routine as a desnuda, a Spanish word meaning naked that has been embraced by the women who strut around the Times Square pedestrian plaza topless and covered in body paint to pose for photos in exchange for tips.

2015 August 14, Collen Wright, “The Desnudas of Times Square, Topless but for the Paint”, in The New York Times:

Muslims, and a number of Americans alike, would be alarmed with some of the street performers found in New York's Times Square, especially the daily routine of desnudas.

(US) A topless female street performer covered in body paint who poses for photographs in exchange for tips in the pedestrian plaza of New York City's Times Square.

desnuda

topless female street performer covered in body paint who poses for photographs in exchange for tips in the pedestrian plaza of New York City’s Times Square


quint

A musical or piquet term, or a quintuplet

From Middle French quint, from Latin quīntus.

Two days after Mrs. Shirley Ann Lawson's four girls and one boy were delivered in New Zealand, another set of quints was born to Mrs. Karin Olsen in Falun, Sweden.

1965, LIFE, volume 59, number 7, page 24:


lanes

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

the northbound lanes of Interstate 95

(US) One side of a divided highway that carries traffic in a single direction.


brights

From bright (adjective) + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum).

suffix

Your brights are on.

Drop your brights as soon as approaching lights appear.

1963 July, Morton J. Schultz, “Keeping Your Headlights on the Beam”, in Popular Mechanics, →ISSN, page 161:

You can turn your brights on and that helps quite a bit, but you can not leave them on. So you end up driving beyond your headlights more than half the time.

2004 July 18, Rocky Roads, “Re: big rig out of control (Photo)”, in misc.transport.trucking (Usenet), message-ID <cdearo$ufn@library2.airnews.net>:

The moment I flashed my brights this animal started to run across the road.

2006 March 31, Linda S. Godfrey, Hunting the American Werewolf: Beast Men in Wisconsin and Beyond, Madison: Trails Books, →ISBN, →OL, page 139:

(US, road transport) Synonym of high-beams.


ABCs

Do you know your ABC? (U.S.: Do you know your ABCs?)

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(US, usually plural only, countable) The alphabet.


thrusters

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

Both the thrusters and the cautionaries thought the war would end with a massive naval battle involving the battleships of both fleets.

2002, Jean Heffer, The United States and the Pacific: History of a Frontier:

(US, historical, World War II) Those who are for military engagement.


highwaters

(US, informal) A pair of long pants with a noticeable gap between the hem and the top of the wearer's foot.


upperclassman

(US) A junior or senior student in a school or college.


pardon me

anteeksi

polite expression to get someone to repeat

Pardon me?, I didn't hear you.

(idiomatic, Canada, US) Polite expression to ask someone to repeat an utterance.


whitecap

(US, historical) A member of a self-appointed vigilante committee that carried out lynchings. Some early ones wore white hoods or masks.


whitewall

A weird elongated creature with a whitewall haircut who had the big head as well as hands and fat thighs of the acromegalic, he was an uninhibited cross-dresser suffering from Gender Identity Disorder who constantly appeared in frocks.

2007, Alexander Theroux, Laura Warholic: Or, The Sexual Intellectual:

A blond kid with a whitewall haircut and long, thin sideburns came over to stand beside the kid with the wimpy Roman do.

With a whitewall crew cut, high and tight.

2016, Lee Child, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: A Jack Reacher Novel:

(US, military) Describing a hair cut with a closely cropped back and sides and the hair on the top of the head left longer.


whitewall

(US, military) A hair cut with a closely cropped back and sides and the hair on the top of the head left longer.


mails

(usually with "the", US) The mail delivery system.


smarts

A lot can be said for the infinite mercies of God, but the smarts of a good pharmacist, when you get down to it, is worth more.

1981, Philip K. Dick, Valis, →ISBN, page 36:

"Guess that was a stupid question. Either you're smart or you're not. I am not book smart but I have street smarts. I think street smarts are important.

2007, Fern Michaels, Free Fall, page 142:

(informal, chiefly US) intelligence; smartness


(US, military, historical) Cox-Klemin A-1 Air Ambulance, never mass produced.

(US, military) Skyraider single engine general-purpose attack aircraft.

(US, military) Personnel section of an air force staff.


vaudevillian

Harris was born in Richmond, Virginia, on February 9, 1947. His grandparents were vaudevillians, his father was a professional guitarist, and his mother was a leader of the church choir.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 322:

(US) Someone who performs in vaudeville.


dried plum

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


walk-in

Aspen is a walk-in tent campground with sites tucked in among the pine

2007, Fred Dow, Suzanne Dow, U. S. National Forest Campground Guide:

(US, of a facility) Accessed by walking, either exclusively, as a campground, or together with drive-in access, as at some drive-in movie theaters.


walk-up

Deverbal from walk up; (northern flicker): imitative of the bird's call.

I became the tenant of a walk-up on East Tenth Street, on the north side of Tompkins Square, found for me by the seemingly omni-connected Ian McEwan […]

2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 228:

They took a cab and climbed the four flights to Sasha's Lower East Side walk-up.

2010, Jennifer Egan, “Found Objects”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad:

(US) An apartment or block with stairs rather than an elevator.


black and tan

en-noun

black and tan (countable and uncountable, plural black and tans)

black and tans (plural)
black-and-tan (alternative)

(countable, US slang, now historical) A bar, nightclub etc. which had both black and white customers, especially one that featured black entertainers.


LGM

(US, DOD, military) Prefix code for a silo-launched surface-attack guided missile.


LGM

(US, sports) Initialism of let's go Mets.


willfully

en-adv

willfully (comparative more willfully, superlative most willfully)

more willfully (comparative)
most willfully (superlative)

The information charges that the said Flem Parker, on or about the 20th day of November, 1890, and before the filing of this information, at the county and state aforesaid, did willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously enter a certain barn […]

1892, The Pacific Reporter, volume 27, page 538:


humored

en-adj

humored (comparative more humored, superlative most humored)

more humored (comparative)
most humored (superlative)

(Canada, US) Alternative form of humoured


impacted

impacted (comparative more impacted, superlative most impacted)

more impacted (comparative)
most impacted (superlative)

Table A3-1 compares the capabilities of (1) impacted communities and school districts to finance capital improvements from their own resources […]

1983, United States. Bureau of Land Management. Colorado State Office, Green River - Hams Fork coal region: round two:

Like many of my colleagues, I represent one of the most highly impacted schools in the Nation. This school relies on the impact aid program.

2000, Congressional Record, V. 146, Pt. 6, May 10, 2000 to May 23, 2000:

(US, economics) Having lost property revenue due to Federal presence, such that it may receive impact aid.


chiseled

chiseled (comparative more chiseled, superlative most chiseled)

more chiseled (comparative)
most chiseled (superlative)
chiselled (alternative)

(US) Having strongly defined facial features.


clobbered

clobbered (comparative more clobbered, superlative most clobbered)

more clobbered (comparative)
most clobbered (superlative)


party favor

(US) A small gift given to a guest at a party, as a souvenir.


lockdown

en-noun

lockdown (countable and uncountable, plural lockdowns)

lockdowns (plural)
lock-down (alternative)

→ Dutch: lockdown

→ German: Lockdown

→ Italian: lockdown

→ Japanese: ロックダウン (rokkudaun)

→ Polish: lockdown

→ Romanian: lockdown

→ Russian: локда́ун (lokdáun)

The rafts were made up of strings of logs about seventeen feet wide, held together by poles across them. Each log was pinned to the poles by wooden pegs and lockdowns.

1931, State University of Iowa. Bureau of Business Research, Iowa studies in business (issues 10-15, page 24)

(US) A contrivance to fasten logs together in rafting.


combination product

combination product (plural combination products)

(US, medicine) A product composed of two or more regulated components, i.e., drug/device, biologic/device, drug/biologic, or drug/device/biologic, that are physically, chemically, or otherwise combined as a single entity.

(US, pharmacy) A drug, device, or biological product packaged separately that is intended for use only with another approved individually specified drug, where both are required to achieve the intended use, indication, or effect.


half-staff

half-staffs (plural)
half staff (alternative)
halfstaff (alternative)

[T]he agents of the steamship lines drowned their sorrow in rum and ran the house flags to half-staff.

c. 1900, Richard Harding Davis, Billy and the Big Stick:

Marshal Joseph Pilsudski, Poland's man of power, died here tonight. . . . Flags were lowered to half staffs.

1935 May 13, “Ninth Anniversary of Coup”, in New York Times, page 6:

President Bush's decision to honor Pope John Paul II by ordering flags lowered to half-staff on all public buildings has reignited a debate about the separation of church and state.

2005 April 6, Felisa Cardona, "Flag order spurs controversy," Denver Post (USA), p. B-01, (retrieved 29 Aug. 2011)

[T]he flags at Ottawa fire stations were lowered to half-staff in tribute.

2008 August 5, “Two men electrocuted fixing flat on firetruck”, in Ottawa Citizen, Canada, retrieved 2011-08-29:


weatherization

weatherization (countable and uncountable, plural weatherizations)

Texas’ plant weatherization standards are now the strictest in the country […]

2024 February 27, Henry Gass, “Lights on, but trust off. Texas tries to rebuild confidence in grid.”, in The Christian Science Monitor:


weatherize

en-verb

weatherize (third-person singular simple present weatherizes, present participle weatherizing, simple past and past participle weatherized)

weatherizes (present singular third-person)
weatherizing (participle present)
weatherized (participle past)
weatherized (past)
weatherise (alternative)

We were interested in finding out if we could save money and, given the attention that weatherizing was starting to get, I figured it could also make for good column fodder.

2009 November 18, David Leonhardt, “A Stimulus That Could Save Money”, in The New York Times:

The money will allow Illinois to triple the number of homes it weatherizes: it expects the stimulus money will pay to insulate, seal leaks, and add more energy-efficient equipment to some 26,933 homes of people with low incomes.

2009 December 21, Michael Cooper, “Inadequate Oversight Cited in Weatherization Program”, in The New York Times:

The reality about wind turbines, however, is they regularly operate in frigid conditions and can be weatherized to perform in wintry extremes. That's why they work in places like Sweden, Antarctica, and Iowa (over 40 percent of Iowa's electricity comes from wind).

2021 February 20, Mark Kaufman, “Why wind turbines thrive in Antarctica and places way colder than Texas”, in Mashable:

It’s great fun, not just because it’s an extremely complex topic, but also because the best approach for many people is also the simplest and cheapest: weatherizing their homes.

2023 October 10, Tim Heffernan, “This Air Purifier Is One of Our All-Time Favorite Wirecutter Picks”, in Wirecutter:

State lawmakers replaced the entire ERCOT and PUC leadership in the months after the storm; the Legislature passed a law requiring power plants to weatherize.

(US) To protect a structure against damage by the weather.


weatherstrip

(US) A narrow piece of material used to prevent cold air from entering a building through the edge of a window or a door.


squeaker

I mentioned that you correctly predicted nine of the last 10 presidential election outcomes, save one, in 2000 when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore, and that was a squeaker.

2024 October 3, Dana Taylor, “Allan Lichtman shares his 2024 presidential election prediction (podcast transcript)”, in USA Today, The Excerpt:

(US) A game or election won by a narrow margin.


squealer

(informal, Canada, US, Australia) A kind of jug used to carry beer having 1 litre or 32 ounce capacity (half the size of a growler).


squeezer

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

You were playing Buckhunter at the bar last night and your game was so tight a gal offered to give you a squeezer in the parking lot.

Twenty-five one-armed squeezers sounds like a lot of unnecessary strain on the heart.

(slang, US, Canada) A hand job, an instance of male masturbation, or manual sex performed on a man.


turtle hull

(US) The trunk of a car; a storage compartment under the hood.


Labor Day

Labor Days (plural)
Labour Day (alternative)

(US) The holiday marking the unofficial end of summer, held on the first Monday in September.


friend of mine

Coordinate term: friend of ours

(US, Mafia, slang) A personal friend of the speaker/writer who is not a member of the Mafia.


friend of ours

Coordinate term: friend of mine

(US, Mafia, slang) A member of the Mafia in another town or district, but not a direct rival.


greenie

From green + -ie. Environmentalist sense first attested in Australia in 1973, referring to trade unionists who supported green bans.

At Alcova, the problem is compounded for the fool or fools when they have greenie license plates and behave like tourists. The growing combative presence in their rear is chalk full of true Wyoming grit.

2007, James Prosek, Joseph Furia, Steven Hayhurst, Joseph Kingsbery, Tight Lines: Ten Years of the Yale Anglers′ Journal, page 140:

(US, Wyoming, derogatory, slang) A person from Colorado; after the color of the Colorado license plate.

[…]“When the teacher says ‘Good Morning,’ you say, ‘Fuck You.’ That′s what you say in America.” Sometimes they varied this with “son of a bitch.” Sure enough the greenie parroted these instructions to the merriment of the classroom.

1969, Harry Golden, The Right Time: An Autobiography, page 45:

In California a senior companion offered to demonstrate to his new greenie how he succeeded in placing Books of Mormon in people′s houses. The two of them knocked on a door. A woman answered, and the senior companion threw a book past her into the house and then ran, leaving the greenie to stammer out an explanation to the irate woman.

1981, William Albert Wilson, On Being Human: The Folklore of Mormon Missionaries, volumes 60-66, page 9:

If you, as a trainer, work to instill a vision in your greenie, his whole mission will be drastically changed.

2001, Marcus Sheridan, Heavenly Father's Angels: The Ultimate Missionary Guide, page 78:

When you become a trainer, be the best trainer a greenie ever had.

2004, Robert T Uda, Mission Accomplished, page 90:

You will probably know pretty quickly if you are dealing with a “greenie” who is reading from a script or a seasoned professional. If it′s a greenie, give him a polite “no thank you” and hang up. But stick with the pro through the entire call.

2008, Brian D. Krueger, The College Grad Job Hunter, page 207:

(US, slang) A beginner, a novice; a greenhorn.

When Rose broke into major-league baseball, the use of amphetamines, or “greenies” as the players called them, was an aboveboard practice. There were more players who took them than there were who lifted weights. The greenies were frequently dispensed by team trainers.

1992, Michael Sokolove, Hustle: The Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, published 2005, →ISBN, page 78:

Feeling down? Pop a greenie. Had a rough night? Pop a greenie. Long road trip? Double header? Need a base hit? The answer for it all was the same: pop a greenie.
“Greenies were what everyone was doing,” Koch says.

2010, Aaron Skirboll, The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven: How a Ragtag Group of Fans Took the Fall for Major League Baseball, page 36:

(US, slang) Amphetamines used in baseball.

A small, green object.
Amphetamines used in baseball.


money tree

1972, American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, American Association of Industrial Nurses, Occupational Health Nursing, Volume 20, page 26,
NIAIN′s one money making project of the year, a money tree, was raffled off and won by Virginia Call of Bell and Howell.

2001, Daniel J. Brown, Chapter 11: School Voluntarism, Social Capital, and Civil Society, Heinz-Dieter Meyer, William Lowe Boyd (editors), Education: Between States, Markets, and Civil Society: Comparative Perspectives, Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey, page 173,
Donations from teachers and others were converted into coinage for a money tree that was raffled for $500.

2003, North Carolina Folklore Society, North Carolina Folklore Journal, Volumes 50-53, page 23,
Some families offer elaborate money trees, fashioned from decorated branches and streamers made of bills carefully pinned together […] .

(US) A miniature tree sculpture decorated with currency, often used as a raffle prize or a gift.


dinq

Initialism of delinquent in nuclear qualifications, originally used in nuclear submarine programs.

My mate is so dinq that he could get 100 signatures a day and he'd still be behind.

(US, Navy, slang) Not making a requisite amount of progress in one's qualifications.


unincorporated

(US, of land or the like) Not contained in a municipality.


green crab

(Canada, US, South Africa) The shore crab.


burgeois

en-adj

burgeois (comparative more burgeois, superlative most burgeois)

more burgeois (comparative)
most burgeois (superlative)


old-line

old-line (comparative more old-line, superlative most old-line)

more old-line (comparative)
most old-line (superlative)

From old + line (“stated positions of a political or religious group”). Attested from the 19th century, originally in the United States.

compound

One of the old line insurance companies said to me recently, that they never made anything out of their underwriting business, but made their profit out of the investments of the reserved fund

1908, T.D. O'Brien, “Mutual Insurance”, in Farm Implements, page 37:

Gay alcoholism in the Boston area has come out of its closet. Here and across the nation increasing numbers of us are working for the time when gay alcoholics will no longer be subjected to the discrimination and indignities that characterized old-line treatment programs until now.

1979 December 8, Dick Bowring, quoting Robert Connolly, “HATS Helps Gay Alcoholics”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 20, page 12:

I also started reading a great deal about Internet transactions and the impact of the Web on more old-line businesses

2000, George Alexander, quoting Chuck James, “Harvesting an e-commerce solution”, in Black Enterprise, page 118:


one-on-one

Such one-on-one “swearing contests” are routinely decided in favor of law enforcement officers, but in this case the district court sided with the accused bank robber.

1999, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Criminal Justice Oversight, The Clinton Justice Department's Refusal to Enforce the Law on Voluntary Confessions: Hearing, page 56:

(chiefly Canada, US) Involving direct communication or competition between two people.


solemnize

en-verb

solemnize (third-person singular simple present solemnizes, present participle solemnizing, simple past and past participle solemnized)

solemnizes (present singular third-person)
solemnizing (participle present)
solemnized (participle past)
solemnized (past)
solemnise (alternative)

From Old French solemnisier, from Medieval Latin solemnizare, from Latin solemnis.

The couple chose to solemnize their relationship in a secular ceremony, instead of having a wedding.

He now is gone to pꝛooue Coſmography, / And as I gueſſe, wil firſt ariue at Rome, / To ſee the Pope, and manner of his court, / And take ſome part of holy Peters feaſt, / That to this day is highly ſolemnizd.

1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature D, recto:

Saint Luke declaring how Peter ſtood vp in the midſt of his Diſciples, did thereby deliuer an vnchangeable rule, that whatſoeuer is done in the Church ought to be done in the midſt of the church, and therefore not Baptiſme to be adminiſtred in one place, Mariage ſolemnized in an other, […]

1597, Richard Hooker, “Of gesture in praying, and of different places chosen to that purpose”, in J[ohn] S[penser], editor, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], 2nd edition, London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, book V, section 30, page 249:

[…] Upon the heads of all who ſate beneath, / Lords, Ladies, Captains, Councellors, or Prieſts, / Thir choice nobility and flower, not only / Of this but each Philiſtian City round / Met from all parts to ſolemnize this Feaſt.

1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 95–96:

The great mysteries solemnised at Eleusis.

1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 138:

(transitive, US) To make solemn, or official, through ceremony or legal act.


Dixie

1859. Unknown, but may come from the Mason-Dixon line, the boundary between the northern states and the southern states, or from the slang term dixie for a Louisiana $10 bill that had the French word dix printed on it.

(informal, US) The southern United States, especially the former Confederate States; the South.

(informal, US) The southwestern corner of Utah.

(US) A female given name transferred from the place name.


Quincy

A Norman surname of Old French origin, from a place name Quincy or Quincey in France, ultimately from Latin Quintus (“fifth [born]”).
Use in reference to toilets derives from President John Quincy Adams, who was the first to have one installed at the White House.

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


Quincy

en-noun

Quincy (usually uncountable, plural Quincies)

I'll be right back. I need to go visit Quincy.

(US, euphemistic slang, obsolete) A toilet: a fixture for urination and defecation, particularly (humorous) as a personification of the device.


gingery

en-adj

gingery (comparative more gingery, superlative most gingery)

more gingery (comparative)
most gingery (superlative)

I walked slowly, and with an assumed air of careless indifference. I counterfeited the Comanche walk—not that bold free port—the magnificent and inimitable stride, so characteristic of Chippewa and Shawano, of Huron and Iroquois—but the shuffling gingery step of an English jockey; for such in reality is the gait of the Comanche Indian when afoot.

1857, Thomas Mayne Reid, chapter 93, in The War-Trail, New York: De Witt, page 455:

They are unanimously shy of Ade in their horn-books for sophomores, and they are gingery in their praise of him in their innumerable review articles.

1919, H. L. Mencken, “George Ade”, in Prejudices: First Series, NY: Knopf, page 115:

(US, dated) Ginger, inhibited, cautious.


on-ramp

(Canada, US, Australia) A segment of roadway that directs vehicular traffic from local roads onto a freeway.


off-ramp

off-ramps (plural)
offramp (alternative)

Coordinate term: on-ramp

(Canada, US, Australia) A segment of roadway that directs vehicular traffic from a freeway onto local roads.


off-the-rack

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

(of clothing, US) ready-made in a range of standard sizes


ofttimes

oft times (alternative)
oftimes (alternative)
oft-times (alternative)
oft-time (alternative)

The victim is an irresistable, insane subject of the peculiar trance, oblivious to his acts, and ofttimes unconscious of them afterward. During the attack he is in no way the same actor.

1895, Medical Review, volumes 30-31, page 423:

(chiefly US, uncommon) (elsewhere, archaic) Often, frequently.


postbellum

From Latin post bellum (literally “after the war”).

bor

Midway through Donald McCaig’s unexpectedly diverting novel, “Rhett Butler’s People,” a black man about to be lynched in the post-bellum South asks Rhett to please shoot him dead before the mob breaks into the jail and does worse.

2007 November 4, Stephen L. Carter, “Almost a Gentleman”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US) Of the period following the American Civil War, especially used in reference to the South.


poacher

Anas americana
Anas americana#Translingual

(US, dialect) An American wigeon (Anas americana).


hit-or-miss

hit-and-miss (alternative)
hit and miss (alternative)
hit or miss (alternative)

(now chiefly US) Inconsistent, unpredictable, erratic; sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing with no apparent pattern.

próba szerencse

inconsistent, unpredictable, erratic; sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing


my goodness

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

oh my goodness (alternative)
oh, my goodness (alternative)

My goodness, what a loud noise!

(US, Canada, minced oath) Used to express surprise, shock, or amazement.

mijn God

used to express surprise, shock, or amazement


pompano

From Spanish pámpano (“Stromateus fiatola”). Compare pomfret.

Monsieur Ratignolle was prepared to take things seriously; the mets, the entre-mets, the service, the decorations, even the people. He looked up from his pompano and inquired of Arobin if he were related to the gentleman of that name who formed one of the firm of Laitner and Arobin, lawyers.

(chiefly US) An edible butterfish, Peprilus simillimus, the Pacific pompano.


poolroom

We crept through the main poolroom without making a sound.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 109:

(US) A room with pool tables where pool can be played, usually for a fee.


poppa

(US, colloquial, sometimes childish) father, papa.


Empty Quiver

(US, euphemistic, military) The seizure, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon.


Faded Giant

(US, euphemistic, military) A reporting term to identify an event involving a nuclear reactor or radiological accident.


revenue sharing grant

en-noun

revenue sharing grant (plural revenue sharing grants)

(US) Federal grants distributing a portion of federal tax revenues to state and municipal governments.


porterhouse

porterhouses (plural)
porter house (alternative)

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

(chiefly Canada, US) A cut of beef taken from the thick end of the short loin; it has a T-shaped bone and a large piece of tenderloin; a porterhouse steak.

He contrived the same afternoon to introduce himself to one of the footmen of Lady Horatia at the porter house he frequented […].

1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview, published 2004, page 372:

(chiefly Canada, US, now historical) A public house where porter was sold; often also served steaks, chops etc.


FDC

federal detention center
w:federal detention center

(US) Initialism of federal detention center.


day-to-day

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

He has an ankle sprain and his status is day-to-day.

(US, sports) Subject to daily redetermination.


trailer park

(US, Canada) An area containing mobile homes for rent or places to station them if owned; normally providing utilities and services.


lawn chair

(US) Any chair designed to be used outdoors, especially a folding chair with aluminum frame, armrests, and interwoven ribbon mesh seat and back, used on backyard lawns.


tract house

(US) Any of many houses, of a similar or identical plan and design, built on a tract of land.


postseason

If Rodriguez slumps and the Yankees stumble, pressure will mount on a manager who failed to guide the team to the playoffs in 2008, the first time the Yankees missed the postseason in a nonstrike year since 1993.

2009 February 13, Tyler Kepner, “Before Arriving, Rodriguez Rules the Conversation”, in The New York Times:

Suárez has only two more starts in the regular season to convince the Phillies he deserves a longer leash than in previous postseasons.

2024 September 17, Matt Gelb, “Can Ranger Suárez recapture some of the Phillies’ trust before October?”, in The New York Times:

(US, sports) The period after the end of the normal sports season during which extra games are held (such as playoffs or championships).


potpie

potpies (plural)
pot-pie (alternative)
pot pie (alternative)

(US) A pie, having pastry sides and bottom and (usually also) top, and filled with savory fillings, such as meat, root vegetables, or (often) both.

Especially, such a pie that is small, that has crust made entirely of flaky pastry, and that is baked in its own pie tin, usually for one person (single-serve).

(US, regional) A dish of meat and vegetable stew with dumplings.


wienie

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

“With all his education, mind you. Selling weenies out on the street in the broad daylight.”

1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN:

(Canada, US, informal) A wiener sausage.


doolie

Origin unclear. One theory is that it originates from the word duly, as in “duly appointed [a cadet]” (part of the official acceptance). Another claims that the term is derived from Ancient Greek δοῦλος (doûlos, “slave”) + -ie. Apparently dates to the first class of the Academy, in 1955.

af

(US) A first-year student at the United States Air Force Academy; a cadet freshman.


apple-polish

en-verb

apple-polish (third-person singular simple present apple-polishes, present participle apple-polishing, simple past and past participle apple-polished)

apple-polishes (present singular third-person)
apple-polishing (participle present)
apple-polished (participle past)
apple-polished (past)

(US, idiomatic, transitive) To attempt to obtain favors, especially by flattery; to toady or fawn.


buffer zone

(US) A transitional area between areas of different land use.


dog pound

(US) An animal shelter where stray dogs are kept.

sintértelep

an animal shelter where stray dogs are kept


johnny cake

The little girls sat under the pines eating their thick mutton sandwiches and big slabs of johnny cake spread with butter.

1922, Katherine Mansfield, “The Doll's House”, in Selected Stories, Oxford, published 2002, page 353:

The women were good cooks. They used to cook bread, damper and johnny cake in bakers.

1987, Ida West, “Pride Against Prejudice”, in Heiss & Minter, editor, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin, published 2008, page 108:

(Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) Alternative form of johnnycake (“type of basic cornbread”)


wigwag

From wig (“to wag, waggle”) + wag (“to swing”). The noun is derived from the verb.

com

One of the first standard types of automated visual grade-crossing warning was the automated flagman, a signal commonly known as a "wigwag." According to Santa Fe documents, the wigwag was adopted as a standard crossing device by the American Railway Association in 1923. A standard wigwag is actuated by a track circuit and consists of a paddle with a red lamp that gracefully swings back and forth in a horizontal pattern when a train approaches. A wigwag is usually accompanied by a bell.

2003, Brian Solomon, “Grade Crossing Signals”, in Railroad Signaling, St. Paul, Minn.: Voyageur Press, →ISBN, page 147, column 1:

Any of a number of mechanical or electrical devices which cause a component to oscillate between two states.

(US, rail transport) A grade crossing signal with a swinging motion used to indicate an approaching train.

Boy Scouts and others interested in visual signaling can practice indoors with this miniature wigwag sender.

1932 August, Hubert E. Mishler, “Tiny Wigwag Machine Teaches Signaling with Flag”, in Raymond J. Brown, editor, Popular Science Monthly, volume 121, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 71:

(US, military, historical) A signal sent by waving a flag to and fro.


wigwag

en-verb

wigwag (third-person singular simple present wigwags, present participle wigwagging, simple past and past participle wigwagged)

wigwags (present singular third-person)
wigwagging (participle present)
wigwagged (participle past)
wigwagged (past)
wig-wag (alternative)

He had no prearranged signals for explaining the presence of the two Americans, but when the planes returned to check his messages, he wigwagged: "No Japanese. No signs," and then led Krickel and his daughter to where they could be clearly seen. The lead plane dipped its wings alterately and flew back toward Dutch Harbor.

1988, James A[lbert] Michener, “The Railbelt”, in Alaska: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks, 2014, →ISBN, page 905:

The steam whistle emitted three long blasts as the Carondelet headed into the stream, along with the echoing of sound from the signal cannon. As they passed each of the troop ships, a mighty cheer rose from the men. [General William Tecumseh] Sherman had a signalman wigwag a message of good luck and Godspeed to each.

2007, Nelson A. Reed, “April 15, 1866: The Mississippi”, in With Your Shield Shining: A Novel of the Second Civil War 1863–1866, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN:

(US, military, historical) To send a signal by waving a flag to and fro.


wildcatter

Audio (US)

(US) Someone who drills for oil speculatively.


two bits

Based on the old monetary bit, which was one eighth of an old Spanish dollar (or 12½ cents in more modern usage).

(US, slang) Twenty-five cents, or a quarter.


Legionnaire

(US, military) A member of the American Legion.

legionella

Legionnaires' disease, Legionnaires', legionellosis


rainmaker

esőcsináló

someone or something that causes or attempts to cause rain to fall

The law firm relied heavily on Charlotte as its main rainmaker to bring in new clients.

The fact is, that since a good, sound, honest, efficient, automatic, nonmetallic currency and standard was tampered with in 1893, India has been a happy hunting-ground for any empiric who conjured with a new scheme of currency, no matter how fantastic. Instead of admitting after a fair test that no ‘managed’ currency for such a community could be worked for a twelvemonth even by an Achille Fould, every sort of ‘financial rainmaker’ has since 1893 been enlarged on our hapless wards.

1913 January, Moreton Frewen, “The Great Drain of Gold to India”, in The Nineteenth Century and After: A Monthly Review Founded by James Knowles, volume LXXIII, number CCCCXXXI, New York, N.Y.: Leonard Scott Publication Co.; London: Spottiswoode & Co. Ltd., printers, →OCLC, page 59:

The Rainmaker absolutely believes, without a dollop of doubt, the he or she always improves the customer's current state. The Rainmaker knows that if the customer does not buy, then the customer loses something, and the Rainmaker loses the sale.

2006, Jeffrey J. Fox, “Rainmaker Mottos”, in Secrets of Great Rainmakers, New York, N.Y.: Hyperion, →ISBN:

The rainmakers realize that the cost of obtaining a new client is much higher than that of keeping an old one. Many affirm that their relationships mean something to them beyond the possibility of future work. Whatever the reason, they never lose touch. These core elements are what make rainmakers different from other people.

2006, Ford Harding, “What is a Rainmaker?”, in Creating Rainmakers: The Manager’s Guide to Training Professionals to Attract New Clients, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part I (The Rainmaker Model):

Over the years, [Bill] Clinton has had three main business involvements with [Ronald] Burkle. The first is a broad advisory capacity, for which Clinton has been paid flat fees for work as a rainmaker and liaison between Burkle and various potential investors.

2008 June 4, Todd S[tanley] Purdum, “The Comeback Id”, in Vanity Fair, archived from the original on 2015-02-17:

Keith Davey, the man they called The Rainmaker for his ability to orchestrate Liberal election victories, died Monday from complications of Alzheimer's disease.

2011 January 17, Sandra Martin, “Liberal ‘rainmaker’ Keith Davey dies at 84”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, Ont., archived from the original on 2018-09-09:

Brokering the deal, while managing the egos of combative founders and investors, was Bao Fan, the rainmaker of China’s tech industry.

2023 February 22, Li Yuan, “China’s Tech Rainmaker Vanishes, and So Does Business Confidence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(originally Canada, US, figuratively, informal) A person having the ability to generate business, raise funds, or otherwise engineer success for a company, organization, etc.


Islamofascism

It braces the talk not only of pundits, but of all the major Republican candidates - from the tough guy at one end, Rudy Giuliani, who lambastes Democrats for not using the word or its equivalent, to the "nice" candidate at the other end, Mike Huckabee, who defines Islamofascism as "the greatest threat this country [has] ever faced."

2008 January 21, James Carroll, “Carroll: Islamofascism's ill political wind”, in The New York Times:

(chiefly US, derogatory, offensive, politics) Socially repressive or nationalistic Islamic fundamentalism.


wood lot

wood lots (plural)
woodlot (alternative)

Near-synonyms: wood; see also Thesaurus:forest

(US) An area of land used for the growing of firewood and timber, often as the wooded portion of a farmstead in contrast with arable and pasture portions.


workfare

(US) A form of welfare in which people are required to work as a condition of receiving aid


workweek

A 32-hour workweek is a 4-day week and an 8-hour day combined.

Mrs. Lienemann, the French Housing Minister, sees socialist and ecological forces proposing what she calls “a new culture”—perhaps named “Ecosocialism”—that might, she believes, work for innovations like a 32-hour workweek, more democracy at the workplace, and “a greater stress on quality than quantity in everyday life.”

[1992 November 1, Roger Cohen, quoting Marie-Noelle Lienemann, “Ideology Wanes for Europe, Leaving Politicians Adrift”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

That trial, which began the same week as the elections that brought Margaret Thatcher to power, remains a symbol, to a certain sort of Englishman, of the societywide breakdown of the 1970s, which was a decade of currency devaluations, crippling strikes, uncollected garbage and shortened workweeks.

2009 December 7, Christopher Caldwell, “Can David Cameron Redefine Britain’s Tory Party?”, in The New York Times:

(US) The range of days of the week that are normally worked


worrywart

worrywarts (plural)
worry wart (alternative)
worry-wart (alternative)

/ˈwʌɹ.ɪˌwɔːt/

From worry + wart, apparently chosen for alliteration. Presumably related to earlier worryguts. Attested 1956, but earlier examples are found in newspapers of the 1930s and 1940s.

It doesn't mean you're a worrywart, a nervous wreck or in need of heavy medication.

2005, Hal Edward Runkel, Screamfree Parenting: Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool, →ISBN, page 31:

On vacation, I'm a worrywart for fretting about third-degree burns and puncture wounds.

2008 August 17, Nicole L.V. Mullis, “Vacation renders kids, adult males impervious to danger”, in Battle Creek Enquirer:

When Biden takes the presidential oath in January, many will write articles scolding those who expressed concern about a coup as worrywarts, or as people misusing terminology.

2020 December 7, Zeynep Tufekci, “‘This Must Be Your First’”, in The Atlantic:

(originally US) A person who worries excessively, especially about unimportant matters.


rancher

By the 1960s in North America sprawling ranchers and backsplits with attached garages had become common […]

1987, E. C. Relph, The Modern Urban Landscape: 1880 to the Present, page 174:

We know that if a realtor got a listing for a rancher in the neighborhood of property one: that similar houses there will sell, with some effort, for about $59,000.

2009, Thomas Collins, How to Invest in Real Estate, page 21:

(US, real estate) A ranch-style house, a ranchhouse.


razorback

/ˈɹeɪzɚˌbæk/

/ˈɹeɪzəˌbæk/

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

(US, southeastern US, informal) A feral pig.


sophister

From Middle English shophister, sofister, sofistre, sophister, sophistre, sovyster, from Anglo-Norman sofistre, a variant of Old French sofiste, sophiste.

In the older American colleges, the junior and senior classes were originally called Junior Sophisters and Senior Sophisters. The term is also used at Oxford and Dublin.

1851, Benjamin Homer Hall, College Words and Customs, Cambridge, Mass.: John Bartlett, page 287:

(dated, UK, US, universities) A student who is advanced beyond the first year of their residence.


love feast

From love + feast, partial calque of Latin agape and Koine Greek ἀγάπη (agápē).

(figurative, now chiefly Canada, US) Any banquet or gathering to promote goodwill among the participants.


two-bit

Forget that two-bit shyster. Get yourself a real lawyer.

All your two-bit friends / They're shootin' you up with pills

1973, Lou Reed (lyrics and music), “Oh, Jim”, in Berlin:

What Pimp was asking me to do was crazy. Off the fuckin' chain. Insane. He was scheming to stick up T.C. and Miss Lady's pool hall so we could pay off G, but a playa like me was getting ready to go to college and put all that two-bit robbing and stealing shit behind me.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 27:

I met a one look girl in a two-bit bar.

2011, Toby Keith (lyrics and music), “Beers Ago”, in Clancy's Tavern:

Serious times demand honesty and self-awareness from people in positions of authority and, at the end of the day, political parties giving succour to fringe views about life-and-death matters is a Faustian pact. This isn’t speculation, or a serve of two-bit punditry to fuel the opinion cycle. This is the lesson of Donald Trump.

2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, The Guardian:

(US, idiomatic, slang) Insignificant or worthless.


spile

From Middle Dutch or Middle Low German spile (“splinter, peg”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *spīlaz (“splinter, peg”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“prickle, pointed stick”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian spyl, German Speil (“chip, splinter, gore, wedge”), Danish spile, Dutch spijl.

cog

Now, chamfering one end of the elderberry tube slightly to fit, I push it into the hole and wait. After a few seconds sap will begin to drip from the end of the tube, a tangible flow of life and vitality. […] Beneath the tube, properly called a spile, I place my cup to catch the drips.

2023, Ray Mears, chapter 2, in British Woodland, Ebury Spotlight, →ISBN:

(US) A spout inserted in a maple (or other tree) to draw off sap.


spile

en-verb

spile (third-person singular simple present spiles, present participle spiling, simple past and past participle spiled)

spiles (present singular third-person)
spiling (participle present)
spiled (participle past)
spiled (past)


motor pool

A sound truck joined the vehicles on the dock, whose number was growing almost to a full-sized motor pool.

1963, Thomas Pynchon, V., J. B. Lippincott & Co., →LCCN, →OCLC, page 31:

Head through the Motor Pool to get to the Ops Center.

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, spoken by Avery Johnson (David Scully), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Crow's Nest:

(US, military) A fleet of vehicles for use by a military installation; the department that maintains them


fast rope

fast rope (third-person singular simple present fast ropes, present participle fast roping, simple past and past participle fast roped)

fast ropes (present singular third-person)
fast roping (participle present)
fast roped (participle past)
fast roped (past)

(US) To slide down a rope as a means of descending to the ground, especially from a hovering helicopter


Denver boot

(Canada, US) A device locked into place over the wheel of a road vehicle, immobilizing it.


boxcar

boxcar thumb (canonical)
boxcars (plural)
box car (alternative)
box-car (alternative)

The locomotive pulled one single car, a dilapidated boxcar missing numerous planks in its walls.

2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet (2017), page 83:

(rail transport, US) An enclosed railway goods wagon, typically with a sliding door.


brakeman

(US, rail transport) A railroad employee responsible for a train's brakes, couplings etc.


burlap

en-noun

burlap (countable and uncountable, plural burlaps)

Uncertain. Attested since about 1695 in the spelling bore-lap, borelapp. Likely from burel (“a coarse woollen cloth”) + lap (“flap of a garment”), where the first element is from Middle English burel, borel. Others feel that "its character and time of appearance makes a Dutch origin very likely" (and the earliest references as to its importation from the Netherlands); the NED suggests derivation from Dutch boenlap (“coarse, rubbing linen or cloth”) with the first element perhaps confused with boer; Bense instead suggests derivation from an unattested Dutch *boerenlap, where *boeren supposedly has an extended sense of "coarse" as in Dutch boerenkost (“coarse, heavy food as is eaten by farmers”) and boerengoed (from Dutch boer (“farmer, peasant”); compare English boor), though this word is not attested.

cog

“A ranger responded and found two whole chickens in a burlap sack in a hot spring,” she said. A cooking pot was also found nearby.

2020 November 11, Johnny Diaz, Concepción de León, “3 Visitors Banned From Yellowstone After Cooking Chickens in Hot Spring”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US) A very strong, coarse cloth, made from jute, flax, or hemp, and used to make sacks, etc.


rubbernecker

rubberneckers (plural)
rubber-necker (alternative)

/ˈrʌbəˌnɛkə/

/ˈrʌbɚˌnɛkɚ/

From rubberneck (verb) + -er (suffix indicating person or thing that does an action indicated by the root verb).

suffix

The minor accident caused a traffic jam as rubberneckers slowed down to get a good view of the battered cars.

Gentlemen will leave their pocket flasks with the captain, and will limit themselves to two bunches of cigarettes each. Rubber neckers will be executed without trial. Glasses will be needed to protect the eyes from the dust, and you MUST "Keep off the grass."

1898, The Michigan School Moderator, volume 18, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Michigan School Moderator, →OCLC, page 30, column 3:

I suppose that fellow was a rubber-necker, and got killed peeping over the trenches.

1899, Stephen Bonsal, “Under the Mango-tree”, in The Fight for Santiago: The Story of the Soldier in the Cuban Campaign, from Tampa to the Surrender, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday & McClure Co., →OCLC, page 283:

He is a great "rubber-necker." What he don't see aint worth looking at.

1899 March 25, “A Bobbin Boy’s Essay on His Boss”, in Jos[eph] M. Wade, editor, Fibre and Fabric: A Record of American Textile Industries in the Cotton and Woolen Trade, volume XXIX, number 734, Boston, Mass.: Jos. M. Wade, →OCLC, page 63, column 2:

We are taught the importance of hygiene of the mouth, of the body, and of the hair, but little concerning the nose, which is the "rubber-necker" which is expected to discover any laxity of cleanliness of other parts of the body or the air around us.

1899 November 3, W. Cheatham, “Hygiene of the Nose”, in H. A. Cottell, M. F. Coomes, editors, The American Practitioner and News, volume XXVIII, number 12, Louisville, Ky.: John P. Morton & Company, published 15 December 1899, →OCLC, page 441:

"The train's whistle was blowin' the whole time and, Lord, it sounded like a bomb had went^([sic]) off when they hit," said Patty Fay McNair, a waitress at the Torch, to a rubbernecker who'd asked if she'd seen what happened.

1991, Barry Gifford, “Consuelo’s Kiss”, in Sailor’s Holiday: The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN; quoted in Thomas A. McCarthy, editor, The Rooster Trapped in the Reptile Room: A Barry Gifford Reader, New York, N.Y., Toronto, Ont.: Seven Stories Press, 2003, →ISBN, page 256:

A huge crowd of Muscovites had gathered around the distant approaches to the building, beyond the cordon of military and police. [...] Stray bullets flew in their direction, too, and several people were wounded. Some were even killed. Nevertheless the crowd of rubberneckers kept growing.

2000, Roy Medvedev, “Privatization, Government Crisis, and Elections (1993)”, in George Shriver, transl., Post-Soviet Russia: A Journey through the Yeltsin Era, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Myths and Realities of Capitalism in Russia), page 125:

[...] Snake River breaching [...] will attract tourists, fly-rodders, kayakers, birders, botanists, Lewis and Clark buffs, and rubberneckers from all over the globe to ogle the mothballed dam remnants, study the returning plants, birds, and wildlife, [...]

2001, David James Duncan, “A Prayer for the Salmon’s Second Coming”, in My Story as Told by Water […], 1st paperback edition, San Francisco, Calif.: Sierra Club Books, →ISBN, page 212:

[...] Shane kept looking into the open box with the morbid curiosity of a freeway rubbernecker passing a fatal accident. All of his mid-nineties career pileups were collected there.

2001 January, Stephen J[oseph] Cannell, “The Tin Collectors”, in Vertical Coffin; The Tin Collectors, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin, published January 2004, →ISBN, page 156:

'A rubbernecker checking out where you lived.' / 'Why would anybody do that?' / 'I guess it kind of makes you a celebrity.'

2014, Christopher Fowler, Bryant & May: The Bleeding Heart, London: Bantam Books, published 2015, →ISBN, page 133:

The new season is unrelentingly bleak – gone is [Margaret] Atwood's astute social commentary, turning the audience into rubberneckers peering at the carnage.

2018 June 16, Fiona Sturges, “Cattleprods! Severed tongues! Torture porn! Why I’ve stopped watching the Handmaid’s Tale”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-02-05:

(originally US) A person who rubbernecks; someone who cranes their neck as though it were made of rubber to see something (such as a tourist attraction) or to watch an event (such as an accident); a rubberneck.

gapulo

someone who cranes their neck to see something


rowboat

rowboats (plural)
rowing boat (alternative)

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

(US) A small open boat propelled by oars (by rowing).


capstone

en-verb

capstone (third-person singular simple present capstones, present participle capstoning, simple past and past participle capstoned)

capstones (present singular third-person)
capstoning (participle present)
capstoned (participle past)
capstoned (past)

From Middle English capston; equivalent to cap + stone.

“Capstoned” units are now able to train and plan in peacetime with the command with which they will fight in wartime.

1981, Army Reserve Magazine, volumes 27-28, page 24:

(transitive, US, military, informal) To train in the Capstone Military Leadership Program.


cream pie

en-noun

cream pie (countable and uncountable, plural cream pies)

cream pies (plural)
creampie (alternative)

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

The young men and women slinging plate lunches and mammoth slices of cream pie on the tables recall the energetic waitresses from the good old days.

1993, Michael Wallis, Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nation: Writings from America’s Heartland, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 44:

(originally Canada, US) A pie, usually filled with fruit, topped with whipped cream.


coonskin

coonskin (countable and uncountable, plural coonskins)


cornbread

cornbread (countable and uncountable, plural cornbreads)

cornbreads (plural)
corn bread (alternative)

Coordinate term: corn pudding


corncob

en-verb

corncob (third-person singular simple present corncobs, present participle corncobbing, simple past and past participle corncobbed)

corncobs (present singular third-person)
corncobbing (participle present)
corncobbed (participle past)
corncobbed (past)
corn-cob (alternative)
corn (alternative)
cob (alternative)

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

From corn + cob. The Internet slang sense emerged from a 2011 absurdist tweet by Weird Twitter personality dril in which a man furiously denies being owned as he transforms into a corncob.

“Do you enjoy being corncobbed?”

2017 July 18, Jeremy Gordon, “CNN’s Most Cynical Pundit Got Mercilessly Owned in a Reddit AMA”, in SPIN:

Trump had lost but was denying that this was the case. He had been corncobbed.

2017 September 4, Amelia Tait, “The internet dictionary: what does it mean to be corncobbed?”, in The New Statesmen:

Distracted cops, rude asteroids and the corncobbing of Andrew Koenig

2021, Daniel Hill, "The Big Mad: Missed Connections", Riverfront Times, 24 March 2021 - 30 March 2021, page 11

(transitive, US, Internet slang) To defeat (someone) who then refuses to admit defeat.


cotton-picking

"Now hold up here just a cotton-picking minute,"

1959, U.S. Army Aviation Center, U.S. Army Aviation School, United States Army aviation digest, page 31:

"Oh, wait one damn cotton-picking minute," Andy said.

1967, Howard Fast., The Hunter and the Trap, page 14:

I think the President's Adviser on Domestic Affairs should keep his cotton-picking hands off the economic policy for a change.

1975, Richard M Nixon - Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President:

Santana spat, “You've got to be out of your cotton-picking mind. Who the hell would go back to that place?”

(offensive, US, dialectal, idiomatic, colloquial) An intensifier, like "darn", used for emphasis or to signify that something is of little value.


rubberneck

Coined in the sense of "tourist" in the United States in the late 19th century. A favored Americanism of H.L. Mencken.


cowpoke

(US, slang) A cowhand (one who tends free-range cattle)

(US, dated) A 19th-century device used around the necks of cows and other livestock to prevent them from challenging fencing. The action of the device was to poke the cow when the device came into contact with the fence.


crackerjack

From the trademark Cracker Jack popcorn snack featuring a blue sailor-suited man on the box.

crackajack (alternative)
crack-a-jack (alternative)
cracker-jack (alternative)
cracker jack (alternative)

(US, slang) Referring to clothing items (pants, jersey, collar) that constitute the traditional blue uniform of the enlisted men of the US Navy.


crackerjack

en-noun

crackerjack (countable and uncountable, plural crackerjacks)

crackerjacks (plural)
crackajack (alternative)
crack-a-jack (alternative)
cracker-jack (alternative)
cracker jack (alternative)

(US, slang, in the plural) The traditional blue uniforms of the enlisted men of the US Navy.

"Here, here's the popcorn man," Sid said as a vendor passed, pushing a cart. Sid bought a package of crackerjack and opened it while Mickey jumped up and down, unable to wait.

1946, James T. Farrell, Bernard Clare, page 280:

(US, uncountable) Popcorn candied in molasses-flavored caramel and peanuts.


Roosevelt

From Dutch roos (“rose”) + veld (“field”).

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


theirn

From Middle English theiren, compare hern. Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, theirs, which see for more.

“Nothin,” Dilsey said. “You tend to yo business en let de whitefolks tend to deir'n.”

1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury:

(now UK, US, dialect, especially Appalachia, East Midlands) Theirs.


appaloosa

appaloosa (countable and uncountable, plural appaloosas)

appaloosas (plural)
Appaloosa (alternative)

en:Appaloosa
en:Appaloosa (disambiguation)
en:Palouse
en:Palus people

From a + Palouse + -a.
From the phrase "a Palouse horse", referring to the Palouse River near which they were first encountered by non-Native Americans. The river is named for the Palouse region; whether the region's name is (an anglicisation of) a francisation of the Sahaptin name of the Palus people or the people's name derives from a French designation of the region as pelouse is unclear.

(US, uncountable) A breed of horse having a spotted rump.


apportionment

House of Representatives
House of Representatives

(US) The distribution of members of the House of Representatives according to the population of the various states.

alokasi kursi

(US) The allocation of direct taxation according to the population of the various states.


sense of humor

US standard spelling of sense of humour.


11 Bang-Bang

* Slang from the MOS designation "11B" (pronounced "11 Bravo").

(US, military slang, derogatory) An infantryman.


40 mike-mike

From Mike (“the letter M in the ICAO spelling alphabet”).

(US Army and Marines, military, slang) Any weapon firing a 40mm grenade. Often specifically the M203 grenade launcher, mounted underneath an M-16 or variant. In the Marine Corps, often the Mark-19 Automatic 40mm Grenade Launcher.


A-gang

(US, naval slang) Auxiliary division onboard a ship or submarine. Responsible for sanitary, heating/AC, emergency diesels, hydraulics, high pressure air, low pressure air, oxygen generating equipment, potable water, hatch maintenance, and assorted systems.


red coat

You'll find our Red Coats hanging around the airport to answer any […]

You can also flag down one of the airport's "Red Coats," the customer service representatives stationed in the arrival areas, at bus stops, and on the monorail platforms.

2001, Harriet Baskas, Stuck at the Airport (page 164)

(US) A customer service representative of Delta Air Lines.


cold feet

Idiomatic sense possibly from a calque of German kalte Füße bekommen (“to get cold feet”), or of Lombard avegh minga frecc i pee (“to have no money”, literally “to be cold in the feet”) (Italian aver freddo ai piedi), said by a person who wishes to stop gambling, allegedly because the person now has cold feet due to being too poor to afford proper footwear.

calque

The groom got cold feet before his wedding.

The sale was almost agreed, but now the prospective purchasers seem to be suffering from a bad case of cold feet.

"Eh, what!" cried Kurz, who had been winning [the card game] lately, "how can he get cold feet?" / "So?" said the rector, hotly, for he was determined to retain his winnings, "haven't I as good a right to cold feet as you? Don't you always get cold feet, at our club, when you have had good luck?" and he carried it out, he kept his cold feet, and his winnings, […]

1871 March 18, Fritz Reuter, “Seed-time and Harvest: Or, During My Apprenticeship. Part XII. […]”, in Katharine Tyler, transl., Littel’s Living Age, volume XX (Fourth Series; volume CVIII overall), number 1398, Boston, Mass.: Littel & Gay, →OCLC, chapter XXII, pages 727–728:

"It isn't our line of work; we're mountain-men," the old man faltered. […] "Aw! What you getting cold feet for now, when we've got a good job?" the long-legged youth whined. "I'm just getting onto the ropes. Bet I could make a lot of money in this country after I got acquainted. I think I'm going to like Seattle."

1918 June, Chart Pitt, “The Law of the Wolf”, in The Black Cat: Clever Short Stories, volume XXIII, number 9, Salem, Mass.: Shortstory Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 7:

Had not these courageous sailors put up such a thoroughgoing battle, and had not the Japanese admiral commanding gotten cold feet, we would have been dealt a crushing defeat.

1959 February, Robert F. Cocklin, “A Moral Pledge Fulfilled: LEYTE JUNE 1944–JANUARY 1945 (Volume XII of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II) By Samuel Eliot Morison; Little, Brown & Company, 1958; 445 Pages; Illustrated; Maps; Index; $6.50 [book review]”, in Walter L[eo] Weible, editor, Army: Magazine of the Association of the United States Army, volume 9, number 7, Arlington, Va.: Association of the United States Army, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 96, column 3:

The member for West Coast has introduced the Bill because the Government got cold feet. It got cold feet even after a select committee had heard a great deal of evidence and reported the evidence back to the House. […] The Government got cold feet. The Bill was stopped in its tracks, because entrenched interests in Federated Farmers began to twitch.

1980 October 24, W[allace] E[dward] Rowling, “Land Purchase Bill”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): First Session, Thirty-ninth Parliament (House of Representatives), volume 426, Wellington: P. D. Hasselberg, government printer, published 1981, →OCLC, page 3757:

It's getting close to Easter, and Rodger's getting cold feet about his promise to get married in the spring. In fact, it's not just his feet that are cold. His feelings for me seem to be cooling down too.

1990, James F. Masterson, “The False Self: The Internal Saboteur”, in The Search for the Real Self: Unmasking the Personality Disorders of Our Age, 1st paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 2:

I would be surprised if 10 years from now we're not using electronic currency in some way, now that we know a way to do it that won't inevitably get dumbed down when the trusted third party gets cold feet.

2015, Pedro Franco, quoting Satoshi Nakamoto, “The Origins of Bitcoin”, in Understanding Bitcoin: Cryptography, Engineering, and Economics, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, →ISBN, part 3 (The Cryptocurrencies Landscape), section 10.6 (Satoshi Nakamoto), page 169:

(originally US, informal, frequently in the phrase 'get cold feet') A feeling of nervousness or anxiousness causing one to reconsider a decision about an upcoming event.


Monday-morning quarterback

en-noun

Monday-morning quarterback (plural Monday-morning quarterbacks)

Professional football games in the United States are most often played on Sundays, making Monday a likely day for fans to discuss and critique the performances of teams, in particular that of the quarterback who leads the offence on the field. However, there is evidence that the term actually derived in college football, which is usually played on Saturdays, in which case the use of Monday would also likely be on account of Sunday being the Christian sabbath and a traditional day of rest in the U.S., making it unlikely certain groups with a common interest in the game (such as co-workers) would meet before Monday.

(US, idiomatic) Someone who criticizes with hindsight.


Yank tank

(US, slang) A pre-1960 American car in Cuba, imported before the US embargo.