railroading

railroading (usually uncountable, plural railroadings)

The recommendations of the Air Brake Association and the rules of the other railroads cited in this report differ in some respects, but the underlying intent of all is the common desire to prevent the most feared event in railroading - the irrevocable loss of control of trains descending mountain grades.

1981 August 18, National Transportation Safety Board, “Adequacy of Current UP Air Brake Rules and Instructions”, in Railroad Accident Report: Rear-End Collision of Union Pacific Railroad Company Freight Trains Extra 3119 West and Extra 8044 West, Near Kelso, California, November 17, 1980, archived from the original on 2022-03-29, page 32:

The terminology used in model railroading is one of the toughest things for beginners, but don't try to memorize everything all at once. You may not know the difference between a PS-1 and a GP7 today, but with time you'll be talking like an old hand.

1999, Marty McGuirk, N Scale Model Railroading: Getting Started in the Hobby, page 5:

(rail transport, US) The operation of a railroad.

(rail transport, US) The class of people, equipment, terminology, and lore pertaining to railroads.


maneuvering

As a retired Unesco official with much experience in conserving monuments, Mr. Mutal, 73, has been caught up in the bureaucratic maneuverings to save it.

2007 October 2, John Tagliabue, “A New Wave of Support for Anne Frank’s Ailing Tree”, in New York Times:

(US, gerund of maneuver) An act in which something or someone maneuvers


addicting

en-adj

addicting (comparative more addicting, superlative most addicting)

more addicting (comparative)
most addicting (superlative)

whether any of the substances possess addicting properties is very difficult to determine on animals, although efforts are being made to study this aspect of the problem on dogs and monkeys.

1936 June 1, Nathan Browne Eddy, quotee, “Morphine Substitutes”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-11-21:

similar in action to codeine salts but when compared with codeine on the basis of weight is more active, and more addicting.

1950, Council on Drugs (American Medical Association) with Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry (American Medical Association), New and Nonofficial Drugs, page 42:

When we didn't have narcotics laws, when we could go and buy this stuff like you could candy and potatoes, laudanum was a very addicting drug

1957, United States Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary, Juvenile Delinquency (Treatment and Rehabilitation of Juvenile Drug Addicts), page 182:

Cocaine has been reconceptualized as our most addicting drug and crack is viewed as the most addicting form of cocaine

1992, Barbara C. Wallace, The Chemically Dependent: Phases of Treatment and Recovery, page 22:

That is why smoking and intravenous injection are the routes of administration chosen by addicted people and why these routes of administration are so much more addicting than is oral use of the same drug.

2000, Robert L. DuPont with Betty Ford, The Selfish Brain: Learning from Addiction, page 101:


borking

Above all it discusses the best tactics to defeat a borking. Having been in the [Ronald] Reagan White House when Robert Bork was borked, I knew something about the subject, which was a huge help when the same borking guns were turned on my friend Judge [D. Brooks] Smith years later.

2006 October 30, Jeffrey Lord, “Borking Rush”, in American Spectator, archived from the original on 2017-10-17:

(ambitransitive, US, politics, often derogatory) The act of defeating a person's appointment or election, judicial nomination, etc., through a concerted attack on the person's character, background, and philosophy.


detassel

en-verb

detassel (third-person singular simple present detassels, present participle detasseling or detasselling, simple past and past participle detasseled or detasselled)

detassels (present singular third-person)
detasseling (participle present)
detasselling (participle present)
detasseled (participle past)
detasseled (past)
detasselled (participle past)
detasselled (past)

(US, transitive) To remove the pollen-bearing tassel from (a female maize plant) as part of the hybridization process.


all set

From all ("thoroughly", "completely") + set ("prepared", "arranged").

"Do you folks want any dessert or coffee?" "No, we're all set."

"Can I use those scissors now?" "Yeah, I'm all set."

Are you all set with that? [a waiter offering to take an empty plate at a restaurant]

"Can I help you with anything?" "Nah, I'm all set." [a retail employee offering to help a customer]

(US) Not requiring initial or further assistance with, additions to, or use of something.


tart burner

(US) A decorative, usually ceramic, pot containing a candle made from fragrant wax.


awesome

en-adj

awesome (comparative more awesome or awesomer, superlative most awesome or awesomest)

more awesome (comparative)
awesomer (comparative)
most awesome (superlative)
awesomest (superlative)

From awe + -some; compare Old English eġeful (“fearful; inspiring awe”).

cog

That was awesome!

Awesome, dude!

Awesome! Totally awesome! All right, Hamilton!

1982, Cameron Crowe, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, spoken by Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn):

(colloquial, Canada, US, Australia) Excellent, exciting, remarkable.


social security

(US) A specific such social benefit providing income in retirement or disability.


corn liquor

en-noun

corn liquor (countable and uncountable, plural corn liquors)

(US) A distilled spirit, derived from maize, having a high alcohol content and little flavor.


robocall

robocalls (plural)
robo call (alternative)
robo-call (alternative)

From robo- + call. First use appears c. 1998 in the Associated Press Newswire.

The e-mailers are upset about “robocalls”—pre-recorded, automated phone calls containing anti-Democratic political messages.

2006 November 6, Frank James, “GOP 'robocalls' enrage Democrats”, in Chicago Tribune:

Rand Paul’s presidential campaign has drafted in his father, libertarian icon Ron Paul, to directly attack Republican rival Ted Cruz in a robocall in Iowa, the first time the former presidential candidate has gone on the offensive on his son’s behalf.

2016 January 13, Ben Jacobs, “Ron Paul criticizes Cruz's absence from Fed vote in support of son's campaign”, in The Guardian:

Things are at least as bad on mobile phones, which were the lucky recipients of 48 billion robocalls in the United States alone last year.

2019 March 1, Gail Collins, “Let’s Destroy Robocalls”, in New York Times:

(US) An automated phone call, commonly for telemarketing purposes, that uses both an autodialer and a recorded message.


salutatory

She was chosen to deliver the salutatory at the commencement ceremony.

The first daily newspaper in the world was established and edited by a woman, Elizabeth Mallet, in London, March, 1702. It was called The Daily Courant. In her salutatory, Mrs. Mallet declared she had established her paper to “spare the public at least half the impertinences which the ordinary papers contain.”

1881, chapter 2, in Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, editors, History of Woman Suffrage, volume 1, New York: Fowler & Wells, page 43:

[…] a robin red-breast, winging his way from the orange and jasmine boughs of the far sweet South, rested on the ivied wall, and poured out his happy heart in a salutatory to the rising sun.

1887, Augusta Jane Evans, chapter 31, in At the Mercy of Tiberius, New York: The Co-operative Publication Society, page 548:

1916, Max B. May, Isaac Mayer Wise, the Founder of American Judaism: A Biography, New York: Putnam, Chapter 16, p. 395,
His life’s work is well summed up in his salutatory to vol. xliv. of the American Israelite […]

(chiefly US) A greeting; an address, speech or article of greeting; the first editorial by the new editor of a newspaper or periodical; an introduction or preface.


sandhog

sandhogs (plural)
sand hog (alternative)
sand-hog (alternative)

From sand + hog, perhaps alluding to a hog (“animal of the Suidae family, especially a boar, pig, or warthog”) digging in sand.

Sandhogs working behind a hydraulic shield excavated the riverbed silt inch by inch and installed linking sections of cast-iron tubes as they went. The digging chamber was filled with compressed air pumped in from the surface. The work was dangerous. The men who did the work, the sandhogs, were considered heroes.

1975, E.L. Doctorow, chapter XIII, in Ragtime, page 77:

(US, slang, also figuratively) A person employed to dig tunnels, or (more generally) to work underground or under water.

граба́рь

person employed to dig tunnels, or to work underground or under water


sandhog

en-verb

sandhog (third-person singular simple present sandhogs, present participle sandhogging, simple past and past participle sandhogged)

sandhogs (present singular third-person)
sandhogging (participle present)
sandhogged (participle past)
sandhogged (past)

(intransitive, US, slang) To work at digging tunnels, or (more generally) underground or under water.


escarole

en-noun

escarole (usually uncountable, plural escaroles)

Borrowed from French escarole, from Italian scariola, scarola (“chicory; endive”), from Late Latin escariola, scariola, from Latin ēsca (“food; dish prepared for the table”) (from edō (“to eat”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)) + -ola (from -olus, -ulus (suffix forming diminutive nouns)). Doublet of scariole.

der

Endive, or Chicory—This, for salad, takes the same place in winter that lettuce occupies in summer and when well grown is equally valuable. There are two very distinct varieties; [...] The other sort is the "Escarole" of the French, and is sweet in flavor, with a wider and flatter leaf, which comes earlier in the season but does not usually form so close a head, although it is preferable in flavor. [...] Sow twice, early in July and the first week in August. The broad leaf, (which is the Escarole,) for the first crop, and some White Curled for the second crop.

[1853 July, B. M., “The Kitchen Garden”, in The Cultivator, a Monthly Journal for the Farm and the Garden, […], volume I, number VII (Third Series), Albany, N.Y.: Published by Luther Tucker, at the office of The Country Gentleman […]; from the steam press of C. Van Benthuysen, →OCLC, page 218, column 1:

Paul's greatest pleasure was the cultivation of various salads. He owned four large beds in which he grew romaines, lettuces, escaroles, and almost all the known species of these edible leaves.

1903, Guy de Maupassant, “The Development of Paul”, in Une vie: Or The History of a Heart: A Novel (The Life Work of Henri René Guy de Maupassant; VI), Akron, Oh.: Saint Dunstan Society, →OCLC, page 205:

Escarole is a form of endive with the Latin name Cichorium endivia var. latifolia. There are several forms of a variety called var. crispum with wide heads and crisped leaves. One of these called "fringed" has a head so deep it is almost self-blanching. These escaroles are delicious as salads and also when chopped and cooked.

1943, Bulletin of the Garden Club of America, series 8, [Lake Forest, Ill.]: Garden Club of America, →OCLC, page 16:

Like chicory and Belgian endive, escarole’s bitterness is its attraction. Look for broad heads of escarole with dark green leaves.

2001, “Vegetables”, in Susan Westmoreland, editor, The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Books, →ISBN, page 432, column 2:

This recipe called scarola imbottita is unique in that the individual leaves of the vegetable are not used for stuffing, as you might expect, but the whole head of escarole is flattened and stuffed, then closed up, tied up, and cooked whole. [...] Remember that the kind of escarole used here is also called curly endive.

2003, Clifford A. Wright, “Stuffed Escarole with Ground Beef, Pine Nuts, Raisins, and Olives as Made in Sicily”, in Little Foods of the Mediterranean: 500 Fabulous Recipes for Antipasti, Tapas, Hors d’Oeuvre, Meze, and More, Boston, Mass.: The Harvard Common Press, →ISBN, page 229, column 2:

Escarole walnut salad [...] If you've never worked with escarole, give this versatile green a go. When I was growing up, I was used to eating it chopped up in a soup, quickly wilted with lemon juice, or tossed into a salad. Though you can find escarole in most grocery stores, many people don't take advantage of it, perhaps because of its slight bitterness (which dissipates when cooked).

2016 August, Lucinda Scala Quinn, “Killer Salads”, in Mad Hungry Family: 120 Essential Recipes to Feed the Whole Crew, New York, N.Y.: Artisan, Workman Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 193:

(Canada, US) A subspecies or variety of broad-leaved endive (Cichorium endivia subsp. endivia, syn. Cichorium endivia var. latifolium), which is eaten as a vegetable.

andijvie

subspecies or variety of endive (var. latifolia)


everyplace

He told me that Buster took her face 'bout right off. Said there's guts and hair everyplace. There's a platoon or so of Payton's bluejackets up there on the View now.


salutatorian

Coordinate term: valedictorian

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

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

He was the salutatorian of his high school class (a sore subject, his sister said, since So thought he missed the top spot on a technicality), and entered Stanford intending to major in computer science.

2021 July 19, Andrew LaVallee, “A Rising Star’s Career Was Cut Short. His Impact Is Just Beginning.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, education) The person who graduates high school with the second-highest GPA and thus gets to give the salutatory address during the graduation ceremony.


GPA

grade point average
grade point average#English

(US, education) Initialism of grade point average.


Fink truss

(US) A truss used for roofs and bridges, having multiple diagonal members projecting down from the top of the end posts at a variety of angles to meet the bottoms of the vertical members.


aisle

From Middle English ele, from Middle French aisle (“wing”) (Modern French aile), from Latin āla.

(US, politics) An idiomatic divide between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, who are said to be on two sides of the aisle.


hoecake

From hoe + cake, since it was often cooked on a hoe (a type of pan, not the gardening implement).

In Jean Fritz's children's book George Washington's Breakfast, the protagonist finds out that George Washington may have eaten hoecakes for breakfast.

(dated, Southern US) A type of cornbread or cornmeal cake, made with water and salt. It was originally baked before the fire or in the ashes on a type of iron pan called a hoe; in modern times, it is fried in cooking oil in a skillet.


horse

en-noun

horse (countable and uncountable, plural horses)

horses (plural)
hoss (alternative)
hawss (alternative)

Sranan Tongo: asi

→ Maori: hōiho

→ Quiripi: hosses (from the plural horses)

From Middle English horse, hors, from Old English hors (“horse”), from Proto-West Germanic *hors, *hross, from Proto-Germanic *hrussą (“horse”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (“vehicle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Doublet of car. Cognate with North Frisian hors (“horse”), West Frisian hoars (“horse”), Dutch ros, hors (“horse”), German Ross (“horse”), Danish hors (“horse”), Swedish russ, hors (“horse”), Icelandic hross, hors (“horse”).

a camel is a horse designed by a committee

a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse

close the barn door after the horse has bolted

close the stable door after the horse has been stolen

close the stable door after the horse has bolted

lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen

lock the stable door after the horse has bolted

shut the stable door after the horse has bolted

you can't put the shit back in the horse

zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse

Also Horse harness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

See Horse-drawn vehicles on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Note: Many of these were adapted into and/or gave their names to motor vehicle types

with the horse-drawn originals often being forgotten.

H-O-R-S-E
w:Variations of basketball#H-O-R-S-E

(US) An informal variant of basketball in which players match shots made by their opponent(s), each miss adding a letter to the word "horse", with 5 misses spelling the whole word and eliminating a player, until only the winner is left. Also HORSE, H-O-R-S-E or H.O.R.S.E. (see H-O-R-S-E on WikipediaWikipedia).


section 8

section 8 (countable and uncountable, plural section 8s)

(US, informal) Federally subsidized housing for low-income families and individuals, formally known as the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

By the time got out of the service I was tuly ^([sic]) a broken man. The constant threat of the stockade or a section eight (undesireable discharge for being gay) drove me to the verge of insanity.

1983 December 31, James L. Zipper, “Happy To Be Me”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 13:

(US, military) Discharge from the United States military for reason of being mentally unfit for service.


redcedar

redcedar (countable and uncountable, plural redcedars)


whitecedar

(US) Alternative spelling of white cedar


blow away

en-verb

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

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

The critics were blown away by their latest album.

(transitive, idiomatic, US) To flabbergast; to impress greatly.


sandlotter

From sandlot + -er. Kearney regularly spoke at an outdoor gathering place known as the Sandlot.

(US) A supporter of the working-class, anti-Chinese political views of Denis Kearney in 19th-century California.


sawed-off

When I'm called off, I got a sawed-off / Squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off

1988, N.W.A. (Ice Cube), "Straight Outta Compton", Straight Outta Compton, 8 Aug 1998

(slang, US) A shotgun with a barrel and sometimes buttstock which have been shortened by sawing them off; a sawed-off shotgun.


hooah

Platoon Leader: Listen up, gentlemen - tomorrow's a rest and refit day, hooah?

Soldiers: Hooah!

(US, military) The official yell of the US Army.


scalper

iemand die toegangskaarten meestal duur doorverkoopt

We could see three different scalpers moving through the crowd outside the arena, each muttering the characteristic refrain: “Need any tickets?”

Although 4.1 million tickets were sold for the 2023 shows—including over 2 million on the first day, a new record—scalpers jacked up prices on the secondary market to more than $22,000.

2023 December 6, Sam Lansky, “Person of Year 2023 : Taylor Swift”, in Time:

(US, Canada) One who scalps tickets to popular entertainment events: buying them in advance and then selling them (e.g. online or just outside the venue of the event), often at inflated prices.

trokari

one who resells items at inflated prices


gazump

"Phoney" Thorpe, '06, and "Shorty" Winchester, '01, have been driving their "90 HP Gazumps" through the wilds of New Jersey, but otherwise keeping on the job.

1884, Theta Delta Chi, “The Shield: official publication of the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 27, page 335:

Go out and hire the finest gazump that ever burned benzine.

1915, Francis Joseph Reynolds, Master tales of mystery, volume 1, page 373:


adhesive tape

en-noun

adhesive tape (countable and uncountable, plural adhesive tapes)

(US, medicine) Surgical tape, such tape made specifically for medical purposes.


fatback

(US) A layer of fat, along the back of a pig, used as a cut of meat or to make lard


railroad track

Holonym: permanent way

Meronyms: rail, railroad tie, railway tie, railway sleeper, sleeper

(rail transport, US) A pair of formed steel rails, separated and supported usually on wooden or concrete ties or sleepers, forming a track along which flange-wheeled railroad vehicles may travel.


consociation

consociation (countable and uncountable, plural consociations)

PIE word
 *ḱóm
Borrowed from Latin cōnsociātiōnem, the accusative singular of cōnsociātiō (“alliance; association, union”), from cōnsociō (“to make common; to associate; to connect, join (in), unite; to agree with; to share”) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or the results of actions). Cōnsociō is derived from con- (prefix indicating a being or bringing together of several things) + sociō (“to ally, associate; to join, unite; to share in”) (from socius (“associated; joining in, sharing, partaking; akin, kindred, related; allied, confederate, leagued, united”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”)).

der

In Connecticut some of the Congregational churches are associated in consociations and the others in associations.

The Consociation was another meeting of the clergy, but embracing also with each minister a lay delegate, and thus uniting, not only the ministry, but the laymen of the county, in a general fraternal religious conference.

1869, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “One Minister in Cloudland”, in Oldtown Folks, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 451:

Congregational church
Congregational church

(countable, Christianity) A confederation of Christian churches or organizations.

(US, Congregationalism, specifically) A voluntary, permanent council made up of representatives of neighbouring Congregational churches for mutual advice and co-operation in ecclesiastical matters; also, a meeting of pastors and delegates from churches thus united.


assclown

assclowns (plural)
arseclown (alternative)
arse-clown (alternative)

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

Near-synonyms: assmonkey, assmuncher

This newsgroup--misc.immigration.usa--has a wide range of posters, some of which have legitimate concerns about legal immigration. Do you like being the AssClown. Let these people be, let them ask their immigration question free from your xenophobic harassments.

1996 August 25, Ben Holstrom, “Re: Birth Certificate for Citizenship”, in misc.immigration.usa (Usenet), retrieved 2018-10-04, message-ID <3220c9cc.5271157@nntp.ix.netcom.com>:

(Canada, US, slang, sometimes considered, vulgar, often humorous) A jerk; a buffoon; a person who is inept or ill-behaved to the point of being found laughable by others.

I'm a little loaded, and this assclown behind me has bumped me four times in a row.

2006, Brad Bauer, Hitting in the Clutch, iUniverse, published 2006, →ISBN, page 141:

"Pretentious, ambitionless assclown," I corrected.

2006, Megan McCafferty, Charmed Thirds, Three Rivers Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 261:

Card is a raging homophobic assclown who believes that America should rise up violently and overthrow the government for any hint of support of same-sex marriage.

2012 June 19, Jef With One F, “5 Horrible Lessons Ender's Game Teaches Kids”, in Houston Press:

(Canada, US, slang, sometimes considered, vulgar, often humorous) A jerk; a buffoon; a person who uses their nature to bring humor to others, but ends up being the butt of a joke.


chimo

Oh no, did I end up in Hell because I was atheist my whole life?
No, people don't go to Hell for being atheist, you chi-mo.

2010 March 26, Ryan Hudson, “There'll Be Hell to Pay”, in ChannelATE:

I can spot a chimo before he gets the chance to do harm.

2011, S. Beth Lucchese, Vamp in the Mirror: Vampire Romance and Adventure:

In prison, a chimo—slang for child molester—was the lowest of the low.

2015, Lis Wiehl, The Mia Quinn Collection:


housecoat

housecoats (plural)
house-coat (alternative)

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

(Canada, US) A bathrobe or dressing gown.


smokejumper

smokejumpers (plural)
smoke jumper (alternative)

(US, Canada) A firefighter who parachutes into a remote area to combat wildfires and set up firebreaks.


bluenose

That summer the Clipper detoured north on its way to Norway so that cadets could be initiated as bluenoses. She passed between the Shetland and Orkney islands on her way to cross the Arctic Circle at Greenwich.

2005, Stephen J. Curley, Aggies By The Sea: Texas A & M University At Galveston, page 213:

(US, naval slang) A person who has crossed the Arctic Circle.

(US, Australia) A trout cod (Maccullochella macquariensis)

(US, UK, Australia, New Zealand) Antarctic butterfish (Hyperoglyphe antarctica)


track pants

Active apparel is no longer limited to track pants and basketball shorts.

2008, Janet Engle, How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Fashion Design Business, Atlantic Publishing, page 57:

The defence alleged that Benji had a pistol down inside his track pants, the weapon that Gatto finally killed him with. If the gun had been in Benji′s track pants or briefs there would be oil, dust and gunshot residue on the inside of the fabric.

2010, Adam Shand, Big Shots: Inside Melbourne′s Gangland Wars, Revised edition, page 319:

A pair of grey, flannel track pants outlined the lad′s bottom very nicely indeed.

2011, Ken Smith, Run Naked, Run Free, page 66:

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US) Sweatpants.


cussing

[…] the whining Yankee cussings, the spluttering Dutchman's swearings, and the imitative intonations of the Celestial.

1888, Hubert Howe Bancroft, California Inter Pocula:

(US) The act of one who cusses, or uses bad language.


cussed

en-adj

cussed (comparative more cussed, superlative most cussed)

more cussed (comparative)
most cussed (superlative)

(chiefly US, informal) Ill-tempered, nasty, obstinate.


cussed

(chiefly US, informal, degree) Very, cussedly, accursedly.


fiberfill

en-noun

fiberfill (usually uncountable, plural fiberfills)

(US) A lightweight synthetic fiber used as insulation in clothing


five-and-dime

five-and-dimes (plural)
five and dime (alternative)

I got my first real six-string / Bought it at the five-and-dime / Played it 'til my fingers bled / Was the summer of '69

1985, Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, “Summer of '69”, in Reckless, performed by Bryan Adams:

I was working part time in a five-and-dime / My boss was Mr. McGee / He told me several times that he didn't like my kind

1985, Prince (lyrics and music), “Raspberry Beret”, in Around the World in a Day, performed by Prince and the Revolution:

Admiral Fitzwallace: A three hour patrol of the no-fly with the five-and-dime.

2000, Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing, season 1, episode 22 “What Kind of Day Has It Been”

(US, military, slang) The 5th Battalion 10th Marines, a US artillery battalion.


five-and-ten

five-and-tens (plural)
five and ten (alternative)

Christmas toys—windup robots and air guns and painted trains—filled the front window of the five-and-ten.

2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 121:


BeV

(physics, US) Initialism of billion electron volt, 10⁹ eV. A unit used for measuring the energy of subatomic particles.


schoolie

schoolies (plural)
schooly (alternative)

From school + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

1997 August, Lawrence Pine, Massachusetts′s Plymouth Rock Bass, Field & Stream, page 94,
Poppers and Clouser-style flies can produce large numbers of schoolies that average 16 to 24 inches, with a sprinkling of fish from 24 to 28 inches.

Oklahomans Jim Campbell and Gary Tyler caught 123 peacocks (including two teeners) by concentrating on the schoolies with jigs and other small lures that day.

2003, Larry Larsen, Amazon Peacock Bass Fishing: Top Tactics for Top Locations, page 150:

Schoolies tend to concentrate inside harbors and along beaches, often moving far inside tidal creeks and salt ponds.

2009, Tom Rosenbauer, Nick Lyons, The Orvis Guide to Beginning Fly Fishing: 101 Tips for the Absolute Beginner, page 88:

(US, fishing) A juvenile gamefish (especially striped bass) at a stage where it tends to swim with others in schools rather than stay to itself.


y'allselves

Thus, the list is Bill Varnedoe (NSS 3160) Field Trip Coordinator
tailored both for the “do-it-y’allselves” cavers and for the convention field-trippers.

1958, National Speleological Society, NSS News, page 65:

“Oh, yeah, I’ll do that. And y’all take care of y’allselves. —And write me.”

1980, Samuel Wheat, Melting Pot: A Novel, page 137:

I know both of y’all better than y’all know y’allselves.

1996: James Earl Hardy, 2 ⁿᵈ Time Around, p104

Y’all worms call y’allselves soldiers? Y’all still wet behind the ears from being coddled by your mamas!

2005, J. C. Arlington, A Red Horse Rode Out, page 17:


OPM

Both Bobba and Coristine are listed in internal OPM records reviewed by WIRED as “experts” at OPM, reporting directly to Amanda Scales, its new chief of staff.

2025 February 2, Vittoria Elliott, “The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover”, in WIRED, archived from the original on 2025-02-02:

Office of Personnel Management
w:Office of Personnel Management

(government, US) Initialism of Office of Personnel Management.


four-flusher

four-flushers (plural)
fourflusher (alternative)

From the practice of attempting to pass off four cards of the same suit, and a fifth of perhaps the same color, as a flush in poker.

That four-flusher shoot himself? Not a chance.

1929, Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest, New York: Knopf, →OL:

(slang, Canada, US) A lowly, disreputable cheat or fraudster, especially at cards, especially a dull or unimaginative one.


senatorial

en-adj

senatorial (comparative more senatorial, superlative most senatorial)

more senatorial (comparative)
most senatorial (superlative)

From Latin senātōrius + -al. Compare French sénatorial. By surface analysis, senator + -ial.

the senatorial districts of a State

(US) Entitled to elect a senator, or by senators.


sin bin

sin bins (plural)
sin-bin (alternative)
sinbin (alternative)

From sin + bin. Apparently Australian. Usage of the panel van sense is influenced by the US trade name.

1972 September, What′s New: Rolling pad, Popular Science, page 70,
There′s a shag rug on the floor, padding on walls and ceiling, and, for extra comfort, a 600-gallon water bed. The Sin Bin is made by Chinook Mobilodge.

1978 March, Jim Elder, Camp/work conversion, Popular Mechanics, page 110,
There is the shag-carpet “sin bin” with its fur upholstery, mahogany paneling, stained glass, color TV and chrome sidepipes.

1986 January, A Family Affair, Popular Mechanics, page 86,
Unlike the full-size Sin Bins of the ′70s, the new family vans are cute, comfortable and carlike.

(US, Australia, colloquial) Synonym of fuck truck: A panel van with a mattress in the back.


hit the gas

en-verb

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

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

Suggesting the use of a gas pedal, or accelerator.

They're gaining on you; you'd better hit the gas, now!


railroad truck

(US) A chassis or framework-like structure underneath a railroad car to which wheel axles (and, hence, wheels) are attached through bearings. (Not to be confused with railway truck or railtruck, which are British English synonyms of railroad car)


K-hed

(US, journalism) A brief news item in a newspaper consisting of a one-line heading and a single paragraph, especially one of little interest added to fill space.


joe job

In the computing sense, originated from such a spam attack against Joe Doll in 1997.

(US, idiomatic, computing) An act of e-mail spamming where the sender's identity and address are those of an innocent third party, intended either to tarnish that person's reputation or to flood that person's e-mail with bounces.


maidenhair

en-noun

maidenhair (countable and uncountable, plural maidenhairs)

maidenhairs (plural)
maiden-hair (alternative)

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

(Canada, US, now regional) Either of two ericaceous plants, the creeping snowberry or the checkerberry.


cow tipping

2005, Duke Rightious, The Official Cow Tipper's Handbook - http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0977487601&id=HgGzCtnDeRYC&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&ots=A9EoTfBWTO&dq=cow+tipping&sig=kD4Qt0FibShrXjcAhA8N2PbpCuU - "The medieval cow tippers were a rutheless lot, to be sure, with their Knights of the Round Bovine Topplers, and Cowalot...But times changed and so did the fashion and style of cow tipping."

2006, Jeremy Smith, Bum Bags and Fanny Packs: A British-American American-British Dictionary - http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0786717025&id=qQONKyKvY1gC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=cow+tipping&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=YygkHBqGuTewwuW28g0eMeqsglk - "cow tipping v: a high school or college prank of sneaking up to a standing sleeping cow and pushing her over..."

2005, Michael D. Bauer, Linux Server Security - http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0596006705&id=aHwlW-m6whUC&pg=PA245&lpg=PA245&dq=%22cow+tipping%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=lnAA3ylOqVXlxBIfVSVfuQelWqU - "If setting up your database server feels like as much work as raising cattle, but with-out the glamor, you may mix business with pleasure and perform some virtual cow tipping: sneak up on your database server and try to push it over."

(chiefly US) A fictional pastime wherein a person sneaks up on a sleeping cow and pushes it over.


drive-by media

This term was used by Rush Limbaugh during his national radio program to describe elements of the mainstream media as similar to drive-by shooters.

(US, idiomatic) Media that provides broad or misleading statements in quick succession without context or explanation.


good egg

Probably a humorous antonym of bad egg (“someone whose behaviour is reprehensible or irresponsible; a rogue”).

The chemist and the bacteriologist gave him the third degree and, like most criminals, it was found difficult to tell just when a good egg began to be bad, and it appeared that it depended largely on how he was handled, especially in his youth, […]

1915, Good Housekeeping, volume 6, New York, N.Y.: Phelps Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 371:

Tom speaks: "I have a girl friend I want you to meet. She's a good egg."

1942, The Texas Outlook, volume 26, Austin, Tex.: Texas State Teachers Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 42:

Johnny Parker is in town. I like Johnny. He's a big shot in pictures and he's a good egg.

1944, James T[homas] Farrell, To Whom It May Concern: More Stories, Garden City, N.Y.: The Sun Dial Press, →OCLC, page 23:

In contrast, Saito […] was one of the good eggs … He would let us rest whenever the coast was clear and even shared the odd cigarette.

1997, Brereton Greenhous, “Liberation”, in “C” Force to Hong Kong: A Canadian Catastrophe, 1941–1945 (Canadian War Museum Historical Publication; no. 30), Toronto, Ont., Oxford: Dundurn Press, →ISBN, page 141:

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

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

Drogon sniffs Jon [Snow]—and Dany [Daenerys Targaryen] apparently doesn't care enough about Jon's life to get off Drogon so she can witness their interaction on the other side of his fat neck and make sure her son isn't eating his cousin—and seems to sense he's a good egg at the least and quite possibly that he's a Targaryen.

2017 August 13, Brandon Nowalk, “Oldtown Offers One Last Game-changing Secret as Game Of Thrones Goes behind Enemy Lines (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-04:

(British, US, idiomatic) A good person, someone to be trusted; a friend.


METT-TC

(US, military, mnemonic) Initialism of mission, enemy, terrain, troops available, time, and civilian considerations. Used by the United States military to help commanders remember the considerations in the planning of any operation.


smell-o-vision

smellevision (alternative)
Smell-o-vision (alternative)

/ˈsmɛləˌvɪʒən/

From smell + -o- (interfix used for ease of pronunciation) + vision, probably popularized by Smell-O-Vision (proper noun) which was recoined in 1959 by Mike Todd Jr. (1929–2002), the American producer of the film Scent of Mystery (1960), as the name of the system invented by the Swiss scientist Hans Laube (1900–1976) used for the film. The term was possibly modelled after terms used in the motion picture industry such as Panavision (a company manufacturing cameras and lenses) and VistaVision (an early widescreen motion picture film format).
The variant spelling smellevision is possibly a blend of smell + television.

affix

"Magnificent!" shouted our supercritical photographer as he leveled his eye at this picture [of a ham]. […] Perhaps "smell-o-vision" is needed to enjoy fully this Easter treat. Or, better still, taste SUNNYFIELD HAM yourself—either smoked or cooked ready-to-eat.

1942 March 30, “We Disagree with the Photographer! [advertisement]”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 12, number 13, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

SMELLEVISION REPLACES TELEVISION! Carl Stalling sez, "It will never work!"

1944 October 28, Michael Sasanoff, Bob Clampett, director, “The Old Grey Hare”, in Merrie Melodies, Burbank, Calif.: Warner Bros. Pictures; Vitaphone Corporation, →OCLC:

New model cars come out each year; the split-T and the soccer kick are new football offensive weapons. Black-and-white, then color TV and pretty soon smell-o-vision—that's progress.

1966 March, Joseph A. Brunton, Jr., “A Few Words from the Chief: ‘Is the Good Turn Obsolete?’”, in Robert Hood, editor, Boys’ Life: The Magazine for All Boys, volume LVI, number 3, New Brunswick, N.J.: Boy Scouts of America, →OCLC, page 46, column 3:

Other techno-mancers forecast fax in the home, "smellevision" (television sets equipped to emit appropriate odors for each scene), and luminescent paints that store sunlight during the day and glow at night. These new products would surely brighten the future.

1991, Michael Brian Schiffer, “A Portable Depression”, in The Portable Radio in American Life, Tucson, Ariz.; London: University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 116:

The film includes some marvelous 3-D special effects as well as flashing lights, a bubblemaker, smell-o-vision, and a surprise from the skies as well as a live actor and a cannon.

1994, Corey Sandler, Econoguide 1995: Walt Disney World, Epcot and Universal Studios Florida, Chicago, Ill.: Contemporary Books, →ISBN, page 140:

Meanwhile, in far-off laboratories of the Military-Infotainment Complex (to advance upon Stuart Moulthrop's phrase) at Disney or—yea, verily, even unto—Apple, some scientists work on synchronous smell-o-vision with real-time simulated fragrance degradation shifting from fresh ink to old mold; […]

1995, Michael Joyce, “‘So Much Time, so Little to Do’: Empowering Silence and the Electric Book”, in Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy and Poetics (Studies in Literature and Science), Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 97:

So, until Netscape comes up with Smell-o-vision, reading about and looking at food on the Web will have to stave off those hunger pains.

1999, Nora Paul, Margot Williams, “Food Resources on the Web”, in Paula J. Hane, editor, Great Scouts! Cyberguides for Subject Searching on the Web, Medford, N.J.: CyberAge Books, Information Today, →ISBN, part I (Life & Times), page 25:

Perhaps someday the SML (smelly markup language) standard will make it possible to connect a smell-o-vision peripheral to my FireWire port, and I'll be able to sniff the circle of boiled dough [a bagel] on the screen.

1999 July 1, Thomas H[ayes] Davenport, “ThinkTank: The Net Changes (Almost) Nothing”, in Abbie Lundberg, editor, CIO, volume 12, number 18, Framingham, Mass.: CIO Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24, column 3:

What will happen to our spiritual senses when the next step is taken, i.e. when rituals are performed purely in the realm of the virtual? […] [I]f the full sensory experience of the ritual is diminished by its reduction to the text, sound, and imagery now possible on the Web (I don't think we're ready for networked smell-o-vision), what in turn may be gained by working within these limitations, and what are the possibilities of transcending them?

2005, Stephen D. O’Leary, “Utopian and Dystopian Possibilities of Networked Religion in the New Millennium”, in Morten T. Højsgaard, Margit Warburg, editors, Religion and Cyberspace, Abington, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part I (Coming to Terms with Religion and Cyberspace), page 43:

The dream of layering smells onto movie-watching is nearly as old as movie-watching itself. This history is a pileup of interesting failures, technical experiments, and overweening optimism in smell-o-vision’s eventual appeal. […] Most interestingly, people who’d bought tickets to see these movies seemed sneakily pleased when smell-o-vision failed.

2021, Jude Stewart, “Introduction: Why a Book on Smell?”, in Revelations in Air: A Guidebook to Smell, Penguin Books, →ISBN, page xvii:

(originally and chiefly US, film, television, humorous) A (supposed) technology consisting of cinematography with the addition of olfaction, often portrayed as far-fetched or futuristic.

Mike Todd Jr.
Panavision
Scent of Mystery
VistaVision


winningest

She has the winningest smile.

superlative form of winning: most winning

There can be little doubt that Carroll Shelby deserves the high praise he has received from many quarters. On the record he’s America’s winningest big car driver.

1958, Charles Beaumont, William F. Nolan, editors, Omnibus of Speed: An Introduction to the World of Motor Sport, Putnam, page 183:

[Jody Conradt] is the winningest all-time coach in women's basketball with more than 650 victories.

1996, David F. Salter, Crashing the Old Boys’ Network: The Tragedies and Triumphs of Girls and Women in Sports, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 83:

In just a few short years, Don Shula turned the Dolphins from a laughingstock expansion team into an NFL dynasty. He then went on to become the winningest coach in NFL history.

2004, Walter Harvey, The Super Bowl’s Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Big-Game Heroes, Pigskin Zeroes, and Championship Oddities, Brassey’s, →ISBN, page 42:


reduction in force

en-noun

reduction in force (plural reductions in force)


schoolmarm

schoolmarms (plural)
school marm (alternative)
school-marm (alternative)

The schoolmarm came to an abrupt stop in her arithmetic quizzing, her face set into a pruny scowl that looked to be permanent.

2013, Josh Rountree, Lon Prater, Alamo Rising:

(US, slang) A female teacher, especially one seen to be old-fashioned and extremely severe and strict.


schoolmarm

en-verb

schoolmarm (third-person singular simple present schoolmarms, present participle schoolmarming, simple past and past participle schoolmarmed)

schoolmarms (present singular third-person)
schoolmarming (participle present)
schoolmarmed (participle past)
schoolmarmed (past)
school marm (alternative)
school-marm (alternative)

Well, our trouble in America is that we're being schoolmarmed to death. You can see it in any paper you pick up.

1914, The Cosmopolitan, volume 56, Schlicht & Field, page 458:

One client, the most mothering member of the group, did exactly that: she took him home, fed him, and schoolmarmed him through the application form.

2008, Irvin D. Yalom, Molyn Leszcz, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Basic Books, →ISBN:

Kate Winslet is brilliant, but "there is never a moment where she finds out anything about her fellow actors"; even Emma Thompson, whom he clearly adores, is chided for "schoolmarming" on the set of Sense and Sensibility.

2022 November 3, “Madly, Deeply by Alan Rickman: diary extracts packed with 'profound' observations”, in The Week UK:

(transitive, US, slang) To discipline in the manner of a schoolmarm; to harshly reprimand or chide.


schoolyard

Goodbye to Rosie, the queen of Corona / Seein' me and Julio down by the schoolyard

1972, Paul Simon (lyrics and music), “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”, in Paul Simon:

(chiefly US) The grounds around a school.


lay out

lay out (third-person singular simple present lays out, present participle laying out, simple past and past participle laid out)

lays out (present singular third-person)
laying out (participle present)
laid out (participle past)
laid out (past)

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

I laid him out on the sidewalk after he tried to grab me.

(transitive, colloquial, US) To render (someone) unconscious; to knock out; to cause to fall to the floor; to kill.

She laid out for hours just to try to get even bronzer than she already was.

(intransitive, US, colloquial, proscribed) To lie in the sunshine.


federal government

en-noun

federal government (countable and uncountable, plural federal governments)

(US) The national government of the United States, in contrast to government at the state level.


U-Haul lesbian

The expression may have been originated in the early 1980s by comic Lea DeLaria, who joked:
: Q: What does a lesbian bring on a second date?
: A: A U-Haul.

(slang, US, often derogatory, in North American lesbian culture) A lesbian in a relationship that progresses very quickly, for example moving in together after only a short period of time.


Yankee dime

If you bring me a glass of sweet iced tea, I will give you a Yankee dime.

(US, idiomatic, slang, American South, sometimes humorous) A kiss.


calico cat

(US) A tortoiseshell and white domestic cat.


carload

less-than-carload freight

By 1887 the company had grown so large that it was buying its flour and sugar by the carload.

(rail transport, US, Canada) The quantity of goods that can be carried in a freight car.


pill bug

pill bugs (plural)
pillbug (alternative)

(US) Any of very many terrestrial crustaceans, of the family Armadillidiidae, a subgroup of the woodlice, that can roll themselves up into a protective ball.


jasm

Jeremy has the kind of jasm a junior exec needs to reach the top of the ladder in the corporate world.

“Yes, sir. No mistake about that. Oh! she's just as full of jasm!”
Frank Sargent laughed again. “You've got the start of me,” said he. “Now tell me what ‘jasm’ is.”
“Well, it’s a sort of word, I guess, that made itself,” said Cheek. “It’s a good one though—jasm is. If you’ll take thunder and lightning, and a steamboat and a buzz-saw, and mix ’em up, and put ’em into a woman, that’s jasm.”

1860, Josiah Gilbert Holland, Miss Gilbert's Career: An American Story, Charles Scribner's Sons, page 350:

I don’t think there is anything more pitiful than a man, who has been in business for himself, to have to give up and say he is a failure. It hurts to be compelled to go into some one’s shop as a clerk or a mechanic when you’ve once been your own master. It’ll put jasm into a lot of men that have lost their nerve and only need some one to set them straight.

2004 June 30, Elizabeth Cooper, Drusilla with a Million, Kessinger Publishing, page 197:

(archaic, US, slang) Zest for accomplishment; drive.


paleomagnetic

(US, geology) Relating to paleomagnetism or to paleomagnetics


a day late and a dollar short

His apology was a day late and a dollar short.

(US, idiomatic, predicative) Too late and too feeble to achieve the desired effect.


a day late and a dollar short

Help arrived a day late and a dollar short.

(US, idiomatic) Adverbial use of the adjectival form.


in light of

The United Nations then became the one great attempt to establish a formal institution to unify the world, especially in light of the darkness that preceded it.

2015, Roy Posner, A New Way of Living, page 103:

In light of such conceptualisations of the power of linguistic landscapes, we set out to examine the connection between the visual landscape and the spoken landscape in our institution[.]

2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 2:

(idiomatic, Australia, Canada, US) Given, considering.


mobilette

(US) A two-person cycle having four wheels, a bench seat, and a canvas cover; used at resorts etc.


elasticize

en-verb

elasticize (third-person singular simple present elasticizes, present participle elasticizing, simple past and past participle elasticized)

elasticizes (present singular third-person)
elasticizing (participle present)
elasticized (participle past)
elasticized (past)
elasticise (alternative)

(US, transitive) To make (clothing, etc.) with elastic, by attaching elastic bands, so it can be adjusted while maintaining a snug fit.


radionics

From radio- (“pertaining to radio waves”) + (electr)onics.

prefix

But it's also because the Cambridge is British made by Sinclair Radionics Ltd, Europe's largest calculator manufacturer, with all the cost advantages of scale that this entails.

1973 August 2, New Scientist, volume 59, number 857, page 273:

(US, rare, now historical) electronics, especially in radio technology.


ass crack

ass cracks (plural)
arse crack (alternative)
arse-crack (alternative)
arsecrack (alternative)
ass-crack (alternative)
asscrack (alternative)

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

(Canada, US, vulgar, slang) The gluteal cleft.


butt crack

butt cracks (plural)
buttcrack (alternative)


boneless

en-adj

boneless (comparative more boneless, superlative most boneless)

more boneless (comparative)
most boneless (superlative)

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

From Middle English bonles, banles, from Old English bānlēas (“boneless”), from Proto-Germanic *bainalausaz, equivalent to bone + -less. Cognate with Scots baneless (“boneless”), Dutch beenloos (“boneless; legless”), German beinlos (“legless”), Swedish benlös (“boneless”), Icelandic beinlaus (“boneless”).

(US, humorous) Without pizza crust; without pizza bones


backfield

Moving the ball directly out of the backfield is the greatest form of attack there is.

2000, Derek Smethurst, Soccer Offense for Winning, →ISBN, page 1:

Cheryl Salisbury[…]moved back to defense, and became a veteran force on the backfield. By 2003 she was captain of the Matildas, but still found enough time to hone her skills for the WUSA[…]

2012, Barbara Stewart, Helen Stoumbos, Women's Soccer: The Passionate Game, page 92:

“Like you should talk about good soccer, Ethan,” said Joshua, the team's starting keeper. “I bet every girl on the soccer team knows not to go charging on goal from the backfield, ignoring her teammates.”

2017, Jake Maddox, Eric Stevens, Soccer Stand-off, page 56:

(sports) The rear part of the field of play, particularly

(soccer, US) The area behind either the offensive or defensive line.


malted milk

en-noun

malted milk (countable and uncountable, plural malted milks)

More dispensers fail with malted milk than with any one drink that I know about. There seems to be less knowledge of what a good malted milk should taste like than there is concerning any other drink.

1918, Irving P. Fox, The Spatula, volume 24, page 146:

One of the committee′s many marketing environment studies concerned malted milk consumption. The study revealed that while malted milk was a popular drink among young persons, virtually all of the consumption of the product took place outside the home.

1979, William F. O'Dell, Andrew C. Ruppel, Robert H. Trent, Marketing Decision Making: Analytic Framework and Cases, page 207:

Now that would be worth travelling half way 'round the country to see. Matty and Trev sharing a malted milk together!

2003 February 25, DAVO, “**Exclusive** Big Brother 3 details”, in aus.tv (Usenet):

Another example of this method comes from my youth, when we would go to a soda fountain for a malted milk. The soda clerk′s job was to sell eggs with the malted milk. If he didn′t have the skills, he would shyly say, “You probably don′t want an egg with your malted milk do you?” The answer would be a quick no. If he knew what you know now, he would hold an egg in each hand and say, “Which do you prefer, one egg or two in your malted milk?”

2009, J. R. Parrish, You Don′t Have to Learn the Hard Way: Making It in the Real World: A Guide for Graduates, page 33:

(US, Australia) A milkshake with malted milk powder added for flavour.


mommy track

(Canada, US, informal) A career path involving working arrangements provided for mothers and prospective mothers, generally more flexible and allowing shorter hours.


roadhouse

/ˈɹəʊdˌhaʊs/

Near-synonym: coaching inn (often synonymous, historically)

The pub was a classic 1930s 'roadhouse'. To the railway's official mindset, it might as well have been an opium den in Victorian London.

2023 September 6, Greg Morse, “One more for the road?”, in RAIL, number 991, pages 49-50:

(chiefly US) An inn or similar establishment situated beside a road beyond the jurisdiction of a town or city. In the centuries before motor vehicles, such inns were places for travellers to stop at night during multi-day journeys, besides being public houses for their local countryfolk.


roomette

Although many luxurious single-room sleepers are in service, the demand for sleeping accommodation on long journeys is so great that vehicles less weighty in proportion to their passenger accommodation, and therefore less expensive for the traveller, have become a paramount need, which is largely solved by the roomette car.

1944 November and December, “"Duplex Roomette" Sleeping Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 324:

The 20-hr. rail journey was, I think the most unusual and comfortable that I have ever made, because I travelled in a "roomette," a small private room for one person.

1953 July, Allen Rowley, “First Impressions of American Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 493:

For most of its journey it is made up to about fourteen cars, of which a large proportion provide the better type of sleeping accommodation (bedrooms, roomettes, etc.).

1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 554:

(rail transport, US) A small private compartment, for one person, in a railroad sleeping car.


rotisserie

rotisseries (plural)
rôtisserie (alternative)

/ɹəʊˈtɪ.sə.ɹi/

/ɹəʊˈtɪs.ɹi/

From French rôtisserie, from rôtir ‘to roast’. Doublet of rosticceria and roastery.

rotisserie baseball
rotisserie baseball#English

fantasy baseball
fantasy baseball#English

(US, sports) Ellipsis of rotisserie baseball. Synonym of fantasy baseball

rotisserie sports
rotisserie sports#English

(US, sports) Ellipsis of rotisserie sports. Synonym of fantasy sports


rototiller

rototillers (plural)
roto-tiller (alternative)

(US) a motorized cultivator having rotating blades


backgrounder

From background + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix).

One of the President's aides gave us a ten-minute backgrounder on the dairy industry before the meeting.

(chiefly US) A briefing or document typically provided prior to a meeting or other event that gives basic details on subjects that are likely to be mentioned.


barroom

barrooms (plural)
bar room (alternative)

Sporting a woolly cardigan with four buttons on top of an Oxford smock without a collar, our man has a faintly folksy look about him, calling to mind a zingaro or a gypsy, a carny or a Mongol, but also (switching to a wholly distinct mythology and iconography) a hippy strumming his guitar in a barroom in Haight-Ashbury or at Big Sur or in Katmandu.

1969, Georges Perec, translated by Gilbert Adair, A Void:

(Canada, US) A room where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter.


basswood

Audio (US)

From bass (“fibrous inner bark”) + wood.

Tilia americana
Tilia americana#Translingual

(US) Any of several trees of the genus Tilia; the lindens, especially Tilia americana, the American basswood.


bayberry

It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

(Canada, US) The fruit of the wax myrtle shrub; or the plant itself (Morella cerifera), with aromatic, leathery leaves and waxy berries.

The two North American genera are Myrica (bayberry) and Comptonia (sweet-fern).

2002, James Fralish, Scott Franklin, Taxonomy and Ecology of Woody Plants in North American Forests, Myricaceae (Bayberry or Wax-Myrtle Family), page 230:

Other species in the family Myricaceae, especially in genus Myrica; bay-rum tree, candleberry.


roundhouse

roundhouses (plural)
round house (alternative)

(chiefly US) A punch or kick delivered with an exaggerated sweeping movement.


galosh

galoshes (plural)
galoche (alternative)
galoshe (alternative)

From Middle English galoche, from Old French galoche (“shoe with a wooden sole”), but further history is uncertain.
further theories
* From Vulgar Latin *galopium or Late Latin calopedia (“a wooden shoe; a shoe with a wooden sole”), from Ancient Greek κᾱλοπόδιον (kālopódion), diminutive of κᾱλόπους (kālópous, “shoemaker's block”), compound of κᾶλον (kâlon, “wood”) and πούς (poús, “foot”). (More at holt and foot.)
* From Late Latin gallicula, diminutive of Latin gallica (solea) (“Gallic (sandal)”).
* From Old French galette (“flat round cake”), from galet (“pebble”).

der

An overshoe or boot worn in wet weather:

(US) A waterproof rubber boot, intended to be worn in wet or muddy conditions.


States

The structure will house the United States Army signal corps office which maintains radio and cable communication between Alaska and the States

1935 November 7, “Ketchikan, Alaska, to Get New Federal Building”, in Christian Science Monitor:

(historical, US) Those parts of the United States comprising states rather than territories.


garfish

garfishes (plural)
garfish (plural)
gar-fish (alternative)

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From Middle English garfysche (“garfish”, literally “spear-fish”), from gor (“spear”) + fisch (“fish”). Cognate with Scots gairfish (“garfish”).

inh

(especially US, Canada) Any North or Central American fish of the family Lepisosteidae.


speedos

From Speedos (“trademark of the Speedo company”), which has become a generic name.

For example, board riders paid more attention to appearances (short hair v long hair, speedos v board shorts) and conspicuous behavior (surfing for training rather than for fun or to express oneself), than life savers.

1979, Kent Pearson, Surfing Subcultures of Australia and New Zealand, University of Queensland Press, page 118:

2000 July, Ian Jack (editor), Granta, Issue 70: Australia: The New New World, →ISBN, page 42,
I remember my mother standing exasperated in the rain with the brolly over her head at dusk while I frog-kicked around in my speedos.

Their club is Manly, and this word is emblazoned across the back of their speedos.

2006, Margaret Henderson, Marking Feminist Times: Remembering the Longest Revolution in Australia, page 212:

(Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, usually in the plural) A men′s tight fitting brief swimsuit.


gear shift

(automotive, US, Canada) The lever or other interface a human uses to shift gears.


guardrail

guardrails (plural)
guard rail (alternative)

A rail set alongside a dangerous place as a barrier, to improve safety.

(Canada, US) A strengthened barrier installed on the sides of a (usually major) road to keep vehicles on the highway and reduce the risk and/or impact of crashes.


Purple Heart

(chiefly US, military) A US military decoration awarded in the name of the President of the United States to those wounded or killed while serving on or after 5 April 1917.


crap out

en-verb

crap out (third-person singular simple present craps out, present participle crapping out, simple past and past participle crapped out)

craps out (present singular third-person)
crapping out (participle present)
crapped out (participle past)
crapped out (past)

So, recruits fought sleep and slept in the hot classrooms while DIs caught up on their sleep by crapping out on their duty rack in full uniform.

2002, Wesley L. Fox, Marine Rifleman: Forty-three Years in the Corps, page 104:

He planned on being done by the early afternoon and then crapping out for the rest of the day.

2011, Guy Lennon, Knights of the State Department:

(US, military, slang, intransitive) To idle or mess around.


fogy

(US, military, dated, slang) Extra pay granted to officers for length of service.


my word

My word! What is that!?

(idiomatic, Australia, New Zealand, UK, dated, US, Canada) An expression of surprise.

(idiomatic, Australia, New Zealand, UK, dated, US, Canada) Indeed.


straight ticket

en-noun

straight ticket (plural straight tickets)

Sally voted a straight ticket for her political party.

(US) A ballot cast for all the candidates of a specific political party.


split ticket

Sally voted a split ticket for a Democrat and a Republican.

(US) A ballot cast for candidates of more than one political party.


darnedest

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darndest (alternative)
darnest (alternative)
durnedest (alternative)
durndest (alternative)

I did my darnedest to stay awake.


dead men

dead men pl (normally plural, singular dead man)

Remove eyes, dead men (gills), and sand sack if necessary.

1992 April 26, Nathalie Dupree, “A craving for crabs”, in The Record, Bergen County, NJ, page F1:

“I call these the lungs,” says Colleton, pointing to the gills with the dripping, short-handled knife. “The old people call them ‘dead men.’”

2003 September 26, Michael Gartland, “Drought Forces Awendaw, S.C., Crab Festival to Import from Louisiana”, in Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, page 1:

Once the shell is off, the crab’s gills or lungs, variously called “devil’s fingers” or “dead men” are exposed. These are gray-white, feathery-looking parts that are inedible and must be scraped off and thrown away.

2007 August 3, John Geiser, “Take rusties over jimmies when hunting for good-eatin’ crabs”, in Asbury Park Press, Asbury Park, New Jersey:

(informal, US) The gills of edible crabs.


traffic signal box

traffic signal box (plural traffic signal boxes)

A caravan installed at the intersection close to the existing traffic signal box contains all the processing devices[…].

1976, International Federation of Automatic Control, International Federation for Information Processing, Control in Transportation Systems: Proceedings of the IFAC/IFIP/IFORS Third International Symposium, August 9-13, 1976, Columbus, Ohio, volume 3, page 187:

Therefore, we asked the traffic department to install a vibrating traffic signal box for her to feel at each side of the street; this is being pursued at the time of this writing.

1993, Dona Sauerburger, Independence Without Sight Or Sound, page 140:

Officers use only hand signals and a whistle and have no access to the traffic signal box.

2008, Center City District/Central Philadelphia Development Corporation, Managing Success in Center City: Reducing Congestion, Enhancing Public Spaces, page 20:

(US, Australia) Any of the large metal boxes containing traffic signal controls, found at roadsides and intersections, and often made available by the local council for artistic work.


Jesum Crow

Jesum Crow, why's the statie so upset? We're only drinking tonics out here.

(bowdlerization, euphemistic, US) Synonym of Jesus Christ (“exclamation of anger, surprise, etc.”)


sugarbush

From sugar + bush, in reference to the sugary maple sap.

Alternative form: sugar bush

Meronyms: sugarhouse, sugar shack

Many a small family farm in Vermont had a sugarbush back in the day.

In some 21st-century sugarbushes, plastic tubing conveys the sap to the sugarhouse.

Indeed, acid rain has long been pointed to as the culprit in the diminished productivity and value of northern Maine and Vermont sugarbush (maple syrup producing trees).

1999, U.S. Congress, NOx State Implementation Plans: hearing before the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property, and Nuclear Safety http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0160606748&id=zB0xrjRFjT8C&q=sugarbush+maple&dq=sugarbush+maple&pgis=1

2001, Howard Paap, Northern Land: Life with the Ojibwe http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1878569783&id=E49tv0IUbzwC&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&ots=NgTARD3OW6&dq=sugarbush+maple&sig=Jd72oibGUPlSUo6EOGJfaOvspgM
The labor I offer in my friends' sugarbush is strenuous, but it brings a welcome fatigue.

Then rough lean-tos and later huts were constructed near the sugarbush to offer some protection to the syrup and the boiler.

2006, Elaine Elliot, Maple Syrup http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN088780697X&id=vt4_fhFTbt8C&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&ots=BmfhDZmEgM&dq=sugarbush+maple&sig=lW6_ddQPMID-HehrnePAt3p7llA#PPA1,M1

en:wooded area whose trees are tapped for sugaring

(Canada, US) A wooded area with sugar maples or other trees tapped for sugaring.


spalt

en-adj

spalt (comparative more spalt, superlative most spalt)

more spalt (comparative)
most spalt (superlative)

Compare German Spalt (“stein”), from spalten (“to split”).

Note: (US) Spalted wood is that which has been cut from a naturally cured, dead, or dying hardwood tree whose wood is normally light in color (such as pecan), and which exhibits patterns of dark stain (crazed) lines and splotches caused by microorganisms and/or fungus. Although slightly more brittle and porous than normal wood from the same species of tree, spalted wood nevertheless can be used to make decorative items and small pieces of furniture.

a brittle, spalt wood

1772, William Ellis, Husbandry, Abridged:


Romex

(US) Brand name of a kind of NM electrical cable common in house wiring.


candy cane

(US, Canada) An edible candy in the shape of a cane or staff, generally consumed during Christmas time and usually having a peppermint flavor.


American wire gauge

Coordinate term: Birmingham wire gauge

(US) A standard for the measurement of the diameter of wire, especially of non-ferrous, electrically conducting wire. Increasing gauge numbers denote decreasing wire diameters.


heinie

heinies (plural)
hiney (alternative)
heiny (alternative)

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From a corruption of *hindie, for *behindie (“behind, rear end, hindward parts”), equivalent to hind + -ie. Perhaps influenced in some way by Heinie (“a German”).

She had spent enough time kissing heinies to wear her lips right off. And Shelby Symington didn't like kissing heinies. Down in Atlanta, where she was from, people used to line up to kiss hers.

1992, Olivia Goldsmith, The First Wives Club, page 200:

2001, Stephen Coonts, America: Jake Grafton, Book 9, 2013, unnumbered page,
“I hope you’re right,” Jake said, “because if you aren’t, Jacob Lee Grafton, we’ve been betting our heinies for a lot of years. One more big bet won’t make any difference.”

But Leandro simply could not reconcile himself to the thought of her taking all the risk to save both their heinies.

2007, Sarah Mayberry, Hot for Him, page 68:


Heinie

From Heinrich (“German given name”) + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

Henry "Heinie" Manush,^([Heinie Manush]) yet another outfield prospect, joined the Tigers in 1923, having impressed management with his outstanding Western League batting average of .375 the previous season. Major league pitching proved no mystery to Heinie either, as he connected for a .334 batting average in 1924, his freshman season.

1999, William Martin Anderson, The Detroit Tigers, page 48:

Heinie^([Heinie Zimmerman]) played with the Cubs from 1907 thru 1916, as a third baseman.

2010, Wayne Mausser, Chicago Cubs Facts and Trivia, Third Edition, page 27:

Lieutenant Colonel Harry C. “Heinie” Aderholt,^([Harry C. Aderholt]) who was born and raised in Birmingham, had been with the CIA since the Korean War and now commanded clandestine air operations out of Okinawa and Thailand. Heinie Aderholt knew most of the Alabama Guard pilots.

2011, Warren Trest, Donald B. Dodd, Wings of Denial: The Alabama Air National Guard's Covert Role at the Bay of Pigs, page 27:

(US) A diminutive form of Heinrich, or its English cognate Henry, sometimes applied to a person of (real or supposed) German heritage.


Heinie

"Let's go get them heinies, Sergeant," I challenged, with forced good cheer.

2005, John B. Babcock, Taught to Kill, page 99:

The Heinies had run off. We were suspicious; the boys were a little nervous because in a hedgerow we didn't know where our friends and foes were. Suddenly Bud said, “Damn, there's a Heinie over there. There's his helmet!”

2009, John Wayne Gorman, Dorothy Gorman Yundt, Patrick Quinn, Compass: U.S. Army Ranger, European Theater, 1944-45, page 58:

At the outcry of “Heinies!" Gaul jumped out of the window and bolted for the woods.

2009, Sonya Jason, Maria Gulovich, OSS Heroine of World War II, page 131:

(US, slang) A German, especially a German soldier.


hospitalist

(US) A physician who specializes in the care of hospital in-patients.


overpass

/ˈəʊvə(ɹ)pɑːs/

/əʊvə(ɹ)ˈpɑːs/

The homeless man had built a little shelter, complete with cook-stove, beneath a concrete overpass.

By visible evidence, this Saturday morning is a comparatively placid one. Earlier in the week a young man had died after being stabbed in a flat, and from the overpass at Archway Road, darkly referred to as “suicide bridge,” another man had jumped to his death.

2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-06-14:

A section of a road or path that crosses over an obstacle, especially another road, railway, etc.


T-ball

en-noun

T-ball (countable and uncountable, plural T-balls)

T-balls (plural)
tee ball (alternative)
tee-ball (alternative)

His dad found that the store-bought baseball stand broke every time the bat hit the tee, but using a medium sized pylon let the kids play a full game of T-ball without any fuss.

(US, uncountable) A form of baseball, played by young children, in which the batter hits a ball placed on a tee rather than being thrown by a pitcher.

(US, countable) The lightweight wiffleball used to play a game of T-ball.


thigh-high

My bureau drawers were knotted with nylon stockings and "thigh hi's," my closet was cluttered with little pointed shoes.

1987 April 11, Pamela Wescott, “Judy Grahn: Pursuing the Work We Want”, in Gay Community News, page 8:

Every once in a while a girl has to stop brooding over gender injustice, start thinking about sexual revenge, and slip into her thigh-highs and stiletto heels to lure a few dopes to destruction.

1994 November 14, Richard Schickel, “Wretch on a Sexual Rampage”, in Time:

The resulting outfit: a cape, a breath-stealing corset, and a sheer black skirt atop a black vinyl thong and fishnet thigh-highs.

1999, Jennifer Wolff, “Vamping with Vampires”, in Cosmopolitan, Jan 99:

One of them wore a microskirt, and he could see the tops of black or navy thigh-highs as he stopped to pick them up.

1999, James Patterson, Pop Goes the Weasel, Headline, →ISBN:


drop trou

en-verb

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

drops trou (present singular third-person)
dropping trou (participle present)
dropped trou (participle past)
dropped trou (past)
drop trow (alternative)

(US, intransitive) To drop one's trousers and/or undershorts; to moon.


absentee ballot

en-noun

absentee ballot (plural absentee ballots)

(US) A vote made remotely, especially a postal vote, cast by a voter unable to be present in person.


short-timer

Almost every Marine in Viet Nam carries a short-timer’s calendar of his tour of duty—the usual 365 days—plus a bonus of 20 days for being a Marine.

1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 45:

(US, military slang, historical) A soldier during the Vietnam War who had less than two months to serve.


hostage to fortune

hostage to fortune (plural hostages to fortune)

/ˌhɒstɪd͡ʒ tə ˈfɔːt͡ʃuːn/

-ɔː(ɹ)t͡ʃuːn

From hostage (“one who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat”) + to + fortune (“destiny”).

Once several good outfits are prepared, any one of which can attack a Japanese-held base or island and beat the life out of the garrison, all their islands will become hostages to fortune.

1950 July, Winston Churchill, “The Shipping Strangehold”, in The Second World War: Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate, th edition, London, Toronto, Ont.: Cassell & Co., →OCLC, book I (The Onslaught of Japan), page 171:

Too many [rail] companies are hostages to fortune by relying on RDW [rest day working] agreements to run their timetable.

2022 November 2, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Rail strikes: no end in sight”, in Rail, number 969, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:

(chiefly US) A person or thing whose fate is seen as dependent on chance or luck.

kohtalon armoilla (adverb, can be used attributively)


quarreling

quarrelings (plural)
quarrelling (alternative)


whack-a-mole

whack-a-mole (countable and uncountable, plural whack-a-moles)

whack-a-moles (plural)
Whac-A-Mole (alternative)
whac-a-mole (alternative)

/ˈʍæk.əˌməʊl/

From whack + a + mole (“small, burrowing, insect-eating mammal of the family Talpidae”), from the arcade game Whac-A-Mole which involves quickly and repeatedly hitting the heads of mechanical moles with a mallet as they pop up from holes. The name of the arcade game was coined in 1977 when it was first sold in the United States; the original game released in Japan in 1975 was called モグラ退治 (Mogura Taiji, literally “Mole Extermination”).

compound

Trying to get rid of spam e-mails is like whack-a-mole: as soon as you delete one, another appears.

Identify a challenge. Put your shoulder into it. Make it go away. Just as it disappears, whoops, here comes another one. It's like a game of whack-a-mole. Trust me, you'll never run out of quarters.

2007 November, Gil Schwartz, “The Office Politic: Escape from the Job Monster”, in David Zinczenko, editor, Men’s Health, volume 22, number 9, Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 122, column 1:

What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.

2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, page 9]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-06-10:

Some flew across the United States; some were planning to fly into London from Europe, though, like many of us, they could only try their best to keep up with the government’s air corridor whack-a-mole.

2020 August 29, Rebecca Nicholson, “Tom Cruise: Another groundbreaking role for cinema’s cheerleader”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-10-16:

With power being redistributed automatically and surging through other circuits as the system tried to reroute electricity to keep things operational, various parts of the ship began to flicker internally as more and more breakers began to trip and were reset, only to trip again. Then, one of the engineers, tired of playing whack-a-mole, tied one of the more important breakers down so that it physically couldn't trip. This turned out to be a mistake, and a cascade overload crippled the ship's radar, radios, and power training on most of her guns. With no way of communicating with Washington, South Dakota simply held course whilst men in the switchboard room tried their best to reset the ship's entire electrical grid.

2021 March 17, Drachinifel, 13:14 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 2 (IJN 3(?) : 3 USN), archived from the original on 2022-07-14:

(idiomatic, chiefly Canada, US) The practice of trying to stop problems, etc., that repeatedly occur in an apparently random manner; also, the act of dealing with such matters in a piecemeal manner without achieving a complete solution.

der Kampf gegen die Hydra

practice of trying to stop problems, etc., that repeatedly occur in an apparently random manner; act of dealing with such matters in a piecemeal manner without achieving a complete solution

but see הַכֵּה בַּחֲפַרְפֶּרֶת (haké bakhafarpéret, literally “hit the mole”)

חֲסַל אֶת הַחֲפַרְפֶּרֶת (khasál et hakhafarpéret, literally “kill the mole”)

מִשְׂחַק צֵיד חֲפַרְפָּרוֹת (miskhák tséd khafarparót, literally “game of hunting moles”)


truck farming

(US) The relatively small-scale growing of vegetables for market.


schvartze

(chiefly US, offensive, ethnic slur) Alternative form of shvartze


vlei

vleis (plural)
vley (alternative)
vly (alternative)

From Afrikaans vlei, from Dutch vallei (“valley”). Doublet of valley.


first responder

en-noun

first responder (plural first responders)

pelastustyöntekijä

a member of an emergency service who is first on the scene at an emergency

A member of an emergency service trained to provide emergency medical care.


Saturdays

(US, Canada) On Saturday; each Saturday.


ride herd on

en-verb

ride herd on (third-person singular simple present rides herd on, present participle riding herd on, simple past rode herd on, past participle ridden herd on)

rides herd on (present singular third-person)
riding herd on (participle present)
rode herd on (past)
ridden herd on (participle past)

From the cowboy task of driving cattle while riding along with them.

As the new editor, his job is to ride herd on the staff and check on the tone of the articles.

But Rabbit feels as though he owns it all, showing up at the showroom day after day, riding herd on the paperwork and the payroll […]

(transitive, idiomatic, US) To supervise a group of people and their work.


bluestone

en-noun

bluestone (countable and uncountable, plural bluestones)

Any of several bluish-grey varieties of stone used for construction:

(US, Canada) A feldspathic sandstone found in the US and Canada.

(US) A form of limestone found in the Shenandoah Valley and some other places.


Christmas season

Christmas season (plural Christmas seasons)

(US, informal, retail and marketing) The winter season starting around Thanksgiving (typically Black Friday) and ending at or about New Year's Eve.


liftback

From lift + back, modelled on hatchback or similar pre-existing automotive terms. Coined in 1973 by Toyota to describe their Celica model.

(US, automotive) A variation on the hatchback car body style, with a more gently sloping roofline.


goof-off

(US, informal) An idle or work-shy person; a shirker.


cookout

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

(US) A gathering for a meal that is cooked and eaten outside; either a domestic barbecue or a larger social event.


herky-jerky

en-adj

herky-jerky (comparative more herky-jerky, superlative most herky-jerky)

more herky-jerky (comparative)
most herky-jerky (superlative)

/ˈhəːkiˌd͡ʒəːki/

While all that herky-jerky mathcore in your collection might not fit the bill, put some Portishead on your Pod and the attached OhMiBod will respond rhythmically in kind.

Lynn has learned the herky-jerky schedule of the university. She has learned about me, and how I respond to its quirks—like a river flowing with hiccups.

2013, Bruce R. Swinburne, Stem: Cells That Divide, page 271:

(Canada, US, informal) Having an irregular spasmodic movement.


bobsled

en-noun

bobsled (countable and uncountable, plural bobsleds)

(US and Canada) A sled used to go down a bob track.

(uncountable, US and Canada) The sport of travelling down a bob track as fast as possible.


honest injun

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

honest + injun, a dialectal or eye dialectal spelling of Indian.

(US, dated, offensive) A phrase used to emphasize the truth of something.


honest injun

(US, dated, offensive) An honest person.


Queen Anne's lace

There were wildflowers alongside the vegetable patches at the edge of the pavement, Queen Anne’s lace whispering against Kirsten’s outstretched hand.

2014, Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven, Picador (2022), page 49:

Daucus carota
Daucus carota#Translingual

(Canada, US) A flowering plant, species Daucus carota, especially the flowering part of the plant.


hawk-eye

hawk-eyes (plural)
hawkeye (alternative)


meadowhawk

(US) Any of several dragonflies, of the genus Sympetrum, native to North America.


six-pack

six-packs (plural)
sixpack (alternative)
six pack (alternative)

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Officer Bahash then obtained a copy of Grant's photograph from the DMV and placed it in a six-person photograph array (also known as a “six-pack”) for possible identification by two earlier victims.

2008, John N. Ferdico, Henry F. Fradella, Christopher D. Totten, Criminal Procedure for the Criminal Justice Professional, 10th edition, page 792:

(US, informal, law enforcement) A selection of six photographs, including one of a suspect, used for identification by a witness.


variety store

[…] the enduring old variety store that sells out-of-town newspapers, warm unshelled peanuts, and dirty magazines for queers as well as straights.

(US) A shop where many small and inexpensive items can be bought.


plowshare

plowshares (plural)
ploughshare (alternative)

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

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 2:4:

(American spelling) The cutting edge of a plow, typically a metal blade.


confusticate

en-verb

confusticate (third-person singular simple present confusticates, present participle confusticating, simple past and past participle confusticated)

confusticates (present singular third-person)
confusticating (participle present)
confusticated (participle past)
confusticated (past)

Massa Clifford’s eye sezs, plain as eber eye did, dat de niggers dat ’specs to confusticate him, mus’ be smarter dan eber yer was, or will be ter de fift’ generation.

1852, Charles Jacobs Peterson, The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters, T. B. Peterson, page 76:

I had to come and go,
Receive with pomp and show
From nations, deputations,
Which confusticate one so !

1868, W. S. Gilbert, “Ruy Blas”, in Tom Hood, editor, The 5 Alls: A Collection of Stories, page 53:

‘Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!’ he said aloud.

1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, chapter 1:

it is bound to make of medical malpractice trials veritable wars of even more lengthy attrition; with each side employing such a published congeries of conflicting medical views as would thoroughly confusticate any jury...

1973, Rules of Evidence [unintelligible], Hearings before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, [unintelligible] Special Subcommittee on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-third Congress, First Session, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 12

well it sorta isn't YOU, it is rather you quoting me and him quoting you quoting me see how many little greater than signs there are? But it doesn't work if what comes after *my* line is his line and not yours, easy to get confusticated eh?

1993 February 16, Jessica L. Babylon, “Re: Jessica wins new title: NET.TRAMP”, in alt.personals (Usenet), message-ID <1993Feb16.093030.11303@oz.plymouth.edu>:

He tapped the side of his pack: on it was written: CHARMED, ENCHANTED, ENSORCELLED AND CONFUSTICATED. 'I used to be confusticated,' he confided, 'but you know how these things go.'

The shoulder-Satan whispered into Fred’s ear, “How many chances do you get to confusticate Satan himself?”

2001, Peter J. Dabbene, Mister Dreyfus' Demons, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 158:

(transitive, informal, chiefly US) To confuse, confound, or perplex.


reclama

Subject: DAWN Cancellation Reclama

(US, military) A request made to the authority to reconsider its decision or action. It is normally sent through official channels, i.e. through the chain of command.


NLEC

(US, military) Initialism of no longer enemy combatant.


sillcock

(US) A faucet designed to be installed horizontally on the outside wall of a building, typically to attach a hose.


high roller

high rollers (plural)
high-roller (alternative)

/ˈhaɪ ˈɹəʊlə/

/ˈhaɪ ˈɹoʊlɚ/

The "Baron" bowed. This was a new complication, but it was all in the day's work. Of course, the whole thing was plain enough. Fatty Welch was "working" some swell guys who thought he was a real high-roller. Maybe he was going to pull off some kind of a job that very evening. Perhaps this big chap in the swagger flannels was one of the gang. Barney was thinking hard. Well, he'd take the tip and play the hand out.

1905 September, Arthur [Cheney] Train, “The Extraordinary Adventure of the Baron de Ville”, in McAllister and His Double, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, →OCLC, page 59:

One who has a lot of money and lives luxuriously.

flambeur

one who has a lot of money and lives luxuriously


rigamarole

en-noun

rigamarole (countable and uncountable, plural rigamaroles)

Speak out like a man, and don't give me any more of this tiresome rigamarole.

A peasant called Dushkin, who keeps a dram-shop facing the house, brought to the police office a jeweller's case containing some gold ear-rings, and told a long rigamarole.

1914, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, Crime and Punishment, part II, ch 4:

Then I figured he'd missed my point, and I went through the whole blamed rigamarole again, and it ended the same way, with Tweel on his nose in the middle of my picture!

1934, Stanley G. Weinbaum, A Martian Odyssey:

(chiefly US) Alternative form of rigmarole


word of honor

words of honor (plural)
word of honour (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-word of honor.wav

A promise; a pledge of one's good faith, veracity, and reliability.

paraula d’honor

a promise, or a pledge of one's good faith


sweatpants

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

(US) Informal cotton trousers, with an elasticated or drawstring waist, used for exercise etc.


sweepstake

sweepstakes (plural)
swoopstake (alternative)


switcher

(rail transport, US) A railway locomotive used for shunting (switching).

järjestelyveturi

A railway locomotive used for shunting; a shunter

(rail transport, trucking, US) The yardman who operates such an engine, or performs a similar role in a trucking depot.


taco salad

(US) The normal filling of a taco served, as a salad, with lettuce etc and either with tortilla chips or in a bowl made from tortilla.


sherbert

sherbert (countable and uncountable, plural sherberts)

(chiefly US, sometimes proscribed) Alternative spelling of sherbet (“food of frozen fruit juice with a dairy product added”)


Rosie

Rosie (countable and uncountable, plural Rosies)

[…] continued oppression and exploitation of women in the workplace 50 years after the Rosies entered wartime factories.

2011, Philip C. DiMare, Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia, volume 1, page 1087:

(countable, US, informal) A female factory worker during World War II (after the 1942 song Rosie the Riveter).


no-account

en-adj

no-account (comparative more no-account, superlative most no-account)

more no-account (comparative)
most no-account (superlative)
no-count (alternative)

"There are ten or fifteen hound-dogs around the yard, and they are actually too no-account to scratch the fleas off."

1898, Joel Chandler Harris, Tales of the Home Folks in Peace and War, page 48:

"Well, I'm sorry to have had to be the one to give you the bad news," he says.
What bad news would that be? I'm wondering. That's just one more no-account Carter for me not to have to think on.

2001, Charles De Lint, The Onion Girl, page 274:

You see, corporal, the human race is getting worse all the time. Each year we know less than we did in the preceding. We're more no-account now than we were five hundred years ago.

2004, John Horne Burns, Paul Fussell, The Gallery, page 124:

(US, British, colloquial) Of no value or merit; good-for-nothing; of no account.


no-load

(US, especially of a financial instrument) Sold directly to a customer without a sales commission.


no-load

(US, finance) A financial instrument that is sold directly to a customer without a sales commission.


nutmeat

en-noun

nutmeat (countable and uncountable, plural nutmeats)


nutpick

nutpicks (plural)
nut pick (alternative)

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(US) A sharp tool used for digging the edible portion out of a nut.


weigh station

(Canada, US) A place on the highway where trucks stop to get weighed.


griffe

From Cajun French (in period American English usage) and from general French griffe (in reference to such people in e.g. Haiti), perhaps from (American) Spanish grifo (supposedly "curly-haired").

Saint-Domingue's complex system of racial classification allowed for no fewer than eight “mixed” racial parental combinations that could produce a griffe, as infamously calculated by Moreau.

2017, Terry Rey, The Priest and the Prophetess: Abbé Ouvière, Romaine Rivière, and the Revolutionary Atlantic World, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

(chiefly US, dialectal, dated or historical) A person of mixed (black and white) race, especially the offspring of a mulatto (person of mixed black and white ancestry) and a person of fully black ancestry.


slicker

From slick (“to smooth or make slick”) + -er.

(originally Canada, US) A waterproof coat or jacket.


stuffily

en-adv

stuffily (comparative more stuffily, superlative most stuffily)

more stuffily (comparative)
most stuffily (superlative)


strip mall

April 19 2002, Scott Tobias, AV Club Fightvillehttp://www.avclub.com/articles/fightville,72589/
Fightville resembles a real-life Foot Fist Way, in that much of the action takes place within the cinder-block walls of a strip-mall gym, this one located next to a Piggly Wiggly in Lafayette, Louisiana.

The karate school where she took tai chi was in a strip mall near the Three Rivers depot. There's a convenience store, a bike shop, Happy Joy Chinese, and Caputo's Martial Arts. I got out, walked to the door, opened it a crack. Twenty or so little kids in karate suits stood with their hands clasped as if in prayer. "Bow to the master, bow to the flag," the instructor said.

2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.1, at p.9-10

(US, Canada) A shopping center consisting of a row of stores with separate entrances from the outdoors, typically along a road and/or with a parking lot in front.


streaky

en-adj

streaky (comparative streakier, superlative streakiest)

streakier (comparative)
streakiest (superlative)

Jones has always been a streaky hitter

(chiefly of a person, usually Canada, US) Having alternating periods of good and bad performances; inconsistent.


unorganized

unorganized (comparative more unorganized, superlative most unorganized)

more unorganized (comparative)
most unorganized (superlative)
unorganised (alternative)

Citizens liable for military service but not organized on a military basis

disorganized

a negative term indicating inadequate organization

Palmyra Atoll is an unorganized territory.

Not organized: not having been organized.

(US, law) (of a territory) Lacking a normal system of government.


halfway decent

(US, idiomatic) Good - better than expected.


mailbox

mailboxes (plural)
mail-box (alternative)
mail box (alternative)

She waved back, placed a stack of envelopes in her mailbox, and lifted the red flag.

2018, Tayari Jones, An American Marriage, Oneworld Publications, page 264:

Coordinate term: outbox

(chiefly US) A box into which mail is placed.

A collection point for mail intended for onward delivery, a secure box or receptacle for this purpose.

Coordinate term: inbox

A delivery point for mail, a box, compartment or slot for this purpose.


madrone

madrones (plural)
madrone (plural)
madrona (alternative)
madroña (alternative)
madrono (alternative)
madroño (alternative)

Anglicization of Mexican Spanish madroño.

(US) Any of three local relatives:
A Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii)

Arbutus menziesii
Arbutus menziesii#Translingual

(US) Any of three local relatives:
A Arizona madrone (Arbutus arizonica)

(US) Any of three local relatives:
A Texas madrone (Arbutus xalapensis)

Dig a big pit in a dirt alley road / Fill it with madrone and bay / Stinks like hell and the neighbours complain / Don't give a hoot what they say.

1993, Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan, Filipino Box Spring Hog:


corner boy

corner boys (plural)
cornerboy (alternative)

Got no time for the corner boys / Down in the street making all that noise.

(Ireland, US) A young man who hangs around on street corners.

безделник

someone who hangs around on street corners


swing shift

It is generally believed that when rotating shifts are necessary the rotation should move clockwise (that is, day shift first, then swing shift, then graveyard shift, then back to day shift, and so on)

2006, Roberto Refinetti, Circadian physiology, volume 1, page 580:

(US) A work shift between a day shift and a night shift, such as from 4PM to midnight, and the group of workers scheduled to work such a shift at a facility.

The problem is not usually associated with swing shift operation because the duties are balanced over time. When operators remain on one shift it is common for one shift to complain another has less to do.

2005, Kenneth E. Heselton, Boiler Operator's Handbook, The Fairmont Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 5:

We worked the swing shift. One week on days, one week on afternoons and one week on midnights

2010, Donald "Duke" Cartwright, Tough, Author House, →ISBN, page 445:

(US) A system of shifts where each worker alternates between day shifts and night shifts.


spinach dip

If you aren't sure, just go with the spinach dip and you'll be safe every time.

(US) A common restaurant appetizer made from spinach and another ingredient such as mayonnaise, cream cheese, or sour cream, and usually served with tortilla chips.


micronize

en-verb

micronize (third-person singular simple present micronizes, present participle micronizing, simple past and past participle micronized)

micronizes (present singular third-person)
micronizing (participle present)
micronized (participle past)
micronized (past)


micronization

(US) Alternative spelling of micronisation


frat boy

(US, somewhat derogatory) A member of a fraternity in a college or university.


rocking-chair money

unemployment benefit
unemployment benefit


labor force

(US) Alternative spelling of labour force


(Canada, US, Philippines, education) Kindergarten through 12th grade (US) / grade 12 (Canada and the Philippines).


tailpipe

(US) An exhaust pipe (on a vehicle) (in any configuration)


tsuris

Borrowed from Yiddish צרות (tsores), plural of צרה (tsore, “trouble, problem”), from Hebrew צָרָה (tsará, “trouble, tragedy, calamity”).

der

tsores (alternative)
tsoris (alternative)
tsorris (alternative)
tsouris (alternative)
tszoris (alternative)
tzuris (alternative)

You think you got troubles? You should go down there and talk to some of those schnorrers. Still, what chutzbah. It's like the Jewish moral sense, emerging from all that tsuris.

1968, Ronald Sukenick, Up, Dial Press, page 84:

“Sounds to me, my friend, like you got some tsuris. Not full grown yet, not gehoketh tsuris, but tsuris.”

1997, Hilary Henkin and David Mamet, Wag the Dog, New Line Cinema
Stanley Moss: I don't need this gig, I don't need the money, I don't need the tsuris ... I don't need it.


cineplex

Blend of cinema + complex or from cine- + -plex

Maybe twice a month they go to a movie at a cineplex in a giant mall over on Palmetto Palm Boulevard two miles away

(US) A cinema having multiple theatres (showing rooms).


scrapple

(US, Pennsylvania, Appalachia, Blue Ridge) A mush of pork scraps, particularly head parts, and cornmeal or flour, which is boiled and poured into a mold, where the rendered gelatinous broth from cooking jells the mixture into a loaf.


fragging

→ Korean: 프래깅 (peuraeging)

Present participle of frag, from a clipping of fragmentation grenade, because those who committed fragging during the Vietnam War threw fragmentation grenades at their superior officers.

Fraggings—the intentional killings of officers by their own troops—were already occurring.

2004, Martin Torgoff, “Next Stop is Vietnam”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 175:

(US military slang) The premeditated murder of one's superior officer in a military unit


cuffee

A personal name formerly common among black Americans.

The war had turned very bitter, and the days of young blacks, or cuffees as they were known, joining up just to escape the ghetto were over.

2004, Martin Torgoff, “Next Stop is Vietnam”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 189:


yuk it up

en-verb

yuk it up (third-person singular simple present yuks it up, present participle yukking it up, simple past and past participle yukked it up)

yuks it up (present singular third-person)
yukking it up (participle present)
yukked it up (participle past)
yukked it up (past)
yuck it up (alternative)

(US) To clown around: to behave clownishly; to joke idly.


frog hair

en-noun

frog hair (usually uncountable, plural frog hairs)

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

Disturbingly, many of the plaque owners were contractors or architects who stood to benefit from making political contributions — "frog hair," as such funds are known locally.

The great old political wizard who managed the Turner campaign, H. W. "Coach" McNeil, would call the young man into his office each morning and hand him a draft to be cashed at the bank. "My boy," he would say every time with solemn and ritualistic regularity, "we're a little short on frog hair."

1975, Fred R. Harris, The New Populism, page 15:

(US, politics, slang) Money contributed to a campaign.


vitreous humor

vitreous humors (plural)
vitreous humour (alternative)

(ophthalmology, US) The clear gel that fills the eyeball between the lens and the retina.