send up

en-verb

send up (third-person singular simple present sends up, present participle sending up, simple past and past participle sent up)

sends up (present singular third-person)
sending up (participle present)
sent up (participle past)
sent up (past)

The judge sent him up for three years.

"I guess you're a wise one, all right, but what's the use? I tell you we've got enough on you already to send you up. You might as well talk straight."

1913, Rex Stout, Her Forbidden Knight, Carroll & Graf, published 1997, →ISBN, page 161:

(transitive, US, slang) To put in prison.


triple dog dare

triple dog dare (third-person singular simple present triple dog dares, present participle triple dog daring, simple past and past participle triple dog dared)

triple dog dares (present singular third-person)
triple dog daring (participle present)
triple dog dared (participle past)
triple dog dared (past)

I triple dog dare you to jump.

"I double dog dare you!" "Oh yeah? Well, I triple dog dare you!"

(slang, US) Used to denote compounding levels of dare "seriousness"; the escalation of a double dog dare.


thunderation

An Americanism from around 1830 to 1840, from thunder + -ation.

Thunderation! I've lost my glasses!

(US, colloquial) An exclamation of surprise, agitation or petulance.


in thunderation

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How in thunderation could anyone anticipate a result like this?

Where in thunderation have you been?

Why in thunderation should I believe anything you say?

There is no way in thunderation that I'm going to that wedding.

(US, colloquial) In any set of circumstances whatsoever.


FBO

FBOs (plural)
FBO's (plural)
F.B.O. (alternative)
F. B. O. (alternative)

fixed base operator
fixed base operator#English

(US) Initialism of fixed base operator, an aircraft service center at an airport.


FBO

(US, finance) Initialism of for the benefit of (e.g., on a check or other financial instrument sent to a custodian).


majordomo

majordomos (plural)
major domo (alternative)
major-domo (alternative)

/ˌmeɪ.d͡ʒəˈdəʊ.məʊ/

From Italian maggiordomo and Spanish mayordomo, from Late Latin māior domūs (“steward”), from Latin māior (“main, principal”) + genitive singular of domus (“household”).

She called upon a Missouri cousin named Edward Hardy Clark, who became the indispensable majordomo of the Hearst estate.

2006, Gray A. Brechin, chapter 5, in Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin, →ISBN, page 212:

(US, Southwest) A manager of a hacienda, ranch or estate.

The United Nation's climate majordomo -- tasked with herding 192 nations toward a do-or-die deal by year's end -- does not have the power to impose an agreement on how to curb greenhouse gases and cope with its consequences.

(chiefly US) Any overseer, organizer, person in command.

pehtori

manager of an estate; overseer of a farm

päällikkö

any overseer, organizer, person in command


bang to rights

en-adv

bang to rights (not generally comparable, comparative more bang to rights, superlative most bang to rights)

more bang to rights (comparative)
most bang to rights (superlative)
banged to rights (alternative)

From bang (“completely”) + to rights (“properly”). Originally US; attested from the start of the 20th century.

compound

We had a man once who got caught with a bundle of railroad stocks.
They got him bang to rights and would have shoved him, only[…] when he swore he’d found them, they couldn’t prove he hadn’t.

1910 December, George Allan England, “The Steeled Conscience”, in The Railroad Man’s Magazine, New York: Frank A. Munsey Co., page 188:

The silk! Hide it! Throw it away! If they get us with that—we’re bang to rights.

1919 December 2, Charles W. Tyler, “Raw Silk”, in Detective Stories Magazine, volume XXVIII, New York: Street & Smith, page 29:

Looking at the evidence, I’d assumed that the hapless pair was bang to rights and that we’d have little trouble placing him on remand and giving the law-abiding residents of Surrey a brief respite.

2012, Officer ‘A’, The Crime Factory: The Shocking True Story of a Front Line CID Detective, Edinburgh: Mainstream, page 218:

(now chiefly British, idiomatic) Red-handed, (caught) in the act.


bang to rights

en-verb

bang to rights (third-person singular simple present bangs to rights, present participle banging to rights, simple past and past participle banged to rights)

bangs to rights (present singular third-person)
banging to rights (participle present)
banged to rights (participle past)
banged to rights (past)
banged to rights (alternative)

From reinterpretation of bang (“completely”) as bang (“to handle noisily or violently”).

I am as intent on banging them all to rights as the next bleeding heart middle-class liberal, but take a look at the record so far.

2006, Planning, numbers 1650–1666, page 8:

Good week for: Cyclists, after Britain's most prolific bicycle thief was banged to rights.

His alter-ego Batman utters nothing more provocative than the occasional “holy smoke” as he bangs adversaries to rights

2009 February 4, “Batman turns air blue in Terminator tantrum”, in Belfast Telegraph:

He'd been untouchable for the past decade, but now Roy Grace had finally banged him to rights.

(rare, British, idiomatic) To have sufficient, indisputable evidence that a person's actions are generally perceived to be wrong; to catch red-handed.


NDP

National Defense Panel
w:National Defense Panel

(US, military, historical) Initialism of National Defense Panel.


smoke wagon

smoke wagons (plural)
smoke-wagon (alternative)

From smoke + wagon, probably a humorous reference to a conveyance or implement which “carries” or generates smoke.

If you gwine afoot, it'll take you about a day; if you gwine in de stage or de homneybuss, you make it in half a day; but if you get in one ob dese smoke-waggons, you be almost dar now!

1852 December 25 (week ending), “Random Readings”, in Family Herald: A Domestic Magazine of Useful Information and Amusement, volume X, number 503, London: George Biggs, […], →OCLC, page 560, column 1:

The village priests were seen to go to and fro by train, and the simple country folk thought that what they did could not be wrong. By degrees the peasants themselves began to try the "smoke-wagons" too, […]

1888 August, David Ker, “A Wonderful Railroad”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume LXXVII, number CCCCLIX, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 483:

Indians of Idaho are losing their superstitious feeling about the "smoke wagon," as they call an automobile, and the rush to get machines has started among the more intelligent and wealthy tribesmen.

1913 October 17, “Idaho Indians Take to Autos: Two Enterprising Nez Perces Start Rush for ‘Smoke Wagons’”, in The Carlisle Arrow, volume X, number 7, Carlisle, Pa.: Carlisle Indian Press for students of the United States Indian School, →OCLC, page [4]:

I am not old enough to remember those one- and two-cylinder primitives that first chugged on the scene around the turn of the century. But those who can remember attest to the fact that they came in with billowing plumes of smoke in their wake. Indeed, "smoke-wagon" was commonly their derisive designation. You can still see why, if you witness a demonstration of antique cars restored to their prime by proud owners today.

[1958 November 18 (date delivered), Harry A. Williams, “Accomplishments in Air Pollution Control by the Automobile Industry”, in Proceedings: National Conference on Air Pollution, Washington, D.C., November 18–20, 1958 (Public Health Service Publication; number 654), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office [for the Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare], published 1959, →OCLC, page 58:

[T]he President said nothing on how to protect our lungs from the some 70 million smoke wagons currently on the road.

1970 February 11, “The environment: clean up or patch up?”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page A20; reproduced in “President [Richard] Nixon’s Environmental Message”, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 91st Congress, Second Session (United States Senate), volume 116, part 3, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, February 17, 1970, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3496, column 3:

(rail transport, road transport) A vehicle that generates smoke; specifically, an automobile or a train.


tummler

Circa 1930, from Yiddish טומלער (tumler). Related to English tumble, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *tūmōną (“to turn, rotate”).

der

Brooks began as a Tummler (master entertainer) at various Catskills resorts, where he honed his skills at telling jokes and doing impersonations.

2015, Henry Jenkins, “Mel Brooks, Vulgar Modernism, and Comic Remediation”, in Andrew Horton, Joanna E. Rapf, editors, A Companion to Film Comedy, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 151:

master of ceremonies
master of ceremonies

(US) An employee, usually male, of a Borscht Belt resort charged with the duty of entertaining guests throughout the day by providing any number of services, from comedian to master of ceremonies.


Smell-O-Vision

Smell-o-vision (alternative)
smellovision (alternative)
Smellovision (alternative)
smellevision (alternative)
smellavision (alternative)
smell-a-vision (alternative)

/ˈsmɛləˌvɪʒən/

From smell + -o- (interfix used for ease of pronunciation) + vision, recoined in 1959 by Mike Todd Jr. (1929–2002), the American producer of the film Scent of Mystery (1960) which used the Smell-O-Vision system invented by the Swiss scientist Hans Laube (1900–1976), 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): see the November 1959 quotation.

affix

[…] John Livadary […] is en route to Rome to commence the score recording for "The Scent of Mystery,"^([sic]) new Mike Todd Enterprises pic production. The recording will be made via the new 35 mm. magnetic tape. The picture also introduces a new process, known as "Smell-O-Vision."

1959 September 28, “Two Everest Teams to Cut in Europe”, in Paul Ackerman [et al.], editor, The Billboard: The Amusement Industry’s Leading Newsweekly, volume 71, number 39, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Billboard Publishing Company, →OCLC, pages 2 and 14, column 3:

Yes, Smell-O-Vision is here. Film makers have toyed with ways to add smell to sight and sound in movies for years. Now Michael Todd Jr. thinks he has the answer. He's chosen the name purposely, he says, "to get the jump on those who will call it that anyway." The new process will perfume the film, "Scent of Mystery," to open at a special theater in Chicago. A magnetic track on the film will synchronize action to an "odor machine." Individual odor outlets fixed into each seat will guarantee that the whole audience knows the picture smells.

1959 November, “… Have You Heard …?”, in Howard Allaway, editor, Popular Science, volume 175, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20:

Danny Stiles, WNJR, Newark, N.J., and WCTC, New Brunswick, N.J., recently ran a contest asking listeners to identify the mystery voice on Eddie Fisher's new record "The Chase." First prize was a bottle of Mike Todd Jr.'s perfume, "Scent of Mystery," also the title of his new Smellevision movie. Answer, of course, was Elizabeth Taylor.

1960 January 25, June Bundy, “Vox Jox”, in Paul Ackerman [et al.], editor, The Billboard: The Amusement Industry’s Leading Newsweekly, volume 72, number 4, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Billboard Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 23, column 3:

[B]y the early '50s we had seen so much that it took Smell-O-Vision to shock us into attendance, and more recently audiences have continued to dwindle while movies went from topless to bottomless to games that any number can play. What in the world will they try next?

1971 November 5, Brad Darrach, “Parting Shots: Now at Your Local Theater: A New Kind of Shoot-’em-up”, in Ralph Graves, editor, Life, volume 71, number 19, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 82, column 1:

Each Smell-O-Vision customer sat in a movie seat equipped with a system to pipe in smells directly to the nose. […] Theater-owners knew AromaRama and Smell-O-Vision wouldn't be around long. Curious customers came and went without getting too excited.

1990, Frank W. Hoffmann, William G. Bailey, “AromaRama and Smell-O-Vision”, in Arts and Entertainment Fads (Encyclopedia of Fads; I), Binghamton, N.Y.; London: The Haworth Press, →ISBN, pages 19–20:

In 1960, the movie A Scent of Mystery^([sic]) used the Smell-o-Vision system, which solved the distribution problem by including smell tubes at each seat. Although the smells were integrated into the mystery story line, the system was not a great commercial success.

2002, Stephen Wilson, “Biology: Microbiology, Animals and Plants, Ecology, and Medicine and the Body”, in Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology (Leonardo), Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press, →ISBN, page 60:

Words referring to technologies also fade out if the technology finds few long-term devotees. […] [A]udiences were unimpressed and smell-o-vision technology was stillborn. Hence the word smell-o-vision had a short life[…].

2005, Francis Katamba, “Words Galore: Innovation and Change”, in English Words: Structure, History, Usage, 2nd edition, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2010, →ISBN, part III (A Changing, Expanding Lexicon), page 185:

At the end of the 1950s, filmmakers experimented with Aromarama and Smell-o-vision. […] Smell-o-vision followed soon after. This time the smells came from vents beneath the cinema seats. It was used for a 1959 film entitled A Scent of Mystery.^([sic]) At best failing to work and at worst making members of the audience feel ill, the experiment faltered and failed.

2022, Susan Stewart, “The Twentieth Century: Cinema, Haute Couture and Celebrity Scents”, in Common and Uncommon Scents: A Social History of Perfume, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, →ISBN:

(originally and chiefly US, film, historical) A system that choreographed the release of odors into a movie theater during the projection of a film.


size zero

en-noun

size zero (countable and uncountable, plural size zeros)

(US) The smallest size of women's clothing


McMansion

Twenty mansions were planned for the development, each designed to look like the biggest house in town. The McMansion we thought of as ours had an enormous kitchen, more than two stories high.

1998 August 27, Benjamin Cheever, “Life in a Crater Will Do, For Now”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

After decades of ever-rising square footage in the McMansions that dot the suburbs, the idea of downsizing is gaining champions.

1998 September 19, “Getting Smart About Art of Living Small”, in Los Angeles Times:

They're ignorant of their social status. They think because they've built a McMansion on twenty acres, they're elite—if you can stand that word.

2006, Rita Mae Brown, The Hounds and the Fury, Center Point Pub., →ISBN, page 112:

Such places exist, and they exist just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, through the rainbow tunnel, where McMansions meet divination on Highway 1, Marin County, California.

2016, Melissa Broder, So Sad Today, Grand Central:

He got out and ambled noisily into his dark, cavernous house. After leaving him and others eerily like him off at their McMansions, I often worry about who else might be inside those houses. My kids would be terrified if I came home like that at 3 a.m.

2020 February 27, Peter Jakubowicz, “The Drunk Men I Drive Around Every Night”, in Slate Magazine:

(informal, derogatory, chiefly US) A large, imposing and ostentatious house that lacks architectural integrity.


glad wrap

From Glad Wrap, a trade mark owned by the Union Carbide Corporation.

‘My best one was using a Coles bread cake,’ says Ngareta Rossell. ‘You could cut it in half, take out the centre, put in a phone or charger wrapped in glad wrap, put the top back on and wrap it all up in glad wrap so the guards could see what it was.’

2008, Margot O'Neill, Blind Conscience, page 97:

Cover with a piece of glad wrap or a large tea towel and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.

2010, Lukas Volger, Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, page 118:

Wrap each portion in glad wrap and place in freezer.

2011, Patricia Murray-Chute, From Dinosaur to Dynamite: The Secret of Joyful Sex, page 123:

(Australia, New Zealand, sometimes US) Thin plastic film used as a wrap for food, etc.


tune up

en-verb

tune up (third-person singular simple present tunes up, present participle tuning up, simple past and past participle tuned up)

tunes up (present singular third-person)
tuning up (participle present)
tuned up (participle past)
tuned up (past)

“We finally stopped roustin' him and decided to tune him up instead, every chance we got.”
“Tune him up?”
“Yeah, that's an expression for beatin' the living dog shit outta somebody.”

2007, Michael Berish, Reflections from the Pit, →ISBN:

“I mean, I had to tune her up a bit. She bitched a lot and never did any work. Sometimes, you know, you just gotta get their attention, whack 'em a little."

2015, Joe Peters, Bill Fleming, Code Black, →ISBN, page 264:

[T]hey couldn't tune him up because the murder had to look like he died in his sleep.

2017, Jeff Gulvin, The Contract: A John Q Thriller, →ISBN:

(chiefly US, transitive, idiomatic) To beat up (someone).


Kameron

(US) A male given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage, variant of Cameron.


Brodie

Named after Steve Brodie (1861–1901), who made a disputed claim to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived.

"We don't believe this bird took a Brodie," Bruckman told them. "He wouldn't know the meaning of remorse, and he's not the suicidal type. […]

1960, Martin M. Frank, Diary of a D.A., page 26:

August Marien took a brodie (any one is apt to) by getting married last month.

1916, The American Photo Engraver, volume 9, page 536:

(US, informal, figurative, by extension) A risky enterprise; a chance taken.


out of gas

After twelve hours straight at the office, he was about out of gas and decided to go home and rest.

(Canada, US, idiomatic) Tired; lacking energy or motivation.


marketer

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

Because marketers had to provide their own containers, the oval shopping basket was useful for holding odd-shaped staples.

2004, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of Kitchen History, page 79:

(US) One who sells products or services, for example goods at a market; called a marketeer in UK English.


framer

(US) A person who assembles the timbers of a wood-framed building.


delicata

So named because of its delicate skin that does not need to be peeled before cooking and can be eaten.

But once you've tasted the sweet flesh of a delicata or slipped the strands of a spaghetti squash out of its shell, you'll never again regard winter squash as merely an agricultural art piece.

1992 October 25, Nanette Blanchard, “Autumn's Glory”, in Vegetarian Times, page 67:

You will need one medium butternut or two or three delicatas.

2004, Jack Bishop, Richard G. Jung, “Winter Squash Risotto with Sage and Parmesan”, in A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen, →ISBN, page 354:

The best winter squashes (delicata, for example) have edible skins and are amazing just chunked and roasted with a little oil[…].

2009 January 17, Mark Bittman, “Stale spices, canned beans are no-nos for new year”, in Toronto Star:

(Canada, US) An heirloom variety of winter squash, oblong in shape and having a cream-colored skin with green stripes


full-size

(US) (of an automobile) large; specifically, designed to be comfortable for long-distance driving with six occupants and their luggage.


button up

button up (third-person singular simple present buttons up, present participle buttoning up, simple past and past participle buttoned up)

buttons up (present singular third-person)
buttoning up (participle present)
buttoned up (participle past)
buttoned up (past)

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

Once buttoned up, NORAD's operation center can survive for more than 30 days without aid from the outside world.

We fired at the tanks and caused them to "button up" and then we started shooting the infantry.

1997, “Statement of S/Sgt. Alfred Sueflow, Company E, 253rd Infantry”, in Battle Between the Jagst and Kocher Rivers, 4-12 April 1945, page 136:

He turned a key. NORAD buttoned up. The outside lights, flashing for half an hour now in warning of a simulated attack, stopped. Whoever was inside would stay inside. Whoever was outside would not be able to get in […]

2000, Bonnie Ramthun, Ground Zero, page 6:

(US, military, slang, transitive, ergative) To seal off (a military vehicle or facility).


fusee

From French fusée, ultimately from Latin fūsus (“spindle”).

(US) A colored flare used as a warning on the railroad.


nightstand

nightstands (plural)
night stand (alternative)
night-stand (alternative)

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

From night (“the conventional time for a person to be in bed”) + stand (“an object which supports things”).

compound

He always kept a full glass of water on the nightstand.

(US) A small table or cabinet, usually with two drawers one above the other or one drawer and a lower shelf, placed beside the head of a bed.

komodinë

small table placed beside the head of a bed


car rental

en-noun

car rental (countable and uncountable, plural car rentals)

(US) The hiring of automobiles (motor cars) for relatively short periods.


smell the barn

en-verb

smell the barn (third-person singular simple present smells the barn, present participle smelling the barn, simple past and past participle smelled the barn or smelt the barn)

smells the barn (present singular third-person)
smelling the barn (participle present)
smelled the barn (participle past)
smelled the barn (past)
smelt the barn (participle past)
smelt the barn (past)

A reference to a livestock animal returning to its barn at the end of the day, especially a horse drawing a carriage which is on the way back home.

We’ll get home right quick—old Dobbin knows the way better than you and I do, and he can smell the barn besides.

Anyhow, Congress, like the old horse that starts into a long deferred trot when she "smells the barn," began to show action and as hearts on Capitol Hill leaned homeward, thoughts in the White House turned to the open road—or at least the railroad.

1935 August 12, H[ilmar] R[obert] Baukhage, “In the Executive Offices”, in David Lawrence, editor, The United States News: The Weekly Newsmagazine of National Affairs, volume 3, number 32, Washington, D.C., →OCLC, page 4, column 2:

[…] Charlie Company could leave as early as mid-October—which is soon but not quite soon enough for them. "The horses smell the barn right now," said Capt. Clark D. Carr, the battalion's Protestant chaplain, who knows perhaps better than anyone how badly they want to leave.

1996 August 11, Ian Fisher, “To U.S. troops in Bosnia, home looks closer”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-07-02, page 18:

Smelling the barn can result in driving too fast, not clearing weapons properly, and bypassing ammunition-recovery procedures.

2001 summer, Bryan P. McCoy, “Identify and Combat Five Treacherous Phenomena”, in Ground Warrior, Norfolk, Va.: Naval Safety Center, United States Navy, →OCLC:

Antyllus leaned his ear closer to the slave at his feet without taking his eyes off his over-eager team [of horses], which already smelt the barn ahead of them.

2005, Helena P. Schrader, chapter 3, in The Olympic Charioteer, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 27:

[H]e [Douglas MacArthur] had smelled the gunpowder again and in old age was once again the dashing young brigadier of World War I; […] This close, he simply couldn't abide sitting still. Like a horse, he smelled the barn and was determined to push ahead.

2016 May, Walter R. Borneman, “Return to Manila”, in MacArthur at War: World War II in the Pacific, New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 465:

(intransitive, chiefly US, idiomatic) To act with renewed energy or speed or to experience heightened anticipation as one approaches a destination, goal, or other desired outcome.

de stal ruiken

to act with renewed energy or speed or to experience heightened anticipation as one approaches a destination, goal, or other desired outcome


pull up stumps

pull up stumps (third-person singular simple present pulls up stumps, present participle pulling up stumps, simple past and past participle pulled up stumps)

pulls up stumps (present singular third-person)
pulling up stumps (participle present)
pulled up stumps (participle past)
pulled up stumps (past)

To cut off one's roots; or to pull up your house, (figurative) stumps & all.

(US, figuratively) To relocate, emigrate, move one's home to some other place.


in the hospital

(Canada, US, idiomatic) Admitted as a patient in a hospital.


moviehouse

moviehouses (plural)
movie house (alternative)
movie-house (alternative)


take to the cleaners

take to the cleaners (third-person singular simple present takes to the cleaners, present participle taking to the cleaners, simple past took to the cleaners, past participle taken to the cleaners)

takes to the cleaners (present singular third-person)
taking to the cleaners (participle present)
took to the cleaners (past)
taken to the cleaners (participle past)
take to the cleaner's (alternative)

A humorous alteration of the older expression to clean (someone) out.

“That’s not the idea. These people you want taken to the cleaners were friends of yours yesterday. Maybe they will be friends again next week. I don’t care about that. But I’m not playing politics for you.[…]

Dizzy refused to pose with a blonde chorine clad only in step-ins. "No sir," exploded Dizzy. ". . . [M]y wife would take me to the cleaners if she saw a picture like that."

1934 October 25, “Dizzy and Daffy Begin Careers in Vaudeville”, in The Washington Reporter, retrieved 2013-08-05, page 12:

Take me to the power, take me to the heat / Take me to the cleaners if it's open to the street / Something's got to pay off, something's got to break / Someone's got a fortune that they're begging me to take

1983, Billy Joel (lyrics and music), “Easy Money”, in An Innocent Man:

George Bush paid the IRS $198,000 in back taxes and interest, and he is planning to sue, if necessary, to get his money back. "I'm the guy that's been taken to the cleaners," Bush said last week.

1984 October 15, “Tax and Spend”, in Time, retrieved 2013-08-05:

Did your ex-wife ever go to the laundrette? Or is it just her husband that she takes to the cleaners, man?

1995, Paul Kaye, Anthony Hines, Anyone for Pennis?, spoken by Dennis Pennis (Paul Kaye):

"Billions of dollars are being squandered, and the taxpayer is being taken to the cleaners," Waxman said.

2007 February 4, Scott Shane, Ron Nixon, “U.S. contractors becoming a virtual fourth branch of government”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-08-05:

'Cause anyone who's seen us / Through our victories and dumb defeats / Knows that I'll take you to the cleaners / If you come between the cheats

2011, Amy Winehouse (lyrics and music), “Between the Cheats”, in Hidden Treasures:

These give the book its basic form: a master of the universe adrift in the country he helped take to the cleaners.

2018 September 13, Marcel Theroux, “Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart review – America’s new age of discontent”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(originally US) To take a significant quantity of a person's money or valuables, through overcharging, litigation, unfavorable investing, gambling, fraud, etc.

pelar

to take a significant amount of money or valuables


hip-huggers

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

(US) Tight-fitting pants (trousers) with a waistline that rests on the hips


full of beans

en-adj

full of beans (comparative more full of beans, superlative most full of beans)

more full of beans (comparative)
most full of beans (superlative)

Attested since the 1930s. A euphemistic form of full of shit.

Anybody who tells you that they know what today's readers want is full of beans.

2008 March 31, David Carr, “Talk to the Newsroom: David Carr, Culture Reporter and Business Columnist”, in New York Times, retrieved 2008-11-06:

McCain says he can save $100 billion in earmarks, but he's full of beans.

2008, Paul Begala, Third Term: Why George W. Bush ♥ John McCain, page 73:

(chiefly US, idiomatic) Incorrect; uninformed; exaggerating or expressing falsehood.


repo man

I'm a repo man. It's a repossesser. I take back cars from dildos who don't pay their bills. Cool huh?

1984, Alex Cox, Repo Man, spoken by Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez):

(US) A man employed by a finance company or similar lender to repossess property which is the security for a loan or subject of a lease and where payments have not been made by the borrower/lessor at agreed times (i.e. one that is in default).


regrade

en-verb

regrade (third-person singular simple present regrades, present participle regrading, simple past and past participle regraded)

regrades (present singular third-person)
regrading (participle present)
regraded (participle past)
regraded (past)

(US, transitive) To change the classification of (potentially secret documentation).


quick-and-dirty

quick-and-dirties (plural)
quick and dirty (alternative)

The Oxford English Dictionary shows the first usage of this phrase in 1896 in the Boston Globe to describe a place to eat. The first use meaning "slipshod" was from 1939 in the gun-slinging, American Western fiction paperback, "Bounty Guns" by Luke Short.

(US, slang) An inexpensive, inelegant eatery; a greasy spoon.


followday

The summer sun, the followday, would warm the water for the next occupant.

2003. Maurice Graves Emery. The Lone Pine Ranch, By Maurice Graves iUniverse: 2003, p. 42 http://books.google.com/books?id=c_GzxhkH5cwC&pg=PA42&dq=%22Followday%22&sig=y7f0uL4iKj61yXmvKvP1SAEQ2M4

(US, nonce word, nonstandard) The day after tomorrow.


sugar bush

Alternative form: sugarbush

The lake abounds with the choicest species of fish, and in the vicinity are found sugar bushes and rice fields.

1851, Executive Documents, v 1, n 1, Washington DC: United States Senate, p 93

en:wooded area whose trees are tapped for sugaring

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


sugar candy

en-noun

sugar candy (usually uncountable, plural sugar candies)

From Middle English suger candy, sugre candy, equivalent to sugar + candy.


sugar pea

(US) A vegetable pea eaten when immature, mangetout.


Sacagawea

Sacagaweas (plural)
Sakakawea (alternative)
Sacajawea (alternative)
Sacajewea (alternative)

/ˌsækəd͡ʒəˈwi.ə/

Borrowed from Hidatsa Cagáàgawia, from cagáàga (“bird”) + míà (“woman”).

(US) A gold-colored dollar coin with an image of the girl Sacagawea on the obverse.


out-of-state

tlb

(US, also Australia, India, Malaysia, Nigeria)

out-of-state plates

Of, pertaining to, or originating in another state

Out-of-state tuition is generally two to three times higher than in-state tuition for each of the years, regardless of institution type.

2007, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, What's Happening to Public Education? The Shifting Financial Burden, page 172:

(not comparable) Available to individuals from another state; available to individuals not from the current or relevant state


fice

fices (plural)
feist (alternative)
fise (alternative)
fist (alternative)

1805 October 3, Lorenzo Dow, journal, in Orrin Scofield (ed.), Perambulations of Cosmopolite; or Travels and Labors of Lorenzo Dow, in Europe and America, Orrin Scofield (1842), page 178,
He wrote a letter to Bob Sample, one of the most popular A-double-L-part preachers in the country, who like a little fice, or cur dog, would rail behind my back.

a'''1849, James W. C. Pennington, The Fugitive Blacksmith; or, Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington, Pastor of a Presbyterian Church, New York, Formerly a Slave in the State of Maryland, United States, Second Edition, Charles Gilpin (1849), pages 33–34,
Besides inflicting upon my own excited imagination the belief that I made noise enough to be heard by the inmates of the house who were likely to be rising at the time, I had the misfortune to attract the notice of a little house-dog, such as we call in that part of the world a “fice,’ on account of its being not only the smallest species of the canine race, but also, because it is the most saucy, noisy, and teasing of all dogs.

1873, Joseph S. Williams, Old Times in West Tennessee: Reminiscences—Semi-historic—of Pioneer Life and the Early Emigrant Settlers in the Big Hatchie Country, W. G. Cheeney, page 260,
One August afternoon he was returning from his dinner, when near the public square, he came to a little white fice dog and another little dog grining and growling at each other on the sidewalk.

At Belton, an armed thug suddenly arose and started toward him. But old Sam Houston, looking him right in the eye, put each hand on his own pistols: "Ladies and Gentlemen, keep your seats. It is nothing but a fice barking at the lion in his den.

1955, John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage, Harper and Brothers Publishers, page 114

1995, George Cauley, quoted in Mark Derr, Dog’s Best Friend: Annals of the Dog-Human Relationship, University of Chicago Press (2004), →ISBN, page 57,
When I was growing up, everybody had a little dog they called a feist or fice and a big yard dog, a cur.

(US) Alternative form of feist (“a feist dog”)


decentralize

en-verb

decentralize (third-person singular simple present decentralizes, present participle decentralizing, simple past and past participle decentralized)

decentralizes (present singular third-person)
decentralizing (participle present)
decentralized (participle past)
decentralized (past)
decentralise (alternative)

(US) In police terminology, to bring a suspect to the ground by use of directed force; a tackle.


playbook

(US, American football) A book of strategies (plays) for use in American football (and by extension other sports or disciplines).

A Look at Satan's "Playbook"

1994, Charles R. Wood, Sermon Outlines on Prayer, page 39:

This isn’t merely a gamble on May’s part. It’s an act of reckless political daring. It’s straight out of Danton’s playbook on boldness – de l’audace, et encore de l’audace, et toujours de l’audace. And look what happened to Danton – he lost his head.

2017 March 17, Martin Kettle, “We used to think Theresa May was a safe pair of hands. We can no longer say that”, in The Guardian:

The company has built its business on the motto “everything is a recommendation”—the company likes to brag that it tailors every aspect of its interface for each individual user. It’s a playbook the company perfected with House of Cards, which was a tremendous gamble for the business of television when Netflix launched the show in 2013.

2017 March 21, Ed Finn, “The Corrupt Personalization of Netflix”, in Slate:

“No one has a playbook for this,” said Dan Levin, who runs a small company outside Chicago, Cain Millwork, which makes furniture and wall paneling. He said he was planning to have some of his office employees work from home.

2020 March 5, Mike Isaac, David Yaffe-Bellany, Karen Weise, “Workplace vs. Coronavirus: ‘No One Has a Playbook for This’”, in New York Times:

Security administrators can create a series of runbooks and playbooks that can be used in response to a wide range of incident response activities.

2021, Arthur Conklin, Greg White, Chuck Cothren, Roger L. Davis, Dwayne Williams, Principles of Computer Security, McGraw Hill, →ISBN, page 542:

But since closing his $44 billion buyout of Twitter last week, Mr. Musk has followed a surprisingly conventional social media playbook.

2022 November 2, Kate Conger, Ryan Mac, Tiffany Hsu, “Elon Musk Takes a Page Out of Mark Zuckerberg’s Social Media Playbook”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, figurative) A set of commonly employed tactics and strategies.


mochila

Borrowed from Spanish mochila. Doublet of macheer.

(US, especially Western US) A large leather flap that covers the saddle tree.


from soup to nuts

From the order of courses in a formal full-course dinner, which typically begins with soup and ends with a dessert such as nuts.

(literally) From the first course of a meal to the last.

od predjela do deserta

from the first course of the meal to the last


cornfield meet

Either from the fact that early train collisions often occurred out in the country alongside a cornfield rather than in a station or siding; or from staged events where two old steam locomotives were purposely run head on at each other, often in an open field, for public entertainment. In the latter idea, the term may jocularly echo field meet as a spectacle in the field involving opposing contestants.

Do you think it's possible for two trains to have a cornfield meet right in the middle of an automatically protected block? Of course it is, if one of the hoggers is drunk or asleep at the throttle […]

1943, Railroad Magazine, volume 34, New York, N.Y.: Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 100, column 1:

One such instance when a conductor failed to follow a prescribed timetable resulted in a head-on smashup on the Long Island Railroad at the end of the Civil War. On August 28, 1865, General Grant and General Sherman collided in a pasture at Jamaica, New York. Five passengers were killed in this cornfield meet.

1968, Robert C[arroll] Reed, “Head-on Collisions”, in Train Wrecks: A Pictorial History of Accidents on the Main Line, New York, N.Y.: Bonanza Books, Crown Publishing Group, →OCLC, page 55:

[A] couple of passenger trains staged a cornfield meet in the deep cut on Mount Holly, which the road settled with "gratuities" amounting to $50,000. By this time the Rutland had built up enough financial stability to weather these incidents with a minimum of distress.

1997, Jim Shaughnessy, “The Hunted Traps the Hunter”, in The Rutland Road, 2nd edition, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 26:

One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. […] "Head-on Joe" Connolly made a business out of "cornfield meets" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years.

1998, Ian Savage, “Preface”, in The Economics of Railroad Safety (Transportation Research, Economics and Policy; 7), New York, N.Y.: Springer Science+Business Media, →ISBN, page xi:

[An 1899 man discovering ragtime:] [N]ow they're writing music that sounds like a cornfield meet.

2007, Eddie Campbell, The Black Diamond Detective Agency: Containing Mayhem, Mystery, Romance, Mine shafts, Bullets, New York, N.Y., London: First Second Books, →ISBN, page 137:

(US, rail transport, euphemistic) An accidental head-on collision or near head-on collision of two trains.


Vietraq

Blend of Vietnam + Iraq; coined shortly before the Iraq War that began in 2003.

Or for some of the unlucky things, like Enron et al that went nuts stealing on his watch, or Vietraq that lacks enough troops according to three out of four multi-starred generals but not Rumsfeld, or the falling dollar that hasn't created sales, or the collapse of US respect which might see some recovery if we ever send troops to a country that doesn't have oil.

2003 July 9, Hobdbcgv, “The Prez - 2 wars, depression, lies, jail w/o trial ?”, in alt.politics.bush (Usenet):

Who knows, he may just hit the jackpot with the US style legal system they are installing in Vietraq.

2005 June 22, Kevin V. Russell, “Re: Ten's exclusive with Wood.”, in aus.tv (Usenet):

They know when they are paying record prices and can't afford the energy to pump water to irrigate wilting crops. They know whodunnit. Bush on bended knee has to go to China to borrow money to keep up the Vietraq War and mother hubbard's^([sic]) cupboard is bare in washington^([sic]) and getting bare in the heartland.

2006 August 2, Righturds Doing More than Al Qaeda in Gutting America, “Re: Heat wave cooks local Jersey farmers' crops”, in alt.global-warming (Usenet):

(US, slang, derogatory) The Iraq War, implying similarity with the Vietnam War where an earlier cessation of conflict might have avoided needless casualties.


butted

a big-butted woman

(US, slang) Having a butt or backside (of a specified kind).


re-examination

(law, US) In United States patent law, a procedure under which an issued patent is returned to the examiner to determine if it remains valid in light of newly discovered prior art.


multistory

(US, Canada) Alternative spelling of multi-storey


sunbird

(US) A person, usually one who is retired, who travels from a warm climate to a colder one in the summer; one who oversummers elsewhere.


titlist

(US) The holder of a title in a competitive sport; a champion.


Prince Valiant

This was the hairstyle of the protagonist of the US comic strip Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur.

(US) A hairstyle similar to a longer pageboy


Islamofascist

So it is with the highly ideological term "Islamofascist," a label that is being wielded as a blunt weapon in a left-right debate and has been carelessly bandied about by some presidential candidates.

2007 June 11, “A lazy, simplistic analogy”, in The New York Times:

Political candidates appeal to those Christians by defining the ambition of Islamofascists in language that makes prior threats from, say, Hitler or Stalin seem benign.

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


Islamofascist

en-adj

Islamofascist (comparative more Islamofascist, superlative most Islamofascist)

more Islamofascist (comparative)
most Islamofascist (superlative)

(chiefly US, derogatory, offensive) Of or pertaining to Islamofascism


Laverne

19th-century invention, possibly from the Californian town La Verne, named in the belief that it means "the green" in French. Laverne is a genuine French surname, from Gaulish la verne "the alder (tree place)" but - as in the case of Leroy - there is no apparent reason to turn it into an American given name.

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


Laverna

(chiefly US) A female given name from Latin, probably a latinized version of the earlier and much more popular Laverne.


Lilly

It angered Target customers who tried, and failed, to grab $40-ish “Lillys” during a sale that was meant to span several weeks and instead spanned mere hours.

2015 April 22, Megan Garber, “Why Do People Hate Lilly Pulitzer?”, in The Atlantic:


revenuer

From revenue + -er, reflecting the U.S. Treasury Department's former Bureau of Internal Revenue (a predecessor of the IRS and ATF), because the administrative mechanism for enforcing Prohibition originated in excise tax administration; Wikipedia gives details at Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives § History.

‘Mister, if yo're another revenuer, I kin tell ye y'aint gonna leave this valley alive.’

I don’t know, but I should start by gettin’ me a rifle: we got the reveneurs a-comin’.

2020 April 28, Kimberly Altamirano, “CPAPs, Hickeys and Biscuits” (0:20:03 from the start), in Lynda Tarryk, director, The Conners, season 2, episode 19 (television), spoken by Dan Conner (John Goodman), United States of America: Mohawk Productions / Sara + Tom, via ABC:

(US, regional, now historical) A government official who enforces laws prohibiting the illegal distillation of alcohol.


hard-assed

hard-assed (comparative more hard-assed, superlative most hard-assed)

more hard-assed (comparative)
most hard-assed (superlative)

(US, slang, sometimes considered, vulgar) Of a person: having a very difficult personality; being a perfectionist.


tromp

en-verb

tromp (third-person singular simple present tromps, present participle tromping, simple past and past participle tromped)

tromps (present singular third-person)
tromping (participle present)
tromped (participle past)
tromped (past)

Mother yelled at my brothers for tromping through her flowerbed.

The hoodlums were tromping pumpkins they had stolen from their neighbors' Halloween displays.

He lifted one foot and set it down again, whammo, but Ed was so engrossed in Pynchon's novel that all he recalls is tromping the scorpion to death with his stung foot, then quickly fetching a bucket of ice water, jamming the foot into it, and continuing to read.

1988, David Quammen, The Flight of the Iguana:

Six groups of cocaleros had tromped through the campsite overnight.

2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, chapter 8, in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company:

BLACK KNIGHT TROMPED MOODILY THROUGH THE PLAINS. JUSTICE WOULD PREVAIL, IN THE END. AT LEAST HE'D ESCAPED THE MIRROR OF FATE.

2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, "Story" (Black Knight), in Shovel Knight Showdown (version 4.1), Nintendo Switch, scene: ending

(chiefly US, ambitransitive) To tread heavily, especially to crush underfoot.


teeter-totter

teeter-totters (plural)
teetertotter (alternative)

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

Either from teeter + totter, or from a reduplication of either element.

(Canada, US, often childish) A seesaw; a piece of playground equipment consisting of a long board with seats at either end, with a pivot point in the center.


teeter-totter

teeter-totter (third-person singular simple present teeter-totters, present participle teeter-tottering, simple past and past participle teeter-tottered)

teeter-totters (present singular third-person)
teeter-tottering (participle present)
teeter-tottered (participle past)
teeter-tottered (past)
teetertotter (alternative)

(Canada, US, intransitive) To ride a seesaw.


nonspacing

(US) Alternative spelling of non-spacing


parking garage

(US) A building for vehicles to park in, typically with several floors and sometimes underground.


favored

en-adj

favored (comparative more favored, superlative most favored)

more favored (comparative)
most favored (superlative)


empowered

empowered (comparative more empowered, superlative most empowered)

more empowered (comparative)
most empowered (superlative)

Policy moderation in the past, I argued above, has depended on a coalition between civic elites and newly empowered minorities—or at least a resolve by civic elites to discourage a racially polarizing politics of law and order.

1995, Chicago Assembly, Lawrence B. Joseph, Crime, Communities, and Public Policy, page 288:

(US) Having been given the power to make choices relevant to one's situation.


Democrats

(chiefly US, informal, often without the article) The Democratic Party


motorsports

Canada, US standard spelling of motorsport. the class of all motorsports


concho

(US) A silver ornament either stamped with a design or inlaid with a stone.


sabermetrics

Coined by Bill James in 1980, from SABR (“Society for American Baseball Research”) + metrics.

compound

Sabermetrics (alternative)
SABRmetrics (alternative)
sabrmetrics (alternative)

By the early 1990s it was clear that “sabermetrics,” the search for new baseball knowledge, was an activity that would take place mainly outside of baseball.

2003, Michael Lewis, Moneyball, Thorndike Press, →ISBN, page 164:

More recently, specialists like him have had to fend off a new threat: sabermetrics. Baseball has always been a game obsessed with numbers. But sabermetrics, a term coined in 1980 by statistician Bill James in honor of the Society for American Baseball Research, strives to use every available technology to study baseball empirically—its players, its strategies, the statistics themselves.

2014 October 1, Randy Leonard, “Baseball’s Long and Complicated Relationship With the Bunt”, in The Atlantic:

(US) The analysis of baseball, especially via its statistics.

Society for American Baseball Research
sabermetrics


sabermetrician

You could count on one hand the number of “sabermetricians” inside of baseball, and none of them appears to have had much effect.

(US, baseball) A baseball statistician; one who studies sabermetrics.


AN

Derived from the first letters of army and navy.

(military, US) A set of sizes for screw threads agreed upon and jointly used by the United States Army and Navy.


go west

en-verb

go west (third-person singular simple present goes west, present participle going west, simple past went west, past participle gone west)

goes west (present singular third-person)
going west (participle present)
went west (past)
gone west (participle past)

In reference to death, originally Scottish, reaching broader usage among the soldiers of World War I. In reference to Manifest Destiny in the United States, a paraphrase of Horace Greeley's 25 Aug. 1838 advice in The New Yorker that young men should "Go to the West" if free to do so.

It reminds me of the advice that Mr. Secretary Corwin gave to a young man that was applying for a clerkship. He said, ‘Young man, go West’.

Go West, young man! Buy a good, stout farming outfit... and then go out to the far West upon Government-land.

1870 Aug. 20, O.C. Kerr, Punchinello, p. 323

Go west, young man. But stop before you get to California.

1992 Dec. 1, San Diego Union-Tribune, p. E1

Go west, young man!

(US) To move to the American West, particularly (historical) during the 19th century era.


tule

From Spanish tule, from Classical Nahuatl tōllin (“bulrush, sedge”).

uder

This consisted of a two-room house built of chittim poles, with no floor, a thatched roof of tules, and a windbreak of buffalo and cowhides to the north of it.

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

(US) Any of a number of large freshwater sedges of western North America formerly classified in the genus Scirpus, but now mostly as Schoenoplectus


divisional

(US, sports) A playoff determining the winning team from a particular division.


sympathize

en-verb

sympathize (third-person singular simple present sympathizes, present participle sympathizing, simple past and past participle sympathized)

sympathizes (present singular third-person)
sympathizing (participle present)
sympathized (participle past)
sympathized (past)
sympathise (alternative)

Borrowed from French sympathiser. By surface analysis, sympathy + -ize. Displaced native Old English efnþrōwian (literally “to suffer with or together”).

ncog

[…] the Authors having chosen for their Heroes Persons who were so nearly related to the People for whom they wrote. Achilles was a Greek, and Aeneas the remote Founder of Rome. By this Means their Countrymen (whom they principally proposed to themselves for their Readers) were particularly attentive to all the Parts of their Story, and sympathized with their Heroes in all their Adventures.

2025 March 8 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “SATURDAY, February 25, 2024–2025”, in The Spectator, number 273; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

Some old people keep young at heart in spite of wrinkles and gray hairs, can sympathize with children’s little cares and joys, make them feel at home, and can hide wise lessons under pleasant plays, giving and receiving friendship in the sweetest way.

1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 19, in Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:

“I can’t quite sympathise with your mother in all her feelings about this marriage, because I do not think that I recognise as she does the necessity of money.”

1875, Anthony Trollope, chapter 19, in The Way We Live Now, London: Chapman and Hall, […]:

The wives were sympathizing with each other in slightly raised voices.

1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 3, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 52:

(intransitive) To have, show or express sympathy; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected; to commiserate.

‘[…] who is to hunt up my witnesses? All of them are sailors, drafted off to other ships, except those whose evidence would go for very little, as they took part, or sympathised in the affair. […]’

1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 31, in North and South:

“Whether one sympathises with the agitation for female suffrage or not one has to admit that its promoters showed tireless energy and considerable enterprise in devising and putting into action new methods for accomplishing their ends. […]”

1919, Saki, “The Threat”, in The Toys of Peace and Other Papers, London: John Lane, page 150:

[…] naturally the British aristocracy sympathized with the Confederacy, as one aristocrat with another, against a race of dollar lovers like the Yankees.

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter 9, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part II, page 171:

He’d go to […] Soviet Russia—now giving us the whole story, that he sympathized with the Reds and admired Lenin […]

1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 3, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC, pages 41-42:

President Obama in a speech this past week said that we should solve the nation's bee problem. Oh, God, we elected a guy who sympathizes with bees?

2014, Norm Macdonald Live, season 2, episode 9, spoken by Norm Macdonald:

(intransitive) To support, favour, have sympathy (with a political cause or movement, a side in a conflict / in an action).

“How much he slapped my sons—you should see their swollen faces, Panditji,” said Dukhi. […]
“Poor children,” sympathized Pandit Lallaram.

1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 3, in A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, page 133:

(transitive) To say in an expression of sympathy.

[…] the mind will sympathize so much with the anguish and debility of the body, that it will be […] too distracted to fix itself in meditation.

1814, J. S. Buckminster, Sermons, Boston, Sermon 3, p. 55:

(intransitive) To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain.

And all that are assembled in this place,
That by this sympathized one day’s error
Have suffer’d wrong, go keep us company,
And we shall make full satisfaction.

c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

(transitive, obsolete) To share (a feeling or experience).

Henry V. The southern wind
Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.
Henry IV. Then with the losers let it sympathize,
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

Green, for example, is a pleasing Colour, which may come from a blue and a yellow mix’d together, and by consequence blue and yellow are two Colours which sympathize:

1695, Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, London: W. Rogers, page 175:

Then personal appearance sympathised with mental deterioration: he acquired a slouching gait and ignoble look; his naturally reserved disposition was exaggerated into an almost idiotic excess of unsociable moroseness […]

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter 8, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

(intransitive) To agree; to be in accord; to harmonize.


community college

en-noun

community college (plural community colleges)

The name derives from the fact that community colleges primarily attract and accept students from the local community, and are often supported by the local community through property taxes.

(US) An educational institution providing college education granting certificates, diplomas, and associate's degrees, but not higher level degrees; junior college.


hibachi

c. 1870, from Japanese 火鉢 (hibachi, “a charcoal-powered heating brazier”, literally “fire pot”).

bor

(Canada, US) A cooking method and performance art in which the chef grills pieces of food on a hot metal griddle in front of the guests; teppanyaki. This terminology is virtually unknown in Japan.

(Canada, US) The griddle used in such cuisine; teppan.


tapeline

(US) A line of lightweight plastic put up around a crime scene to restrict access to the police.


per orem

From per, borrowing from classical Latin per (“through”), and orem as incorrectly formed accusative of Latin ōs (“mouth”).

(US, medicine) Alternative form of per os: via the mouth; orally.


compassionate use

en-noun

compassionate use (countable and uncountable, plural compassionate uses)

(US) The semi-official use of a drug that has not yet gained official approval in cases where no other treatment is possible


supposta

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(chiefly US) Pronunciation spelling of supposed to.


wiffleball

wiffleball (countable and uncountable, plural wiffleballs)

wiffleballs (plural)
wiffle-ball (alternative)
wiffle ball (alternative)
whiffleball (alternative)
whiffle-ball (alternative)
whiffle ball (alternative)

From (onomatopoeia) whiff (“to strike, to strikeout”) + ball.
Not derived from whiffle, though both derive from same onomatopoeic sources, namely a sound of wind.

(US, sports, uncountable) A game similar to baseball, played with a lightweight bat and ball and suitable for children to play in confined areas.

(US, countable) The ball used in that game.


hatcheck

/ˈhætˌt͡ʃɛk/

First attested in 1914–1915; formed as hat + check.

Admission 25 cents—Hatcheck 15 cents.

1914–1915, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman (editors), Mother Earth Bulletin (Greenwood Reprint Corp.), series 1, volume 9, page 369

The following appeal in French and in English is handed out with the hatchecks in Henri’s Restaurant, Lynbrook, Long Island, of which Henri Charpentier is the amiable owner. Evidently this is not a restaurant to be patronized by persons who refuse to mix hate with their cocktails. It might, however, serve as headquarters for certain “friends” of German Democracy.

1919, George Sylvester Viereck, Viereck’s (The Fatherland Corp.), volume 10, page 155

(US) A room, in a theatre or other such venue, in which hats and other garments may be stored.


watch one's mouth

en-verb

watch one's mouth (third-person singular simple present watches one's mouth, present participle watching one's mouth, simple past and past participle watched one's mouth)

watches one's mouth (present singular third-person)
watching one's mouth (participle present)
watched one's mouth (participle past)
watched one's mouth (past)

You really need to watch your mouth. You're a teacher now!

(idiomatic, US) To be careful about what one says, especially with regard to disrespectful or profane language.

Hey. Watch your mouth. Don't you realize who's listening?

You watch your mouth, sis. I may be old, but I can still knock the stars out of the sky for you.

2012, Terese Pampellonne, The Unwelcome Child:

(idiomatic, chiefly US) In the imperative form, used as a warning to choose one's words carefully or else be silent, for fear of consequences.


get sick

get sick (third-person singular simple present gets sick, present participle getting sick, simple past got sick, past participle (UK) got sick or (US) gotten sick)

gets sick (present singular third-person)
getting sick (participle present)
got sick (past)
got sick (UK participle past)
gotten sick (US participle past)

(Canada, US) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see get, sick.


don't take any wooden nickels

HELMER: What the hell, Nora? NORA: So long, Kid, don't take any wooden nickels!

Well, I only meant to write a line and I've written pages! Well, don't take any wooden nickels.

1917, William Ely Hill, Among Us Mortals: Pictures and Legends by W.E. Hill:

For conversation pieces . . . the whacky necklace called "Don't take any wooden nickels!" at $1.83 (designed by Martha Sleeper).

1938, "Macy's College Shop" [display advertisement], New York Times, 14 Aug, p. 19

H. T. Webster's comic strip, "The Timid Soul," in the Oakland Tribune of September 10, 1950 used the tendency to repeat worn phrases as the subject for the hero's good intentions. The following are recorded: . . . Don't take any wooden nickels.

1951 Jan, “Folklore in the News: Cliché Strip”, in Western Folklore, volume 10, number 1, page 84:

Don't take any wooden nickels
When you sell your soul
A devil of a time awaits you
When the party's over
You're on your own.

2000, Mark O. Everett (lyrics and music), “Wooden Nickels”, in Daisies of the Galaxy, performed by Eels:

(US, dated) One should not permit oneself to be cheated or duped; one should not be naive.


neat freak

Calling all neat freaks! This expandable under-the-sink organizer makes it easy to keep your cleaning products and spare toiletries organized.

2024 October 8, Lauren Gruber, Megan Uy, “We Found Sooo Many Viral TikTok Items on Sale for October Prime Day”, in Cosmopolitan:

(US, informal) A person obsessed with tidiness or cleanliness.


smallholding

smallholdings (plural)
small holding (alternative)

[…] the larger plantations implemented different crop choices, surveillance strategies, and labor management practices than did smallholdings.

2003, Wilma P. Dunaway, Slavery in the American Mountain South, page 8:

(US, historical) A small plantation or land with a small number of slaves (generally 19 or less). Contrasted with middling plantation (20–49 slaves) and large plantation (50+ and owned by planters).


smallholder

[…] planters and smallholders alike controlled far more than their equitable share of the political power and economic resources in their communities. Because small slaveholders aspired to be planters, they did not often align themselves with the political and economic interests of nonslaveholders.

2003, Wilma P. Dunaway, Slavery in the American Mountain South, page 9:

(US, historical) A small slaveholder: a person who owns a smallholding (small plantation with slavery).


ferric sulfate

(US, dated, inorganic chemistry) iron(III) sulfate


trashing

en-noun

trashing (countable and uncountable, plural trashings)


Lonnie

(US) A pet form of the male given name Alonzo.


capital equipment

(US, accounting) Any single asset which has an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more and a useful life of more than one year, whether purchased outright, acquired through a capital lease or through donation. It also includes certain constructed or fabricated items and certain component parts (See UW Shared Financial System Accounts and Definitions.) It does not include real property (land), software or library holdings.


goo-goo

From good government. Attested from the 1890s.

Stinging Rebuke Administered to Bald Attempt to Grab City; Goo-Goo Clique Swept Off Their Feet by Landslide Against Municipal Freak

1912 December 4, “Voters, Aroused, Rout Goo-Goo Gangsters”, in Los Angeles Times, archived from the original on 2013-06-30:

Some goo-goos are so relentless in their pursuit of goo-gooism that they become a public menace.

1993 December 7, Mike Royko, “Pass the pablums, it's goo-goo time”, in Chicago Tribune, archived from the original on 2013-06-30, page 13:

(US, politics, derogatory) A government reformer.


gentlelady

(US) A form of address for a woman. Also a reference to a female member of a legislature.


hockshop

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Bloody Sunday

(historical, US) A 1965 event in Selma, Alabama, where peaceful civil rights protesters were brutally beaten by police.


horndog

horndogs (plural)
horn dog (alternative)
horn-dog (alternative)

From the sexual sense of horn (late 18c. slang expression to have the horn, from which came horny) + dog (“sexually aggressive man”).

compound

late 18c. slang expression to have the horn, from which came <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">horny</i>

In addition, lest we forget, Clinton’s reputation as the world’s biggest horndog was by this time well known to all of us.

2003, Eric Alterman, What Liberal Media?:

She jumped in his face and shouted, “Fuck off, horndog!” with such viciousness that he screamed and leaped back into the doorway, then meekly called “Sorry” after her as she passed.

2004, Christopher Moore, Bloodsucking Fiends:

He’s not a horndog. And he’s not gonna be anybody’s white man if he doesn’t pay attention.

“I wanted to explore the sexiness and fun of that world and show that some gay lives thrived and flourished,” says Kijak. “Let’s be frank about it: he was a horndog!”

2023 October 6, Ryan Gilbey, quoting Stephen Kijak, “The double life of Rock Hudson: ‘Let’s be frank, he was a horndog!’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(US, slang) A person (particularly a man) who is fixated on sex.


nervy

en-adj

nervy (comparative nervier, superlative nerviest)

nervier (comparative)
nerviest (superlative)

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It takes a nervy man to promulgate such stuff, and Ted Nelson has made a career out of being nervy.

1988 April, David Gans, “Ted Nelson And The Ultimate Information Machine”, in MicroTimes, page 55:


Otis

A patronymic surname derived from Middle English genitive case of the Germanic given name Ote, Ode, cognate to modern Otto.

[…] in a world of mandatory diminutives, a corporation of jolly Bills and Jacks and Herbs and Teds in which an unabbreviable given name like Earl must have been a minor handicap, "Oat" was the best that could be done for a man with the given name of Otis.

1961, Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road, Vintage Contemporaries, published 2000, →ISBN, page 74:

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


aw shucks

Aw shucks, you're going to make me blush.

An expression of bashfulness or modesty, especially in response to a compliment or when giving thanks.

Aw shucks, it looks like we're going to lose the game after all.

Used to express disappointment, embarrassment or annoyance.


Miranda right

From Miranda v. Arizona, the usual name for a U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court held that criminal suspects must be informed of certain rights.

(US law) A constitutional right outlined in the Miranda warning.


Miranda warning

en-noun

Miranda warning (plural Miranda warnings)

From Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the usual name for a U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court held that criminal suspects must be informed of certain rights.

(US law) A warning given by a law enforcement officer to criminal suspects in his custody advising them of certain constitutional rights, called their Miranda rights.


culch

sculch (alternative)
scultch (alternative)
kulch (alternative)
cultch (alternative)

(US, Maine) An accumulation of small items of little current value -- materials, broken items, miscellaneous fasteners -- for possible future use.


culch

(US, Maine) Location where potentially useful junk items are collected: culch corner, culch drawer, culch pile.


DAG

DAG (countable and uncountable, plural DAGs)

(US, law) Initialism of defense acquisition guide.


statewide

(US) An agency or association operating through a state (political subdivision).


school of hard knocks

school of hard knocks (plural schools of hard knocks)

Trained, however, in the school of hard knocks, he now had learned the theory of success, and from that time on has had it.

1870, The Men Who Advertise: An Account of Successful Advertisers, New York: Rowell, page 161:

Did Vietnam's school of hard knocks teach Americans to do peacemaking and state building right?

2000 April 26, Walter A. McDougall, “Who Were We in Vietnam?”, in New York Times, retrieved 2008-08-03:

(idiomatic, chiefly US) The source of an education consisting of real-world experiences, especially adverse experiences.

人生學校 /人生学校

source of education by adverse experience


continental United States

États-Unis continentaux

United States excluding Hawaii and other overseas territories

(US, geography) The portion of the United States which is located on the North American continent; the United States exclusive of Hawaii and other overseas territories.

(US, geography, colloquial) The largest portion of the United States which is not separated by any ocean or non-U.S. land; the United States exclusive of Alaska, Hawaii, and other overseas territories.


get at

en-verb

get at (third-person singular simple present gets at, present participle getting at, simple past got at, past participle (UK) got at or (US) gotten at)

gets at (present singular third-person)
getting at (participle present)
got at (past)
got at (UK participle past)
gotten at (US participle past)

I've got some things to do for about an hour. After that, get at me.


for all intensive purposes

for all intents and purposes
for all intents and purposes#English

(US, proscribed, nonstandard) Eggcorn of for all intents and purposes.


Vic

(slang, US, automotive) A Ford Crown Victoria automobile.


snakehead

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

(US, rail transport) A loose, bent-up end of one of the strap rails, or flat rails, formerly used on American railroads.


bindlestiff

The hobo was a migrant worker, generally honest. The tramp would make a living stealing but there would be mutual respect between them. The bindlestiff on the otherhand was the lowest of the low for he would steal from the bindles of his fellow wanderers.

And before he knew it he was a bindlestiff himself.

She had been born in Tucson, mother full-blooded Cherokee, father a bindlestiff on his way through.

1967, Harlan Ellison, Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes:

AP Finance was tucked somewhere between South Central and the vestigial river, hometown of Indians and bindlestiffs and miscellaneous drinkers of Midnight Special […]

2009, Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, Vintage, published 2010, page 315:

(US) A tramp (hobo) who carries a bedroll or a bundle of possessions.


trey

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Middle English treye, from Anglo-Norman trei or treis, from Old French treis (“three”). Doublet of three and tres.

(US, Canada, basketball, informal, obsolete) A three-pointer.


balmoral

From Balmoral Castle, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.


Wilbur

From an Old English female given name Wilburg, from wil (“will”) + burh (“fortress”).

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


Woodrow

(US) A male given name transferred from the surname, given in the 1910s in honor of President Woodrow Wilson.


nester

As cow camps were succeeded by the nesters, and towns came to grow at their sites, the springs continued to serve mankind both in an industrial way and as a playground for the ever-increasing population.

1964, John Hendrix, If I Can Do It Horseback: A Cow-Country Sketchbook, page 22:

(US, historical) A person who intends to settle in an area without permanent residents; a settler, as distinct from an explorer or pioneer.


Mondays

Downtown Library will be open Mondays from 10 am to 6 pm starting Jan. 25.

2010 January 15, “Recession boosts library attendance”, in The Spokesman Review, Spokane, WA:

Delicious is open from 9am to 6pm Mondays to Saturdays and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays.

2010 January 14, Eleanor Patmore, “Afternoon tea is back in Stortford!”, in Herts and Essex Observer:


Wednesdays

We are closed Wednesdays in the Summer.

Wednesdays we would go bowling.

(US, Canada) On Wednesday; each Wednesday.


Thursdays

(US, Canada) On Thursday; each Thursday.


naysay

And her bare feet fell to telling her clad sides of the sweet coolness of the water, and waited for no naysay, ...

1897, William Morris, “Chapter XII. Birdalone Cometh Again to the Isle of Queens, and Findeth a Perilous Adventure Therein”, in The Water of the Wondrous Isles (Fantasy), Project Gutenberg, published 2005:

(chiefly US) Alternative spelling of nay-say


naysay

naysay (third-person singular simple present naysays, present participle naysaying, simple past and past participle naysaid)

naysays (present singular third-person)
naysaying (participle present)
naysaid (participle past)
naysaid (past)

I shall nowise naysay thee this, for I love thee, and now and ever shalt thou be unto me as a brother, ...

1897, William Morris, “Chapter VI. Of the Sundering of Birdalone from Gerard and His Sons”, in The Water of the Wondrous Isles (Fantasy), Project Gutenberg, published 2005:

He advises that board members must have solid knowledge of business in general and be independent enough to naysay the owner at times.

2008 Jan, Arden Dale, “Want to Sell a Business? You May Not Be Ready.”, in Wall Street Journal:

This amount of bureaucratic surveillance and cross-referencing is very resonant of East Germany (whatever the paranoia accusing naysayers naysay) ...

2009 Nov, Nicholas, “The March of the Surveillance State, comments”, in Spectator, UK, column by Alex Massie:

(chiefly US) Alternative spelling of nay-say (“say no to; deny, disagree, or oppose”)


railroad crossing

en-noun

railroad crossing (plural railroad crossings)

(US) An area on a road where a train crosses.


sergeant major

sergeant major (plural sergeant majors or sergeants major)

sergeant majors (plural)
sergeants major (plural)

non-commissioned officer
non-commissioned officer

(US, plural sergeants major) The most senior rank of non-commissioned officer in the United States Army, ranking above a first sergeant. In the United States Marine Corps it ranks above First Sergeant and is equal in grade to Master Gunnery Sergeant.


master sergeant

master sergeant (plural master sergeants)

sergeant first class
sergeant first class

(military, US) A non-commissioned officer in the United States Army, ranking above sergeant first class and below sergeant major; equal in grade and pay to a first sergeant.

master gunnery sergeant
master gunnery sergeant

(military, US) A non-commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps, ranking above gunnery sergeant and below master gunnery sergeant or sergeant major.

senior master sergeant
senior master sergeant

(military, US) A non-commissioned officer in the United States Air Force, ranking above technical sergeant and below senior master sergeant.


truck driver

truck drivers (plural)
truckdriver (alternative)
truck-driver (alternative)

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

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) A person employed to drive a truck, especially a tractor-trailer or other large industrial truck.


drive truck

en-verb

drive truck (third-person singular simple present drives truck, present participle driving truck, simple past drove truck, past participle driven truck)

drives truck (present singular third-person)
driving truck (participle present)
drove truck (past)
driven truck (participle past)

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

My uncle was a truckdriver. He drove truck for Roadway for years.

(chiefly Canada, US, trucking, colloquial) To drive trucks, especially semi-trailer trucks, especially as one's occupation.


store brand

Supermarkets are fighting national brands with store brand products.


first sergeant

(US) In the United States Army, a non-commissioned officer ranking above sergeant first class and below sergeant major; equal in rank to a master sergeant but with greater command authority.

(US) In the United States Marine Corps, a non-commissioned officer ranking above gunnery sergeant and below sergeant major or master gunnery sergeant; equal in rank to a master sergeant, but with command rather than technical responsibilities.

(US) In the United States Air Force, an appointment (not a rank) for the senior member of enlisted personnel in a squadron or other unit. The appointment is usually held by a master sergeant.


lance corporal

lance corporals (plural)
lance-corporal (alternative)

(US) An enlisted rank of grade E-3 in the United States Marine Corps, ranking above private first class and below corporal. Abbreviated as LCpl.


gunnery sergeant

en-noun

gunnery sergeant (plural gunnery sergeants)

(military, US) A non-commissioned officer of rank E-7 in the United States Marine Corps, ranking above a staff sergeant and below a master sergeant or first sergeant.


ped xing

pedestrian crossing
pedestrian crossing#English

(US, Philippines) Abbreviation of pedestrian crossing.


agri-food

agri-food (countable and uncountable, plural agri-foods)

agri-foods (plural)
agrifood (alternative)

/ˈæɡɹiˌfuːd/

The Liberal statement does draw attention to its potential future agenda, namely, fisheries, forestry, agri-food, and mining, all resource-based sectors.

1982, G. Bruce Doern, How Ottawa Spends Your Tax Dollars: National Policy and Economic Development, 1982, James Lorimer & Company, →ISBN, page 21:

2007, F. Scala, A. Raio, A. Zoina, and M. Lorito, "Biological Control of Fruit and Vegetable Diseases with Fungal and Bacterial Antagonists: Trichoderma and Agrobacterium", chapter 7 of S. B. Chincholkar and K. G. Mukerji (eds.), Biological Control of Plant Diseases, Haworth Press, →ISBN, page 177,
Sales of organic products have increased dramatically in recent years (for instance, in Europe), and organic farming is the fastest-growing sector of agriculture and an important point in the EU agri-food policy.

(chiefly Canada, also US and Ireland, Australia) The business of producing food agriculturally (as opposed to through hunting, fishing, gathering, and so on); food so produced.


Superfund

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

a Superfund site

The threat to the Dow complex highlights the risks to Superfund and other toxic cleanup sites posed by the effects of climate change, which include more frequent and severe flooding.

2020 May 20, Hiroko Tabuchi, “Dam Failure Threatens a Dow Chemical Complex and Superfund Cleanup”, in New York Times:

(US) A large amount of money designated for environmental cleanup by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980.


slap bet

(US) A wager between two people (especially children) that involves no money, but in which the winner is allowed to slap the loser as hard as they can.


yourn

From Middle English youren. Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, yours. See also ourn, hern. Cognate with West Flemish joen (“yourn”).

Your room's in there, back of the office, an' you'll find some clothes there that the last man forgot to take with him. You ken have 'em, an' from the looks o' yourn you need 'em.

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

(obsolete outside British and US dialects, especially Appalachia) Yours.


hisn

From Middle English hisen, ultimately corresponding to an alteration of his after mine, thine.

I will not show him this letter of yours, though you seem to desire it, lest it should provoke him to be too severe a schoolmaster, when you are his'n.

1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:

An' every feller felt ez though all Mexico wuz hisn.

1848, James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers:

But in the absolute whosen is often substituted, as in "if it ain't hisn, then whosen is it?" The imitation is obvious.

[1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 297:

(now dialectal, British and US, especially Appalachia) His.


ourn

From Middle English ourn, ouren, from Old English ūrne and similar forms. Compare mine, thine; also compare and see hern. Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, ours, which see for more.

“Supposin',” continued Ward, “that we let two o' your men an' two o' ourn under Mr. Divine, shin up them cliffs back o' the cove an' search fer water an' a site fer camp—the rest o' us'll have our hands full with the salvage.”

(obsolete outside British and US dialects, especially Appalachia) Ours.


sergeant first class

sergeant first class (plural sergeants first class)

(US, Army) A non-commissioned officer in the United States Army, ranking above a staff sergeant and below a master sergeant or first sergeant.


private first class

private first class (plural privates first class)

nëntetar

rank between a private and a corporal or specialist

(US) An enlisted rank in the United States Army, of rank E-3, ranking above a private and below a corporal or specialist.

(US) An enlisted rank in the United States Marine Corps, of rank E-2, ranking above a private and below a lance corporal.

일등병

rank between a private and a lance corporal


second grade

(US, education) The period in school that comes after first grade and before third grade.

toinen luokka

period in school after first grade and before third grade


third grade

third grade (countable and uncountable, plural third grades)

(US, education) The period in school that comes after second grade and before fourth grade.


fourth grade

(US, education) The period in school that comes after third grade and before fifth grade.


fifth grade

4) The Psychology Research Institute of the China Academy of Sciences carried out an experiment in teaching arithmetic in coordination with algebra in two classes of the fifth grade in the No. 2 experimental elementary school in Peking with good results. At a unified examination in arithmetic held among all elementary schools in Hsicheng ch’ü, Peking, the grades of the students in these two classes averaged better that 94.

1976 [1960], Ting-yi Lu, “Our Schooling System Must Be Reformed”, in Shi Ming Hu, Eli Seifman, editors, Toward a New World Outlook: A Documentary History of Education in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1976, New York: AMS Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 124:

(US, education) The period in school that comes after fourth grade and before sixth grade.


sixth grade

sixth grade (countable and uncountable, plural sixth grades)

(US, education) The period in school that comes after fifth grade and before seventh grade.


seventh grade

(US, education) The period in school that comes after sixth grade and before eighth grade.


eighth grade

(US, education) The period in school that comes after seventh grade and before ninth grade.


ninth grade

(US, education) The period in school that comes after eighth grade and before tenth grade.


tenth grade

(US, education) The period in school that comes after ninth grade and before eleventh grade.


eleventh grade

(US, education) The period in school that comes after tenth grade and before twelfth grade.

yhdestoista luokka

does not technically exist in Finland, but sometimes used of the first year in lukio


twelfth grade

(US, education) The period in school that comes after eleventh grade and, rarely in the US, before thirteenth grade.

kahdestoista luokka

does not technically exist in Finland, but sometimes used of the second year in lukio


cut a wide swath

en-verb

cut a wide swath (third-person singular simple present cuts a wide swath, present participle cutting a wide swath, simple past and past participle cut a wide swath)

cuts a wide swath (present singular third-person)
cutting a wide swath (participle present)
cut a wide swath (participle past)
cut a wide swath (past)
cut a wide swathe (alternative)

Sherman started from Atlanta in the middle of November. He cut a wide swath of desolation through the South.

1876, William Swinton, A Condensed School History of the United States, Ivison, Blakeman, and Taylor (New York), p. 277

Swinging his bloody horns from side to side the beast cut a wide swath before him.

1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 6, in At the Earth's Core:

The twister cut a wide swath of destruction in Utica, a town of 2,000 people about 90 miles southwest of Chicago.

2004 April 21, “8 bodies pulled from twister-hit Illinois tavern”, in msnbc:

(chiefly US) To clear a broad track through a grassland, woodland, geographical region, or other area, either by natural means or by human action.

Girls who like to cut a wide swath ought to come out to China, for they will have enough flattery and attention to turn their heads.

1899, Delight Sweetser Prentiss, One Way Round the World, 2nd edition, Bowen-Merrill, page 124:

During the two years that he [the Count] cut a wide swath in the city [Berlin] his name was constantly associated with that of some dancer, actress or other woman whose notoriety drew more attention than her talent.

1924, "Method in Kindness," Time, 21 Jan., quoting the Daily News (Manhattan)

The company certainly cut a wide swath in a conservative industry.

1998, Jeff Goldsmith, “Columbia/HCA: A Failure of Leadership”, in Health Affairs, volume 17, number 2, page 27:

With his signature red beret and class-based rhetoric, president Hugo Chavez has cut a wide swath through this oil-rich but impoverished nation.

2004 August 15, Gary Marx, “Venezuelans head to polls in president's recall election”, in San Diego Union Tribune:

(chiefly US, figuratively, idiomatic) To behave in an expansive, flagrantly showy, or pushy manner, especially in public venues; to exert sweeping influence.


cut a swath

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

cuts a swath (present singular third-person)
cutting a swath (participle present)
cut a swath (participle past)
cut a swath (past)
cut a swathe (alternative)

cut a wide swath
cut a wide swath#English

(chiefly US, idiomatic) Alternative form of cut a wide swath


houseman

(now chiefly US) A male follower or retainer; a male domestic worker or servant.


half bath

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trainmaster

In the past, trainmasters were promoted brakemen or conductors who retained their union seniority.

Trainmasters are American officials, who perform duties somewhat akin to those of a British controller, but with obvious differences dictated by the different operating conditions in America.

1946 March and April, “The Why and The Wherefore: The Duties of Yardmasters, Controllers and Trainmasters”, in Railway Magazine, page 127:

(US, rail transport) A superintendent or supervisor of a freight railroad, responsible for train movements, crew assignments, derailments and more.


everclear

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

Near-synonyms: white lightning, moonshine, mountain dew

genericized trademark
genericized trademark

(chiefly US, dated, humorous, genericized trademark) Any home-brewed distilled grain alcohol, especially one with a very high concentration of alcohol (such as 90-some percent, that is, 180-some proof); but generally not one rife with impurities or adulterants.


pantsuit

pantsuits (plural)
pant suit (alternative)
pant-suit (alternative)
pants suit (alternative)
pants-suit (alternative)
pantssuit (alternative)

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

(US) A women's suit consisting of coordinated pants (trousers) and jacket


cardshark

cardsharks (plural)
card shark (alternative)


candy bar

He got another candy bar out of the refrigerator and ripped the wrapper and threw it on the floor. He was sick of candy bars, his mouth full of sugary slop.

1984, Daniel Curzon, The World Can Break Your Heart, page 229:

(US) A kind of candy in the shape of a bar, often made of chocolate.


soccer player

soccer players (plural)
soccer-player (alternative)

(soccer, US, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) One who plays soccer, especially professional soccer.


yellow light

(US) A traffic light, between the green light and the red light, indicating that vehicles should stop if safely possible.

黃燈 /黄灯

traffic light between the green light and the red light

amber light

dated in US; slightly different meaning to traffic in Britain


eye doctor

(chiefly US) An optometrist or ophthalmologist.


plea-bargain

plea-bargains (plural)
plea bargain (alternative)
pleabargain (alternative)

(US, law) Alternative form of plea bargain (“an agreement between a defendant and the prosecution in which the defendant agrees to a plea such as guilty or nolo contendere to a lesser charge rather than contesting a greater charge”).


plea-bargain

plea-bargain (third-person singular simple present plea-bargains, present participle plea-bargaining, simple past and past participle plea-bargained)

plea-bargains (present singular third-person)
plea-bargaining (participle present)
plea-bargained (participle past)
plea-bargained (past)
plea bargain (alternative)
pleabargain (alternative)

[…] former District Attorney, Butters said "[…] I think the fact that so many plead guilty proves that these cases should have been prosecuted." One of those who plea-bargained disagrees. Ed Mede last week pleaded guilty to one count of sex with a minor under 16. "This does not prove my gilt ^([sic])," he insists. "It proves the injustice of the whole system. I could not go on paying for my attorney through a long trial. […] I did not want to face life in prison because of the whim of a biased judge or juror."

1979 April 28, Tom Reeves, “Revere Sex Cases Resolved”, in Gay Community News, page 1:

(US, law) To make an agreement in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge instead of not guilty to a greater one.

vádalkut köt

to make an agreement in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge instead of not guilty to a greater one


plea bargain

(US, law) An agreement in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge instead of not guilty to a greater one

сделка с прокуратурата

an agreement in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge instead of not guilty to a greater one


underclassman

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

(US) A freshman or sophomore in a high school or college or equivalent.


GMA

(US) Initialism of Grocery Manufacturers of America. (a lobbying organization for the food, beverage and consumer products industry)


Seifert fiber space

en-noun

Seifert fiber space (plural Seifert fiber spaces)

Seifert fiber spaces (plural)
Seifert fibered space (alternative)
Seifert fibre space (alternative)
Seifert fibred space (alternative)

(topology, chiefly US) A fiber bundle whose fiber is the circle and whose base space is a two-dimensional orbifold.


Seifert fibered space

Seifert fibered space (plural Seifert fibered spaces)

Seifert fiber space
Seifert fiber space#English

(topology, US) Alternative spelling of Seifert fiber space


particolored

en-adj

particolored (comparative more particolored, superlative most particolored)

more particolored (comparative)
most particolored (superlative)


stealth camping

(US) Camping out of sight on land not designated as a campsite, especially on land not used for habitation, agriculture etc.


Oozlefinch

(US, military) The mascot of the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery branch, a mythical featherless, flightless bird that flies backwards to keep dust, trivia, and other inconsequentia out of his eyes.


jackleg

From jack + leg, compare blackleg (a person who replaces striking workers; a cheater) and such expressions as jack of all trades, every man jack.

1841, Letter to the editor, The Southern Planter, Volume I, No. 1, January 1841, p. 12,
The next year I had a projecting kind of jack leg carpenter, from Hanover, living with me in the capacity of overseer […]

1941, Martha Colquitt, Interview published in Slave Narratives, Library of Congress Project, Volume 4: Georgia Narratives, Part 1,
Grandma didn’t think chillun ought to see funerals, so de first one I ever seed, wuz when ma died two years atter de War wuz done over. A jackleg colored preacher talked, but he didn’t have sense ’nuff to preach a sho’ ’nuff sermon.

1957, Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, Wolfbane, Chapter 11, in Galaxy Science Fiction,
He was a doer, not a thinker; his skills were the skills of an artisan, a tinkerer, a jackleg mechanic.

At the gas station on the corner, a jackleg work crew was attaching plywood to the windows.

2010, Jabari Asim, “Day Work”, in A Taste of Honey, New York: Broadway Books, page 189:

The little nosy reporter with the hair was fair crazy to come, but McGinty gets a jackleg doctor to examine him an’ swear that he’s sufferin’ from spatulation o’ the medulla oblongata, housemaid’s knee, and the hives.

1911, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 14, in Captain Scraggs or The Green-Pea Pirates, New York: Grosset & Dunlap:

Villard’s great fortune should not be allowed to “dangle” in plain sight of “jack-leg lawyers,” while he, Parkins, awaited final results of the proceedings.

1921, Sumner Charles Britton, chapter 4, in Dreamy Hollow, New York: World Syndicate Company, pages 49–50:

When I went to the so-called authorities for help I ran into jackleg politicians, wheeler-dealers, henchmen, finaglers and wire-pullers.

1988, Joyce Carol Thomas, chapter 1, in Journey, New York: Scholastic, page 27:

The train is late […]. ¶ “Well, if I come to such a place as this I must expect a jackleg railroad […].”

1889, John McGovern, chapter 12, in David Lockwin: The People’s Idol, Chicago: Donohue:

“With the first good rain the entire jackleg contraption might collapse around my ears […]”

1989, Jack Vance, chapter 7, in Madouc, Novato, California: Underwood-Miller, page 168:

2005, William Hoffman, Lies, Montgomery, Alabama: River City Publishing, Chapter 23, p. 226,
Driving the secondhand Chevy pickup, he visits not only major car dealerships but also every jackleg garage he happens upon in dusty sun-blasted towns of the Deep South.

[…] he went first to the barn […] and made a jackleg bed with hay and an old mule blanket.

2012, Stephen King, The Wind Through the Keyhole, New York: Simon & Schuster, page 176:

(US) Ineptly built or operated; makeshift.


jackleg

jacklegs (plural)
jacklegged (alternative)

[…] I, gentlemen and ladies, are a rale Scientificky! I ain’t none of your jack-legs.

1846 July, Editor’s Table, The Knickerbocker, volume 28, number 1, page 87:

Would the reader care to know something about the story which I pulled out? He has been told many a time how the born-and-trained novelist works; won’t he let me round and complete his knowledge by telling him how the jack-leg does it?

1894, Mark Twain, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, Hartford, Connecticut: American Publishing Company, page 311:

“Lady,” he said, jerking his short arm up as if he could point with it to her house and yard and pump, “there ain’t a broken thing on this plantation that I couldn’t fix for you, one-arm jackleg or not […].”

1955, Flannery O’Connor, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, in A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1977, page 58:

1999, David Horsley, Into the Wind, Houston, Texas: Winedale Publishing, “Tops for Trees,” p. 180,
If it were up to me, we’d have a city ordinance against incompetent pruning of trees. You need a permit to unclog a sewer or fix a light switch, but any jackleg with a chainsaw can climb up a ladder and undo in five minutes what Mother Nature took decades to accomplish.

(US) An amateur; an untrained or incompetent person.

“[…] we ain’t called on to believe every smooth-talking jackleg who wanders in here.”

1985, Wesley Ellis, chapter 9, in Lone Star and the California Oil War, New York: Jove, page 121:

“Guess what th’ low-down jackleg has done now.”

1997, Jan Karon, chapter 7, in Out to Canaan, New York: Viking, page 113:

(US) A shyster or con artist; a gambler who cheats; a generally dishonest or reprehensible person.


husker

(US, slang) A fan or supporter of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the sports teams of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.


play-by-play

(US, sports) Describing a sports commentary in which a commentator describes every action in some detail as it occurs, often assisted by a second commentator who provides background information and other comments.


play-by-play

So I collected a cross section of play-by-plays, definitely not as many as I'd like to collect but enough to feel pretty comfortable with what I was seeing.

2004, Dean Oliver, Basketball on Paper: Rules and Tools for Performance Analysis:

(US, sports) A detailed description or analysis of sporting events as they occur in succession, one play at a time.


prekindergarten

en-noun

prekindergarten (countable and uncountable, plural prekindergartens)

This year, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein has streamlined and centralized the dizzying array of admission procedures for the city’s prekindergartens and middle schools.

2008 June 6, Jennifer Medina, “Parents Find Frustration With Process at Schools”, in New York Times:

(US) The first formal academic learning environment for children, before kindergarten.


snickerdoodle

The earliest known use is from 1889. Possibly a fanciful coinage, from snicker + doodle (“doodlebug”; though without clear semantic connection to either word). An alternative etymology derives it from German Schneckennudel, also a round type of pastry, but formed from dough rolled up in a coil.

1967, Paul Henry Oehser (ed.), The United States Encyclopedia of History, Curtis Books, page 382,
Besides bread, the bakehouse also turned out such treats as gristmill graham, hobnail, lumberjack, and snickerdoodle cookies in New England; and corn pone, spoon bread, and hominy pudding in the South.

1991, Daranna Gidel, Ceremony of Innocence, Dutton, →ISBN, page 345,
Then, one morning, after making twenty dozen snickerdoodle cookies for an upcoming church function, Wanda collapsed onto the kitchen’s sparking vinyl floor and died.

2006, Kris Nelscott, War at Home, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 22,
I took a bite from the snickerdoodle. It was fresh and soft and tasted like childhood.

(US) A cookie in which the batter is rolled into a ball and coated with cinnamon sugar.