wamble-cropped

en-adj

wamble-cropped (comparative more wamble-cropped, superlative most wamble-cropped)

more wamble-cropped (comparative)
most wamble-cropped (superlative)
wamble-cropt (alternative)
womblety-cropped (alternative)

From wamble (“uneasiness in the stomach; nausea”) + crop (“(Britain, dialectal, especially Scotland) stomach”) + -ed (suffix forming possessional adjectives).

affix

(nauseated):

[A prattler or babbler] inquireth further, hovv many columnes are in the Odeus: and yeſterday he ſayth, I vvas vvamble-cropt, and (ſauing your preſence) parbrak't: And vvhat day of the moneth is this? But if any man lend him attention, he ſhall neuer be cleare of him.

a. 1611 (date written), Theophrastus, “Theophrasti Characteres Ethicæ: Theophrastus His Morall Characters: Or Description of Maners. 3. Of Garrulitie.”, in Jo[hn] Healey, transl., Epictetus Manuall. Cebes Table. Theophrastus Characters, London: […] R. B[adger?] and are to be sold by Iohn Stafford, published 1636, →OCLC, page 14:

When she'd read her letter through, she went into the house agin, looking as peaked and wamble-cropped as a sick lamb.

1843, Jonathan Slick [pseudonym; Ann Sophia Stephens], “Letter XI. Visit to the Park Theatre.—First Impressions of the Poetry of Motion, as Written on the Air, in the Ærial Fetes of Mademoiselle Celeste.—First Shock at the Exhibition of a Ballet Costumè, Accompanied by the ‘Twinkles’ of Celeste’s Feet—with Her Pigeon Wings, Double-shuffles, Gallopades and Pirouettes.”, in High Life in New York, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Edward Stephens, Brother Jonathan Office, […], →OCLC, page 47, column 1:

I rode over early to ask if you'd put up for the Wilton hunt, and found your furniture here unpackin' and Dennis lookin' on, like a wamble-cropped sentryman.

1898, Bernard Capes, chapter XIX, in The Lake of Wine (Appletons’ Town and Country Library; no. 239), D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 128:

He was wamble-cropped in the bowels, complaining of stomach pains and cramps, followed by bouts of uncontrollable diarrhea.

2007, Michael [C.] White, chapter 2, in Soul Catcher, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, →ISBN, page 21:

Mornings, they craunch clove / stems to freshen raffish breath. The buck- / fever, wamble-cropped air swells with / the spiced aroma, humming like a / pawky gadabout through cough-filled halls.

2022, Michael Fraser, “Goshen”, in The Day-breakers, Windsor, Ont.: Biblioasis, →ISBN, page 24:

Nauseated; also, feeling sick or unsettled in the stomach.

vatsa sekaisin

They went off grumbling, and consarnedly wamble-cropped, for a reward had been offered for the purty French gal's brother, and the etarnal scamp meant to git his revenge on her and money to boot.

1843, Jonathan Slick [pseudonym; Ann Sophia Stephens], “Letter XI. Visit to the Park Theatre.—First Impressions of the Poetry of Motion, as Written on the Air, in the Ærial Fetes of Mademoiselle Celeste.—First Shock at the Exhibition of a Ballet Costumè, Accompanied by the ‘Twinkles’ of Celeste’s Feet—with Her Pigeon Wings, Double-shuffles, Gallopades and Pirouettes.”, in High Life in New York, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Edward Stephens, Brother Jonathan Office, […], →OCLC, page 47, column 2:

[W]hen he asked me if I was scared of the Bunkers, it nettled me; […] I felt just as good as any one, but I was a little wamble-cropped when I thought that I shouldn't know how to behave.

1922, [John] Herbert Quick, “I Save a Treasure, and Start a Feud”, in Vandemark’s Folly, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 267:

(figurative) Feeling uneasy; anxious, worried.


elkwood

(archaic, US) The soft, spongy wood of Magnolia grandiflora or related species.


publishment

en-noun

publishment (countable and uncountable, plural publishments)

(US, historical) A public notice of intended marriage, previously required by the laws of some states of New England.


creeping Charlie

Glechoma hederacea
Glechoma hederacea#Translingual

(US) Swedish ivy (Plectranthus verticillatus), in the mint family, a popular houseplant

(US) Pilea nummulariifolia, a houseplant in the nettle family


moonwort

(now US, UK regional) Lunaria annua (greater moonwort); also known as honesty and annual honesty.


ten-dollar word

ten-dollar word (plural ten-dollar words)

Sometimes it pays to overcomplicate your simple messages. Make a list of ten-dollar words, scientific terms, and obscure niblets of jargon and find ways to use them. Your reputation and authority will soar.

2018 June 13, Michael Schein, “Author Simon Sinek Is Full Of Hot Air (And Other Reasons You Should Follow His Lead)”, in Forbes:

(US, idiomatic) A long and uncommon word used in place of a shorter and simpler one with the intent to appear sophisticated.


ETAAC

w:Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee

(US) Initialism of Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee.


fuffy

en-adj

fuffy (comparative more fuffy, superlative most fuffy)

more fuffy (comparative)
most fuffy (superlative)


wishtonwish

From a Native American word which was an onomatopoeic representation of the animals' cry.

On the twenty fourth of October, while on a short excursion from this place, Lt. Pike and Dr. Robertson, (a gentleman who accompanied the expedition,) killed some prairie squirrels, or wishtonwishes, and nine rattle snakes, […]

1812 April, “Pike's Expedition”, in The General Repository and Review, volume 1, page 398:

[…] who, it turned out, devoted all his spending money to them, asked me if I had ever seen a "wishtonwish."

1937, James Thurber, Let Your Mind Alone, page 189:

(US, obsolete, except perhaps in dialects) The prairie dog.


readjuster

(US, historical) One who advocates a refund, and sometimes a partial repudiation, of a state's debt, without the consent of the creditors.


cat around

en-verb

cat around (third-person singular simple present cats around, present participle catting around, simple past and past participle catted around)

cats around (present singular third-person)
catting around (participle present)
catted around (participle past)
catted around (past)

Perhaps referring to the behavior of a cat in heat.

(slang, intransitive, US) To wander; to waste time or idle.


stop-loss

en-noun

stop-loss (countable and uncountable, plural stop-losses)

(US, military, uncountable) A requirement for soldiers to remain in service beyond their normal discharge date.


binsite

(US, agriculture) A location where grain is stored in bins.


flashboard

flashboards (plural)
flushboard (alternative)

A form of cheap open weir which has been commonly constructed in the West is the open wooden frame and flashboard weir.

1909, Herbert Michael Wilson, Irrigation Engineering, page 168:

The railing at the upstream side also serves as a guide and a support for the manually operated hoist for the flashboard placement and removal.

1952, Tennessee Valley Authority, Design of TVA Projects: Civil and structural design, page 301:

Although flashboards are designed to fail when reservoir level rises rapidly to an elevation greater than the flashboards, NPI states that most flashboard failures occur as a result of debris or ice hitting the '''flashboards.

1996, Sabina Joe, Final Environmental Impace statement: Wisconsin River Basin Hydroelectric Project, Vilas County, Forest County, pages 4-126:

The discharge pipe for the flashboard riser structure is sized as a culvert ( i.e., boards are out and ditch is flowing full), although the weir is normally sized as though boards are in place.

2003, Bobby A. Stewart, Terry Howell, Encyclopedia of Water Science, page 122:

(US) A board placed temporarily upon a dam, river, stream, etc. (typically within a permanent frame) to raise the water above its usual level.


nup

I've suggested many jobs she could do but nup no way. She just was happy getting her freeloading money. I realised what a freeloader she really was when she started ranting about losing money when she got married to a guy with a job.

2013 December 4, u/singloud, “Did anyone else have chronically unemployed parents or even parents who were just always at home?”, in Reddit, r/raisedbynarcissists, archived from the original on 2023-09-28:

(colloquial, originally US, now chiefly Australia, New Zealand) No, nope.


free, white, and twenty-one

en-adj

free, white, and twenty-one (not comparable)

“Free, white, and twenty-one!” sang Emma, cheerily.

1856, Marion Harland, Alone, J.C. Derby, page 359:

"There are no musts in my life - I'm free, white, and twenty-one."

1932, Helen Vinson, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang:

"I'm free, white, and twenty-one. I love to dance and I'm going to dance."

1934, Ruby Keeler (Barbara Hemingway), Dames:

(US, archaic, used by and usually of white people) Beholden to no one; master of one's own destiny.


up the pole

(US, military, dated) Teetotal; not drinking any alcohol.


p.g.a.

post-nominal letters
post-nominal letters#English

(US, film, television) The Producer's Mark (an indicator for a member of the guild); Initialism of Producers' Guild of America. (used as post-nominal letters)


wangan

wangans (plural)
wangun (alternative)
wanigan (alternative)
wannigan (alternative)

From Abenaki waniigan (“pit trap, container for sundries”); liken klahigan (“wooden trap”), Ojibwe waanikaan (“pit, excavated hole”).

cog

Wanigan or wangan was the Indian name for boathouse or houseboat, and the wanigans, carrying the cook shacks and supplies, floated down the rivers when the pioneer log drives were underway.

1942 August, “They Play Jackstraws with Trees”, in Popular Mechanics, page 88:

(US, Maine, lumber trade) A boat for conveying provisions, tools, and so forth.

I should explain "wangan." It is an Indian word, and can mean almost anything, like the Latin res. It can mean a camp or building. Pond-in-the-River wangan—or Pondy wangan, as the drivers call it—is a long, low shack a third of a mile above us, where the Rapid River crew lives during the drive. There is a sign in the bunk-house that reads, "Wangan open an hour after supper." That refers to the store where the cook sells candy, tobacco, snuff, and clothing. (It really is a big box in the kitchen [...].) The cook may say, "I lost my wangan when the work boat swamped," and that means that his dishes are at the bottom of the lake. Or he may complain, "The wangan's runnin' low," meaning this time that he's short of food. Or a man may take his wangan and fly—leave the job with his little bundle of personal belongings. You can tell only by the context what the word means, and it's a very convenient word to know."

1942, Louise Dickinson Rich, We Took to the Woods, JB Lippincott Co, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 183–184:

(US, Maine, lumber trade) Any location or cache of equipment, such as a camp, building, or chest of supplies or tools.

(US, Maine, lumber trade) The company store debt of a lumberman.


lowry

(chiefly US, rail transport) An open boxcar used on railroads.


diamond lane

Usually painted with a white diamond or lozenge.

high occupancy vehicle
high occupancy vehicle

(Canada, US) A freeway lane designated for sole use by high occupancy vehicles.


union high school

en-noun

union high school (plural union high schools)

(US) A high school or high school district that serves students from more than one elementary school district.


physical training

(US, military) cardiovascular and strength training


buzzardet

Buteo platypterus
Buteo platypterus#Translingual

(US, obsolete) A hawk resembling the buzzard, but with longer legs, possibly Buteo platypterus.

Pandion haliaetus
Pandion haliaetus#Translingual

(US, obsolete) A bird of prey mentioned in New England historical accounts, probably the osprey, Pandion haliaetus.


breachy

en-adj

breachy (comparative more breachy, superlative most breachy)

more breachy (comparative)
most breachy (superlative)

breachy cattle

breachy livestock

breachy stock

(US, archaic) Liable to break fences or to break out of pasture


Sadie Hawkins dance

en-noun

Sadie Hawkins dance (plural Sadie Hawkins dances)

Named after the Li'l Abner comic strip character Sadie Hawkins. The event was introduced in the daily strip for 13 November 1937.

(US) A relatively informal school or college dance to which female students invite male students.


chooch

From Italian ciuccio and/or Neapolitan ciuccio. The loss of the final vowel is typical of southern Italian languages.

You think we don't know what you're doing, chooch? Throwing rocks at a scout convoy?

2014 January 13, Red X (Intelligence), season 1, episode 2 (TV):

(US, Italian American, slang) A stupid person; a meathead.


NREMT

emergency medical technician
emergency medical technician#English

(US, emergency medicine) Initialism of national registry emergency medical technician.


interventor

From Latin interventor. Compare French interventeur.


sidehill

By reason of this planning the line, which for much of its length has a sidehill location in river canyons with steep sides, was compelled to tunnel extensively, the 43 tunnels on the route having a combined length of 44,189 ft.

1941 March, “Notes and News: Modernising a Main Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 133:

(US) The side or slope of a hill; a sloping descent.


patroonship

patroonship (countable and uncountable, plural patroonships)

From patroon + -ship. Compare Dutch patroonschap.

His patroonship of Rensellaerwick lay immediately below Fort Aurania, and extended for several miles on each side of the Hudson, beside embracing the mountainous region of the Helderberg.

1809, Washington Irving, A History of New York:

It was a protest against the patroonship system, which went back to the 1600s when the Dutch ruled New York, a system where […] ‘a few families, intricately intermarried, controlled the destinies of three hundred thousand people and ruled in almost kingly splendor near two million acres of land.’

2003 (revised), Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, HarperCollins 2005, p. 211

(US, historical) The position or office of a patroon; landownership (originally of a Dutch colony).

(US, historical) An estate run by a patroon, or under a similar system.


buscon

Borrowed from Spanish buscón (“searcher”), from buscar (“to search”).

(US, historical, mining) A prospector (someone who searches for ore).


big government

Because he is liberal, temperate and articulate, and because he freely recognizes past Big Business abuses, Wendell L. Willkie, president of huge Commonwealth & Southern Corp., is in a class by himself as a persuasive businessman-critic of the New Deal. […] "Today it is not Big Business that we have to fear," concluded Businessman Wilkie. "It is Big Government."

1940 March 18, “Life on the Newsfronts of the World: Big Government”, in Life, retrieved 2011-12-13, page 26:

Mr. Clinton inherited a Presidency that had been downsized by Watergate and the end of the cold war. […] Two years ago he declared the end of the era of big government and embarked upon a program of bite-sized policy initiatives.

1998 August 2, John M. Broder, “The Nation: Big Deal”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-12-13:

Big Government is never popular in theory, but the disaster aid, school lunches and prescription drugs that make up Big Government have become wildly popular in practice.

2009 May 7, Michael Grunwald, “One Year Ago: The Republicans in Distress”, in Time:

This is why the Conservative programme for government is founded on such a radical revolt against the statist approach of the Big Government that always knows best.

2010 April 17, David Cameron, “This is a radical revolt against the statist approach of Big Government”, in The Guardian:

"There is no space for people to have a real discussion about the Fed or drone strikes abroad or the pharmaceutical industry, let alone how our freedoms are being infringed upon by big government," he said.

2013 August 16, Adam Gabbatt, quoting Ron Paul, “The Ron Paul Channel: libertarianism 'unfiltered and uninterrupted'”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly US, politics, sometimes capitalized) Governance that consists of large-scale programs, numerous departments and employees, and that entails substantial spending, especially liberal or left-wing governance which emphasizes social entitlements and regulation, and that is considered intrusive by some citizens, especially by conservatives or right-wingers


thruout

He connected the bulb in circuit with his conventional radio apparatus, using the same circuits for additional electrodes that he had used thruout his experiments with the thing.

1920 May 25, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 78, column 2:

It led to a drive against screeno as used in movie houses thruout the city.

St. Paul arrived in Greece 1,900 years ago this summer. It was a momentous event for the peoples of the western world. To signalize this undevicesimal centennial, the Greek Orthodox church is inviting scholars and religious leaders thruout the world to Athens for a delayed celebration in June of 1951.

1950 March 4, John Evans, “Notes on News in Religion”, in Chicago Daily Tribune, volume CIX, number 54, Chicago, Ill., page 8:

(US, Canada) Nonstandard spelling of throughout.


Dobbs

en-proper noun

Dobbs (countable and uncountable, plural Dobbses)

From a medieval diminutive form of the given name Robert + the patronymic suffix -s.

By overturning Roe v. Wade, Dobbs is sure to go down as one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions, undoing a constitutional right that’s been in place for nearly half a century and delivering a decisive victory to the anti-abortion movement.

2022 June 24, “‘Abortion Is Just the Beginning’: Six Experts on the Decision Overturning Roe”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-01:

What makes Republicans and progressives come together? “It was honestly Dobbs,” Ms. Watson-Whittaker said. “The decision brought everybody together.” In Michigan, at least, that togetherness seems to have paid off for Democrats.

2022 November 19, Amy Littlefield, “Democrats Need to Realize How Much Dobbs Mattered”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-11:

Dobbs demolished a federal right to abortion, and its legality currently rests with each state. This has created a patchwork of laws that have made legislation designed to stop abortions less effective in some parts of the country.

2023 July 6, Sarah Boden, “A year after victory in Dobbs decision, anti-abortion activists still in fight mode”, in NPR, archived from the original on 2023-07-07:

“People who reported using more substances or having more mental health conditions were more likely to report a policy-related barrier to obtaining an abortion,” Roberts said. In the aftermath of Dobbs, she said, “There’s no reason to believe that things would have become easier.”

2023 October 26, Nada Hassanein, “Medical exceptions to abortion bans often exclude mental health conditions”, in USA Today, online edition:

w:en:Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

unenumerated right
unenumerated right#English

(US, law, US politics, informal, uncountable, neologism) Ellipsis of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which stated that access to abortion was not a constitutionally protected right, overturning the earlier Roe ruling which established this unenumerated right.


Green Monday

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

From green in its sense of “environmentally friendly”.

(US, marketing) The Monday before Christmas, used as a shopping event to order last-minute gifts for shipping before Christmas Day.


C-ration

(US, military) An individual canned, precooked, or prepared wet ration formerly issued to land forces in the US military.


Japanazi

This is not a very merry Christmas for Japanazi leaders. And, that should be a source of great personal satisfaction to you.

The members of the Death Dodgers now in the Armed Forces will soon have the Japanazis trying to dodge death. To them we send our warmest regards and affection, and the sincere hope that they'll be back with us soon.

1942 November 28, Billboard, volume 54, number 48:

(US, informal, derogatory, dated) Any citizen of the Axis powers who opposed the Allies in the Second World War.


what's the big idea

I heard you been chatting up my girl. What's the big idea?

Hey, what's the big idea, you telling everybody I'd left town?

(US, colloquial, often preceded by hey) Used to express surprise or dissatisfaction with an action or statement of another person, especially to that person.


assholeness

Sincere assholeness is not my style so I am just a simple asshole who is not really funny but it is what it is and so I am.

2011, David Smith, They Ate Peaches, page 80:

(informal, US, vulgar) The state of being an asshole.


activist judge

(US, derogatory, chiefly in right-wing discourse) A judge or justice who makes rulings based on personal political views or considerations rather than on the law, or who issues rulings intended to have political effects.


pupelo

their carol consisted of oaths , smirks , songs ; for ale they had an abundance of pupelo


fall off the back of a truck

en-verb

fall<,,fell,fallen> off the back of a truck

fall off the back of a truck (third-person singular simple present falls off the back of a truck, present participle falling off the back of a truck, simple past fell off the back of a truck, past participle fallen off the back of a truck)

falls off the back of a truck (present singular third-person)
falling off the back of a truck (participle present)
fell off the back of a truck (past)
fallen off the back of a truck (participle past)
fall off the back of a lorry (alternative)

EN-AU ck1 fall off the back of a truck.ogg

The movie is still in theaters, but I got a copy that fell off the back of a truck.

(idiomatic, Australia, US, euphemistic) Of an item of merchandise, to come into a person's possession through illegal or otherwise dubious means.


decolor

decolor (third-person singular simple present decolors, present participle decoloring, simple past and past participle decolored)

decolors (present singular third-person)
decoloring (participle present)
decolored (participle past)
decolored (past)


ferninst

Those pink-satin evening slippers simply lose all their display value when you stick those red-kid bed-slippers right up ferninst them that way.

"It's right ferninst where yer afther stan'in, up the stairs on the corner of Granefield Coort--over there, bedad."

But Fate, as he expressed it in the vernacular, was "ferninst him."

1874, Ambrose Bierce, Cobwebs From an Empty Skull:


baby doll

baby dolls (plural)
babydoll (alternative)

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

(chiefly US) A young attractive woman; sweetheart, darling.


coalpit

From Middle English colpit, from Old English colpytt. Equivalent to coal + pit.

They may spring from a neglected campfire, kindled for cooking or warming, or from a coalpit where charcoal is being made

1884, Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario, Report of the Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario:


horsemint

en-noun

horsemint (countable and uncountable, plural horsemints)

horsemints (plural)
horse mint (alternative)

From Middle English horsmynte, from Old English horsminte, equivalent to horse + mint.

(US) A coarse American plant of the mint family (Monarda punctata).


steelie

the jewel of his collection, a steelie from 1943

(US) A zinc-coated steel version of the one-cent coin, produced during World War II because of copper shortages.


eye black

(US) a grease smeared under the eyes of sports players to reduce glare from sunlight or stadium lights.


pusherman

Well, now if I were the president of this land / You know, I'd declare total war on the pusher man

1968, Hoyt Axton (lyrics and music), “The Pusher”, in Steppenwolf, performed by Steppenwolf:

The visitors stepped back, identical expressions of frustration and distress on their faces — they looked like hurting junkies who had discovered the pusherman wasn't where he'd promised to be.


rendrock

(US, dated) A kind of dynamite used in blasting.


plowwoman

plowwomen (plural)
ploughwoman (alternative)

A cereal breeder's farmhands must be good plowmen and plowwomen.

(US) A female plower, who plows land with a plow.


checkless

en-adj

checkless (comparative more checkless, superlative most checkless)

more checkless (comparative)
most checkless (superlative)

(US) Without checks (financial instruments); chequeless.


mulley

A female caribou has antlers same as a bull, but a cow moose is a mulley.

1929, Lowell Thomas, Woodfill of the Regulars, page 163:


activist justice

en-noun

activist justice (plural activist justices)

(US, derogatory, chiefly in right-wing discourse) A justice (usually referring to a member of a Supreme, High or Appellate court) who makes rulings based on personal political views or considerations rather than on the law, or who issues rulings intended to have political effects.


butt cheek

butt cheeks (plural)
buttcheek (alternative)
butt-cheek (alternative)


asspussy

From ass + pussy, implying it can be used like a vagina.

I rammed it back home, fucked him on his hands and knees til the hot little asspussy must've danced another thirty feet, leaving a trail of pre-cum in the dust.

2009, John Patrick, Naughty by Nature, page 34:

(Canada, US, very uncommon, slang, vulgar) The anus, as the receiving orifice in anal sex.

rondelle

the anus, as the receiving orifice in anal sex


tithingman

tithingmen (plural)
tithing-man (alternative)
tything-man (alternative)
titheman (alternative)
tithe-man (alternative)

(US, Maryland and New England dialect, historical) A parish officer elected annually to preserve good order in the church during divine service, to make complaint of any disorderly conduct, and to enforce the observance of the Sabbath.


at-grade

An at-grade intersection may require a traffic-control device such as a stop sign, traffic light or railway signal to manage conflicting traffic.

(US) Describing a junction or intersection where two or more transport axes cross at the same level (or grade).


sharrow

Blend of share (verb) + arrow, coined by Oliver Gajda of the City and County of San Francisco Bicycle Program; see the 21 July 2004 quotation.

If you are referring to the http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/index.html website, I don't believe we have a picture of what has been called the "Sharrow," the Shared-Use Arrow. ... Some of us on another list are in discussion about the Sharrow. Our conclusion seems to be that it is preferable to bike lanes, but should be laterally located in the center of the lane so as to NOT mis-communicate to either party expected bicyclist lateral location.

2004 March 27, Wayne Pein, “Re: LAB?”, in rec.bicycles.misc (Usenet), retrieved 2018-06-14, message-ID <4065D06D.ABC65A8A@nc.rr.comnews>:

As to the SHARROW Study (E1) Mr. Gajda reminded the BAC that colors have to be approved along with everything else and without CTCDC approval the City would be legally exposed. The BAC has the opportunity to advise the Board of Supervisors of our preferences and the Board can then inform the DPT. After being asked of how SHARROW placement decisions are made Mr. Gajda responded that the first work is done on bike routes that do not have a bike lane. Class three roadways. Volumes, speeds, width, collisions, especially dooring. Mr. Gajda warned that the date is based on citations in collision data base which leaves out all unreported accidents. After being asked about what items in the report DPT recommends action by the BAC Mr. Gajda responded that BAC take action on Policy, Grants, and Funding Legislation. Jerry Ervin (District 8) requested a specific list of where the BAC could expect requests for action from DPT. Mr. Gajda responded: SHARROW, Howard Street, Folsom Street, Octavia, Street Surface Conditions, Bicycle Parking, Baby Bullets, BART Bike Station, Funding.

2004 July 21, San Francisco Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC), “Regular Meeting Minutes”, in City and County of San Francisco, archived from the original on 2018-06-14:

The principal American road-sharing treatment is sharrows ("shared lane arrows"), a bicycle silhouette topped by a double chevron, usually marked every 200 feet (65 m) in the middle or right third of a travel lane in order to encourage cyclists to ride at a safe distance from parked cars. Sharrows are used on both two-lane and multilane roads. [...] Although some cyclists feel that sharrows given them legitimacy when controlling the lane, there is a danger that sharrows will become a cop-out, a way for the city to claim that it's created bike routes without really doing anything to improve bicycling conditions.

2012, Peter G. Furth, “Bicycling Infrastructure for Mass Cycling: A Transatlantic Comparison”, in John Pucher, Ralph Buehler, editors, City Cycling (Urban and Industrial Environments), Cambridge, Mass., London: The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 130:

If there is not enough room to stripe separate bicycle lanes, perhaps motor-vehicle speeds could be reduced through traffic calming, with sharrows installed in the middle of the traffic lanes. This is not a perfect solution for bicyclists, but perhaps it will meet the minimum service threshold.

2012, Jeffrey Tumlin, “Measuring Success”, in Sustainable Transportation Planning: Tools for Creating Vibrant, Healthy, and Resilient Communities (Wiley Series in Sustainable Design; 16), Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 276:

As of this writing, the city has 78 miles of bike lanes, 47 miles of bike trails, and 92 miles of sharrows (streets marked to remind motorists that bicycles have a right to the road).

2014, Gene Bisbee, “Seattle”, in Best Bike Rides Seattle: Great Recreational Rides in the Metro Area (A Falcon Guide; Where to Ride Series), Guilford, Conn.: FalconGuides, Globe Pequot Press, →ISBN, page 1:

(quoting Nicholas Ferenchak and Wesley Marshall) It is time that sharrows are exposed for what they really are, a cheap alternative that not only fails to solve a pressing safety issue, but actually makes the issue worse through a sense of false security.

2016 February 5, Eric Jaffe, “Some Bike Infrastructure Is Worse Than None at All”, in Bloomberg CityLab:

(US, Canada) A marking (often consisting of an image of a bicycle with two inverted V shapes either above or below it) on the surface of a paved road shared by both bicycles and other vehicles indicating a portion of the road that cyclists may use.


pipelayer

(US, politics, slang, dated) A politician who works in secret.


ways to go

There's still a ways to go before we get there.

(US, dialect) A long distance to travel or a significant amount of work left to be done.


SEP

(US, healthcare) Initialism of special enrollment period.


veteranize

en-verb

veteranize (third-person singular simple present veteranizes, present participle veteranizing, simple past and past participle veteranized)

veteranizes (present singular third-person)
veteranizing (participle present)
veteranized (participle past)
veteranized (past)

About this time we were much embarrassed by a general order of the War Department, promising a thirty-days furlough to all soldiers who would "veteranize"

1875, General William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman:

(US, military, intransitive, dated) To reenlist for service as a soldier.


netop

Borrowed from Narragansett netoup, netop (“my friend, companion”). Compare Abenaki nidôba (“my friend”).

(US, New England dialect, possibly archaic) Friend.


Greenbacker

(historical, US) A member of the Greenback Party, who supported greenback or paper money, and opposed the resumption of specie payments (see Specie Payment Resumption Act).


wavey

According to one theory, from Cree. An alternative etymology, perhaps a folk etymology, attributes the name to their peculiar, wavy flight.

Chen caerulescens
Chen caerulescens#Translingual

(US, Canada, dialects) The snow goose (Chen caerulescens)


metrification

en-noun

metrification (countable and uncountable, plural metrifications)


your guys's

tlb

(chiefly Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, chiefly proscribed)


earthpea

Arachis hypogaea
Arachis hypogaea#Translingual


bushelman

The day was before him—a long day in which to discover something—and this was how he must begin to discover. He scanned the long column, which mostly concerned bakers, bushelmen, cooks, compositors, drivers, and the like, finding two things only which arrested his eye.

1900, Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie, Chapter 35:

A merchant tailor has in the same shop with himself one or more "bushelmen," who repair garments, and one cutter who cuts all the garments. Besides these, there are usually several "journeymen" tailors in his employ, who come to the shops for garments and make them up in their own homes, unless a "back- shop" is provided a room near by where the tailors work together, although on separate garments.

1900 February 25, Nellie Mason Auten, “Sweating System in the Garment Trades in Chicago”, in The American Journal of Sociology:

(US, archaic, dialect) A tailor's assistant for repairing garments.


chemiloon

(US, historical, 19th century) A garment for women, consisting of chemise and drawers united in one.


graybar hotel

the graybar hotel (canonical)
gray bar hotel (alternative)

Referring to the gray metal bars of a cell. Was originally used to refer to the main jail facility in downtown Los Angeles, California; some men ashamed of admitting they were in jail would tell friends and relatives who were out of town that they were staying at the Graybar Hotel. Before it was torn down it was so well known that prisoners actually received mail addressed to the "Graybar Hotel" in Los Angeles.

If you do something like this, I will be sure that you spend a long, long time in the graybar hotel.

2004, Eliot Trimberger, The Epilepsy and Osteoporosis Link, page 197:


Dumbfuckistan

[…] an unapologetic liberal screed about the deteriorating state of our national dialogue, which is dragging down our culture, our politics, and our lives.

2016, Ian Gurvitz, Welcome to Dumbfuckistan: The Dumbed-Down, Disinformed, Dysfunctional, Disunited States of America:

(US, slang, derogatory, vulgar, offensive) The red states collectively.


switchel

en-noun

switchel (countable and uncountable, plural switchels)

switchels (plural)
switzel (alternative)
swizzle (alternative)

(US) A beverage of water and vinegar, often seasoned with ginger and sweetened with molasses, honey, or similar.


driftway

(US, Rhode Island) An access road to the sea.


NAFDAC

w:National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control

(US) Initialism of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.


subtreasurer

(US) The public officer in charge of a subtreasury.


croker

/ˈkɹəʊkə(ɹ)/

a croker bag; a croker sack


downtrod

en-verb

downtrod (third-person singular simple present downtrods, present participle downtrodding, simple past downtrod, past participle downtrodden)

downtrods (present singular third-person)
downtrodding (participle present)
downtrod (past)
downtrodden (participle past)

Back-formation of downtrodden; see downtread.

And I don't know of any manufacturer or any industry that wants to downtrod the farmer.

1935, The Cotton Oil Press, Vol.19, Digitized edition, published 2009, page 36:

I've heard wicked rumors that FAA and wives try to downtrod small aircraft pilots.

1967, The AOPA pilot: Volume 10, Part 1 (Aeronautics), Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, page 64:

And having an entire group of people constantly waiting in the wings to downtrod even the slightest POSITIVE moves does not help matters.

2009 July 11, JF, comment, “Top House Republican slams Obama over stimulus, jobs”, in CNN, archived from the original on 2012-02-17:

(US) to oppress, suppress, exploit, persecute, step down on; put down; denigrate, subjugate


whistlewing

common goldeneye
common goldeneye#English

Bucephala clangula
Bucephala clangula#Translingual

(dated, Canada, US) The common goldeneye, Bucephala clangula


sea drake

Another of our regular visiters from the North is the EIDER DUCK , which furnishes the fine down that is so valuable an article of commerce. On our coast this bird is commonly known by the name of the SEA DRAKE.

1832, The New-England Magazine - Volume 2, page 103:

They are universally known as "Sea-ducks," the males being always distinguished as "Sea-drakes."

1862, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, page 240:

That is why, when looking for the cock-a-wee, the harlequin, or any of the big sea drakes, I may sometimes, like Wordsworth, " Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

1963, The Narragansett Naturalist - Volumes 6-9, page 5:


Named after section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, which governs them.

(US) A tax-exempt organization whose role is to influence the selection, nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for federal, state or local public office.


Linsanity

(US, basketball, slang) Enthusiasm and excitement about the sudden rise of Jeremy Lin (then of the NBA's New York Knicks) to basketball stardom in 2012.


egg in one's beer

en-noun

egg in one's beer (countable and uncountable, plural eggs in one's beer)

What do you want? An egg in your beer?

Those who expected everyone to have an egg in his beer right after inauguration day are visibly disappointed.

1953 February 26, “Eisenhower's First 35 Days”, in Los Angeles Times:

Now, while you are here, let us see if we can even put some egg in the beer, and get a little more enlightenment from you.

1979, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and Human Resources, “Equal Employment Opportunity for the Handicapped Act of 1979”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

Referring to people who are always griping about war-time conditions the bartender mentions the expression “the grass is always greener,” and I refer to Americans who always want “egg in their beer."

2002, William True, Deryck Tufts True, The Cow Spoke French: The Story of Sgt. William True, American Paratrooper in World War II:

Whaddy want, egg in your beer?


beanbreath

(US, highly derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A Mexican or Hispanic person.


wild river

(Australia, US) A river system protected by government legislation requiring it to be maintained in its natural state.


booty scratcher

booty scratcher (plural booty scratchers)

[…] What in the world is an African booty scratcher?” “Something my sister used to call me. I didn’t know what an African booty scratcher was and I still don’t, but I knew it was something negative things around me had taught me that any and everything referencing Africa had dubious admirable qualities. So what I inevitably sculpted one day were these blue-black, big-lipped, wide nosed, monkey-looking African figures with enormous buttocks, swinging naked from a tree, and landing on the jungle floor to scratch theirs or somebody else’s behinds.

1999, Odessa Rose, Water in a Broken Glass. A novel, La Caille Nous Pub. / Cool Water Publishing House LLC, →ISBN, page 121:

At elite universities, Caribbean students have reportedly excluded African Americans from organizations and study groups, claiming, as part of their immigration narratives, that the latter group lacks the appropriate work ethic to participate. Young Caribbean people learn from their parents the stories of exploitation at the hands of African Americans, or other Caribbean people who had been here longer, when they newly arrived in the United States, and those stories become warning narratives. Most black Americans have minimal contact with black immigrants and derive their information about them from imperialistic and Euro-centric media constructions of third-world, black-populated countries. Hence, immigrated blacks are taunted by them with racist terms like “African booty scratcher” or references to AIDS.

2004, Imani Perry, Prophets of the Hood. Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop, Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 17:

(Canada, US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) An African person.


Hicksite

(US, historical) A member or follower of the liberal party, headed by Elias Hicks, which, because of a change of views respecting the divinity of Christ and the Atonement, seceded from the conservative portion of the Quakers in 1827.


death star

From death + star: star as in satellite; death as in the decimation of an industry. Influenced by the Death Star base in Star Wars media.

satellite television
satellite television

cable television
cable television#English

digital satellite television
digital satellite television#English

(slang, colloquial, Canada, US, television, dated) a direct-to-home satellite television satellite (used by the cable television provider industry, to describe their competitors and the effect they would have in decimating the cable industry, prior to the introduction of digital satellite television and the three-foot dish revolution)


immie

Diminutive of imitation agate, + -ie. Compare aggie.

(US, informal, childish) A marble (small ball used in children's games).


cellar dweller

A publicity stunt has gone horribly wrong for Gold Coast United after the A-League cellar dwellers suspended their coach Miron Bleiberg indefinitely over comments regarding teenager Mitch Cooper's appointment as skipper.

2012 February 16, “Gold Coast United suspend coach”, in ESPN Australia:

Cellar dwellers Gold Coast United will not be turned into a travelling road show to combat poor home support according to the club's owner Clive Palmer.

2012 February 12, “No Travelling Road Show For United”, in Australian four Four Two, archived from the original on 2012-09-05:

2006 November 8, “Defending champs downed by cellar dweller”, in Vancouver Sun:

(US, Canada, Australia, sports) A team at the bottom of a league, or in a lower league.


mompreneur

(Canada, US) Alternative form of mumpreneur


APSS

(US, Navy) Auxiliary Provisions Sub Surface - diesel powered transport submarine


LPSS

(US, Navy) Initialism of landing provisions sub surface - diesel powered amphibious transport submarine


tebowing

From Tebow + -ing. After Tim Tebow, American football player.

[…] but, like planking, horsemanning, Tebowing, Hadoukening, and other viral photography memes, as a genre of public performance, dance in public is greatly facilitated by the channels of distribution that social media offer, […]

2020, Harmony Bench, Perpetual Motion: Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common:

(US) The practice of going down on one knee after a touchdown or other celebratory occasion.


one-and-done

(US, informal, sports) The act of a team making the postseason playoffs but losing the very first game played in it.


tottlish

en-adj

tottlish (comparative more tottlish, superlative most tottlish)

more tottlish (comparative)
most tottlish (superlative)

(US, informal) Trembling or tottering, as if about to fall; unsteady.


multialarm

Fires which have heretofore been one‐alarm skirmishes are now multialarm small wars.

1977 February 14, Joseph E. Galvin, “Under Fire”, in The New York Times:

Two multialarm fires burned out of control for several hours in New York City last night, one racing through seven frame dwellings and leaving more than 100 people homeless in the Morrisania section of the Bronx and another, reportedly set by arsinists^([sic]), destroying a series of stores and residences in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.

1977 July 25, “Fires Burn in Bronx and Brooklyn”, in The New York Times:

(US, firefighting, of a fire) Requiring the work of several firetrucks to contain or extinguish.


minionette

From minion + -ette (“forming diminutives”).

(uncountable, US printing, typography, dated) A size of type between nonpareil and minion, standardized as 6½-point.


stemmery

Good progress is being made with the arrangements for the establishment of a stemmery for tobacco-leaf at Wangaratta, and the Government expert, Mr.. A. J. Bondurant, expects that he will be able to commence the work of stemming shortly after the new year.

1901 April 12, “District Reports”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 3, page 68:

(US) A building in which tobacco is stemmed.


CAC

en-noun

CAC (countable and uncountable, plural CACs)

(military, US) Initialism of Common Access Card.

(US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur, neologism, offensive) Initialism of cracker-ass cracker.


UCP

universal camouflage pattern
universal camouflage pattern#English

(US, military) Initialism of universal camouflage pattern.; The digital pixelated squared camouflage pattern used by the U.S. Army during the early 21st-century


wrastle

en-verb

wrastle (third-person singular simple present wrastles, present participle wrastling, simple past and past participle wrastled)

wrastles (present singular third-person)
wrastling (participle present)
wrastled (participle past)
wrastled (past)

From Middle English wrastlen. See wrestle.

[H]e [the Earl of Essex] was to wraſtle with a Queens declyning, or rather with her very ſetting Age (as we may term it,) which, beſides other reſpects, is commonly even of it ſelfe the more umbratious and apprehenſive, as for the moſt part all Horizons are charged with certain Vapours towards their Evening.

c. 1635 (date written), Henry Wotton, “Of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: Some Observations by Way of Parallel in the Time of Their Estates of Favour”, in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ. Or, A Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems; […], London: […] Thomas Maxey, for R[ichard] Marriot, G[abriel] Bedel, and T[imothy] Garthwait, published 1651, →OCLC, page 11:

And the laws of your wrastling are that neither shall strangle his adversary with his hands, nor bite him, nor claw nor scratch his flesh, nor poach out his eyes, nor smite him with his fists, nor do any other unfair thing against him, but in all other respects ye shall wrastle freely together. And he that shall be brought to earth with hip or shoulder shall be accounted fallen.

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, London: Jonathan Cape, page 20:

(ambitransitive, obsolete or British, dialectal or US, informal) To wrestle (someone or something).


banstickle

From Middle English banstikel from Old English bān (“bone”) + sticel (“prickle, sting”). See bone (noun) and stickleback.

three-spined stickleback
three-spined stickleback

Gasterosteus aculeatus
Gasterosteus aculeatus#Translingual

(now US, dialectal) three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus).


pipeweed

putki

any of a number of plants having thin and straight stems resembling pipes

Native American
Native American#Adjective

Any of a number of plants having thin and straight stems resembling pipes, often hollow or lacking branches.

(specifically, US) The desert trumpet (Eriogonum inflatum) which has a straight stem with a swollen portion; formerly some Native American tribes in the Las Vegas Valley area turned such stems into pipes for smoking by removing the stem at the base and cutting the swollen portion in half to serve as a bowl.


powder-posted

en-adj

powder-posted (comparative more powder-posted, superlative most powder-posted)

more powder-posted (comparative)
most powder-posted (superlative)

(US) Affected with dry rot; reduced to dust by rot.


metrify

en-verb

metrify (third-person singular simple present metrifies, present participle metrifying, simple past and past participle metrified)

metrifies (present singular third-person)
metrifying (participle present)
metrified (participle past)
metrified (past)

From Latin metrum (“meter”) + -fy. Compare French métrifier.


shackly

en-adj

shackly (comparative more shackly, superlative most shackly)

more shackly (comparative)
most shackly (superlative)

Probably from dialectal shackle (“to shake, rattle”) + -y.

when I got to that old shackly brick store by the Temperance Tavern, I backed up agin the wall to have another think.

1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, page 228:

(UK, US, colloquial, dated) Shaky, rickety, ramshackle.


doomage

(US, dialect, New England) A penalty or fine for neglect.


racial spoils

The State Senate recently voted to adopt a racial spoils system whereby at least 25% of construction contracts must be awarded to minority-owned businesses.

Ricci [v. DeStefano] may be the rock upon which America's racial spoils system finally founders.

2009, George F. Will, “The Wreck of the Racial Spoils System”, in The Washington Post:

(US, politics, derogatory) Preferential treatment of minorities in source selection for government contracts.


move forward

en-verb

move forward (third-person singular simple present moves forward, present participle moving forward, simple past and past participle moved forward)

moves forward (present singular third-person)
moving forward (participle present)
moved forward (participle past)
moved forward (past)

They decided to move the meeting forward by a day so that Aisha could attend before her vacation.

(transitive, US) To reschedule (something) to an earlier date or time.


MWR

(US, military) Initialism of morale, welfare, and recreation.


salt rheum

en-noun

salt rheum (countable and uncountable, plural salt rheums)

(medicine, dated, chiefly US) Any of various cutaneous eruptions, especially eczema.


ticktack

en-verb

ticktack (third-person singular simple present ticktacks, present participle ticktacking, simple past and past participle ticktacked)

ticktacks (present singular third-person)
ticktacking (participle present)
ticktacked (participle past)
ticktacked (past)

(transitive, Canada, US) To play a prank that involves making noise outside a person's house by various means.


make due

make due (third-person singular simple present makes due, present participle making due, simple past and past participle made due)

makes due (present singular third-person)
making due (participle present)
made due (participle past)
made due (past)


pregage

pregage (third-person singular simple present pregages, present participle pregaging, simple past and past participle pregaged)

pregages (present singular third-person)
pregaging (participle present)
pregaged (participle past)
pregaged (past)

At the outset, however, he either failed utterly to pregage the possibilities of the method, or else through modesty declined to let his imagination take wings; for we find him, in an interview published in McClure's Magazine in 1897, when a considerable measure of success had been attained, declaring that it would be possible by the perfection of his method to send signals to a distance of at least twenty miles.

1923, Henry Smith Williams, The Story of Modern Science- Volume 9, page 39:

As in most rail renewal operations, a plate setting device is used to pregage the tie plates for the DUN-RITE GAGING MACHINE.

1952, Railway Engineering and Maintenance - Volume 48, page 1029:

The upper rolls pregage the plastics sheet and the lower ones widen it and produce the desired thickness.

1953, SPE Journal - Volumes 9-10, page 34:

Still others have a series of psychological tests to pregage the likelihood of success of the joint venture.

1970, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Small Business. Subcommittee on Urban and Rural Economic Development, The Impact of Franchising on Small Business, page 482:

(US) To gauge beforehand; to make an initial estimate of size, magnitude or position.


Thunderbird

The railway sense is derived from the 1960s TV series Thunderbirds, about a secretive high-tech rescue organization, ultimately from thunderbird.


Elite Eight

(basketball, US, informal) The eight teams participating in the regional finals of the NCAA Division I tournament, one of whom will become the national champion.

(basketball, US, informal) The round of the NCAA Division I basketball tournament where all but 8 teams have been eliminated.

(basketball, US, informal) The eight teams that advance to the site of the final rounds of the NCAA Division II tournament, one of whom will become the national champion.

(basketball, US, informal) An appearance in the Elite Eight, whether in Division I or II.


wirehouse

wirehouses (plural)
wire-house (alternative)
wire house (alternative)

Merrill Lynch
Morgan Stanley
UBS
Wells Fargo

1904, wire + house (“company”), from earlier private-wire house (1894). Originally referred to brokerage companies that owned or leased telegraph lines, so that market information could be transmitted more quickly. Later generalized to “major brokerage”. Wirehouses are now defined by that they have a direct access to "Fed-Fund Wires", which is the system in which all banks and only the big brokerage houses can "wire" money directly from one account to another. Smaller brokerage firms do not have their own wire line, but need to send transactions by transmitting them through a bank's wire system.

Ten years ago, the Wall Street wirehouse brokerage firm seemed unassailable – part of the very firmament underpinning the entire investment industry from coast to coast.

2012, Josh Brown, “Perhaps I’ve Been a Bit Too Harsh…”, Wall Street Journal Financial Adviser, January 25, 2012

(Canada, US, finance) A major brokerage company, generally nationwide, with multiple branches.

The so-called ‘wire house’ …is a product of the boom times.

1904, N.Y. Evening Post 18 June, 1904 (Financial Section) 1/7

The “market information” is more diversified than formerly, and in many ways the “wire house” can fill a place that the old-style …

1905, The World’s work, volume 9, Doubleday, Page & Co.:

(Canada, US, finance, obsolete) A brokerage company with a telegraph line, telephone line, or electronic communication network.


private-wire house

en-noun

private-wire house (plural private-wire houses)

private-wire houses (plural)
private wire house (alternative)

1894, due to these brokerage companies owning or leasing telegraph lines (which occurred since 1873), so that market information could be transmitted more quickly.

All the private-wire houses were active on the selling side, those most talked of in connection with the Wall Street bull interest being the most active.

1894, “Chicago Was Afraid of Wall Street”, The New York Times, February 10, 1894, page 2

Commission men, as a rule, will not accept discretionary orders. Their risk is great enough when directions are explicit. The following is the eloquent plea made, in a letter to a private-wire house, …

1895, Forest and Stream,, volume 44, page 463:

Edward Leland of the firm of Leland Ware, which in its line did the biggest private-wire business in the country, was expelled from the Chicago Stock Exchange today on the general charge of indulging in methods detrimental to the interests and contrary to the rules of the institution of which he had been a member only a year.

1899 December 14, “Chicago Broker Expelled: Large Private Wire House Guilty of Connection with Bucket Shops .”, in The New York Times, page 2:


Wentworth scale

Introduced by C. K. Wentworth in a 1922 paper.

(geology, US) A particle classification system, classifying based on diameter.


roughscuff

(US, informal) The lowest class of people; the rabble.


ramsted

Named after a Mr. Ramsted who introduced it into Pennsylvania, USA.

Linaria vulgaris
Linaria vulgaris#Translingual

(archaic, US) toadflax, especially common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris)


whiteass

And how many times have our people spoke^([sic]) of dreams since the Whiteasses came?

2000, Michael Piedmonte, Split Land of Liberty, page 137:

(Canada, US, offensive, derogatory, ethnic slur) A white person.


gentlemen's club

gentlemen's club (plural gentlemen's clubs)

gentlemen's clubs (plural)
gentleman's club (alternative)


Reb

"Jest here, or hereabouts," Disko replied, "earnin' my bread on the deep waters, an' dodgin' Reb privateers. […]"

1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:

(US) Abbreviation of Rebel (“Confederate soldier”).


Catalina coupon

Catalina coupon (plural Catalina coupons)

Named after the marketing company, founded on a sailing trip to Santa Catalina Island.

(US, retail) A coupon printed after purchase at the register, based on the items purchased.


public transit

public transit (countable and uncountable, plural public transits)

Public transport
public transport#English


subpena

(Canada, US) Alternative form of subpoena


subpena

en-verb

subpena (third-person singular simple present subpenas, present participle subpenaing, simple past and past participle subpenaed)

subpenas (present singular third-person)
subpenaing (participle present)
subpenaed (participle past)
subpenaed (past)


slimsy

en-adj

slimsy (comparative more slimsy, superlative most slimsy)

more slimsy (comparative)
most slimsy (superlative)
slimpsy (alternative)

In front of the store, and in and out of the interminable pushcarts, with their flaring oil-lamps at night illuminating a bewildering miscellany of merchandise,—everything from spoiled grapefruit to slimsy suspenders, Rosey played and fought and bit her way.

1922, Robert Gordon Anderson, The Isle of Seven Moons, Chapter 8:


lean finely textured beef

LFTB (alternative)
lean, finely textured beef (alternative)

Two such materials that have been available for only a relatively short period of time are lean finely textured beef (LFTB) and lean finely textured pork (LFTP). They are obtained by low-temperature recovery of protein from trimmed beef […]

2001, Meat Science and Applications (Y. H. Hui, Wai-Kit Nip, Robert W. Rogers), page 455

In a related study, Van Laack et al. (1997) studied the residual color of patties prepared from normal or high pH beef and lean finely textured beef. Addition of lean finely textured beef to high pH beef resulted in a more well-done color […]

2002, Steve Taylor, Advances in Food and Nutrition Research, volume 44, page 168:

When specified by the purchaser, lean finely textured beef may be combined with boneless beef meeting the above material requirements […]

2006, in The Meat Buyers Guide: Beef, Lamb, Veal, Pork, and Poultry (produced by the North American Meat Processors Association), page 29

So now the world is aware that "lean finely textured beef" is actually an alias for "ammonia-soaked centrifuge-separated byproduct paste".

2012 March 28, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart (actor), Comedy Central:

(meat industry, US) A meat byproduct produced from otherwise unusable material such as skin and connective, spinal, and digestive tissues by heating and then mixing with ammonia in a centrifuge to produce a food additive.


R-rated

From R + rated. The R-rating (short for restricted) is part of the rating scale used by the U.S. film rating authority Motion Picture Association (MPA) or similar rating scales used by authorities in some other countries.

In movie terms, it suggests Paul Verhoeven in Robocop/Starship Troopers mode, an R-rated bloodbath where the grim spectacle of children murdering each other on television is bread-and-circuses for the age of reality TV, enforced by a totalitarian regime to keep the masses at bay.

2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club:

(US, film) Of a motion picture, having an "R rating" from the Motion Picture Association (MPA), meaning it is suitable only for adults.


shiesty

shiesty (comparative shiestier or more shiesty, superlative shiestiest or most shiesty)

shiestier (comparative)
more shiesty (comparative)
shiestiest (superlative)
most shiesty (superlative)
sheisty (alternative)
shystie (alternative)
shysty (alternative)

Green's Dictionary of Slang
Language Log
Mark Liberman
Pooh Shiesty

Probably from shyst(er) + -y. Green's Dictionary of Slang suggests that the word is a blend of shit + feisty or shicer (“a worthless person”) + feisty. The noun sense is a reference to the rapper Pooh Shiesty, known for wearing ski masks on stage.

The same sheisty cats that you hang with and do your thang with / Could set you up and wet you up nigga, peep the language

1998, “Moment of Truth”, in Moment of Truth, performed by Gang Starr:

Muddah had been smart to warn me to flip my bank. My baby had never trusted his ass. I knew she would die before she let this shiesty niggah get his grimy fingers on a single dime of my money.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 301:

(US, slang) Shifty, untrustworthy, unscrupulous.


trampoose

en-verb

trampoose (third-person singular simple present trampooses, present participle trampoosing, simple past and past participle trampoosed)

trampooses (present singular third-person)
trampoosing (participle present)
trampoosed (participle past)
trampoosed (past)
trampouse (alternative)

"you don't think I'd trampoose about from poll to poll, for nothin, do you?"

(US, slang, dated) To walk laboriously or heavily.


stateprison

On his way, under the care of the sheriff of Oswego county, to the stateprison, Lett made his escape, at the imminent peril of his life, by leaping from a railroad car while it was under full motion.

1841, William H. Seward, letter to Mr. Webster:

(US, dated) A prison maintained by the state.


wicopy

From an Algonquian term for "stringy bark"; compare Abenaki wigebi (“stringy inner bark (used as cordage)”), Ojibwe wiigob (“inner bark of a basswood”).

cog

wickape (alternative)
wickopy (alternative)

(US, Canada) Any of several trees, such as the leatherwood/moosewood (of the genus Dirca), the whitewood, or the American basswood/linden (of the genus Tilia).


Peabody bird

white-throated sparrow
white-throated sparrow

Zonotrichia albicollis
Zonotrichia albicollis#Translingual

(US, dated) white-throated sparrow, an American sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) with a conspicuous white throat.


daycation

You'll want a back-pocket, getaway idea to pull out when you have a free afternoon and the itch to take off for a while. Our "daycations" are just the ticket to satisfy mini wanderlust.

1986 June, Linda Pender, “Daycations”, in Cincinnati Magazine:

(Canada, US) A single-day excursion or retreat.


NCLEX-RN

w:National Council Licensure Examination

(US) Initialism of National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses.


boneless lean beef trimmings

en-noun

boneless lean beef trimmings pl (plural only)

2003, Dickson et al, Impact of pH enhancement on populations of Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli Ol57:H7 in boneless lean beef trimmings, in Food Protection Trends, volume 25 (2005), page 21 http://books.google.com/books?id=5UQsAQAAMAAJ&q=%22boneless+lean+beef+trimmings%22&dq=%22boneless+lean+beef+trimmings%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kSCHT7GuFZGm8QT31OGfCA&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAw

Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings are lean and flavorful ingredients that are essential to processing a range of lean, high-quality, and cost- effective products that millions of Americans consume every day.

2006, Food engineering, volume 78, page 94:

Lean finely textured beef
lean finely textured beef#English

(meat industry, US) Lean finely textured beef.


roughrider

Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War

(US, military, dated, slang) A member of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry during the Spanish-American War


commorant

(US, law) Inhabiting or occupying temporarily.


feeze

feezes (plural)
fease (alternative)
feaze (alternative)
feese (alternative)
pheese (alternative)
pheeze (alternative)
phese (alternative)
vease (alternative)
veeze (alternative)

From Middle English fese, from the verb (see below).

All this time, they were chattering; but at last I thought, by the sound of their voices, that they must be walking away, and I never was in such a feeze in all my life, in case they should be gone before I could get up the wall ; and when I did get up it, sure enough, gone they was!

1797, Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette, page 203:

“Don't git in a feeze, uncle Tib;—you can't help your head, I dare say;[…]”

1825, John Neal, Brother Jonathan: or, The New Englanders, volume 2, page 85:

[Crispin buys a lottery ticket and splashes out in anticipation of winning.] The next morning Violetta [his daughter] was paraded through the streets by a smart clerk in the neighbourhood[…]At the turn of the next street they met Crispin himself, with a visage of alarming length. He was fresh from the office, where they told him he had drawn a—blank!—The smart beau sneaked off in a feeze, Crispin and his goods were sold out by the sheriff[…]

1828 April 19, “For the Ariel”, in The Ariel, page 205:

Why what a feeze you air in, to be sure!

2006, John Neal, Down Easters, page 134:

(obsolete or US, dialectal) A state of fretful excitement or worry.


tetterwort

Sanguinaria canadensis
Sanguinaria canadensis#Translingual

(US) Sanguinaria canadensis, the bloodroot.


dollardee

(US, dated, dialect) Lepomis pallidus, the blue sunfish or copper-nosed bream.


sannup

From Penobscot senabe (“man”); compare Abenaki sanôba (“man”).

1736, Thomas Prince, Nathan Hale (editor), A Chronological History of New-England, in the Form of Annals, 1826, New Edition, Cummings, Hilliard, and Company, page 347,
Chickatabot (the chief Sachem of the Massachusetts) comes with his sannups and squaws (that is, married men and their wives) to Boston, presents the governor with a hogshead of Indian corn.

With this company, Miantonomo and his sachems dined, while the sannups were entertained hard by, in the inn recently built by Goodman Samuel Coles.

1898, Edith Robinson, A Little Puritan Rebel, L. C. Page & Company, page 117:

Or rather, he obliged Miguen to do so, for the limping sannup could not pursue the quarry.

1941, Marguerite Allis, Not Without Peril, G. P. Putnam's Sons, page 231:

(US) A male Native American, especially a married one; a brave.

(US, Maine, colloquial) A mischievous male child.


retiracy

retiracy (usually uncountable, plural retiracies)

The patriot commanders in the middle of January went into retiracy, having with much judgment commended the forces under them to their own discretion

1845, Samuel Maunder, John Inman, The Treasury of History:

what one of our great men used to call dignified retiracy

1852, C. A. Bristed, The upper ten thousand:

(US, dated, chiefly humorous) retirement


double-ripper

(US, dialect, archaic) A kind of sledge made of two sleds fastened together with a board, one in front of the other.


eightplex

(US) A building divided into eight separate residences or commercial premises.


destinating

As an antonym for originating, based on destination.

Some of this mail consists of destinating mail from other offices, while some of it originated locally.

1992, Michael A. Crew, Paul R. Kleindorfer, The economics of postal service, page 10:

All containers of mail whose respective destination postal code is less than 200 miles (US Postal Services) away from the originating mail processing center is transported directly to the destinating mail processing center.

2007, Gerrit Bleumer, Electronic postage systems: technology, security, economics, page 34:

(US, nonstandard) arriving at its destination; incoming


grindle

(US, dated, dialectal) A fish, the bowfin (Amia calva).


glee club

From glee, meaning a short song for multiple parts.

(chiefly US) A secular choir or choral group.


ten-strike

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

At his lowest ebb, when his black suit was in pawn, he made a ten-strike—or so it seemed to him—in a prize contest arranged by the County Committee of the Republican Party. There were three branches of the contest, and he entered them all, laughing at himself bitterly the while in that he was driven to such straits to live.

1908 September – 1909 September, Jack London, chapter 29, in Martin Eden, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published September 1909, →OCLC:

GREYE LA SPINA werewolf serial, Invaders From the Dark, seems to have scored a ten-strike with the readers of Weird Tales, to judge by the letters that have poured in to The Eyrie

(US, informal, dated) Any quick, decisive stroke or act.


workcation

(Canada, US, informal) A vacation that one spends getting work done.

trabacaciones

a vacation that one spends getting work done


iron man

This time it was thirty-five grand, a whole damn marching battalion of iron men, […]

1993, Stephen King, Nightmares & Dreamscapes:

Somebody had sense enough to tell Elmer to hold out until the bids were all in, which accounts for his getting four thousand big iron men for his first season's work, instead of fifteen hundred, like the rest of the bush heavers.

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

(dated, US, slang, usually in the plural) A dollar.


psychomological

Hmmm, maybe I could get....hmmm, not sure how I'm going to get gradual light changes for the little girls....hmmm...m-u-s-t m-a-k-e b-r-a-i-n w-o-r-k!! B-u-t i-t'-s t-o-o-o h-a-r-d!!! gasp!!!! gasp!!!
-Emily
Just a girl with her fair share of psychomological problems!

1999 February 8, "Emily Spears" (username), "Is it important to gradually shut the lights off?", in rec.aquaria.freshwater.mischttp://groups.google.com/group/rec.aquaria.freshwater.misc/browse_thread/thread/2d688f0124cc85d3/c6ebb581adababab?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=%22psychomological%22, Usenet

I agree with Paul about the psychomological advantages of having a warm drink to hand and would suggest that the OP try to find room in his pack for a flask.

2002 November 2, "Stuart Baldwin" (username), "camelbac hydration", in uk.rec.walkinghttp://groups.google.com/group/uk.rec.walking/browse_thread/thread/38045af70dd81022/55f6b6a951a44da1?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=%22psychomological%22, Usenet

I think this might be deeply psychomological and all that or could be as simple as "Guys are wired up differently than women".

2008 December 30, "Hoots" (username), "I look for penpals", in soc.penpalshttp://groups.google.com/group/soc.penpals/browse_thread/thread/e8e2cfca115320b6/bcd9d10b46b4cf4d?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=%22psychomological%22, Usenet


storm drain

An allusion to their usefulness in catching stormwater and therefore preventing floods.

(US) An access point or conduit for rainwater that drains directly downstream in a (drainage) basin without passing through sewers or water treatment in order to prevent or belay floods.


peckerhead

peckerheads (plural)
pecker head (alternative)

From pecker + head, from pecker (“penis”).

I dunno what this peckerhead thinks he's doin' but he's about to fall off that bridge.

(chiefly US, derogatory) A dickhead: an unpleasant, stupid or mean person.


peckerhead

From picker + head, alluding to the similarity between the terminal box on a motor and the rotating head of used to pick fruit.

(US) An electric motor's terminal connection or wiring box.


Joanie

Green's Dictionary of Slang
Happy Days
Joanie Cunningham

Possibly a reference to Joanie Cunningham, a character from the US sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984), set in the 1950s and 1960s. Compare Joan (“a placeholder or conventional name for a younger lower-class woman”).

Alternative form: joanie

I mean phones are like mondo cool, because it's like you don't know what to wear until you check it out with at because they want you to show up looking like a joanie, you know?

1982 October 28, Valley Mom [pseudonym], “Down in the valley, the valley so excellent...”, in Daily Record, volume 83, number 126, Morristown, N.J.: Morristown Daily Record, Inc., →OCLC, page 25:

My Mom, who takes night classes in painting and stuff at Valley College and knows about art, except she still wears totally base designer jeans with elastic butts and comes off like a total Joanie, has these other books by Judith Krantz, like Scruples and Princess Daisy.

1983 February, “Review of Books”, in Art in America, New York, N.Y.: Art In America, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15:

You might want to stop being such a total Joanie and move the pony to the back of your head. I wonder if all those years of wearing the side pony has done brain damage? Maybe that would explain why you still wear it.

2008, Laura Ross, The Valley Girl Turns 40, New York, N.Y., Bloomington, I.N.: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, page 17:

Nothing to report. No mites, no fleas, nothing," said Larry, "But some of the poor Joanies in the main room were scratching their necks like there was a company louse picnic. We baited some double-sticky tape and roach traps, but I doubt they'll catch anything."

2017, Jeffrey A[lan] Lockwood, Murder on the Fly, Fayetteville, A.R.: Pen-L Publishing, →ISBN, page 18:

(US, slang, Valleyspeak) A young woman who dresses in an out-of-date and unfashionable manner.


bockey

From Dutch bakkie, bakje, or less likely bokaal (“bowl, cup”).

The large baskets, called Bockeys (the old Dutch word for basket), used for toting this charcoal, were, I believe, the forerunners of the present-day Adirondack pack basket.

1947 Spring, A. T. Shorey, “Ma and Pa Pitt”, in New York Folklore Quarterly, volume 3, number 1, page 38:

Even the coming of the New York Thruway and the connections for the Garden State Parkway had failed to alter the setting as an heirloom of troop movements of long ago, of the rattle of early stagecoaches, and of the "bockeys” —these were mountain people who continued to weave baskets of oak splints and bring them down to sell in Ladentown, Rockland County, New York, and perhaps elsewhere.

1983, Henry Charlton Beck, Tales and Towns of Northern New Jersey, page 118:

Many augmented their income by making baskets known as “bockeys."

2010, Ronnie Clark Coffey, Harriman State Park, page 17:

(US, dialect, archaic, New York) A large basket woven from oak splints.


sepawn

sepawn (usually uncountable, plural sepawns)


dissental

Increasing numbers of circuit judges are writing dissents from, and concurrences in, orders denying rehearing en banc—colloquially known as dissentals and concurrals.

2012, Alex Kozinski, James Burnham, “I Say Dissental, You Say Concurral”, in The Yale Law Journal Online:

(US, law, colloquial) A dissent from an order denying rehearing en banc.


concurral

2011, Alex Kozinski & James Burnham, "I Say Dissental, You Say Concurral", The Yale Law Journal Online (paywall)

(US, law, colloquial) A concurrence in an order denying rehearing en banc.


theolog

theologs (plural)
theologue (alternative)

From Ancient Greek θεόλογος (theólogos, “one who discourses of the gods”). By surface analysis, theo- + -log.


pusley

en-noun

pusley (countable and uncountable, plural pusleys)

We have had a hard battle with the weeds and their roots in our lawn, the docks and the mullens and the pusley.

1904, James Power Smith, Brightside Idyls: Every Week of the Year, page 48:


FCI

Federal Correctional Institutions
w:Federal Correctional Institutions

(US) Initialism of Federal Correctional Institutions.


pinder

pinders (plural)
pindar (alternative)
pinda (alternative)

Via Gullah from Kongo mpinda (“peanut”), also borrowed in Dutch as pinda.

(US, dialectal, especially Southern US) A peanut, the nut-like pod containing the edible seed(s) of a leguminous plant.

Arachis hypogaea
Arachis hypogaea#Translingual

(US, dialectal, especially Southern US) The plant, Arachis hypogaea, that bears peanuts.


candidating

(US, colloquial) The taking of the position of a candidate; specifically, the preaching of a clergyman with a view to settlement.


secesh

This is true, for Mrs. Sherman has an idea that St. Louis is unhealthy for our children, and because most of the Catholics here are tainted with the old secesh feeling.

1864, William T. Sherman, The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Vol. II., Part 4:

But he was mistaken; for as the current swept the bateau around the bend of the river, he discovered, to his astonishment and chagrin, the two secesh soldiers, who had left the picket post some time before, standing at convenient distances from each other and from the shore, in the water, ready to rescue him from the fate before him.

1864, Oliver Optic, The Soldier Boy; or, Tom Somers in the Army:

Nearly every building was draped, no matter whether its occupants were pinched or prosperous. Even secesh families hung crepe. Sometimes, the more secesh, the more crepe. It was the same way across the country, as Sarah Morgan, a young Baton Rouge belle, wrote in her diary. "The more violently secesh and the more thankful they are for Lincoln's death, the more profusely the houses are decorated with emblems of woe."

2015, Kathryn Canavan, Lincoln's Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America's Greatest President, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN:

(US, informal, historical) Secessionist, supportive of the Confederacy during the United States Civil War.


secesh

[…] I think they buried more secesh than our folks.
Question. How did they bury them?
Answer. They buried the secesh over back of the fort, all except those on Fort Hill; them they buried up on top of the hill where the gunboats shelled them.

1888, Joseph Thomas Wilson, The Black Phalanx: A History of the Negro Soldiers of the United States in the War of 1775-1812, 1861-'65, page 332:

[…] our minds to get 'em, and we charged, yelling like bloody hl, drove the seceshes back a deuced sight quicker than they come, and popped 'em down at every shot.

2010, Harold Holzer, Craig Symonds, New York Times Book of the Civil War 1861-1865: 650 Eyewitness Accounts and Articles, Black Dog & Leventhal, →ISBN:

'You don't see any grief?' Edward shouts, turning on me. 'I'd sure like to know what you're doing in an Army if you ain't keen on fighting! People are counting on us keeping those Seceshes from coming North, is what you mean.'

2014, Erin Lindsay McCabe, I Shall Be Near to You: A Novel, Broadway Books, →ISBN:

(US, informal, historical) A secessionist, a supporter of the Confederacy during the United States Civil War.


skimback

(US) A fish, the quillback (Carpioides cyprinus).


iodin

(obsolete, US) Alternative form of iodine


shit the bed

en-verb

shit the bed (third-person singular simple present shits the bed, present participle shitting the bed, simple past and past participle shit the bed or shat the bed)

shits the bed (present singular third-person)
shitting the bed (participle present)
shit the bed (participle past)
shit the bed (past)
shat the bed (participle past)
shat the bed (past)

“[H]ow was I supposed to know Dan Marino would shit the bed and lose that game by nineteen points?”

2008, Dave Zeltserman, Small Crimes, →ISBN, page 41:

“Yep, I totally shit the bed on that exam. Guess I'll be sticking around this place for another year.”

2012, Tom Ryan, Way to Go, →ISBN, page 6:

“We're almost ready. If the damn copier doesn't shit the bed, that is.”

2013, Stephen King, Under the Dome, →ISBN, page 266:

(chiefly US, slang, vulgar, idiomatic, of a person or thing) To fail, often in a complete and irreparable fashion.

verkacken

to fail, often in a complete and irreparable fashion


shit-brindle

en-adj

shit-brindle (comparative more shit-brindle, superlative most shit-brindle)

more shit-brindle (comparative)
most shit-brindle (superlative)

Eliza and Charles had to show him how the perfected blue-dyed yarn could be colored green by scalding in yellow dye made out of rabbit-brush blossoms or wild greasewood; black dye could be made from logwood and copperas vitriol; dark brown from the walnuts Brother Hamblin was raising in Santa Clara; olive green from the creosote leaves, and 'shit-brindle' from wild sage.

1942, Maurine Whipple, The Giant Joshua:

1995, "One-Eyed Jack" as found in Resurrection and Reclamation: The Collected Works of S. Darnbrook Colson compiled and edited by Elrod Stanton
The walls of the "game room," as we called it, were shit-brindle yellow. We could never get Bennuci to repaint the damned thing. Said he liked the color. Said it reminded him of his bedroom when he was a boy. We always made joked about what the rest of his house must've looked like: Baby puke green, Menstruation red, and so on.

Ain't nothing bright about it but its namesake, even the birds are a shit-brindle-brown streaked with a dusty-ochre.

But the best part was that he'd nailed it: the color Sonja chose for that psycho-chromatic study was a most disturbing combination of brown, rust, and mustard--it was a slightly metallic dark-gold puke color, basically. No, it was shit brindle to a T. Genius […]

2009, Courtney Eldridge, The Generosity of Women:

(US, vulgar) having a light, unglamorous shade of brown color


bodock

(US, Southwestern US) The Osage orange (tree or fruit)


beer-can chicken

(US) A cooked dish made by standing a prepared chicken upright on a partially filled can of beer and cooking it slowly in a barbecue or oven, so that the beer evaporates and permeates the meat.


frozen custard

en-noun

frozen custard (countable and uncountable, plural frozen custards)

(US, Canada) A cold dessert similar to ice cream, made with eggs in addition to cream and sugar.


NGST

New Generation Space Telescope
w:Next Generation Space Telescope

(space science, US, NASA) Initialism of New Generation Space Telescope.


JWST

(NASA, space science, US) Initialism of James Webb Space Telescope.


miching

en-adj

miching (comparative more miching, superlative most miching)

more miching (comparative)
most miching (superlative)
meeching (alternative)
meaching (alternative)
mitching (alternative)

On the other hand, for me, these stories too often forfeit their effectiveness as satires through Kafka's rather meaching compliance, his little-boylike respect and fear in the presence of the things he should satirize: […]

1950 [1947], Edmund Wilson, “A Dissenting Opinion on Kafka”, in Classics and Commercials: a Literary Chronicle of the Forties, page 391:

(US, dialectal, obsolete) hiding; skulking; cowardly or freeloading


mishcup

From the same Narragansett name for the fish (mishcùp) as scuppaug, scup and paugie.

(US, dialect, obsolete) A fish: the scup or porgy.


callithumpian

callithumpian (comparative more callithumpian, superlative most callithumpian)

more callithumpian (comparative)
most callithumpian (superlative)
calathumpian (alternative)

callithumpian band

callithumpian procession

There was never a tutor's windows to be broken in, or a callithumpian frolic, (which were in vogue in those days,) but Maverick bore a hand in both; […]

1865 March, “Doctor Johns”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 15, number 89:

He had been entertaining a regular callithumpian parade of Red Cross commissioners from America, and he probably felt that he had seen the worst and that this was just another cross.

1918, William Allen White, The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me, page 66:

(US, colloquial, dated) Of, relating to, or resembling a callithump; riotous.


backset

en-verb

backset (third-person singular simple present backsets, present participle backsetting, simple past and past participle backset)

backsets (present singular third-person)
backsetting (participle present)
backset (participle past)
backset (past)

(US, especially Western US) To plow again in the fall; said of prairie land broken up in the spring.


Randall grass

(US) The meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis, syn. Festuca elatior).


catbutt

who must now go and prevent her 9 pound cat from kicking the catbutts of two 23+ pound cats.

1996 May 29, Julia A. M. Hayden, “Re: GH:All Alone”, in rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc (Usenet):

> Probably for the same reason people stare at cats' assholes.
oh i don't know. catbutts are kinda cute, don't you think?

1998 June 3, Erik, “Re: My FINAL reply to Lisa”, in alt.support.depression (Usenet):

I have been very conscious of the fact that by declawing her, I rendered her defenseless. However, she has kicked some catbutt when we had intact kitty boarders, not drawing blood, but winning by intimidation.

1998 September 29, Blake, “Re: declawing”, in alt.cats (Usenet):

Hey now, my cats are always sticking their butts in my face to show me what a good job they did cleaning them. I'd rather look at a catbutt than troll leavings any day.

2000 July 1, Noelle, “Re: Oh Hell..Wonder pill lets women conceive at sixty”, in alt.support.childfree (Usenet):

EVERY SINGLE CAT IN THIS HOUSE HAS STUCK HIS BUTT IN MY FACE!! Do I look depressed? <various Patrons shake their heads> Do I look like I NEED a catbutt in my face?

2001 October 7, Kat & Kent [username], “semiRANT! Catbutts!”, in alt.callahans (Usenet):

Within a nanosecond of the book becoming a horizontal surface, there was a catbutt firmly planted upon it.

2002 January 13, Yowie [username], “Considerate [BW][Long]”, in rec.pets.cats.anecdotes (Usenet):

You can buy catbutt refrigerator magnets, clever cards, and fun jewelry and T-shirts by local artists.

2011, Beth Taylor, Frommer's Seattle Day by Day, page 76:

2011, Alan Scherstuhl, Studies in Crap, SF Weekly, 1951 Planned Parenthood Pamphlet Pretty Much Says Life Begins at Conception, link
Junior got mom's brown hair and dad's catbutt eyes!

(Canada, US, informal, sometimes attributive) The backside of a cat.


overslaugh

/ˈəʊ.vəɹˌslɔː/

From Dutch overslag, from Dutch overslaan.

Let him look at the plan of 1832, to which the act of 1834 refers, and upon which it is founded, and he will find that it contains detailed estimates of the expense of clearing out not only the overslaugh, but also the obstructions between Albany and Troy.

The opening in dike No. 1 at the overslaugh was completed with the exception of deepening the cut, which could only be done at midsummer.

1840, “Hudson River Improvement”, in PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, page 184:

The ice will start in pretty large masses wherever the river is tolerably straight and the current tolerably uniform; suppose the reason why the ice dams up opposite the city less frequently than below, is because the river is less obstructed here than below; that there is here a tolerably straight, free, depp channel' has seen the ice dammed at the overslaugh and at Van Wie's point; thinks the ice at the overslaugh does not freeze to the ground; thinks the reason why the ice dams at the overslaugh, is because the ice from above shoots under the ice formed there, and at length creates so great a friction that the power from above cant remove it.

1849, George Conclin, Conclin's New River Guide, page 28:


overslaugh

overslaugh (third-person singular simple present overslaughs, present participle overslaughing, simple past and past participle overslaughed)

overslaughs (present singular third-person)
overslaughing (participle present)
overslaughed (participle past)
overslaughed (past)

/ˈəʊ.vəɹˌslɔː/

to overslaugh a bill in a legislative body

to overslaugh a military officer (= to hinder his promotion or employment)

(US, dialect, slang, transitive) To hinder or stop, as by an overslaugh or impediment.


momic

They should be called "momics," those housewives who climb comedy-club stages and tell jokes about their kids and dirty laundry.

1996 March 2, Dick Kreck, “Everything wacky in 'Momville'”, in Denver Post:

(US, informal) A comedienne whose act focuses on her children and family life.


momoir

So-called momoirs, first-person accounts exploding some of the sentimentality about motherhood, include Andrea J. Buchanan's "Mother Shock" and Muffy Mead-Ferro's "Confessions of a Slacker Mom."

2006 December 17, Lizzie Skurnick, “Chick Lit, the Sequel: Yummy Mummy”, in The New York Times:

(Canada, US, informal) A memoir written by or about a mother.


soccerplex

From soccer + -plex, perhaps originally in the name of Maryland SoccerPlex.

Incidentally, that soccerplex is something the Nation could well look at.

2002, Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development:

Here there are split-level communities, cul-de-sacs, soccerplexes, regional shopping malls with ever more grand titles (plaza, galleria, court),

(US) A sports complex that includes soccer facilities.


Adirondack chair

en-noun

Adirondack chair (plural Adirondack chairs)

After the Adirondacks, a mountain chain in New York State.

Nurse Graves […] wheeled him out onto the veranda, where he was lifted into an Adirondack chair and positioned so that he was facing the sun—or, rather, the spot in the firmament the sun might have occupied if it hadn't gone south for the winter.

1993, TC Boyle, The Road to Wellville, Penguin, published 1994, page 104:

(Canada, US) A kind of outdoor lounge chair made of wood, with wide arm rests.


nastyass

en-adj

nastyass (comparative more nastyass, superlative most nastyass)

more nastyass (comparative)
most nastyass (superlative)

And what a nastyass stale butt it was too, already smoked once and picked out of the ashtray, tasting burnt smoke.

1991, J. R. Creech, Music and Crime, Random House, →ISBN, page 134:

If it is a boy, and I know it is, then naming him Charlie is also a way of remembering, but remembering people in my family, who may not be all rich and smart like the Willets is, but we don't got no nastyass old psycho killers in our family tree neither; […]

2011, Kathleen McKenna, The Wedding Gift, Bell Bridge Books, →ISBN, page 11:

(US, slang, derogatory) loathsome, contemptible

"SWAT uses those nastyass hollow points. A head-hit pretty much turns everything into Hamburger Helper.

2011, Dennis Palumbo, Fever Dreams, Poisoned Pen Press, →ISBN, page 32:


city titty

(US, slang, chiefly in the plural) A raised marker separating the lanes of a road.


thizzing

[…] He said, like, 'Come on, baby, this is a challenge now. We gotta break this uptight son of a bitch. We'll double-team his ass. I think he's thizzin' enough.' […]

2011, K. Z. Snow, The Zero Knot, Dreamspinner Press, →ISBN, page 173:

(US, California, slang, African-American Vernacular) High from the drug MDMA (Ecstasy).


d/b/a

(US, law) Alternative form of dba (“doing business as”)


scrouge

en-verb

scrouge (third-person singular simple present scrouges, present participle scrouging, simple past and past participle scrouged)

scrouges (present singular third-person)
scrouging (participle present)
scrouged (participle past)
scrouged (past)
scrooge (alternative)
scrowdge (alternative)
scrudge (alternative)

Well, pretty soon the whole town was there, squirming and scrouging and pushing and shoving to get at the window and have a look[…]

1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:

I look for veiled eyes or bodies scrouged into a seat in an alien world.

1983, Judson R. Landis, Sociology: concepts and characteristics:

We stayed up till eleven, sitting on the stairs, on the floor, and scrouged into the day room, surrounded by stacks of GI clothes.

2001, Aileen Kilgore Henderson, Stateside Soldier: Life in the Women's Army Corps, 1944-1945, page 12:

(UK, dialect and US, colloquial, transitive) To crowd; to squeeze.


grundel

From Middle English grundel, grundyl, perhaps from Old English gryndle (“herring”). Compare also Middle Dutch grondele, grondel, Middle Low German grundele, grundel (“groundling”). See groundling.

(US, slang) The perineum; the area between the anus and genitals.


fippenny bit

(obsolete, US, Pennsylvania region) The Spanish half real, or one sixteenth of a dollar.


MFT

(mental health, US) Initialism of marriage and family therapy; marriage and family therapist, short for LMFT.


snowl

(US, dated, dialect) The hooded merganser.


Malfunction Junction

Attested in military publications from the early Cold War years. Perhaps popularized, and widened in sense, by the 1973 Schoolhouse Rock! segment "Conjunction Junction".

The center of the new city was on the Clark Fork River, one and one half miles from what would become Malfunction Junction, along the newly built military road (now an interstate highway) and what became a railroad line,[…]

2003, James Gifford, Gabrielle Zezulka-Mailloux, editors, Culture + the State: Landscape and Ecology, CRC Studio, →ISBN, page 152:

(US, informal) A traffic jam, or any location noted for such congestion.


(US, politics) A 501(c)(4), an organization that conforms to the United States Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)4


tiger mom

The message to tiger moms: telling your kids that failure is not an option does not set them up for success.

2012 March 30, Stefanie Weisman, “Taming the Tiger of Achievement”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2012-05-17:


setdown

en-noun

setdown (countable and uncountable, plural setdowns)

setdowns (plural)
set-down (alternative)

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

* Deverbal of set down.
* (buttocks): See set as US regional form of sit, and see sit down.

“If we [boys] did get caught the watchman would take the wooden end of his hood, slap our setdowns, then give us a kick and say, ‘Get out!’ […]”

1915, Clifton Johnson, chapter 11, in Highways and Byways of New England, New York: Macmillan, page 218:

(US, slang, obsolete) A person’s buttocks.


Walmartian

/ˈwɔːlmɑː(ɹ)ʃən/

From Walmart + -ian, in the noun sense presumably influenced by Martian.

(US, derogatory, informal) A person with strange habits or mannerisms, typically low income and sometimes obese, shopping at Walmart.


Walmartian

/ˈwɔːlmɑː(ɹ)ʃən/


dropout factory

dropout factory (plural dropout factories)

(informal, US) An underperforming high school, especially one with low graduation rates.


Greek fries

(US) Fries that are served with cheese, herbs, and lemon.


La Verne

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


La Vergne

From the French surname Lavergne. Variant of Laverne.


Lavern

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


PTWC

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
w:Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

(seismology, US) Initialism of Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.


progue

(Scotland, US, dialect) A sharp point; a goad.


progue

en-verb

progue (third-person singular simple present progues, present participle proguing, simple past and past participle progued)

progues (present singular third-person)
proguing (participle present)
progued (participle past)
progued (past)

(Scotland, US, archaic, transitive) To prick

(Scotland, US, archaic, transitive) to goad.


real gone

(US, slang) outrageously cool, wild and carefree


IJDB

w:International Journal of Developmental Biology

(US) Initialism of International Journal of Developmental Biology.


ESPN

Perlman devised a format inspired by the seminal mockumentary Spinal Tap, where the spot started with an ESPN announcer speaking to camera in a serious, straight voice, framing the story as “real” documentary.

2010, Douglas Holt, Douglas Cameron, Cultural Strategy: Using Innovative Ideologies to Build Breakthrough Brands, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 345:

w:Entertainment and Sports Programming Network

(media, US) Initialism of Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.


ranchburger

Judy Drive was a short gravel-mixed road flanked by a dozen aluminum-sided "ranchburgers" with wading pools or pick-up trucks parked on the front lawns.

1991, Ellen Harris, Dying to Get Married: The Courtship and Murder of Julie Miller Bulloch, HarperPaperbacks, →ISBN, page 121:

(US) A cookie-cutter ranch house, typically found in a suburban subdivision.

Make ranchburgers by dividing the meat for each hamburger into two patties. Place a spoonful of chili sauce and chopped onion on one patty and cover it with the other, sealing it well at the edges.

1966 April 7, “Ground Beef Extra Spicy”, in The Baltimore Sun:

(US) A hamburger featuring elements of the cuisine of the Southwestern United States.


stone-faced

en-adj

stone-faced (comparative more stone-faced, superlative most stone-faced)

more stone-faced (comparative)
most stone-faced (superlative)

Empty jumbo jets arriving at deserted airports. Masked passengers disinfecting their own seats. Stone-faced airline executives huddling with President Trump.

2020 March 6, David Gelles, Niraj Chokshi, “‘Almost Without Precedent’: Airlines Hit Hard by Coronavirus”, in New York Times:


victory lap

2012 Summer Olympics
Gladys Tejeda
Nastassia Staravoitava
Rasa Drazdauskaitė
Sviatlana Kouhan
Ümmü Kiraz

It’s not just finances that lead to victory laps. Those who study abroad during undergraduate may find it difficult to earn enough credits to fulfill degree requirements in four years.

2013 February 25, Vivien Chang, “The myth of the four-year degree”, in Maclean's:

McNaughton continues, “I took a stroll underneath it before freshman year and I am going to be taking a victory lap.”

2017 April 1, Peter Lenz, “The Clock Tower: The History, The Myths, and More”, in The Racquet:

(Canada, US, education, slang) One or more years of study beyond the traditional four taken to complete one's undergraduate degree.


blocking and tackling

Some are caught up in the vision. Others are turned off and say he's a self-promoter who doesn't know anything about the blocking and tackling of the brokerage business.

1999 March 16, Saul Hansell, “THE MARKETS: Market Place -- Trading on E*Trade's Success; Chief Has Aggressive Plans to Expand Internet Broker”, in New York Times:

Cummings has been instrumental in the design of a computer simulation that he says will teach "the basic blocking and tackling of urban warfare.

2002 November 16, Ron Martz, “U.S. soldiers train for urban warfare; 'A knife fight in a phone booth,' is what troops liken it to. U.S. forces are preparing.”, in Atlanta Journal Constitution:

This is admittedly the bare basics of journalism, and one would hope it took more than simple journalistic blocking and tackling to become our most trusted practitioner.

2009 December, anonymous author, “Letters to the Editor”, in Atlantic Monthly, volume 304, number 5, page 10:

(idiomatic, US) Basic tasks or skills in an undertaking or occupation.


OTM

(US, of immigrants, especially Hispanic) Initialism of other than Mexican.


atomic wedgie

"...Brent just loves antagonizing his sister but he knows better than to mess with me after that atomic wedgie I gave him once,” Tanner said with a grin.
“Yeah he was pulling his underwear out of his butt crack for at least a month,” Joshua said as he and Tanner giggled uncontrollably.

2011, E. H. Allen, The Divine Miracle: Dakota Evans and the Legend of the Great Blue Giant: Book One:

He shut his brother up with the simple expedient of giving him an atomic wedgie, Mandalor-family style.
 “You son of a bitch! I think you just ruptured a testicle,” Dom howled.
“I thought you'd given up balls for Lent,” Leandro said

(US, slang) A prank in which a person's underpants are pulled up sharply from behind up over the head, or higher, in order to wedge the clothing uncomfortably between the person's buttocks.


CCDev

Commercial Crew Development
w:Commercial Crew Development

(space science, US) Initialism of Commercial Crew Development.


(space science, US) Initialism of Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office.