ride pass

(US) A ticket valid for unlimited rides, valid for a set amount of time, typically used by operators of mass transit.


kegling

Borrowed from German Kegeln (“bowling”) + -ing.


Big Game

From big + game, due to it being the most prominent sports match.

(US, sports, euphemistic) Synonym of Super Bowl (the annual national American football championship for the U.S. based National Football League)


darty

As Americans toast Saint Patrick on March 17 in parades and darties (day parties), Ireland will celebrate the saint day in a much more holy fashion.

2019 March 17, Alex Scimecca, “Raise a Pint of Guinness on St. Patrick's Day With These Historical Photos”, in Fortune, New York, N.Y.: Fortune Media Group Holdings, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-06:

I love drinking during the day. We've written before about the virtues of using jam to make any booze morning-appropriate, as well as how to make the perfect backyard drink. You never know when a chill outdoor hang might transition into a full-on "darty" (day + party).

2022 June 22, Meredith Dietz, “How to Day Drink Without Overdoing It”, in Lifehacker Australia, archived from the original on 2022-12-13:

Pavel Beletski, videographer for the darties, feels it's the social element that has brought about the popularity of darties.

2023 March 2, Lauren Medeiros, “The Belfort parking lot holds the wildest darty around”, in The Western Gazette, archived from the original on 2023-03-27:

As thousands of students flock to darties, parties, and parades this St. Patrick's Day, colleges in Boston are warning their students to be wary of 'BORGs.'

2023 March 16, Eli Curwin, “Boston colleges warn students against 'BORGs' as St. Patrick's Day approaches”, in Boston.com, archived from the original on 2023-04-04:

(university slang, Canada, US) A party held in the daytime.


darty

en-verb

darty (third-person singular simple present darties, present participle dartying, simple past and past participle dartied)

darties (present singular third-person)
dartying (participle present)
dartied (participle past)
dartied (past)

It's very hard to rally once the alcohol and adrenaline wears off, so the choice to darty is the choice to not party that night.

2017 April 25, Sophie G. Garrett, “Darty Season: Pros and Cons”, in The Harvard Crimson, Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard Crimson, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-10:

"We all know post-Fling Sunday is a day to darty! And in the wake of campus conversations about supporting survivors and denouncing sexual misconduct, partying is political," reads the event's description.

2019 April 29, Britton O'Daly, “Hundreds to boycott DKE Tang”, in Yale Daily News, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-06-25:

I heard an ominous snap as I fell. Laying on the jagged cobblestones, all I could do was take shaky breaths as I reeled from the white-hot pain. The frat bros dartying a stone's throw away paid no attention to my crumpled figure.

2022 August 15, Christine Ji, “Broken Ankles and Barriers to Accessibility: Reflections from a Skater-Turned-Scooter Girl”, in The Georgetown Voice, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-07:

(university slang, Canada, US) To participate in a darty.


parade rest

[…] no audible or visible order was given, but the ten thousand soldiers executed the movement of parade rest as a man.

1959, Kurt Vonnegut, chapter 4, in The Sirens of Titan, New York: Dial, published 2006, page 98:

A stern, sawed-off soldier, whom Colonel Eiger had referred to as a master sergeant, whispered something to the honor guard, who stood at parade rest and glanced anxiously at Colonel Eiger […]

1989, John Irving, chapter 9, in A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: William Morrow, page 494:

(US, military) A position of rest in which the feet are 12 inches apart and the hands clasped behind the back, or the left hand is behind the back and the right hand holds the rifle with its butt on the ground.


yield sign

(Canada, US, Belize, Ireland, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Liberia, Namibia) a road sign which instructs road users to give right of way to other traffic


shotgun double

I saw a dead guy on the front porch of a shotgun double on a working-class street, and the only sound was wind chimes.

2005, Chris Rose, 1 Dead in Attic, Simon & Schuster, published 2015, page 11:

(US) Two shotgun houses which share a central wall.


shell road

You know, the kind of New Orleans rain that […] tamps down the dust of the old shell roads and washes down the oyster stink in the French Quarter gutters and slicks up all the playground equipment and makes New Orleans smell—is it possible?—so fresh.

2005, Chris Rose, 1 Dead in Attic, Simon & Schuster, published 2015, page 22:

(US) A road with a bed or other layer made from shells.


fussbudgetry

All these interested Porter, but not most New Yorker readers; and his self-indulgent operation has produced most of the time not the valuable critical writing his gifts promised but a flood of historical and musical fussbudgetry that was a waste of his attention and time and theirs.

1984, Bernard H. Haggin, Music and ballet, 1973-1983, page 202:

Romeo and Juliet refuses the audience a pause at Romeo's death; rather it switches perspective, with a welcome shock, to fussbudgetry.

1991, Kent Cartwright, Shakespearean Tragedy and Its Double:

Alas, fussbudgetry has no place in prayer, just as emotional manipulation has no place in a loving relationship.

1997, David Yount, Breaking Through God's Silence, →ISBN:

(Canada, US) The characteristics and behaviors of a fussbudget; petty complaining.


California pepper tree

en-noun

California pepper tree (usually uncountable, plural California pepper trees)

From California + pepper tree: Thought of as a California tree due to having been grown there for centuries, even though it isn't native.

Schinus molle
Schinus molle#Translingual

(US) A South American tree (Schinus molle) grown for its attractive weeping habit and colorful fruits, which are used as a spice called pink peppercorns.


reverse one-drop rule

The silence in American public discourse about the reverse one-drop rule as it governed Mexican Americans is significant.

2008, Laura E. Gómez, Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race:

For Mexican Americans, the reverse one-drop rule operated to open up white status to Mexicans, and thereby the assumption of some political rights, but it also operated to impose a contingent whiteness.

2015, José A. Cobas, Jorge Duany, Joe R. Feagin, How the United States Racializes Latinos:

(chiefly US) The notion that one drop of white blood (i.e. any white ancestry at all) makes a person white.


biscuits and gravy

(US) A breakfast dish composed of soft dough biscuits covered in sawmill gravy, sometimes with pieces of cooked sausage etc.


negligence per se

[…] blasting operations by a Swiss mining company in the Swiss Alps cause a snow avalanche in the French Alps injuring a group of English tourists. […] The lex loci damni rule [of the Rome II Regulation] does not produce good results in […] cross-border torts in which the state of conduct prescribes higher standards of conduct for the tortfeasor than the state of injury. Suppose for example that, in the above snow avalanche hypothetical, Switzerland imposes a negligence per se rule on mining operators who engage in blasting activities in certain areas or time periods, while France, in order to protect its mining industry, follows an ordinary negligence standard. In such a case, Article 4(1) calls for the application of French law and specifically excludes Swiss law. In contrast, if this were an environmental tort, Article 7 would allow the victim to opt for Swiss law.

2008, Symeon C. Symeonides, “Rome II and Tort Conflicts: A Missed Opportunity”, in American Journal of Comparative Law, volume 56, number 1, pages 187 and 191:

(US law) An act considered negligent because it violates a statute or regulation.


dalls

(US, obsolete) Rapids; a rough section of water.


four corners

(US, slang) A major intersection and/or economic center in a town


Big Willy

(US, slang) The Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.


sweet horsemint

(US) The common dittany, Cunila origanoides.


mosquito bar

The mosquito bar was drawn over her; the old woman had come in while she slept and let down the bar.

(US) A wooden frame covered with netting designed to keep out mosquitoes.


match safe

The car ride was long, and it was late when they reached Esplanade Street. Arobin asked permission to enter for a second to light his cigarette—his match safe was empty.

(US, now historical) A small container for matches.


on short notice

(US) Alternative form of at short notice


khazer

Borrowed from Yiddish חזיר (khazer), from Hebrew חֲזִיר.

der

Hebrew חֲזִיר


whitecapper

From white + cap + -er, after the white hoods worn by some.

Deputy United States Marshal H. B. Holman returned here on the Kansas City Southern Railroad, to which place he was called by a message from the manager of a large fruit-growing company, asking protection from whitecappers.

1905 April 12, “Mexican Laborers Warned to Leave: Whitecappers Posted Warnings on Doors of Cabins Occupied by the Mexicans Near Horatio”, in Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas, via Newspapers.com, page 1:

To the gratification of many local whites, an all-white jury acquitted Brown of the charge of murder and ruled that the shooting of the whitecapper had been a justifiable homicide.

1993, William Fitzhugh Brundage, Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880–1930, Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 27:

(US, historical) Synonym of whitecap (“type of vigilante”)


MoCo

From the two initial syllables, attested as early as 2001.

I'm hoping to answer you and our Silver Spring questioner, who was looking for something this weekend in MoCo.

2001 May 24, The Going Out Gurus, “Got Plans?”, in With the Entertainment Guide Staff, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company:

Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County

(US, slang) Montgomery County, Maryland.


alderman lizard

en-noun

alderman lizard (plural alderman lizards)


WWMCCS

w:Worldwide Military Command and Control System

(US, military, historical) Initialism of Worldwide Military Command and Control System.


Wimex

(US, military, historical) Alternative form of WWMCCS


Uncle Whiskers

The network canceled—nonco-operation their legal shysters said. Suing me, for, for ten million clams, damages to sponsors, agencies. Internal Revenue-Uncle Whiskers says I owe them a mint.


DiFi

(US, colloquial) Dianne Feinstein (American politician)


Johnny-on-the-spot

Johnny-on-the-spot (plural Johnny-on-the-spots or Johnnies-on-the-spot)

Johnny-on-the-spots (plural)
Johnnies-on-the-spot (plural)

(US, slang) A person who is conveniently in the right place when needed.


new lease on life

new lease on life (plural new leases on life)

new lease of life
new lease of life#English

(chiefly US) Alternative form of new lease of life


cas'

en-adj

cas' (comparative more cas', superlative most cas')

more cas' (comparative)
most cas' (superlative)


Danbury shakes

Named from cases in Danbury, Connecticut, which had a large hat-making industry that used mercury.

(US, historical) The condition of mercury poisoning.


ear hustle

en-verb

ear hustle (third-person singular simple present ear hustles, present participle ear hustling, simple past and past participle ear hustled)

ear hustles (present singular third-person)
ear hustling (participle present)
ear hustled (participle past)
ear hustled (past)


aback of

[…] to effect which they must beat to windward for several days, between the west end of Cuba and the south coast of East Florida, till they get as far to the eastward as the Pan of Matanzas, a mountain so called, just aback of the town of the same name, say thirty leagues to the east of the Havanna, opposite which the gulph stream turns to a due north direction, which had been before east, and runs three, four, and five knots an hour […]

1831, George Hallam, Narrative of a Voyage from Montego Bay:

The question of wind must be matter of inference from the incidents above stated: the movement of the “Lawrence” and “Queen Charlotte,” and the bracing aback of the “Niagara's” topsail.

1905, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Sea Power and the War of 1812, volume 2, page 68:

(British English, US, dialectal) Behind; on the other side of


wetting down

(US, military, slang) A party held to celebrate promotion in the navy.


run one's face

run one's face (third-person singular simple present runs one's face, present participle running one's face, simple past ran one's face, past participle run one's face)

runs one's face (present singular third-person)
running one's face (participle present)
ran one's face (past)
run one's face (participle past)

(US, slang, dated) To obtain things on credit by sheer impudence.


fight like cats and dogs

fight like cats and dogs (third-person singular simple present fights like cats and dogs, present participle fighting like cats and dogs, simple past and past participle fought like cats and dogs)

fights like cats and dogs (present singular third-person)
fighting like cats and dogs (participle present)
fought like cats and dogs (participle past)
fought like cats and dogs (past)

fight like cat and dog
fight like cat and dog#English

(US) Alternative form of fight like cat and dog


trucker bomb

Urine-filled soda bottles they call "trucker bombs" are multiplying along local highways, symptoms of the scarcity of public rest areas in this once isolated region of the Great Plains.

2016, Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century, page 158:

(US, slang) A bottle filled with urine and thrown from a motor vehicle, to save the occupant from having to use a rest stop toilet etc.


Big Three

Any group of three major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:

(US) The three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: CBS (the Columbia Broadcasting System), NBC (the National Broadcasting Company), and ABC (the American Broadcasting Company)

(US, historical) During the mid- to late twentieth century, the three biggest automaker corporations in North America: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.


Morgan's mule

(US, historical) The horse (instrument of punishment).


Blue Peter

From blue + Peter, likely in reference to the color of the birds. Attested from the 18th century.

Fulica americana
Fulica americana#Translingual

(US) American coot, mudhen (Fulica americana)

Porphyrio martinicus
Porphyrio martinicus#Translingual

(US) American purple gallinule (Porphyrio martinicus)


throw the bull around

throw the bull around (third-person singular simple present throws the bull around, present participle throwing the bull around, simple past threw the bull around, past participle thrown the bull around)

throws the bull around (present singular third-person)
throwing the bull around (participle present)
threw the bull around (past)
thrown the bull around (participle past)
throw the bull (alternative)

I lost my dad right about your age. So I know what you're goin' through. So if you wanna come in and talk, or you just want somebody to spill your guts to, or you just wanna throw the bull around, door’s open.

2016, Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea, spoken by hockey coach (Tate Donovan):

shoot the breeze
shoot the breeze#English

(US, idiomatic, colloquial) Synonym of shoot the breeze


country team

(chiefly US, espionage) A group of people in charge of a state's intelligence operations in a foreign country, typically led by an ambassador.


pussy posse

Chosen for the alliteration, with pussy (“female genitalia”) in reference to prostitution.


independent counsel

en-noun

independent counsel (plural independent counsels)

(US, law, politics) A special prosecutor


Mississippi River

From Mississippi + river.
From Ojibwe misi-ziibi (“great river”); itself already containing the term "river" in Ojibwe.

(US) The Mississippi (a major river passing through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, United States).


homely as a hedge fence

"I must have a husband!" said Miss Crooks, "what shall I do? Here I am hard upon my 25th year, and they say I am as homely as a hedge fence to boot! what shall I do?"

1850 October 7, "A Trifling Mistake," The Adams Sentinal (Gettysbury, Pennsylvania), p. 1 (Google news archive)

This Subaru station wagon was as homely as a hedge fence and cramped as a corn crib, but it was the immediate hit of every ski town in the country.

1988 December, Denise McCluggage, "Top Snow Country Vehicles," Snow Country Magazine, p. 71 (Google preview) (retrieved 7 April 2019)

"Louise had been sweet-tempered but homely as a hedge fence," Charlotte observes, "[…] pools of wrinkles widened out over her face like somebody had thrown a pebble in it."

2008 July 12, Anna Mundow, “Legends of Troy”, in Irish Times, retrieved 2019-04-07:

(chiefly US, dated, idiomatic) Having no physically attractive characteristics, but not blatantly ugly; very plain in appearance.


dumb as a rock

Voice assistants are “dumb as a rock,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, said in an interview this month with The Financial Times, declaring that newer A.I. would lead the way.

2023 March 15, Brian X. Chen, Nico Grant, Karen Weise, quoting Satya Nadella, “How Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant Lost the A.I. Race”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, simile) Very stupid; dumb as a post.


halal cart

(US) A food cart which serves halal food, particularly platters or gyros containing chicken, lamb, or other protein with a side of rice and salad.


get wind in one's jaws

en-verb

get<,,got,got:gotten> wind in one's jaws

get wind in one's jaws (third-person singular simple present gets wind in one's jaws, present participle getting wind in one's jaws, simple past got wind in one's jaws, past participle got wind in one's jaws or gotten wind in one's jaws)

gets wind in one's jaws (present singular third-person)
getting wind in one's jaws (participle present)
got wind in one's jaws (past)
got wind in one's jaws (participle past)
gotten wind in one's jaws (participle past)
get wind in one's jaw (alternative)
have wind in one's jaws (alternative)
have wind in one's jaw (alternative)

And anytime you got wind in your jaw you were automatically fired.

1979, The Albemarle Monthly - Volume 3, Issues 1-3, page 49:

"Boy, you got wind in your jaws or somethin'? What you suckin' wind fer? Honh?"

2002, Langston Hughes, Gloria Naylor, Children of the night:

(idiomatic, informal, chiefly US Southern) To have too much to say; talk too much; run at the mouth; to speak one's mind or voice one's opinion about a matter; blabber


candy shop

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


pork roll

en-noun

pork roll (countable and uncountable, plural pork rolls)

From "Taylor Pork Roll", the original brand and the name John Taylor was forced to adopt after "Taylor's Prepared Ham" was rejected under the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 for not meeting the legal definition of ham.

(US, uncountable) A processed pork product commonly consumed for breakfast in the Northeast.

Eat a pork roll for breakfast

2017 October 6, Elaheh Nozari, “The Best NJ Things Every True New Jerseyan Needs to Do”, in Thrillist:

(US, countable) A sandwich made from pork roll.


Taylor ham

From "Taylor's Prepared Ham", the original name of "Taylor Pork Roll" until John Taylor was forced to change it under the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 for not meeting the legal definition of ham.


Jack Dusty

(US, slang, naval) A jack-of-the-dust: a storekeeper in charge of dry foodstuffs.


OLC

(US, law, politics, government) Initialism of Office of Legal Counsel. (of the U.S. Justice Department)


my man

Right on! My man!

A: Hot damn, I can't believe he just scored another goal already! B: My man!

(US, slang) A term of address for a man, conveying awe or enthusiastic agreement.


jayrun

en-verb

jayrun (third-person singular simple present jayruns, present participle jayrunning, simple past jayran, past participle jayrun)

jayruns (present singular third-person)
jayrunning (participle present)
jayran (past)
jayrun (participle past)

Blend of jaywalk + run. Attested since the 20th century.

Our appreciation of the manner in which the accident occurred was that plaintiff alighted from the bus on the uptown sidewalk of Canal Street, approximately sixty to one hundred feet removed from the corner of Baronne Street, walked around the front thereof and, probably because of the inclement weather, imprudently proceeded to rapidly “jaywalk” or “jayrun” through congested traffic intending to safely reach the neutral ground; […]

1955, Southern Reporter (second), West Publishing Company, page 769:

(US, Canada, transitive) To rapidly jaywalk (“violate pedestrian traffic regulations by crossing a street away from a designated crossing; to walk in the part of the street intended for vehicles”).


shrimp scampi

Referring to shrimp prepared in the manner that scampi, a different crustacean, are prepared in European cuisine.

(US) A dish of shrimp sauteed a sauce of butter, garlic, white wine, and lemon juice.


buckbush

(Canada, US) Shrubs of Canada and the central US, Symphoricarpos occidentalis(also known as wolfberry and Symphoricarpos orbicularis (coralberry).


wyngz

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

Respelling of wings. Compare cheeze (“vegan cheese”).

Perhaps the most unusual “chicken wings” are offered with DiGiorno's frozen three-meat pizza. They are honey-glazed, buffalo-style “Boneless Wyngz,” which contain no bones and no wing meat, either.

2012, Andrew F. Smith, Fast Food and Junk Food: An Encyclopedia of What We Love to Eat:

3 pieces Tyson Buffalo Style Boneless Chicken Wyngz

2015, Liz Vaccariello, Stop & Drop Diet: Lose Up to 5 Lbs in 5 Days, page 98:

Products without standard of identity (e.g. Wyngz- white chicken fritters)

2017, FSIS Compliance Guidance for Label Approval - August 2017:

(US) A chicken food product resembling chicken wings.


NEACP

(US, military) Initialism of National Emergency Airborne Command Post: a Boeing E-4 aircraft operated by the US Air Force in emergencies.


Sherman necktie

en-noun

Sherman necktie (plural Sherman neckties)

Sherman neckties (plural)
Sherman's necktie (alternative)

/ˈʃɜːmən ˈnɛktaɪ/

From Sherman, the surname of Union Army general William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891) + necktie. During the American Civil War, Sherman ordered the destruction of the rails of railways in order to obstruct the Confederate States Army.

We were compelled to go by carriage, as the railroads had been destroyed, the fat-pine cross-ties burned to heat the rails and the red-hot rails wrapped around the trees growing near the track. We used to call these iron rails "Sherman's neckties," and the solemn-looking chimneys standing guard over the former sites of once happy homes were called by the natives "Sherman's monuments."

[1917, James Morris Morgan, chapter XXVIII, in Recollections of a Rebel Reefer, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company […], →OCLC, page 244:

As the Democrats met in Chicago to declare the war a failure, northern soldiers 700 miles away were making "Sherman neckties" out of the last open railroad into Atlanta by heating the rails over a bonfire of ties and twisting the iron around trees.

1988, James M. McPherson, “We are Going to be Wiped Off the Earth”, in Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (The Oxford History of the United States; 6), New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN; paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2003, →ISBN, page 774:

I break camp and push down the road to the tiny town of Lithonia. It was here that [William Tecumseh] Sherman saw the first homes on the March to the Sea go up in flames as his men wrecked the railroad, twisting the iron rails into Sherman's Neckties.

1995, Jerry Ellis, chapter 11, in Marching through Georgia: My Walk with Sherman, New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN; Marching through Georgia: My Walk along Sherman’s Route, paperback edition, Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 2002, →ISBN, page 74:

Sherman's army cut a swath of destruction fifty miles wide as it marched leisurely through Georgia without any meaningful Confederate resistance. The men destroyed nearly all property in their path, famously twisting railroad tracks around tree trunks—"Sherman neckties"—so they would never be usable again.

2006, Christopher J. Olsen, “Confederate Families at War in 1864–1865”, in The American Civil War: A Hands-on History, New York, N.Y.: Hill and Wang, →ISBN; paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Hill and Wang, 2007, →ISBN, page 214:

Sherman, however, had grown to hate the Confederate trains running into Atlanta almost as much as the armies behind the city's earthworks. He declared, "Let the destruction be so thorough that not a rail or tie can be used again." The troops had a two-day-long Sherman necktie party.

2009, Marc [Josef] Wortman, “The First Bonfire”, in The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta, New York, N.Y.: PublicAffairs, →ISBN, part VI (War is Cruelty, and You Cannot Refine It), page 306:

The Road to Tara Museum had a lot of Gone with the Wind and almost no Sherman, except for one twisted Sherman's necktie.

2014, Anne Sarah Rubin, “Conclusion: Rubin’s March”, in Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman’s March and American Memory, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, page 232:

(US, rail transport, historical, chiefly in the plural) A segment of rail that has been heated and twisted into a loop, as a means of destroying a railway.

Confederate States Army
Fort McAllister Historic State Park
Union Army
William Tecumseh Sherman


kangaroo ticket

kangaroo ticket (plural kangaroo tickets)

(US, politics) A ticket where the running mate is more popular than the primary candidate.


jumbo slice

New York-style pizza
New York-style pizza

(US) An oversized New York-style pizza sold by the slice to go, especially popular in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C.


Tipper sticker

Named after Tipper Gore, co-founder of the Parents Music Resource Center which had lobbied for a labelling system.

Of course, like heavy metal in general, everything about Megadeth is a put-on, from its name to this album's title to its dutiful Tipper Sticker (a warning of offensive lyrics), which metal bands are now using to enhance sales in the teen market.

(US, informal) A Parental Advisory sticker.


riot boosting

"‘Riot boosting’ is an unusual and new term. You might be asking yourself what that means, and I think protesters will too," said Vera Eidelman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has tracked the bills. "I think it poses a unique threat to speech and appears to be targeted at protests. It uses words like 'encouraging' and 'advising' that are very broad and refer to a category of protected speech."

2019 March 28, Nicholas Kusnetz, “More States Crack Down on Pipeline Protesters, Including Supporters Who Aren’t Even on the Scene”, in Inside Climate News, archived from the original on 2020-06-04:

The law allows state, and local governments to seek civil damages from activists or groups engaging in "riot boosting", a term which the state defines as someone who "does not personally participate in any riot but directs, advises, encourages, or solicits other persons participating in the riot to acts of force of violence."

2019, Larry J. Schweiger, The Climate Crisis and Corrupt Politics, page 109:

A judge found parts of last year’s “riot boosting” laws to be unconstitutional, in part because they were aimed at demonstrations against the Keystone XL pipeline.

2020 February 19, Stephen Groves, “House passes ‘riot boosting’ bill amid protests”, in AP News:

South Dakota has adopted a law that holds a person liable for civil damages if he or she engages in “riot boosting,” defined to include a person who “advises” or “encourages” another to engage in violence, even if the individual did not even participate in the […]

2020, Ashutosh Bhagwat, Our Democratic First Amendment, page 152:

A third banner said “Kristi Noem, we are not a riot” and “We defeated it once, we’ll defeat it again” — a reference to the current “riot boosting” law that was created after a federal judge said parts of the old law were unconstitutional.

2020 August 19, Arielle Zionts, “Group protests Philip KXL pipeline work camp opening in September”, in Rapid City Journal:

(US, neologism, law) Protest activities that encourage rioting.


pass in one's checks

en-verb

pass in one's checks (third-person singular simple present passes in one's checks, present participle passing in one's checks, simple past and past participle passed in one's checks)

passes in one's checks (present singular third-person)
passing in one's checks (participle present)
passed in one's checks (participle past)
passed in one's checks (past)


bring one's own hide to market

bring<,,brought> one's own hide to market

bring one's own hide to market (third-person singular simple present brings one's own hide to market, present participle bringing one's own hide to market, simple past and past participle brought one's own hide to market)

brings one's own hide to market (present singular third-person)
bringing one's own hide to market (participle present)
brought one's own hide to market (participle past)
brought one's own hide to market (past)
carry one's own hide to market (alternative)
take one's own hide to market (alternative)

Probably from a German proverb, notably adapted by Karl Marx to describe the exploited worker who must sell himself (his own hide) in the labor market; the denotative metaphoric analogy is to bringing animal hides to market, but simultaneously also the self-evident connotative overtones are of chattel slavery and prostitution, in which human corporeality is exploited and personhood is devalued; in the quote below, the word hiding lends both its literal and figurative senses to the parsing: both literal skinning (of an animal) and also flogging and fleecing (of a person, that is, beating and robbing):
: 1867, Karl Marx, trans. Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, Capital, vol. 1 ch. 6:
:: [T]he possessor of labour-power follows […] , timid and holding back, like one who is bringing his own hide to market and has nothing to expect but — a hiding.

"[T]hou art a living passenger upon this earth, and must look out for thyself. Help yourself! Nobody forwards thee to thy destination; and we Germans have a proverb that comes near it in meaning: 'Each one must carry his own hide to market.'"

1869, Berthold Auerbach, chapter 8, in Charles C. Shackford, transl., The Country-house on the Rhine, page 223:

In this grandfatherly letter about my paternal grandfather, whom I never knew, let me end by offering you, as part of your heritage, this saying ascribed to my other grandfather, John Hoyer, whom I knew well, who watched me grow from infancy and who lived in good health until he was over ninety. You carry your own hide to market.

1989, John Updike, “A Letter to My Grandsons”, in Self-Consciousness: Memoirs, Random House, →ISBN:

Arnold said whoever was responsible for her sister's death eventually will face punishment. "I don't know why they did it to her," Arnold said. "But like I said, it's over with. But they've got to take their hide to market."

2010 March 30, “Murder charge filed in Roodhouse woman's death”, in The Telegraph, Alton, Illinois, retrieved 2019-05-02:

Avlon: Rudy Giuliani . . . made it really clear in sort of a fit of fatalism that he doesn't feel responsible for his legacy. And that's ultimately his choice. You take your own hide to market.

2019 January 22, “CNN Transcript, "State of the Union" broadcast”, in CNN.com, retrieved 2019-04-29:

(US, idiomatic, often in proverbial form) To create one's own fate, as a result of one's chosen character and actions; to experience the appropriate consequences of one's behavior.


liberty sandwich

en-noun

liberty sandwich (plural liberty sandwiches)

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

Coined during wartime because of antipathy toward the Germans and their language; see liberty cabbage.


hurricane party

hurricane party (plural hurricane parties)

(US) A social event in the coastal United States, held during a hurricane, where attendees bring supplies and stay with their host for several days.


West plea

Named after a seminal case involving plea bargains, People v. West (1970) 3 Cal.3d 595.

(US, California, law) A plea of nolo contendere.


Hollywood hustler

Hollywood hustler (plural Hollywood hustlers)

It was a strange, diverse city: one block would be filled with rednecks in pickup trucks, the next packed with Hollywood hustlers in silk shirts. The night was filled with prostitutes and faggots, oil executives, cops, Latinos, Ghetto blacks […]

1988, Richard Derby Reynolds, Cry for War: The Story of Suzan and Michael Carson, page 58:


deep background

(US, journalism) The status of information acquired from a source that may be used, but without either naming or directly quoting the source.


nigger stick

(US, slang, ethnic slur) A police officer's baton.


NODIS

(US, military) Abbreviation of no distribution: a document classification level.


LIMDIS

(US, military) Abbreviation of limited distribution: a document classification level.


EXDIS

(US, military) Abbreviation of exclusive distribution: a document classification level.


curb cut

Compound of curb + cut. Attested since the 1920s in the “vehicle access” sense.

Although currently mandated by accessibility related laws, curb cuts benefit not only wheelchair users, but also mothers with baby carriages, older adults with canes, and small children who have not learned to climb steps yet.

2004, Rosangela K. Boyd, Bonnie Moulton, “Universal design for online education: Access for all”, in Dominique Monolescu, Catherine Schifter, Linda Greenwood, editors, The Distance Education Evolution, page 69:

(US) A small ramp cut into a curb to allow wheelchairs, baby carriages, bicycles, etc. to more easily enter or leave a sidewalk.


japonicadom

From japonica + -dom. Coined by Nathaniel Parker Willis circa 1849 after the upper class’s then-penchant for wearing japonicas in their hair.

It is vain to attempt to describe a New York party within the limits of Japonicadom. Moustached German barons and French counts were there—some Hungarian adventurer trying to throw into his manner some air of Kossuth—a sparing mixture of literary celebrities, not more than one or two, mustn’t risk spoiling the stylish air of the party—ladies who carried on their persons far more than their husbands were really worth, if their accounts were settled and debts paid—an array of lovely girls such as only new York can boast—flippant youths who aspire to marry the fortunes that old men grasped so tightly—soul-ravishing music—costly flowers—lights—paintings—statuary—all were grouped together.

1854, Alice Gray, “Little Things”, in Peterson’s Magazine, volume 25, number 6, page 365:

Wall-street cannot pay its notes, and japonicadom must pawn its jewels for bread.

1858, Hiram Fuller, Belle Brittan on a Tour, At Newport, and Here and There, page 224:

The Patriarchs will open the ball season on Monday, when all Japonicadom will be supposed present.

1889 December 21, “Society Notes”, in The Amusement Bulletin, volume 1, number 12, page 12:


bootleg ground

From bootleg (“fake”) + ground (“earthing”).

(US) A type of false ground (earth) in electrical circuits, created by wiring the grounding circuit (green wire, bare copper wire) to the neutral circuit (cold wire, white wire).


spritz cookie

(US) A buttery German Christmas cookie made in various shapes by squirting the mixture through a press or a piping bag.


auto poker

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

(US) A game for passing the time during car journeys, in which the license plates of other vehicles are interpreted as hands of cards scored similarly to those in poker.


FLPB

foreign language
foreign language#English

(military, US) Initialism of foreign language proficiency bonus.


Coalition

Coalition of the Willing
coalition of the willing#English

(US, politics) Ellipsis of Coalition of the Willing.; The coalition of nations operating under United States command against Iraq, in the U.S.-Iraq War (Gulf War II; "Iraq War") and its aftermath.


calamity howler

calamity howler (plural calamity howlers)

(US, slang, dated) A person who makes dismal predictions about future catastrophe; a doomsayer.


make the dust fly

en-verb

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

makes the dust fly (present singular third-person)
making the dust fly (participle present)
made the dust fly (participle past)
made the dust fly (past)

(US, informal) To act very quickly or energetically.


trash pull

The independent evidence of Garmon's knowledge and ability to control it included the suspicious activity noted by Detective Baker in his surveillance and trash pull, the presence of the scale and plastic baggies in plain view in a bedroom, […]

2001, West's Southern Reporter, page 47:

His track record as a snitch was good enough to get a search warrant from a judge, after some time was spent convincing him that I, as a government agent, didn't solicit the trash-pull.

2011, Bob Hartman, Inside DEA: Operation Snowcap, page 34:

However, a single trash pull is rarely sufficient to justify a legally valid search warrant.

2012, Christine Hess Orthmann, Kären M. Hess, Criminal Investigation, page 113:

(US) A covert investigation by the police of a person's refuse when it has been placed outside the curtilage of their home.


incontinent ordinance

en-noun

incontinent ordinance (countable and uncountable, plural incontinent ordinances)

(US, military) Bombs or missiles that inadvertently strike friendly forces or sites.


free-willer

free-willers (plural)
free willer (alternative)

1770, William Eddis, letter dated 20 September, 1770 in Letters from America, Historical and Descriptive, comprising occurrences from 1769, to 1777, inclusive, London: for the author, 1792, pp. 63-64,
Persons in a state of servitude are under four distinct denominations: negroes, who are the entire property of their respective owners: convicts, who are transported from the mother country for a limited term: indented servants, who are engaged for five years previous to their leaving England; and free-willers, who are supposed, from their situation, to possess superior advantages.

There were two kinds of redemptioners—‘indented servants,’ who had bound themselves to their masters for a term of years previous to leaving Europe, and ‘free-willers,’ who allowed themselves to be sold on arrival to defray the cost of passage to America.

1887, Francis Fontaine, chapter 41, in Etowah: A Romance of the Confederacy, Atlanta, page 483:

1889, Andrew D. Mellick Jr., Story of an Old Farm or Life in New Jersey in the Eighteenth Century, Somerville, NJ: The Unionist-Gazette, Chapter 11, p. 150,
Alas! the “free-willers,” with rare exceptions, had a rude awakening on reaching the colonies. Under their agreements, the captains had a legal lien on the persons of the immigrants until the ship charges were paid; consequently they were not allowed to go on shore, but were exposed to view on deck to the people who came on board in search of servants.

Indentured service continued through the 18th and into the 19th century. In fact there was not appreciable decline in the number of German “free-willers” who entered Maryland until after 1817, when legislation protecting the servants made the trade unprofitable for the shipmasters.

1921, Paul H. Douglas, American Apprenticeship and Industrial Education, New York: Columbia University, Part 1, Chapter 2, pp. 36-37:

(historical, US) An immigrant to the United States who, upon arrival, voluntarily became an indentured servant.


pretty as a speckled pup

en-adj

pretty as a speckled pup (not comparable)


freedom gas

Blend of freedom + natural gas. Coined by the U.S. Department of Energy in or around May 2019. Compare freedom fries.

Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy.

2019 May 28, [US] Department of Energy, “Department of Energy Authorizes Additional LNG Exports from Freeport LNG”, in Energy.gov:

“Freedom gas? Freedom is generally good, but freedom from glaciers, freedom from clean air, freedom from healthy forests that aren't on fire, and freedom from the world we know and cherish is not what we seek,” Inslee said in a Twitter post.

2019 May 29, Josh Siegel, quoting Jay Inslee, “Trump administration boasts of promoting 'freedom gas' and 'freedom molecules'”, in Washington Examiner:

Touted as “freedom gas” by the Donald Trump administration, LNG has quickly turned into a major export commodity for U.S. energy companies.

2020 January 27, Irina Slav, “The True Cost Of ‘Freedom Gas’”, in Oilprice.com:

Remember “freedom gas?” U.S. drillers facing a yearslong glut at home relished the opportunity to export the heating and generation fuel, but the global pandemic’s effect on demand is punishing them.

2020 June 4, Jinjoo Lee, “America’s Natural-Gas Woes Are Imported”, in Wall Street Journal:

liquefied natural gas
liquefied natural gas#English

(US, politics) Exported natural gas, particularly liquefied natural gas (“LNG”), from the United States.


exvangelical

exvangelicals (plural)
ex-vangelical (alternative)


exvangelical

(US, informal) Formerly evangelical, having left evangelicalism.


backskin

(US) A leather covering worn by miners in wet conditions


MMIWG

(Canada, US, politics, crime) Abbreviation of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

FFADA (Enquête nationale sur les femmes et les filles autochtones disparues et assassinées)

FFADA (les femmes et les filles autochtones disparues et assassinées)


torpedo juice

(US, military, slang) An alcoholic beverage, first mixed in World War II, made from pineapple juice and the 180-proof grain alcohol fuel used in torpedo motors.


flying jenny

flying jennies (plural)
flying ginny (alternative)

(US, regional) roundabout; merry-go-round


taskable

1789, record of sale of enslaved people by Thomas Washington, cited in Philip D. Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998, Part 1, Chapter 3, p. 198, footnote 85,
[The 16-year-old boy has] been taskable these 3 years past.

1796, court record, Neufville v. Mitchell, 1 Desaussure 480, South Carolina, cited in Helen Tunnicliff Catterall (ed.), Judicial Cases concerning American Slavery and the Negro, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1929, pp. 277-278,
defendant […] states […] many of them were diseased and not taskable;

1813, Bahama Gazette, 19 December, 1813, cited in Howard Johnson, The Bahamas from Slavery to Servitude, 1783-1933, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, p. 29,
to oblige Planters to plant a certain quantity of Provisions to each taskable Negro

(US, obsolete, historical) (of an enslaved person held on a plantation) Considered to be capable of performing labour, especially field labour.


taskable

Those [slaves] actually in the field were 44 taskables, while the remaining 13½ were employed as cart drivers, nurses, cooks for the negroes, carpenters, gardeners, house servants and stock minders […].

1829, Basil Hall, chapter 18, in Travels in North America, volume 2, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, page 229:

[…] the whole labour of the 122 slaves maintained, does not exceed that which would be obtained from the employment of fifty-seven and a half able bodied labourers, or, in the language of the country, taskables.

1833, George Richardson Porter, The Tropical Agriculturalist,, London: Smith, Elder, page 40:

1937, Guion Griffis Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina, Chapel Hill, p. 83, cited in Melville Herskovits, The Myth of the Negro Past, Boston: Harper, 1941, Chapter 5, p. 128,
The very young and the old were usually engaged in the house, while the full “taskables” were more profitably employed in the field.

A listing of an early-nineteenth-century Lowcountry estate revealed but one driver for 104 slaves (or forty-five taskables), and he was both an old man and a mere half-hand.

1998, Philip D. Morgan, Slave Counterpoint, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Part 1, Chapter 4, p. 222:

(US, obsolete, historical) On a plantation exploiting an enslaved labour force, a person considered to be capable of performing labour, especially field labour.


Michiganer

United States of America
United States of America

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


food pantry

(Canada, US) A small front-line agency that hands out packages of food from food banks directly to people in need.


food closet

(Canada, US) Synonym of food pantry (“agency that hands out food to people in need”)


bullgine

bullgines (plural)
bulgine (alternative)

Undoubtedly they were leaning far out of the windows, peering for signals, in momentary relaxation from the strain of nursing the slipping "bullgines" up the hill.

1929, The Conductor and Brakeman, volumes 46-47, page 425:

(US, slang, obsolete) A steam locomotive.


cherch

en-verb

cherch (third-person singular simple present cherches, present participle cherching, simple past and past participle cherched)

cherches (present singular third-person)
cherching (participle present)
cherched (participle past)
cherched (past)

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

(US military slang, World War I) To scrounge, to obtain in an unintended fashion, to scrape together.


guyascutus

guyascutuses (plural)
guyascutis (alternative)
gyascutus (alternative)
guyanosa (alternative)

Agassis has raised, they say, over a million, for his great work on natural philosophy—but what catalogue of snakes, bugs, lame ducks, and guyascutuses, can be compared to a philosophy of female fascinations.

1858, George R. Graham, Graham's Illustrated Magazine of Literature, Romance, Art, and Fashion:

The story of the guyanosa or guyascutus (see Knickerbocker Mag. XXVIII. 36-38 and Harper's Mag. VII. 708-709) tells of somesharpers who sold tickets to the public to see this strange and savage animal.

1951, Mitford McLeod Mathews, A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles:

One person says that there is more to it: "The guyascutus Ieadeth the wangdoodle wheresoever he willeth."

1953, New York Folklore Quarterly - Volume 9, page 75:

The sky was filled with steam; a horrible outcry arose, and the shape of the Guyascutus became dimly visible.

1968, Albert Raymond Kitzhaber, Language/Rhetoric:

The guyascutus was a ferocious, man-eating beast which, after much fanfare and sensational publicity, was exhibited in small antebellum Southern towns.

1979, American Humor - Volume 6, page 15:

No matter the appearance of the chimerical guyascutus what remained consistent was the legs on one side of its body were shorter than the others but had the ability to telescope to a desired length; by use of these unique legs and its prehensile tail the guyascutus was said to be able to maneuver about the steeply sloped mountains with ease.

2016, Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, →ISBN, page 147:

(US) An imaginary four-legged monster of varying descriptions, usually with two legs on one side of its body longer than the two on the other.


deorganize

deorganize (third-person singular simple present deorganizes, present participle deorganizing, simple past and past participle deorganized)

deorganizes (present singular third-person)
deorganizing (participle present)
deorganized (participle past)
deorganized (past)


dog tent

Compound of dog + tent, for its resemblance to a kennel. Attested from the middle 19th century.

The men now had their rifles and 100 rounds of ammunition, one blanket, one shelter-half (one-half a dog tent), one rubber poncho, one coffee-tin, one knife, fork, and spoon, one tin cooking-pan and cover, one canteen and haversack containing three day’s provisions

1898, T.P. Conneff, “Campaigning with the 12th U.S. Infantry”, in The Holy Cross Purple, volume 7, page 72:

Under best circumstances, the shelter tent, also called a "dog" tent, afforded only minimal protection to its inhabitants

1982, Dean Nelson, “‘Right Nice Little House[s]’: Impermanent Camp Architecture of the American Civil War”, in Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, volume 1, →DOI, page 80:

(originally US, military slang, historical) A small shelter tent, especially a tent composed of two shelter-halves.


SOCE

(6) The Commission shall ensure the security of the test site for the SOCE by prohibiting applicants from signing in to the ...

(US, Florida) Initialism of State Officer Certification Exam.


haul tail

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

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


NEX

I'm going to the NEX to do my Christmas shopping.

(military, US) Abbreviation of Navy Exchange, a department-store chain operated by the United States Navy exclusively for the military and their families, allies, and certain other individuals.


I declare

Well, I declare, I have all along thought you would object, and that's the reason I've been afraid to ask you.


giggit

giggit (third-person singular simple present giggits, present participle giggiting, simple past and past participle giggited)

giggits (present singular third-person)
giggiting (participle present)
giggited (participle past)
giggited (past)

Ever since he nearly like to have got her eat up by sharks, by giggiting her off in the boat out to sea when she wa' n't more 'n three years old […]

1861, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Pearl of Orr's Island: A Story of the Coast of Maine, page 352:

(US, ambitransitive) To convey or move rapidly.


bucket of blood

en-noun

bucket of blood (plural buckets of blood)

At the Bluetick Tavern, a bucket of blood hangout on the outskirts of Little Black Water, a haze of smoke clung to the ceiling joists.

2015, Ken R. Abell, Nightmares of Terror, page 108:

(US, slang) A rough, crudely furnished bar where fights may be expected.


microradio

Attendees at Pearl Jam concerts are encouraged to tune to the station before and after the show, and fans who were unable to get or afford concert tickets can still hear Pearl Jam concerts over the microradio station.

1999, Lawrence C. Soley, Free Radio: Electronic Civil Disobedience, page 104:

The microradio advocates argue that the U.S. Constitution allows the federal government to regulate interstate commerce and it can make treatise with other nations, but the federal government cannot interfere in this right of people to communicate at a local level.

2000, Carla B. Johnston, Screened Out: How the Media Control Us and What We Can Do About it, →ISBN:

In fact, the FCC's cautious microradio engineering plan was taken from a plan that had been successfully developed by commercial broadcasters themselves in the early 1990s to put more stations on the air.

2011, Robert W. McChesney, John Nichols, Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle against Corporate Media, →ISBN:

(US) The use of low-power community-based noncommercial FM radio stations broadcasting to a range of approximately 10 miles or less.


adjunct professor

adjunct professor (plural adjunct professors)

(US, education) A college professor who is employed part-time or for a limited time, is junior to a full professor, or is otherwise not eligible for tenure.


blue streak

From the afterimage of a stroke of lightning, which looks like a blue streak across the sky.

to talk a blue streak

interspersing his vehement comments with a ‘blue streak’ of oaths

He calmly lied to me a blue streak, and he knew that I knew he was lying

1895 September, The Century Magazine, page 676:

This old maid, she had a parrot that cursed a blue streak and knew more vulgar expressions than Mr. Kowalski.

1951, Tennessee Williams, Oscar Saul, A Streetcar Named Desire, spoken by Blanche (Vivien Leigh):

If you leave your dog alone in your backyard for hours at a time, he may be barking a blue streak, too.

2007, Sue Owens Wright, 150 Activities For Bored Dogs:

(informal, originally US) A great deal of fast talking, cursing, lying, or similar.


ad-seg

I'm now in AdSeg because I beat those idiots in court and they are hopping mad.

1986 April 19, Gene Munnings, “Maryland Area Readers and Lawyers: N.B.!”, in Gay Community News, page 4:

administrative segregation
administrative segregation#English

solitary confinement
solitary confinement

(Canada, US) Abbreviation of administrative segregation: solitary confinement in prison.


Baby Moses law

A reference to the Biblical story, related in Exodus chapter 2, in which the baby Moses is abandoned by the river Nile and found by the pharaoh's daughter.

(US) A statute that decriminalizes the leaving of (unharmed) infants with certain designated private persons so that they become wards of the state.


revenue ensign

It may not be generally known, that revenue ensigns have a crown and star in the fly, to distinguish them from those worn by vessels under the orders of the Admiralty.

1846, James Lindridge, Tales of Shipwrecks and Adventures at Sea:

(US, historical) The flag of the United States Customs Service.


Locofoco

From locofoco (“a match”); the term originated when a group of New York Jacksonians used such matches to light candles to continue a political meeting after Tammany men tried to break up the meeting by turning off the gaslights.

(US, politics, historical) A member of a faction of the US Democratic Party in the early 1800s, formed in New York City as a protest against that city's regular Democratic organization, Tammany Hall.


this'n

(slang, West Country, US regional) this one.


that'n

(slang, West Country, US regional) that one.


Guat

(informal, Belize, US, ethnic slur) A Guatemalan.


mommylike

en-adj

mommylike (comparative more mommylike, superlative most mommylike)

more mommylike (comparative)
most mommylike (superlative)

(Canada, US, informal) Characteristic of a mother; maternal.


way-baggage

(US, archaic) Baggage to be dropped off at a way station, not taken to the terminal point of the journey.


way-train

(US) A train stopping at most of the stations on a line.


Joe Blow

(US, Canada, Australia) Synonym of Joe Bloggs.


Hanoi Hilton

From Hanoi + Hilton.
An alliterative construction, pairing the location Hanoi (metonymically referring to North Vietnam) with a word referring to lodgings. An ironic reference to the Hilton chain of luxury hotels.

The Hilton Hanoi Opera hotel has opened, a few blocks from Hoa Lo, the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” where American prisoners were held during the Vietnam War. (The few remaining cells of that prison have been preserved as a museum.)

1999 May 30, Luba Vangelova, “From the Hanoi Hilton To the Hilton Hanoi”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

prisoners of war
prisoner of war#English

(US, military, slang, historical) Hỏa Lò Prison in Vietnam, where prisoners of war were held.


bullcrud

(Canada, US, euphemistic) Bullshit; bullcrap.


shvartze

shvartze (plural)
shvartzes (plural)
schvartze (alternative)
schwartza (alternative)
shvartzer (alternative)
shvartser (alternative)

Borrowed from Yiddish שוואַרצע (shvartse), feminine and plural form of שוואַרץ (shvarts, “black”). The feminine form may have been generalized from the use of the term to refer to a female domestic worker. Doublet of swart.

[…] she irons better even than the schvartze,

1969, Philip Roth, “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Met”, in Portnoy’s Complaint, New York: Vintage, published 1994, page 12:

1975, Robert Greenfield, The Spiritual Supermarket, New York: Saturday Review Press / E. P. Dutton & Co., p. 6,
From the rabbi to the “shvartze,” the black man who turned on the synagogue’s lights on Saturdays, he was liked.

1988, Leon Uris, Mitla Pass, New York: Doubleday, Part 3, “Baltimore 1902-1913,” p. 270,
[…] they were able to afford a full-time shvartze to keep the house.

Jesse Jackson cracks a joke about Hymietown and everybody has a fit, but I’ve heard you call them shvartzes, and I’ll bet had your daughter married one you wouldn’t have cracked open a bottle of champagne.

1997, Mordecai Richler, “The Second Mrs. Panofsky”, in Barney’s Version, New York: Knopf, Part 10, p. 213:

‘We don’t have enough problems among the Jews, he has to go take on the problems of the shvartze?’

2006, Melissa Fay Greene, chapter 6, in The Temple Bombing, Cambridge: MA: Da Capo, page 139:

(chiefly US, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of sub-Saharan African descent; a black person.


shvartze

schvartze (alternative)
schwartza (alternative)
shvartzer (alternative)
shvartser (alternative)

There was a shvartze wedding next door and something else too . . . some anniversary party.

1983, Richard Price, The Breaks, New York: Simon & Schuster, Part 1, p. 98:

2012, Steve Stern, “The Tale of a Kite” in The Book of Mischief, Minneapolis: Graywolf Fress, p. 9,
Ordinarily Boss Crump and his entourage […] like to tour the individual shops, receiving the tributes his shvartze valet shleps out to a waiting limousine.

(chiefly US, offensive, ethnic slur) Of sub-Saharan African descent; of or pertaining to people of sub-Saharan African descent; black.


schwartza

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


shvartzer

Borrowed from Yiddish שוואַרצער (shvartser), nominative masculine singular form of שוואַרץ (shvarts, “black”).

I liked the secret disgrace of running with shvartzers, of having forbidden friends, if that’s what you want to call them.

1991, Steve Stern, chapter 7, in Harry Kaplan’s Adventures Underground, New York: Ticknor & Fields, pages 123–124:

You go to Israel and you come back looking like a shvartzer and talking like Hitler.

2011, Howard Jacobson, The Mighty Walzer, New York: Bloomsbury, Book 3, Chapter 2, p. 249:

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


shvartzer

The store’s right in the heart of the shvartzer area.

1971, Victor Wartofsky, Meeting the Pieman, New York: John Day, Chapter , p. 21:


shvantz

shvantzes (plural)
schwantz (alternative)

Borrowed from Yiddish שוואַנץ (shvants, “tail, penis”).

bor

He flashed his shvantz from his balcony.

2004, James Ellroy, “Stephanie”, in Destination: Morgue!, New York: Vintage, page 58:

Down the aisle from me a fellow-addict fifty years my senior is dropping his load in his hat. His hat, Doctor! Oy, I’m sick. I want to cry. Not into your hat, you shvantz, you got to put that thing on your head!

1969, Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint, New York: Vintage, published 1994, page 132:

(chiefly US, slang, derogatory) A useless person.


beefpacking

(US) The work of a slaughterhouse when dealing with beef carcasses


productionization

(US) Alternative spelling of productionisation


gray literature

(chiefly US) Alternative spelling of grey literature


MBC

(scouting, US) Initialism of merit badge counselor.


nullificationist

(US, politics) One who believes that individual states of the United States should be able to exempt themselves selectively from federal laws.


stack talk

(slang, railfans, US) The sound made by the exhaust of a steam locomotive.


topcode

(US) An upper income threshold beyond which census responses are censored, to prevent very wealthy individuals from being identified by their income.


topcode

en-verb

topcode (third-person singular simple present topcodes, present participle topcoding, simple past and past participle topcoded)

topcodes (present singular third-person)
topcoding (participle present)
topcoded (participle past)
topcoded (past)

(US, transitive) To censor a census response in this way.


dish soap

en-noun

dish soap (countable and uncountable, plural dish soaps)

dish soaps (plural)
dishsoap (alternative)

washing-up liquid
washing-up liquid#English


IARD

Immediate Action Rapid Deployment
w:Immediate Action Rapid Deployment

(US) Initialism of Immediate Action Rapid Deployment.


CIRG

Critical Incident Response Group
w:Critical Incident Response Group

(US) Initialism of Critical Incident Response Group.


let George do it

Sometimes explained as derived from French laissez faire à Georges, a satirical reference to the multiform activities of Cardinal Georges d'Amboise (1460–1510), but this is unlikely. Alternatively explained as a reference to Pullman porters, who were generically known as George.

(dated, US) Let someone else incur the cost of achieving the shared benefit.


dollar van

From their usual fare in the late 20th century.

Easy transfer there to a dollar van that’s cruising for a pickup.

2022, N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make, Orbit, page 43:

(US) Synonym of shared taxi or shuttle bus, especially a van or minibus operated as a taxi or shuttle bus for a usual fee of one US dollar.


armchair quarterback

armchair quarterback (plural armchair quarterbacks)

My dad is such an armchair quarterback; he recognizes every bad decision the coach makes as soon as the play is over and he knows whether or not it worked.

To turn an armchair quarterback into a triple-threat man, just ask him to rake the leaves. He'll put up a terrific kick, pass the buck to his kids, and put up a long run.

1959 Oct, “Notes on these changing times”, in Herbert L. Brown, Jr., editor, The Kiplinger Magazine: Changing Times, volume 13, number 10, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc., page 2:

(colloquial, idiomatic, chiefly US) A person who watches sports on television, typically American football, who often verbally suggests plays or critiques the players and coaches.

(figurative, colloquial, idiomatic, chiefly US) A person who criticizes something in which they are not involved and lack expertise.


orientee

From orient (“to bring into alignment; to train”) + -ee (“forming passive agent nouns”).

suffix

(US, especially medicine) Synonym of trainee: a new employee undergoing a probation period of training and evaluation ("orientation").


make garden

en-verb

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

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

As the spring advanced, and after Jacob left us, he seemed ashamed of sitting in the house doing nothing, and therefore undertook to make us a garden, or “to make garden” as the Canadians term preparing a few vegetables for the season.

1852, Susanna Moodie, chapter 8, in Roughing it in the Bush; or, Life in Canada, volume 2, London: Richard Bentley, page 142:

“Can you take care of horses?”
“Yes.”
“Make garden?”
“Yes—I always took care of mother’s.”

1877, John Habberton, chapter 3, in The Jericho Road; A Story of Western Life, Chicago: Jansen, McClurg, page 32:

[…] Ántonia and her mother were making garden, off across the pond in the draw-head.

1918, Willa Cather, chapter 18, in My Ántonia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 146:

Crossing a ridge, he was happy to see that Miz’ Doanie and her three children were all out making garden.

1955, Julia Montgomery Street, chapter 8, in Fiddler’s Fancy, New York: Follett, page 67:

In the other century, and for a considerable number of years in this one, the solid citizenry of the town prided itself on home ownership [...]. One got a little place, planted a couple of fruit trees and a currant bush out back, made garden, seeded a lawn, and put a standing lamp on a center table in the living room.

1972, Henry W. Clune, chapter 12, in The Rochester I Know, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 163:

(idiomatic, dated, US, Canada) To plant or maintain a garden, especially a vegetable garden.


stink a dog off a gut wagon

stink<,,stank,stunk> a dog off a gut wagon

stink a dog off a gut wagon (third-person singular simple present stinks a dog off a gut wagon, present participle stinking a dog off a gut wagon, simple past stank a dog off a gut wagon, past participle stunk a dog off a gut wagon)

stinks a dog off a gut wagon (present singular third-person)
stinking a dog off a gut wagon (participle present)
stank a dog off a gut wagon (past)
stunk a dog off a gut wagon (participle past)
gag a buzzard off a gut wagon (alternative)
gag a dog off a gut wagon (alternative)
knock a buzzard off a gut wagon (alternative)
knock a buzzard off a shit wagon (alternative)
knock a dog off a gut wagon (alternative)
knock a skunk off a gut wagon (alternative)
stink a buzzard off a gut wagon (alternative)
stink a skunk off a gut wagon (alternative)

(US, colloquial) To smell extremely bad.


workamping

(US) The practice of combining part-time or full-time paid or volunteer work with RV or tent camping.


space program

US standard spelling of space programme.


impact aid

(US, economics) Money provided by the government to school districts that have lost property tax revenue due to the presence of tax-exempt Federal property, or have experienced increased expenditure due to the enrollment of federally connected children, including children living on Native American lands.


impact area

(US, economics) A region that is eligible to receive impact aid funding.


elder-blow

en-noun

elder-blow (countable and uncountable, plural elder-blows)

1838, Lydia Maria Child, The American Frugal Housewife, New York: Samuel S. & William Wood, 22nd edition, enlarged, p. 27,
A poultice of elder-blow tea and biscuit is good as a preventive to mortification.

I wouldn’t tech it sooner a cow’d eat elder blows.

1845, Sylvester Judd, Margaret, Boston: Jordan and Wiley, Part 2, Chapter 5, p. 274:

What are his [the writer’s] garland and singing robes? What but a sensibility so keen that the scent of an elder-blow, or the timber-yard and corporation-works of a nest of pismires is event enough for him,—all emblems and personal appeals to him.

1876, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Poetry and Imagination”, in Letters and Social Aims, Boston: James R. Osgood, page 33:

[…] the long highway broidered thick
With elder-blow and rose;

1893, Louise Imogen Guiney, “Peter Rugg the Bostonian”, in A Roadside Harp,, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 2:

[…] the elder was all in bloom now; and Anna wanted to make elder-blow wine.

1918, Willa Cather, chapter 14, in My Antonia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 265:

Elderflowers glow like incandescent seafoam in the darkness. They, too, are good to eat. We make a fine tea of them to serve with elder blow fritters on the deck at night.

1989, Cathy Johnson, The Nocturnal Naturalist: Exploring the Outdoors at Night, Chester, CT: Globe Pequot Press, page 42:

Sambucus nigra
Sambucus nigra#Translingual

(US) The edible flower clusters (umbels) of the elder tree (Sambucus nigra).


saddler sergeant

saddler sergeant (plural saddler sergeants)

(US, military, historical) A non-commissioned staff officer of a cavalry regiment.


take a walkout powder

en-verb

take a walkout powder (third-person singular simple present takes a walkout powder, present participle taking a walkout powder, simple past took a walkout powder, past participle taken a walkout powder)

takes a walkout powder (present singular third-person)
taking a walkout powder (participle present)
took a walkout powder (past)
taken a walkout powder (participle past)

(US, slang) Synonym of take a powder (“depart in a hurry”)


asslessness

(Canada, US, slang) The quality of being assless.


checklessness

(US) Absence of checks (financial instruments).


iceboxful

An iceboxful of ideas for super new shapes and scrumptious sauces

1989, Ladies' Home Journal - Volume 106, page 36:

Once a year he would have a stag session with two or three men friends— a short vacation in which they would simply move into one or another of their homes (generally 630 Runnymede) for two or three days and play golf by day and cards by night, and get through an iceboxful of Pabst.

1980, Anthony Bailey, America, lost & found, page 124:

Sarah's ma fat-faced cousin Mary with the crinkly brown wig mumbled that her daughter had to cook French toast for lunch on the Sabbath with an iceboxful of things to eat.

1980, Eliot Wagner, My America!, page 54:


home rule class

(US, often used attributively) One of two classes of cities in the U.S. state of Kentucky, with cities under this class practicing home rule.


arabber

(historical, US) A fruit and vegetable hawker with a colorful horse-drawn cart.


short bit

With the adoption of decimal US currency in 1794, there was no longer a US coin worth one eighth of a dollar, but two bits retained the meaning of one quarter dollar. Because there was no one-bit coin, a dime (10¢) was sometimes called a short bit and 15¢ a long bit.

(US, historical) The monetary amount of ten cents.


long bit

(US, historical) The monetary amount of fifteen cents.


grown-ass

They call it a sport, but to me it looks like a bunch of grown-ass men running around like children.

Your mother is a grown-ass woman, and if she doesn't like you living your life for yourself rather than her, she can deal with it.

I am 35 years old, I am a grown-ass adult, and I am capable of choosing the right job myself, thank you very much.

(US, slang, vulgar) grown-up; adult; often used in reproach of an adult's immaturity, or, conversely, in assertion of maturity.


danceline

dancelines (plural)
dance line (alternative)

Her ultimate goal was to be the first heavy girl to ever be on the danceline at Alexander Senior High. She secretly wanted to sabotage the typical tall, thin, and gorgeous stereotype of the superficial dance team member.

(US) A troupe of dancers, especially cheerleaders


quarter-eater

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

From quarter (“25-cent coin”); the machine would be repeatedly "fed" with these coins to continue a game.

(US, informal, video games) A coin-operated arcade game.


gypsy truck

So he takes the profit, which is the difference between the regulated transportation and the rate he has been able to pay to that gypsy truck.

1950, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interstate and Foerign Commerce, Study of Domestic Land and Water Transportation:

At a private dock not long ago a “gypsy” truck from Maryland had come in with 60 barrels of pickles—a 20-minute job to roll out on the platform.

1954, Investigation of Racketeering in the Cleveland, Ohio, Area, page 212:

It is usually the gypsy truck piloted by a non-union driver who races the roads in a desperate effort to make a connection ahead of the competition.

1977, The International Teamster - Volumes 74-75, page 20:

(colloquial, US, sometimes offensive) A freelance truck.


linguistic anthropology

en-noun

linguistic anthropology (usually uncountable, plural linguistic anthropologies)

Compound of linguistic + anthropology. Attested from the 19th century.

Linguistic anthropology is the study of language, first in its origin, as the medium of communicating thought, emotion and volition.

1881, Otis T. Mason, “Progress of Anthropology in America during the year 1880”, in The American Naturalist, page 621:

Additionally, linguistic anthropology is one of the four subfields of anthropology, so my linganth tribe’s work overlaps, unsurprisingly, with the work of archaeologists, biological anthropologists, and, especially, social and cultural anthropologists

2017, James Wilce, Culture and Communication, page xvi:

(anthropology, originally and chiefly US) The branch of anthropology that studies language and language use.


penalty envelope

penalty envelope (plural penalty envelopes)

The voter should take their absentee ballot to a post office, ask for a penalty envelope and mail it with the ballot inside.

(US) An envelope whose mailing for an authorized purpose does not requiring postage, while its unauthorized use may be penalized.


furtaking

(US, especially Pennsylvania) hunting for pelts


furtaker

(US) A hunter who goes in search of pelts.


wooden nickel

His patients, on the other hand, were precisely such people as recognized that without self-understanding, without direction, without health of the inner as of the outer man, life was not worth a wooden nickel.

1961, Clara Winston, The Hours Together: A Novel, page 31:

Renounce all personal pleasures and personal profit. It is all just pennies—or, as my young friend Julia would say, it's a wooden nickel.

1981, The Little Lamp - Volumes 21-23, page 57:

I wouldn't be in your shoes for a wooden nickel.

Captain sure knew he was taking on two inexperienced greenhorns to round out the ship's full complement of eighteen men, officers and able seamen, and it wasn't costing him so much as a wooden nickel.

2014, John B. Severance, Fortune Found, page 105:

I think of Grandpa and Dad, who always asked us if we were having a silver dollar day or a wooden nickel one.

2015, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Fish in a Tree, page 24:

(US, banking) The smallest amount of money imaginable.


Bess bug

(US) Any of various beetles of the family Passalidae.


Bess beetle

(US) Any member of the family Passalidae of beetles.


track pizza

(rail transport, slang, US) A person hit by a train after jumping or falling in front of it.


private bill

The Senate to-day passed upwards of fifty private bills, and the House quite as many. None of them, however, were of much magnitude.

1860 April 7, “From Washington”, in The New York Times:

A similar bill was passed in 2012 to give permanent residency to a Nigerian student who sought to pursue a medical degree and continue receiving treatment for a rare genetic disorder that caused large facial tumors. It was the last time a “private bill” became law.

2017 July 11, Emily Cochrane, “Lawmakers Push to Give Terminally Ill British Baby U.S. Residency”, in The New York Times:

(government, US) An item of legislation for the benefit of a particular individual, not codified with generally applicable laws.


sixtel

(US, beer) A keg that is one sixth of a barrel (5 1⁄6 gallons).


signal bridge

(rail transport, US) A structure built over railroad tracks on which signals are mounted.


tiger tail

From the resemblance to a tiger's striped coat.

Children's flavors, such as bubble gum, tiger tail (orange ice cream with black licorice, or banana ice cream with chocolate ripple), or cotton candy, can also be found in many flavor presentations.

2013, H Douglas Goff, Richard W Hartel, Ice cream, 7th edition, page 89:

"There's strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, maple walnut, and tiger tail."

2017, Jen Gilroy, Summer on Firefly Lake:

Tiger tail, the blend of orange and licorice that appears to be uniquely Canadian, isn't a big seller.

2017, Ian Austen, Canada Letter: Ice Cream Revival and Cross-border Trade Anxiety:

(Canada, US) An orange-flavoured ice cream with black licorice swirl.


cracker-barrel

en-adj

cracker-barrel (comparative more cracker-barrel, superlative most cracker-barrel)

more cracker-barrel (comparative)
most cracker-barrel (superlative)
crackerbarrel (alternative)
cracker barrel (alternative)

Attributive form of cracker barrel. From the image of a group of locals sitting around the cracker barrel in a general store talking together.

Robert Frost was a nice old New England guy with a lot of cracker-barrel wisdom that the government, somehow or other, saw fit to honor because he read a poem, or something, at the Kennedy inaugural.

2004, James Dickey, Donald J. Greiner, Classes on Modern Poets and the Art of Poetry, page 123:

One can love these moments, can cherish their invocation of the American sublime (though Wright's notion of the sublime seems closer to the lurid paintings of Bierstadt than to Whitman), and yet dislike the cracker-barrel philosophizing in which they're embedded.

2009, William Logan, Our Savage Art: Poetry and the Civil Tongue, page 266:

The elaboration of this Donne-like metaphysical simile leads her to a cautionary conclusion, which has been praised for nearly a century for its profundity cast in the cracker-barrel tone of the “Down East” porch philosopher: "And he whose soul is flat — the sky/Will cave in on him by and by."

2014, Daniel Mark Epstein, What Lips My Lips Have Kissed:

“If there is such a thing as a cracker-barrel philosopher left in our century, Mr. Golden has earned the title,” declared the New York Times.

2015, Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett, Carolina Israelite, page 144:

(US) Folksy; characteristic of simple small-town people.


Filipinx

The gender-neutral suffix -x replaces the gendered suffixes -a and -o of Filipina and Filipino, which are from Spanish filipina and Spanish filipino, both from Spanish Filipinas (“Philippines”), from Felipe II de España (“Philip II of Spain”), from Felipe (“Philip”).

-a-o-x

(US, neologism) A Filipina or Filipino (of any gender).


tiger tiger

Originally a brand name, presumably inspired by William Blake's 1794 poem The Tyger, which begins: "Tyger Tyger, burning bright".

It was ice cream heaven. "I'd recommend Tiger, Tiger," he said. "It's the perfect taste for this kind of day."

Tommy walked alone beside the river, ate a screaming-hot burrito from a truck in the park and then cooled his mouth with a tiger-tiger ice-cream cone from a fifties-style diner on Main Street.

2009, Anita Daher, On the Trail of the Bushman, page 22:

(Canada, US) Synonym of tiger tail (“ice-cream flavor”)


give someone the arm

en-verb

give someone the arm (third-person singular simple present gives someone the arm, present participle giving someone the arm, simple past gave someone the arm, past participle given someone the arm)

gives someone the arm (present singular third-person)
giving someone the arm (participle present)
gave someone the arm (past)
given someone the arm (participle past)

Pentangeli walks out of the restaurant; there's a little tension between the bodyguards of the two factions.
ROSATO (O.S.) Hey, Five-Angels...
He gives him the arm.
Frankie's face turns red, like he wants to have it out here and now; but Willy Cicci calms his down, and they all make their move out.

1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)

(US, informal) To direct the bras d'honneur (obscene gesture) at someone.


USMB

United States Metric Board
w:United States Metric Board

(US, historical) Initialism of United States Metric Board.


do you need to use the bathroom

(chiefly US, South Africa, Canada, euphemistic, interrogative) Used to ask if one's interlocutor needs to urinate or defecate.


rope and choke

(US, naval slang) The measurement of a person's body fat, by means of a measuring tape around parts of the body, to determine whether they meet physical fitness standards for service.


topnotcher

topnotchers (plural)
tapnatser (alternative)

(Philippines, dated in the US) Alternative form of top-notcher


couple three

So he brought in a full quart of whiskey, poured part of it out, left a couple, three inches left in the bottle.

1976, Mendocino County Remembered: An Oral History, Mendocino County Historical Society:

I figure we might make it to the bed--if you're set on being traditional--in a couple, three hours.

One day not met, yet, nor even on that street alone has been sighted, then a couple three days later after the fullness of fades, they go.

Then why don't you let me take the paper over for a couple-three days and ask Avis to finish the job?

General Chalmers is camped a couple-three miles in back of us.

Cops picked her up at the Greyhound station a couple-three winters ago, shivering, hungry, dirty as a gutter rat.

(colloquial, US) Two or three or a similarly small number of.


think<,,thought> the sun shines<shines,shines,shone:shined> out of someone's ass

think the sun shines out of someone's ass (third-person singular simple present thinks the sun shines out of someone's ass, present participle thinking the sun shines out of someone's ass, simple past and past participle thought the sun shone out of someone's ass or thought the sun shined out of someone's ass)

think the sun shines out of someone's arse#English

(US) Alternative spelling of think the sun shines out of someone's arse


green carder

green carders (plural)
green-carder (alternative)
greencarder (alternative)

The problem of the green carder is not confined to the border area, or to the green-card commuter.

1969, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education and Labor. Special Subcommittee on Labor, Employment of "green Card" Aliens During Labor Disputes:

Rather, it is the green carder who actually lives in Mexico but who commutes on a daily or seasonal basis to the United States who causes inequities to exist.

1977, Brian S. Rungeling, Vernon M. Briggs jr., John F. Adams, Employment, Income, and Welfare in the Rural South, page 271:

Manyof the "green carders" returned to their homes south of the border at night.

(US) A Mexican citizen who has a green card to work in the United States, especially one who lives in Mexico and commutes across the border.

(US, loosely) A United States citizen of Mexican descent who lives in Mexico and commutes across the border.


compounding pharmacy

en-noun

compounding pharmacy (plural compounding pharmacies)

(US, Australia) A pharmacy in which therapeutic drugs are created in small batches, generally when the patient needs a formulation which is not readily available from manufactured drugs.


no big whoop

Give a call, we'll talk, no big whoop.

(US) Used to minimize the importance of something


take to the skies

en-verb

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

takes to the skies (present singular third-person)
taking to the skies (participle present)
took to the skies (past)
taken to the skies (participle past)
take to the sky (alternative)

(chiefly US, figuratively) to start flying.


rag on

rag on (third-person singular simple present rags on, present participle ragging on, simple past and past participle ragged on)

rags on (present singular third-person)
ragging on (participle present)
ragged on (participle past)
ragged on (past)

Spencer knew his second homer—a two-run drive in the Yankee’s five-run eighth—was gone well before it landed in the second deck in left field.[…] “They were ragging on me because the first one was close,” Spencer said.

1998, Rafael Hermoso, “Spencer leads subs’ assault”, in New York Daily News, editor, Yankees ’98: Best Ever, →ISBN, page 93:

They was saying the jawn freaked out and called the cops cause all her sorority sistahs started ragging on her and calling her a stank ho for fucking half the basketball team.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 204:

From back at the mill came the sounds of men laughing and joking about how dumb Joe Reese had been. ¶ Their humor disgusted him. Reese had been careless, and it had cost him his life. There wasn’t any call for them to rag on him now.

2013, Jake Logan, Slocum and the Yellowstone Scoundrel:

(chiefly US, Canada, transitive) To ridicule, to make fun of (someone).


boldacious

en-adj

boldacious (comparative more boldacious, superlative most boldacious)

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


buffalo bug

(US) carpet beetle of species Anthrenus scrophulariae.


honery

honery (comparative more honery, superlative most honery)

more honery (comparative)
most honery (superlative)

The conductor said: 'That man must be an honery son of a bitch, he must be an honery man, he ought to be punished.'

The lame duck congress has been putting us on a mighty inspiring example of just how honery a congress can be, if they really make up their minds to be honery.

1982, Will Rogers, Writings - Volume 2; Volume 5:

He's such an honery raskel. He's always been double trouble around here.

2008, Dovie Pilney, Charlie the Cocky Rooster: Another Adventure, page 40:

Mose gave a shy grin declaring, “I really just manage the bunk house and all those honery critters that live there with me.”

2011, LaVerne Shaw, Tangled Vines, page 23:


code silver

en-noun

code silver (countable and uncountable, plural code silvers)

(Canada, US, medicine) The condition when a weapon is seen and law enforcement are to be contacted.

code black • code blue • code brown • code grey • code orange • code pink • code red • code silver • code white • code yellow


sexvigintillion

(rare, US, modern British and Australia, short scale) 10⁸¹.

Previous: quinvigintillion: short scale 1078

Next: septenvigintillion: short scale 1084


septenvigintillion

(rare, US, modern British and Australia, short scale) 10⁸⁴.

Previous: sexvigintillion: short scale 1081

Next: octovigintillion: short scale 1087


octovigintillion

(rare, US, modern British and Australia, short scale) 10⁸⁷.

Previous: septenvigintillion: short scale 1084

Next: novemvigintillion: short scale 1090


novemvigintillion

(rare, US, modern British and Australia, short scale) 10⁹⁰.

Previous: octovigintillion: short scale 1087


red flag law

However, as with most federal legislation as it relates to guns, it will be left up to individual states to determine if they want to adopt “red flag laws.”

2023, Laura W. Perna, Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, volume 38, page 577:

(US) A gun control law permitting police or family members to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who may present a danger to others or themselves.

(UK, US, historical) A law enacted in the late 19th century, requiring drivers of early automobiles to take certain safety precautions, including waving a red flag in front of the vehicle as a warning.


mad as a wet hen

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-mad as a wet hen.wav

My stars! He was mad; mad as a wet hen. He was so mad he looked, as big as he was, to be actually swelled.

1899, Ferdinand Eugene Daniel, “The Doctor Puts Up a Job on the Major”, in Recollections of a Rebel Surgeon:

(US, colloquial, simile) Very angry; furious.


bust one's hump

en-verb

bust one's hump (third-person singular simple present busts one's hump, present participle busting one's hump, simple past and past participle busted one's hump or bust one's hump)

busts one's hump (present singular third-person)
busting one's hump (participle present)
busted one's hump (participle past)
busted one's hump (past)
bust one's hump (participle past)
bust one's hump (past)

That poor guy is already busting his hump, learning his job, working sixteen or eighteen hours a day for some fruitloop who throws pens when he gets mad.

2005, Jacey Eckhart, The Homefront Club:

(Canada, US, slang) To work very hard; to put in strenuous effort.


Folsomite

(US, politics, historical) A supporter of Jim Folsom (James Elisha Folsom Sr.; 1908–1987), American politician who served as the 42nd governor of the state of Alabama.


Hawaiian steak

From its popularity in Hawaii, stemming from World War II.

(US, humorous) Spam (a tinned meat product).


USCC

(US, military) Initialism of United States Corps of Cadets.


someplace else

(US) Alternative form of somewhere else.


counter surf

counter surf (third-person singular simple present counter surfs, present participle counter surfing, simple past and past participle counter surfed)

counter surfs (present singular third-person)
counter surfing (participle present)
counter surfed (participle past)
counter surfed (past)
counter-surf (alternative)
countersurf (alternative)

From counter ("kitchen surface where food preparation takes place") + surf ("to browse the internet, television, etc.").

With nothing to cause temptation, there will be no reason for him to counter surf other than to grab your attention.

2011, Bardi McLennan, Miriam Fields-Babineau, Puppy Training:

Remember, Attention Seekers who counter surf need to be trained differently than those cats who have other reasons for surfing, but regardless of your cat's motivation for counter surfing, don't yell at her or attempt to stare her down, pet her, or squirt her with water.

If you insist on leaving food out and not crating your dog, or if your dog is so bold that he tries to counter surf in your presence, try the following.

2018, Brandy Eggeman, Joan Hustace Walker, Training Your German Shepherd Dog, →ISBN:

(US, of a pet) To sneak unsupervised food from a table or kitchen counter.


128th note

hundred twenty-eighth note
hundred twenty-eighth note#English

(music, US) Abbreviation of hundred twenty-eighth note.


256th note

two hundred fifty-sixth note
two hundred fifty-sixth note#English

(music, US) Alternative form of two hundred fifty-sixth note.


grab iron

These alterations included a bevelled nose, modifications to the footsteps, grab irons, and lower cowls around the fans in the roof, to overcome height restrictions on some Southern Pacific lines in the east.

1985, Rodger Bradley, Amtrak: The US National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Blandford Press, pages 71–72:

(rail transport, US) A metal bar attached to the side of locomotives and railroad cars for use as a handhold.


city limit

(especially Canada, US, in the plural) The boundaries of a city.


jelly glass

(US) An item of glassware, usually having a conical bowl and square stem, once used for serving dessert and in modern times as a drinking-glass.


COPPA

w:Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

(US) Acronym of Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (“a law passed in the United States of America to require children under 13 years of age obtain parental consent to use social media”).


suck butt

suck butt (third-person singular simple present sucks butt, present participle sucking butt, simple past and past participle sucked butt)

sucks butt (present singular third-person)
sucking butt (participle present)
sucked butt (participle past)
sucked butt (past)

(Canada, US, stative, vulgar, slang) To be terrible; be of extremely poor quality.


Drinking Gourd

(astronomy, obsolete, especially US) A bright circumpolar asterism of the northern sky. It is part of the constellation Ursa Major and includes the stars Alkaid, Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Dubhe, Merak, and Phecda.


Bleaseite

Bleaseites (plural)
Bleasite (alternative)

(US, historical) A supporter of Coleman Livingston Blease (1868–1942), South Carolina politician of the Democratic Party.


Tillmanite

(US, historical) A supporter of Benjamin Tillman (1847–1918), white supremacist Democratic politician.


chili parlor

(US) A diner or restaurant featuring dishes like chili con carne, either as a house specialty or a selection of various different recipes.


spirit week

Student councils also offer a smorgasbord of programs, ranging from spirit weeks and Homecoming days to charity events. You've already paid for many of these activities through your student fees, so get your money's worth by participating.

2003, Murray Baker, The Debt-Free Graduate:

(US) The week leading up to homecoming, during which school students dress up in unusual themed clothing.


kikey

en-adj

kikey (comparative more kikey, superlative most kikey)

more kikey (comparative)
most kikey (superlative)

— You sound like a goddam kikey Jew sonofabitch to me, you Jew bastard.

(US, slang, ethnic slur, religious slur) Jewish.


puckerbrush

(US, regional) Scrubby terrain; brushland.


UCGC

(US, military (Marine Corps)) Initialism of unit, corps, God, country: in descending order of importance.


brushback pitch

en-noun

brushback pitch (plural brushback pitches)

(US, figuratively) An action intended to threaten or frighten someone.


no tickee, no washee

A phrase stereotypically attributed to Chinese laundry workers in centuries past, who would only return a customer's washing when the ticket (receipt) was presented.

Dr. Weiss said that what he had said was, "No grant, no research, no tickee, no washee."

1974, New York (State). Office of Employee Relations, Grievance and Disciplinary Arbitrations (volume 2, page 118)

'I don't need money. I need information.'
'And if I don't proffer this information you'll take your business elsewhere?' Buzz nodded toward the tram car. 'No tickee, no washee. […]

1999, James Ellroy, The Dudley Smith Trio, page 191:

It was really important to keep the slip of paper, given as a receipt because No tickee, no washee!

2002, Barbara Ann Lambert, Rusty Nails & Ration Books, page 326:

(Canada, US, slang) Something is not to be had without an exchange; there will be no deal without the required consideration or recompense.


crazy as a cootie bug

(US, colloquial, simile) Completely crazy; insane.


FISA

Notably, however, the FISA wiretapping of Mr. Page that Trump allies are upset about was the 1978 kind that involves warrants, the authority for which is not expiring.

2023 February 27, Charlie Savage, “Security Agencies and Congress Brace for Fight Over Expiring Surveillance Law”, in The New York Times:

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
w:Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

(US) Acronym of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.


account man

(US, advertising) A male account manager.


pussy tickler

From pussy + tickler. A reference to cunnilingus.


pay-to-stay

(US) A scheme where prison inmates are charged for their accommodation (meals, clothing etc.) while in prison.

In what is commonly called “pay-to-stay” or “private jail,” a constellation of small city jails — at least 26 of them in Los Angeles and Orange counties — open their doors to defendants who can afford the option. […] The region’s pay-to-stay jails took in nearly $7 million from the programs from 2011 through 2015, according to revenue figures provided by the cities.

2017 March 9, Alysia Santo, Victoria Kim, Anna Flagg, “Upgrade your jail cell – for a price”, in Los Angeles Times:

(US) A scheme where prisoners can pay to be moved to a more desirable prison.


holler copper

en-verb

holler copper (third-person singular simple present hollers copper, present participle hollering copper, simple past and past participle hollered copper)

holler copper sometimes holler "Copper" (canonical)
hollers copper (present singular third-person)
hollering copper (participle present)
hollered copper (participle past)
hollered copper (past)

holler (“to yell”) + copper (“police officer”).

It's alright to holler copper on a guy—but this guy was her friend.

1927, Drew Ryan, Angel's Flight, New York: Boni and Silverlight, page 21:

“I will never forgive myself if I am compelled to holler copper on anybody whatsoever,” Fatso says, “but,” he says, “of course I will do so as a last resort to prevent Gregorio from marrying Betty Lou. ...”

1938 December, Damon Runyon, “Palm Beach Santa Claus”, in Collier’s, published 1924, pages 9–10:

The first thing to remember is that there has not been a smidgen of proof that Graziano committed any offense save a technical violation of the commission's Rule 64, which requires a boxer to holler copper when any sinister influence makes a pass at him.

1947 July 17, Red Smith, “They Trut Him Good”, in New York Herald Tribune:

(slang, US, intransitive) To draw attention to something about to happen or already in progress in the hope of preventing it from proceeding.


baggage car

(especially US, rail transport) A railway vehicle in passenger trains used to carry passengers' heavy luggage; a luggage van.


Trumpublican

That would be a Trumpublican then.

2016 August 27, trotsky, “CNN: What does Obama get for paying $1.3 billion ransom to Iranians? Harrassment^([sic]) by their navy. Cluck, cluck, cluck”, in rec.arts.tv (Usenet):

That is the most ridiculous thing any trumpublican could say.

2018 August 28, Bob F, “Fox News analyst criticizes Trump over condolences tweet that avoided praising McCain”, in alt.home.repair (Usenet):

That is a non responsive post Bob. How many Trumpublicans run big cities up in the mobbed up union states?

2018 August 30, <gfre...@aol.com>, “Survey: 1-in-3 Gov Workers Could Leave Union”, in alt.home.repair (Usenet):

(US, politics, slang) A Republican who supports Donald Trump.


apple-knocker

From apple + knocker, suggesting a person who knocks apples from the trees to harvest them.


outseg

outseg (third-person singular simple present outsegs, present participle outsegging, simple past and past participle outsegged)

outsegs (present singular third-person)
outsegging (participle present)
outsegged (participle past)
outsegged (past)

(transitive, informal, US, politics) To outsegregate.


over hard

(US) Of an egg prepared as food, fried on both sides all the way through, with the yolk intact.


English toffee

(Canada, US) A kind of buttery toffee, either chewy or hard, often made with almonds.


garbage pail

(Canada, US) Synonym of garbage can (“waste receptacle”)


apple box

apple-box (canonical)
apple boxes (plural)
apple-box (alternative)
applebox (alternative)

Presumably originally used to transport apples.

The standard size of an apple box shall be eighteen inches long, eleven and one-half inches wide, ten and one-half inches deep, inside measurement.

1913, Fruit Products Congress, The Apple Annual, page 67:

Beside the bed is an apple box standing on end, on top of the box a candle planted in the neck of a wax-coated wine bottle.

1998, Edward Abbey, The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel:

You would then nail an old wooden apple box, which we always had plenty of, on top of the board leaving a space behind for your foot to ride.

2010, James D. Heintz, Apple Box Boy: Slices of Life, page 34:

(US) A wooden box measuring 12 × 20 × 8 inches.


moondoggle

We are virtually abandoning the first Outer Space area through which military attacks may be launched, to spend billions on a nonmilitary moondoggle — the attempt to put a man on the moon.

1963, Frank L. Kluckhohn, What's wrong with U. S. foreign policy?, page 9:

He stated that “as long as James E. Webb is the Administrator of NASA, I am not voting another dollar for this moondoggle. […]

1971, Thomas P. Murphy, Science, Geopolitics, and Federal Spending, page 372:

During the years of Vietnam and the moondoggle the balance of Pentagon prime contracts shifted sharply to the Southern Rim, with the percentages mounting every year, […]

1976, Roger E. Alcaly, David Mermelstein, The Fiscal crisis of American cities, page 170:

(US, colloquial, derogatory) Efforts to transport people to the Moon, regarded as a useless waste of resources.