nineholes

Nine-holes on the heath

1612, Michael Drayton, “The Fourteenth Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC, page 227:

(games, historical) A game in which each player bowls a ball towards nine holes in a board or the ground, scoring points according to which hole the ball enters.


internally displaced person

en-noun

internally displaced person (plural internally displaced persons or internally displaced people)

internally displaced persons (plural)
internally displaced people (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-internally displaced person.wav

By the end of 2022 the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) – those forced from their homes but remaining within their country of residence – reached 71 million, according to figures published by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), up from 59.1 million in 2021.

2023 May 11, Lizzy Davies, “Conflict and climate disasters combine to create record rise in displaced people”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-11-25:

Someone who is forced to flee their home but who remains within their country's borders.

President of Ukraine
Russian invasion of Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy

məcburi köçkün

someone who is forced to flee their home but who remains within their country’s borders


moral compass

From moral (“of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour; conforming to a standard of right behaviour”) + compass (“device used to determine the cardinal directions”), from the fact that a compass indicates various directions on its face (sense 3), and enables its user to find the correct direction to go in (sense 1).

compound

To every sane man in all climes and ages the great Creator has given a moral compass to enable him to avoid the wrong and follow the right. This moral compass we call conscience.

1865 August, “Scripture Cabinet: The Office of Temptation”, in I[saac] W[illiam] Wiley, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XXV, Cincinnati, Oh.: Poe & Hitchcock; […], →OCLC, page 504, column 1:

He steered by the guidance of his own peculiar moral compass, regardless of the rough waters through which it led him.

1908, Alice Hegan Rice, chapter VII, in Mr. Opp, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 81:

They hustle and scheme without moral compass, trying to survive by making accommodations that are at best temporary, more often delusional.

1994 November 20, Vincent Canby, “Arts: Sam Shepard Goes to the Races and Wins”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2015-05-26:

I think he did absolutely the right thing, because according to his own personal moral compass, interfering with someone else's marriage was a sin.

2010, Anne Tyler, “A Conversation with Anne Tyler”, in Noah’s Compass […] (A Borzoi Book), trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 285:

An inner sense which distinguishes what is right from what is wrong, functioning as a guide for morally appropriate behaviour.

本心

Their catastrophe stemmed from disregarding Christian doctrine: radix malorum est cupiditas (greed is the root of all evil). Without a moral compass, [Robert] Stone's characters cannot even plead ignorance.

1974 November 11, Paul Gray, “Books: Notable: Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone 342 Pages. Houghton Mifflin. $8.95. [review]”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-05-31:

[Philip] Hart is one of those rare men whose ego is smaller than his talents; and whose directness and sense of conscience have led others to regard him as the moral compass of the Senate.

1975 June 18, J[erald] F[ranklin] Terhorst, “Philip Hart—The almost-leader of Supreme Court”, in Robert M. Stiff, editor, Evening Independent, number 195, St. Petersburg, Fla.: Evening Independent, →OCLC, page 18A, columns 5–6:

He writes that Judaism was her moral compass.

1998 December 5, “Diary reveals complex life of southern Jew”, in Miami Herald, number 82, Miami, Fla.: Herald Print. and Pub. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1G:

A belief system, person, etc. serving as a guide for morally appropriate behaviour.

[W]hile blowing opposite arguments from every point of the moral compass, the adventurous Baron quietly saw himself left to navigate his own vessel his own way, through this storm of his own raising.

1822, Anna Maria Porter, chapter I, in Roche-Blanche; or, The Hunters of the Pyrenees. […], volume I, London: […] [A[ndrew] & R[obert] Spottiswoode] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC, page 19:

Here Mr. Chevy Slyme, whose great abilities seemed one and all to point towards the sneaking quarter of the moral compass, nudged his friend stealthily with his elbow, and whispered in his ear.

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, “From which It will Appear that if Union be Strength, and Family Affection be Pleasant to Contemplate, the Chuzzlewits were the Strongest and Most Agreeable Family in the World”, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 36:

Ideas are our rudders. As the soul glides along the warm and swelling sea of feeling, it can only be turned to new points of the moral compass by them.

1886, David Thomas, “No. CXLII. Conventional Christianity, the Great Hindrance to the Extension of the Christianity in Christ”, in Septem in Uno: The First Seven Volumes of The Homilist in One, […] (Homilistic Library; VIII; The Pulpit of the Nineteenth Century), London: Andrew Crombie, […], →OCLC, page 345:

(archaic) The full range of actions, vices, or virtues, which may affect others and which are available as choices to a person, group, or people in general.


turncloak

“The Tattered Prince gave a shrug. “Every turncloak has his tale. You are not the first to swear me your swords, take my coin, and run. All of them have reasons. ‘My little son is sick,’ or ‘My wife is putting horns on me,’ or ‘The other men all make me suck their cocks.’ Such a charming boy, the last, but I did not excuse his desertion..."

2011, George R. R. Martin, “The Spurned Suitor”, in A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire; 5), London: Voyager Books, published 2019, →ISBN, page 927:


holy water sprinkler

en-noun

holy water sprinkler (plural holy water sprinklers)

/ˈhəʊli ˌwɔːtə ˈspɹɪŋklə/

PIE word
 *kéh₂ilos
From holy water + sprinkler, probably a variant of holy-water sprinkle.

holy-water sprinkle
holy-water sprinkle#English


minecart

Coordinate term: mine car (sometimes synonymous)

A wheeled container, often one that travels on tracks, used for moving mining materials.

вагане́тка

a wheeled container that travels on tracks, used for moving mining materials


over-the-shoulder boulder holder

over-the-shoulder boulder holder (plural over-the-shoulder boulder holders)

over-the-shoulder boulder holders (plural)

I longed to be part of the over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder club, if only I had boulders to hold! Or small stones. Even pebbles would have been acceptable.

2005, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty Hansen, Chicken soup for the girl's soul, page 261:

And there wasn't one plain white cotton and elastic over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder in the bunch.

2009, Julie Miller, Jule McBride, Carrie Hudson, Oneclick Buy: April 2009 Harlequin Blaze:

The image was not attractive, but I didn't find my look in an underwire bra, which was more like an over-the-shoulder boulder holder on me, any better.

2011, Nick Krieger, Nina Here Nor There: My Journey Beyond Gender:


wagpastie

Mathew Merygreeke: I will call hir: Maide with whome are ye so hastie?
Tibet Talkapace: Not with you sir, but with a little wag-pastie,
A deceiuer of folkes, by subtill craft and guile.
Mathew Merygreeke: I knowe where she is: Dobinet hath wrought some wile.

c. 1552, Nicholas Udall, Ralph Roister Doister, act 3, scene 2:

Truly this wagpastie is eyther drunck or mad.

c. 1562, Nicholas Udall, Jacke Jugeler, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published 1914, page 70:

(rare, obsolete) A rogue; a rascal; a scoundrel.


thickskin

A coarse, gross person; a person void of sensibility or sensitiveness; a dullard.


thickskin

(zoology) Applied to various creatures having a thick skin.


eyereach

look, look! is not he blest
That gets a seat in eye-reach of him? more,
That comes in ear, or tongue-reach?

1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

I shoved for the middle of the river on a long downstream slant; and when I judged I was out of eye-reach, I laid on my oars, and looked back and see her go and smell around the wreck

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

problems within eyereach of the school bus

1946, Effie Geneva Bathurst, Delia Goetz, Elise Henrietta Martens, Education in Bolivia:

(dated) The range or reach of the eye; eyeshot.


pickpurse

From Middle English pikepurse, pykeporse, equivalent to pick + purse.

Down with Christ's cross, up with purgatory pickpurse, up with him, the popish purgatory, I mean.

1548 January 18, Hugh Latimer, Sermon of the Plough, quoted in Sermons by Hugh Latimer, Cambridge University Press, published 1884, page 71:

No, it is false, if it is a pickpurse.

1602, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 1, scene 1:

(obsolete) Someone who steals purses, or money from purses.


catchwater

A device which captures surface runoff for use as a water supply.


wonderwork

From Middle English wonderworc, from Old English wundorweorc, wundorġeweorc (“a wondrous work, miracle”), equivalent to wonder + work. Compare Dutch wonderwerk, German Wunderwerk.

Unheeded, searching through the crowd to find / Fit speculation; such as in strange land / He found in wonder-works of God and Nature's hand.

1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza X:


redstreak

the Summer and the Winter, the Yellow and the Red , and the more green Redstreak

1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:

A kind of apple with the skin streaked with red and yellow, a favourite English cider apple.


rushbuckler

For quotations using this term, see Citations:rushbuckler.

(rare) A rough, violent, bullying person.


stop-loss

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

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

(stock market, countable) A stop loss order.


lickpenny

black hole

An entity which consumes time or resources

For well London Lykke-peny for ones and eye, / For lake of money I may not spede.

15th century, anonymous author, London Lickpenny:

[…] at Smyrna, you talked of a lawsuit—law is a lickpenny, Mr Tyrrel—no counsellor like the pound in purse.

1823, Sir Walter Scott, Saint Ronan's Well:

(obsolete) Something that devours or absorbs lots of money; something expensive.


might-be

From might + be. Compare might-have-been, would-be.

"There is a might-be particle called a 'magnetic monopole' that was suggested by certain theories of Dirac and others but had never been observed.

That might be or occur; possible; potential; hypothetical.


comp stomp

(slang, video games) A competitive game against one or more computer-controlled players.


turnbroach

Has not a deputy married his cook-maid? An alderman's widow, one that was her turnbroach?

c. 1613, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene i:


rakeshame

[…] if such divine ministeries as these, wherein the angel of the church represents the person of Christ Jesus, must lie prostitute to sordid fees, and not pass to and fro between our Saviour, that of free grace redeemed us, and the submissive penitent, without the truckage of perishing coin, and the butcherly execution of tormentors, rooks, and rakeshames sold to lucre ; then have the Babylonish merchants of souls just excuse.

1641, John Milton, Of Reformation of Church-Discipline in England, Book II:


pill mill

2011, Jane Musgrave, The Palm Beach Post, 4 men sentenced in pill mill scheme, link
Four men who helped Jeff and Chris George run their lucrative pill mills received sentences ranging from 9 months to 14 years today in federal court.

2014, JB McMunn, M.D., Naked Capitalism, The Stealthy, Ugly Growth of Corporatized Medicine, link
Needless to say, the professional bullying from the primary care physicians (PCPs) and the [hospital] administrators to run both a pill mill and a needle jockey business was tremendous. I resisted the entire time, but god it wore me out. [From a pain specialist for a large multi-specialty group.]

(idiomatic) A clandestine operation where a medical worker illicitly offers prescription medication to patients in exchange for bribes.


wag-halter

I can tell you, I am a mad waghalter.

1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, I.1:

(obsolete) Someone who is likely to swing in a halter; someone likely to be hanged.


lick-spigot

(obsolete) A woman who performs fellatio; a fellatrix.


save-all

Casting my fortunes at Mrs. Thompson's, I soon became initiated into the etiquette and usage of that polite caravansary; and I now write of that era of two-pronged forks, and when “saveall” was the choicest dish, and the observances at the table not altogether Chesterfieldian.

1891, George Washington Cullum, Edward Singleton Holden, Charles Braden, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., page 617:

All of the fixtures are set on full-size marble slabs, having a ½-inch countersink for a save-all, with a 3-inch brass rose, screw-top strainer, connected to a 1¼-inch galvanized-iron waste pipe with a good incline and entering its 2-inch sectional save-all waste pipes R, Fig. 18, by a 45-degree connection.

1896, Engineering Record, Building Record, Sanitary Engineer, American Plumbing Practice, page 107:

(now rare) Something that prevents waste or loss.

The remainder of the furniture consisted of a flat-candlestick, with a saveall; but, for snuffers, Bronze used her scissors, or indeed, upon most occasions, her fingers.

1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson, published 1986, page 232:

Fourthly, an ornamental candle-fastener. This invention is intended to combine a metallic or other ornament for the candle, acting as a fastener for the candle, with a save-all, by which the objectionable necessity of fastening the candle with paper is done away with.

1848, Repertory of patent inventions and other discoveries and improvements in arts, manufactures and agriculture, page 178:

An improved “save-all suitable to all kinds of candlesticks, candle or reading lamps, or chandeliers burning wax, composition, or other candles.

1873, Arthur Charles Henderson, “No. 2253”, in Chronological and Descriptive Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted, Containing the Abridgements of Provisional and Complete Specifications, page 499:

(now chiefly historical) A device in a candlestick to hold the ends of candles, so they can be burned all the way down.

At the end of the "save-all", where the fibers are to leave the "wire" for the next stage of their journey, suction-boxes are placed, provided with an air-pump to take up the surplus water that has not yet found its way through the meshes.

1901, Frank O. Butler, The Story of Paper-making:

In designing any save all system one of the cardinal principles is to send no material to the save-all which can be reclaimed in any other waya, and this applies particularly to the gravity variety.

1907 April 5, John Hunt, “Reclaiming Waste Material”, in The World's Paper Trade Review, volume 47, number 14, page 8:

A large amount of backwater passing to the save-all will have the effect of keeping its contents in constant motion, and the currents thus set up will seriously impede its action.

1907 April 15, Paper Makers Monthly Journal, volume 45, number 4, page 128:

A trough to prevent waste in a paper-making machine.

Save-all sails I believe are commonly laced on to the foot of other sails, in light weather—she had something of this description under her lower studding sails.

1835, John Jeremie, Recent events at Mauritius, page 83:

Sloops, cutters, smacks, hoys &c. have a main-sail abaft the mast, as the brigs; upon and before the mast they have a square sail, or cross-jack; and, above the cross-jack, a small sail, called a save-all top-sail; above that is a top-sail, called a swallow-tailed top-sail, and the next is the top-gallant-sail.

1843, The Art of Sail-Making as practised in the Royal Navy, page 12:

There are a few other sails, such as a gaff-topsail, which sets over the spanker; a ring-tail, which sets abaft the spanker; a save-all, under the lower studding-sail boom, and a jib-topsail, which sets flying over the job. These are never met with now in the service.

1863, Stephen Bleecker Luce, Seamanship, page 463:

(nautical, now historical) A small sail sometimes set under the foot of another sail, to catch the wind that would pass under it.


slipstring

Every promise that thou therein dost utter, / Is as sure as it were sealed with butter, / Or a mouse tyed with a threed. Every good thing / Thou lettest even slip, like a waghalter slipstring.

1546, John Heywood, chapter VII, in Julian Sharman, editor, The Proverbs of John Heywood, London: George Bell and Sons, published 1874, pages 147–148:

Goinfre: m. A wag, ſlipſtring, knaviſh lad; a merrie conceited whoreſonne, a notable good fellow, an excellent companion.

1611, Randle Cotgrave, A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, page GOI-GON:

Well, slip-string, I shall meet with you.

1619, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, A King and No King, act 2, scene 2; republished in The Works of Beaumont & Fletcher, volume 2, London: Edward Moxon, 1843, page 270:

(obsolete) A wastefully extravagant person; a prodigal; a spendthrift.


scattergood

(obsolete) Someone who wastes; a spendthrift.


slipthrift

What to dooe there? To bowle, or to plaie at dise, or cardes, penipricke, or slipthrift.

Shovegroat or slidegroat, slideboard, slidethrift, or slipthrift, are sports occasionally mentioned by writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and, acccording to Strutt, were probably analogous to the modern pastime called Justice Jervis, which is confined to common pot-houses, and only practised by such as frequent tap-rooms.

1852, G. Willis, Willis's Current Notes:

(obsolete) A gambling game that was invented in the early 1500s, similar to shuffleboard but played with coins on a board, and which was more commonly called shovegroat.


dingthrift

From ding + thrift. Compare English spendthrift and wastethrift.

Wilt thou, therefore, a drunkard be, / A dingthrift and a knave?


snowface

For the easiest descent, drop west from the summit into the Granite Chief Wilderness via a broad snowface, then climb back to the summit or any of several saddles, and descend Ward Creek back to parking.

1998, Louis W. Dawson, Wild Snow: A Historical Guide to North American Ski Mountaineering, page 36:


huffcap

huffcap (countable and uncountable, plural huffcaps)

From huff + cap. The ale is called this "because it induced people to set their caps in a bold huffing fashion."

To quench the scorching heat of our parched throtes, with the best nippitatum in this toun, which is commonly called huffcap, it will make a man look as though he had seen the devil, and quickly move him to call his own father whoreson.

1576, Ulpian Fulwell, Ars adulandi, or, The Art of Flattery:

Then, when the Nippitatum, this Huf-cap (as they call it) and this nectar of lyfe, is ſet abroche, wel is he that can get the ſooneſt to it, and ſpend the moſt at it; for he that fitteth the cloſeſt to it, and ſpends the moſte at it, he is counted the godlieſt man of all the reſt; but who either cannot, for pinching pouertie, or otherwiſe, wil not ſtick to it, he is counted one deſtitute bothe of vertue and godlynes.

1583, Philip Stubbes, “The Manner of Church-ales in Ailgna”, in Furnivall, Frederick James, editor, The Anatomie of Abuses; republished as Phillip Stubbes's Anatomy of Abuses in England in Shakspere's Youth, A.D. 1583, London: The New Shakspere Society, 1882, page 150:

I am with child, till I behold this huff-cap.

1599, Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday, act 5, scene 3; Rhys, Ernest, editor, Thomas Dekker, unexpurgated edition, London: Vizetelly & Co, 1887, page 78:

Prethee tell me true, was not this Huff-cap once the Indian Emperour, and at another time did not he call himself Maximine?

a. 1677, Martin Clifford, “The Second Letter”, in Notes Upon Mr. Dryden's Poems in Four Letters, published 1687:


dothead

From dot + head, referring to the bindi.

Two weeks later, in another meeting, Sandy announces, “We've assembled a great team of dotheads in Karachi.” No one else seems bothered by this—or even appears to notice anything strange about it—so once again you say nothing.

2011, David Knighton, The Wisdom of the Healing Wound, page 116:

(slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A South Asian person.


mumblenews

Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany, / Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick,

c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, act 5, scene 2, lines 463–464:

Well said, you mumblenews from Kolistin. Well said!

2017 [1870], Douglas Robinson, transl., The Brothers Seven, Bucharest: Zeta Books, translation of Seitsemän veljestä by Aleksis Kivi (in Finnish), page 330:


carrytale

'This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy, / This canker that eats up Love's tender spring, / This carrytale, dissentious Jealousy, / That sometime true news, sometime false doth bring,

1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, lines 655–658:

An indiscreet person who spreads gossip.


dream team

[d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷɪi̯m]

A team of players or members ideal for a given task; a team of the best players of a particular sport or members of a particular field.


cellar dweller

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

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

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

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

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

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


pickpenny

[…]and therefore lie wholly at the mercy of him whom the greatness of his Title and Pontifical Pomp, exceeding so infinitely his just Revenues, must make a severe exacter of Tribute from them that are most appropriately under his power, and thereby put them to unworthy shifts and sharkings upon the people by pious, or rather impious, Sleights and Frauds, he sending out and dispersing these Birds of his in numerous flocks, to be his hungry Pick-peny's throughout the whole Pastorage of the Empire.

1664, Dr. Henry More, A Modest Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity, book 2, chapter 9, section 8, page 143:


do-all

Under him, Dunstan was the do-all at court, being the king's treasurer, councilor, chancellor, confessor, all things.

1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):


pipeweed

putki

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

Native American
Native American#Adjective

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

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


smell-feast

Paraſites, were called ſoche ſmellefeaſtes as would ſeeke to be free geaſtes at richemens tables.

1564 February, Erasmus, “The Saiynges of Alexander the Greate”, in Nicolas Udall [i.e., Nicholas Udall], transl., Apophthegmes, that is to Saie, Prompte, Quicke, Wittie and Sentẽcious Saiynges, […], London: […] Ihon Kingston, →OCLC, book II, folio 144, recto, paragraph 38:

Origen ſpeaks of the religation of theſe Dæmons near their Statues, vvhether by Magical incantation, or that, like ſo many ſmell-Feaſts, they hankered near the Altars, to enjoy the nidorous fumes of the Sacrifices, […]

1664, H[enry] More, chapter VII, in A Modest Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity, […], London: […] J[ames] Flesher for W[illiam] Morden […], →OCLC, book I, page 21:

She [the ant] lives upon her Ovvn, Honeſtly Gotten and Poſſeſs'd, vvithout either Envy or Violence; VVhereas the Fly is an Intruder, and a Common Smell-Feaſt, that Spunges upon Other peoples Trenchers.

1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] XXXIV. An Ant and a Fly [Reflexion].”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 33:

[W]ho has a ſtupid Intellect, a Broken memory, and a blaſted vvit, and (vvhich is vvorſe than all) a Blind and a Benighted Conſcience, but the Intemperate and Luxurious, the Epicure and the Smell-feaſt?

1693 November 8 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1698, Robert South, “A Sermon Preached at Christ-Church in Oxford before the University, Octob. 29. 1693.”, in Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions, volume III, London: […] Tho[mas] Warren for Thomas Bennet […], →OCLC, page 94:

The smell-feasts rouse them at the hint / There's cookery in a certain dwelling-place!

1869, Robert Browning, “VIII. Dominus Hyacinthus de Archangelis.”, in The Ring and the Book. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., →OCLC, page 92, lines 39–40:

(archaic) One who is apt to find and frequent places where good food is available; especially one who comes uninvited to a meal; a parasite; a sponger.


breedbate

No telltale nor no breedbate.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

(obsolete, rare) Someone who causess quarrels; a quarreler


heartburning

Hee sett Promethius, on a merrye pynn, / Whoe dranke soe devillishly, that there he gott / A terrible heartburninge, […]

c. 1631–1633 (first performance), [John Clavell], edited by John Henry Pyle Pafford and W[alter] W[ilson] Greg, The Soddered Citizen (The Malone Society Reprints; 82), London: […] [F]or the Malone Society by John Johnson at the Oxford University Press, published 1936, →OCLC, Act II, scene v, folio 14ᵃ, page 45, lines 1030–1032:


smock frock

What reason has he, therefore, to suppose that the return of the smock-frock will even increase the gobbling of potatoes and the drinking of cat-lap?

1823, William Cobbett, Cobbett's Weekly Register, volume 46, page 777:

He was often introduced into meetings through back doors, with a smock frock on his back, and a whip in his hand.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

A coarse frock, or shirt, worn over other clothing, as by farm labourers.


love glove

She seemed like she should be accompanied by one of those miniature dogs with a bow in its hair and a heart rate of 1,000 beats per minute and should carry one of those little rhinestone purses that couldn't possibly hold more than a lipstick and a love glove.

1995 June, Paula Poundstone, “Republican field guide”, in Mother Jones:


clubfist

The rascall rude, the roag, the clubfist griepte / My sclender arme, and pluckt mee on in hast: / And with my robes the bloudy ground hee sweepte: / As I drue backe hee hal'd mee on full fast.

1574, John Higgins, “How the Lady Sabrine, daughter of King Locrinus and Elstride, was drowned by Queen Guendoline. Ant. C. 1064.”, in Joseph Haslewood, editor, Mirror for Magistrates, London: Lackington, Allen, and Co., published 1815, page 79:


swagbelly

Sancho Zancas […] in the picture, was represented as a person of a short stature, swag belly, and long spindle shanks […].

1755, Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Tobias Smollett, Don Quixote, Volume 1, II.1:

He swept his gaze over the short, squat throat, the hairy swagbelly, and the mighty breast, swelling in giant arches like twin shields.

1935, Robert Ervin Howard, “The Haunter of the Pits”, in The Hour of the Dragon:

However, so many swagbellies and puff-bags will hardly go to St Hiacco, as there did in the year 524

1694, Peter, transl. Motteux, chapter V, in Gargantua and Pantagruel, translation of La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel by Rabelais, François, published c. 1564:

(medicine) A distended abdomen, especially caused by a tumour or enlarged organ; a physconia.


city titty

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


goldseed

(archaic) A plant, dog's-tail grass (Cynosurus cristatus).


healthspan

From health + span, modelled after lifespan.

We now have a glimpse of a future which could include the ultimate conquest of frailty, disease and disability that occurs frequently with aging. […] In short, our goal is not just a longer lifespan but an extended "healthspan," helping a greater number of older Americans lead vigorous, more productive lives with less vulnerability to chronic disease.

1988 May 11, “Opportunities for Aging Research in the Fiscal Year 1989 Budget”, in Advances in Aging Research: Hearing before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate, One Hundredth Congress, Second Session […] (Serial No. 100-21; S. Hrg. 100-972), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 18:

[M]illions of Americans are currently spending large amounts of time and money on interventions that they hope will increase their "healthspans"—their periods of healthy life.

1990, David E. Harrison, “Introduction and Predictions”, in David E. Harrison, editor, Genetic Effects on Aging II, Caldwell, N.J.: The Telford Press, →ISBN, page 6:

The evidence is clear. Four life-style factors are linked to a shortened healthspan: (1) eating a poor diet, particularly one high in fat, (2) not getting enough exercise, (3) drinking too much alcohol too often, and (4) smoking. In short, people with these habits become limited and die before their time.

1995, Elizabeth Vierck, “How to Live Longer, Healthier”, in Health Smart: Your Personal Plan to Living Longer and Healthier, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, →ISBN, pages 15–16:

[I]nterest in human biology has actually increased among the general population. This is primarily due to medical discoveries that increase not only lifespan but also healthspan, or the number of years that people live disease free.

2004, Michael Windelspecht, “Series Foreword”, in David Petechuk, edited by Michael Windelspecht, The Respiratory System (Human Body Systems), Westport, Conn.; London: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page xi:

The better the care we offer and the more customized it is to the needs of the specific pet, the longer our patients will live and the greater their healthspans will be.

2021, Nan Bass, “Opportunities for Pet-specific Care”, in Lowell Ackerman, editor, Pet-specific care for the Veterinary Team, Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, section 1 (Overview), page 23, column 2:

The lifespans and healthspans of Drosophila reared with WJf, WJDf, GSf, or GSDf were compared with those of Nf-reared Drosophila […] In previous studies, the healthspan of Drosophila was defined at the point at which 50% of the individuals had locomotor ability[…]. Although the healthspan of Nf-reared Drosophila was only 11.9 days, those of GSf-, GSDf-, WJf-, or WJDf-reared Drosophila were extended to 15.6 days (69.6% up), 18.2 days (98.2% up), 15.6 days (69.6% up), or 13.5 days (46.7% up), respectively[…].

2023 January, Linh Xuan Mai [et al.], “An Alkaline Protease-digestion of Silkworm Powder Enhances Its Effects over Healthspan, Autophagy, and Mitochondria Function in a Rotenone-induced Drosophila Model”, in Gorazd Drevenšek, Gang Wang, Mona E. Aboutabl, Zoltan Sarnyai, editors, Nutritional Approaches for Prevention and Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases (Frontiers in Nutrition), Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland: Frontiers Media, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 128:

The length of time in one's life where one is generally in good health.

terveysikä

length of time in one’s life where one is generally in good health


treasure trail

As he says good-bye, he puts both arms over his head and stretches big, causing his shirt to lift up a few inches, exposing the sexiest abs and treasure trail I've ever seen.

2006, Karyn Bosnak, 20 Times a Lady, Harper, →ISBN, page 73:

(slang) A vertical line of hair that extends up along the middle of a person's (usually a man's) abdomen from pubic hair to navel.


stinkstone

stinkstone (countable and uncountable, plural stinkstones)

(mineralogy) One of the varieties of calcite, barite, and feldspar that emit a foetid odour on being struck.


draggle-tail

From draggle (“to make wet and muddy by dragging along the ground”) + tail. Implying that such a person's gown trailed in the mire or along the ground.

compound

For yee shall not onely see the Damoiselles (Gentlewomen) and them of the better sort, but euery poore Chapperonnieze (draggletayle) euen to the Coblers daughter, that can Dance with good measure, & Arte, all your Quarantes, Leualties, Bransles, & other Dances whatsoeuer […]

1604, Robert Dallington, The View of Fraunce, London: Symon Stafford:

It was a long canting monologue, which ended with, "And a lady is just what you are not — you don't even wear under-drawers, you draggle-tail!" Whereupon in her fury she lifted her skirts and showed me that she did wear underdrawers.

2010, Alexander Granach, Herbert Lewis, From the Shtetl to the Stage: The Odyssey of a Wandering Actor, page 133:

(chiefly archaic) A slut or slattern; a slovenly woman.


draggle-tail

You notice that across the lawn the coppice looks not so wind-beaten and draggletail as it did a while ago.

1903, W. G. Collingwood, “The Fésole Club Papers: Chapter X: Infinity”, in The Parents' Review, volume 14, number 10, page 781:

—words spliced to form
draggletail phrases
met by brittle conjunctions–
We two are poorly bound

1982, Joseph Sherman, “The little black ant and the little blue heron”, in Lords of shouting: Poems, page 70:

Dirty, draggletail, it was nevertheless an important street […]

1982, Ruth Park, Playing Beatie Bow, page 68:


snake rake

A lock-picking tool in the form of a thin, flat length of metal with a wavy section at one end, designed to jostle the pins of a low-quality lock into a position allowing it to be unlocked.


swingebuckler

There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Barnes, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele, a Cotswold man; you had not four such swinge-bucklers in all the Inns-of-court; and, I may say to you, we knew where the bona-robas were.

c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

(obsolete) A swashbuckler; a bully; a roisterer.


Malfunction Junction

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

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

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

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


mulga wire

en-noun

mulga wire (countable and uncountable, plural mulga wires)

/ˈmʌlɡə ˌwaɪə/

/ˈmʌlɡə ˌwaɪ(ə)ɹ/

/ˈmɐlɡə ˌwaɪə/

From mulga (“any of a number of small acacia trees, especially Acacia aneura, forming dense scrub in dry inland areas of Australia; (by extension) the outback”) + wire (“telecommunication wire or cable”), possibly modelled after bush telegraph.

compound

(Australia, historical) A system for long-distance communication used by Aboriginal Australians, chiefly using smoke signals; also, a message or signal sent using such a system.

savumerkit

system for long-distance communication used by Aboriginal Australians, chiefly using smoke signals; a message or signal sent using such a system


scratchback

(UK, dated) A toy which imitates the sound of tearing cloth, used by drawing it across the back of unsuspecting persons.


pity party

[…] I was having a pity party today and needed to whine a little, that's all. I'm over it now. All I needed was someone to listen.

1995, Judy Baer, Sarah's Dilemma, Bethany House Publishers, →ISBN, page 22:

(informal, derogatory) An instance of feeling sorry for oneself or seeking pity from other people.


netnews

Usenet software has gotten much better over time to cope with the ever increasing aggregate flow of netnews[…]

1995, Mark Harrison, The Usenet handbook: a user's guide to Netnews:

In the UNIX tradition categories of netnews groups are structured hierarchically.

2003, Mark G. Sobell, A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux 8, page 399:

(Internet) Electronic messages distributed by means of newsgroups, such as on Usenet.


Augean stables

en-noun

Augean stables pl (normally plural, singular Augean stable)

From Augean (“pertaining to Augeas”) + stables. Augeas was a legendary king of Elis in Greek mythology who owned 3,000 divine cattle which produced a huge amount of dung in stables that had not been cleaned for over 30 years. The cleaning of the stables was the fifth of the twelve Labours of Hercules, which Hercules achieved by rerouting the Alpheus and Peneus rivers through them.

compound

Yea, as yee loue your ovvne life, peace, vvelfare; Rouze vp your ſpirits, avvaken your Chriſtian courage, and ſet your ſelues heartily againſt the traitorly ſinnes of theſe times, vvhich threaten the bane of all theſe. Cleanſe yee theſe Augean''' ſtables of our drunken Tauernes, of our profane ſtages, and of thoſe blinde Vaults of profeſſed filthineſſe, VVhoſe ſteppes goe dovvne to the chambers of Death; yea, to the deepe of Hell.

1613 April 3 (Gregorian calendar), Jos[eph] Hall, “An Holy Panegyrick. A Sermon Preached at Paules-Crosse, vpon the Anniuersary Solemnity of the Happie Inauguration of Our Drad Soueraigne Lord, King Iames, March 24. 1613.”, in A Recollection of Such Treatises as Haue Bene heretofore Seuerally Published and are Nowe Reuised, Corrected, Augmented. […], London: […] [Humfrey Lownes] for Arthur Iohnson, Samuel Macham and Laurence Lisle, published 1615, →OCLC, page 711:

Let us ſhevv our Duty to this our great and benevolent Sovereign; let us endeavour to alleviate his Cares, and him of all ungrateful Burthens; let us take upon our ſelves the heavy and long Labour of cleanſing the Augean''' Stables, and of cutting off all the Hydra's Head at once.

1721 February 1 (Gregorian calendar), “Cato” [pseudonym], “Political Letters to the Author of the Lond[on] Journal, from Jan. 14. to Feb. 18.”, in The Political State of Great Britain, volume XXI, London: […] [F]or the author [Abel Boyer], and sold by T. Warner […], and A. Rocayrol, […], published 11 March 1721 (Gregorian calendar), →OCLC, page 156:

Some perſons imagine, and argue, as if a conſolidation of the Legiſlatures vvould correct the vices and cure the corruption of Parliament, […] as if they conſidered the Britiſh Senate the choſen ſpot, the conſecrated temple of genuine and unſullied freedom, and that of Ireland no better than the Augean ſtable, vvhich no time or labour could cleanſe of its filth and free from its impurities. But, my friends and countrymen, you have too much underſtanding to be deluded by ſuch monſtrous and abſurd poſitions, vvhich have ſuch little foundation, either in fact or in a knovvledge of human nature.

1799, “A Freeholder” [pseudonym], A Letter to the Electors of Ireland, on the Projected Measure of an Union. […], Dublin: […] J. Moore, […], →OCLC, pages 9–10:

We have assembled to discuss those principles of government—principles which have been subverted to the purposes of the present administration. […] We have seen the effect of some of the measures of the administration at Washington, and it is high time, my fellow-citizens, that the Augean stable there was cleansed. […] The Augean stable at Washington has had a number of animals in it for nearly twelve years, without being cleaned out. [Laughter.]

1840 October 5, General [Pierre] Van Cortlandt, “Meeting at Auburn, N.Y.”, in A[nthony] B[anning] Norton, The Great Revolution of 1840. Reminiscences of the Log Cabin and Hard Cider Campaign, Mount Vernon, Oh., Dallas, Tex.: A. B. Norton & Co., published 1888, →OCLC, page 341:

'What an Augean stable!' he muttered to himself. 'Where does one begin? With the masses? Educate the masses?' He shook his head. 'Not a chance there. It would take centuries. A handful of men at the top. Or even one man with vision – an enlightened dictator. People are scared of the word nowadays. But what kind of democracy can exist side by side with so much corruption and ignorance? Perhaps a half-way house – a sort of compromise.'

1960, Chinua Achebe, chapter 5, in No Longer at Ease (African Writers Series), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Heinemann Educational Publishers, published 1987, →ISBN, page 40:

Augean stables are everywhere under the Congress Raj—whether in agriculture or elsewhere. Only a few days back there was a huge fraud in the CHS dispensaries.

1972 August 23, Dahyabhai V. Patel, “The Insecticides (Amendment) Bill, 1972”, in Parliamentary Debates: Rajya Sabha: Official Report (Rajya Sabha), volume LXXXI, number 16, New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Secretariat, →OCLC, column 248:

For him [Glenn Brown], daft, culturally sanctioned gesturalism is an Augean stable, and he the Hercules whose duty it is to disinfect it. At this time, for example, he mounted an attack on the ultimate in post-war expressionism. Unfortunately, his version of a chimpanzee painting remains unfinished.

1993 October 10, Stuart Morgan, “Confessions of a Body Snatcher: Glenn Brown”, in Frieze, London: Frieze Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-11, page 52:

The legacy of State-based political machines—I need to win an election despite them. And then I can clean out the Augean stables: abolish the National Executive for what they did to Cookie, and abolish the primacy of the State branches.

2004 April 27, Mark Latham, “2004 Pre-election”, in The Latham Diaries, Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, published 2005, →ISBN, page 283:

The military administration wasted little time in getting down to the business of cleaning up the Augean Stable. The constitution was suspended. All political appointees lost their job. They were all hounded into detention, collectively accused of corruption.

2012 May, Dan Agbese, “The Augean Stable”, in Ibrahim Babangida: The Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria, London, Abuja, Nigeria: Adonis & Abbey, →ISBN, page 177:

(figuratively) A place or situation characterized by corruption or moral decay.


hot hand

(idiomatic, basketball) Used in reference to a player who makes a series of successful shots in a game.


sellsword

Whenever I see Alcides Escobar make another unbelievable play at shortstop, I can’t help but think we got the better of the deal in the trade for Zack Grienke. The money-hungry Grienke is now pitching for the Dodgers and admits he wanted to play for the team that paid him the most cash. A sellsword. A gunslinger for hire.

2013 April 2, Matt Stewart, “Opinion: Royals poised to make the playoffs”, in Fox 4 (Kansas City), archived from the original on 2013-05-31:

Soccer is class warfare, a battle between the haves and the have-nots, and those with more money and resources always win. In soccer, The Empire is undefeated. And José Mourinho, the world's greatest sellsword, the man who has discovered nothing in soccer but how to win, is its face.

2014 April 28, Greg Howard, “José Mourinho Is The Antichrist: A Closet Liverpool Fan's Lament”, in Deadspin, retrieved 2014-11-24:

(by extension figuratively, often derogatory) Someone who only works for money, in the manner of a mercenary.


nightwork

From night + work. Compare Dutch nachtwerk, German Nachtwerk.

I don't know why it is the hours fly with such a strange celerity in the monotony and solitude of such nightwork.

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

‘Under journalist cover we bring her into play, give her Chinese newspapers to translate, send her on little errands, involve her, complete her education and train her in nightwork.’

1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 183:


drabble-tail

From drabble (“to make wet and dirty by dragging through the mud”) + tail.

Whose tinsel robes of tawdry language trail, Slatterns in fine attire, a drabble tail; Whose monft'rous thoughts, diminutive and vile, Seem pigmy pages to a giant style;

1785, The Beauties of the Brinsleiad, page 22:

If the rubber piled up to the ceiling she would simply move to another room. His disgust with such slatternly, drabbletail customs of India rose to the surface as he slapped twenty-rupees in the crack-salesman's light-colored palm. The girl winked at the pimp as he slipped out to the hallway.

1979, Dale Riepe, The Owl Flies by Day, page 40:

Lad-loupin molls an gadabouts, / fellow-fond an sly, / flappy-skets an drabble-tails / oo'll bleed a bloke bone-dry: […]

1985 July, Blake Morrison, “The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper”, in London Review of Books, volume 7, number 12:

I am told he is come back from his travels, bringing a drabble[-]tail with him, a wench from Baltimore […]

1989, Patrick O'Brian, Fortune of War, page 147:

No Latin prayers or laughing drabble-tail whores.

1998, Mark Anthony Jarman, “Skin a Flea for Hide and Tallow”, in 19 Knives, published 2008, page 71:

A couple of hundred papist drabble-tails, found begging for quarter with whorish mouths, are heaped by some wagons, where his men eye them hungrily.

2014, Antonia Senior, Treason's Daughter:

They're hard, often brutal, sometimes vicious to their wives, their 'drabbletails' (girlfriends), and one another.

2018, Clancy Sigal, The London Lover: My Weekend that Lasted Thirty Years:

A draggle-tail; a prostitute or promiscuous woman.

Jinx said to Bubber [a male character]– "Aw go 'haid, drabble[-]tail. Ain' nobody studyin' yo' family."

1994, Rudolph Fisher, The Walls of Jericho, page 14:

the drunken drabbletail Dublin drab

2002, Seamus Deane, Angela Bourke, Andrew Carpenter, The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing - Volume 5, page 1607:

The mule didn't budge. "Gol-danged son of a splinter-cat!! Hee-yah...Hee-yah!" The man then resorted to a blow with a heavy, stick.^([sic]) "In all my born days I never seen such a ornery, blamed drabbletail!" he yelled.

2002, Beverly Mai, Kate of Kentucky: Land of Blood and Plenty, page 158:

"That's as well, you low-arsed pair o' drabble-tails. I wants to see you behind a plough this afternoon. […]"

2016, Julian Stockwin, chapter 2, in The Powder of Death:

An untidy person; a general term of contempt.

Ngarara went in, and mistaking the post for Ruru, encircled it with the drabbletail of her dress.

1876, Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, page 117:

Probably she got it on hire from some cheap costume dealer in the Brunnen Strasse or some such locality. It was a perfect drabbletail, and looked hideous.

1886, Julius Stinde, The Buchholz Family: Sketches of Berlin Life - Volume 1, page 86:

A drabble tail a trample — an empty coddle cap

1996, John Clare, Eric Robinson, David Powell, John Clare: Poems of the Middle Period, 1822-1837: Volume V, page 752:

A mess; something bedraggled or cheaply made.


drabble-tail

What was ailing this ordinarily competent musical flock that they should have languished into such a straggly, drabbletail gathering of barnyard fowl?

1993, Nancy Kay Webb, “Community Concert”, in Ridge Review, volume 10, page 42:

Most of the inhabitants were white women, noted Tom Osborn, with lots of dirty, half-naked children hanging onto their skirts. When Osborn asked a drabbletail group gathered in front of a stick-chimney shanty to account for their husbands, two or three acknowledged the men were away soldiering; another claimed to be an old maid.

1999, Michael Golay, A Ruined Land: The End of the Civil War, page 101:


wacky tobaccy

I stepped inside and the odor of wacky tobaccy lingered in the air.

2006, K. J. Larsen, Liar, Liar, Poisoned Pen Press, published 2010, →ISBN, page 144:


wacky tabaccy

"You better cut back on that wacky tabaccy," I cautioned.

2012, Daniel Davidson, The Scammers, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 173:


whacky tobaccy

What asks R. B. P. is marihuana? Then rymie-wymies his own answer: Whacky tobaccy

[1939 October 23, Matt Weinstock, “Town Talk”, in Daily News, Los Angeles, page 23:

He lit a stick of whacky tobaccy and took a solid hit.

1989, Daniel G. Baldyga, A Sailor Remembers: His Voyage from Darkness Into Light, Mystic House, →ISBN, page 63:


whacky tabaccy

Rooting about in her parachute bag she hauled out the neck of a Jack Daniel's bottle stuffed with what smelt like some high-grade whacky tabaccy.

2012, Zinaid Meeran, Tanuki Ichiban, Jacana Media, →ISBN, page 138:


nutty slack

Mr. Nabarro asked the Minister of Fuel and Power the calorific value of nutty slack currently being marketed to domestic consumers, ration-free, by the National Coal Board, compared with normal house coals; what quantity of nutty slack is to be available, in total, during the present coal-winter; the market response to date; how much nutty slack it is estimated will be sold this winter; and whether nutty slack is to be a permanent, ration-free feature of our domestic fuel economy.

1953 February 2, Gerald Nabarro, Member of Parliament for Kidderminster, “Nutty Slack”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Commons Official Report (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume 510, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, columns 1460–1461:

(British, historical) A cheap fuel consisting of slack (“coal dust”) and nuts (“small lumps of coal”); unlike other solid fuels it was not rationed during the period after World War II.


cock rock

Ellen performs with incredible force and strength. Her guitar style is unique and very special, and her slide work could probably destroy any number of male institutions, particularly the one that says women can't play electric guitar, plus the feminist myth that all electric music is cock-rock. Ellen could probably squash the main proponents of cock-rock under her thumb-pick.

1979 August 18, Maida Tilchen, Ellie McIlwaine, “The Diversity of Women's Music”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 5, page 9:

People have this image of us. They think we're cock rock. It's time to rein it in a bit. We're not going, Wahey! and pouring champagne on girls' tits.

2004, Dave Black, The Darkness "Talking":

Since first tossing its cartoonish, good-time cock-rock to the masses in the early ’00s, The Darkness has always fallen back on this defense: The band is a joke, but hey, it’s a good joke. With Hot Cakes—the group’s third album, and first since reforming last year—the laughter has died. In its place is the sad wheeze of the last surviving party balloon slowly, listlessly deflating.

2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club:

(informal) A style of rock music performed by male bands, emphasizing aggressive sexuality.


Space Race

(historical) The informal competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to launch unmanned satellites, send people into space and land them on the Moon.


table talk

This then, is my hope: if at least one of us does not talk bridge at the table, the table talk will eventually be lessened.

2002, Roselyn Teukolsky, How to Play Bridge with Your Spouse and Survive, →ISBN, page 186:

"Did you see that?" Paula pointed a lit cigarette. “No table-talk!” Alex snarled.

2002, David Fiore, Darkling I Listen, →ISBN, page 192:

One of the rules of the game is NO TABLE TALK, which means you don't want to bring moves to other players' attention that might benefit them or prevent them from making a damaging one.

2007, Joan Butman, Table Talk: Food for Thought That's Easy to Swallow!, →ISBN, page 1:

(games) Conversation that illicitly conveys information or suggestions to another player.


drama llama

/ˈdɹɑːmə ˈlɑːmə/

Drama is consuming. It destroys relationships. It opens a door for gossip, lying, and jealousy and is a big, fat time-sucker. The Scripture above says it all! You and I both know when the drama llama, has not just paid a visit, but also made herself right at home. It is time to evaluate your life—starting with yourself—and kick that Llama out the door.

2011, Gillian M. Henriques, Toshana N. Sledge, Tina Turner, Marcy Bomhak, Hers to Treasure: 100 Devotional/Journal from Sisters in Christ (Women's Fellowship), Bloomington, Ind.: WestBow Press, →ISBN, page 173:

"Aw, Mom. Don't be a drama llama." / "Excuse me?" / "You know, don't make a fuss about nothing." / "But why a llama?" / "Because a drama llama throws drama around like a llama spits. Everywhere!"

2012, Mary Griggs, Crash Stop, Tallahassee, Fla.: Bella Books, →ISBN:

It was certainly true that Lewie was no ordinary llama. Other llamas didn't spend their days singing and dancing and acting! Even his parents, Mama and Papa Llama, had to admit that Lewie was a bit of a Drama Llama.

2013, Rose Impey, Llama Drama – In It To Win It! (Awesome Animals), HarperCollins Children's Books, →ISBN:

I try not to pay too much attention to the drama-llamas and gossip.

2015, Dena Celeste, Her Master's Gift (The Edge), Klawock, Ak.: Decadent Publishing, →ISBN, page 19:


scapegallows

From scape (archaic for escape) + gallows.

archaic for <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">escape</i>

[…] And remember this, 'scapegallows,' said Ralph, menacing him with his hand, 'that if we meet again, and you so much as notice me by one begging gesture, you shall see the inside of a jail once more […]

1838–1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby:

(colloquial, dated) A criminal who has narrowly escaped being hanged.


masterman

1975 Daily Tel. 15 Sept. 17/1: "The main problem is the difficulty in finding a masterman to be apprenticed to; nearly all mastermen are already training apprentices."

(historical) A master craftsman, often employing apprentices or journeymen.


headhair

en-noun

headhair (usually uncountable, plural headhairs)

From Middle English *heed-heer, from Old English hēafodhǣr (“hair of the head, headhair”), equivalent to head + hair. Cognate with Dutch hoofdhaar (“headhair”), German Haupthaar (“headhair”), Danish hovedhår (“headhair”), Swedish huvudhår (“headhair”).

inh

[...] breakfasted before dressing, cleaned up; floors swept, dusted, things moved around and, replaced listened to the news on the radio, shaved carefully, going over the white stubble two times. "Funny how my headhair is dark, not one grey hair, you see, and how my beard, if I let it grow is all white. [...]"

[...] Brothers strut like generals spinning & tangling of hair entanglement of headhairs was among them [...]

1973, George Quasha, Jerome Rothenberg, America, a prophecy:

The midwife shaves the headhair of the child, takes it in a Phumk (vessel of Sal leave) and immerse in the water of Bonga-Pokhri.

1992, Buddhadeb Chaudhuri, Religion, Rituals and Festivals:

I could see my snipped-to-pieces and differentlengthed ^([sic]) headhair all over her knees.

If something else (gets in the ear) put the tips of the headhair in the ear as far as possible.

2009, Barbara Zipser, John the Physician's Therapeutics:


bluestripe

(zoology, chiefly attributive) Any of various fishes or other animals bearing a blue stripe.


organ gun

/ˌɔːɡ(ə)n ˈɡʌn/

/ˌɔɹɡ(ə)n ˈɡʌn/

From organ + gun. The multiple barrels of the device were thought to resemble the pipes of a pipe organ.

The attempts to re-invest the artillery with its one-time superiority were directed in two channels: one aimed at perfecting shrapnel, which had been rather neglected up to this time (England, Prussia, Austria), while the other resurrected the mediaeval idea of the "barrel-organ gun," with a view of assembling a number of rifle barrels and of combining thereby the accuracy of the small arm with the moral effect of canister.

1911, William Balck, “VI. Machine Guns”, in Tactics, Volume 1: Introduction and Formal Tactics of Infantry, page 259:

(firearms, historical) A large, portable firearm normally supported by wheels, in which bullets may be fired from a row of several tubes in succession; it was chiefly used from the 14th to the 17th century.

Bellifortis
Giuseppe Marco Fieschi
Konrad Keyser
Louis Philippe I
Musée des Archives Nationales

арга́н

portable firearm in which bullets may be fired from a row of several tubes in succession


duck decoy

A structure used to catch wildfowl, consisting of a central pond and radiating water-filled arms.


holy-water sprinkle

en-noun

holy-water sprinkle (plural holy-water sprinkles)

/ˈhəʊliˌwɔːtə ˈspɹɪŋkl̩/

PIE word
 *kéh₂ilos
From Late Middle English haly water spryngelle (“sprinkler for holy water”), from haly water, hōlī water (“water consecrated for use in religious ceremonies”) + sprenkil, springel, spryngelle (“sprinkler for holy water”). By surface analysis, holy water + sprinkle.
Sense 2 (“weapon consisting of a heavy ball set with spikes attached rigidly to a staff”) is from its resemblance to the aspergillum, and apparently from the fact that it scattered blood when it came into contact with a person.

ref

From the collection of the Santa Maria Novella church in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.

From the collection of the museum of the Château de Dinan in Dinan, Brittany, France.

nb...

bookseller, 132, Fleet Street; and sold by all booksellers and news-agents throughout the kingdom.

The weapons, called by Germans "Morgen-stern," and in old English Inventories "holy-water sprinkles," from a certain resemblance to the aspergillum used in churches, are comparatively rare in the armories of this country. […] In the Tower survey of 1547 they are often mentioned; e.g.—'Great holly water sprincles, 118; Holly water sprincles with gonnes in th'ende, 7; Little holly water sprincles, 392; Holly water sprincle with three gonnes in the topp, 1.' The last-named is, without doubt, the club with iron spikes and short fire barrels still exhibited in the tower, with more or less of sensational additamenta relating to Henry VIII.

1547 (date written), “Proceedings at Meetings of the Royal Archeological Institute. November 1, 1867. [Antiquities and Works of Art Exhibited.]”, in The Archaeological Journal, volume XXV, London: Published at the office of the [Royal Archaeological] Institute [of Great Britain and Ireland], published 1868, →OCLC, pages 87–88:

To sprinkle the holy water was the cant-phrase for fetching blood, which will account for the appellation, as there is no resemblance between the weapon so called and the aspergillum. Fig. 1.—A holy-water-sprinkle of the fifteenth century. It is a wooden mallet, bound with iron and furnished with iron spikes. […] Fig. 3.—A petty-holy-water-sprinkle to hand at the saddle bow. The whole, except the handle, is of iron.

1854, Samuel Rush Meyrick, “Plate XCII. Holy-water Sprinkles, &c.”, in Engraved Illustrations of Antient Arms and Armour, from the Collection at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire; […], volume II, London: Henry G[eorge] Bohn [for John Skelton], […], →OCLC:

The horse-chestnuts showed the little green knobs which would soon enlarge and hang all prickly, like the spiked balls of a holy-water sprinkle, such as was once used in the wars.

a. 1888 (date written), Richard Jefferies, “An English Deer-park”, in J[essie] Jefferies, compiler, Field and Hedgerow: Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies […], London; New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], published 1889, →OCLC, page 296:

(by extension, weaponry, historical) A 16th-century weapon consisting of a heavy ball set with spikes attached rigidly to a staff, used mainly in England; a morning star.


mother abscess

en-noun

mother abscess (plural mother abscesses)

/ˈmʌ.ðɚ ˈæbˌsɛs/

/ˈmʌ.ðɚ ˈæbˌsɪs/

(pathology) A primary abscess responsible for secondary abscesses.


kitchen sink

The noun is derived from kitchen + sink. Sense 2.1 (“miscellaneous item or miscellany”) is probably from everything but the kitchen sink.
The adjective is derived from the noun. Sense 1 (“of or pertaining to a realist style of painting characterized by scenes of dull or untidy domestic interiors of urban working-class people”) was coined by the British art critic David Sylvester (1924–2001) in a December 1954 article entitled “The Kitchen Sink”: see the quotation.
The verb is a back-formation from kitchen-sinking (noun), which is derived from the noun.

back-formation

The kitchen sink was piled high with dirty dishes.

A sink in a kitchen used for washing crockery, cutlery, utensils, food, etc., and disposing of waste.

(metonymically) In chained or tied to the kitchen sink, etc.: domestic chores or housework, especially when regarded as menial and tedious.


kitchen sink

It is evident that neither objectivity nor abstraction is the aim of the young painters of the kitchen-sink school.

1954 December, David Sylvester, “The Kitchen Sink”, in Stephen Spender, Irving Kristol, editors, Encounter, London: Encounter Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 62, column 2:

[T]here are a number of instances of [John] Berger promoting the four artists known as the Beaux Arts Quartet, or the Kitchen Sink painters—John Bratby, Jack Smith, Edward Middleditch and Derrick Greaves.

2004 autumn, Adrian Clark, “Two British Art Patrons of the 1940s and 1950s: Sir Colin Anderson and Peter Watson”, in The British Art Journal, volume V, number 2, London: Art Journals, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

The home and domesticity were the main subjects of "kitchen sink" painting, a short-lived style of realism active in London between 1952 and 1957. The four artists typically associated with this genre are Jack Smith, Edward Middleditch, Derrick Greaves, and John Bratby. […] In the histories of post-war British art, it remains widely unchallenged that these four men are the only "kitchen sink" artists. Their works from the 1950s are considered as central in discourses of post-war representations of the home and labour, with critics and historians often locating "kitchen sink" painting's legacy as a precursor to British pop art's focus on everyday domestic objects.

2019 May 31, Abi Shapiro, “The Kitchen Sink Too”, in British Art Studies, number 12, London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; New Haven, Conn.: Yale Center for British Art, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-29:

(painting) Of or pertaining to a mid-20th-century realist style of painting in Britain characterized by scenes of dull or untidy domestic interiors such as kitchens in the homes of urban working-class people; also, of or pertaining to an artist or group of artists painting in this style.

Kitchen Sink -tyylinen

of or pertaining to a realist style of painting characterized by scenes of dull or untidy domestic interiors of urban working-class people; of or pertaining to an artist or group of artists painting in this style

(by extension, drama, fiction, film, television, originally derogatory) Of or pertaining to a mid-20th-century (especially 1950s–1960s) genre of drama, fiction, etc., in Britain depicting the harsh lives of working-class people; also, of or pertaining to a film, novel, play, etc., of this genre.

työväestön arkielämää käsittelevä

of or pertaining to a genre of drama, fiction, etc., depicting the harsh lives of working-class people; of or pertaining to a film, novel, play, etc., of this genre


kitchen sink

en-verb

kitchen sink (third-person singular simple present kitchen sinks, present participle kitchen sinking, simple past and past participle kitchen sinked)

kitchen sinks (present singular third-person)
kitchen sinking (participle present)
kitchen sinked (participle past)
kitchen sinked (past)

(transitive) to raise to (someone) unrelated complaints and other matters during an argument; (intransitive) to raise unrelated complaints and other matters during an argument

esittää aiheeseen liittymättömiä valituksia

(business) To release (a large amount of information about the poor financial results of a company) in one go, in the hope that there will be less impact.

julkistaa kaikki huonot tiedot kerralla

to release (a large amount of information about the poor financial results of a company) in one go


nosering

On the first wedding night of the marriage ceremony, the husband removes the big nosering of the bride, which is the symbolic representation of the girl being a virgin till that moment.

1993, Mohsen Saeidi Madani, Impact of Hindu Culture on Muslims, M D Publications Pvt Ltd, →ISBN, page 146:

[…] My mother and grandmother wore nine-yard saris, with heavy anklets, armlets, waist belts and enormous noserings, but they observed all the Jewish rituals.'

2002, Esther David, Book of Esther, Viking, →ISBN, page 369:

A woman with dyed black hair and a greenstone nosering returns to a story she must have almost finished before I came in.

2007, Kristen Tsetsi, Homefront, Penxhere Press, →ISBN, page 225:


stop-go

en-adj

stop-go (comparative more stop-go, superlative most stop-go)

more stop-go (comparative)
most stop-go (superlative)

We are suffering the consequences of three years of a stop-go economic policy.

Scottish rail suppliers have told the Government that they can only reach their target of employing 500 apprentices if they are given a clear pipeline of work, rather than having to endure the current stop-go programme.

2022 December 14, “Network News: A pipeline of work key for apprentices”, in RAIL, number 972, page 17:

Alternately active and inactive; intermittent.


stop-go

[…] the concern with increasing economic growth led to charges that stop-go was inhibiting investment and hence slowing the expansion of the economy.

2014, Max Schulze, Western Europe: Economic and Social Change since 1945, page 277:


moon rock

en-noun

moon rock (countable and uncountable, plural moon rocks)

(countable, uncountable) Rock from the surface of the moon, but especially any geological specimen brought back by the Apollo program.


cowardy custard

cowardy custard (plural cowardy custards)

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

Probably suggesting trembling in fear in the way that custard wobbles.

(childish, derogatory) A coward; a timid or fearful person.


loco moco

Reportedly from Spanish loco (“crazy”), with an arbitrary rhyme for the second word.

A traditional Hawaiian meal, usually of white rice topped with a hamburger patty, a fried egg, and gravy.


bitcoin

From bit (“binary digit”) + coin, coined by Satoshi Nakamoto, believed to be a pseudonym for one or more people, in the domain name bitcoin.org registered on 18 August 2008; and in the title of the white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, a link to which was posted on the cryptography mailing list metzdowd.com on 31 October 2008: see the quotation.

We do not accept bitcoin at this store.

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System [title] […] What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party. […] In this paper, we propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer distributed timestamp server to generate computational proof of the chronological order of transactions.

2008 October 31, Satoshi Nakamoto [pseudonym], “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, in Bitcoin.org, archived from the original on 2025-01-04:

[A] man named Satoshi Nakamoto posted a research paper to an obscure cryptography listserv describing his design for a new digital currency that he called bitcoin.

2011 December, Benjamin Wallace, “The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2025-01-02:

[Bitcoins] do not depend on the state banks, but are created through mining. Mining is also called as hashing. It is a process of solving complex math problems using those computers which run bitcoin software.

2014, Dale Blake, “Getting and Selling Bitcoins”, in Bitcoin Guide for Beginners: Bitcoin Trading and Mining Made Easy, La Vergne, Tenn.: Mihails Konoplovs, →ISBN:

Other e-commerce sites that accept bitcoin are: Bitcoinshop.us which offers products like watches and air conditioners and ships to people within the United States; […] Travel booking websites also start to accept bitcoin sales on flights, hotel bookings to at least 200,000 hotels and railway Amtrak through their platforms.

2015, Scott Green, “Bitcoin Growth and Trends”, in Bitcoin: The Ultimate A–Z of Profitable Bitcoin Trading & Mining Guide Exposed! (The Blokehead Series), Milan: Scott Green, →ISBN:

Individual bitcoin users are not the only driving force in terms of securing the bitcoin network. Over the past few years, dedicated bitcoin nodes have been added to the network with the sole purpose of receiving and broadcasting new bitcoin transactions to other users and nodes on the network.

2016, Prypto [pseudonym], “Bitcoin Security”, in Bitcoin for Dummies (For Dummies), Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part III (Using Bitcoin in Business), page 137:

Find a friend who has bitcoin and buy some from him or her directly. Many bitcoin users start this way. This method is the least complicated. One way to meet people with bitcoin is to attend a local bitcoin meetup listed at Meetup.com (https://meetup.com).

2017 June, Andreas M[arkos] Antonopoulos, “Introduction”, in Tim McGovern, editor, Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain, 2nd edition, Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 11:

(uncountable, computing, finance) A decentralized cryptocurrency using blockchain technology.


bitcoin

This item costs one bitcoin.

The value of fiat money is determined by legal means (legal tender laws). In other words, fiat money is anything the government says in money. For instance, if the government says an IOU or a bitcoin is money, then it is money. The major currencies of the contemporary world are fiat money.

2008 November, Alex Marchand, “What is Money?”, in Dissolving Dollars: Exposing the Debt-based Insanity behind Modern Money, [S.l.]: 451° Publishing, published April 2015, →ISBN, page 12:

Users willing to devote CPU power to running a special piece of software would be called miners and would form a network to maintain the block chain collectively. […] The first miner to solve each puzzle would be awarded 50 new bitcoins, and the associated block of transactions would be added to the chain. […] [Satoshi] Nakamoto himself mined the first 50 bitcoins—which came to be called the genesis block—on January 3, 2009.

Each time you succeed in creating a hash, you are rewarded with 25 bitcoins, the block chain is updated and all the users on the network are notified. This serves as an incentive to keep mining the bitcoins and keep the bitcoin transactions working.

2013, Elda Watulo, John Davidson, “Making a Hash of It”, in How to Make Money Online With Digital Currency Bitcoins (Entrepreneur Book Series; 8), [S.l.]: JD-Biz Publishing, →ISBN:

They buy bitcoins at a lower price then sell them at a higher value.

2014, Kinsley Wallace, “How to Invest and Trade Bitcoins”, in Bitcoins: How to Invest, Buy and Sell: A Guide to Using the Bitcoin, [United States]: Speedy Publishing, →ISBN:

But consider that a significant amount of bitcoin is also being held by investors. Those investors do not plan to sell their bitcoin for some time because they are speculating that due to its utility as MoIP, demand will continue to rise and so too will its value. Currently, roughly 5.5 million bitcoin, or US$5.5 billion worth at the price of US$1,000 per coin, is held by the top 1,000 addresses recorded in Bitcoin's blockchain.

2017, Chris Burniske, Jack Tatar, Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor’s Guide to Bitcoin and beyond, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Education, →ISBN, page 177:

(countable, computing, finance) A unit of the bitcoin (proper noun sense 1) cryptocurrency.

բիթքոին

decentralized cryptocurrency using blockchain technology; unit of the cryptocurrency


skip-kennel

(obsolete) A young lackey or assistant; a footboy.


claybank

I took Señorita Anabela for a walk in the lemon grove while Fergus, disfiguring himself with an ugly frown, was waltzing with the claybank girl.

1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “‘Next to Reading Matter’”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 82:


song sparrow

Melospiza melodia
Melospiza melodia#Translingual

Melospiza melodia, a medium-sized American sparrow.


gentlegirl

From gentle + girl, modelled on gentleman and/or gentlewoman.

Hallo, Gentlegirls and Gentlemen !

2002 February 17, Konrad Brokamp, “Win XP with T-online explorer, Outlook Express, and Norton Internet Security 2002”, in microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (Usenet):

Yes gentlemen (and gentlegirls), I am talking about the game that started it all. Rogue.

2007 May 25, Slash [username], “ToTRL Competitions: Recover the Amulet of Yendor!”, in rec.games.roguelike.development (Usenet):

Amber Luthergaard (D-North Dakota) had been a fixture in the halls of Congress for over a year now. The distinguished gentlegirl was adjusting.

2012, Bowen Craig, A Look to the Future Through the Eyes of an Eighty Year Old Pirate, iUniverse, →ISBN, pages 120–121:

(rare, informal or humorous) A polite form of address for a young woman.


steakfish

steakfish (countable and uncountable, plural steakfish)

(Caribbean) Any of various firm-textured fish.


white whale

From white + whale. The figurative senses refer to the novel Moby-Dick (1851) by the American writer Herman Melville (1819–1891), in which Captain Ahab relentlessly pursues a rare albino sperm whale.

The English called the beluga the "white whale", a name often still used (and not to be confused with the white whale of Moby-Dick, which was an albino sperm whale).

2007, Nancy Lord, “Prologue”, in Beluga Days: Tracking the Endangered White Whale, pages 22–23:

Delphinapterus leucas
Delphinapterus leucas#Translingual

beluga

Synonym of beluga (“the beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas), a cetacean found in the Arctic Ocean”)

Monodon monoceros
Monodon monoceros#Translingual

Any whale of the family Monodontidae, which comprises the beluga whales and narwhals (Monodon monoceros), and some extinct species.

(collectible card games) A printing plate, used to manufacture a particular sports card, that is then issued as a collectible itself.

печа́тарска пло́ча

printing plate used to manufacture a particular sports card, that is then issued as a collectible itself


thrill kill

"It was a thrill kill. Robbery was an afterthought. This is one of the most senseless murders we've had down there in years."

1988 March 9, Sheridan R. Hansen, “Police arrest 2 Utah Count teenagers for questioning in Las Vegas shooting”, in Deseret News, retrieved 2013-05-17, page B3:

"[T]his essentially was a killing for no reason, a thrill kill. . . ," said Attorney Donald Macomber.

2012 April 12, “Supreme Court Hears Appeal of Colin Koehler's Life Sentence”, in WABI TV, retrieved 2013-05-17:

(idiomatic) An act of murder motivated solely by the murderer's desire to have a very exciting experience.


crab tree

From Middle English crabbetre, crabtre; see crab (“wild apple”).


Welsh corgi

/wɛlʃ ˈkɔːɡi/

/wɛlʃ ˈkɔɹɡi/

Mouthfeel presents DJ Divorcée and DJ Tip spinning a tribute to Pimm’s Cups, Welsh Corgwn, the Union Jack, and Kate Middleton’s love of drinking parties, just in time for the royal nups.

2011 April 29, James Renovitch, “Calendar: This week’s community listings”, in The Austin Chronicle, volume 30, number 35, page 58:

A type of herding dog originating from Wales, having a small body, short legs, and fox-like features such as large ears.

уелско корги

type of herding dog originating from Wales — see also corgi


bargain basement

bargain basement (plural bargain basements)

"Where will I find an aluminum cooking pot?" growled the elder Beagle unexpectedly.
"In the Bargain Basement," said Gissing promptly.

1922, Christopher Morley, chapter 6, in Where the Blue Begins:

To proper Bostonians . . . it was not quite a riot: it was merely the first big postwar men's-wear sale at Filene's bargain basement.

1949 April 11, “Business & Finance: Basement Bedlam”, in Time, retrieved 2013-08-05:

An area within a retail store, especially an area located below ground level, where the least costly merchandise can be found.

"This nation can't afford bargain-basement cops any more," says Oregon's Multnomah County (Portland) Sheriff Donald Clark. . . . Almost everyone agrees that U.S. police sorely need more education.

1965 July 30, “The Law: Police: Deputy Doe, B.A.”, in Time, retrieved 2013-08-05:

"We are not going to ask the brave young men and women who defend this country to put their lives on the line using obsolete weapons and bargain-basement equipment."

1984 March 27, “Democrats Stall Anti-crime Bill, Reagan Hints”, in Schenectady Gazette, retrieved 2013-08-05, page 12:

(idiomatic, attributively, often hyphenated) Of poor quality; of little or no value; low-end, shoddy.


bargain bin

A container holding miscellaneous discounted merchandise in a retail store.


shot spot

I pretended to be the Chief Executive from Zurich, setting a shot spots competition. This was my protest at the failure of the laundry system to wash out the semen stains from the sheets.

2009 April 29, Malachi O'Doherty, “Archive for April, 2009: More Libya Stuff”, in Malachi O'Doherty—The journalism and recordings of a Belfast writer, retrieved 2013-08-22:

I carefully looked and saw Mary Ann sprawled naked on the bed. . . . I saw a wet shot spot clearly visible next to her. I slumped momentarily confronted with the unmistakable visual evidence of their passion.

2010 Sept. 1, SirenSeeker, "Marking My Women Ch. 05," literotica.com (retrieved 22 August 2013)

(slang, vulgar) A stain left on a surface by the ejaculation of semen.


spank bank

Now my mother just became part of his spank bank. Just what I needed. The only guy I was screwing and now when he was whacking off he'd be thinking about my mom. Ick!

2005, Jill L. Ferguson, Sometimes Art Can't Save You, In Your Face Ink LLC, →ISBN, page 22:

[…] but on the other hand it would've been nice to get a view of that outstanding cleavage again. It was a thing of beauty and had immediately qualified her for membership to my mental “spank bank.”

2007, Brandon Wilkinson, Memoirs of the Messed Up Minds, iUniverse, →ISBN:

The Highwayman Fantasy had been in the spank bank forever. When she watched old episodes of Star Trek, she'd wished for the holodeck to be real so she could be held up and accosted by a handsome highwayman who was really a disinherited duke trying to right some horrible wrong, […]

2012, Saranna DeWylde, How to Lose a Demon in 10 Days, Brava Books, →ISBN:

(slang) A mental stock of images or fantasies brought to mind when masturbating.


bossman

You should watch what you say, bossman.

I don’t know what to tell you, bossman.

Used as a term of address for an unfamiliar, possibly distrusted man: bud, buddy, friend.

You really showed them, bossman. What’s your name?

Used as a term of address for a man who appears courageous: boss.


wank bank

Hosing her down made her jeans cling to her labia even more, not to mention the peanuts she smuggled under her shirt when I brushed her tits. That whole bit of business made a deposit in my wank bank.

2006, P. F. Kozak, Passion, Kensington Books, →ISBN, page 15:

I flipped through the wank bank, finally stopping at a love scene starring me and a Bay State Games bronze-medalist pole-vaulter who was in the same Major British Writers study group as me.

2009, Joe Pernice, It Feels So Good When I Stop, Riverhead Books, →ISBN:

She reaches out and lazily trails her fingers along his shaft, all the way from base to tip, as though mentally filing its dimensions in her private wank bank, to bring out on those nights when she has only her rabbit vibrator for company.

2013, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples, Cleis Press, published 2012, →ISBN:

(slang, vulgar) Synonym of spank bank (“mental stock of images or fantasies brought to mind when masturbating”)


care home

A place of residence for people who have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living, such as the elderly, but who do not need constant nursing care.


mallgoth

mallgoth (countable and uncountable, plural mallgoths)

From mall (“enclosed shopping centre”) + goth (“person who is part of the goth subculture”), suggesting that they purchase their clothes from mainstream retail outlets.

compound

MallGoths are young in age, spending the majority of their time after school at the mall. […] MallGoths dress differently to seem "in the know," when, in actuality, they have no clue what Goth culture really is. To them, Goth is a fashion statement and nothing more.

2007, Raven Digitalis [pseudonym?], “Goth”, in Goth Craft: The Magickal Side of Dark Culture, Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 35:

“Lester, what the fuck?” he said, grinning and laughing as he clapped Lester on the shoulder, taking a young mall-goth’s five bucks out of a hand whose fingernails were painted with chipped black polish. “What the hell is going on here?”

2009 November, Cory Doctorow, “Part II”, in Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor, Makers (A Tor Book), New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 174:

[A]lternative teen culture was really concentrated, with mallgoths, emos, and (shudder) scene kids sharing equal grounds on Myspace.

2015 May 4, Mary Grace Garis, “How Pete Wentz Invented Guyliner … Kind of”, in Bustle, New York, N.Y.: Bustle Media Group, archived from the original on 2023-09-25:

“Funnily enough ‘mallgoth’ was meant to be a bit of an insult,” explains Trinity Levy, the Arizona-based high school senior who started the Instagram account @1990smallgoth. “Being called a mallgoth was the equivalent of being called a poser. The purpose of it was to describe the kids who loved Marilyn Manson and bought Tripp pants from Hot Topic back in the day, but still identified or were seen as goth. I'd say that that broad description is still true at its core. Despite its name, it doesn’t have anything at all to do with the goth subculture besides sharing a few aesthetics.”

2019 March 11, Tom Rasmussen, “The IG [Instagram] Documenting the Hot Topic Mallgoths of the 90s and 00s”, in Dazed, London: Dazed Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-08:

Next, are the wannabe mall-goths of the 2000s. Self-proclaimed "e-girls" and "e-boys" sporting chain link chokers and belts, big black bell bottoms, outfits plastered with images of roses, and "emo" accessories and makeup that strives for a look that breaks society's conventions, but falls short.

2019 April 26, Nevàn Campos, “Three Overused Fashion Trends”, in The Oarsman, Los Angeles, Calif.: Venice High School, archived from the original on 2023-02-02:

My own teen encounters with the look occurred during the ’90s reign of Hot Topic mall goths, an era Jeremy Scott gleefully—and a good deal less restrainedly—celebrates in his Moschino collection, an exuberant gathering of Halloween kitsch that will likely make traditional goths groan.

2019 October 29, Heather Christle, “It’s Officially Spooky Season. Here’s How to Dress for It Like an Adult.”, in Elle, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Magazine Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-08:

(countable) Originally (derogatory), an inauthentic or trendy goth; now, a person who dresses in goth-inspired clothes, is interested in industrial metal and nu metal music, etc.

mallgoth-gootti

inauthentic or trendy goth; person who dresses in goth-inspired clothes, is interested in industrial metal and nu metal music, etc.


snow plow

(American spelling) Alternative form of snowplow


snow plow

en-verb

snow plow (third-person singular simple present snow plows, present participle snow plowing, simple past and past participle snow plowed)

snow plows (present singular third-person)
snow plowing (participle present)
snow plowed (participle past)
snow plowed (past)


smellfungus

en-noun

smellfungus (plural smellfunguses or smellfungi)

smellfunguses (plural)
smellfungi (plural)

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

/ˈsmɛlˌfʌŋɡəs/

From Smelfungus, name of a hypercritical traveller in A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, a satirical characterization of Tobias Smollett and his Travels Through France and Italy (1766). Apparently from smell + fungus.

But this want of a softening medium, and consequently, of aerial perspective, is not the defect of the Rhine scenery in particular, but of river views in general. And then it is so rich in equivalents—so strong in picture; a true Smellfungus would exclaim, “Yes; but the pictures are all alike.”

1834, Mary Boddington, Slight reminiscences of the Rhine, Switzerland, and a corner of Italy, volume I, page 81:

Nor is she a smellfungus searching for weeds where roses grow, or setting down everything a wilderness from Braga to Barcelona.

1847, “Journal of a few Months' Residence in Portugal, and Glimpses of the South of Spain”, in Quarterly Review, volume LXXXI, number CLXI, page 88:

(archaic) A faultfinder, complainer, grumbler.


lipstick tree

From lipstick + tree, from the resemblance of the open fruit pods of the plant to red lips, or from the fact that the consistency of the arils surrounding its seeds is similar to that of lipstick (see the 1942 quotation).

Bixa Orellana. Lipstick Tree, Annatto. A small tree producing ovate leaves, panicles of pink to rose flowers, and prickly tan capsules which contain seeds covered with a red coating that is the consistency of lipstick and can be used as a coloring agent. (Bixaceae.)

1942 March, W. H. Friend, “Trees Other than Palms”, in Plants of Ornamental Value for the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin; no. 609), College Station, Tex.: Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, →OCLC, page 20:

Among flowering trees and shrubs of the Kona Coast, kalu, or yellow mimosa, is common, as is the yellow Timor shower, as is the lipstick tree, whose pods give an orange-red substance good not only for lips but—if local claims are true—for margarine.

1960, Sydney Clark, All the Best in Hawaii (Sydney Clark Travel Book), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, →OCLC, page 338:

If you're curious about what is a macadamia nut, turn left at the sign: royal hawaiian macadamia orchard. A narrow road bumps 3 miles through a forest of lipstick trees to one of Hawaii's new pioneer industries.

1963, Bob Krauss, “Hawaii”, in Travel Guide to the Hawaiian Islands: Oahu, Kauai, Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, New York, N.Y.: Coward-McCann, →OCLC, page 306:

Along the coast road to Guayaquil are numerous plantations: cocoa, coffee, castor bean, fibers, and bananas. Here grow the tropical lipstick trees – source of color for foods — and the flowering African tulips.

1985, Helen A. Wolfe, chapter 2, in Adventure Bound: From Backpacking in New Zealand to Bushwhacking in South Africa, Mount Dora, Fla.: Professional Press, →ISBN, page 56:

Crushed and infused in warm water, the roots of the lipstick tree increases male desire. However, the seeds of the lipstick tree can also be used as an alternative to saffron and is added to tandoori curry to produce a red colour.

2011, Rosabelle Boswell, “Imbibing Scent and Experiencing Sexuality”, in Re-presenting Heritage in Zanzibar and Madagascar, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, →ISBN, page 114:

Achiote or lipstick trees (Bixa orellana) are tropical trees locally found in American, Caribbean, and East Indian woodlands[…].

2020, Jatinder Singh, Harmanpreet Meehnian, Parnika Gupta, Madan L. Verma, “Food Colours: The Potential Sources of Food Adulterants and Their Food Safety Concerns”, in Madan L. Verma, editor, Biotechnological Approaches in Food Adulterants (A Science Publishers Book), Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 84:

Bixa orellana
Bixa orellana#Translingual

Central American
Central American#Adjective

The shrub Bixa orellana, which is native to Mexico and northern South America; the arils covering its seeds are a source of the orange-red colourant annatto, and the ground seeds are used in traditional Caribbean, Central American, and South American cuisine.


todger dodger

From todger + dodger, chosen for the rhyme.

Todger Dodger

2001, Batfink, “Re: some gooduns...”, in alt.drugs.pot (Usenet):

[…] don't tell me that frigid little todger-dodger has got to you too […]

2011, Simon Packham, The Opposite Bastard, page 223:

As far as she was concerned, you were just that weird girl from school who never spoke to anyone –' 'The fat todger-dodger with no friends?' Mel smiles.


spraypaint

spraypaint (countable and uncountable, plural spraypaints)

Palate-wise, it was nothing new. It was a synthetic kind of coffee flavor, like spraypaint and tree bark.

2009, Benjamin Obler, Javascotia, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 352:


spraypaint

en-verb

spraypaint (third-person singular simple present spraypaints, present participle spraypainting, simple past and past participle spraypainted)

spraypaints (present singular third-person)
spraypainting (participle present)
spraypainted (participle past)
spraypainted (past)


pocket rocket

And then Torry suggested we climb in bed together while I told him the rest of the story, and I could tell from the way his pocket rocket was standing all straight out and stiff that he probably wouldn't be able to pay attention to the story anyhow.

2009, Nicola Cuti, Moonie and the Spider Queen, page 113:


battlesuit

(science fiction) A technologically enhanced suit worn in battle for protection, camouflage, etc.


public purse

From public (adjective) + purse (“(figurative) quantity of money given for a particular purpose”, noun).

compound

The public purse should be spent in the public interest.

This means that while initial funding will come from the public purse, landowners along the route will eventually pay back a share of the uplift in land values created by the new line.

2021 February 10, “Network News: Additional Funds Enable Preparatory Work for Ashington Reopening”, in Rail, number 924, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8:

(economics, government, idiomatic) A quantity of money collected by a government through taxation and other methods, and used for public purposes; public funds, public money.

公款

quantity of money collected by a government and used for public purposes


Henny Penny

The Henny Pennies who forecast doom and disaster thus have been proved hysterics who could use some est or encounter sessions to calm their anxieties.

1984, Carol Chambers Collins, Our Food, Air and Water: How Safe Are They?, Facts on File, published 1984, →ISBN, page 27:

I know that in some quarters I am regarded as a kind of wet blanket, a Henny Penny predicting doom and gloom.

2001, Seymour B. Sarason, American Psychology & Schools: A Critique, Teachers College Press, published 2001, →ISBN, page 130:

On April 11, in a tense news conference during a period when the looting dominated the news, Rumsfeld dismissed the media by calling them “Henny Pennies,” a reference to a children's tale in which the main character runs around, declaring that the sky is falling.

2006, Rebecca Knuth, Burning Books and Leveling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction, Praegar Publishers, published 2006, →ISBN, page 209:

One who panics at the slightest provocation.


no-tell motel

Suggesting that the encounters will be kept private. Chosen for the rhyme.

There was no reason to pull off the interstate and drive twenty miles down a bumpy local road, just to stay in a dilapidated no-tell motel.

2013, Robin Wasserman, Seven Deadly Sins, volume 1: Lust; Envy, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 120:

(slang) A love hotel; a motel where brief sexual encounters are sanctioned.


lunchline

A line or queue where people wait to be served lunch.


candlewax

Heat energy is being transferred from the heated hot plate to the saucepan and then to the candlewax where it causes the wax to liquify — to melt.

1975, J. W. George Ivany, Today's Science, page 309:


dustbag

These may contain filters manufactured without the use of harmful materials and may not require a dustbag. Dyson vacuum cleaners are examples of designs with such characteristics.

2002, Patrick W. Jordan, Designing Pleasurable Products, page 80:

The bag inside a vacuum cleaner where collected dust is stored.

防塵罩 /防尘罩

bag for protecting clothing against dust


lackwit

en-adj

lackwit (comparative more lackwit, superlative most lackwit)

more lackwit (comparative)
most lackwit (superlative)

An evil, however, accompanied the benefit; shoals of worthless authors sprang up, and you may still perceive the garreteer drawing upon his lackwit brain for some production, the labour of which he expects will be paid by the declaration of his country, that a second Boileau, a Montesquieu, or a Racine has at length appeared.

1818, Peter Hervé, How to enjoy Paris, page 257:

One wall was painted with the story of St Robert the hermit and his persecution by Sir William de Stuteville, while the other depicted the cowherd Caedmon, albeit looking too lackwit to herd a hen let alone wax lyrical.

2016, Isolde Martyn, The Knight and the Rose:

Your fault for bein' so lackwit, ours for givin' you leave.

2018, Chris Claremont, George Lucas, Shadow Dawn:


wristbone

[…] I will […] shew you onely such eminences which by shadow must be necessarily expressed: after you have done the neck, you are to expresse the wing or upper part of the shoulder by shadowing it underneath, the brawne of the arme must appeare full, shadowed on one side, then shew the wrist bone thereof, & the meeting of the veines in that place […]

1634, Henry Peacham, The Gentlemans Exercise. Or, An exquisite practise, as well for drawing all manner of Beasts in their true Portraitures: as also the making of all kinds of colours, London: I. Marriott, Book I, p. 28:

1741, Uncredited translator, A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary by Jean-Baptiste du Halde, London: Edward Cave, “The Art of Medicine among the Chinese,” p. 191,
He who is to feel the Pulse, takes the left Hand of the Patient if a Man, the right Hand of a Woman. […] He begins by placing the middle Finger exactly where the Wrist-Bone locks with the Cubitus, then claps the next Fingers, one on each side.

Their bodies were found frequently—all skeletons, like unto the others—and in some cases ’twas strange to see how they strived to preserve what they most esteemed of value. Thus, round one, a female, as again the hair close by denoted, which was red, slightly fleck’t with grisel, there was on the bony neck a great rope of diamonds, each as big as a nut, that all sparkled and glistened in the water, and round each wristbone there was the same in bracelets.

1895, John Bloundelle-Burton, chapter 16, in The Hispaniola Plate, New York: Cassell:

In the next bed, I remember (there were at least a dozen beds crammed into a ward that should have held six), there was an old man so meagre, so cadaverous that his wristbones and the beak of his nose seemed to want to break through his skin.

2009, J. M. Coetzee, “Adriana”, in Summertime: Scenes from Provincial Life, London: Harvill Secker:


gentlebeing

From gentle + being, modelled on gentleman.

Ladies and gentlebeings, let me introduce to you Doctor N'looma and her assistant L'raan, the Yularians who, along with other medical staff, were instrumental in giving me a new lease on life!

2016, James R. Lane, Last Dance of the Phoenix, page 204:

(science fiction, usually in the plural, sometimes humorous) Polite term of address for any sentient being, human or otherwise.


fag mag

What people usually mean by that is 'my career has gone so far down the dumper I only have gay fans', or 'my career is at such a low ebb no one else can be bothered to interview me so my press officer officer fixed up this interview with some crummy fag mag.')

1995, Richard Smith, Seduced and Abandoned: Essays on Gay Men and Popular Music, Cassell, →ISBN, page 118:

“You probably want some fag mag. Tight butts with chest hair and trim mustaches.”

1999, Steve Vivan, A Self-Made Monster, Boson Books, →ISBN:

Todd's secret is uncovered when his friends Alan (Evan Handler) and Kirk (Manfred Melcher) find a “fag mag” in Todd's desk.

2002, Stephen Tropiano, The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV, Applause Theatre & Cinema, →ISBN:

(slang, vulgar, derogatory, offensive) A magazine which focuses on gay issues and interests.