toolkit

The culture of Ice Age humanity expresses a steady growth in the complexity of the tool kit, and a steady growth in complexity of artistic development.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 119:

A set of tools kept together, especially comprising all the tools suitable for some particular type of work.

My hope is that this book will familiarize readers with tools for analyzing historical and contemporary mechanisms of social differentiation, ethnoracial division, and symbolic structural inequality. My belief is that boundary theory offers the very best tool kit for this kind of work.

2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 7:

Prior to the Great Recession, active management of the long-bond portfolio was not a major feature of most central banks' toolkits, Japan being one notable exception.

2023, Eric Sims, Jing Cynthia Wu, and Ji Zhang, The Four-Equation New Keynesian Model, The Review of Economics and Statistics 105(4), pp. 931--947

(by extension) A set of personal abilities, skills, or resources to draw on.

Morgan Computing Co.'s Disk Toolkit is the perfect program for speed demons who want a more flexible way to wield DEBUG's power.

1986, PC Mag, volume 5, number 17, page 221:

(computing) A set of software tools or components.

(India, politics) A set of guidelines or instructions.

(India, politics, derogatory) Instructions to organise a protest.


shell shock

en-noun

shell shock (countable and uncountable, plural shell shocks)

Well attested during World War I. Attempts to find attestations that predate that war seem fruitless. The ambiguity of reference to a range of phenomena, from physical concussion due to the explosively loud noise of artillery fire (on both the sending and receiving ends) to psychological reactions to violence and maiming, was present in the term's use from the start. In 21st-century wars there is continued evidence that long, close exposure to the noise of artillery can cause traumatic brain injury even in soldiers who did not take incoming artillery fire. But most discussions of shell shock in World War I concerned combat stress as well.

There's a condition in combat—most people know it by now. It occurs when a soldier's nervous system has reached the breaking point. In World War I, it was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables. Shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. Shell shock!!

2004, George Carlin, “EUPHEMISMS: Shell Shock to PTSD”, in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 40:

post-traumatic stress disorder
post-traumatic stress disorder

(uncountable) A psychiatric condition characterized by fatigue caused by battle; it is not a current diagnosis in medicine, but it corresponds largely with the current diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.


day job

From day + job, reflecting the archetypal form: one's job during the daytime, as contrasted with a second job that one works at night, on the night shift or graveyard shift.

One's principal job; one's regular means of income.


minimum wage

minimum wage (usually uncountable, plural minimum wages)

A part of the Bill went to interfere in the bargains made between the master manufacturer and his workmen, upon a principle which could not fail to produce the most mischievous consequences; and he could not help observing, with relation to this point, that the idea of some persons, that a minimum of wages would be beneficial to the workmen employed, was the most mistaken notion that had ever been conceived, for the inevitable consequence must be, that in the case of a slackness of work, the masters would discharge their workers altogether, rather than employ them at the minimum wages.

1812 July 25, [James Maitland, 8th] Earl of Lauderdale, “Frame Work Knitters’ Bill”, in T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, editor, The Parliamentary Debates […] (House of Lords), volume XXIII, London: […] T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, […]; for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; [et al.], →OCLC, columns 1248–1249:

The man who before found nothing to do now finds employment at some rate; while he who formerly worked for the minimum wages of mere labor will now, if energetic and skillful, find employment in some other capacity where his earnings will be largely increased.

1846 April, “Mr. [Robert James] Walker’s Report and Bill”, in George H[ooker] Colton, editor, The American Review: A Whig Journal of Politics, Literature, Art and Science, volume III, number IV, New York, N.Y.: George H. Colton, […], →OCLC, page 345, column 2:

The only remedy I can suggest is the adoption of a minimum wage for all employés in registered factories. […] If a minimum wage of, say, 2s. 6d. was required to be paid in all factories, the greatest evils of the so-called apprentice system would vanish.

1896 June 1, Harrison Ord, “The Sweating System”, in Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories, Work-rooms, and Shops, for the Year 1895. […], Melbourne, Vic.: Rob[er]t S. Brain, government printer, →OCLC, page 21:

The minimum-wage law, as it has been known in recent American discussion, and as it is usually understood in Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, does not refer to a law in which is fixed a single rate below which no worker may be employed, although such laws are in existence in most of the Australasian States. The minimum wage, as understood in this country and Great Britain, is a wage fixed by some agency created by law, after due investigation has been made.

1915 April, Cha[rle]s H[enry] Verrill, “Introduction and Summary”, in Minimum-wage Legislation in the United States and Foreign Countries (Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics; Miscellaneous Series; no. 8 (whole no. 167)), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 6:

The subject of the hearing today is the question on the proposed changes in the federal minimum wage on small businesses and their employees. […] The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established a federal minimum wage of 25 cents an hour for most workers. […] The current basic minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, with a lower wage for tipped employees, certain new hires under the age of 20 and full-time students who work part-time.

2004 April 29, Todd Akin, Would an Increase in the Federal Minimum Wage Help or Hinder Small Business? Hearing before the Subcommittee on Workforce, Empowerment & Government Programs of the Committee on Small Business, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, Second Session […] (Serial No. 108-61), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →ISBN, page 1:

Perhaps their most austere film, 1999’s Palme D'Or-winning Rosetta, tracks the feisty eponymous 17-year-old from a trailer park, where she lives with her alcoholic mother, to a food truck in the industrial wasteland of Seraing, Belgium. She makes less than the minimum wage, if she's lucky enough to work at all.

2012 March 15, Scott Tobias, “The Kid with a Bike [film review]”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2023-09-21:

At the store where I worked for minimum wage a few years ago, for instance, hours were capped at 39 a week. The company did that as a way to avoid providing the benefits that would kick in once one became a "full time" employee.

2016 February 16, Peter van Buren, quotee, “What Ordinary People Say”, in Anne C. Cunningham, editor, Critical Perspectives on the Minimum Wage, New York, N.Y.: Enslow Publishing, published 2017, →ISBN, page 148:

(economics) The lowest rate at which an employer must legally pay an employee, usually expressed as pay per hour.


tin-pot

From tin + pot, referring to the cheapness and poor quality of pots made from tin or tin plate.

It was a great comfort to turn from that chap to my influential friend, the battered, twisted, ruined, tin-pot steamboat.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:


fan fiction

fan fiction (countable and uncountable, plural fan fictions)

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

Etymology tree
English fanatic
English fancyinflu.
English fan
English fiction
English fan fiction
From fan + fiction.

etymon

In the latest issue of Astounding, our old pal and brother-fan, Milt Rothman makes his professional debut under the pen name: Lee Gregor. And Milt is to be congratulated on the story.... it is definitely pro and not fan fiction.

1939 August 19, Arthur Wilson "Bob" Tucker, Le Zombie, number 11, page 2:

I also want to put in my two-cents-worth on the subject of fan fiction. There has been a strong trend away from fiction in fanzines of late: SPACEWARP stopped using fan fiction shortly before the end; ORB followed suit; WYLIE STAR will switch; most of the new mags are starting out with non-fiction plans. I think fiction is just as important (if not more so) in fmz as articles. Where else will embryo pro-authors get their start?

1950 December, R. J. Banks, “Slurp!”, in Quandry 5, number 5, archived from the original on 2013-07-20, pages 8–9:

Laura, whose ambition is to become a professional writer, has been writing STAR TREK fiction since her early teens, and was recently nominated for a Hugo Award for fan fiction for her series ‘Federation and Empire’.

1975, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak, Joan Winston, Star Trek Lives!, page 23:

Chris Carter may bar X-Filers Mulder and Scully forever from consummating their deep bond—but it's a common fantasy in the archives of fan fiction, where familiar TV and movie characters populate digital poems, scripts, short stories—even full-length novels—that span hundreds of websites and Usenet discussion groups. Readership figures are elusive, but fanfic's America Online index page has collected a half million hits in the past year.

1997 September 26, Entertainment Weekly, page 84:

The acres of Harry Potter fan fiction have allowed its Millennial audience to rewrite the stories to fit their own values, easing their discomfort (while still luxuriating in the nostalgic setting of the British private-school system, an institution designed to perpetuate elitism).

2020 July 6, Helen Lewis, “How J. K. Rowling Became Voldemort”, in The Atlantic:

Fan fiction writers are just one group now staging revolts against A.I. systems as a fever over the technology has gripped Silicon Valley and the world.

2023 July 15, Sheera Frenkel, Stuart A. Thompson, “‘Not for Machines to Harvest’: Data Revolts Break Out Against A.I.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(uncountable) Fiction, typically amateur, created by fans, incorporating the characters and concepts of a commercial media property, typically without permission from the author or owner.


airglow

en-noun

airglow (usually uncountable, plural airglows)

A faint illumination in the sky due to photochemical luminescence in the upper atmosphere, now rarely observed by earthbound humans without the assistance of instruments.

electroglow

faint illumination due to photochemical luminescence


true blue

From true (adjective) + blue (“steadfastly faithful or loyal”, adjective). The symbolism of the colour blue as representing constancy, faithfulness, loyalty, and truth may derive from the constant colour of the sky, or the tendency of certain blue dyes to resist fading, especially those made in Coventry.
Adjective senses 1.1.2 (“of or pertaining to the Tory, and now the Conservative, political party”) and 1.1.3 (“of or pertaining to the Scottish Presbyterian or Whig political party in the 17th century”) probably both allude to sense 1 (“steadfastly faithful or loyal”). Sense 1.1.2 may also allude to sense 1.1.3 which is older, and sense 1.1.3 may partly allude to the blue colour of the flag of Scotland.

истински

representing the true essence of something — see also authentic, genuine

Steadfastly faithful or loyal; unwavering in loyalty; staunch, true.

[…] Mr. Wenham himself was a staunch old True Blue Tory, and his father a small coal-merchant in the north of England […]

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which a Charade is Acted which May or May Not Puzzle the Reader”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 455:

Not that he is a violent Whig, or perhaps that he is a Whig at all. But he jeers and sneers at the old county doings; […] All this is deeply regretted, for, in the old days, there was no portion of the county more decidedly true blue than that Framley district; […]

1860 January – 1861 April, Anthony Trollope, “The Framley Set, and the Chaldicotes Set”, in Framley Parsonage. […] (Collection of British Authors; 551), copyright edition, volume I, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published April 1861, →OCLC, pages 17–18:

(UK) Of or pertaining to the (historical) Tory, and now the Conservative, political party; hence, steadfastly conservative.

Representing the true essence of something; authentic, genuine, honest.

(specifically, Australia, informal) Representing authentic Australian culture, values, etc.


true blue

en-noun

true blue (countable and uncountable, plural true blues)

(uncountable, historical) A blue dye from Coventry, England, famous for not washing out.


teabox

A box for carrying or storing tea; a tea chest or tea caddy.


split-second

From split (adjective) + second (noun), from split second(s) hands: see sense 1.

It's very dangerous, though, when a man thinks for a split second that he understands death.

1912, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Eye of Death; or, The Murder Charge”, in Manalive, New York, N.Y.: John Lane, →OCLC, part II (The Explanations of Innocent Smith), page 182:

I was in the gutter, sitting my bike, willing them to die, […] or otherwise obliterated because this demanded split-second timing.

1959, William Golding, chapter 4, in Free Fall, Harbinger Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, published 1962, →OCLC, page 82:

It appears [Simon] Cowell has been taking notes from South Korea, as his next talent show Walk The Line, coming later this year, has also been game-ified: it will see singers perform, then have to make the split-second decision of whether to take a cash prize or risk advancing in the competition instead.

2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How Talent Shows Became TV’s Most Bizarre Programmes”, in BBC Online, archived from the original on 2023-04-18:

A fraction of a second; hence (figurative, also attributive) a very short time period; an instant, a moment.

fraction of a second; very short time period

一目𥍉仔 /一目𱳅仔 (zh-min-nan) (chi̍t-ba̍k-nih-á, literally “in the twinkling of an eye”)

一絲仔久 /一丝仔久 (chi̍t-si-á-kú, chi̍t-siá-kú, literally “a thread long”)


carryall

(Canada, US, dated) A light, covered carriage drawn by a single horse

(US) Any of several types of automobile, usually a station wagon or van built on a truck chassis.


rainstorm

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

Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.

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

To make matters worse, we pass through a torrential rainstorm, which makes window-gazing almost impossible, leaving me glad that the trip is less than 30 minutes duration.

2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 55:

A storm characterized by substantial, heavy rainfall.

поро́й

storm characterized by substantial rainfall


February fill-dike

Regarding the season, there is an old proverb worthy noticing: February fill dike, be it black or be it white.

1837, William Hone, The every-day book and table-book; or, Everlasting calendar of popular amusements:

January white, February fill-dike.

1851, Thomas Sternberg, The Dialect and Folk-lore of Northamptonshire:

Doris, in her terror, had forgotten that February fill-dike is upon us

1997, Marion Kelsey, Victory Harvest: Diary of a Canadian in the Women's Land Army, page 174:

A rural appellation for the month of February, when rain or melting snow fills dykes with water.

февра́ль-водоле́й

February fill dyke, be it black or be it white


climate canary

climate canary (plural climate canaries)

Similar to the miner's canary, from which the term is derived.

early warning system
early warning system

A species that is affected by an environmental danger prior to other species, thus serving as an early warning system for the other species with regard to a danger.


greige goods

/ɡɹeɪʒ ˈɡʊdz/

/ɡɹeɪʒ ˈɡʊdz/

From greige (“of clothing, textiles, etc.: neither bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed”) + goods.

compound

(textiles) Clothing, textiles, etc., which have neither been bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed.

raakakankaat

clothing, textiles, etc., which have neither been bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed


inroad

The noun is derived from in + road (“(obsolete) act of riding on horseback; hostile ride against a particular area, raid”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

[…] That ſince that time he [Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus] was become the ſubject of King Henry [VIII] of England, his Majeſty's [James V of Scotland's] greateſt enemy; and was now the cauſe of all the Inroads made by the English into Scotland: […]

1537, David Scott, “Papers Illustrative of the Trial of Jonet Lady Glammys. I. Narrative Taken from the History of Scotland, by David Scott of the Inner Temple.”, in [Robert Pitcairn, compiler], Criminal Trials and Other Proceedings before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland, part IX (Trials during the Reigns of King James the Fourth and Fifth), [Edinburgh]: Printed at the Bannatyne Club Press by Ballantyne and Co., published 1831, →OCLC, page 192:

[A] child knowing the heate of fire, will as readely iudge of the perrill, as the wiſeſt Senatour, of the inroad of a borderer, or the politick captaine, of the vnequall encoũter with his enimy, […]

1586, T[imothie] Bright, “The Particular Aunswere to the Obiections Made in the II Chapter”, in A Treatise of Melancholie. […], London: […] Thomas Vautrollier, […], →OCLC, page 75:

Whence is it that ſo many corrupt Opinions have made ſuch an Inroad on Proteſtant Religion, and the Profeſſion of it? Is it not from hence, that many have loſt an Experience of the power and efficacy of the Truth, and ſo have parted with it?

1683, Samuel Annesley, “The Chamber of Imagery in the Church of Rome Laid Open; or An Antidote against Popery. […] Sermon X.”, in A Continuation of Morning-Exercise Questions and Cases of Conscience, Practically Resolved by Sundry Ministers, in October, 1682, London: […] J. A. for John Dunton […], →OCLC, page 221:

[T]he Britains, left to ſhift for themſelves, and daily haraſſed by cruel Inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their Defence; […]

1712 March 4 (date written; Gregorian calendar), J[onathan] Swift, A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue; […], 2nd edition, London: […] Benj[amin] Tooke, […], published 1712, →OCLC, page 9:

The brave and active Conſtantius delivered Gaul from a very furious inroad of the Alemanni; and his victories of Langres and Vindoniſſa appear to have been actions of conſiderable danger and merit.

1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter XIII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 368:

While from their lovely climate, the poets native to their sweet south, the old ruins hallowed with the memories of other days, the lovely paintings, the still diviner statues, which had been their constant companions—the character had imperceptibly caught a tone of romance, calculated long to resist the inroads of worldliness and deceit.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 181:

[A] certain English colonel passed though the former's country with a body of men-at-arms, on the very day when the O'Mahonys had made an inroad upon our territories, and carried off a frightful plunder of our flocks and herds.

1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “My Pedigree and Family.—Undergo the Influence of the Tender Passion”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1856, →OCLC, page 2:

And everywhere the people, or the populace, take their own government upon themselves; and open 'kinglessness,' what we call anarchy, […] is everywhere the order of the day. Such was the history, from Baltic to Mediterranean, in Italy, France, Prussia, Austria, from end to end of Europe, in those March days of 1848. Since the destruction of the old Roman Empire by inroad of the Northern Barbarians, I have known nothing similar.

1850 February 1, Thomas Carlyle, “No. I. The Present Time.”, in Latter-Day Pamphlets, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 5–6:

If clerks do not try to shirk their work, our whole great commercial system breaks down. It is breaking down, under the inroad of women who are adopting the unprecedented and impossible course of taking the system seriously and doing it well.

1910, Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “The Modern Slave”, in What’s Wrong with the World, London, New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, […], →OCLC, part III (Feminism: Or the Mistake about Woman), page 177:

On the Great North of Scotland section, always a stronghold of four-coupled engines, a great number of small 4-4-0s, some over fifty years old, were still going strong in 1945, but serious inroads are being made into their numbers now.

1954 May, John W. Grant, “A Railway Requiem”, in Railway Magazine, page 351:

[T]he discourse of ornament was energetically appropriated by those anxious to defend masculinity and protect feminine virtue against the inroads of luxury and its ill effects on morality.

2009, Marcia Pointon, “Fault Lines and Points of Light”, in Brilliant Effects: A Cultural History of Gem Stones and Jewellery, New Haven, Conn., London: […] [F]or the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Stories Touching Stones), page 19, column 1:

[I]n many European states, the whole notion of retirement at pensionable age and consequential entitlement to a pension seems to fall within the domain of social security law rather than forming part of the contract-based system of regulation of termination of employment. There may therefore be significant inroads into the notion of a unified or integrated contract-based system of regulation of termination of employment. However, in most European legal systems it would seem that these inroads do not encroach upon the essential integrity or unity of the contract-based system of regulation of termination of employment.

2011, Mark Freedland, Nicola Kountouris, “The Termination and Transformation of Employment Contracts”, in The Legal Construction of Personal Work Relations, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 224:

(military, also figuratively) An advance into enemy territory, an attempted invasion; an encroachment, an incursion.

מעלתא

advance into enemy territory — see also incursion


Packer whacker

The name came about when Kerry Packer, a wealthy Australian media mogul, was resuscitated with a defibrillator in 1990 in Sydney after suffering a heart attack.
After recovering, Packer donated a large sum to the New South Wales Ambulance Service in order to fit all of its ambulances with portable defibrillators.

2006, Taking heart, The Bulletin, Issues 6502-6509, page not known,
Every NSW ambulance now carries the ultimate heart-starter, the Packer Whacker, thanks to a polo field drama and one man′s generosity.

It was no wonder the shipping insustry in Australia was flatlining under the Labor Party. You could not resuscitate the Australian shipping industry with a Packer whacker under Labor.

2006, Australian House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Representatives, volume 279, page 131:

2009, Paul Barry, Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?: The James Packer Story, Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition, page 285,
On this occasion, however, it was not his portable ‘Packer whacker’, but a device the size of a matchbox implanted in his chest.

(Australia, colloquial, informal) A portable defibrillator.


steely-eyed missile man

en-noun

steely-eyed missile man (plural steely-eyed missile men)

From steely-eyed (“having a hard, strong, and determined mentality or mindset”) + missile + man, probably popularized by its use in the book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 (1994) by the American astronaut Jim Lovell (born 1928) and the American author and journalist Jeffrey Kluger (born 1954); and the film based on the book, Apollo 13 (1995), where capsule communicator 1 Andy (acted by Brett Cullen) says to a technician (Walter von Huene) whose team has devised a solution to a problem with the spacecraft’s carbon dioxide filters: “You, sir, are a steely-eyed missile man.” The book implies that the term was in use at least during the early years of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which was established in 1958: see the quotation.

compound

The "hold" in the countdown of a rocket firing has a long and infamous history. It doubtless is as old as the "countdown" itself. We Brevardians have seen thousands upon thousands of pictures of countdowns in progress, of green lights flashing, green buttons being pushed, fuming LOX [liquid oxygen] boiling off, steely-eyed missile men battening hatches and astronauts climbing aboard.

1973 May 13, Emsley Armfield, “Picture this … a countdown stops”, in Brevard Sentinel: An Edition of the Orlando Sentinel Star, Orlando, Fla.: Sentinel Star Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 4:

Among the men in the Canaveral blockhouse and the Houston control room, there was no greater tribute a controller could be paid than to describe him, in the rough poetry of the rocketry community, as a "steely-eyed missile man." There weren't many steely-eyed missile men in the nasa family. [Wernher] Von Braun was certainly one, [Christopher Columbus] Kraft was certainly one, [Gene] Kranz was probably one too. John Aaron, a twenty-seven-year-old wunderkind from Oklahoma, had recently become one as well.

1994, Jim Lovell, Jeffrey Kluger, chapter 6, in Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 157:

At first glance, the stolid engineers and impassive pilots of the Apollo program weren't colorful movie characters. As [Ron] Howard [director of Apollo 13 (1995)] got to know the stoic astronauts and "steely-eyed missile men" of Mission Control, he saw their sense of humor, their wilder sides and the doubts they carry like everyone else.

1995 June 28, Jane Summer, “Tom Hanks, co-stars relive ‘NASA’s finest hour’”, in Dave Long, editor, Pharos-Tribune, volume 151, number 153, Logansport, Ind.: Logansport Newspapers, page A10, columns 5–6:

When [Ron] Howard toured nasa, he learned that the visitors' favorite question was: How do you pee in space? "Well," he decided, "that means we'll have to show it in the movie." So they do. Added [Tom] Hanks: "Maybe in the sequel we'll show how they go doo-doo." Spoken like a steely-eyed missile man.

1995 July 3, Richard Corliss, “Hell of a Ride: With Tom Hanks as the Pilot, Apollo 13 is a Stirring Tribute to the Heroes who Fly High in the Face of Failure [film review]”, in Time, volume 146, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 53, column 1:

“Message reads: ‘Houston, be advised: Rich Purnell is a steely-eyed missile man’.” / “What?” Brendan asked. “Who the hell is Rich Purnell?”

2011, Andy Weir, chapter 16, in The Martian, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishing Group, published 2014, →ISBN, page 213:

NASA Entry Flight Director Tony Ceccacci said the motto in Mission Control is "flight controllers don't cry." He tried to remain stoic – like a steely eyed missile man – after his team guided Atlantis and its crew through an era-ending atmospheric re-entry. "This will be the last time this team will be together," Ceccacci said, struggling to maintain his composure.

2012 February, Elaine E. Liston, “July”, in Chronology of KSC [Kennedy Space Center] and KSC Related Events for 2011 (NASA/TM-2012-216309), Merritt Island, Fla.: John F. Kennedy Space Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, page 210:

The three astronauts – Commander Yuri Malenchenko, a steely eyed missile man and veteran of six space flights; Tim Kopra, the American NASA flight engineer, who doesn't seem to mind being 'the other Tim,' for today at least; the man of the moment, Major Tim Peake, second flight engineer, the first British ESA [European Space Agency] astronaut, who is grabbing all the headlines in the UK – have a busy morning ahead of them.

2017, Dallas Campbell, “Preface”, in Ad Astra: An Illustrated Guide to Leaving the Planet, London: Simon & Schuster UK, →ISBN, page 10, column 1:

D[avid] M[arshall]: […] Tell me about your steely-eyed missile man nickname. […] J[ohn] A[aron]: Well you know, I ran across the term, steely-eyed missile man a year before that. There was a group of thinkers even back in the—maybe it goes all the way back to military that they were kicking around this thing called steely-eyed missile man. […] I think it, particularly in the early days of NASA, […] it just had to do with the way people react when calamities happen. If they act calmly. It was not a term that was used much in Houston. In fact, it was not even a term that they coined, I don't think, having to do with anything I did in real time. It just kind of evolved. People kind of discovered that term. […] DM: Did anyone call you that at NASA? JA: No. Unh-uh. […] I probably didn't go through all the wickets to deserve that reputation. I mean, I probably do fit the mold. But I'm not the only guy there who was a steely-eyed missile man.

2017 October 26, John Aaron, interviewee, David Marshall, interviewer, Oral History Interview of John Aaron (NASA Interview Project), Lubbock, Tex.: Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, archived from the original on 2024-03-15, pages 65–66:

(US, astronautics, often humorous, slang) An astronaut or engineer who quickly comes up with a solution to a difficult problem while under extreme pressure.

Apollo 12
Apollo 13
Brett Cullen
Jeffrey Kluger
Jim Lovell
John Aaron
NASA
YouTube


muttonhead

(British, slang) A stupid or foolish person.


kissing cousin

/ˌkɪsɪŋ ˈkʌzn̩/

A relatively distant relative, or a friend, who is familiar enough to be greeted with a kiss.

Kuss-Cousin

relatively distant relative, or friend, familiar enough to be greeted with a kiss

[A]fter the initial public brouhaha, wildlife administrators will suddenly decide that the classification of the Aleutian Canada goose as an endangered species was a gross mistake all along. Either the bird will be downgraded to "threatened" status—which means it can be hunted—or it will be declared a nonspecies, as has already happened to all its taxonomic kissing cousins.

1981 September, George Reiger, “Conservation: What’s in a Name?”, in Field & Stream, volume LXXXVI, number 5, New York, N.Y.: CBS Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 107, column 1:

Silicon is a “kissing cousin” of carbon. Notice it immediately below carbon in the Periodic Table. The arrangement of silicon’s outer electrons resembles those of carbon. For this reason, silicon and carbon are chemically similar.

1994, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Universe Down to Earth, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 175:

(figuratively) A thing which is related or similar to another thing.


spiderweb

From Middle English spiþere webb, equivalent to spider + web.

The net-like construct of a spider containing sticky strands to catch prey.

(figurative) Something that resembles a spider's web in being mesh-like, entrapping, or fragile.


spiderweb

en-verb

spiderweb (third-person singular simple present spiderwebs, present participle spiderwebbing, simple past and past participle spiderwebbed)

spiderwebs (present singular third-person)
spiderwebbing (participle present)
spiderwebbed (participle past)
spiderwebbed (past)

(transitive) To connect or cover as if with spiderwebs.


halfwit

“Doesn't matter. That man is not the leader.” “But he is the main guy on the show.” “He is an actor, Nandor. A simpleton who paints his face. He is an empty-headed puppet who thinks the world loves him, when in actual fact, he is nothing more than a lapdog begging for scraps.” [groans] “No, he is not the leader. That would be another devil who pulls the strings. The halfwit they call the director.”

2024 November 25, Max Brockman, “P.I. Undercover: New York” (11:26 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 8, spoken by Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry):

(informal) Someone lacking in intelligence.


love letter

Dr Martin says the address the package has been sent to will likely get a "love letter" in the post from Customs.

2016 August 2, Nick Jarvis, “What Happens if You're Caught Getting Drugs in the Mail?”, in Vice:

(US, slang) A notice from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection informing about the seizure of a personal shipment as contraband.


spitfire

1801, Peter Viereck, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin., Volume ⅩⅠⅠⅠ, by John Nichols (arranged by Thomas Sheridan), p. 143, published in London
"―But however provoked, are your scribbling spitfires never to be satisfied?"

A person with a fiery temper, someone easily provoked to anger, especially a woman or girl.


countertop

The top surface of a counter, for preparation of food etc.


rugger bugger

(UK, South Africa, Australia, derogatory) Someone who is fanatical about sports, especially rugby union, and who can be loud and unpleasant to other people.


nose ring

A ring affixed to the snout of cattle, to make them follow immediately when a chain is attached to the ring.

A ring worn on a person's nose, as jewellery.


black belt

From black + belt, originally named after the dark soil.

The Black Belt region, also called the Black Prairie, extends 300 miles across central Alabama and northeast Mississippi and into Tennessee. […] The dark soil for which the Black Belt was named was once famous for its richness and the abundant cotton produced in it.

2014, Richard Pillsbury, editor, The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, volume 2, University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, page 157:

The most politically powerful southerners were those who hailed from the black belt region— distinguished by its dark and fertile soil—which contained the bulk of large-scale plantation and hence the highest percentage of slaves.

2018, Seth C. McKee, The Dynamics of Southern Politics: Causes and Consequences, CQ Press, →ISBN, page 9:

(geology) A roughly crescent-shaped geological formation of dark fertile soil in the Southern United States.


come-hither

(Ireland) A persuasive attitude; a binding spell


bunk bed

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

Two or more beds fixed on top of one another, so that one person can sleep in each bunk at a different height.

سَرِير بِطَابَقَيْن

two or more beds fixed on top of one another


cosmological constant

en-noun

cosmological constant (plural cosmological constants)

(physics) A term added by Albert Einstein to his equations of general relativity in order to account for a supposed static universe, since used to describe vacuum energy as a form of dark energy.


cowhand

From cow + hand, or perhaps blend of cowboy + farmhand.

Though a first rate cow hand he very shortly proved himself to be wholly incapable of acting as head.

1886 April, Theodore Roosevelt, “Ranch Life and Game Shooting in the West”, in Outing, volume 8, number 1, page 3:

I'm an old cowhand from the Rio Grande / but my legs ain't bowed and my cheeks ain't tan […]

1936, “I'm an Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande)”, Mercer, Johnny (music):

One who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.

Cowman or herdsman, especially to a dairy cattle herd.


crookneck

Any of several yellow varieties of squash having a curved neck.


false dichotomy

false dichotomy (plural false dichotomies)

(botany) A branching in which the main axis appears to divide dichotomously at the apex but is in reality suppressed, the growth being continued by lateral branches (as in the dichasium).

(rhetoric) A situation in which two alternative points of view are presented as the only options, when others are available.


heartland

Halford John Mackinder
The Geographical Pivot of History

From heart (“(figuratively) centre, core, essence”) + land.

ocaq

The interior part of a region, especially when contrasted with coastal parts or when regarded as particularly powerful or significant.

(specifically, US, often attributively) The states in the centre of the United States, chiefly regarded as politically and socially conservative; also, the people living in such states collectively.

Yhdysvaltain sydänmaat

states in the centre of the United States, chiefly regarded as politically and socially conservative; people living in such states collectively


bloodsucker

From blood + sucker. Sense 5 (“changeable lizard”) is perhaps because of the reddish color of its neck.

The changeable lizard (Calotes versicolor).


peashooter

A toy weapon consisting of a tube through which dried peas or small objects are blown.


do-nothing

Essentially deverbal in nature, albeit not from a unitary phrasal verb, but from the phrase do nothing, which English expresses as a verb phrase containing a complement.

It became clear that a chronic do-nothing approach to the problem's management would no longer suffice.

Manchester needs more railway capacity. Just how that is provided until the new platforms are built for HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, I will leave for the experts, but a do-nothing approach is not going to be helpful and quite justifiably will create more arguments that the North is being ignored.

2020 April 22, “Letters: Open Access: Castlefield conundrum”, in Rail, page 31:

(attributive) Doing nothing, not taking any action.


blowtorch

/ˈbləʊˌtɔːtʃ/

When the firecan jockeys have flown their blowtorches some 100,000 miles, the doctors take over for the ground physical.

1949, Popular Science, volume 155, number 6, page 120:


breakneck

A dangerous steep place from which one could fall and be injured.


worktop

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

The cupboards were oak and the worktop was granite.

(UK) A surface, usually resting on cupboards or drawers that can be used to work on. Usually in a kitchen.


worksurface

The cupboards were oak and the worksurface granite.

A surface, usually resting on cupboards or drawers in a kitchen, that can be used to work on.


holdall

She could see something pointy—a high-heeled shoe, probably—pressing against the leather of her Gola holdall.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 279:

A large bag for carrying belongings while travelling.


landslip

This landslip appears to have been occasioned by the freezing of the springs in the chasms of the hill; the expansive force of the ice causing a separation at the base of the cliff beneath the hill, the ground began to move forward, and the lands of the farm, being pressed on by the descending mass, were torn from their original foundations.

1808, William Bernard Cooke, “Natural History”, in A New Picture of the Isle of Wight, London: Vernor, Hood & Sharpe, page 39:

And wasn’t it a sight to see, / When, ere his song was ended, / Like some great landslip, tree by tree, / The country-side descended;

1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Amphio”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 167:

Though a cliff, or sheet of bare rock, is hardly visible among the glens, yet here and there a bright brown patch tells of a recent landslip; […]

1871, Charles Kingsley, “Down the Islands”, in At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies. […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 64:

Then some huge landslip in the thawing air had caught us, and spluttering expostulation, we began to roll down a slope, rolling faster and faster, leaping crevasses and rebounding from banks, faster and faster, westward into the white-hot boiling tumult of the lunar day.

1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter VII, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC:

The embankments forming the lineside forest are also a cause for concern, as landslips can block the line for days or even weeks.

2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42:

The sliding of a mass of land down a cliff or slope; a landslide.


washhouse

From Old English wæsċhūs, equivalent to wash + house.

Now I'll see things walking a road that fifty other men would miss. I'll give you an instance, connected with the robbery of a wash-house copper."

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 218:

A domestic outbuilding used as a laundry.

(New Zealand) A room in a house used for washing laundry; a utility room.

[…] the washhouses complied with the Factory and Workshops Act of 1907.

2000, Joseph R. Skoski, Public Baths and Washhouses in Victorian Britain, 1842-1914, page 124:

(UK, historical) A public facility where people could wash themselves and their clothes.


beauty spot

From beauty (noun) + spot (noun). Some uses of sense 1 (“thing which is beautiful”) are figurative uses of sense 1.2 (“patch on the face to heighten beauty”).

kauneuspilkku

(archaic) A thing (especially an aspect of something) which is beautiful.

A natural mark on a person's skin, especially a freckle or mole on a woman's face.

美人痣

natural mark on a person’s skin, especially a freckle or mole on a woman’s face


green belt

From green (adjective) + belt (“band worn around the waist; thing resembling a belt, a strip or stripe”).

Senses relating to an area of land with plants on it.

A strip of land with plants in a place which is otherwise bare.

kasveja kasvava alue

A strip of land on which trees are planted to protect against desertification, soil erosion, etc.

suojametsäalue

A strip of land next to a building, open space, road, etc., with plants on it, intended for exercise or recreation.

viheralue

The LCC [London County Council] would initiate the campaign for the Green Belt, which the men at the top of London Transport would support.

2012, Andrew Martin, “Enter Yerkes”, in Underground Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube, London: Profile Books, →ISBN, page 149:

(chiefly British) An area of agricultural land around an urban area that is protected from large-scale building.

حزام أخضر

When the club is fully developed and has a reasonable spectrum of ranks in it, the training schedule should be stable to encourage the habit of training. […] The advanced (above green belt) class meets for an additional hour, three times per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

1995, Elmar T. Schmeisser, “The University Dojo: Teaching a Traditional Martial Art in a Nontraditional Setting”, in Carol A. Wiley, editor, Martial Arts Teachers on Teaching (Io Series; 53), Berkeley, Calif.: Frog, North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 129:

He estimates it was around 1964 when the Japanese stylists of karate brought in the green belt to bridge the gap between white and brown.

2011, Yvonne Cruz, “Cruz Karate Studios”, in Grandmaster Freddie G. Cruz: Biography of a True Legend in the Martial Arts World, [S.l.]: Bookemon, →ISBN, page 217:

Any green belt martial artist could've done that. Because they were just ordinary goons, hired guns.

2014 October, Sharit Sinha, “The Revelation”, in Blood Rush, 3rd edition, [S.l.]: Sharit Sinha, published December 2017, →ISBN, page 36:

A belt which is green in colour worn by a person who has achieved a certain (usually intermediate) level of skill in a martial art, especially judo or karate; also, the level of skill represented by this belt.

vihreä vyö

belt which is green in colour worn by a person who has achieved a certain (usually intermediate) level of skill in a martial art; the level of skill represented by this belt

After a month I distinctly remember one of the ‘green belts’ giving me a thorough but gentle working over in one of the sparring sessions, I was impressed not just with his ability to defeat me, but with the ease with which he did it.

2012, Noel C., “What Karate Means to Me”, in Tom Hill, editor, Essays for Black Belt, Luton, Bedfordshire: Andrews UK, →ISBN, page 22:

Develop a career progression ladder for black belts and green belts.

[2012, T. M. Kubiak, “Mentoring Black Belts and Green Belts”, in The Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt Handbook, Milwaukee, Wis.: ASQ Quality Press, →ISBN, part V (Mentoring Responsibilities), page 306:

A person who has earned the rank of green belt in a martial art.


drawlatch

A fastener consisting of a latch body mounted on one side of a door or lid, and a hook or catch mounted on the opposite side. When the latch is engaged, the hook or catch pulls the two sides tightly together, creating a secure closure.


pinhole

A small hole, of a size that could have been made by a pin

These [the eyes of the nautilus] are the simplest eyes of any large living animal -- lensless 'pinholes' that project a hazy and rather dim image onto its retinas.

2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 216:

The aperture in a pinhole camera or camera obscura

(networking) A port left unprotected by a firewall to allow a particular application to gain access to a service.

(meteorology) A clipping of pinhole eye, which refers to the compact eye structure associated with intense tropical cyclones.


pinhole

en-verb

pinhole (third-person singular simple present pinholes, present participle pinholing, simple past and past participle pinholed)

pinholes (present singular third-person)
pinholing (participle present)
pinholed (participle past)
pinholed (past)

(transitive) To form one or more pinholes in.


flatfoot

flatfoot (third-person singular simple present flatfoots, present participle flatfooting, simple past and past participle flatfooted)

flatfoots (present singular third-person)
flatfooting (participle present)
flatfooted (participle past)
flatfooted (past)

From flat + foot. Piecewise doublet of platypus.

And even if they didn't know about her they might know this was his old neighborhood and go flatfooting around asking.

1936, John Thomas McIntyre, Steps going down, page 19:

Meanwhile, a bobby placidly flatfooting his beat a few feet away recognized Marlene under the street lamp and naturally assumed the girls had too, and were merely trying to get her autograph.

1956, Lee Mortimer, Around the World Confidential, page 38:

I'd spent a very long day flatfooting it round housing estates near Old Street, looking for a twelve-year-old boy who I'd never managed to find though the police eventually had, two weeks later.

2017 -, Adam Baron, SuperJack: A totally gripping thriller with a twist you won’t see coming, →ISBN:

To walk around in the course of work, especially when investigating.


fleshpot

From flesh + pot. Earliest known use is from 1548 by Philip Nicolls in its literal sense, referring to a passage from Exodus 16:3, where the Israelites complain to Moses and Aaron about their current situation, reminiscing about the abundance of food they had while in captivity in Egypt; and thus it is a calque from Hebrew הַבָּשָׂ֔ר (“flesh, meat”) + סִיר (“pot”).

nb...

of .xii. men that moyses (by the co􂀿m􂁀maundement of god) sent to spye owt the land of canaan of whiche .xii. onely Iosua and Caleb, wer found faythful messengers

"Mere slip. Serpent of old Nile. Doesn't matter in the least," says Mr. Browne airily; "because she couldn't hear me as it happens. My dear girl, follow out the argument. Cleopatra, metaphorically speaking, was a fleshpot, because the world hankered after her. And—you're another."

1891, Mrs. Hungerford [i.e., Margaret Wolfe Hungerford], April's Lady, London: F. V. White & Co., page 58:

Sue Ellen, Pam, Jenna--the mistresses and wives--come and go; in a male-dominated society every woman is a fleshpot unless she has the virtues of Miss Ellie and assumes the role of benevolent matriarch.

1987, Narain Dass Batra, “Dramatical Serial: Prime Time and Daytime” (chapter 5), in The Hour of Television: Critical Approaches, Scarecrow Press, "Dallas" to "Dynasty", page 92:

So piquant was her delivery that merely by conjuring up one of her lines of dialogue, one is in the company of one of her unyielding characters—a fleshpot or a spinster, a waitress or a queen, a housewife or... as George Sanders’s character said of her alter ego in All About Eve, “Margo is a great star. She never was or will ever be anything less or anything else.”

1990 April 30, Scott Berg, “Bette Davis: Best Actress for Jezebel and Dangerous at Witch Way”, in Architectural Digest, page 248:

(US slang, derogatory) A very attractive woman considered a sex object.


Portuguese man-of-war

en-noun

Portuguese man-of-war (plural Portuguese men-of-war)

/ˈpɔː.tʃʊˌɡiːz ˌmæn.ə(v)ˈwɔː/

From Portuguese (adjective) + man-of-war, from the resemblance of the organism’s float to a former Portuguese warship at full sail.

However, two beaches in Tarragona in southern Catalonia were closed in July after Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis) were spotted in the water.

2024 August 24, Stephen Burgen, “Resorts on Spain’s Costa Brava struggle with invasion of jellyfish as seas warm”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Physalia physalis
Physalia physalis#Translingual

Physalia physalis, a marine cnidarian consisting of a floating colony of hydrozoans attached to a float, superficially resembling a jellyfish.


selfbow

From self (“having its own or a single nature or character throughout without addition or change, unmixed; (archery) of a bow: made from a single piece of wood”, adjective) + bow.

compound

With reſpect to a bow being made round, we muſt recollect, that [Roger] Aſcham ſpeaks of a ſelf'''-bow; which, it ſeems, was made round as well as the back as in the belly: but back'd-bows have almoſt always a flat back, to prevent their caſting.

1801, T[homas] Roberts, “Of the Bow”, in The English Bowman, or Tracts on Archery; […], London: […] [F]or the author, by C. Roworth, […]; [s]old by Mr. [Thomas] Edgerton, […]; [a]lso by Mr. [Thomas] Waring, […], →OCLC, section III (Of Proving the Bow), page 141:

Many Archers use a piece of waxed cloth, which is of great utility, as it not only gives the Bow a polish, but is a preventative against damps penetrating; this precaution however, is not so much required for self Bows, as backed ones. Self Bows are made of one piece of wood only, and that is generally of yew, but the long known difficulty of procuring good English yew, has compelled Bow makers of late years, to resort to various other woods, all containing great spring, but little pliability; the deficiency of the latter is amply supplied by the addition of a slip of ash, or some other tough wood glued to them; the toughness of the one combined to the elasticity of the other, both acting in conjunction, make capital Bows, and these it is that are called back'd Bows.

1820, Thomas Waring, “Attitude in Shooting”, in A Treatise on Archery; or, The Art of Shooting with the Long Bow. […], 2nd edition, London: […] A. Seale [for Thomas Waring], →OCLC, page 21:

[A] backed bow does not exceed a self bow, except that it is thought by some to be pleasanter and easier to draw, especially in the last inch, and of quicker cast.

1831, T[homas] B[urgeland] Johnson, “BOW”, in The Sportsman’s Cyclopedia; […], London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, […], →OCLC, page 78:

I once made a beautiful self-bow from a large branch of yew, which was amputated, after two valuable coach-horses had been poisoned by feeding on its leaves.

1840, George Agar Hansard, “Section VIII. Of Yew Trees, Yew Bows, &c. &c.”, in The Book of Archery, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, footnote *, page 350:

Modern bows are of two kinds, viz. self bows and backed bows. The self bow is composed of only one kind of wood; but the backed bow is composed of two kinds of wood, both the full length of the bow, carefully joined together.

1845, [Jane] Loudon, “Letter XVIII. Archery: Targets; Self Bows and Backed Bows; …”, in The Lady’s Country Companion; or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally, London: […] [Andrew Spottiswoode] for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, book V (Country Amusements), page 366:

The self-bow is the real old Engish weapon; the one with which the many mighty deeds that rendered this country renowned in times gone by were performed; […] Of the woods for self-bows, Yew beyond all question carries off the palm; other woods have been, and still are, in use, such as lance, Cocus, Washaba, Rose, Snake, and some others; but they may be summarily dismissed with the remark, that self-bows made of these woods are all, without exception radically bad, being heavy in hand, apt to jar, comparatively dull in cast, and very liable to chrysal and break, and that no archer should use them so long as a self-yew or a good backed-bow is within his reach.

1856, Horace A[lfred] Ford, “Of the Bow”, in Archery: Its Theory and Practice, London: J. Buchanan, […]; Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: H[enry] Davies, […], →OCLC, page 14:

Bows were of several types. Most common was a selfbow (a bow made of a single piece of wood with no laminating materials) of springy wood tapering toward both ends and sometimes narrowed at the grip.

1995, Harvey Markowitz, “Bows, Arrows, and Quivers”, in American Indians (A Magill Book), volumes 1 (A–Hay), Pasadena, Calif.; Hackensack, N.J.: Salem Press, →ISBN; republished in Carole A. Barrett, Harvey J. Markowitz, editors, American Indian Culture (Magill’s Choice), volumes 1 (Acorns–Headdresses), Pasadena, Calif.; Hackensack, N.J.: Salem Press, 2004, →ISBN, page 148:

If the design of the weapon is moderate enough to be successful as an all wood selfbow then the addition of sinew and horn will probably result in a net loss of arrow performance.

2001, Hari Heath, “Wood under Stress”, in David Wescott, editor, Primitive Technology II: Ancestral Skills […], Salt Lake City, Ut.: Gibbs Smith, →ISBN, section 4 (Projectiles—Bows and Arrows), page 106, column 1:

The recurved bow design originated in antiquity when the longbow, or self[-]bow, made entirely from wood, was reinforced with animal sinew to produce adequate energy in a shorter bow suitable for mounted archers.

2005, Tom Airhart, “Personal Gear”, in Elk Hunting Guide: Skills, Gear, and Insight, Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, →ISBN, page 259:

(archery) A bow made from a single piece of wood (often referred to as a bow stave).


smoke wagon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


candlewick

en-noun

candlewick (countable and uncountable, plural candlewicks)

From Middle English candelwyk, candelwike, from Old English candelweoc, candelwēoce (“candlewick”), equivalent to candle + wick.

The thread used to make the wicks of candles.


fusspot

My teacher is such a fusspot, he marks us down for handwriting!

(informal) A person who makes a fuss, particularly about trivial things.


fusspot

en-verb

fusspot (third-person singular simple present fusspots, present participle fusspotting, simple past and past participle fusspotted)

fusspots (present singular third-person)
fusspotting (participle present)
fusspotted (participle past)
fusspotted (past)

I hadn't realised then that fusspotting about small details of social disorder was an Australian obsession.

1999, Annie Caulfield, The Winners' Enclosure, page 67:

(informal, intransitive) To make a fuss, particularly about trivial things.


pocket pool

‘[…]I don't give a damn if your messengers end up giving fuck shows for horny old men snarfing nose candy and playing pocket pool.’

1986, Jonathan Kellerman, Blood Test, page 70:

(slang) The act of manipulating one's genitalia through a trouser pocket; masturbation.


taproom

Dusty left the taproom of the tavern and wandered into the small arcade in back.

On the other hand, to arrive after dusk, when the multitude of garish little public-houses are lit up, giving glimpses of crowded jostling bars and taprooms, is an introduction to a fine city well calculated to affect even the most nonchalant.

1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 703:

A room where alcoholic beverages are served on tap; a bar or barroom.


tealight

From tea + light, since they are sometimes used to keep a teapot warm.

2004, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service https://web.archive.org/web/20071027212506/http://www.staffordshirefire.gov.uk/ccm/content/press-releases/2004/april-2004/tea-lights-pose-potential-danger.en
Candles and tealights can be hazardous and must be used in accordance with any instructions.

A small, typically circular candle encased in a thin metal cup, so that it liquefies completely when lit and burns as a wick immersed in molten wax.

茶燭 /茶烛

small, typically circular candle encased in thin metal cup


bedhead

en-noun

bedhead (countable and uncountable, plural bedheads)

From bed + head. Superficially similar to, but etymologically distinguishable from, forms built from -head.

Hand was looking flustered with me, though he was still only half-awake and his bedhead was ridiculous […]

2002, Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity, Vintage Canada, published 2011:

She always came to the office late because she was an INSOMNIAC, lewd grin, bedhead, and miniskirt, the CEO laughing his head off down the hallway, old word style, but new to have this dirty kind of hilarious brunette.

2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN:

(colloquial) The condition of having unkempt hair, generally as a result of having just woken up from sleep.


bedhead

From Middle English bed-head, bedhede (also as beddeshed, beddes hede, beddes heed), equivalent to bed + head.

Holonyms: bedstead; bedframe (sometimes comeronymous)

[…] upon this he went up stairs in his shirt, and found the boy hanging in his belt to the staple within the bed-head, and no higher than would admit him to be on his knees, having only his shirt on.

1772, anonymous author, A True and Genuine Account of the Life, Trial, and Execution of James Bolland, London: self-published, page 2:

Feeling slightly ashamed of himself, he sat up against the bedhead.

1949, George Orwell, chapter 4, in Nineteen Eighty-Four:

There was a big black wrought-iron double bed, with a mosaic in the centre of the bedhead.

1977, Edna O'Brien, Johnny I Hardly Knew You, Penguin, published 1984, page 82:

A few miles from Skara Brae, you can see hearths, bedheads, and milk crate-style shelving in a cluster of stone houses that are joined by an internal corridor, like those of an apartment block. The houses are five thousand years old, older than the Egyptian pyramids.

2014, Christine Kenneally, chapter 8, in The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, New York: Viking:

(British) A vertical panel or board at the end of a bed where the pillow is placed.

Miss Macspleuchan, with a faint shriek, rang the bell at the bed-head violently; but before she or any one else could reach her, Lady Cecilia had fallen heavily on the floor, where she lay unconsciously, her maid falling down over her as she rushed into the room, alarmed by the sudden and violent ringing of the bell.

1841, Samuel Warren, Ten Thousand a-Year, Boston: Little & Brown, published 1900, Vol. III, Chapter, VIII, p. 342:

She turned off the bed-head light in this tiny, low-ceiled rolling home of hers, raised the curtain and watched the specks of light streak by.

1940, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXIII, in Bethel Merriday, London: Jonathan Cape, page 364:

The end of a bed where the pillow is placed, the head of the bed.


gentlelady

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


beauty mark

Synonym of beauty spot (“a natural mark on a person's skin, especially a freckle or mole on a woman's face; a patch or spot drawn or placed on the face in order to heighten beauty”)


factfinder

(law) In a legal proceeding, the person or persons given the task of weighing all evidence presented and determining the facts of the case in light of that evidence; the jury, or where there is no jury, the judge.


tryhard

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

/ˈtɹaɪˌhɑɹd/

/ˈtɹaɪˌhɑːd/

(informal, derogatory) A person usually of little talent who tries hard to succeed, especially through imitation, usually to gain fame or popularity.

(video games) A person who is perceived as putting too much effort into something recreational, such as a game.


tryhard

en-adj

tryhard (comparative more tryhard, superlative most tryhard)

more tryhard (comparative)
most tryhard (superlative)

/ˈtɹaɪˌhɑɹd/

/ˈtɹaɪˌhɑːd/

(derogatory) Done to excess, to an embarrassing degree.


tryhard

en-verb

tryhard (third-person singular simple present tryhards, present participle tryharding, simple past and past participle tryharded)

tryhards (present singular third-person)
tryharding (participle present)
tryharded (participle past)
tryharded (past)

/ˈtɹaɪˌhɑɹd/

/ˈtɹaɪˌhɑːd/

Tryhard like you’ve never tryharded before. If you don’t get called a tryhard in game, you’re not tryharding enough. OK, so maybe don’t go overboard but, if you want to take ranked seriously this season, be sure to start off on the right foot.

2018 January 16, Ryan Gilliam, “What should you expect your new rank to be?”, in The Rift Herald:

Some people view tryhards negatively since more casual players can get instantly overwhelmed by people in matchmaking that are hard-pressed to win rather than to just have fun. But that’s where an important distinction is being asked: is tryharding the same as simply trying to win.

2020 August 17, Alan Bernal, “Have tryhards ruined gaming? Viral video divides opinion”, in Dexerto:

If you’re looking to have fun while tryharding in One For All, you can’t go wrong with Malphite.

2022 April 1, “Best League of Legends champs to pick in One For All game mode”, in DotEsports:

(intransitive, video games) To put perhaps too much effort into a recreational activity, typically a game.


tractor-trailer

Coordinate term: (chiefly Australia) road train

(chiefly Northeastern US) A large truck consisting of an engine and cab section (the tractor) and a cargo-carrying semi-trailer or trailer.


henpeck

henpeck (third-person singular simple present henpecks, present participle henpecking, simple past and past participle henpecked)

henpecks (present singular third-person)
henpecking (participle present)
henpecked (participle past)
henpecked (past)

But—Oh! ye lords of ladies intellectual, Inform us truly, have they not hen-peck'd you all?

1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, (please specify the stanza number):

He wears a beard, and he likes his women to be slaves. What man doesn’t? What man would be henpecked, I say? We will cut off all the heads in Christendom or Turkeydom rather than that.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter LIV, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

I don't want to hen-peck you ! Hen-pecking is shocking bad taste. But I won't be a slighted, neglected wife; I have a spirit of my own, and I won't meekly submit to be ignored.

1876, Emma Jane Worboise, “The Countess at Home”, in Lady Clarissa, London: James Clarke & Co., […]; Hodder and Stoughton, […], →OCLC, page 192:

Well, one never hears a woman boast that she henpecks her husband, even though there are many, for the reason that she realizes it is wrong.

1945, Pierre Paul Ebeyer, Gems of the Vieux Carre, page 77:

We have friends who thought it was cute when their daughter "hen-pecked" her husband. But, when their son married a spicy little gal who tried to hen-peck their son, they were very angry.

1995, Betty Malz, Women in Tune, page 88:

Laura didn't have to hen-peck the man; he was a self-made wimp.

2014, Jaqueline Girdner, A Sensitive Kind of Murder:

(chiefly by a wife) To nag persistently.


henpeck

One can't swear that Dewan Bahadur Yama Dharma Rao was a henpeck ; nor could be said that the practical Lady was a cockpeck.

1953, B. V. P., Chronicles of Dewan Bahadur, Yama Dharma Rao, page 44:

The moment he allows the emphasis to swing the other way he becomes a sit-by-the-fire, a cockerel, a drone, a henpeck. A woman steps into this man's sphere at her peril.

1985, James Mallahan Cain, Roy Hoopes, Michael Hinden, 60 Years of Journalism, page 40:

(rare) A man who is meekly subservient to his wife.


mossback

From moss + back (in senses 1 (“person with old-fashioned views; one who is very conservative or reactionary”) and 2.3 (“fish that is large and old”) probably a variant of mossyback, which is attested earlier), alluding to someone or something that is so old or has remained so unmoving that it is as if moss has grown on them or it.
Sense 2.4 (“largemouth bass”) may refer to the back of the fish being a dark green colour.

(informal, historical) A person who stayed hidden to evade conscription (especially by the Confederate States Army) during the American Civil War (1861–1865); a mossyback.


moonstone

en-noun

moonstone (countable and uncountable, plural moonstones)

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

To give light to the presence chamber were seven escarbuncles, great as pumpkins, hung in order down the length of it, and nine fair moonstones standing in order on silver pedestals between the pillars on the dais.

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, London: Jonathan Cape, page 3:

(mineralogy) A translucent gemstone, an orthoclase feldspar, that has a pearly lustre.


draft horse

From draft (itself from to draw) + horse.

(American spelling) A horse used for muscular work other than carrying a rider and/or load, such as pulling a cart, plow, or log.


motormouth

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

From motor + mouth, from the figurative notion that the mouth moves so much that it seems motorized.

He's such a motormouth that I can never get a word in.

Blimey, Brand is checking a word with me. This is nothing like the motor-mouth on the telly, laughing in the face of everything.

2014 October 11, Simon Hattenstone, “Russell Brand: ‘I want to address the alienation and despair’”, in The Guardian:

(informal) One who talks very quickly or incessantly; a chatty or loquacious person.

moottoriturpa

one who talks very quickly or incessantly


ragtag

en-adj

ragtag (comparative more ragtag, superlative most ragtag)

more ragtag (comparative)
most ragtag (superlative)

From earlier tag-rag and tag and rag, from rag + tag.

He liked to wear an old ragtag coat that was so threadbare that he'd get sunburned through it.

Unkempt, shabby, or in a state of disrepair.

раздърпан

unkempt, shabby, or in a state of disrepair

The guerrillas were a ragtag band of local thugs, former soldiers, displaced farmers, and political idealists.

Very diverse; having irregular and dissimilar components.

allegaartje

very diverse; having irregular and dissimilar components


ragtag

Near-synonym: ragbag

The small group of ragtags, who had followed him to the cave a day prior had arrived and kept a short distance away.

2013, Casper Parks, Ages Past: The Isolation, page 258:


golden oldie

(colloquial) Something, especially a record, that was very popular in a former era.


shove ha'penny

(British) A game, traditionally played in pubs in Great Britain, in which players attempt to push coins so that they land between marked boundaries.


Africa-Eurasia

/ˈæf.ɹɪk.ə.jʊɹˈeɪ.ʒə/


Austria-Hungary

(historical) A former country in Central Europe from 1867 to 1918.


toolset

(computing) A set of utility programs, subroutines or similar software.


naked ape

From naked + ape, reportedly coined by Desmond Morris in his book The Naked Ape (1967).

What, after all, can a poor naked ape do?

1969, David H. Stewart, “The Decline of WASP Literature in America”, in College English, volume 30, number 6, page 412:

Humans are unique among the monkeys and apes in lacking a dense layer of hair covering their bodies.

2003, M. Pagel and W. Bodmer, "A Naked Ape Would Have Fewer Parasites," Proceedings: Biological Sciences, Vol. 270, Supplement: Biology Letters, p. S117

Anheuser-Busch ads have played up the similarities between ape and naked ape—with the lower primates usually looking better.

2006 April 3, Greg Levine, “Anheuser, Pepsi CEOs Face New Labor Cost: Chimps”, in forbes.com, retrieved 2011-08-16:

(idiomatic, chiefly humorous) A human being.


drip tip

(botany) An elongated leaf tip from which excess water can drip off harmlessly, as found in plants of the rainforest.

(entomology) An elongated extension to the wall of a structure, such that unwanted water drips off, as found in the nests of some species of rainforest paper wasps.

Once you know you have a dry atomizer, add three drops of your E-liquid through the drip tip.

2010, Mike Sands, Make Your Own E-Liquid, page 15:

Bottles of glycerin, propylene glycol, nicotine and flavorings line the shelves behind Setzer while mod boxes, atomizers and drip tips rest in the display case in front of him.

2015 June 6, Amy Trent, “Concerns cloud e-cigarette craze”, in Lynchburg News and Advance:

And you can bling them up with accessories, covers, different tanks, hand-crafted drip tips and so on.

2017 August 20, Simon Waters, “How I quit smoking and is vaping something you should try?”, in New Zealand Herald:

An attachment for an e-cigarette that drips e-liquid directly onto the atomizer.


redbreast

From Middle English redbreste, equivalent to red + breast.

There was a pleasant frosty sun glittering through the twigs of the leafless shrubs, and flashing on the ripples and undulations of the Liffey, and the redbreasts and sparrows were picking up the crumbs which the housekeeper had thrown for them outside.

1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “How a Gentleman Paid a Visit at the Brass Castle, and There Read a Paragraph in an Old Newspaper”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume III, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 17:

I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281:

Any of several unrelated birds that have a red breast

Erithacus rubecula
Erithacus rubecula#Translingual

Turdus migratorius
Turdus migratorius#Translingual


cock block

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

(vulgar, slang) Alternative spelling of cockblock


cock block

en-verb

cock block (third-person singular simple present cock blocks, present participle cock blocking, simple past and past participle cock blocked)

cock blocks (present singular third-person)
cock blocking (participle present)
cock blocked (participle past)
cock blocked (past)


fuck truck

...into this fuck truck she came, seamy with semen, a place that made a motel whorehouse seem as fresh as new grass.

1982, Jimmy Breslin, Forsaking All Others, page 293:

The Ford Econoline, also known as the fuck-truck, sat outside. We didn't need a condom. Penny had already started taking the birth control pill.

2002, John H Stover, The Road Runner: An American Odyssey, page 111:

'Shame, it's nicknamed the "fuck truck".' 'Flic, I didn't go to Oz to get laid!' 'What was it you were saying before you left?'

2005, S G Harrison Mumford, Dos-a-Dos, page 69:

(slang, vulgar) A van fitted out with a mattress in the back for sexual intercourse.


picklock

1664-1667, Jeremy Taylor, Dissuasive from Popery
a picklock of secrets


teaberry

Gaultheria procumbens
Gaultheria procumbens#Translingual

A berry which is the fruit of a small shrub native to northeastern North America, Gaultheria procumbens (eastern teaberry, American wintergreen, boxberry, checkerberry).

lamosalali

shrub Gaultheria procumbens and its berry


nipple cripple

(slang) A school prank, the act of taking a person's nipple between the thumb and forefinger and then twisting it around roughly.


rig pig

And, of course, they can maintain control of half a dozen shit-scared rig pigs.

2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse, page 95:

"Rig pigs are welders that drive souped up pick-up trucks with all their gear in the back and they spend weeks at sites welding. […]" "[…] You should know that. You're from Alberta!"

2006, Laurie Hannan, The Gamble, page 118:

You are truly a fucking champion and thank you for bringing a smile to a rig pig's wife!

2007, Paul Carter, This Is Not a Drill: Just Another Glorious Day in the Oilfield, page 238:

(oil industry, slang) A worker on an oil rig; a roughneck.


titty twister

"I ain't seen you in a while." Cornelius declares, jokingly giving me a titty twister that hurts worse than a joke.

2019 December, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 58:

(vulgar, slang) A school prank involving taking a person's nipple between the thumb and forefinger and then twisting it around roughly.


jingle bell

/ˈd͡ʒɪŋɡl̩ bɛl/

/ˈd͡ʒɪŋɡ(ə)l ˌbɛl/

From jingle (“sound of metal, etc., clattering against itself”, attributively) + bell.

compound

Jingle bells, jingle bells, / Jingle all the way. / Oh! what fun it is to ride / In a one-horse open sleigh.

1857 September 15, James Lord Pierpont (lyrics and music), “The One Horse Open Sleigh”:

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock / Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring

1957 November 28, Joe Beal, Jim Boothe [disputed] (lyrics and music), “Jingle Bell Rock”performed by Bobby Helms, Decca Records:

A small, hollow, spherical metal bell with a narrow slit opening or small holes, containing a loose ball or rod as a clapper, which is attached to a horse's harness as a signal, or (music) used as a musical instrument.


paternity leave

en-noun

paternity leave (usually uncountable, plural paternity leaves)

From paternity + leave, modelled after maternity leave.

My husband is on a three-month paternity leave while he looks after our newborn baby and I’m working abroad.

A leave of absence from a job for a father to care of a baby.


mailroom

Oh, Pete. This is not the gym. — That’s right, Anna. This is the mailroom.
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

A room used for receiving and (usually) sending mail.


cellblock

The cellblock where the men were held was close enough to the holding tank, where the women were all kept together, for us to hear much of what happened there.

1983 December 24, Larry Goldsmith, “Cops Bust 70 Anti-Nuke Demonstrators”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 6:

A wing of a prison containing cells for the inmates.


sunroom

A room used for its abundant sunlight, especially one in a residence with numerous large glass windows.


plain sailing

From plain (adjective) + sailing.
Sense 2 (“something that is easy, simple, or straightforward”) is attested slightly later than plain-sailing (adjective), and so could have been derived from it.

[…] I hired a Tonquineſe for about a Dollar to be my guide. This, tho but a ſmall matter, vvas a great deal out of my Pocket, vvho had not above 2 Dollars in all, vvhich I had gotten on board, by teaching ſome of our young Seamen Plain Sailing.

1699, William Dampier, Voyages and Descriptions. Vol. II. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, part I (His Voyage from Achin in Sumatra, to Tonquin, […]), page 90:

[…] Me[r]cators Sailing gives the correct Difference of Latitude and Longitude both; Middle Latitude Sailing, only the correct Difference of Longitude; Plain Sailing gives neither correctly; and therefore their Merits are in Proportion.

1735, Benjamin Martin, “The Use of Decimals in Plain Trigonometry, and Other Mathmatical Sciences Depending thereon”, in A New Compleat and Universal System or Body of Decimal Arithmetick, […], London: […] J[ohn] Noon, […], →OCLC, page 322:

I doubt as hovv I've ſteered by a vvrong chart, d'ye ſee—as for the matter of the ſciences, to be ſure, I knovv plain ſailing and mercator; and am an indifferent good ſeaman, […]

1760 January – 1761 December, [Tobias George Smollett], “In which the Knight Resumes His Importance”, in The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves. […], Dublin: […] James Hoey, junior, published 1762, →OCLC, page 78:

[W]e have determined to go by way of Lisbon, […] and so on our old route to Malta and Constantinople, if so be that Captain Kidd, our gallant commander, understands plain sailing and Mercator and takes us on our voyage all according to the chart.

1809 June 25, Lord Byron, “Letter XXXV. To Mr. Henry Drury.”, in Thomas Moore, editor, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life, […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], published 1830, →OCLC, page 188:

Obsolete spelling of plane sailing (“a technique for navigation using the assumption that the journey occurs over a plane or flat surface rather than the actual curved surface of the Earth, which is sufficiently accurate over short distances”).


fire chief

A leader of a fire station; an officer in charge of firemen and fighting fires.


tubular bells

tubular bells pl (normally plural, singular tubular bell)

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

(music) A percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned metal tubes that are struck with a mallet, producing sounds like those of church bells.

آلة إيقاعية

percussion instrument consisting of tuned metal tubes


softnose

Questions that have arisen regarding the "stopping power" of the modern small-caliber bullet, particularly in view of the reduction of the caliber of the rifle in some services to 0.25 inch, or even less, have led to propositions to adopt soft-nose or "mushrooming" bullets, which will be deformed on striking an animate object, inflict a more dangerous wound, and increase the shock over that given by a hard bullet of the same caliber and weight, which would penetrate the body without deformation. […] The soft-nose bullet is inferior in accuracy, and is especially inferior in its ability to penetrate hard substances used for defensive purposes, making it almost useless to reach troops under cover that would be dislodged by the service bullet.

1897, “Seacoast Guns”, in Annual Report of the Chief of Ordnance to the Secretary of War for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1896, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 21:

When I got the rifle I shot a coyote in a trap, to see what effect the soft nose bullet would have. He was struck back of shoulder, and a hole torn, where bullet entered, about 3½ inches in diameter.

1898 September, A. A. Haines, “The Ideal Gun for Coyotes [letter]”, in G[eorge] O[liver] Shields, editor, Recreation, volume IX, number 3, New York, N.Y.: G. O. Shields (Coquina), →OCLC, page 216, column 1:

The soft nose bullet if it is fired and hitting any hard object, especially bone, it flattens and becomes distorted and is no longer round and has a tearing force with it.

1935 November 11, J. C. Shields, witness, New York Life Insurance Company, Petitioner, vs. Stella Jane Gamer, as Executrix of the Will of E. Walter Gamer, also Known as Edward W. Gamer, Deceased: Transcript of Record (Supreme Court of the United States; no. 323), Washington, D.C.: Judd & Detweiler, […], published 31 December 1937, page 184:

The softnose technique involved placing an inhibitor on a blaster, which allowed a laser to travel at slower speeds, actually penetrating the target. Initially developed for mining purposes, they were quickly adapted by some greedy weapons manufacturer.

[2002, Eoin Colfer, “Cruisin’ for Chix”, in Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Miramax Books; Hyperion Paperbacks for Children, →ISBN, page 35:

(firearms) Of a bullet: lacking a jacketed nose and thereby deforming greatly on impact, causing a large amount of damage; soft-nosed.

pehmeäkärkinen

of a bullet: lacking a jacketed nose and thereby deforming greatly on impact


softnose

softnose (countable and uncountable, plural softnoses)

Coordinate term: hollow point

The soft nose when it strikes a hard substance, mushrooms, would leave ten times as large a hole as a hard nose bullet striking the same substance. A soft nose bullet would leave a ragged edge.

1935 November 11, Clyde L. McNeil, witness, New York Life Insurance Company, Petitioner, vs. Stella Jane Gamer, as Executrix of the Will of E. Walter Gamer, also Known as Edward W. Gamer, Deceased: Transcript of Record (Supreme Court of the United States; no. 323), Washington, D.C.: Judd & Detweiler, […], published 31 December 1937, page 215:

And get a couple of boxes of .40 caliber Glasers, too. And about a dozen boxes of .30 caliber softnoses for my SKS. You need some cash for all that?

2000, John W. Myers, “Can Your Home Fort be Defended if Attacked? Or, ‘Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition’”, in The Crossland Shootpout: Adventures of a Photojournalist, Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 116:

The softnoses were just as quickly outlawed, for the obvious reason that these weapons were designed to kill, and not to incapacitate.

On the upside, I guess the sniper keeps the kids home at night. They're at that age where they prefer tear-assing around town to spending time at home. Judy's 15, and that means all she thinks about is boys. Too bad for her none of her knights in shining armor have been willing to risk a .270 Winchester softnose between the eyes.

2004 October 27, William Gussie [pseudonym], “Man, I Wish that Sniper would Go Away”, in The Onion, archived from the original on 2018-03-14:

(firearms, countable) A bullet of this kind; (uncountable) bullets of this kind collectively.

pehmeäkärkinen luoti

bullet of this kind; bullets of this kind collectively


highbrow

A compound of the words high + brow, first recorded usage in 1875. Referring to the (by that time discredited) science of phrenology, which suggested that a person of intelligence and sophistication would possess a higher brow-line than someone of lesser intelligence and sophistication.

highbrow entertainment

“He's so darn afraid you'll be offended if he smokes. You scare him. Every time he speaks of the weather you jump him because he ain't talking about poetry or Gertie—Goethe?—or some other highbrow junk. You've got him so leery he scarcely dares to come here.”

1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XIV, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:

(sometimes derogatory) Intellectually stimulating, highly cultured, sophisticated.


pencil-neck

From pencil + neck, popularized by wrestler Freddie Blassie.

That pencil-neck from systems isn't going to tell me what I can't do.

Mom said, “Sell it to the circus, what the heck.” / Dad said, “Nope, this one's a pencil neck / And if there's one thing lower than a side show freak / It's a grit eatin', scum suckin', pencil neck geek.”

1977, Pete Cicero, Martin Margulies (lyrics and music), “Pencil Neck Geek”, performed by Freddie Blassie & The Geekettes:

On Thursday, March 28, Trump took the stage in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a campaign rally, where he unleashed a new schoolyard nickname: “little pencil-neck Adam Schiff.”

2020, Kevin Sullivan, Mary Jordan, quoting Donald Trump, Trump on Trial, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 217:

(idiomatic, US, derogatory) An insubstantial person; a weakling.


roadstead

The shores of Protection island form on its south side, which is about two miles long, a most excellent roadstead, and a channel into port Discovery, near 2 miles wide on either side […]

1798, George Vancouver, chapter V, in A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World, volume I, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, page 248:

[…] I found we were lying in a roadstead among many low and rocky islets, hovered about by an innumerable cloud of sea-fowl.

1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, “Story of the Fair Cuban”, in More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 171:

[…] that was the time when at the mast-heads of the three-deckers and seventy-fours moored in her own roadstead […] the blue-jackets, to be numbered by thousands, ran up with huzzas the British colors with the union and cross wiped out […]

1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter III.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC:

Clusters of strong flowers rose everywhere above the coarse tussocks of bent. It was like a roadstead crowded with tall fairy-shipping.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

In 1620 junks began to arrive from China depositing hundreds of migrants, and with the resumption of China's official trade to Southeast Asia in 1683, the numbers of junks arriving annually in Batavia's roadstead grew from an average of three or four to about twenty.

1992, Leonard Y. Andaya, “Interactions with the Outside World and Adaptation in Southeast Asian Society, 1500-1800”, in Nicholas Tarling, editor, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, volume 1, Cambridge University Press, page 349:

(nautical) A partly sheltered anchorage; a stretch of water near the shore where vessels may ride at anchor, but with less protection than a harbour.

рейд

partly sheltered anchorage outside a harbour


Roundhead

From round + head, from their short-cropped hairstyle.

(informal, historical) A supporter of parliament during the English Civil War.


oilrig

A rig, consisting of platform and machinery, used to drill for oil and other petroleum products like natural gas.


weaponsmith

A person skilled at making edged weapons

våbensmed

a person skilled at making edged weapons


pinchpenny

Over the years, he developed a reputation as a pinchpenny who wouldn't spend money for anything.

That they accompt one a dastard if he be not defperate, a pynch penny if he be not prodygall, if filent a fotte, if full of wordes a foole?

1578, John Lyly, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit, published 1868, page 109:

One who spends little money; one who is very frugal or cautious with money.


fun run

A sporting event where people run a certain distance to fundraise for charity rather than for competition.


crossguard

/ˈkɹɔsˌɡɑɹd/

ref

From the collection of the Livrustkammaren (Royal Armoury) in Stockholm, Sweden.

Holonym: hilt

Meronym: quillon (one sense)

Comeronyms: grip, pommel, ricasso

en:part of sword to protect wielder_s hand

(swords) A metal bar fixed between, and at right angles to, the blade and the handle of a sword or other bladed weapon that stops an opponent's similar weapon from sliding along the blade and injuring the hand of the person wielding the sword.


big tent

From big (adjective) + tent, originally referring to a large tent set up to hold a public event attended by many people such as a circus or a religious meeting.

Humanism is an expansive trisyllable, a veritable "big-tent" of a word, sheltering many varieties of performance under its spreading canvas.

1930 October, Eugene Garret Bewkes, “Humanism and Ethics”, in James H[ayden] Tufts, editor, The International Journal of Ethics: A Quarterly Devoted to the Advancement of Ethical Knowledge and Practice, volume XLI, number 1, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, pages 14–15:

The Democratic governor of Mississippi, Paul Johnson, has endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. […] He said he is confident that the majority of Mississippians "Have no desire to get under Lyndon Johnson's big tent and to share the company already assembled there."

1964 September 9, “Goldwater endorsed in Mississippi”, in Graham M. Dean, editor, Porterville Evening Recorder, number 395, Porterville, Calif.: Graham M. Dean, →OCLC, page 1:

The newcomers often bring an array of ancillary problems to meetings, including emotional trauma and addiction to other drugs. As the organization metamorphoses, its supporters wonder whether A.A. [Alcoholics Anonymous] can or should be such a big tent.

1995 July 10, Elizabeth Gleick [et al.], “Sobering Times for A.A.”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2010-10-08:

They are not a slice of Americana, as we usually say, but rather, a broad brush of it. While most of our successful sports franchises display some distinct personality, only the [Dallas] Cowboys offer the big tent.

1996 September 8, “Why Cowboys Became Kings”, in Newsweek, New York, N.Y.: Newsweek, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-02-26:

And here in essence is the problem with the Democrats' big tent, as well as the grounds for a wholly new kind of culture war that is probably going to make us long for the clear lines and simple enmities of the old one.

2008 December 6, Caitlin Flanagan, Benjamin Schwarz, “Showdown in the big tent”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-26:

#MeToo, that vast and disembodied and ongoing protest march, has been subject to similar dynamics: the big tent, flinging its flaps ever wider; the entropic impulse as both a matter of promise and a matter of peril.

2018 July 4, Megan Garber, “Is #MeToo Too Big?”, in The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-11-25:

Vox was established a decade ago when its leader, Santiago Abascal, split from the Popular Party, long a big center-right tent that included monarchists, libertarian supporters of same-sex marriage, ultraconservative Catholics and Spaniards who detested the independence movements of the north.

2023 July 24, Jason Horowitz, “What the collapse of Spain’s far right means going forward”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-11-08:

(idiomatic, also attributive) A group, philosophy, or social or political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of constituents or members, or views.


pet shop

→ Brazilian Portuguese: pet shop

→ Japanese: ペットショップ (pettoshoppu)

→ Turkish: pet shop

"I'll take three of those little butter-fishes." No sooner was the sentence spoken than I realized that it was not correct English, but the fish dealer knew not the difference; and if one were to say to the proprietor of a pet shop, "I'll take three of those goldfish," he, in all likelihood, would not know the difference, either. Even those of us who are devoting our lives to the study of fishes, find it difficult to remember how to designate them correctly in the plural.

1927, Ida M[ay] Mellen, “'Fish' or 'Fishes'”, in Louise Pound, Kemp Malone, Arthur [Garfield] Kennedy, editors, American Speech, volume II, Baltimore, Md.: American Dialect Society, →ISSN, page 246, column 1:

[…] Mr. Wilham's fashionable West End pet-shop, where dogs lived in excelsior-floored cubicles, appealing to the passers-by.

1932, Rudyard Kipling, “The Woman in His Life”, in Limits and Renewals, Dominions edition, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, page 47:

And he stops in front of the store where they're going and she stares at the window uncomfortably, it turns out to be a petshop that only sells birds, marvelous, in cages you can see from the window there are all kinds of birds happily flying from one perch to another, […]

1980 August, Manuel Puig, chapter 1, in Thomas Colchie, transl., Kiss of the Spider Woman […], New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 8:

Although Lesbia's sparrow and Melior's parrot do indeed bear witness to at least an occasional Roman weakness for pet birds, it does seem unlikely that these pampered fowls will have drunk from the very same type of vessel as might be sold in the petshops of modern Pompeii.

1999, Eleanor Leach, “Discussion: Comments from a Classicist”, in Penelope M[ary] Allison, editor, The Archaeology of Household Activities, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 193:

‘Your kiwi birds will take lodgings elsewhere.’ / ‘At your house?’ / ‘Not at my house, but across the street.’ Mr Bell pointed and Alice followed the direction of this pointing. / ‘It is a pet shop,’ she said. ‘I have no wish to sell my kiwi birds.’ And this was mostly true, although Alice was beginning to find caring for the kiwi birds a trying experience. Not that she did not love them.

2011, Robert Rankin, chapter 26, in The Mechanical Messiah and Other Marvels of the Modern Age, London: Gollancz, →ISBN, page 205:

One day, a lady named Sally came to the pet shop to look for a new pet. Sally did not really want a parrot, but Parker thought Sally looked kind so he flew onto her shoulder and said, "Choose me, please." Sally was amazed and decided to take Parker home.

2012, Brenda May Williams, “Parker the Nosey Parrot”, in The Unusual Pet Shop, Houston, Tex.: Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co., →ISBN, page 6:

A shop that sells animals kept as domestic pets, and products for caring for and feeding them.


Delhi belly

From the diarrhoea often experienced by foreign travellers to India; the city of Delhi was doubtless chosen for the rhyme with belly.

(idiomatic, informal) Digestive illness or diarrhoea, especially if suffered by a visitor to India.


tall story

Mary Beard, formerly professor of classics at Cambridge University, directed followers on X to her latest book, titled Emperor of Rome, which opens with a lengthy discussion of the “tall stories” told about Elagabalus.

2023 November 24, Esther Addley, “Was Roman emperor Elagabalus really trans – and does it really matter?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

tall tale

(idiomatic) Synonym of tall tale (“a tale or story which is fantastic and greatly exaggerated; also, an account of questionable veracity; a lie, an untruth”)


training wheel

From training (“relating to the moving of a firearm laterally so that it points in a different direction; relating to imparting and acquiring skills”) + wheel.

compound

(chiefly Canada, US and in the plural, cycling) One of a pair of small wheels, each attached to one side of a bicycle's rear wheel to provide support for new riders.

輔助輪 /辅助轮

one of a pair of small wheels, each attached to one side of a bicycle’s rear wheel to provide support for new riders — see also stabilizer


snit fit

She didn't like his clothes or grammar and pitched a snit fit.

(informal, US) A tantrum; an excessive display of anger or disapproval.


hardhead

Aythya australis
Aythya australis#Translingual

A brown diving duck, Aythya australis, native to Australia.

Nahatʼeʼiitsoh Bikéyahdę́ę́ʼ naalʼeełí binááʼ łigaaígíí


tattie scone

Borrowed from Scots tattie scone, from tattie (“potato”) + scone (“large circular cake baked on a griddle; a slice of such a cake”).

(Scotland) A scone made from mashed, boiled potatoes and flour, often baked in a large circular shape on a griddle and cut into slices for serving; it may be eaten as an accompaniment to savoury food such as bacon, fried eggs, and Lorne sausage, or with jam.