business end

There is even an example of convergent evolution at a molecular level in two enzymes, one from soil bacteria and the other from man, which have exactly the same patterns of amino acids at the "business ends."

1973, Lyall Watson, “The Physics of Life: Life Fields/Brain Waves/Resonance/Biophysics”, in Supernature, New York, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, →ISBN, part 1 (Cosmos), page 102:

On this day, with expectation rising and the unmistakable feeling around this sweeping Samara Stadium that the World Cup is really reaching the business end, England delivered.

2018 July 7, Phil McNulty, “FIFA World Cup – Quarter-final: Sweden 0 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2023-12-18:

(by extension) The part of an activity, period of time, etc., which is most important and produces the significant result.


kiss-ass

(Canada, US, slang) An obsequious person who tries to win the favor of someone, usually their superior.


flaxseed

en-noun

flaxseed (countable and uncountable, plural flaxseeds)

The seed of the flax plant; a source of linseed oil.


fisherfolk

fisherfolk (countable and uncountable, plural fisherfolks)

/ˈfɪʃɚˌfoʊk/

From fisher (“person who catches fish, especially for a living or for sport”) + folk; compare fisherman.

compound

(anthropology) Members of a culture that is dominated by fishing.

kalastajakansan jäsen

members of a culture that is dominated by fishing


know-all

(chiefly UK, Ireland) Someone who obnoxiously claims to be knowledgeable on a subject.


shut-eye

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

With the night so quiet and peaceful, though, there was nothing he could do except return to camp and try to get a little shut-eye himself.

2008, William W. Johnstone, J. A. Johnstone, Preachers Showdown, Pinnacle Books, →ISBN, page 172:


cloudland

Glittering castles in Spain were shaping themselves out of the mists and rainbows of her lively fancy; adventures wonderful and enthralling were happening to her in cloudland—adventures that always turned out triumphantly and never involved her in scrapes like those of actual life.

1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, chapter XXX, in Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, published August 1909 (11th printing), →OCLC:

Wide awake, all at once, he was at the same time plunged even deeper into a cloudland of symbols to which he had no key.

1950, Mervyn Peake, chapter 29, in Gormenghast, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, →OCLC:

Nothing can be more like a ride in cloudland than the drive from Pierrefitte to Luz and from Luz to Gavarnie.

2007, Matilda Betham-Edwards, In the Heart of the Vosges, BiblioBazaar, LLC, page 102:


tech-savvy

en-adj

tech-savvy (comparative more tech-savvy, superlative most tech-savvy)

more tech-savvy (comparative)
most tech-savvy (superlative)

From tech (“(informal) technology”) + savvy (“perceptive, shrewd, and well-informed”); perhaps a contraction of high-tech savvy, or a variant of techno-savvy.

compound

The Tofflers have also recruited as executive partners TV producer Al Burton and the tech-savvy film producer and entrepreneur Jeff Apple.

1996 July 15, Michael Krantz, “Cashing in on Tomorrow”, in Time, volume 148, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2008-03-09:

But as the railways become increasingly digitised, it is these young tech-savvy individuals with knowledge about coding who may well have the skills the industry needs.

2021 August 11, Chris Howe, “Inspire the March of the ‘Mods’”, in RAIL, number 937, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 63:

People want to see staff on trains. […] People want ticket offices. […] The danger is that we could end up with a minimalist railway, usable only by those who are fit, tech-savvy, and have an existing knowledge of the network.

2022 December 14, Christian Wolmar, “Productivity should play no part in pay negotiations”, in RAIL, number 972, page 47:

(informal) Proficient in the use of technology, especially computers.

精通科技的

proficient in the use of technology, especially computers


quake lake

2008, "China braces as water rises at quake lake," AFP at Google News, 6 Jun.,
The May 12 quake triggered massive landslides in mountainous Sichuan province, blocking rivers and creating more than 30 unstable "quake lakes" that are threatening millions of people.

A lake formed after the damming of a watercourse by a landslide caused by an earthquake.


clawback

en-noun

clawback (countable and uncountable, plural clawbacks)

Deverbal from claw back. In the financial senses, refers to something being "clawed back", or reclaimed; in the sense of a flatterer, it suggests the idea of a person's back being scratched (see scratch someone's back).

(US taxation law) Money that a party is entitled to keep under one tax provision but is taken by another tax provision.


personal best

His personal best was a seven-minute mile.

A person's best ever performance at some task to date.


want-away

* from verb phrase "to want away"; from want + away


choplogic

The breezy humour and slapdash boisterousness of their platform rhetoric appeal to King Demos, who is apt to weary of the wearisome dialectics of the choplogics of Westminster.

1909, W[illiam] T[homas] Stead, The Review of Reviews, volume 40, page 115:


creature feature

creature feature (plural creature features)

"Godzilla" is one of the classic creature features.

(idiomatic, film, humorous) A horror film in which one or more monsters plays a prominent role.


bighead

bighead (countable and uncountable, plural bigheads)

bighead goby

Drombus globiceps and Ponticola kessleri

bighead grenadier

Coryphaenoides capito and Coryphaenoides rudis

(uncountable, colloquial) Any of several animal diseases that cause swelling of the head.


vanity press

From vanity + press, so called because such a press may be used by otherwise unpublishable authors who want to see their work in print.

In 1956, having had her book turned down by commercial presses who were unwilling to publish a work on lesbian literature, Foster spent $2000, her year's salary, to print the book through a vanity press, Vantage.

1981 August 22, Maida Tilchen, “Jeannette Howard Foster Dies”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 6, page 3:

The self-published book is the joke of the literary world: whether one goes to a printer and has the books made up with one's own imprint, or goes to an "author-subsidized" publisher known in the trade as a "vanity press," doesn't matter: It's easy to tell a real book from the pretenders. […] It's harder to tell with software. A lot of software is published by small startups. Some of these would certainly qualify as vanity press jobs in the book trade, others wouldn't. But there's a far higher number of successes among small software publishers than there are in the usual vanity press book.

1990 November 12, Jerry Pournelle, “The Vanity Press is Much Harder to Spot on 3½-inch Disks”, in InfoWorld, volume 12, number 46, San Mateo, Calif.: InfoWorld Publishing Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 88, column 1:

(derogatory) A book publisher that lets the author pay the expenses of publishing up front, leaving the risk of financial failure with the author.


cumberground

From cumber + ground, in reference to the Bible, Luke 13:7.

Give a man money, and he may sit down upon it and spend it, or live upon the interest which it will yield in idleness, a mere cumberground and drone, from whose life the world derives no benefit.

1927, Henry William Wolff, Co-operation in India, page 285:

(obsolete) Any totally worthless object or person; something that is just in the way.


workboat

A boat used for purposes other than recreation, passenger transport, or combat.


deafblind

Yemenite deaf-blind hypopigmentation syndrome


clingstone

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

A stone fruit having a stone (pit) that clings to the flesh.


tozy-mozy

On the head of this we had another jug, three being cannie, after which we were both a wee tozy-mozy...

1895, David Macbeth Moir, The Life of Mansie Wauch: Tailor in Dalkeith - Page 109

Though a pattern of respectability, he can grow genial in his cups, or as he would say “a wee tozy-mozy."

1968, Cornelius Weygandt, A Century of the English Novel:

...speakin about shoogly, would you believe that I've never seen more than one drunk man in Rome? and he was not exackly what you would call drunk, but just a wee thing tozy-mozy like, as Mansie would say.

2008, Catherine Ponton Slater, Marget Pow, →ISBN, page 18:


backfriend

From back (adverb or noun) + friend. Sense 3 (“person who pretends to be someone’s friend”) may allude to a person who stays back instead of coming forward to help, and so is not a true friend.

They had vvings of goodvvill to fly vvith, but no vvebbes on their feete to ſvvimme vvith, for except the vvaterfoules had mercie vpon them, and ſtood their faithfull confederates and backe-friends, on their backes to tranſport them, they might returne home like good fooles, and gather ſtravves to build their neſts, or fal to theyr old trade of picking vvormes.

1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 49:

Tho they give us neither VVine nor Ale; yet if they give us a Cup of cold VVater in the time of need, in the name of Diſciple, in the name of Miniſters, they ſhall not loſe their Revvard. Novv, vvell's us for our Back-friend, he vvill ay maintain our Cauſe; […]

1707, Michael Bruce, “Sermon II. On Psalm 140. Verses 12, 13.”, in Good News in Evil Times for Fainting Believers, or The Summ of a Lecture upon Jeremiah 45 Chapter; […], [S.l]: [s.n.], published 1708, →OCLC, pages 63–64:

I would always have been able to keep up my spirits with the reflection, that I had, in case of the worst, a stout back-friend in this uncle of mine. But now I have seen him, and, woe worth him, there has been more help in a mere mechanical stranger than I have found in my own mother's brother, my countryman and a cavalier.

1823, [Walter Scott], “The Bohemians”, in Quentin Durward. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 123:

[“H]e said to me, ‘Adelle, I’m going out. I’ve got a backfriend to meet.’” / “A ‘backfriend’?” / “Yes. Evidently he had a late-night appointment with someone at Wabash. That was the way he liked to do it.”

1980, David Carkeet, chapter 4, in Double Negative […], New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, →ISBN, page 65:

(archaic) A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter.

[…] Corrie bit another atom from off the corner of his nail. He had a troublesome "back-friend" or "agnail," at which he often bit.

1866, E[liza] Lynn Linton, “Margaret and Ainslie”, in Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 121, column 2:

Synonym of hangnail (“a loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail”)

hangnail

A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe: / A VVolfe, nay vvorſe, a fellovv all in buffe: / A back friend, a ſhoulder-clapper, one that countermãds / The paſſages of allies, creekes, and narrovv lands: […]

c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94, column 1:

[…] VVeſtmorland thought it ſafeſt to checke the Scots, as the neerer and continuall backe-friends.

1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 26, page 628, column 1:

And ſo far is our Church from encroaching upon the Civil Povver, as ſome, vvho are Back-Friends to both, vvould maliciouſly inſinuate; that vvere it ſtripped of the very Remainder of its Privileges, and made as like the Primitive Church for its Bareneſs, as it is already for its Purity, it could chearfully, and vvhat is more, loyally, vvant all ſuch Privileges; […]

1666 December 5 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1692, Robert South, “A Sermon Preach’d at Lambeth-Chapel on the 25th of November, 1666. [Julian calendar] upon the Consecration of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. John Dolben, Lord Bishop of Rochester”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] H[eptinstall] for Thomas Bennet, […], →OCLC, page 206:

Let a man but ſet […] The Reſtleſs Importunities of Tale-bearers and Back Friends, againſt Fair VVords and Profeſſions only from the Teeth outvvard: Let him, I ſay, but ſet the One in Ballance againſt the Other, and he ſhall find himſelf Miſerable, even in the very Glutt of his Delights.

1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] XI. A City Mouse and a Country Mouse [Reflexion].”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, pages 11–12:

It is even as I suspected, my lord, […] Ye have back-friends, my lord, that is, unfriends—or, to be plain, enemies—about the person of the Prince.

1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 88–89:

It would have been well for me, if I had always had friends as able and as willing to stand forward in my defence as you are. But I have had back[-]friends instead, as well as enemies.

1827 November 22, Robert Southey, “Chapter XXXI. [Letter to Henry Taylor, Esq.]”, in Charles Cuthbert Southey, editor, The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey. […], volume V, London: […] [Spottiswoodes and Shaw] for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 321:

(obsolete) A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy.


rail yard

A complex of branching railway lines and other infrastructure in which locomotives and rolling stock are stored and rearranged.

ratapiha

complex of railway lines for storing, repairing and rearranging rolling stock


sighthound

Coordinate term: scent hound

A hound that primarily hunts by sight and speed, instead of by scent and endurance.


gazehound

PIE word
 *ḱwṓ
From gaze (noun) + hound.

Coordinate term: scent hound

And foresters, in green-wood trim, / Lead in the leash the gaze-hounds grim, / Attentive, as the bratchet's bay / From the dark covert drove the prey, / To slip them as he broke away.

1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Introduction to Canto Second: To the Rev. John Marriot, M.A.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, page 61:

I entered the house with some wrath upon me at seeing the gazehounds in the yard; for it seems a cruel thing to me to harass the birds in the breeding-time.

1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter XXII, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, page 250:

Synonym of sighthound (“a hound that primarily hunts by sight and speed, instead of by scent and endurance”).


cold comfort

cold comfort (countable and uncountable, plural cold comforts)

Popularized by William Shakespeare in The Taming of the Shrew, see quotations.

[…] or ſhall I complaine on thee to our miſtris, whoſe hand / (ſhe being now at hand) thou ſhalt ſoone feele, to thy / cold comfort, for being ſlow in thy hot office.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 221, column 1:

The table was smoking and hissing; and Romeo Clawbonny, who acted as the everyday house-servant, or footman, had several times intimated that it might be well to commence operations, as a cold breakfast was very cold comfort.

1863, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 6, in Miles Wallingford:

At least I should not die alone. Human eyes would watch me end. It was cold comfort I presume, but yet I derived some slight peace of mind from the contemplation of it.

1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 9, in At the Earth's Core:

But statistics are cold comfort when the latest explosion has leveled a nearby building.

2010 April 8, Ben Lando, “U.S. Officials Downplay Rash of Baghdad Attacks”, in Time, archived from the original on 2013-07-18:

(idiomatic) Much less reassurance, consolation, aid, or pleasure than one needs or desires.

不起作用的安慰

much less reassurance, consolation, aid, or pleasure than one needs or desires


crop top

A short T-shirt or blouse that is cut off above the abdomen.


broad daylight

From broad (“(archaic) to the full extent”) + daylight.

compound

VVhen half a dozen ingenous Men are got together over a Glaſs of VVine, by a chearful Fire, in a Room vvell lighted, vve baniſh vvith eaſe all the Spectres of Fancy or Education, and are very clear in our Deciſions. But, as I vvas taking a ſolitary VValk before it vvas broad Day-light in yonder Grove, methought the Point vvas not quite ſo clear; nor cou'd I readily recollect the Force of thoſe Arguments, vvhich uſed to appear ſo concluſive at other Times.

1732, George Berkeley, “The Fourth Dialogue”, in Alciphron: Or, The Minute Philosopher. […], volume I, London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], →OCLC, section III, page 211:

Broad daylight illumined the apartment, for the sun was high in heaven, though obscured by rolling masses of autumnal vapour.

1848, Acton Bell [pseudonym; Anne Brontë], “The Retreat”, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. […], volume III, London: T[homas] C[autley] Newby, […], →OCLC, page 121:

Whilst they had been speaking, she had opened the door, a narrow iron one well hung, for it had opened easily and closed tightly without any creaking or sound of any kind. Within all was dark; but she entered as freely and with as little misgiving or restraint as if it had been broad daylight.

1911, Bram Stoker, “Exit Oolanga”, in The Lair of the White Worm, London: William Rider and Son, […], →OCLC, page 170:

We're gonna rock around the clock tonight, / We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til broad daylight, / We're gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight.

1952 (date written), Max C[harles] Freedman, Jimmy De Knight [pseudonym; James Edward Myers] (lyrics and music), “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock”, performed by Bill Haley & His Comets, Philadelphia, Pa.: Myers Music, published 1953, recording released 20 May 1954, →OCLC, page 2:

Abundant natural illumination in daytime, producing clear visibility; hence, daytime.

大白天

abundant natural illumination in daytime


yellowthroat

Any of a mostly yellow-colored group of New World warblers in the genus Geothlypis


thickhead

From thick + head. Compare West Frisian dikharsens (“blockhead”, literally “thick brain”).

cog

Any of several species of Australian songbirds of the genus Pachycephala.


Tex-Mex

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

Written first and foremost for the sensibility of the Latina in the US, Cuentos is bilingual and bicultural. Some of the stories appear in Spanish, others in English; most are written in Spanglish and Tex-Mex.

1984 April 14, Stephanie Poggi, “Mujeres en Lucha”, in Gay Community News, page 10:

An English-influenced dialect of Spanish spoken on both sides of the Mexico-United States border..


kiddy fiddler

According to Gus, the main enemies of hackers are not the media ("stupid, harmless"), the government or the police ("who are more interested in kiddy fiddlers").

2002 August, John Leyden, “The hacker's worst enemy? Another hacker”, in The Register:

(slang, derogatory) A pedophile or a child molester.


amber gambler

The sins the foundation has identified include eating at the wheel, becoming a traffic-light hopping "amber gambler" and drinking and driving.

2007 December 24, “Drivers warned over the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’”, in Bolton News, UK, retrieved 2011-08-29:

(UK, idiomatic) A driver of a road vehicle who accelerates when the traffic lights change from green to amber (instead of stopping, as required by law), gambling that no vehicle will cross his or her path; a driver who starts off when the traffic lights show red and amber together, but not yet green.


quakebuttock

From quake + buttock. The word was rare before the 20th century but appears to have experienced a revival.

See what theſe times are grown to, before twenty / I ruſh'd into the world, which is indeed / Much like the Art of ſwiming, he that will attain to't / Muſt fall plump, and duck himſelf at firſt, / And that will make him hardy and advent'rous, / And not ſtand putting in one foot, and ſhiver, / And then draw t'other after, like a quake-buttock; [...]

c. 1613, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies. […], [part 2], London: […] J[ohn] Macock [and H. Hills], for John Martyn, Henry Herringman, and Richard Marriot, published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 358:

Not fitting speech, Kor. Quakebuttock, some would have called him. Coward. But I knew he was no coward, and though I wanted to rail at him in anger, heartache would not let me. Not yet.

1987, Nancy Springer, chapter 14, in Mindbond (A TOR Book), New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN; republished as Mindbond (Sea King Trilogy; 2), New York, N.Y.: Open Road Integrated Media, 2014, →ISBN:

From hurtful facts I fain won't hide / (I'm not that quakebuttock, weak type who'd / Turn face from fear: I never shied / From vulgar verities others shooed), [...]

1993 fall, Mike Wenthe, “‘Song of Prude: You and I’ in the Key of F-flat”, in Deborah Forbes, Josh May, editors, The Archive, volume 106, number 1, Durham, N.C.: Undergraduate Publications, Duke University, →OCLC, page 36:

And looking back, it seemed to Jim that he had never prayed for himself at all but for this other boy that his mind's eye watched, a rawney-looking molly of a boy, the son of a quakebuttock, a coward himself, praying that he should hear his calling and join the brothers like Our Lady wished and not to be so inconsiderate.

2001, Jamie O'Neill, chapter 6, in At Swim, Two Boys, London: Scribner, →ISBN, page 147:

Have pity on we poor wretched sinners / We blatherskites and lopdoodles / Lickspiggots and clinchpoops / Quibberdicks and Quakebuttocks.

2006, Roger McGough, “Prayer to Saint Grobianos, the Patron Saint of Coarse People”, in Selected Poems, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 152:

'You really do look like you're going to cry,' Em replied (with her mouth). 'Are you sure you're all right?' / 'Yes!' I insisted. 'I'm not a complete quakebuttock, you know!' / Yes! (Quakebuttock is a new word I learned weeks ago and have been meaning to slip into conversation ever since.)

2011, Tom Clempson, “Registration”, in One Seriously Messed-up Week in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Sam Taylor Jack Samsonite, London: Atom, →ISBN:

(obsolete, rare, now humorous) A coward.


mudfish

Any of many fish that frequent muddy water or burrow in mud, of numerous species, including:

Protopterus annectens (West African lungfish)


brain gain

An increase in the number of skilled workers in a country as a result of immigration.


dustcart

There were other disputes in Scotland, indeed in Glasgow, some affecting local authority services, and from the second day of coverage of the dustcart strike, reporting often linked them in bulletins; […]

2009, Peter Beharrell, Howard Davis, John Eldridge, Bad News, page 246:

Imagine your dismay if you'd been using film and not noticed the dustcart in the shot until you were back home, when your photos had been processed.

2014, Simon Whaley, Compass Points - Photography for Writers:

(UK, Ireland) A vehicle for collecting refuse.


fearnaught

(by extension) A warm garment, especially one made of this cloth.


nightglow

en-noun

nightglow (usually uncountable, plural nightglows)


chawbacon

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


rockfish

rockfish (countable and uncountable, plural rockfish or rockfishes)

Any of a large number of different species of fish, which dwell among rocks, specifically:

A striped bass (Morone saxatilis), a species of fish from North America

Yet another Rockfish goes under. ¶ Young Deejion was playin some hoop with some homies by da riva, wen de backetbaw fell in da river.

2010 August 20, Jesse, “Blacks & common sense”, in uk.current-events.terrorism (Usenet):

Three nigger teenaper sows join rockfish parade. Three nigger "teens" reportedly drowned when the stolen car they were driving careened into a pond ...

2017 February 6, Rick Mathers, “Three nigger teenaper sows join rockfish parade”, in alt.atheism (Usenet):

Everyone knows niggers don't surf, they sink -- like the rockfish they are

2017 October 7, Byker, “TNB: All I'm seeing is 100% negro”, in can.politics (Usenet):

(derogatory, slang, ethnic slur, US) A black person who does not know how to swim.


tin-pot dictator

tin-pot dictator (plural tin-pot dictators)

From tin-pot (“of inferior quality, shoddy; insignificant or minor, especially in an amusing and petty manner”) + dictator, referring to the cheapness and poor quality of pots made from tin or tin plate.

compound

Broder did mention in passing that the Reagan administration had earlier supported the "tin-pot dictator" and drug trader Manuel Noriega, but he never mentioned George Shultz's presence and sanctioning of the fraudulent Panamanian election of 1984, which left Noriega in charge.

1995, Edward S. Herman, Triumph of the Market: Essays on Economics, Politics, and the Media, South End Press, →ISBN, page 197:

delusions of grandeur
delusion of grandeur

(derogatory) An autocratic ruler with little political credibility, typically having delusions of grandeur.


snowmachine

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

A machine that makes snow, such as a snowgun


eyering

A colored circle around the eye of a bird.


shock rock

(music) A genre of rock music typified by elements of theatrical shock value in live performances.


smackdown

Deverbal from smack down (“to defeat utterly and decisively, especially in a humiliating way”), from smack (“sharp blow, slap”, noun) + down. Influenced by earlier throwdown. Popularized by:
* the United States professional wrestling television programme WWF SmackDown! (first broadcast on April 29, 1999), now called WWE SmackDown and produced by World Wrestling Entertainment; and
* the phrase lay (or put) the smack down (“to start a fight”).

deverbal

A significant or humiliating setback or defeat; a beating, a thrashing.


airhorn

A noise-making device that blasts compressed air through a horn


marplot

From mar + plot. In earliest use as a character name in The Busy Body, by Susanna Centlivre, in 1709.

“The old marplot has discovered the baby,” Monica whispered. “I suppose it cried and woke him up, and now he thinks he's witness to a miracle.”

1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter XI, in The Understanding Heart:

Unthinking Anglo-Saxons regard him as a Gallic marplot, rather than the great twentieth-century statesman he was – certainly the greatest Frenchman since Napoleon.

2012, Michael Burleigh, “Keeping the Flame Alive”, in Literary Review, section 402:

A meddlesome person whose activity interferes with the plans of others.


airpower

en-noun

airpower (countable and uncountable, plural airpowers)

That led to the city falling much faster than anyone expected into the hands of Somalia's transitional government, which has used Ethiopian troops and airpower to reclaim much of the country.

2007 January 1, Jeffrey Gettleman, “Somali Clan Elders Urge Islamists to Leave Stronghold”, in New York Times:


Tony crony

From Tony + crony, chosen for the rhyme.

...including such folk as Peter Mandelson, a Labour spin doctor-turned-minister, and Lord Alli, an ennobled Asian Tony-crony with a television company.

Falconer is basically a good egg but his reputation as a "Tony crony" and his involvement with the Millennium Dome do him no favours.

2001, Royal Town Planning Institute, Planning: For the Natural and Built Environment:

She said the Tony crony thing was a real problem.

2007, Alastair Campbell, The Blair Years:

(British, informal, humorous, derogatory) An ingratiating political associate of the former British prime minister Tony Blair.


plain Jane

Charm school instructors […] can do something even for the plainest of plain Janes.

1954 November, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, volume 8, number 11, page 46:

(informal) A young woman or girl of average or unremarkable appearance.

graue Maus

young woman of average or unremarkable appearance


railyard

But the ambitious project requires Related to spend about $2 billion to erect platforms, columns and foundations over a working railyard before it can build the first tower.

2009 February 3, Charles V. Bagli, “M.T.A. and Developer Agree to Delay $1 Billion Railyard Deal”, in New York Times:


culture vulture

culture vulture (plural culture vultures)

/ˈkʌlt͡ʃə ˌvʌlt͡ʃə/

/ˈkʌlt͡ʃəɹ ˌvʌlt͡ʃəɹ/

However, a different indigenous researcher sees the use of restorative justice circles by nonindigenous people as being more of culture vultures and taking culture applicable to them and ignoring a brutal history of abuse, oppression, and genocide.

2020, Thomas Reed, “A Critical Review of the Native American Tradition of Circle Practices”, in Robin Throne, editor, Indigenous Research of Land, Self, and Spirit (Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies Book Series), Hershey, Pa.: Information Science Reference, IGI Global, published 2021, →ISBN, page 135:

Similarly, plug-in culture participates in a long history of cultural appropriation related to the construction of the male neoliberal subject. Think about Diplo, EDM producer-DJ and oft-accused "culture vulture," whose modus operandi involves applying Western, Eurocentric, and Americanized EDM styles to samples from global dance music communities.

2022, Mike D’Errico, “Plug-in Cultures”, in Push: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, part I (Sonic Architectures), page 43:

cultural appropriation
cultural appropriation

cultural appropriator
cultural appropriator

(slang, derogatory, sociology) Someone who engages in cultural appropriation; a cultural appropriator.


childminder

A person employed to look after other people's children while they are away; a babysitter.

детегледачка

person who looks after other people's children


candleholder

(historical) A person who holds a candle to assist another person who is working in dim light.


worksite

Earlier yesterday, Harper attended a tightly controlled "photo opportunity" at a home renovation worksite to highlight his proposed measure of tax credits to stimulate the construction industry.

2009 January 29, Tonda MacCharles, “PM survives, 'on probation'”, in Toronto Star:

It's easy to miss things. After all, this is a massive project that's around 124 miles long and which contains dozens and dozens of worksites (large and small) covering a whole range of activities.

2020 August 12, Paul Bigland, “High Speed 2 is starting to accelerate”, in Rail, page 56:

A site where work occurs; usually used in reference to construction work

työmaa

site of work, especially in reference to construction work


French leave

From French (adjective) + leave (noun), apparently from a French custom, already recorded in the 18th century, of leaving from receptions or other events without formally announcing one’s departure to the host or hostess. Compare Spanish irse a la francesa and Portuguese sair à francesa (“go in the French manner”) but also the otherwise ubiquitous attribution of this behaviour to the English as with French filer à l’anglaise (“leave in the English manner”), Italian filarsela all'inglese, Polish wyjść po angielsku, etc.

cog

As for Ditton, after all his courting, and his compliment, he ſtole avvay an Iriſhman's bride, and took a French leave of me and his maſter; […]

1771, [Tobias Smollett], “To Mrs. Mary Jones, at Brambleton-hall”, in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume II, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, page 226:

A departure taken quietly and unnoticed, without asking for permission or informing anyone.

grußloser Abschied, heimliche Abfahrt etc.

he may have felt a particular need to mitigate the responsibility of those who shirked their duty, for as he wrote that letter he had just returned from French leave himself.

2010, William Marvel, The Great Task Remaining: The Third Year of Lincoln’s War, page 10:

absence without leave
absence without leave

(specifically, chiefly military, euphemistic) Desertion or temporary absence from duty or service without permission; absence without leave, AWOL.


finfoot

Three species in three monospecific genera of aquatic bird in the family Heliornithidae.


purple nurple

Rhyming derivation of purple and nipple.

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


moonroof

ja-r

ムーンルーフ (mūnrūfu)

→ Japanese: ムーンルーフ (mūnrūfu)

From moon + roof, patterned on sunroof. Coined by the Ford Motor Company in the 1970s.

(automotive) A sunroof that has a clear glass panel, rather than being opaque, so that light can enter the vehicle even when the roof is closed.


trackbed

From track + bed (“place, or flat surface or layer, on which something else rests or is laid”).

compound

Holonym: right of way

The trackbed of the majority of the ten miles from Padstow to Boscarne Junction is still intact and used as a cycle way, although the section where the railway once went through Wadebridge has been lost to development.

2017 March, “What if These Lost Lines Hadn’t Closed at All?”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-05-16:

Just before Bloworth Crossing, you'll walk a short distance along the trackbed of the old mineral railway that connected the ironstone mines at Rosedale with the blast furnaces of Middlesbrough.

2019, Alan Staniforth, “Clay Bank to Kildale”, in Cleveland Way (Official National Trail Guide), revised edition, London: Aurum Press, in association with Walk Unlimited, →ISBN, part 2, page 64:

Darcy Lever: Bolton Council has rejected a plan to build 112 homes across the trackbed of the former Bury line. It is concerned that it would prevent any future extension of Manchester Metrolink, and chip away at green space land.

2023 July 26, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: North West”, in RAIL, number 988, page 28:

(loosely) The land on which a railway (especially one that has been closed or dismantled) was built; the roadbed for a railroad.


clocktower

This delightful four-platform station [Bognor Regis] is still controlled by semaphore signals and boasts a lovely red-brick Edwardian building with steel canopies, crowned with a clocktower which dates from 1902.

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


lackbrain

Among themselves, his clerical brethren who employed him to produce revivals, acknowledged him to be but a pitiful lackbrain...

"Is that clear enough, even for you, lackbrain?"

1995, Catherine Coulter, Lord of Falcon Ridge:

One moment I was staring up at that lackbrain Sister Margaret, and the next I was staring at that lackbrain chieftain...

(derogatory) A person who lacks brains; an idiot.


wantwit

From Middle English wanten wit, equivalent to want + wit.

[…] and ſuch a Want-wit ſadnesse makes of mee,
That I haue much ado to know my ſelfe.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 163, column 1:

'Wantwit! Clod-brain! Numbskull!' he shouted, straddling her midriff and pummelling her face and chest with his fists.

2017, Minette Walters, The Last Hours, →ISBN, page 357:

A person wanting or lacking wit or sense; a fool.


bentgrass

en-noun

bentgrass (countable and uncountable, plural bentgrasses)

From bent (“a type stiff grass”) + grass.

Any of numerous reedy grass species of the genus Agrostis.

Point Reyes bentgrass

Agrostis clivicola var. punta-reyesensis


switchyard

Part of a railway with an arrangement of switches (or points) allowing trains to be diverted and reassembled.


iron curtain

/ˌaɪən ˈkɜːtn̩/

(theater) A barrier made of iron in a theatre, lowered between the stage and the auditorium for safety or to prevent communication.

The coup d'etat also constituted an iron curtain for the social scientists.

1982, Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, →ISBN, page 450:


blood-brain barrier

blood-brain barrier (plural blood-brain barriers)

The brain and spinal cord are insulated by a tight cellular seal called the blood-brain barrier that prevents foreign chemicals from easily getting into the brain.

2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies, Fourth Estate (2011), page 147:

central nervous system
central nervous system

(anatomy) A structure in the central nervous system (CNS) that keeps various substances found in the bloodstream out of the brain while allowing in the substances essential to metabolic function, e.g. oxygen.


applewood

The buttery speck from La Quercia is aged up to 10 months, about twice as long as most speck, and then cold-smoked with applewood.

2007 March 11, Oliver Schwaner-Albright, “Race for the Cured”, in New York Times:


clever clogs

'Not in itself,' said the Doctor, holding the gun at arm's length. 'But you tell me, what happens if some clever clogs gets this in his lab? Finds out how it works? The human race gets the secret of Dalek weapons. You'll all be dead by Wednesday week.'

2006, Gareth Roberts, I Am a Dalek, BBC Books, page 39:

'All right then, clever-clogs,' said Yasmin. 'Any idea which one?'

2011, Tom Bradman, Tony Bradman, Space School: Blast Off!, Bloomsbury (A & C Black), page 49:

'Yes, perfect. Mr Clever Clogs has done it again!'

2013, Lynda Bellingham, Tell Me Tomorrow, Simon & Schuster, page 409:

(slang, UK and Ireland) Somebody who is rather too clever; a smart aleck; sometimes used as an epithet.


study buddy

(informal) A schoolmate with whom schoolwork is completed, often somebody one sits next to in a classroom.


soymilk

soymilk (countable and uncountable, plural soymilks)

Childless readers who fear the un-cooling effects of parenthood will be relieved to learn kids, born slam dancers, really dig the Ramones, and will be heartened to see that Pollack, despite drinking chai with soymilk and listening to NPR, hasn’t become Mr. Rogers in a Black Sabbath T-shirt.

2007 January 7, Elissa Schappell, “Exile on Sesame Street”, in New York Times:

Soybeans can be used to make soyburgers, souffles, fritters, casseroles, soysages, soymilk, ice bean, tofu (Japanese bean curd), tempeh (Indonesian cultured soy cake), spreads, dips and soups and many more.

2013, William Shurtleff, Akiko Aoyagi, History of Whole Dry Soybeans:


trolley dolly

I am sure these people were once normal. That is until they walked into BA's superior 'trolley dolly' school. From day one, I am positive it was drummed into them that all economy passengers are scum.

But that was the 1960s and the lot of the trolley dolly has changed: political correctness put an end to age restrictions and the responsibilities go beyond asking passengers whether they want "chicken or fish".

2006, Simon A Bennett, A Sociology of Commercial Flight Crew:

It was sickening and the gross unfairness of it left Cate seriously questioning why she'd ever wanted to be a defence lawyer in the first place. Why hadn't she followed her early adolescent ambitions of becoming a high-flying trolley-dolly - a tart with a cart?

2006, Scott Creighton, Something Went Bump:

(slang, derogatory) A female flight attendant.


workgang

A group of individuals assigned to, or engaged in, a common task.


shit fit

When the Republicans found out that Wilson's second bill was actually being credited to Al Blumenthal and Fred Ohrenstein, two Democrats the Republicans have a particular animosity toward, they, to put it mildly, threw a shit-fit.

1974, Phil Tracy, "State Secrets, The Village Voice, 23 May, p. 3 (retrieved 17 June 2009)

My sweet little usually mellow kitty was having a total shit fit, screaming her head off.

2007, Kris Carr, Sheryl Crow, Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips, →ISBN, page 25:

(chiefly US, Canada, vulgar) A childish display of anger or frustration; a tantrum; a frantic outburst.


bookhouse

From book + house, probably as a calque of Old English bōchūs (“library, bookhouse”) (which became Middle English bochous (“library”), but then died out).

calque

Finally, all those who love and desire that such schools and languages be established and maintained in the German lands should consider that no effort and expense be spared to provide good libraries or bookhouses, especially in the large cities that are well able to do so.

2022, original 1520-1546, Martin Luther, Luther & the State: Writings on Secularism, page 131:

The overall mode of the bookhouses is the same as for the rest of the house: a Free-Style Classicism based on wood construction.

1985, Charles Jencks, Towards a Symbolic Architecture, page 177:

There were bookhouses, along with stinktanks where you could drink up and listen to awful poetry about extinct animals.

1993, Gardner Dozois, The Year's Best Science Fiction, page 541:

The academy would have two bookhouses, one of which would teach the children who only wanted to know a few words, […]

2020, Lian XiNingMou, Transmigration: To Be His Man, volume 2:

A repository for books, a library; a store of books.


prince regent

en-noun

prince regent (plural prince regents or princes regent or princes regents)

prince regents (plural)
princes regent (plural)
princes regents (plural)

From prince + regent (“one who rules in place of the monarch”).
The plural form princes regent treats the word regent attributively.

ref

From the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

compound

Accord betwixt D. Raymond Berenger, Prince Regent of Arragon, with the Templers and Hospitaliers, vpon the teſtament of King D. Alphonſo.

1612, Lewis de Mayerne Turquet [i.e., Louis Turquet de Mayerne], “The Contents of the Ninth Booke”, in Edward Grimeston, transl., The General Historie of Spaine, […], London: […] A[dam] Islip, and G[eorge] Eld, →OCLC, page 269:

As to the propoſition for a Prince Regent, it was argued, that this was as much againſt Monarchy, or rather more, than what they moved for. If a King's ill government did give the people a right in any caſe to take his power from him, and to lodge it with another, owning that the right to it remained ſtill with him, this might have every whit as bad conſequences, as the other ſeemed to have: For recourſe might be had to this violent remedy too often, and too raſhly.

a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, “Book IV. Of the Reign of King James II.”, in [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], editor, Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume I, London: […] Thomas Ward […], published 1724, →OCLC, page 813:

And if there be ſeveral Princes of that Family, one of the younger Brothers ſhall be choſen and preſented to that Biſhoprick; and if the younger Brothers fail, one of the Princes Regent ſhall be choſen: […]

1732, “A Treaty of Peace between the Empire and Sweden, Concluded and Sign’d at Osnabrug the 24th of October, 1648. The King of France was Comprehended in this Treaty as an Ally of Sweden.”, in A General Collection of Treatys, Manifesto’s, Contracts of Marriage, Renunciations, and Other Publick Papers, from the Year 1495, to the Year 1712, 2nd edition, volume II, London: […] J. J. and P. Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 434:

It happened farther, that ſome Noblemen of Great Poland (among whom One was a Woywode (one of the Princes Regents), and Two Counts, James de Oſtrorog, and Raphael de Leſzno), being deſirous to know fully all relating to the Brethren, took a Journey to them as they were about to hold a Synod in the Heart of Moravia; […]

1749, “[Appendix of the Most Material Vouchers and Papers, Referred to in the Report.] Rationale of the Brethrens Liturgies.”, in Report from the Committee to whom the Petition of the Deputies of the United Moravian Churches, in Behalf of Themselves and Their United Brethren, was Referred: […] (Acta Fratrum Unitatis in Anglia), London: [Samuel Richardson], →OCLC, part II (The Brethrens Method of Preaching the Gospel, […]), page 106:

We cannot determine whether it was the king [Charles VI of France] that acted himſelf upon this occaſion, or whether it was his council, or the princes regents of the kingdom: the hiſtorians ſay only ſimply the king.

1752, [Vincent-Claude] Chalons, “Charles VI”, in [anonymous], transl., The History of France: From the Establishment of that Monarchy under Pharamond, to the Death of Lewis XIII. […], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 420:

[A]fter returning thanks to Heaven for the re-establishment of His Highness's health,—an event of incalculable importance to the interests of the afflicted Church, which never stood in greater need to virtuous Princes Regent (des Princes Regens vertueux)—[…] [From The Times.]

1813 August 5, Historicus [pseudonym], “Ancient Scandal”, in The Spirit of the Public Journals for 1813. […], volume XVII, London: […] [S. Gosnell] for James Ridgway, […], published 1814, →OCLC, paragraph XIII.4, page 196:

The Committee will have the honour to lay these Statements before Their Royal Highnesses the Princes Regents of the two Nations.

1813 July 28, Charles Stuart, Ricardo Raimundo Nogueira, John Bell, Henrique Teixeira Sampayo, “Report of the Committee Appointed to Direct the Distribution of the Grant Voted by the Parliament of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the Relief of the Inhabitants of the Districts in Portugal, Laid Waste by the Enemy in the Year 1810”, in Miscellaneous, and Treaties with Foreign Powers: […], volume XIV, [London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office], →OCLC, page 5:

The young princes-regent revolted and proclaimed themselves the sovereigns of the realms over which they had been placed in temporary authority during the absence of their fathers.

1878, Robert Gossip, “Reign of Murad—First Bulgarian Campaign—An Ottoman Brutus—Battle of Kossova—Turkish Atrocities”, in Turkey and Russia: Their Races, History, and Wars. […], volume I, Edinburgh: Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, →OCLC, page 37:

When the news of the fall of Peking to Li Tzŭ-ch‘êng […] reached Mukden in 1644 Fan [Wên-Ch‘êng] memorialized the princes regent urging them to seize this opportunity to conquer an empire, but in so doing to spare the lives of the common people and refrain from the destruction that characterized former invasions.

1943, Fang Chao-ying, “FAN Wên-Ch‘êng 范文程”, in edited by Arthur W[illiam] Hummel [Sr.], Eminent Chinese of the Ch‘ing Period (1644–1912), volumes I (A–O), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, pages 231–232:

The two Prince Regents were but junior members of the Royal family and commanded little influence over their royal seniors or peers; they would not have been the choices of the royalty, had the latter been given a say in the matter.

2003, Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian, “The Experience of a Minor Monarch”, in Kings, Country and Constitutions: Thailand’s Political Development 1932–2000, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2013, →ISBN, part II (Reality: The Practice of Constitutional Monarchy, 1932–1952), page 129:

Everyone knew that her [Princess Charlotte of Wales's] father, the prince regent [George IV], had a mistress. He ran up huge debts, which the government paid with taxes collected from the people. The prince regent had a string of younger brothers who stood in line to inherit the throne, but none of them had an heir to carry on the royal line after him.

2017, Catherine Reef, “England’s Hope”, in Victoria: Portrait of a Queen, New York, N.Y.: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 12:

A prince who rules a country as a regent in place of a monarch who is unfit to rule for a particular reason.


yellow jersey

/ˌjɛləʊ ˈdʒɜːzi/

Calque of French maillot jaune: maillot (“jersey, shirt; vest”) + jaune (“yellow”, adjective).

The evergreen Marianne Vos, a multiple world champion, crowned her illustrious career by taking her first yellow jersey in the Tour de France Femmes after emphatically winning stage two of the week-long race in Provins.

2022 July 25, Jeremy Whittle, “Marianne Vos takes yellow jersey on second stage of Tour de France Femmes”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-25:

Especially in the Tour de France: the yellow shirt worn by the leader of a stage of a cycling race, which is then awarded to the cyclist who wins the race with the fastest overall time.

قَمِيص أَصْفَر

yellow jersey or shirt worn by the leader of a stage of a cycling race, which is then awarded to the cyclist who wins the race with the fastest overall time


cuttlebone

From Middle English cotilbone [and other forms], from cotil, cutil, codel (“cuttlefish; cuttlebone”) (from Old English cudele (“cuttlefish”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, to curve; an arch; a vault”)) + bon (“bone”) (from Old English bān (“bone”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, strike; to cut, hew”)). The English word is analysable as cuttle (“cuttlefish”) + bone.

inh

cuttlefish bone

Synonym of cuttlefish bone (“the calcareous, oval-shaped internal shell of a cuttlefish (order Sepiida), originally used in powdered form as an antacid and for absorbing moisture or polishing objects, and now chiefly as a dietary supplement for cage birds”)


green gram

en-noun

green gram (usually uncountable, plural green grams)

Vigna radiata
Vigna radiata#Translingual

A bean from the seed of Vigna radiata, which is native to Bangladesh and India.


mind's ear

mind's ear (plural mind's ears or minds' ears or (less common) minds' ear)

mind's ears (plural)
minds' ears (plural)
minds' ear (plural uncommon)

From mind (noun) + -’s (possessive marker) + ear, probably modelled after mind’s eye.

compound

The thinking Sculpture helps to raiſe / Deep thoughts, the Genii of the place: / To the minds ear, and invvard ſight, / There ſilence ſpeaks, and ſhade gives light: […]

1732 (date written), Peter Drake [pseudonym; Matthew Green], The Grotto, a Poem. […], London: [s.n.], published 1733, →OCLC, page 5:

But, enough of this ſubject; for your angry voice at Aſhbourne upon it, ſtill ſounds avveful 'in my mind's ears.'

1778 February 28 (date written), James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume II, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], published 1791, →OCLC, page 185:

"I must read Shakspeare [i.e., William Shakespeare]?" / "You must have his spirit before you; you must hear his voice with your mind's ear; you must take some of his soul into yours."

1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Coriolanus”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 125:

[K]eep our thoughts from wandering, open our minds' ears to hear, open our mouths to sing thy praises, let us not trifle in thy house, but ever remember "thou God seest me."

[1850], T[homas] Major Lester, “Morning”, in Prayers and Hymns for the Use of Sunday Schools, London: Wertheim, Macintosh, & Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 3:

Even now I have in my mind's ears the merry gibe of some young rogue of a reader, […]

1850 March, “My Aunt Nelly’s Portfolio”, in The Churchman’s Companion, volume VII, part XXXIX, London: Joseph Masters, […], →OCLC:

The likeness of the great bass horn remained upon the retina of his mind's eye, losing nothing of its brazen enormity with the passing of hours, nor abating, in his mind's ear, one whit of its fascinating blatancy.

1916, Booth Tarkington, “Yearnings”, in Penrod and Sam, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 293:

Perhaps we may hear in our minds' ears echoes of the sacred duets of Orlando di Lasso, [Claudio] Monteverdi, [Edward] Gibbons, and [William] Lawes, sung in exquisitely responsive improvised harmony to words immediately inspired in them both.

1993, Diane Kelsey McColley, “The Arts of Eden”, in A Gust for Paradise: Milton’s Eden and the Visual Arts, Urbana; Chicago, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 142:

There is harmony in the scene; harmony between heaven and earth; harmony in the sounds that the artist allows us to hear within our minds' ear, issuing from the double rank of pipes, sounding to an angel's touch.

1994, Thomas Levenson, “A Perfect Order”, in Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Science, New York, N.Y.: Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, part 1 (By Design), page 20:

Other people do "Don't Smoke in Bed" and "I've Got Your Number" and "You Came a Long Way From St. Louis," but when I hear them in my mind's ear, hers [Peggy Lee's] is the voice I hear.

2002 January 27, Terry Teachout, “A master and mentor in song”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-01-07:

I used to be a schoolteacher, teaching children roughly between the ages of ten and thirteen, and I noticed that when they wrote stories, many of them were much better at dialogue than at narrative. […] What they could do very well was put down the things they were hearing in their minds' ear, because those things already had words.

2007, Philip Pullman, “The Writing of Stories: Making It Up and Writing It Down”, in Simon Mason, editor, Dæmon Voices: Essays on Storytelling, Oxford, Oxfordshire: David Fickling Books, →ISBN, page 42:

What's more, it is to assume that we are not, in general, capable of telling whether we are actually looking at a painting or merely imagining one, or actually hearing a string quartet as opposed to listening to our own mind's ears.

2009, David Berger, “The Beautiful and the Agreeable”, in Kant’s Aesthetic Theory: The Beautiful and Agreeable (Continuum Studies in Philosophy), London: Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 63:

Examine as many transcriptions as you can find and compare them to the original Gesellschaft score—you will see the vast range of harmonies transcribers have heard in their minds' ear over the years!

2017, Harry George Pellegrin, Classic Guitar Method, 5th edition, Scotia, N.Y.: PAB Entertainment Group, →ISBN, page 264:

"Albers" is musically ambiguous. In its basic form, it isn't unequivocally in C major, but in our minds' ears we tend to make it be in C major.

2023, Pedro de Alcantara, “Sonic Play”, in Creative Health for Pianists: Concepts, Exercises & Compositions, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 274:

(idiomatic) The mental faculty or inner sense with which one produces or reproduces imagined or recalled sounds solely within the mind; the supposed organ within the mind which experiences such sounds.

anauralia

absence of auditory imagery, particularly the lack of an ‘inner voice’


workboot

Hugh said nothing. With a mighty effort he had restrained himself from putting one scuffed yellow workboot right through Henry Beaufort's damned old Rock-Ola as he went by. Then, with his head down, he had passed out into darkness.


galpal

"Drew dumps boyfriend and shacks up with gay galpal."

My kid and her galpals all played this song five hundred thousand times in a row when they first brought it home...

2001, Kim Cooper, David Smay, Bubblegum music is the naked truth:

It is there he first sees Lynn Halsey-Taylor, an up-and-coming young country singer played by Eastwood's then-galpal Sondra Locke.

2005, Scott Von Doviak, Hick flicks: the rise and fall of redneck cinema:


hailstorm

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


pec deck

(colloquial) An exercise machine used to develop the pectoral muscles.


greedyguts

(informal) An excessive eater, glutton, gourmand.


plane sailing

Audio (GA)

From plane (adjective) + sailing (noun), a variant of plain sailing probably by analogy with plane chart (“(nautical) chart representing the earth in which lines of latitude and longitude are respectively shown as parallel straight lines”) or plane scale (“(chiefly nautical, obsolete) scale or ruler with markings used for calculations, especially for navigation”).

[…] 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:

(nautical) 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.

navigointi tasossa

After this [the whale's tongue] was hoisted in, the rest of the way was plane sailing, the blubber of the body being cut and peeled off, in huge unbroken strips, as the carcass rolled over and over, being heaved on by the windlass, then hooked into by the blubber hooks, and hoisted in by the men all the time heaving at the windlass.

1850, Henry T[heodore] Cheever, “Raising and Cutting-in Whales”, in The Whale and His Captors; or, The Whaleman’s Adventures, and the Whale’s Biography, […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 58:

(figurative, archaic) Alternative spelling of plain sailing (“navigation of waters free from hazards or unfavourable winds; (figurative) something that is easy, simple, or straightforward”)


blame game

She was, in addition, always extremely careful to share with the friends in her Support System her belief that it would be whiny and pathetic to play what she derisively called the "Blame Game" and blame her constant and indescribable adult pain on their parents' traumatic divorce or their cynical use of her.

[1998 January, David Foster Wallace, “The Depressed Person”, in Harpers Magazine, page 58:

The UK and France are “engaging in a blame game” over people making perilous Channel crossings in small boats, Labour has said, rather than sitting down together to try to work out a way to prevent more deaths.

2021 November 28, Peter Walker, “UK and France playing ‘blame game’ after Channel deaths, say Labour”, in The Guardian:

A blame game is taking place between Network Rail and the Football Association regarding the closure of the West Coast Main Line over the Easter Bank Holiday, which coincides with an FA Cup semi-final taking place at Wembley Stadium on April 16.

2022 April 6, Industry Insider, “Fixture clashes”, in RAIL, number 954, page 68:

The estimates of the cost of “Trussonomics” will intensify a bitter blame game now being played out at the top of the Tory party.

2022 November 12, Toby Helm, Phillip Inman, “Revealed: the £30bn cost of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget”, in The Guardian:

Political parties are ensnared in a blame game, with the ruling and opposition parties blaming each other. An audit will no doubt follow.

2023 August 9, Raphael Rashid, “‘Worst nightmare’: South Korea mulls disastrous Scout jamboree”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Devastated Democrats Play the Blame Game, and Stare at a Dark Future [title]

2024 November 7, Reid J. Epstein, Lisa Lerer, Nicholas Nehamas, “Devastated Democrats Play the Blame Game, and Stare at a Dark Future”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(informal, idiomatic) A situation in which people attempt to blame others rather than trying to resolve a problem.


rocketplane

(aviation) Alternative spelling of rocket plane


banana boat

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

A cocktail made from a melon liqueur, a banana liqueur, curacao, and pineapple juice.


plank spanker

(slang) guitarist; someone who plays the guitar


bookwork

The tax officials seized documents that Tony Hachem said related to a company for which he'd done unpaid bookwork about five years ago.

2009 March 27, Kelvin Healey, “Poker pro Tony Hachem slams ATO tax raid”, in Herald Sun:


linkrot

From link (“hyperlink”) + rot (“process of becoming rotten”).

It turns out that link rot and content drift are endemic to the web, which is both unsurprising and shockingly risky for a library that has “billions of books and no central filing system.”

2021 June 30, Jonathan Zittrain, “The Internet is Rotting”, in The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-06:

(Internet) The steady increase in the number of broken hyperlinks as webpages are moved or removed.


stranger danger

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Arlo Barnes-stranger danger.wav

The totality of perceived dangers to children presented by strangers.


snowgun

A cannon that uses pressurized air and water to create snow, used for example to supplement the natural snow on a ski slope.


cock sock

To Barry Sandler, author of the screenplay, an Obscene Oscar—for peddling the year’s outstanding example of R-rated pornography; with special mention for the scene in which Lombard gives Gable a handknitted cock sock […]

1976 May, “Movies”, in Playboy, volume 23, number 5, page 22:

Costume designer Patrick Antosh explains that the birth of the cock sock came from his work on the film American Psycho. “There was a scene with Christian Bale running around entirely naked covered in blood. He didn’t want to do full frontal nudity, so I developed a spandex pouch that fits over the entire genitalia. […]

2003, Paul Ruditis, Queer as Folk: The Book, New York: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 106:

I was scrolling one afternoon when I saw a post from a guy in Melbourne selling crochet cock socks for $150 each.

2020 July 13, Felippe Canale, “Meet the Guy in Melbourne Knitting Socks for Cocks”, in Vice:

(slang, vulgar) A garment designed to cover the penis, either as a novelty item or for the purpose of modesty.


dayglow

en-noun

dayglow (usually uncountable, plural dayglows)


cacafuego

From Spanish. From the nickname of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, meaning "fire-shitter". See caca, fuego.


catchpenny

A publication, etc. intended to make money, with no particular merit otherwise.


eyeshot

eyeshot (usually uncountable, plural eyeshots)

From eye + shot, on the pattern of earshot.

The woman smothered his instant fear with an eyeshot of horror.

1905, The Monthly Review, volume 19, page 101:


flower power

Coined by American poet and writer Allen Ginsberg.

coin

The hippies, meanwhile, seem to be flagging. Just for a moment, during the Flower Power summer of 1967, it looked as though they might matter but ever since they've been gradually losing momentum and last summer's Isle of Wight/Bob Dylan Festival, which should have signaled a revival, fell distinctly flat.

1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Those crazy years, that was the time / Of the flower power

1980, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus (lyrics and music), “Our Last Summer”, in Super Trouper, performed by ABBA:

The Beetle's cheap, frugal and functional nature attracted legions of flower-power fans and the little Vee Dubs became symbols, moving protests and even works of art.

2012, Ivan Berg, Nik Berg, Top Gear: Motor Mania:

“Flower Power” by Bernie Boston—one of two iconic images of the 1960s flower power movement taken on the same day during an anti-war protest at the Pentagon in 1967. Here George Harris places carnations into gun barrels.

2023, Stephen Forbes, A Cultural History of Plants in the Modern Era, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 139:

(US, historical) A counterculture movement that started in the United States in the 1960s, advocating peace and love over militarism and materialism.


driver reviver

The implication was that the driver reviver was a conspiracy designed to marginalise Catholics and that the organisers could expect a final reckoning. Indeed, there was a final reckoning. By the end of the Easter break, volunteers had made 18,000 cups of tea and coffee, all offered as a gesture of friendship to strangers, but evidently the work of Satan.

2007, Michael McGirr, Bypass: The Story of a Road, page 109:

The Wilcannia CTC^([Community Technology Centre]) planned to establish a small local museum in the same building and a driver reviver centre to encourage passing tourists into the building.

2007, Laurel Evelyn Dyson, Max A. N. Hendriks, Stephen Grant, Information Technology and Indigenous People, page 279:

In some states, “driver reviver” stations operate on major roads during holiday periods. They serve free tea, coffee, and cookies, and are often at roadside picnic areas that have restrooms.

2010, Lee Mylne, Marc Llewellyn, Ron Crittall, Lee Atkinson, Frommer's Australia 2011, unnumbered page:

(Australia) a temporary roadside rest stop, often sponsored by local businesses, used to allow drivers a rest on long road trips in order to improve road safety.


step dance

A postcopulatory behaviour of whistling ducks, genus Dendrocygna.


tanglefoot

They never seemed to want anything, even at the sutler's store, though the Lord knows there wasn't much there they could want except tanglefoot and tobacco.

But Dooley's Irish blood was up, five fingers of tanglefoot tingling in each fist and bubbling in his brain.

1906, Charles King, Tonio, Son of the Sierras:

In the following year blight appeared again, but at another point, and after cutting it out I put on tanglefoot, simply because I happened to have some with me when passing the tree.

1917, Various, Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the:

(US, archaic, colloquial) Low-quality whiskey, especially home-brewed.


worknight

An evening before a day one has to work; a school night for someone who works rather than goes to school; typically the evenings of Sunday to Thursday.


workbox

The sewing workbox held fabric, needles, notions, patterns, and other supplies.

A toolbox; a container for the items needed to carry out a task.


oarweed

The Soile for the moſt part is lifted vp into many hilles, parted aſunder vvith narrovv and ſhort vallies, and a ſhallovv earth doth couer their out-ſide, vvhich by a Sea-vveede called Orevvood, and a certaine kinde of fruitfull Sea-ſand, they make ſo ranke and batten, as is vncredible.

1627, John Speed, “Cornwall”, in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland Described and Abridged. […], London: […] Georg Humble […], →OCLC, signature [D6], verso, paragraph 3:

Laminaria digitata
Laminaria digitata#Translingual

A brown alga, Laminaria digitata, found on exposed shores.


workbasket

[…] I missed three quarters of blond-lace, and a remnant of muslin, and my silver-thimble; which was the gift of true love. They were all in my work-basket, that I left upon the table in the sarvants-hall when mistresses bell rung […]

1771, Tobias Smollett, “The Expedition of Humphry Clinker”, in London, volume 1, Harrison & Co., published 1785, page 42:

They talked over the new plan while old Hannah cleared the table; then out came the four little work-baskets, and the needles flew as the girls made sheets for Aunt March.

1868, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 1, in Little Women, volume 1, Boston: Roberts Brothers, published 1869, page 21:

‘My husband’s so modern,’ she said with fear and pride. Then her pride went out, and with her hands plunged in her workbasket, among the buttons and the balls of wool, she said, ‘He may not want to come back for me.’

1932, Graham Greene, chapter 1, in Stamboul Train, Vintage, published 2004:

A basket used to hold materials for needlework, etc.

тевбарго

a basket used to hold materials for needlework, etc.


teambuilding

The Accounts department climbed a mountain together as a teambuilding exercise.

(chiefly business) Activities designed to improve the performance of a team.

csapatépítés

activities designed to improve the performance of a team


climate control

en-noun

climate control (countable and uncountable, plural climate controls)

A device or system that controls the temperature and relative humidity in cars, buildings, etc, by way of a heating or air conditioning system.


trustbuster

America’s top trustbusters mean to make their policing presence felt. Lawyers, bankers and financiers now “recognise that there are cops on the beat…that we’re vigorously looking to protect the American public from illegal mergers,” says Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which enforces consumer-protection and competition laws.

2023 June 21, “Why Joe Biden’s trustbusters have fallen short of their ambitions”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

(US) A person or entity responsible for breaking up trusts or monopolies.


catchfly

Any of several plants, mostly in tribe Sileneae, that have sticky leaves on which flies become stuck; especially, the silenes or campions.


taleteller

From Middle English taleteller, tale tellere; equivalent to tale + teller.

There hathe bene alate ſuche tales ſpreade abroade, and moſt vntruly, ſuch falſe taletellers ſhal haue a greuous puniſhement of the Lord whan he ſhall come to rewarde euerye one according vnto his deſertes.

1552, Hughe Latymer [i.e., Hugh Latimer], Augustine Bernher, compiler, “[The First Sermon]”, in Certayn Godly Sermons, Made uppon the Lords Prayer, […], London: […] John Day, […], published 1562, →OCLC, folio 5, recto:

Different tale-tellers describe the actual meeting in different ways, but the gist is that at that moment, Vicki was discovered.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 296:


turnback

turnback (countable and uncountable, plural turnbacks)

(attributive) Part of a garment that is turned back.

Most basketmakers make their turnbacks in a particular section of the weaving on the sides or in the middle of the basket.

1991, Rachel Nash Law, Cynthia Wieboldt Taylor, Appalachian White Oak Basketmaking: Handing Down the Basket (page 86)

(basketry) The turning back of a weaver around another element.

Coordinate term: turnaway

The information commissioner, Professor John McMillan, ruled that requests for watch officer logs and authorisations for turnbacks were exempt from release because they could have a “substantial adverse effect” on the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS).

2015 July 20, Paul Farrell, “Details about asylum seeker turnbacks to remain secret, commissioner rules”, in The Guardian:

The act of turning back a boat containing immigrants.

Removal of one set of train turnbacks also makes more efficient use of infrastructure and reduces peak loads at interchange stations.

2023 June 14, David Clough, “Tram-trains are making tracks...”, in RAIL, number 985, page 54:

A place, e.g. on a railway, where vehicles can reverse direction, i.e. turn back.

(US) A cadet at a military academy who fails a class and has to retake it.


yellowbill

Ceuthmochares aereus
Ceuthmochares aereus#Translingual

Ceuthmochares aereus, an African cuckoo with a heavy yellow bill.


toolpath

(machining) The path through space that the tip of a cutting tool follows on its way to producing the desired geometry of the workpiece.


gateleg

Now that's a nice gateleg table in the corner there. Though of course you'd have to put new hinges on it if you wanted to use the flaps.

1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 8, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001, part 1, page 90:

(furniture, also attributive) A table leg, set into a frame in the form of a gate, that may be swung back to allow a leaf of the tabletop to hang down.

hekpoot

table leg set into a frame in the form of a gate


stonecast

stonecast (usually uncountable, plural stonecasts)

They passed beneath where we sat, and, when about a stonecast beyond, they all jumped into a trench or pit, which I had not noticed before, about twenty feet long, by eight wide.

Brown, heavy clouds were drifting across the sky, and it was hard to see more than a stonecast.

1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Strange Story of Jonathan Small”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 246:


workstream

Northern Rock had already cracked by the time RBS bought ABN Amro, pointed out one MP. McKillop protested that "15 workstreams" at RBS were saying the numbers on the deal still made sense

2009 February 11, Nils Pratley, “A sorry excuse for an apology”, in The Guardian:

The organized output of several distinct and often unrelated, workgroups.


clarion call

Our clarion call is "Equal Rights for all: Special Privileges to None".

1989, Antony Robin, Jeremy Kushner, Tony Kushner, Kenneth Lunn, University of Southampton. Dept. of History, Traditions of intolerance: historical perspectives on fascism and race discourse in Britain

(figuratively) Appeal, urgent call to action.


featherless biped

featherless biped (plural featherless bipeds)

/ˌfɛðəɹləs ˈbaɪˌpɛd/

From featherless + biped, from the dialogue The Statesman by Plato (427–347 B.C.E.): “λέγω δὴ δεῖν τότε εὐθὺς τὸ πεζὸν τῷ δίποδι πρὸς τὸ τετράπουν γένος διανεῖμαι, κατιδόντα δὲ τἀνθρώπινον ἔτι μόνῳ τῷ πτηνῷ συνειληχὸς τὴν δίποδα ἀγέλην πάλιν τῷ ψιλῷ καὶ τῷ πτεροφυεῖ τέμνειν, […] [I say, then, that we ought at that time to have divided walking animals immediately into biped and quadruped, then seeing that the human race falls into the same division with the feathered creatures and no others, we must again divide the biped class into featherless and feathered, […]]”.

lang

The schoolmen—or rather certain of the schoolmen—for nothing is much shallower than to speak of all those disputants as one school—defined woman, "a featherless biped vehemently addicted to jealousy." Whether she is more featherless than the male, can be decided at the trifling expense of time, money, and reason: you have but to go to court. But as for envy and jealousy, I think it is pure, unobservant, antique Cant which has fixed them on the female character distinctively.

1863 June 27, [Charles Reade], “Very Hard Cash. Chapter XVI.”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All the Year Round. A Weekly Journal. […], volume IX, number 218, London: […] Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 413, column 1:

A boy should be directed and restrained; while to a man should be given the range of a large discretion. But the college student is often neither a boy nor a man. […] Reference is here made, of course, to that species of featherless biped which at times, especially when taken alone, seems to show many of the characteristics of rational intelligence, but which, when merged into a crowd of its fellows, is apt, on the least provocation, to part with its power of thought and lapse into all manner of irrational ways.

1889 July, Charles Kendall Adams, “Discipline in American Colleges”, in Lloyd Bryce, editor, The North American Review, volume CXLIX, number CCCXCII, New York, N.Y.: [s.n.], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15:

There were, of course, other elements in the medieval Christian system which were adapted to breed in the featherless biped a high sense of his cosmic importance and of the momentousness of his own doings.

1933 (date delivered), Arthur O[ncken] Lovejoy, “The Principle of Plenitude and the New Cosmography”, in The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea […], Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, published 1948, →OCLC, page 102:

Aristotle's characterization of humans as featherless bipeds is an attempt at a demarcation criterion. It happens to be a poor attempt, since apes, tyrannosaurs, and plucked chickens are also featherless bipeds. But even if humans were, in point of fact, the only featherless bipeds, the featherless-biped criterion would at most give us a litmus for distinguishing humans from other species. If what we wanted was an explanation of what makes Plato a human being, the fact that he is a featherless biped is clearly a non-starter.

1996, Steven W. Horst, “Causal and Stipulative Definitions of Semantic Terms”, in Symbols, Computation, and Intentionality: A Critique of the Computational Theory of Mind, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.; London: University of California Press, →ISBN, part III (The Critique of CTM), section 8.4.2.1 (Explanation and Demarcation), page 232:

The day Microsoft went public, [Bill] Gates became an instant megamillionaire (actually a $234-millionaire, based on the IPO price). But it wasn't until July 17, 1995, that Forbes magazine named him the richest featherless biped on the planet, with a net worth just shy of $13 billion.

2008 June 16, Dan Tynan, “Bill Gates: 10 Memorable Moments”, in ABC News, archived from the original on 2011-02-15:

(idiomatic, chiefly humorous) A human being.


clockcase

It was a miserable evening; outside it was snowing and blowing, and in the squire's parlour the candle burned so dimly that you could scarcely distinguish anything in the room but a clock-case with some Chinese ornaments, a large mirror in an old-fashioned frame, and a silver family tankard.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 249:

A case built to contain a clock; the casing of a case clock.


rooster booster

en-noun

rooster booster (plural rooster boosters)


soft pedal

(music, also attributively) The leftmost foot-pedal on most pianos which, when pushed, dampens the strings and so softens the note played.

hiljennyspedaali

leftmost foot-pedal on most pianos which softens the note played


dictionary attack

dictionary attack (plural dictionary attacks)

/ˌdɪkʃənəɹi əˈtæk/

/ˌdɪkʃəˌnɛɹi əˈtæk/

Experts warn against using ordinary words as passwords as they are vulnerable to dictionary attacks.

(computing, cryptography) An attempt to illegally access a computer network, website, etc., that uses a list of words (from a dictionary) to try to guess decryption keys or passwords.

هجوم المعجم

attempt to illegally access a computer network, website, etc., that uses a list of words to try and guess decryption keys or passwords


workbag

The American Medical Association warns that carrying more than 10 percent of your body weight can lead to injury, and the overnight appearance of low back pain led me to weigh my own workbag a few summers ago (back then, it was a satchel slung over one shoulder).

2007 June 28, Lisa Belkin, “Your Briefcase Just Ran Over My Toe”, in New York Times:

A bag containing tools or material used for work, especially needlework.


sin-bin

Hooker Dylan Hartley was sent to the sin-bin after yet another infringement at the breakdown and, on the stroke of half-time, Georgia's territorial advantage finally told when number eight Basilaia surged over from the base of the scrum for a try next to the posts.

2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:


break-even

break-even (countable and uncountable, plural break-evens)

We'll never reach break-even if our variable costs are higher than our selling price.

(business, management) The level of revenues sufficient to cover costs.


break-even

The Altair 8800 computer was a break-even sale for MITS.

The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created to own not just the railways, but also London Underground, docks, inland waterways, and some road haulage activities. Its remit was to operate on a break-even basis, with sustained losses unacceptable.

2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 38:

that is characterized by the level of revenues just sufficient to cover costs


bucket list

From bucket + list.
Sense 1 (“list of tasks arising during a meeting”) may allude to a notional bucket in which tasks to be dealt with later are placed. Sense 2 (“list of things to accomplish before one’s death”) refers to kick the bucket (“to die”), bucket in this sense possibly referring to a beam to which a pig is hung by its heels after it has been slaughtered (possibly from Old French buquet (“balance; trebuchet”)). It was coined by the American and British screenwriter Justin Zackham in 1999 when he drew up “Justin’s List of Things to Do before I Kick the Bucket” which he shortened to “Justin’s Bucket List”. The first item on his list was to have a screenplay produced at a major Hollywood studio. After a few years, it occurred to him that the notion of a “bucket list” could be the basis for a film, so he wrote a screenplay about two dying men racing to complete their own bucket lists with the time they had left, which became the film The Bucket List (2007). The term was then popularized by the film.

平生夢想單 /平生梦想单

a list of things to accomplish before one’s death

lista rzeczy do zrobienia przed śmiercią

lista de cosas por / para hacer antes de morir

Coordinate term: to-do list

A "bucket" list is simply a formal procedure for recording items of concern that arise during work on other agenda items.

1978, James D. Anderson, Ezra Earl Jones, “The Primary Task of Ministry”, in The Management of Ministry, San Francisco, Calif.: Harper & Row, →ISBN, page 151:

The figures and section drawings contain many of the most important locus numbers. We are not publishing a complete bucket list.

[1990, Eric M. Meyers, Carol Meyers, James F. Strange, “Introduction”, in Excavations at the Ancient Synagogue of Gush Ḥalav (Meiron Excavation Project; V), Winona Lake, Ind.: [F]or the American Schools of Oriental Research by Eisenbrauns, →ISBN, page 1:

As you go through each step during the session, keep a "bucket list" of items that will need followup action

1997, Suzan L[inn] Jackson, “Getting Started”, in The ISO14001 Implementation Guide: Creating an Integrated Management System, New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 226:

Focus on only one issue at a time. Whenever a new issue arises, don't ignore it, but don't allow the meeting to get distracted from the current topic. Always record each new issue on a posted "parking lot" or "bucket list" in the meeting room.

2004, Tom Kendrick, “Meeting Execution”, in The Project Management Tool Kit: 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Amacom, American Management Association, published 2010, →ISBN, page 87:

A list of tasks arising during a meeting that are put aside to be dealt with later.


Care Bear

Brand name. The characters were introduced in 1981 for use on greeting cards and turned into plush toys in 1983.

The baby or toddler who goes to sleep alone (with a Care Bear, with his favorite blanket, or by sucking his thumb) learns valuable self-quieting behaviors that can be used for many years to come.

1994, Edward R. Christophersen, Pediatric Compliance: A Guide for the Primary Care Physician, page 171:

But the domestic turkey is about as remote from the wild animal as a Care Bear is from a grizzly.

2004, Jerry Sullivan, Hunting for Frogs on Elston, and Other Tales from Field & Street, page 68:

One of my real aspirations of this is I wanna see interstellar wars between Care Bears and Klingons.

2007 March 13, Will Wright, keynote, South by Southwest, Austin

Any of a brand of cheerful bear figures, seen on greeting cards and as stuffed toys.


dune coon

You're a...damn dune coon. B: Mhm. A: Not convincing is it? B: You're not great at the sentences part to be honest. A: Hah, I know, I know... B: You can definitely hate better than that. A: Heart's not really in it.

(Can we date this quote?), Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway, Artistic Directors of the Future...Talks Brexit, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 82:

Now, get lost you dune coon. Harvard doesn't realize that he's still on mic. His comments are heard by the viewing audience. CAMERA ON AC H MAD ACHMAD Dune coon? Hey, I'm also half mick. As you've heard, this is an unprecedented case of[…]

2009 01, Pat Mulligan, Three Comedies for the Screen, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 354:

“My story is about the first time I ever heard the expression 'dune coon,' ” she said. Cornelia was relieved that Mrs. Hakim was not going to read about what she had done, but she was also confused. She had never heard that expression[…]

2011 March 2, Christy Cauley, Writers on the Storm, Christy Cauley, →ISBN, page 204:

More dinosaurs died in Arabia than anywhere else.” “Dune Coons?” “Sand niggers,” Big Ed said. “Your A-rabs cause the glut and they cause the gasoline lines. Whatever suits their ass. I was tryin' to deal with a Dune Coon the other day.

2015 April 7, Dan Jenkins, LIFE ITS OWN SELF, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

No Dune Coon gonna loo/e cross—eyed at my Rachel. He did more than that the first night we went out. Ended up back at his place. That was the twentieth ofJuly. Took less than three weeks to get him to the JP. I was desperate.

2005 November 23, Elrod Stanton, Resurrection and Reclamation, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 141:

... and within that core community, as Bee Burgers suggests, lies a most fundamental binary: human beings whose life and autonomy are presumptively respected and those “dune coon muslim terrorists” who should be killed.49 With terrorist[…]

2015 November 15, John Pettegrew, Light It Up: The Marine Eye for Battle in the War for Iraq, JHU Press, →ISBN:

(slang, offensive, derogatory, ethnic slur) Someone of Middle Eastern or North African descent.


stop-tap

It was almost stop-tap time when my name came up, and that was the excuse my friends had been waiting for to shower me with beer.

1998, Peter Jackson, Lions of Wales, page 139:

But there we were together on the pavement after stop tap, him cadging a light off me.

2010, Gwen Davies, ‘The Professionals’, translated by William Owen Roberts, Best European Fiction 2011:


tearthumb

Any of a group of annual vining plants within the genus Polygonum, with small sharp spines covering the stems.


gerund-participle

Near-synonyms: (in other operational definitions) gerund, present participle

The gerund-participle ¶ Traditionally (for example, in the grammar of Latin), a gerund is a verb-form that is functionally similar to a noun, whereas a participle is one that is functionally similar to an adjective.

2005, Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar:

THE TERM 'GERUND-PARTICIPLE' used in the title of this paper is adopted from Huddleston and Pullum (2002:80), who see no reason to give priority to one or the other of the traditional terms used to refer to the verbal uses of the English -ing form illustrated in (1):

2005, Patrick J. Duffley, The English gerund-participle in cognitive grammar:

The intralinguistic analysis carried out on our sample has revealed that, on average, the English gerund-participle is frequently used to realize circumstance adverbials, which may express a great variety of semantic roles.

2009, Frank Boers, Jeroen Darquennes, Koen Kerremans, Multilingualism and Applied Comparative Linguistics:

Therefore I was happy when Geoffrey Pullum and Rodney Huddleston, in the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, presented a clear and compelling argument that "A distinction between gerund and present participle can't be sustained" (pp. 80-83 and 1220-1222). They therefore use the merged category "gerund-participle".

2010, Mark Liberman, “Gerunds vs. participles”, in Language Log:

This amounted to 176 occurrences of the gerund-participle and 49 of the to-infinitive, an interesting statistic in itself, as it confirms the more noun-like character of the gerund-participle, ...

2014, Patrick Duffley, Reclaiming Control as a Semantic and Pragmatic Phenomenon:

(grammar) The form of an English verb that ends in -ing and can function as a noun, an adjective, or a progressive verb.


makebate

From make + bate (“strife, contention, quarrel”).

com

One who excites contentions and quarrels; an instigator.


make-king

As Nevill, Earl of Warwick was the make-king; so this Dudley, Earl of Warwick (his title before lately created duke) was the make-queen.

1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge since the Conquest; republished as Marmaduke Prickett, Thomas Wright, editors, The History of the University of Cambridge from the Conquest to the Year 1634, Cambridge University Press, 1811, Section VII, page 250:


makepeace

To be a make-peace shall become my age / Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage.

c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, act 1, scene 1:

(rare) A peacemaker; one who reconciles persons at variance with one another; a composer of strife; an adjuster of differences.

The civill uſes whereunto the Birch-tree ſerveth are many, as for the puniſhment of Children both at home and at School, for it hath an admirable influence upon them, to quiet them when they are out of Order, and therefore ſome call it Make-peace: The old Roman Magiſirates had it born in bundles before them, as an Enſigne, and Inſtrument of Juſtice to be executed upon petty Offenders.

1657, William Coles, chapter CCCXX, in Adam in Eden: Or, Natures Paradiſe, page 594:

(obsolete) A stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for corporal punishment.


gonnabe

From gonna (“contraction of going to”) + be, modelled after wannabe.

I attribute any success I have to the following educators in my life: New York agent Jim Cypher […] early on taught me that the difference between “wannabes” and “gonnabes” is persistence; […]

2006, Linda Alice Dewey, “Acknowledgements”, in Aaron’s Crossing: An Inspiring True Ghost Story, Charlottesville, Va.: Hampton Roads Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 206:

Alkaline Trio, New Found Glory, Coheed and Cambria, the Starting Line: all have struggled to meet high expectations, and maybe some of them were relieved to be playing this summer’s Warped Tour, nestled among the wannabes and gonnabes.

2007 August 6, Kelefa Sanneh, “Punk on parade, with flexible marching orders”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-26:

It is doubtful you could instruct Babe Ruth into being a home run king or Usain Bolt into world’s fastest human. They just have something. You can throw money at a wannabe but that won’t make him a gonnabe.

2014, Tom Pease, “Touring Entrepreneurship Land and Meriting Citizenship: You Can’t Give What You Don’t Have”, in Small Business Survival 101: Principles for Fail Proofing Your Business, New York, N.Y.: Morgan James Publishing, →ISBN, page 22:

'So you're a wannabe?' / 'Hopefully, a gonnabe.'

2022, Polly Hamilton Hilsabeck, American Blues […], Berkeley, Calif.: She Writes Press, →ISBN:

(informal) One who is on the path to becoming famous or important.

pyrkyri

one on the path to becoming famous or important


lionheart

From lion + heart, perhaps from Richard the Lionheart.

But the United States Congress tends to be a courage-free zone, so Mr. McCain’s orneriness toward Republican primary voters makes him a lionheart in the political world.

2008 February 17, Nicholas D. Kristof, “The World’s Worst Panderer”, in New York Times:


wagger-pagger-bagger

Jocular modification of wastepaper basket. See -er.

(Taking flowers from vase) If you don't mind, therefore, I shall deposit them in the wagger-pagger-bagger. (Drops flowers into waste paper basket.)

1948, John Courtenay Trewin, Plays of the year: Volume 1:

If only he hadn't woken himself in the night with ludicrous, fey notions which now thankfully lay at the bottom of the wagger-pagger-bagger—he punched the splintery door of the shed—damn it all to the bloodiest—

2009, H. S. Cross, Riding: Volume 2, page 364:

(UK, slang, dated, public schools) A wastepaper basket.


weaksauce

PIE word
 *séh₂ls
From weak (adjective) + sauce (noun), referring to a sauce that lacks flavour. By surface analysis, weak + -sauce (suffix used to add emphasis to adjectives).

surf

Some California students provided us with a taste of slang words that are now catching on, although, thanks to MTV, you have already heard some of them. […] Good events or things are "dope." Bad events are "weak sauce." "Right on" is "that's sweet." "That's awesome" is "that's the bomb."

[1993 February 12, Jeff Schnaufer, “New Trends Imitate ’70’s Style”, in Andrew McRoberts, editor, The Crusader, volume 34, number 14, Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3, columns 5–6:

Blazing at a very healthy 30 frames per second with NO clipping, NO slowdown, and NO loss of graphic quality, this one made Eggo run to the nearest restroom after his ‘weak sauce’ stomach gave out.

1998 June, “Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. [review]”, in Jay Puryear, editor, GameFan: The Last True Enthusiast Magazine, volume 6, number 6, Santa Monica, Calif.: Metropolis Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 44:

Getting your butt thrashed by those curvaceous powdery paths? Or are ya getting tired of that weaksauce boarder of yours? Here are some codes that should do the trick: […]

1999 March, “Hocus Pocus [X Games Pro Boarder PS: Thrashing Ollie B, All Circuits, and Mondo!]”, in Eric Mylonas, editor, GameFan: The Last True Enthusiast Magazine, volume 7, number 3, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Calif.: Shinno Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 92, column 3:

[T]he news bunny ran up to him, saying, "Officer, did you have trouble catching up with Batman? Was it an exciting chase?" The surfer cop struck a semi-heroic pose for the camera and said, "Weak sauce." Then he quickly walked Batman to the black-and-white, where he was put into the backseat.

2006, Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Station […], New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 237:

She gave Julius a punch to his arm and headed back toward the fair, leaving Julius and me in yet another showdown, super-stick versus weaksauce-sword.

2007, Matthew Reis, chapter 28, in Kid with a Rocket Launcher: The Bluffside Summer Solstice County Fair […], [Morrisville, N.C.]: [Lulu.com], →ISBN, page 201:

The quality, I'm sad to say, is sometimes weak-sauce.

2008, Dave Kellett, “Monetizing Your Webcomic”, in Brad Guigar, Dave Kellett, Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub, How to Make Webcomics, Berkeley, Calif.: Image Comics, →ISBN, page 124, column 2:

'I'm not scared, I'm just not stupid.' Can't we just, like, dye our hair purple or—' […] Even to Julia it sounds weaksauce. 'That's not scary,' Becca says. 'I want something scary.'

2014, Tana French, The Secret Place, Dublin: Hachette Books Ireland, →ISBN, page 149:

The judge [Amit Mehta] told the ex-Trump aide's lawyer, Stanley Woodward, that their argument was hard to support absent direct evidence that Mr [Peter] Navarro was actually told not to comply with the subpoena. "I still don't know what the president said—I don't have any words from the former president," said the judge, who added that testimony from Mr Navarro about how Mr [Donald] Trump once expressed regret for not letting him testify was "pretty weak sauce".

2023 August 29, Andrew Feinberg, “Former Trump adviser scolded by judge for ‘weak sauce’ excuse for refusing to testify to Jan 6 committee”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC; reproduced on Yahoo! News, 29 August 2023, archived from the original on 2024-05-15:

(originally and chiefly US, informal) Lacking in interest or substance; boring, disappointing, lacklustre.


weaksauce

en-noun

weaksauce (countable and uncountable, plural weaksauces)

Had a run-in on the bus with some weak sauces.

2015, Samantha Marks, “The Birthday”, in A Fatal Family Secret (Morphosis.me Files; 1), [S.l.]: Samantha Marks, →ISBN, page 26:

(countable) Someone or something that is lacking in interest or substance.

lattea

someone or something that is lacking in interest or substance

[…] New England Asters. Not the pale domesticates of the perennial border, the weak sauce of lavender or sky blue, but full-on royal purple that would make a violet shrink.

2013, Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Planting Sweetgrass”, in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Minneapolis, Minn.: Milkweed Editions, →ISBN, page 40:

The quality or state of lacking in interest or substance; boringness, disappointment.

But when I turned pro, I knew I needed a really badass name, 'cuz it intimidates n00bs, who will disconnect just when they see me show up. And I'm like, "Bye—take that weaksauce home."

2006 September, Jeff Green, quoting D3thf4art [pseudonym; Stanley Lipschitz], “Interview with a Pro Gamer”, in Jeff Green, editor, Computer Gaming World, number 266, Boulder, Colo.: Ziff Davis Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 112, column 1:

Synonym of weak tea (“weak or feeble arguments, efforts, or proposals”)


wastethrift

My adversary evermore twits me with my nephew, forsooth, my nephew: why may not a virtuous uncle have a dissolute nephew? What though he be a brotheller, a wastethrift, a common surfeiter, and, to conclude, a beggar, must sin in him call up shame in me?

1608, Thomas Middleton, A Trick to Catch the Old One, act 2, scene 1; republished in The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 2, London: Edward Lumley, 1840, page 20: