cross swords

cross swords (third-person singular simple present crosses swords, present participle crossing swords, simple past and past participle crossed swords)

crosses swords (present singular third-person)
crossing swords (participle present)
crossed swords (participle past)
crossed swords (past)

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cross, sword., to [[place] or hold two swords so they cross each other.

I do not relish crossing swords with Pike's hook.

1966 September 24, Brian Hayles, “The Smugglers, episode 3” (15:39 from the start), in Doctor Who, season 4, episode 3, spoken by The Squire (Paul Whitsun-Jones), via BBC:

You say that you do not see how you and I have crossed swords with the priests.

1902, Richard Bagot, Donna Diana, published 2008, →ISBN, page 240:

I must cross swords with the author of the article on the Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland, on two points.

1961 February, “Letters to the Editor: Swiss railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 126:

Loring Pickering and George K. Fitch, the owners of these newspapers, had as early as 1870 crossed swords with the local typographical union, and had been defeated in a strike when they had attempted a reduction in wages.

1974, Ira Brown Cross, “The Knights of Labor”, in A history of the labor movement in California, →ISBN, page 179:

Crossing swords with oligarchs is one problem. An equally tough problem is crossing swords with the straight political elites, particularly the power ministries.

2002, Ukraine's Quest Roundtable Steering Committee, “Ukraine and Human Rights”, in Ukraine's Quest for Mature Nation Statehood - A roundtable, →ISBN, First Session, page 25:

(idiomatic) To quarrel or argue with someone; to have a dispute with someone.

de degens kruisen

idiomatic: to have a dispute with someone

(idiomatic, vulgar) For males, to urinate simultaneously such that the streams intersect.

kusta ristiin

idiomatic, vulgar: to urinate such that the streams intersect


micronuke

A hypothetical nuclear weapon built on a very small scale.


old sweat

(British, military slang, chiefly World War I) An experienced soldier.


downwinder

A person (or community) that lives downwind from a potential hazard (such as a nuclear power station)


cangue

From French cangue, from Portuguese canga.

A heavy wooden collar or yoke borne on the shoulders and enclosing the neck and arms, formerly used in East Asia to punish thieves and other criminals.


juneteenth

en-proper noun

juneteenth (countable and uncountable, plural juneteenths)

Alternative letter-case form of Juneteenth


lamming

This blood, I am informed, saved him many lammings from the head of the house, who, though Keeper of the Fives, fainted at first sight of it […]

1923, J. M. Barrie, Captain Hook at Eton:


come to blows

en-verb

come to blows (third-person singular simple present comes to blows, present participle coming to blows, simple past came to blows, past participle come to blows)

comes to blows (present singular third-person)
coming to blows (participle present)
came to blows (past)
come to blows (participle past)

They exchanged insults, without it coming to blows.

(impersonal) To degrade into a fight or physical conflict (in reference to an argument or to a situation of tension or antagonism).


Gehenna

heaven

antonym(s) of “Christianity, uncountable”

Hawaiian: kehena

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin gehenna, from Ancient Greek γέεννα (géenna), from Hebrew גֵּיהִנּוֹם (ge'henom, “hell”, literally “valley of Hinnom”), named after the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, which was constantly filled with the waste of the city, which was then burnt. Heinous deeds are also associated with this valley, as during the time when Jerusalem was ruled by non-Jews (referred to in scriptures simply as 'pagans') child sacrifice was practiced there.


siblicide

en-noun

siblicide (countable and uncountable, plural siblicides)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-siblicide.wav

From sibli(ng) + -cide (suffix meaning ‘killing; killer’).

suffix

I continue to question the interpretation of "fatal sibling aggression" and active brood reduction as a means of maximizing productivity[…]. To me, the data clearly indicate a simple response to food availability, with the oldest young passively out-competing its smaller sibling for a limited resource. I still have not seen data to support "siblicide" as a strategy.

1981 winter, Ralph W. Schreiber, “Book Review: The Eastern Bering Sea Shelf: Oceanography and Resources, 1981. Edited by D. W. Hood and J. A. Calder. 2 Volumes. 1339 pp. Available from the University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA 98105. $65.00/volume.”, in Pacific Seabird Group Bulletin, volume 8, number 2, Stinson Beach, Calif.: Pacific Seabird Group, →OCLC, page 111:

Oophagy and adelphophagy, which are forms of embryonic cannibalism, occur in both cartilaginous and bony fishes. They are variations on the tactic of siblicide (Mock, 1984) as a reproductive strategy. In oophagy, embryos feed upon sibling eggs. […] Adelphophagy, literally eating one's brother, is also known in sharks as intrauterine embryonic cannibalism[…].

1988, John P. Wourms, Bryon D. Grove, Julian Lombardi, “The Maternal–Embryonic Relationship in Viviparous Fishes”, in W. S. Hoar, D. J. Randall, editors, Fish Physiology, volumes XI (The Physiology of Developing Fish), part B (Viviparity and Posthatching Juveniles), San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, →ISBN, page 43:

Obligate siblicide is best known in various eagles, boobies, and pelicans. All lay two eggs, hatching is asynchronus, and usually the elder sib kills its younger sib soon after hatch. From the parent's perspective, the second egg/chick serves as insurance against the unexpected failure of the first[…]. Interestingly, obligate siblicide seems to be independent of prevailing food at the time of the junior sibling[']s demise.

1994, L. Scott Forbes, Douglas W. Mock, “Proximate and Ultimate Determinants of Avian Brood Reduction”, in Stefano Parmigiani, Frederick S. vom Saal, editors, Infanticide and Parental Care […] (Ettore Majorana International Life Sciences Series; 13), Chur, Switzerland, Camberwell, Victoria: Harwood Academic Publishers, →ISBN, page 245:

If siblicides are victim-based, a mother clearly cannot improve her fitness by producing fewer eggs. Less obviously, mothers may eventually be able to gain by laying more, until eventually they are constrained by the costs of eggs.

1997, Douglas W. Mock, Geoffrey A[lan] Parker, The Evolution of Sibling Rivalry (Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 230:

One of the more recent examinations of siblicide cases is [John M.] Dawson and [Patrick A.] Langan's Special Report on Murder in Families, published through the Bureau of Justice Statistics (1994). […] According to their findings, 85% of siblicide offenders and 73% of siblicide victims were male. […] Alcohol was reported to play a role in approximately one half of the siblicides in Dawson and Langan's study.

2003, Rocky Underwood, “Family Homicide”, in edited by Eric Hickey, Encyclopedia of Murder & Violent Crime, Thousand Oaks, Calif., London: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 167, column 2:

Infanticide, siblicide, cannibalism, rape, and lethal combat have been documented in many kinds of animals.

2011, Steven Pinker, “The Pacification Process”, in The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2012, →ISBN, page 39:

(chiefly zoology) The killing of a sibling, especially as observed among certain species of animals.


hybrid warfare

Some, however, have recently added a single intermediate category of “hybrid warfare”: […] . The notion of “hybrid” war makes a valuable contribution in breaking down unhelpful dichotomies between “conventional” and “guerrilla,” and is a clear and important step in the right direction.

2008, Stephen Biddle, Jeffrey A. Friedman, The 2006 Lebanon Campaign and the Future of Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy, Strategic Studies Institute, page 28

the changing character of conflict from conventional to irregular and hybrid warfare.

2009, Patrick M. Cronin, Global Strategic Assessment 2009: America’s Security Role in a Changing World, NDU Press, page 2:

Entities using IW [irregular warfare] flout Geneva Convention rules and use nontraditional tools, including weapons of mass destruction, improvised explosive devices, and cyberwar operations. Hybrid warfare is waged using a combination of regular and irregular warfare tools, concepts, and doctrines.

2013, Jacquelyn K. Davis, Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Anticipating a Nuclear Iran: Challenges for U.S. Security, →ISBN, page 200:

conventional warfare
conventional warfare

A form of conflict which blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare, and activities such as political warfare and information warfare.

հիբրիդային պատերազմ

warfare that blends conventional warfare and irregular warfare


monomachia

From Latin monomachia, from Ancient Greek μονομαχία (monomakhía); μόνος (mónos, “single, alone”) + μάχομαι (mákhomai, “fight”).

the duello or monomachia

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:


a bridge too far

→ Dutch: een brug te ver (calque)

In reference to Operation Market Garden, Allied airborne military operation of 1944. General Roy E. Urquhart, in his 1958 memoir Arnhem, ascribed the phrase to general Frederick “Boy” Browning. It was popularized by being chosen as the title of Cornelius Ryan’s 1974 book on Operation Market Garden and the subsequent 1977 epic war film.

Cloning was an interesting concept. Cloning body parts was again just man's search for immortality riding on the back of naive altruistic medicinal benevolence. But cloning a person was a bridge too far.

2006, Adair Broughton, Crossing the Bridge of Infinity, page 40:

“Maybe we are seeing a similar phenomenon with NFTs — but it could be a bridge too far for people with collections in other media.”

2021 April 28, Zachary Small, quoting William Goetzmann, “As Auctioneers and Artists Rush Into NFTs, Many Collectors Stay Away”, in New York Times:

(idiomatic) A step or action that is too ambitious; an act of overreaching.

A Bridge Too Far (book)
A Bridge Too Far (film)
Cornelius Ryan
Frederick Browning
Operation Market Garden
Roy Urquhart


targeted killing

en-noun

targeted killing (countable and uncountable, plural targeted killings)

The moral legitimacy of targeted killing becomes even clearer when compared to the alternative means of fighting terror – that is, the massive invasion of the community that shelters and supports the terrorists in an attempt to catch or kill the terrorists and destory their infrastructure.

2005, Timothy Shanahan, Philosophy 9/11: Thinking About the War on Terrorism, Open Court Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 191:

Even if the targeted killing is deemed to fall within the laws of armed conflict, the rules relating thereto protect non-combatants. While civilians cannot be targeted, if they are killed or injured during an attack on a military target, then as long as the means employed were discriminate and proportionate, there is no violation of the laws of armed conflict.

2006, Geoff Gilbert, Responding to International Crime, BRILL, →ISBN, page 307:

In wartime, however, the prohibition against targeted killing is more elusive because the law stipulates that combatants, regardless of their rank or official role, are potential targets. Since war is a contest between states, not persons, the killing in war is not murder.

2008, Mark R. Amstutz, International Ethics: Concepts, Theories, and Cases in Global Politics, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, →ISBN, page 147:

The real issue – one emphasized in informal conversations – seems to be that unless the target is a duly designated "combatant," the targeted killing would become an "assassination."

2009, Benjamin Wittes, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform, Brookings Institution Press, →ISBN, page 366:

There is no announced U.S. policy directive regarding targeted killing. Assassination is addressed in Executive Order 12333, which does not prohibit killing absolutely, but only without presidential approval. Assassination and targeted killing are very different acts, however.

2010, Gary D. Solis, The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 542:

In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.

2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:

(warfare, euphemistic) The intentional killing by a government or its agents of a civilian or "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody, and who is taking part in an armed conflict or terrorism, whether by bearing arms or otherwise, and is thus regarded by the government as having lost the immunity from being targeted that he or she would otherwise have under the Geneva Conventions.


bruise up

en-verb

bruise up (third-person singular simple present bruises up, present participle bruising up, simple past and past participle bruised up)

bruises up (present singular third-person)
bruising up (participle present)
bruised up (participle past)
bruised up (past)

(transitive) To cause bruises to appear, usually by beating or battering.


declare war

declare war (third-person singular simple present declares war, present participle declaring war, simple past and past participle declared war)

declares war (present singular third-person)
declaring war (participle present)
declared war (participle past)
declared war (past)

Germany declared war on France, who reciprocated, on August 3 [1939], and England declared war on Germany on August 4, when Belgium was already under invasion.

2007, Carlos Ramirez-Faria, Concise Encyclopaedia of World History:

(of a governmental authority) To make a formal pronouncement, or sign a legal document, that initiates a state of war between one nation and another, usually before hostilities begin.

πόλεμον ἐκφέρω (pólemon ekphérō) (πρὸς + accusative)


Vietnam War

The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.

2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times:

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

(historical) The war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia between 1955 and 1975 between South Vietnam (backed by the United States and SEATO) and North Vietnam aiding the South Vietnamese communist guerrilla army known as the Vietcong (supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union) for the struggle for total Communist control of Vietnam as one state.


suicide bombing

en-noun

suicide bombing (plural suicide bombings)

An attack carried out by a suicide bomber or a group of them.

عَمَلِيَّة تَفْجِيرِيَّة إِنْتِحَارِيَّة


Upper South

The northern part of the South (Southern United States), typically consisting of North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma, sometimes also inclusive of southern Missouri, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, eastern/southern/western Maryland, and southern Delaware.


Tiny Tim

(historical, military, countable) A United States rocket, used in World War II and the Korean War.


Hump

The C-47s could not make it over the Hump with a full load and full tanks.

(historical, World War II, slang) The Himalayas (a mountain range in Asia), as the challenge for the supply route between India and China.


shaken baby syndrome

shaken baby syndrome (countable and uncountable, plural shaken baby syndromes)

A trauma on the head that occurs when a child is violently shaken, creating a whiplash-type motion that causes acceleration-deceleration injuries, often without external signs of trauma.


tear into

en-verb

tear into (third-person singular simple present tears into, present participle tearing into, simple past tore into, past participle torn into)

tears into (present singular third-person)
tearing into (participle present)
tore into (past)
torn into (participle past)

They tore into a stunned City and there was only a minute on the clock when Samir Nasri slipped Jack Wilshere into the area, the 19-year-old's left-foot pass to the far post agonisingly evading a lunging Van Persie.

2011 January 5, Jonathan Stevenson, “Arsenal 0 - 0 Man City”, in BBC:

To subject to a heavy attack, physical or figurative.


Berkley horse

After Theresa Berkley, its supposed inventor.

(BDSM) A BDSM apparatus consisting of a triangular frame to which a person can be tied for flogging.


sexual abuse

en-noun

sexual abuse (usually uncountable, plural sexual abuses)

Statutory-rape laws concerning voluntary intercourse would probably be taken off the books, though both young boys and young girls could still be protected against any sexual abuse by older persons.

1971 October 4, ‘Facing Equality for Women’, Time:

1987, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
I believe that I was the victim of sexual abuse in my relationship with T. It was always the way HE wanted it & I wasn't to do anything I wanted. So I just "submitted" to him & was glad that he would have anything to do with me.

Argentine priest Julio Grassi begins 15-year sentence over sexual abuse.

2013, The Guardian, (headline), 29 Sep 2013

(crime) Any sexual activity that is undesired by one participant but forced on them nonetheless, especially when considered to be more sustained or frequent than an incident of sexual assault.

seksuele misbruik

forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another


pear of anguish

pear of anguish (plural pears of anguish)


Spanish donkey

A torture device consisting of a very narrow vertical surface where the victim is supposed to sit with heavy objects attached to their feet.


choke pear

A metal torture device to be inserted into the body, consisting of a usually pear-shaped piece divided into spoon-like segments that can be spread apart by turning a screw.


Eastern Bloc

Coordinate term: Western Bloc

(geopolitics, historical) The largely Communist countries of the eastern world, usually Eastern Europe and especially in the Cold War era.

اَلْكُتْلَة الشَّرْقِيَّة

the communist countries of the eastern world


killbot

(especially science fiction) A robot designed to kill; a robotic assassin.


Brezhnev Doctrine

Named after Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.

named-after

A policy which stated that the Soviet Union had the right to intervene in places where capitalism threatened communism.


grandfather paradox

en-noun

grandfather paradox (plural grandfather paradoxes)

From the paradox proposed by the French author René Barjavel in 1944 in his book Le Voyageur Imprudent, translated into English as "Future Times Three"; in its original form the paradox of one person going back to the past and killing their biological grandfather before the latter fathered the traveler's father, thus preventing the time traveler from ever being conceived in the first place.

The paradox of time travel in which inconsistencies emerge through changing the past.

Future Times Three
René Barjavel
grandfather paradox


mow down

en-verb

mow down (third-person singular simple present mows down, present participle mow downing, simple past mow downed, past participle mown down)

mows down (present singular third-person)
mow downing (participle present)
mow downed (past)
mown down (participle past)

Our forecast calls for a return of summery weather in the 80s this weekend, so we actually can get out and mow down those weeds without having to inhale clouds of dust.

2006 Sept. 15, "Roses ’n’ Razzies," gazettetimes.com (Oregon, USA) (retrieved 1 Apr 2011)

(transitive) To cut down, especially in large numbers.


go for the jugular

go for the jugular (third-person singular simple present goes for the jugular, present participle going for the jugular, simple past went for the jugular, past participle gone for the jugular)

goes for the jugular (present singular third-person)
going for the jugular (participle present)
went for the jugular (past)
gone for the jugular (participle past)

You start to admire the flagrant disregard
For the sanctity of other people's lives
By the filthy few in positions of power
Who go for the jugular in order to survive

1985, J. G. Thirlwell (lyrics and music), “Anything (Viva!)”, in Nail, performed by Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel:

The cover story of last July's Journal was on hardball litigation tactics. It quoted lawyers talking about pulling out all the stops, going for the jugular.

1988 March 1, “Litigation is War–True or False?”, in ABA Journal, retrieved 2011-03-29, page 8:

Hewitt, angered by being kept hanging around, went for the jugular, breaking Roddick’s first and third service games to set himself up for a victory completed with another error from Roddick’s forehand wing.

2005 January 29, Neil Harmon, “Hewitt to carry the hopes of a nation”, in times.online, UK, retrieved 2011-03-29:

We have just now completed the month of August, which is the cruelest month for Democrats, the month when Republicans go for the jugular, trotting out arguments — some valid, most scurrilous — that paint their Democratic rivals as weak, élite or unpatriotic.

2008 August 28, Joe Klein, “What Bush Taught McCain”, in Time:

Sorkin and Boyle don’t go for the jugular. What’s here is all surface-scratching, albeit entertaining and riveting in parts.

2015 October 21, Dana Barbuto, “Review: Aaron Sorkin makes ‘Steve Jobs’ work”, in Northwest Herald:

go for the throat
go for the throat#English


stabby

en-adj

stabby (comparative stabbier, superlative stabbiest)

stabbier (comparative)
stabbiest (superlative)

Her eyes are the stabby kind, worse than long hatpins. Honest, after one glance I felt like I was bein' held up on a fork.

1917, Sewell Ford, chapter VIII, in Wilt Thou Torchy, Grosset & Dunlap:

Then I catches the eye of the stiff-necked dame with the straight nose and the gun-metal hair. No, both eyes, it was; and a cold, suspicious, stabby look is what they shoots my way.

1918, Sewell Ford, chapter VII, in The House of Torchy, Grosset & Dunlap, page 98:

Toby glittered the tears into hard, stabby looks at his father and Ma.

1974, Pamela Rogers, The Rare One, T. Nelson, published 1974, page 54:

(of a look or eyes) penetrating and hostile


armed robbery

en-noun

armed robbery (countable and uncountable, plural armed robberies)

(law) A theft where the thieves are armed with weapons.

سَطْو مُسَلَّح

instance of robbery where the participants are armed


gay bash

en-verb

gay bash (third-person singular simple present gay bashes, present participle gay bashing, simple past and past participle gay bashed)

gay bashes (present singular third-person)
gay bashing (participle present)
gay bashed (participle past)
gay bashed (past)

Josh had to go to hospital last night after being gay bashed outside a pub.

(transitive, slang) To physically or verbally assault someone believed to be homosexual.

攻擊同性戀

physically assault someone believed to be homosexual


butchershop

(World War I– World War II military slang) A military hospital or its division where surgeries upon the wounded are performed.


CWT

Central War Time
Central War Time#English

(US, historical) Initialism of Central War Time.


angel of mercy

A type of mercy killer, i.e., a caregiver who is a serial killer, and who practices mercy killing on both the willing and unwilling, knowing and unknowing, dependent only on the killer's sense of a patient's level of suffering from their illness.


final solution

Criticizing China’s actions alone is not enough. The United States, which at first called the Nazis' Final Solution a "war rumor," according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, must not make the same mistake again. The United States cannot stand idly by and let its economic relationship with Beijing cloud its judgment.

2019, Grace Funk, “Opinion: The U.S. should do more to stop China's reeducation camps”, in Los Angeles Times:

(historical, often capitalized) The planned and attempted mass murder of the European Jews by the Nazis; the Holocaust.


Lincolnian

en-adj

Lincolnian (comparative more Lincolnian, superlative most Lincolnian)

more Lincolnian (comparative)
most Lincolnian (superlative)

Of or pertaining to Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), 16th president of the United States.


Strangelovian

Strangelovian (comparative more Strangelovian, superlative most Strangelovian)

more Strangelovian (comparative)
most Strangelovian (superlative)

From Strangelove + -ian, referring to the title character in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a black comedy satirizing the nuclear weapons scare.

Paul C. Warnke, President Jimmy Carter's first director of ACDA, came to Reagan's defense by noting the Strangelovian affection of some armchair strategists for nuclear weaponry.

1987, “INF Agreement in Principle”, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, volume 43, number 9, page 5:

How many hundreds of millions of dollars have been sunk into Strangelovian bunkers, how many tens of thousands of hours invested in preparing for that apocalyptic vision? Only a handful of senior doomsday officials may ever know...

1994, Mother Jones Magazine (volume 19, number 1, Jan-Feb 1994)

Just today, I read a Strangelovian story in the paper revealing that some of Russia's nuclear missiles, still aimed at the United States, have gone unattended because their guards were denied their bonus rations of four pounds of sausage a month.

2008, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Four Star Reviews — 1967-2007, page 833:

Of or pertaining to nuclear apocalypse, especially through incompetence or shortsightedness.


Skeffington's daughter

en-noun

Skeffington's daughter (plural Skeffington's daughters)

(historical) An old instrument of torture, a metal A-frame that compressed the body so as to force blood from the nose and ears.


Eighty Years' War

(historical) The conflict in the Low Countries against Spanish rule, from 1568 to 1648, that gradually turned into a Dutch war of independence.


puppet army

From puppet + army, a calque from Mandarin 傀儡軍／傀儡军 (kuǐlěijūn, “puppet army”).

(specifically) Such an army in China during the Sino-Japanese War.


doomsday weapon

doomsday weapon (plural doomsday weapons)


nuclear magnetic pulse

nuclear magnetic pulse (plural nuclear magnetic pulses)

electromagnetic pulse
electromagnetic pulse#English

An electromagnetic pulse caused by a nuclear explosion


electromagnetic pulse

electromagnetic pulse (plural electromagnetic pulses)

Compton-recoil electrons and photoelectrons from photons scattered in the materials of a nuclear event causing electric and magnetic fields to couple with electrical and electronic systems to produce damaging current surges.


Unknown Soldier

In 1920, following World War I, a monument to an Unknown Warrior was established in London and Paris simultaneously to the common memories of all soldiers killed in any war. Since then, monuments to the Unknown Soldier have been raised in many countries, each containing the body of one such unidentified soldier.

The representative of military personnel who have died unidentified without proper burial, usually in war.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Tomb of the Unknown Warrior

tuntematon sotilas

representative of unidentified fallen soldiers


duodecimate

head

duodecimate (past participle duodecimated)

Either from the Latin duodecimō (“I take one twelfth”) or an alteration of the Latin duodecimus (“twelfth”) by analogy with decimate.

He has duodecimated his difficulties by choosing twelve boy “heroes.”

1899, Current Literature, XXV, page 116:

Already [Sir James Frazer] has epitomized, and so to speak, duodecimated, the Golden Bough, while Lady Frazer has culled a florilegium from his works.

1928, Sir John Collings Squire, Rolfe Arnold Scott-James, The London Mercury, XVIII, page 446:

(rare, attested in the past participle only) To divide into twelfths; to divide duodecimally.

tertiate

reduce proportionately, by single aliquot part


domino theory

An allusion to a row of dominoes in which the fall of one leads to a cascade of falling pieces.

(politics, historical) Synonym of domino effect


onfall

From Middle English onfal, onfalle, equivalent to on- + fall. Cognate with Dutch aanval (“an attack, assault”), German Anfall (“an attack, seizure, fit”), Swedish anfall (“an attack, offensive, assault”). Compare also Middle English onfallynge (“an onslaught, attack”).

cog

Are we to have military onfall; and death also by starvation?

1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):

The onfall of the bishops had helped to wreck this possibility, [...]

1906, William Henry Fitchett, Wesley and his century: a study in spiritual forces:

Along with your 'brethren, Get ready your scaling ladders, And your engines of onfall and assault, To attack the walls of Khung.

Six great land battles I count, with four upon the sea, and seven-and-fifty onfalls, skirmishes and bushments.

2008, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company:

A falling on or upon; an attack, onset, or assault.


subcritical mass

en-noun

subcritical mass (plural subcritical masses)

(physics) A mass of fissile material that is insufficient to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.

alikriittinen massa

insufficient mass to sustain chain reaction


supercritical mass

supercritical mass (plural supercritical masses)

(physics) A mass of fissile material that is more than sufficient to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.


Kitchener

Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British field marshal in the First World War


sexual assault

sexual assault (countable and uncountable, plural sexual assaults)

their sample consisted of a much higher percentage of sexual assault and forcible rape cases than does the sample employed in the present study

1956, Albert Ellis, Ralph Brancale, The psychology of sex offenders, page 62:

Sexual Assault Services had its inception with a two-part seminar on Sensitivity and Awareness Training for the County Attorney's staff in early 1974

1974, The Hennepin Lawyer, Volume 43, page 12:

Instead, rape became an issue when women began to compare their experiences as children, teen-agers, students, workers, and wives and to realize that sexual assault, in one form or another, was common.

1974, New York Radical Feminists, Rape: the first sourcebook for women:

Sometimes rumors of sexual assault operated prior to the riot

1975, Terry Ann Knopf, Rumors, Race, and Riots, page 62:

1978, Sexual Assault of Children and Adolescents:

The result may not quite give the Wearsiders a sweet ending to what has been a sour week, following allegations of sexual assault and drug possession against defender Titus Bramble, but it does at least demonstrate that their spirit remains strong in the face of adversity.

2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes, “Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport:

A physical attack of a sexual nature on another person or a sexual act committed without explicit consent.


radioflash

radioflash (usually uncountable, plural radioflashes)

electromagnetic pulse
electromagnetic pulse


bone-crunching

en-adj

bone-crunching (comparative more bone-crunching, superlative most bone-crunching)

more bone-crunching (comparative)
most bone-crunching (superlative)

Indeed, when baby-voiced Teresa describes the bone-crunching finishes in her new home, a 12,000-square-foot French chateau simulacrum that’s “all granite, marble and onyx,” and avers her commitment to the brand-spanking new (“I just skeeve looking at other people’s houses,” she says.

2009 May 28, Penelope Green, “Jersey Girls, Nesting”, in New York Times:

The bone-crunching AC/DC classic Back In Black landed at number six, followed by Metallica's Enter Sandman and the chiming riff of The Beatles' Day Tripper at eight.

2009 November 27, “Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has 'best guitar riff'”, in BBC:

Back in August, the Toon ace was kicked from pillar to post by Karl Henry in a bone-crunching midfield battle at Molineux.

2011 April 2, Steve Brenner, “Joey will defy pack of Wolves”, in The Sun:

(idiomatic) Very violent or hard, as an impact.


nukeable

nukeable (comparative more nukeable, superlative most nukeable)

more nukeable (comparative)
most nukeable (superlative)


B-NICE

(emergency medicine) Initialism of biological, nuclear / radiological, incendiary, chemical, and explosive agents, used to remember the types of hazmat emergencies.


CBRN

weapons of mass destruction
weapon of mass destruction

(military, US, emergency medicine) Initialism of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear, used to remember the four types of weapons of mass destruction.


Quaker gun

An allusion to the pacifism associated with practitioners of the Quaker religion.

"At all events, your honour, I will carry the quaker in," said Joyce, tossing the stuffed figure on a shoulder. "He do to man the quaker gun at least, and may be of use in frightening some one of the other side."

1843, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 21, in Wyandotte:

The Quaker gun found there was consigned to the flames to-day, and in its stead heavy artillery, of the genuine sort, commands all the surrounding country.

1861 October 4, “The Great Rebellion”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-10-30:

(chiefly US, idiomatic, military, weaponry) A nonfunctional imitation of a gun or of a piece of artillery, typically made of wood and usually intended to deceive enemy forces into overestimating one's available firepower.


vitriolize

en-verb

vitriolize (third-person singular simple present vitriolizes, present participle vitriolizing, simple past and past participle vitriolized)

vitriolizes (present singular third-person)
vitriolizing (participle present)
vitriolized (participle past)
vitriolized (past)

(transitive, dated) To injure (a person) with sulfuric acid, as by throwing it upon the face.


American Civil War

A war fought in the United States between 1861 and 1865, between the Northern states (Union) and Southern states (Confederacy).

美國內戰

civil war in the United States (1861-1865)


monomachist

These colors, falling upon the throng of monomachists and loungers much as we see the aureate beams of divine favor fall on hierarchs in art, lent them an appearance insubstantial and thaumaturgic, as though they had all been produced a moment before by the flourish of a cloth and would vanish into the air again at a whistle.

1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XXVII, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 236:

One who fights in single combat; a duellist.


forcipation

And à punishment surely it is , though of great terror , yet by reason of the quick dispatching , of less torment far than either the wheel or forcipation , yea than simple burning

1592, Francis Bacon, Observations on a Libel:

(rare) torture by pinching with forceps or pinchers


gladiate

en-adj

gladiate (comparative more gladiate, superlative most gladiate)

more gladiate (comparative)
most gladiate (superlative)

The leaves of the iris and gladiolus are gladiate.


fire in anger

en-verb

fire in anger (third-person singular simple present fires in anger, present participle firing in anger, simple past and past participle fired in anger)

fires in anger (present singular third-person)
firing in anger (participle present)
fired in anger (participle past)
fired in anger (past)

The Napier of Magdala Battery never fired a shot in anger: it never engaged in combat.

(military, idiomatic) To fire a weapon with the intent of causing damage or harm to an opponent (as opposed to a warning shot or a practice shot).


splatterpunk

en-noun

splatterpunk (countable and uncountable, plural splatterpunks)

From splatter + -punk, coined in 1986 by David J. Schow at the Twelfth World Fantasy Convention in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

(uncountable) A movement within horror fiction distinguished by its graphic, often gory, depictions of violence.


Wilsonianism

An approach to foreign policy typical of US president Woodrow Wilson, characterized by the spread of capitalist democracy and an emphasis on openness, conflict resolution, and the self-determination of peoples.


wave the bloody shirt

en-verb

wave the bloody shirt (third-person singular simple present waves the bloody shirt, present participle waving the bloody shirt, simple past and past participle waved the bloody shirt)

waves the bloody shirt (present singular third-person)
waving the bloody shirt (participle present)
waved the bloody shirt (participle past)
waved the bloody shirt (past)

(US politics, slang) To mention martyrs and wars (especially the American Civil War) in an effort to draw empathy.


alfet

From Medieval Latin alfetum, from Old English alfæt (“fire-vat”), from āl (“fire”) + fæt (“vat”).

ALFET, antiently ſignified the Cauldron in which boiling Water was put, for the Accuſed to plunge his Hand in up to the Elbow, by way of Trial of Purgation.

[1728, E[phraim] Chambers, “Alfet”, in Cyclopædia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […] In Two Volumes, volumes I (A–H), London: […] James and John Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page 59, column 2:

Miss Twig, head bowed at the far end of the table, continued to eat placidly, but Jacko fixed her with a hard look. "His rooms, huh? Eh, Twigs," he said, "'tis the alfet for a ewbrice." ¶ Dimple gurgled, swallowed, and said, "And what, Jacko boy, might an alfet be?" ¶ Jacko grinned. "Yer tub a boilin' water. For duckin' class offenders."

1981, Edmund Apffel, The Last Days at St. Saturn's, New York, N.Y.: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, →ISBN, page 40:

(historical) A cauldron of boiling water into which an accused person plunged his forearm, used as a form of trial in Medieval England.


drive by shooting

en-noun

drive by shooting (plural drive by shootings)

In Hillcrest, a restaurant customer was struck by two bullets and paralyzed from the waist down in a drive-by shooting committed by the husband of a waitress.

2008, Alan Kaminsky, A complete guide to premises security litigation, page 233:

An assassination carried out from a moving vehicle while passing the victim.


START

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
w:Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

(law) Acronym of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.


Punic War

So ended the first and longest of the three Punic Wars; or, if viewed from a more romantic standpoint, the first act of a three-act tragedy, the tragedy of the destruction not only of Carthage but also of old Rome - of Rome the city state.

1992, Brian Caven, The Punic Wars, Barnes & Noble, page 64:

The first Punic War has ended in 241 BC, but another Punic War would begin in 218 BC.

2002, Richard Michael Pasichnyk, In Defense of Nature: The History Nobody Told You About, iUniverse, page 133:

The third and last Punic War (151-146 B.C.E) led to the complete destruction of Carthage.

2004, Kevin McGeough, The Romans: new perspectives, ABC-CLIO, page 69:

Any of several wars between Ancient Rome and Carthage.


rape kit

(informal, uncommon) A kit containing sex toys, condoms, and other adult paraphernalia that is used during the commission of a rape or sexual assault.


Civil War

Puritans had always been only a minority, albeit one with disproportionate influence. The Civil War of the 1640s, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the establishment of a republic, gave them supreme power.

2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 46:

Any of several civil wars, taken specifically.


Appomattox

The river was named after the Appamatuck tribe of Native Americans (whose name is from Powhatan). The town was named after the county, which in turn was named after the river.

Appomattox County
Appomattox County#English

A town, the county seat of Appomattox County, Virginia, United States, formerly known as Nebraska and Appomattox Station

A historic village in Appomattox County, Virginia, United States, formerly the county seat, also known as Clover Hill and Appomattox Court House


substrategic

(military, nuclear weapons) At a lesser level than full strategic nuclear warfare.


rope's-end

en-verb

rope's-end (third-person singular simple present rope's-ends, present participle rope's-ending, simple past and past participle rope's-ended)

rope's-ends (present singular third-person)
rope's-ending (participle present)
rope's-ended (participle past)
rope's-ended (past)

(transitive) To beat with the end of a rope.


prestrategic

(military, nuclear weapons) Before the onset of full strategic nuclear warfare.


victory garden

A kitchen garden planted in wartime to reduce the pressure on the public food supply.


Reb

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

1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:

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


tiger bench

A torture method, historically used especially in China, in which a person is tied in a sitting position with their legs straight in front of them, with their knees tied to the bench; bricks are placed under their feet until their knees or feet break.


Abbreviation of Military Intelligence, Section 9.

abbrev

(historical) A section of British military intelligence in World War II; they were charged with aiding resistance fighters in enemy territory and recovering Allied troops from behind enemy lines.


prolicide

en-noun

prolicide (countable and uncountable, plural prolicides)

Latin proles (“offspring”) + caedere (“kill”). Equivalent to + -cide.

PROLICIDE […] Admits of two divisions, fœticide or criminal abortion and infanticide or the destruction of the new born infant.

1827, Robley Dunglison, Syllabus of the Lectures on Medical Jurisprudence, page 93:

(uncountable) The crime of destroying one's offspring, either in the womb or after birth.


the Bomb

Alternative form of the bomb (as in a nuclear bomb)


ganch

en-verb

ganch (third-person singular simple present ganches, present participle ganching, simple past and past participle ganched)

ganches (present singular third-person)
ganching (participle present)
ganched (participle past)
ganched (past)

Compare French ganche, also Spanish and Portuguese gancho hook, Italian gancio.

He rose up in his place and rent his dress.
" Let them be ganched upon the hooks, " he cried,
" Throughout to-day, but not till they have died.
Then gather all the slaves, and flay these three
Alive, before them, that the slaves may see
What comes to dogs who try to get away.
So, ganch the three."

1923, John Masefield, Selected Poems (poem), Enslaved:

To drop from a high place on sharp stakes or hooks as a punishment.


N-bomb

The synthetic hallucinogen 25I-NBOMe, used as a recreational drug.


Billy Yank

American Civil War
American Civil War#English

(US, dated) A soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War.


minnie

(World War I military slang) A minenwerfer trench mortar.


knock into a cocked hat

knock into a cocked hat (third-person singular simple present knocks into a cocked hat, present participle knocking into a cocked hat, simple past and past participle knocked into a cocked hat)

knocks into a cocked hat (present singular third-person)
knocking into a cocked hat (participle present)
knocked into a cocked hat (participle past)
knocked into a cocked hat (past)

A cocked hat is one with the brim turned up to form two or three points (a bicorn or tricorn). The verb may refer:
* to someone or something being knocked or hit out of shape like such a hat, or a person having a cocked hat forced on to their head; or
* to a person knocking down all but three pins in a game of ninepins, or to the similar game called “cocked hat” in which only three pins are set up in a triangle, although these may simply be allusions to the shape of a tricorn. It has been pointed out that evidence linking these games to the verb is lacking.

Tho' I'll tell ye what, stranger, I'm none your mealy mouthed fellows, and I'm little jubus [dubious] that you're one of them there [John Quincy] Adams men. And I've just seen the time that I'd knock sich a fellow into a cocked hat as quick as name it. But [Andrew] Jackson is safe enough and he's jist the chickin what's able; Adams is done for til he's made over.

1830 November 13, “A rencounter. From the Connersville, Ind. Political Clarion.”, in Frederick-Town Herald, volume XXIX, number 27, Fredericktown, Md.: […] William Ogden Niles, →OCLC, page 4, column 3:

[…] I jumped up and told Tom a short horse was soon curried, and I'd knock him into a cocked-hat if he said another word. And that broke up the conversation.

1832, [James Kirke Paulding], “A Voyage, a Story, and a Land Adventure”, in Westward Ho! […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: […] J[ames] & J[ohn] Harper, […], →OCLC, page 123:

A N. York paper giving the details of a riot which occurred in that city, says that "a person was struck with a brick-bat, and knocked into a wheel-barrow." We have before heard of persons being "knocked into a grease spot," and of others who had been threatened with being "knocked into a cocked hat," but this is the first time we ever heard of any one being "knocked into a wheel barrow."

1833 June 27, Charles Gordon Greene, editor, The Boston Morning Post, volume IV, number 90, Boston, Mass.: Charles Gordon Greene, →OCLC, page 2, column 3:

[A] fortunate accident […] happened to me when I was a very little boy. A good-hearted old Irish nurse (whom I shall not forget in my will) took me up one day by the heels, when I was making more noise than was necessary, and, swinging me round two or three times, d——d my eyes for "a skreeking little spalpeen," and then knocked my head into a cocked hat against the bed-post. This, I say, decided my fate, and made my fortune.

1840 February, Edgar A[llan] Poe, “Peter Pendulum, the Business Man”, in William E[vans] Burton, Edgar Allan Poe, editors, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and American Monthly Review, volume VI, number II, Philadelphia, Pa.: William E. Burton, […], →OCLC, page 87:

A German astronomer says, that in twenty millions of years the earth will be destroyed by a comet! People may doubt and jeer at the idea: but wait till the time comes, and you’ll see that prophet, as the comet whisks along, knocking the earth into a ‘cocked hat,’ hanging by its tail, exclaiming, ‘I told you so, I told you so!’ But who will hear him?

1855 September, [Lewis Gaylord Clark], “Editor’s Table”, in Lewis Gaylord Clark, editor, The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XLVI, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Samuel Hueston, […], →OCLC, page 328:

Basil sprang up with dancing eyes, and with three blows like battering-rams knocked the footman into a cocked hat.

1904 July 9 and 16, Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “The Eccentric Seclusion of the Old Lady”, in The Club of Queer Trades, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, published April 1905, →OCLC, page 247:

(transitive, originally US, colloquial, dated) To beat up or seriously injure (a person); to badly damage (a thing).


decommunization

The act, process, or result of decommunizing.


blanket party

A form of corporal punishment or hazing formerly common in militaries in which the victim is restrained with a blanket and beaten.


bloodlusty

en-adj

bloodlusty (comparative more bloodlusty, superlative most bloodlusty)

more bloodlusty (comparative)
most bloodlusty (superlative)

Exhibiting bloodlust; violently aggressive; bloodthirsty.


Viet Minh

From Vietnamese Việt Minh, shorted form of Việt-Nam Độc-Lập Đông-Minh (Vietnam Independence League).

(historical) A Vietnamese Communist independence and nationalist movement led by Hồ Chí Minh in 1941 organized to wage a guerrilla war against the invading Imperial Japanese forces and later the French in an effort to drive colonialist powers out of Indochina.


abolitiondom

Abolitionists, specifically the northern states during the US Civil War.


A-bomber

From A-bomb + -er. (atomic bomber / atom bomber).

An aircraft capable of delivering an atomic bomb as a weapon.


Gulf War

(history) One of several wars fought at the Persian Gulf in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, principally the one from 1990 to 1991.


lick the pants off

en-verb

lick the pants off (third-person singular simple present licks the pants off, present participle licking the pants off, simple past and past participle licked the pants off)

licks the pants off (present singular third-person)
licking the pants off (participle present)
licked the pants off (participle past)
licked the pants off (past)

"Dang you, Luck, if you wasn't such a little runt I'd come up there and jest about lick the pants off you!"

1916, B. M. Bower, chapter 9, in The Heritage of the Sioux:

(transitive, idiomatic) To thoroughly and decisively defeat someone, either in a physical fight or, figuratively, in a competition.


beat the pants off

beat the pants off (third-person singular simple present beats the pants off, present participle beating the pants off, simple past beat the pants off, past participle beaten the pants off or beat the pants off)

beats the pants off (present singular third-person)
beating the pants off (participle present)
beat the pants off (past)
beaten the pants off (participle past)
beat the pants off (participle past)

American workers can outcompete and beat the pants off anybody, anywhere.

1987 September 6, Bernard Weinraub, “Reagan Tells Congress to Shun Protectionism”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-08-16:

Jeffrey Vinik, manager of the $56 billion Fidelity Magellan Fund, the world's largest and most closely watched mutual fund, "beat the pants off the managers of other large funds," in the words of one analyst.

1996 June 3, John Greenwald et al., “Magellan's New Direction”, in Time:

Their counterparts in Canada, Europe and Japan made less than half as much, sometimes while beating the pants off them in the marketplace.

2001 June 24, Janice Castro, “Business”, in Time:


philopolemic

en-adj

philopolemic (comparative more philopolemic, superlative most philopolemic)

more philopolemic (comparative)
most philopolemic (superlative)

/ˌfɪləʊpəˈlɛmɪk/

From philo- + polemic, modelled after Ancient Greek φιλοπόλεμος (philopólemos, “fond of war, warlike”), from φίλος (phílos, “beloved, dear; loving”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰil- (“decent, good; friendly, harmonious”)) + πόλεμος (pólemos, “war; battle”).

der

[L]et us direct our attention to what Plato and his best interpreter Proclus have transmitted to us concerning Minerva, who as a mundane deity is connected with ether, and has also an allotment in the celestial regions. Plato then in the Timæus describes this Goddess as both a lover of war, and a lover of wisdom; for he says that she is philopolemic and philosophic.

1816, Proclus, chapter XXI, in Thomas Taylor, transl., The Six Books of Proclus the Platonic Successor, on the Theology of Plato, Translated from the Greek; […] Two Volumes, volume II, London: Printed for the author, by A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], →OCLC, pages 164–165:

[H]e dropped his title, which has since remained in abeyance; all of which was done with such secrecy as would have been successful had he been fighting a less diabolical and philopolemic enemy than the descendants of the deeply-wronged and unforgiving Evangeline.

1899, Hanson Penn Diltz, Hollow Bracken: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Dillinghan, →OCLC, page 385:

Strange! as her thoughts hovered about this, his greeting, with the subtle feeling of elation, which ran with direct and certain evidence of philopolemic strength and ability to twine the threads of destiny straight from the loom of the master-spinner, her mind reverted unconsciously and without impetus on her part, to those words in the last letter of de Monasterys— […]

1904, Winefride Trafford-Taunton, chapter XXXVIII, in The Redemption of Damian Gier, London: Digby, Long & Co., […], →OCLC, page 298:

And what after all was this philopolemic building but a mausoleum in need of a body? His conscience thus quietened, Pascoe unscrewed the top of the urn, took out a handful of dust, examined it for fear, found it, […]

1996, Reginald Hill, The Wood Beyond (A Dalziel and Pascoe Novel; Collins Crime; book 14), London: HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN; republished London: Harper, 2009, →ISBN, page 42:

(rare) Exalting or supporting conflict or war.


SOE

Special Operations Executive
w:Special Operations Executive

(historical, World War II) Initialism of Special Operations Executive.


ADM

agency debit memo
agency debit memo#English

(travel) Initialism of agency debit memo.


blow to kingdom come

en-verb

blow to kingdom come (third-person singular simple present blows to kingdom come, present participle blowing to kingdom come, simple past blew to kingdom come, past participle blown to kingdom come)

blows to kingdom come (present singular third-person)
blowing to kingdom come (participle present)
blew to kingdom come (past)
blown to kingdom come (participle past)

/ˈbləʊ tə ˌkɪŋdəm ˈkʌm/

From blow (“to cause to explode, shatter, or be utterly destroyed”) + to + kingdom come (“place that one will go to after one’s death, afterlife; death; state of complete annihilation; heaven or paradise”). Kingdom come is derived from the phrase “Thy kingdom come” from the Lord’s Prayer which is recorded in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4 in the Bible: see, for example, Matthew 6:10 in the King James Version (spelling modernized): “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven.” By these sentences, Jesus seeks the establishment of the rule of God the Father over the Earth in the future.

If this gas ignites, it'll blow you to kingdom come, you venal viper!

1966 January 13, Lorenzo Semple Jr., “Smack in the Middle”, in Robert Butler, director, Batman, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Batman (Adam West), via American Broadcasting Company:

The hostages were trembling when they heard a man exclaim / “Let’s blow this place to kingdom come, let Con Edison take the blame”

1976, Jacques Levy, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Joey”, in Desire, performed by Bob Dylan:

(transitive, idiomatic) To totally destroy (something); to annihilate or wipe out (something).

démolir

to totally destroy (something) — see also annihilate, wipe out


Judas cradle

Derives its name from the biblical figure of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus Christ. It was believed that the torture device was named after Judas as a means of punishing those who were deemed to have betrayed their fellow man.

A purported torture device invented in Spain in the 16th century by the Spanish Inquisition by which the suspended victim’s orifice, usually the anus, was slowly impaled on and stretched by the pyramidal tip of the seat.


Swedish drink

A method of torture whereby a restrained victim is forced into consuming unsanitary, sometimes boiling liquids from a funnel.


Copperhead

After the dangerous copperhead snake, to which propagandists of the Republican Party compared Democrats interested in appeasement.

(US, historical, slang) A northerner who sympathized with the South or wanted to end hostilities during the American Civil War.


Truman

A place in the United States:
A city in Martin County, Minnesota.

An unincorporated community in Cameron County, Pennsylvania.

Lafayette County
Lafayette County#English

An unincorporated community in the town of Kendall, Lafayette County, Wisconsin.


scold's bridle

en-noun

scold's bridle (plural scold's bridles or scolds' bridles)

scold's bridles (plural)
scolds' bridles (plural)

An iron framework that encloses the head, once used as a form of public humiliation for a woman


spree killer

A murderer who kills two or more victims in a short time in multiple locations.


Shiloh

From Biblical Hebrew שִׁילֹה \ שִׁלֹה (shiló).

bor

שִׁילֹה \ שִׁלֹה

Shiloh
Shiloh (biblical city)
Shiloh (given name)

A number of places in the United States:

An unincorporated community in Marengo County, Alabama.

An unincorporated community in Illinois Township, Pope County, Arkansas.

A historical district in Springdale, Arkansas.

A former village in Brevard County, Florida.

St. Clair County
St. Clair County#English

A village in St. Clair County, Illinois.

An unincorporated community in Cass Township, Sullivan County, Indiana.

An unincorporated community in Calloway County, Kentucky.

Issaquena County
Issaquena County#English

A ghost town in Issaquena County, Mississippi.

Cumberland County
Cumberland County#English

A borough in Cumberland County, New Jersey.

census-designated place
census-designated place

Montgomery County
Montgomery County#English

A census-designated place in Harrison Township, Montgomery County, Ohio.

A census-designated place in West Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania.

A census-designated place in Sumter County, South Carolina.

An unincorporated community in Hardin County, Tennessee, location of the Battle of Shiloh.

An unincorporated community in Gregg County, Texas.

An unincorporated community in Waller County, Texas.

An unincorporated community in Bath County, Virginia.

King George County
King George County#English

An unincorporated community in King George County, Virginia.

An unincorporated community in Pulaski County, Virginia.

An unincorporated community in Stafford County, Virginia.

Hampshire County
Hampshire County#English

An unincorporated community in Hampshire County, West Virginia.

An unincorporated community in Raleigh County, West Virginia.

An unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia.

A number of townships in the United States, listed under Shiloh Township.


swack

en-adj

swack (comparative swacker, superlative swackest)

swacker (comparative)
swackest (superlative)

From Middle English swac (“weak”), possibly borrowed via Scots swack, ultimately from Old English *swæc (found in derivative swæcehēow (“weakmindedness, nonsense”)), from Proto-West Germanic *swak (“weak”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian swäk, West Frisian swak, Dutch zwak, German Low German swack, German schwach, Norwegian Bokmål svak.

Matthew advanced to the foot of the stairs and whistled. The signal had been expected, for presently he was joined by a swack youth of about eighteen years, who carried a couple of long salmon-spears.

1881, Charles Gibbon, For Lack of Gold, page 307:

A swack, healthy lass, with plump bust, arms, and legs (the last then evident), laughing lips, eyes over which the dark hair strayed—a guileless face, full of light and love.

1897, George A. Mackay, Where the Heather Grows, page 161:

it came the turn of a brave young childe with a red head and the swackest legs you ever saw, […] and as soon as he began the drill you saw he'd carry off the prize.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 37:

He made a run for shelter, and he was a swack enough lad them days for all his weight of years.

1949, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Journal, page 707:

He was a swack billy-boy, with the same high color as the landlord, and the same tight spaniel curls.

1953, Edward Ballard Garside, The Man from Brazil, page 162:


swack

en-noun

swack (countable and uncountable, plural swacks)

Considered dialect by Wright, but now widespread. Scottish National Dictionary proposes an origin in Old Scots (Middle English) swak ("to throw violently"). Compare Scots swak, swack (“to throw with violent force, dash", also "a hard blow or whack”). Compare also Middle Dutch swacken (“to shake, wave”).

My eighteen holes was simply a long ride in a golfmobile, with me stopping far too many times to take a swack at the ball.

1970, Dwight David Eisenhower, The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, page 2032:

She hit Kevin with a hard swack, rudely knocking him to his senses.

1991, Claudia McCormick, Raven at Sunrise, page 73:

[…]they needed nothing more than a good swack against a boulder.

1996 April, “SmartWool Socks”, in Backpacker, page 48:

We are certainly delighted to see you take another swack at microfilm and are sending our Chapter 14 on the subject.

1966, Civic Administration - Volume 18, page 3:

If we took too much at one time, we'd tip the police that we have operating motor vehicles. Instead, we steal it ten gallons at a swack.

1977, Gary K. Wolf, A Generation Removed, page 131:

I'm not sure how I feel about taking on the whole Establishment in one swack.

2011, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in America:

A single attempt or instance of taking action; a crack; a go.

You have more swack with their management than they do, the same way you have more swack with foreign leaders than any of the Ambassadors that you talked to.

1999, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings on the Nomination of Hon. Richard C. Holbrooke to Serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, page 41:


FGM

I met Leyla Hussein, an FGM survivor and anti-FGM activist, and we hit it off straight away. […] I worried that I didn’t have a right to talk about FGM as I don’t come from an FGM-practising community, but Leyla believes you can talk about whatever you like, regardless of whether you’ve been directly affected.

2015 April 11, Bridget Christie, “We’re a nation of armchair activists – what’s wrong with that?”, in The Guardian:

female genital mutilation
female genital mutilation#English

Initialism of female genital mutilation.


female genital mutilation

female genital mutilation (countable and uncountable, plural female genital mutilations)

Any mutilation of the female genitals done for non-medical reasons, such as the infliction of abrasion, burns (chemical or cauterizing), or cuts or slits, or amputation or piercing.


slobber knocker

slobber knocker (plural slobber knockers)

"I'm gonna flatten her with my own personal slobber-knocker block." "She'll never know what hit her!"

1993, Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain, The Berenstain Bears and the female fullback, page 68:

"Decleaters" are awarded to athletes at Wisconsin who stand up to "dee opponent and knocks him off dee cleats," while a player at Miami can receive a "slobber knocker" for slamming an opponent's saliva out of his mouth.

2006, Peter S. Finley, Laura L. Finley, The sports industry's war on athletes, page 72:

(informal) A violent collision experienced by a person.


capital murder

capital murder (countable and uncountable, plural capital murders)

(law) The crime of murder of a particular quality.


bromobenzyl cyanide

(organic chemistry) A lachrymatory agent (aka tear gas) introduced in World War I.


buncher

Each airfield had its own buncher which emitted a particular radio signal. Each plane had a radio compass so that when we flew toward the buncher, the compass would go straight up. When we flew over the buncher, it would point straight down.

2008, W. C. Gibson, “54: Lieutenant W.C. Gibson”, in Alan L. Griggs, editor, Flying Flak Alley: Personal Accounts of World War II Bomber Crew Combat, page 247:

(military, RAF, World War II) A ground-based radio transmitter, configured within a system to guide aircraft to their allocated airfields.


Bamboo Curtain

After iron curtain, the original Cold War “curtain” (in Europe). First used in Time magazine in 1949.

Gen. Wego Chiang, commander-in-chief of the Combined Service Forces, called on leaders of the free world to design an effective global strategy to safeguard world peace and to rescue the enslaved people behind the Bamboo Curtain.

1982 November 7, “ROC to aid joint security”, in Free China Weekly, volume XXIII, number 44, Taipei, page 1:

“A new bamboo curtain may be coming down on Southeast Asia,” he worried. This would not be a hard-and-fast wall like the Iron Curtain; nor would it be part of some newly imagined Asian domino theory.

2008 September, Robert D. Kaplan, “Lifting the Bamboo Curtain”, in The Atlantic:

As it had been for other Western reporters getting their first look behind the Bamboo Curtain, it was all a marvel for Payne. After all, here was a country that less than a quarter of a century ago had been destitute after three decades of revolutionary warfare.

2015, James McGrath Morris, Eye on the Struggle, Amistad, →ISBN, page 321:

(historical) The political and ideological barrier between the communist and capitalist states of Asia during the Cold War.

Бамбукавая заслона

political barrier between communist and capitalist in Asia

ബാംബൂ കർട്ടൻ

bāmbū kaṟṭṭaṉ


bangstry

"How much money did you get back?"
"Not a centime, especially now that he's met with bangstry."

2013, CSI (TV show), season 13, episode 16


Starfish site

Wartime code name derived from the initials SF for special fire.

(UK, historical, World War II) Any of the decoy cities built in the British countryside and set on fire during nearby bombing raids to divert German bombers away from their intended targets.


teensploitation

From teen + -sploitation (from exploitation film). From 1980s.

We sat down to watch a teensploitation slasher flick.

With 1955's Blackboard Jungle—the first film to traffic heavily in youth rebellion and sex, the twin pillars of any teenager's existence—a brilliant, if obvious, new genre of film was born: teensploitation, movies about teenagers made for teenagers but watched by everybody.

1999 February, Bill Sienkiewicz, “Forever Young”, in SPIN, SPIN Media, page 64:

1999, Edmond Grant, The Motion Picture Guide: 1999 Annual (The Films of 1998), CineBooks, page vii,
Adrian Lyne's LOLITA was more notable for the terror it struck in controversy-shy American distributors than for its content, reducing taboo subject matter to a teensploitation film with a literary pedigree.

The influence of Rebel Without a Cause is difficult to underestimate.^([sic]) Despite what appeared to be just another entry in the burgeoning teensploitation trend, the film distinguished itself for a variety of reasons.

2005, Rob McInnes, Timothy Shary, Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen, Columbia University Press (Wallflower), page 21:

(film) A genre of exploitation films, starring teenage actors with teen-oriented plots involving drugs, sex, alcohol or crime.


SALT

(politics) Acronym of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.


Malebolge

Unadapted borrowing from Italian Malebolge (literally “Evil Ditches”). See bolgia.

unadapted borrowing

The eighth circle of Hell in the Divine Comedy.


squassation

en-noun

squassation (countable and uncountable, plural squassations)

A variant of the strappado in which the victim's ankles are also tied with heavy weights attached.


outkill

en-verb

outkill (third-person singular simple present outkills, present participle outkilling, simple past and past participle outkilled)

outkills (present singular third-person)
outkilling (participle present)
outkilled (participle past)
outkilled (past)

Southerners do not outkill northerners in homicides carried out during robberies, they found, only in those sparked by quarrels.

2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 119:

(transitive, stative) To kill more than.


hemoclysm

Coined by Matthew White (a historian) (see citation 1998, below), from hemo- + Ancient Greek κλυσμός (klusmós, “wash; flood”).

bor

It's very possible, therefore, that future historians will consider these events to be mere episodes of a single massive upheaval -- the "Hemoclysm", to give it a name (Greek for "blood flood") -- which took the lives of some 155 million people.

1998, Matthew White, “30 Worst Atrocities of the 20th Century”, in Twentieth Century Atlas:

In 1911, the Eastern hemoclysm, a Greek term for "blood flood," began with the ousting of the Manchu dynasty in China, leading to thirty-eight years of Civil War and a Japanese invasion.

2001, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Misbegotten Anguish, page 67:

‘The twentieth century was the bloodiest in history’ […] The claim is rarely backed up by numbers from any century other than the 20th, or by a mention of the hemoclysms of centuries past.

2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, page 233:

During the early phase of the Hemoclysm war still possessed a thin veneer of glory, soldiers dying with greater frequency than the unarmed masses of civilians.

2013, Carl Mosk, Nationalism and Economic Development in Modern Asia, page 233:

A violent and bloody conflict, a bloodbath; specifically (chiefly with capital initial), the period of the mid-twentieth century encompassing both world wars.


female genital cutting

Female genital cutting (FGC) is an ancient practice that affects girls and young women around the world, defining the identity of women in cultures where it is practised.

2007 May 9, Jean-Roger Kaseki, The Guardian:

Tolerance may run out, however, when a violation breaches a sacred value, as when immigrants to Western countries practice female genital cutting, honor killings, or the sale of underage brides […].

2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 764:

Female genital mutilation
female genital mutilation


art of war

The numerous strategies and tactics available to military leaders during combat.


give battle

en-verb

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

gives battle (present singular third-person)
giving battle (participle present)
gave battle (past)
given battle (participle past)

(dated) To engage in warfare; to attack or fight with military force.


thrill kill

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

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

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

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

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


C$

Canadian dollar
Confederate States dollar


torturee

/ˌtɔːtjʊəˈɹiː/

Regardless of the guilt of the agent, it is most important that torture is only used against individuals who actually possess the relevant information. It will be rare that conclusive proof is available that an individual does, in fact, possess the required knowledge; for example, potential torturees will not have been through a trial process in which their guilt has been established.

2007, Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke, Torture: When the Unthinkable is Morally Permissible, Albany: State University of New York Press (hardcover) (paperback), page 37

One who is subjected to torture; a torture victim.


Hindenburg

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

Paul von Hindenburg, German field marshal in the First World War and second President of the Weimar Republic.


Red Army

Calque of Russian Красная Армия (Krasnaja Armija). The red was the traditional color of the communist movement which was the official ideology of the Soviets at the period.

calque

Красная Армия

(historical, military) Name of the Soviet army in the period 1918–1946.

(historical, informal, military) The Soviet Armed Forces.

If Russia’s President Vladimir Putin could order his troops into his neighbor with impunity, surely China’s President Xi Jinping might finally decide to recover Taiwan, the island province that has remained staunchly independent ever since Mao Zedong’s Red Army finished his conquest of the mainland in 1949.

2022 August 30, Donald Kirk, “Could China invade South Korea after Taiwan?”, in The Hill, archived from the original on 2022-08-30:

(historical, military) The Chinese Red Army.

(informal, military) The Russian Armed Forces, especially the Ground Forces component.


War

Through much of the War, Hitler carried his painter's kit, did water colors of War-ruined buildings.

1939 October 30, “Paintings by Adolf Hitler”, in Life, volume 7, number 18, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 52:

Preceded by the: designating a particularly notable war.

(chiefly British, informal) World War II.

The personification of war, often depicted in armour and riding a red horse; the red rider.


nuclear warfare

The use of nuclear weapons as weapons of war.


Purex

Shortening of plutonium uranium extraction.

A chemical method used to purify fuel for nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons, based on liquid–liquid extraction ion-exchange.


invasion money

(historical, World War II) Currency issued by the Japanese government for use in its occupied territories.


torture chamber

en-noun

torture chamber (plural torture chambers)

A room equipped for carrying out torture.


South Vietnam

China is so large, looms so high just beyond the frontiers, that if South Vietnam went, it would not only give them an improved geographic position for the guerrilla assault on Malaya but would also give the impression that the wave of the future in Southeast Asia was China and the Communists. So I believe it.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, quoting John F. Kennedy, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 61:

(historical) A state, officially the Republic of Vietnam, that governed southern Vietnam in 1955–1975.


bounty jumper

(US, slang, historical) One who, during the latter part of the Civil War, enlisted in the United States service, and deserted as soon as possible after receiving the bounty.


irregular warfare

epäsäännöllinen sodankäynti

warfare in which one or more combatants are irregulars

2005, Robert Russell Mackey, The Uncivil War: Irregular Warfare in the Upper South, 1861-1865, →ISBN:

Studying the raid's effect on one community reveals how the different forms of irregular warfare — partisan warfare, guerrilla tactics, and cavalry raids — intertwined along the Ohio River border.

2010, Stephen I. Rockenback, “The Spoliation of Defenseless Farmers and Villagers”, in U.S. Army and Irregular Warfare 1775-2007: Selected Papers, →ISBN:

2011, John Arquilla, Insurgents, Raiders, and Bandits: How masters of irregular warfare shaped our world, →ISBN:

Warfare in which one or more combatants are irregulars (such as partisans, guerrillas or insurgents) rather than regular military forces.

(in particular) Warfare with the aim of gaining or establishing political authority using asymmetric warfare tactics.


CEP

The Circular Error Probable (CEPs) of SLBMs and SLCMs ought thus to be deliberately kept above the 'Hard Target Kill' (HTK) level.

1989, Marlies ter Borg-Neervoort, Wim Smit, Non-provocative Defence as a Principle of Arms Reduction:

(ballistics) An initialism of three synonymous phrases, namely:

circular error probable
w:circular error probable


nukespeak

From nuke + -speak, coined by linguist Paul Chilton.

A form of misleading language used to present nuclear weapons in a positive light.


autogenocide

From auto- + genocide, coined in the late 1970s.

If Anita Bryantt really wants to devastate gay liberation, she should pry her fingers from her Bible long enough to thumb through the printed gay media. Scathing onslaughts may be fun, but they aren't very productive. Will we never cease practicing intellectual autogenocide?

1977 April 30, Hugh Crell, “Unproductive Onslaughts”, in Gay Community News, page 4:

Genocide of a particular group by members of that group.


Secession War

(outside the US) The American Civil War.


intimate partner violence

Domestic violence between people who are in an intimate relationship.


Scotch mist

Scotch mist (countable and uncountable, plural Scotch mists)

(UK, dialect, chiefly Lancashire and Yorkshire, idiomatic) Something that is hard to find or does not exist.

(World War II) Something imaginary, nonexistant, or overlooked.

chiefly Lancashire and Yorkshire; World War II; World War II


Bay of Pigs

A small inlet on the southern side of Cuba, site of a famous failed invasion in 1961.


Crimean War

He also thought nothing of laying down a railway in a war zone. For example, he was one of those behind the Grand Crimean Central Railway, built during the Crimean War [...].

2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Chester (1848)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 57:

(historical) A conflict held mostly in the Crimean Peninsula between October 1853 and February 1856, in which Russian troops were defeated to an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia.

Кырым сугышы

Qırım suğışı


fight it out

en-verb

fight it out (third-person singular simple present fights it out, present participle fighting it out, simple past and past participle fought it out)

fights it out (present singular third-person)
fighting it out (participle present)
fought it out (participle past)
fought it out (past)

To fight until there is decisively and conclusively a winner


battered baby syndrome

shaken baby syndrome
shaken baby syndrome#English


Midway

An atoll in the North Pacific. Known for its World War II battle.


Gallipoli

From Italian Gallipoli, from Turkish and late variant forms of Byzantine Greek Καλλίπολις (Kallípolis, “Callipolis”), from the combining form of Ancient Greek κάλλος (kállos, “beauty, beautiful”) + πόλις (pólis, “city, city-state”). Doublet of Gelibolu, Callipolis, and Kallipolis.

doublet

(by ellipsis, historical) The Gallipoli Campaign (1915–16) in World War I.


wave the white flag

en-verb

wave the white flag (third-person singular simple present waves the white flag, present participle waving the white flag, simple past and past participle waved the white flag)

waves the white flag (present singular third-person)
waving the white flag (participle present)
waved the white flag (participle past)
waved the white flag (past)

I started in with a fine left-hander on his right eye. Liverpool had been a fighter once, but dissipation and bad company had taken the nerve out of him. In ten minutes I had him lying on the sand waving the white flag.

1911, O Henry, “The Day We Celebrate”, in Sixes and Sevens:

Last week the Herald waved the white flag, editorialized: "In view of the Professor's unfortunate exposé of Boston newspaper punditing, we have little alternative but to follow his advice."

1951 May 21, “The Press: Fog Cutter”, in Time, retrieved 2014-04-25:

The Louisiana governor accused the president of “waving the white flag” on the American economy.

2014 Feb. 24, "Bobby Jindal After Meeting With Obama" (video), New York Times (retrieved 25 April 2014)

(figurative) To yield, give up, or quit.


kick ass and take names

kick ass and take names (third-person singular simple present kicks ass and takes names, present participle kicking ass and taking names, simple past kicked ass and took names, past participle kicked ass and taken names)

kicks ass and takes names (present singular third-person)
kicking ass and taking names (participle present)
kicked ass and took names (past)
kicked ass and taken names (participle past)

We kick ass and take names and call muster.

1987, Pat Conroy, The Lords of Discipline, page 394:

Hell, I thought, if I were wearing that star, I'd kick ass and take names and have this place turned upside down in a week.

1990, David H. Hackworth, Julie Sherman, About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior, page 217:

“Fitz,” Assistant Director Roy McKinnon said the day he summoned me to his office at headquarters in Washington in late 1980, “we need an Irishman to go to Boston to kick ass and take names.”

2012, Robert Fitzpatrick, Betrayal, page 17:

(idiomatic, US, Canada, colloquial) To beat someone in a competition, fight, or other situation.


bunker buster

(military) A bomb designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground.


From the years in which the war was fought, 1914 to 1918.


nuclear option

From analogy with the political decision to be the first to use nuclear weapons in a war.

So now that the Republicans have used the nuclear option to kill the poor filibuster to clear the way for the elevation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, we can lose perspective.

2017 April 5, Steven Waldman, “Learning to Love the Nuclear Option”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US politics) A procedure by which the United States Senate can decide any issue with a simple majority, rather than the usual supermajority.


child labour

(British spelling, Canadian spelling) Work performed by a minor that is prohibited by statute law, or under terms and conditions considered inhumane.


Stars and Bars

Confederate States
Confederate States of America

The first national flag of the Confederate States.


die in the last ditch

die in the last ditch (third-person singular simple present dies in the last ditch, present participle dying in the last ditch, simple past and past participle died in the last ditch)

dies in the last ditch (present singular third-person)
dying in the last ditch (participle present)
died in the last ditch (participle past)
died in the last ditch (past)

Popularized from an 1847 translation by Agnes Strickland of a quote attributed to William of Orange during the French invasion of 1672 on his being advised to surrender Holland to Louis XIV: "No, I mean to die in the last ditch."

To fight till death; to die rather than surrender.


Rhenish Palatinate

County Palatinate of the Rhine
County Palatinate of the Rhine

(historical) The County Palatinate of the Rhine, particularly during the time between the Napoleonic Wars and the end of World War II (1816–1945), when it was in personal union with Bavaria.


asymmetrical warfare

asymmetric warfare
asymmetric warfare#English


compo ration

(British, World War II, historical) A composition ration; a crate containing food, tea, soap, toilet paper etc. for 14 men for one day.


romper room

(Ireland, history) A room where victims are tortured and murdered.


Wagnerite

Until international law settles the status of PMCs, the Kremlin will continue to use them in the international arena. According to Reuters, about 400 ‘Wagnerites’ have been recently sent to Venezuela to protect president Nicolas Maduro.

2019 January 31, Denis Shpigov, “Wagner group: Mercenaries protecting Kremlin’s interests worldwide”, in BelsatTV, archived from the original on 2023-03-15:

Wagnerites: "We need more drones, ideally armed. And MRAPs, and more thermal sights, and better comms, and new helicopters to replace those lost..."
Prigozhin: "Best I can do is another movie"

2021 December 5, @AbraxasSpa, Twitter, retrieved 2023-03-15:

“The enemy again made a desperate attempt to storm the city of Soledar from different directions and threw the most professional units of the Wagnerites into battle,” Ukraine’s military said on Monday, echoing comments made by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Sunday.

2023 January 9, Peter Beaumont, “Ukraine reinforces Bakhmut defences amid relentless Russian assault”, in The Guardian:

"We will not leave Bakhmut," vowed Prigozhin in his audio message. "We'll simply die in double the numbers until all [the Wagnerites] are finished. And when the Wagnerites are completely finished, most likely Shoigu and Gerasimov will have to pick up machine guns."

2023 February 22, Paul Kirby, “Russian Wagner chief Prigozhin blames ammunition shortage for high deaths”, in BBC News:

(military) A mercenary from the Wagner Group PMC.


sic semper tyrannis

From the Latin sīc semper tyrannīs (“thus always to tyrants”). While the line is sometimes said to have been uttered by Brutus after he assassinated Julius Caesar, the utterance itself is recorded in no ancient sources and appears to be a modern invention. It is probably a Latin translation by the US Founding Father George Wythe of what Tiberius Gracchus' grandfather, the general and statesman Scipio Aemilianus, said when he heard of the assassination of his grandson. According to Plutarch (21.4), he reacted by quoting Homer's Odyssey (1.47): ὡς ἀπόλοιτο καὶ ἄλλος, ὅτις τοιαῦτά γε ῥέζοι (And so perish all who do the same). This etymology is presented by Mike Fontaine, though he mentions both Wythe and George Mason as possible translators, which is very unlikely since Wythe is famous as a Classicist whereas there is no recorded mention of Mason's knowledge of Greek.

der

Thus always to tyrants; tyrannical leaders will inevitably be overthrown.

George Mason
George Wythe
John Wilkes Booth
Julius Caesar
Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger
Tiberius Gracchus


multiple rocket launcher

en-noun

multiple rocket launcher (plural multiple rocket launchers)

(military) An artillery weapon consisting of an array of rails or tubes used to fire rockets.


out for blood

He watched out for the men in his unit, for the one woman who had saved them so many years ago when they were still raw teens out for blood and revenge on the world, and he watched out for anyone else they stumbled across in their lives that needed protection.

2007, Christine Feehan, Deadly Game, Penguin, →ISBN, page 55:

(idiomatic) With the intent of killing or severely injuring somebody (especially out of revenge).


TNT equivalent

The amount of energy released by an explosion expressed in terms of the amount of TNT needed to generate a similar explosion. Used especially to describe nuclear bombs.


multimurder

Sergeant Vincensio Mahero once again received a call to view a multimurder scene that indicated it to be a professional execution, possibly of a political nature.


shirt-front

en-verb

shirt-front (third-person singular simple present shirt-fronts, present participle shirt-fronting, simple past and past participle shirt-fronted)

shirt-fronts (present singular third-person)
shirt-fronting (participle present)
shirt-fronted (participle past)
shirt-fronted (past)

(sports) To knock down an opponent by colliding with them chest-to-chest (Australian rules football) or tackle them by grabbing their chest by their shirt front and wrestling them to the ground (rugby league football).


aggressionism

A doctrine or worldview which is in favor of violence


freeboot

freeboot (third-person singular simple present freeboots, present participle freebooting, simple past and past participle freebooted)

freeboots (present singular third-person)
freebooting (participle present)
freebooted (participle past)
freebooted (past)


robot revolution

en-noun

robot revolution (plural robot revolutions)

(science fiction) A violent uprising by sapient robots, aimed at overthrowing human government.


rubber-hose cryptanalysis

Referring to the use of a rubber hose as a weapon to beat somebody with.

We have shown that GNUnet is vulnerable to rubber-hose cryptanalysis, but we additionally have presented an efficient content filter for GNUnet. If content filtering is legally enforced, censoring GNUnet is possible at a very large scale.

2003, Dennis Kügler, “An Analysis of GNUnet”, in Privacy Enhancing Technologies: Third International Workshop, edited by Roger Dingledine, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 175:

Catherine scooted out of the way, giving Terry access to the keyboard. With a labored sigh, Terry began searching the encrypted text. “I could try a ciphertext-only attack,” he mumbled to no one in particular. “Then again,” he glared at the attacker and continued, “I could always try rubber-hose cryptanalysis.” He thought for a moment. “I don't need a total break; I'm only interested in information deduction. Let me check the swap file.”

2005, Ryan Russell, Peter A Riley, Jay Beale, Chris Hurley, Tom Parker, Brian Hatch, Stealing the Network: How to Own an Identity: How to Own an Identity, Syngress, →ISBN, page 279:

Other types of cryptanalytic attacks include chosen cipher text, chosen key, rubber hose cryptanalysis, and purchase key. Algorithms differ by degrees of security; this depends on how hard they are to break.

2010, Hazarathaiah Malepati, Digital Media Processing: DSP Algorithms Using C, Newnes, →ISBN, page 18:

(cryptography, euphemistic) The extraction of cryptographic secrets by coercion or torture.


blood atonement

A controversial Mormon doctrine that taught that murder is so heinous that the atonement of Jesus Christ does not apply, and the perpetrator must instead have their blood shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering.


enhanced interrogation technique

enhanced interrogation technique (plural enhanced interrogation techniques)

enhanced interrogation techniques (plural)

Coined by the George W. Bush administration (administration of the 43rd president of the United States of America), with the antecedent German verschärfte Vernehmung (“enhanced interrogation”).

calque

(US, euphemistic, primarily plural) Torture.


Tucker telephone

en-noun

Tucker telephone (plural Tucker telephones)

Named after the Tucker State Prison Farm, where its inventor Dr. A. E. Rollins worked.

The inmate doctor wired him up on the "Tucker Telephone" with one wire to his penis and another to his big toe.

1992, British Medical Association, quoting Case report: Tucker State Prison Farm, Tucker, Arkansas (1966), Medicine Betrayed: The Participation of Doctors in Human Rights Abuses, Zed Books, page 33:

Although they enjoined the use of the Tucker telephone and similar instruments of torture, they noted that the Department of Corrections had dismissed a number of officials implicated in past violations and had instituted new rules to govern corporal punishment.

2000 March 18, Malcolm M. Feeley with Edward L. Rubin, Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America's Prisons, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 57:

A torture device for giving electric shocks, designed using parts from an old-fashioned crank telephone.


police violence

19 December 2014, Paul M Farber in The Guardian Online, Die-ins demand that we bear witness to black people's fears that they'll be next
Convened largely by black youth activists, well-attended marches against police violence in dozens of US cities are convincing displays of growing dissent – but the related acts of urgent public mourning are tools of moral indictment, not just protest. Activists are staging their own deaths because speaking out against systemic racism no longer feels like enough.


war by proxy

war by proxy (plural wars by proxy or wars by proxies)

wars by proxy (plural)
wars by proxies (plural)


war of aggression

war of aggression (plural wars of aggression)

The crime of war, the crime of the war of aggression, and the crime of aggression are clearly three different crimes with three different facts of the case. For a complex judgment of war, they nonetheless overlap with one another, and their separation seems to a large section of public opinion a mere juridical artifice.

2011, Carl Schmitt, edited by Timothy Nunan, Writings on War, Polity, →ISBN, page 149:

(international law) A military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense, usually for territorial gain and subjugation.


FGC

FGC (countable and uncountable, plural FGCs)

female genital cutting
female genital cutting#English

(uncountable) Initialism of female genital cutting.

(countable, fandom slang, video games) Initialism of fighting game community.


knifeplay

Reinhart had finished his neat knifeplay, having transformed a half-pound of slab bacon into an accumulation of little strips measuring half an inch by an inch and a half.

1981, Thomas Berger, Reinhart's Women, Open Road, published 2013, →ISBN:

"Can't either of you think? If we have to fight I want you to blary win. For that you need training and practice. Swordplay, knifeplay, bare-knuckle, staves. Archery. Trickery. Everything."

2009, Robert V. S. Redick, The Ruling Sea, Del Ray, published 2011, →ISBN, page 138:

After a tense confrontation that almost lead to knifeplay, Lawrence recounted, "Mohammed Said and Abd el Kader then went away, breaking vengeance against me as a Christian."

2013, Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East, Knopf, →ISBN:

The act of fighting or cutting with a knife.

When the professor turned out to be too warped even for my tastes — consensual knifeplay is one thing; drunken gunplay quite another […]

2009, Quince Mountain, “Cowboy for Christ”, in Jeff Sharlet, Peter Manseau, editors, Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith, Beacon Press, →ISBN, page 116:

Michael's knifeplay had never aroused him, but that fact had never concerned Jonathan, for Michael had never insisted upon it.

2009, Erastes, Transgressions, Running Press, →ISBN, page 318:

Partly because I loved milder forms of knifeplay but had never taken it as far as I'd fantasized, but mostly because of her.

2014, D. L. King, She Who Must Be Obeyed, Lethe Press, →ISBN, page 106:

(BDSM) A sexual practice involving the use of knives, daggers, or swords for physical and mental stimulation.


North Vietnam

When we visited Laos, I had lunch with Souvanna Phouma. During the course of the lunch, he said we ought to bomb Red China, that it was the effective way to stop their aid to North Vietnam.

1976, Hubert H. Humphrey, The Education of a Public Man: My Life and Politics, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 333:

Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Democratic Republic of Vietnam

(historical) A state (officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) that governed northern Vietnam in 1945–1975.

Vietnam i Veriut

(historical) a state (officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) that governed northern Vietnam in 1945–1975


REB

Borrowed from Russian РЭБ (REB), abbreviation of радиоэлектронная борьба (radioelektronnaja borʹba, “radio-electronic combat”).

Even though the relationship between the Information Troops and the existing REB Troops is not completely clear, REB Troops were one of the few elements of the Russian forces whose performance did not suffer intense cricisism
[note] REB Troops are the Voyska radioelektronnoy bor’by, or Voyska REB — the Russian military’s electronic warfare branch.

2012, “A Slovenian Perspective on Cyber Warfare”, in Daniel Ventre, editor, Cyber Conflict: Competing National Perspectives, London: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

The Russian command created groupings of radio-electronic combat (REB) forces designed to work at the tactical control level. During the First Chechen War, REB forces experienced a narrow frequency range for their equipment and an insufficient level of automation.

2003, Anne C. Aldis, Roger N. McDermott eds., Russian Military Reform 1992–2002, London: Frank Cass Publishers, →ISBN:

The development of a nuclear-powered ship with a standard-displacement of a 75,000–80,000 tons with an aircraft fleet of “No less than 7 LAk [carrier-based aircraft],” which included fighter aircraft, ground attack aircraft, and ASW, RTR [radio-relay support], REB [electronic warfare], and RLD [radar picket] aircraft and various types of helicopters.

1992, Warship International, volume 29, Rutland, Mass.: International Naval Research Organization, page 210:

(chiefly in a Russian context) electronic warfare and related techniques, equipment, or troops.


armed conflict

armed conflict (countable and uncountable, plural armed conflicts)

(international law, military) A contested incompatibility that entails the use of armed force between two parties including a territory, the government of a state, or both.


Pig War

(historical) A diplomatic dispute involving the United States and the United Kingdom over the Oregon Treaty boundary around the San Juan Islands, which began with an American farmer shooting a British company's pig in 1859.


Beaver Wars

Great Peace of Montreal
Great Peace of Montreal

a number of mid-17th century wars fought over land and the fur trade in the Great Lakes region, which ended with the signing of the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701.


knock some sense into

en-verb

knock some sense into (third-person singular simple present knocks some sense into, present participle knocking some sense into, simple past and past participle knocked some sense into)

knocks some sense into (present singular third-person)
knocking some sense into (participle present)
knocked some sense into (participle past)
knocked some sense into (past)

(idiomatic) To reprimand or reform someone vigorously.


Vicksburg

A city, the county seat of Warren County, Mississippi, United States.


war profiteer

Microsoft workers are calling on their employer to cancel a $480m contract to provide the US army with augmented reality (AR) headsets, saying they “do not want to become war profiteers”.

2019 February 22, Julia Carrie Wong, quoting Microsoft workers, “‘We won't be war profiteers’: Microsoft workers protest $480m army contract”, in The Guardian:

A person or group that gains a significant amount of revenue from selling weapons and military equipment.

Kriegsgewinnler

person or group that gains from selling weapons and military equipment


depraved-heart murder

en-noun

depraved-heart murder (countable and uncountable, plural depraved-heart murders)

(law, countable, uncountable) Murder that is the result of an act which is dangerous to others and shows that the perpetrator has a depraved mind and no regard for human life.


gorilla pimp

Coordinate term: sugar pimp

(slang, informal) A pimp who is physically violent toward the prostitutes he manages.


Winter War

(historical) A war between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1939 to 1940.