denuclearize

denuclearize (third-person singular simple present denuclearizes, present participle denuclearizing, simple past and past participle denuclearized)

denuclearizes (present singular third-person)
denuclearizing (participle present)
denuclearized (participle past)
denuclearized (past)

(transitive) To ban, remove or reduce the numbers of nuclear weapons in an area.


take by storm

en-verb

take by storm (third-person singular simple present takes by storm, present participle taking by storm, simple past took by storm, past participle taken by storm)

takes by storm (present singular third-person)
taking by storm (participle present)
took by storm (past)
taken by storm (participle past)

The soldiers took the castle by storm.

(transitive, military) To capture by means of a sudden, overwhelming attack.


Iwo Jima

Bernardo de la Torre
Iwo Jima
Iōjima (Kagoshima)
James Cook

From the early modern Japanese misreading Iwōjima for 硫黄島 (Iwōtō, “Sulfur Island”), a calque of English Sulphur Island in accounts of James Cook's voyages, possibly originally from Early Modern Spanish Isla Sufre although the island was left unnamed by its first known discoverer Bernardo de la Torre.

Not many weeks before, during the battle for Iwo Jima, Joe Rosenthal, an Associated Press photographer, had taken his inspired photograph of the American flag being raised on Mount Suribachi.

1955, Harry S Truman, Memoirs of Harry S. Truman: Year of Decisions, volume I, Signet Books, published 1965, →OCLC, →OL, page 82:

A volcanic island in the Volcano Islands, in the North Pacific, now administered as part of Tokyo's Ogasawara Subprefecture and most famous for a major battle in World War II.


caning

en-noun

caning (countable and uncountable, plural canings)


savaging

Aggressive behavior, by a mother animal toward her offspring


Reagan

Audio (US)

Anglicized from Irish Gaelic Ó Riagáin "descendant of Riagán", a personal name possibly derived from ríodhgach "impulsive, furious".

Of the administration of Ronald Reagan, U.S. President from 1981–1989.

A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.

A female given name transferred from the surname, of 1970s and later American usage.


hamesucken

hamesucken (usually uncountable, plural hamesuckens)

From Old English hám-sócn, literally "home-seeking, an attack upon a house; also the fine exacted for this". Compare German Heimsuchung.

Coordinate term: stouthrief

(Scotland) An assault on a person in his own home, having broken in for that purpose.


brank

Compare Gaelic brangus, brangas, a sort of pillory, Irish brancas, halter, or Dutch pranger, fetter.

(usually in the plural) A metal bridle formerly used as a torture device to hold the head of a scold and restrain the tongue.


Confederate States of America

the Confederate States of America (canonical)

United States of America
United States of America

(historical) An unrecognized nation existing from 1861–1865, consisting of the eleven Southern states who sought independence from the United States of America over the issue of slavery.


truck driver

(military slang, World War I– World War II) A bomber pilot.


pro-nuclear

en-adj

pro-nuclear (comparative more pro-nuclear, superlative most pro-nuclear)

more pro-nuclear (comparative)
most pro-nuclear (superlative)

In favor of the use of nuclear energy and the building of nuclear power plants.


Manassas

Μανασσας

city in the northeastern part of the state of Virginia in the United States

Prince William County
Prince William County#English

An independent city, the county seat of Prince William County, in northeastern Virginia, United States, known as Manassas Junction in the 19th century.

A minor city in Tattnall County, Georgia, United States.


counterforce

(military) Targeting an opponent's military assets, such as missile silos, rather than other valuable assets such as cities and civilian populations.


mossback

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

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


lust murder

en-noun

lust murder (countable and uncountable, plural lust murders)

Despite the serial aspect of these killings, lust murder still remains a distinct subcategory of both sexual and serial murder. It is also referred to as erotophonophilia, one of the most extreme forms of paraphilia.

2003, Eric Hickey, Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime, SAGE, →ISBN, page 281:

Murder for sexual gratification, often involving mutilation.


impalement

impalement (countable and uncountable, plural impalements)

From Middle French empalement; equivalent to impale + -ment.

The act of torturing or executing someone by impaling them on a sharp stake.

(heraldry) The joining of two coats of arms on one shield.

A space fenced in, such as by palings, possibly in the form of an enclosure or cup.

The parts of fructification are seven in number... The First part is the calyx, impalement, or flower cup.

1823, Charles Mead, The School Exercise:

(botany, obsolete) In the sense of an enclosure, the calyx of a flower. (In still older works, also spelt empalement.)


aluminum shower

aluminum shower (plural aluminum showers)

The Office of Production Management, the OPM, has directed the Office of Civilian Defense to conduct an "Aluminum Shower". In other words, we are to collect all the available old aluminum in order to turn it over to the Government.

c 1940, United States. Office of Production Management, Press releases:

William S. Knudsen, director-general of O. P. M., has advised General R. B. Rathbun, director of the Minneapolis aluminum shower committee, to leave no possible source of scrap aluminum untouched because of the "critical shortage"

Most of you remember the "aluminum shower" which the American housewives gave Uncle Sam about eight months ago. Well, the Office of Emergency Management has been trying to find out what happened to all the pots and pans

1942, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's magazine, volumes 112-113:

(figuratively, dated) An event at which people give household items made of aluminum to the war effort.


hellhound

From Middle English helle hound; equivalent to hell + hound.

From forth the kennell of thy wombe hath crept / A Hell-hound that doth hunt vs all to death:

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 195, column 2:

Barricading serves not: fly fast, ye Bodyguards; rabid Insurrection, like the hellhound Chase, uproaring at your heels!

1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter X, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book VII (The Insurrection of Women):

(mythology) A demonic dog of hell, typically of unnatural size, strength or speed, with black fur, glowing eyes, and ghostly or phantom characteristics.


rub salt in the wound

en-verb

rub salt in the wound (third-person singular simple present rubs salt in the wound, present participle rubbing salt in the wound, simple past and past participle rubbed salt in the wound)

rubs salt in the wound (present singular third-person)
rubbing salt in the wound (participle present)
rubbed salt in the wound (participle past)
rubbed salt in the wound (past)

Derived from the stinging sensation of salt deliberately being rubbed into an open, bleeding wound.

To rub further salt into the wound, the narrow-gauge locomotives and rolling stock received the new corporate blue livery and double arrows logo.

2023 January 11, Richard Foster, “British Rail's weirdest railways...: Vale of Rheidol”, in RAIL, number 974, page 47:

(idiomatic) To aggravate or exacerbate a physical or emotional injury.


democide

en-noun

democide (countable and uncountable, plural democides)

Based on Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos, “people”) + -cide.

(Mass) murder of people by a government which has power over them.


second-degree murder

second-degree murder (countable and uncountable, plural second-degree murders)

tappo

act or crime of murder with intent, but without premeditation

roughly equivalent concept in Finnish law

szándékos, de nem előre megfontolt szándékkal elkövetett emberölés

(law, chiefly US, Canada) The criminal offence of murder in a form defined as less serious than first-degree murder; the precise distinction may vary by jurisdiction but typically involves second-degree murder being intentional but not premeditated.


vic

(Ryotaro Dojima): We haven't found the cause of death for the first vic, and now we've got a second one just like it […]

2008, Atlus Co., Ltd., Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (04/16, Evening)

We did find some black fibers stuck between the victim's teeth, presumably from a glove, and lastly, seeing as the vic was found completely naked, we can't process her clothes for any potential evidence.

“The vic was found by some birdwatchers at the Theler Wetlands,” he began.

(law enforcement, slang) A victim of a homicide.


Hundred Years' War

A series of conflicts between France and England, lasting 116 years from 1337 to 1453.


reprocessing

reprocessing (countable and uncountable, plural reprocessings)

eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

For 75 years, it has fulfilled a wide range of roles: producing weapons-grade plutonium for early atomic weapons in the aftermath of the Second World War; the world's first commercial nuclear power station supplying electricity to the National Grid; reprocessing and storage of nuclear fuel; and the processing of lower grades of radioactive waste for off-site storage.

2023 December 27, Ben Jones, “Inside Sellafield... by rail”, in RAIL, number 999, page 20:

(engineering, nuclear physics, uncountable) The process of extracting useful or valuable materials from used nuclear fuel, mainly focusing on the recovery of fissile and fertile material for use in fresh nuclear reactor fuel, or, in some cases, the manufacture of nuclear weapons.


bag of rations

(slang, dated, World War I) A fussy or overly zealous military superior.


deadbeat dad

If the '90s offer one villain by consensus, it is the deadbeat dad, that selfish fugitive condemned by liberals and conservatives alike for his irresponsible behavior and generous contributions to the cycle of welfare dependency.

1995 April 3, David Van Biema, “Dunning Deadbeats”, in Time:

(chiefly US and Canada, idiomatic, derogatory) A man, especially one who is divorced or estranged from his partner, who fails to provide monetary child support when he is legally required to do so.


slam-bang

"If you had led the rough, tough, slam-bang, every-man-for-himself life I have, you wouldn't be frightened of gorillas...."

Temporary Agency begins with a tale of demonic possession and adolescent crushes and ends with a slam-bang, all-out global confrontation between the forces of good and evil.

2000, Linda Parent Lesher, The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader's Guide, McFarland & Company,, →ISBN, page 99:

The boy seemed streetwise yet clearly unaware that this was an officer whose slam-bang interrogation methods were a legend.

2004, Lindsey Davis, Scandal Takes a Holiday, Mysterious Press, →ISBN, page 4:

The waiter took my order, a slam-bang something with eggs and pancakes: enough cholesterol to power the whole state of Idaho.

2007, John Dunning, The Bookwoman's Last Fling: A Cliff Janeway Novel, Simon and Schuster,, →ISBN, page 2:


pick off

The final out of the game was determined by a pick off.

(baseball) An instance of throwing out a batter leading off base.


live by the sword, die by the sword

Gospel of Matthew
King James Version of the Bible
Live by the sword, die by the sword

1611, King James Version of the Bible, Gospel of Matthew, 26:52
:* Then said Jesus unto him, "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

One who uses violence can expect a violent response; it is better to try to use peaceful means wherever possible.

one who uses violence can expect a violent response

usje, što vózʹmucʹ mječ, ad mjača i zahinucʹ

усе, што возьмуць меч, ад мяча і загінуць

vsički, koito se zalavjat za nož, ot nož šte poginat

всички, които се залавят за нож, от нож ще погинат

wie leeft bij het zwaard, zal sterven bij het zwaard

joka miekkaan tarttuu, se miekkaan hukkuu

wer das Schwert ergreift, der soll durchs Schwert umkommen

pántes ósoi piásosi máchairan diá machaíras thélousin apolesthí

πάντες όσοι πιάσωσι μάχαιραν διά μαχαίρας θέλουσιν απολεσθή

pántes gàr hoi labóntes mákhairan en makhaírēi apoloûntai

πάντες γὰρ οἱ λαβόντες μάχαιραν ἐν μαχαίρῃ ἀπολοῦνται

(a)ki kardot fog/ránt/ragad, kard által vész

alle som griper til sverd, skal falle for sverd

quem vive pela espada, morre pela espada

toți cei ce scot sabia, de sabie vor pieri

kto s mečóm k nam pridjót, tot ot mečá i pogíbnet

кто с мечо́м к нам придёт, тот от меча́ и поги́бнет

alla som griper till svärd skall dödas med svärd

vsi, xto vizʹme meča, vid meča i zahynutʹ

всі, хто візьме меча, від меча і загинуть


DEW line

(military) The Distant Early Warning Line, a series of radar stations, located north of the Arctic Circle and extending from Alaska to Baffin Island, operated by American and Canadian authorities from the late 1950s to the early 1990s to help protect North America by detecting incoming hostile missiles and aircraft.


Barbarossa

Borrowed from Italian Barbarossa, from barba (“beard”) + rossa (“red”).

(historical) Operation Barbarossa: the 1941 Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, named after the emperor.


four score and seven years ago

en-adv

four score and seven years ago (not comparable)

/ˈfɔː skɔː‿ɹən ˌsɛvən jɪəz əˌɡəʊ/

/ˈfɔɹ skɔɹ ən ˌsɛvən jɪɹz əˌɡoʊ/

En-au-four score and seven years ago.ogg

Literally, “87 years ago” (score sense: “group of 20”) the beginning of the Gettysburg Address made on November 19, 1863, by United States President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The widespread familiarity of Lincoln’s address, the unusual and poetic wording, and its status as the first words of the speech have caused the phrase to enter the public consciousness.

It was established four score and seven years ago, and since that time its activities have been intertwined with the internal development of the Nation itself.

1936 April 16, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Address at the Dedication of the New Department of the Interior Building:

I imagined momentarily that it was four score and seven years ago, that I had just been brought forth from my mother […]

2010 December 23, Phillip Roth, “Prologue”, in The Great American Novel, →ISBN, page 21:

Four score and seven years ago, I began writing an annual letter to be enclosed in my Christmas cards.

2012 February 20, Vicky DeCoster, “The Letter”, in The Wacky World of Womanhood, →ISBN, page 93:

(idiomatic, often humorous) Used (sometimes sarcastically) to indicate that a past event being mentioned is particularly important: a long time ago; many years ago.


Juneteenth

en-proper noun

Juneteenth (countable and uncountable, plural Juneteenths)

Blend of June + nineteenth, commemorating the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when Union Army General Gordon Granger (1821–1876) issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, to enforce President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862. The General Order stated that all previously enslaved people in Texas were now free. Entered wider usage after becoming a federal holiday in 2021.

There was^([sic – meaning were]) not so many colored people in the city as usual on Saturday evening, all of them, very near, being out at the "Juneteenth siliibration."

1891 June 25, “Local news”, in Brenham Weekly Banner, volume XXVI, number 26, Brenham, Tex.: J[ohn] G. Rankin, →OCLC, page [7], column 1:

If there is plenty of sunshine within the next ten days there will be sufficient supply of watermelons in Southwest Texas to take care of the "Juneteenth" celebrations of San Antonio's colored population.

1912 June 15, “Watermelons are Moving”, in Fruit Trade Journal and Produce Record, volume XXXXVII, number 10, New York, N.Y.: Fruit Trade Journal Company, →OCLC, page 12:

"'Twere Juneteenth day," she began reverentially, "when my light firs' broke. The darkies all bunched up down in the live oak grove were a-singin' an' a-dancin', 'spressin' their glory 'cause they warnt no mo' slaves nohow.["]

1921, Julia Walcott Hoffman, chapter I, in Pearl o’ Great Price or A Woman’s ’Sperience, Chicago, Ill.: Gift and Music Shop, →OCLC, page 11:

"But whut if it rains?" asked Josy. "It always do rain on Juneteenth." / "Dat's jes' de way of it," said John. "Someone is always a-th'owin' cold water on eve'ything I does."

1922, Hubert Anthony Shands, chapter VIII, in White and Black, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 50:

He had invited her to attend the Juneteenth picnic as his guest all day. And now he had done something that never, in all his life, had he heard of any colored boy doing before—planned an expensive outing right on the eve of the big annual event. [...] "Juneteenth"—white people also pretty generally use the phrase—is their Emancipation Day, and it is the one day in the year when every Caucasian is supposed to consider the comfort and enjoyment of his negro friends ahead of his own.

1925, J. Frank Davis, “Episode I. Juneteenth and Joada”, in Almanzar Evarts, Hero, Macon, Ga.: J. W. Burke Company, →OCLC, pages 13–14:

Truck drivers, business men, and school teachers belonging to the racial group have told me tales, but the best of tale-tellers has been some ex-slave buoyed up by the spirit of a Nineteenth of June celebration—the "Juneteenth"—the day on which all colored people in the South commemorate the freedom of their race from slavery. The significance of the day is so great and the tales I have collected are so bound up with the legalized slavery which, in 1865, this day put an end to, that I have used Juneteenth as a title. Nobody who does not understand a Juneteenth celebration can ever understand the Negro or his songs and tales.

1932, J[ohn] Mason Brewer, “Juneteenth”, in J[ames] Frank Dobie, editor, Tone the Bell Easy (Publications of the Texas Folk-lore Society; no. 10), Austin, Tex.: Texas Folk-lore Society, →OCLC, pages 8–54:

The annual celebration by Negroes of June 19—the day when emancipation from slavery became effective in the State [...]—is general; few Texas Negroes would consider working on "Juneteenth" if it can be avoided. The holiday is generally observed by a picnic at which everyone eats, dances and sings to his heart's content.

1940, Writers’ Program, Work Projects Administration, Texas, “Folklore and Folkways”, in Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State (American Guides Series), New York, N.Y.: Hastings House, published 1943, →OCLC, part I (Texas: Yesterday and Today), page 97:

As I chewed on my extra-hot barbecue sandwich, Mr. Artis Lovelady, the vendor and celebration sponsor, explained why he was having a Juneteenth observance: "I just wanted to do something, just wanted to kinda bring back old times and let the younger people see what we used to do to celebrate it on account of our Emancipation Proclamation."

1987, William H. Wiggins, Jr., “Following the Freedom Trail”, in O Freedom!: Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations, Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, published 2000, →ISBN, page 5:

But what they [black people] chose to emphasize by means of traditional activities each year was the memory of gaining freedom. Consequently in African-American communities, especially in the South, a day of prayer, preaching, and festivities usually known as "Juneteenth" came to be observed [...].

1991, Michael Kammen, “The Civil War Remembered—but Unreconciled”, in Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture, 1st Vintage Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, published February 1993, →ISBN, part 2 (Circa 1870 to 1915), page 122:

There's been a heap of Juneteenths before this one and I tell you there'll be a heap more before we're truly free!

1999, Ralph Ellison, chapter 7, in John F. Callahan, editor, Juneteenth: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 131:

On June 19, 1883, an eighteen-gun salute on the plaza in front of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, signaled the start of the annual Juneteenth observance.

2005, W[illiam] Fitzhugh Brundage, “Celebrating Black Memory in the Postbellum South”, in The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory, Cambridge, Mass., London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 55:

Proud Pelham in Navarro County had a long history of major Juneteenths. Every year on June 19, pigs and goats roasted over open pits or old bedsprings, while fish deep-fried in lard in big washpots hung from trees.

2005, Thad Sitton, James H. Conrad, “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings”, in Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow (Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture; no. 15), Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 105:

Senator Taylor, with unanimous consent, asked that when the Senate adjourn, it do so in honor of "Juneteenth Day," to symbolize the struggle for freedom and equality in the United States. [...] Indeed, Juneteenth Day is much more about the future than the past. It is a day where we gather to continue the struggle. We all realize the true freedom still eludes many of us.

2009 June 17, Lena C. Taylor, “Announcements, Adjournment Honors, and Remarks under Special Privilege”, in State of Wisconsin Senate Journal: Ninety-ninth Regular Session (Wisconsin State Senate), Madison, Wis.: State Printer, →OCLC, page 218, column 2:

[M]aking Juneteenth a federal holiday is both urgent and necessary. [...] A Juneteenth federal holiday would be more than a "day off," but one filled with educational experiences about the institution and affliction of slavery, community conversations on race and reconciliation, and cultural experiences that bring the history, challenges, and contributions of Black Americans to the forefront of the nation's consciousness.

2020 June 14, Seth Cohen, “No More Excuses – It’s Time to Declare Juneteenth a Federal Holiday”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-06-14:

(US) Also more fully as Juneteenth Day: the United States national holiday commemorating the end of slavery, observed on June 19.

Abraham Lincoln
Emancipation Proclamation
General Order No. 3
Gordon Granger
Union Army

Dia De l'Emancipació

holiday celebrated in the U.S. on June 19, commemorating the end of slavery


Berlin Wall

(politics) Any barrier designed to keep people from crossing a border, e.g. the one proposed to keep people from crossing from Mexico into the United States.


exit wound

Exit wounds, whether they are the result of contact, intermediate, or distant firing, all have the same general characteristics. They are typically larger and more irregular than entrance wounds and, with rare exception, do not possess an abrasion ring. Exit wounds can be stellate, slit-like, crescent, circular, or completely irregular (Figure 4.23).

1998, Vincent J. M. Di Maio, Gunshot Wounds: Practical Aspects of Firearms, Ballistics, and Forensic Techniques, 2nd edition, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 92:

(medicine, forensics) A perforation of the skin caused by a projectile (such as a bullet) leaving the body.


Bent Spear

(US, euphemistic, military) A significant incident with a nuclear weapon, nuclear components, or nuclear-bearing vehicle.


Broken Arrow

In the US, the code name for a serious nuclear weapons incident is "Broken Arrow". It is US policy neither to confirm nor deny the existence of nuclear weapons at any specific location; this also applies to Broken Arrow incidents.

2004, Roland Everett Langford, Introduction to Weapons of Mass Destruction: Radiological, Chemical, and Biological, page 97:

(US, euphemistic, military) An accidental event that involves nuclear weapons or nuclear components but does not create the risk of nuclear war.

The FAC urgently sends over his radio a cry for help: "Broken Arrow! Broken Arrow!' His message unleashes all available close air support in South Vietnam on a priority basis.

2003, Jacques-François de Chaunac, The American Cavalry in Vietnam: "First Cav", →ISBN, page 48:

Before Caras could respond, the General threw down the mike, turned to his second and said, "Get them all the air support we have, everything. This is Broken Arrow"

2008, Terry Ryan, Bring Out Your Dead, →ISBN, page 137:

Broken Arrow refers to the U.S. military's code word used during the Vietnam War. This call was used only in the direst of tactical situations, when a ground unit was overrun by enemy forces. When "Broken Arrow" was heard on the radio nets, all available aircraft were diverted to provide close air support for the endangered command.

2010, Danny W. Davis, The Phinehas Priesthood, →ISBN:

All Pulse elements, this is Home Plate. Broken Arrow. I repeat, Broken Arrow. Forward command of close air-support operations is Rebel Four One.

2017, Kevin Ikenberry, Vendetta Protocol, page 155:

(US, military) A code phrase indicating that a ground unit is facing imminent destruction from enemy attack and all available air forces within range are to provide air support immediately.


mass murderer

殺戮眾多的人

someone who commits a mass murder — see also serial killer


mass murder

The killing of a large number of people over a short period of time.


zanzhi

Borrowed from Chinese 拶指, literally "finger compressing".

A form of torture, among the ancient Chinese, in which wooden sticks are placed around the victim's fingers and used to crush or break the fingers.


kia quen

A form of torture, among the ancient Chinese, in which planks of wood squeeze or hit the victim's feet.


tramp chair

(US, historical) A small cage in the shape of a chair, designed to restrain a victim and put them on display.


breaking wheel

(historical) A wheel used to break a restrained victim's limbs and body in an ancient European form of execution.


strappado

en-verb

strappado (third-person singular simple present strappados, present participle strappadoing, simple past and past participle strappadoed)

strappados (present singular third-person)
strappadoing (participle present)
strappadoed (participle past)
strappadoed (past)

From Italian strappato, from strappare (“to pull”).

(transitive) To torture by means of this device.


Catherine wheel

en-noun

Catherine wheel (plural Catherine wheels)

Saint Catherine of Alexandria was said to have been sentenced to execution on such a wheel, which shattered at her touch.

Sorcerers are too common; cunning men, wizards, and white witches […] have commonly St. Catherine's wheel printed in the roof of their mouth, or in some other part about them […]

[…] her tortures consisted of being broken on a wheel (later called Catherine wheel), but the machine broke down injuring bystanders; Catherine was beheaded.

1992, David Hugh Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 3rd edition, page 88:

She only lied to the boy to keep him from hurt, and for her sin her intestines were pulled from her on a Catherine wheel.

2008, Peter Carey, His Illegal Self, page 181:

(historical or heraldry) A breaking wheel, or wheel with spikes on it.


nonproliferation

nonproliferation (usually uncountable, plural nonproliferations)

Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

Involving the prevention of proliferation; Opposed to the spread (of something).


familicide

familicide (countable and uncountable, plural familicides)

Because of the familicide that wiped out his entire family, he will be charged with six counts of murder.

Familicide is the murder of family members by another family member. In other words, familicide is a multiple-victim homicide in which the killer's spouse or partner and one or more children are killed. Although familicide is relatively rare, it is nevertheless the most common form of mass killing.

2014, Albert Lee Strickland, “Familicide”, in Michael John Brennan, editor, The A–Z of Death and Dying: Social, Medical, and Cultural Aspects, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 204:

The murder of an entire family by a family member.


Doomsday Device

Doomsday Device (plural Doomsday Devices)


doomsday device

doomsday device (plural doomsday devices)

Coined as Doomsday Machine by military strategist Herman Kahn.

For more than a year, ominous rumors had been privately circulating among high-level Western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the ultimate weapon: a doomsday device.

1964, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, spoken by Narrator:

Of course, Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, is calling for merging the S.E.C. with the easygoing Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in the financial equivalent of setting off a Doomsday Device.

2008 April 27, Ben Stein, “Wall Street, Run Amok”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A hypothetical weapon (often a bomb) programmed to automatically be used in response to certain attacks, usually with very dire consequences (such as the annihilation of the world).


bottomless pit

1769, The Bible, King James Version, Oxford Standard Text, Revelation, 9:11,
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.


Pax Americana

From Latin pāx (“peace”) + Americāna (“American”) after the model of the imperial Roman Pāx Rōmāna and earlier British Pāx Britannica.

Earlier this month Boston's WBUR radio station titled a special on US imperial power with the Latin tag Pax Americana. Tom Wolfe has written that the America of today is “now the mightiest power on earth, as omnipotent as… Rome under Julius Caesar”.

2002 September 18, Jonathan Freedland, “Rome, AD… Rome, DC?”, in The Guardian:

A war like this — a voluntary war of aggression — would be a sign that Putin believed that Pax Americana was over and that the U.S., the European Union and their allies had become too weak to exact painful consequences.

2022 February 21, David Leonhardt, “Why Ukraine Is Different”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The period of relative peace in the Western world since the end of World War II in 1945, coinciding with the military and economic dominance of the United States.


declaration of war

declaration of war (plural declarations of war)

Make no mistake, the sway of the railways' mandate in the middle of the 19th century was, in some quarters, a declaration of war on the old.

2022 January 12, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Castles: ruined and redeemed by rail”, in RAIL, number 948, page 55:

A formal announcement by a country or other body with military capability that it is in a state of war with another such entity.

oorlogsverklaring

a formal announcement by an entity that it is in a state of war with another entity


duck and cover

en-verb

duck and cover (third-person singular simple present ducks and covers, present participle ducking and covering, simple past and past participle ducked and covered)

ducks and covers (present singular third-person)
ducking and covering (participle present)
ducked and covered (participle past)
ducked and covered (past)

It's Christmas at ground zero / Just seconds left to go / I'll duck and cover / With my Yuletide lover / Underneath the mistletoe

1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:

(intransitive) To duck under a surface and cover one's face with one's hands, as a means to protect oneself from flying debris etc.


nuclear-free

Free of nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power stations, especially by official declaration.


light up

light up (third-person singular simple present lights up, present participle lighting up, simple past and past participle lit up or (rare) lighted up)

lights up (present singular third-person)
lighting up (participle present)
lit up (participle past)
lit up (past)
lighted up (participle past rare)
lighted up (past rare)

Phrasal verb from light (“to make bright, ignite”, verb) + up (“to a higher degree”, adverb).

affix

The back plating looks vulnerable, light that sucker up!

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, spoken by Marcus Stacker (Pete Stacker), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: The Ark:

telling me to light it up if it didn't stop approaching

(transitive, slang) To open fire on a target or group of targets, especially with rockets, a flamethrower etc.


theater of war

The area in which armed conflict takes place.

مَسْرَح حَرْب

the area in which armed conflict takes place


entry wound

(pathology, forensics) A wound caused by a bullet or other object as it enters the body, as contrasted with exit wound.


pop a cap in someone's ass

en-verb

pop a cap in someone's ass (third-person singular simple present pops a cap in someone's ass, present participle popping a cap in someone's ass, simple past and past participle popped a cap in someone's ass)

pops a cap in someone's ass (present singular third-person)
popping a cap in someone's ass (participle present)
popped a cap in someone's ass (participle past)
popped a cap in someone's ass (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pop a cap in someone's ass.wav

I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you heard it, that meant your ass. I never gave much thought to what it meant. I just thought it was some cold-blooded shit to say to a motherfucker before I popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice.

The older teen was coming from "Tilt," the second floor arcade, when the shooter confronted him, threatened to "pop a cap in (his) ass," and, after the victim assumed what eyewitnesses say was a fighting stance, apparently did.

2007, “'Cover me, I'm going to Starbucks'”, in San Francisco Chronicle:

I'll give you thirty seconds to get out of here before I pop a cap in your ass. C'mon, move it. I'm counting now, one, two, three—better get your ass movin', four..."
Carter started running, expecting to hear the shot and feel the rip of a bullet in his back.

2004, R. Micharl Sullivan, The Dead of Winter - Page 130:

(slang, vulgar, originally African-American Vernacular) To shoot someone with a gun.


spoils of war

Theſe ſo great Slaughters, Nations mighty dread, / Like Whirlwinds through ſo many Cities ſpread, / Which might have been anothers cloſing Fame, / Were but his Marches Actions; thus he came: / And in ſo many glorious Conqueſts ſhar'd / The Spoils of War, while he for War prepar'd.

1701, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, “Troades; or The Royal Captives. A Tragedy, Written Originally in Latin, by Lucius Annæus Seneca, the Philosopher. Englished by Sir Edward Sherburne, Knight. With Annotations.”, in Edward Sherburne, transl., The Tragedies of L. Annæus Seneca the Philosopher; viz. Medea, Phædra and Hippolytus, Troades, or the Royal Captives, and The Rape of Helen, out of the Greek of Coluthus; Translated into English Verse; with Annotations. To which is Prefixed the Life and Death of Seneca the Philosopher; with a Vindication of the said Tragedies to Him, as Their Proper Author. Adorn'd with Sculptures Representing each History, London: Printed for S. Smith and B. Walford, at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard, published 1702, →OCLC, act II, scene ii, pages 241–242, lines 33–38:

For according to that Hiſtorian [Josephus] upon Nebuchadnezzar [II]'s coming to Babylon in the year after, upon his father's death, and becoming Lord of all his father's Empire, He with the SPOILS of WAR magnificently repair'd, and deckt the Temple of Bel, &c.

1725, Benjamin Marshall, “A Chapter. Shewing that the Abstracted Nature of the Seventy Weeks of Years of this Prophecy, as the Said Number of Weeks of Years Contains Exactly Four Hundred and Ninety Years, and that as They Cannot Possibly Contain Less, so neither Can They Contain More than That Number of Years; …”, in A Chronological Treatise upon the Seventy Weeks of Daniel; …, London: Printed for James Knapton, at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard, →OCLC, page 56:

The march of mankind from ſavageneſs to refinement is devious and ſlow. In that iron age when the multitude look for ſubſiſtence to the ſpoils of war, and the wants of a powerful empire are relieved by the tributes impoſed on ſubjugated ſtates, the haughty victors, devoting their captives to the taſk of cultivating the ſoil, riot in the fruits of that drudgery which they diſdain to ſhare.

1800, James Sedgwick, “chapter XIII”, in Remarks, Critical and Miscellaneous, on the Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone, London: Printed by M. Ritchie, Middle Street, Cloth Fair; for G. G. & J. Robinson, Paternoster Row; J[oseph] Butterworth, Fleet Street; W. Clarke & Son, Portugal Street; J. White, Fleet Street; A. Sutton, Long Acre; and John Glanville, St. James's Street, →OCLC, page 261:

Stripp'd of his trappings, and his head declin'd; / Æthon, his gen'rous warrior-horse, behind, / Moves with a solemn, slow, majestic pace; / And the big tears rolling down his face. / These, the young hero's [Pallas's] lance and helmet bear; / The rest, the victor seiz'd, the spoils of war.

1810, Virgil, “Virgil’s Æneid. Book XI.”, in Christopher Pitt, transl., edited by Samuel Johnson, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper; including the Series Edited, with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Dr. Samuel Johnson: and the Most Approved Translations. The Additional Lives by Alexander Chalmers, F.S.A. In Twenty-one Volumes, volume XIX, London: Printed for J. Johnson [et al.], →OCLC, page 614, column 2:

The taking of the spoils of war was important to both Muslim and Christian communities during the Crusades. This was particularly so due to its feudal nature, whereby large numbers of men served without pay, and booty became one of the few sources of reward and resources from which campaigns could be sustained.

2011, Alexander Gillespie, A History of the Laws of War: Volume 2: The Customs and Laws of War with regards to Civilians in Times of Conflict, volume 2, Oxford: Hart Publishing, →ISBN:

Tens of thousands of Yazidis were forced to flee their homes after IS [Islamic State] fighters took the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar in August 2014. Thousands of women and girls were treated as "spoils of war" and openly sold in slave markets to IS militants. They were separated from the men and boys, many of whom were shot dead.

2016 October 27, “Sakharov prize: Yazidi women win EU freedom prize”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 2016-10-28:

Any profits extracted as the result of winning a war or other military activity.

Frans Hogenberg
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen


interstage

thermonuclear weapon
thermonuclear weapon

(military) The components of a multistage thermonuclear weapon which channel the radiation produced by the primary's fission explosion so as to trigger the implosion of the secondary and ignite a fusion explosion in the secondary's fusion fuel.


EW

electronic warfare
electronic warfare#English


gun down

gun down (third-person singular simple present guns down, present participle gunning down, simple past and past participle gunned down)

guns down (present singular third-person)
gunning down (participle present)
gunned down (participle past)
gunned down (past)

In the cell diagonally across from mine, a prisoner regularly “gunned down” the nurse on her morning rounds. He deliberately masturbated so that she'd see him through the cell door window as he ejaculated.

(transitive, US, prison slang, of a male prisoner) To masturbate while making sustained eye contact with someone — typically a female prison officer — as a form of intimidation.


law of war

Law concerning acceptable practices while engaged in war.

oorlogsrecht

law concerning acceptable practices while engaged in war


throwdown

Deverbal from throw down. Fight and music senses from earlier idiom throw down the gauntlet (“issue a challenge”).

(slang, wrestling) A fall, indicating defeat.

(slang, rare) A weapon planted at a crime scene in order to mislead investigation, especially in situations where deadly force would only have been justified if the victim were armed. Also an untraceable weapon kept in readiness for such use.

(slang) A fight or brawl; or, a challenge or incitement to fight.

a hip-hop throwdown

(slang, hip-hop) A performance by a rapper or DJ that is intended to be particularly hardcore or intense.

(slang, hardcore punk music) A type of hardcore dance in which a person violently clears a space for himself and appears to be ready to fight those around him, while making violent and erratic movements with his body.

(Australia) A type of small firework that explodes with a loud noise when thrown violently onto the ground.


duppy

duppy (third-person singular simple present duppies, present participle duppying, simple past and past participle duppied)

duppies (present singular third-person)
duppying (participle present)
duppied (participle past)
duppied (past)

Jamaica, circa 18th century. From Bube dupe (“ghost”) (compare Akan adɔpe).

2008, Kingsley Ogundele, online message quoted in 2010 January 27, Rob Sharp, "CSI: Chatroom", The Independent
He refers to his intention to kill a schoolgirl pregnant with Jolie's unborn baby – who the pair believe is giving Jolie undue hassle. "I'll get da fiend to duppy her den," he writes.

He duppied my bredren and as long as I could remember Paps was telling me not to trust the Feds.

2011, Alex Wheatle, The Dirty South, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 176:

(MLE, MTE, transitive) To kill; to murder.


blood diamond

Several certification systems already exist throughout the world. The Kimberly Process certifies the origin of rough diamonds from areas that have conflict-free diamond production. The process aims to prevent “blood diamonds.”

2011 July 11, Erin Banco, “Is Your Cell Phone Fueling Civil War in Congo?”, in The Atlantic:

A diamond that has been mined in a war zone and sold in order to finance the conflict.

bloeddiamant

1. a diamond that has been mined in a war zone and sold in order to finance the conflict


wet work

Calque of Russian мо́крое де́ло (mókroje délo).

clq

мо́крое де́ло

2010, RED
Joe: Victoria was the best wet work operator the Agency ever had.
Woman 1: What does that mean?
Victoria: I killed people, dearie.

(euphemistic) Covert assassination performed by government operatives.

He had also done a lot of Louis Deems' wet work, especially when it came to intimidating juries.

2009, Dana Stabenow, Whisper to the Blood, →ISBN, page 132:

(by extension) Work within a gang or organization that involves killing or attacking people, for assassination or intimidation.

Most of the time I clean with A.J. or another coworker, who vacuums while I do the wet work—bathrooms and kitchens.

2011, Autumn Stephens, Roar Softly and Carry a Great Lipstick, →ISBN:

Cleaning tasks that involve scrubbing with cleansers.


HEU

highly-enriched uranium
highly-enriched uranium#English


murder will out

The phrase murder will out, literally "murder will become public", appears as far back as Geoffrey Chaucer's works. The phrase is often linked to the superstition that a murderer's presence near the corpse will be indicated by fresh bleeding.

纸包不住火 (zhǐ bāo bùzhù huǒ, literally “fire cannot be wrapped up in paper”)

ши́ла в мешке́ не утаи́шь (šíla v mešké ne utaíšʹ, literally “you can't hide an awl in a sack”)

(idiomatic) Secrets or hidden crimes will eventually be exposed or discovered; nothing that is secret can remain a secret forever.


malky

en-verb

malky (third-person singular simple present malkies, present participle malkying, simple past and past participle malkied)

malkies (present singular third-person)
malkying (participle present)
malkied (participle past)
malkied (past)

(Scotland, slang) To physically assault.


malky

Oota ma coupon afore ah gies y' the malky, ya bam.


IJN

Imperial Japanese Navy
w:Imperial Japanese Navy

(US, military, nautical) Initialism of Imperial Japanese Navy, the navy of Imperial Japan, predecessor of the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, usually in reference to WWII.


hunt down

hunt down (third-person singular simple present hunts down, present participle hunting down, simple past and past participle hunted down)

hunts down (present singular third-person)
hunting down (participle present)
hunted down (participle past)
hunted down (past)

(transitive) To destroy by persecution or violence.


massive retaliation

A military doctrine and nuclear strategy by which a state commits itself to retaliate with much greater force when attacked.


where it counts

True, Madeline does not have a lot of book smarts, but she is plenty wise enough where it counts.

At first the boycott's impact was barely noticeable, but now the protesters are hurting the store where it counts.


war machine

/ˈwɔː məˌʃiːn/

/ˈwɔːɹ məˌʃiːn/

The German war machine was more powerful than that of the allies at the start of the war.

The Covenant war machine continues its march to conquest; even with its head severed it is still dangerous.

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, published 2009 February 26, Xbox 360, level/area: Assembly:

[…] instead of dismantling the surveillance state and war machine, the Obama administration and Democrats institutionalised it – and it will soon be in the hands of a maniac.

2016 November 9, Trevor Timm, “Obama has handed a surveillance state and war machine to a maniac”, in The Guardian:

From the one million civilians killed in the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–89) to the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who’ve perished at the receiving end of Russia’s and Assad’s war machine, the chain of impunity is long.

2019 June 28, Natalie Nougayrède, “Forget Putin’s ‘liberalism’ jibe. This man runs a war machine”, in The Guardian:

Go, Rihanna, go / Watch the fighter jet fly high / War machine gets glamorized

2023, “Namesake”, in Sundial, performed by Noname:

The military resources of a belligerent country considered as a whole.


black rain

rain contaminated by fungi spores, soot, or other particulate matter


SEATO

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
w:Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

(historical) Initialism of Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, in existence from 1955 to 1977.


frap

Well then, what's the hottest new product line over at ubiquitous coffee retailer Starbucks — diesel fuel? No, it's not petrochemical, but neither is it coffee — rather, it's music. In Starbucks stores, you can now burn CDs while slurping a frap, […]

2005, Information Week, numbers 1020-1036:


hypocentre

From hypo- + centre; from Ancient Greek ὑπο- (hupo-, “under-, sub-”) and Ancient Greek κέντρον (kéntron, “centre”).

derived

(military) The point on the surface below an atmospheric explosion; ground zero


Pathet Lao

From Lao ປະເທດລາວ (pa thēt lāo), from ປະເທດ (pa thēt, “country, state”) + ລາວ (lāo, “Lao”).

A communist nationalist movement and political party in Laos, which took power in 1975 after a civil war.


war to end all wars

The fact is there are still a lot of wars going on in the world, and there is no general acceptance as yet that the ‘war to end all wars’ is really over.

1920 February 9, “World Leadership Lost, says Baker”, in New York Times, page 3:


NORAD

w:North American Aerospace Defense Command

Acronym of North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Commandement de la Défense Aérospatiale de l’Amérique du Nord

北米航空宇宙防衛司令部

ほくべい こうくううちゅうぼうえいしれいぶ


conventional warfare

The waging of war in set military battles, as opposed to waging guerrilla warfare or fighting insurgencies.


war veteran

A person who has served in the armed forces during a war.


knock around

en-verb

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

knocks around (present singular third-person)
knocking around (participle present)
knocked around (participle past)
knocked around (past)

I like to knock around the garden on Saturdays.

I used to knock around with John when we were younger.

I’ve got some scissors knocking around somewhere in the kitchen.

It was known that he would knock his wife around when he had been drinking.

He moved to go. / ― Well, glad to see you looking fit, he said. Meet you knocking around.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 5: Lotus Eaters]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 72:

Film-making seems to run in the family. Charlie Spencer Chaplin and my great-grandmother were siblings, and my grandad used to knock around London with Charlie when they were lads.

2021 December 1, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, number 945, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 71:


fusion bomb

An atomic bomb that uses nuclear fusion as a source of energy; a hydrogen bomb


fission bomb

I heard the fission bomb test clearly and I was over a hundred miles away.

An atomic bomb that uses nuclear fission as a source of energy


emma

(British, dated, World War I, signalese) M in RAF phonetic alphabet


lay into

lay into (third-person singular simple present lays into, present participle laying into, simple past and past participle laid into)

lays into (present singular third-person)
laying into (participle present)
laid into (participle past)
laid into (past)

The U.S. ships did the nautical version of someone stuck in a pub when the chairs and glass starts flying, who just looked around, shrugged their shoulders, and immediately lays into the nearest combatant.

2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 11:26 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 2022-10-17:

(colloquial) To beat up or launch an attack against.


ballbusting

(informal) The beating or kicking of the male genitals, a fetish with some masochists and sadists.


iWar

From i- (“alluding to cutting-edge or fashionable digital devices and computer programs”) + war.

prefix

(NATO) A form of Internet-based warfare.

Biologically Inspired Tactical Security Infrastructure


officer-involved shooting

en-noun

officer-involved shooting (plural officer-involved shootings)

(US, euphemistic) An incident in which a police officer shoots at another person.


Pickett's charge

A reference to an event during the American Civil War, wherein 16,000 Confederate infantrymen attacked Union positions; the attack failed, with several thousand Confederate casualties.


Johnny Canuck

1869, Johnny + Canuck, a character in political cartoons.

(chiefly World War I, World War II) A Canadian soldier.


haymaker

From Middle English heymakere; equivalent to hay + maker.

The saga of Newt Gingrich's ethics suddenly resembles a brawl between blindfolded boxers who flail away so wildly that each lands a haymaker on his own jaw.

1997 January 20, George Church, “Newt's Day of Deliverance”, in Time:

(informal, fisticuffs) A particularly powerful punch, especially one which knocks down an opponent, thrown like a scythe chop for cutting hay, as agricultural haymakers used to have strong arms.


nuclearize

en-verb

nuclearize (third-person singular simple present nuclearizes, present participle nuclearizing, simple past and past participle nuclearized)

nuclearizes (present singular third-person)
nuclearizing (participle present)
nuclearized (participle past)
nuclearized (past)

(transitive) To arm with nuclear weapons.


nuclearization

en-noun

nuclearization (countable and uncountable, plural nuclearizations)


calling card

(World War I– World War II military slang) An explosive dropped from a bomber aeroplane.


batog

(historical) A rod or cane used for corporal punishment in Russia.


gigaton

A measure of the strength of an explosion or a bomb based on how many billion tons of TNT would be needed to produce the same energy.


beat to a pulp

en-verb

beat to a pulp (third-person singular simple present beats to a pulp, present participle beating to a pulp, simple past beat to a pulp, past participle beaten to a pulp or beat to a pulp)

beats to a pulp (present singular third-person)
beating to a pulp (participle present)
beat to a pulp (past)
beaten to a pulp (participle past)
beat to a pulp (participle past)

Neanderthals were extremely tough—this is attested to by the thickness of their bones—and were probably capable of beating modern humans to a pulp.

2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 251:

(transitive) To beat up (a person) more than usually severely.


honour killing

The prevailing patriarchal and misogynist practices prevailing in Muslim countries have created an association between Muslim countries and honour killing in the public mind. However, according to UNICEF, the practice of honour killing is an ancient one and involves men killing female relatives in the name of family honour for forced or suspected sexual activity outside marriage, even when the women have been victims of rape.

2008, Riaz Hassan, Inside Muslim Minds, Melbourne University Press, page 200:

Such honour killings are justified by quoting Sura 4:15. A man who kills his wife, mother, daughter or sister for sexual indiscretion or for eloping (both acts that are regarded as bringing dishonour to the family) is either lightly fined or immune from prosecution.

2009, John Azumah, My Neighbour's Faith: Islam Explained for African Christians, WordAlive Publishers, unnumbered page:

What is true of forced marriages is also true of the horrific practice of ‘honour’ killings, a term that acts as a fig leaf for the (often premeditated) murder of young women who have supposedly brought ‘shame’ to the honour of families.

2011, Ali Rattansi, Multiculturalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, page 55:

(euphemistic) A typically Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural practice whereby a family member, usually female, is murdered by other family members, the act being justified as retribution for a (usually sexual) slight upon the family's honour.

רֶצַח עַל חִלּוּל כָּבוֹד הַמִּשְׁפָּחָה


preemptive strike

en-noun

preemptive strike (plural preemptive strikes)

In every war the salarians have fought, they struck first and without warning. For the salarians, to know an enemy plans to attack and to let it happen is folly. To announce their own plans to attack is insanity. They find the human moral concepts of "do not fire until fired upon" and "declare a war before prosecuting it" incredibly naive. In defensive wars, they execute devastating preemptive strikes hours before the enemy's own attacks.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Salarians: Military Doctrine Codex entry:

An attack launched as a defensive measure.


bellicism

One cannot understand the causes of the First World War unless one appreciates the degree of bellicism in European society at that time, especially in Central Europe […].

1962, Michael Howard, The Causes of Wars, page 271:

Today the phrase "holy war" suggests a no holds barred fanaticism, a form of unbridled bellicism.

2003, Timothy Patrick Jackson, The Priority of Love, page 126:

Not all of France was inundated by the nationalist wave – it was predominantly young, intelligent Parisians who embraced the new bellicism […].

2012, Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, Penguin, published 2013, page 295:

An inclination to war; warlike policy or behaviour.

عُدْوَانِيَّة

an inclination to war — see also militarism


monomachy

From Middle French monomachie, or its source, Latin monomachia. Also mono- + -machy.

He that shall observe […] so much emulation, envy, so many brawls, quarrels, monomachies, etc., may well require what is become of charity?

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 1, member 3:

Wherefore we most heartily provoke, challenge, and defy your Lordship to the said combat and monomachy […]

1951, C. S. Lewis, chapter 13, in Prince Caspian, Collins, published 1998:

(now rare) A fight or other contest between two people or forces; a duel; single combat.


Yalta

From Crimean Tatar Yalta, from Byzantine Greek Γιαλίτα (Gialíta), a derivative of γιαλός (gialós, “beach, seashore”), from Ancient Greek αἰγιαλός (aigialós).

(by ellipsis) The Yalta Conference of 1945.


subcritical

a subcritical reactor

(physics) Having insufficient mass to sustain a chain reaction


set upon

en-verb

set upon (third-person singular simple present sets upon, present participle setting upon, simple past and past participle set upon)

sets upon (present singular third-person)
setting upon (participle present)
set upon (participle past)
set upon (past)

On receiving the letter, I immediately set upon writing a reply.

To begin an activity; to embark upon a course of action.


come at

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

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

(obsolete) To enter into sexual relations with; to come on to (someone).

Nah, mate – I′m not going to come at that again. Too risky.

Mr. O'Loghlen: Do you think a factory would come at that?

1922, Australian Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, volume 100, page 1139:

Somehow I don′t think ausadmin or news server managers at large would come at that idea.

2000 October 24, Gary Meadows, “Is Scott Steel neutral in act-b? (was: The Great Australian Confusion)”, in aus.culture.true-blue (Usenet):

[…]he would have liked to be a roving correspondent for both the ABC and the BBC, but the BBC would not come at that arrangement.

2006, Kenneth Stanley Inglis, This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1932-1983, page 174:

(Australia, New Zealand, transitive, slang) To accept (a situation); to agree to do; to try.


MRV

multiple reentry vehicle
multiple reentry vehicle#English

(military) Initialism of multiple reentry vehicle: the reentry capsule for a ballistic missile's payload, typically a nuclear weapon, where the missile has multiple instances of such, but can only target one site with all reentry vehicles.


LRBM

long range ballistic missile
long range ballistic missile#English

(weaponry) Initialism of long range ballistic missile.


MRBM

medium range ballistic missile
medium range ballistic missile#English

(weaponry) Initialism of medium range ballistic missile.


IRBM

intermediate-range ballistic missile
w:intermediate-range ballistic missile

(weaponry) Initialism of intermediate-range ballistic missile.


SLBM

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:

ballistic missile
ballistic missile#English

(weaponry) Initialism of submarine-launched ballistic missile.


MIRV

Picking up where we had left off at Vladivostok, we discussed verification of underground nuclear tests that each side could conduct, and also the rules for counting MIRVs — how to tell whether a missile had a single or a multiple warhead. There the Soviets granted a concession. If they placed a MIRV in a certain location, then we had the right to assume that every missile in that field had a MIRV capability.

1980, Gerald Ford, A Time to Heal, New York: Berkley Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 294:

The M.I.R.V. is a tactical nuke. Uh, fifty kilotons, nominal yield, say… five times Hiroshima.

1989, James Cameron, The Abyss (motion picture), spoken by Lt. Hiram Coffey (Michael Biehn):

(military) Initialism of multiple independently-targettable reentry vehicle; the independently targettable reentry capsule for a ballistic missile's payload, typically a nuclear weapon, where the missile has multiple instances of such.


knockdown-dragout

en-adj

knockdown-dragout (comparative more knockdown-dragout, superlative most knockdown-dragout)

more knockdown-dragout (comparative)
most knockdown-dragout (superlative)

(of a fight or battle) Markedly violent.


waterboard

en-verb

waterboard (third-person singular simple present waterboards, present participle waterboarding, simple past and past participle waterboarded)

waterboards (present singular third-person)
waterboarding (participle present)
waterboarded (participle past)
waterboarded (past)

From Middle English water boarde, waterbord, equivalent to water + board. Compare West Frisian wetterboard (“waterboard”), Dutch waterbord (“waterboard”), German Wassertafel (“waterboard”), Danish vandbræt (“waterboard”), Swedish vattenbräda (“waterboard”), Icelandic vatnsbretti (“waterboard”).

We waterboarded the suspect, but he refused to confess.

To subject to waterboarding, to pour water over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive.


nonabused

The fact that a symptom is seen more often in sexually abused than in nonabused children is not enough to conclude that the symptom helps prove abuse. One must also consider the fact that the population of non-abused children is much larger than the population of abused children[…].

2016, John E. B. Myers, Legal Issues in Clinical Practice with Victims of Violence, Guilford Publications, page 256:


denuclearization

en-noun

denuclearization (countable and uncountable, plural denuclearizations)


ritual abuse

ritual abuse (countable and uncountable, plural ritual abuses)

Any form of physical, sexual, or psychological mistreatment that involves the use of ritual.


string up

en-verb

string up (third-person singular simple present strings up, present participle stringing up, simple past and past participle strung up)

strings up (present singular third-person)
stringing up (participle present)
strung up (participle past)
strung up (past)

"And now, my friend," said the Captain, "let us understand each other. You have confessed yourself a spy, and should string up to the next tree."

1818, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 13, in Rob Roy:

(intransitive, idiomatic, obsolete) To die by hanging.


antiviolence

And one-quarter of teenagers in relationships say they have been called names or harassed by their partner through cellphones and text messages, according to a study commissioned by the clothing company Liz Claiborne, which sponsors antiviolence programs.

2009 January 27, Stephanie Clifford, “Teaching Teenagers About Harassment”, in New York Times:

(law enforcement, sociology) Acting against or opposing violence.


nuclear testing

The testing of a nuclear weapons for effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability.


swordfight

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

THREE Sydney brothers have pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a man fatally stabbed during a brawl that included a brief swordfight.

2009 January 30, “Brothers admit swordfight killing of Sione Matavesi in Heckenberg”, in Herald Sun:


all's fair in love and war

Unpleasant behavior is acceptable during love and conflict.

كل شيء مباح في الحب والحرب

unpleasant behavior is acceptable during love or conflict

可以不择手段

zhǐyào mùdì zhèngdàng, kěyǐ bùzéshǒuduàn

sodassa ja rakkaudessa kaikki on sallittua

en amour comme à la guerre, tous les coups sont permis

in der Liebe und im Krieg ist alles erlaubt

with the right strategy you can wage war

כִּי בְתַחְבֻּלוֹת תַּעֲשֶׂה-לְּךָ מִלְחָמָה

恋愛と戦争では手段を選ばない

れんあいとせんそうではしゅだんをえらばない

in love and war you don't choose the means

mu mukwano ne mu lutalo byonna byejeerezebwa.

orang sedang bercinta, yang dibuat betul belaka

w miłości i na wojnie wszystko jest dozwolone

в любви́ и на войне́ все сре́дства хороши́

muḥabbat aur jang meṉ sab kuch jā'iz hai

مُحَبَّت اَوْر جَنگ میں سَب کُچھ جائز ہَے


brazen bull

An ancient torture device, supposed to have been devised by Perillos of Athens, consisting of a hollow bull fashioned from brass in which victims were imprisoned and burned to death.

ثَوْر بْرُونْزِيّ

ancient torture device consisting of a hollow brass bull where victims were imprisoned and burned to death


antinuke

en-adj

antinuke (comparative more antinuke, superlative most antinuke)

more antinuke (comparative)
most antinuke (superlative)

Holly Near […] interpreter for the deaf Susan Freudlich […] and pianist J. T. Thomas […] appeared in Bostonr Nov. 28 as part of a national tour aimed at educating people about nuclear power. […] The concert was introduced by Dr. Helen Caldicott (left) author of Nuclear Madness and a founder of the anti-nuke movement in Australia.

1979 December 8, “On Tour For A Nuclear-Free Future (image caption)”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 20, page 6:


counterproliferation

The nightmare scenario, of course, is what happens if an extremist Islamic government emerges with an instant nuclear arsenal, said Robert Joseph, a counterproliferation expert who left the administration this year.

2007 November 11, David E. Sanger, “So, What About Those Nukes?”, in New York Times:


fight off

en-verb

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

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

(slang, Caribbean) To fight (someone) aggressively.


total war

en-noun

total war (countable and uncountable, plural total wars)

Calque of German totaler Krieg, coined by Erich Ludendorff.

Warfare where all of a country's available resources, military as well as civilian, are employed.

الحَرْب الشَّامِلَةُ

warfare where all of a country's resources are employed


bash up

en-verb

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

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

He shouted at us, so we bashed him up.

(transitive, informal) To assault someone with the intention of causing physical injury; to beat up.


superbomb

An extremely powerful bomb, especially the atomic bomb or hydrogen bomb.


curb stomp

curb stomp (third-person singular simple present curb stomps, present participle curb stomping, simple past and past participle curb stomped)

curb stomps (present singular third-person)
curb stomping (participle present)
curb stomped (participle past)
curb stomped (past)

The thought that he might actually get bigger was enough to make most people gape in amazement. If even half the stories he'd heard were true (according to Jerry and a kid they both knew named Tom Murphy, Darby had once curb-stomped a grown man's face for threatening to call the police on him ...

2004, James A. Moore, Possessions, Dorchester Publishing Company Incorporated, →ISBN:

And fucking, I curb stomped his head and broke his jaw and stuff. And then if they wouldn't of pulled me back I probably would have killed him heh? And just like-they were holding me heh? And it was like "Fuck you."

He could have kicked my ass and curb stomped me by now but simply just took my seat. I hoped for something of a music player, where I could escape from these four guys.

2008, Joel Krupa, Hold On, Joel Krupa, →ISBN, page 59:

To stomp on someone's head, forcing it into a street curb (often while they are positioned with their teeth biting the curb).

(figurative) To defeat an opponent overwhelmingly or effortlessly.


curb stomp

Nothing surprises me—guys with guns, screeching women, unleashed dogs. It's why I carry pepper spray in a little holster on my belt. But this, this was the worst of it. I'd just delivered a final curb stomp to somebody who'd once meant a lot ...

2010, Gary Phillips, Orange County Noir, Akashic Books, →ISBN, page 267:

Now, Bismarck and Tirpitz versus Alabama and South Dakota is not quite the same level of curbstomp as the previous battle, mainly due to the fact that, well, the second pair is gonna last - that battle's gonna last more than five minutes; however, it's still a case of, well, the South Dakota class is measurably superior to the Bismarck class in terms of total firepower, as we discussed previously.

2018 October 3, Drachinifel, 19:12 from the start, in Ship vs Ship - Who Would Win - Episode 001, archived from the original on 2022-08-29:


mantrap

A small space with two sets of interlocking doors, such that the first set of doors must close before the second set opens, used to restrict access.


trinitite

en-noun

trinitite (usually uncountable, plural trinitites)

atomsite

melt glasses from US nuclear bomb test sites

melt glass

minerals melted by exposure to extreme heat and vitrified

kharitonchik

melt glasses from the Soviet nuke bomb Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan

impactite

metamorphic minerals caused by meteor heating of non-meteoritic materials

impact glass

melt glasses caused by meteor heating of non-meteoritic materials

fulgurite

melt glasses caused by lightning strikes

fusion crust

metamorphic minerals on the surface of meteorites caused by atmospheric entry heating

The glassy residue left on the desert floor after the Trinity nuclear bomb test of 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA.


shoot the boots

en-verb

shoot the boots (third-person singular simple present shoots the boots, present participle shooting the boots, simple past and past participle shot the boots)

shoots the boots (present singular third-person)
shooting the boots (participle present)
shot the boots (participle past)
shot the boots (past)

The family moved about—Hamilton, Mississauga, Jane and Weston Road. "That's when my whole life switched from the good guy to the bad guy," he says now. "Right here in this city. The first day of school, I learned how to spit. Shoot the boots."

2000 June 1, Jennifer Wells, “Trouble with Tracy”, in Toronto Life, Canada, retrieved 2009-04-13:

It was strange because the boy I was fighting with had developed a reputation for being able to shoot the boots and I was supposed to be good with my hands.

2006, Paul Dupuis, Armageddon Forever, Trinity Enterprise (Canada), p. 2

(Canada, idiomatic, slang) To kick swiftly and violently, especially in the groin.


nuclear summer

A period, hypothesized to follow a nuclear winter, in which surface temperatures rise to a dangerous degree because of the release of carbon dioxide and methane from decayed organic matter.


NFU

National Farmers Union
w:National Farmers Union


NFU

Initialism of no first use. (of nuclear weapons)

(set theory) Initialism of New Foundations with urelements.


MARV

A maneuverable reentry vehicle, a type of nuclear warhead capable of shifting targets in flight.


neonaticide

en-noun

neonaticide (countable and uncountable, plural neonaticides)

But critics of the law said mothers who immediately kill their babies after giving birth, a practice known as neonaticide, are usually in deep denial about their pregnancies.

2007 February 4, Cara Buckley, “Brooklyn Girl Threw Away Her Newborn Son, Police Say”, in New York Times:

The murder of a newborn within 24 hours of birth.


lay the smack down

en-verb

lay the smack down (third-person singular simple present lays the smack down, present participle laying the smack down, simple past and past participle laid the smack down)

lays the smack down (present singular third-person)
laying the smack down (participle present)
laid the smack down (participle past)
laid the smack down (past)

A catchphrase of wrestler "The Rock" (Dwayne Johnson); see also smackdown.

(slang) To start a fight (sometimes with on).


barfight

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

Later he will knock the teeth out of a small black boy; abet a grotesquely fat, lizard-skinned “preacher” in the casual abduction, sodomizing and murder of the same child — “abet” him by shooting the child’s father in the throat; soon afterward choke and drown the depraved preacher himself; choke to death an elderly half-wit and then burn his house; lacerate a man’s mouth with broken glass in a barfight, and ogle Becky Thatcher’s braided pigtails from behind.

2007 March 11, Ron Powers, “Unsivilized”, in New York Times:


superviolent

en-adj

superviolent (comparative more superviolent, superlative most superviolent)

more superviolent (comparative)
most superviolent (superlative)

Park Chan-Wook, the critically beloved author of superviolent spectacles like “Oldboy” and “Lady Vengeance,” arrived here with a movie called “I’m a Cyborg, but That’s O.K..”

2007 February 15, A. O. Scott, “Whimsy, Pessimism and ‘Lady Chatterley’ in Berlin”, in New York Times:


Totenkopf

Borrowed from German Totenkopf (literally “dead person's head”).

bor+

3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf
w:3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf

(World War II) Ellipsis of 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf.


lingchi

The face of the dying man in the lingchi video monotonously evokes Maria Falconetti in Carl Theodor Dreyer ’s 1928 “Passion of Joan of Arc.”

2007 July 25, Roberta Smith, “Figures Moving as if in a Trance Across an Isolated, Lawless Island”, in The New York Times:

death by a thousand cuts
death by a thousand cuts

A form of execution used in China from roughly 900 to 1905 C.E., the "death by a thousand cuts", in which the condemned was killed by methodical removal of body parts with a knife.


Jack the Ripper

September 1888, Jack + the + ripper, from the Dear Boss letter.

Keep this letter back till I
do a bit more work. then give
it out straight. My knife's so nice
and sharp I want to get to work
right away if I get a chance.
Good luck.
Yours truly
Jack the Ripper
Dont mind me giving the trade name

1888 September 25, Jack the Ripper, Dear Boss Letter, London, page 2:

Two communications of an extraordinary nature, both signed "Jack the Ripper," have been received by the Central News Agency, the one on Thursday last and the other yesterday morning. The first - the original of which has been seen by Major Smith, the Assistant Commissioner of the City Police - was a letter, bearing the E.C. postmark, in which reference was made to the atrocious murders previously committed in the East-end, which the writer confessed, in a brutally jocular vein, to have committed; stating that in the "next job" he did he would "clip the lady's ears off" and send them to the police, and also asking that the letter might be kept back until he had done "a bit more work." The second communication was a postcard, and as above stated, it was received yesterday morning. It bore the date, "London, E., October 1," and was as follows: - "I was not codding, dear old Boss, when I gave you the tip. You'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work to-morrow. Double event this time. Number One squealed a bit; couldn't finish straight off. Had not time to get ears for police. Thanks for keeping the last letter back till I got to work again." The postcard was sent to Scotland Yard. No doubt is entertained that the writer of both communications, whoever he may be, is the same person.

1888 October 2, The Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2004-08-10:

Nothing whatever has been discovered during the week to throw light upon the Whitechapel murders. The police entertain the belief, as we gather from the remarks of Mr. Crawford, the City Coroner, who is inquiring into the murder in Mitre Square, that they possess a fairly accurate description of the person of the murderer. He has, however, for the present, disappeared into space, unless it is he who writes certain letters signed "Jack the Ripper." The police think this is the case, and if so, he is an educated or partly educated man, of extreme audacity, intoxicated with the evil pride of crime, and resolute to commit more murders.

1888 October 13, “NEWS OF THE WEEK.”, in The Spectator, number 3,146, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1379, column 1:

Many of the dead were never identified simply because whole families died together and there was no one left to say who they were. One woman, named Elizabeth Stride, claimed to have been one of the survivors of the sinking, although there was no proof of this. She would later go down in history as the third victim of Jack the Ripper.

2018 September 14, Derek Coleman, “Old superstition comes true with tragic consequences”, in AP News, archived from the original on 2023-12-03:

Six weeks after Maxwell reported the sewage seepage this summer, an MDC inmate charged with robbing a bank said the toilet in his cell had been broken for three days.
"I do not care if the defendant is Jack the Ripper, we treat people under our care with respect and decency," U.S. District Judge William Kuntz said in a July 27 hearing about the toilet, which a prosecutor said was fixed ahead of the hearing. "This is an ongoing disgrace."

2021 November 18, Luc Cohen, quoting William Kuntz, “Ghislaine Maxwell sex crimes trial highlights conditions at Brooklyn jail”, in Noeleen Walder, Aurora Ellis, editors, Reuters, archived from the original on 2021-11-18, United States:

A supposed individual who was an unidentified 19th century serial killer in England, who has become part of folklore.


red mercury

A supposed substance for use in the creation of nuclear bombs and other weapons, about which there are various conspiracy theories.


take out the trash

en-verb

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

takes out the trash (present singular third-person)
taking out the trash (participle present)
took out the trash (past)
taken out the trash (participle past)

(idiomatic) To announce something, hoping it will not get much publicity, at a time when it is not likely to be noticed by the news media, for instance on election day or late on Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend.


tear up

tear up (third-person singular simple present tears up, present participle tearing up, simple past and past participle teared up)

tears up (present singular third-person)
tearing up (participle present)
teared up (participle past)
teared up (past)

See: tear (“liquid that falls from the eyes”).

After seeing Johnny tear up at that cheesy movie, I knew he was a loser.


murder in the second degree

en-noun

murder in the second degree (countable and uncountable, plural murders in the second degree)

Second-degree murder
second-degree murder#English


hellspawn

hellspawn (plural hellspawn or hellspawns)

Despite his grim mien, his kinship with vein-biters and hellspawns, Batman always maintained one pious virtue, his unspoken insistence on the value—the sacredness—of human life.

1994, Dennis O’Neil, Batman: Knightfall, Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 348:

Image Animation also fabricated the hellspawns’ bondage-inspired costumes, substituting foam material for the more expensive leather of the previous two films.

1996, Anthony Timpone, Men, Makeup, and Monsters: Hollywood’s Masters of Illusion and FX, St. Martin’s Griffin, →ISBN, page 179:

The face and voice were beyond question those of the man who had died to protect her in a room full of hellspawn and slaughter.

1998, David Drake, Queen of Demons, Tor Books, →ISBN, page 115:

“The door was ajar. Not so smart for a young Nightwing-in-training—especially when he’s got one of those filthy hellspawns in his hands.”

2003, Geoffrey Huntington [pseudonym; William J. Mann], “A Deadly Duel”, in Demon Witch (The Ravenscliff Series; II), ReganBooks, →ISBN, page 111:

(fantasy) A creature or creatures from hell.


megatonnage

megatonnage (countable and uncountable, plural megatonnages)

"We have grown accustomed to a deadly paradox: the world's greatest megatonnage of TNT is buried in the heart of the earth's most productive agricultural area.

1988 September 9, Harold Henderson, “The City File”, in Chicago Reader:

That simple idea gained increasing public support in the late 1970s and early 80s as an alternative to the complexities of the arms race, with its continuing posturing and intermittent negotiations about megatonnage, throw weight and inspections.

2007 October 26, Dennis Hevesi, “Randall Forsberg, 64, Nuclear Freeze Advocate, Dies”, in New York Times:

The destructive power of an explosive, measured in megatons.


Comecon

w:Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

(historical) Abbreviation of Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, a multinational economic organization that existed in the Eastern Bloc from 1949 to 1991.


swirlie

I gave this nerd a swirlie.

A mode of school bullying involving holding a person upside down over a toilet bowl, submerging their head, then flushing water.


let someone have it

en-verb

let someone have it (third-person singular simple present lets someone have it, present participle letting someone have it, simple past and past participle let someone have it)

lets someone have it (present singular third-person)
letting someone have it (participle present)
let someone have it (participle past)
let someone have it (past)

When I came home, he let me have it for wrecking the car.


Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact formalized Moscow's dominance in Europe's east.

(historical) A pact (long-term alliance treaty) signed on May 14, 1955 in Warsaw by the Soviet Union and its Communist military allies in Europe.


gendercide

en-noun

gendercide (usually uncountable, plural gendercides)

From gender + -cide, by analogy with femicide, homicide, etc. Doublet of genocide.

The killing of people because of their gender.


biffo

There was too much biffo going on at that club, so I left.

Barrett's working class man is simply one who enjoys his beer, his rock music (like Norton, he's a man in his early thirties), and a bit of biffo.

2006, Christine Matzke, Susanne Muehleisen, Postcolonial Postmortems: Crime Fiction from a Transcultural Perspective, page 236:

We all liked a bit of biffo and gunplay, so when the telecast was broken for a newsflash, everyone groaned.

2005, William McInnes, A Man's Got to Have a Hobby, unnumbered page:

Things peaked a year later with a Sunday afternoon biffo pitting a good-sized detachment of rockers against a combined force of surfies and clubbies.

2010, Matt Warshaw, The History of Surfing, page 207:

(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Violence, fighting; a fight.


Stalingrad

(historical) Volgograd (from 1925 to 1961).


Gorbachev

Transliteration of Russian Горбачёв (Gorbačóv), usually written Горбаче́в (Gorbačév) (see note about Russian letter ё (jo)), from горба́ч (gorbáč, “hunchback”).

transliteration

Mikhail Gorbachev was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Горбачёв Горбачёв#Russian

A transliteration of the Russian surname Горбачёв (Gorbačóv).


Mussolini

From Italian Mussolini, from mussola, mussolina (“muslin”), from Mussolo (“Mosul”), that is Mosul in northern Iraq.


Kriegsmarine

(historical, military, nautical, World War II) The navy of Nazi Germany.


granny-bashing

But it also tackles problems like granny bashing and the overprescribing of drugs to elderly patients.

There are many factors that militate against healthy living and contribute to family conflict, which may result in child abuse, wife battering, granny bashing, teenage runaways, mental disturbance or substance abuse.

(idiomatic) assault or abuse of elderly persons.


make away

en-verb

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

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

(obsolete, intransitive) To depart, leave; to make off.


pilliwinks

From Middle English pirewinkes (“instrument of torture for squeezing the thumbs, thumbscrew”) [and other forms]; further origin unknown. It has been suggested that the word is a variant of Middle English pervink, pervinke (“periwinkle (plant; Vinca minor or Vinca major); (figuratively) evil man”), but the Oxford English Dictionary doubts this due to the difference in meaning. Compare Swedish pille-, related to pilla (“fiddle with the fingers”).

refn

From the collection of the former National Museum of Crime & Punishment in Washington, D.C., USA.

inh

[H]er maiſter to the intent that he might the better trie and finde out the truth of the ſame, did with the help of others, torment her with the torture of the Pilliwinkes upon her fingers, which is a grieuous torture, [...]

[1592?], attributed to James Carmichael, Newes from Scotland. Declaring the Damnable Life of Doctor Fian a Notable Sorcerer, who was Burned at Edenbrough in Ianuarie last. 1591. […], [London]: Printed [by T. Scarlet] for William Wright, →OCLC; republished as G[eorge] H[enry] Freeling, editor, Newes from Scotland, Declaring the Damnable Life of Doctor Fian, […], London: From the Shakespeare Press [for the Roxburghe Club], by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., 1816, →OCLC:

On the 24th June 1596, John Stewart, Maſter of Orkney, was indicted for conſulting with Aliſon Balfour, a witch, for the deſtruction of Patrick Earl of Orkney, his brother, by poiſon.— [...] No regard can be had to it, in reſpect the ſaid confeſſion was extorted by force of torment; [...] her little daughter, about ſeven years old, put in the pilniewinks; all in the poor woman's preſence, to make her confeſs. [...] It was pleaded for Alaſter Grant, who was indicted for theft and robbery 3d Auguſt 1632, "That he cannot paſs to the knowledge of an aſſize, in respect he was twice put to the torture, firſt in the boots, and next in the pilliewinks or pinniewinks; [...]"

1774, [John] Maclaurin, “Introduction to the Criminal Cases”, in Arguments, and Decisions, in Remarkable Cases, before the High Court of Justiciary, and Other Supreme Courts, in Scotland, Edinburgh: Printed for J. Bell, […]; London: E. & C. Dilly, […], →OCLC, § 9 (Of the Torture), page xxxvi:

They prick us and they pine us, and they pit us on the pinnywinkles for witches; [...]

1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume II (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 230:

[S]end me that hag hither; she shall avouch what it was that she hath given to the wretch Dryfesdale, or the pilniewinks and thumbikins shall wrench it out of her finger-joints.

1820, [Walter Scott], chapter V, in The Abbot. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, pages 173–174:

The two generals were ultra Tories, and were regarded not unjustly as acting with uncalled for severity against the disaffected. They introduced "from Muscovy" "Pilliwinks, or Thumbikins,"—"a new invention, used," says Fountainhall, "among the Coilzears [i.e., colliers] when transgressors."

1868, “Bothwell Brig”, in James Maidment, editor, Scotish Ballads and Songs, Historical and Traditionary, volume II, Edinburgh: William Paterson, […], →OCLC, page 298:

[Jeillie Duncan, a servant-girl] made so many cures that she was presently suspected of witchcraft. She was treated to orthodox modes of torture; her fingers were pinched with the pilliwinks, her forehead was wrenched with a rope, but she would say nothing until the Devil's mark was found on her throat, when she gave in and confessed herself a servant of Satan.

1912 November, Francis Watt, “The Supernatural”, in The Book of Edinburgh Anecdote, Edinburgh, London: T[homas] N[oble] Foulis, →OCLC, page 233:

(chiefly Scotland, historical) A torture device for squeezing the fingers; a thumbscrew.

National Museum of Crime & Punishment
Oxford English Dictionary


plow into

en-verb

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

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

The lorry plowed into the line of stationary cars.


donkey punch

The Donkey Punch is a relatively simple maneuver. When engaged in anal sex from behind, simply punch your partner in the back of the neck so that the sphincter clenches up. Note: The element of surprise adds a great deal of intensity to the clench, so try to disguise from your partner the fact that a Donkey Punch is imminent.

2004 May 25, Adam Wasson with Jessica Stamen, The Self-Destruction Handbook: 8 Simple Steps to an Unhealthier You, New York: Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, page 116:

These people invented youth culture and rock and roll. They also invented the "kick me" sign and the ever-popular donkey punch (circa 1952).

2006 August 1, Phil Wells, Try the Veal, iUniverse, →ISBN, →OL, page 70:

Accidental overdoses were becoming commonplace. Chasing pain until it [the drug] finally hit the patient, hours later, in one big accumulative haymaking roundhouse donkey punch.

2008 January 5, Steven Rage, Pilate: A Brutal Bible Tale, Denver: Outskirts Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 67:

I yelped in pain, but he gave me a sharp donkey punch on the back of my neck to shut me up and slid another bead into my ass.

2010 August 1, Brad Saunders, Hard at Work, New York: Kensington Books, →ISBN, →OL, page 163:

The New York Times Company
w:The New York Times Company

A sucker punch, especially one delivered to the back of the neck, head, or the kidneys, of a sexual partner who is crouching on all fours; also used metaphorically.


kiss the gunner's daughter

kiss the gunner's daughter (third-person singular simple present kisses the gunner's daughter, present participle kissing the gunner's daughter, simple past and past participle kissed the gunner's daughter)

kisses the gunner's daughter (present singular third-person)
kissing the gunner's daughter (participle present)
kissed the gunner's daughter (participle past)
kissed the gunner's daughter (past)

But I was punished, my lad—made to kiss the wench that never speaks but when she scolds, and that's the gunner's daughter, comrade.

1824, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 14, in Redgauntlet:

"No," replied Bosun Thorpe, "for any breaches of discipline by boy seamen are dealt within by making him, in naval jargon, ‘kiss the gunner's daughter’. . . . he bends over one of the guns; then he is lashed across the backside."

2002, Wallace Bruce, John Paul Jones: Father of the United States Navy, →ISBN, page 81:

(archaic, idiomatic, naval) To be flogged or beaten while restrained over a cannon.


streetfighting

Fighting that takes place in the streets.

巷戰

fighting that takes place in the streets


intercontinental ballistic missile

en-noun

intercontinental ballistic missile (plural intercontinental ballistic missiles)

intercontinental ballistic missiles (plural)

From intercontinental + ballistic missile.

(military, astronautics) A class of long-range missiles associated especially with carrying nuclear warheads.

междуконтинентална балистична ракета

a class of long-range missiles associated especially with carrying nuclear warheads (ICBM)

大陸間弾道ミサイル

たいりくかんだんどうミサイル

межконтинента́льная баллисти́ческая раке́та


dust up

en-verb

dust up (third-person singular simple present dusts up, present participle dusting up, simple past and past participle dusted up)

dusts up (present singular third-person)
dusting up (participle present)
dusted up (participle past)
dusted up (past)

I promptly put my machine behind him and was about to dust him up a bit when another Fokker came to my help and got in first. He dived on the Caudron, who bolted at once. The Nieuport saw him and came to help his comrade in distress.

2009, Johannes Werner, Knight of Germany: Oswald Boelcke German Ace, page 194:

(transitive, slang) To attack (a person) physically; to beat up.


Gossage

Named after Air Marshal Sir Ernest Leslie Gossage, Commander-in-Chief RAF Balloon Command 1940-4.

(slang, UK, World War II, RAF) A barrage balloon.


smash up

smash up (third-person singular simple present smashes up, present participle smashing up, simple past and past participle smashed up)

smashes up (present singular third-person)
smashing up (participle present)
smashed up (participle past)
smashed up (past)

(idiomatic, transitive) To injure or maim.


blast away

blast away (third-person singular simple present blasts away, present participle blasting away, simple past and past participle blasted away)

blasts away (present singular third-person)
blasting away (participle present)
blasted away (participle past)
blasted away (past)

(transitive) To destroy by blasting with explosives.

They were blasting away at each other for 10 minutes before the shooting died down.

Three more heavy cruisers from further down the Japanese line begin to blast away at the now-disabled Gambier Bay.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 27:15 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03:

(intransitive, usually with at) To continue shooting rapidly.


Big Bertha

A heavy, long-range howitzer used by Germany in World War I.


juice up

juice up (third-person singular simple present juices up, present participle juicing up, simple past and past participle juiced up)

juices up (present singular third-person)
juicing up (participle present)
juiced up (participle past)
juiced up (past)

Coordinate term: spill juice

Juice man up with this 15 inch
Like, now I got blood on my splasher

2020 August 13, Blacz (lyrics and music), “TwentyTwo”, 1:21–1:26:

(MLE, slang) To kill or seriously injure with a knife.


make love, not war

desc

→ French: faites l’amour, pas la guerre (calque)

Originally coined by those who opposed the United States's involvement in the Vietnam War.

I want you to make love, not war / I know you've heard it before

1973, John Lennon (lyrics and music), “Mind Games”, in Mind Games:

A hippie anti-war slogan encouraging love and peace.


fuzzy-wuzzy

Adjective: Reduplication of fuzzy. Noun: From the adjective, in reference to their fuzzy hair texture.

(Australia, World War II) A Papuan, especially one who assisted the Australian military against the Japanese; a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel.


southron

Likely from a Northumbrian alteration of earlier Old English suþern, suþærn. The switch from -ern to -ron is likely due to the influence of Old Norse rann (“place, house, home”) on Old English ærn (“home, place”).
More at southern.

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

(US, archaic) Alternative form of Southern: of or related to the American South, particularly (historical) the Confederate States of America.


southron

To the natural impressibility of the southron, the Louisianian adds the enthusiasm of the Frenchman.

1890, T. C. DeLeon, Four Years in Rebel Capitals:

(US, archaic) Alternative form of Southerner: someone from the American South, particularly (US, historical) a Confederate citizen or soldier.


antinuker

(informal) One who is opposed to nuclear weapons.


antiatomic

(politics, military) Opposing or countering atomic weapons.


Hanford

en-proper noun

Hanford (countable and uncountable, plural Hanfords)

From Welsh hen ("old") and ford ("a way"): the old way (Source: William Arthur 1857).

Cerro Gordo County
Cerro Gordo County#English

An unincorporated community in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa.


antiproliferation

Used attributively to describe the countering of proliferation (of nuclear weapons, cancer etc.)


Brezhnev

Borrowed from Russian Бре́жнев (Bréžnev).

Бре́жнев Брежнев#Russian

A transliteration of the Russian surname Бре́жнев (Bréžnev); usually refers to the Russian revolutionary and Soviet Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) Leonid Brezhnev.


Victory Day

Any of various public holidays in various countries to commemorate victories in important battles or wars in the countries' history.

عِيد اَلنَّصْر

a day to commemorate victories in important battles or wars in the countries' history


War Democrat

United States of America
United States of America

(US politics, historical) a member of the Democratic Party of the United States of America who supported the prosecution of Confederates and sympathizers during the American Civil War.


axe-murder

en-verb

axe-murder (third-person singular simple present axe-murders, present participle axe-murdering, simple past and past participle axe-murdered)

axe-murders (present singular third-person)
axe-murdering (participle present)
axe-murdered (participle past)
axe-murdered (past)

From axe + murder or Back-formation from axe-murderer.

So […] the macabre episode of the two Americans axe-murdered […] became another chapter in the bloody annals of the Korean conflict.

1976 September 20, NEA London Economist News Service, “Touchy Issue: How Should U.S. Define Its Allies”, in Gadsden Times:

As it turned out, Mrs. Talbot was a perfectly nice woman, and the students she axe-murdered for her unholy rituals weren't close acquaintances anyway.

2004, Jeff Strand, Out of Whack, page 21:


water cure

A form of torture in which the victim is forced to drink large quantities of water in a short time.