whoop

en-verb

whoop (third-person singular simple present whoops, present participle whooping, simple past and past participle whooped)

whoops (present singular third-person)
whooping (participle present)
whooped (participle past)
whooped (past)

I made a speaking trumpet of my hands and commenced to whoop “Ahoy!” and “Hello!” at the top of my lungs. […] The Colonel woke up, and, after asking what in brimstone was the matter, opened his mouth and roared “Hi!” and “Hello!” like the bull of Bashan.

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

To cough or breathe with a sonorous inspiration, as in whooping cough.


thermonuclear

China detonated her first thermonuclear in June 1967.

thermonuclear weapon
thermonuclear weapon


Glasgow kiss

Refers to the supposed belligerence of Glaswegians.

(British, euphemistic, humorous) A sharp, sudden headbutt to the nose, usually resulting in a broken nose.


Pyrrhic victory

en-noun

Pyrrhic victory (plural Pyrrhic victories)

After Greek king Pyrrhus of Epirus, who suffered heavy losses while defeating the Romans.

Tough pensions regulation designed to protect employees in final-salary occupational schemes will prove a pyrrhic victory for unions and the government, a report warned yesterday.

We now know that it [the Six-Day War] was a Pyrrhic victory.

2002 November 21, Amos Elon, “Israelis & Palestinians: What Went Wrong?”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

A very costly victory, wherein the considerable losses outweigh the gain, so as to render the struggle not worth the cost.

Pyrrhic victory
Pyrrhus of Epirus
Stonewall Jackson


flog

From Middle English *floggen (suggested by flogge (“hammer, sledge”), from Old English *floggian, a stem variant of Proto-Germanic *flukkōną (“to beat”), itself a secondary zero-grade iterative with unetymological -u-, derived from *flōkaną.
The original zero-grade iterative *flakkōną had been misinterpreted as an o-grade. See flack (“to beat”), also as a dialectal noun "a blow, slap". Cognate with Scots flog (“a blow, stripe, flogging”, noun), Scots flog (“thin strip of wood”), Norwegian flak (“a piece torn off, strip”).
Alternatively, a back-formation from flogger, from Low German flogger (“a flail”).

cog

It follows the ejection of a supporter who allegedly ran towards umpire Mathew Nicholls while calling him a "bald-headed flog" at half-time of the Carlton-Brisbane Lions match last Saturday.

2019 June 15, Goya Dmytryshchak, “AFL fan outrage at 'behaviourial awareness officers'”, in The Age:

(Australia, informal, derogatory) A contemptible, often arrogant person; a wanker.


genocide

en-noun

genocide (countable and uncountable, plural genocides)

Armenian Genocide
Jewish Holocaust
destruction of Carthage
genocide

Coined by lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent Raphael Lemkin in 1943 or 1944 in reference to the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. From the stem of Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “race, kind”) (cognate with Latin gēns (“tribe, clan”), whence genus) + -cide (“killing, killer”). Doublet of gendercide. Compare genticide.

der

Native Americans in the twentieth century are no longer a "vanishing race" or a silent minority. They have survived centuries of cultural genocide inflicted on them by non-Native Americans— both the well-meaning and the self-seeking— […]

1986, James Stuart Olson, Raymond Wilson, Native Americans in the Twentieth Century, →ISBN:

(by extension) The systematic suppression of ideas or practices on the basis of cultural or ethnic origin; culturicide.


violate

en-verb

violate (third-person singular simple present violates, present participle violating, simple past and past participle violated)

violates (present singular third-person)
violating (participle present)
violated (participle past)
violated (past)

From Latin violātus, past participle of violāre (“treat with violence, whether bodily or mental”), from vīs (“strength, power, force, violence”).

If you don't have a job, you can't pay the money, then you get violated and have to go back to prison.

2009, Shakti Belway, Bearing Witness, page 12:

Estela: Well, they'd take me to jail, I'd violate, and I go to prison. And maybe I get violated for six months, eight months . . . maybe 30 days, 60 days . . . You know, whatever the parole officer recommended for me, I got.

2014, Juanita Díaz-Cotto, Chicana Lives and Criminal Justice: Voices from El Barrio, page 165:

(transitive, prison slang) To cite (a person) for a parole violation.


cease-fire

The rebels agreed to a ceasefire while the peace talks were underway.

In warfare, an agreed end to hostilities for a specific purpose. (Typically only temporary).

vuurstaking

in warfare, an agreed end to hostilities for a specific purpose


torture

en-noun

torture (countable and uncountable, plural tortures)

/ˈtɔːt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

-ɔː(ɹ)tʃə(ɹ)

From Middle English torture, from Old French torture, from Late Latin tortūra (“a twisting, writhing, of bodily pain, a griping colic;” in Medieval Latin “pain inflicted by judicial or ecclesiastical authority as a means of persuasion, torture”), from Latin tortus (whence also tort), past participle of torquēre (“to twist”).

marteling

intentional causing of somebody's experiencing agony

չարչարանք

"suffering of heart" imposed by one on another, in personal relationships

If Cheney calls it enhanced interrogation, he argues, this still doesn’t change the meaning of the word torture, which Cheney and the public know perfectly well. But cognitive linguists like Lakoff (1996) remind us that the public can be manipulated into believing that torture is “merely” an enhanced interrogation technique and thus does not protest.

2014 January 5, Claire Kramsch, “Language and Culture”, in AILA Review, volume 27, number 5, John Benjamins, →DOI, →ISSN, page 35:

Santorum, in a comment regarding Senator John McCain's repudiation of torture, stated, "He doesn't understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they've broken they become cooperative" (Summers 2011).

2015 November 30, Shane O'Mara, Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 12:

People confess to anything under torture.

Using large dogs to attack bound, hand-cuffed prisoners is clearly torture.

What new tortures await me?

The infliction of severe pain or anguish, especially as an interrogation technique or punishment; (usually in the plural) a technique, method, or device which is designed to inflict such anguish.

Severe pain or anguish, of mind or body.

Every time she says 'goodbye' it is torture!

Coventry City midfielder Josh Ruffels described his 11 months out injured as 'absolute torture' after the goalless draw with Derby County Under-21s. (http://www.ccfc.co.uk/news/article/eleven-months-of-absolute-torture-760652.aspx)

(in figurative or extended use) An unpleasant sensation or its infliction: embarrassment, heartache, etc.

(colloquial) (often as "absolute torture") Stage fright; severe embarrassment.


torture

en-verb

torture (third-person singular simple present tortures, present participle torturing, simple past and past participle tortured)

tortures (present singular third-person)
torturing (participle present)
tortured (participle past)
tortured (past)

/ˈtɔːt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

-ɔː(ɹ)tʃə(ɹ)

1 August 2014, Barack Obama, "Press Conference by the President"; transcript published online by the Obama White House Archives, [https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/01/press-conference-president [1]].
With respect to the larger point of the RDI report itself, even before I came into office I was very clear that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values.

People who torture often have sadistic tendencies.

(transitive) To intentionally inflict severe pain or suffering on (someone), usually with the aim of forcing confessions or punishing them.

mundoj

to intentionally inflict unnecessary pain or suffering on helpless victims


flatten

flatten (third-person singular simple present flattens, present participle flattening, simple past and past participle flattened)

flattens (present singular third-person)
flattening (participle present)
flattened (participle past)
flattened (past)

(intransitive) To be knocked down or laid low.


domestic violence

Violence between members of a household, such as spouses.

عُنْف مَنْزَلِيّ

violence committed in a domestic setting


SBS

sick building syndrome
sick building syndrome#English

(pathology) Initialism of sick building syndrome, health effects experienced by building occupants that appear to be linked to time spent in a building.

shaken baby syndrome
shaken baby syndrome#English

(pathology) Initialism of shaken baby syndrome.


SBS

(Australia, broadcasting) Initialism of Special Broadcasting Service.

Seoul Broadcasting System
w:Seoul Broadcasting System

(South Korea, broadcasting) Initialism of Seoul Broadcasting System.

Special Boat Service
w:Special Boat Service

(UK, military) Initialism of Special Boat Service, an elite unit of the British Royal Marines, similar to the SAS but operating in a naval environment.


bushwhacker

The bushwhackers remained at General Cooper′s camp several days, then crossed the Red River into Texas.

1962, Albert E. Castel, William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times, page 155:

1967 April, Donald Keith, The Time Machine Hunts a Treasure, Boys' Life, page 51,
She stared at us. “Hardly. You must be from far off, not to know about Quantrill′s raids. Last March the bushwhackers rode into Aubrey, shot every man in town, stole everything, burned down houses. […] ”

Many bushwhackers were young men born to families of southern heritage who were generally wealthier and more likely to own slaves than the typical Missouri farmer.[…]His eldest daughter, Elisa, was an effective bushwhacker spy and informant.

2007, Jeremy Neely, The Border Between Them: Violence and Reconciliation on the Kansas-Missouri Line, page 109:

(US, historical) A guerrilla (of either side) during the American Civil War.


clover clamp

(chiefly BDSM) A metal clamp, usually joined to another by a chain, meant to be worn on the nipples to cause pain.


Johnny Reb

From the sense of Johnny as a placeholder name for any man and reb, US slang for a Confederate citizen or soldier.

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America

(historical, colloquial) Synonym of Confederate: a citizen of the Confederate States of America, particularly a Confederate soldier.


Johnny Reb

When Lincoln heard the news about the fall,
All the folks thought he'd throw a great vict'ry ball,
But he asked the band to play the song "Dixie"
For you, Johnny Reb, and all that you believe.

Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America#English

(figurative) Synonym of Confederate States of America.


thrash

thrash (third-person singular simple present thrashes, present participle thrashing, simple past and past participle thrashed)

thrashes (present singular third-person)
thrashing (participle present)
thrashed (participle past)
thrashed (past)

From Middle English thrasshen, a dialectal variant of thresshen, threshen (whence the modern English thresh), from Old English þrescan, from Proto-Germanic *þreskaną, whence also Old High German dreskan, Old Norse þreskja.

I rather would be Maevius, thrash for rhymes, / Like his, the scorn and scandal of the times.

c. 1690, Juvenal, “The Tenth Satire of Juvenal”, in John Dryden, transl., John Dryden: The Major Works, Oxford University Press, published 1987, page 364:

As performers, we girls have our hair. That's the real thing guys want to see. They love to see the long hair move. They want you to thrash it.

2023, Britney Spears, The Woman in Me, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

To move about wildly or violently; to flail; to labour.


tussle

And the visiting side appeared to settle quickly as Wayne Routledge, who had a tough tussle with Stevenage left-back Scott Laird, delivered an early cross that Barton drilled goalwards, forcing a decent save from Chris Day.

2011 January 8, Paul Fletcher, “Stevenage 3 - 1 Newcastle”, in BBC:

..., two young men—field hands—got into a tussle with a white man.

1994, Walter Dean Myers, The Glory Field, →ISBN, page 32:

A conflict, an argument, a disagreement.


tussle

tussle (third-person singular simple present tussles, present participle tussling, simple past and past participle tussled)

tussles (present singular third-person)
tussling (participle present)
tussled (participle past)
tussled (past)

The two sets of fans were tussling before the game.

Olsson and Herd tussled off the ball at a free-kick before Olsson fell to the ground. Assistant referee Darren Cann signalled for a penalty and Dowd sent Herd off to the amazement of the Villa faithful.

2011 October 22, Sam Sheringham, “Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport:


oppression

en-noun

oppression (countable and uncountable, plural oppressions)

From Middle English oppression, from Old French oppression, from Latin oppressiō (“a pressing down, violence, oppression”), from opprimō; see oppress.

der

Extreme freedom is followed by extreme oppression, said Plato.

The act of oppressing, or the state of being oppressed.


assassin

en-verb

assassin (third-person singular simple present assassins, present participle assassining, simple past and past participle assassined)

assassins (present singular third-person)
assassining (participle present)
assassined (participle past)
assassined (past)

Assassin (disambiguation)
Nicolas Bourbaki

From either French assassin or Italian assassino, from Arabic أَسَاسِيِّين (ʔasāsiyyīn, “people who are faithful to the foundation [of the faith]”) and the folkloric etymology Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users; low-lives”).
The mathematical sense was introduced by Bourbaki, playing on the notation operatorname Ass(M) and the fact that an associated prime is the annihilator of an element, and so is said to kill that element.

der

أَسَاسِيِّين

people who are faithful to the foundation 􂀿of the faith􂁀


Coined by American author Joseph Heller in 1961 in his novel Catch-22, in which the main character feigns madness in order to avoid dangerous combat missions, but his desire to avoid them is taken to prove his sanity.

coin

For us it’s been a real Catch-22: when we have the time to take a vacation, we don’t have enough money, and when we have enough money, we don’t have the time.

Herein lies my personal “Catch 22”; the choice between three hours sleep and some discomfort or six hours sleep and real pain. Usually I choose the lesser evil of insomnia because in addition to the pain at 6am, I am incapacitated by the hangover from the sedative.

1988, E[dward] J[ames] Moran Campbell, Not Always on the Level, [London]: British Medical Journal, →ISBN, page 194:

(idiomatic) A difficult situation from which there is no escape because it involves mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.


warhead

"Multi Bottle Rocket". Possibly the strongest weapon around, it does a lot of damage due to its massive warhead.

1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:

The part of a missile, projectile, torpedo, rocket, or other munition which contains either the nuclear or thermonuclear system, high explosive system, chemical or biological agents, or inert materials intended to inflict damage.


catfight

From cat + fight. So named because, like cats, scratching is a common defensive tactic among women, as opposed to a fistfight between men.

打架

fight between women — see also bitch fight

The caterwauling from the catfight in the back yard was awful; I couldn't get to sleep until it was over.

Nancy and Sheila got into a catfight when Nancy's boyfriend cheated on her with Sheila.

Female conflict, seen in this kind of structure, works conveniently—it takes note of aggression in women and sets it against other women. Men are spared. The audience applauds. Everyone loves a catfight.

1980, Louise Bernikow, Among Women, New York: Harmony Books, page 207:

There was a time when I would get furious and fire off an angry note if someone cast me in a catfight with a woman colleague. I assumed that catfights would fade as women progressed. They seemed so retro.

2005, Maureen Dowd, Are Men Necessary?, →ISBN, page 310:

(slang) A fight or bickering, especially between women.

handbags

acrimonious fight, especially between women


brawl

en-verb

brawl (third-person singular simple present brawls, present participle brawling, simple past and past participle brawled)

brawls (present singular third-person)
brawling (participle present)
brawled (participle past)
brawled (past)

Possibly from French branler (“to shake”), from Old French brandeler (“to shake, wave; to agitate”), from brand, branc (“blade of a sword”), from Vulgar Latin *brandus (“firebrand; flaming sword; sword”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenu- (“to burn”).

der

(intransitive, obsolete) To move to and fro, to quiver, to shake.


sanguinary

en-adj

sanguinary (comparative more sanguinary, superlative most sanguinary)

more sanguinary (comparative)
most sanguinary (superlative)

/ˈsæŋɡwɪnəɹi/

/ˈsæŋɡwɪnɛɹi/

From Middle English sanguinarie, from Latin sanguinārius.

We may not propagate religion by wars, or by sanguinary persecutions to force consciences.

1625, Francis Bacon, "Unity in Religion" (Google preview)

"[…] every one of which took its rise from some noble family that succeeded in grasping the purple after a sanguinary struggle."

1887, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter XIII, in Allan Quatermain:

It was not merely distaste for court life at Ch’ang An that urged the emperor to make war upon this country. China had substantial grievances against the peninsula kingdom. In the year A.D. 642 P’ing Jang, the Korean capital, had been convulsed by a revolution more sanguinary and more successful than that which had menaced the Chinese court.

1933, “The Korean War and the Closing Years A.D. 645-50”, in Son of Heaven: A Biography of Li Shih-Min, founder of the T’ang Dynasty, Cambridge University Press, published 1971, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 187:


warmonger

/ˈwɔː.mʌŋ.ɡə(ɹ)/

Wham! Overnight he [Dwight D. Eisenhower] became a warmonger.

1952 September 22, “Since Stevenson Prefers 'Compromise', Foreign Policy Is Squarely in the Campaign”, in LIFE, volume 33, number 12, Time Inc., →ISSN, page 30:

(derogatory) Someone who advocates war; a militarist.


gangbang

(US, slang) An act of a street gang committing crimes as a group, such as attacking random people on the streets.


cold turkey

Various explanations; see Cold turkey § Etymology on Wikipedia.

(US military slang, World War I– World War II) Something exposed as a target due to surmountable defense.


killing

killing (comparative more killing, superlative most killing)

more killing (comparative)
most killing (superlative)

From Middle English kyllyng; equivalent to kill + -ing.

That literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal.


wetting

Earned my name name for all of them wettings
If I let you live, then give blessings

2018 August 25, (1011) Eleven X (Splash) Russ X Taze, here Taze (lyrics and music), “Anti”, 3:01–3:05:

(US, MLE, slang) An act of murdering or seriously injuring someone.


whipping

en-noun

whipping (countable and uncountable, plural whippings)

(uncountable) A cooking technique in which air is incorporated into cream to produce whipped cream.


pistol-whip

en-verb

pistol-whip (third-person singular simple present pistol-whips, present participle pistol-whipping, simple past and past participle pistol-whipped)

pistol-whips (present singular third-person)
pistol-whipping (participle present)
pistol-whipped (participle past)
pistol-whipped (past)

(transitive) To strike or beat (someone) with a pistol, especially with its butt.


gore

From Middle English gore, gor, gorre (“mud, muck”), from Old English gor (“dirt, dung, filth, muck”), from Proto-Germanic *gurą (“half-digested stomach contents; faeces; manure”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer- (“hot; warm”).

der

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

The zombie scenes are reminiscent of what you might see on a show like The Walking Dead, short bursts of extreme violence and gore punctuating expository dialogue scenes where the survivors try to figure out how they’re going to get from point A to point B.

2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The Onion AV Club:


shambles

en-noun

shambles (countable and uncountable, plural shambles)

From Middle English schamels, plural of schamel, from Old English sċeamol, sċamul (“bench, stool”), from Proto-West Germanic *skamul, *skamil (“stool, bench”), from Vulgar Latin scamellum, from Latin scamillum (“little bench, ridge”), from Latin scamnum (“bench, ridge, breadth of a field”).

der

Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 10:25:

As to our City of Dublin, Shambles may be appointed for this purpoſe, in the moſt convenient parts of it, and Butchers vve may be aſſured vvill not be be vvanting, […]

1729, [Jonathan Swift], A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents, or the Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick, Dublin: […] S[arah] Harding, […], →OCLC, page 8:


Bronze Age

(mythology) One of the Classical Ages of Man, associated with warfare.


Archie

en-noun

Archie (countable and uncountable, plural Archies)

But then, dodging airbursts of Archie on the Western Front hadn't exactly been a joyride either.

2012, Pat Kelleher, The Alleyman, →ISBN:

He was seen by an aeroplane, our Archie gunner and a whole division to crash in their lines just opposite our trenches, much jubilation and more congratulations.

2013, Tyrrel M. Hawker, Hawker VC- The First RFC Ace: The Life of Major Lanoe Hawker VC DSO: 1890-1916., →ISBN:

On a cloudy day one can hop in and out of the clouds, greatly to the annoyance of some Archie commander who, just when he has got range and direction and is about to let fly, finds that his bird has disappeared into a cloud. He fills thatcloud with HE but his quarry emerges from another nearby with a gesture of derision which the gunners below may imagine, though cannot see. On a sunny day, Archie is up early, for he knows that aircraft will be silhouetted against a blue sky. Then the experienced pilot hops in and out of the sun, there being no clouds, while the Archie commander rubs his smarting eyes and uses strong words.

2014, Martin Bowman, Lost Wings of WWI: Downed Airmen on the Western Front 1914-1918, →ISBN:

(military slang, World War I, uncountable) Anti-aircraft artillery.

An inquisitive aeroplane, which had been hovering over the scene, was picked off as by an Archie and made a forced landing, man and machine buried in filth.

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:

Quickly our five machines dodged the Archies as we crossed.

2016, Lieut.-Col. Harold Evans Hartney, Up And At ‘Em, →ISBN:

(military slang, World War I, countable) A piece of anti-aircraft ordnance.


sticker

From stick (“to pierce, to be fastened, to adhere”) + -er (“agent”).

affix

(military slang, World War I– World War II, if not earlier) A bayonet.


lapidate

en-verb

lapidate (third-person singular simple present lapidates, present participle lapidating, simple past and past participle lapidated)

lapidates (present singular third-person)
lapidating (participle present)
lapidated (participle past)
lapidated (past)

From Latin lapidātus, past participle of lapidō (“throw stones at”), from lapis (“stone”).

the host (in tailcoat, grey cravat, purple vest) is lapidated by his wife while he loudly cries: "Maggie—please save a cup fer coffee in the morning."

1932 February 1, “Jiggs & Maggie”, in Time Magazine:

On August 27, 2002, a Nigerian court ordered the mother of a newborn child, Amina Lawal, to be publicly lapidated for adultery.

(transitive, law) To throw stones or other objects at, as punishment, sometimes until death.


fracas

From French fracas, derived from fracasser, from Italian fracassare, from fra- + cassare, equivalent to Latin infra + quassare.

Fanny read to herself that “it was with infinite concern the newspaper had to announce to the world, a matrimonial fracas in the family of Mr. R. of Wimpole Street; the beautiful Mrs. R. whose name had not long been enrolled in the lists of hymen, and who had promised to become so brilliant a leader in the fashionable world, having quitted her husband’s roof in company with the well known and captivating Mr. C. the intimate friend and associate of Mr. R. and it was not known, even to the editor of the newspaper, whither they were gone.”

1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 281–282:

The Oregon-Northern California region had lost much of its population during the fracas of 1980; it had been heavily hit by Red Chinese guided missiles, and of course the clouds of fallout had blanketed it in the subsequent decade.

1964, Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra, paperback edition, Vintage Books, published 2002, page 37:

And I recall also some years ago, Mr Rayne, who travelled to America as valet to Sir Reginals Mauvis, remarking that a taxi driver in New York regularly addressed his fare in a manner which if repeated in London would end in some sort of fracas, if not in the fellow being frogmarched to the nearest police station.

1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, paperback edition, Faber, published 1999, page 16:

To the ranks of wonky risk management professionals who have toiled over the minutia of E.S.G. reports for decades now, the political fracas is perplexing.

2023 February 28, David Gelles, “How E.S.G. Became Public Enemy No. 1 for Conservatives”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

But as a matter of corporate drama, the OpenAI fracas is above all a great example of why the incredibly boring-sounding term corporate governance is actually extremely important.

2023 November 22, Derek Thompson, “The OpenAI Mess Is About One Big Thing”, in The Atlantic:

A noisy disorderly quarrel, fight, brawl, disturbance or scrap.


corporal punishment

en-noun

corporal punishment (countable and uncountable, plural corporal punishments)

A form of punishment achieved by inflicting blows to the offender's body.


ground zero

ground zero (countable and uncountable, plural ground zeroes)

/ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪəɹəʊ/

/ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪɚ(ˌ)oʊ/

From ground + zero, first attested in a June 1946 a report by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on August 6 and 9, 1945, during World War II. “Zero” was used as the code name for the location of the Trinity atomic bomb test – the first detonation of a nuclear weapon – in New Mexico, USA, on July 16, 1945.

James Meredith's forced admission was a milestone in upending the old order in America's most segregated state, a kind of race relations ground zero.

1997 May 4, Adam Nossiter, “Ground Zero”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Less than two years into the job, she has transformed Washington into ground zero of America’s education reform movement.

2009 March 21, Nicholas Kristof, “Education’s Ground Zero”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(figuratively) The point at which something begins.


capital punishment

capital punishment (countable and uncountable, plural capital punishments)

From the original meaning of capital (“relating to the head”); originally referring to executions by beheading or decapitating.

The practice of putting a person to death as a punishment for a crime.

dënim me vdekje

punishment by death — see also death penalty


free-for-all

/ˈfɹiːfəɹɔːl/

/ˈfɹiːfɚɔːl/

(video games) Deathmatch, sometimes specifically one in which every player is pitted against all the others.


ICBM

Just sing out a Te Deum / When you see that ICBM / And the party will be come-as-you-are

1959, “We Will All Go Together When We Go”, in Tom Lehrer (music), An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer, performed by Tom Lehrer:

Iraq could test a North Korean-type ICBM that could deliver a several-hundred-kilogram payload to the United States in the last half of the next decade [the decade beginning with calendar year 2000] depending on the level of foreign assistance.

2002, Alexander T. Lennon, Contemporary Nuclear Debates: Missile Defense, Arms Control, and Arms Races in the Twenty-first Century, MIT Press, →ISBN:

(weaponry) Initialism of intercontinental ballistic missile.

МКБР

abbreviation of intercontinental ballistic missile


VE Day

From initialism of victory (in) Europe + day.

Victory in Europe day; the anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, 8 May 1945.


deterrence

deterrence (countable and uncountable, plural deterrences)

The art of producing in one's enemy the fear of attacking.

(specifically) nuclear deterrence: discouraging nuclear attack through the threat of nuclear retaliation.


nuclear-free zone

nuclear-free zone (plural nuclear-free zones)

An area in which the local or regional authorities have banned nuclear weapons and nuclear power stations.

無核區

area in which authorities have banned nuclear weapons and power stations


theater

theater (countable and uncountable, plural theaters)

(US, Canada, Southern American English) -iːtə(ɹ)

From Middle English theater, theatre, from Old French theatre, from Latin theatrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “a place for viewing”), from θεάομαι (theáomai, “to see", "to watch", "to observe”). Doublet of tiatr.

theatre

standard spelling in all English-speaking countries that use British spelling

His grandfather was in the Pacific theater during the war.

Percy had been too big for the town since he got back from the war. He served in the Pacific theater, behind the lines keeping up the supply chain.

2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 69:

A region where a particular action takes place; a specific field of action, usually with reference to war.


slaughter

en-noun

slaughter (countable and uncountable, plural slaughters)

From Middle English slaughter, from Old Norse *slahtr, later sláttr, from Proto-Germanic *slahtrą, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną. Equivalent to slay + -ter (as in laughter). Eventually derived from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”). Related with Dutch slachten, German schlachten, Finnish lahdata (all “to slaughter”).

der

1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VI, 1773, The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost, Edinburgh, page 416,
For ſin, on war and mutual ſlaughter bent.

A massacre; the killing of a large number of people.


mess up

en-verb

mess up (third-person singular simple present messes up, present participle messing up, simple past and past participle messed up)

messes up (present singular third-person)
messing up (participle present)
messed up (participle past)
messed up (past)

Her brother's friends messed him up a little after he cheated on her.

(transitive, slang) To manhandle; beat up; rough up.


beat off

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

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

He beat his pistol off into the air.

(transitive, slang, African-American Vernacular) To shoot (a gun).


thwack

thwack (third-person singular simple present thwacks, present participle thwacking, simple past and past participle thwacked)

thwacks (present singular third-person)
thwacking (participle present)
thwacked (participle past)
thwacked (past)
thwack (infinitive)

The verb is probably:
* partly onomatopoeic, from the sound of something being beaten (compare whack); and
* partly derived from Late Middle English twakken, twake (“to hit (someone) with something; to pat; to stroke”), probably from Middle English thakken, thakke (“to dab; to pat; to stroke”) [and other forms] (whence thack (obsolete except Britain, dialectal)), from Old English þaccian (“to beat; to pat; to touch softly, stroke; to strike gently, clap, tap”), from Proto-West Germanic *þakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *þakwōną (“to pat; to tap; to touch”), from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to grasp with the hand; to touch”). Doublet of tangent.
The noun and interjection are derived from the verb.
cognates
* Latin tangō (“touch”)
* Old Dutch þakolōn (“to stroke”)
* Old Norse þykkr (“a blow, thump, thwack”) (Icelandic þjaka, þjökka (“to beat, thump, thwack”); Norwegian tjåka (“to strike, beat”))

cog

This carter thwacketh his horse upon the croup, / And they began to drawen and to stoop.

[1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Friar’s Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English), [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; Charles Cowden Clarke, editor, The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. […], 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: James Nichol; London: James Nisbet & Co.; Dublin: W. Robertson, 1860, →OCLC, page 49, lines 7141–7142:

This carter thrashes his horse upon the croup, / And they began to draw and to stoop.

Flaies lustily thwack, / least plough séede lack.

1878, Thomas Tusser, “Octobers Abstract”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne, Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC, stanza 3, page 43:

Run, run, come you hither / Novv, take all my Cuſhions dovvn and thvvack them ſoundly, / After my Feaſt of Millers: for their Buttocks / Have left a peck of flovver in them, beat them carefully […]

c. 1615–1620 (date written), Tho[mas] Middleton, The Mayor of Quinborough: A Comedy. […] [Hengist, King of Kent], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], published 1661, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 61:

VVith that Nic bounc'd up vvith a Spring equal to that of one of your nimbleſt Tumblers or Rope dancers, falls foul upon John Bull to ſnatch the Cudgel he had in his Hand, that he might Thvvack Levvis vvith it.

1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “The Rest of Nic’s Fetches to Keep John out of Ecclesdoun-Castle”, in Lewis Baboon Turned Honest, and John Bull Politician. Being the Fourth Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 32:

I had finished my toilet, and was loitering with Frank Bracebridge in the library, when we heard a distant thwacking sound, which he informed me was a signal for the serving up of the dinner.

1820 January 1, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Christmas Day”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number V, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 423:

Now, great logician! nothings enemy! / Who thwacketh nothing, and its numerous fry / Of little nothings, and the nothings grown; / The fog-lost nothings; and the nothings known.

1856, Joseph Cartwright, Philpot Street: Or, The Infidels of Stepney. […], London: […] G. Rymer, […]; and published by C. Kerbey, […], →OCLC, page 9:

[F]ew country people there are who do not love to see two sturdy fellows thwack and belabour each other with quarter-staff, single-stick, or fists.

1881, Walter Besant, James Rice, “How Kitty First Saw the Doctor”, in The Chaplain of the Fleet […], volume I, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, part I (Within the Rules), page 82:

For the poor things [worshippers] would have other idols in place of those he [the iconoclast] thwacketh upon the mazzard and dispelleth.

1906, Ambrose Bierce, “Iconoclast”, in The Cynic’s Word Book, London: Arthur F. Bird […], →OCLC, page 170:

The batsman swung and thwacked it [a cricket ball] behind him over the sight-screens.

1982 August, Douglas Adams, chapter 4, in Life, the Universe and Everything (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; 3), London: Pan Books, →ISBN, page 24:

To hit (someone or something) hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; to thrash, to whack.

бия жестоко

to hit (someone or something) hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick

But let him ſvveare ſo, and he ſhall not ſtay, / VVee'l thvvack him hence vvith Diſtaffes.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 277, column 2:

(also figuratively) To drive or force (someone or something) by, or as if by, beating or hitting; to knock.

paiskata

to drive or force (someone or something) by, or as if by, beating or hitting

3 [Servingman] VVhy here's he that vvas vvont to thvvacke our Generall, Caius Martius. / 1 VVhy do you ſay, thvvacke our Generall? / 3 I do not ſay thvvacke our Generall, but he vvas alvvayes good enough for him.

c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], page 23, column 1:

[W]hat adventurous knight ever thought of the lady's terror, when he went to thwack giant, dragon, or magician, in her presence, and for her deliverance?

1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 40:

If we count three before the come of thee, thwacked thou art, and must go to the women.

1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter II, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, page 18:

(figuratively) To decisively defeat (someone) in a contest; to beat, to thrash.


thwack

Him Ralph encountred, and straight grew / A fierce Dispute betwixt them two: / Th'one arm'd with Metall, t'other with Wood; / This fit for bruise, and that for Blood. / With many a stiff thwack, many a bang, / Hard Crab-tree and old Iron rang; / While none that saw them could divine / To which side Conquest would encline: […]

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 49:

Noble Captain, Lend a reaſonable Thvvack, for the Love of God, vvith that Cane of yours, over theſe poor Shoulders.

1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section XI”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 205:

[H]e trudged rapidly up the steep avenue of the Alhambra, singing as he went, and now and then bestowing a hearty thwack with a cudgel on the flanks of his donkey, either by way of cadence to the song, or refreshment to the animal; for dry blows serve in lieu for provender in Spain, for all beasts of burden.

1832, [Washington Irving], “Legend of the Moor’s Legacy”, in The Alhambra: A Series of Tales and Sketches of the Moors and Spaniards. […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey & [Isaac] Lea, →OCLC, page 14:

But he was stopped on the way by a portly sperm whale, that begged a few moments' confidential business with him. That business consisted in fetching the Commodore's craft such a thwack, that with all his pumps going he made straight for the nearest port to heave down and repair.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Affidavit”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 230:

An act of hitting hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; a whack; also, a powerful stroke involved in such hitting; a blow, a strike.

كف

act of hitting hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick — see also whack


scavenger's daughter

en-noun

scavenger's daughter (plural scavenger's daughters)

Skeffington's daughter
Skeffington's daughter#English

Alternative form of Skeffington's daughter


proliferation

proliferation (countable and uncountable, plural proliferations)

/pɹəˌlɪf.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/

/pɹəˌlɪf.əˈɹæɪ.ʃən/

(countable) The result of building up; buildup, accretion.


war crime

/ˈwɔɹ ˌkɹaɪm/

[W]ar crimes are such hostile or other acts of soldiers or other individuals as may be punished by the enemy on capture of the offenders. […] [A]lthough among the acts called war crimes are many which, such as abuse of a flag of truce or assassination of enemy soldiers for instance, are crimes in the moral sense of the term, there are others which, such as taking part in a levy en masse on territory occupied by the enemy for instance, may be highly praiseworthy patriotic acts. Because every belligerent can and actually must in the interest of his own safety punish these acts, they are termed war crimes, whatever may be the motive, the purpose, and the moral character of the respective act.

1906, L[assa Francis Lawrence] Oppenheim, “Means of Securing Legitimate Warfare”, in International Law: A Treatise, volumes II (War and Neutrality), London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, part II (War), section IV (Punishment of War Crimes), § 251, pages 263–264:

[Paragraph] 441. The term "War Crime" is the technical expression for such an act of enemy soldiers and enemy civilians as may be visited by punishment or capture of the offenders. […] [Paragraph] 442. War crimes may be divided into four different classes:– (i) Violations of the recognized rules of warfare by members of the armed forces. (ii) Illegitimate hostilities in arms committed by individuals who are not members of the armed forces. (iii) Espionage and war treason. (iv) Marauding.

1914, J[ames] E[dward] Edmonds, L[assa Francis Lawrence] Oppenheim, “The Laws and Usages of War on Land”, in Hugh Godley, editor, Manual of Military Law, 6th edition, London: War Office; His Majesty’s Stationery Office, published 1917, →OCLC, page 302:

If, this time, there is going to be, after the victory of the United Nations, due punishment of these abominable war crimes, perpetrated in breach of the laws of war by enemy nations and for which enemy individuals must be held responsible, it would be a grave mistake to concern ourselves at this stage merely with the discussion of the most appropriate tribunals to deal with such charges, or with the minutiae of juridical analysis.

1942 October 7, John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, “[Collective Notes Presented to the Governments of Great Britain, the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. and Relative Correspondence] Statement of the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords”, in Punishment for War Crimes, New York, N.Y.: United Nations Information Office, published [1943], →OCLC, page 30:

To be sure, there is a strong argument that aiding and abetting a recognized international-law war crime such as terrorism is itself an international-law war crime. And there are other similar war crimes.

2012 October 16, Brett Kavanaugh, Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, “Hamdan v. United States [No. 11-1257]”, in West’s Federal Reporter: Cases Argued and Determined in the United States Courts of Appeals (3d Series), volume 696, St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, paragraph 66, page 1251:

To deal with war crime such as rape a mobile court system was created in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo].

2015, Mariam M. Kurtz, Mwamini Thambwe Diggs, “Wartime Rape: A Case Study of the Democratic Republic of Congo”, in Mariam M. Kurtz, Lester R. Kurtz, editors, Women, War, and Violence: Topography, Resistance, and Hope, volume 1, Santa Barbara, Calif., Denver, Colo.: Praeger Security International, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 193:

The two primary ones are that by the time anyone bothered to codify rules of war, lighthouses went on the list of "do not attack" pretty much immediately, and so it would be a rather pointless war crime to commit; the second reason is related to why they went on the list of "do not attack" targets very quickly, and that is that lighthouses are completely nondiscriminatory as to who they alert to what's going on in terms of danger and coastlines and hidden rocks and such[…]

2020 June 21, “Drachinifel” [pseudonym], “The Drydock” (6:33 from the start), in YouTube, episode 099, archived from the original on 2022-08-08:

Condoleezza Rice pops up on Fox to be told by the anchor: "When you invade a sovereign nation, that is a war crime." With a solemn nod, the former secretary of state to George Bush replies: "It is certainly against every principle of international law and international order."

2022 March 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Western values? They enthroned the monster who is shelling Ukrainians today”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-14:

(criminal law, international law) A punishable offence under international law for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian.

criminal law; international law; criminal law; international law


over the top

en-adv

over the top (comparative more over the top, superlative most over the top)

more over the top (comparative)
most over the top (superlative)

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see over, the, top.


dirty bomb

Without providing evidence, Shoigu said Ukraine could escalate by using a “dirty bomb” – conventional explosives laced with radioactive material.

2022 October 24, Peter Beaumont, “Ukraine war heading for ‘uncontrolled escalation’, says Russia”, in The Guardian:

A device containing conventional explosives and radioactive material, designed to spread radiation over a wide area.


happy slapping

en-noun

happy slapping (countable and uncountable, plural happy slappings)

Coordinate term: patterning

(informal) The practice of physically attacking (originally, slapping), and often verbally abusing, a person and photographing or filming the attack using a camera phone, the recording sometimes being sent to others to further humiliate the victim.


D-Day

(historical) 6 June 1944, the date when the Allies invaded western Europe in World War II.


cold war

/ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː/

Diachronically, back-formation from Cold War: a common noun back-formed from the proper noun naming the first post–WWII instance of the concept; synchronically, cold + war.

Coordinate term: world war

1945, George Orwell, "You and the Atom Bomb", Tribune, 19 October 1945; reprinted in Orwell, Sonia Orwell, and Ian Angus, George Orwell: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, Volume 4: In Front of Your Nose (1946–1950), David R. Godine (2000), ISBN →ISBN, page 9,
James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications—that is, the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of “cold war” with its neighbours.

1951, Daniel V. Gallery, Clear the Decks, 19 October 1945, page 100,
World War III started on VJ Day as a cold war. It began to warm up when the Russians blockaded Berlin and nearly reached the exploding point in Korea.

It's just an old war / Not even a cold war

1979, “Broken English”, performed by Marianne Faithfull:

The world economy is on the brink of a second cold war that could “annihilate” progress made since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a senior International Monetary Fund official has warned.

2023 December 11, Richard Partington, “World economy on brink of ‘cold war two’, IMF official warns”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A period of hostile relations between rivals where direct open warfare between them is largely undesired and avoided; especially, either the Cold War or Cold War II.


pounce

From Middle English pounce, probably akin to punch. Possibly from Old French ponchonner (compare French poinçonner).

one spendeth his patrimony upon pounces and cuts

1571, John Jewel et al., “An Homily Against excess of apparel”, in The Second Tome of Homilees […] :


civil war

Calque of Latin bellum cīvīle, in English from 1651 in reference to the English Civil War, with possible early use in the 15th and 16th centuries as wer cyuile or ciuill warre. Displaced native Old English inġewinn.

At about the time the salarians and asari were forming the Council, the turians were embroiled in a bitter civil war. The Unification War, as it was later named, began with hostilities between the colonies furthest from the turian homeworld, Palaven.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Turians: The Unification War Codex entry:

The “little green men”—faces covered, wearing unmarked olive uniforms, speaking Russian and using Russian weapons—have played a significant role in both the occupation of Crimea and the civil war in eastern Ukraine.¹⁹⁶

2015, Shane R. Reeves, David Wallace, “The Combatant Status of the “Little Green Men” and Other Participants in the Ukraine Conflict”, in International Law Studies, US Naval War College, volume 91, number 361, Stockton Center for the Study of International Law, page 393:

Civil war is now casually discussed on cable TV shows in between ads for haemorrhoid creams and car insurance.

2022 September 6, Arwa Mahdawi, “No doomsday bunker, not a single gun – if the US really is heading for civil war, I’m stuffed”, in The Guardian:

A war fought between factions of the inhabitants of a single country, or a similar political entity.

burgeroorlog

war between factions within a single country

ܩܪܵܒ݂ܵܐ ܡܕܝܼܢܵܝܵܐ

qrāḇā mdīnāyā


licking

licking (countable and uncountable, plural lickings)


terrorism

terrorism (usually uncountable, plural terrorisms)

/ˈtɛɹəɹɪzəm/

From French terrorisme, from terreur + -isme, equivalent to terror + -ism.
The word first appears in English in 1795 in reference to the Jacobin radicals of France, who ruled during the Reign of Terror.

തീവ്രവാദം (tīvravādaṁ, literally “extremism”)

In England I was proscribed for having vindicated the French Revolution, and I have suffered a rigorous imprisonment in France for having pursued a similar mode of conduct. During the reign of terrorism, I was a close prisoner for eight long months, and remained so above three months after the era of the tenth Thermidor.

1795 July 7, Thomas Paine, The Constitution Of 1795 (Speech in the French National Convention):

(historical) The system of fear and intimidation put into place during the Reign of Terror in Revolutionary France around 1793-94.

The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty. David Cameron insists that his latest communications data bill is "vital to counter terrorism". Yet terror is mayhem. It is no threat to freedom. That threat is from counter-terror, from ministers capitulating to securocrats.

2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23:

The use of unlawful violence against people or property to achieve political objectives.

(by extension) The use of intimidation or bullying tactics.


crusade

From French croisade, introduced in English (in the French spelling) by 1575. The modern spelling emerges c. 1760,. Middle French croisade is introduced in the 15th century, based on Spanish cruzada (late 14th century) and Old Occitan crozada (early 13th century), both reflecting Medieval Latin cruciāta, cruxiata, the feminine singular of the adjective cruciātus used as an abstract noun.
Adjectival cruciātus originally meant "tormented; crucified", but from the 12th century crucesignatus was also used for "marked with a cross; making the sign of the cross" and eventually "taking the cross" in the sense of "going on a crusade".
Old Occitan crozada is used in the sense "[the Albigensian] crusade" in the Song of the Albigensian crusade, written c. 1213. From vernacular usage, Middle Latin cruciāta also comes to be used in the sense "crusade" from about 1270.

Any war instigated and blessed by the Church for alleged religious ends, (especially) papal-sanctioned military campaigns against infidels or heretics.


scourge

From Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”), and then either:
* from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, escurge, or Old French scurge, escourge, escorge, escorgiee, escurge (modern French escourgée (“(archaic) whip made of leather strips”)), either:
** from Vulgar Latin *excoriāta (“strip of hide; a scourge”), from Late Latin excoriāre, the present active infinitive of excoriō (“to strip the skin from, to skin”), from Latin ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + corium (“skin; hide, leather”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”)); or
** from Latin ex- (intensifying prefix) + corrigia (“a whip”) (from corrigō (“to make right, correct; to reform”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to righten; to straighten”)); or
* from Middle English scourgen (verb) (see etymology 2).
cognates
* Italian scuriada, scuriata

der

He flogged him with a scourge.

Yf they breake myne ordinaunces, and kepe not my commaundementes. I vil vyſet their offences with the rodde, and their ſynnes with ſcourges.

1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Psalm lxxxviij:[31–32], folio xxvij, verso, column 1:

My father layd vpon you a heauie yoke, vvhich I vvil make heauier: my father bette you vvith ſcourges, but I vvil beate you vvith ſcorpions.

1609, The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Lavrence Kellam, […], →OCLC, 2 Paralipomenon 10:11, page 886:

Up to coach then goes / Th' observed Maid, takes both the scourge and reins, / And to her side her handmaid straight attains.

1614–1615, Homer, “The Sixth Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume I, London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC, page 136, lines 111–113:

[H]eaven-born truth, / And moderation fair, vvere the red marks / Of ſuperſtition's ſcourge: […]

a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 204, lines 1059–1061:

Mortify / Your flesh, like me, with scourges and with thorns; / Smite, shrink not, spare not.

1833 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “St. Simeon Stylites”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 61:

Another strange manifestation of collective mental abnormality, though not directly connected with sorcery, was the Brotherhood of Flagellants. […] These men lashed themselves and each other unmercifully with knotted leather scourges until the blood ran, two or three times daily.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, “The Church and Monastic Black Magic”, in The Black Art, London: Senate, Studio Editions, published 1994, →ISBN, page 99:

(weaponry, chiefly historical) A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash.


Stonewall

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

From stone + wall. The drink is so named because its effect is likened to running into a stone wall. The riots take their name from the Stonewall Inn where they began (in the 1840s, the property was called Bonnie's Stone Wall, later renamed to Bonnie's Stonewall Inn, then the Stonewall Inn Restaurant, and then the Stonewall Inn). The Confederate general acquired his nickname after a battle in which, while other troops were in motion, fellow general Barnard E. Bee observed "there stands Jackson like a stone wall" (either resolutely, or unhelpfully). The chess setup is so named because it is a solid formation which is hard to overrun by force, like a stone wall.

Stonewall means fighting back.

(historical) A series of riots in 1969 New York City, beginning with the patrons of the gay bar "The Stonewall Inn" resisting police arrest, which marked the beginning of the militant gay rights movement.

the Stonewall attack, a Stonewall setup, a Stonewall formation

(chess) A formation in chess (a variation of the Queen's Pawn Game) in which white plays pawns to d4 and several other positions, requiring black to react energetically (see Stonewall Attack).

Any of several places:
An unincorporated community in Texas.

An unincorporated community in West Virginia.


Axis

The alliance (in effect before and during World War II) of Germany, Italy, Japan, and several minor allied countries, which opposed the Allies.


Blitz

Specific use of blitz. The Blitz was in truth not a blitzkrieg, which is a rapid ground offensive based on superior tank forces. However, the word was current at the time for the successful German campaigns in Poland and France, and was transferred to the attacks on Britain, perhaps by association of Blitz (“lightning”) with the bombings.

(historical) The series of air raids launched on various cities in Great Britain by the German air force in 1940–41 during World War II.


Hurricane

Hawker Hurricane
Hurricane (disambiguation)#Places
Hurricane, Utah
Hurricane, West Virginia

(historical) A British fighter aircraft used during World War II, especially during the Battle of Britain.


North

The North lost most battles early in the war.

The northern part of a region (alternative letter-case form of north), especially:

(US) The Union during the American Civil War.


Reconstruction

Reconstruction (canonical)
the Reconstruction (canonical)

A proper-noun variant of reconstruction.

Fables of the Reconstruction

A period of the history of the United States from 1865 to 1877, during which the nation tried to resolve the status of the ex-Confederate states, the ex-Confederate leaders, and the Freedmen (ex-slaves) after the American Civil War.


Atlas

en-proper noun

Atlas (countable and uncountable, plural Atlases)

From Latin Ā̆tlās, from Ancient Greek Ἄτλας (Átlas), either from ἁ- (ha-, copulative prefix) + Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“bear, undergo, endure”) or of Pre-Greek origin.

der

An unincorporated community in Pike County, Illinois.

A placename:
A place in the United States:
A township in Genesee County, Michigan.

An unincorporated community in Lamar County, Texas.

An unincorporated community in Upshur County, West Virginia.

An unincorporated community in Laketown, Polk County, Wisconsin.


Rebel

(US) A Confederate soldier; of the American Civil War.


South

en-proper noun

South (countable and uncountable, plural Souths)

English surname, from the adjective south. Compare Southern.

Many sincere white people in the South privately oppose segregation and discrimination, but they are apprehensive lest they be publicly condemned.

1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “Transformed Nonconformist”, in Strength to Love, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, →OCLC, page 13:

Just when the blacks had had their hopes for equality and justice raised, after centuries of misery and despair, they awoke one morning to discover that their future was in the hands of a President born in the South.

1971, Lyndon B. Johnson, “"I feel like I have already been here a year"”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 18:

Of course, living in the South was never an option—the main problem being they have too much respect for authority; they're soldier-sniffers and cop lovers. I don't respect that, and I could never live with it. There's also way too much religion in the South to be consistent with good mental health.

1997, George Carlin, “WELL, YA GOTTA LIVE SOMEPLACE”, in Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 16:

In the discussions we had sitting around church basements, I learned that, despite the obvious differences in our environments, these kids were more like me than I ever could have imagined. They also knew more about what was happening in the civil rights movement in the South. I had only vaguely heard of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, but these discussions sparked my interest.

2003, Hillary Rodham Clinton, “University of Life”, in Living History, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 22–23:

Tohti described a situation then current in Yeyiq Yezisi (Yeyike) township which is reminiscent of share-cropping in the post-bellum American south.

[2007, James A. Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, London: Hurst & Company, published 2021, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 365:

I should add a story, you know in the South at that time, Governor Barnett was sort of known as a bit of a dim bulb. And two years before, during the presidential campaign, one of the flashpoints in the debates that fall involved two Nationalist Chinese islands just off the coast of China: Quemoy and Matsu. And right after this argument erupted in the campaign, Ross Barnett was out politicking one day and the reporters asked him, "Governor, what about Quemoy and Matsu?" And he looked around sort of lost and said to one of his aides, "Them those two fellers I put on the Fishing and Game Commission last year?"

2012, 42:09 from the start, in Listening In: JFK's Secret Tapes, Thomas Oliphant (actor), John F. Kennedy Library Foundation:

(US) The south-eastern states of the United States, including many of the same states as formed the Confederacy.


Te

From Coptic ⲧⲏ (tē), from Egyptian d-wA-t:dwAt (“dwꜣt”). Doublet of Duat.

der

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">dwꜣt</i>

(Egyptology, Egyptian mythology) The realm of the dead in Egyptian mythology.


Holocaust

en-proper noun

the Holocaust (usually uncountable, plural Holocausts)

the Holocaust (canonical)
Holocausts (plural)

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

(historical, strictly) The systematic mass murder (genocide) of six million Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II.

Sjoa

the mass murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany

Holocaust

the mass murder of 11–14 million people by Nazi Germany


Trinity

A female given name from English used since the 1970s, from the religious term trinity, or translated from its long-established Spanish equivalent.


hellish

en-adj

hellish (comparative more hellish, superlative most hellish)

more hellish (comparative)
most hellish (superlative)

Fauſtus is gone, regard his helliſh fall, / Whoſe fiendful fortune may exhort the wiſe, / Onely to wonder at vnlawful things, […]

1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature [F3], recto:

I woke up from a hellish noise coming from the house next door.

(hyperbolic) causing great pain, discomfort or distress


Union

(locomotive): Derived from the name of the only U.S. company to use that configuration.

threats to secede from the Union

United States of America
United States of America

(US, with determiner, dated, especially 19th century) The United States of America.

Union troops at Gettysburg

(US, with determiner, historical) Those of the United States that did not secede at the time of the Civil War (of the United States of America).


Zeppelin

Borrowed from German Zeppelin. Named after Ferdinand von Zeppelin, whose surname derives from the German town name Zepelin. Doublet of cepelinas.


neutron bomb

An atomic bomb that produces a greater amount of neutrons, and a lesser amount of blast; the intention being to create equal lethal neutron radiation and blast radii which increases the effectiveness of the weapon against armour while reducing collateral damage.


CSA

(US) Initialism of Confederate States of America.


gang bang

(US, slang) Protecting gang turf, especially when dealing drugs or other black market objects.


tamper

(rail transport) A railway vehicle used to tamp down ballast.


run down

en-verb

run down (third-person singular simple present runs down, present participle running down, simple past ran down, past participle run down)

runs down (present singular third-person)
running down (participle present)
ran down (past)
run down (participle past)

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

Coordinate term: run in

I finally managed to run down that report. I had filed it incorrectly.

(transitive) To find something or someone after searching for a long time.


Fat Man

Coordinate term: Little Boy

The nuclear bomb dropped over Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945.


Little Boy

Coordinate term: Fat Man

The nuclear bomb dropped over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.


doomsday

en-noun

doomsday (countable and uncountable, plural doomsdays)

From Middle English domes + dai, from Old English dom (“judgment”) + dæg (“day”). Equivalent to doom + -s- + day. Possibly influenced by Latin domus dei (“house of God”).

Judgement day; the day of the Final Judgment; any day of decisive judgement or final dissolution.


OWI

From its inception the OWI framed directives that offered guidelines for songwriters to aid them in the composition of “proper” war songs, and, in the public press, the OWI rebuked Tin Pan Alley for its uninterrupted production of “nostalgic” hit songs.

2003, Kathleen E. R. Smith, God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 81:

w:United States Office of War Information

(US, World War II) Initialism of Office of War Information.


WW

(World War I military slang) Initialism of wild woman, i.e. prostitute.


SDI

The new sales pitch for S.D.I. runs smack up against the recommendations of Mr. Reagan's own Commission on Strategic Forces, the panel that so effectively closed the window of vulnerability back in 1983.

1987 August 31, Howard Ris, “Don't Buy the S.D.I. Soap”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Strategic Defense Initiative
Strategic Defense Initiative#English

Initialism of Strategic Defense Initiative.


MAD

MAD (countable and uncountable, plural MADs)

[T]he only bombs anyone dropped—on Hiroshima and Nagasaki—were Uncle Sam's message to non-nuclear Japan. MAD was salvation. MAD was security. MAD was the way of life most of us grew up with, the prevailing logic of uneasy peace. So whatever became of our mad, mad world?

2005 February 7, Peter Preston, “A nuclear Iran is not the problem”, in The Guardian:

But the American government worries that MAD-style deterrence will no longer work. Terrorists, for example, might not care about the threat of destruction.

2005 February 24, “Muon-assured defence”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

mutual assured destruction
mutual assured destruction#English

mutually assured destruction
mutually assured destruction#English

Initialism of mutual assured destruction or mutually assured destruction.

mothers against decapentaplegic
w:mothers against decapentaplegic

(genetics) Initialism of mothers against decapentaplegic.

Coordinate term: SANE

magnetically-arrested disc
magnetically-arrested disc#English

(astrophysics) Acronym of magnetically-arrested disc (a type of black hole accretion disc).


MAD

(programming) Acronym of Michigan algorithm decoder, a programming language, a variant of ALGOL, developed in 1959 at the University of Michigan.


mokusatsu

A policy of ignoring or taking no notice of something.


maim

en-verb

maim (third-person singular simple present maims, present participle maiming, simple past and past participle maimed)

maims (present singular third-person)
maiming (participle present)
maimed (participle past)
maimed (past)

From Middle English maymen, mahaymen, from Anglo-Norman maheimer, mahaigner, of Germanic origin; see mayhem.

He was maimed by a bear.

Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), pages 377–378:

To wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body.

شَوِهَ

to cause permanent loss of a part of the body


reo

(Australia, World War I, informal) A reinforcement (additional soldiers).


mushroom cloud

. mushroom cloud (canonical)
mushroom clouds (plural)

It's Christmas at ground zero / There's panic in the crowd / We can dodge debris / While we trim the tree / Underneath a mushroom cloud

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

A large cloud of smoke, flame and debris that rises into the sky as a result of a large explosion, especially after a nuclear explosion, characterized by a long shaft rising from the ground into a much-larger or more-spread-out top, reminiscent of a mushroom in shape.


domino effect

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

(politics, historical) The theory that, if South Vietnam became communist, it would be followed by Cambodia, Laos, additional Southeast Asian countries, other Asian countries, and likely even elsewhere.


bellicose

en-adj

bellicose (comparative more bellicose, superlative most bellicose)

more bellicose (comparative)
most bellicose (superlative)

From Middle English bellicose, from Latin bellicosus.

CHINA sent both bellicose and conciliatory signals yesterday as tension continued in the Taiwan Strait over Chinese military exercises and the deployment of US naval battle groups.

1996 March 15, James Pringle, “Peking sends out mixed signals”, in The Times, number 65,528, →ISSN, →OCLC, Overseas News, page 14, column 8:

The core Ice Age cast—wooly mammoth Manny (Ray Romano), sabertooth tiger Diego (Denis Leary), and sloth Sid (John Leguizamo)—are set adrift, sailing the high seas on a chunk of ice until they collide with a bellicose primate (Peter Dinklage).

2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in AV Club:


belligerence

en-noun

belligerence (countable and uncountable, plural belligerences)

A closer look at North Korean history reveals what Pyongyang’s leaders really want their near-farcical belligerence to achieve — a reminder to the world that North Korea exists, and an impression abroad that its leaders are irrational and unpredictable.

2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times:

The state of being belligerent; aggressive inclination to war.


guerrilla

en-adj

guerrilla (comparative more guerrilla, superlative most guerrilla)

more guerrilla (comparative)
most guerrilla (superlative)

Borrowed from Spanish guerrilla, diminutive of guerra (“war”), coined during the Peninsular War.

Wherever Nicholson was most wanted, there he was sure to be found. What his life was at this time may be seen from a letter he wrote to his mother: 'I am leading a very guerrilla sort of life with seven hundred horse and foot raised among the people of the country. The chieftain who is in rebellion has eight regular regiments and sixteen guns, so that I am unable to meet them openly in the field.'

1908, George Devereux Oswell, chapter VII, in Sketches of Rulers of India, volume I, page 127:

On the other hand, after the fall of Feng Ling Tu, the operations of Central Shansi, and Suiyuan, troops were more guerrilla than orthodox in nature.

1963, Samuel B. Griffith (translator), Mao Zedong, The Red Book of Guerrilla Warfare, edited by Shawn Conners, published 2010, page 14, original 1937

The Slovak uprising in the latter days was not guerrilla in character, which, incidentally, may have been one of the reasons for its failure.

1976, Walter Laqueur, Guerrilla Warfare, page 205:

(military) Relating to, using, or typical of guerrilla warfare, or its principles of small independent or non-official perpetrators.


glasnost

en-noun

glasnost (countable and uncountable, plural glasnosts)

Borrowed from Russian гла́сность (glásnostʹ, “openness”).

bor

Gorbachev would introduce glasnost (openness and freedom) and perestroika (economic restructuring) to Russia under his tenure, ultimately freeing thousands of political prisoners and dissidents and trying to address the shortages in food and goods that had become the hallmarks of the failing Soviet economy.

2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage:

(historical) 1980s and early 1990s policy of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev to allow more government transparency; often paired with perestroika

glasnost (usually accompanied by translation)


perestroika

en-noun

perestroika (countable and uncountable, plural perestroikas)

Borrowed from Russian перестро́йка (perestrójka, “restructuring”).

bor+

перестро́йка

(historical, uncountable) The period of time in the Soviet Union during which these reforms were carried out and in effect.


missile silo

An underground vertical cylindrical container for the storage and launching of ICBMs.


IRB

Initialism of internal review board, an internal affairs division of a police department.


bloodlust

en-noun

bloodlust (countable and uncountable, plural bloodlusts)

Yet the blood lust was on me now. I found myself on my feet emptying one magazine, then the other, clicking open the breech to re-load, snapping it to again, while cheering and yelling with pure ferocity and joy of slaughter as I did so.

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

A desire for bloodshed and carnage, often aroused in the heat of battle and leading to uncontrolled slaughter and torture.


Lorenz

(World War II) A blind-landing aid used at German military airfields.


suicide bomber

One who carries explosives on his or her body or in a vehicle and intends to detonate them (dying in the process) to kill people and inflict widespread damage, usually motivated by a political or religious cause.

камика́дзе m (kamikádze, literally “kamikaze”)


lead poisoning

lead poisoning (countable and uncountable, plural lead poisonings)

(pathology) A chronic intoxication produced by the absorption of lead into the body, characterized by severe colicky pains, a dark line along the gums, and local muscular paralysis.


bloodthirsty

en-adj

bloodthirsty (comparative bloodthirstier or more bloodthirsty, superlative bloodthirstiest or most bloodthirsty)

bloodthirstier (comparative)
more bloodthirsty (comparative)
bloodthirstiest (superlative)
most bloodthirsty (superlative)

From blood + thirsty. Cognate with West Frisian bloeddorstich (“bloodthirsty”), Dutch bloeddorstig (“bloodthirsty”), German blutdürstig (“bloodthirsty”), Danish blodtørstig (“bloodthirsty”), Swedish blodtörstig (“bloodthristy”), Norwegian blodtørstig (“bloodthirsty”).

cog

[I]t is, as I may ſo ſay, a ſavvcy Plot: and vve all knovv, moſt Reverend Fathers, that vvhat is ſavvce for a Gooſe is ſavvce for a Gander: Therefore, I ſay, as thoſe bloud-thirſty Ganders of the conſpiracy vvould have deſtroyed us Geeſe of the Senate, let us make haſte to deſtroy them, ſo I humbly move for hanging— […]

1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, Act V, scene [ii], page 61:

[…] Diodorus also relates of Caligula, predecessor to Nero, that his nurse used to moisten the nipples of her breast frequently with blood to make Caligula take the better hold of them; which, says Diodorus, was the cause that made him so blood-thirsty and cruel all his life-time after, that he not only committed frequent murder by his own hand, but likewise wished that all human kind wore but one neck that he might have the pleasure to cut it off.

1711 December 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, December 12, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 246; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 229:

The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and blood-thirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.

1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 16:

The genuine "bloodhound" is not, naturally, the cruel, bloodthirsty animal he is generally supposed to be; nor is he the only dog that will hunt men. Like all pure hounds, he is mild, loving, and kind, and will hunt any game for which he is trained; […]

1870 March 12, “Bloodhounds”, in Oliver Optic [pseudonym; William Taylor Adams], editor, Our Boys and Girls: Oliver Optic’s Magazine, volume VII, number 167, Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard, publishers; […], →OCLC, page 169, column 2:

The slasher narrative is as simple as a knife in the head: Some tragic event creates a killer who then seeks bloodthirsty revenge for that primal trauma, and audiences hoot and cringe in equal measure as characters lose their lives one by one, often in unexpected or inventive ways, until a resourceful “Final Girl” manages to defeat the monster.

2017 October 27, Alex McLevy, “Making a Killing: The Brief Life and Bloody Death of the Post-Scream Slasher Revival”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-03-05:

Thirsty for blood: inexorably violent or eager for bloodshed; murderous.


HUAC

w:House Un-American Activities Committee

(US, historical) Acronym of House Un-American Activities Committee.


Named after section 187 of the California Penal Code, which defines the offense of murder.

A code one-eight-seven on Jefferson one-four-eight-nine. Corner store—7-Eleven." A 187 was a homicide, Jefferson, the other side of town. ...

1992, Ian Slater, WW III: Warshot, page 148:

[…] and Snoop Dogg blatantly rapped about doing "187 on an undercover cop" on [….]

2003, Mark Anthony Neal, Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation, page 164:

Paco came across a wall that, in the large block letters of local Hispanic gang graffiti, spelled out “187 Domingo.” This was the ultimate threat for Paco [….]

2004, Malcolm W. Klein, Gang Cop: The Words and Ways of Officer Paco Domingo, page 131:

Perp at this address is a possible One-eight-seven P. Request a unit respond Code Three." The RTO came back immediately and put out the call division-wide.

2004, Stephen J. Cannell, Vertical Coffin, page 256:

Respond to a one-eight-seven at nine-eight-six Cove Road North," the dispatcher continued in her heavy southern drawl. "10-4... En route.[….]

2004, Cash Pawley, Pray for Death, page 21:

(US) Police code for murder, in the State of California.


nuclear bomb

In the seaside town that they forgot to bomb / Come, come, come, nuclear bomb

1988, Morrissey (lyrics and music), “Everyday Is Like Sunday”, in Viva Hate:

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki


nuclear weapon

When Kissinger went to Moscow on March 24 for four days of talks aimed at setting the agenda for Summit III, he reported that Brezhnev seemed to be confronting some of the same problems as we were of military opposition to a permanent agreement to limit offensive nuclear weapons. Thus we knew from the outset that it would be very difficult to produce a major SALT breakthrough at Summit III.

1978, Richard Nixon, “The Presidency 1973-1974”, in RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 1024:

Even if they managed to strike Japan, the United States or South Korea with nuclear weapons — a big if, given that they do not have a reliable delivery system — they could not save themselves from ultimate defeat.

2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times:

A weapon that derives its energy from the nuclear reactions of either fission or fusion.

armë bërthamore

a weapon that derives its energy from the nuclear reactions of either fission or fusion


atomic bomb

H. G. Wells
The World Set Free
atomic bomb

Coined by British science fiction author H. G. Wells in his 1914 novel The World Set Free.

Nine different countries have the atomic bomb as of 2022.

(uncountable, colloquial, with the) The possession of one or more atomic bombs; the ability to launch a nuclear attack.


megadeath

One million deaths, especially as a unit of measure in reference to nuclear warfare.

megamort

one million deaths, especially in reference to nuclear warfare


internecine

Borrowed from Late Latin internecīnus (“deadly”), from inter (“between”) and necō (“to kill”).

Internecine strife in Gaza claimed its most senior victim yesterday.

Mutually destructive; most often applied to warfare.


murk

en-adj

murk (comparative murker, superlative murkest)

murker (comparative)
murkest (superlative)

From Middle English merke, mirke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“dark, gloomy, evil”) and Old Norse myrkr (“dark, murky”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkuz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”). Cognate Danish mørk (“dark”), Norwegian mørk (“dark”), Swedish mörk (“dark”), Icelandic myrkur (“dark”), as also Albanian murg (“dark”), Proto-Slavic *morkъ (“darkness”), Lithuanian márgas (“multicolored”), Ancient Greek ἀμορβός (amorbós, “dark”).

der

He cannot see through the mantle murk.

1835, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay:


murk

From Middle English mirke, merke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“darkness, gloom”) and Old Norse myrkr (“darkness, gloom”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkwą, *mirkwiz (“darkness”), Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).

[…]in murk and occidental damp

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

O great star disappear’d—O the black murk that hides the star!

1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:

Darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment.

мрак

darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment


murk

en-verb

murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)

murks (present singular third-person)
murking (participle present)
murked (participle past)
murked (past)

Possibly an alteration of merc, from clipping of mercenary.

cause we be murkin from the boogie
And shittin on the crowds
'cause they jive fakin woody.

That's why he was able to catch Crush out there sleeping and why he murked him before he could ask him any questions.

He clowned Sticks, and Sticks murked him for no reason. And I don't know for sure, but I think he murked Trail.

2011, Treasure Hernandez, Baltimore Chronicles, volume 2:

In truth, there are Easter eggs planted in just about every frame of Ready Player One, which never misses an opportunity to insert a recognizable character (hey, is that Jason Voorhees getting merked during the film’s first-person shooter level?) or toss a sop to the faithful.

2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-05-31:

Yas (Vivian Oparah): And where is this, uh, summit of doom taking place?
Dom (David Jonsson): Il Giardino. There. Used to be "our" place.
Yas: No. Absolutely not. Text her, you can't make it. We'll go to Laser Quest, merk some eight-year-olds.

2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane:

(African-American Vernacular, MLE) To murder or seriously injure.


galvanize

galvanize (third-person singular simple present galvanizes, present participle galvanizing, simple past and past participle galvanized)

galvanizes (present singular third-person)
galvanizing (participle present)
galvanized (participle past)
galvanized (past)

From French galvaniser, from galvanisme, named after Italian physiologist Luigi Aloisio Galvani (1737–1798). By surface analysis, galvano- + -ize.

named-after

Reenactors called this “galvanizing,” the Civil War term for soldiers who switched sides during the conflict.

1998, Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic, 1st Vintage Departures edition, Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 10:

(historical, US) To switch sides between Union and Confederate in the American Civil War.


goon

→ Portuguese: guna

Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony ("simpleton", circa 1580), of unknown origin. Perhaps a familiar term derived from Middle English gone, a variant of gome (“man, person”). Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (circa 1839). The term goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (circa 1921). Compare Scots goni, guni (“a bogey, bugbear, hobgoblin”), dialectal Swedish gonnar (“elves, goblins”, plural).
* The meaning of "hired thug" (circa 1938) is largely influenced by the comic strip character Alice the Goon from the Popeye series.
* The "fool" sense was reinforced by the popular radio program, The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers.
* The "guard" sense was influenced by both senses 1 and 2, though not by the Goon Show reference, which arose about 10 years after WWII.

unk

unknown

cog

(UK, World War II, PoW slang) A German guard in a prisoner-of-war camp.

World War II; PoW slang; World War II; PoW slang


peine forte et dure

Law French, from Middle French peine forte et dure (“severe and hard punishment”).

It was a solid structure, with massy door, sooner than open which in the absence of the ‘Dominie’, we would all have willingly perished by the peine forte et dure.

(law, now historical) Crushing, an old form of punishment (torture) in which the prisoner's body was pressed with heavy weights.

Giles Corey
Law French
Salem witch trials
peine forte et dure


cut down

en-verb

cut down (third-person singular simple present cuts down, present participle cutting down, simple past and past participle cut down)

cuts down (present singular third-person)
cutting down (participle present)
cut down (participle past)
cut down (past)

I will cut you down where you stand.

(idiomatic, dated) To slay, often in great numbers.


serial killer

A person who commits multiple (more than two) murders, especially similar ones with no obvious motive over a period of time with a "cooling-off" period between each murder.


fisticuffs

In his college days of athletic exercises, Mr. Crisparkle had known professors of the Noble Art of fisticuffs, […]

1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, “Chapter XVII”, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1870, →OCLC:

(plural only, sports, dated) Bare-knuckled boxing, a form of boxing done without boxing gloves or similar padding.


Mason-Dixon Line

Charles Mason
Jeremiah Dixon
Mason–Dixon line

Named after English astronomers Charles Mason (1728–1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733–1779).

[…] and he tell'd me Georgia would go for me, arter^([sic]) the Gineral^([sic]), as soon as any north of mason and dickson^([sic]).

1833, Charles Augustus Davis, “Letter III […] ”, in Letters of Jack Downing, Major […] , New-York: Harper & brothers, published 1834, page 36:

The epistles are not dated far apart; and in the second, the writer, who dwelleth near ‘Mason and Dixon,’ descants upon the awful climate hereabout in the summer months.

1843, Charles Fenno Hoffman, John Holmes Agnew, “Editor's Table”, in The Knickerbocker; Or, New-York Monthly Magazine, volume 22, New-York: John Allen, page 185:

The Soviet press was disseminating in Africa and Asia stories about black children in the South being denied adequate schooling, black accident victims dying because no white hospital in the South would admit them, and African diplomats being refused access to white restaurants and washrooms while traveling south of the Mason-Dixon line.

2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 2, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part I. The New Deal Order, 1930–1980:

The boundary between the free and slave states at the time of the American Civil War, or between states with different segregationist policies in the Jim Crow era.


first blood

The condition in a duel in which the first one to draw blood from the other wins.

Sayers won first blood by cutting Crouch's right eye, and the battle by knocking his man out with a nose-ender in 12 minutes 28 seconds, 6 rounds being fought.

1879, Ed James, The Lives and Battles of the Champions of England, page 39:

Rambo - They drew first blood, not me.
Trautman - Look Johnny, let me come in and get you the hell out of there!
Rambo - They drew first blood...
Trautman - Rambo, are you still reading me? Covey leader to Raven! Rambo! Acknowledge! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083944/quotes

Johnston, meanwhile, has managed to get within five miles of its target, and fires a full spread of ten torpedoes. Minutes later, at least two, possibly three, tear the bow off the hapless cruiser Kumano. First blood, unbelievably, therefore, goes to the Americans.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 18:01 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03:

The first damage or reverse inflicted on an opponent in a conflict.

(sports) The first score in a competition.


trebuchet

/ˈtɹɛb.jəˌʃeɪ/

From Old French trebuchet, trebuket et al. (modern trébuchet), from trebuchier (“to overthrow, topple”), from tre- + *buchier, from Old French buc (“trunk of the body”), from Old Frankish *būk (“belly, trunk, torso”), from Proto-Germanic *būkaz (“belly, abdomen, trunk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰōw- (“to blow, swell”). Cognate with Old High German būh (“belly”), Old English būc (“belly, trunk”). More at bouk.

der

A torture device for dunking suspected witches by means of a chair attached to the end of a long pole.


biff

en-verb

biff (third-person singular simple present biffs, present participle biffing, simple past and past participle biffed)

biffs (present singular third-person)
biffing (participle present)
biffed (participle past)
biffed (past)

(informal, sports) To wipe out; to faceplant; to fall.


whoosh

onomatopoeic

imitative


set about

en-verb

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

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

He set about designing his homepage.

No time has been lost in setting about the implementation of non-controversial Beeching proposals.

1963 June, “News and Comment: Road-rail co-operation”, in Modern Railways, page 362:

22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Gameshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/
But that’s a dubious triumph: A book is a book and a movie is a movie, and whenever the latter merely sets about illustrating the former, it’s a failure of adaptation, to say nothing of imagination.


détente

Unadapted borrowing from French détente (“relaxing”).

ubor

Analogous structural and political constraints stood in the way of a lasting détente between Germany and Britain.

2012, Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, Penguin, published 2013, page 318:

No step the United States could take anywhere in the world would bring strategic benefits as great as detente with Iran.

2014 January 14, Stephen Kinzer, “Invading Iraq was dumb enough. Now Congress wants to derail the Iran deal”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly politics) A relaxing of tension, especially between countries.

разра́дка

a relaxing of tension, especially between countries


McCarthyism

Named after United States Senator Joseph McCarthy. Originates from a 1950 Washington Post political cartoon by Herbert Block.

named-after

An important symptom of the difference between McCarthyism and Birchism is the shift in the geographical center of gravity.

1964, Daniel Bell, The Radical Right, page 234:

The intense opposition to, and fear and suspicion of, Communism, particularly in the United States during the 1950s.


killed in action

There were only some four hundred United States marines who in the heroic and historic defense of Wake Island inflicted such great losses on the enemy. Some of those men were killed in action; and others are now prisoners of war.

1942 January 6, Franklin Roosevelt, 1942 President's Annual Message to Congress:

The designation for a member of an organization (primarily military) who has died while on duty.

Albert Sidney Johnston
J. E. B. Stuart
Leonidas Polk
Patrick Cleburne
Stonewall Jackson


self-defense

en-noun

self-defense (usually uncountable, plural self-defenses)

From self- + defense. First used by Hobbes in the 1650s.

(law) The right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force, which can be used as justification in several charges including murder, assault, and battery.

özünümüdafiə

law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force


black widow

Any of several species of venomous and potentially deadly spiders, particularly Latrodectus spp..

A woman who kills one or more of her lovers.

A female suicide bomber, sometimes one intending to avenge her husband who was killed.


duke it out

en-verb

duke it out (third-person singular simple present dukes it out, present participle duking it out, simple past and past participle duked it out)

dukes it out (present singular third-person)
duking it out (participle present)
duked it out (participle past)
duked it out (past)

The candidates duked it out on the proposal for hours.

Like pharmaceutical companies that sue generic drug makers over their patents or technology companies that duke it out over who owns the right to microchip designs, Levi’s says it is trying to protect its most valuable asset, its trademarks.

2007 January 29, Michael Barbaro, Julie Creswell, “Levi’s Turns to Suing Its Rivals”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Twitter and Mr. Musk have assembled legal teams to duke it out.

2022 July 12, Kate Conger, Lauren Hirsch, “Twitter Sues Musk After He Tries Backing Out of $44 Billion Deal”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(informal) To argue heavily or at length.


arms race

The cost of parasitism has provoked an evolutionary arms race between parasite and host, in which hosts evolve defences to avoid becoming victimized and parasites counterattack by evolving strategies to outwit their hosts.

2006, R.M. Kilner, “The evolution of egg colour and patterning in birds”, in Biological Reviews, volume 81, page 389, column 1:

ChatGPT's sudden popularity has triggered an arms race among the world's leading tech companies and start-ups that are rushing to obtain the H100, which Huang describes as “the world's first computer [chip]^([sic]) designed for generative AI”—artificial intelligence systems that can quickly create humanlike text, images and content.

2023 May 28, Tim Bradshaw, Richard Waters, “Nvidia reaps rewards from early lead in AI chipmaking”, in FT Weekend, page 14:

(figuratively) Any similar competition that involves competing developments.


nuclear fission

en-noun

nuclear fission (usually uncountable, plural nuclear fissions)

(nuclear physics) A nuclear reaction in which a large nucleus splits into smaller ones, sometimes accompanied by the simultaneous release of energy.


fissile

en-adj

fissile (comparative more fissile, superlative most fissile)

more fissile (comparative)
most fissile (superlative)

North Korea may soon have access to regular amounts of fissile material if it doesn't already ...

2014 March 30, Choe Sang-hun, “North Korea vows to use 'new form' of nuclear test”, in The New York Times:

(physics) Capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction.

разцепващ се

capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction


Zouave

From French, from Arabic زَوَاوِيّ (zawāwiyy), used to refer to a Kabyle soldier, especially of the Igawawen people.

(military, historical, by extension) One of a body of soldiers who adopt the dress and drill of the Zouaves in French service, as was done by a number of volunteer regiments in the army of the United States in the Civil War (1861–65).


pillage

en-verb

pillage (third-person singular simple present pillages, present participle pillaging, simple past and past participle pillaged)

pillages (present singular third-person)
pillaging (participle present)
pillaged (participle past)
pillaged (past)

From Old French pillage, from piller (“plunder”), from an unattested meaning of Late Latin piliō, probably a figurative use of Latin pilō (“I remove (hair)”), from pilus (“hair”).

1911, Sabine Baring-Gould, Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe, Chapter VI: Cliff Castles—Continued,
Archibald V. (1361-1397) was Count of Perigord. He was nominally under the lilies [France], but he pillaged indiscriminately in his county.

(transitive, intransitive) To loot or plunder by force, especially in time of war.


infernal

en-adj

infernal (comparative more infernal, superlative most infernal)

more infernal (comparative)
most infernal (superlative)

celestial

antonym(s) of “of or relating to hell, underworld or fire”

From Middle French infernal, from Medieval Latin infernalis, from Latin īnfernus, from īnferum (“netherworld, underworld, hell”), equivalent to inferno + -al.

Of or relating to hell, or the world of the dead; hellish.

جَحِيمِيّ

of or relating to hell, or the world of the dead; hellish

(by extension) Of or relating to a fire or inferno.

infernaal

by extension: of or relating to a great fire or inferno


East Berlin

(historical, Germany) The Soviet sector of Berlin between 1949 and 1990.

Østberlin

the Soviet sector of Berlin between 1949 and 1990