tankie

From tank + -ie.
Senses 1 and 2 were named for the tanks used by the Soviet Union against uprisings in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Central Intelligence Agency
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

As far as the Sparklies were concerned the new comics were scruffy herberts who shouted ‘Fuck Thatcher’ over and over, while raving Tankie Stalinists hooted indiscriminately in the front row.

2009, Arthur Smith, “Rooms above Pubs”, in My Name is Daphne Fairfax: A Memoir, London: Hutchinson, ISBN 978-0-09-192103-3; republished London: Arrow Books, Random House, 2010, ISBN 978-0-09-951965-2, pages 181–182

Though in an age in which anyone can publish texts, images, and videos to potentially huge audiences and in which impassioned leftists of “woke,” “tankie,” and “democratic-socialist” (post-Corbynista or Bernie Bro) persuasions post constant calls to action, informational posts, and manifestos, the failure of the left to ignite needs further analysis.

2021, Mike Watson, The Memeing of Mark Fisher, John Hunt Publishing

(politics, slang, derogatory, by extension) A supporter of policies and actions by the Soviet Union, China, Cuba or other Marxist-Leninist governments.


gated community

en-noun

gated community (plural gated communities)

Everyday life is increasingly unaffordable for most New Yorkers, but a new class of private, members-only and concierge services is emerging as a kind of gated community within the city.

2023 November 6, Eliza Shapiro, “Inside the Private World the Richest New Yorkers Built for Themselves”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension) Anything exclusive having restricted access.


biting point

The slipping set screw is a source of much trouble when due to lack of proper biting point.

1903 September, R, “A Talk on Set Screws”, in Modern Machinery, volume 14, number 3, page 81

The 'biting point' needs to be found when the keys are depressed past the point of escapement, a characteristic that varies widely in distance and reliability across different pianos.

2016, Vanessa Hawes, Lauren Redhead, Music and/as Process, page 112

My heart rate came down, my breath steady and gentle, pull deeper on the trigger, almost to its biting point.

(more generally) The precise position at which a control mechanism as been moved just enough to cause a device to operate.


shorling

(UK, dialect, obsolete, by extension, derogatory) A priest.


meningism

meningism (countable and uncountable, plural meningisms)

(medicine, loosely, informally) Such symptoms as identified clinically but before knowledge of their cause is ascertained (that is, before diagnosis or before its confirmation); meningeal symptoms.


edge case

The first thing to do is analyze the situation and determine whether the need to provide additional use is an edge case, or if it will become a common use-case scenario.

2010, Charles Edge, William Barker, Beau Hunter, Gene Sullivan, Ken Barker, Enterprise Mac Security: Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Apress, page 96

One edge case is when the code processing the message has not finished, but the invisibility window lapses, and another copy of the same message gets dequeued. At this point, there are two active copies of that message being processed.

2012, Bill Wilder, Cloud Architecture Patterns, "O'Reilly Media, Inc.", page 32

(loosely) Any unexpected input or user behaviour.


velocitized

en-adj

velocitized (comparative more velocitized, superlative most velocitized)

more velocitized (comparative)
most velocitized (superlative)

We must be satisfied with instant poetry; after all, Instant Quaker Oats tastes just as good as the regular stuff. But if, in fact, life in a velocitized world is one of the chief reasons we are writing prolific rubbish, it becomes our duty not to capitulate, but to resist and begin to write more careful poetry, drive more slowly, and brush our teeth longer and more often.

1971, Richard Dean Rosen, Me and My Friends, We No Longer Profess Any Graces: A Premature Memoir

Everything seemed to be moving extremely slowly, and I realized that I was still velocitized. I was still prepared to receive the world at highway speed.

1996, Edward Hardy, Geyser Life: A Novel, page 156

We want to be velocitized. Speed is a drug, and not just in the old-time hepcat high of Dexedrine or bennies, those ingested, on-the-road amphetamines; or even in the newer, hi-tech crystal meth to be found, probably, in some corner of a schoolyard near you.

1999, Mark Kingwell, Marginalia: A Cultural Reader, page 165

That we learn to read past individual words to get to an overarching meaning is an unfortunate setback. A lot to learn when you take a word slow. We're velocitized.

2008, Kevin McFadden, Hardscrabble: Poems, page 48

(by extension) Accustomed to or characterized by a habitually fast pace.


out at the heels

(by extension) Shabby, or in a poor plight.


groupable

groupable (comparative more groupable, superlative most groupable)

more groupable (comparative)
most groupable (superlative)

(sciences, by extension from the basic sense) Compatible mathematically or (more generally) scientifically.


grand vizier

But the ultimate fix came from the grand vizier of New Orleans voodoo-funk, Dr John, whose mesmerising performance was as close as you'll come to witnessing a shaman summoning spirits.

2012 July 24, Alfred Hickling, “SummerTyne Americana – review”, in The Guardian

To read his memoir of those years, Locked in the Cabinet, is to feel the sting experienced by this talented, innovative, and principled small “d” democrat as he was repeatedly shoved aside on economic issues by Rubin, Bentsen, Panetta, and, of course, the grand vizier himself, Alan Greenspan.

2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 5, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […], New York: Oxford University Press, Part II. The Neoliberal Order, 1970–2020

(by extension) A figure of great authority and power.


pay packet

(by extension, idiomatic) The amount a person earns from employment.


Lutetian

Lutetian (comparative more Lutetian, superlative most Lutetian)

more Lutetian (comparative)
most Lutetian (superlative)

From Lutetia + -an; geological sense coined by French geologist Albert de Lapparent in reference to the Paris Basin.

[...] not long before I took him to the Aerogare, he gave the last of his Lutetian homilies [...]

1989, Richard Howard, No Traveller, page 21


flat pack

2010, BBC, The Genius of Design - Blueprints for War, BBC One
The Mark 2 (Sten) was a flat pack sub-machine gun.

(by extension) easily constructed from pre-produced components.


club together

en-verb

club together (third-person singular simple present clubs together, present participle clubbing together, simple past and past participle clubbed together)

clubs together (present singular third-person)
clubbing together (participle present)
clubbed together (participle past)
clubbed together (past)

It was launched in 2014 (note the unfortunate timing), when six northern cities clubbed together to identify a core network of city-city rail links that would support the economic rebirth of the North.

2023 July 12, Jim Steer, “Rail's route to seizing the initiative”, in RAIL, number 987, page 39

(by extension) To link up for a particular purpose.


MoD

(military, by extension) Abbreviation of ministry of defence. (not restricted to the British Ministry of War)


soixante-huitard

Borrowed from French soixante-huitard (literally “sixty-eighter”).

bor

As far as he is concerned, the institutions that once made Britain great – from parliament to the ancient seats of learning, from monarchy and the common law to the Church of England – have all been hollowed out and subverted by cynical soixante-huitards.

2012 October 26, Jonathan Rée, “The War We Never Fought by Peter Hitchens – review”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(by extension, loosely) A fierce social activist or protester.


out on one's feet

From the sport of boxing, referring to fighter who is too stunned to fight effectively, but who does not collapse to the canvas.

"Well sir, that girl was simply out on her feet. It wasn't from drinking, either. I'm something of a hypnotist myself and I quickly realized that she was in a real hypnotic trance, brought on by Puffy's staring into her eyes."

1945 April 9, “Puffy, The Hypnotizing Cat, Named Honorary Feline Society President”, in St. Petersburg Times, retrieved 2013-05-10, page 5

According to Savitt there are many such small concerns who are out on their feet, and still in a state of shock.

1955 August 31, “Merchants Form Plan To Aid Small Business: Will help those hit by floods”, in The Hartford Courant, retrieved 2013-05-18, page 1

The new leader who will be elected on April 6, becoming Prime Minister shortly thereafter, is likely to be very nearly out on his feet.

1968 March 23, John Bird, “The new PM: tired before he starts”, in Financial Post, Canada, retrieved 2013-05-10, page 32

(idiomatic, by extension) Stupefied; dazed; nonfunctional.


quick-change artist

en-noun

quick-change artist (plural quick-change artists)

Mr. Churchill, with his well-known ability as a quick-change artist, had become a full-blooded protectionist

1931 September 17, “The Budget”, in Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, retrieved 2013-05-24, page 9

The worst part, the refugees say, is maneuvering survival in a war whose combatants are often quick-change artists, looking like a neighbor by day and a killer by night.

1998 August 19, Diana Jean Schemo, “Colombian Rebels Broaden Offensive”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-05-24

Pharmaceutical manufacturers have already been hampered by HIV's talent as a quick-change artist.

2001 June 24, Christine Gorman, “Cover Stories”, in Time

(figuratively, by extension) Someone who rapidly changes their views, occupations, appearance, behavior, etc.; something that rapidly changes its form or function.


fan dance

In what may be the most farcical episode of an 18-month-long fan dance, baseball players and ownership will sit down Monday in Los Angeles to discuss "non-economic issues" regarding the expired collective bargaining agreement.

1994 May 22, Thomas Stinson, “Labor talks: Much ado about nothing”, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution, retrieved 2013-05-28

Microsoft did a fan dance of sorts today, giving the public a glimpse at the upcoming Vista operating system.

2006 June 6, Ed Sutherland, “More Bits For Vista Enthusiasts”, in internetnews.com, retrieved 2013-05-28

Bettman, meanwhile, performed his now-traditional fan dance, skating around the revelation of a third group interested in buying the Coyotes.

2012 January 28, Bruce Arthur, “NHL and Players’ Association on a collision course”, in National Post, Canada, retrieved 2013-05-28

(idiomatic, by extension) The incremental disclosure of tantalizing bits of information.


MERS

Because MERS is a virus, antibiotics are ineffective.

2015 June 4, Donald G. McNeil Jr., “What You Need to Know About MERS”, in The New York Times

Mers is a virus that is transmitted from animals to humans.

2015 July 2, “Mers: The new coronavirus explained”, in BBC News

MERS is a coronavirus for which there is no cure.

2017, Randal W. Summers, “Application: Epidemics and the Epidemic Fear They Bring”, in Randal W. Summers, editor, Social Psychology: How Other People Influence Our Thoughts and Actions, page 470

(loosely) Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus


hold court

en-verb

hold court (third-person singular simple present holds court, present participle holding court, simple past and past participle held court)

holds court (present singular third-person)
holding court (participle present)
held court (participle past)
held court (past)

She was the centre of a very brilliant group, a most beautiful woman holding court, as was only right and proper, among her admirers.

1912, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 3, in Peter Ruff and the Double Four

Suddenly I heard a familiar laugh, headed down to the bar and found José Andrés holding court with journalists on behalf of a solar-powered cookstove that cheaply boils water for people with little or no access to fuel.

2012 April 18, Anthony Bourdain, “José Andrés: Activist”, in Time

With a rumpled, folksy manner, he held court for years in the smoke-filled beer hall of the King Louis Hotel in Calgary.

2013 April 1, Douglas Martin, “Ralph Klein, 70, Politician in Alberta Oil Boom, Dies”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-05-30

(idiomatic, by extension) To serve as the principal discussant or center of attention in an informal gathering of friends, associates, etc.


theory of mind

en-noun

theory of mind (countable and uncountable, plural theories of mind)

(psychology, by extension) The intellectual ability to understand that different persons (other than the self) might have different intentions and knowledge.


iron triangle

Together, agribusiness, shipping companies and NGOs form what some have called the “iron triangle” of special interests, blocking reform of the controversial in-kind system.

2012 July 19, Claire Provost, “US food aid: the special interests blocking reform”, in The Guardian

(by extension) Any self-reinforcing power structure, whether intentional or accidental, formal or informal.


Titanomachy

From Ancient Greek Τῑτᾱνομαχίᾱ (Tītānomakhíā), from Τῑτᾱ́ν (Tītā́n, “Titan”) + μάχη (mákhē, “battle”) + -ια (-ia).

der

(usually singular, by extension) Any fight between two great forces.


Plutonic

en-adj

Plutonic (comparative more Plutonic, superlative most Plutonic)

more Plutonic (comparative)
most Plutonic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek Πλούτων (Ploútōn, “Pluto, Greek and Roman god of the underworld”) (from πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “riches, wealth”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to fly; to flow; to run”)) + -ων (-ōn)) + -ic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). The English word is cognate with Middle French plutonique (modern French plutonique (“of or pertaining to Pluto, the underworld, or the interior of the Earth”)).

cog

a dark, handsome lady, of no little majesty, and rather like a plutonic Madonna

1911, G. K. Chesterton, “The Sins of Prince Saradine”, in The Innocence of Father Brown

(by extension) Synonym of Plutonian (“of, relating to, or having characteristics associated with the underworld; dark, gloomy; mournful”)

Plutonian

(by extension, geology, mineralogy) Of or pertaining to rocks formed deep in the Earth's crust, rather than by volcanoes at the surface of the Earth.

plutònic

of or pertaining to rocks formed deep in the Earth's crust

(by extension, geology, historical) Of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism (“the theory that the rocks of the Earth were formed in fire by volcanic activity, with a continuing gradual process of weathering and erosion, then deposited on the sea bed, re-formed into layers of sedimentary rock by heat and pressure, and raised again”).


quab

You’ll take it well enough; a scholar's fancy,

(by extension) Something immature or unfinished.


fullam

From Fulham, a London suburb, which during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I was the most notorious place for blacklegs in all of England. Loaded dice were supposed to have been chiefly made there.

(archaic, UK, colloquial, by extension) A sham; a hoax; a make-believe.


Nantucket sleigh ride

en-noun

Nantucket sleigh ride (plural Nantucket sleigh rides)

They said they planned to hook the shark with a gaff and go for a "Nantucket sleigh ride."

1974, Peter Benchley, Jaws (2012 Random House edition), p. 89 (Google preview)

Still fresh in my mind was the 15-pound striped bass that took me on a miniature Nantucket sleigh ride around Sandy Hook Bay last fall.

2002 August 26, Stephen C. Sautner, “Outdoors: Just in the Nick of Time, A Largemouth Bass Bites”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-08-22

The only note of caution that I would put down is, look at what happens to modern fishing vessels when they occasionally accidentally catch a modern submarine; now, granted, of course modern submarines are far more powerful in terms of their propulsion systems, and far larger, often massively outmassing the fishing vessels that they capture, so the fishing vessels either end up being dragged under or if they're lucky taken on a bit of a Nantucket sleighride before they cut their lines or the net breaks[…]

2024 August 11, Drachinifel, 24:28 from the start, in The Drydock - Episode 310, archived from the original on 2024-08-14

(idiomatic, by extension) An instance of the dragging of a boat (especially a small one) by an aquatic creature or vessel attached to it by a rope or other line.


allochromatic

(chemistry, physics, by extension) Having properties that are due to the presence of impurities, or to radiation damage


fat lava

(by extension) Any pottery item of this style.


ships that pass in the night

ships that pass in the night pl (plural only)

From a poetic metaphor by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882).

[T]he central figures in the action seem vaguely unrelated to one another, like ships passing in the night.

1966 February 9, James Reston, “Ships Passing In The Night”, in St. Petersburg Times, retrieved 2013-10-19, page 14A

"Education and business used to be like two ships that passed in the night," said Delaware Gov. Pierre duPont.

1984, Susan C. Farkas, Changes & Challenges: City Schools in America, page 129

In "Episode"—the opening dance—choreography, music, performances and underlying apparent themes looked like ships passing in the night. Nothing connected until a solo danced by a prowling, sensual Christopher Bonomo.

1998 October 26, Jennifer Dunning, “In Performance: Dance”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-10-19

Ordinarily the missionaries' religion and the slaves' religion were like two ships that pass in the night.

1999, Janet Duitsman Cornelius, Slave Missions and the Black Church in the Antebellum South, page 68

As a connoisseur of enigmatic titles . . . the Gouldian title that gives me most pleasure is a joint paper, "Clams and brachiopods: Ships that pass in the night," in a learned journal.

2009 February 14, Richard Dawkins, "The Science Show: Interpreting Darwin's theory" (transcript of interview), abc.net.au (Australia) (retrieved 19 Oct 2013)

(by extension) Things which have no significant connection or commonality.


morphopsychology

Madame simply observes the woman's bone structure, her hair texture, her complexion, as well as her morphopsychology —her body shape, her way of walking in and out of the room, and how she presents herself.

2013, Jamie Cat Callan, Ooh La La!:: French Women’s Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day

"Updating the ancient Greek method of determining signs and symptoms to arrive at a diagnosis, Dr. Guéniot incorporates morphopsychology." "The psychology of form," Joan murmured.

2014, Toby Smith, Flight from Oblivion, page 152

Once again based on the Five Elements and the Ba Gua, when you see that such a person has this type of energy, then you make the space around you as perfect as possible. In our tradition one specific aspect of this is morphopsychology.

2015, Serge Augier, Shen Gong and Nei Dan in Da Xuan

(more generally) The relationship between psychology and form or physical appearance and setting.


fletcherize

en-verb

fletcherize (third-person singular simple present fletcherizes, present participle fletcherizing, simple past and past participle fletcherized)

fletcherizes (present singular third-person)
fletcherizing (participle present)
fletcherized (participle past)
fletcherized (past)

From Fletcher + -ize, after Horace Fletcher, who advocated the practice.

Indeed he may fletcherize a truth mentally, all day long, and not get action. Thus he will not grow and develop.

1913, William Thomas Goffe, Problems in Retail Selling, Analyzed, page 71

The terrier had got the poodle by the left hind-leg and was restating his war-aims. The raffish mongrel was apparently endeavouring to fletcherize a complete stranger of the Sealyham family.

1925, P.G. Wodehouse, The Adventures of Sally

(figurative, by extension) To consume, to devour, to bite, to chew over.


dump cake

en-noun

dump cake (countable and uncountable, plural dump cakes)

(by extension) Any simple cake that can be prepared in a single bowl.


back of one's hand

"Out upon ye, Mr. Saddletree!" exclaimed David, . . . "out upon your General Assembly, and the back of my hand to your Court o' Session!"

1818, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 11, in The Heart of Mid-Lothian

[A]nd the back of my hand to them that have come in the way, bringin' sorrow, an' desolation, an' misery on gentlefolks.

1860, Anthony Trollope, chapter 32, in Castle Richmond

As I said, Truman showed him the back of his hand rather than any desire to cooperate.

1984 July 18, Don Meiklejohn, “Commentary: Pepper recalls day he was almost a nominee”, in Gainesville Sun, retrieved 2013-11-15

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2009 invited him to come to Berlin to help celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Fall of the Wall, Mr. Obama gave her the back of his hand.

2013 April 18, Ken Blackwell, Bob Morrison, “Snubbing Thatcher's Funeral? No, Obama Is Consistent!”, in American Thinker, retrieved 2013-11-15

(idiomatic, figurative, by extension) A display of disrespect or scorn.


dogfucker

Near-synonyms: goldbricker, loafer; see also Thesaurus:idler

Don't be such a dogfucker about bothering to floss your teeth. Your gums will rot if you can't be arsed.

(slang, derogatory, offensive, vulgar, by extension, especially Canada) A lazy person.


horse pill

Even pro-Soviet Communists will find the Geneva accord a difficult horse pill to swallow.

1967 August 26, Harry Schwartz, “Answer To Soviet Shift: China”, in St. Petersburg Times, retrieved 2013-11-25, page 8A

Mac Carey, an aide to leading tax-cut crusaders in Congress, called the draft language in Reagan's radio speech "a horse pill. It's very difficult to swallow."

1984 August 4, “Reagan will pledge to preserve tax cut, sources say”, in The News and Courier, retrieved 2013-11-25, page 8A

Officials know that if this year's budget is a bitter pill to swallow, next year's will be a bitter horse pill.

2002 June 20, Michael Cooper, “New York City Budget: The Deal”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-11-25

They need to swallow that big horse pill that is the West Virginia loss, forget about it and re-focus this week.

2009 November 30, Guy Junker, “Junker: Panthers need to get over it”, in triblive.com, retrieved 2013-11-25

(idiomatic, by extension) A fact, proposal, claim, etc. that is difficult to accept or believe.

hard pill to swallow

fact, proposal, claim, etc that is difficult to accept or believe


make one's bones

en-verb

make one's bones (third-person singular simple present makes one's bones, present participle making one's bones, simple past and past participle made one's bones)

makes one's bones (present singular third-person)
making one's bones (participle present)
made one's bones (participle past)
made one's bones (past)

Politicians—good ones, at least—make their bones by knowing which way the wind is blowing.

2018 January 18, Eric Bradner, Chris Cillizza, “Republicans are running in 2018. Running from Trump”, in CNN.com, retrieved 2018-09-04

Wearing, Brown and Hume all made their bones in an era when contemporary art fought for attention and had to insist it mattered – when in Britain, at least, it seemed cutting edge to like it at all.

2023 October 11, Jonathan Jones, “Frieze London art fair review – a graveyard of creativity for tasteless one percenters”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(by extension) To establish one's bona fides; to establish status and respect.


balebos

Borrowed from Yiddish בעל־הבית (balebos), from Hebrew בַּעַל הַבַּיִת (bá'al habáyit, “master of the house”).

der

בַּעַל הַבַּיִת

(Judaism, by extension) Boss, person in charge (of anything).


stirrup cup

Mrs. French insisted that they come into her room for a cordial, when she heard they were leaving. “You must have a stirrup cup,” Mrs. French said to Carol.

1952, Patricia Highsmith, chapter 19, in The Price of Salt, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, published 2015, page 190

(by extension) A drink taken before leaving or parting company with someone.


play booty

en-verb

play booty (third-person singular simple present plays booty, present participle playing booty, simple past and past participle played booty)

plays booty (present singular third-person)
playing booty (participle present)
played booty (participle past)
played booty (past)

(archaic, idiomatic, figurative, by extension) To double-cross someone.


GNV

(aviation) Gainesville Regional Airport, by FAA airport code

(by extension) Gainesville, Florida, USA


false alarm

Cuthbert had often been summoned to her dying bed, only to find that she was alive and well. He expected that this summons would be another false alarm.

1905, Fergus Hume, chapter 6, in The Secret Passage

Robert Swanson [...] expected civilization to melt down on Jan. 1, 2000 [...] He's not sure yet that Y2K was a false alarm.

2000 January 9, “A Night To Remember”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2015-04-18

(idiomatic, by extension) A thing or occurrence which initially causes fear, distress, etc. but which is subsequently recognized as being no cause for concern.

虛驚

thing or occurrence initially causing fear, etc. but subsequently seen to be no cause for concern


Haroun

(idiomatic, by extension) the Daraawiish government.


at one stroke

[T]he whole object of the poem is to show what infinities of spiritual good and evil a current and sordid story may contain. When once this is realised, it explains at one stroke the innumerable facts about the work.

1903, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, chapter 7, in Robert Browning

. . . with the wind of ruin in his hair,
Soul sprang full-statured from the broken flesh,
And at one stroke he lived the whole of life.

1909, Edith Wharton, “A Torchbearer”, in Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses

At one stroke his dashing raiment gave him high superiority over Johnnie Watson and other rivals who might loom.

1916, Booth Tarkington, chapter 7, in Seventeen

In a blaze of creativity during 10 days in 1950 photographing the Paris collections, he became at one stroke one of the major fashion photographers of the century.

1997 December 14, Vicki Goldberg, “Photography View: One Eye on Art, the Other on Commerce”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-01-01

(figuratively, by extension) At once, immediately; in an instant.


save by the bell

save by the bell (third-person singular simple present saves by the bell, present participle saving by the bell, simple past and past participle saved by the bell)

saves by the bell (present singular third-person)
saving by the bell (participle present)
saved by the bell (participle past)
saved by the bell (past)

The waitress brought the coffee about this time, saving me by the bell, as it were.

1951 April, Charles Bell, "Sea Rescue," Motor Boating, p. 36 (Google preview)

Fortunately the appearance of the rash marks the beginning of a sudden end to the disease, establishes a diagnosis, saves you by the bell, satisfies the child's parents, and baby has had just one more kind of measles.

1954, General Practitioner, volume 10, page 46

Remember that God gives the strength to go on when you would rather collapse. He can save you by the bell!

1983, Jim Smoke, Every Single Day, page 207

She felt as though his departure for Europe was saving her by the bell.

1991, Elizabeth Gage, Pandora's Box, page 376

Today's entry got to me just in the nick of time. Saving me by the bell is Reilly Campbell.

2011 Oct. 13, nekobun, "Nekobun's Cblog: There Would've Been Brawl: Let's Keep It Clean," destructoid.com (retrieved 22 Jan 2014)

[W]hen the Lord delivers me, He saves me, rescues me, comes to my rescue, throws me a life-line; snatches me from the jaws of death, saves me at the last second or minute, rescues me at the eleventh hour, saves me by the bell.

2011 December 1, Gary J. Borgstede, “The Lord Delivers”, in The Make It Happen Moment, retrieved 2014-01-22

(transitive, idiomatic, by extension) To rescue or favorably assist (someone) by means of a timely interruption or the sudden termination of difficult circumstances.


saved by the bell

So Asad's probing created a problem. . . . In a real sense Kissinger was saved by the bell: the American party had that afternoon to catch a plane to Israel.

1988, Patrick Seale, Maureen McConville, Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East, page 248

The Montgomery bus boycott was "saved by the bell" of a federal Supreme Court decision that came just before the last minute.

1997, John Howard Yoder, For the Nations: Essays Evangelical and Public, page 130

But in 1998, Mr. DiFrancesco never answered the allegations against him to the satisfaction of town officials. Instead, he was saved by the bell, in a way: In a rare electoral upset, Democrats took control of the Township Council in November 1998. They immediately fired Mr. DiFrancesco and replaced him with a Democrat, giving his termination the appearance of simple partisan politics.

2001 April 17, David M. Halbfinger, “New Jersey's Acting Governor Was Faulted on Ethics in 1998”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-01-06

(idiomatic, by extension) Rescued or favorably assisted by a timely interruption or by the sudden termination of difficult circumstances.


tea chest

(by extension) A similar sized box made of cardboard, used for transporting and storing household items.


Molniya orbit

From Russian мо́лния (mólnija, “lightning”) + orbit. The Russian word was used as the name for a series of Soviet/Russian communications satellites, and the orbits which they were placed in.

compound

a similar orbit with the orbital period extended to one day

(by extension) Both the northern and southern hemisphere orbits for the Earth.

(by extension) The orbits around Earth and other bodies with these qualities.


hang one's hat

en-verb

hang one's hat (third-person singular simple present hangs one's hat, present participle hanging one's hat, simple past and past participle hung one's hat)

hangs one's hat (present singular third-person)
hanging one's hat (participle present)
hung one's hat (participle past)
hung one's hat (past)

I try not to make simplistic judgements on people these days. Especially over matters as trivial as where they hang their sexual hat.

2009, Michael Marshall, Bad Things, page 252


Cambrian explosion

en-noun

Cambrian explosion (plural Cambrian explosions)

Of unclear origin, inspired by George Gaylord Simpson's description of "explosive" evolution. The earliest known use is in a BSCS high school biology textbook written in 1961 under the direction of paleobotanist Wilson Steward.

There has been a Cambrian explosion of cryptocurrencies.

When we examined the detailed history of the evolution, we fond large gaps of time in which little happened at all. Then we saw the sudden appearance of a key circuit (an enabling technology) and quick use of this for further technologies. A full adder circuit might appear after say 32,000 steps; and 2-, 3-, and 4-bit adders fairly quickly after that. In other words, we found periods of quiescence, followed by miniature "Cambrian explosions" of rapid evolution.

2009, W[illiam] Brian Arthur, The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves, London: Allen Lane, Penguin Group

Before the Web, it was hard to imagine alternatives to management orthodoxy. But the Internet has spawned a Cambrian explosion of new organizational life forms—where coordination occurs without centralization, […]

2011 November 16, Gary Hamel, “Gary Hamel on ‘Hacking Management 2.0’”, in Saba Software; quoted in Marco Minghetti, “Foreword”, in Collaborative Intelligence: Towards the Social Organization, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, page xxix

The men and women of the Renaissance period likely had little inkling of the truly titanic changes that were unfolding around them, let alone the ability to predict where it would all end up. Nevertheless, many of their legacies remain with us today: the birth of modern nation-states; the expansion of political rights and freedoms; the rise of the university, the media, and the industrial corporation; and a Cambrian explosion of science, medicine, knowledge, and cultural expression.

2012, Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, “Five Principles for the Age of Networked Intelligence”, in Macrowikinomics: New Solutions for a Connected Planet, paperback edition, London: Portfolio/Penguin, part I (From Wikinomics to Macrowikinomics)

With the advent of mass media in the 1960s, immortalized in the TV series Mad Men, the pace of brand introduction, sophistication, and importance accelerated dramatically. The world has witnessed a "Cambrian explosion" of brands.

2017, Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, “The Cambrian Explosion of Brands”, in Global Brand Strategy: World-wise Marketing in the Age of Branding, London: Palgrave Macmillan, →DOI, page 2

(by extension) The rapid appearance of anything.


sideslip

(aviation, uncountable, by extension) The angle between an aircraft's longitudinal axis and its direction of motion relative to the surrounding air.


rumrunner

(by extension) A smuggler of any alcoholic drink.


wagonmaster

(by extension) The person, man or woman, in charge of a wagon.

(military, by extension) A military logistics officer


animalian

en-adj

animalian (comparative more animalian, superlative most animalian)

more animalian (comparative)
most animalian (superlative)

We stood before the Lord in the high-backed chair, and I saw that the wood figures of his regal throne were, of course, animalian, feline and diabolical.

1999, Anne Rice, Vittorio the Vampire, Ballantine, published 2001, page 121

(broadly) Of an animal or animals, usually including humans but sometimes connoting nonhuman nature.

Coordinate term: animaloid

He did not look at her because he did not wish to see that deliciously animalian slit of her mouth, naked and red, beneath the white mask that made her eyes look so feline.

1982, Anne Rice, Cry to Heaven, Ballantine, published 1995, page 78

His big hands clutched him about the collar of the suit that had once been fine, and he was shaking him with animalian violence, shoving him[…].

2007, Lynn Stegner, Because a Fire Was in My Head, Nebraska, page 202

(loosely, rare) Like that of an animal or animals, usually including humans but sometimes connoting nonhuman nature.


bar sinister

en-noun

bar sinister (usually uncountable, plural bars sinister)

Europe is troubled with sensational rumors as well as our own country. Among the most recent was one prevailing at Paris that Maximilian I, Emperor elect of Mexico, had recognized the independence of the Confederate States. But this rumor was pronounced improbable from the fact that Maximilian had not yet been formally offered the crown by the deputation from Mexico charged with the duty of tendering it. This does seem a bar sinister to the report that has doubtless ere this given much joy in Dixie.

1863 October 3, “A Rumor of Recognition”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-04

Then there is untouchability. . . . There are thousands of men and women like me who cling to Hinduism; because they believe that there is in it the amplest scope for mental, moral and spiritual expansion. This bar sinister put upon nearly sixty million human beings is a standing demonstration against that claim. Men like me feel that untouchability is no integral part of Hinduism. It is an excrescence.

2013 Sep. 13, Dr. Yogendra Yadav, "Present Generation and Mahatma Gandhi, Peace and Collaborative Development Network (retrieved 4 April 2014)

(idiomatic, by extension) A state or characteristic which is dishonorable or shameful; a stigma.


body blow

I can hardly exaggerate the body blow to the Service such a decision would give. Nobody will believe in it again.

1910, Stewart Edward White, chapter 43, in The Rules of the Game

The polio vaccination program took a body blow last spring when the disease developed in children injected with vaccine from the Cutter Laboratories of Berkeley, Calif.

1955 September 5, “Medicine: Cutter Verdict”, in Time, retrieved 2014-04-07

And the government received a psychological body-blow with the crushing defeat of the Blakeney government in neighboring Saskatchewan.

1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6

[D]rone strikes . . . have delivered body blows to Al Qaeda's leadership in the tribal areas of northern Pakistan without risking a single American soldier on the ground.

2009 March 21, Mark Mazzetti, “The Downside of Letting Robots Do the Bombing”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-07

(idiomatic, by extension) A serious setback; a traumatizing event which prevents or hinders continuation of an activity.


Dagwood sandwich

Dagwood sandwich (plural Dagwood sandwiches)

After Dagwood Bumstead, a character in the American comic strip Blondie.

As one of Groucho Marx's writers told it: an unemployed actor was interrupted at breakfast by his wife carrying a Dagwood sandwich of unpaid bills.

1956 February 27, “Medicine: Don't-Give-a-Damn Pills”, in Time, retrieved 2014-04-19

[T]o use the full 512K theoretically available, one will have a computer carrying a Dagwood sandwich of expansion attachments on one of its sides.

1984 August 28, Erik Sandberg-Diment, “Personal Computers: Awkward Junior Has Growing Pains”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-19

Today’s Morning Jolt is just a Dagwood sandwich of bad news for Obamacare, piled higher and higher.

2013 December 18, Jim Geraghty, “The Week So Far: A Dagwood Sandwich of Bad News for Obamacare”, in National Review Online, retrieved 2014-04-19

(figuratively, by extension) A thick stack of flat objects or a complicated melange of diverse components or ingredients.


happy hunting ground

happy hunting ground (plural happy hunting grounds)

→ Czech: věčná loviště (partial calque)

desc

→ German: ewige Jagdgründe (partial calque)

→ Polish: kraina wiecznych łowów (partial calque)

→ Swedish: de sälla jaktmarkerna (calque)

Most of the Americans who had used up their credit at home and those whose incomes were insufficient for their wants, immediately migrated to these happy hunting grounds, where life was inexpensive and credit unlimited.

1898, Eliot Gregory, “A Conquest of Europe”, in Worldly Ways & Byways, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons

Victoria is not a happy hunting ground for the seeker after the picturesque.

1944 July and August [1893], “London Railway Stations in 1893”, in Railway Magazine, page 201, taken from The English Illustrated Magazine of June 1893

Spanish businesses have spent nearly $60 billion snapping up British firms, culminating in the recent purchase of Scottish Power by Iberdrola, a Spanish utility. Britain's open economy has made it a happy hunting ground, because the Spanish encounter less opposition than in France and Italy.

2007 May 3, “Conquistadors on the beach”, in The Economist, →ISSN


neck verse

(by extension) A verse or saying, the utterance of which decides one's fate; a shibboleth.


exercise for the reader

en-noun

exercise for the reader (plural not attested)

From academic writing. One of the first known recorded occurrences of this phrase is in An Elementary Course of Mathematics by Thomas Stephens Davies, Stephen Fenwick, and William Rutherford from 1853.

She does not ask to see the dossier on this man before she goes, even though the co-worker has said that he has seen it, etc. The credibility of this conduct is another matter and is left as an exercise for the reader.

2003, Wells Earl Draughon, Advanced Writing: Fiction and Film, iUniverse, page 167

Moreover, determining what is “passionate,” “artistic,” and “suitable for young children” is left as an exercise for the reader.

2006, Hossein Bidgoli, Handbook of Information Security, Information Warfare, Social, Legal, and International Issues and Security Foundations, John Wiley & Sons, page 413

(by extension) A matter left to the addressee's judgement to decide.


Santa's workshop

Santa's workshop (plural Santa's workshops)

Like a Santa's workshop for the rich, the huge shopping atrium was jammed with frenzied workers pushing to finish by Monday's opening.

1983 February 11, Robin Herman, Laurie Johnston, “Frenzied Finish For Trump Tower Atrium”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-05-15

An acid-tongued blonde who writes a legal-affairs column for the right-wing weekly Human Events, Ann Coulter . . . laughed. "There are lots of us busy elves working away in Santa's workshop."

1999 February 21, Michael Isikoff, “The Right Wing Web”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2014-05-15

U.S. consumers . . . will look to China, as they have since the country a decade ago became a regular Santa's workshop for toys, clothes and electronic gizmos.

2001 January 8, Aparisim Gosh, “Trapped in the System”, in Time, retrieved 2014-05-15

Next week 500 books not shipped elsewhere directly from the printer will arrive at our house. . . . At that point my Brooklyn brownstone will turn into Santa’s workshop as I package courtesy copies for all the sources who helped and people whose photos appear in the book. I will also send out review copies.

2012 June 13, Deborah L. Jacobs, “How My Book Became A (Self-Published) Best Seller”, in Forbes, retrieved 2014-05-15

(idiomatic, by extension) A busy, productive large or small work environment, populated by dedicated workers.


call bird

An example is the 'Kenwood Chef', a product which is so well known to the public that it is used as a 'call bird' by the discounters: the machine is given a conspicuous place in the shop [window]

1983, David Mellor, Report to the Design Council on the Design of British Consumer Goods, page 21

(figurative, by extension) Anything desirable used to lure somebody.


dry light

dry light (usually uncountable, plural dry lights)

The scientific man must keep his feelings under stern control, lest they obtrude into his researches, and colour the dry light in which alone science desires to see its objects.

1881, John Campbell Shairp, Aspects of Poetry

(figurative, by extension) A clear, impartial view.


blue-ball

en-verb

blue-ball (third-person singular simple present blue-balls, present participle blue-balling, simple past and past participle blue-balled)

blue-balls (present singular third-person)
blue-balling (participle present)
blue-balled (participle past)
blue-balled (past)

Stop blue-balling me and tell me what happened!

(by extension, idiomatic, transitive) To lead someone on or tease them with the promise of something desirable without actually delivering it, causing them to feel frustrated and unsatisfied.


Tilt-A-Whirl

/ˈtɩlt ǝ ˌʰʍɩɹl̩/

From tilt + a + whirl. Invented in 1926 by Herbert Sellner of Sellner Manufacturing Company Inc. of Faribault, MN, U.S.A.

(by extension, figurative) Any fast-paced, unpredictable and disorienting experience.


mineral wax

en-noun

mineral wax (countable and uncountable, plural mineral waxes)

(more generally) Any wax of mineral origin, as opposed to an animal wax (such as beeswax) or a vegetable wax (such as carnauba).


Batavo-

From Latin Batavi, from Proto-Germanic *Batawjō.

(by extension) Relating to German speakers.


nestle-cock

From nestle + cock. Compare nest-cock & nest-cockle.

Indeed, my mother was wont to call me your Nestle-cock, and I love you as well as she did.

c. 1621, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Anything for a Quiet Life, act 4, scene 1

I meet with a double sense of this word Cockney: some taking it for, 1. One coaks'd or cocker'd (made a wanton or nestlecock of, delicately bred and brought up), so that when grown men or women they can endure no hardship, nor comport with pains-taking. 2. One utterly ignorant of husbandry or housewifery […]

1662, Thomas Fuller, “Worthies of London”, in The History of the Worthies of England, volume 2, London: Thomas Tegg, published 1840, page 342

You ignorant incompetent whey-faced nestlecock.

1986, Patrick O'Brian, The Reverse of the Medal, page 161

(UK, dialectal, by extension) A mama's boy, a delicate child; a spoiled brat.


warning shot

I believe that most members of Congress interpreted these ads as a warning shot rather than an effective grass roots mobilization tool.

2005, J. H. Snider, Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick: How Local TV Broadcasters Exert Political Power, page 487

(by extension, figuratively) An action intended to act as a warning.


counsel of perfection

counsel of perfection (plural counsels of perfection)

From Latin consilium perfectionis, Aquinas et al., from consilium in Tertullian's translation of 1 Cor. 7:25.

To a practical statesman that will seem perhaps a counsel of perfection; and, certainly, it is a counsel that, at every stage, will encounter acute difficulties of practical operation.

1919, Harold Joseph Laski, Authority in the Modern State, page 55

Lessius qualified his position on killing in self-defense for defense of honor by noting that although it is permissible to kill for these reasons, it is a moral counsel of perfection to allow oneself to be killed rather than to kill.

1988, Albert R. Jonsen, The Abuse of Casuistry: A History of Moral Reasoning, page 225

In the end, their “Recommendations for Designing and Evaluating Qualitative Research” concludes with another counsel of perfection: “These guidelines amount to a specification of the ideal qualitative research proposal [original emphasis].

2008, Norman K Denzin, Michael D Giardina, Qualitative Inquiry and the Politics of Evidence, page 69

Luther is well aware that he is offering 'lofty' advice here. Positively, this can be seen as a counsel of perfection, similar to the command in the Sermon on the Mount to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you.

2020, Robin Gill, Christian Ethics: The Basics

(by extension) Noble but impractical idealistic advice.


lay in lavender

en-verb

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

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


send someone to the showers

send someone to the showers (third-person singular simple present sends someone to the showers, present participle sending someone to the showers, simple past and past participle sent someone to the showers)

sends someone to the showers (present singular third-person)
sending someone to the showers (participle present)
sent someone to the showers (participle past)
sent someone to the showers (past)

The Federal Trade Commission in recent years has seldom struck out. […]But last fortnight the FTC was caught way off base, sent red-faced to the showers.

1941 February 3, “Government: FTC Boner”, in Time, retrieved 2014-07-08

Lucky John Sununu. […]Given the thin bench of replacements, no wonder Bush doesn't want to send him to the showers.

1991 July 7, Newsweek Staff, “Chief Of Staff Edition”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2014-07-08

Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has returned. […]Having been sent to the showers during last year’s disastrous campaign to place the nation’s seniors on a voucher program, Ryan is back.

2012 March 21, Rick Ungar, “RyanCare 2.0-Still Shifting Health Care Costs Onto The Backs Of Our Elderly”, in Forbes, retrieved 2014-07-08

Silver needed to be bold and decisive and he was unquestionably both in sending the lout Donald Sterling to the showers with a lifetime ban on Tuesday.

2014 April 29, Mitch Lawrence, “Donald Sterling's racist behavior has been habitual for years”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 2014-07-08

(idiomatic, by extension) To remove or expel someone from a job, position, or activity, especially because of poor behavior or performance.


between wind and water

(colloquial, by extension) At the vulnerable part or point of anything.

(colloquial, euphemistic, by extension) At a person's crotch (i.e. between the sources of flatulence and urine).


one-horse race

Although Mr Balladur is far ahead in the opinion polls, the spring election is far from being a one-horse race.

1995 January 19, Andrew Marshall, “Balladur takes first step to presidency”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-07-26

A system for creating software that runs, unaltered, on all sorts of computers and devices . . . could transform the software business in the network era from a one-horse race led by Microsoft to a true contest.

1998 April 5, Robert D. Hof, “Commentary: JAVA can be a contender—If Sun lets it”, in Businessweek, retrieved 2014-07-26

The dominance of the men in yellow over the past decade turned international cricket into a one-horse race.

2011 March 13, Shehan Karunatilaka, “How cricket saved Sri Lanka”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 2014-07-26

(idiomatic, by extension) An election campaign or other competitive situation in which only one competitor is entered or in which only one competitor has a realistic chance of winning.


you beauty

(UK, Australia, by extension) A general exclamation of happiness and joy.


decubital

(medicine) In a decubitus position: lying down; thus:

(medicine, broadly) Any position of lying down.


vatnik

Borrowed from Russian ва́тник (vátnik, literally “quilted jacket”). The sense of "unintelligent Russian patriot" was derived from the jackets worn by Soviet citizens and an online cartoon about a sentient jacket known by the same name.
The term was popularized in Russia in 2011 and re-popularized at large in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine to refer to supporters of the invasion, especially online users, even if they are not from Russia. Reflecting usage in Ukrainian and Russian, the term was later extended to refer to Russian soldiers who were involved in war against Ukraine.

bor

(derogatory, Internet slang, neologism, by extension) A supporter of Vladimir Putin, Russian nationalism, or the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine; a Putinist.

(derogatory, Internet slang, neologism, by extension) A soldier in the Russian armed forces involved in the invasion of Ukraine.


heavy hitter

On defense I always try to pair a good body-checker with a sound, steady player; for example, Ted Harris, a heavy hitter, with J. C. Tremblay, a clever defenseman.

1967 November 6, Hector (Toe) Blake, “Keep Your Eye On An Exciting Game”, in Sports Illustrated, retrieved 2014-08-20

This is a heavy hitter list including the likes of Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and Alex Rodriguez.

2009 July 1, Alan Burge, “Two Texans players on list of the 50 top-earning American athletes”, in AXS Entertainment Sports, retrieved 2014-08-20

(sports, by extension) In any sport, a strong, physical player who is particularly effective.


high church

Back-formation from High Churchman, originally denoting an opponent of religious toleration with high meaning “extreme”; see churchman (“supporter of the established church”). Compare High Tory.

(by extension) Any similar Christian tradition.


curtain-raiser

It is my opinion that your part in the affair is only a curtain-raiser to graver things.

1901, Harold MacGrath, chapter 7, in The Puppet Crown

But the first foray by Russian strategic bombers into the Western hemisphere since the Cold War is simply the curtain raiser for joint naval maneuvers that will bring Russian warships into Venezuelan waters in November.

2008 September 11, Virginia Lopez, “Russia's Venezuela Foray: Tit for Tat”, in Time, retrieved 2014-08-24

When the Paris Olympics opening ceremony begins on Friday night, it will be the first time the theatrical curtain-raiser for the world’s biggest sporting event has taken place outside a stadium.

2024 July 25, Angelique Chrisafis, “Paris prepares for Olympics opening ceremony spectacle along River Seine”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(idiomatic, by extension) A prelude or introduction to an activity or thing.


dollar-a-year man

en-noun

dollar-a-year man (plural dollar-a-year men)

(by extension) A man who is able to work as an executive for a below-market fee due to stock options or personal wealth.


comfort room

(Philippines, by extension) Any lavatory (both public or private)


Visct

(by extension) Abbreviation of Viscountess.

Abbreviation of Viscount.
Abbreviation of Viscountess.


football pitch

football pitch (plural football pitches)

New research out this morning shows that roughly 1.8m square metres of office floor space was taken out of use in the UK in the past year. The move, equivalent to 248 football pitches,[…]

2022 November 26, Michiel Willems, “Hybrid jobs: 248 football pitches of office space has simply vanished”, in cityam.com

Association football
Association football

(by extension) An informal unit of measure of area, equal to the area of an Association football pitch (typically 76,900 square feet or 1.76 acres).


liberum veto

The US, Russia, UK, France, and China have liberum veto power in the UN Security Council, allowing them to shield themselves and their allies from UN oversight.

(by extension) Any system in which a single dissenting member can unilaterally block an action.


Uriah Heep

She is the Uriah Heep of society, humbling herself before the Church and the Law, whispering sweetly her vow to honor and obey, hugging her chains as a chattel and a slave.

1869, "Semi-Detached Wives", The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, New Series, Vol IX, no. 3 (March 1869) page 352

It seems to me that misinterpretation of this 'customer is always right' business has too frequently resulted in a complete misunderstanding of the relations of merchant and customer and has made ‘Uriah Heeps’ out of too many shopkeepers.

1922 January 28, “Talks with the Doctor”, in Drug Trade Weekly, volume V, number 4, page 184

In the conclusion, the poet expresses his hopes that, in the future, Russia and Britain might find themselves locked in a friendly embrace, but only after all the Uriah Heeps of the British nation have been buried.

2006, Andrei Rogachevskii, “The West in Russian literature”, in Andrew Hammond, editor, Cold War Literature: Writing the Global Conflict, Routledge

(by extension) Someone like the fictional character Uriah Heep.


on the table

"We made an offer about two weeks ago, which is still on the table," he said. "We have not withdrawn it, and hope they will consider it."

1994 June 30, Kenneth N. Gilpin, “Dart Family Files Lawsuit To Nudge Brazilian Bank”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-06

Israeli intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz said all options were open for Israel. "If we have no choice, we have no choice...the military option is on the table," he said.

2015 April 3, Jonathan Broder, Matthew Cooper, “Iran Was the Easy Part: Obama Takes His Nuke Deal to Congress”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2014-04-06

(idiomatic, by extension) Open or available for further attention or action.


circumfetishist

It's not my or the cirp site owners' fault that the vast bulk of proper medical and scientific papers, as opposed to the crap opinion pieces by US and religious circumfetishists, come down heavily against routine circumcision --as does every medical authority in the world including the American Academy of Pediatrics!!!!

2001 April 15, Maze chris, “BS was RE: debra series -PLEASE READ-”, in alt.fan.prettyboy (Usenet)

Countries around the world that only have about 1% circ rate have only a fraction of the HIV infection of the U.S. which back in the middle '70's had the highest rate of new infection in the world and at that time we had a total male circ rate of about 80%. To circumcise an infant, or for an adult male to get cut on the word of some "senior researcher" is just the dumbest thing in the world. These circumfetishists are telling an unsuspecting and uneducated public that they are bound to inevitably engage in some unprotected sex with promiscuous male or female partners.

2003 July 26, Maze [username], “Re: HIV and cirucmicision resolved?”, in alt.circumcision (Usenet)

EVEN IF every argument presented by circumfetishists were TRUE - cutting another person's genitals would still be wrong

2007 September 26, Darling Regan, “Phalluses and Fallacies: Some faulty ways of thinking that lead to circumcision”, in alt.circumcision (Usenet)

(by extension, derogatory) An advocate of routine male circumcision.


glideslope

Staying on the glideslope is vitally important for a safe, stabilized approach and landing.

instrument landing system
instrument landing system

(aviation) The portion of an instrument landing system which provides vertical guidance to an aircraft during an approach to landing.

(aviation, by extension) The vertical descent profile produced by the ILS glideslope transmitters.


Hail Mary pass

Hail Mary pass (plural Hail Mary passes)

From Hail Mary, a prayer for intercession, from Latin Ave Maria, plus pass (“moving the ball from one player to another”). Attested from the 1970s in the context of American football.

Some liken that offensive to a “Hail Mary” pass, with the Taliban still entrenched throughout southern and eastern Afghanistan and a program to persuade Talib soldiers to lay down arms and be “reintegrated” into Afghan society having achieved little so far.

2010 September 11, Mark Mazzetti, “As Time Passes, the Goals in Afghanistan Shrink”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension) An act done in desperation, with only a very small chance of success.


wombly

en-adj

wombly (comparative more wombly, superlative most wombly)

more wombly (comparative)
most wombly (superlative)

He remembers Milly's childhood fear of being deserted and the terror she experienced at the first bloody sign of womanly/wombly maturation: "Her growing pains at night […]

1990, Suzette A. Henke, James Joyce and the Politics of Desire

This image extends to the divine person through the use of […] in Jeremiah 31.20 to signify God's motherly (or 'wombly') compassion for the beloved child, Ephraim.

2005, Deborah Sawyer, David Gunn, Gary. A Philips, God, Gender and the Bible

(figurative, by extension) motherly; womanly.


red junglefowl

en-noun

red junglefowl (plural red junglefowl or red junglefowls)

red junglefowl (plural)
red junglefowls (plural)

(loosely) The non-domesticated subspecies of red junglefowl, excluding the chicken.


normcore

American Dialect Society
American Speech
Duke University Press
K-HOLE (trend forecasting group)
Templar, Arizona
The Eyeopener
Toronto Metropolitan University

From norm(al) (“according to norms or rules or to a regular pattern”) + -core (suffix denoting genres of music and subcultures (often specialized and underground)), coined by the cartoonist Ryan Estrada in a guest comic strip for the webcomic Templar, Arizona on 17 September 2008: see the quotation.
It was popularized in a stylized, tongue-in-cheek trend report produced by the collective K-HOLE in 2013.

suffix

"That's normcore painting, and that's what people are buying and trading now," [Deborah] Kass said, along with some slightly more colorful critique she opted to keep off the record.

2015 December 9, Alexandria Symonds, “Art as social critique — with a little help from The Rolling Stones and Katy Perry”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-06-21

(by extension, attributively) Any style that is mainstream or unremarkable.

normi-

any style that is mainstream or unremarkable


Treknical

en-adj

Treknical (comparative more Treknical, superlative most Treknical)

more Treknical (comparative)
most Treknical (superlative)

(by extension) pertaining to similar fake self-important-sounding technical information.


sertão

(loosely) A similarly arid area in another region or country.


lick and a promise

Now this is not the way to get a house in order. What this place needs is a real thorough old-fashioned cleaning. A lick and a promise won't do, no, sir!

1955, Max Shulman, Robert Paul Smith, The Tender Trap: A Comedy, page 14

The snowplows had made what Myles would call a lick-and-a-promise attempt to partially clear the accumulated snow from West End Avenue.

2000, Mary Higgins Clark, While My Pretty One Sleeps

Well, he knows hes supposed to make his bed before he goes to school, so he gives it a lick and a promise and walks out of the room.

2013, David Jeremiah, God in You: Releasing the Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Life

Rising out of poverty will require not a lick and a promise but deep reform.

2014 May 22, “EDITORIAL: India's Modi wins voter mandate for economic growth”, in Washington Times

Workers scrambled to slap it all together on nothing but a lick and a promise—unlike the pristine whiteness of the court, the haphazard shacks ahead clashed in color and stripe, some tall, some short, each roof at an awkward angle to the other.

2014, Timothy Schaffert, The Swan Gondola, page 74

(by extension, idiomatic) The hasty or incomplete performance of a task.


fast radio burst

en-noun

fast radio burst (plural fast radio bursts)

(by extension) An instance of one of the phenomena which generate such a burst.

(by extension) An object from which the phenomenon occurs.


segregationalism

Segregationalism is being much carried out. Patient having passed through pneumonic deliriums, is now comatic and in articulo mortis.

1911, The Windsor Magazine - Volume 34, page 70

Instinct in capitalist individualism are the notions of economic segregationalism and consequent psychological emphasis upon the right to privacy.

1940, Ludwig Teller, The law governing labor disputes and collective bargaining

Medieval studies comprises its own clerisy. The overcoming of this institutional segregationalism is an ongoing effort, one directed not just at non-medievalists but at conservative or recalcitrant persons inside the field.

1998, James J. Paxson, Lawrence M. Clopper, Sylvia Tomasch, The Performance of Middle English Culture, page 4

It centres around segregationalism, at one end of the spectrum, perhaps typified by the growth of large, selfcontained retirement communities or villages, and integration at the other, illustrated by the development of 'Lifetime Homes'.

2002, Keith Sumner, Our Homes, Our Lives

Problems arise when such deliberate self-segregationalism becomes an end in and of itself rather than a means to an end.

2014, Sunday A Aigbe, A Template for Life, page 118

(by extension) The isolation of a person or group of people to achieve a specific end.

Sam's error is to conflate appearance and identity, to presume that a silver coat, black stilettos and red hair signify the person (Allie) he recognises from that collection of signs. Whilst discussing the tacit segregationalism of Allie, a single white female, placing an advertisement specifying that she is 'seeking the same', Lynda Hart comments how she also 'pays an exorbitant price for failing to recognise the terrors of sameness.

2012, Stella Bruzzi, Undressing Cinema: Clothing and identity in the movies, page 143

(by extension) The conflation of sign and meaning.


autology

autology (countable and uncountable, plural autologies)

/ɔːˈtɒləd͡ʒɪ/

Within systems theory, autology provides the solution to this problem of self-reference. Through the concept of autology, systems theory can describe itself as a form of self-description describing itself.

2003, Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen, Discursive Analytical Strategies

While contradictions and oppositions within the system have been explained in terms of the inherent otherness (allology) of a system to its environment and the complementary system CS, the accordance of its properties is known as systems autology. The concept of systems autology closely relates to its gestalt or ganzheit.

2011, Markus Locker, Systems Theory and Theology

Then, there is Lars Löfgren, a logician in Lund, Sweden, who introduced the notion of "autology", that is, concepts that can be applied to themselves, and in some cases need themselves to come into being.

2012, H. Ulrich, Gilbert Probst, Self-Organization and Management of Social Systems

(more generally) The ability of a concept to apply to itself; self-reference.


going away

I have never been chewed out like he chewed me out. . . . It must have worked because we went out in the second half and beat them going away.

2014, Seth Davis, Wooden: A Coach's Life, page 66

(idiomatic, by extension) Readily, handily, unmistakably.


Raj

Proprialisation of raj (“(India) reign, rule”, noun), borrowed from Hindustani
राज / راج (rāj, “reign, rule; empire, kingdom; country, state; royalty”), from Sanskrit राज्य (rājyá, “empire, kingdom, realm; kingship, royalty, sovereignty; country”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to right or straighten oneself; to govern, rule; just; right”). Doublet of Reich and riche.

der

After Gandhiji's Ram Raj, which lived and went with him to the wilderness, it was Goonda Raj everywhere[...]There was nothing that the goonda did not manpiulate. He turned community development blocks into chips of self-aggrandisement. Panchyat Raj was the Pentagon of Goonda Raj.

Concern that the license - permit quota raj was stifling growth focused on the drop in the rate of growth in industry after 1965...

1999, Ronald J. Herring, edited by Meredith Jung-En Woo, The Developmental State, page 310

(by extension from the proper noun) A system of government where authority is exercised by a specific group.


salt the mine

en-verb

salt the mine (third-person singular simple present salts the mine, present participle salting the mine, simple past and past participle salted the mine)

salts the mine (present singular third-person)
salting the mine (participle present)
salted the mine (participle past)
salted the mine (past)

"Yes. I thought it would be a shrewd move to salt the mine." I didn't get this. She seemed to me an aunt who was talking in riddles.

1954, P.G. Wodehouse, Bertie Wooster Sees It Through, Simon and Schuster, page 86

“Salting the mine. We'll salt the mine.” Egan still didn't seem to understand. “You college boys, all that training and you can't see the nose on your face. We'll plant a body.”

2005, Paul Lindsay, The Big Scam: A Novel of the FBI, Simon and Schuster, page 275

Historians are duty bound never to salt the mine of history by the creation of ersatz facts introduced to fulfill their preconceived ideas.

2006, Steven T. Katz, Alan Rosen, Elie Wiesel, Obliged by Memory: Literature, Religion, Ethics, Syracuse University Press, page 64

His rationale was the same: these were amenities that a salesperson needed to salt the mine and make the right impression on customers.

2007, Ira Nottonson, Forming a Partnership : And Making It Work, Entrepreneur Press, page 4

(by extension) To set up a confidence trick; to plant false evidence of the value of something.


subtweet

(by extension) Any social media post of this type, regardless of which service it is posted on.


subtweet

subtweet (third-person singular simple present subtweets, present participle subtweeting, simple past and past participle subtweeted)

subtweets (present singular third-person)
subtweeting (participle present)
subtweeted (participle past)
subtweeted (past)

Schumer's remarks were oblique enough that no one will be able to say for sure whether he was subtweeting Trump.

2017 January 20, Aaron Blake, “Chuck Schumer sent a pretty pointed message to Donald Trump, right in front of him”, in The Washington Post

(by extension, transitive) To speak obliquely about (a person).


Oscarworthy

en-adj

Oscarworthy (comparative more Oscarworthy, superlative most Oscarworthy)

more Oscarworthy (comparative)
most Oscarworthy (superlative)

(by extension) Excellent, of top quality.


wurley

But latterly they came in good numbers, and commenced a nightly system of annoyance by dancing their corroberies:[…]. Finding remonstrance of no avail, one evening, when they were all seated quietly at the wurlie [footnote: Encampment.], I fired a charge of small shot into the midst of them, and retired to the hut: in the morning they had all disappeared.

1846, “a squatter” pseudonym of E. Lloyd, “Biographical Sketch”, in A Visit to the Antipodes: With Some Reminiscences of a Sojourn in Australia, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill, →OCLC, page 165

(chiefly South Australia, by extension) A settlement made up of such shelters.


read 'em and weep

Today's BellaHater Award goes halfsies to Zephyr Addler and Mercedes Sanchez! Zephyr 4 sticking it 2 Bella by tongue wrestling with TLC. Way 2 Go! And Mercedes 4 outing them. Poor Bella! What's a girl 2 do? Suffer bitch! You've made everybody else's life hell and what comes around goes around, so read 'em and weep . Yer not the only mean girl in town.

(informal, by extension) Used as a taunt when outperforming or one-upping rivals.


fiscalism

(by extension) Excessive, oppressive taxation.


summit fever

We suffer from summit fever. We push just a little harder, hoping we can rest when we get to the top. When we postpone an oasis until our to-do list is finished or until we've answered all of the 193 emails in our in-box, then we have summit fever.

2004, Steve Donahue, Shifting Sands: A Guidebook for Crossing the Deserts of Change

(figurative, by extension) The obsessive need to complete a task.


will-they-won't-they

Among the small producers, the West German companies Continental Gummi and Phoenix Gummi are in the middle of a will-they-won't-they merger dance.

Not only physically did Greenpeace alter the situation—but perhaps more important, it gave the issue a cup-tie atmosphere which it may not otherwise have had, and there was the constant will-they-won't- they.

The reality behind the will-they-won't-they, pre-nuptial dances among aspirant members of Europe's monetary union club is that as long as the present economic slowdown doesn't turn into a full-blown recession the project will probably go ahead.

1996 January 27, The Guardian, quoted in Katarzyna Jaszczolt, Ken Turner, Meaning Through Language Contrast, John Benjamins Publishing →ISBN, page 133

(by extension) Of or pertaining to any situation in which there is an extended period of uncertainty.


queen olive

(loosely) Any olive of similar character.


deep-throated

deep-throated (comparative more deep-throated, superlative most deep-throated)

more deep-throated (comparative)
most deep-throated (superlative)

(of a sound, by extension) Loud and low.


out-tray

(by extension) The amount of work that has been done.


false note

The screenplay . . . even suggests that this contributed to the false note on which The African Queen actually ends.

1990 September 14, Janet Maslin, “Movie Review: White Hunter Black Heart (1990)”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-04-16

Shreve creates a little world, peoples it with believable characters, and puts them through agonizing and joyful moments without a false note or a dissonant figure of speech.

2010 December 10, Brigitte Weeks, “Book World: From its opening car crash, Anita Shreve's character-driven Rescue is worth the ride”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2015-04-16

(idiomatic, by extension) In a remark or narrative, an indication (as discerned by the listener or reader) of untruth, insincerity, or inconsistency.

The only false note in an otherwise classic and elegant collection was the gratuitous flash of black fishnet stockings and suspenders under otherwise unremarkable paisley and floral shirts.

2009 February 20, Hilary Alexander, “London Fashion Week: Caroline Charles”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2015-04-16

(idiomatic, by extension) In a non-verbal display or presentation, an indication of incongruity or inappropriateness.


clatch

Compare Scots clatch (“a slap, the noise caused by the collision of soft bodies”); probably of imitative origin.

cog

(UK, Scotland, dialect, by extension) A sluttish or slipshod woman.


struggle session

en-noun

struggle session (plural struggle sessions)

Calque from Chinese 批鬥大會／批斗大会 (pīdòu dàhuì)

zh-l

批鬥大會／批斗大会 (pīdòu dàhuì)

Look at K-12 indoctrination to see how the Woke Army is racializing every issue and turning classrooms into ideological indoctrination centers, and faculty and staff training into struggle sessions, […]

(by extension, figurative) A meeting in which people who disagree with a preferred ideology are humiliated or bullied.


Phrygian cap

/ˌfrɪd͡ʒɪən ˈkæp/

Eugène Delacroix
Liberty Leading the People

From Phrygian (“of or relating to Phrygia, its people or their culture”) + cap. Sense 2 (“congenital abnormality of the gall bladder”) is a calque of German phrygische Mütze, coined by J. Bartel in 1916 and popularized by Edward A. Boyden.

compound

The phrygian cap or folded-fundus gallbladder is a relatively frequent variation in the shape of the gallbladder, which appears as a persistent notch on radiographic contrast study. […] The phrygian cap does not appear to be the result or the cause of disease, and is considered to be of no clinical importance except that it may stimulate a stone or other abnormality.

2003, Ernest E. Lack, “Normal Anatomy of the Gallbladder and Cystic Duct along with Developmental and Other Abnormalities”, in Pathology of the Pancreas, Gallbladder, Extrahepatic Biliary Tract, and Ampullary Region, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, part II (Gallbladder), page 407, column 1

(by extension, anatomy) A congenital abnormality of the gall bladder with no pathological significance, caused by a folding at the distal part of the fundus.

قلنسوة فريجية

congenital abnormality of the gall bladder caused by a folding at the distal part of the fundus

synnynnäinen sappirakon pohjukan ja rungon välinen poimu

pęcherzyk w kształcie czapki frygijskiej


chestly

en-adj

chestly (comparative more chestly, superlative most chestly)

more chestly (comparative)
most chestly (superlative)

It was the heat from this fire which had domed up the fog blanket and then dissipated it. When the fire died, the fog gradually came back, and remained there until noon, when the sun burned it off. Rather chestly at being the only pilot to come in and go out that morning I called on Captain Joe Wilson, [...]


exit bag

(loosely) Any bag used to commit suicide by suffocation.


angle-shoot

en-verb

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

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

I like to think that I used my superior skill to come out on top; I don't like the idea that I had to angle-shoot to take home more money than I came with.

1996, Mason Malmuth, Blackjack Essays, page 205

Or perhaps, unlike many firms looking for fast dividends from the disaster, Krispy Kreme didn't try to angle-shoot the tragedy. It hasn't changed its approach to business— which may well have something to do with its success.

2002, U.S. News & World Report - Volume 131, Issues 19-27, page 116

(slang, by extension) To bend the rules; to behave in a way that is unethical but not illegal.


cross-buttock

(by extension) An unexpected defeat or repulse.


it's not the meat, it's the motion

There's a book of simple answers for that: The Codes. But you miss the context. It's not the meat, it's the motion. It's the way they reason.

2005, Jonathan Rosen, Joy Comes in the Morning: A Novel

it ain't the meat, it's the motion#English

(more generally) Alternative form of it ain't the meat, it's the motion (actions matter more than tools)


it ain't the meat, it's the motion

From the song It Ain't the Meat (it's the Motion) by Lois Mann and Henry Glover, written in 1951 and recorded by The Swallows. Often mistakenly attributed to Maria Muldaur, who sang a cover of the song on her 1974 album Waitress In The Donut Shop.

When the engineer was asked by other clients, "Can you make the drums sound like Bonham?," he simply smiled and said, "Sure! Just play like 'im!" So lesson number one is that it ain't the meat, it's the motion, to paraphrase the old blues tune.

1985, Sonic Options Network, Option, page 15

By focusing on the medium rather than the message, the pottery rather than the pattern, the typeface rather than the tale, philosophers who claim that something ineffable about carbon's chemistry is indispensable for consciousness miss the boat. As Daniel Dennett once wittily remarked in a rejoinder to John Searle's tiresome "right-stuff" refrain, "It ain't the meat, it's the motion."

2008, Douglas R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop, page 195

So it ain't the meat, it's the motion. That said, we all like new tools and cool gear.

2009, Derek Pell, Shoot to Thrill: A Hard-Boiled Guide to Digital Photography

(more generally) The tools you use to accomplish a goal are not as important as what you do with them.

it's not the size of the ship, it's the motion of the ocean


Brexit

Brexit (third-person singular simple present Brexits, present participle Brexiting, simple past and past participle Brexited)

Brexits (present singular third-person)
Brexiting (participle present)
Brexited (participle past)
Brexited (past)

Blend of Britain + exit, formed by analogy with Grexit.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest attested use is on 15 May 2012 in a Euractiv blog post by Peter Wilding titled “Stumbling towards the Brexit”, formed by analogy with Grexit, coined on 6 February 2012.

(slang, by extension) To leave a romantic relationship.


scar tissue

en-noun

scar tissue (usually uncountable, plural scar tissues)

So many people's lives have many broken relationships that have left behind psychological scar tissue.

2010, Kevin Leman, Sheet Music: Uncovering the Secrets of Sexual Intimacy in Marriage, page 32

(figurative, by extension) The long-term psychological consequences of a negative event.


naked-handed

en-adj

naked-handed (comparative more naked-handed, superlative most naked-handed)

more naked-handed (comparative)
most naked-handed (superlative)

Nay, was it not to be feared, that these continental democrats would prove utterly unproductive to the perfidious island, which had so often cajoled them, for months on months, to deliver them, in the end, naked-handed, to the vengeance of its monarchical and congenial allies?

1851, The American Whig Review - Volume 7; Volume 13, page 109


game, set, match

A few years after that, Mikhail Gorbachev effectively surrendered in a cold war that had lasted almost four decades, and in a few more years the Berlin Wall came down. Game, set, match.

2003 February 19, Christopher Buckley, “Opinion: Another March of Folly?”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-06-09

The atom bomb: U.S. 1, U.S.S.R. 0. Then came Sputnik, and the score was tied at 1 apiece. Then Apollo and putting a man on the moon — game, set, match.

2010 July 6, Mark Thompson, “Hyping Hypersonic Missiles”, in Time, retrieved 2015-06-09

This is game, set and match for Microsoft. . . . [I]f Microsoft can pull off one operating system and one companion App Store that functions seamlessly across all device types from smartphones, to tablets, notebooks, hybrid 2-in-1 devices and desktops, all with common apps that just work, they could very well one-up the competition.

2014 September 30, Dave Altavilla, “The Most Important Promised Feature Of Windows 10”, in Forbes, retrieved 2015-06-09

(idiomatic, by extension) An expression indicating finality, announcing that a series of events—usually involving some form of rivalry—has reached a conclusion.


horror show

Colleen Fallscheer, a cheerful 40-year-old mother of two from Waterford, Mich., is living proof that breast-cancer therapy is not the horror show it used to be.

1991 January 14, Claudia Wallis, “The Rough Road to Recovery”, in Time, retrieved 2015-06-18

A good start, a strong finish, but it was a Scotland horror show in the middle as the team flirted with Rugby World Cup humiliation.

2011 September 10, Lewis Stuart, “Nervous Scotland secure victory”, in The Times, UK, retrieved 2015-06-18

Survivors waded through a horror show of corpse-filled waters.

2014 December 26, Fakhrurradzie Gade, “Countries mark 10 years since Indian Ocean tsunami”, in Boston Globe, retrieved 2015-06-18

(idiomatic, by extension) A horrifying, appalling, or sickening experience, set of events, or visual spectacle.


strike one's flag

en-verb

strike one's flag (third-person singular simple present strikes one's flag, present participle striking one's flag, simple past struck one's flag, past participle struck one's flag or stricken one's flag)

strikes one's flag (present singular third-person)
striking one's flag (participle present)
struck one's flag (past)
struck one's flag (participle past)
stricken one's flag (participle past)

The point of this exercise wouldn't be to cause one side of the argument to see that the other is correct and strike their flag.

2014, David Berreby, “What If We Start Talking About Race Like We Talk About Religion?”, in bigthink.com, retrieved 2015-07-02

(idiomatic, by extension) To yield, give up, or surrender.


weak-handed

en-adj

weak-handed (comparative more weak-handed, superlative most weak-handed)

more weak-handed (comparative)
most weak-handed (superlative)

It is true there is much to be done, and perhaps you are weak-handed; but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects.

1897, Hezekiah Butterworth, True to His Home: A Tale of the Boyhood of Franklin

We have been mealy-mouthed and weak-handed; we have trifled and temporised and the Food has grown and grown.

2013, H.G. Wells, The H.G. Wells Anthology

Cold Feet was a futile, weak-handed little coward.

This flushing out of weak-handed, short-term gold speculators will prove a valuable entry point for those who have felt they missed the gold rush over the last few years.

2014, Wayne Root, The Murder of the Middle Class

(by extension) Weak; lacking courage and strength.


no plan survives contact with the enemy

En-au-no plan survives contact with the enemy.ogg

‹"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." Or with a pretty girl in a sundress.›

2015, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), Number 2933: Game Over Man, Game Over

(broadly) Even with a preexisting plan, unexpected circumstances will require one to think on one's feet.

no battle plan survives contact with the enemy

no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy

no plan survives first contact with the enemy


lamassu

(by extension) A representation – especially a statue – of a lamassu.


go underground

en-verb

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

goes underground (present singular third-person)
going underground (participle present)
went underground (past)
gone underground (participle past)

(figurative, by extension, chiefly Canada, US) To hide from public view or sequester oneself, especially when authorities, members of the news media, or others are looking for one.


sickness unto death

en-noun

sickness unto death (countable and uncountable, plural sicknesses unto death)

Søren Kierkegaard
The Sickness Unto Death

From the book The Sickness Unto Death (1849) by Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855).

Still, many observers of the orchestra, including some players themselves, continue to detect a malaise in the institution. Many critics, especially those deeply involved as composers and performers of new music, diagnose the trouble as a sickness unto death.

1987 September 13, Donal Henahan, “Music View: Our Orchestras are Splintering”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-07-19

These films . . . are evidence of a deep cultural malaise. The need to make them and the desire to consume them are symptoms of a contemporary sickness unto death.

1993 December 1, Brian Appleyard, “Censorship is a dirty word, but unrelentingly violent films have made it a necessary evil”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2015-07-19

[O]ur "high" or "academic" or "avant-garde" culture is in a state of crisis. This crisis is not a healthy one, but a sickness unto death, a decadence that threatens to destroy our society.

2007, Frederick Turner, Culture of Hope: A New Birth of the Classical Spirit, page 1

(by extension) Despair, profound discontent, or a similar persistent debilitating malaise of the mind, spirit, or soul that produces a decline in mental, physical, or societal health and that may culminate in death or dissolution.


mad dog

Although the enemy saw that they were being hurt, they were such mad dogs that we could by no means prevent their pursuing us

1843, Hernán Cortés, translated by George Folsom, Letters and Dispatches of Cortés

But in 1992, Bissell still maintained, "Lumumba and Sukarno were two of the worst people in public life I've ever heard of. They were mad dogs. Castro I saw not as a mad dog but as a purposeful antagonist. I believed that they were dangerous to the United States. There was a widespread belief that societies in the noncommunist world were exceedingly fragile, susceptible to being destroyed by these demagogues."

1996, Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA, pages 232–233

We went gladly, without fear or holding back. We were resolute that those mad dogs should not get through. 'They shall not pass'! And they did not pass!" "Glorious!" cried the priest, drinking the story in.

2007, Henry Van Dyke, The Valley of Vision, page 96

Even their "soft tones" infuriated Bogan: "Stop the mad dogs of Fascism," these young communists mildly offered, "help our boys dodging Franco's bombs."

2009, Alan Filreis, Counter-revolution of the Word

(figuratively, by extension) Someone who is aggressive and fanatical; an aggressor who cannot be reasoned with.


creepshot

Etymology tree
English creep
English shot
English creepshot
From creep + shot.

etymon

Her speculation was set against a backdrop of rearview creepshots, with a few barely there scribbles added to blot out actual facial features. Even as an entire privacy invading narrative was being spun unknowingly around them.

2018 July 14, Natasha Lomas, “Reminder: Other people’s lives are not fodder for your feeds”, in TechCrunch

(by extension) Any photograph of a person taken without having acquired permission.


scorchio

* scorch (as in scorcher, scorching) + pseudo-Romance suffix -io (see for example, Italian -io, Portuguese -io, Spanish -iego). Coined for The Fast Show, a BBC comedy series, in the "Chanel 9 News" sketch: the TV news in a fictional Mediterranean country delivered in a Romance-sounding gibberish supposed to be the local language. The weather map was always very hot and sunny, described as "scorchio".

TV is very scorchio: a parade of go-go girls in bikinis mouthing songs as they prance around the studio.

1999 November 21, Tobias Jones, “Insider's guide to... Milan”, in The Independent, London

If the Kerry footballers find themselves filling the time between league and championship next spring with a little less scorchio in their lives, they will only have themselves to blame.

2015 June 15, Malachy Clerkin, “Kerry start slowly but have plenty to spare against wasteful Tipp”, in The Irish Times, Dublin

The Mambista crew are hosting hip upbeat jazzsters, Alice in Grooveland, who will be dreaming up a set of originals from their debut album ‘Skyline,’ alongside a scorchio mix of jazz, funk and Latin tunes with latex-tight grooves, catchy riffs and punchy solos.

2015 July 24, Mike Urban Weekender – What’s on around Brixton, Fri 24th – Sun 26th July (BrixtonBuzz)

(British, Ireland, slang, humorous, by extension) Sizzling, exciting, cool; sexy, racy.


me-tooism

en-noun

me-tooism (countable and uncountable, plural me-tooisms)

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

From me too + -ism (suffix forming names of tendencies of action, behaviour, condition, opinion, or state belonging to groups of persons).

suffix

In socialist societies, there is a ‘me tooism’, a complex which startles the sensitive observer. Here despite social controls, the cities rise like jungles, the traffic jams are consciously sought, and so are the wasteful standards. No genuine alternative is posed. The choice before man remains what it has always been—conform or perish.

1972, Romesh Thapar, “A Disciplining Philosophy of Living”, in Anil Bordia, J[ames] R[obbins] Kidd, J[ames] A. Draper, editors, Adult Education in India: A Book of Readings, Bombay, Maharashtra: Nachiketa Publications, published 1973, →OCLC, section III, page 104

One of the things that characterizes the snack food industry in the United States is the sense of “metooism” that generally pervades the product mix. Though there might be slight variations in flavors, there is a sameness in virtually every snack company's line, starting with potato chips and ending with popped pork rinds.

1981, Chipper Snacker: International Voice of the Potato Chip and Snack Industry, volume 38, Hanover, Pa.: Potato Chip/Snack Food Association, →OCLC, page 67, column 1

Workers may be so concerned with reading the boss's mind and supporting group consensus that ideas become conservative and timid. The Japanese work hard in general, of course, but the same group atmosphere which encourages this type of enthusiasm can also encourage conformity; a form of "me tooism" develops.

1986, Jon P. Alston, “The Individual and the Work Group in Japan”, in The American Samurai: Blending American and Japanese Managerial Practices (De Gruyter Studies in Organization; 6), Berlin, New York, N.Y.: Walter de Gruyter, section 5.2 (Group Consensus Encourages Trust), page 155

But I would like to say to you that, while the 1970’s were very much the age of the me-too-ism, of I’ve got mine, of all of the conflicts in this country, and while the 1980’s are very much an era of great change in our society, with new technologies and new opportunities, the 1990’s will be the era of creativity.

1988 September 27, W. Mitchell (witness), Americans with Disabilities Act of 1988: Joint Hearing before the Subcommittee on the Handicapped of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, and the Subcommittee on Select Education of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, Second Session, on S. 2345 to Establish a Clear and Comprehensive Prohibition of Discrimination on the Basis of Handicap […] (Serial No. 104), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Publishing Office, published 1989, →OCLC, page 83

[S]uch gestures smack of the politics of ‘me-tooism’; don’t leave me (i.e., women) out. While it is absolutely right that feminist concerns should not be disregarded, begging for space at the pluralist table misrepresents the value of feminist thought in addressing the central concerns of the workshop.

1991, Jean E[lizabeth] Howard, “Towards a Postmodern, Politically Committed, Historical Practice”, in Francis Barker, Peter Hulme, Margaret Iversen, editors, Uses of History: Marxism, Postmodernism and the Renaissance (Literature, Politics, Theory), Manchester, New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, page 101

[T]he solutions were almost exclusively the product of half-understood ‘me-too-isms’ based upon what they felt the competition were doing.

1995, Victor Newman, “Generate Solutions”, in Made-to-measure Problem-solving, paperback edition, Aldershot, Hampshire, Brookfield, Vt.: Gower Publishing, published 1997, part III (The Problem-solving Process), page 83

[A]dvertising is replete with testimonials and "me-tooisms" that reflect the power of the Adaptation Motive in the real world. Most people select a physician, dentist or attorney on the basis of someone else's recommendation because very few of use have the proper credential to decide who is or is not a good doctor or surgeon.

1998, Richard C. Maddock, Richard L. Fulton, “The Origins of Motives and Emotions”, in Motivation, Emotions, and Leadership: The Silent Side of Management, Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books, Greenwood Publishing Group, page 61

[C]ampaigns launched by adult survivors of child welfare systems of the past [...] can produce a second level of hurt as the now elderly carers are forced to re-examine their carefully constructed pasts in the face of angry accusations from the media, often retaliating with counter-accusations [...] that campaigners are victims of a ‘me-tooism’ seeking to piggy-back on the success of others whose sense of hurt they do not dispute.

2001, Shurlee Swain, “Child Rescue: The Emigration of an Idea”, in Jon Lawrence, Pat Starkey, editors, Child Welfare and Social Action in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: International Perspectives, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, page 101

On the other hand, the growth of national consciousness, the awareness of a specific cultural and aesthetic past, a new sensitivity to the individual’s own visual experience, and, in many years, an active contemporary artistic creativity have created a world that can no longer be satisfied with aesthetic or critical me-too-ism.

2006, Oleg Grabar, “On the Universality of the History of Art”, in Islamic Art and Beyond (Constructing the Study of Islamic Art; III; Variorum Collected Studies; CS809), Aldershot, Hampshire, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, part 1 (Theory of Art), page 33

[H]uman beings demonstrate the herd instinct: or "me-tooism." Whereas he who cuts a fresh path does so in loneliness, perhaps even in the face of ridicule, success, or the appearance of success, brings everyone rushing in.

2006, Wilberne Haldane Persaud, “Explaining Jamaica’s Financial Sector Crash: Uniqueness and Similarities to Crises in General”, in Jamaica Meltdown: Indigenous Financial Sector Crash 1996, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, pages 7–8

The Miao myth of origins ostensibly tries to prove that they had books just like the Chinese, that they had a writing system just like the Chinese, and that they come from north of the Yangzi River, an area traditionally claimed by the Chinese as the birthplace of their civilization. [...] Far more than just simple “metooism,” the Miao legend is at heart a lament, a lament for the disappearance of their writing and their culture at the hands of the advancing Chinese civilization.

2008, Sze-kar Wan, “Signification as Scripturalization: Communal Memories among the Miao and in Ancient Jewish Allegorization”, in Vincent L. Wimbush, editor, Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon, Rutgers University Press, →DOI, page 107

[T]he critical charge of me-tooisms was also, I believe, misplaced. To some extent, I can accept the commercial charge of me-tooism. [...] [T]he older drug has accumulated more reports of side effects on its data sheet and the newer me-too drug can be pedaled by marketing manipulators as "just as good but safer."

2011, James W[hyte] Black, “Receptors as Pharmaceutical Targets”, in John C. Foreman, Torben Johansen, Alasdair J. Gibb, editors, Textbook of Receptor Pharmacology, 3rd edition, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, section V, subsection 9.6 (Me-tooism), page 274

Distracting, diverting, trivialising, story telling, one-upping and ‘me-too’-isms make light of children’s problems and imply that if something is too hard, we should avoid it.

2020, Louise Porter, “Listening to Children”, in Young Children’s Behaviour: Guidance Approaches for Early Childhood Educators, 4th edition, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, page 218

(by extension) The tendency to do or say the same as somebody else; the tendency to follow something that is trendy.

suivisme

tendency to do or say the same as someone else; tendency to follow something that is trendy


digitron

The LEDs display and keystroke identifying are accomplished by using HD7279A, which is an intelligent control chip for 8-bit LED digitrons and 64-key keyboard with serial interface.

2011, Qihai Zhou, Theoretical and Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science

(by extension) Any electronic device for displaying digits.


linkster

Syncopic form of linguister, probably modified after link (as a translator was the "link" between two communicating parties).

1885, R. Wright Hay, “West Africa” in The Missionary Herald, 1885-1886, 1 March, 1886, p. 104,
Upon it [the peninsula] are built four trading houses—two English, one German, and one Portuguese—which serve as depôts for the produce purchased and brought down from the interior by ‘linksters,’ or native middlemen.

“All this,” continued Massala, “shall be set down in writing, and you shall read it, and the English lingster shall tell it straight to us.”

1885, Henry Morton Stanley, chapter 8, in The Congo and the Founding of Its Free State, New York: Harper, page 136

(obsolete, by extension) In West and Central Africa, a bi- or multilingual agent or broker facilitating trade between Europeans and non-Europeans.


parging

en-noun

parging (countable and uncountable, plural pargings)


triple-header

Rabbi Feller, who performs 80 to 100 each year, remembers a June 2007 tripleheader when she officiated at morning and early afternoon ceremonies on the East Side, followed by another at the Central Park Boathouse.

2009 February 8, John Harney, “‘You May Now Kiss the Bride...Next’”, in New York Times

(by extension) Three similar events of any kind performed on the same day.


bussy

Blend of boy + pussy or butt + pussy. See also the suffix -ussy.

(gay slang, LGBT, by extension) Any anus, in general.


snow crab

(by extension) Any crab of the genus Chionoecetes of spider crabs.


Southern Min

Partial calque of Chinese 閩南／闽南 (Mǐnnán).

pclq

To truly complete the journey and discover the roots of Taiwan’s southern Min majority one would have to travel to the P’eng-hu islands (Pescadores) and then still farther west to the shores of southern Fukien and the cities and towns along the province’s east-facing coast, which is where new history of Taiwan begins.

1999, Murray A. Rubinstein, editor, Taiwan: A New History, M.E. Sharpe, →OCLC, →OL, page xi

(loosely) Hokkien, including Amoy, Taiwanese Hokkien and other varieties in Southeast Asia.