katabasis

en-noun

katabasis (countable and uncountable, plural katabases)

From Ancient Greek κατάβασις (katábasis), from verb καταβαίνω (katabaínō, from κατά (katá, “downwards”) + βαίνω (baínō, “go”)).

af

How did the man in the moon come down? The distance between the earth and moon is by no means inconsiderable, and other obstacles “too tedious to mention,” lie in the way of this famous Catabasis, which his lunar majesty is declared to have performed.

1842 February, “The Man in the Moon”, in Yale Literary Magazine, volume 7, number 4, page 205

“Unconscious of the danger she descended,
When the defendant's negligent conductor,
Ere her catabasis was fully ended,
Started the car,—the nail held fast and chucked her
Heels over head and calling on her gods,
On the hard road, and yanked her several rods.

1896, Benjamin F. Burnham, “§ 772. Dana on the Crinoline Case”, in Leading in Law and Curious in Court, page 621

The depths of his drinking were achieved after Jane left him, but the bathysphere was well on its way down while she was still there. The low point of his catabasis took time to reach, but the steadily descending trajectory is hard to miss.

2009, Clive James, “Kingsley and the Women”, in The revolt of the pendulum: essays, 2005-2008, page 42

(by extension, humorous) Any journey downwards or fall.


She used to like turnips, but she did a 180 and now hates them.

(figuratively, by extension) A complete change of direction or opinion.


flyblow

en-verb

flyblow (third-person singular simple present flyblows, present participle flyblowing, simple past flyblew, past participle flyblown)

flyblows (present singular third-person)
flyblowing (participle present)
flyblew (past)
flyblown (participle past)

I am unwilling to believe that he designs to play tricks, and to flyblow my words, to make others distaste them.

1676, Edward Stillingfleet, A Defence of the Discourse Concerning the Idolatry Practised in the Church of Rome

(transitive, by extension) To taint or contaminate.


rev up

rev up (third-person singular simple present revs up, present participle revving up, simple past and past participle revved up)

revs up (present singular third-person)
revving up (participle present)
revved up (participle past)
revved up (past)

Blast out of the gate on Monday by listening to up-tempo music before your workout. Israeli scientists say this can raise your heart rate, rev you up for an intense exercise session, and temporarily boost muscle power by 10 percent.

2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 134

(by extension, transitive) To make (someone or something) more active.

I didn't much want to leave again, but, though I'm not sure I exactly understand why, I just knew I had to rev up again to play this thing out.

2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 225

(by extension, intransitive) To become more active.


concurrency

en-noun

concurrency (countable and uncountable, plural concurrencies)

(computer science, by extension) A property of systems where several processes execute at the same time.

kunrulo

computer science: having several processes executing at the same time


stage whisper

(by extension) Any loud whisper intended to be heard.


soldier of fortune

soldier of fortune (plural soldiers of fortune)

(figuratively, by extension) A person willing to work for or ally himself with any person or institution who will take him on.


Chernobyl

/tʃɜːˈnɒbəl/

/tʃɜːˈnəʊbəl/

Borrowed from Russian Черно́быль (Černóbylʹ).

bor+

After Chernobyl, very few nuclear power plants were built for years.

(by extension) The 1986 nuclear accident which resulted in the abandonment of the aforementioned city.


Chernobyl

/tʃɜːˈnɒbəl/

/tʃɜːˈnəʊbəl/

Many secret cities were Chernobyls in slow motion.

1994 August, “Nuclear chaos”, in Popular Science, volume 245, number 2, page 54

The effects of a Chernobyl disaster in my community would probably be barely noticeable.

1999 May 6, Terence Scully, “When cell phones kill our brain waves, we will worry less”, in The Record (Kitchener, Ont.)

So those would be a lot of Chernobyls that the ecosystem would have to deal with.

2007 September 7, “Imagining a World Without Humans”, in NPR_TalkNation

It has to be handled properly with great accuracy and no room for mistakes, because if we do have like a Chernobyl catastrophe, God forbid, it could wipe out our entire people.

2010 March 10, Ben Garcia, “Many Kuwaitis yet to be convinced on nuke energy”, in Kuwait Times

(by extension) A major nuclear-energy accident.


uprooted

en-adj

uprooted (comparative more uprooted, superlative most uprooted)

more uprooted (comparative)
most uprooted (superlative)

(figurative, by extension) Having been removed from a familiar circumstance, especially suddenly and unwillingly.


tummler

Circa 1930, from Yiddish טומלער (tumler). Related to English tumble, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *tūmōną (“to turn, rotate”).

der

But most of all, we can’t forget why we needed moderators in the first place: They’re our tummlers, helping us have a good time.

2020 March, Annalee Newitz, “We Forgot About the Most Important Job on the Internet”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.

(by extension) A person with an official role which involves facilitating social interaction.


pistole

Borrowed from French pistole, of uncertain origin. Probably ultimately from Czech píšťala (“whistle”), from Proto-Slavic *piščalь, from *piskati, *piščati (“to squeak, whistle”), from Proto-Balto-Slavic *pīṣk-.
Alternatively, perhaps from Pistoia (a city in Tuscany).

They were exceptional semi-sweet chocolate chips, with a flat shape that I’ve recreated here with chocolate pistoles, flat wafers or disks each about ⅞ inch in diameter. The pistoles disperse randomly through the dough, so that slicing the logs into cookies creates an attractive mosaic, with little spokes of chocolate scattered here and there.

2008, Flo Braker, “Say It with Cookies”, in Baking for All Occasions: A Treasury of Recipes for Everyday Celebrations, Chronicle Books, Chocolate Chip Cookie Logs, page 275

The chocolate that I prefer for most recipes for this book is bittersweet chocolate pistoles. I like their flavor, size, and convenience.

2008, Warren Brown, “Pound Cakes”, in CakeLove: How to Bake Cakes from Scratch, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, Chocolate-Apricot Pound Cake

Chocolate pistoles from the manufacturer work best, as they arrive tempered and are uniform in size.

2017, R. Andrew Chlebana, The Advanced Art of Baking & Pastry, Wiley, page 430

(by extension) A disc-shaped piece of chocolate, the size of a coin, designed for melting when cooking.


Brodie

Named after Steve Brodie (1861–1901), who made a disputed claim to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived.

August Marien took a brodie (any one is apt to) by getting married last month.

1916, The American Photo Engraver, volume 9, page 536

(US, informal, figurative, by extension) A risky enterprise; a chance taken.


kingmaker

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

/ˈkɪŋˌmeɪkɚ/

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
Tewkesbury Abbey
Wars of the Roses

From king + maker, originally used in the 16th century in “Warwick the Kingmaker”, an epithet of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428–1471), a key figure in the Wars of the Roses whose actions led to King Henry VI being deposed in 1461 and Edward IV appointed in his place, then Edward IV being replaced by Henry VI again in 1470.

(by extension, game theory) A player who is unable to win but powerful enough to decide which of the other viable players will eventually win.


tracery

(by extension) A delicate interlacing of lines reminiscent of the architectural ornament.


strawberry leaf

en-noun

strawberry leaf (plural strawberry leaves)

From the resemblance of certain conventional heraldic leaves, the number of which indicate noble rank, to the leaves of strawberry plants.


partially ordered set

partially ordered set (plural partially ordered sets)

半順序集合

はんじゅんじょしゅうごう

(set theory, order theory, loosely) A set that has a given, elsewhere specified partial order.


GMO

About 93 percent of the soybeans grown in the United States are GMO.

2012, Dee McCaffrey, The Science of Skinny

Since 85 to 95% of these crops are GMO, it is safe to assume – unless provided proper certification – that “normal” dairy products contain GMO ingredients in one form or another.

2014, Alain Braux, GMO 101: A Practical Guide, page 184

Contains at least 70% organic ingredients and the rest of the product cannot be GMO, irradiated, or grown with sewage sludge

2015, Cheryl J. Baldwin, The 10 Principles of Food Industry Sustainability, page 27


wastebasket

The order Insectivora provides such a taxonomic wastebasket in classifications of the placental mammals.

2017, Russell Tuttle, The Functional and Evolutionary Biology of Primates, page 122

For these reasons, the study of idioms, proverbs, stock metaphors, and other conversational gambits has been mostly discouraged, and at best relegated to research in pragmatics, or the “linguistic wastebasket” […]

2008, Harald Burger, Dmitrij Dobrovol'skij, Peter Kühn, Phraseologie / Phraseology, volume 2, page 819

(figurative, by extension) Any region or grouping that is worthless or meaningless.


refusenik

From refuse + -nik (suffix denoting a nickname for a person who endorses, exemplifies, or is associated with something, often a particular ideology or preference), a calque of Russian отка́зник (otkáznik), from отка́з (otkáz, “denial, refusal, rejection, repudiation”) + -ник (-nik, suffix forming masculine nouns, usually denoting adherents, etc.).

suffix

Richard Ellmann once referred to Samuel Beckett as “Nayman from Noland”—the author as national refusenik. Beckett famously refused to allow a national representative from either Ireland or France to pick up his Nobel Prize, sending his publisher instead […]

2006, Lawrence Thompson, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, page 678

One IDF refusenik recounted how commanders on the field tried very hard to accommodate potential conscientious objectors by offering alternative and less controversial missions, in order to avoid their refusal to serve from becoming a public, and thus, political statement: […]

2008, Sergio Catignani, Israeli Counter-Insurgency and the Intifadas: Dilemmas of a Conventional Army, Routledge, page 94

Authorities are offering incentives to those slow to accept the needle. In Tel Aviv, this has meant one bar offering a 'shot for a shot.' In Bnei-Barak, a bowl of stew has been offered to get the Ultra-Orthodox refuseniks over their reservations.

2021 February 26, “What life is like in countries where Covid-19 vaccination is increasingly a success”, in CNN

(by extension, informal) A person who refuses to do something, usually as a protest; for example, one who refuses conscription or vaccination.

kieltäytyjä

(by extension, informal) A person who wants to do something but is refused permission to.


pinecone

(broadly) The fruit of any conifer, such as pine, fir, spruce etc.


fall on one's sword

en-verb

fall on one's sword (third-person singular simple present falls on one's sword, present participle falling on one's sword, simple past fell on one's sword, past participle fallen on one's sword)

falls on one's sword (present singular third-person)
falling on one's sword (participle present)
fell on one's sword (past)
fallen on one's sword (participle past)

Refers to the practice of some Roman military leaders, who would commit suicide following a devastating defeat by literally falling on the point of their own swords.

[Bob] Stempel was laboring to undo the damage when GM's board forced him to fall on his sword after little more than two years on the job.

1992 November 9, Paul A. Witteman, “Roger's Painful Legacy”, in Time, archived from the original on 2012-01-06

‘There is no sympathy for her […]’ one Minister said. ‘She [Jacqui Smith] may just fall on her sword, or Gordon [Brown] might humiliate her with a demotion to something like the Department for International Development.

2009 April 26, Glen Owen, Brendan Carlin, “Even Darling thinks his Budget doesn't add up as relations with Brown hit all-time low”, in Daily Mail, retrieved 2009-05-02

The minister fell on his sword after a day that began with senior Tories observing a deliberate silence over Hancock’s future – seemingly to test public opinion in their constituencies – before many later broke ranks to insist he had to go.

2021 June 26, Toby Helm, Michael Savage, Peter Walker, “Matt Hancock resigns as health secretary after day of humiliation”, in The Observer

(idiomatic, by extension) To resign from a job or other position of responsibility, especially when pressured to do so.


show someone the door

show<,,,shown:􂀿US also􂁀> someone the door

show someone the door (third-person singular simple present shows someone the door, present participle showing someone the door, simple past showed someone the door, past participle shown someone the door or (US also) showed someone the door)

shows someone the door (present singular third-person)
showing someone the door (participle present)
showed someone the door (past)
shown someone the door (participle past)
showed someone the door (US also participle past)

The medical profession, by its drift toward specialization, is handing the family doctor his hat and showing him the door.

1939 April 3, “Here's Your Hat!”, in Time

In Maryland, Rep. Connie Morella, a skillful, conscientious politician, was ousted. . . . The always-charming Morella . . . provided great constituent service. . . . Still, voters showed her the door.

2008 November 9, Bruce DePuyt, “Sweeping the Red Out of Our Region”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2009-08-24, page B08

(idiomatic, by extension, especially of a person) To dismiss, fire, or reject; to exclude someone who was formerly included.

näyttää ovea

to dismiss, fire, or reject; to exclude someone who was formerly included


Baedeker

His middle-of-the-road guidebook to the Georgians (Henry James to T. S. Eliot) will be a useful Baedeker for literary sightseers.

1934 December 3, “Literary Guide: Review of The Georgian Scene by Frank Swinnerton”, in Time

Concierges: Baedekers in the Flesh [title]

1991 September 6, Nancy Sharkey, “Concierges: Baedekers in the Flesh”, in New York Times, page C1

(by extension from the proprietary name) Any travel guide, advice for travelers, or guide pertaining to other subjects.


deadlift

(figurative, by extension) An effort made under discouraging conditions.


crystal ball

If her past is a crystal ball to her future, she will perhaps never be rich, even though she is a kind, hard-working person.

(by extension) A way of seeing into the future.


at Her Majesty's pleasure

He spent two years at Her Majesty's pleasure.


Robinson Crusoe

A Robinson Crusoe economy

(attributive, by extension) Something isolated and independent.


wide berth

Our cat always gives the vacuum cleaner a wide berth.

He's so obnoxious that everyone gives him a wide berth.

One [sheep] was "bagged" but gave the rest of the train a wide berth and appeared only somewhat shaken.

1949 November and December, K. Longbottom, “By Goods Train to Gweedore”, in Railway Magazine, page 356

(idiomatic, by extension) A considerable or comfortable distance from a person or object, especially for safety or deliberate avoidance.

kaukana (to give a wide berth - pysyä kaukana)


air ball

(by extension) Any ball-like object that widely misses its intended target when thrown.


predigest

predigest (third-person singular simple present predigests, present participle predigesting, simple past and past participle predigested)

predigests (present singular third-person)
predigesting (participle present)
predigested (participle past)
predigested (past)

If what's happened is what Jenny secretly suspects—that the neighbor has run the cat over in his driveway—they would like to predigest the news and tell Philip themselves.

2013, Francine Prose, The Peaceable Kingdom

(by extension) To preprocess in order to deliver the most important parts in a simplified form.


monkey in the middle

en-noun

monkey in the middle (countable and uncountable, plural monkeys in the middle)

(figuratively, by extension, countable) A middleman, particularly in a difficult spot or situation.


plainsong

plainsong (countable and uncountable, plural plainsongs)

From plain + song, calque of Latin cantus planus.

(by extension) A plain unvarnished statement, without exaggeration.


unlimber

en-verb

unlimber (third-person singular simple present unlimbers, present participle unlimbering, simple past and past participle unlimbered)

unlimbers (present singular third-person)
unlimbering (participle present)
unlimbered (participle past)
unlimbered (past)

(by extension) To clumsily put into employ a large weapon or object.


bloomer

Named after American women's-rights activist Amelia Bloomer (1818–1894), who sought to introduce this style of dress.

named-after

(historical, by extension) A woman who wears a Bloomer costume.


test-drive

en-verb

test-drive (third-person singular simple present test-drives, present participle test-driving, simple past test-drove, past participle test-driven)

test-drives (present singular third-person)
test-driving (participle present)
test-drove (past)
test-driven (participle past)

(transitive, by extension) To try out a product before committing to purchasing it.


silver medal

(by extension) Finishing in second position, being a runner-up.


bronze medal

(by extension) Finishing in third position.


gold medal

(by extension) Finishing in first position, winning.


acey-deucey

In front of him was a sporty fellow in an acey-deucey fedora and a suit with shoulders at least three feet across.

1991, Steve Stern, Harry Kaplan's Adventures Underground, page 60


pistols at dawn

By rights, the making of To Wong Foo should have been fun for Patrick, Wesley, and John, but from the first it was pistols at dawn.

2009, Wendy Leigh, Patrick Swayze: One Last Dance, page 149

(by extension) A disagreement strong enough to evoke a duel.


cordon sanitaire

en-noun

cordon sanitaire (plural cordons sanitaires)

Learned borrowing from French cordon sanitaire.

lbor

The alternative for such a policy was the isolation of Russia and the construction of a cordon sanitaire, in order to contain Bolshevism in the present area.

1992, Peter Van Ham, Western Doctrines on East-West Trade: Theory, History and Policy, Springer, page 111

(by extension) Any barrier to the spread of anything deemed undesirable.

cordó sanitari

any barrier to the spread of anything deemed undesirable


G-spot

Abbreviation of Gräfenberg spot, popularized in The G Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality, a pop-sci book published in 1982.

The very notion of a G-spot aroused so much interest, however, that this phrase not only stuck around but became metaphorical, as when Newsweek's Jonathan Alter wrote, “Smart politicians have always known that the G Spot of the American body politic is in the middle."

2009 March 31, Ralph Keyes, quoting Jonathan Alter, I Love It When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Drop a Dime, and the Forgotten Origins of American Speech, St. Martin's Press

By manipulating this note you have your finger on the G-spot of the blues; handle it with care!

2009 August 1, Chris Haigh, The Fiddle Handbook, Rowman & Littlefield

But, although Iain Duncan Smith touched the G-spot of the Blackpool audience, I was reminded of Archie Rice's prophetic cry as he foresaw the end of the music halls and stand-alone British imperialism: “Don't clap too hard, we're all in a very old building."

2021 September 23, Michael Billington, Affair of the Heart: British Theatre from 1992 to 2020, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 113

(by extension, humorous) A focal point; a place (real or metaphorical) where activity should be directed for the best result.


clear the decks

en-verb

clear the decks (third-person singular simple present clears the decks, present participle clearing the decks, simple past and past participle cleared the decks)

clears the decks (present singular third-person)
clearing the decks (participle present)
cleared the decks (participle past)
cleared the decks (past)

(by extension, figurative) To prepare for action.


mailbag

(by extension, figurative) The correspondence received by a publishing entity such as a magazine or website.


on the ropes

After a good start in the stock market, this company seems to be on the ropes.

So Ukraine is on the ropes. Using that boxing metaphor, one immediately thinks of the new world heavyweight champion, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, who was seemingly down and out under the ferocious assault of the giant Tyson Fury, but then came back to win on points at the end of a brutal 12 rounds.

2024 May 24, Timothy Garton Ash, “Ukraine can still recover with bolder western support – but right now it’s on the ropes”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(figuratively, by extension) Showing signs of imminent failure or collapse.

contra les cordes

showing signs of imminent failure or collapse

(by extension, MLE) Being threatened or pressured by a rival gang member.


king of the hill

en-noun

king of the hill (plural kings of the hill)

He was considered a renegade in journalism until he won the Pulitzer Prize, but now he is the king of the hill.

(idiomatic, by extension) A person who has achieved a measure of success and is considered to be a leader in his field.


Hillsborough

From hills and borough. The village in New Brunswick was probably named in honour of British politician Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire (1718 - 1793). The civil parish is named after the village.

(soccer, by extension) Sheffield Wednesday Football Club itself.


double tap

Perhaps initially in Afghanistan, the double tap was useful as al-Qa'ida or Taliban members would collect the bodies.

2016, Christine Sixta Rinehart, Drones and Targeted Killing in the Middle East and Africa: An Appraisal of American Counterterrorism Policies, Lexington Books, page 91

(by extension) A bombing strategy where the same target is attacked twice, with the second attack targeting rescuers and mourners.


resoundingly

en-adv

resoundingly (comparative more resoundingly, superlative most resoundingly)

more resoundingly (comparative)
most resoundingly (superlative)

The children resoundingly defeated the bully.

My heart needed no tutor for its recognitions, and cried its own "Bravos!" the more resoundingly because un-often summoned from silence.

1946, Paramahansa Yogananda, “ch. 5”, in Autobiography of a Yogi

(by extension) Emphatically, so as to be celebrated.


report card

(informal, by extension) An update on progress with regard to a policy or system.


fugleman

From earlier flugleman, flugelman, from German Flügelmann (“a file-leader”), from Flügel (“a wing, file”) + Mann (“man”).

(by extension) A political leader, or a ringleader.


trainload

You just bought yourself a trainload of trouble. I think you're now in over your head.

A shudder ran through Mr. Binnacle. Better a whole trainload of invigilators than this grotesque and solitary persecutor!

1926, Gerald William Bullett, The Baker's Cart: And Other Tales, page 164

They were peculiar people, slow. Well more backwards I think, probably a bit retarded. Well very retarded actually - the father had a few 'roos loose in the top paddock but the mother had a whole trainload.

2012, Mary Seaton, Tales From The Sand Hills, page 47


torchbearer

(by extension) The leader of a campaign, or one who gives inspiration to others.


go to seed

en-verb

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

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

But the "frump" will let herself and all her surroundings go to seed, not from humbleness of mind or an overwhelming sense of her own unworthiness, but in pure complacent conceit.

1898, Eliot Gregory, Worldly Ways and Byways

But suppose I hang about till eighty and die a childish old gentleman with a mind all gone to seed.

1919, Jerome K. Jerome, All Roads Lead to Calvary

[…] if this total Taliban takeover and collapse was one of the contingencies that […] President [Joe] Biden had foreseen, then how come this plan […] went to seed so rapidly?

2021 August 19, 27:45 from the start, in NewsHour (television production), Peter Meijer (actor), Public Broadcasting System

I found that slick and graceful enough at 25. Now, with marriages going to seed all around me, it is the insight, the penetration, that makes me smile/wince.

2023 May 28, Janan Ganesh, “Right on the money”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 2

(figuratively, by extension) To deteriorate; to decline into an unkempt or debased condition.


drumbeat

This music has a groovy drumbeat that makes me dance!

The drumbeat of roadside bombs and suicide attacks continued all over the 2d Brigade, 10th Mountain Division's area of operations.

2010, Dale Andrade, Surging South of Baghdad, page 108

Rycant stood close enough to catch his words despite the drumbeat of rain on the thick leaves above their heads, but only Rectoria picked up the note of relief.

2015, Alison Gardiner, The Serpent of Eridor, page 113

What does the drumbeat of your heart say?

2020, Mark David Gerson, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write

(by extension) A repetitive beating sound.


undershoot

undershoot (third-person singular simple present undershoots, present participle undershooting, simple past and past participle undershot)

undershoots (present singular third-person)
undershooting (participle present)
undershot (participle past)
undershot (past)

The first day, I think I undershot how much I should've been drinking, because it had almost no effect on me.

2014, Dave Schilling, One of Our Writers Went on an All-Alcohol Diet for a Week

Just weeks ago, however, America’s top epidemiologists badly undershot how quickly COVID-19 would spread.

2020, Brendan Kirby, Experts made coronavirus forecasts in mid-March; they whiffed badly


god mode

en-noun

god mode (countable and uncountable, plural god modes)

In the sense "a game mode where the player character is invulnerable to damage", attested at least since 1991, as a cheat code activation message in the game Commander Keen IV ("God mode ON").

She went god mode and effortlessly defeated her opponents, leaving them in awe of her superhuman skills.

Porzingis can't play in God mode every night… can he? He's going to have bad shooting nights, he's going to get into occasional foul trouble, he'll face tough defenders and he'll have to learn how to work out of future double-teams.

2017 November 6, Jeremy Cohen, “Forget Tanking: Knicks Fans Should Embrace Early Wins”, in Gotham Sports Network

This was the night Fletcher Magee immortalized himself in Wofford history. […] Magee, who had already been in "God Mode" heading into the game, was red-hot.

2018 April 5, Tristan Jung, “College basketball season in review: The 10 best mid-major games from 2017-18”, in Mid-Major Madness

(title)

2018 June 4, Dan Devine, “Three takeaways from Warriors-Cavs Game 2: If LeBron's not in God mode, the Cavs can't get over the hump”, in Yahoo! Sports

Casemiro looked something like the player he was two years ago, tackling anything that moved; and Raphael Varane went godmode.

2019 September 22, Muhammad Butt, “"He is an incredible leader" – Winners and Losers from Real Madrid’s big win vs. Sevilla”, in Squawka

(title)

2019 December 11, Aaron Mickunas, “Scoped goes god-mode to save Tfue and wipe a squad”, in Dot Esports

Few things in the universe are scarier than an anime old guy revealing his true powers and going god mode on the villain, and that's exactly what we will witness in this episode.

2022 November 8, Siddhant Pamnani, “Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Episode 6 Preview: When, Where and How to Watch!”, in Leisurebyte

Manchester City fans think Ederson's position could be under threat after back-up goalkeeper Stefan Ortega went "god mode" in the Carabao Cup.

2022 November 20, Dan Burnham, “Fans think Ederson's spot in Man City team under threat as 'god mode' keeper has blinder”, in Daily Star

Every great sportsperson goes through a phase in career where nothing he seems to do goes wrong. It is, as people call, GOD-mode, a period where irrespective of whatever a player does, he is near invincible.

2022 November 21, Aditya Bhattacharya, “Through madness and mayhem, Suryakumar Yadav activates GOD-mode to make ridiculous look easy”, in Hindustan Times

(by extension, slang) A temporary state of extreme skill (in a sport, video game, etc.).


praetorian

/pɹɪˈtɔːɹiən/

From Middle English pretorian, from Latin praetōriānus.

praetorian guard: the bodyguard of the emperor in Ancient Rome

(by extension) Corruptly mercenary and venal.


praetorian

/pɹɪˈtɔːɹiən/

The Trump praetorians who initially denied there was any effort to pressure the Ukrainians into action on a Biden probe, possibly including the withholding of congressionally approved military aid, suddenly surfaced a new talking point: “They’re trying to turn what was a Biden scandal into a Trump scandal.”

2019 September 23, Jonah Goldberg, “Column: The most noxious part of Ukraine-Biden whistleblower affair is Team Trump thinks we’re all idiots”, in Los Angeles Times


praetor

From Middle English pretour, pretor, from the Anglo-Norman pretour, pretore, the Middle French preteur (from the Old French pretor; compare the Modern French préteur), and their etymon, the Classical Latin praetor (“leader”, “commander”, “magistrate”); the Latin praetor being contracted from *praeitor (“one who goes before”), from praeeō (“I go before”), from prae (“before”) + eō (“I go”); compare the Italian pretore, the Portuguese pretor, and the Spanish pretor.

der

prætor [16th–19th centuries, now archaic]

pretor [15th–17th centuries, 20th century–present]

(by extension) A high civic or administrative official, especially a chief magistrate or mayor. Sometimes used as a title.


whittling

a whittling down

Result: nothing would prevent the rapid destruction of the Deco District. Already the developers are calling for a whittling down of the original square mile to a few blocks. The few blocks will no doubt be whittled down to one building, and in the end all that will be left will be a Deco mailbox well pissed on by the local dogs. In another era it was called salami tactics.

1988, Alexander Cockburn, Corruptions of Empire: Life Studies and the Reagan Era (Haymarket Series), Verso

(figurative, by extension) The reducing of something by degrees, especially at the expense of some effort.


JBOD

(computing, by extension) A hard disk enclosure for several disks, especially one lacking a RAID controller.


mouthwatering

en-adj

mouthwatering (comparative more mouthwatering, superlative most mouthwatering)

more mouthwatering (comparative)
most mouthwatering (superlative)

From mouth + watering: causing the nervous system to trigger production and release of saliva.


moonstruck

moonstruck (comparative more moonstruck, superlative most moonstruck)

more moonstruck (comparative)
most moonstruck (superlative)

From moon + struck. Compare German Low German maansüchtig, German mondsüchtig.

The full moon was spacious now behind the maples. The seedy Pickerbaugh domain was enchanted […] and over all the world was the proper witchery of moonstruck love.

1925, Sinclair Lewis, “21, IV”, in Arrowsmith

(by extension) Showing irrational behaviour, especially of a romantic or sentimental nature.


misbegotten

misbegotten (comparative more misbegotten, superlative most misbegotten)

more misbegotten (comparative)
most misbegotten (superlative)

/ˌmɪsbɪˈɡɒtn̩/

/ˌmɪsbɪˈɡɑtn̩/

Many of the strangest, most misbegotten studio films of the last 20 years have been comedies, perhaps because middle-aged executives have no comprehension of what the younger generation finds funny.

2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “Cabin Boy”, in The A.V. Club

(by extension, figuratively) Ill-conceived.

There was the guy I spent a misbegotten night with who said he'd call me and never did but came to the party anyway, and I felt primed for a confrontation.

1994, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America, Houghton Mifflin, page 5


misbegotten

/ˌmɪsbɪˈɡɒtn̩/

/ˌmɪsbɪˈɡɑtn̩/

By preserving the incapable and “misbegotten”, and by insisting that they be the object of compassionate attention, it would cause even the strong to be infected with gloom and nihilism.

1973, Philippa Foot, “Nietzsche: The Revaluation of Values”, in Robert C. Solomon, Garden City, New York, editors, Nietzsche: A Collection of Critical Essays, Anchor Books, page 161

(loosely, in the plural) A person born into infelicitous circumstances.

misérables

people, considered as a class, born into infelicitous circumstances


unhorse

en-verb

unhorse (third-person singular simple present unhorses, present participle unhorsing, simple past and past participle unhorsed)

unhorses (present singular third-person)
unhorsing (participle present)
unhorsed (participle past)
unhorsed (past)

From Middle English unhorsen, equivalent to un- + horse.

The incumbent governor was unhorsed by the scandal that broke during his reelection campaign.

(by extension) To disrupt or unseat; to remove from a position.


high-test

(humorous, by extension) Of coffee: not decaffeinated.


evolutionary theory

en-noun

evolutionary theory (countable and uncountable, plural evolutionary theories)

Opposed to the evolutionary theory of the universe is the theory of the steady state universe.

1962, Clifford D. Simak, The Solar System: Our New Front Yard, page 70

A more refined version is the concept of restless capitalism developed by Metcalfe, working on the evolutionary theory of economic change by Nelson and Winter. In both cases, the economy is in a state of disequilibrium all of the time.

2015, Jorge Turmo Arnal, Financial Crisis and the Failure of Economic Theory, page 155

(by extension) Any model of disequilibrium or accumulating change.


middleweight

middleweight (countable and uncountable, plural middleweights)

This would give the U.S. Army five parachute-capable brigades, or two "middleweight" infantry brigades, or six light infantry brigades, or six airmobile brigades in only two multicapable divisions.

1993, United States Army Combat Forces Journal

In Ukraine, jaeger brigades are middleweight infantry—neither as light as territorial brigades, which generally lack tracked vehicles, nor as heavy as tank or mechanized brigades with their hundreds of tanks and fighting vehicles.

2022 December 26, The Ukrainian Army’s Jaeger Brigades Are Its Middleweight Forest Troops, in Forbes (Business - Aerospace & Defense)

(by extension) A class in between heavy and light.

And it's interesting because in a way they're much more of a design company, and they've got their juniors and their seniors and their middleweights and all this stuff.

2009, Guy Julier, Liz Moor, Design and Creativity: Policy, Management and Practice

(countable, business, by extension) An employee ranking anywhere between junior and senior.


affordance

From afford + -ance; coined in 1977 by psychologist James J. Gibson, and adopted in 1988 by Donald Norman in the context of human-machine interaction.

The grab handles on the edges of this image are affordances that the user can exploit to change the size of the image.

Affordances provide strong clues to the operations of things. Plates are for pushing. Knobs are for turning. Slots are for inserting things into. Balls are for throwing or bouncing. When affordances are taken advantage of, the user knows what to do by just looking: no pictures, label, or instruction is required.

1988, Donald A. Norman, “The Psychopathology of Everyday Things”, in The Design of Everyday Things, New York: Basic Books

graphical user interface
graphical user interface

(graphical user interface, by extension) Any interactive control or component serving as a cue to the user to take some action.


dry-eyed

(by extension) Not made sad (by something); emotionally unaffected.


double reed

To me, the bassoon is the greatest of the double reeds.

(music, by extension) An instrument using a double reed.


draw out

en-verb

draw out (third-person singular simple present draws out, present participle drawing out, simple past drew out, past participle drawn out)

draws out (present singular third-person)
drawing out (participle present)
drew out (past)
drawn out (participle past)

She's really a neat person if you just take the time to draw her out.

(by extension) To cause (a shy person) to be more open or talkative.


Latin script

en-noun

Latin script (countable and uncountable, plural Latin scripts)


tilt at windmills

en-verb

tilt at windmills (third-person singular simple present tilts at windmills, present participle tilting at windmills, simple past and past participle tilted at windmills)

tilts at windmills (present singular third-person)
tilting at windmills (participle present)
tilted at windmills (participle past)
tilted at windmills (past)

From a passage in the novel Don Quixote where the eponymous character tilts (i.e. jousts) at windmills that he has mistaken for giants.

(intransitive, by extension) To go on a wild-goose chase; to persistently engage in a futile activity.


ticky-tacky

Probably reduplication of tacky. Apparently coined by Malvina Reynolds in the early 1960s (see quotation, below).

It almost seems that major discipline problems take care of themselves; it is the day-to-day little ticky-tacky issues that bind and scratch and itch until you find that you are boxed in with a class that you can no longer control.

2010, Charles Mertz, So, You Want to be a Teacher, page 99

(by extension) Inferior, minor, trivial.


In the public sector, we have not really created 360-degree accountability. It is more like 360-degree harassment.

2001, Robert D. Behn, Rethinking Democratic Accountability, Brookings Institution Press, page 199

Implement a 360-degree system regularly.

2002, Manuel London, Leadership Development: Paths to Self-insight and Professional Growth, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, page 155

The overall grade is a compilation of input from these sources. Thus it provides a true 360-degree view of the officer evaluated.

2006, Thomas X. Hammes, The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century, Zenith Imprint, page 238

(by extension) Comprehensive; incorporating all points of view.


taw

taw (third-person singular simple present taws, present participle tawing, simple past and past participle tawed)

taws (present singular third-person)
tawing (participle present)
tawed (participle past)
tawed (past)

From Middle English tawen, from Old English tawian (“to do, make”), from Proto-West Germanic *tawōn, a variant of Proto-West Germanic *tauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *tawjaną (“to make, prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- (“to tie to, secure”).
Cognate with Dutch touwen (“to rope, tether, curry”), Dutch tuien (“to fasten with ropes”), German Tau (“rope, hawser, cable”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽 (taujan, “to make, prepare”). Related to tool and tether.

cog

tour (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger, pour–poor merger)

(transitive, by extension) To beat; to scourge.


last trump

From the Bible, Paul's first letter to the Corinthians: "We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" (1 Corinthians 15:52, KJV), referring to the last of seven trumpets to be sounded at the Last Judgement. The term used for the instrument in the original Koine Greek is σάλπιγξ (sálpinx), often translated as “war-trumpet”, but not resembling the modern instrument (see Seven trumpets on Wikipedia).

We could wait until the last trump and no-one will turn up.

(by extension) A time that will never come; forever.


bare-arse

So he's pounding them off and is away over the hill in sweet dreams, and Clarice tippy-toes into the bedroom as quiet as fog coming off a millpond, and she takes off her clothes and stands there bare-arse looking out the window in the moonlight.

1969, John Gould, The Jonesport Raffle, and Numerous Other Maine Veracities, Little, Brown and Company, page 25

I sleep bare-arse, Mrs. Bayram, always have, which you can come and check out any time you like.

1990, Daniel Pollock, Lair of the Fox, HarperCollins, published 1990, page 304

You exchanged vows bare-arse naked in front of an archangel?

2012, Sandra Hill, Kiss of Pride, HarperCollins, published 2012


bare-bum

Of course I do, Gran! Julian is always walking around bare-bum. I know all about boys and girls. And love and babies and all.

1992, Louise Leblanc, Maddie in Goal (trans. Sarah Cummins), Formac (1992; original French book published 1991), page 12

Having never experienced communal bare-bum soaking European style, I was sure I'd wandered into the men's room.

1992 April, Martie Sterling, “My Last, Last Run”, in Ski

We discovered trout and bears and foxes. And bees nests! Not to mention how to swim bare-bum down rocky falls.

2009, John B. Duffield, A Cry for Help, page 21


bare-butt

It has taken millions of years of evolution — pelagic, geologic, biological, and cultural — to create the Monterey Peninsula of today, a charming series of communities that appeal to bare-butt, stoned-out hippies as much as to some of the wealthiest and most talented people in the world.

2001, Thom Akeman, Monterey Peninsula: A Cypress Shore, Graphic Arts Center Publishing, published 2001, page 7

Although Horcón has tolerated bare-butt bathing for some years, the municipalidad of Pichilemu wants to be the first to officially accept nudism, despite the opposition of its parish priest, who declared 'nudism leads to adultery'.

2005, Tim Burford, Chile: The Bradt Travel Guide, Globe Pequot Press, published 2005, page 369

[…] All the while, he's paddling toward the beach, and when he got up there, the shark was cruising around on the inside. So he took his shorts off, threw them to the shark and just walked bare-butt down the beach. […]

2009, Stuart Holmes Coleman, Fierce Heart: The Story of Makaha and the Soul of Hawaiian Surfing, St. Martin's Press, published 2009

(Canada, US, slang, by extension) Stark naked.


on first-name terms

My accountant was so bad I am now on first-name terms with the tax department.

(by extension, humorous) In regular contact with a person or organization.


AK

Cops got AKs, y'all only got pumps, that shit's just dumb.

2001, “That's How”, in Denaun Porter (lyrics), Marshall Bruce Mathers III and Denaun Porter (music), Devil's Night, performed by D12, New York: Shady Records

(by extension, slang, nonstandard) Any assault rifle or machine gun.


aziridine

/əˈzɪɹɪdiːn/

From aza- + iridine. Aza denotes a monocycle with a single nitrogen atom, and iridine is used to mark a three-membered monocycle.

(by extension) Any derivative of this basic structure.


cow parsley

(by extension) Any of a variety of plants of similar appearance.


short list

(by extension) A list of the highest-ranked (most important) items from a longer list.


calving

(by extension) The process by which an iceberg is formed.


pinot

en-noun

pinot (countable and uncountable, plural pinots)

Borrowed from French pinot, a type of vine, from earlier pineau.

How much funkiness makes a pinot taste desirably complex, and how much more really is too much? Is a pinot good if it does not taste more like fruit than stones?

2004, John Winthrop Haeger, North American Pinot Noir, Univ of California Press, page 150

(by extension) Any of several wines made from these grapes.


on tap

(by extension) Readily available; ready for use in whatever quantity is desired.


bit bucket

The noun is derived from bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket. Bit in this context originally referred to small pieces of paper punched out from paper tape or punch cards (see sense 1), but came to be regarded as the unit of data storage (sense 2).
The verb is derived from the noun.

compound

Applications [...] Overflow register (bit bucket)
A humorous datasheet for a non-existent product.

[1972], Fully Encoded, 9046 × N, Random Access Write-Only-Memory: Final Specification (Signetics; 25120), [Sunnyvale, Calif.]: Signetics, archived from the original on 2012-03-16, page 1, column 1

bit bucket – the term for a routine or circuit that accepts binary signals and produces no output. Bit buckets are used for testing and to stand in for routines or circuits that have not been implemented at that particular point.

1983 May 23, Steve Rosenthal, “Glossary: Rosenthal’s ABCs”, in Maggie Canon, editor, InfoWorld: The Newsweekly for Microcomputer Users, volume 5, number 21, Framingham, Mass.: Popular Computing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 77, column 1

Inside the computer, every time a byte moves from one component to another the hardware performs a parity check by counting the number of ones. [...] But let's say a power surge or some other line noise is picked up by the computer and the byte is scrambled. [...] The errant byte, having failed the parity test, is unceremoniously dumped into the bit bucket, the computer's wastepaper basket.

1985 July 9, Erik Sandberg-Diment, “Personal computing: Parity: An elegantly simple approach to errors”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-02-27, section C, page 4

Fortunately, "RTM" [Robert Tappan Morris] was not out to deliberately cause damage. What would have happened if he had been? Millions of dollars in time and research data gone into the bit-bucket?

1990 February 17, W. Paul Blase, “No harmless hacker he”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-11-23

An alternative is for the automated spacecraft to assume that tracking is always available and to have the spacecraft take its data and return it accepting that some fraction of the time communication will in fact not be available. Science data would then go into the "bit bucket." Since current spacecraft are complex and expensive, the latter solution is rarely used (intentionally!) today.

1995, Joan C. Horvath, “Spacecraft Autonomy Issues: Present and Future”, in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, volume 49, number 6, London: British Interplanetary Society, published 1996, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-02, page 218, column 1

When a packet arrives, the first thing that is done is a cyclic redundancy check [...]. If the CRC does not match the one carried in the frame, then the packet is destroyed (sent to the "Bit Bucket" in Figure 16.1).

2000, Scott Mann, Ellen L. Mitchell, “Packet Filtering with ipchains”, in Linux System Security: An Administrator’s Guide to Open Source Security Tools (Prentice Hall Series in Computer Networking and Distributed Systems), 2nd edition, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall PTR, page 438

In [John] Watkinson's view, all recording should be done in non-specific "bit buckets," with a computer figuring out what got recorded where and when.

2002, Mark Schubin, “A Digital Primer, Schubin-style”, in John Rice, Brian McKernan, editors, Creating Digital Content: Video Production for Web, Broadcast, and Cinema, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, →DOI, page 21

Shifting the contents of the register one bit to the right places a zero in the leftmost bit location and discards the rightmost bit. Conversely, a left-shift pads the rightmost bit with a zero and the upper, leftmost bit falls off into the "bit bucket".

2010, Frank O’Brien, “The AGC Hardware”, in John Mason, editor, The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation (Springer–Praxis Books in Space Exploration), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; Chichester, West Sussex: Praxis Publishing, page 45

(by extension, humorous, slang) The supposed place where bits (binary digits) go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation; the notional resting place of lost or missing digital information.

比特垃圾桶

supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation


in-tray

What will be at the top of the new General Secretary's in-tray?

2021 May 19, Paul Clifton asks Mick Cash, “I am retiring on my own terms”, in RAIL, number 931, page 51

(by extension) The amount of new work yet to be done.


primum mobile

en-noun

primum mobile (plural primum mobiles or prima mobilia)

primum mobiles (plural)
prima mobilia (plural)

From Middle English primum mobile (“outermost celestial sphere causing other spheres to move”), borrowed from Medieval Latin prīmum mōbile (literally “first mover”), a calque of Arabic مُحَرِّك أَوَّل (muḥarrik ʔawwal, “first mover”), which is itself a calque of Ancient Greek τὸ πρῶτον κινῆσαν (tò prôton kinêsan, “prime mover”).

ref

From Petrus Apianus, Gemma Frisius (1539) Petri Apiani cosmographia, per Gemmam Phrysium, apud Louanienses medicum ac mathematicum insignem, restituta: additis de adem re ipsius Gemmae Phry. libellis, ut sequens pagina docet, Antwerp: In pingui gallina Arnoldo Berckma[n]no [Arnold Birckmann], →OCLC.

calque

مُحَرِّك أَوَّل

der

τὸ πρῶτον κινῆσαν

The great wheels, the primum mobiles, that have gone so violently and brought us into this confusion, I move that you will proceed against them, and that the king's gracious intentions may have farther effect, and those only excepted.

1689 May 24, Robert Cotton, “Debate on the Heads for a Bill of Indemnity”, in Cobbett’s Parliamentary History of England. From the Norman Conquest, in 1066, to the Year 1803. […], volume V (Comprising the Period […] 1688, to […] 1702), London: Printed by T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, […]; published by R. Bagshaw [et al.], published 1809, →OCLC, column 257

Some of the oil-shops colour this [essence of anchovy] with bole armeniac, rose pink, Venice-red, &c.; but all these additions deteriorate the flavour of the anchovy, and the palate and stomach suffer for the gratification of the eye, which, in culinary concerns, will never be indulged by the sagacious gourmand, at the expense of these two primum mobiles of his pursuits.

1817, [William Kitchiner], “Sauces and Gravies”, in Apicius Redivivus; or, The Cook’s Oracle: […], London: Printed for Samuel Bagster, […], by J. Moyes, […], →OCLC

In the consideration of the faculties and impulses—of the prima mobilia of the human soul, the phrenologists have failed to make room for a propensity which, although obviously existing as a radical, primitive, irreducible sentiment, has been equally overlooked by all the moralists who preceded them. [...] We could not understand, that is to say, we could not have understood, had the notion of this primum mobile ever obtruded itself;— [...]

1845 July, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Imp of the Perverse”, in George R[ex] Graham, editor, Graham’s American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art, volume XXVII, Philadelphia, Pa.: George R. Graham, […], →OCLC, page 4; republished in Prose Tales, Virginia edition, volume VI, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell and Co., [1890s?], →OCLC, page 145

Simultaneous with these changes, but referring themselves to a totally different order of causes the seat of which is wholly exterior to our globe, and which depend entirely on the action of the sun and moon as the ultimate causes—the prima mobilia—of all these oceanic and atmospheric movements to which continents owe their destruction and reproduction, we have the continual formation of new strata at the bottom of the ocean; [...]

1848 January, “Art. V.—Kosmos, Entwurf einer Physischen Weltheschreibung, von Alexander von Humboldt. […] 1845. Cosmos. Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe. By Alexander von Humboldt. Vol. I. Translated under the Superintendence of Lieut. Colonel Edward Sabine, […] 1846. [book review]”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume LXXXVII, number CLXXV, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans; Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, →OCLC, page 199

But when we come to look upon them [strata of the earth], not, indeed, as the prima mobilia, but at least as the instruments, the levers and wedges with which the real primum mobile, the central heat, does its rough work on the crust of our globe, they lose their claim to this ideal permanence, and come to be considered as, in fact, newer than the rocks they penetrate and displace.

1861, John F[rederick] W[illiam] Herschel, Physical Geography: From the Encyclopædia Britannica, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, →OCLC, paragraph 111, pages 97–98

The standard metaphor for the role of the grand jury in early modern law was the primum mobile, the wheel that allowed all other wheels to begin their turning.

1987, Cynthia B. Herrup, “From Accusation to Indictment”, in The Common Peace: Participation and the Criminal Law in Seventeenth-century England (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, page 93

The primum mobile and main engine of the Information Society in Europe, NDS [new digital services] have been the focus of urgent attention among European Institutions and Member States who are suddenly confronted with the arduous task of transitioning regulations conceived in a very different analogue environment.

1999, Patrick Vittet-Philippe, “Beyond Digital Television”, in Michael Scriven, Monia Lecomte, editors, Television Broadcasting in Contemporary France and Britain, New York, N.Y., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Berghahn Books, page 120

Perry would have it that [Hubert] Harrison was "a key unifying link between the two great trends of the Black Liberation Movement: the labor- and civil-rights-based work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the race and nationalist platform associated with Malcolm X." This formulation, however, is a bit of a stretch: it makes Harrison the primum mobile behind, for example, the Montgomery bus boycott that King spearheaded in the fifties, [...]

2009 February 6, John H[amilton] McWhorter, “Dead End: Hubert Harrison’s Militant, Unproductive Racial Politics [review of Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883–1918 (2008) by Jeffrey Babcock Perry]”, in City Journal, New York, N.Y.: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-11-21

The absolute intractability of the Irish question for successive waves of the English liberal consensus remains with us, at least in the diminuendo of Ulster, to this day; but revolving round this primum mobile of colonialism (and recall: Ireland was put to the sword by parliament, not monarch) are all the other crystal spheres of the expansive English cosmos.

2014 January 17, Will Self, “How has England changed since 1994?”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-03-01

The American poet Ange Mlinko's fifth book is "Distant Mandate" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Her title, borrowing a phrase from the writer László Krasznahorkai, refers to art's primum mobile, its primordial first domino. The drive to create art is a "mandate" so ancient that it should probably by now have expired, and yet when it arrives, still, it is always in a hurry.

2017 August 28, Dan Chiasson, “The Playful Poetry of Ange Mlinko [print edition: Merry War]”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: New Yorker Magazine Inc., published 4 September 2017 (print edition), →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-12-14

(by extension) The person or thing that is the main impetus for some action; a driving force.


pin the tail on the donkey

en-noun

pin the tail on the donkey (uncountable)

Without it, you may as well be playing pin the tail on the donkey with your marketing efforts.

2001, David F. D'Alessandro, Brand Warfare: 10 Rules for Building the Killer Brand, McGraw-Hill Professional, page 35

(by extension) Any attempt to aim something somewhere while handicapped in doing so.


ball bearing

(loosely, often) An individual spherical ball, usually made of steel or other hard material, suitable for use in a ball-based rolling element bearing. In precise usage, each such ball is called a bearing ball or simply ball, and the entire bearing is called the ball bearing.


go commando

en-verb

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

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

Cited since 1974, as university slang; explanations as to original meanings differ.

I was one of the only soldiers out there wearing hearing protection; all the rest just went commando.

2005, Shane A. Bernskoetter, Surviving Twilight: A soldier's chronicle of daily life in Iraq

Does this mean you shouldn’t bother setting a password on your network? Absolutely not — WPA/WPA2 are still much better options than WEP or going commando, but it's important to realize that these “protected” setups aren't bulletproof.

2013 September 16, Michael Gregg, “Is Anything Safe Online?”, in Huffington Post

It may even be a minority of one. I carry my phone around just the way the deities made it. It happens to be an iPhone, but I'd feel just the same about a Samsung Galaxy -- especially the Edge series, which strikes me as quite beautiful. Is there no way you can let your phone go commando?

2016 May 22, Chris Matyszczyk, “Why I'll never buy an iPhone case”, in CNET-

(more generally) To forgo standard protections.


epistemologically

en-adv

epistemologically (comparative more epistemologically, superlative most epistemologically)

more epistemologically (comparative)
most epistemologically (superlative)

It has been argued that because an object is epistemologically dependent on an observer, it is also physically dependent on that observer.

1949, Edith Watson Schipper, “Independence: Epistemological and Physical”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume 46, number 4, page 101

(loosely) In a manner that pertains to knowledge or cognition.


warehoused

en-adj

warehoused (comparative more warehoused, superlative most warehoused)

more warehoused (comparative)
most warehoused (superlative)

(by extension, of a person or group, usually critical) Having been placed in a warehouse-like environment, typically an institution lacking in purpose and stimulation.


scabbed

scabbed (comparative more scabbed, superlative most scabbed)

more scabbed (comparative)
most scabbed (superlative)


loosey-goosey

loosey-goosey (comparative more loosey-goosey or loosier-goosier or loosey-goosier, superlative most loosey-goosey or loosiest-goosiest or loosey-goosiest)

more loosey-goosey (comparative)
loosier-goosier (comparative)
loosey-goosier (comparative)
most loosey-goosey (superlative)
loosiest-goosiest (superlative)
loosey-goosiest (superlative)

"Everything seemed to be real loosey-goosey," Mr. Williams said. "[…]I had lunch with him three times, and each time he said, 'Oh, I forgot to bring the papers.'"

1991, Richard Perez-Pena, “Investment Manager Faces Charges of Securities Fraud”, in The New York Times

I find the description wonderfully familiar, less the droogish quality, than the loosey-goosey opportunism.

2004, Denis Wood, Five Billion Years of Global Change

(by extension, informal) laid back; disorganized; scattered


crazy quilt

(figuratively, by extension) An uncoordinated jumble of things, ideas, practices, policies, etc.


line out

en-verb

line out (third-person singular simple present lines out, present participle lining out, simple past and past participle lined out)

lines out (present singular third-person)
lining out (participle present)
lined out (participle past)
lined out (past)

(transitive, by extension) To generally and briefly predict or describe (something).


Hello World

The Hello World of Web 2.0

2006, Eric Van der Vlist, Erik Bruchez, Danny Ayers, Joe Fawcett, Alessandro Vernet, Professional Web 2.0 programming

Google refers to this as the "Hello World" of Google Maps.

2006, Rael Dornfest, Paul Bausch, Tara Calishain, Google hacks

Animated Clock: The Hello World of Animated and Interactive SVG

(programming, by extension) A simple first program for any purpose.

こんにちは世界

rare except in Japanese-based programming languages


Nintendo

Borrowed from Japanese 任天堂 (Nintendō, literally “Luck of Heaven”).

bor+

(video games, by extension) Any video game console, especially by those not familiar with video games.

He was far more interested in bullfighting, which was the Nintendo of the day, only considerably more dangerous

2007, Anthony Ham, Alison Bing, Morocco, Lonely Planet,, page 34

(broadly) Any popular product or activity.


piss proud

From piss (“urine”) + proud. Appears in Francis Grose’s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796):
: “PISS-PROUD. Having a false erection. That old fellow thought he had an erection, but his — was only piss-proud; said of any old fellow who marries a young wife”.

And my guess is that his piss-proud father told him...

2000, Sandra Gulland, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B, page 30

Full of the strong beer brewed at the camp, the men boasted, piss proud of their sexual exploits.

2003, Maureen Jennings, Let Loose the Dogs, page 291

(British, vulgar, by extension) Falsely proud, implying an outward display of success or virility belies a dubious reality.


inside baseball

baseballin hienoudet

technical matters usually only of interest to or noticed by baseball insiders

But in fact, redistricting remained very much a game of inside baseball.

2003, Sam Hirsch, “The United States House of Unrepresentatives: What Went Wrong in the Latest Round of Congressional Redistricting”, in Election Law Journal, volume 2, number 2, pages 179–216

[…] the more inside-baseball the name, the nerdier the subject matter.

2015 June 11, Paul Ford, “What is Code?”, in Bloomberg

(US, idiomatic, by extension) Matters of interest only to insiders.


in rags

October 9 2007, Rory Carroll, The Guardian, "Cocaine galore! Villagers live it up on profits from 'white lobster'"
Some locals who used to be in rags live it up at posh hotels.


rags and tatters

December 17 2001, Russell Thomas, The Guardian Sports section.
Fulham's defence was a thing of rags and tatters long before the end.

(by extension) something ruined; fragments


nummular

en-adj

nummular (comparative more nummular, superlative most nummular)

more nummular (comparative)
most nummular (superlative)

From Latin nummulus (“(small amount of) money”) + English -ar (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of, pertaining to, or near’). Nummulus is the diminutive of nummus (“a coin; piece of money”) + -ulus (diminutive suffix); while nummus is from Doric Greek νοῦμμος (noûmmos), from Ancient Greek νόμος (nómos, “kind of coin”), from νέμω (némō, “to deal out, dispense, distribute”) (from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to distribute; to give; to take”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming nouns).

硬幣形的

flattened with a rounded form; coin-shaped

(by extension) Flattened with a rounded form, as a disc; coin-shaped.

(pathology) Characterized by lesions (especially on the cornea or skin) which are round with well-defined borders.

nummulaire

characterized by lesions which are round with well-defined borders

(pathology, obsolete) Of sputum: forming flat, round shapes (formerly thought to be a symptom of tuberculosis).


synchromesh

(by extension) A device which functions like a synchronized transmission.

synkronisering

a device which functions like a synchronized transmission


reprogram

en-verb

reprogram (third-person singular simple present reprograms, present participle reprogramming or reprograming, simple past and past participle reprogrammed or reprogramed)

reprograms (present singular third-person)
reprogramming (participle present)
reprograming (participle present)
reprogrammed (participle past)
reprogrammed (past)
reprogramed (participle past)
reprogramed (past)

(transitive, by extension) To make a fundamental change to the behaviour or habits of.


full marks

I would have to give you full marks for that statement.

(idiomatic, by extension) Complete approval or agreement.


retrenchment

en-noun

retrenchment (countable and uncountable, plural retrenchments)

Probably partly from both of the following:
* Middle French retrenchement, retranchement (“removal of a portion from a larger whole; reduction of expenses”) (modern French retranchement (“deduction, subtraction”)), from retrancher, retranchier (“to get rid of, remove completely; to remove a portion from a larger whole; to reduce expenses; to deprive (oneself) of”) [and other forms] + -ment (suffix forming nouns usually of an action or a state resulting from an action). Retrancher and retranchier are derived from Old French re- (prefix meaning ‘again, once more’) + tranchier, trenchier (“to cut”) [and other forms] (modern French trancher (“to slice”)); the further etymology is uncertain, but one possibility is that the Old French words are from Latin truncāre, the present active infinitive of truncō (“to mutilate by cutting off pieces; to truncate”), from truncus (“tree trunk; piece cut off”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”).
* retrench (“to cut down, reduce; to reduce expenses; to make (an employee) redundant”) + -ment. Retrench is derived from Middle French retrancher, retranchier: see above.

suffix

Even then—10 long years ago—our disillusionment over past failures, our revulsion against moralistic posturing, our retrenchment from prescribing what was best for other people, our withdrawal symptoms from the exhilarations of overcommitment—all these argued for the perspective of diversity; for lowering our goals.

1973, Thomas L. Hughes, “Democracy, Diversity, and the Flight from Foreign Policy”, in Foreign Policy, number 10, →JSTOR, pages 144–5

If it is allowed, however, that the theatre of cosmic evolution is endowed with some fixed structure, even a very weak one, then there is a retrenchment from the programme of an evolutionary account of every general law.

1999, Abner Shimony, “Can the fundamental laws of nature be the results of evolution?”, in Jeremy Butterfield, Constantine Pagonis, editors, From Physics to Philosophy, page 214

Given the current retrenchment of liberal internationalism, it is easy to forget that only three decades ago many believed that liberalism had attained a historically definitive victory over all alternatives.

2023, Kevin Carnahan, “Christian Realism and International Relations”, in Dallas Gingles et al., editors, The Future of Christian Realism: International Conflict, Political Decay, and the Crisis of Democracy, page 115


unvarnished

She told the unvarnished truth.

There were no socialist countries or liberation movements to blame for World War I. It was a plain, unvarnished racist war for colonial empire.

2004 June 24, Leslie Feinberg, “'The war to end all wars'”, in Workers World

The unprofessional production of the skits, shot on handheld digital video without the assistance of a 'steady cam' device, contributes to their unvarnished allure.

2008, Robert Sweeny, “This Performance Art Is for the Birds”, in Studies in Art Education, volume 49, page 138

Boris Johnson the "ersatz Churchill" needed the real one to remain untouchable and unvarnished to serve his own narrative as his latter-day incarnation.

2021, Otto English, Fake History, page 35

(figuratively, by extension) Natural, unmodified, unembellished, not exaggerated.

ungeschminkt

natural, unmodified, unembellished, not exaggerated


libration

en-noun

libration (countable and uncountable, plural librations)

From Latin lībrātiō (“a hurling, swinging”), from lībrō (“poise, cause to swing”).

(by extension) A similar rotational or orbital characteristic of some other celestial body.

լիբրացիա

astronomy: similar characteristic of another celesial object


Gallup poll

1971, Herman Wouk, The Winds of War, chapter 42,
"Pity we live in the same century with that strange creature. Say, we have here two men who talked at length face to face with the fellow. Let's take a Gallup poll. Sumner, do you think Hitler is a madman?"

My tiny personal Gallup poll unearthed plenty of refugees who were happy where they were and had no desire to return to Palestine, no matter what;... .

1988, Martha E. Gellhorn, The View from the Ground, Atlantic Monthly Press, page 223

1999 (date of publication), The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary, →ISBN, Diary 54,
It was like that until I transferred to Ms. Gruwell's class. Up until that point it had always been: "So, Joyce, how do black people feel about Affirmative Action?"...
I just new I wouldn't have to keep sending Gallup polls out to Negroes all around the country. And that is how I found myself starting my junior year in Ms. Gruwell's class.

(by extension, informal) Any poll of the opinion of randomly chosen persons, used to represent the opinion of the public.


end run

en:circumvention maneuver in any context

(figuratively, by extension, chiefly informal) An attempt to circumvent a difficult problem by not confronting it directly.


nabob

In colloquial usage in English since 1612, from a corruption of Hindustani नवाब (navāb) / نواب (navāb, “nawab”), perhaps via Portuguese nababo, from Persian نواب (navâb), from Arabic نُوَّاب (nuwwāb), the honorific plural of نَائِب (nāʔib, “deputy”).

Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.

2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70

(by extension) Someone of great wealth or importance.

(by extension) A person with a grandiose style or manner.


farctate

en-adj

farctate (comparative more farctate, superlative most farctate)

more farctate (comparative)
most farctate (superlative)

Latin farctus, past participle of farciō. See farce.

A statement farctate with meaning for those who throughout the years have made Brown Hall their home.

It is farctate with the sort of statistics that paper-writers love quoting.

Bailey's blurting, jilted phrases are a riot of rhythmic invention because they forever turn on the contradiction between public rhetoric and private conscience – as farctate with dynamics, unlikely contrasts and neologisms as a soliloquy in a Shakespeare play.

2013, Ben Watson, Derek Bailey: And the Story of Free Improvisation


opp

I saw her ass and fled on the spot man, me and her are opps bruh.

(by extension) Any person on unfriendly terms.


unkindled

(by extension) Not aroused, awakened or stirred.


Death Valley

Commonly connected to the Death Valley '49ers, a group of prospectors on the way to Gold Country, see quotations.

Memorial Stadium
w:Memorial Stadium, Clemson

A nickname for Memorial Stadium, a football stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.

A nickname for Tiger Stadium, a football stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.


Argive

Argive (comparative more Argive, superlative most Argive)

more Argive (comparative)
most Argive (superlative)

From Latin Argīvus, from Ancient Greek Ἀργεῖος (Argeîos).


swiftboat

en-verb

swiftboat (third-person singular simple present swiftboats, present participle swiftboating, simple past and past participle swiftboated)

swiftboats (present singular third-person)
swiftboating (participle present)
swiftboated (participle past)
swiftboated (past)

Uncertain: Possibly, swift + boat, or possibly based on an acronym for Shallow Water Inshore Fast Tactical Craft.
The use as a political term derives from a smear campaign against John Kerry when Texas tycoon Robert J. Perry hired several Navy swiftboat veterans to form the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which questioned the legitimacy of Kerry's status as a war hero.

The Borgia family has had such a bad reputation over all these hundreds of years. Some of it is merited, and for some of it, they were swiftboated. The cardinals hired writers to write bad things about them.

2013 January 7, Sam Thielman, “The Man From Oz Finds Religion”, in Adweek

My wife suggested that in absence of a response by Woody, he was being swiftboated.

2014 January 27, Robert B. Weide, “The Woody Allen Allegations: Not So Fast”, in Daily Beast

So you were swiftboated? I was about to be! I was about to be! No, I just said, That's bullshit—first of all, it's William Oliver Stone. And then Dale went back for the files and found them. I did have a record that they couldn't expunge.

2016, Matt Zoller Seitz, The Oliver Stone Experience, page 192

(by extension) To smear; to attack someone or something's reputation using slander, misrepresentation, or false accusations.


heat up

heat up (third-person singular simple present heats up, present participle heating up, simple past and past participle heated up or (dialectal) het up)

heats up (present singular third-person)
heating up (participle present)
heated up (participle past)
heated up (past)
het up (dialectal participle past)
het up (dialectal past)

(figurative, by extension, of a situation) To become busier or more exciting or intense.


core constituency

en-noun

core constituency (plural core constituencies)

The challenge in all of this, Booth acknowledges, is to bring new customers to Volvo without alienating its core constituency.

2007 December 2, Bryce G. Hoffman, “Ford takes risk going upscale with Volvo”, in The Detroit News

(by extension) A group or groups whose continuing support is crucial for the success of any organization or individual.


airbrushed

en-adj

airbrushed (comparative more airbrushed, superlative most airbrushed)

more airbrushed (comparative)
most airbrushed (superlative)

(by extension) Having had imperfections and blemishes removed through digital manipulation.


shoot the moon

en-verb

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

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

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-shoot the moon.wav

Already orbiting at altitudes unimaginable a few short years ago, interest rates moved even higher last week and threatened to shoot the moon.

1981 May 18, John DeMott, “Sky-High Interest Rates”, in Time

(figuratively, by extension) To attain great heights, a high value, or a numerically high measurement.


Darwinian

en-adj

Darwinian (comparative more Darwinian, superlative most Darwinian)

more Darwinian (comparative)
most Darwinian (superlative)

Charles Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Joseph Wright of Derby
Julia Margaret Cameron

From Darwin + -ian (suffix with the sense ‘belonging to, relating to, or like’ forming adjectives or nouns). Darwin is the surname of Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) and his grandson Charles Darwin (1809–1882).
Adjective sense 2 (“of or pertaining to Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia”) and noun sense 2 (“native or resident of Darwin”) refer to the city of Darwin which was named after Charles Darwin.

suffix

Senses relating to Charles and Erasmus Darwin.

(by extension) Of or pertaining to Darwinism, which includes the theories of Charles Darwin and other scientists.

(by extension) Competitive, especially in a ruthless manner.

(by extension) Exhibiting an ability to adapt or develop in order to survive; adaptable.


for keeps

"We both got a job to do. They play for keeps and we play for keeps too," Haggans said.

2007 Dec. 7, "Steelers' Defense Anticipates Patriots Matchup," KDKA.com (Pittsburg)

(idiomatic, by extension) With a strong competitive resolve to win or succeed, as in sports or business.


dyke

Dyke (slang)
Green's Dictionary of Slang
dyke

Uncertain. Attested since the 1940s (in Berrey and Van den Bark’s 1942 American Thesaurus of Slang) or 30s. Semantic development from dyke (“ditch”) has been proposed, and some sources from the 1890s are said to record dyke as slang for "vulva" and hedge of the dyke as slang for "pubic hair", but Green's Dictionary of Slang says this is not found in connection to lesbianism and Dictionary.com considers a connection unlikely.
Bull dyke / bulldike is attested earlier, in reference to women since at least the 1920s (the 29 July 1892 Decatur Daily Review in Illinois mentions a woman who "won the affections of Harvey Neal, alias 'Bulldyke'", whose gender is unclear); compare dike (“noun: well-dressed man; verb: be well dressed”)), bulldyker, and bulldyking, which are all attested earlier than bare dyke, e.g. in Parke's 1906 Human Sexuality, in the speech of Philadelphians, and backcountry black Americans. Compare bulldagger, attested since around the same time and used especially by black women.
Other linguists suggested that bull dyke(r) referred to strong black women who dug dikes, or derived from bull + dick, perhaps in reference to black men. It has also been suggested dyke is a shortening of morphodyke, from morphodite, from hermaphrodite, but the derivation may go in the other direction instead, with morphodyke being a blend of morphodite with the already-extant word dyke.

(slang, usually derogatory, loosely, offensive) A non-heterosexual woman.


rabbit hole

rabbit + hole. Extended senses reference Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where Alice travels down a rabbit hole into a bizarre world.

Near-synonym: rabbit trail (regiolectic)

I'm also a fan of a really obscure book series, but that's a rabbit hole that we won't get into.

While writing my paper, my research went down several rabbit holes that were only marginally related and wasted a lot of my time.

My point is not to go down the rabbit hole of deconstructing the term documentary, […]

2017, Judith Aston, Sandra Gaudenzi, Mandy Rose, I-Docs: The Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary

I felt pretty strongly that non-food supplements would be a complicated, expensive rabbit hole that rarely cure children fully of anxiety / autism / etc. (especially in the absence of enough nourishing food).

2018, GAPS Stories, Chelsea Green Publishing

(by extension) A time-consuming tangent or detour, often one from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.


unriddle

en-verb

unriddle (third-person singular simple present unriddles, present participle unriddling, simple past and past participle unriddled)

unriddles (present singular third-person)
unriddling (participle present)
unriddled (participle past)
unriddled (past)

It will be found, when the Myſterie of iniquitie ſhall be unriddled, that, as they were their ſpawn the Anabaptiſts, the obſtructers of our Doctrinal Reformation, ſo, they are by their Miſſionaries ſent unto Corners and Hillie Countreys the obſtructers of our practical.

1702, [John Wilson], An Essay wherein National Love and Unity is Recommended, Its Opposits Exposed, Arguments for It Propounded, and Its Standard Expounded, and All Contenders Blamed. […], Edinburgh: Printed by the heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson, […], →OCLC, page 22

(transitive, by extension) To solve (a perplexing problem).


perfect storm

1862, Frank Moore, Edward Everett, The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, p. 149,
They sent a perfect storm of bullets, over, under, and into our men.

Tory said he was worried that "a perfect storm" of economic factors could put tourist operators and their communities in peril.

2008 June 30, Jim Coyle, “Stormy weather for tourism season”, in Toronto Star, page AA8

(figuratively, by extension) A situation in which several problems converge and make everything worse.


spindrift

en-noun

spindrift (countable and uncountable, plural spindrifts)

Oxford English Dictionary
Scottish National Dictionary

Borrowed from Scots spindrift; further etymology uncertain. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests it is a variant of spoondrift (archaic), apparently due to the pronunciation of this word in southwestern Scotland, which is derived from spoon + drift (“mass of matter driven or forced onward together in a body, etc., especially by wind or water”); spoon is a variant of spoom (“to sail briskly with the wind astern, with or without sails hoisted”). However, this is doubted by the Scottish National Dictionary because spoondrift is attested later than spindrift and it seems unlikely that the Scots spelling would have superseded the English one, and because the early use of the Scots word in the form spenedrift by James Melville (1556–1614) is unlikely to have derived from spoondrift.
The word was popularized in English from the late 19th century by its use in the novels of the Scottish-born author William Black (1841–1898): see, for example, the 1878 quotation.

compound

(by extension) Clouds of sand, snow, etc., whipped along the ground by the wind.


gatekeep

en-verb

gatekeep (third-person singular simple present gatekeeps, present participle gatekeeping, simple past and past participle gatekept)

gatekeeps (present singular third-person)
gatekeeping (participle present)
gatekept (participle past)
gatekept (past)

From gate + keep, as back-formation from gatekeeper.

(by extension) To limit another party's participation in a collective identity or an activity, usually due to undue pettiness, resentment, or overprotectiveness.


Fortune 500

en-noun

Fortune 500 (countable and uncountable, plural Fortune 500s)

Abbott was in his late sixties and looked like a retired Fortune 500 executive in a three-piece suit, complete with manicured nails and a Rolex watch.

1990, Sue Grafton, "G" is for Gumshoe, Henry Holt and Company, page 154

If logic and demonstrations of success are not impetus enough, realize that activists are now looking beyond Fortune 500s.

2000, Susan F. Shultz, The Board Book, page 13

I shrink a little at the idea of Portia breaking another glass ceiling on her way to what can only be president or CEO of a Fortune 500.

2005, Amy Scheibe, What Do You Do All Day?, St. Martin's Press, page 53

(by extension, informal, countable) Any one member of that list.


Jacobin

From Middle French jacobin, ultimately from Latin Jacōbus (“Jacob”).


Jacobin

[…] Mosse argued the most fascist and totalitarian in particular but also radical Jacobin regimes, continued to have an investment in not merely disciplining human bodies but harnessing their sense of glory toward worshiping themselves […]

2015, Matthew Quest, "George L. Mosse: Unconventional Historian", New Historian


puttock

From Middle English puttock, puttok, potok, puttoc, of uncertain origin; perhaps representing an unattested Old English *putta (“hawk”) + -ock; or perhaps from Old English *pūthafoc (literally “pout-hawk”), equivalent to pout (“a kind of fish”) + hawk. Compare also pout (“a young bird”), poult.

inh

Besides that, as though this pillage and pollage were not rapacious enough, they take in and enclose commons, moors, heaths and other common pastures where out the poor commonalty were want to have all their provisions and feeding for their cattle and (which is more) corn for themselves to live upon; all which are now in most places taken from them by those greedy puttocks to the great impoverishing and utter beggaring of many whole towns

2014, Susan Doran, Norman Jones, The Elizabethan World, page 440

(by extension) A rapacious person who preys on the defenseless.


silver service

(by extension) Any service which is of especially good quality.


dogwatch

From dog + watch, perhaps a calque of German Hundewache.

(by extension) A night shift, or other very late or early period of duty.


OG

Besides the standard tomatoes-over-cheese version, called the O.G., and an even more streamlined cheeseless tomato pie called the Plain Jane, Washington Squares exploits the structural stability of the crust with more elaborate arrays.

2021 March 8, Pete Wells, “Building Pizzas That Can Survive the Box”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

And we’d all go to the true O.G., Julius’. It’s the oldest gay bar in New York, plus it has delicious grilled cheese sandwiches and French fries.

2021 April 12, John Wogan, “Friends Who Saw It All”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension, US, slang) Anything associated with an earlier, more traditional, and perceivedly more authentic era.


wall off

en-verb

wall off (third-person singular simple present walls off, present participle walling off, simple past and past participle walled off)

walls off (present singular third-person)
walling off (participle present)
walled off (participle past)
walled off (past)

Early protectionists tried to wall off the country from foreign trade.

Nationalist politics, walled off for decades by an artificial silence, have emerged practically unscathed from the ruins of Communism's enforced internationalism.

1990 November 12, Celestine Bohlen, “Ethnic Rivalries Revive in East Europe”, in The New York Times, section A, page 1

(figurative, by extension) To isolate completely.


glass harmonica

en-noun

glass harmonica (plural glass harmonicas)


eppy

(colloquial, by extension) A tantrum or outburst.


bootlicker

(by extension, derogatory) Anyone who is seen as supporting authoritarianism.


coprime

greatest common divisor
greatest common divisor

(algebra, by extension, of two or more polynomials) Whose greatest common divisor is a nonzero constant (i.e., polynomial of degree 0).

(ring theory, by extension) (of two or more ideals of a ring) Whose sum is the whole ring; (of two or more elements of a ring) generating the whole ring.


arm-wrestle

en-verb

arm-wrestle (third-person singular simple present arm-wrestles, present participle arm-wrestling, simple past and past participle arm-wrestled)

arm-wrestles (present singular third-person)
arm-wrestling (participle present)
arm-wrestled (participle past)
arm-wrestled (past)

Unable to give any answer, Benhur finds himself being arm-wrestled on both sides; he feels like a boy with them, unscathed as yet by Tuesday morning in Constitutional Law

1996, Linda Ty-Casper, DreamEden, page 318

I arm-wrestled a promise from Gordon Dempsey that news of our night in Atlantic City would go no further.

1999, Roz D. Fox, Welcome to My Family, page 151

In fact, throughout 1946, they continued to arm-wrestle over which of them was entitled to philosophize.

2014, Rocco Rubini, The Other Renaissance: Italian Humanism between Hegel and Heidegger

The idea that war and conflicts are purely rational, calculable considerations lives on today. Even if the playing fields for the superpowers' arm-wrestling matches are no longer Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw, but instead Kabul, Tehran and Peshawar.

2015, Katrine Marcal, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?, page 62

(transitive, intransitive, by extension) To struggle (with) for dominance.


lucky dip

2005 September, “Dome sale 'was like a lucky dip'”, in BBC News:

(by extension, idiomatic, figuratively) A selection solely at random.


sniff out

sniff out (third-person singular simple present sniffs out, present participle sniffing out, simple past and past participle sniffed out)

sniffs out (present singular third-person)
sniffing out (participle present)
sniffed out (participle past)
sniffed out (past)

Near-synonyms: ferret out, weasel out

(transitive, figurative, by extension) To detect (something hidden or invisible).


fast lane

One of the four main characters in This Place, tough, streetwise Candy Peters, is a white girl more at home in black culture than anywhere else, a throwaway child, a veteran of the fast lane, drugs, prostitution, jail.

1981 December 1, Susan Saxe, “Survival with Agony and Art”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 20, page 9

(figuratively, by extension) Any situation or activity where the pace is very rapid.

(misconception, by extension) the overtaking lane or passing lane.


sell-by date

Tony Blair insists on remaining in office well past his sell-by date - yet he can afford to go.

2007 March, William Keegan, “As Blair contemplates the hereafter, Britain must endure a life in limbo”, in The Guardian Online

September 9, 2017 - Schlock Mercenary
Manifold: This is not a team, Petey. This is just another mass grave.
Ewin: Eeew. What's the sell-by date on that manifold? I think it's gone bad.

"They have gone past their sell-by date. But the fitters have done an amazing job keeping these units running for as long as they have.

2021 January 13, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Island Line bids farewell to 1930s "icon of transport"...”, in Rail, page 8

(idiomatic, by extension) Used to indicate that something, or someone, is old and out of date.


propiska

Borrowed from Russian пропи́ска (propíska), from пропи́сывать (propísyvatʹ, “write into”).

Passport system in the Soviet Union
propiska

(by extension) domicile, place where one lives (as stated in the stamp)


egg timer

(by extension) A timer that can be set to sound an alarm after a certain amount of time; a kitchen timer.


Swiss German

Swiss Standard German
Swiss Standard German

(loosely) Any local form of the German language used in Switzerland; Swiss Standard German.


below the fold

(by extension, web design, graphical user interface) Far enough down that it is not likely to be visible in the initial display of a window or screen, such that the end user will probably have to scroll down before seeing it.


doodlebugger

(slang, by extension) A geophysicist working in the field to explore oil or other natural resources.


GPS receiver

global positioning system
global positioning system

(by extension) A device that uses any global positioning system satellite network.


Swiss Army knife

en-noun

Swiss Army knife (plural Swiss Army knives)

Swiss Armed Forces
Swiss Army knife
Swiss Army knife#History

From the prominent (although not exclusive) association of this type of knife with officers of the Swiss Army; see Swiss Army knife § History for details.

(figuratively, by extension) A tool that has many functions, one for every perceivable need.


Golden Arches

From the large yellow plastic logo of the letter M, from the design of the first restaurants, which incorporated large yellow arches.

(by extension) The McDonald's company, or the fast food industry in general.


audit trail

(by extension) A similar record of other activities, such as actions taken by a computer system, or changes made to a document.


eonian

en-adj

eonian (comparative more eonian, superlative most eonian)

more eonian (comparative)
most eonian (superlative)

From Ancient Greek αἰώνιος (aiṓnios, “lasting for an age; perpetual; eternal”) + -an, the former from αἰών (aiṓn, “lifetime; aeon; age; generation”) (whence also eon, aeon) + -ιος (-ios, adjective suffix).


go off the reservation

en-verb

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

goes off the reservation (present singular third-person)
going off the reservation (participle present)
went off the reservation (past)
gone off the reservation (participle past)

By analogy with a member of the tribe leaving an Indian reservation.

When the Russians do go off the reservation, as they did early in April 1965, their object is not to challenge the Western allies of yesteryear, the United States, Britain, and France, but to impress upon West Germany their support for East Germany and its claim to West Berlin.

1965, Drew Middleton, The Atlantic Community: A Study in Unity and Disunity, page 186

(by extension) To engage in disruptive activity outside normal bounds.

The technician mentally recalibrated. "Yes ma'am. An Alpha-9-associated device just went offline unexpectedly."
She raised an eyebrow. "Thompson and Adams gone off the res again?"

2021 November 14, HarryBlank, “Over/”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2023-02-05

(by extension) To act in an independent, uncontrolled, or unauthorized manner.


signal-to-noise

(by extension) The quantity of quality information compared to irrelevant or incorrect information.


wonk

American English student slang 1954; perhaps navy slang before that. "Expert" sense popularized in the Clinton administration, 1993. Origin uncertain, possibly from wonky (“shaky, unreliable”) or wank, wanker or simply expressive.

This is the sort of standard that the Paul Ryans of the world trumpet to their constituents, to potential campaign contributors and to their peers in Congress. They become “budget wonks” and political superstars, even if their proposals are bound to go nowhere.

2014 March 14, Dean Baker, “Paul Ryan isn't the wonk of Washington – it's time to listen to more good ideas”, in The Guardian

(by extension, informal) A policy wonk or other intellectual expert.


birth pangs

(by extension) The difficulty associated with a new project.


abbed

Reality shows about lesbian surfers, on the other hand, are for fans of sex — or at least fans of sex among flat-abbed well-tanned women who also can grab a rail hang 10 or shoot a curl.

2007, The Advocate, numbers 988-999, page 48

Fortunately, God, in his infinite and redeeming mercy, had also sent down a tight-abbed, small-boned Chinese-Chicana woman to rescue the innocents.

2011, David Brooks, The Social Animal: A Story of How Success Happens

(slang, of a person, in combination, by extension) Having abdominal muscles of a specified kind.


random variable

en-noun

random variable (plural random variables)

probability distribution
probability distribution

(statistics, broadly) A quantity whose value is random and to which a probability distribution is assigned, such as the possible outcome of a roll of a dice.


supply line

John Barclay and [Stuart] McInally controlled the tackle area, denying England quick possession and fracturing the champions’ supply line, Simon Berghan anchored the scrum and behind Finn Russell, missing in action in the opening two rounds, fulfilled his captain Barclay’s prediction on the eve of the game that he would be the man of the match.

2018 February 24, Paul Rees, “Finn Russell masterminds historic Scotland victory over England”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2018-04-22

(by extension) Any system in place to provide resources to a group.


culminant

en-adj

culminant (comparative more culminant, superlative most culminant)

more culminant (comparative)
most culminant (superlative)


take the wheel

en-verb

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

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

(idiomatic, by extension) To assume control of a situation.


drop the gloves

drop the gloves (third-person singular simple present drops the gloves, present participle dropping the gloves, simple past and past participle dropped the gloves)

drops the gloves (present singular third-person)
dropping the gloves (participle present)
dropped the gloves (participle past)
dropped the gloves (past)

From the practice of ice hockey players of removing their heavy gloves before striking blows in fistfights.

But Bradley, who dropped the gloves on Gore in a combative debate Wednesday night and called the vice president chronically dishonest, ignored Sullivan's advice.

2000 January 30, Thomas DeFrank et al., “George W. & Al Bank on Bubba”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 2008-10-14

(Canada and US, idiomatic, by extension) To remove a prior impediment to action; to prepare for or engage in a dispute.


full as a goog

“Well, old Foll was in that bar, as full as a goog.” Mr Jennings leered with the delight that seeing old Foll full as a goog had brought him.

1974, Brian James., The Advancement of Spencer Button, page 95

Amos′s grin widened, “You mean the man was drunk?”
Mathewson laughed out loud, “He was full as a goog but you said it, laddie, I din′t!”

2005, Clara M. Miller, The Eye of the Storm, page 147

Jack′s as full as a goog and near the Town Hall he spews up his lunch. (Of course, neither of them today has any idea that Jack will one day be Premier of New South Wales.)

2007, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, page 167

(Australia, colloquial, by extension) Very drunk.


fault line

Yet the process may lead to new fault lines and resentments across the notoriously unstable Lebanese political system whose 18 different confessional groups share all levels of power.

2016 October 22, Rami G Khouri, “Lebanese oligarchy preserves its interests once again”, in Aljazeera

(by extension) A minor split (in public opinion etc.) that may develop into something larger.


firelock

Alfred, surprised to meet his father, whom he thought absent from home, […] stood, holding his firelock in one hand, and his hat in the other […]

Before we were out of the forest, however, we saw about ten peasants, some armed with firelocks [translating Feuer-rohren], others busy burying something.

1999, Jakob Grimmelshausen, translated by Mike Mitchell, Simplicius Simplicissimus, Dedalus, published 2016, page 48

(by extension, historical) A firearm using such a gunlock.


re-sign

re-sign (third-person singular simple present re-signs, present participle re-signing, simple past and past participle re-signed)

re-signs (present singular third-person)
re-signing (participle present)
re-signed (participle past)
re-signed (past)

From re- + sign. Piecewise doublet of resign.

At the end of last year, the band re-signed to XL for another three albums, despite being chased by majors that included Island, says manager Mike Champion of Midi Management.

1997, Billboard, volume 109, number 30, page 86

(by extension) To sign a contract renewing or restarting a professional relationship, such as that of a professional athlete with a sports team.


bip

bip (third-person singular simple present bips, present participle bipping, simple past and past participle bipped)

bips (present singular third-person)
bipping (participle present)
bipped (participle past)
bipped (past)

onom

Imitative

The family was visiting the Bay Area to drop off their teen for college when they were bipped and lost important personal docuemnts and thousands of dollars worth of cash.

(Bay Area, California slang) To break into a car and steal its contents.