Quaker gun

Quaker guns (plural)
quaker gun (alternative)

/ˌkweɪkəɹ ˈɡʌn/

From Quaker + gun, referring to the pacifism associated with practitioners of the Quaker religion.

Nor was he content with thus strongly garrisoning the fort, but he likewise added exceedingly to its strength by furnishing it with a formidable battery of quaker guns—rearing a stupendous flag-staff in the centre which overtopped the whole city—and moreover by building a great windmill on one of the bastions.

1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], chapter III, in A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Inskeep & Bradford, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 216:

The captain examined the marks left on the grass, and was of opinion that more than one man had been employed to set up the decoy figure, […] "At all events, your honour, I will carry the quaker in," said Joyce, tossing the stuffed figure on a shoulder. "He will do to man the quaker gun at least, and may be of use in frightening some one of the other side, more than he has yet frightened us."

1843, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter VI, in Wyandotté, or The Hutted Knoll. […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, pages 84–85:

No one would imagine, from the appearance of the troops on Munson's Hill and the vicinity, that they were new comers. […] Fortifications are already so complete as to forbid all hopes of the rebels regaining possession of these localities. The Quaker gun found there was consigned to the flames to-day, and in its stead heavy artillery, of the genuine sort, commands all the surrounding country.

1861 October 4, “Our troops at Munson’s Hill”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2015-11-04:

Those who watched from the shore as the beautiful vessel moved upstream saw that she too carried guns, but when they boarded her they found that the 'guns' were dummies made of wood. 'Yes,' explained the crew in answer to their wondering questions, 'them's Quaker guns. "Quakers" would be no use in a fight, but they look all right at a distance. They frighten the pirates away – and they cost much less than the real thing!'

1980, Marjorie Sykes, “The British India Society 1815–1843”, in Quakers in India: A Forgotten Century, London: George Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, page 19:

In late September the southerners withdrew from one exposed position on Munson's Hill a few miles southwest of Washington. When the Federals moved in, instead of the large cannon they had expected they found a log shaped and painted to resemble a cannon. This "Quaker gun" embarrassed [General George Brinton] McClellan and called into question his reports of superior Confederate forces. […] The Quaker gun incident further dissipated the once-enormous reservoir of support and adulation for McClellan.

1988, James M[unro] McPherson, “Farewell to the Ninety Days’ War”, in Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era (The Oxford History of the United States; 6), New York, N.Y.; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 361–362:

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


vicenary

vicenaries (plural)
vicenarie (alternative)

/ˈvɪsəˌnɛɹi/

From Latin vīcēnārius, from vīcēnus (“twenty each”) + -ārius (“-ary: forming adjectives and related nouns”). Doublet of vicenarious. Ultimately cognate with English vigenary.

Delicat, another Captaine, or vicenarie in Sara, hauing vnder him twenty assistants.

1603, S. Harsnett, Declaration of Popish Impostures, page 49:

(military, obsolete or archaic) An officer in command of twenty men.


unguled

Supporters, dexter, a unicorn ar. armed, maned, and unguled or; sinister, a lion, gu. Motto, In te Domine speravi, In thee , 0 Lord , have I put my trust.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry, page 9:

Supporters - Two pegasi, ermine, winged, bridled, crined, and unguled, or, each charged on the shoulder with a fleur de lis, azure. Motto - Virtute, non verbis.

1846, William Skey, The Heraldic Calendar: A List of the Nobility and Gentry Whose Arms are Registered, and Pedigrees Recorded in the Herald's Office in Ireland, page 46:

Argent, three roebucks passant regardant gules, attired and unguled sable. Crest - On a wreath of the colours, a demi-roebuck gules, attired and unguled sable.

1915, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Book of Public Arms: A Complete Encyclopædia of All Royal, Territorial, Municipal, Corporate, Official, and Impersonal Arms, London : T.C. & E.C. Jack, page 430:

(heraldry) Having hoofs of a tincture different from the body.


fructed

Derived from Latin frūctus (“fruit”) + -ed.

He beareth, Argent, on a Mount in a Base, a Pine Apple tree, fructed, Proper, by the name of Pine.

1660, John Guillim, Francis Nower, A Display of Heraldie, page 131:

HASKELL, on a mount, an apple-tree fructed, ppr. pl. 94, n. 33.

1851, John Peter Elven, The book of family crests, page 229:

A dexter Cubit arm, couped, vested sable, cuffed or, charged with a Cross paté of the last, holding in the hand an Oak branch fructed all proper

1870-1881, John Edwin Cussans, History of Hertfordshire:

(heraldry, of a tree or plant) Bearing fruit or acorns.


camonflet

the French were throwing camonflets or stink-pots into the city as a means of annoyance to its defenders.

1855, The Friend: A Religious and Literary Journal:

(military) A small mine, sometimes formed in the wall or side of an enemy's gallery, to blow in the earth and cut off the retreat of the miners.


undé

ondé (alternative)
ondy (alternative)
oundy (alternative)
undee (alternative)
undy (alternative)

The achievement of the Lord Maderty is, or, three bars undé gules, and, on a canton argent, a lion's head erased, within a double tressure counter-flowered gules;[…]

1804, Alexander Nisbet, A system of heraldry, page 66:

Argent, a fesse undé gules; […]

1898, Edward Singleton Holden, A Primer of Heraldry for Americans, page 109:

(archaic, heraldry) Waving or wavy; applied to ordinaries, or division lines.


tenné

tenné:

(heraldry) A rarely-used tincture of orange or bright brown.


tenné

Arms : Quarterly of eight , I or a lion rampant tenné, on a chief sable three escallops or, 2 azure a tower domed argent, 3 barry or and gules,[…]

1985, Stained Glass Before 1700 in American Collections: Corpus Vitrearum Checklist:


unipersonalist

Labelling Osmeña as an autocrat and "unipersonalist," Quezon advocated the notion of " collective leadership, " meaning that authority and responsibilities would be distributed to various agencies and leaders in the government.

1987, Aruna Gopinath, Manuel L. Quezon: The Tutelary Democrat:

The emergence of the Democrata party as a political force after the June 1922 elections forced the Nacionalistas ( whether of Osmeña's unipersonalist or Quezon's collectivist wing) to appear more radical than the Democrata on the matter of "immediate, complete, and absolute independence."

1989, Philippine Studies - Volume 37, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 222:

(politics, Philippines) An autocrat; One who does not share political power with other people, or one who supports such a ruler.


viroled

ferruled (alternative)
veruled (alternative)

Az., a saltire or, in base a hunting-horn arg., viroled vert and stringed of the second, on a chief of the third a buckle in pale of the field between two cushions gu. COLLOW OF AUCHENCHEYNE (1773).

1893, James Balfour Paul, An Ordinary of Arms Contained in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, page 200:

(heraldry) Furnished with viroles; said of a horn or bugle whose rings are of different tincture.


woolpack

From Middle English wolpak, wullepak, equivalent to wool + pack.

(heraldry) A charge resembling a pillow or cushion.


Slovak Republic

First Slovak Republic
First Slovak Republic

(historical, fascism) The First Slovak Republic from 14 March 1939 to 4 April 1945.


virole

From French virole (“ferrule”). See ferrule.

[…] except when he has a hood, bells, virols, or rings, and leashes, in which case he is said to be hooded, belled, jessed, and leashed; […]

1836, Sir Daniel Keyte Sandford, The Popular Encyclopedia;: pt. 1: England-Germany (literature and science), page 698:

The Florentine GUICCIARDINI bore : Azure, three hunting-horns argent, the mouth-pieces and viroles or, banded gules. Gules, three trumpets fessways in pale argent, is the canting coat of CALL (Baronets).

1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 386:

Viroled- (vi-rold') Furnished with a virole or viroles. Said of a bugle or horn when borne with rings of a different tincture from the bugle itself.

1908, Arthur Francis Pimbley, Pimbley's Dictionary of Heraldry: Together with an Illustrated Supplement, page 67:

(heraldry) A ring surrounding a bugle or hunting horn.


crusher gauge

crusher gauges (plural)
crusher gage (alternative)

(ballistics) An instrument for measuring the explosive force of gunpowder, etc., by its effect in compressing a piece of metal.


enfiled

(heraldry) Having an object, such as the head of a man or animal, impaled on it.


(firearms) The Mauser model 98, or a firearm action based on this design.


straight pull

(firearms) Alternative spelling of straight-pull.


fitchy

fitchée (alternative)
fitchee (alternative)
fitché (alternative)
fiché (alternative)
fichée (alternative)

From French fiché, past participle of ficher (“to fasten”), Old French fichier (“to pierce”). Compare fish.

(heraldry) Sharpened to a point; pointed.


recapper

(firearms) A tool that applies a fresh percussion cap or primer to a cartridge shell in reloading it.


backfall

(wrestling) A fall or throw on the back.


full metal jacket

en-noun

full metal jacket (plural full metal jackets)

(firearms) A bullet having a complete covering of copper over the lead core.

(firearms) The metal jacket itself, which covers the lead core.


inturn

From Middle English inturn, intorn, equivalent to in- + turn.

(wrestling) A move where the wrestler puts his thigh between the tights of his opponent, and lifts him up.


killock

killocks (plural)
kelleg (alternative)
killick (alternative)

Unabashed, the Killock tilted his head to one side in mock examination, puckering his bulbous nose.

2005, Bill Hawkins, The Other Cockleshell Heroes, page 32:

(naval slang) A leading seaman, who wears a badge with an anchor emblem.


EAB

emergency air breather
emergency air breather#English

(US, military, nautical) Initialism of emergency air breather.

(military) Initialism of echelons above brigade.


rustre

(heraldry) A lozenge with a smaller round hole in the centre, showing the field (rarely used).


palisado

palisado (plural palisados or palisadoes)

[T]he Eyelids are fortify'd vvith little ſtiffe briſtles as vvith Paliſadoes, againſt the aſſault of Flyes and Gnats, and ſuch like bold Animalcula.

1653, Henry More, “Unavoydable Arguments for Divine Providence Taken from the Accurate Structure of Mans Body, from the Passions of His Mind, and Fitnesse of the Whole Man to be an Inhabiter of the Universe”, in An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC, book II, page 94:

(fortification) Obsolete form of palisade.


palisado

en-verb

palisado (third-person singular simple present palisadoes, present participle palisadoing, simple past and past participle palisadoed)

palisadoes (present singular third-person)
palisadoing (participle present)
palisadoed (participle past)
palisadoed (past)

He provided a table sixty feet in diameter, upon which I was to act my part, and palisadoed it round three feet from the edge, and as many high, to prevent my falling over.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag):

The sea breaks upon this coast against a palisadoed fence of rocks and cliffs, around which swarm flocks of polar birds with cries and screams.

At Chaco they had a little earthen fort, with a small ditch palisadoed round it, and a few old honeycombed guns without carriages, and which do not defend the harbour in the least.

1816, Robert Kerr, A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17:


fetialis

fetiales (plural)
fecialis (alternative)
fetial (alternative)
fecial (alternative)

This was the mode in which Roman treaties were made, the fecialis praying Jupiter to punish the infringer of the treaty as he did the animal, which he instantly dispatched with a flint stone.

1843, Thomas Dudley Fosbroke, “Heraldick Matters”, in Encyclopaedia of Antiquities and Elements of Archaeology, Classical and Mediaeval, volume 2, London, page 765:

[...] but when the theatre of war became more distant, the fetialis, consul, or praetor, contented himself with hurling his lance from a pillar near the temple of Bellona in the direction of the hostile territory, while the declaration of war itself was made by the military commander of the province through an ambassador.

1874, Theodore D. Woolsey, Introduction to the Study of International Law, 4th edition, New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., page 196:

Fetiales also investigated allies' claims of abuse by Romans; if substantiated, the fetiales delivered the men accused to the injured parties.

2016, Amanda J. Coles, “Ius Fetiale”, in Sara E[lise] Phang, Iain Spence, Douglas Kelly, Peter Londey, editors, Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome: The Definitive Political, Social, and Military Encyclopedia, volumes 3 (H–Z, Roman Section), Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 973, column 2:

(Ancient Rome, politics, religion, historical) A fetial.


chunker

Onomatopoeic, or from chunk (“throw”), with -er.

(US military, slang) An M79 grenade launcher.


CSG

en-noun

CSG (countable and uncountable, plural CSGs)

carrier strike group
carrier strike group#English

(military, nautical, aviation) Abbreviation of carrier strike group.

carrier surface group
carrier surface group#English

(military, nautical, aviation) Abbreviation of carrier surface group.

carrier surface assertion group
carrier surface assertion group#English

(military, nautical, aviation) Abbreviation of carrier surface assertion group.


countersalient

(heraldry) Leaping in opposite directions (as if past or away from each other); said of two figures on a coat of arms.


gyronny

gyronné (alternative)
gironné (alternative)
gironnée (alternative)

(heraldry, of an escutcheon) Covered with gyrons, or divided into several gyrons, typically eight.


wolfsangel

From German Wolfsangel (literally “wolf hook”).

bor

(heraldry, symbology) A Z-shaped symbol, reminiscent of the Germanic wolf hook hunting device


anserated

Perhaps related to serrated because the ends are often also parted (to terminate in two animal heads, as with a cross gringolée).

an anserated cross

(heraldry, uncommon) Having the extremities terminate in the heads of eagles, lions, etc.


opinicus

Two opinici vert, beaked sable, wings gules, support the insignia of the Plasterers’ Company.

1847, A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table, Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress, Oxford: John Henry Parker, page 233:

Urcheons, bagwyns, opinici and musimons, represented statant, sejant or segreant, and in every variety of metal, colour and fur, completed an exhibition which was both boastfully heraldic and pompously powerful.

No blood need be shed in settling these anatomical problems, as opinici are of little importance, there being barely a dozen examples.

1963, Julian Franklyn, Shield and Crest: An Account of the Art and Science of Heraldry, page 150:

Even when they ascend to the loftiest perch for their kind and earn the right to serve on the Council of Keythongs, the wingless ones are still not permitted the same rights as gryphons and opinici.

2019, Paula Grover, The Gryphon, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 22:

(heraldry) A heraldic imaginary creature with an eagle's head, a short tail, and sometimes wings.


battle buddy

I didn't know why, but I cut through and took a shorter route and I happened to bump into my battle buddy (SSG). As I piece everything together, I remembered my battle buddy telling me that I was scaring him, because I had “that look”

2011, Yolanda Jones, Scarred, But Not Broken: My Personal Experience as a Single Mom, page 75

You don't do anything without your battle buddy. If your battle buddy does something stupid, you pay for it.

2011, Robert Brock, Turkey Mountain Boys: My Brother's Keeper, page 73

To teach you this lesson, your Drill Sergeants will assign you a battle buddy.

2011, Michael Craig Volkin, The ultimate basic training guidebook: tips, tricks, and tactics, age 41

In fact, the system works so well that the Army has expanded the battle buddy system to units other than basic training

2011, Rod Powers, Basic Training for Dummies, page 172

(US, military) Another servicemember assigned to mutually help another under the battle buddy system, and by extension any comrade.


outsentry

(military) A sentry who guards the entrance or approach to a place.


jabroni

jabronis (plural)
jabrone (alternative)
jabroney (alternative)

Hulk Hogan
Iron Sheik
Scott Hall
Steve Austin

Alteration of earlier gibone (also spelled jiboney, jaboney, etc.), possibly from dialectal Italian giambone (“ham”, also “self-important fool”). As a wrestling term, it was popularized by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who claimed to have borrowed it from the Iron Sheik. Prior to its popularization by Johnson, the term had also been used by Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and others.

Get out of this, uh, jabroni outfit.

1999, Matthew Moore, Lords of the Lockerroom, spoken by Mark Wolff (Mark Wolff), Can-Am Productions:

A jobber—also known as jabroni, extra, and enhancement talent—is playing the part of getting beat all the time.

2004, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan with Steve Anderson, Chair Shots and Other Obstacles: Winning Life's Wrestling Matches, →ISBN, page 148:

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(professional wrestling slang) A performer whose primary role is to lose to established talent.


resthold

(wrestling) a light hold used to regain energy during a match


nebulated

en-adj

nebulated (comparative more nebulated, superlative most nebulated)

more nebulated (comparative)
most nebulated (superlative)


waister

The largest division of a ship's company, and the most ignoble, was that of the waisters, the men stationed in the waist, the men " without art or judgment," who hauled aft the fore and main sheets, and kept the decks white.

1905, John Masefield, Sea Life in Nelson's Time, page 129:

(nautical, military, historical) A seaman stationed in the waist of a warship.


hunkerism

(US, politics) The state of being a hunker; excessive conservatism or hostility to progress.


guly

guly (comparative more guly, superlative most guly)

more guly (comparative)
most guly (superlative)

those fatal guly dragons

1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:

(obsolete, heraldry) Of or pertaining to gules; red.


nowed

From French noué, past participle of nouer (“to knot”), from Latin nodare. See nodated.

a serpent nowed


Stryker

Sense of armoured vehicle is from 2002, named for two Americans who posthumously received the Medal of Honor: PFC Stuart S. Stryker, who died in World War II, and SP4 Robert F. Stryker, who died in the Vietnam War.

The Army has named its 8-wheeled Light Armored Vehicle III the Stryker.
The Army will field its first Stryker variant, an infantry combat vehicle, at Anniston, Ala.

2002 July, “Wheeled tanks start rolling”, in Popular Mechanics, page 32:

The vast majority of Interim Force activities are swirling around the “Stryker” Interim Armored Vehicle (IAV) family from the General Motors–GDLS Defense Group joint venture. The IAV is a heavier, more modern version of the eight-wheeled Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) III from GM of Canada that is used by the Marine Corps and Canadian forces.

2002, “Interim force armour activities”, in Armed Forces journal international, volume 139:

2004, National Research Council (U.S.). Panel on Operational Test Design and Evaluation of the Interim Armored Vehicle, National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on National Statistics, National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Improved operational testing and evaluation: and methods of combining test information for the Stryker family of vehicles and related Army systems, link
Test Process The Army's interim armored combat vehicle, now called the Stryker, is in the latter stages of development.

The lower tactical Internet connects 75 percent or more of Stryker combat vehicles.

2005, Daniel Gonzales, Network-centric operations case study: the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, page 31:

These and most variants of the eight-wheel Stryker combat vehicles have a .50-cal on a remotely controlled mount. Due to the improvised explosive device (IED) and sniper threat, these vehicles' weapons stations are heavily armored.

2011, Gordon Rottman, Browning .50-caliber Machine Guns, page 69:

(military) An eight-wheeled armoured combat vehicle used by the US Army.


piledrive

en-verb

piledrive (third-person singular simple present piledrives, present participle piledriving, simple past piledrove, past participle piledriven)

piledrives (present singular third-person)
piledriving (participle present)
piledrove (past)
piledriven (participle past)

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

"Any wrestler who will piledrive Lawler and injure him like he did me gets five thousand dollars from me!"

2002, Jerry Lawler, Doug Asheville, It's Good to Be the King...Sometimes, page 199:

Anyway, back in the ring, Jericho works on the cut, but Shawn fights off both guys and tries to piledrive Jericho on the grating. Jericho reverses as the match kind of drifts along without a purpose.

2004, Scott Keith, Wrestling's One Ring Circus, page 114:

As a tribute to the burgeoning popularity of hardcore wrestling, Jerry agreed to piledrive someone through a wooden table to the concrete below.

2006, Brian Fritz, Christopher Murray, Between the Ropes: Wrestling's Greatest Triumphs and Failures, page 70:


rimbase

(military, historical) A short cylinder connecting a trunnion with the body of a cannon.


trefoiled

If the shield is regarded as one showing dimidiated arms, then it may be read as (dexter) gules, a cross trefoiled and voided or, . .. (sinister) gules (2), on two pallets argent, ladders (2) semé (?) azure.

1993, Adolph S. Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 141:

(heraldry) Having a three-lobed extremity or extremities; of a cross: having ends which terminate in trefoils (similar or identical to bottony).

There is a plain trefoiled window above in the tower; the lower part of the spire having two lancet windows, with a circle […] The pulpit is of modern oak, of five panels, each panel being divided into two trefoiled arched partitions;[…]

2014 March 28, James Conway Walter, A History of Horncastle (Illustrated), Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:

(especially heraldry) Ornamented with trefoils projecting from the edges, as a bearing, partition, etc.


destalinize

destalinize (third-person singular simple present destalinizes, present participle destalinizing, simple past and past participle destalinized)

destalinizes (present singular third-person)
destalinizing (participle present)
destalinized (participle past)
destalinized (past)

(politics, transitive) To free from the influence of Joseph Stalin.

desestalinizar

to free from the influence of Joseph Stalin


pheon

(heraldry) A bearing representing the head of a dart or javelin, with long barbs which are engrailed on the inner edge.


counterpassant

Arg. a bend engr. betw. in chief a lion pass., and in base a lion counterpassant gu.

1874, John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, page 202:

(heraldry) Passant in opposite directions; said of two animals, or of one animal in relation to another animal on the same shield.


stop-loss

en-noun

stop-loss (countable and uncountable, plural stop-losses)

(US, military, uncountable) A requirement for soldiers to remain in service beyond their normal discharge date.


aristocratism

aristocratism (countable and uncountable, plural aristocratisms)

His whole family, you know, are accused of being aristocrats, though their only aristocratism consists in wishing to defend a constitution which all France has sworn to maintain.

c. 1842, Samuel Romilly, The Life of Samuel Romilly:

(politics) The principles of aristocrats.


capsquare

(military, history) A metal plate that covers the trunnions of a cannon and holds it in place.


excisable

Tobacco is an excisable commodity.


up the pole

(US, military, dated) Teetotal; not drinking any alcohol.


Norroy

From Old French norht, north, nort (“north”) + roi (“king”), Anglo-Norman roy (“king”).

(historical, heraldry) The most northern of the English kings-of-arms, whose jurisdiction lay north of the Trent. Since 1943, the jurisdiction is Norroy and Ulster.


langued

From French langue (“tongue”). See language.

[…] Armed, as heralds cant, and langued, / Or, as the vulgar say, sharp-fanged; […]

1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 2:

lions […] represented as armed and langued gules

1866, John Edwin Cussans, The Grammar of Heraldry:


light-handed

en-adj

light-handed (comparative lighter-handed or more light-handed, superlative lightest-handed or most light-handed)

lighter-handed (comparative)
more light-handed (comparative)
lightest-handed (superlative)
most light-handed (superlative)
lighthanded (alternative)

From Middle English lyghte handyd, from light (adjective) + honded, participle of honden (“to seize, take charge of”), from the noun hond (“hand”). See more at hand.

“We will hold on to the last, while he must begin to take in soon, or the squall will come upon him too fast for a light-handed vessel.”

1836, James Fenimore Cooper, The Water Witch:

If light-handed, or the wind fresh, let go the bowline and ease off the tack, (being careful to let the bowline go before the tack,) and haul up the weather clew.

1841, Richard Henry Dana, The Seaman's Friend, page 57:

Bower anchors should be alike in weight; for the convenience, however, of light-handed crews, it is customary to make a very material difference between them, which is a very grave error

1866, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, page 195:

Being so lighthanded the vessel could not be properly managed and could carry but little sail, consequently her progress was but slow.

1887, The Contributor: Representing the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of the Latter-day Saints, Volume 8, page 168:

I have therefore ordered Fuller's brigade from Memphis to Big Bear Creek, which leaves me very light-handed here.

1891, S.A. Hurlbut, Congressional Series of United States Public Documents, Volume 2795, page 431:

I looked at the round bows of the sloop, and then at the old sails and the light-handed crew.

2007, Theodore Dwight, Things as They Are, →ISBN, page 64:

(nautical or military) Not having a full complement of workers.


recursant

From Latin recursans, recursantis, present participle of recursare (“to run back”), v. freq. of recurrere. See recur.

Argent, an eagle recursant, wings overture, sable.

1870, Routledge's Magazine for Boys, page 64:

(heraldry, especially of an eagle) Having its back towards the observer.


slow-walk

en-verb

slow-walk (third-person singular simple present slow-walks, present participle slow-walking, simple past and past participle slow-walked)

slow-walks (present singular third-person)
slow-walking (participle present)
slow-walked (participle past)
slow-walked (past)
slow walk (alternative)

Tennessee Walking Horse
The New York Times Magazine
William Safire

Attested since 1973 in Southern dialects of American English; prominent since the late 1990s. Thought by William Safire to derive from a Tennessee term for the walking gait of the Tennessee Walking Horse, which is generally called "flat walk", but sometimes a "slow walk".

many of the men were simply standing around and were purposely ‘slow-walking’ the project...to stretch out the term of employment.

1973, testimony in United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit case (regarding labor dispute)

Since assuming office, Trump has issued many private demands to aides that have either been slow-walked or altogether ignored.

2019 May 15, Elaina Plott, “Ignoring Trump’s Orders, Hoping He’ll Forget”, in The Atlantic:

(idiomatic, transitive, especially politics) To delay a request or command, to drag one's feet, to stall, to obstruct, to drag out a process.


myriarch

From Ancient Greek μυριάρχης (muriárkhēs) in Herodotus or μυρίαρχος (muríarkhos) in Xenophon, from μυρίος (muríos, “myriad, ten thousand”) + -άρχης (-árkhēs) or -αρχος (-arkhos, “-arch: ruler, commander”), calque of Old Persian *baivarapatiš.
As a Mongolian commander, Calque of Mongolian tümen-ü noyon.

A ruler or commander over 10,000 people, particularly

(historical military) The commander of a Mongolian tomen.

(historical politics) The governor of a myriarchy in Mongolian Tibet.


Chicago-style

en-adj

Chicago-style (comparative more Chicago-style, superlative most Chicago-style)

more Chicago-style (comparative)
most Chicago-style (superlative)

(informal, politics) Corrupt and hardhanded, authoritarian, with patronage and nepotism; grandiose.


physical training

(US, military) cardiovascular and strength training


epinglette

(military) An iron needle for piercing the cartridge of a cannon before priming.


antispace

Further, unlike nuclear power, with strong and organized pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear groups, there has never been a significant anti-space movement in the United States.

1996, National Science Foundation, chapter 7, in Science and Engineering Indicators – 1996, archived from the original on 2015-06-29:

Because of the importance of space superiority, the Air Force published new doctrine on 2 August 2004: Air Force Doctrine Document (AFDD) 2-2.1, Counterspace Operations. Gen John P. Jumper, US Air Force chief of staff, asserts that "space superiority is as much about protecting our space assets as it is about preparing to counter an enemy’s space or anti-space assets" (1). The new publication (pub) defines key terms characteristic of counterspace operations and highlights factors that Airmen must take into consideration when they plan/execute those operations.

2004, Lt. Col. Paula B. Flavell, USAF, “AFDD 2-2.1, Counterspace Operations”, in Air & Space Power Journal, archived from the original on 2011-06-09:

[…] disruptive capabilities, such as cyber warfare, directed energy weapons, biotechnology, or antispace systems, to marginalize U.S. power.

2009, Amos A. Jordan with William J. Taylor, Jr., Michael J. Meese, and Suzanne C. Nielsen, American National Security, →ISBN, page 285:

To the sizable antispace contingent in Congress, Nixon promised an earnest effort to "minimize technical and economic risks"

2012, Matthew H. Hersch, Inventing the American Astronaut, →ISBN, page 144:


engrail

en-verb

engrail (third-person singular simple present engrails, present participle engrailing, simple past and past participle engrailed)

engrails (present singular third-person)
engrailing (participle present)
engrailed (participle past)
engrailed (past)

He crossed through the high grass and went up the slope, climbing with handholds in the new turf until he gained the crest and turned to look down on the river and the city beyond, casting a gray glance along that varied world, the pieced plowland, the houses, the odd grady of the small metropolis against the green and blooming hills and the flat bow of the river like a serpentine trench poured with dull slag save where the wind engrailed its face and it shimmered lightly in the sun.

1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 120:

(transitive, heraldry, archaic) To indent with small curves.


Wilsonian

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

(US politics) Of or relating to US politician Woodrow Wilson or his policies.

(UK politics) Of or relating to British politician Harold Wilson or his policies.


BDC

(ballistics) Initialism of bullet drop compensation.


tressured

/ˈtɹɛʃə(ɹ)d/

These instances, to say nothing of the tressured lion of the Scottish kings, are enough to show the complete acceptance of heraldry in Scotland at that time.

1914, John Horne Stevenson, Heraldry in Scotland, page 24:

When at sunrise the tressured lion was hoisted before the Lord-Lieutenant's pavilion, it was greeted by a salute of trumpets, and such a salute it was, in 1645, that first warned Argyll that Montrose, the King's Lieutenant,[…]

1956, Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, Scots Heraldry: A Practical Handbook on the Historical Principles and Modern Application of the Art and Science, Genealogical Publishing Com, →ISBN, page 216:

(heraldry) Provided with or bound with a tressure; arranged in the form of a tressure.


barruly

From Middle English berlē, beurlē, from Old French barlé, burlé, barelé, burelé.

(heraldry) Traversed (transversely) by barrulets or small bars.


recoveree

It was decided that all recoverees should be screened by the medical staff of USAHS Marigold, anchored in Yokohama harbor.

1966, Reports of General MacArthur - Volume 1, page 111:

Only a few officers were told that the recoverees would be POWs.

2020, Darrel Whitcomb, Moral Imperative, page 153:

He also understood the implication that the recoverees might still have mixed allegiance.

2021, Michael Z. Williamson, That was Now, This is Then:

(military) Someone who has been rescued by a combat operation.


Merkozy

Blend of Merkel (“Angela Merkel”) + Sarkozy (“Nicolas Sarkozy”)

blend

(slang, politics) The (personification of the) unified position of France and Germany during the early 21st century European sovereign debt crisis.


majorship

(military) The position or office of major.


Peelite

From Peel + -ite, after Sir Robert Peel.

(UK politics, historical) One of a breakaway faction of the British Conservative Party in the nineteenth century, characterised by a commitment to free trade and a managerial, almost technocratic, approach to government.


pinhold

...into a take-down hold and possibly a pinhold— that pins his shoulders to the mat

1936, The Youth's Companion Combined with American Boy, page 23:

Then he was to lock his arms around his opponent's two arms and, using them as a lever, fall backward to the mat, then roll over. If it all worked, Jess would come up on top with a double armlock and body-press pinhold.

1971 January, Sam Barnes, “Standup to Victory”, in Boys' Life, volume 61, number 1:

Legs may serve to harass the opponent, as with the cokkbur; to anchor the lower part of the body, as when applying a stretcher, to deter action by the opponent, as used when applying a double wristlock; for control, as in a cross-body ride or guillotine, in lieu of arms, as in the figure-four head scissors; to trip, as in one variation of the double-leg takedown; to overcome the strength of an arm, as in a near-arm grapevine far-side half nelson; or to turn the opponent, as with the inverted cross-body pinhold.

1975, Warren J. Boring, Science and Skills of Wrestling, page 66:

(wrestling, professional wrestling) A hold in which the opponent is pinned to the mat.


big government

Because he is liberal, temperate and articulate, and because he freely recognizes past Big Business abuses, Wendell L. Willkie, president of huge Commonwealth & Southern Corp., is in a class by himself as a persuasive businessman-critic of the New Deal. […] "Today it is not Big Business that we have to fear," concluded Businessman Wilkie. "It is Big Government."

1940 March 18, “Life on the Newsfronts of the World: Big Government”, in Life, retrieved 2011-12-13, page 26:

Mr. Clinton inherited a Presidency that had been downsized by Watergate and the end of the cold war. […] Two years ago he declared the end of the era of big government and embarked upon a program of bite-sized policy initiatives.

1998 August 2, John M. Broder, “The Nation: Big Deal”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-12-13:

Big Government is never popular in theory, but the disaster aid, school lunches and prescription drugs that make up Big Government have become wildly popular in practice.

2009 May 7, Michael Grunwald, “One Year Ago: The Republicans in Distress”, in Time:

This is why the Conservative programme for government is founded on such a radical revolt against the statist approach of the Big Government that always knows best.

2010 April 17, David Cameron, “This is a radical revolt against the statist approach of Big Government”, in The Guardian:

"There is no space for people to have a real discussion about the Fed or drone strikes abroad or the pharmaceutical industry, let alone how our freedoms are being infringed upon by big government," he said.

2013 August 16, Adam Gabbatt, quoting Ron Paul, “The Ron Paul Channel: libertarianism 'unfiltered and uninterrupted'”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly US, politics, sometimes capitalized) Governance that consists of large-scale programs, numerous departments and employees, and that entails substantial spending, especially liberal or left-wing governance which emphasizes social entitlements and regulation, and that is considered intrusive by some citizens, especially by conservatives or right-wingers


junior minister

en-noun

junior minister (plural junior ministers)

The junior minister Nadine Morano, who recently said Dati had been served a political career "on a golden platter", suggested she go back to her roots and run in rural Burgundy, where she grew up in a poor family of 11 children.

2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in Guardian:

One junior minister failed to see why main lines could not simply be turned into motorways and be done with it.

2024 January 10, Howard Johnston, “Launched for enthusiasts - now it's for everyone”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 28:

(politics) a member of a legislative body who holds a position in government below cabinet level, i.e. reporting to the head of a department, not the prime minister or head of government


Dobbs

en-prop

Dobbs (countable and uncountable, plural Dobbses)

From a medieval diminutive form of the given name Robert + the patronymic suffix -s.

By overturning Roe v. Wade, Dobbs is sure to go down as one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions, undoing a constitutional right that’s been in place for nearly half a century and delivering a decisive victory to the anti-abortion movement.

2022 June 24, “‘Abortion Is Just the Beginning’: Six Experts on the Decision Overturning Roe”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-01:

What makes Republicans and progressives come together? “It was honestly Dobbs,” Ms. Watson-Whittaker said. “The decision brought everybody together.” In Michigan, at least, that togetherness seems to have paid off for Democrats.

2022 November 19, Amy Littlefield, “Democrats Need to Realize How Much Dobbs Mattered”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-11:

Dobbs demolished a federal right to abortion, and its legality currently rests with each state. This has created a patchwork of laws that have made legislation designed to stop abortions less effective in some parts of the country.

2023 July 6, Sarah Boden, “A year after victory in Dobbs decision, anti-abortion activists still in fight mode”, in NPR, archived from the original on 2023-07-07:

“People who reported using more substances or having more mental health conditions were more likely to report a policy-related barrier to obtaining an abortion,” Roberts said. In the aftermath of Dobbs, she said, “There’s no reason to believe that things would have become easier.”

2023 October 26, Nada Hassanein, “Medical exceptions to abortion bans often exclude mental health conditions”, in USA Today, online edition:

w:Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

(US, law, US politics, informal, uncountable, neologism) Ellipsis of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which stated that access to abortion was not a constitutionally protected right, overturning the earlier Roe ruling which established this unenumerated right.


interfretted

Crest: Two laurel branches interfretted proper.

1910, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour, page 1025:

Ermine, a Paternoster having the upper limb of the crucifix bent to dexter, gold, and interfretted with three bendlets gules, all between two dragons' heads erased sable, jessant-de-lys, or.[…]

1921, Herman Joseph Heuser, American Ecclesiastical Review, page 393:

(heraldry) Interlaced; linked together; said of charges or bearings.


neck up

en-verb

neck up (third-person singular simple present necks up, present participle necking up, simple past and past participle necked up)

necks up (present singular third-person)
necking up (participle present)
necked up (participle past)
necked up (past)

(firearms) to increase the size of a cartridge's chamber and calibre.


wave the bloody shirt

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

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

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


barways

en-adv

barways (comparative more barways, superlative most barways)

more barways (comparative)
most barways (superlative)


stinkball

(military, historical) A composition of substances which in combustion emit a suffocating odour, formerly used in naval warfare.


MAP

en-noun

MAP (countable and uncountable, plural MAPs)

(military, attributive) Initialism of multiple aim point.


C-ration

(US, military) An individual canned, precooked, or prepared wet ration formerly issued to land forces in the US military.


rousant

(heraldry, of a bird, postpositive) Rising; represented in profile with its wings raised and typically also addorsed.


verdoy

French verdoyer (“to become green”). See verdant.

Gules a Bordure Argent charged with Verdoy of Trefoils slipped proper, that is Vert.

1693, Richard Blome, The Art of Heraldry, in two parts ... the second edition, page 21:

SCOTT of Hedderwick, a younger son of Scott of Logie, argent, a fesse crenellé, between three lions' heads erased, gules; within a bordure of the last, verdoy of six flower-de-luces of the first.

1804, Alexander Nisbet, A system of heraldry, speculative and practical, page 172:

Quarterly; 1st and 4th, the arms of France and England, quarterly; 2d, arms of Scotland; and 3d, those of Ireland; the whole within a border compone, argent and gules, the first charged with verdoy of roses of the second[…]

1827, Encyclopaedias, Encyclopaedia Edinensis: or, Dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature, page 163:

(heraldry) Charged with leaves, fruits, flowers, etc.; said of a border.


countertrippant

(heraldry) Trippant in opposite directions.


Naderite

(US politics) A supporter of Ralph Nader (born 1934), American political activist.


antisniper

a specially trained antisniper unit


Texas heart shot

Texas heart shot (plural Texas heart shots)

(hunting, firearms) A bullet fired through the anal area of an animal.


enarched

(heraldry) Bent into a curve; said of a bend or other ordinary.


storeship

(nautical, military) A vessel used to carry naval stores.

снабдителен кораб

a vessel used to carry naval stores for a fleet, garrison, etc.


enomoty

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐνωμοτία (enōmotía).

(military, Ancient Greece) A band of sworn soldiers; a division of the Spartan army ranging from twenty-five to thirty-six men, bound together by oath.


flanch

Old French flanche (“flank”). See flank.

(heraldry) A bearing consisting of a circle segment encroaching on the field from the side, and always occurring in pairs.


hystory

hystory (countable and uncountable, plural hystories)

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

Wordplay, replacing the supposed occurrence of the male pronoun his with hystero-; compare herstory.

(feminism, very rare) Nonstandard spelling of history.


debruised

See debruise. Compare Old French debruisier (“to shatter, break”). Compare bruise.

uder

A lion is debruised when a bend or other ordinary is placed over it.

The lion of England and the lilies of France without the baton sinister, under which, according to the laws of heraldry, they were debruised in token of his illegitimate birth.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter II, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

Serpent, embowed, the head debruised, or surmounted of the tail; also blazoned, […]

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica, Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry, page 5:

(heraldry) Surmounted by an ordinary (or something else).


umbrated

This window consists of three lights, with trefoil arches in their heads. There remained, in the seventeenth century, a shield of stained glass in this window, bearing a lion rampant umbrated, over all a bend gules, Sutton.

1840, George Poulson, The History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, in the East-Riding of the County of York: Including the Abbies of Meaux and Swine, With the Priories of Nunkeeling and Burstall, page 260:

He then introduces some fanciful remarks about arms being umbrated or shadowed, an idea apparently arising from their […]

1865, The Herald and Genealogist, page 96:

3 dolphins bowed and umbrated—Caldicote.

1894, Samuel Tymms, Charles Harold Evelyn-White, East Anglian, Or, Notes and Queries on Subjects Connected with the Counties of Suffolk, Cambridge, Essex and Norfolk, page 373:


AOO

(military) Initialism of area of operations.


no duff

From the RAF slang expression "duff gen" meaning bad information; no duff, by extension means accurate, also: stop operations until ordered otherwise.
No Duff comes from the term "No Direction Finding" in the British Army in regards to radio/signals procedure. It was used when in training or on exercise to pass a message true in nature but not related to the aims of the exercise. This could be an accident, change of exercise requirements etc. This means the message to be sent should not be subject to radio direction finding to locate the transmitting station by either the blue or red side. ie
"Hello zero this is two one alpha, NO DUFF message over".
"NO DUFF two one alpha this is zero, roger out to you, hello all stations this is zero stand by for NO DUFF message out, two one alpha send NO DUFF over".
"NO DUFF hello zero this is two one alpha, two one bravo has rolled their rover over, over".
Normally followed by laughter or expletives from the zero's CP.

“Sunray, No Duff, No Duff, No Duff. We need a medic, we’ve got a man down. Wound to the upper arm, and major blood loss. Over.” ¶ All the other chatter on all the radios went dead with the ‘No Duff.’ It was the signal for a medical emergency.

2001, Ska Child, David Harris, Skavoovee, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, page 152:

“Someone grabbed me from behind and said ‘No duff,’ which means this is real,” said LCdr. Wong. “That’s what everybody heard, ‘Plane crash, 737,’ and all of us started running to our posts,” he told reporters after Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived here to commend those who raced to the scene.

2011 August 24, Gloria Galloway, “When troops heard ‘no duff,’ they knew Resolute Bay rescue wasn’t an exercise”, in The Globe and Mail:

(UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, military slang, radio voice procedure) Indicating that this is not a drill or training exercise.


no duff

“Get him in here, and radio a ‘no duff’ [casualty] to HQ.”

1999, Scott Taylor, Canada at War and Peace: A Millennium of Military Heritage, volume 3, Ottawa: Esprit de Corps Books, page 140:

[p 224] I called on the radio and — this was the most horrifying part of this — I couldn’t reach my observation post where my guys were. But I did get the command post in the middle of Srebrenica. I told them, “This is a no duff situation. You’ve got two men down and we’re on the trail.’
[p 236, glossary] No duff The radio code words used to get people off the air because a serious incident has occurred.

2003, “Jordie Yeo: Master Corporal” in John Wood ed., The Chance of War: Canadian Soldiers in the Balkans, 1992–1995, Dundurn Press

(UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, military slang, radio voice procedure) An incident that is not a drill or training exercise; an emergency. Also end of exercise. Stop drill immediately. As a ‘tap out’ called by during physical training. Sim munitions training in Australian Swat ‘end ex’.


IMP

(Canada, military, food) Initialism of individual meal package.


demibastion

(military) A half bastion, or that part of a bastion consisting of one face and one flank.


ministerialist

(politics, dated) A supporter of the ministers, or the party in power.


NICU

intensive care unit
intensive care unit#English

(healthcare) Initialism of neonatal intensive care unit.


embowed

A dexter and sinister arm embowed in armour, each hand grasping a spear erect […]

1864, Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales:

(heraldry) Bent, curved or arched like a bow.


RomneyCare

Blend of Romney (“Mitt Romney”) + healthcare or Medicare and likely influenced by the term ObamaCare. Although the 2006 Massachusetts Law signed by then-governor Mitt Romney predated the 2010 United States Federal Law signed by President Barack Obama, the term RomneyCare was not commonly used until after the term ObamaCare was in wide use.

blend

(US politics, neologism, chiefly derogatory) Healthcare plans instituted by the state of Massachusetts under the governorship of Mitt Romney, which provided for complete coverage of all citizens of the Commonwealth, and included an individual mandate to purchase health insurance for those able to pay.


campaned

For quotations using this term, see Citations:campaned.

(heraldry, uncommon) Furnished with campanes (bells).


guze

Uncertain. Attested since at least 1562. According to "A Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry" by James Parker (published in 1894) it comes from Turkish göz, meaning “eye”.

(heraldry) A roundlet of the sanguine tincture, which is blazoned without mention of the tincture.


counterchanged

If the field is divided palewise, or and azure, and cross is borne counterchanged, that part of the cross which comes on the azure side will be or, and that on the or side will be azure.

(heraldry) Having the tinctures exchanged mutually.


NSN

National Stock Number
w:National Stock Number

(military) Initialism of National Stock Number.

(military) Initialism of NATO Stock Number.


Nader's raider

From the name of US lawyer, author, politician, and social activist Ralph Nader (born 1934).

Nader's Raiders struck again last week. This time their target was the Federal Food and Drug Administration, which they tore apart in what may well be the most devastating critique of a U.S. Government agency ever issued.

1970 April 20, “Agencies: Up Against the Wall, FDA!”, in Time:

[S]he was overshadowed by her intensely competitive siblings, especially her brother Bruce, a graduate of Harvard’s law and business schools who went from being a Nader’s Raider, a left-wing consumer advocate, to a Master of the Universe, a leveraged buyout billionaire.

2011 August 28, “Biography: Wendy’s secrets”, in Miami Herald, retrieved 2012-01-16:

(US politics) An associate or assistant of Ralph Nader and of organizations led by him, who participates in Nader's legal, political, and social activitism.


QST

(Canada, taxation) Initialism of Quebec sales tax.


appaumé

appaumy (alternative)
apaumy (alternative)
appaumée (alternative)
apaumé (alternative)
apaumée (alternative)
appaumee (alternative)
apaumee (alternative)

(heraldry, of a hand) Open and extended so as to show the palm with thumb and fingers at full length.


super PAC

Coined by reporter Eliza Newlin Carney in 2010.

coin

Court decisions have established that super PACs are supposed to act independently of a candidate, with no coordination permitted. But the indictment focused on the suspicious timing of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to Mr. Menendez’s re-election campaign from a generous friend who allegedly sought government favors through the senator’s influence.

2015 April 13, “On the Trail of Super PAC Money”, in New York Times:

Mr. Musk remains Mr. Trump’s biggest political financial supporter — just this week his super PAC aired $1 million worth of ads that said, “Thank you, President Trump”[…].

2025 March 7, Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman, “Inside the Explosive Meeting Where Trump Officials Clashed With Elon Musk”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US politics) A political action committee which may support a political candidate, and officially endorse one, but is legally bound to not coordinate with any candidate, and is not limited in financial contributions from donors or financial spending.

特別政治活動委員会

とくべつせいじかつどういいん


carbineer

From carbine + -eer - French carabinier.

The prisoner flung him off with a force scarcely to be expected from one of his slight figure, and, turning quickly, said, "Let me die like a man!—whatever is my death, let me face it!" No further effort was made to blindfold him; but the carbineers formed their deadly rank, looking, however, towards their commander for the signal.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter X, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 76:

(military) A soldier armed with a carbine.


morné

From French morné. Possibly doublet of mourn.

morne (alternative)
mortine (alternative)

A lion morné appears as a canting charge in the coat of the old French family of DE MORNAY : - Fascé d'argent, et de gueules, au lion morné de sable couronné d'or brochant sur le tout. I have noticed that the lion morné occurs in the arms of several old Breton families, KERBOURIOU, KERBESCAT, KERANGUEN, etc.

1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 218:

[…] Self-appointed 'reformers' of heraldic terminology will contend that since lions morné and lions eviré have have barely an existence in current armory, the words themselves are mere textbook fill-up […]

1963, Julian Franklyn, Shield and Crest: An Account of the Art and Science of Heraldry, page 92:

(heraldry, attitude of beasts) Rampant without teeth, beak, tongue, claws, etc.


pipelayer

(US, politics, slang, dated) A politician who works in secret.


Bushlips

From Bush + lips, alludes to pledge "Read my lips: no new taxes" by then-U.S. President George H. W. Bush.

bushlips (alternative)
Bushlip (alternative)
bushlip (alternative)

"As one of our colleagues recently put it, this Republican pledge of no new taxes is pure Bushlips," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (Tex.), said in the toughest language he has used to attack the administration's fiscal policy. "It's Bushlips when the president says 'No new taxes' and sends a budget requiring the Finance Committee to raise $20 billion in new revenues: $15 billion in taxes and $5 billion in user fees."

1990 March 24, Paul Taylor, “Democratic Leaders Talk Tough on Taxes;President's Promise Not to Impose New Levies Is 'Pure Bushlips,' Sen. Bentsen Declares”, in The Washington Post^(http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72577580.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Mar+24%2C+1990&author=Paul+Taylor&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=a.06&desc=Democratic+Leaders+Talk+Tough+on+Taxes%3BPresident%27s+Promise+Not+to+Impose+New+Levies+Is+%60Pure+Bushlips%2C%27+Sen.+Bentsen+Declares), →ISSN, page A6:

I'm trying to avoid doing the 'Bushlips' stuff (about blocking tax increases). By saying it's not part of our thinking and planning, I'm obviously not saying it won't occur at all.

1990 September 18, Associated Press, quoting Booth Gardner, “Gardner Hoping For No New Taxes”, in The Spokesman-Review, page B1:

Bushlips!

1999 May 20, Bucky, “Re: Ballot box whores (Was:Take away all guns NOW)”, in alt.current-events.clinton (Usenet), message-ID <7i1s5g$s8g$1@garnet.mint.net>:

Anything short of that is just a lot of Bushlips.

2002 March 4, The Angry Liberal, “Social Security Reform, Part I: Bush is Lost in Des Moines”, in BuzzFlash.com, archived from the original on 2012-07-30:

(politics, derogatory, dated) insincere political rhetoric

George H. W. Bush
Read my lips: no new taxes


SEP

(US, healthcare) Initialism of special enrollment period.

Surrendered Enemy Personnel
w:Surrendered Enemy Personnel

(UK, military) Initialism of Surrendered Enemy Personnel.


SEP

Saito was with fellow WSWS reporter and SEP member Liz Cabrera when police agents began firing on the crowd.

2025 June 7, Jacob Crosse, “Protests continue in Los Angeles in response to fascist immigration raids”, in World Socialist Web Site:

Socialist Equality Party
w:Socialist Equality Party

(politics) Initialism of Socialist Equality Party.


veteranize

en-verb

veteranize (third-person singular simple present veteranizes, present participle veteranizing, simple past and past participle veteranized)

veteranizes (present singular third-person)
veteranizing (participle present)
veteranized (participle past)
veteranized (past)

About this time we were much embarrassed by a general order of the War Department, promising a thirty-days furlough to all soldiers who would "veteranize"

1875, General William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman:

(US, military, intransitive, dated) To reenlist for service as a soldier.


fracted

Chevron. (Stafford.) 4. Chevron ployé. (Moll.) 7. Chevronels. (Clare.) 10. Chevron fracted. (Rozier de Linage.) 2. Chevron checquy. (Sempill.) 5. Chevron reversed. (Bulgarini.) 8. Chevron cotised. (Clutton.)[…]

1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 136:

[…] gules a chevron raguly fracted in the centre argent (F.)

1902, Joseph Foster, Some Feudal Coats of Arms from Heraldic Rolls 1298-1418: Illustrated with 830 Zinco Etchings from Effigies, Brasses and Coats of Arms, page 83:

[…] in base saltireways a pipe, bowl up, and a tomahawk, blade up and turned outward, the shaft fracted, all gules.

1908, Ralph Adams Cram, Christian Art: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine Devoted to Current Church Building, American and Foreign, and the Allied Ecclesiological Arts, with Expert Discussions of All Topics Relating to Christian Archaeology, page 70:

(heraldry) Having a part displaced or broken; said of an ordinary or other charge.


herisson

French hérisson, hedgehog. Doublet of urchin.


PCT

en-noun

PCT (countable and uncountable, plural PCTs)

(military) Abbreviation of platoon combat team.


bicorporate

A bicorporate lion, gardant, rampant, counter-rampant, coward, is seen in the arms of John Northampton, Lord Mayor of London[…]

1857, The Monthly Packet of Evening Readings for Members of the English Church, page 152:

Gules, a bicorporate lion guardant rampant counter-rampant coward or, ducally crowned azure - John NORTHAMPTON, Lord Mayor of London, 1381 and 1382.

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 378:


Bushlip

From Bush + lip.
: Refers to the pledge "Read my lips: no new taxes" of then-U.S. President George H. W. Bush.

In a House speech, Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York called the president’s “no new-taxes” pledge a “pure, unadulterated crock of Bushlip.”

1990 March 24, “Issues: American humor; Bush bashing with broccoli: what next?”, in Mike Jacobs, editor, Grand Forks Herald, 111th year, number 273, Grand Forks, N.D.: Michael Maidenberg, →ISSN, page 4A, column 1:

It's time to STOP THE "BUSHLIP!"

1992 September 25, Glenn Berg, “What will BO GRITZ do as President?”, in talk.politics.misc (Usenet), message-ID <BERG.92Sep25103750@malice.cass.usu.edu>:

This is Bushlip.

1996 September 20, John Walker, “Re: NRA Shoots Blanks - Wake Up Gun Owners”, in talk.politics.guns (Usenet), message-ID <51ursq$4l9@lurch.isi.edu>:

Bushlip (n.) a psychological abnormality, found mostly in politicians, in which a perpetrator expresses concern for a victim’s plight, then compulsively behaves in a manner to aggravate it. […] The new tax-reform ideas would make matters worse for the states and “could further offset any stimulus benefit,” a Brookings Institution working paper said last week. In other words, Bushlip. […] By proposing to make the changes permanent, they also work against the long-term revenue picture and make it tougher to deal with Social Security and Medicare. In other words, Bushlip.

2002 September 1, Robert Landauer, “New tax ideas only extend states’ pains”, in Sandra M[ims] Rowe, editor, The Sunday Oregonian, Portland, Ore.: Fred A[ugustus] Stickel, →ISSN, page D4, columns 3–5:

What Bushlip! It was the father who started it. As a presidential candidate, Vice President George Bush asked the nation to read his lips. “No new taxes,” he said. Later, as president, Bush introduced new taxes. We now know that he was talking Bushlip. Then came the son, George W. Bush, who said we must attack Iraq because it was a threat to the United States. He told us that Saddam Hussein was linked to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Where was the proof? None has been found, and do you know why? Because there was no proof. It was just the same old Bushlip.

2003 June 18, Anthony Callender, “[Letters] What Bushlip!”, in Newsday, volume 63, number 288, New York, N.Y.: Newsday Inc., →ISSN, page A30, column 3:

Jesus was an Aryan and got killed by the inferior Jews only because they were envious and unable to accept his spiritual superiority yadda yadda and similar bushlip.

2008 January 12, 1X2Willows, “Re: Danu/Dana”, in alt.religion.druid (Usenet), message-ID <fmcbf1$auh$1@news.albasani.net>:

(politics, dated) Alternative form of Bushlips (“insincere political rhetoric”).


fitched

Argent, two bars wavy sable, and on a chief of the second three crosses patée fitched or, to the name of Hurbey

(Can we date this quote?), William Newton, Display of Heraldry:


siegework

(historical, military) A temporary fort where siege guns were mounted.


fragmentation bomb

fragmentation bomb (plural fragmentation bombs)

(military) An antipersonnel bomb that scatters shrapnel when it explodes


shakefork

CUNNINGHAM of GLENGARNOCK, descended of a second Son of Henry Cuninghame of Kilmaures, and his Spouse Riddel Heiress of Glengarnock […] carry Argent, a Shakefork Sable, charged with a Cinque foil of the first: […]

1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 196:

CUNYNGHAME of Milneraig and Livingston (L. O., 1775). Argent, a shakefork sable between three fleurs-de-lis azure, one in chief and two in flank.

1910, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour, page 403:

(heraldry) A pall, especially one which stops short of the edges of the shield and which has pointed ends.


voltigeur

Borrowed from French voltigeur, from voltiger (“to vault”), Italian volteggiare. See volt (“a tread”).

(military, historical) One of a picked company of skirmishers in each regiment of the French infantry during the Napoleonic Wars.


overbow

en-verb

overbow (third-person singular simple present overbows, present participle overbowing, simple past and past participle overbowed)

overbows (present singular third-person)
overbowing (participle present)
overbowed (participle past)
overbowed (past)

/ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈbəʊ/

/ˈəʊvə(ɹ)ˌbəʊ/

Another characteristic of an "overbowed" archer can readily be observed by watching the alignment of his back while he is shooting.

1963, Arnold Otto Haugen, Harland G. Metcalf, Field Archery and Bowhunting, page 12:

I know you've heard it before, but no advice on bow selection or shooting would be complete without saying it: Don't “overbow” yourself! Start with a light- to moderate-weight bow and work up if you feel the need to be shooting something heavier.

2016, Ron Rohrbaugh Jr, A Traditional Bowhunter's Path, page 23:

I don't want to overbow a customer because if I do, they're going to get turned off to traditional archery.

2007, Dan Bertalan, The Traditional Bowyers Encyclopedia:

Don't be tempted to overbow yourself — to use limbs that are too heavy for you.

2023, Ben Hastings, The Intermediate Archer:

(archery, transitive) To provide (an archer) with a bow that requires more strength than the archer can fully draw.

The tendency of all archers is to overbow.

1940, Ye Sylvan Archer - Volumes 12-15, page 4:

The most important rule for anyone thinking of making a bow is not to overbow or underbow. The bow at full draw should be just at the limit of the shooter's strength.

2011, Erik Roth, With a Bended Bow: Archery in Mediaeval and Renaissance Europe:

(archery, intransitive) To use a bow that requires more strength than the archer can fully draw.


escarbuncle

Old French escharboncle, see Modern French escaboucle.

(heraldry) A carbuncle (heraldic charge).


pospolite

Borrowed from Polish pospolite ruszenie (“a general summons to arms, an arriere-ban”, literally “general stirring”).

bor

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

(historical, military) A former militia in the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, consisting of the gentry, which, was summoned to defend the country in the event of an invasion


escaloped

en-adj

escaloped (comparative more escaloped, superlative most escaloped)

more escaloped (comparative)
most escaloped (superlative)

(heraldry) Covered with a scaly pattern resembling a series of escalop shells, each of which issues from between two others. (Compare papelonné.)


overrake

en-verb

overrake (third-person singular simple present overrakes, present participle overraking, simple past and past participle overraked)

overrakes (present singular third-person)
overraking (participle present)
overraked (participle past)
overraked (past)

At Mevis we intended to refresh ourselves, having been eleven weeks pestered in this unwholesome ship; but there we found two tall ships with the Hollanders' colours, but necessity forcing us on shore, we anchored fair' by them, and in friendly manner sent to hail them; but seeing they were Spaniards, retiring to our ship, they sent such a volley of shot after us, that shot the boat, split the oars, and some through the cloaths, yet not a man hurt; and then followed with their great ordnance, that many times overraked our ship, which being so cumbered with the passengers' provisions, our ordnance was not well fitted, nor any thing as it should have been;

1812, John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, page 128:

The fire was now becoming intense, the right flank of my company being the most hotly attacked: Believing that a change of position was really necessary, and that in a few moments more we should be swept with an overraking fire, I threw the right wing of company to the rear, in order to diminish its front.

1883, “Report of Capt. James M. Whitson, Eight North Carolina Infantry”, in House documents, volume 12, number 351, page 175:

(military) To rake over or assault, as enemy gunfire attacking the entire force.


THAAD

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense#English

(military, defence) Acronym of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense.


Terminal High Altitude Area Defense

(military, defence) A United States Army system designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in their terminal phase.


coehorn

From the name of its inventor, Baron Coehorn.

(military, historical) A small bronze mortar mounted on a wooden block with handles, and light enough to be carried short distances by two people.


engrailment

en-noun

engrailment (countable and uncountable, plural engrailments)

(heraldry) Indentation in curved lines, as of a line of division or the edge of an ordinary.


ODIHR

w:Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

(politics) Initialism of Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.


antiinsurgency

en-adj

antiinsurgency (comparative more antiinsurgency, superlative most antiinsurgency)

more antiinsurgency (comparative)
most antiinsurgency (superlative)

(military) Opposing or countering insurgency.


charbocle

charbocles (plural)
charboncle (alternative)

The horse is entirely covered by a flowing checkered trapper, with a charbocle like that of the earl's crest, fixed between the ears.

1914, Surrey Archaeological Collections, page 125:

The device of the charbocle is thought to emanate from an ornamental or more probably a constructional part of a shield and is most often associated with the kings of Navarre or the counts and dukes of Cleves, and as a difference with the family of Mandeville. The centre of the charbocle was sometimes known as the heart and the possibility that the heart depicted at the centre of the Basset charbocle may be a pun cannot be ignored.

2002, Laurence Keen, Eileen Scarff, Windsor, page 133:

The armorial decoration of the inside of the shield, in the form of a charbocle on a ground powdered with fleurs-de-lis, was recognised by Gough as referring to Joan of Navarre, the second wife of Henry IV.

2003, Jenny Stratford, The Lancastrian Court: Proceedings of the 2001 Harlaxton Symposium, page 132:

The oval medallion consists of a crowned shield with two rampant lions as supporters. The crowned lion on the left represents Berg whereas the lion on the right symbolizes Jülich. The triparted shield consists of a charbocle (Cleve) , a fess checky (Mark), and three chevrons (Ravensburg).

2004, Jamestown Rediscovery, 1994-2004, page 4:


tenaillon

(military, historical) A work constructed on each side of the ravelins to increase their strength, procure additional ground beyond the ditch, or cover the shoulders of the bastions.


plutodemocracy

The old ruling classes were no longer the major obstacles to the development of plutodemocracy; they were replaced by the new oppressed class, the proletariat, which was beginning to become sufficiently powerful to threaten capitalism.

1974, Maurice Duverger, Modern democracies: economic power versus political power:

It can no more survive as a plutodemocracy than it could, before the Civil War, survive half slave and half free.

1977, Harold Joseph Laski, The American democracy: a commentary and an interpretation:

If the people are the basis of money politics, then Japan must be a plutodemocracy.

1992, Asahi Shinbunsha, Japan quarterly: Volume 39; Volume 39, link:

Reds, sweeping aside the garbage of plutodemocracy, and dissolving the bourgeois parties, I remained stuck in France.

2010, Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones: A Novel, page 506:

(politics) A deceptive pseudodemocratic government that is in fact a hypercapitalist plutocracy.

პლუტოდემოკრატია

pseudodemocracy that is in fact a hypercapitalist plutocracy


battering train

en-noun

battering train (plural battering trains)

(military, historical) A train of artillery for siege operations.


jimpy

1985 [Hodder and Stoughton], Terence Strong, Conflict of Lions, 2014, Silver Fox Press, unnumbered page,
Before they had come to a standstill, the protective cover had come off the powerful twin GPMG ‘jimpies’ mounted in the rear compartment by the laconic Australian, Corporal Kangers Webster.

Immediately to his right was our very latest addition to the hill, Frank, on one of the Jimpies. To his right, leaning against the wall with his sniper rifle, was Caz.

2013, Jake Wood, Among You: The Extraordinary True Story of a Soldier Broken by War, Mainstream Publishing, unnumbered page:

(military, slang) A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG).


pily

en-adj

pily (comparative more pily, superlative most pily)

more pily (comparative)
most pily (superlative)

bend pily, chief pily

Milles very improperly uses the term for per pale indented throughout, or barry pily.

1847, Henry Gough, A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table, Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress, page 48:

Barry pily of eight or and gu.

1874, John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, page 54:

(A) A chief pily. (B) Similar, but made to form a bordure with 2 teeth in chief. (C) 3 piles - - - (partly underground). (D) Argent 3 piles checky and on a chief checky 3 annulets or. (E) On a chief pily 3 annulets.

1914, Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, Transactions and Journal of Proceedings, page 69:

(heraldry) Marked by many narrow piles (wedges).


cunt cap

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

I had warmed under the smiling gaze of this military young woman who wore her small lifeboat hat (these were, I afterwards discovered, known as cunt-caps among the girls themselves) and smoked her ration of tobacco, though she always refused coffee.

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Penguin, published 2004, page 633:

I hated it – I preferred to wear the gook cap because the cunt cap had DUMMHEIT embroidered all across in black, in an elegant cursive, really swanky and stylish.

1993, Philip Lewis, Life of Death, page 128:

The soldier's overseas cap, the one that opens up along the top, is called a cunt cap: it's hard to imagine any other piece of conventional headgear, like a policeman's visor cap or a bishop's miter or a motorcyclist's helmet treated automatically with such obscene disrespect.

1989, Paul Fussell, Wartime, Oxford University Press, page 92:

(military slang, vulgar) A hat which is gathered and folded on the top.


Dumbfuckistan

From dumbfuck + -i- + -stan, stereotyping people from that region as uneducated.

[…] an unapologetic liberal screed about the deteriorating state of our national dialogue, which is dragging down our culture, our politics, and our lives.

2016, Ian Gurvitz, Welcome to Dumbfuckistan: The Dumbed-Down, Disinformed, Dysfunctional, Disunited States of America:

(US, US politics, slang, derogatory, vulgar, offensive) The red states collectively.


counter-couchant

counter-couchant bulls

(heraldry) Lying down, with the heads facing in opposite directions.


demigorge

(military) Half the gorge, or entrance into a bastion, taken from the angle of the flank to the centre of the bastion.


antimeritocracy

antimeritocracy (comparative more antimeritocracy, superlative most antimeritocracy)

more antimeritocracy (comparative)
most antimeritocracy (superlative)


counterwheel

en-verb

counterwheel (third-person singular simple present counterwheels, present participle counterwheeling, simple past and past participle counterwheeled)

counterwheels (present singular third-person)
counterwheeling (participle present)
counterwheeled (participle past)
counterwheeled (past)

(military) To turn, or cause to turn, in an opposite direction.


trasformismo

(politics, historical) The method of making a flexible centrist coalition of government which isolated the extremes of the political left and the political right in Italian politics after Italian unification and before the rise of Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism.


prison guard

prison guards (plural)
prisonguard (alternative)

And Tietelbaum has been bought and sold so many times by the dark Republican powers that be, look at the prisonguard beating trial and the Ventura County sewer fiasco.

1997, Gary Indiana, Resentment: A comedy, New York: Anchor Books, published 1998, →ISBN, →OL, page 170:

During his services as a praetorian, Caesium Verus was twice promoted, first to tubicen (trumpeter), then to optio carceris (camp prisonguard): ordinatus tubicem item optio at carcarem factus est.

1987, Arctos: Acta philologica fennica, volumes 21-23, page 29:

The Telfaire Prisonguard towers rise miragelike in the swampy sunlight like giant mushroom caps on grey concrete stalks.

2011, Marc Ian Barasc, The Compassionate Life: Walking the Path of Kindness, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, →ISBN:

(law enforcement) An armed person working to provide order, security, discipline, punishment, and prevent escapes of prisoners in a jail that answers to a warden.

zindançı

person working to provide order to in a jail


blindage

A blindage may also be formed by covering the space between two traverses with beams, hurdles, earth, & c .

1852, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Fortification, Military Tactics, and Perspective:

In order that the reader may appreciate what a ruined blindage looked like and with what horrors its destruction was attended, the following report of Sapper Peter Oleinik, of the Kwantung Sapper Company, is published in full:

1911, F. E. G. Skey, “The Final Struggle for 203-Meter Hill at Port Arthur”, in The Military Engineer, volume 3, page 107:

Blindage covering the tops of saps could simply consist of sandbags, or a layer of fascines laid over the crest of the parapet.

2013, Ron Field, American Civil War Fortifications:

(military, historical) A cover or protection for an advanced trench or approach, formed of fascines and earth supported by a framework.

блінда́ж

There literally was left no space to step foot in the whole blindage: it was so choked with soldiers up to the very entrance.

The key unit of life here is the dugout – what the soldiers call a ‘blindage’ – an underground burrow where half a dozen men share the narrow space between the bunks with weapons, ammunition, biscuits, tea bags, and a jumble of other essentials (there is also usually a cat, not to mention the mice).

2017 January 14, Roland Oliphant, “Special report: Loose cannons at the frontline of Ukraine's forgotten war”, in The Telegraph:

. At first, I thought of staying in a blindage.

2020, Yevgeniya Podobna, Girls cutting their locks:

(military) A deep dugout, often equipped with bunks and other fittings.


compound bow

(weaponry) A modern bow that uses pulleys and cables to help with the drawing and releasing of the bowstring.


recurve bow

(weaponry) A bow whose two tips curve away from the archer when drawn, which gives the shot greater power and speed.


balimbing

(Philippine politics) A turncoat; one who defects to the other side in politics; one who switches political parties


marined

From marine + -ed; compare French mariné.

Some other of the marined animals deserve special attention. Sea-horses in the earliest heraldic examples closely resemble the queer fish known by that name (the hippocampus), but classic art had furnished quite another type: the forequarters of a horse, with mane and hoofs, and the hindquarters replaced by a fish's tail.

1915, Guy Cadogan Rothery, A. B. C. of Heraldry, page 76:

The menagerie of blazonry has been enlarged by representing nearly all of the animals at times with fish-tails, when they are said to be marined.

1924, Clark Barnaby Firestone, The Coasts of Illusion: A Study of Travel Tales, page 67:

He was a marined, a merman, neither one thing nor the other.

The capitals of the four columns that support the wall between the pronaos and the naos (Ilieș, 1969) are decorated with acanthus leaves, with the following sculptures: the eagle holding the lamb in its claws (it symbolizes the simple man, innocence, kindness), with an angel on its flanks (the messenger of God, the guardian who watches over each man in order to keep him away from evil and to incite him to goodness) with his arms clasped onto his chest (fig. 16); a fantastic animal – marined "lion" (with the lower part of the body terminated in a fish tail, like that of the mermaids) (Pastoureau, 2008) (fig. 17).

2020, Laurentiu Stefan Szemkovics, Camelia Teodorescu, “Zoomorphic Shields and Motifs From the Colțea Church in Bucharest”, in Quaestus:

(chiefly heraldry) Having the lower part of the body like a fish.


ardian

A compounding of the Scottish Gaelic àrd (“chief”) + eun (“bird”).

A list of new titles was manufactured as follows: Ensign, Lieutenant, Flight-Leader, Squadron-Leader, Reeve, Banneret, Fourth-Ardian, Third-Ardian, Second-Ardian, Ardian, Air Marshal. […] “Ardian” comes from the Gaelic “Ard” meaning “chief”, and “Ian” or “Eun”, a “bird”.

1936, The Periodical, XXI-XXII, page 67:

air vice-marshal
air vice-marshal#English

(military, historical) A proposed but unadopted air-officer rank of the Royal Air Force equivalent to air vice-marshal.


keyholing

(firearms) The tendency of a bullet fired down an excessively large barrel to wobble in flight and leave a keyhole-shaped puncture in the target.


antiparamilitary

en-adj

antiparamilitary (comparative more antiparamilitary, superlative most antiparamilitary)

more antiparamilitary (comparative)
most antiparamilitary (superlative)


doglock

(firearms, historical) The lock that preceded the true flintlock in both rifles and pistols in the 17th century.


Picatinny rail

Named after the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.

(firearms) A bracket used on some firearms in order to provide a standardized mounting platform.


pinfire

(firearms) An obsolete kind of brass cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge.


slamfire

(firearms) The premature accidental discharge of a firearm while a round is being loaded into the chamber.


speedloader

Various speedloaders had different colours. You could also hear the data being loaded (1200baud iirc) and some programs had very interesting 'tunes' in them, and it was also possible to work out where you were in the load of your favourite games by the sound.

2002, John Bland, “Thumb Bandits.”, in comp.sys.acorn.misc (Usenet):

(firearms, computing) Alternative form of speed loader.


sporterize

en-verb

sporterize (third-person singular simple present sporterizes, present participle sporterizing, simple past and past participle sporterized)

sporterizes (present singular third-person)
sporterizing (participle present)
sporterized (participle past)
sporterized (past)
sporterise (alternative)

(transitive, firearms) To modify (a firearm) so that it is suitable for sporting use.


underlug

(firearms) One of the locking lugs on a break-action firearm that extend from the bottom of the barrels under the chamber(s) and connect into the receiver bottom.

(firearms) The metal shroud underneath the barrel of a revolver that surrounds and protects the extractor rod.


dust-off

(military, Vietnam War) A medical helicopter.


cramponee

cramponné (alternative)
cramponnée (alternative)
cramponé (alternative)
cramponée (alternative)

(heraldry) Having a cramp or square piece at the end; said of a cross.


force multiplier

en-noun

force multiplier (plural force multipliers)

(military) A factor, such as better positioning or equipment, which increases a unit's combat potential, allowing it to fight on a par with a larger force.


fundiloon

What really gets me is that the fundiloons (yeah, know, like the real ones) of the world are so troubled by Harry Potter because it's "getting at the kids before they can discern truth from falsehood", but nearly every church I know of does the exact same thing.

2001 December 4, Beowulf, “Where was God?”, in alt.atheism (Usenet):

Yes, I did request a US trip -- wonder how many requests it would take to get them to brave the fundiloons here.

2003 July 30, Ron Sullivan, “NEWS: Skinless Child Show”, in alt.support.childfree (Usenet):

Note: Religious people regularly lie about being/having been secular or atheists. Interesting ; even if youarentthere isn't a fundiloon, he sure as hell is an ignorant bigot.

2003 August 10, Paul Robson, “Emigration”, in alt.france (Usenet):

This fundiloon is becoming more and more worrisome. The good news is that he's apparently flagging in the polls.

2007 December 31, johac, “Huckabee: "...take this nation back for Christ."”, in alt.atheism (Usenet):

(politics, informal, rare) A fundamentalist loon, that is, a person who is fundamentalist (religiously and socially conservative) and (regarded as) crazy.


homocon

(US politics, often derogatory) A gay conservative.


miquelet

Catalan miquelet, a diminutive of Michael. Supposedly named after a Miquel or Miquelot de Prades, a Catalan mercenary captain in the service of Cesare Borgia.

(military, historical) An irregular or partisan soldier in Catalonia.


substrategic

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


hersillon

(historical, fortification) A beam with projecting spikes, used to make a breach impassable.


engouled

Via Middle English from Old French engoulé, past participle of engouler.

engoulé (alternative)
engoulee (alternative)
engoulée (alternative)

an infant engouled by a serpent

(heraldry) Partly swallowed; disappearing in the jaws of anything.


engoulé

a bend engoulé of dragons

(heraldry) Alternative form of engouled.


multialarm

Fires which have heretofore been one‐alarm skirmishes are now multialarm small wars.

1977 February 14, Joseph E. Galvin, “Under Fire”, in The New York Times:

Two multialarm fires burned out of control for several hours in New York City last night, one racing through seven frame dwellings and leaving more than 100 people homeless in the Morrisania section of the Bronx and another, reportedly set by arsinists^([sic]), destroying a series of stores and residences in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.

1977 July 25, “Fires Burn in Bronx and Brooklyn”, in The New York Times:

(US, firefighting, of a fire) Requiring the work of several firetrucks to contain or extinguish.


CAC

CAC (countable and uncountable, plural CACs)

(military, US) Initialism of Common Access Card.


brevetcy

(archaic, military) The rank or condition of a breveted officer; a temporary promoted rank.


UCP

United Conservative Party
w:United Conservative Party

(Canadian politics) Initialism of United Conservative Party, a political party in Alberta.

universal camouflage pattern
universal camouflage pattern#English

(US, military) Initialism of universal camouflage pattern; The digital pixelated squared camouflage pattern used by the U.S. Army during the early 21st-century


unbreech

en-verb

unbreech (third-person singular simple present unbreeches, present participle unbreeching, simple past and past participle unbreeched)

unbreeches (present singular third-person)
unbreeching (participle present)
unbreeched (participle past)
unbreeched (past)

She was overladen with guns , some were unbreeched , and her port - holes left open

1801, Thomas Pennant, A journey from London to the Isle of Wight:

(military, transitive) To free the breech of (a cannon etc.) from its fastenings or coverings.


splinterproof

(military) resistant to fragments of exploding shells


racial spoils

The State Senate recently voted to adopt a racial spoils system whereby at least 25% of construction contracts must be awarded to minority-owned businesses.

Ricci [v. DeStefano] may be the rock upon which America's racial spoils system finally founders.

2009, George F. Will, “The Wreck of the Racial Spoils System”, in The Washington Post:

(US, politics, derogatory) Preferential treatment of minorities in source selection for government contracts.


MWR

(US, military) Initialism of morale, welfare, and recreation.


prestrategic

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


cottised

(heraldry, of a bend, bar, fess, chevron, etc) Set between two thin lines (cottises).


ajouré

en-adj

ajouré (comparative more ajouré, superlative most ajouré)

more ajouré (comparative)
most ajouré (superlative)
ajoure (alternative)

Borrowed from French ajouré (“perforated”).

(heraldry) Depicted in the same color as the field in order to imply that one can see through the element to the field; voided of the field.


inclave

Per Fess, (or party per Fess) Pattee, (or Inclave) Argent and Azure. […] Gules, a Chief ingrail'd, Or. Tho' this Line is form'd after the Manner of the invecked, yet it very much differs therefrom, because […]

1735, Francis Nichols, The British Compendium: Or, Rudiments of Honour ..., page 23:

PLATE VII. CHIEFS. Fig. 1 Chief, the base masoned. […] 7 With one embattlement. 8 Inclave. 9 Arched. In base a Point impaled.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia heraldica, or Complete dictionary of heraldry: Reference to the plates:

(heraldry) Resembling a series of dovetails; said of a line of division, such as the border of an ordinary.


cottise

Compare French côté (“side”), Latin costa (“rib”).

(heraldry) A diminutive of the bendlet, containing one half its area or one quarter the area of the bend: a thin line borne around another charge.


cottise

en-verb

cottise (third-person singular simple present cottises, present participle cottising, simple past and past participle cottised)

cottises (present singular third-person)
cottising (participle present)
cottised (participle past)
cottised (past)
cotise (alternative)

(heraldry, transitive) To border a bend, etc., with cottises, barrulets, etc.


double-shot

double-shot (third-person singular simple present double-shots, present participle double-shotting, simple past and past participle double-shotted)

double-shots (present singular third-person)
double-shotting (participle present)
double-shotted (participle past)
double-shotted (past)

The Indomitable raked the frigate’s stern with double-shotted guns.

The boarding-nettings were up, the guns double-shotted with grape and canister, and the swivels loaded with canisters of musket-balls.

1838, [Edgar Allan Poe], chapter XX, in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 165–166:

(transitive, military) To load (a cannon) with twice the shot, for increased damage at the expense of range.


frizel

To this succeeded the Snaplance ^([sic]), in which a motion was given to the dog, or cock, and a movable plate of steel, called the frizel, or hammer, was placed vertically above the pan to receive the action of the flint.

1832, The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, volume 10, page 164:

(firearms, historical) A movable furrowed piece of steel struck by the flint, to throw sparks into the pan, in an early form of flintlock.


centre-left

South Korea holds parliamentary elections on 11 April. Lee's conservative party is expected to lose ground to the centre-left opposition, but a small hint of peace from the North will do him no harm at all. Lee can hardly have expected such a gift.

29 February 2012, Aidan Foster-Carter, BBC News North Korea: The denuclearisation dance resumeshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17213948

(politics) Leaning to the left but closer to the centre on the left–right political spectrum than other leftist variants.

balközép

leaning to the left but closer to the centre on the left–right political spectrum than other leftist variants


torteau

From Old French torteau, tortel, from Latin tortus (“twisted”). See tort.

(heraldry) A roundel of a red colour (gules).


whipper-in

en-noun

whipper-in (plural whipper-ins or whippers-in)

whipper-ins (plural)
whippers-in (plural)

(politics) One who enforces the discipline of a party, and urges the attendance and support of the members on all necessary occasions.


checkage

the checkage of a name or of an item in a list

(chiefly military) The act of marking with a check mark.


saikyr

(military) Obsolete form of saker (“a cannon”).


faussebraye

faussebrayes (plural)
fausse-braye (alternative)
faussebraie (alternative)

(military) A second rampart, exterior and parallel to the main rampart, and considerably below its level.


roughrider

noncommissioned officer
noncommissioned officer

(military, dated) A noncommissioned officer in the British cavalry whose duty is to assist the riding master.

Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War

(US, military, dated, slang) A member of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry during the Spanish-American War


sabretasche

Borrowed from French sabretache, from German.

Oh, love is the soul of an Irish dragoon In battle, in bivouac, or in saloon, From the tip of his spur to his bright sabretasche.

1840, Charles Lever, O'Malley, the Irish Dragoon:

(military, obsolete) A leather case or pocket worn by cavalry at the left side, suspended from the swordbelt.


demibrigade

Borrowed from French demi-brigade, demi- + brigade.


antipartyism

(politics) opposition to a party or faction


estacade

French [Term?]; compare Italian steccata, Spanish estacada, and English stake.

(military) A dike of piles in the sea, a river, etc., to hinder the approach of an enemy.


pentecosty

pentecosty (plural pentecosties or pentecostys)

pentecosties (plural)
pentecostys (plural)

From Ancient Greek πεντηκοστύς (pentēkostús), from πεντήκοντα (pentḗkonta, “fifty”).

There were seven companies in the field without counting the Sciritae, who numbered six hundred men: in each company there were four Pentecostyes, and in the Pentecosty four Enomoties.

1874, Thucydides, translated by Richard Crawley, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 5:

(military, Ancient Greece) A troop of fifty soldiers in the Spartan army.


cavin

From French cavin (same meaning), ultimately from Latin cavus.

Having a sufficient Knowledge of the several Parts of the Fortification, by means of Spies, Deserters, Prisoners, and from printed or drawn Plans, The Nature of the Ground about the Place must be well examined and observed, whether there are any hollow Ways, or Cavins, by means of which the Trenches may be opened nearer than usual;

1747, John Muller, The Attack and Defence of Fortify'd Places, page 29:

These posts are sometimes covered by a rideau, or rising ground, or else by a cavin, or deep valley, which saves the trouble of fortifying them with parapets, fascines, gabions, barrels, or bags of earth.

1760, A New Military Dictionary: or, the Field of war.:

A cavin near a place besieged is of great advantage to the besiegers; as by help hereof they can open trenches, make places of arms, keep guards of horse, and the like, without being exposed to the enemy's shot.

1788, William Henry Hall, The New Royal Encyclopaedia:

(military) A hollow route, adapted to cover troops and facilitate their approach to a place.


columbiad

From Columbia (“the United States”).The term was first used for a type of cannon employed at Fort Columbus on Governor's Island in New York in 1808.

(military, historical) A form of cannon from the 19th century, mostly used for seacoast protection. It is a large-caliber, smoothbore, muzzle-loading cannon designed for launching shot or shells with heavy charges of powder, at both high and low angles of elevation.


coalite

en-verb

coalite (third-person singular simple present coalites, present participle coaliting, simple past and past participle coalited)

coalites (present singular third-person)
coaliting (participle present)
coalited (participle past)
coalited (past)

Back-formation from coalition, from Latin coalitus, past participle of coalēscō (see coalesce).

(politics, rare) To form a political coalition.


EMTF

(military) Initialism of expeditionary mobility task force.


antisegregationist

(politics) One who opposes racial segregation.


ecosocialism

en-noun

ecosocialism (usually uncountable, plural ecosocialisms)

ecosocialisms (plural)
eco-socialism (alternative)

Mrs. Lienemann, the French Housing Minister, sees socialist and ecological forces proposing what she calls “a new culture”—perhaps named “Ecosocialism”—that might, she believes, work for innovations like a 32-hour workweek, more democracy at the workplace, and “a greater stress on quality than quantity in everyday life.”

[1992 November 1, Roger Cohen, quoting Marie-Noelle Lienemann, “Ideology Wanes for Europe, Leaving Politicians Adrift”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Whenever he launched an ideological crusade, he did so zealously — even if, as in the case of ecosocialism, its very definition and the collateral demand for an appealing alternative to capitalism were not self-evident.

2018 May 4, Sam Roberts, “Dr. Joel Kovel, a Founder of Ecosocialism, Is Dead at 81”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(politics) An ideology merging aspects of Marxism, socialism, green politics, environmentalism, etc. that opposes capitalism.


crénelé

crenelee (alternative)
crenely (alternative)
crenellé (alternative)
crenellee (alternative)
crenelly (alternative)


Exocet

From French Exocet, from exocet (“flying fish”).

(military, nautical) A French antiship missile.


majorate

From major (noun) + -ate (forms nouns denoting rank or office).

af

(military) The office or rank of a major.