general staff

Meronyms: staff officer, chief of staff

It was at most but a vague hint dropped by a certain notorious Parisienne in a jealous mood that had caused suspicion to rest upon the lieutenant. But general staffs are jealous of their secrets, and treason so serious a thing that even a hint of it may not be safely neglected.

1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantyne Books, published 1963, page 56:

(military) A group of officers in charge of an army under the control of the commander-in-chief.


command post

The kett flagship, Verakan, is a heavily armed warship that serves as the Archon's central command post for the kett incursion into the Heleus Cluster.

2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: The Verakan Codex entry:

(military) The headquarters of a given unit; the operational base of a unit's commanding officer.

指揮所 /指挥所

headquarters of unit or commanding officer


PPC

en-noun

PPC (countable and uncountable, plural PPCs)

(UK politics) Initialism of prospective parliamentary candidate: a candidate selected for a future election before the election campaign has officially begun.


PPC

People's Party of Canada
w:People's Party of Canada

(Canada, politics) Initialism of People's Party of Canada.


Euro-rebel

(UK, politics) A politician who goes against the party line by opposing European integration.


ZDF

Zimbabwe Defence Forces
w:Zimbabwe Defence Forces

(Zimbabwe, military) Initialism of Zimbabwe Defence Forces.


polycratic

en-adj

polycratic (comparative more polycratic, superlative most polycratic)

more polycratic (comparative)
most polycratic (superlative)

Against the background of this strikingly polycratic system, three figures emerge as especially influential […]

2012, Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, Penguin, published 2013, page 101:

(politics) Governed by many people or groups.


politruk

Borrowed from Russian политру́к (politrúk).

bor+

(communism, military) A supervisory political officer responsible for ideological education and organization; political commissar


DGB

The vaguely defined roles and authorities of DGB have alarmed Americans, and many see the agency as the "Ministry of Truth" that George Orwell warned us about in his dystopian novel "1984."

2022 May 5, Helen Raleigh, “Biden's disinformation board is authoritarian and reminds me of my life in China”, in Fox News:

Disinformation Governance Board
w:Disinformation Governance Board

(US politics, historical) Initialism of Disinformation Governance Board.


public purse

From public (adjective) + purse (“(figurative) quantity of money given for a particular purpose”, noun).

compound

The public purse should be spent in the public interest.

This means that while initial funding will come from the public purse, landowners along the route will eventually pay back a share of the uplift in land values created by the new line.

2021 February 10, “Network News: Additional Funds Enable Preparatory Work for Ashington Reopening”, in Rail, number 924, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8:

(economics, government, idiomatic) A quantity of money collected by a government through taxation and other methods, and used for public purposes; public funds, public money.

公款

quantity of money collected by a government and used for public purposes


basic pay

(US, military) The monthly pay granted to members of the active-duty military, determined by pay grade.


phone bank

phone banks (plural)
phonebank (alternative)
phone-bank (alternative)

Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) hosted a phone bank for [Angela] Alsobrooks that same day, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) led canvassing to support her in Baltimore last week.

2024 October 4, Katie Shepherd, “Obama backs Alsobrooks, says Senate control ‘could come down’ to Md.”, in The Washington Post:

(politics) A political outreach event or strategy that involves making calls to potential voters by phone to get out the vote or collect voter data.


phone bank

en-verb

phone bank (third-person singular simple present phone banks, present participle phone banking, simple past and past participle phone banked)

phone banks (present singular third-person)
phone banking (participle present)
phone banked (participle past)
phone banked (past)
phonebank (alternative)
phone-bank (alternative)

phone bank
phone bank#English:_political_outreach

(ambitransitive, politics) To engage in a phone bank (“political outreach event that involves making calls to potential voters by phone”).


EM

en-noun

EM (countable and uncountable, plural EMs)


K Street

From the alphabetic naming of streets when the road grid of Washington was laid down.
* (politics): After K Street in Washington, D.C.

(US, politics, by restriction) The section of K Street, D.C., USA, where political lobbyists have their offices.

As Scrutiny of Cryptocurrency Grows, the Industry Turns to K Street [title]

2021 May 9, Eric Lipton, “As Scrutiny of Cryptocurrency Grows, the Industry Turns to K Street”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US politics, figurative) The people and firms that lobby the United States Congress.


pork up

en-verb

pork up (third-person singular simple present porks up, present participle porking up, simple past and past participle porked up)

porks up (present singular third-person)
porking up (participle present)
porked up (participle past)
porked up (past)

(idiomatic, US politics) To add spending, especially targeted spending, to legislation in order to get votes for it (see pork-barrel).


Pence

Americanized spelling of German Pentz or Benz.

But he [Mike Pence]’s no Trump in any sense. […] The base respects Pence and his loyal service, but he just does not have the covfefe that the base needs and wants in 2024.

2020, Kurt Schlichter, The 21 Biggest Lies about Donald Trump (and You!), Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, →ISBN:

(US politics) Used specifically of Mike Pence

A surname.
Used specifically of Mike Pence


pipper

(military, slang) A marker indicating the PIP (predicted impact point) on a head-up display.


pipper

Our caricaturist, Lieutenant Fred May, has this week specialised in “three pippers,” as all of the officers in the above collection, have attained to captain's rank, and have all, so we understand, been “through it" […]

(military, slang, in combination) A person wearing the specific number of stars on the shoulder of their uniform, implying a particular rank.


quarter-bloke

‘A private is ordered to complete some deficiency in his kit, and he goes to the quarter-bloke for it and gets nothing but abuse for his trouble.’

1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 128:

quartermaster sergeant
quartermaster sergeant

(UK military slang, now rare) A quartermaster, or quartermaster sergeant.


fire trench

fire trenches (plural)
firetrench (alternative)

One night in particular the front line was stubbornly pounded with minenwerfers (it was a ‘minnywafer’ sector, and one often turned cold in the firetrench as one heard the approaching swish of these monsters).

1928, Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War, Penguin, published 2010, page 79:

Just before they reached the fire-trenches they stood aside to allow a stretcher-party carrying down a man to pass.

1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 218:

(military) A deep trench from which one can fire on the enemy.


fire bay

Presently Corporal Hamley motioned him forward into the next fire-bay.

1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 219:

In the third fire bay he found Sawdon and Towers crouched down over a small fire made out of shredded sandbags and candle ends, coaxing the flames.

1991, Pat Barker, Regeneration (The Regeneration Trilogy), Penguin, published 2014, page 138:

(military) A trench, or section of a trench, with a concealed parapet from which soldiers can fire on the enemy.


draw weight

draw weights (plural)
drawweight (alternative)

The enormous draw weight of the English longbow required archers to train from a very young age to be capable of using it.

She figured her bow had only a forty-pound draw weight, but it was enough.

2021, Rivers Solomon, Sorrowland, #Merky Books, page 27:

(archery) The force (weight) required to draw a bow to its fully-cocked position.


funk hole

Major Whittlesey came out of his funk hole, and went among the men, spreading the cheering words.

1919, Americans Defending Democracy: Our Soldiers' Own Stories, World's War Stories Inc., p332 from the Story of the Lost Battalion

The cellar was comfortably furnished as it had apparently been used as a funk-hole before, and by people of more importance than its present occupants.

1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 237:

If you could reach your funk-hole, and crouch in it, there was a fair chance of your coming out of it alive next day to run the gauntlet of the Bapaume Road again.

1965, Charles Carrington, Soldier From the Wars Returning:

All along the trench men were crawling out of funk holes.

(military slang) A concealed place where one can hide in safety, especially during a war; a dugout.


PGS

prompt global strike
prompt global strike#English

(US, military) Initialism of prompt global strike.


PSL

The PSL on Thursday said in a statement on X that Rodriguez is no longer a member and had only “a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017.” The group added that “we have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.”

2025 May 22, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Audrey Ash, Holmes Lybrand, Sara Smart and John Miller, “‘Only sane thing to do:’ Writings, interviews tied to suspect in Israeli embassy staffer killings show political activism”, in CNN:

Party for Socialism and Liberation
w:Party for Socialism and Liberation

(US politics) Initialism of Party for Socialism and Liberation.


saddletank

saddletanks (plural)
saddle tank (alternative)

(naval architecture) An early style of ballast tank submarine in which the tank sits on top like a saddle.


Mordor

→ Chinese: 魔多

→ Polish: Mordor

→ Russian: Мо́рдор (Mórdor)

→ Ukrainian: Мо́рдор (Mórdor)

/ˈmɔːdɔː(ɹ)/

J. R. R. Tolkien
Middle-earth
Mordor
Sauron

From Mordor, a bleak realm ruled by the dark lord Sauron, in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth. Tolkien created the name in his constructed language Sindarin, from morn (“dark, black”) and dôr (“land”). Compare with Old English morþor (“murder”), murder, Greek μαυρός (mavrós, “dim”) and Latin mors (“death”). Sense 2 is a semantic loan from Ukrainian Мо́рдор (Mórdor) or Russian Мо́рдор (Mórdor), both of those from the English word, alluding to it being the land of orcs.


gobony

From gobbon (“piece, portion, slice”) + -y, from Old French gobon, gobet (“piece”). Cognate with English gubbins (“assorted stuff”).

Argent, a lion rampant azure, debruised by a bend gobony ermine and gules.

1899, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families, T.C. & E.C. Jack, page 320:

There is no difficulty whatever in drawing a gobony or a checky bordure.

1945, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 99, New England Historic Genealogical Society, page 278:

The coat of Steenhuse appears a second time, no. 638, but here it is in the usual form, Bendy of six or and azure with the ombre of a lion over all and a border gobony argent and gules. An odd feature is that the segments of the gobony borders are cut diagonally[…].

1949, Archaeologia, Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, Volume 93, Society of Antiquaries of London, page 132:


two-party system

en-noun

two-party system (plural two-party systems)

(politics) The presence or dominance of only two political parties in a government, a political duopoly.


selective fire

(firearms) The ability to choose whether a weapon fires automatically or semi-automatically.


reverse arms

[…] it is recorded that at the funeral for Marlborough in 1722, the troops carried out a formal reverse arms drill which was especially invented for the service; it was a unique sign of respect to the great soldier.

2009, Christopher Jobson, Looking Forward Looking Back:

(military) A position of a soldier in which the weapon passes between the right elbow and the body at an angle of 45°.


backbore

en-verb

backbore (third-person singular simple present backbores, present participle backboring, simple past and past participle backbored)

backbores (present singular third-person)
backboring (participle present)
backbored (participle past)
backbored (past)

(firearms, transitive) To modify (a weapon's barrel) so as to increase the bore diameter.


antiregime

en-adj

antiregime (comparative more antiregime, superlative most antiregime)

more antiregime (comparative)
most antiregime (superlative)


BDS

Bush Derangement Syndrome
w:Bush Derangement Syndrome

(US, politics, slang, derogatory) Initialism of Bush Derangement Syndrome.


Apartheid Wall

(derogatory, geopolitics) A separation barrier built by the Israeli government in the West Bank

Muro do Apartheid

a separation barrier built by the Israeli government in the West Bank


gundeck

en-verb

gundeck (third-person singular simple present gundecks, present participle gundecking, simple past and past participle gundecked)

gundecks (present singular third-person)
gundecking (participle present)
gundecked (participle past)
gundecked (past)

(naval slang) Synonym of pencil whip (“to falsify records to suggest that work has been done”).


foregrip

(firearms) A pistol grip-type forestock on the front of a firearm that improves handling characteristics, counters the effects of recoil, and is cooler to the touch than a standard forestock.


forestock

karera

part of a firearm under and supporting the barrel


counterfire

en-noun

counterfire (countable and uncountable, plural counterfires)

The Nationalist Defense Ministry claimed Communist guns on the mainland coast were silenced by effective counterfire. By Nationalist count, the Reds fired 444 shells, of which 162 hit Matsu Island, 112 Peikantang Island and 170 landed in the sea.

1959 May 18, “Red Chinese Open Firing on Matsus”, in The Washington Post and Times Herald, volume 82, number 164, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, column 5:

The second attack vehicle had difficulty navigating around the debris from the first attack, and was met with defensive counterfire by security personnel assigned to the hotel.

2007, John W. Ellis, Police Analysis and Planning for Homicide Bombings, page 171:

(military, uncountable) The firing of weapons in response.

(firefighting, countable) A smaller fire lit at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak.


counterfire

en-verb

counterfire (third-person singular simple present counterfires, present participle counterfiring, simple past and past participle counterfired)

counterfires (present singular third-person)
counterfiring (participle present)
counterfired (participle past)
counterfired (past)

(firefighting, intransitive) To light a smaller fire at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak.


airwar

(military) A war fought predominantly by aircraft.


fireteam

My fireteams are spread thin. We can't hold out forever.

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, spoken by Miranda Keyes (Justis Bolding), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Crow's Nest:

(US, military) A small unit of infantry.


Repub

(US politics, informal) Clipping of Republican.


wagonmaster

wagonmasters (plural)
wagon-master (alternative)
wagon master (alternative)

(by extenstion, military) A military transport officer

(military, by extension) A military logistics officer


fart sack

Don't forget your fart sack!

(military, slang, vulgar) A sleeping bag (especially a heavily-insulated bag).


aggressivism

(politics) The political practice of being militaristic and violently intrusive.


dark money

In Colorado, at least $18 million in dark money was spent on behalf of Cory Gardner, the Republican newly elected to the Senate; $4 million was spent on behalf of Senator Mark Udall, the Democratic incumbent.

2014 November 8, “Dark Money Helped Win the Senate”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The Senate budget committee held a hearing on Wednesday morning to scrutinize the role of oil- and gas-linked “dark money” in delaying climate action – and tearing through local and federal budgets.

2023 June 21, Dharna Noor, “Senate examines role of ‘dark money’ in delaying climate action”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(US politics) Funds used to pay for an election campaign that are not disclosed to voters prior to voting, whether spent on behalf of a candidate running in an election, or to influence voting on a ballot.


taekwondoka

< taekwondo, formed according to the pattern of judoka and karateka. Consists of the Korean word 태권도 (taegwondo) and the Japanese word 家.

(martial arts) A person who is skilled in taekwondo; a practitioner of taekwondo.


apartheidism

(sociopolitics) The system or concept of apartheid.


apartheidist

(sociopolitics) A proponent of apartheid


apartheidist

en-adj

apartheidist (comparative more apartheidist, superlative most apartheidist)

more apartheidist (comparative)
most apartheidist (superlative)

(sociopolitics) Of, relating to, or advocating apartheidism

აპარტეიდისტული

of, relating to, or advocating apartheidism


false flag

false flags (plural)
false-flag (alternative)

Using what the bureau calls a "False Flag" operation, F.B.I. agents posing as Russian intelligence officers contacted Mr. Pitts in August 1995, long after it believed he had ceased his spying activities, and feigned interest in reactivating him as a means of confirming his spying activities and determining how much information he may have provided to Moscow.

1996 December, David Johnston, “F.B.I. Supervisor Charged With Spying for Russians”, in The New York Times:

Now, that is not just offensive, it’s stupid. If the government had actually hired child actors, there is no way their stage parents would have stopped talking about it. “Well, he didn’t get the Tide commercial, but he did book a leading role in a government-sponsored false-flag attack! It’s the same director who did the moon landing! We’re very excited!”

2017, Tim Carvell, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Jeff Maurer, Ben Silva, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Seena Vali, Julie Weiner, “Trump vs. Truth”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 1, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:

The US has made noncommittal statements so far. Meanwhile, many experts on Russia have raised the possibility that the strike could have been a false-flag operation from Moscow.

2023 May 4, Jonathan Yerushalmy, Pjotr Sauer, “False flag or genuine attack? What we know about the Kremlin drone incident”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(espionage, military, politics) A diversionary or propaganda tactic of deceiving an adversary into thinking that an operation was carried out by another party.


goatfuck

goatfucks (plural)
goat fuck (alternative)
goat-fuck (alternative)

From goat + fuck, possibly as a blend of goat rope and clusterfuck.

"What a goatfuck," I said.

"Well, sir—frankly, Admiral, everything up to now has been a real goatfuck, so far as SpecWar's been concerned. [...]"

[...] visiting Young Republicans, who learned their manners in frat houses and who would surely be shitfaced and creating a scene—what Bush Advance was pleased to call "a real goat fuck"—but Advance knew, if Lindsay got to the rope line and asked the President elect to stop by, Bush would never say no to a friend, so then they'd have the Free World's Leaders-to-be in a YR goat fuck, [...]

1992, William S. Burroughs, Esquire, volume 117, page 88:

He killed two other men a couple of days before and those two did happen to be ours. Along with the three at that colossal goatfuck a few days before that. All right?

2005, Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men:

"[...] Do you guys rehearse these goatfucks, or are you just that clumsy by nature?"

2006, Hal von Luebbert, Letters to Aaron-the Hal Luebbert Story: America and Its Freedom Myths, page 258:

"With all due respect, sir," Shibli said, "your operation at Site Tango had all the finesse of a goat-fuck. [...] "

2009, Paul Brooks, Shibli: An Odyssey of Terror, page 95:

"[...] I'm square in the middle of a goatfuck here."

2011, Mary Margret Daughtridge, SEALed Bundle: SEALed Bundle: SEALed with a Kiss, SEALed with a Promise, and SEALed with a Ring:

Lacking that ability to just walk into this goatfuck, because that's exactly what this was. Mondy and Wanstall looked like they were at a little girl's birthday party, and wouldn't look otherwise until it truly became a goatfuck, never mind that anyone with eyes could see it coming.

In the midst of this goatfuck, the FedEx truck pulled up on the far side of the road and parked about three hundred yards from the main gate.

2012, Richard Marcinko, Detachment Bravo:

She didn't trust tender feelings as they always seemed to lead people to make unwise decisions. Exhibit A, her parents and their goatfuck of a marriage.

(slang, chiefly military, vulgar) A chaotic situation where some effort has gone thoroughly wrong; a fiasco or clusterfuck.


antimilitaristic

antimilitaristic (comparative more antimilitaristic, superlative most antimilitaristic)

more antimilitaristic (comparative)
most antimilitaristic (superlative)


antivehicle

an antivehicle mine


antisabotage

(chiefly military) Preventing or countering sabotage.


antishipping

[…] and passed an antishipping liquor law which prohibits the carrying or shipping of liquors for beverage purposes […]

1927, Ernest Hurst Cherrington, The Anti-saloon League Year Book, page 99:

The Luftwaffe also conducted antishipping offensive operations, which ranged over vast areas, from France to far out over the Atlantic in great operational arcs emanating from Germany and Norway.

2012, Walter J. Boyne, Clash of Wings: World War II in the Air:


antinarcotic

antinarcotic (comparative more antinarcotic, superlative most antinarcotic)

more antinarcotic (comparative)
most antinarcotic (superlative)
anti-drug (alternative)

(law enforcement) Opposing or countering narcotics.


antidefense

The Soviet Union has already indicated that it may respond to deployment of a ballistic-missile defense system by deploying antidefense weapons, such as space mines to trail defense satellites.

1986 December, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, volume 42, number 10, page 52:


antitreaty

antitreaty (comparative more antitreaty, superlative most antitreaty)

more antitreaty (comparative)
most antitreaty (superlative)


antitechnocratic

antitechnocratic (comparative more antitechnocratic, superlative most antitechnocratic)

more antitechnocratic (comparative)
most antitechnocratic (superlative)


antihandling

A certain percentage of the mines are equipped with an antihandling device to hinder manual breaching.

1979, United States. Dept. of the Army, Engineer Combat Operations:


antiparliamentary

antiparliamentary (comparative more antiparliamentary, superlative most antiparliamentary)

more antiparliamentary (comparative)
most antiparliamentary (superlative)


dredging box

To render the fuzes of mortar shell more certain of taking fire, meal powder was sprinkled over them, after the shell had been placed in the mortar, from a dredging box.

2013, Francis A. Lord, Civil War Collector's Encyclopedia:

(military, historical) A copper box with a perforated lid, used for sprinkling meal powder over shell fuses.


rebounding lock

en-noun

rebounding lock (plural rebounding locks)

(firearms) A lock in which the hammer rebounds to half cock after striking the cap or primer.


bar sinister

bar sinister (usually uncountable, plural bars sinister)

bars sinister (plural)
Bar-Sinister (alternative)
bar-sinister (alternative)

"A king's son, though with the bar sinister on his shield, is at least a match for this marmoset of a marquis."

1825, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 24, in The Talisman:

At any rate no bar sinister appeared on the imperial escutcheon.

1906, Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 1, in Sir John Constantine:

They were descended from the Earls of Halifax and Scarbrough but, as the bar sinister in the Savile coat of arms suggests, illegitimately.

2001 May 7, “Obituary: Henry Lumley-Savile”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-04-04:

(heraldry, considered nonstandard) A bend sinister or baton sinister in a coat of arms.


baton sinister

(heraldry) A kind of bend sinister, in which a narrow strip extends from the lower left to the upper right of the shield in a coat of arms but does not extend to the edges of the shield


counterpotent

counterpotents (plural)
counter-potent (alternative)

(heraldry) A fur differing from potent in the arrangement of the patches: the T shapes are alternatingly upright and inverted, such that the broad side of each T touches the broad sides of the adjacent row's like-colored T.


cross bottony

(heraldry) A cross having each arm terminating in three rounded lobes, forming a sort of trefoil.


body blow

body blows (plural)
body-blow (alternative)

He led at Berks's head, as he came rushing in, and missed him, receiving a severe body blow in return.

1896, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 11, in Rodney Stone:

A severely injurious or damaging physical strike or impact.

(boxing) A hard punch struck to the torso.


aylet

(heraldry) A black bird with red feet and beak.


sejant rampant

FOLEY, Baron, (Foley), a lion, sejant, rampant, or, between paws an escutcheon, charged with the family arms. Ut prosim. Pl. 22, cr. 13. FOLEY, Surr., a lion, rampant, ar., holding the same. Pl. 67, cr. 5. […] MACPHERSON, a grey cat, sejant, rampant. Touch not the cat bot the glove.

1860, James Fairbairn, Fairbairns Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland: Text, pages 186, 314:

(3.) 1810. Obverse; a lion, sejant-rampant, facing left, holding a large key with his paws; inscription, PAYABLE AT ROBERT KEELING & SONS, GIBRALTAR. Reverse; similar to first reverse, but the key is omitted, and the date is very large[…]

1881, The Coin Collector's Journal, page 21:

A Scottish Lion sejant usually has his fore paws raised in the air, and in English terms of blazon would be described as "Sejant erect" or "Sejant rampant."

1914, Charles Boutell, The Handbook to English Heraldry, page 86:

(heraldry) Sitting with one or especially both of its forefeet lifted up.


stand fire

en-verb

stand fire (third-person singular simple present stands fire, present participle standing fire, simple past and past participle stood fire)

stands fire (present singular third-person)
standing fire (participle present)
stood fire (participle past)
stood fire (past)

They were again under fire at Vaal Krantz, the shells dropping a few yards in front of them as the bearers removed the men. Hospital orderlies, water-carriers, nurses, bearers, all were willing to do or be anything in this dire need; and although not infrequently obliged to accept insults or to stand fire, they acquitted themselves with great credit, and earned the unstinted praise of the soldiers.

1909, Joseph John Doke, M. K. Gandhi: Indian Patriot in South Africa, Chapter 13:

It is perfectly possible to take a thousand individuals, each of whom is individually fearless, form them hastily into a regiment, and collectively they will not stand fire. A thousand individual heroes may easily make one collective regimental coward. Such is the incomprehensible psychology of the mob.

1917, Harris Dickson, s:The Unpopular History of the United States by Uncle Sam Himself, Chapter 14:

(idiomatic, military) To put oneself in the way of an enemy's firing.


forge wagon

(military, historical) A wagon fitted up for transporting a blackmith's forge and tools.


metaconstitution

(government) A policy or set of rules from which a constitution can be developed.


foragemaster

(military, historical) Somebody responsible for providing and transporting forage for animals.


KMT

All of the parties could and did claim victories. The ruling KMT won the governorship and the mayorship of Kaohsiung. Naturally KMT leaders boasted of these wins. In particular, they noted that Kaohsiung had been a stronghold of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party. The DPP won the mayorship of Taipei. This was a major triumph. The NP's candidate was second in the Taipei mayoral context and the NP did well in the Taipei City Council race. Taiwan's new political party thus seemed to be off to a good start in winning support at the ballot box. Finally, the cause of democracy won.

1998, John F. Copper, Taiwan's Mid-1990s elections: Taking the Final Steps to Democracy, Praeger Publishers, →ISBN, page 3:

The Supreme Court sentenced former KMT Mayor of Jinsha Township (金沙鎮) in Kinmen County (金門縣) to 11 years in prison on bribery and abuse of public office charges.

2018 June 8, Scott Morgan, “Former Mayor in Kinmen County, Taiwan sentenced to 11 years on bribery charges”, in Taiwan News, archived from the original on 2018-06-14, Society:

In 1950, it moved to Fengshan after Chengdu fell into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government relocated to Taiwan.

2023 March 19, Nien-han Liao, “Whampoa academy arguments redundant”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-21, Editorials, page 8:

The Kuomintang (KMT) opposition party, of which Ma remains a senior member, also rejects reunification but advocates for closer ties with China as the way to preserve peace. Ma is one of the party’s most China-friendly figures.

2024 April 10, Helen Davidson, “China and Taiwan are destined for ‘reunification’, Xi tells former president”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(politics, China, Taiwan) Abbreviation of Kuomintang.


Loving

en-proper noun

Loving (countable and uncountable, plural Lovings)

(US, law, sexuality, US politics, informal, uncountable) Ellipsis of Loving v. Virginia, a 1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized interacial marriage under the Equal Protection and Due Process; and reaffirmed the existence of a right to privacy under due process following the 14th Amendment.


light ball

(military, historical) A ball of combustible materials, used to provide light, and sometimes made so as to fired from a cannon or mortar, or to be carried up by a rocket.


light barrel

(military, historical) An empty powder barrel pierced with holes and filled with shavings soaked in pitch, used to light up a ditch or a breach.


ramshorn

(fortifications) A low semicircular work situated in and commanding a ditch.


manual exercise

en-noun

manual exercise (plural manual exercises)

A little clump of soldiers stood upon the poop going through the manual exercise, and it was from them that the call had come which had sounded so unexpectedly in the ears of the castaways.

1893, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter XXVII, in The Refugees: A Tale of Two Continents, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

The officers of the Voulnteers will do their utmost to assist the naval officers to preserve discipline. They may, if they think fit, set an example to their men by taking an active part in all the duties and manual exercises. They may fall in at quarters, and take any number at the gun. In short, they may become, as much as they please, active working seamen and efficient practical gunners.

1874, Thomas Brassey, The organisation of the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers explained:

(military, historical) The military exercise by which soldiers are taught the use of their muskets and other arms.


niru

(military, historical) A company within the military of the Qing dynasty.


cryptocommunist

(politics) A person with communist views they do not express publicly, often to avoid negative judgment.


step short

en-verb

step short (third-person singular simple present steps short, present participle stepping short, simple past and past participle stepped short)

steps short (present singular third-person)
stepping short (participle present)
stepped short (participle past)
stepped short (past)

(military) To diminish the length or rapidity of the step according to the established rules.


blind shell

(military) A shell containing no charge, or one that does not explode.


MOH

(military, US) Initialism of Medal of Honor.


auger in

auger in (third-person singular simple present augers in, present participle augering in, simple past and past participle augered in)

augers in (present singular third-person)
augering in (participle present)
augered in (participle past)
augered in (past)

auger + in: the plane is metaphorically drilling into the ground.

The pilot lost pitch control and the jet augered in.

(military, aviation, euphemistic) To crash catastrophically into the ground.


star fort

(fortifications) A fort surrounded on the exterior with projecting angles.


antisonar

an antisonar coating

(military) Preventing detection by sonar.


lady paramount

en-noun

lady paramount (plural ladies paramount)

(archery) The lady who achieves the best score in archery.


draught hook

(military, historical) One of the hooks on a cannon carriage, used in drawing the gun backward and forward.


tower bastion

(fortifications) A bastion of masonry, often with chambers beneath it, built at an angle of the interior polygon of some works.


stub twist

(firearms) Material for a gun barrel, made of a spirally welded ribbon of steel and stub iron combined.


escutcheon of pretence

escutcheon of pretence (plural escutcheons of pretence)

(heraldry, UK) An escutcheon used to display the arms of the bearer's wife; not commonly used unless she is an heiress.


proof charge

Thus the proof-shot with proof-charge may in reality be proving the gun less faithfully than its first service-charge and service-shot,—a mode of proof-practice for heavy artillery very different from that imposed for safety on every fowling-piece.

1862, Edward Pellew Halsted, The Armstrong Gun. A Rejoinder to the Letter of Sir W. Armstrong, page 37:

The late Ordnance Select Committee therefore, after having obtained particulars of proof of guns in nearly all theother countries in Europe, came to the conclusion that the proof should be based on the highest charge which the gun will fire on service, and recommended the following proof which was approved in July 1864 and remains still in force, viz., two rounds of 1 1/4 the highest service (battering) charge, and service projectiles; but, in consequence of the results obtained in recent trials with Pebblepowder, experiments are being carried on to determine the future proof charge.

1872, Francis Sadleir Stoney, Charles Jones, A Text-book of the Construction and Manufacture of the Rifled Ordnance in the British Service, page 112:

Amd. the official "Extracts of Artillery Proceedings" tell us, 4:3:72, tha the Superintendent, Royal Gun Factories, "proposes tha the proof charge for the 12-inch gun of 35-tons shall be 115 lbs.

1873, W. Dawson, “Powder Pressures in the First 35-Ton Gun”, in Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, volume 17, number 70, page 4:

In case barrels sent for proof for the use of nitro powders are intended by the senders to sheet charges of powder or shot greater than the ordinary service charges of the like respective bores set forth in Scale 6, in the said Schedule, then the quantities of powder and shot so intended to be used shall be declared in wwriting, and a proof charge proportionate thereto shall be used.

(firearms) A charge of powder and ball, greater than the service charge, fired in an arm, as a gun or cannon, to test its strength.


anarcho-communism

(politics, economics) A form of anarchism advocating the abolition of the state and capitalism in favor of a horizontal network of voluntary associations through which people would satisfy their needs.


anarcha-feminist

(politics) Of, supporting, relating to, or advocating anarcha-feminism.


anarcha-feminist

anarcha-feminists (plural)
anarcho-feminist (alternative)

(politics, economics) A person who advocates anarcha-feminism.


oppo research

And anyway, after all he had discovered, he’d grown deeply concerned by the prospect of a Trump presidency. So he found Democratic donors whose checks would keep his oppo research going strong.

2017, Howard Blum, “How ex-spy Christopher Steele compiled his explosive Trump-Russia dossier”, in Vanity Fair:

(US, politics, informal) Research into one's opponent's family, friends, and past, which aims to uncover activities or interests which embarrass or discredit them.


outflanker

(military) One who is positioned so as to outflank the enemy in combat.


interior crest

(fortifications) The highest line of the parapet.


Majorite

(UK politics) A political supporter of John Major (born 1943), British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997.


pass box

(military, historical) A box used to carry cartridges from the service magazine to the piece.


bar shot

Bar shot and chain shot were primarily used during sea battles to destroy the sails and rigging of enemy vessels. The first mention of bar shot was by the Dutch in 1819.

1987 January 1, Robert F. Marx, Shipwrecks in the Americas, Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 104:

(military, historical) A double-headed shot, consisting of a bar, with a ball or half ball at each end; formerly used for destroying the masts or rigging in naval combat.


protective custody

A so‐called star witness in the Brooklyn grand jury inquiry of alleged links between the police and gamblers sought unsuccessfully yesterday to free himself from protective custody.

1964 July 25, Alfred E. Clark, “Gambling Witness Under Guard Fails in Move to Gain Freedom”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-03:

The government has earmarked a paltry $1.2 million . . ., not enough to properly fund even the state-run counseling centers—the only institutions with the authority to put battered children into protective custody.

1999 June 7, Donald MacIntyre, Hiroko Tashiro, “Hearing Their Cries”, in Time, retrieved 2014-06-03:

Authorities charged a man today with 'arson causing death' after a week of devasting fires that killed a total of more than 180 people in Australia, and whisked him into protective custody to guard him from public fury.

2009 February 13, Tanalee Smith, “Man charged over deadly Australian fire”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-06-03:

(law enforcement) Lawful confinement of a person or close supervision of his or her movements, on a voluntary or involuntary basis, by authorities in order to safeguard that person from attack or other dangers.


ranger file

(military) Single file with a short distance between the soldiers.


anarcho-communist

(politics, economics) Of, supporting, relating to, or advocating anarcho-communism.

anarcho-communiste

pertaining or relating to anarcho-communism


anarcho-communist

During the 1960s, anarcho-communists led the search for radical solutions to the historically novel problems facing young people. Above all, many people now wanted a say in the decisions which affected them.

1998, Richard Barbrook, “The Holy Fools”, in Mute, volume 1, number 11, →ISSN:

(politics, economics) A person who advocates anarcho-communism.


bunker buster

B-2 bombers are the only plane capable of carrying the Massive Ordinance Penetrator, which experts have highlighted as the only type of bomb potentially capable of destroying Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility. Each B-2 bomber is able to carry two of these “bunker buster” bombs, which weigh an impressive 30,000 pounds each.

2025 June 21, Thomas Bordeaux, Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen, “US moves B-2 bombers as Trump weighs Iran options”, in CNN:

The bombs used in the strikes were GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrators, known as a “bunker busters,” two sources familiar with the operation said.

2025 June 21, Kevin Liptak, “Strikes on Iranian nuclear sites thrust US into escalating Middle East conflict”, in CNN:

(military) A bomb designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground.

地中貫通爆弾

ちちゅうかんつうばくだん


blue falcon

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

From the same initial letters as "buddy-fucker."

We had a term in the military for a soldier who was not a good Battle Buddy. He was a "Blue Falcon." That rather odd name is an attempt to clean up a much more graphic term. The initials for Blue Falcon, "BF", were originally the first letters of a term I'll refrain from printing here. Let's just say that the "B" stood for "Buddy" and the "F" stood for a classic word of profanity. A BF was someone who screwed his buddies. We just called them Blue Falcons.

2013, Jeff Rose, Soldier of Finance: Take Charge of Your Money and Invest in Your Future, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, →ISBN, page 26:

To them, he's a Blue Falcon, a derogatory euphemism for "buddy-fucker." Blue Falcons are great soldiers when the commander's watching. But they'll screw you in a heartbeat when nobody else is around.

2007, David Axe, Army 101: Inside ROTC in a Time of War, Univ of South Carolina Press, page 31:

(US, military, euphemistic) A supposed comrade whose actions harm his friends, often but not always, for his own benefit.


freedom march

Thought the mayor of the city refused to participate, the governor of the state remembered a "previous engagement," newspaper editorials chided that it was "unnecessary" and cloudy skies threatened a downpour, a Freedom March in Cleveland was a success.

1963 Aug. 1, "25,000 in Cleveland March; Mayor Stays Away," Jet, p. 6 (Google preview)

Brazil has never lynched a Negro, suffered a race riot, had a sit-in protest or hosted a freedom march.

1965 Sept., Ezra Bell Thompson, "Does Amalgamation Work in Brazil?", Ebony, p. 33 (Google preview)

Mr. Nelson covered the Selma-to-Montgomery freedom marches, including Bloody Sunday, on March 7, 1965, when 600 marchers were attacked with billy clubs and tear gas.

2009 October 21, Dennis Hevesi, “Jack Nelson, Journalist, Dies at 80”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-12:

(chiefly US, politics, public policy) A protest rally by people parading in public streets in opposition to racism and in support of civil rights, especially on behalf of African Americans and especially during the 1960s.


fascistization

Felter Sartori’s colonial travelogue marks an important moment in the process of fascistization of Italian colonial discourse in general and of women’s discursive practice in particular.

2005, Cristina Lombardi‐Diop, “Pioneering Female Modernity: Fascist Women in Colonial Africa”, in Ruth Ben‐Ghiat, Mia Fuller, editors, Italian Colonialism, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, →DOI, →ISBN, page 151:

This rupture emerged through a challenge to the status quo on a global scale and was followed by the fascistization of the Japanese polity through the incorporation of new forms of corporatism, militarism, and authoritarianism, as suggested by the ‘rejectionists’, but whose sum went well beyond any single one of these features.

2017 June 8, Louise Young, “When fascism met empire in Japanese-occupied Manchuria*”, in Journal of Global History, volume 12, number 2, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 279:

(fascism) The process of making or becoming fascist.


rep by pop

representation by population
representation by population

(UK, politics) representation by population


America Firster

America Firster (plural America Firsters)

(US politics) A supporter of any one of the "America First" isolationist movements or parties.


creative destruction

Calque of German schöpferische Zerstörung, popularized by economist Joseph Schumpeter.

cal

Like all major industrial advances, the telecomputer is an instrument of creative destruction. All the likely victims are mobilizing to prevent their own destruction. It is unsure how soon the creators will win.

1990, George F. Gilder, Life After Television, page 37:

There may be additional explanations for the acceleration of structural economic change. What counts, however, is the result: Schumpeter’s ‘creative destruction’ – the displacement of old skills, trades and entire industries with their dependent localities, by more efficient new skills, trades and entire industries – is now apt to span years, often very few years, rather than generations.

1994 April 7, Edward Luttwak, “Why Fascism is the Wave of the Future”, in London Review of Books, volume 16, number 07, →ISSN:

If creative destruction allows fast economic growth without generating serious inflation, then it might make sense, for example, to put high values on the shares of companies that will do well in such an unusual environment.

2000 June 10, Sharon Reier, “Half a Century Later, Economist's 'Creative Destruction' Theory Is Apt for the Internet Age”, in The International Herald Tribune, →ISSN:

Creative destruction, the term coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter to describe the workings of innovation and technology, justly became a buzzword of the New Economy. Many new companies have been created; almost as many will be destroyed.

2001 June 20, Daniel Gross, “Creative Destruction and the Web”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

New-media thinkers, with their appetite for disintermediation and creative destruction, implicitly endorse and advance this transformation.

2014, Astra Taylor, chapter 2, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN:

More than the much-remarked squeeze on working-class jobs in areas of the economy such as manufacturing, [Edward] Luttwak saw an accelerated “creative destruction” affecting clerical jobs in white-collar data-heavy industries such as banking that were being disrupted by capital's “Schumpeteresque” technology-assisted modernisation as they were digitised.

2020, Marcus Gilroy-Ware, After the Fact?, Repeater, →ISBN:

Tech workers know that creative destruction is part and parcel of working in a highly innovative industry. That is also why, despite the anxiety around job losses, new openings will arise.

2025 May 24, “The great AI jobs disruption is under way”, in FT Weekend, The FT View, page 8:

(economics, capitalism) The process of industrial mutation that continually revolutionizes the economic structure from within.


Alleyman

From French Allemand (“a German”), with alteration after alley, man.

Take me over the sea, where the Alleyman can't get at me. Oh my, I don't want to die, I want to go home.

In the trenches the men of both races shared their cigarettes and rum rations, and exchanged the most impossible yarns of what they had done, or would do, to the 'Alleyman!'

1941, Blackwood's Magazine, volume 250, page 220:

"Why don't the naval guns fire back?"
"They only fire when the Alleyman attacks, mate."

1954, Henry Williamson, How Dear is Life, page 239:

(military slang, now historical) A German, especially during the First World War.


shock and awe

/ˈʃɒk(ə)nd ˈɔː/

Coined by American defence strategists Harlan Kenneth Ullman (born 1941) and James P. Wade, Jr., in Shock and Awe (1996): see the quotation. The term gained greater public attention during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US troops.

To affect the will of the adversary, Rapid Dominance will apply a variety of approaches and techniques to achieve the necessary level of Shock and Awe at the appropriate strategic and military leverage points. […] Flowing from the primary concentration on affecting the adversary's will to resist through imposing a regime of Shock and Awe to achieve strategic aims and military objectives, four characteristics emerge that will define the Rapid Dominance military force.

1996, Harlan K[enneth] Ullman, James P. Wade [et al.], “Prologue”, in Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance, [Washington, D.C.]: Center for Advanced Concepts and Technology, →ISBN, archived from the original on 2017-08-29, page xii:

WWE and WCW gussied up the ritual with a lot of shock-and-awe pyrotechnics and the most innovative use of video graphics this side of MTV. Not so Extreme Championship Wrestling.

2006, Thomas Hackett, Slaphappy: Pride, Prejudice, and Professional Wrestling, New York, NY: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 22:

The shock and awe that a human being could inspire navigating a stage with such effortless yet almost supernatural command (not for nothing did legends Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly congratulate Michael [Jackson] on his dancing) vaulted Jackson and Thriller to a new level of prominence.

2008 February 15, Ken Tucker, “‘Thriller’: Can’t Beat It”, in Entertainment Weekly, archived from the original on 2015-11-23:

Photos, film, documentation of the city [Hiroshima, Japan] had been confiscated and censored almost immediately after Japan surrendered, and the only indelible image of the bombing was the power of the bomb itself: the "shock and awe" version of the mushroom cloud.

2010 August 5, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, “Hiroshima: The Lesson We Never Learned”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 2010-12-24:

One expression above all others has become associated with the invasion of Iraq – "shock and awe". Developed at the Pentagon in the mid-1990s, "shock and awe" was a doctrine designed to leave the enemy so demoralised and disoriented that its will to resist crumbled. In popular parlance it has come to mean the application of overwhelming force, the effective obliteration of the enemy, and for many the term "shock and awe" has come to epitomise the crudeness of the American assault on Iraq.

2013 March 19, Richard Sanders, “The myth of ‘shock and awe’: Why the Iraqi invasion was a disaster”, in The Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 2017-10-10:

In defense of moderation, he proposed simply stomping out religious radicals. (In American terms: shock and awe, rather than hearts and minds.)

2018 November 3, Hassan Hassan, “The Arab Winter Is Coming”, in The Atlantic:

[The surveillance capitalists] specialize in displays of instrumentarianism’s unique brand of shock and awe, leaving onlookers dazed, uncertain, and helpless.

2018, Shoshana Zuboff, chapter 14, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism:

“This is ‘shock and awe,’” he said. “Truss, Kwarteng, and the people around them think they had to act quickly. The longer they wait, the more the resistance will build up.”.

2022 September 27, Mark Landler, quoting Jonathan Portes, “Truss Takes a Bold Economic Gamble. Will It Sink Her Government?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(military, also figuratively) A doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force.


shock and awe

en-verb

shock and awe (third-person singular simple present shocks and awes, present participle shocking and awing or shocking and aweing, simple past and past participle shocked and awed)

shocks and awes (present singular third-person)
shocking and awing (participle present)
shocking and aweing (participle present)
shocked and awed (participle past)
shocked and awed (past)

/ˈʃɒk(ə)nd ˈɔː/

He was a young soldier still in the great battle of life, not used to see his fellow-combatants drop down by his side; and he felt shocked and awed.

[1877, Julia Kavanagh, chapter XXVII, in Two Lilies. A Novel, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, 549 & 551 Broadway, →OCLC, page 261:

That's why good strategists know when to stop shocking and awing: when to begin consolidating the benefits these strategies have provided. The classic example is Otto von Bismarck, who set new standards for shock and awe by provoking three wars—against Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866, and France in 1870—all with a view to clearing the way for the unification of Germany.

2004, John Lewis Gaddis, “The Twenty-first Century”, in Surprise, Security, and the American Experience (Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Lecture on American Civilization and Government), Cambridge, Mass., London: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, pages 101–102:

It was one thing to hear talk of protests and war resistance back home, but when I saw it first hand, just a few feet from my bed, I was shocked and awed by the seriousness of some of the guys who had decided not to participate in this war anymore.

2004 March, Tony Lawless, “‘Underground’ Bunker”, in Lawless in Vietnam: A Personal Accounting of My War, Haverford, Pa.: Infinity Publishing, →ISBN, page 239:

[H]e descends into ferrying drugs carefully planted in carcasses from an abattoir, and is eventually trained to be a killer. The violence, when it comes, shocks and awes because the beauty of the preceding scenes has had a hypnotic hold on the viewer.

2005, Lloyd Hughes, The Rough Guide to Gangster Movies (Rough Guides Reference), London: Rough Guides, →ISBN, page 93:

The wars in Afghanistan and Iran are both fought in defense of the manliness of "America." […] President [George W.] Bush is reelected on a platform of never changing his mind, never reconsidering a decision once taken, and never worrying about what others might think or feel in relation to U.S. actions globally. Since this model of national sovereignty in the face of a foreign threat leaves little room for worrying about individual lives at home, victims of national disasters are subjected to an unimaginably callous carelessness. And the events in nature that shock and awe the senses are used as excuses for doing away with those minimal environmental protections that still constrain the fossil fuel industry.

2006, Bonnie Mann, “Conclusion”, in Women’s Liberation and the Sublime: Feminism, Postmodernism, Environment, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 176:

[M]ost weapon sounds (gun reports, rockets in flight, detonations, etc.) are not just big but absolutely vast, commanding attention, intimidating, shocking and aweing large populations dispersed over large areas.

2015, J. Martin Daughtry, “Sonic Campaigns”, in Listening to War: Sound, Music, Trauma, and Survival in Wartime Iraq, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, section II (Structures of Listening, Sounding, and Emplacement), page 161:

(military, also figuratively) To use the "shock and awe" doctrine in an actual or potential conflict, or to otherwise use a spectacular display of force or authority.


tamboo

We live in tamboos – a sort of cross between a cowshed and an outdoor privy.

1995, Pat Barker, The Ghost Road (The Regeneration Trilogy), Penguin, published 2014, page 804:

My servant & I ate the chocolate in the cold middle of last night, crouched under a draughty Tamboo, roofed with planks.

1918 October 31, Wilfred Owen, Letter to his mother, Susan Owen:

(military slang, now historical) A temporary shelter used by soldiers during the First World War.


gaining twist

(firearms) In rifled firearms, a twist of the grooves, which increases regularly from the breech to the muzzle.


nuclear option

From analogy with the political decision to be the first to use nuclear weapons in a war.

So now that the Republicans have used the nuclear option to kill the poor filibuster to clear the way for the elevation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, we can lose perspective.

2017 April 5, Steven Waldman, “Learning to Love the Nuclear Option”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US politics) A procedure by which the United States Senate can decide any issue with a simple majority, rather than the usual supermajority.


chancre mechanic

en-noun

chancre mechanic (plural chancre mechanics)


hang upon

en-verb

hang upon (third-person singular simple present hangs upon, present participle hanging upon, simple past and past participle hung upon)

hangs upon (present singular third-person)
hanging upon (participle present)
hung upon (participle past)
hung upon (past)

to hang upon the flanks of a retreating enemy


smart bomb

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

(military aviation) A guided air-dropped bomb.


brass hat

brass hats (plural)
brasshat (alternative)

From the military brass insignia on a service hat.

"American brass hats make no secret that they regard outer space as a potential theater of military operations," it said.

1982, Countdown begins for Space Shuttle, The New York Times

He raised his first storm in January 1967 when, as leader of the "Save the Argylls" campaign, he claimed the brass hats had driven the regiment's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Colin "Mad Mitch" Mitchell, into resignation.

2006, Andrew Roth, Obituary: Lord Monro of Langholm, The Guardian

This being Libya, there were conflicting signals yesterday – an army brass hat captured here, a counter-attack by Gaddafi forces there […]

2011, Andrew Roth, Gaddafi faces endgame as he bribes civilians to fight for him, The Independent

[…] with particularly young Thais—including 3.3 million first-time voters—backing the upstart party’s bold pledges to weaken the political role of brass hats and amend the nation’s strict royal defamation law […]

2023 May 15, Charlie Campbell, “The Voting in Thailand’s Election Is Finished, But the Politicking Is Just Beginning”, in Time:

(military, slang, metonymic) A high-ranking officer. Commander.


in play

Though the state has not changed hands in 20 years, the latest polls suggest it may now be in play.

(politics) Capable of being won by more than one party or candidate.


antidesertion

en-adj

antidesertion (comparative more antidesertion, superlative most antidesertion)

more antidesertion (comparative)
most antidesertion (superlative)


apartheidistic

apartheidistic (comparative more apartheidistic, superlative most apartheidistic)

more apartheidistic (comparative)
most apartheidistic (superlative)

(sociopolitics) Of, or pertaining to apartheidism


North Atlantic Terrorist Organization

A backronym of NATO, substituting the T word to affirm a negative point, implying that the organization is inherently belligerent.

Canada is a member of a megamurder club, a North Atlantic Terrorist Organization.

1970 December 8, James Eayrs, “Morality and Violence: The Insane Strategy of Peace Through “Megamurder””, in The Kingston Whig-Standard, year 45, number 7, Kingston, Ont., page six:

They are the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization.

1999 March 29, Milutin Tamasijevic, “South Florida Serbs unite in fear, frustration, anger”, in The Miami Herald, 97th year, number 196, page 1B:

The arsonists left notes at two of the sites, one of which denounced the “North Atlantic Terrorist Organization” and asserted that “the fake Albanian refugee crisis was manufactured by the International Jewsmedia to justify the terrorizing, the bestial bombing of our Yugoslavia back into the dark ages.”

2000, Lawrence Grossman, David Singer, editors, American Jewish Year Book 2000, →ISBN, page 163:

(geopolitics, derogatory) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization.


arsenal of democracy

Introduced to wide usage (although probably not first used) by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in December, 1940.

In a fireside shout Franklin Roosevelt this week told Business and Labor that they would have to speed up the job of making the U. S. the "arsenal of democracy".

1941 January 6, “Diplomacy v. Defense”, in Time, retrieved 2014-07-11:

The United States, he contends, is no longer the arsenal of democracy. Nor does it have a clear technological advantage over the Soviet Union.

1985 July 6, Drew Middleton, "Books of the Times: Analysis of a Failure" (book review of The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam by Gen. Bruce Palmer Jr.), New York Times (retrieved 11 July 2014)

Newt Gingrich toured a metal plant in Cleveland last week, telling workers on the shop floor that manufacturing jobs are crucial to national security. “We have to have companies like this. You cannot be the arsenal of democracy if you don’t have an arsenal,” he said.

2012 February 15, Michael A. Fletcher, David Nakamura, “Obama, GOP candidates more hopeful about factory jobs”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2014-07-11:

(politics, figurative) The United States of America, as supplier of extensive materiel support to U.S. allies during World War II; or post-war U.S. as the manufacturer and possessor of the greatest quantity of advanced military weaponry in the world, in the service of defending governments favouring the United States, mostly democracies.


hyah

(martial arts) a vocalisation used when performing a technique or striking a blow


anti-apartheidist

From antiapartheid + -ist or anti- + apartheidist.

(politics) Opposed to apartheid or apartheidism.


hippie punching

(slang, US, politics) Criticism of the political left, especially when used to position oneself as a moderate.


TERF

en-noun

TERF (countable and uncountable, plural TERFs)

A MAWTS qualified TERF instructor is required for all TERF instructional sorties.

1980, United States Marine Corps, Aviation training and readiness manual:

[…] Typical TERF altitudes for Navy and Marine Corps helicopters include low level (approximately 100 ft AGL), contour (50 ft AGL), and nap of the earth (NOE) (less than 50 ft AGL). A depiction of typical TERF modes in presented in Figure 3.

2003 October 12-16, The 22nd Digital Avionics Systems Conference : Proceedings : Indianapolis, IN, volume 2

(US military) Abbreviation of terrain flight (“flight close to the ground, to avoid enemy detection or fire”).


smokeball

(military) A ball or case containing a substance that produces thick smoke when it burns.


IOF

PCHR, monitoring with utmost concern the developments of this offensive, calls upon the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and United Nations, to immediately intervene to force IOF to stop this offensive and lift the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.

2006 September 11, shergald, “Palestine: Weekly Report of Human Rights Violations”, in Daily Kos:

Israel Occupation Forces
Israel Occupation Forces#English

(military, derogatory) Initialism of Israel Occupation Forces.


soman

(chemistry, military) The nerve gas O-pinacolyl methylphosphonofluoridate, used as a chemical weapon.


stalinize

en-verb

stalinize (third-person singular simple present stalinizes, present participle stalinizing, simple past and past participle stalinized)

stalinizes (present singular third-person)
stalinizing (participle present)
stalinized (participle past)
stalinized (past)

(politics, transitive) To make Stalinist.


Mighty Mouse

en-proper noun

Mighty Mouse (plural Mighty Mouses or Mighty Mice)

Mighty Mouses (plural)
Mighty Mice (plural)

(military, informal) A small U.S. military rocket from the 1950s.


flying army

a plain demonstration of cowardice in their opposing his late measure of entering England, and pursuing the flying army of the English

1749, William Duff, A New and Full, Critical, Biographical, and Geographical History of Scotland:

(archaic, military) A body of cavalry and infantry, kept in motion, to cover its own garrisons and to keep the enemy in continual alarm.


globe of compression

en-noun

globe of compression (plural globes of compression)

(military, historical) A kind of mine producing a wide crater.


antiarbitration

en-adj

antiarbitration (comparative more antiarbitration, superlative most antiarbitration)

more antiarbitration (comparative)
most antiarbitration (superlative)


lavender scare

Lavender is considered a feminine colour, and some male homosexuals act in a feminine manner.

(historical, US, politics, sexuality, LGBTQ, slang) The fear and persecution of homosexuals in the 1950s in the United States.


dack

en-verb

dack (third-person singular simple present dacks, present participle dacking, simple past and past participle dacked)

dacks (present singular third-person)
dacking (participle present)
dacked (participle past)
dacked (past)

From daks, Australian slang for trousers or underwear.

We have it because way back in 1918, Billy Hughes — the Labor defector and leader of the Nationalist Party, from whose remains Robert Menzies was ultimately to build the Liberal Party — introduced preferential voting specifically in order to dack the Labor party.

2024 December 4, Annabel Crabb, “Liberal MP Paul Fletcher sees red over teals, but look deeper and there's more at play”, in ABC News (Australia):

(Australia, politics) To cause political embarrassment in order to gain advantage over an opponent.


New Politics

(historical, 1950s, US, politics) The ideology of the U.S. Democratic Party during the 1950s.

(historical, 1960s, US, politics) A movement in the U.S. Democratic Party associated with the candidacies of Eugene J. McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy and later George McGovern, which demanded an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Vietnam War.


forearm smash

(wrestling) A charge at the opponent followed by a strike in the chest or face with a forearm to force them back and down to the mat.


Ford Nation

From the family name of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford (b. 1969).

But to offend the poster child of the newly ascendant right-wing would offend Ford Nation, its multitudes signed up and ready to go, go, go and vote, vote, vote.

2010 December 17, Christopher Hume, “Hume: Ford ushers in Mayor McGuinty”, in Toronto Star, Canada, retrieved 2014-08-08:

Emboldened, he went on to threaten Liberal Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty with Ford Nation, saying his followers could topple him if he didn’t cough up more money for the city.

2011 October 3, Nicholas Köhler, “Rob Ford can’t fight city hall”, in Macleans Magazine, Canada, retrieved 2014-08-08:

In a move clearly designed to stoke the fires of Ford Nation and enrage left-leaning councillors, Ford came out swinging at left-leaning special interest groups.

2012 June 1, Don Peat, “Ford vows to march on”, in Toronto Sun, Canada, retrieved 2014-08-08:

Volunteers said they had distributed 1,500 t-shirts emblazoned with “Ford Nation” within the first 45 minutes.

2013 July 5, Alexandra Bosanac, “Toronto mayor mingles with Ford Nation as thousands turn out for free burgers and beer at annual barbecue”, in National Post, Canada, retrieved 2014-08-08:

“There are those who like Ford’s coarse and unrefined style,” she said. Part of “Ford Nation is loyal to Ford because they know he offends and upsets the elites.”

2014 May 16, Paul Koring, “Rob Ford a topic of discussion at U.S. think tank”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 2014-08-08:

(Canadian politics, collectively) The supporters of controversial former Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

Doug Ford? Doug Ford! In Ontario, of all places?! Surely, Ford Nation can’t win there, not with a leader so unfamiliar with facts and rational discourse, not in Canada’s fulcrum province, the place of habitual moderation.

2018 June 8, Jeffrey Simpson, “Opinion: How Ontario became Ford Nation”, in The Globe and Mail, retrieved 2022-09-30:

The vote-rich Greater Toronto Area, where any party must perform strongly to have a chance at winning an Ontario election, has tightened its embrace of Ford Nation.

2022 June 2, David Rider, “Doug Ford’s Conservatives dominate the GTA after election”, in The Toronto Star, retrieved 2022-09-30:

(Canadian politics, collectively) The supporters of Ontario premier Doug Ford (brother of Rob Ford).


ammo humper

(military, slang) A soldier responsible for carrying the ammunition.


syntagmatarchy

First attested in 1670–1 and then once per century since; from the Latin syntagmatarchia, from the Ancient Greek συνταγματαρχία (suntagmatarkhía), from σύνταγμα (súntagma), whence the English syntagma.

uder

συνταγματαρχία

Two Taxiarchies, which were ſixteen Files, made a Syntagmatarchy of two hundred fifty ſix men; its Commander Syntagmatarcha was our private Captain. This Company was a ſquare of men, ſixteen in Rank and ſixteen in File, and whatever way you turn’d it, ſtill ſixteen. […¶] Two Syntagmatarchies compos’d a Pentecoſiarchy conſiſting of five hundred and twelve men[.…] By this account we find in every Phalange two Diphalangarchies, four Phalangarchies, eight Myriarchies, ſixteen Chiliarchies, two and thirty Pentecoſiarchies, ſixty four Syntagmatarchies; in all one thouſand twenty four Files, which conſiſted of ſixteen thouſand three hundred eighty four men, at ſixteen in every File. [¶] Here you are to obſerve, that every Syntagmatarchy or private Company, conſiſting of two hundred fifty ſix men, had beſide the Captain and others already ſpoken of, five other Officers, whom Ælian calls ſupernumerary or extraordinary.

1670–1, Sir James Turner, Pallas Armata (1968), chapter v, page 13

Sixteen of theſe files compoſed what was called a ſyntagmatarchy or a ſquare body of 256 men.

1787, Sketch of a Plan for Reducing the Expence of the Army, page 5:

In the phalanx,…were 64 syntagmatarchies; and it evidently appears that the number of cavalry…assigned to act with the phalanx, was 4096 men; now this number being divided by 64, will exactly furnish a troop consisting of a like number to each syntagmatarchy.

1814, Henry Augustus Visc. Dillon xiii, The Tactics of Ælian, chapter xx, page 94, endnote 2

Two diphalangarchies are a tetraphalangarchy, 1,024 files, 16,384 men, so that in the phalanx as a whole there will be 2 wings, 4 phalangarchies, 8 merarchies, 16 chiliarchies, 32 pentakosiarchies, 64 syntagmatarchies, 128 taxiarchies, 256 tetrarchies, 512 dilochiai, 1,024 files (lochoi).

1989, The Ancient World, XIX-XX, pages 47-48, § 9.10:

(Ancient Greek military history, very rare) A square formation of 256 soldiers arranged into sixteen files, sixteen ranks deep, led by a syntagmatarch; a syntagma.


NBC suit

Short for nuclear/biological/chemical suit.

(military) A protective suit used in the military to avoid contact with and contamination by radioactive, biological or chemical substances.


Noddy suit

Named after a character who wore a pointed hat in children's books by Enid Blyton.

(UK, military, informal) A kind of NBC suit with a pointed hood.


osotogari

(judo) A throw in which (right-handed version) tori steps next to uke with his left leg and reaps uke's right leg (at the back of the thigh) with his right leg.


other rank

He knew that Sergeant-Major Cowley wanted to get the Other Ranks out of the hut with that captain carrying on like that, and he did not see why the old N.C.O. should not have what he wanted.

1925, Ford Madox Ford, No More Parades (Parade's End), Penguin, published 2012, page 301:

There were to be these raiders – Amon, myself and thirty ‘other ranks’ […]

1928, Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War, Penguin, published 2010, page 125:

Originating as an officers' style, this one was quickly embraced by Other Ranks as well.

1975, Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory:

As I was wearing no badges of rank I was mistaken for an other rank.

1992, AJ Deane-Drummond, Arrows of Fortune, page 42:

commissioned officer
commissioned officer

(military, chiefly in the plural) A soldier who is not a commissioned officer.


pisscutter

From piss + cutter. As side cap tends to easily fall off the head when bowing down, it cuts off the stream of urine when one looks down while urinating.

(US, military, slang, vulgar) A side cap.


plantgating

From plant (“manufacturing facility”) + gate (“entrance”) + -ing.

affix

(politics, neologism) The act of a candidate who greets workers at the entrance to a factory, etc. in order to promote his/her campaign.


thousand-yard stare

en-noun

thousand-yard stare (plural thousand-yard stares)

thousand-yard stares (plural)
thousand yard stare (alternative)

Such terms are usually said to have originated in the usage of soldiers and the physicians who treated them for combat wounds and combat stress. A search of a large corpus finds thousand-yard stare attested during World War II (citations from 1943 to 1945), naming a symptom of social isolation in far-flung posts or of combat stress; the absence of attestations of *-yard stare and *-year stare from before 1943 suggests that perhaps this symptom (from any mentally traumatic cause) was not called by these names until the 1940s. In contrast, the thematically related term shell shock was in use during World War I.

(informal, military) A blank, unfocused glance given by a traumatized person, especially a soldier who has seen combat.


bandwagoning

But large, powerful states that refuse to submit to China have little interest in bandwagoning. For them, it is a question of balancing: Dealing with America’s potential absence by building up alternative paths of resistance to China—stronger alliances with others threatened by China’s rise, or upgrading domestic defense capabilities to resist China, absent U.S. assistance.

2016 November 21, Jon Emont, “Asia Awaits the Trump Era”, in The Atlantic:

(politics) The practice of joining the prevailing side.


minibudget

minibudgets (plural)
mini-budget (alternative)

Unions have reacted with fury to the prospect of the government scrapping a cap on bankers’ bonuses, as ministers geared up for a return to near-normal politics next week, topped by an emergency mini-budget on Friday.

2022 September 15, Peter Walker, Matthew Weaver, Aubrey Allegretti, “Kwarteng plan to lift cap on bankers’ bonuses infuriates unions”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly UK, politics, finance) A budget statement proposed by a government between annual budgets, involving special economic measures.


JG

JGs (plural)
J.G. (alternative)
J. G. (alternative)
jg (alternative)
j.g. (alternative)
j. g. (alternative)

lieutenant junior grade
lieutenant junior grade


randori

(Japanese martial arts) Freestyle practice, such as one-on-one sparring.


Wagnerite

Until international law settles the status of PMCs, the Kremlin will continue to use them in the international arena. According to Reuters, about 400 ‘Wagnerites’ have been recently sent to Venezuela to protect president Nicolas Maduro.

2019 January 31, Denis Shpigov, “Wagner group: Mercenaries protecting Kremlin’s interests worldwide”, in BelsatTV, archived from the original on 2023-03-15:

Wagnerites: "We need more drones, ideally armed. And MRAPs, and more thermal sights, and better comms, and new helicopters to replace those lost..."
Prigozhin: "Best I can do is another movie"

2021 December 5, @AbraxasSpa, Twitter, retrieved 2023-03-15:

“The enemy again made a desperate attempt to storm the city of Soledar from different directions and threw the most professional units of the Wagnerites into battle,” Ukraine’s military said on Monday, echoing comments made by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Sunday.

2023 January 9, Peter Beaumont, “Ukraine reinforces Bakhmut defences amid relentless Russian assault”, in The Guardian:

"We will not leave Bakhmut," vowed Prigozhin in his audio message. "We'll simply die in double the numbers until all [the Wagnerites] are finished. And when the Wagnerites are completely finished, most likely Shoigu and Gerasimov will have to pick up machine guns."

2023 February 22, Paul Kirby, “Russian Wagner chief Prigozhin blames ammunition shortage for high deaths”, in BBC News:

(military) A mercenary from the Wagner Group PMC.


Thach weave

From Thach + weave. Named after WWII U.S. naval aviator John S. Thach, who invented the manoeuvre.

(historical, military, aviation) A tactic in aerial combat of the World War II era, where two aircraft on patrol fly a parallel course, and if attacked, overlap their flight paths repeatedly, enabling each to protect the other.


MRL

multiple rocket launcher
multiple rocket launcher#English

(military) Initialism of multiple rocket launcher.


multiple rocket launcher

multiple rocket launcher (plural multiple rocket launchers)

(military) An artillery weapon consisting of an array of rails or tubes used to fire rockets.


devo max

Clipping of devolution maximum. First attested in 2009http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Qa9DAQAAIAAJ&q=%22devo+max%22&dq=%22devo+max%22&hl=es&sa=X&ei=xoQRVJbvE4T07Ab604G4Bg&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBTge.

We will know soon enough whether Cameron's was a masterly piece of nerve keeping, or the fatal blunder that broke the union of 1707. In 2012, Salmond gave some listeners the impression that devo max is what he really wanted. Whatever the outcome, Fleet Street's introspective pundits will say: "I told you so", and make dire predictions for the future, which are likely to be off the mark.

2014 September 8, Michael White, “Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe”, in The Guardian:

(UK, politics) Full fiscal autonomy for Scotland.


colour revolution

colour revolution (plural colour revolutions)

colour revolutions (plural)
color revolution (alternative)

These movements often adopted a specific colour as their symbol, as in Ukraine's Orange Revolution (2004) and Kuwait's Blue Revolution (2005).

He [General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and President of Laos Choummaly Sayasone] said he hopes the two countries’ public security ministries will intensify cooperation, especially in ensuring security and safety of major events, preventing “colour revolution”, and defeating all “peaceful evolution” and riot plots of hostile and reactionary forces.

2015 December 25, Vietnam News Agency, “Lao Party, State leaders welcome Vietnam’s public security delegation”, in VietnamPlus:

(politics) Any of various related revolutionary movements that developed in several societies in the former Soviet Union and the Balkans during the early 2000s, mostly using nonviolent resistance.

顏色革命 /颜色革命

any of various related revolutionary movements mostly using nonviolent resistance


ordie

Helmets nodded approval almost in unison as the ordies began to perform their jobs. The ordnance men checked the MK-84 practice bombs, ensuring they would drop when the pilot pressed the pickle switch in the cockpit […]

2009, Randy Arrington, Kerosene Cowboys:


molehunt

(espionage) An investigation attempting to identify moles (agents who have infiltrated an organisation).


AUMF

And that is why I intend to engage Congress about the existing Authorization to Use Military Force, or AUMF, to determine how we can continue to fight terrorism without keeping America on a perpetual wartime footing.

2013 May 23, Barack Obama, Remarks by the President at the National Defense University:

(US politics, military) Initialism of authorization for use of military force.


pucker factor

Referring to the tightening of the buttocks caused by fear.

(military, slang) The level of stress and/or adrenaline in a dangerous situation.


boxlock

(firearms) A style of double-barrelled shotgun with concealed, self-cocking hammers that use a break-open action.


lockwork

(firearms) The assembly forming the firing mechanism of a gun.


lockplate

(firearms) The plate that covers the lockwork of a gun.


Retardican

Retardicans (plural)
retardican (alternative)
Retardlican (alternative)
retardlican (alternative)

They're keeping him under wraps so nobody has time to rig the polling machines. They'll pop him out two days ahead of the elections. The typical Retardican will hear just one thing: Reagan. They'll vote for him automatically and mindlessly, in the same way they react (negatively, as trained) to news about stem cell research.

2004 June 28, Doug Kanter, “Re: OT: Ron Reagan”, in rec.boats (Usenet):

All across the world, families came together and most people agreed, Retardican and Homocrat alike, it was a beautiful time to be alive on the planet Earth, wars or no wars, end or no end.

2006, Michael Soltys, The Grass is Green, page 244:

The Demoncrats versus the Retardicans. Nothing is more bizarre than the body swapping of the Democrats and Republicans.

2020, Steve Madison, What's Eating You? How the World Is Screwing You Up:

Republican Party
w:Republican Party (United States)

(US politics, slang, derogatory) A Republican (a member or supporter of the Republican Party of the United States), seen as having no intelligence.


Retardican

retardican (alternative)
Retardlican (alternative)
retardlican (alternative)

Did you notice how the real mouthpiece of the Retardican plutocrat fascists, Dr. Arm(tm) has nothing to contribute to this thread now that the discussion does not invove heavy breathing and name calling?

2000 December 28, Douglas King, “Oil Exploration.... more side chatter”, in alt.sailing.asa (Usenet):

Has anyone besides Drudge (and his followers) reported this story? I think you can file it with last month's Kerry-banged-an-intern story. Can't wait to see what you Retardican clowns come up with next.

2004 March 23, Plankton, “Re: The arrogance of Kerry”, in alt.fan.howard-stern (Usenet):

Amazing how these Retardican tools, who preach distrust and hatred of ALL government, think it's religious to believe everything the Nixonite Retardican Dumbya government says...except when that same government utters an official discouraging word against Herr Bush.

2006 January 17, trim...@dc.net, “Re: Here you go, GOP Shills!”, in dfw.politics (Usenet):

(US politics, slang, derogatory) Republican (of or pertaining to the Republican Party of the United States).


Rethuglican

I have often said that it is the intent of the Rethuglicans to bankrupt the system so that there is no money for social programs!!!

2002 June 16, John H. Fisher, “Re: Rats up to old same ole' tricks again.”, in alt.politics.democrats (Usenet):

Whever^([sic]) you read something written by a Neocon/Rethuglican, remember, they may brag about how great they are, but they ain't in Iraq.

2005 January 11, NoSpamAllowed [username], “Re: Foolish, Naive American Politicians Will Receive No Muslim Gratitude For Tsunami Aid”, in alt.politics.democrats (Usenet):

Never as many as you ChickenHawk Rethuglicans, who send other people's kids off to do what you were too scaredy-cat to do yourselves.

2009 January 20, Iarnrod [username], “Re: Most Of American Military Suspicious Of Obama AsCommander-In-Chief”, in alt.politics.democrats (Usenet):

(US politics, slang, derogatory) A member or supporter of the Republican Party of the United States.


Chimpy

From chimp + -y, comparing Bush's appearance or facial expressions to a chimpanzee's.

I wonder how all those testosterone-laden combat virgins feel now, after supporting a scumbag like Chimpy and then watching him cut funding for vets....

2003 June 17, Hoss Cartright, “Chimpy and Veterans”, in az.politics (Usenet):

The day that George W. Bush first slimed his way into the Oval Office must have been a happy one indeed for the radical Iranian handlers behind Chalabi's INC operation. They knew Chimpy was exactly the sort of sucker they needed: Intellctually lazy and stupendously vain.

2004 May 23, Doctoroe, “Re: How many Bushies does it take to change a lightbulb?”, in talk.politics.misc (Usenet):

Bush would've told Murkins they were traitors for not wanting his bailouts, CEO Bonuses, Wars, Cheney and Jebya's conflicts of interests and exposing spies who refused to lie for Chimpy.

2010 January 12, Palin On Beaver News, “Nobody Voted For it. Nobody Wants it. He campaigned AGAINST it.”, in talk.politics.misc (Usenet):

(US politics, derogatory) George W. Bush (born 1946), the 43rd president of the United States (2001–2009).


BOR

BOR (countable and uncountable, plural BORs)

(countable, military, historical) Initialism of (member of) British other ranks.


GPUS

(politics) Initialism of Green Party of the United States.


LPUS

Libertarian Party (United States)
w:Libertarian Party (United States)

(politics) Initialism of Libertarian Party (United States).


GPUSA

United States of America
United States of America#English

(US politics) Initialism of Green Party of the United States of America.


South Park Republican

South Park Republican (plural South Park Republicans)

Coined by commentator Andrew Sullivan in 2001.

(US politics, colloquial) A member of a generation of young people holding center-right political beliefs more or less aligned with those portrayed in the American animated television program South Park.


dollar democracy

(politics, US, Canada) The influence of money on politics and on government


pecker checker

In reference to medical tests for sexually-transmitted diseases. See pecker (“penis”).

(US, military, slang, humorous, derogatory) A medical doctor, especially a urologist.


construction soldier

construction soldier (plural construction soldiers)

Possibly translated from German Bausoldat.

(military, historical) In the German Democratic Republic, a person who did not bear arms but instead did construction work.


EDD

(informatics, politics) Acronym of electronic direct democracy.


ribauldequin

/ɹɪˈbəʊdɪkɪn/

ribauldequin

synonym of organ gun — see also organ gun


blackline

From black + line; compare redline, greenline.

A second squad uses drip torches to begin burning a 15- to 20-foot barrier or “blackline” inside the wetline.

2011, Colorado Outdoors, volumes 49-50, page 11:

The helicopter is used to burn blacklines when the relative humidity is above 50%, temperature is below 50 degrees F, and wind speed is less than 6 mph.

1991, Rangeland Technology Equipment Council Annual Report, USDA Forest Service:

(firefighting) A line of deliberately burned material created to stop the advance of a larger fire.


FDE

(especially military) Initialism of flat dark earth: a brownish color used for clothing, uniforms, tools, and equipment.


fetial

From Latin fētiālis (“priest who sanctioned treaties and demanded satisfaction from enemies before formal declarations of war”).
The root of the Latin word is thought to be Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do, place, put”), also the source of the verb Latin faciō (“to do; to build, construct; to appoint”). The nominalized form of this verb, Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁tis (“act of putting, placement”), would have developed into an Italic noun *fētis (unattested, but conjectured to mean something like "statute, treaty" or "prescription, law", developing to mean "body of priests"), which was combined with the adjective-forming suffix -ālis to yield Latin fētiālis.
The unadapted Latin forms fetialis (singular) and fetiales (plural) are also used in English, sometimes with italicization, sometimes without.

der

Nicomachus, as explained in the next line, was already known to the Elean priests or fetials, or whatever we are to call them, as a guest-friend.

1892, Pindar, “Isthmian II. Ode in Honour of a Victory in the Chariot-race at Isthmus Won by Xenocrates of Acragas”, in J[ohn] B[agnell] Bury, editor, ΠΙΝΔΑΡΟΥ ΕΠΙΝΙΚΟΙ ΙΣΘΜΙΟΝΙΚΑΙΣ [PINDAROU EPINIKOI ISTHMIONIKAIS] = The Isthmian Odes of Pindar: Edited with Introduction and Commentary, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, footnote 23, page 45, column 1:

It was customary for the fetial to carry to the bounds of the other nation a cornetwood spear, iron-pointed or hardened in the fire, and in the presence of not less than three grown men to say, "Whereas the tribes of the Ancient Latins and men of the Ancient Latins have been guilty of acts and offences against the Roman People of the Quirites; […] I therefore and the Roman People declare and make war on the tribes of the Ancient Latins and the men of the Ancient Latins." Having said this, he would hurl his spear into their territory.

1919, Livy, “Ab Urbe Condita: Liber I [From the Founding of the City: Book I]”, in B. O. Foster, transl., Livy in Fourteen Volumes … With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library), volumes I (Books I and II), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., published 1967, →OCLC, paragraph XXXII, page 119:

After an insult had been offered Rome, or a wrong inflicted on it, several of the twenty sacred heralds, members of the College of Fecials, proceeded to demand reparation. […] [I]f war were decided, a second deputation of fecials was nominated upon whom was placed the symbolic duty of discharging a javelin into the enemy camp. This part of the procedure had obvious difficultes, and, after resorting to the fiction of performing it at an enemy camp in Rome, the fecials finally adopted an appropriate ceremony at the temple of Bellona. The fecials also had religious functions at the conclusion of a peace. It was the oath taken by the chief fecial which sanctified a treaty entered into with, or by, the Roman people.

1928, Geoffrey Butler, Simon Maccoby, “Intercourse: In Peace”, in The Development of International Law (Contributions to International Law and Diplomacy), London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd.; reprinted Clark, N.J.: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2003 (2007 printing), →ISBN, page 74:

[P]erhaps the shadowy fetials were never actually an independent priesthood but were senatorial priests assigned diplomatic functions. If fetials were originally senators, this would explain the parallel fetial and senatorial function in "international relations" and account for the continuity between fetials and later senatorial legates. Of the twenty patrician fetials, only four were customarily chosen to serve in an embassy.

2005, Richard E. Mitchell, “The Definition of Patres and Plebs: An End to the Struggle of the Orders”, in Kurt A[rnold] Raaflaub, editor, Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders, 2nd expanded and updated edition, Malden, Mass., London: Blackwell Publishing, →ISBN, pages 142–143:

According to authors of the late Republic, the fetials supervised Roman adherence to the iura belli, the laws of war. How, then, should we interpret the silence with respect to the fetials of Polybius, the central concern of whose history was Roman imperialism, but who mentions the fetials not even once?

2008, Clifford Ando, “Religion and Imperialism at Rome”, in The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire (The Transformation of the Classical Heritage), Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif, London: University of California Press, part II (Gods of the Far-flung Empire), page 128:

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 member of the Roman college of priests who acted as representatives in disputes with foreign nations.


Kimjongilism

(politics) Juche; the political thesis formed by the former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, as subsequently influenced by Kim Jong-il.


liberum veto

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

(historical, law, politics) A parliamentary rule in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, allowing any dissenting member of the legislature to force an immediate end to the current session and nullify any legislation that had already been passed.


stovec

I think it is because if a garage get a stovec and no one claims it, they dont^([sic]) get paid, not only that, they have to pay AADL too.

2008 July 16, Chocolate boy, “Re: Heavy Recovery”, in PrisonOfficer.org.uk, retrieved 2014-10-26:

If there's a car on your drive when you get home, and you can't get onto the drive yourself, there's no obstruction as such. However, it would be worth a phone call to the police (non emergency number) as you never know, the car might be an outstanding stovec, in which case we will come, and it will be removed.

2010 March 4, Damsel, “Parked on a private driveway without permission”, in PoliceSpecials.com, archived from the original on 2014-11-22:

(UK, law enforcement) A stolen car, van, lorry or other motor vehicle.


mag book

From the shape and opening method of the container, similar to a codex (colloquially referred to as books), and being used to store and carry "mags".

(weaponry) A container used to store and carry ammunition clips.


cuntservative

What a wonderful explanation of why cuntservatives needed the smear to fight clinton.

1998 November 19, Flykiller [username], “Re: More America bashing, can you believe it?”, in alt.rush-limbaugh (Usenet):

Well unlike cuntservatives I see everyone as a human being deserving equal rights a^([sic]) and due process under the law.

2003 November 19, David Smith, “Re: Marriage”, in alt.politics.liberalism (Usenet):

Of course we all know the real disease is all the ignorant, arrogant, self-righteous, paranoid, gun-loony, "compassionate" cuntservatives like you.

2004 January 14, johnny, “Re: ACLU comes to Limbaugh's rescue!?”, in alt.rush-limbaugh (Usenet):

(slang, vulgar, derogatory, politics) A person with right-wing political views.


Republicunt

He shot my husband a smirk, not letting me go. "Jesus, Dean, you married a feminazi?"
I smiled sweetly. "Beats a Republicunt."

2010, Cornelia Read, Invisible Boy, Grand Central Publishing, published 2010, →ISBN:

Speaking of money, ever since the Republicunts came back into office after Clinton in 2000, most people just do not have the extra money to see a Pro Domme like they used to.

2011, Davina Rhine (quoting Andi), Rebel Moms: The Off-Road Map for the Off-Road Mom, Rebellion Press (2011), page 573

“Dude, is that the president? Get that Republicunt off the TV, will you?”

2014, Scott Sigler, Pandemic, Crown Publishers, published 2014, →ISBN:

(US politics, slang, vulgar, derogatory) A member or supporter of the Republican Party of the United States.


aim-crier

(archery) One who encouraged an archer by crying "Aim!" when he was about to shoot.


VLS

(military) Initialism of vertical launching system.


oligarchize

en-verb

oligarchize (third-person singular simple present oligarchizes, present participle oligarchizing, simple past and past participle oligarchized)

oligarchizes (present singular third-person)
oligarchizing (participle present)
oligarchized (participle past)
oligarchized (past)

(transitive, politics) To make (a political system) oligarchic.


on the table

The proposed new bill will soon be on the table in Parliament.

It is also important to note that union shops were the first workplaces in the country to win domestic partnership — and it wasn't won because management put it on the table, but because lesbian and gay unionized workers fought for it.

1994 October, Harneen Chernow, Andrea Demajewski, Herbst, “Understanding Unions, Class and Power”, in Gay Community News, page 3:

(politics) Up for formal discussion; tabled.


SERT

w:Special Emergency Response Team (Queensland)

(law enforcement, Australia, Queensland) Acronym of Special Emergency Response Team.

Special Emergency Response Team
w:Special Emergency Response Team

(law enforcement, Canada) Acronym of Special Emergency Response Team.


PORT

w:Victoria Police Public Order Response Team

(law enforcement in Australia) Abbreviation of Public Order Response Team.


apartheidization

(sociopolitics) The process of apartheidizing.


powerism

(geopolitics) A disposition in geopolitical relations that supports hegemonic influence


firing point

(military) A prepared fighting position from which infantry can defend territory with minimal exposure to return fire.


squabbling bleeder

en-noun

squabbling bleeder (plural squabbling bleeders)

(military, slang, humorous) squadron leader


mahogany Spitfire

mahogany Spitfire (plural mahogany Spitfires)

(military, slang, humorous, derogatory) The desk of an air force employee who does not fly.


LPR

LPR (countable and uncountable, plural LPRs)

LPRs (plural)
lpr (alternative)
LP (alternative)
lp (alternative)
LPRN (alternative)
lprn (alternative)

"The breadth of this LPR system is spectacular and amounts to a warrantless search."

2023 July 24, Chris Eberhart, “NY police used AI to track drivers on highways as attorney questions legality”, in Fox News:

(US, law enforcement, uncountable) Initialism of license plate recognition.

The surveillance program includes at least 480 LPRs that scan and record about 16.2 million vehicles per week and stores that data for two years, he wrote in the court filing.

(US, law enforcement, countable) Initialism of license plate reader.

permanent resident
permanent resident#English

(US, officialese, countable) Initialism of lawful permanent resident, a green card holder.


Syrianize

en-verb

Syrianize (third-person singular simple present Syrianizes, present participle Syrianizing, simple past and past participle Syrianized)

Syrianizes (present singular third-person)
Syrianizing (participle present)
Syrianized (participle past)
Syrianized (past)


chain of command

en-noun

chain of command (plural chains of command)

(military) The command hierarchy or structure in which one rank obeys the one above it, which obeys the one above it, and so forth.

ланцуг камандавання

hierarchy in which one rank obeys the one above it


JKD

(informal, martial arts) Initialism of Jeet Kune Do.


Iraqibacter

From Iraqi + -bacter. From Blend of Iraqi + translingual Acinetobacter due to the instances of infection of US military service personnel serving in Iraq by this bacteria.

blend

Iraqi bacter (alternative)
Iraqi Bacter (alternative)

Acinetobacter baumannii
Acinetobacter baumannii#English

(slang, pathology, military, US) Synonym of Acinetobacter baumannii.


Tuesday Group

(US politics) An informal caucus of approximately 50 moderate Republican members of the House of Representatives in the 114th Congress (2015-2017).


fiscal cliff

(politics, economics) A situation where a number of large spending or taxation bills begin or end simultaneously.


debt ceiling

debt ceilings (plural)
debt-ceiling (alternative)

(politics, economics) The limit up to which an entity (usually a government) is legally allowed to borrow.


Obamageddon

It is still very possible that he will surprise us and develop into a great leader, the chosen one we so desperately seek to lead us from the darkness of Obamageddon, the Barracolypse.

2011, Mark Easely, "President Perry", The Observer (Notre Dame and Saint Mary's), Volume 45, Issue 4, 26 August 2011, page 10

He has turned American tax policy in the direction that Europe's been going for the past fifty years. Great Obama Depression, here we come. We're one step closer to Obamageddon.

2013, Wayne Root, The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide: How to Survive, Thrive, and Prosper During Obamageddon, Regnery Publishing, →ISBN:

I remain deeply skeptical of people amassing weapons against a coming Obamageddon.

2013 June 6, Christopher Swindell, “Can We Put Guns Down and Talk?”, in The Charleston Gazette:

(US politics, derogatory or humorous) The decline or fall of the United States caused by the presidency of Barack Obama.