dust-off
n.— «The first dust-off is already lifting off, heading back into combat for more casualties, while a second chopper comes in quickly to take its place.» —by Lynda Van Devanter Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam Jan. 1, 1983. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Jennifer, a tutor in Tallahassee, Florida, wonders what to call a segment of an orange. Among botanists, it’s a carpel. Informally, it’s a segment, slice, wedge, peg, or pig. It may be that these segments are called pigs, because all...
A nurse in Jacksonville, Florida, finds that, without even being aware of it, she takes on the accent of her patients, and she wonders whether that’s because she’s in a profession where she needs to make strong connections quickly with...