If you catch your blue jeans on a nail, you may find yourself with a winklehawk. This term, adapted into English from Dutch, means “an L-shaped tear in a piece of fabric.” And: What’s your relationship with the books on your...
Chris from Castro, New York, is curious about bum rush or bum’s rush, which refers to forcibly removing someone from an establishment. In 1987, Public Enemy’s debut album Yo! Bum Rush the Show popularized the use of bum rush to mean...
We say rush the growler to mean “go fetch the booze” because, back in the 1880s, people got around the new liquor laws by sending kids scurrying down to the bar with an empty growler in hand to fill up. Variations of this include chase...
porkulus n.— «This massive porkulus—it’s not a stimulus, it’s a porkulus—this porkulus spending extravaganza has been flatly rejected by the Office of Management and Budget and Wall Street.» —“Our EIB Week in Review: “Support...
midnight rule making n.— «Anticipating an end-of-administration rush to churn out hundreds of regulations—a practice known as “midnight rule making”—the White House counseled agencies to restrain themselves. “We need to continue [our]...
century n.— «Together we’ve ridden thousands of miles on California’s back roads, frequently riding the organized cycling outings referred to as centuries. Riding 100 miles on a bike (there is usually a 62 mile so-called metric century...