beaver baffler
n.— «The pipes that Hilliker laid have cages over the inlet-ends to prevent beavers from clogging them. Beavers are tuned to the sound of rushing water and were probably busy Wednesday night rebuilding the dam notches over the pipes. Hilliker also purposely left an open leak for the beavers to work on, distracting them from the pipes and cages.…The dam took about six years of nocturnal gnawing and building. Simon, Hilliker and others used the same flexible pipe “beaver baffler” technique to bring the water level down.» —“Beavers in Bethany live in harmony with residents” by Abram Katz Orange Bulletin (Milford, Connecticut) Dec. 20, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
If someone urges you to spill the tea, they probably don’t want you tipping over a hot beverage. Originally, the tea here was the letter T, as in “truth.” To spill the T means to “pass along truthful information.” Plus...
If you speak both German and Spanish, you may find yourself reaching for a German word instead of a Spanish one, and vice versa. This puzzling experience is so common among polyglots that linguists have a name for it. • The best writers create...