dinner bell
v.— «Some fishermen call the explosive seal bombs “dinner bells” because after repeated use, the sea lions learn to associate them with food.» —“Frustrated fishermen shoot sea lions” by Meghan Gilliss Point Reyes Light (California) Oct. 23, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The autocomplete function on your phone comes in handy, of course. But is it changing the way we write and how linguists study language? Also, suppose you could invite any two authors, living or dead, to dinner. Who’s on your guest list and...
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...