A Way with Words | difficulty

ICUitis

Posted by Grant Barrett on February 28, 2008 · Add Comment

ICUitis n.— «Shalof describes the absolute chaos she and her patients feel when they are transferred out of the ICU with 1:1 nursing care to the floor where nurses may have up to eight patients. As a floor nurse, I can see the shock this causes a patient, and the difficulty they and their families have [...]

chicken-winging

Posted by Grant Barrett on January 24, 2008 · Add Comment

chicken-winging n.— «I get up these routes with little difficulty and practice the rock-climbing techniques of stemming, jamming, crack climbing and chimneying. I even do a technique called chicken-winging, where I press my elbow and palm against two sides of the rock and pull up.» —“Joshua Tree rocks” by Laura Casey Mercury News (San Jose, California) Jan. 20, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued [...]

valley of death

Posted by Grant Barrett on July 31, 2007 · Add Comment

valley of death n.— «Several speakers referred to the difficulty in getting an innovation from the idea stage to the commercial stage, a gap referred to as the “valley of death.” Andrew Dearing, secretary general of the European Industrial Research Management Association, said the valley of death for a typical breakthrough is “at least 10 years [...]

black fish

Posted by Grant Barrett on May 24, 2007 · Add Comment

black fish n.— «Share fishermen, who are classified self-employed, receive a share of the profits or gross earnings of a fishing boat but research from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has revealed that share fishermen often don’t save for tax and national insurance, and this can cause difficulty when the tax bill finally arrives. There have [...]

7,000-mile screwdriver

Posted by Grant Barrett on November 13, 2006 · Add Comment

7,000-mile screwdriver n.— «As I think most of you know from our efforts on the USS Cole, the chief of naval operations, secretary of the navy, both for good, legal reasons of not interfering with ongoing investigations from Washington, and for practical reasons of the difficulty of adjusting things with a 7,000-mile screwdriver, do not reach [...]

network war

Posted by Grant Barrett on August 3, 2006 · Add Comment

network war n.— «In a network war, the rigid hierarchical structure of a conventional army has difficulty engaging the flattened structure of a hybrid force such as Hezbollah, in which the sophistication of a conventional force is packed into a horizontal cell structure.» —“Know thine enemy” by Paul McGeough in Nabatiyeh, Lebanon The Age (Melbourne, Australia) Aug. 2, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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ICUitis

chicken-winging

valley of death

7,000-mile screwdriver

network war