bute n.— «The biggest problem confronting the industry is its addiction to performance-enhancing drugs. In the early 1960s, phenylbutazone—bute in racetrack parlance—seemed like a miraculous antidote to lameness in tired horses...
worm n.— «“Everyone thinks they’re going to go to college, but we’re all back in the oil fields doing what our dads did,” says one rookie, called a “worm” in roughneck parlance. “I was going to do big things and...
red mushroom n.— «A preliminary investigation also found that the train’s braking system was not defective and that the operator did not press the “red mushroom”—Muni parlance for the bright red button on the operator’s...
FOD n.— «In aviation parlance, “FOD,” or foreign object debris, can be sucked into jet engines or slice through the thin aluminum skins of aircraft, potentially setting off catastrophic fuel-tank explosions.» —“Airports...
waterspider n.— «A lean packing operation features ergonomically designed workcells, each outfitted with the same equipment, which support standardized work and make it easy for employees to rotate from one workstation to the next. Each...
chop v.— «Hawkins led for a large part of Sunday’s final portion, and started talk of splitting the pot early and everyone going home (“chopping,” in poker parlance). Then he lost a couple of hands. (Personally, I think he was...