take ermine
v. phr.— «The BBC has a tried-and-tested mechanism for removing editors who are deemed to have failed. It promotes them into utterly meaningless positions, a practice sometimes referred to as an “involuntary lateral arabesque,” or “taking ermine.”» —“Today tries to build a new tomorrow as editor moves on” by Tim Luckhurst Guardian (U.K.) Feb. 26, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
One of the most powerful words you’ll ever hear — and one of the most poignant — isn’t in dictionaries yet. But it probably will be one day. The word is endling, and it means “the last surviving member of a species.” The...
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell suggested answering with ahoy! but Thomas Edison was partial to hello! A fascinating new book about...