balance the baskets
v. phr.— «Alderman at-large Paul Denaro said the accepted practice over the years has been not to fund line items properly, but to make estimates based on the previous year’s budget and then adjust the accounts as needed during the course of a given fiscal year. This practice is sometimes known as “balancing the baskets” and results in a flurry of financial transfers, typically toward the close of the fiscal year in June.» —“Increase in OT partly due to installation of new computer system” by Gordon Vincent Daily Times Chronicle (Woburn, Massachusetts) Jan. 26, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
The term skycap for workers who help with luggage at an airport was coined by analogy with redcap, a term for porters on trains who wore red caps. Skycap was the winning entry in a contest. Another contest, held in 1923, gave us the word scofflaw, a...