bare metal
n.— «Other products, such as Xen and VMware’s ESX Server, run in a hypervisor that sits beneath the guest operating systems and the hardware. Because the software layer sits on the “bare metal,” these are sometimes referred to as hardware VMs. Direct contact with the system hardware allows the VMs to work more efficiently.» —“Under the Hood: The Soul of a Virtual Machine” by Robert L. Mitchell Computerworld Apr. 25, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a word-pecker is “a person who trifles or plays with, or quibbles over, words.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word-Peckers” I always love it when I’m looking through the dictionary and...
How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some of those definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”? Dictionary editor Kory Stamper explains it all in her new book. Plus, the story behind the expression more...