big smoke
n.— «The “big train” has reached the end of the road.…Walter Johnson somewhat sadly admitted today that he was through.…Twice now the “big smoke” has started in the series.» —“‘The Old Gray Mare Ain’t What She Used to Be,’ Says Walter Johnson, Twice Defeated Pitcher” by George Barry Clearfield Progress (Pa.) Oct. 10, 1924. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
After hearing our conversation about how dictionaries decide on a preferred pronunciation, and specifically about how to pronounce aioli, Vern from San Diego, California, wrote to say that a friend once made fun of him for pronouncing grimace with a...