bikes
n.pl.— «The grinding pedestal -known as the “bikes” (although some occasionally referred to it as something quite unprintable)—was manned by local West Indian Woody who looked as though he could grind non stop all day without breaking sweat.…The knowledge that a cardio-vascular surgeon and one of the world’s leading heart transplant anaesthetists were among our number certainly made those detailed to “the bikes’ feel a little less apprehensive.» —“In the Pink” by David Glenn Yachting World May 1, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry band goes by a name that means “Winter Street,” and in Hawaii, a term for the Milky Way...
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...