biological supermarket
n.— «According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, wetlands are “among the most productive ecosystems in the world, comparable to rain forests and coral reefs.” The EPA’s website refers to them as “biological supermarkets,” due to the “great volumes of food that attract many animal species.”» —“Would-be builder says APA biologist ’ended our hopes’ for Tupper apartments” by Nathan Brown Adirondack Daily Enterprise (Saranac Lake, New York) Jan. 24, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Kelly from Butte, Montana, recalls that when a few morsels remained at the end of a meal, her grandmother would say, Make it a nice day tomorrow, meaning everyone should eat all their food. A version used by a childhood friend’s family was Make it a...
Jill from Greenville, South Carolina, wants to know why pickle automatically means “pickled cucumber,” as opposed to other pickled vegetables, such as onions and carrots. The answer has to do with prototypicality, the cultural agreement that one...
Biological Supermarket has also been used to refer to a sex partner whose past habits leave open the possibility of infection with an STD