black whistle
n.— «Yang Zuwu, general manager of the Premier League side Beijing Hyundai, said that “faked matches, black whistles, betting on games and other ugly phenomena” were increasing, the Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. “Black whistles” is slang for corrupt referees.» —“Beijing coach cries foul over referees” in Beijing, China International Herald Tribune Oct. 5, 2004. (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...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...