book-up
n.— «THE ANZ bank has warned it will not do business with shops that hold the credit cards and personal identification numbers of Aboriginal customers. In a submission to the Northern Territory Government, the bank says the practice, known as “book-up,” exposes indigenous people “to an unacceptable risk of fraud, theft, unsafe debt and liability for unauthorised transactions.”» —“ANZ gets tough on card risk” by Tony Koch The Australian (Sydney, Australia) Feb. 25, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The phrase throw in the towel meaning “give up,” stems from boxing competitions in the late 19th. If a boxer’s team wanted to stop the fight—usually because their fighter was taking too much punishment—they would literally throw a towel into the air...
Homer in Kingsport, Tennessee, says that when Homer came in after curfew, his dad would say, “You guys have been out swarping, haven’t you?” Swarping is related to a variety of dialect terms in Scotland and Northern England that have to do with...