box with docks
n.— «For years, industry slang for a convention center was “a box with docks.” It was blunt but apt shorthand. In recent years, though, convention center managers have been learning the lesson that hotel companies have already discovered: it is not enough to offer just a place to stay or meet.» —“Perking Up Convention Halls” by Martha C. White New york Times Aug. 28, 2007. (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...