bullet catcher
n.— «We don’t like to use the term “bodyguard.”…t’s an antiquated term and you have a picture of a muscle-bound guy in an ill-fitting suit who is sort of lumbering in the background. We have a term for those types: We call them “bullet catchers.” They’re just there to look intimidating. We’re trying to dispel that myth. Our guys blend in.» —“Standing guard for rich and famous” by Billy Baker Boston Globe (Massachusetts) Feb. 25, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Connie from Marana, Arizona, grew up being warned that Rawhead and Bloody Bones would get her if she went rummaging in closets or her grandmother’s hope chest. The creature—or sometimes a pair of creatures—dates at least as far back as the mid...
In this bonus A Way with Words minicast, Martha and Grant step into the historic streets of Marblehead, Massachusetts, where the simple cry of “Down bucket!” could serve as a kind of local password. After they ponder that and other...