bullet sponge
n.— «Others in the Army call them grunts, or trigger pullers, or crunchies, for the sound of a tank rolling over a dead soldier. Sgt. Allan Toney has heard them all. “Bullet taker, bullet sponge, bullet stopper,” he recites while smoking a cigarette outside the concrete barriers protecting his battalion’s tent city. “Joe.”» —“Infantrymen thrive in the thick of things” by Wes Allison in Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait St. Petersburg Times (Florida) Mar. 23, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
If you take up texting and social media late in life, there’s a lot to learn! A twenty-something wants advice getting her dad up to speed on memes, Instagram, and animated images. Plus, when you’re on a long road trip, what do you call...
Mona from Riverview, Florida, grew up understanding that the word schmooze, which comes from Yiddish, meant simply “to mingle and chat” at parties, but when she fondly referred to her friend as a schmoozer, the friend was insulted, assuming that a...