charity stripe
n.— «Free throw: It’s the greatest misnomer in sports. It’s neither free, nor a throw. It should be called an “earned, uncontested shot,” but that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like free throw. It’s only a 15-foot shot, worth just one point, yet somehow seems to factor into the outcome of more games than not. It’s shot from an area often called the charity stripe, although there is nothing charitable about it.» —“The fine art of shooting free throws” by Eric Plummer Bonner County Daily Bee (Sandpoint, Idaho) Dec. 31, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...
Imagine telling someone how to get to your home, but without using the name of your street, or any other street within ten miles. Could you do it? We take street names for granted, but these words are useful for far more, like applying for a job or...