cold-iron watch
v.— «American Export Lines put “a cold-iron watch” on the $53,000,000 Savannah in Galveston, Texas, last week.…It means putting a cadre crew aboard to keep essential maintenance on a dead ship. Electricity, water, steam and other utilities are received from shore.» —“‘Cold-Iron Watch’ on Savannah Maintained by American Export” New York Times July 28, 1963. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Need a slang term that can replace just about any noun? Try chumpie. If you’re from Philadelphia, you may already know this handy placeholder word. And there’s Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, and … The Bronx — why do we add...
Grace in Abilene, Texas, says her grandmother, who was of German descent, would tell children to stop sulking or pouting with a word that sounded to Grace like “mooksie.” Her grandmother was probably using a form of the German dialectal terms...