condolence payment
n.— «The amount of cash the U.S. military has paid to families of Iraqi civilians killed or maimed in operations involving American troops skyrocketed from just under $5 million in 2004 to almost $20 million last year, according to Pentagon financial data. The dramatic spike came in what’s known as condolence payments, which are distributed to Iraqi families whose members were caught in U.S. crossfire or killed or injured during U.S. ground and air assaults.» —“Families reunite as first of 2,500 inmates set free” by Solomon Moore, Suhail Ahmad in Baghdad San Francisco Chronicle June 8, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...
When there’s no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your own dinner? Some people apply acronyms like YOYO — “you’re on your own” — or CORN, for “Clean Out your Refrigerator...