crowd out
n.— «Throwing a wrench in Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan are new Bush guidelines that require children be without private insurance for at least a year before being provided SCHIP coverage. The regulations are aimed largely at preventing what’s known as “crowd out,” which happens when families drop their private insurance in order to obtain free or low-cost government-subsidized coverage.» —“Bush right to curb insurance ‘crowd out’” by Tarren Bragdon Times Union (Albany, New York) Sept. 4, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Stacy from Marquette, Michigan, says her German-born grandfather would warn that she was going to get a putsch or potch, meaning a “a gentle slap” on her bottom, if she misbehaved. The German verb Patsch means “slap.” The...
A man from Fort Smith, Arkansas, says his Canadian wife is baffled by his pronouncing the word cement as CEE-ment. Stressing the first syllable of such words as police, insurance, umbrella, and vehicle is an occasional feature of Southerners’...