crowning
n.— «He was very concerned to discover evidence of a brutal practice called crowning” in countryside between Holt and Broughton Gifford, near his home.…setts. They use terrier dogs wearing tracking devices to explore the underground tunnels of a badger sett. When the dog stops moving it usually means it has come nose to nose with a badger. The men dig down through the earth to capture it. They then fill in the hole with earth to cover their tracks.» —“Ecologist condemns ‘barbaric practice’” Wiltshire Times (Trowbridge, Wiltshire, United Kingdom) Dec. 3, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...
The adjectives canine and feline refer to dogs and cats. But how does English address other groups of animals? Plus, cabin fever has been around much longer than the current pandemic. That restless, antsy, stir-crazy feeling goes back to the days...