dead-man brake
n.— «Cars have been built with brake pedals.…We have built-in hand-braking controls and so-called “dead-man” brake controls.» —“Suggestion for Relocation Of Accelerator Shows Many Plans Tried” by Herbert Chase New York Times Aug. 3, 1941. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Barbara Kingsolver’s book Demon Copperhead is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in today’s Appalachia. Martha shares memories of a long-ago visit to Kingsolver’s family farm in Virginia, where they...
An Army veteran in Madison, Alabama, wonders about the use of the charrette (sometimes spelled with one R, charette) in the military to mean a gathering to workshop ideas and work through all potential solutions to a problem. The term seems to have...