distraction strike
n.— «Under fire for a videotape showing an officer punching a suspect repeatedly in the face, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said Friday that he is directing officers not to use the term “distraction strike” to describe when officers hit people to get them to submit to arrest.…The term, he said, was developed to describe a punch or open-hand strike intended to divert a suspect’s attention to where the blow lands so the officer can transition to another technique for completing the arrest.» —“Bratton bans use-of-force term ‘distraction strike’ but not force” by Patrick McGreevy Los Angeles Times Nov. 18, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Many of us struggled with the Old English poem “Beowulf” in high school. But what if you could actually hear “Beowulf” in the English of today? There’s a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley that uses contemporary...
Aubrey in Waco, Texas, says her mother used to warn the kids against contracting honkus of the bonkus, a fanciful name for a contagious disease. This colloquial term probably comes from the words bonk and konk, meaning “to hit” or...