drive-off
n.— «According to the top administrator of that department, gasoline drive-offs are so great a problem that to include them with larcenies would significantly distort his jurisdiction’s crime rate.» —“Changes Weighed In Data On Crimes” by David Burnham in Washington, D.C. New York Times Nov. 19, 1984. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...