drying rock
n.— «At a stakeholders meeting convened Wednesday by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative at the Cape Codder Resort in Hyannis, many of the experts heard a new phrase for the first time: “drying rocks.” It was Arthur Pugsley, an environmental analyst with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office, who described the features as “rocks that poke above mean low water” that are used in determining boundaries under an international treaty.» —“Is Cape Wind project on the rocks?” by Edward F. Maroney Barnstable Patriot (Hyannis, Mass.) June 4, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
An anadrome is a word that forms a whole new word when you spell it backwards. For example, the word “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts.” Some people’s first names are anadromes. There’s the girl named Noel...
A flashlight doesn’t flash. It provides a steady beam of light. So why is it called a flashlight? The earliest versions lit up only briefly before the batteries gave out and required a recharge, so they were literally “flash lights...