flipper
n.— «Playing hockey is a decent alternative to flipping through an endless conveyance of steel bars, culling out the bent and twisted pieces, careful that the razor sharp ends don’t slice through protective gloves. In mill parlance, Thornton that summer was a “flipper,” hired to eyeball defective steel rods and yank them for disposal.» —“Planted seeds of hard work” by Kevin Paul Dupont Boston Globe (Massachusetts) Ju;y 20, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
We’ve talked before about dog rescue groups’ convention of naming litters of puppies according to a theme. Any idea why a recent litter of pups included Ramp, Slingshot, Kicker, and Flipper? They were all named for terms involved in pinball. This is...
After our earlier conversation with Amanda in Evansville, Indiana, whose family refers to their garbage disposal as George, a listener shares his own family’s term for this device: the spoon sharpener. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript...