fourwalling
v.— «How, in these inflationary times, do you persuade the public to pay $23 million to watch your old home movies, mixed in wish some stock wildlife footage? Answer: You call the confection the “Great American Something,” or simply the “American Something”—and you four-wall it.…This new marketing technique, so-called because the film-maker literally rents the theater’s foour walls himself, has already made fortunes.…Dub’s astonishing success is due almost entirely to his adroit use of four-walling.» —“‘Four-Walling’ Hikes Movie Profits” by Charles Foley News Journal (Mansfield, Ohio) Oct. 27, 1974. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that are uniquely their own, from a point of view that is theirs and no one else’s. Plus, why do we say...
While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new collection online lets you eavesdrop on discussions about which words should be...