gravy plane
n.— «The United States Postoffice Department is getting on a gravy plane come September 1.…Under the 1938 CAA Act, the Postoffice Department has to pay the airlines enough revenue to keep an air transportation system in effect, in the interest of national defense. And up until now, the department has been paying for airline space it hasn’t been using.» —“Gravy Plane Due Sept. 1 For Postoffice” Washington Post June 27, 1948. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Some college students are using the word loyalty as a synonym for monogamy. Are the meanings of these words now shifting? Plus, a biologist discovers a new species of bat, then names it after a poet he admires. Also, warm memories of how a childhood...
Responding to our discussion about thin places, those spots where the boundary between this world and other realities seems narrow or permeable, a listener in Kirkland, Washington, sent us some eloquent thoughts about her own experiences of that...