headache bar

headache bar n. a tube or beam suspended horizontally so as to block or bang against vehicles that are too tall for passage; a vehicle’s roll bar or headache rack; any horizontal tube or beam with which a person could collide. Editorial Note: The Historical Dictionary of American Slang dates the near-synonym headache post to 1887. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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Further reading

What in Tarnation (episode #1599)

Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below your mouth and the other at your ear, as if you’re holding an old-fashioned candlestick...

Don’t Be a Skutch

Brittany in Green Coast Springs, Florida, says that when she was grumpy or irritated as a child, her mother would say a phrase that sounded like Don’t be such a scooch. This bit of Italian-American slang, often rendered as skutch, denotes a “pest”...