heart-attack attrib. in sports, connoting an animal, person, or group known for come-from-behind or very slight victories. Editorial Note: Especially common in phrases such as “the heart attack kids,” which has been a nickname for a variety of sports teams. Etymological Note: Directly related to the non-medical use of “heart attack” defined by Encarta as a “sudden shock.” (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...