heater

heater
 n.— «In 1974, John Dillmann was a 27-year-old detective on the New Orleans Police Department’s homicide unit and hungry for his first “heater” case—a big publicity case that would earn him status on the force. He didn’t know how soon that case would come.» —“Unholy Matrimony” by Mary Durusau Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate Mag. (La.) Jan. 18, 1987. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Further reading

Word-Peckers

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a word-pecker is “a person who trifles or plays with, or quibbles over, words.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word-Peckers” I always love it when I’m looking through the dictionary and...

Buttons on Ice Cream (episode #1678)

How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some of those definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”? Dictionary editor Kory Stamper explains it all in her new book. Plus, the story behind the expression more...