helicopter
n.— «The police had suspected the boys of being “Islamic extremists” and subjected them to a popular interrogation technique called “the helicopter”: With the suspect lying flat on his back on a concrete floor, offices seize his shoulders and legs, heave him up in the air and let go.» —“Excusing tyranny breeds distrust and violence” by Abid Ullah Jan Media Monitors Network (California) Aug. 18, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...