jam
n.— «The Friars certainly aren’t looking for Irwin to provide 10 goals a year, anchor the power play and rush the puck from end to end. What they are looking for is that word that floats around the catacombs of Schneider Arena like a biblical buzzword: jam. “Jam” measures the intangibles a defenseman brings to the game on a nightly basis. It measures grit and toughness and nastiness and responsibility. It measures speed and pop and playing the body.» —“PC’s Irwin turns the page” by Travis Barrett The Call (Woonsocket, R.I.) Oct. 15, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Imagine telling someone how to get to your home, but without using the name of your street, or any other street within ten miles. Could you do it? We take street names for granted, but these words are useful for far more, like applying for a job or...
Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital is a sensuous, exhilarating meditation about the strangeness of life on a space station, with its mix of tedious tasks and jaw-dropping views. And: a musician who rode the rails in his youth shares the slang he...