knuckle duster
n.— «They call them statement rings, in the typically kooky parlance of the fashion business, as if the wearer’s hand had been asked to give a deposition. The term I personally prefer is knuckle-duster, slang that a friend came up with to describe what was once also known as a cocktail ring and worn primarily, it seemed, by women who had perhaps failed to score that more aggressive statement of arrival, a band on the left hand.» —“With One Hand Over the Top” by Guy Trebay New York Times Nov. 23, 2006. (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...