leather jacket
n.— «The female crane fly lays her eggs in the soil, usually around water or in mud. When the eggs hatch if the soil is too hard the larvae, or leather jackets as they are called, aren’t able to reach the surface.» —“Blistering summer caused crane fly invasion” by Frances Earlam Wirral Globe (Birkendhead, England, United Kingdom) Oct. 3, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Ribbon fall. Gallery forest. You won’t find terms like these in most dictionaries, but they and hundreds like them are discussed by famous writers in the book Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape. The book is an intriguing collection...
In White Oleander (Bookshop|Amazon), novelist Janet Fitch touts the value of memorizing poetry with these memorable lines: Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they’ll make your soul...