lily pad
n.— «Mr. Secretary, can you tell us, do you envision the force of Marines as the vanguard in the battle against terrorism in Afghanistan? Do you see them being used to seek out and destroy al Qaeda networks, or are they setting up a lily pad of sorts, for other units that will follow on?» —“DoD news briefing” M2 Presswire Nov. 27, 2001. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
When there’s no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your own dinner? Some people apply acronyms like YOYO — “you’re on your own” — or CORN, for “Clean Out your Refrigerator...