lily pad
n.— «McPhillips described the operation as “building an air bridge” to the Mideast, with stops at “lily pads along the way” in addition to aerial refueling.» —“Buildup Order Kicks Air Base Into High Gear” by Robert Goodrich St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Mo.) Nov. 13, 1998. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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Loretta in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to know what lexical and dialectal clues linguists look for when guessing where someone is from. She also wonders: Do people with long careers in the military or who grew up in a military family have a...