lock box
n.—Gloss: a government account or fund which is protected from reappropriation to other government programs. «The current casinos bill under consideration puts about $300 million in an account, which legislators refer to as a “lock box” strictly for education.…The legislation mandates that even the governor can’t “raid” the fund.» —“Casinos can help Chicago and the state” by Glenn Reedus Chicago Defender Oct. 25, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The phrase I’ll be a John Brown or I’ll be John Browned means “I’ll be damned” or “I’ll be hanged.” It’s a reference to the militant abolitionist John Brown, who in 1859 led 21 men on a raid of...
An Omaha, Nebraska, listener and wife have picked up the expression Bags not! from the Australian children’s show “Bluey.” The phrase is used to stake a claim by announcing one refuses to doing something undesirable, like change a...
Wow, “lock box”… that’s so 2000.