on the tarmac
adj.— «The panel found the agency was “lenient” and “ineffective” and in some cases lost track of people enrolled in the program. As many as 200 people at any given time, or 40 percent of those enrolled, are “considered to be lost from the program,” referred to as “on the tarmac,” according to the report.» —“Grand Jury: Drug program needs overhaul” by Jessica Keating Ventura County Star (California) June 22, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...
Floordrobe is the new word for an old habit: piling your clothes on the floor instead of putting them away. The Oxford English Dictionary recently added an entry for it, defining floordrobe as “an untidy heap of discarded clothing left on the floor...