paper bullet
n.— «This reservation and others in the state are the final destinations for the tribe’s money. They govern themselves and pay for health services, education, housing and public safety with a combination of tribal money and federal assistance. But the federal involvement also leads to frequent clashes with the government. “Today we don’t have military wars, but we have to fight what I call paper bullets.”» —“Bizbits: Seminole-Hard Rock” by Adrian Sainz in Indian Reservation, Florida Fayetteville Observer (North Carolina) Apr. 6, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Elena in Mt. Holly, North Carolina, wonders why beeline means “a direct route.” Well, once a bee has gathered sufficient nectar from flowers, she flies in a straight course back to the hive. In The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837...
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...