pixie dust
n.— «The first of executives to admit being part of the scheme pleaded guilty in March 2003. They told agents about inserting false numbers they called “dirt” or “pixie dust” to cover up earnings shortfalls, which they termed the “hole.” The group even coined a name for itself: “the family.”» —“Scrushy acquitted of fraud at HealthSouth” by Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala. BusinessWeek June 28, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Cat hair may be something you brush off, but cat hair is also a slang term that means “money.” In the same way, cat beer isn’t alcoholic — some people use cat beer as a joking term for “milk.” And imagine walking on a...