puffer
n.— «The youngsters, a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, were arrested Friday in a traffic stop and accused of stealing a “puffer”—a car left running on a cold morning to warm up.» —“Cars Left Running Easy Prey For Thieves Police Say Don’t Leave Keys In Car’s Ignition” by Kevin Vaughan Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colo.) Dec. 19, 2000. (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...
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...