rat spill
n.— «Reacting to a “rat-spill” from a shipwreck or some other introduction requires a rapid response, as does any appearance on Anacapa Island following eradication, or on Prince, Sutil and Santa Barbara Islands.» —“Final Environmental Impact Statement for Anacapa Island Restoration Plan…Record of Decision” U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Nov. 17, 2000. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
After hearing our conversation about how dictionaries decide on a preferred pronunciation, and specifically about how to pronounce aioli, Vern from San Diego, California, wrote to say that a friend once made fun of him for pronouncing grimace with a...