reef
v.— «The suspension seems very stiff to me…and the adjuster turns with no resistance, about 4 or 5 turns, then seems to bottom out and not turn any firther (I haven’t tried really reefing on it yet…I don’t want to wreck anything on this monster).» —“AC Front Arm Adjust” by Cam Usenet: rec.sport.snowmobiles Dec. 9, 2000. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The Kong in the name of the 1933 movie King Kong, probably alludes to the Congo in Africa, the home of gorillas. Previous movies used a form of that name as well; Kongorilla, for example. In the 1950s, the English name of the Japanese movie monster...
Barbara Kingsolver’s book Demon Copperhead is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in today’s Appalachia. Martha shares memories of a long-ago visit to Kingsolver’s family farm in Virginia, where they...