rocking
n.— «Many of the patrol’s vehicles surrounded by steel cages to protect agents from rocks hurled at them—a practice known as “rocking” among the ranks. One agent died after being hit by a stone. “(Smugglers will) ‘rock’ our agents, and while they’re being distracted, that’s when they move,” Scioli said. “They move drugs, they move human traffic.”» —“Patrol Sees Escalating Border War” KPHO-TV (Phoenix, Arizona) Dec. 16, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...
When Kentrell from West Memphis, Arkansas, worked for a granite company, his co-workers who were about to put two pieces of granite together would say I’m going to pull a seam. But why would they use the word pull for the action of pushing...