run the traps
v. phr.— «I ran the traps around the lexical trade, even asked my brother, who assured me it wasn’t Robert Louis Stevenson.» —“Right Stuff In The Bully Pulpit” by William Safire New York Times Mag. Feb. 27, 1983. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Centuries ago, monks who took a vow of silence developed their own hand signs, with hundreds of gestures, that are still in use today. Plus, how do speakers of different languages distinguish similar shades and tints of colors such as red, yellow...
Need a slang term that can replace just about any noun? Try chumpie. If you’re from Philadelphia, you may already know this handy placeholder word. And there’s Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, and … The Bronx — why do we add...