salt the mustard
v.— «Cycling slang includes numerous terms for doping: “mess up the soup,” “pissing violet,” “having a magic suitcase,” “not riding on mineral water,” “loading the cannon” or “boiling the saucepan over” and “salting the mustard” and, in a reference to the eyes dilating when amphetamine is used, “lighting the headlights.” Most recently, amateur cyclists have talked of “dining chez Virenque,” a reference to the seven-times mountains winner banned after the Festina scandal.» —“Fotheringham’s Tour de France trivia” by William Fotheringham Guardian (U.K.) July 26, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A listener who grew up in Newfoundland remembers her grandfather declaring the fog was thick as burgoo. Turns out burgoo was sailors’ slang for a gray, gelatinous oatmeal—exactly the right image for an impenetrable Newfoundland fog. The word appears...
Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that are uniquely their own, from a point of view that is theirs and no one else’s. Plus, why do we say...