sandpit
n.— «The men working for the security companies, while reluctant to talk in public, have their own online chat-rooms, where they exchange views on what they refer to as “the sandpit”—Iraq.» —“Iraq’s hired hands under fire as the pot of gold starts to run low” by Ewen MacAskill, Richard Norton-Taylor Guardian (United Kingdom) Sept. 22, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A Montana farmer says his dad used to warn against catching the epizooty. In 1872, an epizootic respiratory disease among horses nearly brought the United States to a standstill. The word epizootic is modeled on the Greek word epidemic, from Greek...
Why is marijuana called pot ? Lexicographer David Maurer, an expert on underworld slang, once posited that pot is shortened from potiguaya, a term that, it turns out, isn’t Spanish. He later surmised that pot comes from potación de guaya...