scarlet letter n. a license plate that indicates the automobile’s owner has been convicted of driving while drunk. Etymological Note: This is a more specific sense of scarlet letter ‘a badge or symbol worn to indicate the bearer has committed a crime,’ often used figuratively. It originated in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 book The Scarlet Letter, in which a scarlet-colored A was worn as punishment for adultery. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Kelly from Butte, Montana, recalls that when a few morsels remained at the end of a meal, her grandmother would say, Make it a nice day tomorrow, meaning everyone should eat all their food. A version used by a childhood friend’s family was Make it a...
For this week’s puzzle, Quiz Guy John Chaneski has been swapping out a single letter within each of three words in a category. Suppose, for example, the category is fruit. What three fruits might you produce by changing just one letter in each of...