scarlet letter
n.— «Two senators unveiled a measure Thursday that would require drivers convicted of three drunken-driving offenses in a five-year period, or four within 10 years, to purchase license plates with a number code that police could use to identify them as convicted drunken drivers.…In Ohio, the plates are known as “scarlet letters.”» —“DWI plates would ID offenders” by Amanda Erickson in Albany, N.Y. Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, N.Y. ) June 17, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What kind of book do people ask for most often in prison? Romance novels? No. The Bible? No. The most requested books by far are … dictionaries! A number of volunteer organizations gather and distribute used dictionaries to help inmates with...
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...