shape
v.— «Each weekday United Hispanic workers “shape”—search for work—by driving throughout Manhattan and the Bronx and visiting job sites.…As the shape van wound down to ground zero and back to the Bronx, a picture of construction employment in the city emerged.…By the time Mr. Mackey returned to the shape hall shortly after noon, several members were snoozing in the back of the van. No members got work that morning, but that was not the shape’s sole purpose.…Mr. Haughton set up in a storefront at Fifth Avenue and 125th Street, where he and the other founders of Harlem Fight Back began organizing demonstrations, going to court and “shaping” black workers.…On the day of the shape, after the vans returned, about 50 workers convened in the shape hall.» —“This Hammer for Hire” by Johnny Dwyer New York Times Feb. 4, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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...
Diamond dust, tapioca snow, and sugar icebergs — a 1955 glossary of arctic and subarctic terms describes the environment in ways that sound poetic. And a mom says her son is dating someone who’s non-binary. She supports their relationship, but...