shorty
n.— «They call it “the lot” or “the pen,” although it is also sarcastically referred to as “the cabby country club” or less charitably as “taxi driver purgatory.” From the air, it is a shimmering yellow blob on an otherwise colorless landscape of tarmac and terminals. Hidden amid the cargo depots at Kennedy International Airport, the four-acre lot contains hundreds of taxis waiting for lucrative fares to Manhattan, the dreaded “shorty” trips to Brooklyn and Queens or the dream rides to New Jersey and Connecticut.…The centralized system also helps to compensate drivers who end up with low-fare trips to nearby neighborhoods, giving them the right to enter a special “shorty” section where they do not have to wait as long for another try at the $45 flat fare to Manhattan.» —“A Talk, a Snack, a Chance at $45 or More” by Andrew Jacobs New York Times Apr. 28, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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