siping
n.— «For extra traction, there’s an alternative to snow tires, a process called siping. Scott Willey of Willey’s Tire Shop in Marquette says, “It’s a process where we take a machine that puts extra cuts in the tire. It adds 40 percent better traction to the tire on hard-packed snow, and 20 percent better on ice. It also improves the wear because it keeps the tire cooler.”» —“There Is A Cheaper Alternative To Buying Snow Tires” in Marquette WLUC-TV (Negaunee, Michigan) Oct. 16, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Matt from Grand Rapids, Michigan, was puzzled when colleagues kept saying someone had stood up at a wedding, indicating that they’d been a member of the wedding party. The expression stood up in that sense is an Americanism going back about two...
Responding to our conversation about the word chat, meaning “the gravelly residue of mines,” Isabella from Marquette, Michigan, reports that where she lives, in the state’s Upper Peninsula, such runoff is commonly called slag. She uses some made-up...