spoon
n.— «Police have their hands full on the Gold Coast, not only with violent youths, domestic violence and drug dealers, but with the mentally ill. They have their own patois, referring to deranged people as “spoons’ because giving them a knife or fork would provide them with a deadly weapon.» —“Crims push limits of tolerance” Gold Coast Bulletin (Molendinar, Queensland, Australia) June 1, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A firefighter named Steve in Newport News, Virginia, wonders why in his line of work, and for some police, certain additional kinds of days off after long unbroken shifts are called Kelly days, Kelly shifts, or Kelly time. The term most likely comes...
In Greek myth, the sirens were women with the bodies of birds whose song was so alluring that it enticed men to their death. In the early 19th century, French engineer and physicist Charles Cagniard de la Tour built a device that sent blasts of air...