Home » Dictionary » stove-pipe

stove-pipe

stove-pipe
 n.— «Soldiers call it a “stove-pipe.” It happens rarely, and usually in the very worst of combat circumstances: the soldier is fatally hit just as he is firing his handgun. In the split second when his weapon fires, the wounded soldier suddenly loosens his hold on the gun, what’s known as a “dead man’s grip.” Instead of a rigid hand taking the recoil, the handgun absorbs all the force, and the extraction and ejection mechanism fails. The spent bullet cartridge will jam—or “stovepipe”—upright, partially ejected from the pistol’s breach.» —“A very private death” by Paul Daley The Bulletin (Australia) Sept. 20, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Further reading

Dehisce

Janet in Montgomery, Alabama, reports that a day after she had surgery on her hand, the wound burst open, and a doctor noted that her wound dehisced. She’s used to hearing dehisce used in botany to mean the splitting of a plant structure to...

Baby Blues (episode #1542)

A hundred years ago, suffragists lobbied to win women the right to vote. Linguistically speaking, though, suffrage isn’t about “suffering.” It’s from a Latin word that involves voting. Plus: military cadences often include...

Recent posts