stove pipe
v.— «“There are a lot of data processing systems out on Navy bases and stations,” he said. “But they’re, for lack of a better word, stove-pipe systems that found one specific application and solved that problem very efficiently.”» —“A review is last hurdle for BASIS” by Brad Bass Government Computer News June 5, 1987. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...