straighten out
v. phr.— «In the mid-1990s, when “Little Joe” D’Angelo was “straightened out” (Mob slang for inducted) by the Gambinos, he got a hamburger in a Queens diner, D’Angelo testified last week at the Gotti trial. He said the Mob bosses who inducted him, including “Junior” Gotti, didn’t bother to burn a picture of a saint in D’Angelo’s hands, as ritual required. Instead, someone wrote “saint” on a piece of paper and drew a cross.» —“The mafia is on shaky ground” by Richard Willing USA Today May 9, 2006. (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...