stunt up
v.— «I found 90 per cent had never pulled a gun in their careers. And of those who did, only 1 per cent ever fired, because you go through a three-stage process of verbal warning, taking the gun out of the holster, clicking it, then, and only then, aiming. On NYPD Blue they blast in every episode. But we’re reality—we don’t do it to stunt up ratings.» —“Mean Streets” by Jim Bawden Toronto Star (Can.) July 22, 1995. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...