Hinky, or hincty, is a term going back to the 1920’s that has meant both “snobbish” and “haughty,” or, more commonly, suspicious. A police officer from Grove City, Pennsylvania, calls to say his older colleagues often use the word to describe...
Words like bae, bling bling and on fleek have all moved into the common vernacular at different points in the last 30 years, thanks in part to the prominence of African-American slang in music and pop culture. This is part of a complete episode...
The emphatic exclamation “from hell to breakfast” goes back to the Civil War. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “From Hell to Breakfast” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi there, this is Brad Davis calling from Dallas, Texas...
What do you call a guy with a bald pate? A chrome dome? Maybe the lucky fellow is sporting a solar panel for a sex machine. Also, which would you rather open: a can of worms or Pandora’s box? Plus, ordinary vs. ornery, versing vs. versus, dishwater...
dirt-baller n.— «Still, long gone is the time when anyone could suggest that Nadal was a clay-court specialist, what some Americans call “a dirt-baller.”» —“Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer win in Monaco” by Mark Hodgkinson in Monte...
gravy time n. a period of success, pleasure, or good results. Editorial Note: Gravy, meaning “profit or benefit, especially if unexpectedly or easily obtained” is dated back to 1910 by the Historical Dictionary of American Slang. It also dates the...