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 convoluted and...
The Spanish word moco, or “mucus,” can be applied affectionately to a child, much like speakers of English may refer to a youngster as a little booger. In some dialects, moco has a more pejorative sense, suggesting a child is more along the lines of...
We’ve talked before about that stuff that builds up in your eyes after a night’s sleep, and listeners keep chiming in with more, including googlies, eye-winkers, and from a listener who grew up in the Philippines, morning stars. This is part of a...
wooly-booger n.— «Rep. Robert Barton, R-Bossier City, introducing his bill to exempt Shreveport-area riverboat casinos from Coast Guard inspections. “I’m not bringing you a wooly-booger.”» —“Baton Rouge Report News And Views From The Louisiana...
woolly-booger n. (also woolly-bugger) 1. (colloquial) the larval-stage insect known as the woolly worm or woolly bear; a fishing fly that resembles such an insect. 2. (in the American Southwest, slang) an extraordinary example of a thing. 3. (in...
woolly-booger n.— «Smithson, also a retired state trooper, called Roan’s amendment a “woolly-booger,” a colloquial term for last-minute language inserted in a bill that has far-reaching impact. “He’s a very sharp House member, and he saw an...

