stock n.—Gloss: A goal scored in basketball. «Wade will eventually shift to LeBron on defense, and while he does post some gaudy defensive numbers (almost 3 “stocks” per game, to use some Simmons parlance), most of those come as a help-side...
In a few parts of the country, such as eastern Wisconsin, the more common term for “water fountain” is bubbler. A man who heard the term frequently in Rhode Island wonders: How did bubbler make it all the way over to Rhode Island, but seemingly skip...
pill pull n.— «The drawing for post positions will be held on Wednesday, May 13th, at 5 PM Eastern Standard Time and the process for selecting the starting spots for the Preakness is done using a method called a “pill pull.” Similar to the process...
backyard syndrome n.— «The early-March snowstorm that creamed the Eastern seaboard largely missed Vermont’s big skiing areas. But resort operators were delighted nevertheless, because the storm whetted the appetite of all those coastal skiers. The...
gasoline siding n.— «The wood-frame home, which is adjacent to Vale Park on the south side of Eastern Avenue, also has what firefighters euphemistically call “gasoline siding”—a petroleum-based imitation brick that feeds the flames.» —“Schenectady...
sang n.— «Since the native ginseng plant, a protected species, is extremely valuable in some Eastern quarters, its demand has given rise to poaching—hunters digging the roots illegally prior to the state-sanctioned harvest season.…The common...