Starting this year, Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants not only have to spell words correctly. A controversial new rule means they’ll have to answer vocabulary questions, too. Also, when it comes to reading text, do you prefer “paper” or...
A Hollywood entrance, in spelunker slang, is when a cave has a large, epic opening. Burkard Bilger’s epic article in The New Yorker on the world of squeeze freaks and other extreme cavers contains lots of great caving slang. This is part of a...
door-stepper
n.— «Jonathan Ross is avoiding the tabloid door-steppers by staying in a Mayfair hotel, and only using the staff entrance.» —“Blow-dried Golden Retrievers” Popbitch (United Kingdom) Nov. 13, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
knocking box n.— «The three pigs are released into a chute that guides them into the building and directly into what is called a “knocking box.” The knocking box is a tall concrete box with an entrance from the outside, a gate across the front and...
booth turnaround n.— «One of their ideas was a lockdown procedure commonly called “booth turnaround.” In the event of a child going missing, personnel secure the entrance and exit points and do not allow patrons to leave until police arrive...
pull an avenue address over v. phr.— «“Pulling an avenue address over” is the topographical parlance for denying that your building’s real entrance is on, say, East Seventy-sixth Street.» —“On The Avenue” by Ben McGrath New Yorker Nov. 12, 2007...