double effect n.— «Palliative care, though improved, is not always effective. It is an open secret that many doctors hasten the deaths of patients in pain and misery under the guise of relieving their symptoms, a procedure known as...
snit n.— «Snirt is a colloquialism for a combination of snow and dirt or litter found in city streets, and snit is the term used for the combination of snow and dog faeces.» —“Snow: A brief history” by Adam...
stowed out adj.— «It involved greater face-to-face discussions with local people. Sceptics said it wouldn’t work—because no one in the public would talk to “The Polis” either through fear or mistrust. In fact, when they went...
ambulance-chasing n.— «Gatehouse has accused the paper’s authors of conducting “a piece of ambulance-chasing research that is coming in on the coat-tails of the GM controversy.”» —“GM link of scientist who discredited...
have-a-go hero n.— «Mr. Smeaton’s celebrity reflects the general relief across Britain that no one was injured in the Glasgow attack, or in the previous day’s attempt to detonate two cars in London. His description of the attack in early...
terror-clown n.— «The car bombs—one parked outside a London nightclub, one near Trafalgar Square and one driven into Glasgow airport—seemed especially incompetent. Lewis Page, a former bomb-disposal officer, suspects the patio-gas...