Abishek in Gaffney, South Carolina, found himself using the word Tetrising to refer to trying to pack a lot of small items into a moving van, based on the video game Tetris, in which players try to make various combinations of squares all fit...
Overhaul comes from nautical use, meaning to add slack to tackle so the blocks in a block-and-tackle system move apart. The verb builds on haul, the sailor’s word for pulling on lines or sheets, and later broadened to mean redoing, remaking...
When two people can’t gee-haw together, it means they don’t get along. The terms gee-haw, or gee and haw, come from farming, where a trained animal obeys a command to go left or right–to gee or haw, in other words. Noncompliant...
The term pull-haul, meaning “a verbal conflict,” is heard in New England, particularly Maine. A 1914 citation in the Dictionary of American Regional English alludes to all the pull-hauling among churches when a new congregant moves to...
wet fish n.— «Both fish reside in the middle-water column of the ocean, causing those in the fishing industry to refer to them as “wet fish.” This means that a lot of water must be pulled into boats when scooping them in from...
hang paper v. phr.— «U-Haul mechanics on occasion have falsified repair records, listing work they did not perform—a practice known as “hanging paper,” court records and interviews show. U-Haul says this is rare and never...