rocket surgery n. a task requiring intelligence or higher education; a difficult undertaking. Editorial Note: Often used jocularly in negative constructions similar to “It’s not rocket surgery.” Etymological Note: A blend of rocket science and brain...
fratmosphere n.— «Thinking strikes you as humorless, intelligence destroys your fratmosphere of iunnuendo and mooning the dean.» —“Re: White Salve Triad to be held at Dale’s House?” by Dale Houstman Usenet: alt.non.sequitur May 1, 1999. (source:...
burn notice n.— «Despite these qualms at lower levels, no written warning—or “burn notice,” in CIA parlance—about Curveball ever was issued, and administration officials repeatedly used his bogus claim that Iraq had mobile biological-weapons...
POI n.— «The key to stability is regaining the support of Iraq’s silent majority—the long-suffering, secular-minded Sunnis and Shias referred to by some U.S. and British intelligence analysts as the POIs, which is short for “pissed-off Iraqis.”...
tiger kidnapping n.— «Police intelligence reports and underworld crime gangs share the same use of terminology—a tiger kidnapping is what they both call a crime where a hostage is held to force the victim to take part in a robbery.…The origins of...
dry hole n.— «The Sunday night raid was what soldiers here call a “dry hole.” They received an intelligence tip, and it led to nothing.» —“Soldiers in Sunni Town Run Into Wall of Silence” by Josh White in Samarra, Iraq Washington Post Dec. 23, 2004...
