bitch hook n. a curved metal device used with a chain to hold or secure lumber or other things, or to brake a sled on descents. Also bitch link. Editorial Note: The unpublished manuscript for the Lexicon of Trade Jargon (circa 1938-39, now at the...
pillaring n.— «Caylor said he believes retreat mining, also known as pillaring, or secondary mining, is important because it allows companies to get more coal than they otherwise would.» —“Deadly coal mining method comes under...
solastalgia n.— «Solastalgia describes the pain experienced when the place a person lives is under assault and destruction, a loss of a sense of belonging to a particular place and a sense of desolation about its disappearance.…He...
elephant n.— «Vale threw a party in Ulan Bator with samba dancers flown in from Brazil to mark the company’s arrival in Mongolia to search for another “elephant”—mining parlance for a big discovery.» —“Ivanhoe Seeks...
outstate n.— «He believes President Bush is the first sitting president to bring his own campaign to Duluth since Dwight Eisenhower. “People up here get tired of the ‘out’ terminology, as in ‘outstate.’ Being courted is always nice...
watermelon n.— «The keynote speaker, William H. Holms, presented a talk entitled, “Wimps, Weirdos and Watermelons,” in which he stated environmentalists were just a bunch of unemployed welfare-leeching Communists. He suggested...