chippy adj. irritable, tempermental, or fractious. Editorial Note: Oxford English Dictionary cites this meaning as early as 1885 as a colloquial form of ‘given to chipping, ready to chip.’ In recent decades in North America it has become most...
Toyotarisation n.— «Andrew Goudie, professor of geography at Oxford University, blames the process of Toyotarisation—a coinage reflecting the near-ubiquitous desert use of Toyota Land Cruisers—for destroying a thin crust of lichen and...
skeempers n.— «My father had a favorite term he used to describe anything that pinched or clasped. Consequently, the kitchen tongs and the snaps on my pajamas came to be called skeempers. The Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam Webster...
impire n.— «The European Union is too weak, too diverse, too inward-looking; in a rather ugly neologism, [Niall Ferguson] dubs the EU an “impire” rather than a potential “empire.” » —“An Oxford Scot at King...
handbags at ten paces n. a verbal spat, usually between athletes on the field of play. Editorial Note: Probably related to any number of Monty Python sketches which have the actors dressed in drag, battling each other with handbags, such as in...