smoke-out n.— «HB 1261 failed to pass a Senate subcommittee Monday morning by a 7-1 vote, but the bill could be revived through a legislative procedure called a “smoke-out.” » —“Senate could revive gun bill” by...
Hello, everybody. Welcome to another newsletter from A Way with Words! This weekend we aired a repeat episode in which we discussed "drive safe" vs. "drive safely," the meaning of "paratereseomaniac," and the expression...
exit exam n.— «Congress has enacted a federal school reform law known as No Child Left Behind that requires every state to test students in grades three-through-eight in math and English/language arts as a way of measuring national...
taxi queen n.— «Teenage girls are being used by unscrupulous taxi operators in Chatsworth as “scouts” to identify potential robbery targets. The girls—many of whom are addicted to drugs—are planted in taxis to identify passengers carrying...
minilith n.— «Legible London minilith…A prototype pedestrian wayfinding post competes with the Christmas lights in South Molton Street.» —“Legible London minilith” by diamond geezer Flickr Nov. 27, 2007...
south to south adj.—Gloss: arbitrary jargon used at the World Bank to indicate migration from one poor country to another. “South to north” indicates migration from a poor country to a rich one. «There are 74 million “south to...