Black-hearted buzzard isn’t a standard expression, but its parts have long histories. Black-hearted has meant having ill will or bad intentions since the 1600s, and buzzard has been an insult since the 1300s, likely a polite substitute for...
A man in Orlando, Florida, asks if there’s a word for slowly circling a parking lot in search of a space for your car. Slang terms for this include sharking and sharking for parking, and sometimes such drivers are jokingly called vultures...
Turkey vultures spotted on a hike in San Diego’s Mission Trails Regional Park lead to a small feast of collective nouns for turkey vultures. A group in a tree can be a committee, a venue, or a volt. In flight, it’s a kettle, and when feasting on...
vulture v.— «In 1959, baseball was knocked flat when Pirates reliever Elroy Face posted an 18-1 won-loss record, still perhaps the most impressive ever. But Holtzman was skeptical. He knew that many of those wins were, in today’s...
urohydrosis n.— Note: The word is misspelled in the article. «For instance, the vultures urinate on their own legs, which both cools them down and applies an antiseptic that speeds healing—a practice called urophydrosis.» —“Raptors...
vulture fund n.— «The government says it is still recovering from a devastating war and faces a new problem: Western investors, sensing a chance to rake in millions, are suing to recover old debts that they bought for pennies on the...