supporter-in-effect n.— «In the lengthening hall of mirrors created by the war in Iraq, friends become enemies. Legislators who voted against the war are called supporters-in-effect when they try to support the troops without supporting...
tagbanger n.— «They’re in a no-man’s land,” Lucero said, referring to how Denver police have trouble tracking which taggers are becoming violent. “We know who the hard-core members of the hard-core gangs are. But these are new...
weather war n.— «In the States, they have a name for the media’s increasingly demented obsession with meteorological phenomena: “weather wars.” Anyone who has watched a US reporter narrowly avoid being blown off a rain-lashed...
tail cost n.— «That was not counting so-called tail costs, such as caring for veterans and replacing lost equipment, which the Iraq Study Group said “will run into the hundreds of billions of dollars.”» —“The Iraq war has...
blended work force n.— «State Department officials insist that the company’s workers, who hold security clearances, merely relieve diplomats of administrative tasks and never influence policy. But the presence of contractors inside closed...
geographic bachelor n.— «We were actually thinking about moving back home, with my husband staying here as a GEO [geographic bachelor, a military term for a married soldier in an isolated base or deployment].» —“After the war, a...