take a haircut
v. phr.— «D’Amico “did one dastardly deed, and now he is missing in action and won’t talk to anybody,” the major-label financial executive says. “There hasn’t even been an ‘ask’ yet.” By that, he means Tower has not requested an extension to make payments or for suppliers to “take a haircut”—music-industry parlance for partially forgiving money owed.» —“Tower Headed For Chapter 11″ by Ed Christman Book Standard Aug. 11, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
While reading Great Expectations (Bookshop|Amazon) by Charles Dickens, a listener in Arlington, Texas, is surprised when one of the characters inherits some money, which Dickens describes as a cool four thousand. Were they really using cool that way...
An anadrome is a word that forms a whole new word when you spell it backwards. For example, the word “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts.” Some people’s first names are anadromes. There’s the girl named Noel...