terror-clown
n.— «The car bombs—one parked outside a London nightclub, one near Trafalgar Square and one driven into Glasgow airport—seemed especially incompetent. Lewis Page, a former bomb-disposal officer, suspects the patio-gas canisters crammed into the three vehicles would not have made much of a bang even if they had gone off. The “terror-clowns,” as he calls them, had their second London car bomb towed away by parking wardens; the driver of the Glasgow jeep doused himself in petrol only to be put out again by the fire brigade.» —“Three times lucky” Economist July 5, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Imagine telling someone how to get to your home, but without using the name of your street, or any other street within ten miles. Could you do it? We take street names for granted, but these words are useful for far more, like applying for a job or...
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