throw a Porsche at someone
v. phr.— «An incident like this brings home the sheer scale of military spending. In Afghanistan, where Javelin heat-seeking missiles are sometimes launched against Taliban personnel, our soldiers call it, with characteristic wit, “throwing a Porsche at them,” since the weapons cost £65,000 apiece.» —“Whoops-a-daisy” Telegraph (United Kingdom) Feb. 24, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Loretta in Shreveport, Louisiana, wants to know what lexical and dialectal clues linguists look for when guessing where someone is from. She also wonders: Do people with long careers in the military or who grew up in a military family have a...
A hundred years ago, suffragists lobbied to win women the right to vote. Linguistically speaking, though, suffrage isn’t about “suffering.” It’s from a Latin word that involves voting. Plus: military cadences often include...