train
n.— «The police call it the Neighborhood Enforcement Stabilization Task Force, a unit charged with aggressively enforcing quality-of-life crimes, but people in the neighborhood ominously refer to it as “the train.”…The task force got its nickname because the officers are dispatched into high crime areas and arrive in a caravan, or train, of five to six police cars.» —“Shootings Prompt Call for Change in Police Unit” by Janon Fisher in Newark, N.J. New York Times July 15, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that are uniquely their own, from a point of view that is theirs and no one else’s. Plus, why do we say...
While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new collection online lets you eavesdrop on discussions about which words should be...