turn blue
v.— «I got caught playing the expectations game on two fronts the past week…one of them was work where I decided (some geek friends of mine will shudder) …to apply for a full time Microsoft position…since my boss wanted me to convert from a contractor…or in MSFT geek parlance…turn blue…I wonder…is that what color you take on when the oxygen gets sucked out of your body?» —“Tides” by yourmuze (Jeff) Ninja Monkeys—are meeting as we speak (Seattle, Wash.) Jan. 23, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
After hearing our conversation about how dictionaries decide on a preferred pronunciation, and specifically about how to pronounce aioli, Vern from San Diego, California, wrote to say that a friend once made fun of him for pronouncing grimace with a...