turtle
n.— «A sewer is a slippery workplace. Water can move at the speed of oncoming traffic, even when it is not laden with tree branches, two-by-fours and the waste products known in the business as “turtles.”» —“Working in the Sewers Is a Dirty Job, but Someone’s Got to Win” by Ellen Barry New York Times May 9, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
You may have a favorite word in English, but what about your favorite in another language? The Spanish term ojalá is especially handy for expressing hopefulness and derives from Arabic for “God willing.” In Trinidad, if you want to ask...
Ribbon fall. Gallery forest. You won’t find terms like these in most dictionaries, but they and hundreds like them are discussed by famous writers in the book Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape. The book is an intriguing collection...