verbal gratuity
n.— «What do all servers fear? It’s the dreaded “verbal gratuity,” by which customers hope to balance a lousy tip with effusive praise.» —“Here’s taste of often unsavory business of waiting tables” by Howard Seftel Arizona Republic (Phoenix) Oct. 19, 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...
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