welfare check
n.— «Because of the woman’s apparent haste in entering the building, the officer reportedly turned around and drove back to the convenience store to make a “welfare check,” a police term for making sure there were no problems that might need police intervention.» —“Third suspect arrested in Charley murder” by Marian Hamilton in Milan, N.M. Cibola County Beacon (Santa Fe, N.M.) Mar. 25, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...