wildcat
v.— «Illegal solicitation of rides, or “wildcatting” as it is known, is a persistent problem in San Ysidro, said Ricardo Castro, of Greyhound Lines Inc. Castro, who is a board member of the San Ysidro Border Transportation Council, said wildcatters take away customers from businesses who operate legally. Many wildcatters carry no insurance, don’t undergo drug testing and don’t know the emergency procedures taught when applying for state certification.» —“Van driver pleads not guilty after certification sting” by Janine Zúñiga Union-Tribune (San Diego, California) May 12, 2006. (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...
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...