wire-brush treatment
n.— «At 70, still sprints up Pentagon stairways. Senior civilians describe their boss as fierce and demanding; senior military officers describe sessions with him as “the wire-brush treatment.”» —“Rumsfeld’s Search for a Way To Fight a New Type of Foe” by Thom Shanker in Washington, D.C. New York Times Sept. 4, 2002. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Ryan, a wildland firefighter from Asheville, North Carolina, asked about bagger, a derogatory term for “a lazy or amateur firefighter.” The term likely comes from military slang, where bagger is short for dirtbagger or S-bagger, most likely deriving...
Nancy Gabriel from Ithaca, New York, recalls her father’s no-nonsense responses to minor injuries when she was a child: After making sure she was really all right, he’d say, It’s far enough from your heart; it won’t kill you. Other times he...