Official Dictionary of Unofficial English-Grant-Barrett-0071458042

bang

Thanks to Michael Quinion of World Wide Words for the tip on bampot’s etymology. Probably not related to the Irish Gaelic bambairne ‘dolt, stupid person, lout.’ In “Some Modern Irish Loanwords Describing People” (Celtica vol. 18, p. 53, 1986, School of Celtic Studies, Dublin) Mícheál Ó Siadhail connects bambairne to the old Spanish slang bambarria, which, according to the Velasquez Spanish and English Dictionary (1985, New Win Publishing) means ‘a fool; an idiot.’ Bambarria is glossed as “blockhead” in Carnoy, Albert. “Apophony and Rhyme Words in Vulgar Latin Onomatopoeias.” American Journal of Philology, vol. 38, no. 3. (1917) 271.]

1988 Sharyn McCrumb Paying the Piper (Nov. 13), p. 27 ! All the old bampot wanted to do was measure stone circles and to prove his engineering theory. 1990 Andrew Rawnsley Guardian (U.K.) (Mar. 29)

“The Day in Politics ! Border Skirmish Has Sassenachs Out in Force” ! Labour’s Scots erupted in uproar, shouting “Ye silly bampot” at Mr. Greenway and the old dialect phrase: “goo boil ye heed.” 1993

Usenet: soc.culture.celtic (July 13) “Re: Help with a Kilt!” ! “Bampot,” or “bam” for short, means something like “self-important obsessionally deluded fruitcake.” 2002 Pamela Stephenson Billy (Sept. 11),

p. 115 (Int.) in (Dec. 1, 2003) ! He was highly embarrassed by his

son, the bampot, or crazy, welder with hair like a woman and two earrings. 2003 One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night (May 1)

“Christopher Brookmyre,” p. 50 ! Sociopath, psychopath, whatever you like, Matt had always preferred bampot. Not a bampot but the bampot; the absolute quintessence of bampottery. 2005 Magnus Linklater

Times (London, Eng.) (Aug. 13) “Labour Party at Prayer Salutes Cook the Atheist” (Int.) ! “What a bampot,” muttered another (bampot being a peculiarly Scottish word for idiot).

bang v. in baseball, to call off a game because of inclement weather. Sports. [Perhaps from the notion of a judge banging a gavel, an act of finality comparable to a referee deciding to end a game prematurely.] This verb is usually transitive: bang a game.

1986 Dennis Brackin Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.) (Mar. 22) “When It Rains It Pours—Twins All Wet Again” ! Last year we’re down 7-3 in New York and they bang the game after 32 minutes. 1994 Matt Michael Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) (Apr. 13)

“Chiefs Slosh Past Ottawa at Big Mac” p. B1 ! After an hour-long rain delay, the umpires called the game because the field was a mess....

“Early in the game I thought, ‘Yeah, we’re going to get banged pretty soon,’ but once we got into the fifth, sixth inning and they didn’t bang it I said, ‘Well, we’re going to play right through.’ ” 1995 [Rob

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Mallicoat (mallyman)] 1995 Replacement Diary (Apr. 7) (Int.) ! We were rained on for 6 solid hours and the game was banged by 4:30.

2003 David Andriesen Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Wash.) (May 16) “A Win Worth Its Wait; Rain Halts Long Enough for Mariners to Secure Victory,” p. D1 ! The baseball slang for canceling a game is to “bang it.” 2003 John Hoffman OriolesHangout.com (July 13) “Orioles Minor League Game Summaries” (Int.) ! The game was banged after a 48minue rain delay, that included 30 minutes of actual rain. 2005

[Marc] Reds Spring Training (Cincinnati, Ohio) (Mar. 9) “Wet Wednesday” (Int.) ! As of this moment, neither game has been called off—or “banged,” in clubhouse parlance—but plenty of the players have their fingers crossed.

Bangalored adj. (said of a corporation, project, or employment) having been relocated to India; having lost business or employment due to such a relocation. Business. Employment. Technology. Technologically, Bangalore is the Indian equivalent of Silicon Valley in the United States.

2003 Usenet: comp.os.vms (Mar. 11) “Re: [OT] After Two Months of SAP Training :-( “ ! CPQ UK’s order management stuff (which I *think* covers Europe) *was* in the process of being Bangalored.

2004 Christopher Farrell BusinessWeek (U.S.) (Apr. 9) “A Double Standard on Trade” ! I am a software developer who is about to be “Bangalored.” 2004 Chidanand Rajghatta @ Washington, D.C. Times of India (July 21) “Bangalored! BPO Bashers’ War Cry” (Int.) ! An online anti-outsourcing web site is marketing a T-shirt with the legend “Don’t Get Bangalored,” a term suggesting losing one’s job to outsourcing.

bang in v. to call in sick to work; (hence) to take a day off from work under false pretenses. Slang. United States. This is probably related to bang the books ‘to commit time and attendance fraud,’ which at least one source indicates is part of FBI jargon.

1982 N.Y. Times (Mar. 26) “Jargon of Correction Officers,” p. B4 !

Banging in—When an officer calls in sick. 1987 Mike Barnicle Boston Globe (Mar. 20) “On His Route to Happiness,” p. 19 ! All of us know people who, at one time or another, have banged in sick instead of going to the plant or the office in the morning even though there was nothing physically wrong with them. 1994 Peter J. Howe Boston Globe (Feb. 15) “Sick-Day Abuse Abates Since Crackdown by Weld,”

p. 15 ! Gov. Weld, who has had mixed results purging state government of the alleged hacks and layabouts he once called “walruses,” has scored a rare success in attacking part of the walrus culture— abuse of sick time. State Revenue Department employees two years

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ago were the leaders in what Beacon Hill bureaucrats have dubbed “banging in.” 1996 Usenet: ne.general (Jan. 9) “Re: How Are Big Companies Handling Employee ‘Snow Days’?” ! I can’t speak for THIS company, but the way I think it all works is Non-Exempty (Hourly) people don’t get paid and use a finite number of sick days if they do happen to bang in sick on any day, including snow. 1998 Usenet: alt.snail-mail (Jan. 13) “Re: Excessive Sick Leave?” ! Before I was hired, a few of our city carriers worked nights at Yankee Stadium as ushers. They banged in so that they could work an afternoon game, and wound up on TV. Waved to the camera and everything. They were seen. No discipline. 1998 Usenet: sci.optics.fiber (Jan. 18) “Question” ! In Boston, when one “Bangs out,” it means to call in sick for your shift. Conversely, the police “Bang IN.” 2004 [Sullysox] Sons of Sam Horn: P&G Archives #3 (Mar. 4) “I Banged in Today” (Int.) ! I banged in today. I haven’t been this hung over since college. I feel kinda guilty about calling in sick. 2004 Bill Tortolini Dabel Brothers Forums (June 3) (Int.) ! I banged in sick to work for 2 days to finish the last GRRM book! 2004 Sari Horwitz Washington Post (Oct. 18) “Police Show Strain from Endless Alerts” (Int.) ! By the end of the Columbus Day weekend, more than 70 officers charged with protecting Congress had called in sick. It was the largest number of Capitol Police officers who ever had “banged in.” Many of them say they really were sick—an illness brought on by fatigue.

bank v. to gang up on (someone); to ambush. Slang. United States.

1992 Robin Farmer Richmond Times-Dispatch (Va.) (Oct. 11) “New Start Seeks to Change Behavior,” p. B1 ! Candy, constantly sucking her finger, says she thinks her nose is broken from a recent fight.

“Two girls banked me,” she explains. 1998 Dawn Fallik @ Baltimore, Md. Peoria Journal Star (Feb. 13) “Schoolyard Squabble Ends in Boy’s Death,” p. C8 ! The Bella Vista Boys—named, in a fashion, after the Baltimore neighborhood Belle Vista—didn’t just blame Rabb, they “banked” him, or ganged up on him to teach him a lesson. 2004

Adam Billington, Mike Taylor News Journal (Wilmington, Del.) (June 13) “An Increase in Girls Fighting Girls” (Int.) ! The 16-year-old said she was “banked,” a street word meaning she was ganged up on, by East Side girls. She was hit and scratched and her hair weaves were pulled out.

barbecue stopper n. a topic of constant and widespread conversation, especially a divisive political or social issue; (hence) a social gaffe. Australia. Politics.

2001 Jennifer Hewett Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) (Oct. 27) “Man on a Mission,” p. 29 ! That’s one reason he will talk about

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improving the balance between work and family, a topic he describes as a “barbecue stopper” because it engenders so much conversation whenever people get together. 2003 Catherine McGrath Australian Broadcasting Corporation (July 29) “Federal Cabinet Discussing the Problem of Housing Affordability” ! Is housing affordability the new barbeque stopper? After yesterday’s figures confirming that housing prices are getting further and further out of many people’s reach, moves are gathering pace to set up an inquiry into the issue. 2003

Luke Morfesse West Australian (Dec. 3) “Police Defend Macro” !

Although more than seven years have passed since their deaths, the Claremont serial killer case has often been a barbecue stopper. A mixture of fear and fascination fuelled by media updates on any developments in the case has ensured this. 2004 Sarah Wilson Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia) (Jan. 11) “A Kiss May Tell Far More Than You Think” ! Can crazy, aching love stem and sustain itself from one kiss?...This topic became something of a barbecue stopper among my sausage-turning friends this week. The meat of the discussion was: How do you know if you have enough to launch a full-blown romance? 2004 Usenet: aus.bicycle (Mar. 1) “Re: Peck Order”

! Always amuses me how friends at a BBQ will complain how trucks harass and force them off the road. “Just like riding a bike when you’re driving a car,” I said on the weekend. “Oh, but I don’t do that,” she said. Her kid pipes up, “Yes you do, mum. What about that man you almost hit yesterday.” “Oh, god I’m sorry,” she said. “Don’t be sorry to me, just try to avoid having to apologize to that guy’s family next time.” Now, that’s a BBQ-stopper!!! 2004 Usenet: alt.politics

(May 14) “Re: Kerry’s Lead of a Week Ago All Gone Now, Thanks to the Iraq Prisoner Scandal” ! Maybe if we’re lucky, there will be a religious nut who will stand as an independent and be a BBQ stopper for the Republican party. Nothing would please me more than seeing the Republican party split into factions resulting in around 35% support for GWB. 2005 Mr. Whippy BBQ Stoppers (Australia) (Jan. 14) “Why Would You Want to Stop a BBQ?” (Int.) ! I should explain exactly just what the phrase “BBQ Stopper” actually means. It’s Australian slang for a social incident or inappropriate comment that causes everyone at the BBQ to stop talking and look at you in a half-embarrassed, half-accusing kind of way.

bark mitzvah n. a (13th birthday) party held for a dog. Animals. Religion. [From bark ‘the onomatopoeic sound a dog is said to make’ + bar mitzvah, the Jewish ceremony for a boy’s arrival at the age of manhood and religious responsibility, or bat mitzvah, the equivalent ceremony for a girl.] Usually jocular. The events themselves usually have few, if any, serious religious components

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and are less coyly known simply as cat mitzvahs and dog mitzvahs. In many cases, the 13th birthday is figured in dog years, usually said to be a ratio of seven dog years for every one human year.

1991 Bonnie Miller Rubin, Paul

Gapp, Valli Herman Chicago Tribune

(Dec. 29) “Best of Bad Taste: Our 10

Picks for the Year’s Worst Ideas in Home Decor” ! What? No Bark Mitzvah? There seems to be a major taste problem when it comes to pet products. Who can forget Jim Bakker’s air-conditioned dog house? Yet it’s hard to imagine a bigger turkey than a kitty yarmulke. From the Crazy Cat Lady catalog: “For kosher cats who want to impress their friends at temple. For gentile kittens, there are kitty Santa hats.”

1992 Kit Boss Seattle Times (Wash.) (Feb. 24) “1,700 Hours of TV: What Does It Mean?” p. K7 ! Next channel. Talk show host Joan Rivers appears. It’s her dog Spike’s 13th birthday, his “bark mitzvah.” Rivers promises, “We’re going to have a gala celebration with lots of four-legged friends and their celebrity owners.” 2000 Lucy Broadbent @ L.A. Mirror (U.K.) (June 27) “LA Story—The Fairy-Tail Lives of Hollywood’s Hounds” ! An LA dog can expect no less than lunch in his own restaurant, a pet limousine service to take him there and a “barkmitzvah” party, complete with doggy catering for his friends.

2004 Lily Koppel N.Y. Times (Dec. 20) “Today He Is a Dog; Actually, He Always Was” (Int.) ! In the long walk of history between man and dog, the bark mitzvah could be seen as an unexpected pit stop. Yet it was celebrated on Saturday night in the Bronx in a traditional way, with a party for family and friends of the 13-year-old that included a chopped-liver sculpture, choruses of “mazel tov!” (or, in this case, “muzzle tov!”), a cantor and gifts.

battle rattle n. (protective) military gear worn in combat situations. Military. Slang. An identical term dating to at least 1945 and meaning “nervousness in the face of combat” or “combat fatigue” is apparently separately derived. Battle rattle also appears in news, prose, and poetry as a literal term.

1995 Indira A.R. Lakshmanan @ Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina Boston Globe (Dec. 21) “NATO Brings Fresh Mandate to Bosnia,” p. 2 ! The main gate, which previously was manned by a Swedish soldier in a ribbed turtleneck, camouflage pants and felt beret, was secured by at least six American paratroopers and military police in full combat

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regalia, heavy body armor and helmets—battle rattle, as they call it.

2001 Greg Fontenot (July 1) “The Urban Area During Stability Missions Case Study” in Capital Preservation Russell Glenn, p. 213 ! Maintain the standard for the duration—full battle rattle and alert troops was our standard. 2004 [Oneguy] @ Iraq MREater (Boise, Idaho) (Oct. 8) “Spinning Up” (Int.) ! At 0001 hrs today we started to wear our “battle rattle,” or as it’s more affectionately known, our crap.

bat wings n.pl. flabby undersides of the upper arms; untoned tricep muscles. Health.

1993 Toronto Star (Can.) (Oct. 25) “‘Bat Wing’ Procedure Becoming Popular,” p. E6 ! With so much celebrity flexing and flaunting going on, more women are turning to plastic surgeons to give them shapelier, more sinuous arms,

Harper’s Bazaar reports. The “bat wing procedure” for tightening and defining the triceps has become increasingly popular. 1995 Lisa Garcia Roanoke Times & World News (Va.) (Sept. 17) “Arm Yourself for Glamour,” p. 12 ! You don’t want someone to grab the backs of your arms and come up with bat wings. 2004 Lisa Nicita Arizona Republic

(Phoenix) (Sept. 28) “Toned-Up Triceps Are as Easy as 1-2-3” (Int.) !

Women often complain about bat wings, also known as less-than- toned triceps.

bazoot y n. the buttocks; the ass. Also bazootie. Slang. See GO

BAZOOTIE.

1991 George Diaz L.A. Daily News (May 5) “6 Cities Show Off for NL Miami Is Leader in Expansion Bids,” p. SB1 ! Barry wrote recently that prospective owner Huizenga has “financial resources out the bazooty.”

1992 Usenet: bit.listserv.fnord-l (Apr. 10) “Oh What’s to Be Done with You, Loren Miller” ! Retard! If you can’t tell a fake hallucination when you see one, a real one’s just gonna go right by yer bazootie. 2001

Usenet: alt.support.crohns-colitis (Jan. 20) “Re: Vaginal Swelling” ! I’ve had 8 interns looking up my bazootie at once. 2005 Dave Barry

Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Ohio) (Feb. 27) “Here’s a Way to Lick That Hair-Loss Problem” (Int.) ! The point is that Refrigerator had all the fur removed from his rear end (or, in medical parlance, his “bazooty”).

bed blocker n. a patient who will not or cannot be moved to another medical facility, either due to a shortage of beds or

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because of the patient’s refusal. Australia. Canada. Health. Medical. Slang. United Kingdom.

1985 Donald Grant Globe and Mail (Toronto, Can.) (Feb. 18) “‘Bed Blockers’ Blamed for Emergency Ward Crunch,” p. P16 ! “Bed blockers” are patients who had been given acute care in a Metro hospital bed but no longer need that attention. They should be sent to a chronic care hospital but there are no available beds. 1992 Malcolm Dean Lancet (U.K.) (Aug. 29) “NHS Withdrawal from Continuing Care,” vol. 340, no. 8818, p. 539 ! The son said she was not going to be moved. He was happy to pay for chronic care, but not for the six weeks of nursing care that the consultant had deemed necessary for the acute incident.... I can vouch for this story because Biddy is my mother, and I am the son who refused to move her. I confess that I suffered twinges of guilt in my stand. I realised she would be classified as a “bed blocker.” [2004 Chris Moncrieff Scotsman (Scotland) (May 10) “Politics Column” (Int.) ! Many veteran Conservative MPs who might have been expected to retire from the fray at the next General Election, are obdurately staying put.... Since Tony Blair is unlikely to send them to the House of Lords on retirement, they are opting to stay in the Commons, to while away their twilight years....

They are aptly known as “the bedblockers.”] 2004 Kate Legge Australian (Apr. 17) “Age and the Long Wait” (Int.) ! A former railway worker who paid his taxes and worked hard to put two children through private school, Ray Smith had been languishing in Launceston General Hospital since August, waiting for a bed in a secure dementia facility. Health bureaucrats cursed him as a “bed blocker,” which is ironic given Smith’s propensity to wander off up the corridor and out the front door.

bed head n. a hairstyle in (intentional) disarray. Fashion.

1987 John Haslett Cuff Globe and Mail (Toronto, Can.) (July 8) “I Couldn’t Face Another Year on TV,” p. C5 ! Richler always looked to be afflicted with a terminal case of “bed head.”...His casual apparel and rock locks were sometimes an impediment for The Journal’s audience. [1988 Washington Post Mag. (Jan. 31) “Say Wha?” p. 9 ! Bed head n. A person who looks like he just woke up (Ann Marenick, Woodbridge).] 2001 Christie Ridgway This Perfect Kiss (Jan. 1),

p. 292 ! Morning hair. Really bad bedhead. It’s my curse. 2003 Tara Jon Manning Men in Knits: Sweaters to Knit That He Will Wear

(Oct. 28), p. 6 ! He tries very hard to capture that contradictory “I don’t care” bedhead look that is also perfectly groomed and precisely put together. This guy rarely tucks in a shirt. 2004 Lisa Scottoline Killer Smile (June 1), p. 258 ! She looked remarkably corporate in her blue sleeveless dress, but she still had bedhead, her blonde hair going

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every which way. Mary thought it might be intentional, because nobody but her actually parted their hair anymore, especially everybody in whatever generation she was supposed to be in. 2005 Jessica Pressler @ Philadelphia N.Y. Times (Aug. 14) “Philadelphia Story: The Next Borough” (Int.) ! Ms. Neighbor and Mr. Matz discovered Fishtown, a gentrifying blue-collar neighborhood adjacent to Northern Liberties, where, in the last five years, youthful faces with bed head have made their way among the traditionally Irish Catholic residents.

bent n. a recumbent bicycle. Sports. [Clipping of recumbent.]

1991 Usenet: rec.bicycles (Aug. 9) “Recumbent Riding Observations”

! On a bent you can just cruise along, if at a high rate of speed, and wave back at the cars. 1996 Stephanie Dunnewind Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.) (Oct. 15) “Sit Back & Enjoy the Ride” ! Riding a “bent,” as they are known, is like pedaling while sitting in your office chair. 1998 Ben Hewitt Bicycling Magazine’s Complete Book of Road Cycling Skills (Jan. 15), p. 2002 ! The Union Cycliste Internationale, the governing body of international racing, banned recumbents after a ’bent rider began winning professional road races and shattering records in the early 1930s. 2005 Sharon Tummins Daily News (Galveston County, Tex.) (July 17) “The View from a Different Angle” (Int.)

! Last year I converted from a road bike (fondly called a “wedgie”) to a recumbent (proudly called a “bent”).

beta n. in the sport of rock climbing, advice or instruction on the best way to climb a geographic feature. Sports. [The term is said to be derived from Betamax, the first popular format for recording video.]

1989 John Hanc Newsday (Oct. 16) “The Rat Rock Ballet in the Park,” p. 2 ! Stripping his suit to reveal a pair of bright green lycra tights, the Manhattan businessman lifts himself up onto the east face of the rock to demonstrate “the beta”—that’s climbese for the ability to flawlessly execute a sequence of moves. 1990 Usenet: rec.backcountry (Feb. 22) “Re: 5.12 Babble” ! A flash has come to mean the ascent of a route with no weighting of the rope (falls, hangs, etc.). It also generally connotes no significant pre-inspection, beta, etc. An “a vue” ascent is a flash with *absolutely* no beta or inspection. 1991

Usenet: rec.climbing (Apr. 13) “Re: Best Use of *ugh* Climbing Wall”

! There are also a bunch of people there who do not climb *real* rock. i was talking with one guy and we were discussing the beta on a 5.11a. i asked him about what kind of stuff he was leading and he said, “leading? like outdoors? oh, i’ve never done that.” 1992 Rick Ansorge Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph (Colo.) (Feb. 15) “It’s ‘Mutants’ Against the ‘Rock’ at New Indoor Climbing Center,” p. B1

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! BETA: A verbal videotape of how to make a particular climb. Exam-

ple: “Lay off the arete to a mono, cross through left then match on the slope, rock on the high step, set and dyno for the bucks.” 1995

Sharon Doyle Driedger Maclean’s (Can.) (Sept. 18) “Why Indoor Rock Climbing Is the Height of Fashion,” p. 50 ! Beta: Tips, clues or any other information on how to climb a difficult route. 2003 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisc.) (June 6) “David Christopher Gunstone,” p. 4B

! Gunstone wrote and published “The Traveler’s Guide to Washington Rock Climbing” and was widely known as “Beta,” a term used by rock climbers to refer to good information on a route. 2005 Brendon Connelly Slacker Manager (Apr. 4) “The Rock Climbing/Management Metaphor” (Int.) ! When the climber understands that the belayer is truly working for them, then the climber is limited only by their own technical skill and degree of boldness. This is particularly true if the belayer has already experienced the route and can offer genuinely helpful advice (in the climbing world, such advice is called beta).

Big Apple n. New York City. NYC. United States. Although there are many claims about the origin of “The Big Apple” as a nickname for New York City, each of the others lacks crucial supporting evidence or is demonstrably false. Among historians, lexicographers, and researchers it is now widely accepted that newspaperman John J. Fitz Gerald is the popularizer of “The Big Apple” and that he picked it up in the horse-racing industry. There is no evidence that it originated with whores or a brothel, that it entered the American language through jazz, or that it came about via any other mechanism. Unless new evidence comes to light, the citations supporting this entry should henceforth set the record straight. Credit and thanks go to Barry Popik and Gerald Cohen for the research.

1921 John J. Fitz Gerald Morning Telegraph (NYC) (May 3) p. 9 (Int.) in The Big Apple Barry Popik: J. P. Smith, with Tippity Witchet and others of the L. T. Bauer string, is scheduled to start for “the big apple” to-morrow after a most prosperous Spring campaign at Bowie and Havre de Grace. 1924 John J. Fitz Gerald Morning Telegraph

(NYC) (Feb. 18) “Around The Big Apple” (Int.) in The Big Apple Barry Popik: The Big Apple ! The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There’s only one Big Apple. That’s New York. Two dusky stable hands were leading a pair of thoroughbred around the “cooling rings” of adjoining stables at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans and engaging in desultory conversation. “Where y’all goin’ from here?” queried one. “From here we’re headin’ for The Big Apple,” proudly replied the other. “Well, you’d

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better fatten up them skinners or all you’ll get from the apple will be the core,” was the quick rejoinder. 1926 John J. Fitz Gerald Morning Telegraph (NYC) (Dec. 1) “In the Paddock,” p. 11 (Int.) in The Big Apple Barry Popik ! So many people have asked the writer about the derivation of his phrase, “the big apple,” that he is forced to make another explanation. New Orleans has called it to his mind again. A number of years back, when racing a few horses at the Fair Grounds with Jake Byer, he was watching a couple of stable hands cool out a pair of “hots” in a circle outside the stable. A boy from an adjoining barn called over. “Where you shipping after the meeting?” To this one of the lads replied, “Why we ain’t no bull-ring stable, we’s goin’ to ‘the big apple.’ ” The reply was bright and snappy. “Boy, I don’t know what you’re goin’ to that apple with those hides for. All you’ll get is the rind.”

big dance n. an important event, especially when the culmination of long preparation or smaller events; (hence) in sports, a tournament or championship game. Sports. Usually constructed with the definite article: the big dance.

1917 N.Y. Times (May 12) “Big Offensive Next Spring,” p. 6 ! In his opinion what may be termed the great allied offensive, or, as he put it, “the big dance,” will begin next Spring. 1982 Gordon S. White Jr. N.Y. Times (Mar. 7) “Virginia Victor—N. Carolina Wins,” p. S1 ! [Jim] Valvano was not totally disappointed. “I feel we deserve a spot in the NCAA tournament next week,” he said. “I think it would be a shame with 22 victories not to be invited to the big dance.” 1984 John Duka

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Can.) (July 31) “Lookalikes Everywhere,”

p. F3 ! As Geraldine Stutz, the president of Henri Bendel, said, “For us, July has been okay, not spectacular. Let’s just say it’s the last beat before the big dance begins in the fall.” 1986 Newsday (NYC)

(Feb. 14) “Key Brink’s Suspect ‘Intelligent’ Radical,” p. 11 ! He has written a forthcoming book entitled “The Big Dance,” the gang’s code name for the robbery. 2004 Steven Mackay Birmingham Business Journal (Ala.) (Sept. 29) “Scrushy’s 85-Count Indictment Reduced” (Int.) ! Parkman says he is ready “to go the big dance in January,” referring to Scrushy’s federal trial that begins Jan. 5.

big voice n. a public address and siren system used for warnings (of incoming artillery fire, missiles, tornados, etc.) over a large (outdoor) area. Military. This is often used as a proper noun and without an article: Big Voice. A more common synonym is giant voice.

2000 Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Ga.) (Feb. 20) “Metro Tornado Defenses Spotty” ! Cobb also will install two so-called “big voice”

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