alligator

n. a piece of a rubber automobile tire (along a roadside). Subjects: English, Automobiles & Transportation, Slang

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Citations: 1997 Shaun Sutner Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass.) (Sept. 15) “Driven to aid motorists in distress” p. A1: He picks up a piece of rubber and flings it aside. In an instant, he is back to the safety of the grassy side strip. Again, he gauges the traffic and leaps onto the road to grab an “alligator.” 1998 Eric Peters Washington Times (Nov. 10) “Beware of the highway alligators” p. A18: Sometimes, the tire fragments cause accidents. Damage to vehicles resulting from contact with flying “alligator hides”—or as a result of swerving to avoid them—is a common hazard of freeway driving. 1999 Zeke Barlow Roanoke Times & World News (Va.) (July 3) “‘Gators’ Lurk On Interstate 81 They Look Like Huge Reptiles And Can ‘Bite’ Just As Hard” p. A1: Summertime on Interstate 81 can be dangerous. It’s alligator season.…Those “gators” aren’t wayward reptiles searching for a cool mudhole, but trucker lingo for tires or retreads that have flown off trucks and cars and are strewn about the roads. 2005 Sarah Schulz Grand Island Independent (Neb.) (Dec. 26) “Retired engineer now a highway angel”: In the summer, there are lots of retreads.…We refer to them as alligators because they’re heavy and have steel in the treads so they can bite you. *2006 Robert Kiyosaki Firstrung.com (United Kingdom) (Oct. 12) “How to profit from a cooling real estate market”: In the coming months, I predict we’ll see an increase in people dumping real estate they can’t afford. They’ll be forced to sell because they’ll be eaten alive by a phenomenon known as negative cash flow. Investment properties that you have to feed money to every month are fondly known as alligators—if you can’t afford to feed the property every month, it eats you.

Posted 30 Dec 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend