Try Wordnik, the new dictionary with more than 1.7 million words. Examples, pronunciations, and more!

Dictionary definition of “toe-popper”

toe-popper

n. a small anti-personnel land mine that tends to wound the feet and legs. Subjects: English, Military

Comments? | Cites | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Citations: 1967 Los Angeles Times (Dec. 14) “Booby Traps Taking Toll in Vietnam” (in Washington, D.C.) p. F4: “Toe-popper wounds”—in which toes are explosivley amputated—are a typical result of ingenious booby traps used by the Viet Cong in Vietnam. 2002 David H. Hackworth Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts (May 7) p. 17: The VC use anything and everything to build their devil’s devices. There were toe poppers—normally a single bullet no bigger than a pencil, set on top of a nail; step on it, and the bullet pushed down into the nail and fired through your foot. 2003 The Capital (Annapolis, Md.) (Mar. 23) “Afghan air base heavily mined, hazardous” (in Bagram, Afghanistan) p. A2: Nearly a quarter-century of fighting has left Bagram littered with mines and unexploded ordnanc, from the tiny, flesh-shredding toe-popper land mines to rusting 500-pound Soviet bombs sticking out of the fields just beyond the runway. 2005 Potomac News (Woodbridge, Va.) (May 16) “Lane Ranger”: The practice mines were not fully charged and most were defused, Hall said. “The army referred to them as ‘toe poppers.’”

Posted 27 May 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Recent Catchwords

simming n. (11/8)

nimbleton n. (11/6)

kitchen n. (11/6)

skuke n. (11/6)

parlor n. (11/6)

broccoli journalism n. (10/19)

strap hanging n. (10/8)

parclo n. (10/8)

Dipper n. (10/8)

jeggings n. (10/5)

dittoism n. (10/5)

crop n. (10/3)

sliming n. (10/3)

protestival n. (10/3)

excessing n. (10/3)

pencil top n. (10/3)

trophy jacket n. (10/3)

ball golf n. (10/3)

Scottish cringe n. (10/3)

bagel v. (9/30)

More catchwords...

Lexicographer's Rules

Now accepting nominations for the 2009 “word of the year” and the 2000-9 “word of the decade” (11/15)

How much underworld slang is still used from 80 years ago? (10/27)

Remembering William Safire (9/27)

The elephant in the language (8/12)

Updates will continue to be slow for Double-Tongued (7/19)

Call of nature (7/1)

Feedburner URLs that have huge accidental traffic (6/16)

I held Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary in my hands (6/9)

New: doors are open for Wordnik.com, a dictionary that aims to show all the words (6/8)

Boohoo, wah, & diddums: words of fake sympathy (6/3)

More blog entries...

A	B	C	D	E
F	G	H	I	J
K	L	M	N	O
P	Q	R	S	T
U	V	W	X	Y
Z	0-9
Search

seasoned_geek commented on metric buttload (11/17)

gladius.primus commented on bakkie (11/17)

Ben Zimmer commented on riffed (8/18)

Gregory Teague commented on Taig (8/13)

Ben Zimmer commented on single shot (8/9)

christymarx commented on heinie (8/6)

amy_lu commented on mouth-breather (7/19)

hawkoffee commented on Mortarville (7/8)

Featherwood0973 commented on featherwood (6/30)

garyvh commented on rexing (6/28)

JR commented on jam track (6/21)

ElasticMind commented on innerpreneur (6/20)

GlennT commented on fourwall (5/31)

RevRayGreen commented on medible (5/25)

OKSoldiers commented on Mortarville (5/21)

Subscribe to the RSS feed. • Subscribe to the mailing list. • Browse the archive. • Add to Technorati Favorites. • © 1999-2009 by Grant Barrett, Double-Tongued Dictionary, New York City.