toe-popper

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

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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