Shop talk

The words that never make it into the manual

1,046 informal expressions: crew slang, nicknames, clipped forms and regional names, each with its plain-English meaning and an example of how it is used.

• Tribology 29
• Corrosion 27
• Heat Treating 27
• Thermal Spray 25
• Powder Coating 25
• Adhesives 26
• Refractories 25
• Welding 39
• Fasteners 28
• Gears 27
• Valves 27
• Machine Shop 73
• Electrotechnology 28
• Electricians 79
• HVAC 27
• Boilers 27
• Nuclear 28
• Lighting 29
• Photonics 30
• Fiber Optics 30
• PCBs 28
• Paper Optics 26
• Concrete 30
• Asphalt 31
• Geosynthetics 25
• Waterproofing 25
• Nonwovens 25
• Hydrography 28
• Tides 27
• Railroad 73
• Vacuum 28
• Statistics 22
• Metrology 22

• Bull's-eyealso sight glass, bullseye
  Round oil-level sight glass on a gearbox or bearing housing, with a center dot or line marking correct level.
• Cosmolinealso rust preventive, RP
  Genericized name for the thick, waxy rust preventive smeared on stored parts, spares and weapons.
• Crackle testalso hot plate test, hot plate crackle
  Quick screen for water in oil: put a drop on a hot plate and listen for crackling.
• Cup greasealso lime soap grease, calcium grease
  Shop and farm name for plain calcium soap grease, the kind fed from screw-down grease cups.
• Dino oilalso dino, mineral oil
  Joking name for conventional mineral oil refined from crude, used to set it apart from synthetics.
• Dry startalso dry startup
  Machine start-up before oil has reached the contacts, when a big share of lifetime wear happens.
• Frostingalso frosted, gray staining
  Shop name for the dull, satin-gray sheen of early micropitting on gear teeth or bearing races.
• Glitteralso metal in the oil, sparkles
  Visible sparkling metal flakes in drained oil or a cut-open filter, a red flag for serious wear.
• Grease monkeyalso grease jockey
  Slang, sometimes fond and sometimes dismissive, for a mechanic or whoever is stuck with grease duty.
• Kidney loopalso kidney loop filtration, offline filtration
  Off-line filtration circuit that continuously pumps reservoir oil through a filter and back.
• Live zonealso live zone sampling
  Spot in a circulating system where oil is moving and well mixed, the right place to pull a sample.
• Lube routealso lube PM, oil route
  Scheduled walk through the plant to grease, top off and inspect a set list of lubrication points.
• Lube tagalso lube ID tag, lube label
  Color- or shape-coded label at a fill point that tells techs exactly which lubricant goes in.
• Lube techalso lube man, oiler
  Lubrication technician, the person who owns the lube routes, oil sampling and lube room in a plant.
• Mag plugalso magnetic plug, chip detector
  Magnetic drain plug that collects ferrous wear debris and is checked at oil changes as a quick wear gauge.
• Milkshakealso milky oil, mayo
  Oil turned milky or creamy by emulsified water, seen in gearboxes, hydraulics and engines.
• Molyalso moly grease, MoS2
  Shop name for molybdenum disulfide, the black solid lubricant, or for any grease that contains it.
• Oil wedgealso oil film wedge
  Shop name for the tapered, pressurized film of oil that lifts a shaft off a sleeve bearing.
• Packalso hand pack, packing
  To fill a bearing by hand, forcing grease between the rolling elements before assembly.
• Pickupalso metal pickup, metal transfer
  Metal transferred from one sliding surface onto another, seen as smeared lumps after adhesive wear.
• Purgealso purging, flush
  To pump fresh grease into a bearing until the old grease is pushed out of the relief port or seal.
• Running hotalso hot bearing, running warm
  Shop phrase for a bearing, gearbox or motor operating above its normal temperature.
• Shotalso pump, stroke
  One full stroke of a manual grease gun, the everyday unit for how much grease goes in.
• Soupalso souped out, soupy
  Grease that has broken down or been mixed with an incompatible type and turned runny.
• Synalso synthetic, full syn
  Clipped shop word for synthetic oil or grease, as in syn gear oil or full syn.
• Top offalso top up
  To add oil to bring a gearbox, sump or reservoir back up to its correct level.
• Weepalso weeping, seep
  To leak very slowly, leaving a damp oil film around a seal or joint rather than actual drips.
• Wipealso wiped bearing, wiping
  To smear the soft babbitt lining of a plain bearing when the oil film fails, ruining the bearing.
• Zerkalso grease fitting, grease nipple
  Everyday name for the small ball-check grease fitting that a grease gun coupler snaps onto.

• Bell holealso integrity dig, dig
  Excavation dug around a short section of buried pipe so crews can inspect, repair or connect to it.
• Black beautyalso coal slag, slag abrasive
  Genericized name for black coal slag abrasive used in open blasting of steel.
• Black powderalso iron sulfide dust
  Fine black dust of iron sulfides and oxides that forms inside gas pipelines and fouls filters, meters and valves.
• Blast potalso pot, blast machine
  Pressurized tank that meters abrasive into the air stream for blasting, controlled from the nozzle.
• Bug bottlealso serial dilution vials, culture bottles
  Field nickname for the serial dilution culture vials used to count bacteria in water samples.
• Bugsalso bacteria, microbes
  Field slang for the bacteria behind microbiologically influenced corrosion and system souring.
• Cad weldalso cadweld, thermite weld
  Shop name for an exothermic weld, the thermite connection used to attach CP cables to pipe and anodes.
• CP techalso CP technician, corrosion tech
  Cathodic protection technician who reads rectifiers, runs surveys and troubleshoots protection on pipes and tanks.
• Cut-outalso cutout, pipe sample
  Section of pipe removed from service so corrosion damage can be examined, tested or replaced.
• Dopealso coal tar enamel, hot dope
  Pipeline slang for hot-applied coal tar or asphalt enamel coating, poured over the pipe and wrapped.
• Fish eyealso fisheye, cratering
  Small round crater in wet paint where the coating pulls away from a spot of oil or silicone contamination.
• Foreign linealso foreign structure, foreign pipeline
  Field term for another operator's pipeline or buried metal structure near or crossing your own.
• Half-cellalso cell, copper cell
  Field name for the portable reference electrode that CP techs carry to take potential readings.
• Hot spotalso hot-spot protection, active corrosion area
  Localized area of active corrosion on a pipeline, or the targeted anodes installed to protect just that spot.
• Jeepalso jeeping, jeep spring
  Pipeline slang for the high-voltage holiday detector, and also for the coating flaws it finds.
• Lowalso under criterion, under-protected
  CP tech shorthand for a potential that is not negative enough to meet the protection criterion.
• Mag anodealso mags, magnesium anode
  Field name for a magnesium sacrificial anode, the high-voltage choice for high-resistivity soils.
• Ons and offsalso on/offs, on and off readings
  Survey slang for paired on and instant-off potential readings taken while rectifiers are being interrupted.
• Red wateralso rusty water, discolored water
  Rust-colored tap or process water carrying iron corrosion products shed from pipes and mains.
• Rust jackingalso pack rust, rust packing
  Swelling of rust between steel parts that pries joints apart, bows plates and pops rivets.
• Sandblastingalso blasting, abrasive blasting
  Everyday word for abrasive blast cleaning, used even when no sand is involved.
• Shorted casingalso casing short, metallic short
  Road or rail crossing casing pipe that has made metal contact with the carrier pipe and steals CP current.
• Smart pigalso intelligent pig, ILI tool
  Industry nickname for an in-line inspection tool that rides through a pipeline recording its condition.
• Sweat-inalso induction time, induction period
  Painter slang for the induction time a freshly mixed epoxy must stand before it is applied.
• Tea stainingalso rust bloom on stainless
  Light brown surface discoloration on stainless steel exposed to salt air or pollution, mostly cosmetic.
• Toothalso bite, key
  Painters' word for the roughness on a surface that gives a coating something to grip.
• Zincsalso zinc anodes, zinc
  Boat and marine slang for the sacrificial anodes bolted to hulls, shafts, outdrives and heat exchangers.

• Alloyalso furnace alloy, baskets
  Heat-treat slang for the heat-resistant baskets, trays, grids and fixtures that carry parts through the furnace.
• At heatalso up to heat, at temp
  Shop phrase meaning a load has reached its setpoint temperature, so its soak time can start counting.
• Brightalso bright annealed, bright hardened
  Describes parts that come out of the furnace clean and unoxidized, with no scale or discoloration.
• Certalso certs, heat treat cert
  Shop word for the certificate of heat treatment that states what was done to a lot and the results.
• Cherry redalso cherry heat
  Color name for steel glowing at roughly 750 to 800 °C, near where most hardening heats begin.
• Cookedalso overheated, burnt
  Shop slang for parts that were overheated or held too long, ending up with coarse grain or burned structure.
• Cryoalso cryogenic treatment, deep cryogenic treatment
  Shop name for deep cryogenic treatment, a slow cool to near liquid nitrogen temperature after hardening.
• Cut and etchalso section and etch, cut-up
  Shop phrase for sectioning a sample part and etching it to check case depth or structure.
• Dead softalso dead-soft, fully annealed
  Fully annealed to the lowest hardness the metal can reach, with no work hardening left in it.
• Drawalso draw back, drawing
  Shop word for tempering, as in drawing hardened steel back to a softer, tougher hardness.
• Dunkalso dunk time
  Heat-treat slang for quenching a part, especially by hand into an open oil or water tank.
• File hardalso file-hard, skates a file
  Hard enough that a sharp file skates across the surface without biting, roughly 58 HRC and up.
• Glass hardalso glass-hard, as-quenched
  Fully hardened and untempered, so hard and brittle that a file skates off and a drop could shatter it.
• Hot oilalso marquench oil, martemp oil
  Shop name for quench oil run at about 120 to 230 °C for marquenching and low-distortion quenching.
• Hour per inchalso an hour an inch, hour-per-inch rule
  Heat-treat rule of thumb that a part needs about one hour at temperature per inch of its thickest section.
• Magnet testalso nonmagnetic check, magnet check
  Checking steel with a magnet while heating, since it stops being magnetic near its hardening temperature.
• Pointsalso Rockwell points, points of carbon
  Shop shorthand for Rockwell numbers, as in a part running two points high on hardness.
• Potato chipalso potato-chipped
  Shop name for a thin, flat part that warps into a dished or wavy shape during the quench.
• Pullalso pull the load
  To take a load or part out of the furnace, usually on its way to the quench or at the end of a cycle.
• Recipealso cycle, program
  Shop word for the stored program of temperatures, times and atmosphere setpoints that runs a furnace cycle.
• Rehardalso reharden, re-harden
  To harden a part again after it misses hardness, usually after normalizing or annealing it first.
• Running richalso rich, running heavy
  Shop talk for a furnace atmosphere carrying more carbon than its setpoint and heading toward soot.
• Seasoningalso conditioning, reseasoning
  Running an empty furnace at carburizing setpoint after a burnout so walls and fixtures soak up carbon first.
• Snap temperalso snap draw
  A quick, low-temperature temper given right after quenching to keep crack-prone parts from splitting.
• Traveleralso router, shop traveler
  The paperwork that rides with a lot through the shop, recording each operation, furnace, time and result.
• Washeralso parts washer, prewash
  The parts washer that strips oil and chips before heat treat and quench oil after it.
• Wetalso wet atmosphere
  Shop word for a furnace atmosphere with too much water vapor, meaning a high dew point and low carbon.

• Boothalso spray booth, spray cell
  The soundproofed, ventilated enclosure where the gun, robot and part sit during spraying.
• Bridgingalso bridged, bridging over
  Coating that forms a continuous skin across the edge of a mask, so it tears or lifts when the mask comes off.
• Carbidealso carbide coating, tungsten
  Shop shorthand for a carbide coating, usually tungsten carbide, as in putting carbide on a part.
• Cookalso cooking, cooked
  Booth slang for overheating a part during spraying, usually from slow traverse, short standoff or no pauses.
• Cutalso size cut, size range
  Shop word for a powder's particle size range, such as minus 45 plus 15 micrometers.
• Dustingalso dust, overspray dust
  Fine, cooled overspray that settles on a surface as loose powder and weakens the next layer sprayed over it.
• Footprintalso spray spot, spray pattern
  The shape of the deposit a gun leaves in a short stationary shot or single line, used to check spray alignment.
• Glue failurealso epoxy failure
  Lab slang for a bond test where the epoxy broke first, so the coating is at least as strong as the glue.
• Gunalso torch, spray gun
  Booth word for the thermal spray torch itself, whether plasma, HVOF, arc or flame.
• Liftingalso edge lifting, edge lift
  Shop word for coating peeling up at an edge, often after tape removal, grinding or machining.
• Light offalso light the gun, light-up
  To ignite the spray gun, whether striking a plasma arc or lighting an HVOF or flame torch.
• Metallizingalso metalizing, metallizer
  Shop and field name for thermal spraying, especially zinc and aluminum sprayed on steel for corrosion.
• Molyalso molybdenum, moly coat
  Shop name for sprayed molybdenum, a scuff-resistant coating for piston rings, synchro rings and bond coats.
• Mountalso met mount, cross section
  A polished cross section of a coated coupon set in resin, used to check structure under the microscope.
• Potalso blast pot, pressure pot
  Shop name for the pressure blast vessel that holds grit and feeds it into the blast hose.
• Pulsingalso surging, puffing
  Uneven powder delivery that makes the spray stream surge and flicker instead of flowing steadily.
• Running hotalso running cold, hot
  Booth talk for parameters that are overheating the particles or part; running cold is the opposite.
• Shootalso spray, shot
  Booth verb for spraying a coating onto a part or coupon.
• Spittingalso spits, spit
  A gun shedding blobs of molten buildup into the coating, leaving lumps known as spits.
• Strip and resprayalso strip and recoat, stripping
  Removing a failed or worn coating completely and applying a new one, a standard repair and rework.
• Stripingalso tiger striping, banding
  Visible bands or ridges across a coating caused by uneven overlap between passes.
• Sweep blastalso brush blast, brush-off blast
  A quick, light blast pass to refresh a prepared surface or clean overspray without cutting deep.
• Tapealso masking tape, tape up
  Masking tape used for blasting and spraying, or as a verb, masking a part off before coating.
• Toothalso bite, profile
  Shop word for the bite or roughness left on a blasted surface, the grip a coating needs to hold on.
• Unmeltsalso unmelted particles, unmelted
  Lab shorthand for particles that hit the surface without fully melting and kept their round shape.

• Bad groundalso no ground, poor ground
  A hook or rack contact too crusted with cured powder to carry charge away, so powder will not stick properly.
• Blastalso sandblast, media blast
  To strip and roughen a part with abrasive media before coating, or as a noun, the blast room itself.
• Blow-offalso air blow-off, air knife
  Blasts of compressed air used to clear water from pockets or dust from parts before they are coated.
• Boilalso simmer
  To bubble gently and evenly like simmering water, the way a properly fluidized hopper of powder should look.
• Cagealso caging
  Shop shorthand for a recess resisting powder because of Faraday cage effect.
• Candyalso candy color, tinted clear
  A tinted transparent topcoat sprayed over a bright base so the color glows with metallic depth.
• Cookalso bake, cooked
  Line slang for curing parts in the oven, and in the past tense, for parts that got too much heat.
• Dustingalso dust coat, dust it
  A light, quick pass of powder that barely covers, or the first thin pass before building film.
• Fingernail testalso thumbnail test, nail test
  The rough floor check of cure: dig a thumbnail into a cooled part and see if it marks.
• Five-stagealso five-stage washer, 5-stage
  Shop name for a spray washer with five tanks: clean, rinse, conversion coat, rinse and final seal or DI rinse.
• Gassy
  Describing a casting, galvanized part or batch of metal known to outgas and ruin the finish.
• Hangalso load, hang parts
  To load parts onto hooks or racks at the start of the line.
• Hooksalso hangers, S-hooks
  The wire hangers that hold parts on the conveyor and carry the ground connection.
• Hot flockingalso hot flock, preheat spraying
  Spraying powder onto a part that is already hot, so the powder melts on contact and builds a thick film.
• Picture framingalso framing, edge build
  A visible border of heavier or darker coating around the edges of a flat panel.
• Plugsalso caps and plugs, silicone plugs
  Silicone stoppers pushed into holes and threads so powder stays out, often reused many times.
• Pointsalso titration points
  The titration reading for a washer bath, given in milliliters of titrant and used to judge bath strength.
• Rampalso ramp-up, come-up time
  The heat-up time a part needs in the oven before it reaches cure temperature and the cure clock starts.
• Seedsalso gel particles, lumps
  Small hard lumps in the cured film from gelled or fused bits of powder rather than outside dirt.
• Shootalso spray, shot
  To spray powder, as in shooting a part or shooting a color.
• Spittingalso spits
  Powder bursting out of the gun in clumps, leaving lumps and heavy spots on the part.
• Stripalso stripping
  To remove cured powder from a rejected part or rack so it can be recoated.
• Trashalso dirt, dirt in film
  Floor word for dirt, lint, fibers and debris cured into the finish as bumps.
• Two-coatalso 2-coat, two-coat system
  Describing a finish built from a base coat and a top coat, each sprayed separately.
• Washalso washer, the washer
  Line slang for the spray pretreatment washer, or for the pass a part makes through it.

• Aggressivealso high-tack, grabby
  Describing a tape or adhesive with high tack and strong immediate grab that is hard to reposition.
• Angel hairalso stringing, cobwebbing
  Fine threads of hot melt that string off the nozzle and drift across machines and products.
• Bluealso blue threadlocker, medium-strength threadlocker
  Shop shorthand for medium-strength threadlocker, the removable kind; red means the permanent kind.
• Butteringalso butter, double spread
  Spreading adhesive on both mating surfaces rather than one, to ensure full wetting and coverage.
• Charalso charring
  Dark, degraded hot melt that builds up in tanks and hoses from long time at temperature.
• Couponalso test coupon, witness coupon
  A small standard test piece, usually a metal or plastic strip, bonded to check adhesive strength or prep.
• Dog bonealso dogbone, tensile bar
  A cast or cut tensile specimen with wide ends and a narrow middle, used to test bulk adhesive properties.
• Dyne penalso dyne marker, dyne ink
  A marker filled with test fluid of known surface tension, used to check a surface's treatment level.
• Edge oozealso ooze, oozing
  Adhesive squeezing out from the sides of a tape roll or die-cut part, making edges sticky and dirty.
• Five-minute epoxyalso 5-minute epoxy, quick-set epoxy
  A fast two-part epoxy that gels in about five minutes, the bench-repair go-to for quick fixes.
• Gluealso adhesive
  The everyday word for any adhesive, used freely on the floor but avoided in engineering drawings.
• Glue-upalso glueup, clamp-up
  The stage of assembly where all parts get adhesive and are clamped together, or the clamped assembly itself.
• Grabalso initial grab, hold
  Floor word for how quickly and firmly an adhesive takes hold when parts are pressed together.
• Gummyalso undercured, soft
  Describing an adhesive that stayed soft and rubbery instead of curing hard.
• Hot gluealso hot-melt glue
  Floor and craft name for hot melt adhesive, especially sticks fed through a handheld gun.
• IPA wipealso alcohol wipe, IPA clean
  Cleaning a bonding surface with isopropyl alcohol on a lint-free wipe just before adhesive goes on.
• Kickalso kick off, kicked off
  To gel or cure suddenly, as in a resin kicking in the cup or a CA kicking with accelerator.
• Marblingalso streaking, swirling
  Swirls and streaks of separate colors in a two-part adhesive that show it has not mixed thoroughly.
• Off-ratioalso out of ratio, bad ratio
  Describing a two-part adhesive dispensed with the wrong proportion of resin to hardener.
• Peel-and-stickalso self-adhesive, pre-applied adhesive
  Describing any product with a ready-coated pressure-sensitive adhesive under a liner that goes on without tools.
• Pop-offalso popped off clean
  A part that lets go with a snap, leaving the adhesive cleanly on one side and nothing on the other.
• Purgealso purge shot, waste shot
  To run adhesive through a mixer or dispense valve and discard it, clearing old, unmixed or off-ratio material.
• Scuffalso scuff sand, abrade
  To roughen a bonding surface lightly with an abrasive pad or paper to remove gloss and contamination.
• Set upalso set, setting up
  To thicken and start to hold, the point where an adhesive stops being workable.
• Super gluealso CA, crazy glue
  Everyday name for cyanoacrylate instant adhesive, used on the floor for any CA grade.
• Zipperingalso zipper, unzipping
  A bond peeling open fast and continuously once it starts, like a zipper running down.

• Ball-in-hand testalso ball test, ball in hand
  Quick field check of castable water content: squeeze a ball of mix, toss it, and see whether it holds.
• Breakoutalso burn-through, run-out
  Escape of molten metal or slag through a failed lining and shell, the most dangerous refractory failure.
• Brickiealso bricky, refractory mason
  Shop name for a refractory bricklayer, especially in Britain, Australia and steel plant crews.
• Butteralso buttering
  To spread mortar onto the faces of a brick before setting it in place.
• Closeralso closure, cut brick
  Brick cut to size to fill the last gap in a course, ring or wall.
• Doghousealso dog house, batch charging pocket
  Small extension on a glass melting furnace where the batch is charged into the tank.
• Elephant footalso elephant's foot, elephant foot erosion
  Blast furnace hearth wear profile where the wall-to-floor corner erodes into the shape of an elephant's foot.
• Fettlingalso fettle, bank repair
  Quick repair of a furnace hearth and banks between heats by throwing or gunning in dolomite or magnesia.
• Free openalso free opening, self-opening
  Ladle that starts teeming the moment the slide gate opens, with no oxygen lancing needed.
• Gunitealso guniting, gunite crew
  Shop name for gunned refractory and the dry-gun process, borrowed from the concrete trade.
• Hard brickalso dense brick, dense firebrick
  Shop name for dense firebrick, as opposed to lightweight insulating soft brick.
• Hot spotalso hotspot, shell hot spot
  Area of a vessel or kiln shell running hotter than normal because the lining behind it is thin or gone.
• Magalso magnesite, mag brick
  Clipped shop word for magnesia, magnesia brick or a magnesia-based mix.
• Mudalso taphole clay, mortar
  Shop word for the clay used to plug a blast furnace taphole, and bricklayers' word for mortar.
• Nozzlemanalso nozzle operator, gunman
  Operator who handles the gunning nozzle and controls water and placement on a gunning or shotcrete crew.
• Pogo stickalso pogo, pogos
  Telescoping prop used to hold bricks against the upper shell of a rotary kiln until the ring is keyed.
• Red spotalso red shell, glowing shell
  Shell area glowing visibly red from lining loss, the signal to take a kiln or vessel out of service.
• Salamanderalso bear
  Pool or mass of iron left in a blast furnace hearth below the taphole, tapped or dug out at a reline.
• Skullalso skulling, metal skull
  Layer of solidified metal and slag left stuck to a ladle, converter or furnace lining after emptying.
• Snowmanalso cooler snowman, clinker buildup
  Cement plant name for the mound of sticky clinker that builds up at the inlet of the clinker cooler.
• Soft brickalso soft firebrick, insulating brick
  Shop and kiln builder name for insulating firebrick, light enough to carve with a hand saw.
• Spiralingalso brick spiraling, twisting
  Twisting of brick rings out of radial alignment inside a rotary kiln when the lining works loose.
• Stingeralso poker, vibrator
  Shop name for the immersion vibrator head pushed into fresh castable to consolidate it.
• Tear-outalso wreck-out, wrecking
  Demolition of a worn or failed refractory lining so a new one can be installed.
• Tenderalso mason tender, hod carrier
  Laborer who supplies brick, mortar and castable to refractory masons and keeps the job moving.

• Bird poopalso bird poop welds, pigeon droppings
  Slang for an ugly, lumpy, poorly fused weld that looks like droppings sitting on the metal.
• Bottlealso cylinder, tank
  Shop word for a high-pressure gas cylinder of shielding gas, oxygen or fuel gas.
• Burn-inalso burn in, bite
  Shop word for how deeply a bead melts into the base metal or sidewalls, especially at the root and toes.
• Burneralso torch man, cutter
  Shop name for the tradesperson who does torch cutting, or for the cutting torch itself.
• Bustalso busted, fail
  Shop slang for failing a weld test or inspection, as in busting a bend or an X-ray.
• Buzz boxalso tombstone, AC welder
  Nickname for a small AC transformer stick welder, the classic farm and garage machine.
• Capalso cover pass, cap pass
  Shop word for the final layer of passes on the face of a groove weld, the cover pass in code language.
• Certalso welder cert, certs
  Shop word for a welder's qualification, or the test taken to earn it, as in a 6G cert.
• Code welderalso coded welder, pressure welder
  A welder qualified to make welds under a governing code, such as pressure vessel, piping or structural work.
• Cold lapalso cold lapping, overlap
  Shop term for weld metal that rolls over onto the base metal or a previous bead without fusing to it.
• Cupalso nozzle, gas cup
  The ceramic or glass nozzle on a TIG torch that directs shielding gas; also a MIG gun nozzle.
• Cutoutalso cut out, cut-out
  Shop word for a rejected weld that has to be removed completely and rewelded, especially on pipe.
• Dipalso dipped tungsten, stick the tungsten
  TIG slang for touching the tungsten into the weld pool or filler, contaminating it and stopping the work.
• Dogalso dogs, dogs and wedges
  A small steel lug tacked to a part so a wedge or bolt can pull pieces into alignment during fit-up.
• Downhillalso vertical down, vertical-down
  Welding vertically from the top down, fast and with less heat, as done on cross-country pipelines.
• Featheralso feather out, feathering
  To grind the start, stop or tack of a weld to a thin taper so the next bead can tie in smoothly.
• Golden armalso golden arms, top hand
  Slang for an exceptionally skilled welder whose work passes inspection every time.
• Groundalso ground clamp, work lead
  Shop word for the work lead and its clamp, which completes the welding circuit through the part.
• Hi-loalso high-low, misalignment
  Shop name for misalignment between two pipe or plate edges, where one sits higher than the other.
• Hoodalso helmet, lid
  Shop word for the welding helmet, with the dark filter lens that protects eyes and face from the arc.
• Iciclesalso grapes, excess penetration
  Slang for drips of excess root metal hanging inside a pipe from too much heat or too wide a gap.
• Landalso root face, nose
  Shop word for the flat root face left at the bottom of a bevel, called the root face in codes.
• Out of positionalso out-of-position
  Shop phrase for welding in any position other than flat, especially vertical and overhead.
• Puddlealso weld pool, pool
  Shop word for the weld pool, the molten metal under the arc that the welder watches and steers.
• Rodalso electrode, stick
  Shop word for a stick welding electrode, as in burning rod or a box of 7018 rod.
• Rosebudalso heating tip, rose bud
  Shop name for a multi-flame oxyfuel heating tip used to preheat, bend and loosen parts.
• Shotalso shoot, X-ray
  Shop word for a radiograph of a weld, or the act of X-raying it, as in the weld got shot.
• Silver solderalso silver braze, silver brazing alloy
  Common shop name for silver brazing alloys, even though they melt well above solder temperatures.
• Stacking dimesalso stack of dimes, dimes
  Slang for a weld bead with even, tight ripples that look like a row of overlapping coins.
• Stingeralso electrode holder, rod holder
  Shop name for the electrode holder that grips a stick rod and carries welding current to it.
• Suck-backalso suckback, root concavity
  Shop name for a concave root on pipe, where the inside of the weld sits below the pipe wall.
• Sugaringalso sugar, sugared root
  Heavy oxidation on the back of a stainless or titanium weld that leaves a rough, grainy crust like sugar.
• Suitcasealso suitcase feeder, portable feeder
  Shop name for a portable, enclosed wire feeder carried out to the work on a long lead.
• Tie-inalso tie in, tie-ins
  How well a weld fuses into the base metal, the bead beside it, or the end of an earlier weld.
• Uphillalso vertical up, vertical-up
  Welding vertically from the bottom up, which gives deeper fusion and more fill per pass.
• Wagon tracksalso wagon track, railroad tracks
  Radiographer slang for two parallel lines of slag trapped along the edges of a root pass.
• Walking the cupalso walk the cup, cup walking
  TIG pipe technique of rocking the ceramic cup along the bevel to move the torch in a steady weave.
• Whipalso whip lead, whipping
  The short, flexible lead between the main welding cable and the stinger, or a whipping rod motion.
• Wormholesalso wormhole porosity, piping porosity
  Shop name for elongated gas pores that tunnel through a weld like worm tracks.

• All-threadalso threaded rod, ready rod
  Shop name for threaded rod: steel bar threaded end to end, cut to length for hangers, anchors and long studs.
• Allen keyalso Allen wrench, hex key
  Shop name for an L-shaped hex key used to drive socket head cap screws and set screws.
• Bolt-upalso flange bolt-up, bolting up
  The assembly and tightening of a gasketed flange or bolted joint as a job, done in a pattern over several passes.
• Break loosealso crack loose, bust loose
  To get a tight or seized fastener to start turning in the loosening direction, the hardest moment of removal.
• Chasealso chase the threads, thread chaser
  To run a tap, die or thread chaser through an existing thread to clean and reform it without cutting it oversize.
• Click wrenchalso clicker, micrometer torque wrench
  Shop name for an adjustable torque wrench that clicks and briefly gives way when the set torque is reached.
• Cross-threadalso cross-threaded, cross-threading
  To start a nut or screw crooked so its thread cuts across the mating thread instead of following it.
• Double-nuttingalso double nut, jamming two nuts
  Locking two nuts together on a stud so a wrench on one of them can screw the stud in or out.
• Easy-outalso screw extractor, EZ-out
  Shop name for a spiral screw extractor driven backward into a drilled broken bolt to unscrew it.
• Grade 8also G8, six-line bolt
  Shop shorthand for the strongest common inch bolt, and loosely for anything overbuilt; six lines on the head.
• Gutentightalso good-n-tight, German torque spec
  Mock-German torque spec meaning tightened by feel until it seems good and tight, with no wrench reading.
• Hardware-store gradealso no-name bolt
  Dismissive term for unmarked, soft, zinc-plated bolts of unknown origin with no certified strength.
• Huck boltalso lockbolt, Huck
  Shop name for a lockbolt: a grooved pin with a collar swaged on by a tool, giving a joint that will not vibrate loose.
• Mill certalso MTR, material test report
  Shop name for the material test report tracing steel back to its mill heat, chemistry and test results.
• Necked downalso necked, stretched
  Describes a bolt visibly thinner in one spot because it was stretched past yield and started to neck.
• Nylocalso nylock, nylon lock nut
  Shop name for a nylon-insert lock nut, the hex nut with a colored plastic ring captured in one end.
• Pop rivetalso blind rivet, POP rivet
  Shop name for a blind rivet: a hollow rivet set from one side by pulling a mandrel that snaps off when tight.
• Rattle gunalso impact gun, impact wrench
  Shop nickname for an impact wrench, from the hammering racket it makes running fasteners on and off.
• Rehitalso re-hit, double hit
  Running a power tool on a fastener that is already tight, giving a false good reading or extra torque.
• Righty-tighty, lefty-looseyalso righty tighty lefty loosey
  Rhyme reminding that standard threads tighten when turned clockwise and loosen counterclockwise.
• Rivnutalso rivet nut, nutsert
  A blind threaded insert crushed into a hole in sheet or tube so a screw can be fitted from one side.
• Rounded offalso rounded, chewed up
  Describes a hex head, nut or socket recess whose corners have worn smooth so wrenches just slip.
• Spinneralso spun, free spinner
  A fastener that just turns without tightening or loosening, because its thread, insert or captive nut gave up.
• Squirteralso squirter DTI
  Shop name for a direct tension indicator filled with colored silicone that squirts out when the bolt is tight.
• Tek screwalso Teks, self-drilling screw
  A self-drilling screw with a drill-bit point that bores its own hole in steel and then threads it in one pass.
• Torque stripealso torque seal, witness mark
  A paint line drawn across a tightened nut, bolt and joint to show it was torqued and reveal any later movement.
• Twisted offalso snapped, broke off
  Describes a bolt or screw that snapped in torsion while being tightened or removed, leaving the stub behind.
• Ugga duggaalso ugga-dugga'd, ugga duggas
  Imitation of an impact wrench, meaning tightened by impact until it sounded done rather than to a torque spec.

• Bluingalso marking compound, Prussian blue
  Shop word for marking compound brushed on gear teeth to read the contact pattern after running.
• Boxalso gearbox, reducer
  Shop shorthand for a gearbox, reducer or transmission, as in the box is whining or pull the box.
• Bull gearalso girth gear, main gear
  Shop name for the biggest gear in a drive train, usually the slow, heavy output gear.
• Clunkalso driveline clunk, lash clunk
  A single heavy knock when a drive takes up its backlash on a load reversal, such as on and off the throttle.
• Crash boxalso non-synchro box, unsynchronized box
  Shop name for an unsynchronized manual gearbox, where shifts grind unless engine and road speed are matched.
• Dogsalso dog teeth, dog clutch
  Shop name for the chunky engagement teeth on a gear or sliding collar that lock a gear to its shaft.
• Fingernail testalso nail test, fingernail check
  Shop check of dragging a fingernail across a tooth flank to judge whether surface damage has real depth.
• Frostingalso frosted, gray staining
  Shop word for the dull, frosted gray patches on gear teeth that turn out to be micropitting.
• Fuzzalso drain plug fuzz, magnet fuzz
  Shop word for the fine metallic paste that collects on a magnetic drain plug from normal gear wear.
• Gear checkeralso gear analyzer, gear measuring machine
  Shop name for a gear measuring machine that traces profile, helix, pitch and runout, and for its operator.
• Gearheadalso precision gearhead, servo reducer
  A compact gear reducer that bolts to a motor face, and also a person who lives for machinery.
• Granny gearalso granny low, creeper gear
  Shop name for an extra-low first gear used for crawling under heavy load, not for normal driving.
• Greenalso green cut, soft
  Shop word for a gear in its soft, machined state before heat treatment, as in cut green, finish hard.
• Grenadealso grenaded, blew up
  Shop slang for a gearbox or axle destroying itself all at once, scattering broken teeth and bearing parts.
• Hard gearingalso hardened and ground, case-hardened gearing
  Shop term for case-hardened, ground gears, as opposed to through-hardened soft gears that are cut to finish.
• Howlalso axle howl, gear howl
  Shop word for a loud, droning gear noise, usually from a vehicle axle with a worn or badly set ring and pinion.
• Lashalso backlash, gear lash
  Shop clipping of backlash, the free play between mating gear teeth, as in set the lash or check lash.
• Pumpkinalso third member, diff housing
  Shop name for the round differential housing in the middle of a drive axle, from its bulging shape.
• Rattlealso gear rattle, neutral rattle
  A clattering noise from unloaded gears bouncing back and forth inside their backlash.
• Ring and pinionalso R&P, gear set
  Shop name for the hypoid final drive in a vehicle axle, named by its ratio, such as 3.73 or 4.10.
• Roll checkalso roll test, master gear check
  Shop name for rolling a production gear against a master gear to catch size errors, runout and nicks.
• Scallopsalso feed marks, generating flats
  Shop word for the small ridges a hob leaves across and along each tooth flank, visible as a fine texture.
• Set the patternalso setting up gears, gear setup
  Shop phrase for adjusting pinion depth and backlash on a bevel or hypoid set until the contact pattern is right.
• Slopalso play, free play
  Shop word for too much play in a gear train or drive, felt as free movement before anything turns.
• Spider gearsalso differential gears, spiders
  Shop name for the small bevel gears inside a differential that let the two wheels turn at different speeds.
• Tracealso chart, profile trace
  The printed plot of a tooth's measured profile or helix from a gear checker, read against tolerance bands.
• Whinealso gear whine, gear noise
  A steady, pitch-changing tonal noise from gears, rising with speed and caused by tooth meshing errors.

• BFValso butterfly
  Butterfly valve: the clipped form used on valve tags, takeoff sheets and HVAC and fire protection drawings.
• Bleederalso bleed valve, vent valve
  A small vent or drain valve used to release pressure or fluid, especially between two block valves.
• Bubble-tightalso zero leakage, drop-tight
  Shut off with no visible seat leakage when tested with air or gas under water.
• Cheater baralso cheater, snipe
  A length of pipe slipped over a wrench or valve handle to gain extra leverage on something stuck.
• Close nipplealso all-thread nipple, running nipple
  The shortest threaded nipple made, threaded along its whole length with no plain section in the middle.
• Crackalso crack open, cracked
  To open a valve just slightly, letting a small, controlled flow through.
• Dutchmanalso filler piece, pup
  A short filler piece of pipe cut in to close a gap or correct a misfit between two spools.
• F-wrenchalso valve wrench, wheel key
  An F-shaped steel bar that hooks over handwheel spokes to give extra turning leverage on a valve.
• Fishmouthalso fish mouth, saddle cut
  A saddle-shaped cut on the end of a branch pipe so it sits flush against the curve of a larger pipe.
• Golden weldalso golden joint, closure weld
  The final tie-in weld between new and existing piping that cannot be included in the hydrotest.
• Handjackalso handwheel override, manual override
  The manual handwheel override fitted to a pneumatic actuator so a valve can be positioned by hand.
• Hot boltingalso hot bolt, hot bolt replacement
  Replacing or retorquing flange bolts one at a time while the line stays in service.
• Huntingalso cycling, oscillating
  A control valve or loop swinging back and forth around setpoint instead of settling.
• Hydroalso hydrostatic test, hydrotest
  A hydrostatic pressure test: filling a valve, piping system or vessel with water and pressurizing it to prove strength.
• Make upalso makeup, made up
  To screw a threaded joint together and tighten it, or to assemble and torque a flanged joint.
• Passingalso letting by, leaking by
  Leaking through the seat while closed, so fluid still gets past a valve that is supposed to be shut.
• Pinch backalso pinch in, pinch it down
  To close a valve partway to cut flow or pressure, without shutting it.
• Pipe dopealso dope, thread sealant
  Paste thread sealant brushed on male pipe threads before makeup to seal and lubricate the joint.
• Popalso lift, blow
  For a safety valve to lift suddenly and fully open, discharging with a loud blast at set pressure.
• Repackalso repacking, pack it
  To pull the old packing out of a valve stuffing box and install a new set of rings.
• Slamalso check valve slam, slamming
  A check valve banging shut after flow has already reversed, sending a pressure surge through the line.
• Spadealso paddle blind, skillet
  A solid blank plate with a handle, slipped between flanges to positively isolate a line.
• Stictionalso stick-slip, sticky valve
  Static friction that makes a control valve stick, then jump, instead of moving smoothly with its signal.
• Street ellalso street elbow, street 90
  A threaded or sweat elbow with one male and one female end, so it screws straight into another fitting.
• Torque outalso torqued out, torque trip
  For a motor-operated valve to stop on its torque switch because it met more resistance than expected.
• Two-holingalso two-hole, straddle the centerline
  Orienting a flange so two bolt holes straddle the top centerline instead of one hole sitting dead on top.
• Weepingalso weeper, weep
  Leaking a drop or wisp at a time from packing, a gasket, a threaded joint or a casting.

• Adjustable hammeralso crescent wrench, adjustable
  Joke name for an adjustable wrench, after how often it ends up being used to hit things.
• Air cuttingalso cutting air
  Shop term for a tool moving at feed rate through empty space, wasting cycle time.
• Angry pixiesalso pixies
  Tool-teardown slang for electricity, the invisible little creatures that bite when you get careless.
• Armstrong methodalso Armstrong power, Armstrong
  Shop joke for doing a job by muscle power alone, with no power feed, hoist or machine help.
• Automagic
  Happening automatically by some hidden process nobody fully understands or wants to explain.
• Babysitalso watch it run
  To stand and watch a machine run a job because it cannot yet be trusted to run on its own.
• Belt and suspendersalso belt and braces
  Using two independent safeguards where one should do, for redundancy or out of extra caution.
• Bird's nestalso chip nest, rat's nest
  A tangled wad of long, stringy chips wrapped around the tool, chuck or part on a lathe.
• Blue chips
  Steel chips that come off straw to dark blue from heat, read as a sign of how hard a cut is running.
• Bodgealso bodge job, kludge
  A crude, makeshift repair or piece of work that does the job, but only just.
• Bridgeportalso knee mill, B-port
  Shop name for any vertical turret knee mill, after the brand that made the design standard.
• Bubblegum and baling wirealso baling wire and duct tape, chewing gum and string
  Describes a repair or machine held together by improvised, makeshift fixes that should not still be working.
• Bumblefudgealso the boonies, the sticks
  Clean slang for the remote middle of nowhere, where a shop is too far from suppliers for an easy fix.
• Bumpalso nudge, tweak
  To make a small adjustment to an offset or position, usually a thou or less, to bring a size in.
• Button pusheralso part loader
  Dismissive name for a CNC operator who loads parts and presses cycle start but does not set up or program.
• Cattywampusalso catawampus, cockeyed
  Crooked, askew, out of square or not lined up, said of parts, setups and buildings alike.
• Cheater baralso cheater, cheater pipe
  A length of pipe slipped over a wrench handle for extra leverage on a stuck fastener.
• Chooch
  To run, work or go properly, as in does it chooch; as a noun, the power or oomph a machine has.
• Clapped-outalso clapped, worn out
  Worn out from long hard use, still running but loose, sloppy and well past its best.
• Clipboard warrioralso clipboard commando
  Shop dig at a manager, auditor or inspector who walks the floor with paperwork but never runs the tools.
• Close enough for government workalso good enough for government work
  Ironic shop saying that a result is good enough to pass, even if it would not satisfy a careful craftsman.
• Crashalso wreck
  To run a tool, holder or spindle into the part, vise or table by mistake, usually at rapid speed.
• Crustyalso old crusty, crusty old machinist
  An old, gruff veteran machinist with a lifetime of skill, strong opinions and little patience for shortcuts.
• Dead nutsalso dead nuts on, dead on
  Shop slang for exactly on size or perfectly aligned, with no measurable error left.
• Dog's breakfastalso dog's dinner, hot mess
  A complete mess: a badly organized job, a tangled setup or a botched piece of work.
• Dykemalso layout fluid, layout dye
  Shop name, from a trade name, for blue layout fluid painted on metal so scribed lines show up bright.
• Eyecrometeralso eyeball, calibrated eyeball
  Joking name for measuring by eye, the calibrated eyeball used when no real gauge is handy.
• Fabricobblealso cobble together
  To fabricate something by cobbling it together from scrap and whatever is lying around.
• Four-jawalso four-jaw chuck, independent chuck
  Shop name for an independent four-jaw lathe chuck, each jaw adjusted separately to center or offset work.
• Gas axealso torch, hot wrench
  Shop name for an oxy-fuel cutting torch, also used for heating seized parts.
• Gnat's whiskeralso gnat's eyelash, hair
  Clean shop term for a tiny, unmeasured amount, smaller than anyone bothers to put a number on.
• Good idea fairyalso idea fairy
  The imaginary visitor who brings last-minute changes and bright ideas nobody thought through.
• Government jobalso G-job, homer
  A personal project made on company machines and material, on the side or on the clock.
• Gozintaalso goes-into, gazinta
  Shop slang for the part that goes into another part, from the phrase goes into.
• Grinder and paintalso a grinder and paint make me the welder I ain't, grind it, paint it
  Shop saying that a grinder and paint make me the welder I ain't, for hiding ugly welds.
• Griptionalso grippiness
  Shop blend of grip and traction for how well something holds on, from vise jaws to boot soles.
• Guys on the toolsalso shop hands
  The tradespeople actually doing the hands-on work, as opposed to supervisors, planners and office staff.
• Hog outalso hogging, hog it
  To remove a large volume of material fast with heavy roughing cuts, without worrying about finish.
• Hoopedalso hooped up, toast
  Canadian slang for broken, ruined or beyond saving, whether a part, a machine or a plan.
• Indicatealso indicate in, dial in
  To align a vise, part or bore to the machine axes using a dial or test indicator.
• Jo blocksalso gauge blocks, Johansson blocks
  Shop name for gauge blocks: lapped steel or ceramic blocks, accurate to millionths, stacked to make any length.
• Keeneralso eager beaver
  Canadian slang for an overeager newcomer who volunteers for everything and tries a little too hard.
• Kentucky windagealso windage
  Adjusting by experience and feel rather than by the numbers, borrowed from riflemen aiming off for wind.
• Kissalso kiss cut
  To touch a tool or grinder to a surface as lightly as possible, removing almost nothing.
• Left-handed screwdriver
  A tool that does not exist, which new apprentices are sent to fetch as a rite of initiation.
• Magic smokealso let the smoke out
  Joke that electrical parts run on smoke sealed inside them, because once it gets out they stop working.
• Making chipsalso cutting metal, cutting chips
  Shop phrase for machines actually cutting metal, the productive part of the day as opposed to setup.
• Micalso mike, micrometer
  Short for micrometer, pronounced mike, and the verb for measuring a part with one.
• Percussive maintenancealso percussive adjustment
  Hitting a machine or part to make it work, dressed up in technical language.
• Persuaderalso convincer, big hammer
  Shop name for a hammer, usually a big one, used to convince a stuck part to move.
• Pot metalalso monkey metal
  Shop name for cheap, low-melting die-cast alloy, usually zinc-based, that is brittle and almost impossible to weld.
• Prove outalso prove-out
  To run a new CNC program cautiously the first time, watching every move to catch errors before they crash.
• Rubbingalso rub, plowing
  A tool sliding over the work without taking a proper chip, usually because the feed is too light or the tool is dull.
• Safety squintsalso squints
  Shop slang for squinting instead of wearing eye protection, and jokingly for safety glasses themselves.
• Schmooalso shmoo, gunk
  Shop slang for grease, grime, sludge or any gooey lubricant, whether doing its job or gumming things up.
• Shop rat
  Someone who practically lives in the shop, on the clock or off, and is happiest at a machine.
• Single-pointalso single-point threading, screwcutting
  To cut a thread on a lathe with a single-point tool over several passes, rather than with a die or tap.
• Skim cutalso skim, cleanup pass
  A very light cut that just cleans up a surface or establishes size without removing much material.
• Skookum
  Strong, stout and well built, the highest praise for a tool, part or weld; also means really good.
• Sneak up on italso sneak up, creep up on it
  Approach a final dimension with smaller and smaller cuts, measuring between each, so you never go undersize.
• Spring passalso spring cut
  A repeat finishing pass at the same setting to remove the material left behind by tool spring.
• Sudsalso soluble oil, coolant
  Shop name for water-soluble cutting coolant, the milky mix of oil concentrate and water.
• Sweepalso sweep in
  To rotate an indicator in the spindle around a bore, boss or circle to find its center or check alignment.
• Tenthalso ten-thousandth, tenths
  One ten-thousandth of an inch (0.0001 in, about 2.5 microns), the unit of precision grinding and fits.
• This is how you get antsalso that's how you get ants, do you want ants
  Deadpan warning, borrowed from TV comedy, that a shortcut or design choice will cause trouble later.
• Thoualso thousandth, thous
  One thousandth of an inch (0.001 in, about 25 microns), the everyday unit of machining talk in inch shops.
• Thumb detectoralso finger detector
  Shop joke name for any pinch point, blade or mechanism that is especially good at finding fingers.
• Touch offalso touch-off, pick up
  To set a tool's position by bringing it to a known surface and recording that point in the control.
• Tramalso tram in, tramming
  To square a mill head or spindle to the table so the spindle axis is truly perpendicular.
• Unobtainiumalso unobtanium
  Shop joke for a part or material that is impossible or absurdly expensive to get.
• Wiggleralso edge finder, wobbler
  Shop name for an edge finder or wobble-tip locator used to find part edges and lines on a mill.
• Witness markalso match mark, witness line
  A small deliberate mark that shows how parts were aligned or where an original surface was.
• Zap strapalso zip tie, cable tie
  Canadian shop name for a plastic cable tie, the one-way locking strap that holds everything together.

• 86 relayalso 86, lockout relay
  Lockout relay that latches after a serious trip and holds breakers open until someone resets it by hand.
• Backfeedalso back-feed, reverse feed
  Power arriving at a circuit from an unexpected direction, such as a generator or second supply feeding back.
• Blinkalso momentary, momentary interruption
  Momentary outage customers see when an upstream breaker or recloser trips and recloses on a passing fault.
• Brownoutalso sustained undervoltage
  Sustained drop in supply voltage, caused by overload or applied on purpose to cut demand during a shortage.
• Bumpalso bump test, jog
  To energise a motor for a split second to check its direction of rotation before running it properly.
• Chatteralso contact chatter, relay chatter
  Rapid repeated opening and closing of relay or contactor contacts, usually from marginal voltage or vibration.
• DC groundalso battery earth fault, DC earth fault
  Unwanted earth fault on a substation battery or DC control supply, which normally floats free of earth.
• Deadalso de-energised, de-energized
  Isolated from every source, proven free of voltage and safe to work on.
• Dead busalso dead bar, dead busbar
  Busbar with no voltage on it, the condition that lets a breaker close without synchronising checks.
• Doble testalso power factor test, tan delta test
  Insulation power factor test on transformers, bushings and breakers, named after a well-known test set maker.
• Ductoralso micro-ohmmeter, DLRO
  Shop name for a micro-ohmmeter used to measure very low contact and joint resistances.
• Flagalso target
  Indicator on a protection relay showing which element or phase operated; also the verb for it showing.
• Hipotalso hi-pot, high-potential test
  High-potential test: applying a voltage well above working level to prove insulation will not break down.
• Hotalso live, energized
  Shop word for live or energised, and in North America the everyday name for a phase conductor.
• Hot stickalso hotstick, operating pole
  Insulated fibreglass pole used to operate, test or earth high-voltage equipment from a safe distance.
• Kickalso kick out, pop
  Shop verb for a breaker, overload or relay tripping, as in the breaker kicked.
• Magic smokealso let the smoke out
  Joking name for the smoke a burnt-out component releases, as if the smoke were what made it work.
• Meggeralso megohmmeter, IR tester
  To test insulation resistance with a high-voltage DC tester; also the jobsite name for the tester itself.
• Nuisance tripalso false trip, spurious trip
  Protective device opening with no real fault present, usually from bad settings, leakage or transients.
• Portable earthsalso grounds, protective grounds
  Removable earthing leads clamped onto isolated conductors to short them together and to earth during work.
• Potheadalso cable termination
  Field name for the termination where an underground power cable meets an overhead line or equipment.
• Prove deadalso test before touch, live-dead-live
  To test isolated equipment with a verified voltage detector and confirm no voltage before anyone touches it.
• Rack outalso rack-out, withdraw
  To wind a withdrawable breaker out of its connected position in metal-clad switchgear to isolate it.
• Ring outalso buzz out, bell out
  To check continuity and identity of every core of a cable end to end before termination or after a fault.
• Squirrelalso animal contact, squirrel outage
  Control-room shorthand for an animal-caused fault, typically a squirrel or bird bridging live parts.
• Stiffalso strong
  Describes a supply with low source impedance, so its voltage barely moves when load or fault current changes.
• Tag outalso LOTO, lock out tag out
  To hang a danger tag on an isolation point so nobody operates it while people work downstream.
• Thumperalso surge generator, cable thumper
  Field nickname for a surge generator that pulses a faulted cable so the fault can be heard and pinpointed.

• All-threadalso threaded rod, ready rod
  Steel rod threaded along its whole length, used to hang conduit, strut and fixtures from the structure.
• Angry pixiesalso pixies
  Joking name for electricity itself, especially when it escapes as sparks, smoke or a shock.
• Battleshipalso Madison clip, Madison bar
  Thin metal F-shaped clip that holds a cut-in box in drywall by gripping the back of the wall.
• Bell boxalso FS box, FD box
  Weatherproof cast-aluminium box with threaded hubs, used for outdoor switches, receptacles and lights.
• Biblealso code book, NEC
  Shop name for the electrical code book, the reference every electrician carries and argues from.
• Boomeralso traveler
  Traveling electrician or lineman who follows big projects from city to city wherever the work is.
• Bugalso split bolt, Kearney
  Split-bolt connector used to splice or tap heavy conductors, then wrapped in tape.
• BXalso AC cable, Type AC
  Trade name used for armored cable: insulated conductors inside a spiral metal jacket.
• Caddy clipalso Caddy, spring clip
  Spring-steel fastener that snaps onto studs, rod, wire or beam flanges to hold boxes, conduit and cable.
• Channellocksalso channel locks, pump pliers
  Tongue-and-groove adjustable pliers, named after the brand that made them a trade staple.
• Cheateralso cheater bar, cheater plug
  Anything that beats a built-in limit: pipe over a wrench handle, a three-to-two plug adapter or a tandem breaker.
• Cherry pickeralso boom lift, bucket truck
  Boom lift or bucket truck that raises a worker on an arm to reach high fixtures, poles and ceilings.
• Chicago gripsalso Chicagos, come-along grip
  Spring-jawed come-along grips that bite on a wire or cable so it can be pulled tight with a hoist.
• Chicoalso sealing compound, seal-off compound
  Sealing compound poured into conduit seal fittings to block gas and flame in hazardous locations.
• Dikesalso dykes, diagonals
  Diagonal cutting pliers, used for snipping small wire and cable ties close to a surface.
• Dog legalso dogleg, twisted offset
  Crooked bend where two bends in one conduit end up out of plane, so the run will not lie flat.
• Double tapalso double-tapped breaker
  Two conductors under a breaker or lug terminal listed for only one, a classic inspection writeup.
• Ericksonalso Ericson, three-piece coupling
  Three-piece union that joins two lengths of threaded rigid conduit when neither one can be turned.
• Four-eleven boxalso 4-11/16 box, 2100 box
  Square steel box 4-11/16 inches on a side, the step up from a four-square when #10 wire or big receptacles fill it.
• Gang boxalso job box, Knaack box
  Big lockable steel chest that holds a crew's tools and material on a jobsite overnight.
• Gem boxalso gangable box, gangable switch box
  Single-gang metal device box with removable sides, so several can be ganged together for a row of switches.
• Get bitalso get zapped, get lit up
  To take an electric shock on the job, as in got bit by a hot neutral.
• Goof platealso jumbo plate, oversize plate
  Oversized cover plate used to hide a drywall hole cut too big or too ragged around a box.
• Goof ringalso box extender, box extension
  Box extension ring that brings a box set too deep back out flush with the finished wall surface.
• Greenfieldalso flex, FMC
  Flexible metal conduit: spiral-wound steel or aluminium tube that wire is pulled into, used for short flexible runs.
• Gutsalso interior, panel interior
  Interior of a panel: the bus bars, breaker mounting and neutral assembly that bolt into the enclosure.
• Gutteralso wireway, trough
  Sheet-metal trough with a removable cover used to splice, tap and route conductors next to panels and disconnects.
• Hackalso hack job
  Electrician or amateur who does sloppy, unsafe or out-of-code work, or the work itself.
• Handy boxalso utility box, handi-box
  Small surface-mount steel utility box with rounded corners, used for exposed switches and outlets on block walls.
• Hickeyalso conduit hickey, fixture hickey
  Short-headed hand bender for rigid conduit, and also the threaded fitting that hangs a fixture from a box stud.
• Hotalso hot leg, line
  Ungrounded, voltage-carrying conductor of a circuit, and as an adjective anything that is live.
• Ideal
  Shop name for connectors and tools from the maker whose Wire-Nut trademark became a generic word.
• Jet linealso jetline, pull string
  Lightweight pull string blown or vacuumed through empty conduit, then used to pull in heavier rope or wire.
• Jmanalso J-man, journeyworker
  Clipped jobsite form of journeyman, as in ask your jman before you touch that panel.
• Kickeralso kick, kick bend
  Single shallow bend that angles conduit off its line, for example to bring it out from a wall into equipment.
• Kleinsalso lineman's pliers, linemans
  Lineman's side-cutting pliers, named after the brand most electricians carry.
• KOalso knockout, KO hole
  Knockout: a partly punched disc in a box or panel that is removed to make a hole for a conduit or cable fitting.
• Landalso terminate
  To terminate a conductor on a breaker, lug, terminal or device.
• Make upalso makeup
  To splice, pigtail and fold the wires in a box so it is ready for a device or cover.
• Meggeralso megohmmeter, IR tester
  Insulation resistance tester, and the verb for testing a cable or motor with one.
• Meter canalso meter base, meter socket
  Meter socket enclosure where the utility revenue meter plugs in, mounted between the service drop and panel.
• Minerallacalso conduit hanger
  Steel conduit hanger with a bolt across the top, used to hang pipe from rod or fasten it to strut or steel.
• Mud ringalso plaster ring, device ring
  Raised cover that screws onto a square box and gives a flush opening for devices in drywall or plaster.
• Mule tapealso pull tape, muletape
  Flat woven polyester pulling tape printed with footage marks, used for long pulls and to measure runs.
• Narrow backalso inside wireman
  Linemen's nickname for inside electricians, implying they never climb poles or haul heavy line gear.
• Ninetyalso 90, ell
  Shop name for a 90-degree conduit bend, whether factory-made or bent on site.
• Noaloxalso anti-ox, oxide inhibitor
  Antioxidant joint compound brushed onto aluminium wire before it goes under a lug, named after a common brand.
• Pancake boxalso pancake, pan box
  Very shallow round box, about half an inch deep, used to mount a fixture where no deeper box will fit.
• Persuaderalso convincer
  Joking name for a hammer or big pry bar, the tool used when something needs convincing to fit.
• Pigtailalso tail
  Short length of wire spliced to several conductors so only one lead goes to a device terminal.
• Pipealso conduit
  Shop word for conduit of any kind, and as a verb for installing it, as in pipe it.
• Red headalso redhead, anti-short bushing
  Plastic anti-short bushing pushed into the cut end of armored cable to shield wires from the sharp armor edge.
• Red tagalso correction notice, turndown
  Failed inspection notice, or the act of an inspector failing work so it must be fixed and reinspected.
• Rigidalso RMC, GRC
  Heavy-wall threaded steel conduit, the toughest raceway on site, used for services, exposed runs and hazardous areas.
• Romexalso NM, NM-B
  Brand name used for nonmetallic sheathed cable, the plastic-jacketed cable that wires most North American houses.
• Sealtitealso liquidtight, LFMC
  Liquidtight flexible metal conduit: flexible steel conduit with a gray plastic jacket, used at motors and outdoors.
• Slugalso knockout slug
  Metal disc knocked or punched out of a box or panel, which ends up underfoot and in the bottom of every panel.
• Smurf tubealso smurf, ENT
  Corrugated plastic electrical tubing that bends by hand, nicknamed for its bright blue color.
• Sparkyalso sparkie
  Friendly nickname for an electrician, used on jobsites by other trades, customers and electricians themselves.
• Stickalso length, joint
  One full 10-foot length of conduit, the unit crews count pipe in.
• Stingeralso tap lead
  Lead that drops from a pole-top fuse cutout to a transformer's primary bushing, in lineman and service talk.
• Suicide cordalso widow maker, double male cord
  Homemade cord with a male plug on both ends, used to backfeed a house from a generator.
• Sweepalso long sweep, large radius elbow
  Long-radius conduit elbow, common in underground PVC runs, that makes pulling big or long cables easier.
• Tapconalso concrete screw, masonry screw
  Blue hardened screw that cuts its own thread in a drilled hole in concrete or block, named for its brand.
• Tick traceralso volt stick, VoltAlert
  Pen-shaped non-contact voltage detector that beeps or lights up near an energised conductor.
• Tie wirealso ceiling wire, hanger wire
  Soft steel wire used to hang fixtures and raceways above suspended ceilings and to tie pipe to rebar.
• Tubalso can, panel can
  Empty panel enclosure, the steel back box that goes in at rough-in before the interior and cover arrive.
• Tuggeralso cable puller, puller
  Portable powered cable puller that winds rope on a capstan to pull wire through long or heavy conduit runs.
• Ty-rapalso zip tie, cable tie
  Brand name used for plastic cable ties, the self-locking straps that bundle and secure wiring.
• Unibitalso step bit, step drill
  Stepped cone drill bit that cuts several hole sizes in sheet metal boxes and panels, named for its brand.
• Unistrutalso strut, strut channel
  Brand name used for metal strut channel, the slotted steel channel bolted together into racks and supports.
• Wagoalso lever nut, push-in connector
  Brand name used for push-in and lever-style splice connectors that clamp wires without twisting.
• Weatherheadalso service head, weathercap
  Hooded fitting on top of a service mast where overhead service wires enter the conduit, keeping rain out.
• Whipalso fixture whip, flex whip
  Short flexible conduit or cable assembly with wires already in it, linking a fixture or machine to a junction box.
• Wiggyalso solenoid tester, wiggie
  Solenoid voltage tester whose plunger jumps and buzzes to show voltage, prized for being rugged and hard to fool.
• Wild legalso high leg, red leg
  The one phase of a four-wire delta service that reads about 208 volts to neutral instead of 120.
• Wire nutalso wirenut, twist-on connector
  Twist-on connector with a tapered spring inside, used to splice two or more wires together in a box.
• Wiremoldalso surface raceway, surface metal raceway
  Surface raceway that mounts on finished walls, named after the brand that made it standard.
• Yellow 77also soap, wire lube
  Wire-pulling lubricant named for a familiar yellow brand, smeared on conductors to cut friction in conduit.

• Barrelalso shell
  Shop name for a chiller's shell-and-tube evaporator or condenser vessel.
• Beer can coldalso beer-can cold
  A rough feel test: the suction line should be about as cold and sweaty as a can just out of the fridge.
• Belly bandalso belly band mount
  An adjustable strap mount that clamps around the body of a replacement motor so it fits many different brackets.
• Bubble italso bubble test, soap it
  To leak-check a joint or fitting by brushing on soap solution and watching for bubbles.
• Burnoutalso compressor burnout
  A compressor motor failure that overheats the windings and contaminates the system with acid, sludge and carbon.
• Capalso capacitor
  Short for capacitor, the part that gives compressor and fan motors the phase shift they need to start and run.
• Dirty sock syndromealso DSS, dirty sock smell
  A musty, sweaty-sock odor blown out by an air conditioner or heat pump, caused by microbial growth on the indoor coil.
• Ductulatoralso duct calculator, duct wheel
  A slide-rule style duct sizing calculator that matches airflow and friction rate to round and rectangular duct sizes.
• Flowing nitrogenalso flow nitrogen, nitrogen purge
  Running a low flow of dry nitrogen through copper lines while brazing to keep oxide scale from forming inside.
• Gaugesalso manifold, manifold gauges
  The manifold gauge set techs connect to service ports to read system pressures, saturation temperatures and charge.
• Hard start kitalso hard start, start kit
  An add-on start capacitor and relay that gives a struggling compressor extra torque to start.
• Huntingalso TXV hunting, valve hunting
  A TXV or control swinging back and forth, alternately overfeeding and starving the evaporator instead of settling.
• Iced upalso iced, frozen coil
  Describes an evaporator coil or suction line coated in ice because it is running below freezing.
• Line setalso lineset, refrigerant lines
  The pair of copper refrigerant lines, one insulated suction line and one smaller liquid line, linking indoor and outdoor units.
• Mudalso mastic, duct mastic
  Duct mastic, the thick paste brushed over duct joints and seams to seal them airtight.
• Pigtailalso pig tail
  A short jumper wire spliced into a group of conductors so they can share a single terminal.
• Pull a vacuumalso evacuate, pull it down
  To evacuate a refrigeration system with a vacuum pump, removing air and moisture before charging.
• Sling psychalso sling psychrometer, psychrometer
  Shop name for a sling psychrometer, or any handheld instrument used to read wet bulb and dry bulb.
• Sluggingalso liquid slugging, slug
  Liquid refrigerant or oil being drawn into a compressor's cylinders, where it can't be compressed and causes damage.
• Splitalso temperature split, delta T
  The temperature difference between return and supply air across a coil, used as a quick health check.
• Starvedalso starving, underfed
  Describes an evaporator not getting enough refrigerant, so part of the coil runs warm and superheat is high.
• Swamp cooleralso evaporative cooler, evap cooler
  An evaporative cooler that blows outdoor air through wet pads, cooling it by evaporation and adding moisture.
• Sweatalso sweat a joint, solder
  To join copper pipe and fittings with a torch and filler metal drawn into the joint by capillary action.
• Tin knockeralso tinner, sheet metal worker
  Jobsite nickname for a sheet metal worker who fabricates and installs ductwork.
• Top offalso top it off, topping off
  To add refrigerant to a system that is low on charge without finding and fixing the leak.
• Weigh inalso weigh in the charge, charge by weight
  To charge a system with a measured weight of refrigerant on a scale, set by nameplate charge and line set length.
• Whipalso disconnect whip, AC whip
  The short length of flexible conduit and wire running from the disconnect to an outdoor unit or air handler.

• Aquastatalso boiler aquastat
  Shop name for the immersion temperature control that fires and limits a hot water boiler.
• Bleedalso bleed the radiators, vent
  To let trapped air out of a hot water radiator, baseboard or high point by opening its small vent until water appears.
• Bouncing glassalso bouncing water line
  A gauge glass water level jumping up and down instead of holding steady, a warning sign of surging or dirty water.
• Bumpalso bump it, jog
  To energize a motor, pump or burner for a second or two to check rotation or operation.
• Dead menalso the Dead Men
  Steam heating slang for the long-gone engineers and fitters who designed and piped the steam systems that remain in service.
• Delta Talso ΔT, temperature drop
  The temperature difference between supply and return water in a hydronic system.
• Dial inalso tune, set up the burner
  To fine-tune a burner with a combustion analyzer until oxygen, CO and stack temperature land where they belong.
• Dirt legalso drip leg, sediment trap
  A capped vertical stub of pipe below the gas inlet tee that traps scale, dirt and liquid before they reach the gas valve.
• Firemanalso boiler tender, stationary fireman
  The traditional title for a boiler operator who tends fires, watches water and keeps steam up.
• Flameoutalso flame out, flame failure
  A burner flame going out unexpectedly while the boiler is running.
• Kettlingalso kettle noise
  A rumbling, crackling or whistling noise from a hot water boiler, like a kettle about to boil.
• Lazy flame
  A long, soft, yellowish flame that drifts and licks the furnace walls instead of burning crisp and compact.
• Light-offalso lightoff, light off
  The moment a burner ignites, and also the verb for lighting it.
• Mod motoralso modulating motor, modutrol
  The modulating motor that drives a burner's air damper and fuel valve through their range on command.
• Nuisance tripalso nuisance lockout, false trip
  A safety shutdown or lockout caused by a faulty or marginal device, not by a real unsafe condition.
• Pigtailalso siphon, siphon loop
  A looped siphon pipe between a steam boiler and its pressure gauge or control, filled with condensate to block live steam.
• Pop-offalso popoff, pop valve
  Shop slang for the safety valve on a steam boiler or the relief valve on a hot water boiler.
• Pressuretrolalso pressure control, steam pressure control
  Shop name for the pressure switch that starts and stops a steam boiler's burner to hold pressure in a set range.
• Puffbackalso puff back
  A small explosion of oil vapor in the combustion chamber that blows soot and smoke out of the burner and into the room.
• Pumping awayalso pump away, pump away from the tank
  Placing a hydronic circulator just downstream of the expansion tank so it pushes water away from it.
• Punch the tubesalso brush the tubes, rod the tubes
  To clean soot from firetube boiler tubes by running a brush on a long rod through each one.
• Radalso radiator
  Short for radiator, especially the cast iron column or tube radiators of steam and hot water systems.
• Rumblealso combustion rumble
  A low, throbbing combustion noise that sets the boiler and breeching vibrating, usually at one firing rate.
• Running richalso rich, fuel rich
  Burning with too much fuel for the air available, so combustion is incomplete.
• Sooted upalso sooted
  Coated with soot on the fire side, from rich or poor combustion, so heat transfer and draft suffer.
• Spittingalso spitting vent, spitting radiator
  Describes a steam radiator vent that throws out water and steam instead of just air.
• Sweatingalso sweat, fireside condensation
  Flue gas moisture condensing on the cold fireside of a boiler during startup and dripping into the combustion chamber.

• Anti-Csalso anti-C's, PCs
  Anti-contamination clothing: the coveralls, hoods, gloves and overshoes worn to keep contamination off workers.
• Bowlalso channel head, SG bowl
  The steam generator channel head, the hemispherical space under the tubesheet where reactor coolant enters and leaves.
• Burned outalso dosed out, burnt out
  Having used up one's allowed dose for the period, so a worker cannot do more radiological work.
• Crudalso corrosion products, activated corrosion products
  Corrosion products that deposit on fuel and in reactor piping, become radioactive and drive most plant dose.
• Cutie piealso cutie-pie, ion chamber
  Nickname for a handheld ion chamber survey meter, taken from a classic pistol-grip design.
• Dose extension
  Approval for a worker to exceed the plant's administrative dose level, still below the legal limit.
• Dress outalso dressing out, suit up
  To put on the protective clothing required by an RWP before entering a contaminated area.
• Fleaalso hot particle
  Slang for a hot particle, a tiny speck of highly radioactive material found on clothing or skin.
• Frisker
  The count-rate meter and probe kept at exits for checking hands, feet and clothing for contamination.
• Glow boyalso nuclear nomad
  Slang for an itinerant contract worker who travels from plant to plant working refuelling outages.
• Herculitealso herc
  Plant slang for the heavy reinforced plastic sheeting laid on floors and over equipment in contaminated work areas.
• Hotalso rad-hot, dirty
  Radioactive, contaminated or giving a high dose rate, in plant speech; the opposite of clean.
• Hot spotalso hotspot
  A small spot on piping or equipment with a much higher dose rate than its surroundings.
• Hot tool cribalso hot tool room, hot tool issue
  A tool room inside the controlled area that stores and issues contaminated tools for reuse on radiological jobs.
• Jumperalso steam generator jumper, SG jumper
  A worker who makes brief entries into very high radiation spaces, absorbing a large dose allowance in minutes.
• Nukealso Navy nuke
  Slang for someone trained to operate or maintain nuclear reactors, especially a naval nuclear sailor.
• Pancake probealso pancake, GM pancake
  A flat, wide-window Geiger-Mueller detector used for frisking because it picks up beta and alpha contamination well.
• PCEalso personnel contamination event, personnel contamination
  Personnel contamination event: contamination found on a worker's skin or personal clothing above a set threshold.
• Pencilalso pencil dosimeter, pocket dosimeter
  A pocket ion chamber dosimeter shaped like a pen, read by looking through it at a light.
• Pick up dosealso take dose
  To receive radiation dose while doing work, as in picking up 20 millirem on a job.
• Pigalso lead pig, source pig
  A heavy lead or tungsten container used to store or carry a radioactive source or sample.
• Rad ropealso radiation rope
  Yellow and magenta rope, ribbon or chain used to mark the boundary of a radiological area.
• Rad workeralso radiation worker, radworker
  A person trained and qualified to work unescorted in radiologically controlled areas.
• RadConalso radiological controls, Rad Con
  Radiological controls: the radiation protection function, its rules and its technicians, in Navy and government usage.
• RP techalso HP tech, health physics technician
  A radiation protection technician who surveys areas, covers jobs and enforces radiological controls.
• Shine
  Radiation reaching a spot from a nearby source, through a gap or by scattering, rather than from what is being worked on.
• Shotalso radiography shot, RT shot
  A single industrial radiography exposure, used to x-ray a weld with a gamma source or X-ray tube.
• Step-off padalso step off pad, SOP
  The marked clean spot at the exit of a contaminated area where workers remove protective clothing and step out.

• Board opalso board operator, LX op
  The person who runs the lighting console during performances, executing cues on the stage manager's call.
• Bumpalso flash
  To flash a channel or group to full instantly, usually with a console button, to identify it or for effect.
• Channel checkalso dimmer check, lamp check
  The preshow routine of bringing up each lighting channel in turn to confirm every fixture works and is aimed correctly.
• Cut sheetalso spec sheet, data sheet
  The one- or two-page manufacturer data sheet for a luminaire, with dimensions, photometry and ordering options.
• Cycalso cyclorama, sky cloth
  Short for cyclorama: a large plain backdrop or curved wall at the back of a stage or studio, lit to fill it with color.
• Flagalso solid
  A black fabric panel on a frame used on film sets to block light from hitting part of a scene or the lens.
• Flash and trashalso flash-and-trash
  Wry crew slang for busy concert-style lighting full of strobes, chases and fast moving-light effects.
• Focus callalso focus, focus session
  The scheduled crew session in which the lighting designer directs electricians to aim and shape every fixture.
• Gafferalso chief lighting technician, CLT
  The head of the lighting and electrical department on a film or television set.
• Gelalso color, color media
  A sheet of colored or diffusing plastic film placed in front of a lighting fixture to change its color or quality.
• Ghost lightalso equity light
  A single bare lamp on a stand left burning center stage whenever a theater is dark and empty.
• Ghosting
  A faint glow from LED fixtures that are switched off, caused by small leakage currents in the wiring or controls.
• Goboalso template, pattern
  A thin metal or glass disk with a cut pattern, placed in a spotlight to project shapes, textures or logos.
• Hang and focusalso rig and focus
  The work of installing every fixture on the light plot, then aiming and shaping each one for the show.
• Haze
  A fine, even mist pumped into the air so that light beams become visible on stage or on set.
• Hot spotalso hotspot, bright spot
  A distractingly bright patch in a beam or on a lit surface, brighter than its surroundings.
• Lekoalso ellipsoidal, ERS
  Theater slang for an ellipsoidal reflector spotlight, the hard-edged fixture with shutters and a gobo slot.
• Lumen packagealso lumen output option, output package
  Designer and rep shorthand for the delivered lumen output option of a luminaire, chosen from a catalog range.
• Minus greenalso minus green gel
  A magenta correction gel that removes the green tint from fluorescent or green-shifted LED light for camera work.
• Moveralso moving light, moving head
  An automated moving-head light that pans, tilts and changes color, beam and gobo under remote control.
• PAR canalso PAR, PAR64
  A simple cylindrical stage light holding a sealed-beam PAR lamp, the classic rock-and-roll and touring fixture.
• Pop-onalso pop-on effect
  An LED dimming fault where fixtures stay off at low dimmer settings and then suddenly turn on at a higher level.
• Practicalalso practical light, practical lamp
  A working light fixture that appears in the scene itself, such as a table lamp, sconce or neon sign.
• Scallopsalso scalloping
  The arched pattern of light and shadow that downlights draw on a wall when mounted close to it.
• Spillalso spill light, stray light
  Light that falls outside the area it is aimed at, onto walls, ceilings, audiences or neighbors.
• Tape lightalso LED tape, LED strip
  Flexible LED strip on an adhesive-backed reel, cut to length and used in coves, shelves and under cabinets.
• Two-feralso twofer, Y-cable
  A Y-shaped cable that connects two lighting fixtures to a single circuit so they are controlled together.
• Warm dimalso dim to warm, dim-to-warm
  LED dimming that also lowers color temperature as light level drops, imitating the glow of a dimmed incandescent lamp.
• Wash
  Broad, even light covering a whole stage area or surface, built from overlapping soft-edged fixtures.

• Bleed-throughalso leak-through
  Residual unwanted wavelength, such as leftover infrared pump, leaking past filters into the useful beam.
• Burn paperalso zap paper
  Paper that marks or darkens where a laser pulse hits it, giving a quick record of beam position and shape.
• Clipping
  A beam partly cut off by an aperture, mount or edge, causing power loss, diffraction rings and hot spots.
• CW breakthroughalso CW spike
  A narrow continuous-wave spike in a mode-locked laser's spectrum, showing part of the power is not pulsing.
• Double pulsing
  A fault where a pulsed laser emits two pulses where it should emit one, from too much gain or bad switch timing.
• Doubleralso SHG crystal, doubling crystal
  Lab slang for the frequency-doubling crystal or module that turns an infrared laser into its second harmonic.
• Doughnut modealso donut mode, TEM01*
  A ring-shaped laser mode with a dark center, usually a sign of misalignment or overheating in a TEM00 laser.
• Femtoalso femtosecond, fs
  Clipped form of femtosecond, for lasers and pulses lasting from a few to a few hundred quadrillionths of a second.
• Friedalso toasted, cooked
  Lab slang for a laser diode, optic, coating or detector that has been destroyed by too much light or current.
• Ghostalso ghost reflection, ghost beam
  A weak stray beam from a back-surface reflection that travels off in an unexpected direction or focuses somewhere it should not.
• Glint
  A brief, bright reflection of a laser beam off a shiny object such as a tool, screw head, mount or jewelry.
• Gogglesalso laser goggles, laser safety eyewear
  Lab shorthand for laser safety eyewear, the filtering glasses or goggles rated by optical density at specific wavelengths.
• HeNealso helium-neon laser, He-Ne
  A helium-neon gas laser, usually red at 632.8 nm, the classic low-power alignment and reference laser.
• Hot spotalso hotspot
  A small region of a beam with much higher intensity than the rest, a common cause of optic damage.
• IR cardalso viewer card, detector card
  A small card coated with phosphor that glows visibly where an invisible infrared beam hits it, used for alignment.
• Kickalso kick-start
  To start a Kerr-lens mode-locked laser by briefly disturbing the cavity so a pulse can form.
• Lambda over tenalso lambda/10, tenth-wave
  Shorthand for an optic flat to one tenth of a wavelength, used to mean good-quality laser optics.
• Lase
  To produce laser light, as in the cavity is lasing or it won't lase below 2 amps.
• Lock
  The stable locked state of a laser, either mode-locked pulsing or frequency-locked to a reference.
• Ovenalso crystal oven, crystal heater
  The temperature-controlled mount that holds a nonlinear crystal at its phase-matching temperature.
• Peak upalso peak, tweak up
  To fine-tune alignment knobs while watching a power meter or signal until the reading reaches its maximum.
• Pickoffalso pick-off, beam sampler
  An optic, usually an uncoated wedge, that samples a small fraction of a beam and sends it to a diagnostic.
• Regenalso regenerative amplifier
  Clipped form of regenerative amplifier, the cavity that traps a seed pulse for many passes of gain before releasing it.
• Rep ratealso repetition rate, PRF
  Clipped form of repetition rate: how many pulses per second a pulsed laser emits.
• Seedalso seed laser, seeder
  The low-power laser whose output is amplified in a MOPA or amplifier chain, setting its timing and spectrum.
• Shotalso pulse
  A single laser pulse, especially from a high-energy or low-repetition-rate system.
• Ti:sapphalso Ti:sapphire, Ti:Al2O3
  Titanium-doped sapphire, the broadband tunable laser crystal behind most femtosecond oscillators and amplifiers.
• Top-hatalso flat-top, top hat profile
  Describes a beam with flat, uniform intensity across its width and steep edges, instead of a Gaussian peak.
• Walk the beamalso beam walking, walking the mirrors
  To align a beam onto a path using two steering mirrors adjusted in turn against two targets or irises.
• YAGalso Nd:YAG, YAG laser
  Shorthand for yttrium aluminum garnet, and in practice for the Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm.

• Backhoe fadealso dig-in
  Joking term for a fiber outage caused by an excavator digging through buried cable.
• Barrelalso adapter, bulkhead
  Installer slang for a fiber adapter, the double-ended bulkhead part that joins two connectors.
• Burnalso fuse
  Splicer slang for making fusion splices, from the electric arc that welds the glass.
• Canalso closure, splice case
  Outside plant slang for a splice closure, especially a cylindrical dome closure on a pole or in a vault.
• Click cleaneralso one-click cleaner, pen cleaner
  A pen-shaped one-click connector cleaner that wipes a fresh strip of cleaning tape across the end face.
• Figure-eightalso figure-8
  To lay pulled cable on the ground in a figure 8 pattern so it can be fed onward without twisting or kinking.
• Gainer
  A splice that shows an apparent gain of light on an OTDR trace, an artifact of mismatched backscatter.
• Glass
  Installer shorthand for optical fiber itself, or for the fiber plant as a whole.
• Hockey puckalso polishing puck, polishing fixture
  The round polishing fixture that holds a connector square to the lapping film during hand polishing.
• Home runalso home-run
  A dedicated fiber run straight from the central point to one end location, with no splitter or shared path in between.
• Icky pickalso icky-pic, gel
  Slang for the sticky petroleum gel that fills loose buffer tubes and some cable cores to keep water out.
• Inspect before you connectalso IBYC
  The fiber tech's rule that every connector end face gets scoped, and cleaned if needed, before it is mated.
• Lambdaalso wavelength, wave
  A single wavelength channel on a fiber, named after the Greek letter used for wavelength.
• Light levelsalso levels
  The transmit and receive optical power readings on a transceiver, read from a meter or the switch's optic diagnostics.
• Litalso live, hot
  Describes a fiber that is carrying live traffic from active equipment, as opposed to dark.
• Lubealso pulling lube, pulling lubricant
  Cable pulling lubricant applied to fiber cable and duct to cut friction and keep pulling tension down.
• Mule tapealso pull tape
  Flat, low-stretch polyester pull tape with printed footage marks, left in conduit to pull cable later.
• Patch
  To connect two ports, usually equipment to panel or panel to panel, with a jumper.
• Pre-termalso pre-terminated cable
  Short for pre-terminated cable: factory-made assemblies with connectors already on, pulled in and plugged in.
• Pullalso cable pull
  A cable pulling operation, from setup at the feed end to the cable arriving at the far vault.
• Red lightalso VFL
  Installer slang for a visual fault locator and the red laser it puts into the fiber.
• Rodalso snake
  To push a stiff fiberglass duct rodder through a conduit to prove the path or to carry a pull line through.
• Rollalso flip, swap the pair
  To swap the two fibers of a duplex pair so transmit and receive line up with the far end.
• Shoot
  To test a fiber with an OTDR, as in shoot the fiber or shoot it from both ends.
• Snowshoealso slack storage bracket
  An oval aerial bracket, shaped like a snowshoe, used to store slack loops of fiber cable on the strand.
• Sockalso pulling grip, basket grip
  A woven wire mesh pulling grip that slips over a cable end and tightens as it is pulled.
• Spaghettialso rat's nest
  A messy tangle of patch cords hanging in front of a rack, with no cable management or labeling.
• Strip, clean, cleavealso fiber prep, prep
  The three-step fiber prep routine done before every splice or splice-on connector.
• Two-fiftyalso 250 micron
  Splicer slang for fiber that has only its 250 µm acrylate coating, with no tight buffer over it.
• Zipcordalso zip cord, duplex cord
  Duplex fiber cable made of two simplex cords joined side by side, like lamp cord, used mainly for patch cords.

• Acid trapalso etch trap
  Acute inside angle in copper artwork where etchant can pool and over-etch, a classic DFM flag.
• Bakealso prebake, dry bake
  To heat bare boards or moisture-sensitive parts in an oven to drive out absorbed water before soldering.
• Bed of nailsalso ICT fixture, pogo fixture
  Test fixture with an array of spring-loaded pins that touch every test point on a board at once.
• Blue wirealso jumper wire
  Rework jumper wire on a board, named for the blue insulation often used, and the verb for adding one.
• Board housealso fab, fab house
  Shop name for a PCB fabricator, the company that turns design data into bare boards.
• Bodge wirealso bodge, jumper
  Wire soldered onto an assembled board to fix a design error by joining points the copper failed to connect.
• Bone pilealso bonepile, fail pile
  Stack of failed or rejected boards waiting for diagnosis and repair, or for scrapping.
• Bring-upalso board bring-up, bringup
  Methodical first power-up and debugging of a new board, section by section, until everything works.
• Dead bugalso dead-bugging, dead-bug style
  Mounting an IC upside down with its legs in the air and wiring straight to the pins, like an insect on its back.
• Dog bonealso dogbone, dog-bone fanout
  Short trace from a surface mount pad to a nearby via, shaped like a cartoon bone, used to fan out parts.
• Golden boardalso golden unit, known-good board
  Known-good assembled board kept as the reference for testing, comparing and debugging others.
• Hot airalso hot air station, hot air rework
  Hot-air rework station, or the technique of reflowing parts with a focused stream of heated air.
• Kaptonalso polyimide tape, kapton tape
  Amber polyimide tape, named for a well-known brand, used to mask and protect board areas from heat.
• Mouse bitesalso mouse bite, breakaway holes
  Rows of small drilled holes across breakaway tabs so boards snap cleanly from a panel, leaving a nibbled edge.
• Popcorningalso popcorn effect, popcorn cracking
  Cracking of a plastic IC package in reflow when absorbed moisture flashes to steam, sometimes with an audible pop.
• Quick-turnalso quickturn, quick turnaround
  Expedited board fabrication or assembly delivered in days instead of weeks, at a premium price.
• Rat's nestalso ratsnest, ratlines
  Tangle of straight unrouted connection lines a layout tool draws between pads that belong to the same net.
• Refdesalso reference designator, ref des
  Reference designator: the label such as R12 or U3 that names one part on the schematic, board and BOM.
• Respinalso re-spin, next spin
  Another fabrication round of a board, made to fix problems found in the previous version.
• Rogersalso RF laminate, high-frequency laminate
  Shop shorthand for high-frequency PTFE or ceramic-filled laminate, from the name of a major RF materials maker.
• Sliver
  Very narrow strip of copper or soldermask in the artwork that can peel loose during fabrication.
• Smoke testalso power-on test, first power-up
  First power-up of a new board, usually current-limited, to see whether anything overheats or burns.
• Spinalso board spin, turn
  To send a board design out to be fabricated; each build round is a spin, as in the first spin.
• Stuffalso populate, load
  To load components onto a bare board, by hand or machine; a stuffed board is an assembled one.
• Swiss cheesealso swiss-cheesed plane
  Designer slang for a plane so riddled with via clearance holes that its copper is barely continuous.
• Tackalso tack solder, tack down
  To solder one or two pins of a part first to hold it in place before soldering the rest.
• Trombonealso serpentine, meander
  Back-and-forth trace meander added to lengthen a signal so its timing matches the others in its group.
• Wickalso solder wick, desoldering braid
  Braided copper desoldering ribbon that soaks up molten solder, and the verb for using it.

• Back tenderalso backtender
  Paper machine crew member who runs the dry end, handling reels, samples and threading the sheet.
• Black lightalso blacklight, UV lamp
  Handheld or bench UV lamp used to check quickly whether a paper contains optical brightener.
• Blue-whitealso cool white
  Trade description of a white shaded and brightened toward blue so it reads cool and very white.
• Bluingalso blueing
  Mill talk for adding blue or violet dye to make a white sheet look whiter by masking its yellow cast.
• Breakalso sheet break, web break
  Tear of the running paper web on the machine, which sends everything to broke until the sheet is rethreaded.
• Broke
  Paper made on the machine that will not be sold as is, and is repulped and fed back into the stock.
• Cal tilealso the tile, working standard
  Lab shorthand for the white or colored ceramic tile used to check or standardize an instrument each shift.
• Cansalso dryer cans, dryers
  Crew name for the steam-heated cast iron cylinders in the dryer section of a paper machine.
• Chasing shadealso chasing color
  Making repeated dye or brightener adjustments to pull the paper's color back onto target after an upset.
• Dry endalso back end
  Back section of a paper machine, from the dryers through calender and reel, where the sheet is finished.
• Dry linealso water line, wet line
  Visible line on a Fourdrinier table where the wet sheet's surface turns from glossy water to dull matte.
• Grade changealso changeover, grade swap
  Switching a paper machine from one product to another while it keeps running.
• Greeningalso OBA greening
  The greenish cast a sheet takes on when optical brightener is dosed past its effective range.
• Jumboalso parent roll, jumbo roll
  Shop name for the full-width parent roll wound at the paper machine reel before slitting.
• Look-throughalso look-through test
  Visual check of formation made by holding a sheet up to a light and judging how even or cloudy it looks.
• Off shadealso off-color, out of shade
  Describes paper whose color has drifted outside the tolerance of its approved standard.
• Padalso opaque pad, stack
  Lab talk for a stack of sheets thick enough to be opaque, used for R-infinity, brightness and color readings.
• Pointsalso point
  Mill shorthand for units of brightness, opacity or whiteness on their percentage or index scales.
• Reel samplealso turn-up sample
  Strip of paper torn across the full width of a finished reel for lab testing before the reel is released.
• Sheetalso web
  Papermakers' word for the continuous paper web on the machine, and for the grade as a product.
• Snapalso gloss snap, print snap
  Pressroom word for the visual contrast between glossy printed areas and the surrounding paper.
• Tailalso threading tail
  Narrow strip cut from the edge of the sheet and threaded through the machine first after a break.
• Tetraalso tetra OBA, tetrasulfo
  Shorthand for a tetrasulfonated stilbene optical brightener, the general-purpose OBA type.
• Turn-upalso turnup, reel change
  Transfer of the running sheet from a full reel spool onto a new empty one at the paper machine reel.
• Wet end
  Front section of a paper machine, where stock is formed into a sheet and most of the water is drained and pressed out.
• Wild formationalso cloudy formation, flocky formation
  Very uneven, blotchy formation with obvious flocs and thin areas when the sheet is held to the light.

• Bird bathalso birdbath, puddle
  A low spot in a finished slab or pavement where water collects and sits after rain or washing.
• Blowoutalso form failure, blew out
  A form failure where formwork bursts open or shifts under the pressure of fresh concrete.
• Breakalso breaks, cylinder break
  A cylinder strength test result, or the crushing of cylinders in the lab.
• Buggyalso power buggy, Georgia buggy
  A small motorized or push cart that carries concrete from the truck to spots the chute and pump cannot reach.
• Bugholesalso bug holes, surface voids
  Small surface pits on vertical formed concrete left by air bubbles trapped against the form face.
• Burnalso burnish, hard trowel
  To steel-trowel a slab again and again at high blade pitch until it turns hard, dark and glossy.
• Creamalso juice, paste
  The cement paste and fine sand that finishing tools bring to the surface, giving finishers something to work.
• Dobiealso dobe, dobie brick
  A small precast concrete block, often with tie wire cast in, used to hold rebar up off the ground.
• Embedsalso embed, embedded items
  Steel plates, anchor bolts, sleeves and inserts cast into concrete for connections made later.
• Fresnoalso fresno trowel, long-handled trowel
  A long-handled steel trowel finishers swing across a slab from its edge to smooth it without walking on it.
• Green baralso epoxy bar, epoxy-coated rebar
  Epoxy-coated rebar, named for its usual green coating, used where salt and chlorides threaten corrosion.
• Green concretealso green, young concrete
  Concrete that has set but is only hours or days old, still weak enough to cut, mark or damage easily.
• Hot loadalso hot truck
  A truckload of concrete that is setting faster than it should, from heat, delay or leftover concrete in the drum.
• Kickalso kick off, go off
  To start setting, usually sooner than the crew expected; a load that kicks stiffens fast.
• Kneeboardsalso knee boards, kneelers
  Flat boards finishers kneel on to spread their weight while working a fresh slab by hand.
• Mudalso concrete, crete
  Jobsite slang for fresh concrete, used by finishers, pumpers and ready-mix drivers alike.
• Panalso float pan, panning
  A round steel float disc clipped onto a power trowel's blades for the first, flattening machine passes.
• Pea gravel mixalso pea rock, pump mix
  Concrete made with 3/8 in pea gravel instead of standard coarse stone, so it moves through small pump hoses.
• Plugalso pack-off, blockage
  A blockage that jams a concrete pump line or hose, stopping placement until it is cleared.
• Pouralso placement, placing
  The act of placing concrete, or one placement itself, in everyday jobsite speech.
• Rat slabalso mud slab, mud mat
  A thin layer of lean concrete over dirt that gives a clean working surface or seals a crawlspace floor.
• Rod busteralso rodbuster, reinforcing ironworker
  An ironworker who places and ties the reinforcing steel on concrete jobs.
• Sackalso bag, six-sack
  A 94 lb bag of portland cement, used as shorthand for how much cement goes into each cubic yard.
• Short loadalso short-load fee, small-load charge
  A concrete delivery smaller than the plant's minimum, which brings an extra per-yard or flat fee.
• Slick linealso slickline, pipeline
  Rigid steel pipeline that carries pumped concrete from the pump to a distant or elevated pour area.
• Soupalso soupy, slop
  Concrete so wet it runs like liquid, usually because too much water went into the truck.
• Stingeralso vibe, vibrator
  An internal concrete vibrator, or specifically the vibrating head on the end of its flexible shaft.
• Wet setalso wet-setting, stabbing
  To push anchor bolts, dowels or embeds into concrete after placing it, instead of fixing them in place beforehand.
• Wild crackalso random crack, uncontrolled crack
  An uncontrolled crack that wanders across a slab panel instead of forming under a control joint.
• Yardalso yd, yds
  One cubic yard of concrete, 27 cubic feet, the unit used for every US ready-mix order and invoice.

• Belly dumpalso bottom dump, belly
  A trailer that unloads mix through gates in its floor, laying it in a row on the road ahead of the paver.
• Birdbathalso bird bath, ponding
  A low spot in finished pavement that holds a puddle of water after rain.
• Blacktopalso hot top, tarmac
  Everyday name for asphalt pavement, used by driveway crews, homeowners and road crews alike.
• Blue smokealso blue haze
  Bluish haze rising off the mix that signals overheated binder and premature hardening.
• Bumpalso bumping the joint, bump back
  To push excess mix off the old side of a joint back onto the hot mat with a lute so the rollers can pinch it in.
• Burnalso burn-off
  Lab shorthand for an ignition oven test, or the binder content result that comes out of it.
• Center streakalso centerline streak, gearbox streak
  A narrow strip of coarse, open mix running down the middle of the mat behind the paver's auger gearbox.
• Cold loadalso cold truck
  A truckload of mix that arrives below the minimum temperature or with cold, crusted chunks.
• Dryalso lean, dry mix
  Describes mix short on binder: dull brown, harsh to rake and likely to ravel early.
• Dump manalso dumpman, truck dumper
  The paving crew member who guides trucks to the paver, signals the dump and collects load tickets.
• End dumpalso tri-axle, dump truck
  A dump truck or trailer that raises its bed and unloads out the tailgate, the standard way to feed a paver.
• Fatalso rich, fat mix
  Describes mix carrying too much binder: shiny, slick and prone to bleeding or rutting.
• Featheralso feathering, feather edge
  To taper new asphalt down to nearly zero thickness to tie it into an existing surface.
• Hot boxalso hotbox, asphalt hot box
  A heated, insulated hopper on a truck or trailer that keeps mix hot all day for patching.
• Hot plantalso plant, asphalt plant
  Field slang for an asphalt production plant, of either drum or batch type.
• Joint matchingalso matching the joint
  Setting the screed so the new mat overlaps the old edge slightly and sits just high enough to roll down flush.
• Live bottomalso Flow Boy, live floor
  A haul trailer with a conveyor floor that unloads mix out the back without raising the bed.
• Mill and fillalso mill and overlay, mill and pave
  A resurfacing job where the old surface is milled off and repaved with new mix, often the same day.
• Oilalso liquid, liquid AC
  Crew and plant slang for liquid asphalt binder, as in oil content or a load that looks short on oil.
• Pickupalso picking up, tire pickup
  Mix sticking to roller tires or drums and tearing out of the mat, leaving pockmarks behind.
• Puckalso pill, specimen
  Lab slang for a compacted cylindrical mix specimen, especially one made in the gyratory compactor.
• Pullalso pass, run
  One continuous paving pass from the start to the end of a run, or the lane width paved in that pass.
• Rakeralso lute man, luteman
  A paving laborer who works behind the screed with a lute, fixing joints, edges and handwork.
• Ricealso Rice test, max gravity
  Lab slang for the maximum specific gravity test on loose mix, and for the Gmm value it produces.
• Roll-downalso rolldown, roll down
  The amount a loose mat drops in thickness as the rollers compact it.
• Screwmanalso screw man, screed operator
  Crew slang for the screed operator, who sets mat thickness, slope and width at the back of the paver.
• Shootalso shooting, shoot density
  To take a reading with a nuclear gauge or infrared gun, as in shooting density or shooting a load's temperature.
• Skialso averaging ski, averaging beam
  Crew name for the long averaging beam on a paver that gives the grade sensor a smoothed reference.
• Tarpalso tarping, tarp up
  To cover a loaded haul truck with a tarp to hold in heat and keep the mix from crusting over.
• Throw and roll
  The quick pothole fix of shoveling patch mix into a hole and compacting it with the truck's tires.
• Wingsalso hopper wings, flipping the wings
  The folding side walls of a paver hopper, and the habit of folding them to dump leftover mix onto the conveyors.

• Bathtubbingalso bathtub effect, bathtub
  Water or leachate collecting inside a lined area because more gets in from above than can drain out below.
• Bootalso pipe boot, penetration boot
  Field-built geomembrane sleeve that seals a liner around a pipe or other penetration.
• Burn-throughalso burn, burnout
  Hole or severe thinning in a geomembrane where a welder ran too hot or stopped on the sheet.
• Burritoalso burrito wrap, fabric-wrapped drain
  Site slang for a trench drain of stone completely wrapped in geotextile, often around a perforated pipe.
• Couponalso specimen, seam coupon
  Narrow strip cut across a seam sample for peel or shear testing, usually one inch wide.
• Daylightalso daylighted, daylighting
  To bring a drain or drainage layer out to open ground lower down so its water can escape by gravity.
• Destructalso destruct sample, DS
  Installer shorthand for a destructive seam sample, and for the job of cutting one out.
• Dogbonealso dumbbell, dog bone
  Dumbbell-shaped specimen punched from geomembrane sheet for tensile and stress crack tests.
• Fabricalso filter fabric, road fabric
  Contractor and installer word for any geotextile, as in road fabric, filter fabric or putting the fabric down.
• Fishmouthalso fish mouth, fish-mouth
  Wrinkle or bulge in the top sheet of a seam overlap that stops the two sheets lying flat for welding.
• Gunalso extruder, extrusion gun
  Installer slang for the hand-held extrusion welder used on patches, boots and detail welds.
• Lineralso poly, the sheet
  Everyday site name for a geomembrane, or for the whole barrier system it belongs to.
• Mud wavealso mudwave, mud bulge
  Bulge of very soft soil shoved up ahead of fill being placed on weak ground.
• Sandbagsalso ballast, bags
  Bags of sand laid on deployed geomembrane and other geosynthetics to hold them down against wind.
• Seameralso welder, welding tech
  Welding technician who makes and repairs geomembrane seams on a liner crew.
• Shinglealso shingling, shingled lap
  To lay overlapping panels with the upslope piece on top, so water sheds over the lap instead of into it.
• Sockalso filter sock, pipe sock
  Knitted or nonwoven geotextile sleeve slipped over perforated drainpipe to keep soil out of the slots.
• Squeeze-outalso flash, bead squeeze-out
  Bead of molten polymer pressed out along the edge of a fusion seam by the welder's rollers.
• Tackalso tacking, tack weld
  To spot-weld overlapped geomembrane with a hot-air tool so it stays aligned before the final extrusion weld.
• Tie-inalso tie in, liner tie-in
  Connection that joins a new liner to an existing one, as when a landfill cell is expanded.
• Trampoliningalso bridging, bridged liner
  Geomembrane pulled tight across a corner or the toe of a slope, leaving a gap underneath like a trampoline.
• Undercutalso undercut and replace, over-excavation
  Digging out soft or unsuitable subgrade below grade and replacing it with better fill.
• Wavesalso wrinkles, thermal wrinkles
  Installer word for the wrinkles that form in a geomembrane as it expands in the sun.
• Wedgealso wedge welder, hot wedge
  Installer shorthand for the hot wedge welder, or for the heated wedge inside it.
• Wick drainalso PVD, prefabricated vertical drain
  Field name for a prefabricated vertical drain: a plastic core in a filter jacket pushed into soft clay to speed settlement.

• Band-aidalso band-aid joint, overband
  A bridge joint applied over an existing sealant joint as a repair, without removing the old material.
• Bathtubalso tub, full wrap
  A fully wrapped below-grade waterproofing system that encloses the foundation like a tub.
• Bootalso pipe boot, penetration boot
  A preformed or field-built collar that seals a pipe, rod or conduit where it passes through a membrane.
• Bosun's chairalso bosun chair, boatswain's chair
  A single-person seat suspended from roof rigging, used by caulkers and restoration workers on facades.
• Bugholesalso bug holes, blowholes
  Small surface voids in formed concrete left by trapped air bubbles against the formwork.
• Bulk gunalso barrel gun, sausage gun
  A barrel caulking gun filled straight from a pail or sausage rather than from a cartridge.
• Caulkalso caulking, caulking compound
  Everyday word for any gun-applied gap filler; in the trade, a lower-movement material than a true sealant.
• Dog earalso dog-eared corner, folded corner
  A corner of flashing or membrane folded into shape without cutting, so the corner stays watertight.
• Dropalso drops, stage drop
  A vertical strip of facade worked from top to bottom on one setup of a swing stage or bosun's chair.
• Dutchmanalso dutchman repair, inset repair
  A patch of new stone, brick or wood cut and set into a damaged area of an original piece.
• Fishmouthalso fish mouth
  An open wrinkle at the edge of a membrane lap that forms a channel water can run into.
• Hose testalso water test, spray test
  A field water test spraying a controlled stream from a calibrated nozzle at joints and windows to find leaks.
• Hot mopalso hot mopping, hot-mopped pan
  Waterproofing built from layers of felt mopped down with hot asphalt, or the act of applying it.
• Leakeralso leaking unit
  Any window, joint or unit that is letting water in, as tracked on a leak investigation punch list.
• Mortar droppingsalso droppings, cavity debris
  Mortar that falls into a masonry cavity during laying and piles up on the flashing, blocking drainage.
• Painter's caulkalso acrylic latex caulk, latex caulk
  Acrylic latex caulk used to fill interior trim gaps for painting, with little movement capability.
• Peel-and-stickalso self-adhered membrane, SAM
  Field name for self-adhered membrane: rubberized asphalt or butyl sheet with a release liner on the back.
• R&Ralso remove and replace, cut out and reseal
  Remove and replace: cutting out old sealant completely and installing new sealant in the cleaned joint.
• Rake-outalso raking out, cut-out
  Cutting and clearing old sealant or mortar out of a joint so it can be refilled.
• Reverse lapalso reverse-lapped, wrong-way lap
  A lap installed the wrong way, with the lower layer over the upper, so water is channeled behind it.
• Roddingalso rod, rod the joint
  Installing backer rod into joints ahead of the sealant crew.
• Sausagealso sausage pack, foil pack
  A soft foil or film tube of sealant loaded into a barrel gun, used instead of rigid cartridges on big jobs.
• Spoonalso tooling spoon
  Caulker's word for a tooling tool, often an actual bent spoon or a spoon-shaped steel blade.
• Strip-inalso strip in, stripping in
  To seal the flange of a flashing or fixture to the surrounding membrane with an overlapping strip of tape or sheet.
• Tuckpointingalso tuck pointing, tuckpoint
  Common trade name for repointing brick, though strictly it is a decorative technique with a contrasting thin joint line.

• Beamalso spinning beam, S beam
  Line talk for one spinning or meltblown station across the width of a spunmelt line.
• Bicoalso bi-co, bicomp
  Shop clip for bicomponent fiber, usually meaning sheath-core binder fiber bought for thermal bonding.
• Boardyalso papery, stiff
  Describes a nonwoven that feels stiff, harsh and papery, usually from over-bonding.
• Butt rollalso stub roll, short roll
  Leftover partial roll from the end of a mother roll or slitting set that is too short for a full order.
• Chipsalso pellets, resin
  Shop word for the polymer pellets fed to spunbond, meltblown and fiber extrusion lines.
• Curtainalso filament curtain
  Line slang for the wide sheet of falling filaments between a spunbond spinneret and the laydown belt.
• Doffalso doffing, roll change
  To take a finished roll off a winder and start winding on a fresh core or shaft.
• Dripalso drips, polymer drip
  Lump of polymer that falls from a spinneret or die and lands in the web as a hard, often glassy spot.
• Flyalso flyings, fiber fly
  Loose airborne fibers released by opening, carding and cutting that settle on machines and floors.
• Fuzzalso fuzzing
  Loose fiber ends on the surface of a nonwoven that lift into pills or lint when rubbed.
• Hydroheadalso hydrostatic head, HSH
  Shop and spec clip for hydrostatic head: the water pressure a fabric holds before water comes through.
• Jet streaksalso jet lines, jet marks
  Lines running in the machine direction of a spunlace fabric, caused by blocked or damaged water jets.
• Lo-meltalso low-melt, LMPET
  Shop name for low-melt polyester binder fiber, usually a copolyester sheath on a standard PET core.
• Loadingalso card loading, cylinder loading
  Buildup of fiber and finish residue in card clothing, which clogs the teeth and spoils the web.
• Mother rollalso jumbo roll, master roll
  Full-width roll wound at the end of the production line, before it is slit into customer rolls.
• Pack changealso spin pack change, pack swap
  Replacing the spin pack, including its filters and spinneret, on a spunbond beam or fiber spinning position.
• Pancakealso planetary roll, pancake roll
  Shop word for a narrow slit roll wound straight on itself, far wider in diameter than it is tall.
• Reproalso regrind, reclaim
  Polymer recovered from trim, start-up waste and off-spec fabric, repelletized and fed back to the extruders.
• Ropealso roping, fiber rope
  Twisted bundle of fibers that forms in a carded or airlaid web and shows as a dense streak or knot.
• Secondsalso off-spec, B-grade
  Off-quality nonwoven sold at a discount instead of as prime, such as start-up material or off-spec rolls.
• Shotalso shot defect, polymer beads
  Small beads or lumps of polymer that failed to form fibers and sit embedded in a meltblown web.
• Stripalso jet strip, nozzle strip
  Line name for the thin perforated metal jet strip that forms the water jets in a hydroentangling injector.
• TABalso air-through, hot-air nonwoven
  Through-air bonded: shop and spec shorthand for fabrics bonded by hot air drawn through the web.
• Wet-outalso wetting, wettability
  Line and lab talk for how readily a fabric lets liquid soak in and spread instead of beading on top.
• Wrapalso wraps, roll wrap
  Fibers or web winding around a roll instead of passing through, which can stop a line or damage the roll.

• Bathyalso bathy data, bathy surface
  Clipped form of bathymetry, used for depth data, depth surfaces or the depth-measuring part of a job.
• Bottom pickalso digitized depth, bottom digitizing
  The depth chosen from an echo trace as the true seabed, either by the sounder's tracker or by an operator.
• Bustalso tide bust, heave bust
  A vertical or horizontal mismatch between overlapping lines or surveys that exposes an error somewhere.
• Castalso SV cast, dip
  One lowering of a sound speed or CTD probe through the water column to measure a profile.
• Cleaningalso data cleaning, editing
  Reviewing survey data to reject spikes, noise and false bottoms before building final products.
• Droggyalso droggie
  Royal Navy slang for a hydrographic surveyor, from a clipped form of hydrographer.
• Dropoutalso drop-out, data dropout
  Missing pings or beams where the sonar failed to record a valid depth, leaving gaps in the data.
• Flieralso flyer, spike
  A spurious sounding that sticks out shoaler or deeper than the real seabed, usually from noise or a false detection.
• Floatalso RTK float, float solution
  Describes an RTK solution whose carrier-phase ambiguities are not yet fixed, giving only decimetre-level accuracy.
• Fluffalso fluid mud, soft bottom
  A soft, fluid mud layer over the firm seabed that gives different depths at different sonar frequencies.
• Flying the fishalso fish height, towfish altitude
  Controlling a towfish's height above the seabed by adjusting cable length and boat speed.
• Hangalso drag hang, wire hang
  In a wire drag sweep, the moment the wire catches on an obstruction, and the obstruction that caused it.
• Holidayalso data gap, coverage gap
  A gap in survey coverage where no data was collected, which must be filled before the survey is complete.
• Hydroalso hydrography, hydrographic surveying
  Clipped insider word for hydrography, hydrographic surveying, or the survey team itself.
• Infillalso infill line, fill-in line
  A short extra line run to fill a gap in coverage, usually to clear holidays found during processing.
• Lost bottomalso losing bottom, lost lock
  Said when an echo sounder stops tracking the real seabed and reports noise, a second echo or nothing.
• Mowing the lawnalso lawnmower pattern, lawnmowing
  Running long parallel survey lines back and forth across an area, like cutting grass in strips.
• Navalso navigation, nav data
  Shorthand for the vessel's positioning data stream, or for the positioning system as a whole.
• Onlinealso on line, logging
  On a planned survey line and logging data; going offline means ending the line and closing the file.
• Pole mountalso over-the-side mount, pole-mounted sonar
  A sonar transducer fixed on a rigid pole over the side or bow of a boat instead of built into the hull.
• Run-inalso run in, lead-in
  The stretch before a survey line where the boat settles on course and speed before logging starts.
• SBETalso smoothed best estimate of trajectory, post-processed nav
  Smoothed best estimate of trajectory: the post-processed position and attitude file applied to multibeam data.
• Sheetalso survey sheet
  Crew shorthand for one registered survey area and its data set, worked and reported as a single unit.
• Smiles and frownsalso smiley, frowny
  Cross-track curling of multibeam swaths, up or down at the edges, caused by sound speed errors.
• Splitsalso split lines, half-spacing lines
  Extra survey lines run halfway between existing lines to tighten spacing over a shoal or suspicious spot.
• Weathered outalso weather day, weathered in
  Unable to survey because wind, sea or swell would ruin data quality or make boat work unsafe.
• Wet endalso wet side
  The underwater parts of a survey system, such as the sonar head or towfish, as opposed to the topside electronics.
• Wobblealso motion artefact, roll artefact
  A rocking or rippling artefact in multibeam data that follows the vessel's motion, caused by attitude or timing errors.

• Blowout tidealso blow-out tide, blowout
  An extreme low water caused by strong offshore winds pushing water out of a bay or sound.
• Brass capalso disk, survey disk
  Surveyor slang for a bench mark disk, the stamped metal cap set in concrete or rock.
• Bubbleralso gas-purge pressure gauge, bubbler gauge
  Field name for a gas-purge pressure gauge that measures water level by pushing gas through an underwater orifice.
• Closing the loopalso loop closure, closing the run
  Finishing a level run back on the starting bench mark to measure how much error crept in.
• Dead lowalso dead low water, bottom of the tide
  The very bottom of low water, when the tide has stopped falling and not yet started to rise.
• Dry outalso drying out, take the ground
  To let a boat settle deliberately on the bottom as the tide falls, against a wall, on legs or on twin keels.
• Fair tidealso fair stream, fair current
  A tidal current flowing in the same direction a vessel wants to go, adding to its speed over the ground.
• Flatlinealso flat-lined data, stuck sensor
  A stretch of water level data stuck at one value, a sign of a frozen, failed or dry sensor.
• Foul tidealso foul stream, adverse tide
  A tidal current running against a vessel's intended direction, slowing its progress over the ground.
• King tidealso king tides, big tide
  Informal name for the highest tides of the year, usually perigean spring tides.
• Low-lowalso lower low, big low
  Shorthand for the lower low water of the day in places with mixed tides.
• Makingalso making tide
  Said of a tide that is rising, or of the fortnightly cycle building from neaps toward springs.
• Max floodalso maximum flood, strength of flood
  The peak strength of the flood current in a cycle, and the time it occurs; max ebb is the seaward equivalent.
• Minus tidealso negative tide, minus low
  A low tide predicted to fall below the chart datum zero, shown as a negative number in the tide table.
• Neapedalso beneaped
  Stranded after grounding near spring high water and unable to refloat until the next spring tides return.
• Rule of twelfthsalso twelfths rule, 1-2-3-3-2-1
  A rule of thumb for how much a tide rises or falls in each hour of a six-hour rise or fall.
• Six-minute dataalso 6-minute data, six-minute water levels
  Water level values recorded every six minutes, the standard sampling interval at many tide stations.
• Staff shotalso staff reading, staff-gauge comparison
  A set of tide staff readings taken alongside the gauge to check that the gauge is still reading true.
• Sunny-day floodingalso clear-sky flooding, nuisance flooding
  Popular name for high tide flooding that arrives in fine weather, with no rain or storm in sight.
• Tidal gatealso gate
  A headland, strait or bar that can only be passed comfortably at certain states of tide, fixing the timing of a passage.
• Tide bookalso tide table, tide calendar
  A pocket booklet of local tide predictions for the year, handed out by marinas, bait shops and chandlers.
• Tide housealso gauge house, tide hut
  The small shelter on a pier or wharf that houses a tide gauge's well, recorder and electronics.
• Tide-rodealso tiderode
  Describes an anchored vessel lying head to the tidal current rather than to the wind.
• Tide windowalso tidal window, tidal restriction
  The span of time when water is deep enough, or current slack enough, for a planned vessel move or job.
• Top of the tidealso top of the flood
  High water, or the short period around it, as dock workers and boaters say it.
• Turn of the tidealso the turn, tide turning
  The moment the tide changes from rising to falling or the current from flood to ebb, or the reverse.
• Wind against tidealso wind over tide, wind against current
  Wind blowing opposite to a tidal current, which builds short, steep and sometimes breaking seas.

• Bad orderalso BO, bad-ordered
  A car or locomotive with a defect that keeps it from running until it is repaired.
• Bail offalso actuate, bail them off
  To release the locomotive's own brakes during an automatic application so that only the cars do the braking.
• Beaneryalso lunch counter
  A cheap restaurant or lunch counter near a terminal or depot where railroaders eat.
• Big holealso emergency application, dump the air
  The emergency position of the automatic brake valve, which vents the brake pipe and stops the train as fast as possible.
• Big hookalso hook, wreck crane
  The wrecking crane sent to clear a derailment and lift cars back onto the track.
• Boomeralso boomer brakeman, drifter
  A railroader who drifts from railroad to railroad, hiring on wherever the work is good.
• Bowlalso class tracks, classification bowl
  The set of classification tracks at the bottom of a hump yard where sorted cars collect.
• Brakiealso brakeman, shack
  A brakeman, the crew member who handles switches, couplings and hand brakes under the conductor.
• Brass hatalso officials, white hat
  A railroad official or manager, especially one who comes out from the office to check on crews.
• Bullalso railroad bull, yard bull
  A railroad police officer, the special agent who patrols yards and trains for trespassers and thieves.
• Bumpalso bumping, displacement
  To use seniority to take a job held by someone junior, who is then displaced.
• Callalso crew call, called
  The notice telling a crew member when and where to report for duty.
• Car knockeralso carman, car toad
  A carman, the mechanical worker who inspects and repairs railcars and tests their brakes.
• Cornfield meetalso head-on, cornfield
  A head-on collision between two trains on the same track.
• Crummyalso caboose, hack
  A caboose, the crew car at the rear of a freight train, with a cupola or bay window for watching the cars ahead.
• Cushionalso cushion car, cushioned car
  A car fitted with hydraulic cushioning units at its couplers, built to protect fragile lading.
• Cutalso cut of cars
  A group of cars coupled together and handled as one piece; as a verb, to uncouple them.
• Dead on the lawalso outlawed, on the law
  Out of legal working hours under the hours of service rule, and required to stop work wherever the train sits.
• Deadheadalso DH, deadheading
  To travel as a passenger to or from an assignment, paid but not working the train.
• Dog catchalso dog catcher, dog catching
  To relieve a crew that has run out of legal hours; the relief crew are the dog catchers.
• Dragalso drag freight, tonnage train
  A slow, heavy, low-priority freight train, often of bulk loads or empties.
• DSalso dispatcher, train dispatcher
  Dispatcher, as said on the radio: the person who controls train movements over a territory.
• Extra boardalso the board, extra list
  A roster of crew members with no regular job, called in rotation to fill vacancies and extra trains.
• Flat spotalso flat wheel, slid flat
  A flat area worn into a wheel tread when the wheel slides along the rail without turning.
• Foameralso railfan, rail buff
  A railfan, especially an excited one, as seen by the railroaders who work the trains.
• Gandy danceralso section hand, track laborer
  A railroad track worker, especially one on a section or tie gang doing hands-on track work.
• Glad handsalso hose couplings, air hose couplings
  The coupling heads on the ends of air brake hoses, which lock together when two cars are joined.
• Goatalso yard goat, switcher
  A yard switch engine, the locomotive that spends its life sorting cars around a terminal.
• Hi-railalso hy-rail, hi-rail truck
  A truck fitted with retractable flanged wheels so it can drive on the track as well as on the road.
• High ironalso main line, the main
  The main line, as opposed to sidings, yard tracks and branch lines.
• Highballalso highballing, highball it
  A signal or radio call meaning proceed at full speed, and the verb for leaving or running fast.
• Hoggeralso hoghead, hog head
  A locomotive engineer, the person who runs the train.
• Hold the mainalso on the main, hold the main line
  To stay on the main track during a meet while the opposing train takes the siding.
• Hostleralso hostling
  A terminal worker who moves, fuels, sands and services locomotives inside the engine facility.
• Hot boxalso hot journal, hot bearing
  An overheated wheel bearing on a railcar, a defect that can burn the end off an axle if missed.
• Hotshotalso hot train, priority train
  A high-priority train on a tight schedule that dispatchers move ahead of almost everything else.
• In the holealso take the hole, head in
  In the siding, waiting for another train to pass on the main line.
• Kickalso kicking cars, make a kick
  To shove a cut of cars, uncouple it on the move and let it roll free onto a track.
• Kickeralso dynamiter, UDE car
  A car whose brake valve throws the whole train into emergency when only a normal service application was made.
• Lace up the airalso lace 'em up, hook up the air
  To connect the air hoses between cars and open the angle cocks so the brake pipe runs through.
• Light enginealso lite engine, lite power
  A locomotive or set of locomotives running without any cars attached.
• Linealso line a switch, line up
  To throw a switch so it routes a train or car onto the intended track.
• Localalso way freight, peddler
  A freight train that works the industries along a line, setting out and picking up cars at each customer.
• Long hood forwardalso LHF, long end forward
  Running a road locomotive with its long engine hood leading and the short hood trailing.
• Old headalso old-timer, senior man
  A veteran railroader with long seniority, respected for knowledge and sometimes resented for it.
• On the groundalso derailed, on the dirt
  Derailed: off the rails with at least one wheel down on the ties or ballast.
• OSalso on sheet, OSing
  On sheet: a report of the time a train passed a station, or the act of reporting it.
• Pig trainalso piggyback, TOFC
  An intermodal train hauling highway trailers on flatcars.
• Plugalso plug rail, rail plug
  A short piece of rail cut into the track to replace a section with a defect or a break.
• Poolalso pool freight, pool turn
  A group of road crews who rotate between two terminals in first-in, first-out order.
• Poweralso units, motive power
  The locomotives assigned to a train, or locomotives in general.
• Pull-apartalso pull apart
  A break in the rail, usually at a joint or weld, caused by the rail shrinking in extreme cold.
• Pull the pinalso cut 'em
  To uncouple cars by lifting the coupler's pin with the cut lever; also, to retire from the railroad.
• Rattleralso freight
  Hobo and old-head slang for a freight train, especially one banging along with its slack running in and out.
• Ribbon railalso CWR, continuous welded rail
  Long strings of rail welded together end to end and laid without bolted joints.
• Rip trackalso RIP track, repair track
  A yard track where carmen make light repairs to cars without sending them to a heavy shop.
• Rule Galso Rule G violation
  The operating rule banning alcohol and drugs on duty, and shorthand for breaking it.
• Run eightalso notch eight, run 8
  Running a diesel locomotive in its highest throttle notch, wide open.
• Saw-byalso sawing by, saw-by meet
  A meet at a siding too short for the train that has to take it, so the two trains work past each other in stages.
• Set and releasealso set and release test, a set of air
  Applying the train's air brakes and then releasing them, the basic sequence of every air brake test.
• Set outalso setout, set off
  To leave a car or group of cars on a track short of the train's final destination.
• Shooflyalso shoo-fly
  A temporary track built around an obstruction, bridge job or wreck so trains can keep moving.
• Shovealso shoving move, back up
  To push cars with the locomotive behind them, as opposed to pulling them.
• Slow orderalso speed restriction, TSR
  A temporary speed restriction on a stretch of track because of its condition, heat or work in progress.
• Spotalso placement, spot and pull
  To place a car at an exact location, such as an industry's loading door, pit or rack.
• Spuralso industry track, spur track
  A short dead-end track branching off to serve an industry or to store cars.
• Stack trainalso double stack, stacks
  An intermodal train carrying shipping containers stacked two high in well cars.
• Sun kinkalso heat kink, track buckle
  A sideways buckle in welded rail caused by heat, which can throw the track out of line under a train.
• That'll doalso that'll be good, that's good
  Radio call telling the engineer to stop the move right there, the last words of a switching count.
• Tie downalso tie on, tie 'em down
  To secure standing cars or a locomotive by applying enough hand brakes to keep them from rolling.
• Tie upalso tie-up, go off duty
  To go off duty at the end of a trip or shift and record the final time.
• Varnishalso passenger train, the varnish
  Freight crew slang for a passenger train, after the glossy varnished finish of wooden coaches.
• Yellow boardalso approach, yellow
  An approach signal showing yellow, warning the engineer to be ready to stop at the next signal.

• At speedalso up to speed, normal speed
  Said of a turbo pump that has finished spinning up and reached its normal rotational speed.
• Atmoalso atm, air
  Shop clipping of atmospheric pressure, used for a chamber that is vented and open to air.
• Backstreamalso backstreaming, oil backstreaming
  Of pump oil or vapour, to flow the wrong way, from the pump back toward the chamber.
• Baggingalso bag test, hood test
  Enclosing a part or flange in a plastic bag filled with helium to check its overall tightness in one shot.
• Bleedalso bleed in, leak in
  To admit a small, controlled flow of gas into a vacuum system through a needle or leak valve.
• Burpalso pressure burst, spike
  Brief, sudden pressure burst in a vacuum system from trapped gas, a warming trap or a moving part.
• Chase a leakalso leak chasing, leak hunting
  To hunt down a leak of unknown location joint by joint, often over hours, until the source is pinned down.
• Crash a turboalso turbo crash, crashed turbo
  To wreck a turbo pump's rotor by letting it hit the stator, most often by venting it hard while it spins.
• Fingerprintalso finger oil, skin oil
  Skin oil and salt left on a vacuum-side surface by a bare hand, which outgasses for weeks and spoils base pressure.
• Foggingalso pump-down fog, condensation fog
  Mist that forms inside a chamber during a fast pump-down when expanding air cools and its water condenses.
• Hang-upalso helium hang-up
  Helium that lingers in a leak detector or system after a big hit, holding the signal high and masking small leaks.
• Hold vacuumalso hold
  Of a sealed system, to keep its pressure low with the pumps valved off; failing to hold means a leak.
• Leak checkalso leak-check, leak test
  To test a system or a joint for leaks, usually with a helium leak detector, after any break of vacuum.
• Mech pumpalso mechanical pump
  Lab slang for the oil-sealed rotary vane pump that sits under the bench or behind the tool.
• Micronalso millitorr, mTorr
  Shop name for a millitorr, one thousandth of a Torr, used in US furnace shops, labs and refrigeration work.
• Milky oilalso milky, cloudy oil
  Pump oil turned cloudy or creamy by an emulsion of water, a sign the pump has been swallowing wet loads.
• Peggedalso railed, pinned
  Said of a gauge stuck at the top or bottom end of its scale, giving no usable reading.
• Pump downalso pump-down, pumpdown
  To evacuate a chamber from atmosphere to its working pressure, through roughing, crossover and high vacuum.
• Regenalso regeneration, regen cycle
  Clipped form of regeneration: warming a cryopump to drive off the gas it has captured, then cooling it again.
• Rough outalso rough down, rough
  To pump a vented chamber from atmosphere to crossover with the roughing pump, before the high vacuum valve opens.
• Sniffalso sniffer test, sniffer mode
  To hunt for helium escaping from a pressurized part by sweeping a sniffer probe slowly over joints and welds.
• Soft pumpalso slow pump, soft rough
  Slow, throttled roughing from atmosphere that avoids stirring up particles and condensing moisture.
• Spin downalso spin-down, coast down
  Of a turbo pump, to coast down from full speed after it is switched off, which takes many minutes on its own.
• Stackalso pump stack, pumping stack
  Shop name for the whole column of high vacuum pump, valves, trap and backing line that pumps a chamber.
• Throatalso pump throat, inlet
  Inlet opening of a high vacuum pump, the flange where gas enters a turbo, cryo or diffusion pump.
• Up to airalso let up to air, at air
  Said of a chamber that has been vented to atmospheric pressure and is open or ready to open.
• Ventalso vent up, let up
  To let gas back into an evacuated chamber, usually dry nitrogen, to bring it up to atmosphere.
• Wetalso wet chamber, water-loaded
  Said of a chamber whose walls still hold adsorbed water, so it pumps down slowly and stalls high.

• Bullseyealso donut, center spot
  Wafer map pattern of concentric rings or a center spot, the signature of a radial process nonuniformity.
• Chasing the meanalso knob-turning, chasing the process
  Shop phrase for adjusting a process after each reading to pull it back to target, which only adds variation.
• Doglegalso hockey stick, bend
  Bend in a Weibull plot where the data change slope, a sign of two failure modes or two populations mixed together.
• Excursionalso yield excursion, defect excursion
  Sudden departure of yield, defect counts or a key parameter from its normal band, big enough to trigger holds and an investigation.
• Fat-fingeralso fat-fingered entry, keying error
  Data entry error from a mistyped number, such as a slipped decimal or swapped digits, that shows up as a false signal.
• Fishing expeditionalso data dredging, p-hacking
  Analysis that tests many variables or subsets in search of any significant result, almost guaranteeing a false positive.
• Flyeralso freak, wild point
  Single wild data point far from the rest, often a measurement or entry error rather than a real process change.
• Golden waferalso golden unit, golden sample
  Reference wafer or part kept aside and measured on a schedule to check that a tool or gauge has not drifted.
• Hugging the centerlinealso hugging, stratification
  Chart pattern where points cluster unnaturally close to the centerline, usually a sign the limits are wrong.
• Interocular trauma testalso IOTT, eyeball test
  Jokey name for an effect so obvious in a plot that it hits you between the eyes, no formal statistics needed.
• Killer defectalso killer, yield killer
  Defect that lands where it causes a die to fail, as opposed to a harmless cosmetic or nuisance defect.
• Knobalso process knob, tuning knob
  Any adjustable process parameter on a tool, such as RF power, pressure, gas flow, temperature or time.
• OFATalso one factor at a time, one-variable-at-a-time
  One factor at a time: changing a single input while holding the rest fixed, the habit designed experiments replace.
• OOCalso out of control, OOC event
  Out of control: shorthand for a point or chart that has violated a control limit or run rule.
• Opening the specalso opening up the spec, spec relaxation
  Widening a specification limit so more product passes, instead of fixing the process that makes it.
• Run of sevenalso seven in a row, run
  Seven consecutive chart points on one side of the centerline, or steadily rising or falling, read as a process shift.
• Sawtoothalso sawtooth pattern, PM sawtooth
  Chart pattern of gradual drift and a sudden reset, repeating with each maintenance cycle or consumable change.
• Sortalso wafer sort, probe
  Either the wafer-level electrical test that bins every die, or a 100 percent inspection that screens suspect parts.
• Split lotalso split, wafer split
  Lot of wafers divided between two or more process conditions so the comparison shares the same incoming material.
• Sweet spotalso process window, operating window
  Region of factor settings where every response meets its target at once, found by overlaying response contour plots.
• Ten-to-one rulealso 10 to 1 rule, rule of ten
  Rule of thumb that a gauge should resolve one tenth or less of the tolerance or process variation it measures.
• Tightalso tight distribution, tight process
  Shop word for a distribution with small spread, as in a tight process or a tight spec; the opposite is wide or fat.

• Cal duealso due date, cal due date
  The date by which an instrument must be calibrated again, printed on its sticker and tracked by the recall system.
• Cal stickeralso cal label, cal tag
  The label on a calibrated instrument showing who calibrated it, when, and when the next calibration is due.
• Cal with dataalso calibration with data, data cal
  A calibration ordered with full measured readings and uncertainties on the certificate, not just a pass or fail.
• Countsalso digits, LSD
  The steps of the last digit on a digital display, used in specs such as plus or minus 2 counts.
• Double countingalso double dipping
  Budget slang for entering the same physical effect twice under different names, which inflates the uncertainty.
• Four to onealso 4:1, 4 to 1 rule
  The rule of thumb that measurement uncertainty should be no more than a quarter of the tolerance being checked.
• Golden unitalso golden sample, gold unit
  A known-good, carefully characterized example of a product kept to check test stations and fixtures.
• Jo blocksalso Jo-blocks, gauge blocks
  Shop name for gauge blocks, precision steel or ceramic blocks wrung together to build reference lengths.
• Limited calalso limited calibration, restricted cal
  A calibration covering only some ranges or functions of an instrument, flagged with a special sticker.
• NIST traceablealso NIST-traceable, traceable to NIST
  A common label phrase claiming a measurement links back to US national standards, often used loosely.
• OOTalso out of tolerance, out-of-tol
  Out of tolerance, an as-found calibration result outside the instrument's allowed limits.
• Out of calalso expired, overdue
  Past its calibration due date, so the instrument is not approved for use regardless of how well it performs.
• Pencil whipalso pencil-whipping, pencil-whipped
  Shop slang for filling in calibration or inspection records without actually doing the measurements.
• Recallalso recall system, recall list
  The system that schedules instruments back for calibration before their due date, and the act of calling them in.
• Red tagalso red-tagged, reject tag
  A reject tag marking an instrument as unfit for use, or the act of pulling one from service with it.
• Root threealso root-three it, divide by root three
  Shop shorthand for dividing a rectangular limit by the square root of 3 to turn it into a standard uncertainty.
• Round robinalso interlaboratory comparison, ILC
  An interlaboratory comparison in which one artifact or sample travels from lab to lab to be measured by each.
• Self-calalso autocal, self-calibration
  An instrument's built-in routine that realigns its internal ranges against its own onboard reference.
• Soakalso thermal soak, soak time
  Letting an instrument, artifact or part sit in the lab environment until it reaches thermal equilibrium.
• Specalso specs, accuracy spec
  Shop clipping for a manufacturer's accuracy specification, the published limits an instrument should stay within.
• Tweakalso trim, touch up
  Shop slang for making a small adjustment to an instrument to bring its readings back toward nominal.
• Two sigmaalso 2 sigma, 2-sigma
  Shop shorthand for an uncertainty quoted at k = 2, roughly 95 percent coverage.