a discriminatory practice by which banks, insurance companies, etc., refuse or limit loans, mortgages, insurance, etc., within specific geographic areas, especially inner-city neighborhoods.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
"deny loans to certain neighborhoods based on ethnicity," 1973, on notion of lines drawn on maps. Used earlier in ref. to insurance company practices (1961) and in World War II military slang in ref. to a red line drawn through a soldier's name for some infraction, thus denying his pay.