storrow
verb · first attested 21st century
Boston has a verb for a specific accident that happens on one road every September.
Of a truck or van: to crash into a low bridge, especially on Storrow Drive in Boston.
42.3522°N -71.0886°W · Q1247150
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 21st century
- Part of speech
- verb
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Storrow Drive
- In English
storrow
Storrow Drive runs along the Charles River and passes under stone arch bridges with clearances as low as about ten feet, which is why trucks are banned from it. Student move-in around the first of September produces a run of peeled-open rental trucks each year, enough that the mayor issues public warnings about getting Storrowed. The road is named for the banker James J. Storrow, whose widow Helen campaigned against building it.