ankle express
- noun
- Informal
- After his bike broke down, he used the ankle express to get to work.
Examples
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With no taxis in sight, they relied on the ankle express all the way home.
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She decided to take the ankle express and jog around the park.
-
He is an ankle express!
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Look at her go! She's an ankle express!
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When the subway was closed, I had to use the ankle express to reach my meeting on time.
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The running group decided to explore the city using the ankle express for a fun workout.
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With a sudden rainstorm approaching, I opted for the ankle express to hurry home.
Synonyms
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning can be partially inferred from the constituents: 'express' evokes fast transport and 'ankle' evokes the leg/foot as the mode of movement, so a learner could plausibly guess it refers to someone who moves quickly on foot. However, this is a creative/metaphorical coinage using body-part metonymy and an uncommon compound pattern, so the exact sense and usage would not be fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Ankle express imagines your legs as a quick little 'express' train moved by your ankle and feet, with no bike or car involved. That's why it means 'fast running' using only your legs.