Chinese fire drill

noun

Etymology

Perhaps from the World War I era, from the former Western use of Chinese as an ethnic and racial slur; now used only as a festive exclamation.

Definitions

  1. A prank performed while stopped in a car at a red light, and where each passenger,…

    A prank performed while stopped in a car at a red light, and where each passenger, including the driver, shouts "Chinese fire drill", exits the vehicle, runs at least once around it, then re-enters, each taking a different seat.

  2. A silly, pointless exercise.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for Chinese fire drill. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA