Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hiromichi]

What does "towel-snapped" mean

Only there is a new iteration of the Republican lawmaker and defeated presidential candidate who has been a constant in the capital even as he regularly transforms himself. Absent is the maverick who bucked his party on the environment and campaign finance, and verbally towel-snapped Republicans and Democrats alike on the Senate floor.
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Hiromichi

[CP]

Here, "verbally towel-snapped" would be the same as "verbally stung" or "criticized."

In U.S. high schools, the students take physical education, aka gym class, which means going to the locker room to change into p.e. clothes at the beginning of class, and showering and dressing afterward. For the boys, the showers are all in the open, and typically the students dry off with white towels that they then trade in for fresh ones at the towel cage.

If you twist your towel into a rope or whip, especially when it's still damp, and whip it just right, you can inflict a nice, stinging wound on your unsuspecting classmates, who are unprotected by clothing at the time. This is towel-snapping. Sometimes it's an isolated snap, and sometimes it turns into a melee. I don't think the girls engage in this particular sport.

Anyway, this author used the vivid image of towel-snapping, which the men will all understand immediately, to suggest that once there were certain lawmakers who really could deliver stinging criticism to other lawmakers.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[hiromichi]

CP:
Thank you very muh for your explanation.
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Hiromichi