aluminum shower

Noun

aluminum shower (plural aluminum showers)

1. (figuratively) The result of a midair collision of two aircraft.
   • As his screen displayed the falling and fragmenting wreckage of two aircraft that had collided at 2,650 ft. three miles northeast of Lindbergh Field, he muttered, "Jesus Christ, an aluminum shower."1978 October 9, “Nation: Death over San Diego”, in Time
   • Certainly one of the most stressful jobs in contemporary society is that of the air traffic controller. . . . This pressure, combined with the ever-present fear of causing a crash or collision (known with studied casualness as an "aluminum shower"), places controllers under tremendous stress on the...1981, Richard M. Steers, Introduction to Organizational Behavior, →ISBN, page 348
2. (literally) A party or similar event at which aluminum household items are given, as for a wedding.
   • A delightful evening was spent Wednesday, May 27th, when an aluminum shower was given to Miss Alice Strycker at her home, 1907 Baker Street, San Francisco, to celebrate her approaching marriage.1914, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Pacific service magazine, volume 6, page 22
   • The aluminum shower appears to be very popular, but one should ascertain first whether or not the bride-to-be wants aluminum in her kitchen.1924, Lillian Eichler Watson, The customs of mankind: with notes on modern etiquette and ...
3. (dated, figuratively) An event at which people give household items made of aluminum to the war effort.
   • The Office of Production Management, the OPM, has directed the Office of Civilian Defense to conduct an "Aluminum Shower". In other words, we are to collect all the available old aluminum in order to turn it over to the Government.c 1940, United States. Office of Production Management, Press releases
   • William S. Knudsen, director-general of O. P. M., has advised General R. B. Rathbun, director of the Minneapolis aluminum shower committee, to leave no possible source of scrap aluminum untouched because of the "critical shortage"1940, Minneapolis, volumes 8-10
4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see aluminum, shower.
   • Five o'clock the next morning found T. B. and myself already in the bathroom. For the whole school of some three hundred boarders, there were only about thirteen open standing aluminum showers and about eight buckets to be used in turns1990, Joseph Appiah, Joe Appiah: the autobiography of an African patriot
   • The houses also fashioned a folksy modernity out of new and old materials, including brick, plywood paneling, aluminum showers, and steel windows2001, Keller Easterling, Organization Space: Landscapes, Highways, and Houses in America, page 165