core dump

n. [common Iron Age jargon, preserved by Unix] 1. [techspeak] A copy of the
contents of core , produced when a process is aborted by certain kinds of
internal error. 2. By extension, used for humans passing out, vomiting, or
registering extreme shock. He dumped core. All over the floor. What a mess.
He heard about X and dumped core. 3. Occasionally used for a human rambling
on pointlessly at great length; esp. in apology: Sorry, I dumped core on
you. 4. A recapitulation of knowledge (compare bits , sense 1). Hence,
spewing all one knows about a topic (syn. brain dump ), esp. in a lecture or
answer to an exam question. Short, concise answers are better than core
dumps (from the instructions to an exam at Columbia). See core. A core dump
lands our hero in hot water. (This is the last cartoon in the Crunchly saga.
The previous cartoon was 76-05-01.

