Ctrl-Alt-Delete
(kun.trohl-awlt-duh.LEET)
idiom.
A metaphoric mechanism with which one can reset, restart, or rethink something. —v.
Example Citations:
It's time to hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete on the computerized Bowl Championship Series. Or should we now call it the Bowl Split-Championship Series?
—David Thomas, "Fan's insider," Fort Worth Star Telegram, December 11, 2003
Wouldn't it be nice if whenever we messed up our life, we could simply press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and start all over again?
—"Let it out," The Indianapolis Star, September 8, 2003
Earliest Citation:
I don't know what it is about us computer types. During the holidays, I have a painted-on smile that's bigger than Bozo the Clown's. Each of my relatives finds a different computer trifle to give me, and I have to act appreciative.
—Chris Miksanek, "Ctrl-Alt-Delete those holiday trinkets," Computerworld, December 18, 1995
Notes:
Today's term was inspired by the recent retirement announcement of David Bradley, who, way back in 1980, programmed the original IBM PC to restart (perform a "warm boot," as the geeks say) when the user pressed the Ctrl-Alt-Delete key combination. Also known as the three-fingered salute and the Vulcan nerve pinch, this classic key combo has bailed out untold millions of users when their otherwise unresponsive paperweights, oops, I mean computers had frozen solid due to a slight shift in the barometric pressure. It's a tribute to the resistentialist nature of the computing beast that Ctrl-Alt-Delete remains a part of the Windows operating system to this day. And it's a tribute to the cultural penetration of Ctrl-Alt-Delete that the term is so often used in non-computing contexts, as the citations here show.
