A literary element that, at first, seems to have no purpose but is later revealed to be important to the plot. This is commonly thought of as a parallel of foreshadowing, but it is more properly interpreted as "do not include any unnecessary elements in a story."
The return of Carmelita Spats in The Slippery Slope after her seemingly unnecessary appearance in The Austere Academy is an example of Chekhov's gun.
"One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." -Anton Chekhov
He is a handsome young man with a great smile. A person on who you can trust. He is somewhat or extremely emotional at times but will get through those hard times. He’s very like able or not depending on the relationship between you guys. He’s there to be supportive, loving, and caring and is either athletic in sports or in life in general. Overall he’s a very good person.
A Chekhov’s Firing Squad is when a TV show or movie has almost no plot in the first several episodes, and then proceeds to pull all triggers at once. The way that this turns out is a show feeling bland, with presumably filler episodes for most of the season, though these episode actually build foreshadowing and silent plot. These small, unnoticed details go completely unheard or said, until they all hit you at once like a freight train.
A sunburn or suntan focused on the left arm. It is caused by the left side of the body being the only half that gets exposed to sunlight while driving. Presumably, it would be located on the right side of the body in countries where they drive on the left side of the road.
British slang for a scientist or technical expert, esp . when the speaker is not certain of the expert’s specific field of study. Not necessarily derogatory, but typically used by persons without a technical background. In the US, the equivalent would be “egghead”, “squint”, or “geek.”
Origin of the word is unknown. Started sometime in World War 2. Given the typical evolution of British slang, could easily have started because what these experts did was confusing or “baffling” to the common person.
When you have to pee in a movie but don’t want to miss anything, and must do the following mental equation: will the amount I have to pee cause enough discomfort to diminish my attention capacity for the remainder of the movie to an extent which is greater than the amount of the movie I would miss by making a mad dash to the restroom.
I saw Satantango last night, wonderful film but by the 5th hour I had to start doing peecalculus.