hockey stick

noun

1. A stick used to handle the puck in ice hockey, having a flat, angled blade at the end.
2. A stick used to handle the ball in field hockey, having a flat-faced hook at the end.

   “The game itself, though played by men, was probably meant to enact a mediation of the opposites of male and female, with a circular puck being the feminine symbol and the phallic hockey stick being the masculine symbol.”

3. A playing card with the rank of seven.
4. A statistical trend in a graph of survey data in which most of the results are flat and then the graph suddenly peaks in a steep near-vertical direction.

   “One of the pillars of the case for man-made global warming is a graph nicknamed the hockey stick. It's a reconstruction of temperatures over the past 1,000 years based on records captured in tree rings, corals and other markers. The stick's shaft shows temperatures oscillating slightly over the ages. Then comes the blade: The mercury swings sharply upward in the 20th century.”

   “They made it the focus of their attacks, hoping that by demolishing the hockey stick graph they would destroy the credibility of climate scientists and the notion of global warming as a phenomenon caused by human activity.”