I should have said that its use in space technology made it much more interesting to me.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

cold duck (Kalte Ente)

SYLLABICATION: cold duck

NOUN : A beverage made of sparkling Burgundy and champagne.

" when I used this as the daily wwftd, a subscriber wrote to say that this is actually used in the restaurant where he works to refer to the dregs left over in glasses and bottles!"

Dear tsuwm: I think your correspondent who called beverage left overs "ullage" was simply ignorant. "Ullage" is the gas above the liquid. "Cold duck" is a fairly old name for a mixture made from leftovers of several kinds of wine, said to have orginated with European waiters and kitchen help cleaning up after banquets.