lay an egg

“Lay an egg, lay an egg, lay an egg!” her brothers teased as they watched her sink low, knees akimbo.

When a dancer attempts to lay an egg, it is called a grand plié.

Jonathan Plissner, a supervisory wildlife biologist at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, told BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday that “it’s very rare” for a bird of Wisdom’s age to lay an egg, noting that “the average age that birds can survive is probably closer to 30 years.”

One of these is called a "brood ball," where they lay an egg in each ball, after they have buried it.

“I don’t think anybody wants to go out in front of 40,000 people and lay an egg,” he said - an image late New York Daily News cartoonist Bill Gallo would have relished.