Looking for a place to resign

from 'First Kyu', the novel: "A high ranking player, in a losing game, often plays a move which obviously does not work. On seeing the opponent to correctly respond, he resigns. This custom is commonly referred to as 'looking for a place to resign'. Yong, staring intensely at the corner, must have picked it as his place for resignation... The time he was taking now was to prepare himself for the loss of this all-important game."