Friday Vocabulary

1. dapperling — dwarf or child, esp. one neatly dressed; mushroom of the Agaricaceae family Face to face finally with my tormentor, I found him to be a smartly turned out dapperling with the missing monocle suspended like a mayoral chain beneath his chic imperial beard, and confess I did not know whether to bow …

Friday Vocabulary

1. crocodile — line of walking persons, esp. when composed of children Like some strange Pied Piper I led the crocodile through the rubble and broken walls, hoping the older children would encourage the younger and prevent those toddlers from falling aside before we had reached some semblance of safety.   2. gramercy — [archaic] …

Friday Vocabulary

1. ogee — [architecture] double curve with S-shaped cross-section Looking like a bubble or onion atop the larger main chamber of the still, the ogee before the neck allows the distillate to cool and condense, dropping some of the heavier products back into the pot and creating a purer, more satisfying, product.   2. Hierosolymite …

Friday Vocabulary

1. pasquinade — lampoon, satire The plywood boards over the old store windows were covered with rude (and crude) pasquinades of The Leader’s dalliance with the Princess of Earl, which some soul had tried to counter rudely (and crudely) by smearing the word ‘NO!’ over the broadsheets in black house paint.   2. circumjacent — …

Friday Vocabulary

1. borborygmus — stomach noise made by internal gas movement; wamble I desperately hoped the girl was asleep on her side of my California king size bed, though the rude borborygmi I was plagued with seemed loud enough to wake the dead.   2. conservatory — preserving from loss or damage These methods are not …

Friday Vocabulary

1. rising — [informal] nearly, almost It was rising two in the morning before we were all prepared, with Vince insisting on carrying his ridiculous stiletto unsheathed in his left hand.   2. bulla — [biology] blister, vesicle; [biology] hollow spaces within bone structures; [historical] clay balls or containers, often with external writing detailing contents; …