1. Flemish horse — [nautical] extra footrope along yardarm As he clutched to the foremast yardarm with his fearsome thighs, his feet comfortably standing on the Flemish horse, Logan spied the telltale spume of their prey. 2. darbies — [British slang] handcuffs Somers had somehow slipped his darbies, and now he held a pistol …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Friday Vocabulary
1. naff — [British colloquial] vulgar, tasteless She wore some naff green and yellow stretch pants which rather emphasised just those portions of her anatomy which she should have downplayed. 2. draw — [slang] marijuana; bag of cannabis We all figured Tammy turned a blind eye to the draw, just as she had to …
Friday Vocabulary
1. blue — [slang] to squander, to spend wastefully or without restraint Of course he blued the whole hundred grand within a matter of months, and came back to me hat in hand looking for a handout to help him cover his rent. 2. craic — [Irish] fun, good time, esp. in pleasant company …
Friday Vocabulary
1. cruentate — [obsolete] blood-smeared But it was not in that fetid fly-filled room with its cruentate walls of horror that the worst nightmare was to be found, but inside the antiseptically clean closet at the back, within the tiny floor safe set into the dark linoleum. 2. nocent — noxious, harmful; not innocent …
Friday Vocabulary
1. scribatiousness (also scribaciousness) — quality of writing excessively Finally we decided that the only cure for Artur’s scribatiousness was to take away all of his electronic devices and leave him solely with pen and paper—which was not a cure per se, but since no person other than Artur could read his handwriting, at least …
Friday Vocabulary
1. pace — [Latin] “in peace”, with no offense intended to, with apologies to Certainly we can all be grateful to Max Brod (pace Kafka’s own wishes in the matter) that he did not cast these writings into the fire. 2. Monel (also Monel metal) — alloy of nickel and copper But its strength …
1200 Books
Hardly 20 minutes have passed since I finished my 1200th book in my silly book-tracking project, which I began in earnest ‘way back in 2015. As per usual, I do not count comics and graphic novels (nor books about comics, for that matter) towards this total figure, though I am tracking the aggregate numbers as …
Friday Vocabulary
1. muzzy — blurry, fuzzy, unfocused; confused, dazed; drunk, mentally impaired due to alcohol Fernando shook his head—which was a mistake—to try to focus on what Jess was saying, and finally got it through his muzzy head that his roommate was shouting something about the apartment being on fire. 2. mouchard — [French] nark, …
Friday Vocabulary
1. pungle — to hand over, to pay “If you’re gonna make me pungle up my hard-won cash,” said the gambler, his hand hovering over his pistol, “you’re gonna need more than three buffoons like you to do it.” 2. endopsychic — extant within the mind But these are mere endopsychic phenomena, and can …
Friday Vocabulary
1. obduracy — stubborn inflexibility, state of being unmoved or unashamed Though Laithley continued in his obduracy, ever and anon did my lord offer the hand of friendship and pledged the return of his lands if only that stubborn knight would take the oath. 2. outrance — [obsolete] furthest extremity, at the very limits …