Friday Vocabulary [UPDATED]

NOTE: Due to recently (12 July 2019) discovered repetition of a previously used vocabulary word, the offending entry has been replaced with a new word, definition, and example sentence. The original entry is preserved with strikethrough formatting.

1. dodder — to shake, to tremble

The old man doddered so at the top of the stairs that I began to worry lest he lose his balance entirely.

 

2. debouch — to march out or come forth from a narrow or confined space into an open area

The fans endured the endless zigzag lines through security with good grace and patience, finally debouching enthusiastically into the huge stadium where the Spicy Meatball Plot were about to begin their reunion tour.

 

3. nigrescent — blackish

Joan suppressed a qualm as she noticed the tarry nigrescent stringy stains on the left cuff of his otherwise impeccable sports jacket.

 

4. pursy — corpulent, fat

His pursy jowls quivered as he laughed, white flecks of spittle flying from between his yellowed teeth.

 

5. foin — to thrust or to lunge with a weapon

The bravo distracted the guard with a rapier feint while he foined beneath the guard’s lorica with his main-gauche.

 

6. ptochogony — the creation or production of beggars

Beyond the inability to buy houses, the crushing student debt entailed by most graduates threatens to make universities and colleges institutions of ptochogony rather than higher education.

 

7. fantod — (usu. pl. & usu. preceded by the) the willies

I caught a staggering case of the fantods when my bare foot trod upon the banana slug.

 

8. promulge — to set forth publicly, to publish

Luther not only promulged his theses in the environs of Wittenberg but also had them printed and spread throughout Germany.

 

9. dutch uncle — overly critical person

My newly minted aunt was quite the dutch uncle, and nothing could satisfy her save getting everything her own way.

 

10. supervalent — of or related to the exaggerated importance given thoughts by a thinker which that thinker cannot stop thinking

His thoughts were completely subsumed by Trump Derangement Syndrome; each incident, statement, or image he encountered brought forth an obsessive reaction, somehow relating the most innocuous occurrence to the activities of The Donald by the inordinate connective power of his supervalent fears and despair.

 

network — fabric of netted threads; any work in which threads etc. are made in form of a net

One can almost picture the female denizens of Jane Austen’s novels, fashioning reticules and bonnets from network as they talk of the world around them and its dangers, from which they were by no means exempt.

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