Friday Vocabulary

1. crupper — strap looped around horse’s tail attached to saddle to prevent the saddle or harness from moving forward

Sir Lee was unsaddled by the black knight’s lance, sent right over the crupper by the mighty blow.

 

2. Very light — flares used for signaling or illumination, fired from a special pistol

Now the Very lights showed the entire field and the robbers could hide no more.

 

3. homologate — to ratify, confirm, approve; to register a car model for international racing

The appeals court determined that in signing over his rights to the mill, the young Lord Jeremy, despite his minor status, had indeed homologated the transfer of his interest even in the absence of his guardian’s approval.

 

4. debile — [obsolete] feeble

Here again we see the paradoxical nature of these beliefs, by which the conspirators are adjudged to be all-puissant and yet in the next instant so debile that they must utilize the most hidden and underhand means of effecting any action at all.

 

5. whyever — why; for what reason

Whyever would you want to substitute margarine for real butter?”

 

6. tortuous — twisty

Following the caretaker on a tortuous path through the warehouse filled with the detritus of a lifetime of bad business deals and failed inventions, we finally arrived at the garishly painted ice cream wagon, looking more like an exploded hurdy-gurdy than a treats cart, in which we now believed the missing carbuncle had been hidden.

 

7. torturous — excruciating

His days were filled with boredom and endless minutes of inactivity at the dying office, while his evenings were disturbed by the torturous attempts of his upstairs neighbor to teach himself the violin.

 

8. puckerbrush — scrubland

Beau nearly lost most of this land when it got entangled in some scheme to make paper out of all the puckerbrush lying between the church and the creek.

 

9. charlotte — sweet or savory dish contained in bread, consisting of custard or fruit or other filling

Jenny cleverly reused the leftover ratatouille by making a small charlotte for Aunt Selma’s visit the Saturday after.

 

10. belap — to enfold, to surround

She sat there, lonely amidst the crowd, belapped in ribbons and the hideous dress and the pinafores her mother insisted were fashionable, and she kept her gloved hands in her lap, trying not to too obviously watch the clock’s hands make their slow way around the dial.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(UK, Australian, New Zealand slang or baby talk)

biccy — biscuit (i.e., cookie)

“She treats him like he was six years old, instead of a grown man; ‘Fancy a biccy, Barry?’ indeed!”

 

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