1. brannigan — drinking bout; brawl We’ve had no trouble to speak of since you left for back east, a brannigan or two but nothing me and Deputy Fievel couldn’t handle, so don’t worry about hurrying home. 2. frighten the horses — [idiom] to upset public standards, to cause moral alarm “Now I don’t …
Tag Archives: vocabulary
Friday Vocabulary
1. non sequitur — [Latin, sorta] disturbingly inapt transition or sequence; statement not logically following its precedent I had already given up trying to follow the plot with its plethora of holes and non sequuntur, but the literal resurrection of the bishop killed so drastically in the very first scene of the movie solely so …
Friday Vocabulary
1. cambion — child with one human and one demonic parent As no one suspected Marta of being anything but a gullible human girl, and since the fishermen all knew her boy Toby to be a cambion, the village was convinced she’d been seduced by an incubus, likely taking the form of her own Long …
Friday Vocabulary
1. langlauf — to ski cross-country He thought of langlaufing to the forester’s hut, but decided it was impracticable with these wide skis he’d been forced to use. 2. antetype — prototype, early form Thus these radio clubs were the antetype of the grand scheme of fan clubs which became so important to the …
Friday Vocabulary
1. calipee — food delicacy made from fatty substance immediately above lower shell of a tortoise Besides a fine stew, I was invited to enjoy the calipee, my first experience with this delectable treat. 2. pastophore (also pastophorous) — lower priest of ancient Egypt charged with keeping the door of the temple If this …
Friday Vocabulary
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 …
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 …