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 — …
Tag Archives: vocabulary
Friday Vocabulary
1. ragout — highly seasoned meat dish I despise mutton in all its forms, and no amount of spices will make this ragout palatable to me. 2. connubial — of or related to wedlock or the state of marriage If it was not in the eyes of law and society exactly connubial it was …
Friday Vocabulary
1. perissodactyl — ungulate with an odd number of toes, such as equids, tapirs, and rhinos I slunk back into the bushes and retreated across the wash to avoid the perissodactyl and allowed a wide margin before returning to the path, hoping I’d left the rhino far behind. 2. quadragesimal — of or related …
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; …
Friday Vocabulary
1. defecate — [obsolete] made pure, clarified; spiritually or morally purified Thus may defecate reason attain an even greater appreciation of more universal truth in forging with faith an antinomy stronger than mere material science. 2. anorak — [UK slang] obsessive fan, esp. of trains He’s a total anorak about 2000 AD and especially …
Friday Vocabulary
1. dingle — wooded valley Below the prominence lay a dark dingle which formed a precipitous barrier to any invading force, a steep ditch formed by the stream that even when fordable during the dry days of summer, still had treacherous rocks aplenty to turn the hooves of cavalry and men. 2. dingle — …
Friday Vocabulary
1. hinky — behaving in a nervous manner; suspicious Say what you want about interdepartmental lines of communication and all that, but the way the Secret Service acted makes the whole thing seem hinky to me. 2. gisant — [French] recumbent statue atop a grave representing the deceased For decades after his death in …
Friday Vocabulary
1. withal — in addition, besides; nevertheless He exhibited an irascible mien, yet Nicholas withal was a gentle soul at heart, ever ready to help the weak and downtrodden. 2. stadial — of or related to geological ages; of or related to stages of society, civilization, etc. The 100-year anniversary of The Glorious Revolution …
Friday Vocabulary
1. taximeter — device for calculating cab fare by measuring distance traveled We were fortunate to find a taximeter cab in that area and so were able to speed to the station before Bertram’s Daimler arrived. 2. hogget — not yet shorn sheep under one year old Reilly was caught red-handed with two of …