{"id":3517,"date":"2021-09-03T10:06:25","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T17:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=3517"},"modified":"2021-09-03T10:06:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T17:06:25","slug":"friday-vocabulary-172","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/?p=3517","title":{"rendered":"Friday Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. maunder<\/strong> \u2014 to mumble, to talk idly, foolishly, or to no real purpose; to move about aimlessly<\/p>\n

The poorly shaven hobo took another pull from the bottle and <\/em>maundered more words about the family he once had, the son who had once been so proud of his father.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. termagant<\/strong> \u2014 violent ill-tempered woman, virago<\/p>\n

We all sat frigidly silent, stunned by the <\/em>termagant‘s rude shouts when offered no soups to her liking.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. mole<\/strong> \u2014 very large construction in water, as a pier, breakwater, or causeway <\/p>\n

The inner harbor was formed and protected by a massive <\/em>mole, made from the stones left over after the construction of the towering cathedral dominating the seaport.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. portfire<\/strong> \u2014 handheld, slow-burning fuse for lighting artillery or fireworks<\/p>\n

Obviously an electric igniter is best, but many fireworks still require flame to ignite and in those cases a <\/em>portfire can be essential, providing the needed fire without the difficulty given by striking matches or a lighter.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. desideratum<\/strong> \u2014 need or want, needed or desired thing<\/p>\n

The company claimed that their robots would satisfy the two most urgent <\/em>desiderata of the warehouse, safety and speed, at a cost much less than paying untrustworthy human workers.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. eld<\/strong> \u2014 old age; olden times<\/p>\n

Only his eyes seemed untouched by <\/em>eld, scintillating still within their sunken, wrinkled sockets.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. decompensate<\/strong> \u2014 to lose grip upon one’s own mental health, i.e., to go crazy<\/p>\n

And then the psychiatric resident stopped by my hospital room to make sure I hadn’t <\/em>decompensated during the ordeal with my nares.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. flirt<\/strong> \u2014 sudden jerk, quick throw<\/p>\n

With a violent <\/em>flirt of her fan Bessie declared that she would rather drop dead than ever see that man again.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. lairage<\/strong> \u2014 resting place for cattle on their way to slaughter<\/p>\n

We five witnesses were ensconced in quite a nice downtown hotel, a gilded <\/em>lairage before the grand jury met on the morrow.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. brigandine<\/strong> \u2014 body armor consisting of iron rings or plates sewn onto, and sometimes within, fabric coverings<\/p>\n

The <\/em>brigandine of the Duke’s personal guard was dyed a rich cerulean blue, making our own functional hauberks look shabby in comparison.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonus Vocabulary<\/h4>\n

(British)<\/p>\n

St. Martin’s summer<\/strong> \u2014 unseasonable warm November weather<\/p>\n

With hearts gladdened by the strident sun of our <\/em>St. Martin’s summer, the dark and depressing clouds from Belgium seemed an insupportable burden.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. maunder \u2014 to mumble, to talk idly, foolishly, or to no real purpose; to move about aimlessly The poorly shaven hobo took another pull from the bottle and maundered more words about the family he once had, the son who had once been so proud of his father.   2. termagant \u2014 violent ill-tempered … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Friday Vocabulary”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[112,69],"class_list":["post-3517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-bonus-word","tag-vocabulary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatedguesswork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}