cstr/en-wiktionary-extracted-all huggingface dataset:
yuppie food stamp
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: yuppie food stamps
Etymology: Like yuppie flu, the term originally connoted (and may still connote) contempt by working-class people for others who are perceived as rich, undeserving, and soft. The stereotype-laden imagery is that a yuppie throws twenties around like a poor person might throw food stamps around, neither one wholly deserving the resource that they are profligately consuming. Class antagonism is implicit in both directions, upward and downward.
Senses: examples: text: We need change, but all I have is a yuppie food stamp.
hypernyms: word: beer ticket
word: paper money
word: <
word: money
word: assets
word: capital
word: resources
word: wealth
glosses: A $20 bill, as dispensed from an ATM.
don't teach your grandmother how to milk ducks
Language: English
Part of speech: proverb
Senses: glosses: Alternative form of don't teach your grandmother how to suck eggs.
don't teach your grandmother to steal sheep
Language: English
Part of speech: proverb
Senses: glosses: Alternative form of don't teach your grandmother how to suck eggs.
teach grandma how to suck eggs
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: teaches grandma how to suck eggs
form: teaching grandma how to suck eggs
form: taught grandma how to suck eggs
form: taught grandma how to suck eggs
form: teach Grandma how to suck eggs
form: teach grandma to suck eggs
form: teach Grandma to suck eggs
Etymology: First attested circa 18th century, from Spanish: see quotation.
Senses: examples: text: Madam, reply’d Joler, you would have me teach my Grandame to ſuck Eggs, or ſet up for a Lent Preacher.
ref: [1707, Francisco de Quevedo, translated by John Stevens, “The Dog and the Fever: An Unaccountable Novel: or, A Rapsody”, in The Comical Works of Don Francisco de Quevedo, […], London: […] John Morphew […], →OCLC, page 403:
glosses: To tell an expert how to do things.
raw_tags: in the negative
Derived terms: don't try to teach grandma how to suck eggs
androphobia
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: rhymes: -əʊbiə
Etymology: From andro- + -phobia.
Senses: examples: text: In the case of androphobia, a reaction can occur when exposed to men or masculinity, in anticipation of such experiences, or even hearing words related to the male sex.
ref: 2021 July 25, Jordan Davidson, “Androphobia (fear of men): what is it, causes, treatment”, in Ro:
glosses: Fear of or aversion to men or boys.
Derived terms: androphobe
androphobic
Related terms: anthropophobia
misandry
-et
Language: English
Part of speech: suffix
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English -et, from Old French -et.
Senses: glosses: Used to form diminutives, loosely construed.
Related terms: -ette
-ett
-let
-et
Language: English
Part of speech: suffix
Forms: form: -t
Etymology: Uncertain. Perhaps ultimately related to Middle English -ten, -eten, from Old English -ettan; possibly reinforced by Old Norse -ta.
Senses: examples: text: fidge + -et → fidget
text: jig + -et → jigget
text: rick + -et → ricket
glosses: Used to augment verbs, largely monosyllabic, to form verbs with a frequentative or imitative force.
Derived terms: english: partially
translation: partially
word: -ety
perse
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɜːs/
ipa: /pɝs/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s
homophone: purse
Forms: form: perses
Etymology: From Middle English pers, from Old French, from Medieval Latin persus, back-formed from Persicus (“Persian”), from Ancient Greek Περσικός (Persikós). Compare peach.
Senses: glosses: A very dark (almost black) purple or blue-gray colour.
glosses: A cloth of this colour.
perse
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɜːs/
ipa: /pɝs/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s
homophone: purse
Etymology: From Middle English pers, from Old French, from Medieval Latin persus, back-formed from Persicus (“Persian”), from Ancient Greek Περσικός (Persikós). Compare peach.
Senses: glosses: Very dark greyish (almost blackish) purple or blue.
perse
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɜːs/
ipa: /pɝs/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s
homophone: purse
Forms: form: perses
form: persing
form: persed
form: persed
form: perst
form: perst
Senses: glosses: Obsolete form of pierce.
SCSI
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈskʌ.zi/
ipa: /ˈsɛk.si/
ipa: /ˈsək.si/
ipa: /ˈsɒk.si/
rhymes: -ʌzi
rhymes: -ɛksi
homophone: scuzzy
homophone: sexy
Senses: topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Initialism of Small Computer Systems Interface.
Hyponyms: Fast SCSI
FastWide SCSI
iSCSI
Narrow SCSI
SAS
Ultra SCSI
Wide SCSI
WideUltra SCSI
Coordinate terms: ATA
PATA
SATA
IDE
EIDE
ESDI
ISCSI
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: /ˈaɪˌskʌzi/
Forms: form: iSCSI
Senses: glosses: Initialism of Internet SCSI, a storage transport protocol that transmits SCSI I/O traffic over a TCP/IP connection.
Related terms: IP SAN
TCP/IP
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Senses: topics: communications
electrical-engineering
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
telecommunications
glosses: Initialism of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, a standard for computer network communication, used in particular for the Internet.
vive
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /vaɪv/
rhymes: -aɪv
Forms: form: more vive
form: most vive
Etymology: From Latin vivus. Compare French vif. See vivid.
Senses: examples: 1890, Samuel Harvey Reynolds, Introduction The Essays of Francis Bacon
the French King, when by a vive and forcible persuasion he moved him to a war upon Flanders
glosses: lively, animated
Related terms: vive la différence
pingas
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: Probably derived from the Danish penge (“money”).
Senses: glosses: money
pingas
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: From pingers.
Senses: glosses: MDMA; ecstasy.
pingas
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: pingases
Etymology: From an Internet meme and YouTube Poop sample of a line in the television series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, spoken by the character Dr. Robotnik: "Snooping as usual, I see?"
Senses: glosses: A penis.
cryo-
Language: English
Part of speech: prefix
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɹʌɪəʊ/
ipa: /ˈkɹaɪoʊ/
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κρύος (krúos, “ice, icy cold, chill, frost”).
Senses: glosses: cold, freezing
glosses: cryonics
Synonyms: psychro-
Derived terms: cryalgesia
cryoaerotherapy
cryobiology
cryochemistry
cryolava
cryolith
cryology
cryomilling
cryopedology
cryophilia
cryopulverization
cryovolcano
kan
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɑːn/
homophone: khan
homophone: carn (non-rhotic)
homophone: con (father-bother merger)
rhymes: -ɑːn
Forms: form: kans
Senses: glosses: Archaic form of khan.
kan
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɑːn/
homophone: khan
homophone: carn (non-rhotic)
homophone: con (father-bother merger)
rhymes: -ɑːn
Forms: form: kan
Etymology: Borrowed from Japanese 貫 (kan).
Senses: examples: text: After having subtracted the bad and uncollectable debt above, the net property was around 32000 kan of silver […]
ref: 2000, Hideo Yamashita, Healthy Culture and Unhealthy Culture:
glosses: A Japanese unit of weight, approximately 3.75 kg or 8.267 lb.
kan
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɑːn/
homophone: khan
homophone: carn (non-rhotic)
homophone: con (father-bother merger)
rhymes: -ɑːn
Forms: form: kans
Etymology: Borrowed from Cantonese 斤 (gan¹).
Senses: glosses: A catty, legally defined as 0.60478982 kilograms.
kan
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɑːn/
homophone: khan
homophone: carn (non-rhotic)
homophone: con (father-bother merger)
rhymes: -ɑːn
Forms: form: kans
Etymology: Borrowed from Japanese 槓 (kan).
Senses: topics: board-games
games
mahjong
synonyms: kong
quad
four-of-a-kind
glosses: A set of four identical tiles.
topics: board-games
games
mahjong
synonyms: kong
glosses: A call declaring the formation of such a set.
Coordinate terms: chii
pon
Related terms: kan cheong
kan ni na
kan ni na bu
well-to-do
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌwɛltəˈdu/
Forms: form: more well-to-do
form: most well-to-do
Senses: examples: text: Some philosophers aver that the well-to-do should be taxed at a higher rate than poorer people.
text: From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: There was a single arrivals platform, nearest to King's Cross. The large arch beneath the clock gave access to Hansom carriages clip-clopping up the cobbled ramp from the main gate in Euston Road, directly onto the platform, to meet well-to-do passengers.
ref: 2023 August 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: End damaging drift at Euston”, in RAIL, number 990, page 3:
glosses: Rich, prosperous, financially stable and comfortable.
Synonyms: affluent
well-fixed
well-heeled
for more
wealthy
mata
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: matas
form: mātā
Etymology: Borrowed from Sanskrit माता (mātā), nom.sg. of मातृ (mātṛ, “mother”). Doublet of mater and mother.
Senses: glosses: A respectful title for a female spiritual leader or for a wife, mother, or grandmother of a male spiritual leader.
examples: text: While possession is usually limited to Bhilala men, the mata entered women too, endowing them with the power of clairvoyance, enabling them to identify the evil spirits or daakans in their midst. The mata spoke through the possessed, forecasting the future, directing people and events for her proper propitiation.
ref: 1995, Amita Baviskar, In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts Over Development in the Narmada Valley, Bombay; […]: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 98:
glosses: A Hindu goddess.
glosses: A mother (also used as a term of address for a woman).
Related terms: Devi
matamata
meta
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɛtə/
ipa: /ˈmɛtə/
ipa: [ˈmɛɾə]
rhymes: -ɛtə
Forms: form: metas
Etymology: Adjective sense 1 is a back-formation from meta- (prefix).
Adjective sense 2 is derived from noun sense 1.
The noun senses are clippings of various terms beginning with meta (prefix).
Folk etymology for noun sense 1 also suggests an acronym for most effective/efficient tactic available.
Senses: examples: text: I don't think the character will be part of the meta even with the recent buffs.
text: The phrase, “tank meta”, is one that carries a lot of weight when it comes to MOBAs. These metas are generally characterized by tanky, unkillable behemoths dominating the meta and leaving any character that isn’t focused around raw DPS in the dust.
ref: 2022 November 17, Carver Fisher, “League of Legends preseason 13 has made tanks unkillable”, in Dexerto:
topics: video-games
glosses: Clipping of metagame.
examples: text: Each video sharing platform's community has a meta on how long videos should be.
text: I remember interviewing PewDiePie a few years ago, and he was sort of telling me about this time where it was like edgy videos were being really rewarded, so everyone was kind of chasing like edgy humor and edgy memes, and sort of trying to figure out where the edge was. And then YouTube changed the meta, and suddenly, it wasn't good to be edgy, you weren't going to make as much money or get as many views.
ref: 2023 October 27, 29:51 from the start, in Hard Fork (podcast), spoken by Kevin Roose, The New York Times:
topics: video-games
glosses: Clipping of metagame.
An informal but widely adopted practice in a given field; a de facto standard.
glosses: Clipping of metaoidioplasty.
glosses: Clipping of metamour.
examples: text: Many metas on Tumblr incorporate GIFs of scenes they are referencing as well as screencaps.
ref: 2014, Jay Schnorrer, "Adding to Narration and The Johnlock Conspiracy – The Meaning of Digital Media for BBC's Sherlock", paper submitted to Freie Universität Berlin (link)
text: Fans create their own stories and media representation through fan fiction. They challenge the feminism in the [Sarah J. Maas] books through discussions and metas.
ref: 2018, Sarah Leiser, "Throne of Fans: Examining the Roles of Feminism, Platform and Community in an Online Fandom", thesis submitted to the University of Denver, page 84
text: It wasn’t until I dug into post-season-3 Sherlock meta in January of 2014 that I started to encounter "the Discourse."
ref: 2020, Elizabeth Minkel, quoted in "Under the Radar: A Conversation about Tumblr in the Public Sphere", in A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures (eds. Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, and Indira Neill Hoch), page 64
topics: lifestyle
glosses: Clipping of metanalysis: metanalysis or metacommentary focused on media, fandom, or related topics, typically presented as an essay or dialogue.
meta
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɛtə/
ipa: /ˈmɛtə/
ipa: [ˈmɛɾə]
rhymes: -ɛtə
Forms: form: more meta
form: most meta
Etymology: Adjective sense 1 is a back-formation from meta- (prefix).
Adjective sense 2 is derived from noun sense 1.
The noun senses are clippings of various terms beginning with meta (prefix).
Folk etymology for noun sense 1 also suggests an acronym for most effective/efficient tactic available.
Senses: examples: text: Suppose you have a genie that grants you three wishes. If you wish for infinite wishes, that is a meta wish.
text: Suppose you have a homework task where you need to edit a wiki page and upload a screenshot of this entry underneath the word meta as an example of what meta is.
text: […] in finessing obligations you fail a "meta" kind of obligation.
ref: 2002, Robert C. Neville, Religion in Late Modernity, →ISBN, page 31:
text: Besides, I can just hear Vaughan: "Very funny, Stacey, very Charlie Kaufman-esque, very meta, very '97. I can't use it."
ref: 2006, Brendan Vaughan, What Would MacGyver Do?, →ISBN, page 186:
text: McDonald & Dodds is back, with episode one so deliberately hammy and meta that, technically, it should have been a complete horlicks. In one scene, when they were all hanging on to the balloon ropes, Mr Bean-like, to stop Jason Watkins flying away, it sort of was.
ref: 2021 March 1, Carol Midgley, “McDonald & Dodds review – cheerful escapism and filth-free distraction”, in The Times:
glosses: Self-referential; structured analogously (structured by relationships), but at a higher level.
examples: text: I don't think the character will be meta even with the recent buffs.
topics: video-games
glosses: Prominent in the metagame; effective and frequently used in competitive gameplay.
Related terms: transcendental
self-aware
meta
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɛtə/
ipa: /ˈmɛtə/
ipa: [ˈmɛɾə]
rhymes: -ɛtə
ipa: /ˈmiːtə/
ipa: /ˈmiːtə/
ipa: [ˈmiːɾə]
rhymes: -iːtə
ipa: /ˈmɛtə/
ipa: /ˈmɛtə/
ipa: [ˈmɛɾə]
rhymes: -ɛtə
Forms: form: metas
form: metae
Etymology: From Latin mēta.
Senses: glosses: Boundary marker.
glosses: Either of the conical columns at each end of an Ancient Roman circus.
well-heeled
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more well-heeled
form: most well-heeled
Etymology: Originally American English, from a literal use in cockfighting: a well-heeled cock was provided with sharp spurs and could inflict maximum damage. From this developed the American frontier slang sense of being well-equipped, and thence the modern sense of being well supplied with money.
Senses: examples: text: On Professor Solanka’s street, well-heeled white youths lounged in baggy garments on roseate stoops, stylishly simulating indigence while they waited for the billionairedom that would surely be along sometime soon.
ref: 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 4:
text: The world changes, consumerism marches on, and things once considered luxuries for the well-heeled are now taken for granted by us all — homes with 2½ bathrooms, air travel, cars with power windows.
ref: 2019 April 10, Adrian Higgins, “This florist started caring for ailing orchids on the side. He’s now babysitting 13,000.”, in The Washington Post:
text: These public artworks only arrived a few weeks ago, Winterson explains, as part of a grand plan to pedestrianise the area, and make it more buzzy, just at the moment that the sort of well-heeled office workers who bought upmarket chocolates are abandoning it owing to the Covid pandemic.
ref: 2021 July 25, Claire Armitstead, “Jeanette Winterson: ‘The male push is to discard the planet: all the boys are going off into space’”, in The Guardian:
text: Mum had worked there as a teenager and once recalled her duty of having to meet the charabancs that brought the well-heeled to the baths from Droitwich station before the war.
ref: 2023 February 22, “Stop & Examine”, in RAIL, number 977, page 71:
glosses: Rich, affluent, prosperous.
multipack
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: multipacks
Etymology: From multi- + pack.
Senses: examples: text: a multipack of tins of baked beans
text: Hostess has recalled the multipack boxes, with nine cakes in each, in response to a recall by Blommer Chocolate Co., which produced the confectionery coating used on the holiday Twinkies.
ref: 2017 January 10, Ashley Strickland, “Twinkies, Palmer Candy join recall over salmonella concerns”, in CNN:
text: Cans of Coca-Cola Original Taste, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Diet Coke, and Sprite Zero sent to cafes and restaurants are being withdrawn as well as 6x250ml Appletiser multipacks sent to UK supermarkets.
ref: 2025 January 29, Lucy Hooker, “Coca-Cola recalls drinks in UK due to chemical levels”, in BBC News:
glosses: A form of packaging containing multiple individual packages of a single product.
badness
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbæd.nəs/
rhymes: -ædnəs
Forms: form: badnesses
Etymology: From Middle English baddenes, badnes, badnesse; equivalent to bad + -ness.
Senses: examples: text: The badness of a dignitary harm derives from the victim's belief that a perpetrator is willing to override or ignore her standing as a person with rights, with dignity, as evidenced by the wrongful criminal deed; […]
ref: 2015, J. M. Bernstein, Torture and Dignity: An Essay on Moral Injury, page 140:
glosses: The quality or degree of being bad.
Synonyms: word: bad manners
word: badness
word: delinquency
word: devilishness
word: devilment
word: devilry
word: deviltry
word: disobedience
word: elfishness
word: goings-on
word: hanky-panky
word: impishness
word: impropriety
word: misbehavior
word: mischief
word: mischievousness
word: misconduct
word: misdemeanor
word: monkey business
word: naughtiness
word: prankishness
word: pranksomeness
word: puckishness
word: rascality
word: roguery
word: roguishness
word: scampishness
word: wrong
word: wrongness
Hypernyms: word: condition
word: quality
Hyponyms: word: depravity
word: evilness
word: wickedness
Related terms: word: bad
word: evil
word: troublemaker
word: do evil
loony van
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: loony vans
Senses: glosses: An ambulance used to take a mental patient away to an institution.
filmic
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: /ˈfɪlmɪk/
Forms: form: more filmic
form: most filmic
Etymology: From film + -ic. Doublet of filmy.
Senses: topics: literature
media
publishing
glosses: Of or relating to movies; cinematic.
Derived terms: filmically
filmicity
nonfilmic
postfilmic
prefilmic
unfilmic
play possum
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: plays possum
form: playing possum
form: played possum
form: played possum
Etymology: From play + possum (“from opposum”), from the behavior of the Virginia opossum, which feigns death when threatened. First use appears c. 1807.
Senses: examples: text: Thinking fast, we played possum, hoping the bear wouldn't bother us.
text: The soldier played possum, fooling the sniper.
text: To keep the focus away from his client, the lawyer basically played possum during the entire complex trial, and his tactic paid off with an acquittal.
text: What happened to Job after that I am sure I do not know, but my own impression is that he lay still upon the corpse of his deceased assailant, "playing 'possum" as the Americans say.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
glosses: To feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lie low.
examples: text: When we used to get home late at night, I would play possum so my daddy would carry me inside and put me in bed.
glosses: To feign sleep, illness, etc.
examples: text: Though, as it afterwards turned out, the Yankee had money enough about him, and was merely playing the ’possum all the while.
ref: 1833, Asa Greene, A Yankee Among the Nullifiers: An Auto-biography, page 32:
text: Never imposing upon any one myself, I suffered no one to play the possum with me.
ref: 1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Business Man:
text: You have been holding-in all this while — possumus omnes, we all play the ’possum...
ref: 1858, James Russell Lowell, in a letter to O.W. Holmes, collected in The Complete Writings of... p31
text: As none came with the coach from Deadwood, I suppose the amount of funds was insignificant. You can't tell, though, for the stage company is liable to play possum sometimes.
ref: 1881, Alexander Lovett Stimson, History of the Express Business, page 354:
glosses: To dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive.
Synonyms: word: act possum
word: possum
Related terms: sham Abram
sham Abraham
filmically
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Forms: form: more filmically
form: most filmically
Etymology: From filmic + -ally.
Senses: glosses: In a filmic manner.
brainiac
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɹeɪniæk/
rhymes: -eɪniæk
Forms: form: brainiacs
Etymology: Blend of brain + maniac, with influence from ENIAC, the name of an early computer. The term was coined as the name of the fictional supervillain Brainiac in the Superman series and first appeared in Action Comics comic book #242 in July, 1958. By surface analysis, brainy + -ac.
Senses: examples: text: With all the brainiacs in the world ... you'd think somebody would come up with a sunblock for ice cream.
ref: 2009 July 18, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic):
text: With nearly 900,000 Twitter followers, Popova is a member of a rare pantheon of “influencers” for the brainiac crowd. Miraculously, she makes a living writing a blog about science, literature, philosophy, feminism and whatever else takes her voracious and generous fancy.
ref: 2019 February 8, Margaret Wertheim, “Minds that explore the beauty of math and the logic of art”, in Washington Post, →ISSN:
synonyms: genius
pedant
smart-ass
wiseguy
antonyms: dufus
dumb-ass
dumbo
idiot
ignoramus
glosses: A very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person.
exigence
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: exigences
Etymology: Borrowed from French exigence.
Senses: examples: text: Chagrined and surprised, they were obliged, though unwillingly, to turn back, for no shelter was nearer than their own house. One consolation however remained for them, to which the exigence of the moment gave more than the usual propriety; it was that of running with all possible speed down the steep side of the hill which led immediately to the garden gate.
ref: 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 9, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
text: Most fortunately the exigence of despair prompted Georgiana to instant action—she seized the letter and thrust it under the bed-clothes, at the moment the door was opened,...
ref: 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 8:
glosses: Exigency.
trifling
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɹaɪfliŋ/
Forms: form: triflings
Etymology: By surface analysis, trifle + -ing.
Senses: examples: text: He writes on the principle, of course, that in one's dotage we are privileged to return to the triflings of our infancy, and that Downing Street cannot be better employed in these days than as a chapel of ease to Eton.
ref: 1845, George Croly, Samuel Warren, Marston, or the Memoirs of a Statesman:
glosses: The act of one who trifles; frivolous behaviour.
trifling
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɹaɪfliŋ/
Etymology: By surface analysis, trifle + -ing.
Senses: glosses: present participle and gerund of trifle
vaca
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈveɪkeɪ/
Forms: form: vacas
form: vacay
Senses: glosses: Alternative spelling of vacay.
cha-ching
Language: English
Part of speech: intj
Pronunciation: ipa: /tʃəˈtʃɪŋ/
rhymes: -ɪŋ
Forms: form: chiching
form: chi-ching
form: chaching
form: ca-ching
form: ka-ching
form: kerching
Etymology: Onomatopoeic, imitative of the sound of a mechanical cash register when an amount is rung up. Popularized by the movie Wayne's World (1992) and by an advertisement in 1992 featuring Seth Green. The spoken term is also, in the US, a trademarked sound of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc.
Senses: examples: text: Cha-ching! More profit, more jobs.
ref: 1998, Media Foundation, chapter I, in Adbusters, volume 6, page 49:
glosses: Score!; wow!; said to celebrate something that has made or will make a large amount of money.
cha-ching
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tʃəˈtʃɪŋ/
rhymes: -ɪŋ
Forms: form: cha-chings
form: chiching
form: chi-ching
form: chaching
form: ca-ching
form: ka-ching
form: kerching
Etymology: Onomatopoeic, imitative of the sound of a mechanical cash register when an amount is rung up. Popularized by the movie Wayne's World (1992) and by an advertisement in 1992 featuring Seth Green. The spoken term is also, in the US, a trademarked sound of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc.
Senses: examples: text: 2005, Lee Mylne, advertisement, Frommer′s Portable Australia′s Great Barrier Reef, page 207,
They find the best offerings on Travelocity. For very little cha-ching.
text: […]but the majority of hotels see guests′ phone calls as a major cha-ching opportunity and charge ridiculously inflated rates.
ref: 2011, Sylvie Hogg, Frommer′s Italian Islands, unnumbered page:
glosses: Money, cash.
cha-ching
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /tʃəˈtʃɪŋ/
rhymes: -ɪŋ
Forms: form: cha-chings
form: cha-chinging
form: cha-chinged
form: cha-chinged
form: chiching
form: chi-ching
form: chaching
form: ca-ching
form: ka-ching
form: kerching
Etymology: Onomatopoeic, imitative of the sound of a mechanical cash register when an amount is rung up. Popularized by the movie Wayne's World (1992) and by an advertisement in 1992 featuring Seth Green. The spoken term is also, in the US, a trademarked sound of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc.
Senses: examples: text: The young guy bought the woman a refill of the same fine chardonnay that made her dad′s cash register cha-ching with pleasure.
ref: 2011, Catherine Coulter, Split Second, unnumbered page:
glosses: To make a cash register or slot machine noise.
glosses: To make the noise of coins falling.
tumbledown
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more tumbledown
form: most tumbledown
form: tumble-down
Etymology: Deverbal from tumble down.
Senses: examples: text: They lived in a tumbledown shack on the edge of the woods.
text: The cab pulled up in front of a tumbledown cheap ‘villa’ in an unfinished cheap neighbourhood, — the whole place a living monument of the defeat of the speculative builder.
ref: 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
text: Some distance north of both stations was a rather small and tumbledown shed for Great Central engines, and there was generally one or more goods tank engines outside it, painted black and lined out in red.
ref: 1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, page 19:
glosses: In disrepair; poorly maintained.
Synonyms: ramshackle
ramshackle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹæmˌʃæk.əl/
enpr: rămʹshăk'əl
Forms: form: ramshackles
form: ramshackling
form: ramshackled
form: ramshackled
Etymology: First attested in 1830, a back-formation from ramshackled, from ransackled, past participle of ransackle (“to ransack”), frequentative of Middle English ransaken (“to pillage”).
Senses: glosses: To ransack.
upkeep
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʌpkip/
Forms: form: upkeeps
Etymology: From up + keep.
Senses: examples: text: I would enjoy having a swimming pool, but I don't want to deal with the upkeep.
text: […] it was unnecessary to fence off pasture from arable land, which saved a lot of labour on the upkeep of hedges and gates.
ref: 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
text: The story of upkeep has been never-ending. Between 1997-2000, a major programme of maintenance entailed replacing superstructure timbers - 50 main rail beams were replaced with greenheart, along with a similar number of edge beams.
ref: 2020 August 12, Andrew Mourant, “The tide is turning for a Victorian wonder”, in Rail, page 51:
glosses: Maintenance; the act or effort of keeping something in good and working condition.
upkeep
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʌpkip/
Forms: form: upkeeps
form: upkeeping
form: upkept
form: upkept
Etymology: From up + keep.
Senses: examples: text: Do you know how to upkeep a boat?
text: As for the city's buildings, it mostly resembled a town of white spires and cobblestone streets lined with flowerbeds that were upkept by magical means.
ref: 2014, James Blackthorne, Meditations of Madness: The Lost Empires Exposed:
glosses: To maintain (something) or keep it in good repair.
steadfastness
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: steadfastnesses
Etymology: From Middle English stedfastnesse, stedefastnesse, from Old English stedefæstnes (“steadfastness”), equivalent to steadfast + -ness.
Senses: glosses: Loyalty in the face of trouble and difficulty.
examples: text: [H]e [Paul] laboureth to comfort Timothy vvith the remembrance of the ſtedfaſtneſs of Gods eternal decree of Election, becauſe grounded on his foreknowledge; […]
ref: 1684, John Bunyan, A Holy Life, the Beauty of Christianity: Or, An Exhortation to Christians to be Holy, London: […] B. W. for Benj[amin] Alsop, […], →OCLC, page 3:
glosses: A steadfast resolution.
steadfast
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈstɛdfɑːst/
ipa: /ˈstɛdfæst/
ipa: /ˈstɛdfəst/
Forms: form: steadfaster
form: more steadfast
form: steadfastest
form: most steadfast
form: stedfast
Etymology: From Middle English stedefast, from Old English stedefæst, from Proto-Germanic *stadifastuz, equivalent to stead (“place; spot; position”) + fast (“firm; fixed”). Cognate with Middle Dutch stedevast (“steadfast”), Icelandic staðfestur (“steadfast”), Danish stedfast (“firmly attached, secured”), Danish stadfæste (“to confirm; ratify”), Norwegian Bokmål stadfeste (“confirm, ratify; establish”), Swedish stadfästa (“to confirm; establish”).
Senses: glosses: Fixed or unchanging; steady.
examples: text: steadfast support
text: steadfast commitment
antonyms: infirm
glosses: Firmly loyal or constant; unswerving.
Derived terms: steadfastly
steadfastness
ENIAC
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: /ˈɛniæk/
/ˈiːnɪak/
Senses: examples: text: The first problem assigned to the first working electronic digital computer in the world was the hydrogen bomb. […] The ENIAC ran a first rough version of the thermonuclear calculations for six weeks in December 1945 and January 1946.
ref: 1995, Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 251:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Initialism of Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, one of the first electronic digital computers.
electric guitar
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈlɛk.tɹɪk ɡɪˈtɑːɹ/
Forms: form: electric guitars
Senses: examples: text: He's playing the electric guitar and she's playing the drums!
glosses: A guitar which requires electronic amplification to produce sufficient sound.
Coordinate terms: acoustic guitar
bass guitar
electric bass
Derived terms: electric guitarist
threnody
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈθɹɛn.ə.di/
rhymes: -ɛnədi
Forms: form: threnodies
form: threnedy
Etymology: From Ancient Greek θρηνῳδία (thrēnōidía, “lamentation”). Compare the New Latin thrēnōdia.
Senses: examples: text: The fifer actually knew but one tune "The Bonnie Blue Flag"—and did not know that well. But it was all that he had, and he played it with wearisome monotony for every camp call. . . . I never hated any piece of music as I came to hate that threnody of treason.
ref: 1879, John McElroy, chapter 44, in Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons:
text: A strongly personal note runs through Kenneth Leighton's Improvisation (Novello, 35p), which is a threnody in memory of Maurice de Sausmārez. Gently undulating, cantabile lines of ‘mourning’ alternate with sharp, anguished note-clusters which work up to a fierce paroxysm of grief.
ref: 1973, Ann Bond, “New Organ Music”, in The Musical Times, volume 114, number 1565, page 741:
synonyms: dirge
elegy
lamentation
glosses: A song or poem of lamentation or mourning for a dead person; a dirge; an elegy.
Derived terms: threnodial
threnodic
threnodist
theremin
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈθɛə.ɹəˌmɪn/
ipa: /ˈθɛ.ɹɪ.mɪn/
Forms: form: theremins
Etymology: Named after Russian inventor Léon Theremin (1896–1993). Theremin is a French version of his Russian name, Ле́в Терме́н (Lév Termén).
Senses: glosses: An electronic musical instrument that generates sound of varying pitch and volume depending on the proximity of the musician’s hands to two antennae mounted on the instrument.
Synonyms: word: aetherophone
word: ætherphone
word: etherophone
word: etherphone
word: thereminophone
word: termenvox
word: thereminvox
Coordinate terms: ondes martenot
Derived terms: thereminist
desperado
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɛspəˈɹɑːdəʊ/
Forms: form: desperadoes
form: desperados
Etymology: From obsolete Spanish desperado, past participle of desperar, archaic form of desesperar (“to despair”), from Latin disperare (“to despair, to lose hope”), from prefix dis- + sperare (“to hope”). Doublet of desperate.
Senses: examples: text: The kind of persons who excite or give signal to such revolutions — students, young men of letters […], or fierce and justly bankrupt desperadoes, acting everywhere on the discontent of the millions and blowing it into flame, — might give rise to reflections as to the character of our epoch.
ref: 1850, Thomas Carlyle, “The present time”, in Latter-Day Pamphlets:
text: Surely this was the face of a desperado.
ref: 1918, Willa Cather, My Antonia, paperback edition, Mirado Modern Classics, page 6:
glosses: A bold outlaw, especially one from southern portions of the Wild West.
examples: text: The shortstops and desperados were not permitted to play in this marker crap game.
ref: 1981, Sam Grafstein, Dice Doctor:
glosses: A person in desperate circumstances or who is at the point of desperation, such as a down-and-outer, an addict, etc.
glosses: A person who is desperately in love or is desperate for a romantic or sexual relationship.
topics: board-games
chess
games
glosses: A piece that seems determined to give itself up, typically to bring about stalemate or perpetual check.
Derived terms: desperadoism
doggerel
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdɒɡəɹəl/
Forms: form: dogrel
form: doggrel
Etymology: Probably from dog + -rel (“pejorative suffix”), akin to Dog Latin, late 14th c.
Senses: examples: text: True Wit has ſeen its best days long ago, / It ne're look'd up, ſince we were dipt in Show: / When Senſe in Dogrel Rimes and Clouds was loſt, / And Dulneſs flouriſh'd at the Actors coſt.
ref: 1677 (date written), John Dryden, “Prologue”, in The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham: A Comedy: […], London: […] R[ichard] Bentley, and M[ary] Magnes, […], published 1680, →OCLC:
topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
poetry
publishing
writing
glosses: Of a crude or irregular construction.
Derived terms: doggerelism
doggerelist
doggerelize
doggerel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdɒɡəɹəl/
Forms: form: doggerels
form: dogrel
form: doggrel
Etymology: Probably from dog + -rel (“pejorative suffix”), akin to Dog Latin, late 14th c.
Senses: examples: text: Taffy drew a long breath into his manly bosom, and kept it there as he read this characteristic French doggerel (for so he chose to call this touching little symphony in ère and ra).
ref: 1894, George du Maurier, “Part Sixth”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 302:
text: As he marched he sang a bit of doggerel in a high and quavering voice: / "Sing a song 'a vic'try, / A pocketful 'a bullets, / Five an' twenty dead men / Baked in a—pie."
ref: 1895 October, Stephen Crane, chapter VIII, in The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 86:
topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
poetry
publishing
writing
glosses: A comic or humorous verse, usually irregular in measure.
examples: text: It is very rare to find good, personal analysis of events that does not degenerate into chest-beating, pettiness, pomposity, or political doggeral ^([sic]).
ref: 1977 December 17, Andrew R. Weiss, “Kudos For Cagan”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 24, page 4:
glosses: Any writing of crude composition.
ciliated
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Senses: examples: a ciliated leaf
glosses: Having cilia.
examples: the ciliated epithelium of the windpipe
glosses: Endowed with vibratory motion.
Derived terms: aciliated
monociliated
multiciliated
nonciliated
preciliated
unciliated
sullied
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more sullied
form: most sullied
Senses: glosses: defiled or tainted, soiled or stained.
sullied
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Senses: glosses: simple past and past participle of sully
captious
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkæpʃəs/
Forms: form: more captious
form: most captious
Etymology: From Middle English capcious, from Middle French captieux, or its source, Latin captiōsus, from captiō.
Senses: examples: text: […]I know I loue in vaine, ſtriue againſt hope :
 Yet in this captious, and intemible Siue
 I ſtill poure in the waters of my loue
 And lacke not to looſe ſtill[…]
ref: 1605, William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well, act I, scene i, page 234:
text: A captious queſtion, Sir, and your’s is one,
 Deſerves an anſwer ſimilar, or none.
ref: 1786, William Cowper, “Tirocinium: Or, A Review of Schools”, in Poems, 2nd edition, volume II, London: J. Johnson, page 338:
text: Were you aware that in your discourse last Sunday you attributed the captious Problem of the Sadducees to the Pharisees, as a proof of the obscure and sensual doctrines of the latter?
ref: 1815 March 24, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “To William Lisle Bowles”, in Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Oxford, published 2000, →ISBN, page 558:
synonyms: tricky
thorny
sophistical
glosses: That captures; especially, (of an argument, words etc.) designed to capture or entrap in misleading arguments; sophistical.
examples: text: ...not an irritable word had escaped him; and as every captious conclusion and petulant observation had been in days past always attributed, very justly, by Isabella either to the dyspepsia, brought on by his grief for Margarita, or the fever he sustained from the climate,...
ref: 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 23:
text: But Peter Petrovich did not accept this retort. On the contrary, he became all the more captious and irritable, as though he were just hitting his stride.
ref: 1968, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by Sidney Monas, Crime and Punishment, published 1866:
text: The "Our Bold" column, nitpicking at errors in other periodicals, can look merely captious, and its critics often seem to be wildly and collectively wrong-headed.
ref: 2009 January 24, Anne Karpf, The Guardian:
synonyms: carping
critical
faultfinding
hypercritical
nitpicky
glosses: Having a disposition to find fault unreasonably or to raise petty objections; cavilling, nitpicky.
Derived terms: captiously
captiousness
overcaptious
uncaptious
Related terms: caption
capture
suffuse
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /səˈfjuːz/
rhymes: -uːz
Forms: form: suffuses
form: suffusing
form: suffused
form: suffused
Etymology: From Latin suffundō.
Senses: examples: text: The entire room was suffused with a golden light.
glosses: To spread through or over (something), especially as a liquid, colour or light; to bathe.
examples: text: The warmth suffused his cold fingers.
text: Marie's face was suffused with a sleepy, appreciative look.
ref: 1983, Robert Ferro, The Family of Max Desir, page 87:
text: His newest work, The Beach Bum, shares a gauzy neon aesthetic and Florida setting with Spring Breakers, and it’s marked by the usual plethora of drug use, free love, and pirate’s-life-for-me lawlessness that suffuses every Korine movie.
ref: 2019 March 28, David Sims, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Perpetually Stoned Beach Bum”, in The Atlantic:
glosses: To spread through or over in the manner of a liquid.
glosses: To pour underneath.
Synonyms: perfuse
Derived terms: suffusate
suffusion
suffusive
Related terms: infuse
suffuse
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /səˈfjuːz/
rhymes: -uːz
Forms: form: more suffuse
form: most suffuse
Etymology: From Latin suffundō.
Senses: examples: text: This limonite-colored mud is most often very suffuse and only faintly apparent.
ref: 1912, New York State Museum, Annual Report, page 243:
text: Most of us mortals choose a very suffuse, dim light to have in our room, others push the switch to the maximum.
ref: 2014, Rita Petrini, Through the Curtain of Time and Space, →ISBN:
glosses: Suffused; diffuse.
refulgent
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹəˈfʌld͡ʒənt/
Forms: form: more refulgent
form: most refulgent
Etymology: From Latin refulgentem, accusative singular of refulgēns, present active participle of refulgeō, from re- (“back”) + fulgeō (“shine”).
Senses: glosses: Resplendent, or shining brightly and radiantly.
examples: text: She had a refulgent smile.
glosses: As if giving off light or warmth.
Related terms: effulgent
refulgence
gustatory
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɡʌstəˌtɔɹi/
ipa: /ˈɡʌstətəɹi/
ipa: /ˈɡʌstətɹi/
Forms: form: more gustatory
form: most gustatory
Etymology: From Latin gustātus, participle of gustō (“to taste”), + -ory.
Senses: examples: text: WHERE TO DINE—Well, Mary Ward, our courageous gustatory investigatress, has finally completed her rounds of the eateries and, with her last despairing effort, dashed off this report on the road houses: […]
ref: 1941 June 1, Bill Henry, “By the Way”, in Los Angeles Times, volume LX, Los Angeles, Calif.: Times-Mirror Company, part II, page 1, column 1:
glosses: Of, or relating to, the sense of taste.
Derived terms: gustatorial
gustatorily
gustatory hair
nongustatory
olfactogustatory
gawping
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: -ɔːpɪŋ
Senses: examples: text: gawping faces
glosses: That gawps or gawp.
Derived terms: gawpingly
gawping
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: -ɔːpɪŋ
Senses: glosses: present participle and gerund of gawp
gawping
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: -ɔːpɪŋ
Forms: form: gawpings
Senses: glosses: The action of the verb gawp.
sable
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈseɪbəl/
ipa: /ˈseɪbɫ/
rhymes: -eɪbəl
Forms: form: sables
form: sa.
form: s.
Etymology: Attested since 1275, from Middle English sable, from Old French sable and martre sable (“sable marten”), in reference to the animal or its fur; from Medieval Latin sabelum, from Middle Low German sabel (compare Middle Dutch sabel, Middle High German zobel); ultimately from a Slavic word (compare Russian со́боль (sóbolʹ), Polish soból, Czech sobol). Compare also Middle Persian smwl (*samōr).
Senses: glosses: A small carnivorous mammal of the Old World that resembles a weasel, Martes zibellina, from cold regions in Eurasia and the North Pacific islands, valued for its dark brown fur.
glosses: Any other marten, especially Martes americana (syn. Mustela americana).
examples: text: Lovers dallied upon divans spread with sables.
ref: 1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:
glosses: A pelt of fur of a sable or of one of another species of martens; a coat made from this fur.
glosses: An artist's brush made from the fur of the sable, the kolinsky sable-hair brush.
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: A black colour on a coat of arms.
glosses: A dark brown colour, resembling the fur of some sables.
examples: text: I ſee its Sables wove by Deſtiny.
ref: 1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 295:
text: […]a delighted shout from the children swung him toward the door again. His sister, Mrs. Gerard, stood there in carriage gown and sables, radiant with surprise. ¶ "Phil! You! Exactly like you, Philip, to come strolling in from the antipodes—dear fellow!" recovering from the fraternal embrace and holding both lapels of his coat in her gloved hands.
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
qualifier: sables
glosses: Black garments, especially worn in mourning.
glosses: The sablefish.
Derived terms: taxonomic: Martes americana
word: American sable
taxonomic: Martes zibellina etc.
word: red sable
taxonomic: Martes zibellina
word: Russian sable
taxonomic: Hippotragus niger
word: sable antelope
taxonomic: Anoplopoma fimbria
word: sablefish
word: sable iron
word: sable mouse
taxonomic: Martes zibellina
word: Siberian sable
Related terms: zibeline