cstr/en-wiktionary-extracted-all huggingface dataset:
velvet
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈvɛlvɪt/
ipa: /ˈvɛlvɪt/
Forms: form: more velvet
form: most velvet
Etymology: From Middle English velvet, velwet, veluet, from Old Occitan veluet, from Vulgar Latin *villutittus, diminutive of villūtus, from Latin villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”). Cognate with French velours.
Senses: glosses: Made of velvet.
examples: text: The fawn then rose up, and creeping gently about the room, touched the cheeks or hands of the slumbering inmates with its velvet tongue, but so softly that none were awakened.
ref: 1878, John Beauchamp Jones, Wild Western Scenes, page 125:
text: the cowslip's velvet head
ref: 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:
english: Comus
translation: Comus
glosses: Soft and delicate, like velvet; velvety.
examples: text: What at the time of the initial agreement of Yeltsin, Shushkevich and Kravchuk to join together in a new 'Commonwealth of Independent States' had seemed like a reconstitution of the lands of ancient Rus, quickly turned out to be, in the words of the leading Russian-Ukrainian reformer Aleksandr Tsipko, merely a 'velvet disintegration'.
ref: 1995, Amin Saikal, William Maley, Russia in Search of Its Future, page 214:
text: The disintegration always took place within internal borders, whether it was velvet, as in the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, or bloody, like Yugoslavia's still unfinished break-up.
ref: 2006, The Analyst: Central and Eastern European Review:
text: If the Sudanese can resolve the final steps in a velvet divorce and move in a more democratic direction, that will serve as a heartening "ideal model of change" […]
ref: 2011, David Gillies, Elections in Dangerous Places: Democracy and the Paradoxes of Peacebuilding, page 248:
text: “I was once invited to give a speech about the attempt to topple Iran's political system through a ‘velvet revolution,’ ” says Etaat in the debate, “but we all know that ‘velvet revolutions’ always occur in dictatorships.”
ref: 2011, Javad Etaat quoted in Hooman Majd, The Ayatollahs' Democracy: An Iranian Challenge, page 39
text: There is such a thing as a velvet divorce: if Canada or Belgium were to split apart, the consequences would be unfortunate but manageable.
ref: 2014, Dana H. Allin, NATO's Balkan Interventions, page 97:
topics: government
politics
glosses: Peaceful; carried out without violence; especially as pertaining to the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia.
traunch
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹɔnt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɔːntʃ
Forms: form: traunches
Etymology: From Middle English *traunche, from Late Anglo-Norman traunche (Old French tranche). Doublet of tranche and trench.
Senses: examples: text: First of all, we provide immediate cash relief to the tune of about $35 million. And then there will be an assessment of the damage, so that the relief is -- the next traunch of relief will be spent wisely.
ref: 2004, George W. Bush, speech following tsunami disaster:
glosses: One of a series of allotments (of funds for a certain purpose).
glosses: One set or portion of a series.
traunch
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹɔnt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɔːntʃ
Forms: form: traunches
form: traunching
form: traunched
form: traunched
Etymology: From Middle English *traunche, from Late Anglo-Norman traunche (Old French tranche). Doublet of tranche and trench.
Senses: glosses: To divide into parts or portions of a series (especially of allotments of funds).
traunch
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹɔnt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɔːntʃ
Etymology: From Middle English *traunche, from Late Anglo-Norman traunche (Old French tranche). Doublet of tranche and trench.
Senses: glosses: Divided into portions or parts of a series (especially of allotments of funds).
uranite
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: uranites
Etymology: From uran- + -ite.
Senses: glosses: A dark, lustrous, heavy mineral, a source of uranium and radium.
Derived terms: copper uranite
shlemiel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: shlemiels
Senses: glosses: Alternative form of schlemiel.
verge
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /vɜːd͡ʒ/
ipa: /vɝd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒ
Forms: form: verges
form: verging
form: verged
form: verged
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin vergō (“to bend, turn, tend toward, incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *werg- (“to turn”), from a root *wer- (“to turn, bend”) (compare versus); strongly influenced by the above noun.
Senses: examples: text: Eating blowfish verges on insanity.
glosses: To be or come very close; to border; to approach.
glosses: To bend or incline; to tend downward; to slope.
Derived terms: converge
convergence
convergent
diverge
divergence
divergent
verge on
vengeance
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈvɛnˌd͡ʒəns/
rhymes: -ɛnd͡ʒəns
Forms: form: vengeances
form: vengeaunce
Etymology: From Anglo-Norman vengeaunce, from Old French vengeance, venjance, from vengier (“to avenge”). Analysable as venge + -ance.
Senses: examples: text: All the gods have mocked at prayer. This sin must now be punished by the vengeance of men.
ref: 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 28:
text: My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North; General of the Felix Legions; loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius; father to a murdered son; husband to a murdered wife; and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.
ref: 2000, Gladiator (film)
text: Penn: I don't want to invest in the conversation, not that I don't have it privately, about my feelings about what direct action should happen to a leader who does that, but if there is a God, there will be vengeance beyond all possible comprehension.
Hannity: "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord", quoted in a very famous book.
ref: 2022 April 5, Sean Hannity, Sean Penn, 22:33 from the start, in Sean Penn joins Sean Hannity to discuss Russian invasion of Ukraine (Hannity), Fox News, archived from the original on 11 Apr 2022:
glosses: Revenge taken for an insult, injury, or other wrong.
examples: text: Thereupon full of anger, full of jealousy, full of vengeance, she forms […] a scheme of retribution, […]
ref: 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC:
text: If her husband was all forgiveness, asking the bands to play “Dixie,” she was full of vengeance […]
ref: 2008, Jean Harvey Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography, →ISBN:
text: Are they full of vengeance[?], because they say that people with vengeance in their hearts must dig two graves, one for their enemy and the other for themselves.
ref: 2011, James Calloway, Black America, Not in This America, →ISBN:
glosses: Desire for revenge.
Synonyms: reprisal
retaliation
retribution
revenge
wreak
Derived terms: belly vengeance
pinch-belly vengeance
whip-belly vengeance
whistle-belly vengeance
with a vengeance
Related terms: venge
venger
vengeful
venture
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈvɛn.t͡ʃə/
ipa: /ˈvɛn.t͡ʃɚ/
rhymes: -ɛntʃə(ɹ)
Forms: form: ventures
Etymology: Clipping of adventure.
Senses: examples: text: My heart was beating finely when we two set forth in the cold night upon this dangerous venture.
ref: 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 4, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part I (The Old Buccaneer), page 30:
text: Other jobs which the governor entrusted to Ch'ao-tung dealt with the economic exploitation of the newly won mountain areas. In the Miao-li region, Ch'ao-tung headed an office for developing the petroleum resources discovered there.³⁸ Without much success during his tenure, the venture was later turned over to private entrepreneurs.
ref: 1979, Johanna Menzel Meskill, A Chinese Pioneer Family, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 191:
synonyms: word: enterprise
word: pursuit
word: activity
word: doings
word: endeavor
word: enterprise
word: pursuance
word: pursuit
word: undertaking
word: venture
word: fare
word: journey
word: sith
word: trip
glosses: A risky or daring undertaking or journey.
examples: text: A certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 22:34:
synonyms: word: accident
word: chance
word: contingency
word: chance
word: contingency
word: contingent
word: eventuality
word: possibility
word: potentiality
glosses: An event that is not, or cannot be, foreseen.
examples: text: My ventures are not in one bottom trusted.
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
synonyms: stake
glosses: The thing risked; especially, something sent to sea in trade.
Derived terms: at a venture
e-venture
venture capitalism
venture capitalist
venture
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈvɛn.t͡ʃə/
ipa: /ˈvɛn.t͡ʃɚ/
rhymes: -ɛntʃə(ɹ)
Forms: form: ventures
form: venturing
form: ventured
form: ventured
Etymology: Clipping of adventure.
Senses: examples: text: who freights a ship to venture on the seas
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden Jun., transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fourteenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
text: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: […]
ref: 1949, Joseph Campbell, “The Hero and the God”, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces:
glosses: To undertake a risky or daring journey.
examples: text: to venture funds
text: to venture a guess
text: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
text: I am afraid; and yet I'll venture it.
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
text: Till then they had only exchanged glances of the most casual but now under the brim of her new hat she ventured a look at him and the face that met her gaze there in the twilight, wan and strangely drawn, seemed to her the saddest she had ever seen.
ref: 1922, James Joyce, chapter 13, in Ulysses:
text: [...] Mrs. Bray [...] expressed amazement at the speed with which the station was completed, and ventured the opinion that private contractors could still learn something from the railway companies.
ref: 1939 November, “What the Railways are Doing: Penda's Way—A Station built in a Day”, in Railway Magazine, page 364:
glosses: To risk or offer.
glosses: To dare to engage in; to attempt without any certainty of success.
raw_tags: with at or on
examples: text: to venture a horse to the West Indies
glosses: To put or send on a venture or chance.
examples: text: A man would be well enough pleased to buy silks of one whom he would not venture to feel his pulse.
ref: 1711, Joseph Addison, “No. 21, Saturday, March 24, 1710-11”, in The Spectator:
glosses: To confide in; to rely on; to trust.
examples: text: “Unctuous is probably quite a good description, but there's a sweetness, too, and a mouthfeel,” ventures Heston Blumenthal, chef at the Fat Duck at Bray.
ref: 2000 January 28, Oliver Burkeman, quoting Heston Blumenthal, “Things that make you go yum”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
glosses: To say something; to offer an opinion.
Derived terms: venture capital
Related terms: venturesome
venturous
Bakelite
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: /ˈbeɪk.ə.laɪt/
Forms: form: bakelite
Etymology: Patented July 1907 by its inventor, Leo Hendrik Baekeland. See -ite.
Senses: glosses: A heat-resisting chemically inert phenol formaldehyde resin (an early thermosetting plastic).
Synonyms: polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride
sheugh
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ʃu/
ipa: /ʃuːx/
ipa: /ʃuː/
rhymes: -uːx
rhymes: -uː
enpr: shŭᴋʜ
ipa: /ʃʌx/
rhymes: -ʌx
Forms: form: sheughs
Etymology: From Irish seoch, from English sough.
Senses: glosses: A ditch, especially a field boundary ditch usually used to drain fields and mark their boundaries.
examples: text: The sweat is running down the sheugh of my arse.
qualifier: especially coastal
glosses: The space between the buttocks.
examples: text: The Irish Sea is the little sheugh, the Atlantic is the big sheugh.
glosses: The Atlantic Ocean; the sea.
folk
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /fəʊk/
ipa: /foʊk/
ipa: /foʊlk/
rhymes: -əʊk
Forms: form: vok
form: volk
form: volge
form: volke
Etymology: From Middle English folk, from Old English folc, from Proto-West Germanic *folk, from Proto-Germanic *fulką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁-gós, from *pleh₁- (“to fill”).
Cognate with German Volk, Dutch volk, Swedish folk and Danish folk. Doublet of volk.
Senses: glosses: Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.
glosses: Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites.
topics: architecture
glosses: Of or related to local building materials and styles.
examples: text: folk psychology; folk linguistics
text: Americans are not libertarians in the Cato Institute sense of the word, but they are folk libertarians in this sense of impulsive behaviour, which is a feature of American life that anyone who wants to govern the United States, Democratic or Republican, has to be aware of.
ref: 2025 April 28, Ross Douthat, Nick Adams, “Condition of America”, in New Left Review, number 152, →ISSN:
glosses: Believed or transmitted by the common people; not academically or ideologically correct or rigorous.
Derived terms: folk etymology
folk medicine
cock-and-bull story
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: cock-and-bull stories
Etymology: Unknown. The phrase is noted as similar in meaning and form to French coq-à-l'âne (“satire, incoherent story”, literally “cock to the ass”) which was borrowed into Scots as cockalane.
theories of origin
Theories of the term's ultimate origin include allusions to stories which feature talking animals and that the term refers to gossip typical of what were historically two coaching inns, The Cock and The Bull, in Stony Stratford, England.
Senses: examples: text: The grinning landlord, as well as the boarders, seemed amazingly tickled at the sudden friendship which had sprung up between me and Queequeg—especially as Peter Coffin’s cock and bull stories about him had previously so much alarmed me concerning the very person whom I now companied with.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XIII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
text: Finding us easy in our ways, he […] told me a cock-and-bull story with the moral of another five francs for the narrator. The thing was palpably absurd; but I paid up, and at once dropped all friendliness of manner, and kept him in his place as an inferior with freezing British dignity. He saw in a moment that he had gone too far, and killed a willing horse; his face fell; I am sure he would have refunded if he could only have thought of a decent pretext.
ref: 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Down the Oise: To Moy”, in An Inland Voyage, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, page 141:
text: "Challenger was the man who came with some cock-and-bull story from South America." "What story?" "Oh, it was rank nonsense about some queer animals he had discovered."
ref: 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
synonyms: Banbury story of a cock and a bull
glosses: A far-fetched and fanciful story or tale of highly dubious validity.
wikipedia: Michael Quinion
Stony Stratford
Related terms: shaggy dog story
tall tale
whopper
validity
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: rhymes: -ɪti
note: with stress shift from valid
enpr: və-lĭd′ĭ-tē
ipa: /vəˈlɪd.ɨ.ti/
ipa: [vəˈlɪɾ.ɪ~ə.ti]
ipa: [vəˈlɪɾ.ɪ~ə.ɾi]
ipa: [vəˈlɪd.ə.ɾi]
ipa: [vəˈlɪd.ə.ɾi]
ipa: [vəˈlɪɾ.ə.ti]
note: without stress shift from valid
enpr: văl′ĭd-ĭtē
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈvalɪɖɪʈi/
Forms: form: validities
Etymology: From valid + -ity, borrowed from Middle French validité, from Late Latin validitas.
Senses: synonyms: validness
glosses: The state of being valid, authentic or genuine.
glosses: State of having legal force.
glosses: A quality of a measurement indicating the degree to which the measure reflects the underlying construct, that is, whether it measures what it purports to measure (see reliability).
topics: Christianity
lifestyle
religion
theology
glosses: The genuinity, as distinguished from the efficacity or the regularity, of a sacrament as a result of some formal dispositions being fulfilled.
Derived terms: face validity
formal validity
inside out
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɪnsaɪdˈaʊt/
Etymology: In the sense thoroughly, an asyndetic clipping of inside and out.
Senses: examples: text: I now realise that I have my shirt on inside out.
antonyms: right side out
glosses: With the inside surface turned to be on the outside.
examples: text: I know IBM Assembler Language inside out.
glosses: Thoroughly; extremely well.
raw_tags: of knowledge
examples: text: We're hometown hockey fans inside out.
glosses: Completely; through and through; to the core.
raw_tags: of characteristic existence
examples: text: He hit the ball inside out in an ugly manner, but scored a four.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Describes the hitting of a ball that pitched outside of leg stump to the off side of the field.
Synonyms: word: inside out
word: outside in
word: wrong side out
Hypernyms: word: contrarily
Derived terms: know inside out
inside out
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɪnsaɪdˈaʊt/
Etymology: In the sense thoroughly, an asyndetic clipping of inside and out.
Senses: glosses: Alternative form of inside-out.
upside down
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: note: careful speech
ipa: /ˌʌpsaɪd ˈdaʊn/
ipa: /ˌʌpsaɪˈdaʊn/
Forms: form: up so down
form: downside up
Etymology: Alteration of earlier up so down, from Middle English up-so-doun, upsedowne, upsadowne (“upside down”), equivalent to up + so + down ("up as down").
Senses: examples: text: The Union flag was flying upside down, a sign of danger.
text: For, suddenly, I saw you there / And through foggy London town / The sun was shining upside down!
ref: 1937, “A Foggy Day (In London Town)”, Ira Gershwin (lyrics), George Gershwin (music):
glosses: Inverted, so that the top is now at the bottom.
examples: text: The thief had turned the room upside down.
text: This house is turned upside down since Robin Ostler died.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
glosses: In great disorder.
Synonyms: sense: inverted
word: bottom-upwards
sense: inverted
word: topsy-turvy
word: downside up
word: reverse
word: up so down
word: upside down
word: upsidown
word: upsy-down
Hypernyms: word: contrarily
Hyponyms: word: arse over tip
word: arse over tit
word: ass over teakettle
word: base over apex
word: head over heels
upside down
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: note: careful speech
ipa: /ˌʌpsaɪd ˈdaʊn/
ipa: /ˌʌpsaɪˈdaʊn/
Forms: form: up so down
form: downside up
Etymology: Alteration of earlier up so down, from Middle English up-so-doun, upsedowne, upsadowne (“upside down”), equivalent to up + so + down ("up as down").
Senses: examples: text: The pattern resembled an upside down letter W.
glosses: Inverted; turned so that the top is at the bottom.
examples: text: The wenches and the men have been on the streets all day, and the kitchen is upside down. You never saw the like.
ref: 1901, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The lion's whelp: a story of Cromwell's time, page 248:
glosses: In great disorder.
examples: text: He's upside down on his mortgage.
topics: business
finance
glosses: Owing more money for something than it is worth; having negative equity.
Synonyms: sense: having negative equity
word: underwater
Derived terms: fuck someone upside down
turn one's life upside down
turn one's world upside down
turn the frown upside down
turn upside down
upside-down cake
upside-down fire
upside down fridge
upside-down income statement
upside-down Jenny
upside-down tree
upside down
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: note: careful speech
ipa: /ˌʌpsaɪd ˈdaʊn/
ipa: /ˌʌpsaɪˈdaʊn/
Forms: form: up so down
form: downside up
Etymology: Alteration of earlier up so down, from Middle English up-so-doun, upsedowne, upsadowne (“upside down”), equivalent to up + so + down ("up as down").
Senses: examples: text: It is in the upside down where we can find many opportunities to grow and learn.
ref: 2022 September 24, Scott R. Sheehan, “The President’s Prose: Inside, Outside, Upside Down”, in Music Educators Journal, volume 109, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 7–10:
text: it asks courts to step into the reality educators face: the reality of teaching in the upside down.
ref: 2023 January 24, Tess Bissell, “Teaching in the Upside Down: What Anti–Critical Race Theory Laws Tell Us About the First Amendment”, in Stanford Law Review, volume 75, page 212:
glosses: Alternative form of Upside Down.
über alles
Language: English
Part of speech: intj
Etymology: From the verse Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt (“Germany, Germany above all, above all in the world”), from the German national anthem Lied der Deutschen, composed by Joseph Haydn in 1797. The verse originally meant that the Germans and their rulers have to overcome existing divisions and keep in mind the goal of a unified Germany.
Senses: examples: text: Similarly, British Finance Capitalism forced back to its last line of defence will cry: "Britain über alles" though for the moment, Socialism having neglected Scottish Nationalism [..]
ref: 1967, Hugh MacDiarmid, The Company I've Kept, page 132:
text: Pax Americana and all that bullshit? Grissom said. 'America über alles. You want to make the rest of the world our slaves.'
ref: 2008, Mike Hockney, Prohibition A, page 45:
glosses: Invokes a perception of the specified country as superior to others, or having a supreme status when compared to others.
raw_tags: used after a country name
wikipedia: Joseph Haydn
back to front
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Senses: examples: text: I was in such a hurry that I put my underpants on back to front.
text: (figuratively, by extension) Of an order or cause of events, misunderstood or misinterpreted.
text: (figuratively, by extension) Of a perspective, reversed or inverted.
glosses: Turned so that the back is now at the front; the wrong way around.
Synonyms: word: backwards
word: back to front
word: in reverse
Hypernyms: word: contrarily
Derived terms: know back to front
back to front
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Senses: examples: text: The classic VW Beetle is a back to front car, with the engine at the rear.
glosses: Reversed, with the back now at the front.
Related terms: inside out
upside down
base over apex
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Senses: glosses: Falling over in a jumbled heap.
Synonyms: arse over tit
ass over teakettle
head over heels
upside down
topsy turvy
blowhard
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbləʊhɑːd/
ipa: /ˈbloʊhɑɹd/
Forms: form: blowhards
form: blow-hard
Etymology: Essentially deverbal in nature, albeit not from a unitary phrasal verb; from blow hard.
Senses: examples: text: The merchants are the most ultra Secessionists, one of the secret springs of action among this class being the heavy indebtedness owing to Eastern creditors. Some men of Northern origin were the most rabid. A "blow-hard," named JAMES PATTERSON, of Augusta, Jackson County, was originally from Pennsylvania. He stumped the county and was elected to the Convention, and cast his vote for secession.
ref: 1861 October 20, “Interesting from Arkansas. Correspondence of the Missouri Democrat.”, in The New York Times, page 2:
text: [T]he loud-mouthed blowhard seemed just the man to flinch when real danger confronted him; […]
ref: 1896, Robert Barr, “The Shadow of the Greenback”, in Revenge!, New York, N.Y.; London: Frederick A. Stokes Company, →OCLC, page 182:
text: Oh, this bellowing, blatant, bellicose, belligerent, bombastic blowhard […]
ref: 1941 November 17, “Political Notes: Republican Rift?”, in Time, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2016:
text: In my profession, I have seen more than my share of blowhards who use volume to intimidate the weak, fool the feeble-minded, or control the insecure or lazy who would just as soon have someone do their thinking for them anyway.
ref: 1999, Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, Wendy Mazzarella, “Learning to Ask the Right Questions—and Listen to the Answers”, in Reading People: How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior—Anytime, Anyplace, London: Vermilion, Ebury Press, →ISBN, page 109:
text: David Davis, Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and the other Brexit blowhards know they have no chance of achieving their stated aims, such as a £350m weekly NHS payback.
ref: 2017 March 27, “The Observer view on triggering article 50: As Britain hurtles towards the precipice, truth and democracy are in short supply”, in The Observer, London, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2017:
glosses: A person who talks too much or too loudly, especially in a boastful or self-important manner.
Synonyms: big mouth
bloviator
blusterer
boaster
braggart
loudmouth
windbag
braggart
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɹæɡɑːt/
ipa: /ˈbɹæɡɚt/
Forms: form: braggarts
form: braggard
Etymology: From Middle French bragard (“bragging, flaunting, vain", also "a showy, arrogant individual”), from braguer (“to boast, brag”). No firm relation to English brag has been established.
Senses: examples: text: O I could play the woman with mine eyes, / And Braggart with my tongue.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 148, column 1:
text: Shallow water gives a great splash, and so a braggart has ever been contemptible in my eyes.
ref: 1889, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Of the Welcome that Met Me at Badminton”, in Micah Clarke His Statement as Made to His Three Grandchildren Joseph, Gervas, & Reuben during the Hard Winter of 1734 [...], London: Longmans, Green and Co. and New York, 15 East 15th Street, →OCLC, page 256:
text: A very good resolve to make and keep, if you would also keep any friends you make, is never to speak of anyone without, in imagination, having them overhear what you say. One often hears the exclamation “I would say it to her face!” At least be very sure that this is true, and not a braggart’s phrase and then—nine times out of ten think better of it and refrain.
ref: 1922 July, Emily Post, “Conversation”, in Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, New York, N.Y.: Funk & Wagnalls, published October 1923, →OCLC, page 56:
synonyms: bragger
glosses: Someone who constantly brags or boasts.
Synonyms: word: blower
word: blowhard
word: blusterer
word: boaster
word: braggadocian
word: braggadocio
word: braggart
word: bragger
word: bully
word: cacafogo
word: cacafuego
word: cracker
word: gascon
word: huffcap
word: huffer
word: poseur
word: pseud
word: vaunter
Hypernyms: word: person
Derived terms: braggartism
braggartly
braggartry
Related terms: word: brag
word: bragging
word: braggingly
word: big mouth
word: gasbag
word: loudmouth
word: peacock
word: windbag
word: arrogance
word: arrogant
braggart
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɹæɡɑːt/
ipa: /ˈbɹæɡɚt/
Forms: form: more braggart
form: most braggart
Etymology: From Middle French bragard (“bragging, flaunting, vain", also "a showy, arrogant individual”), from braguer (“to boast, brag”). No firm relation to English brag has been established.
Senses: examples: text: O my fair Mistress, Truth! Shall I quit thee, / For huffing, braggart, puft Nobility?
ref: 1733, [Alexander Pope], The Impertinent, or A Visit to the Court. A Satyr. By an Eminent Hand, London: Printed for John Wileord,^([sic – meaning Wilford]) behind the Chapter-house near St. Paul's, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Jan 2018, page 13:
text: Captain [Benjamin] Bonneville was delighted with the game look of these cavaliers of the mountains, welcomed them heartily to his camp, and ordered a free allowance of grog to regale them, which soon put them in the most braggart spirits.
ref: 1837, Washington Irving, chapter VII, in Adventures of Captain Bonneville, or Scenes beyond the Rocky Mountains of the Far West, Paris: Published by A. and W. Galignani and Co., rue Vivienne, No. 18, →OCLC, page 49:
text: He took him on the long walks of which he was fond, and made him in some sort his humble confidant, talking to him of himself and his plans with large and braggart vagueness.
ref: 1882, William D[ean] Howells, chapter VI, in A Modern Instance: A Novel, Boston, Mass.: James R. Osgood and Company, →OCLC, page 70:
glosses: Characterized by boasting; boastful.
-icle
Language: English
Part of speech: suffix
Etymology: From a back-formation of icicle, the second element of which ultimately from Old English ġicel (“icicle, ice”). More at icicle, ickle.
Senses: examples: brinicle, limicle, rusticle, snoticle
glosses: Alternative form of -sicle.
-icle
Language: English
Part of speech: suffix
Forms: form: -culus
form: -culum
form: -cule
form: -ule
form: -ole
Etymology: From Latin -culus (diminutive suffix).
Senses: examples: text: thesis + -icle → thesicle
glosses: Used to form diminutive nouns.
Synonyms: word: mini-
word: micro-
word: nano-
word: -ette
word: -ee
word: -y
word: -cule
word: -ule
word: -ole
Derived terms: fascicle
forked
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɔː(ɹ)kt/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)kt
Forms: form: forkt
Senses: examples: text: It's a forked road. Turn left at the fork.
text: A baidarka has a forked bow.
glosses: That splits into two or more directions, or parts.
examples: text: A three-forked trident.
glosses: Having forks (parts into which anything is furcated or divided).
Synonyms: forken
Derived terms: biforked
forkedly
forkedness
multiforked
twiforked
unforked
Related terms: fork
forked lightning
forked riceflower
forked sundew
forked tongue
graft the forked tree
speak with a forked tongue
three-forked
forked
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɔː(ɹ)kt/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)kt
Forms: form: forkt
Senses: glosses: simple past and past participle of fork
smilie
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: smilies
Etymology: From smile + -ie.
Senses: glosses: Alternative spelling of smiley.
orienteering
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: Borrowed from Swedish orientering, from orientera (“orient, orientate”) + -ing.
Senses: topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The act of racing across unfamiliar place using a map and compass.
Derived terms: ski orienteering
plebeian
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pliˈbiːən/
ipa: /plɛbˈiːən/
rhymes: -iːən
Forms: form: plebeians
form: plebian
form: plebeyan
form: plebean
form: plebeane
form: plebien
Etymology: From Latin plēbēius (“a commoner; common”) + -an (adjective-forming suffix), from Latin plēbēs + -ius (adjective-forming suffix), possibly under the influence of Middle French plebeyen, plebein, plebien (“a commoner”) and plebeien (“concerning the common people”). Cf. Medieval Latin plēbēiānus (“a commoner”), from plēbēius + -ānus.
Senses: examples: text: Na plebeane will tak þe dochter of ane patriciane but hir consent.
ref: 1533, John Bellenden translating Livy, History of Rome, Vol. II, Ch. iv, Sect. ii
text: The cognomen was first used in patrician families, who were distinguished from the plebeians by their three names.
ref: 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiv:
synonyms: commoner
pleb
plebe
antonyms: patrician
glosses: A member of the plebs, the common citizens of ancient Rome.
examples: text: There blude... vald hef na bettir cullour nor the blude of ane plebien or of ane mecanik craftis man.
ref: c. 1550, Robert Wedderburn, The Complaynt of Scotlande..., Ch. xv, p. 102
text: The feelings of our heart, the agitation of our passions, the vehemence of our affections, dissipate all its conclusions, and reduce the profound philosopher to a mere plebeian.
ref: 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 3:
synonyms: commoner
villain
peasant
nobody
antonyms: noble
aristocrat
glosses: A commoner, particularly (derogatory) a low, vulgar person.
Derived terms: pleb
Related terms: plebe
plebs
plebeiance
plebeianism
plebeity
plebeiate
plebeian
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pliˈbiːən/
ipa: /plɛbˈiːən/
rhymes: -iːən
Forms: form: more plebeian
form: most plebeian
form: plebian
form: plebeyan
form: plebean
form: plebeane
form: plebien
Etymology: From Latin plēbēius (“a commoner; common”) + -an (adjective-forming suffix), from Latin plēbēs + -ius (adjective-forming suffix), possibly under the influence of Middle French plebeyen, plebein, plebien (“a commoner”) and plebeien (“concerning the common people”). Cf. Medieval Latin plēbēiānus (“a commoner”), from plēbēius + -ānus.
Senses: examples: text: To what purpose be the plebeian Magistrates ordeined?
ref: 1566, William Painter, The Palace of Pleasure Beautified, Vol. I, Ch. iv, fol. 9 verso
glosses: Of or concerning the plebs, the common citizens of ancient Rome.
examples: text: ...priuate person or plebian multitude...
ref: 1602, William Watson, A Decacordon of Ten Quodlibeticall Questions, page 301:
glosses: Of or concerning the common people.
examples: text: For to plebeyan wits, it is as good,
As to be silent, as not vnderstood.
ref: 1615, Robert Armin, The Valiant Welshman, Vol. i, Ch. i, sig. B
text: […] told me love was too plebeian / told me you were through with me
ref: 1953, Arthur Hamilton, “Cry Me a River”:
text: Completely absent was any mention of the Apple Watch Edition branding, which Apple used last year to launch a pair of $10,000-and-up Apple Watches that worked the same way as the cheap ones but were made out of actual gold instead of workaday, plebeian metals.
ref: 2016 September 8, Andrew Cunningham, “The $10,000 golden Apple Watch is no more”, in Arstechnica:
glosses: Common, particularly (derogatory) vulgar, crude, coarse, uncultured.
Synonyms: word: of
word: pertaining to the common people
Derived terms: plebeianization
plebeianize
plebeianly
plebeianness
teddybear
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: teddybears
Senses: glosses: Alternative spelling of teddy bear.
futile
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfjuː.taɪl/
ipa: /ˈfju.taɪl/
ipa: /ˈfju.taɪ.əl/
ipa: /ˈfju.təl/
ipa: [ˈfju.ɾəl]
homophone: feudal (some US accents)
rhymes: -uːtəl stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
Forms: form: more futile
form: most futile
Etymology: From Middle French futile, from Latin fūtilis.
Senses: examples: text: But Bathsheba, though she could feel, was not much given to futile dreaming, and her musings under this head were short and entirely confined to the times when Troy’s neglect was more than ordinarily evident.
ref: 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: He seemed hitherto to have been living by proxy, in a vision, in reflection—to have been an echo, a shadow, a futile attempt;[…]
ref: 1879, Henry James, chapter XXI, in Confidence, London: Chatto & Windus:
text: No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:
text: There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.[…]Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.
ref: 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:
text: He wished he had not been saddled with Whippham's rather futile son as his chaplain.
ref: 1917, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The Soul of a Bishop:
text: Goals from Steven Pienaar, Andros Townsend, Jermain Defoe and Harry Kane sealed the win, but Rubin Kazan's 1-1 draw against PAOK Salonika rendered Spurs' efforts futile.
ref: 2011 December 15, Marc Higginson, “Shamrock Rovers 0-4 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: Incapable of producing results, useless; doomed not to be successful; not worth attempting.
examples: text: Of its history little is recorded, and that little futile.
ref: 1853, John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, volume II (The Sea-Stories), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 120:
text: This idiosyncrasy is brought out by social pressure, while in a state of nature it might have betrayed itself only in trivial and futile ways, as it does among barbarians.
ref: 1905, George Santayana, Reason in Common Sense (The Life of Reason), volume 1:
glosses: Insignificant; frivolous.
Synonyms: word: useless
word: bootless
word: futile
word: fruitless
word: gainless
word: idle
word: inane
word: ineffectual
word: inefficacious
word: inutile
word: pointless
word: profitless
word: purposeless
word: unavailing
word: unprofitable
word: unuseful
word: unutilizable
word: vain
word: void
Derived terms: futileness
unfutile
Related terms: futilely
futility
futilitarian
futility
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /fjuːˈtɪlɪti/
ipa: /fjuˈtɪləti/
rhymes: -ɪlɪti
Forms: form: futilities
Etymology: From Latin fūtilitās (“worthlessness, futility”). By surface analysis, futile + -ity.
Senses: examples: text: an exercise of futility
text: His taking the bar exam for a third time was pure futility.
text: “Has my dad come?” he asked.
“You can see he hasn’t,” said Mrs. Morel, cross with the futility of the question.
ref: 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter IV, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
glosses: The quality of being futile or useless.
examples: text: But fashion and authority apart, and bringing Plato to the test of reason, take from him, his sophisms, futilities, and incomprehensibilities, and what remains?
ref: 1803, Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson:
text: No man oppresses thee, can bid thee fetch or carry, come or go, without reason shewn. […] No man, wiser, unwiser, can make thee come or go: but thy own futilities, bewilderments, thy false appetites for Money, Windsor Georges and such like?
ref: 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “chapter XIII, Democracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):
text: An excessive solicitude to shield those others from one's own trials and hardships, to preserve the exact quality of the revelation, for example, had been the fruitful cause of crippling errors, spiritual tyrannies, dogmatisms, dissensions, and futilities.
ref: 1917, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The Soul of a Bishop:
text: But men will chatter and you and I will still shout our futilities to each other across the stage until the last silly curtain falls plump! upon our bobbing heads.
ref: 1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book I (The Romantic Egotist), page 171:
text: There are moments of profound existential angst, howls of despair at the absurd futilities of war and a sneering disgust at the soul-destroying wastage of human potential.
ref: 2009 September 5, Robert Clark, “Exhibition preview: Goya: Fantasies, Follies And Disasters, Manchester”, in Guardian:
glosses: Something, especially an act, that is futile.
examples: text: Her empty chatter, her futility, her childish coquetry and frivolity—such light wares could hardly be the whole substance of any woman’s being; […]
ref: 1879, Henry James, chapter XVII, in Confidence, London: Chatto & Windus:
glosses: Unimportance.
Derived terms: exercise in futility
futilitarian
porker
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpɔːkə/
ipa: /ˈpɔɹkɚ/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)kə(ɹ)
Forms: form: porkers
Etymology: From pork + -er.
* (obese person; police officer): Carried over from the same senses of pig.
* (a lie): Extension of the rhyming slang pork pie.
Senses: examples: text: Jerry Lynch, a pig's head pickled. Term usually applied to the long Irish heads which are sent over here for sale in the poorer districts of London, and which are vastly different from the heads of “dairy-fed” porkers.
ref: 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary:
text: Again, when Harold was locked up in his room all day, for assault and battery upon a neighbour's pig, - an action he would have scorned, being indeed on the friendliest terms with the porker in question, - there was no handsome expression of regret on the discovery of the real culprit.
ref: 1895, Kenneth Grahame, The Golden Age, London, page 6:
text: All the other male pigs on the farm were porkers.
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:
glosses: A pig, especially a castrated male, being fattened and raised for slaughter.
synonyms: word: All are derogatory unless otherwise labeled
word: butterball
word: chubster
word: chunker
word: chunky monkey
word: elephant
word: fat
word: fatfuck
word: fatso
word: fattie
word: fatty
word: fatty bom bom
word: fatty boombalatty
word: fat-ass
word: fatass
word: fat fuck
word: fatshit
word: fussock
word: gorbelly
word: hambeast
word: hamplanet
word: heffalump
word: landwhale
word: lardass
word: lardbucket
word: lardo
word: oinker
word: obeast
word: pig
word: podge
word: porker
word: pudge
word: roly-poly
word: salad dodger
word: swagbelly
word: thunder thighs
word: tubbo
word: tub of guts
word: tub of lard
word: whale
glosses: An obese person.
synonyms: porky
porky pie
glosses: A lie.
glosses: A police officer.
un-American
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more un-American
form: most un-American
form: unamerican
Etymology: From un- + American.
Senses: examples: text: Besides, how can you talk about church politics? It would certainly be anti-Catholic and might easily become un-American.
ref: 1948 August, Aldous Huxley, Ape and Essence, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC:
text: In 1959 ex-President Truman, never one to mince words, called the Committee the “most un-American thing in the country today.” Mr. Goodman strongly disagrees: “…unless one is prepared to blank out large and significant patches of our history, there is nothing un-American about the Un-American Activities Committee.”
ref: 1968 July 7, Telford Taylor, “Who's Un-American Now?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Surely there is nothing strange or new or threatening about such a platform. It will distress only those who have the essentially un-American view that change itself is frightening and should be avoided at all costs.
ref: 1972, Mike Gravel, Citizen Power: A People's Platform, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN, page xii:
text: "What was done to our country was wrong and unpatriotic and un-American and nobody has been held to account," he later told the Guardian. "There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism."
ref: 2012 February 17, Fiachra Gibbons, quoting Bruce Springsteen, “Bruce Springsteen: ‘What was done to my country was un-American’”, in The Guardian:
text: It is an awful fact that the most powerful man in America may also represent the worst of America. In a way, Trump is the un-American president.
ref: 2018 March 19, Charles M. Blow, “Trump: The Un-American President”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: “As an American, I was disgusted,” she said. “It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”
ref: 2022 June 28, Luke Broadwater, Michael S. Schmidt, quoting Cassidy Hutchinson, “Trump Urged Armed Supporters to Capitol, White House Aide Testifies”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: Contrary to the principles, institutions or interests of the United States; anti-American.
glosses: Incivil, immoral.
examples: text: [About British filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock:] It’s not often addressed in criticism, but Hitchcock was un-American enough to dwell on the uneasiness or the unreliability of heroes.
ref: 2017, David Thomson, "Rebecca: Welcome to the Haunted House", The Criterion Collection
glosses: Unrelated to America or the U.S.; untypical of U.S. mores or habits; non-American, not American.
Derived terms: english: House Un-American Activities Committee
translation: House Un-American Activities Committee
word: HUAC
word: un-Americanness