cstr/en-wiktionary-extracted-all huggingface dataset:
laconism
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: laconisms
Etymology: From Latin Laconia, from Ancient Greek Λακεδαίμων (Lakedaímōn, “the region surrounding the city of Sparta”).
Senses: examples: text: “Well, where have you been?” he said to her with offhand laconism.
ref: 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 20, in The Mayor of Casterbridge:
text: […] Joe Montana is finally calling it quits. A retirement party in San Francisco and a press conference in Kansas City, Missouri, are planned for this week, and his agents are shopping him around to the networks as a broadcaster, even though Montana has a reputation for laconism.
ref: 1995 April 24, Steve Wulf, “The Passing of an Era”, in Time:
synonyms: word: conciseness
word: laconicism
word: succinctness
word: brevity
word: briefness
word: conciseness
word: concision
word: laconicalness
word: laconicism
word: laconicity
word: laconism
word: succinctness
word: terseness
glosses: Extreme brevity in expression.
examples: text: The hand of PROVIDENCE writes often by abbreviatures, hieroglyphicks or short characters, which, like the Laconism on the wall, are not to be made out but by a hint or key from that SPIRIT which indited them.
ref: 1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, Part I, p. 37:
text: Perhaps the most striking difference between [A Tale of Two Cities] and his other novels may seem to lie in the all but entire absence from it of any humour or attempt at humour; for neither the brutalities of that “honest tradesman” Jerry, nor the laconisms of Miss Pross, can well be called by that name.
ref: 1882, Adolphus William Ward, chapter 6, in Charles Dickens, London: Macmillan, page 154:
synonyms: brevity
epigram
glosses: A very or notably brief expression.
Related terms: laconic
Atticism
laisser faire
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more laisser faire
form: most laisser faire
Etymology: From French laisser faire.
Senses: glosses: Alternative form of laissez faire.
laisser faire
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: From French laisser faire.
Senses: glosses: Alternative form of laissez faire.
promulgated
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Senses: glosses: simple past and past participle of promulgate
laughing stock
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: laughing stocks
form: laughingstock
form: laughing-stock
Etymology: From laughing + stock (“source, supply; butt, target”). Compare also whipping-stock, jesting-stock.
Senses: examples: text: Pray you let us not be
laughing-stocks to other men's humours.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: When he talked, he talked nonsense, and made himself the laughing-stock of his hearers.
ref: 1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:
text: If anyone can restore dignity to a franchise that has been close to a laughing stock in the last few years, it's Gibbs.
ref: 2004 September 12, Judy Battista, “Pro Football: NFL Matchups, Week 1”, in New York Times, retrieved 19 Apr 2009:
text: The split was supposedly triggered by racism — specifically anti-Jewish racism. But on this front, the Independent Group have already become a laughingstock.
ref: 2019 February 19, Annie Cohen, 'Yes, There’s Anti-Semitism In Labour. No, Those Politicians Didn’t Quit Over It.', The Forward (retrieved 21 February 2019)
text: Toronto Transit Corporation had real issues. [...] My boss was removed in a coup three months after my arrival. I stood in and my learning curve went through the roof. Over five years, we went from being a laughing stock to winning awards.
ref: 2020 December 2, Andy Byford talks to Paul Clifton, “I enjoy really big challenges...”, in Rail, page 54:
glosses: An object of ridicule, someone who is publicly ridiculed; the butt of a joke.
Synonyms: word: ass
word: asshole
word: butt
word: clown
word: dead horse
word: dumbass
word: dummy
word: fiddle
word: figure of fun
word: fool
word: gapingstock
word: idiot
word: jerk
word: joke
word: jesting-stock
word: laughingstock
word: laughing stock
word: lolcow
word: make-sport
word: makegame
word: misfit
word: scoffing-stock
word: standing joke
word: white elephant
Hypernyms: word: person
in layman's terms
Language: English
Part of speech: prep_phrase
Forms: form: in laymen's terms
Senses: examples: text: Okay, Einstein, but how about putting it in layman's terms, so the rest of us can understand?
text: Okay, let me explain this in layman's terms: no ticket, no train ride.
text: I would like to get into this $3 million deficit, Doctor. I would like to hear about it in layman's terms rather than accounting terms.
ref: 1973, Robert N[icholas] Giaimo, “Projected Deficit for Fiscal Year 1972”, in District of Columbia Appropriations for 1973, part 1, page 954:
text: “In layman’s terms, he transitioned from the high performance climb to the Split S too low and too fast, and by not deselecting his afterburners during the maneuver, he continued to accelerate,” according to the Navy investigation’s report. “The net effect of these deviations was that the aircraft was simply too low and too fast to avoid impacting the ground.”
ref: 2016 September 15, Dan Lamothe, “After investigation, Navy’s Blue Angels will stop using maneuver that killed a pilot”, in The Washington Post:
text: Aragón started at Clemson in 2016 and is well-known for her research into dimorphous expressions, which in layman’s terms are strangely negative responses to positive events, like crying tears of joy or seeing a puppy so cute you want to squeeze it or a baby so cute you want to smoosh its face.
ref: 2019 March 18, Ken Scar, “From jazz singer to Ph.D.: Clemson marketing professor Oriana Aragón blazed her own path to success”, in Clemson University Relations, Media Release, archived from the original on 01 Dec 2020:
hypernyms: in other words
that is to say
;
plainly
simply
simplistically
;
glosses: Phrased simply, without jargon; (of English-language speech or writing) phrased in plain English.
lethality
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /liˈθælɪti/
rhymes: -ælɪti
Forms: form: lethalities
Etymology: From lethal + -ity.
Senses: examples: text: Title 10 section 129a of the US code governing civilian personnel management in the armed forces says that the secretary of defense “may not reduce the civilian workforce programmed full-time equivalent levels unless the Secretary conducts an appropriate analysis” of how those firings could impact the US military’s lethality and readiness.
ref: 2025 February 19, Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky, “Defense officials fear impending Pentagon firings could break law and hurt military readiness”, in CNN:
text: In announcing the review, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new health secretary, said in a statement that “antisemitism — like racism — is a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues.”
ref: 2025 March 4, Sharon Otterman, “Trump Threatens Columbia With Millions in Cuts Over Antisemitism Claims”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2025:
glosses: The fact of something being lethal; the ability of something to kill.
examples: text: According to the US Environmental Protection Agency [ 6 ], long-chain substituted propanediamines, the chemical group these compounds belongs to, are considered to be toxic to aquatic organisms, with observed lethality for plankton and fish at concentrations ranging from 0.75 to 170 µg L −1 .
ref: 2015 August 29, Pål A. Olsvik et al., “Effects of mining chemicals on fish: exposure to tailings containing Lilaflot D817M induces CYP1A transcription in Atlantic salmon smolt”, in BMC Research Notes, volume 8, →DOI:
glosses: The degree of lethal (mortal) danger that something (usually a disease or a weapon) presents; the magnitude of its power to kill organisms exposed to it; this property is indirectly measured by any of various proxy rates, including mortality rate, case fatality rate, or infection fatality rate (for diseases) or kill rate (for weapons, pesticides, or parasites).
Synonyms: deadliness
lethalness
Coordinate terms: fatality
mortality
killability
Derived terms: colethality
cytolethality
hyperlethality
nonlethality
semilethality
synthetic lethality
limp-wristed
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more limp-wristed
form: most limp-wristed
Senses: glosses: Weak by nature; lacking strength.
examples: text: Given the doubts about manhood in the postwar years, a rough sport like football helped to establish a hierarchy of competing masculinities that favored the sturdy athlete over his limp-wristed counterpart, the heterosexual linebacker over the homosexual fop.
ref: 1998 August 24, Laura Mccall, Donald Yacovone, A Shared Experience: Men, Women, and the History of Gender (Science; 41), NYU Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 331:
glosses: Of a man: having effeminate qualities or characteristics perceived to be homosexual in nature.
limp-wristed
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Senses: glosses: simple past of limp-wrist
sacco
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: saccos
Senses: glosses: Alternative letter-case form of SACCO.
inimically
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Forms: form: more inimically
form: most inimically
Etymology: From inimical + -ly.
Senses: glosses: In an inimical manner.
administrative kingship
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: examples: text: To study, therefore, the turbulent processes that led to the development of administrative kingship, to the proto-bureaucratization of the royal court, is to study the medieval state.
ref: 2002 Marta Van Landingham - Transforming the State: king, court and political culture in the realms of Aragon (1213-1387)
text: [Of Henry I, who reigned 1100–1135:] Taken together, Henry I's reforms transformed medieval government from an itinerant and often poorly organised household into a highly sophisticated administrative kingship based on permanent, static departments. […] Such was Henry's contribution to the rise of administrative kingship in England that he was lauded by some nineteenth-century historians as the first constitutional monarch.
ref: 2021, Tracy Borman, Crown and Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy, from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II, Grove Atlantic, →ISBN, pages 27-28:
glosses: The government of a country by a sovereign via a formally constituted bureaucracy.
little Eichmann
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: little Eichmanns
Etymology: Named after Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, who claimed his acts during the Holocaust was just following superior orders.
Senses: examples: text: Russian journalist Andrei Zhukov's work in Soviet archives produced a list of over 40,000 little Eichmanns who acted as willing, if not enthusiastic, executioners.
ref: 2018, Paul M. Cole, POW/MIA Accounting: Volume I – Searching for America’s Missing Servicemen in the Soviet Union, Springer, →ISBN, page 843:
glosses: Someone who is like the Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann; someone who seems ordinary but does evil as a member of an immoral or evil entity or system.
Related terms: desk murderer
longtail
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: longtails
Etymology: From long + tail.
Senses: glosses: Any animal that has an unusually long tail relative to similar species.
qualifier: Bermuda
glosses: Phaethon lepturus, the white-tailed tropicbird.
qualifier: Bermuda
glosses: A young, unattached female tourist.
glosses: A longtail boat.
qualifier: Isle of Man
glosses: A rat.
glosses: A pheasant.
glosses: A greyhound.
Derived terms: cricket longtail
cut and longtail
green longtail
longtail boat
longtail butterfly ray
longtail carpet shark
longtail cast-on
longtail catfish
longtail salamander
longtail skate
longtail stingray
lord of the flies
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: Calque of Biblical Hebrew בַּעַל זְבוּב (baʿal zəḇûḇ, “fly-lord, Beelzebub”), which in turn is a mistranslation of the name of the Semitic devil Baal-zevuv.
Senses: glosses: Beelzebub; Satan
topics: biblical
lifestyle
religion
glosses: a ruler over a worthless kingdom; leader of a meaningless microcosm.
mahogany gaspipe
Language: English
Part of speech: intj
Etymology: A nonsense phrase, to describe what the Irish language sounds like to Anglophones.
Senses: examples: text: It is completely false to suggest that Irish was ever the natural or the native language of this city of Dublin, or of any of our other cities. I always think that Dubliners' attitude to the Irish language is summed up in four words: “Tá sé mahogany gas-pipe”.
ref: 1962 June 5, Patrick Byrne, “Committee on Finance. - Vóta 30-Oifig an Aire Oideachais (Atógáil).”, in Dáil Éireann debates, Vol. 195 No. 14 c. 2013:
text: "Thaw shay mahogany gas-pipes" is a venerable native witticism. It is the facetious Gaelic sally of a person without Gaelic. Suitably mouthed, it sounds frightfully Irish. Leaguers resent it as a sneer.
ref: 1967 October 30, Myles na gCopaleen, “Language Please”, in The Irish Times, page 10:
text: "Buy Irish" is a strongly ritualistic tradition ever since the infancy of the Gaelic League whin all Irish islanders wore Irish tweed and according to Myles na Gopaleen had only to say "Mahogany Gas Pipes" at a ceili to be immediately accepted as native Irish speakers.
ref: 1977 July 30, Donal Foley, “The Saturday Column; Buy Irish”, in The Irish Times, page 12:
text: I've no idea what they're going on about - it's all mahogany gaspipe to me - but next thing Brendan tips me the nod and a wink and gives me to understand that the job is oxo.
ref: 1993, Colbert Kearney, The Consequence, Blackstaff Press, →ISBN, page 277:
text: The original ‘Italian’ reads ‘Raphèl maí amèche zabí almi’, which Carson renders as ‘Yin twa maghogani gazpaighp boke!’, blending Ulster-Scots and ‘mahogany gaspipe’, the non-Irish-speaker's proverbial idea of what the language sounds like.
ref: 2014, Sinéad Sturgeon, Essays on James Clarence Mangan: The Man in the Cloak, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 47:
glosses: a representation of how the Irish language sounds to a non-speaker; gobbledegook.
mahogany gaspipe
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: mahogany gaspipes
Etymology: A nonsense phrase, to describe what the Irish language sounds like to Anglophones.
Senses: examples: text: I’ve been watching you for the last ten minutes and damn the thing you’ve done except yap, yap, yap the whole time. The Chief or the Governor or any of them could have been watching you. They’d have thought it was a bloody mothers’ meeting. What with you and my other bald mahogany gas pipe here.
ref: 1956 Brendan Behan, The Quare Fellow Act II (Grove Press (1957) pp. 59-60)
glosses: A Gaeilgeoir.
cuckoldly
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Etymology: From cuckold + -ly.
Senses: glosses: Like or as a cuckold.
cuckoldly
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more cuckoldly
form: most cuckoldly
Etymology: From cuckold + -ly.
Senses: examples: For quotations using this term, see Citations:cuckoldly.
glosses: Possessing the qualities of a cuckold.
examples: For quotations using this term, see Citations:cuckoldly.
glosses: Contemptible; foolish, inept
majoritarian democracy
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: majoritarian democracies
Senses: glosses: A political system in which representatives are elected through winning votes of the majority of people.
maldevelopment
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: maldevelopments
Etymology: From French maldéveloppement, introduced as a human and social development term in France in the 1990s, to replace the words malformation or développement anormal. The word can be broken down as mal- (“ill”) + development.
Senses: glosses: The state of an organism or an organisation that did not develop in the "normal" way (used in medicine, e.g. "brain maldevelopment of a fetus").
glosses: Under the philosophy of sustainable development, poor economic, human or social development.
Malika
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Etymology: From Arabic مَلِكَة (malika, “queen”).
Senses: glosses: A female given name from Arabic, the female version of the title Malik ("King" in Arabic).
Manchestrian
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: Manchestrians
Etymology: From Manchester + -ian.
Senses: glosses: One who lives in the British city of Manchester.
Manchestrian
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more Manchestrian
form: most Manchestrian
Etymology: From Manchester + -ian.
Senses: glosses: Of or relating to the city of Manchester.
mazal tov
Language: English
Part of speech: intj
Senses: glosses: Alternative spelling of mazel tov.
mechanic arts
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: glosses: In the 19th century, engineering and other mechanical fields of expertise (comparable to performing arts and the fine arts).
glosses: Weaving, blacksmithing, war, navigation, agriculture, hunting, medicine, and the ars theatrica.
Related terms: english: probably encompassed the mechanic arts as well as craftsmanship in general.
translation: probably encompassed the mechanic arts as well as craftsmanship in general.
word: useful arts
Rappai
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Etymology: Christians coined this word from the name of Saint Raphael.
Senses: examples: text: Rappai says he has other things to worry about apart from food.... Rappai - the man with the giant appetite - has been warned by medics to curb his food intake.
ref: 2006. BBCNews, UK, 25 July 2006, India's 'Monster Eater' Retires http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5213238.stm
glosses: A male given name from Malayalam used in India.
wikipedia: Saint Raphael
receptive language
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: receptive languages
Senses: topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: The ability to comprehend information and understand spoken language (or sign language). It may include understanding of the vocabulary and concepts presented, short-term memory and sequencing information.
Anubis
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈnjuːbɪs/
Etymology: From Latin Anūbis, from Ancient Greek Ἄνουβις (Ánoubis), from Egyptian jnpw, i-n:p-w-E16
Senses: topics: human-sciences
mysticism
mythology
philosophy
sciences
glosses: In the mythology of ancient Egypt, the god of the dead and tombs, commonly depicted with the head of a jackal.
reverse link
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: reverse links
Senses: topics: communications
electrical-engineering
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
telecommunications
glosses: In radio communications, the link from a mobile user to a fixed base station. If the link includes a communications relay satellite, the reverse link will consist of both an uplink (mobile station to satellite) and a downlink (satellite to base station).
Related terms: forward link
shelfware
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: From shelf + -ware.
Senses: topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
software
glosses: A piece of software that has never been used at all since its creation.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
software
glosses: A piece of software created for the sole purpose of being immediately shelved.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
software
glosses: Software purchased but not used.
irregular verbs
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: glosses: plural of irregular verb
turf war
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɚf woɹ/
ipa: /ˈtɜːf wɔː/
Forms: form: turf wars
form: turfwar
Etymology: The phrase may have originated as a reference to the game of American football where two teams confront each other on a field of grass or turf.
Senses: glosses: A dispute over territory between rival gangs.
examples: text: It's a fascinating distinction, and one that also has the neat effect of moving the debate on from the contentious territory of the SF/litfic turfwar into that of value-neutral literary theory.
ref: 2014 July 18, Thomas Christie, Notional Identities: Ideology, Genre and National Identity in Popular Scottish Fiction Since the Seventies, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 202:
glosses: A fight or confrontation between two divisions or parties for access to resources or capital.
typhoon fifth
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: typhoon fifths
Etymology: The name derives from the practice of acquiring a large bottle in preparation for sitting out a typhoon.
Senses: glosses: An 1800-ml bottle of spirits, especially sake.
podologist
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: podologists
Etymology: From podology + -ist.
Senses: glosses: A podiatrist or chiropodist
face the music
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌfeɪs ðə ˈmjuːzɪk/
ipa: /ˌfeɪs ðə ˈmjuzɪk/
rhymes: -uːzɪk
Forms: form: faces the music
form: facing the music
form: faced the music
form: faced the music
Etymology: Origin uncertain; possible sources which have been suggested include the following:
* A performer on a stage facing the music from the orchestra pit when confronting a possibly hostile audience.
* The historical act of a soldier who was dishonourably discharged from military service being paraded in front of other soldiers to the sound of a drum or music.
* A soldier facing the noise of battle (music being military slang for the sound of gunfire or other ordnance).
Senses: examples: text: Hudson personally would not face the music at that meeting and the business could hardly proceed for groans and hisses and cries of "Hudson! Hudson! Why is Hudson not here?" and so the ungrateful shareholders to whom Hudson had generously paid dividends out of their own capital cast out Hudson bag and baggage, including therein the agreement with the Newmarket Railway.
ref: 1941 December, Kenneth Brown, “The Newmarket & Chesterford Railway—II”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 533:
text: Trevor Philips (Steven Ogg): Time to face the music!
ref: 2013, Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto V, scene: Exiting a robbed bank surrounded by police with minigun and ballistic suit, level/area: The Paleto Score:
synonyms: face up to
pay the penalty
pay the price
glosses: To accept or confront the unpleasant consequences of one's actions.
Related terms: bite the bullet
pay the piper
ottavino
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: ottavini
form: ottavinos
Etymology: Italian
Senses: topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A miniature virginal, pitched one octave higher than the larger version.
optimate
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɒptɪmeɪt/
Forms: form: optimates
Etymology: From Latin optimātēs, masculine plural form of optimās (“best, noblest”).
Senses: examples: text: The elaboration of her sateen costume (somewhat dirty and torn now) showed that she was an optimate.
ref: 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XII, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 112:
text: Over the same decade, the upper stratum of Visigothic society, the optimates gradually lost their influence.
ref: 2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 23:
glosses: A member of the patrician ruling class in republican Ancient Rome; an aristocrat, a noble.
drifters
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: glosses: plural of drifter
dissuasive
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪˈsweɪzɪv/
Forms: form: more dissuasive
form: most dissuasive
Etymology: From Middle French dissuasif.
Senses: examples: text: When Nkem stepped forward to ask him a question, he made a dissuasive gesture with his gun, making Nkem jump back immediately.
ref: 2010, Helon Habila, Oil on Water, AudioGO (2011), page 86:
glosses: Tending to dissuade, or divert from a measure or purpose; dehortatory.
Derived terms: word: dissuasively
word: dissuasiveness
Related terms: dissuade
dissuasion
dissuasive
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪˈsweɪzɪv/
Forms: form: dissuasives
Etymology: From Middle French dissuasif.
Senses: examples: text: Among other particulars which constituted the unfitness of things in Mr Square's opinion, danger and difficulty were two. The difficulty therefore which he apprehended there might be in corrupting this young wench, and the danger which would accrue to his character on the discovery, were such strong dissuasives, that it is probable he at first intended to have contented himself with the pleasing ideas which the sight of beauty furnishes us with.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
glosses: That which dissuades; a disincentive.
dissuasively
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Forms: form: more dissuasively
form: most dissuasively
Etymology: From dissuasive + -ly.
Senses: glosses: In a dissuasive manner.
BB gun
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: BB guns
Etymology: From the size of buckshot originally fired from this type of gun.
Senses: glosses: A gun that shoots BB-size pellets, typically using compressed air, or sometimes just a compressed spring.
Derived terms: shoot an elephant with a BB gun
Related terms: pellet gun
air gun
air pistol
air rifle
jobsworths
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: glosses: plural of jobsworth
regretting
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Senses: glosses: present participle and gerund of regret
regretting
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: regrettings
Senses: examples: text: And for all I then declined / O the regrettings infinite / When the night-processions flit / Through the mind!
ref: 1917, Thomas Hardy, The Peace-Offering:
glosses: The act by which something is regretted.
showboating
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Senses: glosses: present participle and gerund of showboat
showboat
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃoʊˌboʊt/
Forms: form: showboats
Etymology: From show + boat.
Senses: examples: text: And Agnes Moorehead henpecks with stern persistence as Parthy, the captain's loving wife. The sets, which include a full-sized showboat with belching double stacks and sternwheel, are in the best Metro tradition, which means as sumptuous as sumptuous can be.
ref: 1951 July 20, Bosley Crowther, “THE SCREEN: A MUSICAL FAVORITE AT RADIO CITY; 'Show Boat,' Metro Remake of Hit, With Kathryn Grayson in Lead, at Music Hall 'Never Trust a Gambler,' New Feature of Palace Theatre, Has Dane Clark in Cast”, in The New York Times:
text: Mr. Sterling was born in Baltimore on June 24, 1915, to Jack Sexton and Edna Cable, veteran performers in vaudeville, showboats and stock companies.
ref: 1990 November 2, Peter B. Flint, “Jack Sterling, 75, Host on Radio For 18 Years in New York, Dies”, in The New York Times:
text: Lowriding emerged in the 1950's in California, as Mexican-American youths -- in what may have been a reaction to the hot-rod culture dominated by whites -- transformed their cars into fantastical, ground-hugging showboats.
ref: 2000 May 21, Dan Neil, “Victory to the Low and Slow”, in The New York Times:
glosses: A river steamboat having a resident theatre.
examples: text: Well, I was a little upset at first. I mean, obviously people are going to think I'm a showboat, and a little bit of a prick.
ref: 2004, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, spoken by Steve Zissou (Bill Murray):
text: After the President fired his FBI director in early May, he dismissed Comey as “a showboat,” “a grandstander” and a “nut job.”
ref: 2017 June 8, Maeve Reston, “Trump meets the ultimate adversary in James Comey”, in CNN:
glosses: A showoff.
showboat
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃoʊˌboʊt/
Forms: form: showboats
form: showboating
form: showboated
form: showboated
Etymology: From show + boat.
Senses: examples: text: Out: Trash talk, dirty play, crybabying, showboating and players who can't be bothered to show up for games or keep their shoes on.
ref: 1995 June 15, Scott Ostler, “SCOTT OSTLER -- Hakeem Sets Old Standard”, in San Francisco Chronicle:
text: Their duel had something often lacking in this memorable era of men’s tennis: an edge, as Kyrgios showboated and intentionally smacked balls at Nadal’s body, ignoring the glares that Nadal sometimes fired back.
ref: 2019 July 4, Christopher Clarey, “Rafael Nadal Doesn’t Fall for Nick Kyrgios’s Bag of Tricks”, in The New York Times:
glosses: To show off.
Synonyms: word: grandstand
adulter
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: adulters
Etymology: From Latin adulter.
Senses: glosses: An adulterer, especially a male one.
Derived terms: adulteress
adultress
adulter
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: adulters
form: adultering
form: adultered
form: adultered
Etymology: From Latin adulterō.
Senses: glosses: To commit adultery.
glosses: To pollute something; to adulterate.
Derived terms: adulterer
disinclined
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪs.ɪŋˈklaɪnd/
Etymology: From dis- + inclined.
Senses: examples: text: It is not surprising that the real scholar or expert and the practical man of affairs often feel contemptuous about the intellectual, are disinclined to recognize his power, and are resentful when they discover it.
ref: 1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 421:
glosses: Not inclined; having a disinclination; being unwilling, reluctant.
disinclined
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪs.ɪŋˈklaɪnd/
Etymology: From dis- + inclined.
Senses: glosses: simple past and past participle of disincline
saar
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: /sɑɾ/
Forms: form: saars
Senses: examples: text: The server did not look at him but watching the outer door he asked him "What do you want saar?"
ref: 1979, Indira Parthasarathy, translated by Ka. Naa. Subramanyam, River of Blood (Kuruthipunal), 2nd edition, New Delhi: Wikas Publishing House, page 17:
text: "Yes saar. Yes, saar." he said, perspiring. "No saar. Not long. Yes, saar. At once, saar."
ref: 1997, Shashi Tharoor, “Scheduled Castes, Unscheduled Change”, in India: From Midnight to the Millennium, New York: Arcade Publishing, published 2006, →ISBN, page 100:
glosses: Pronunciation spelling of sir.
glosses: an Indian person.
salpa
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: salpas
form: salpae
Etymology: From Latin salpa, from Ancient Greek σάλπη (sálpē, “a species of fish”). Doublet of salp.
Senses: glosses: salp
pakka
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Senses: glosses: Alternative form of pukka.
hot stamp
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: hot stamps
Senses: topics: engineering
metallurgy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: An impression made in a hot metal forging.
earlyish
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Etymology: From early + -ish.
Senses: examples: text: Old Jermyn sat down in his favourite chair by one of the windows overlooking Pall Mall. It was earlyish, and the big room—empty and noiseless—and lined with books between its high windows, seemed to envelop old Jermyn with velvet arms.
ref: 1927, Warwick Deeping, “28, I”, in Kitty:
text: From outside the music was thumping, it had been Big Band jazz and now it was earlyish rock ’n’ roll, such as Rachel and Gerald might conceivably have danced to twenty-five years ago.
ref: 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:
glosses: Somewhat early
objectify
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /əbˈd͡ʒɛktɪˌfaɪ/
Forms: form: objectifies
form: objectifying
form: objectified
form: objectified
Etymology: From object + -ify.
Senses: examples: text: It was the unknown, objectified at last, in concrete flesh and blood, bending over him and reaching down to seize hold of him.
ref: 1906 May–October, Jack London, White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC:
synonyms: objectivize
reify
thingify
glosses: To make (something, such as an abstract idea) possible to be perceived by the senses.
examples: text: The mystic objectifies a rich feeling in the pit of the stomach into a cosmology.
ref: 1921, Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow, London: Chatto & Windus:
synonyms: objectivize
reify
thingify
glosses: To treat (something) as objectively real.
examples: text: Near-synonym: demean
text: 1994 "Book review: Fire With Fire", backlash.comhttp://www.backlash.com/content/gender/1996/3-mar96/page23.html
She talks about the fact that women objectify men just as much as men objectify women, and she even admits her culpability in doing so by talking about how sometimes she wishes she had a group of "nubile 17 year old soccer players" to keep her happy.
text: The entire notion of cheerleading is just a sexist attempt to try to objectify the female body.
ref: 1999: Dawson's Creek (TV, episode 3.04)
coordinate_terms: menialize
glosses: To treat (someone) as a mere (often sexual) object, denying their dignity and tending toward dehumanizing them.
Derived terms: objectifiable
objectifier
overobjectify
reobjectify
unobjectifying
Related terms: word: objectification
word: objectified
word: sexualize
cokernel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: cokernels
Etymology: From co- + kernel.
Senses: topics: category-theory
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The coequalizer of f and the zero morphism from X to Y, denoted operatorname cokerf.
raw_tags: of a morphism f
topics: category-theory
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The coequalizer of f and the zero morphism from X to Y, denoted operatorname cokerf.
The target of operatorname cokerf, denoted operatorname Cokerf.
raw_tags: of a morphism f
rubious
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more rubious
form: most rubious
Etymology: From ruby + -ous.
Senses: examples: text: Dianas lip
Is not more ſmooth, and rubious: thy ſmall pipe
Is as the maidens organ, ſhrill, and ſound,
And all is ſemblatiue a womans part.
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 257, column 2:
text: As Shaw became less of the rubious-bearded rebel and more of the Public Institution, reporter-hunted, bore-pursued, the partnership must have been hard work at times.
ref: [1948], “[Minds] Bernard Shaw”, in Observer Profiles (Biography Index Reprint Series), Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, published [1970], →OCLC, page 150:
glosses: Ruby-colored.
zoar
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈzəʊ.ɑː/
ipa: /ˈzoʊ.ɑɹ/
rhymes: -əʊɑː(ɹ)
Forms: form: zoars
Etymology: From Zoar, mentioned in the Bible as the place where Lot fled with his wife and two daughters to escape death when Yahweh destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, from Biblical Hebrew צֹעַר (tso`ar, “insignificance, smallness”).
Senses: glosses: A place of refuge; a sanctuary.
Synonyms: haven
refuge
sanctuary
zoars
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈzəʊ.ɑːz/
ipa: /ˈzɔʊ.ɑɹz/
Senses: glosses: plural of zoar
swiller
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: -ɪlə(ɹ)
Forms: form: swillers
Etymology: From swill + -er.
Senses: glosses: A person who swills something
sanctuaries
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: glosses: plural of sanctuary
Hughie
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Forms: form: Huey
Etymology: From Hugh + -ie. Regarding rain, various etymologies have been proposed; see Send 'er down, Hughie!.
Senses: glosses: A diminutive of the male given name Hugh.
examples: text: As soon as they see me scurrying around picking up snorkels and flippers they know the Big Wet is on its way. The skies will open and Hughie will send it down.
ref: 1981, Les Tanner, Nature's a Nice Place to Visit, from Tanner With Words, 1981. Quoted in Aussie Humour, Macmillan, 1988, page 93
glosses: An imaginary god or higher power responsible for rain.
examples: 2006, DC Green, Surf Europe
Pipe scowled. “Hughie... send us swell! Not just any swell, but a grand macking swell! In return, we pray you will accept this near-virginal surfboard sacrifice that we make in your name!”
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
surfing
glosses: Imaginary god who creates surf (waves, and associated conditions).
Derived terms: send her down Hughie
brown bomber
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: brown bombers
Etymology: Refers to the colour of parking inspector uniforms worn for several decades in Sydney, Australia and other major cities.
Senses: examples: 1971, John O'Grady, Dealing with Cops, from Aussie Etiket. Quoted in Aussie Humour, Macmillan, 1988, →ISBN, page 200.
There is another kind called 'brown bombers'. They are very interested in parked cars. They put chalk marks on tyres and leave little notes, in envelopes, under windscreen wipers.
glosses: A parking officer, employed to issue parking tickets (i.e. fines) to vehicles parked illegally or for longer than the permitted time.
Synonyms: grey ghost
brown bomber
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: brown bombers
Senses: glosses: An American cocktail containing peanut liqueur.
brown bomber
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: brown bombers
Senses: topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A laxative.
of all people
Language: English
Part of speech: prep_phrase
Senses: examples: text: You of all people have most need of perfect love; because this alone casts out fear
ref: 1839, The works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M.:
text: What have you, of all people in the world, got to do with it?
ref: 1908, H. Rider Haggard, The Yellow God:
glosses: Especially; more than other people
Related terms: of all things
of all places
all hell breaks loose
Language: English
Part of speech: phrase
Forms: form: all hell broke loose
Senses: examples: text: Came not all hell broke loose?
ref: 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: I think it's kind of fun because, had Hillary Clinton spoken at the Democratic Convention, all hell would have broken loose.
ref: 1992 August 19, “Beckel, Barnes and Rollins Discuss the Republican Convention”, in CBS Morning:
text: The U.S. commanders received the news in a moment of stunned silence. Then, all hell broke loose as, off in the distance, antiaircraft fire was spotted as the antisubmarine patrol aircraft made optimistic and recklessly-brave assaults; four aircraft in total, armed with depth charges, attacked over a dozen enemy fleet units.
ref: 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 2:05 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022:
text: It was a shocking attack, and within hours all hell had broken loose.
ref: 2023 November 26, Rory Carroll, Lisa O'Carroll, “‘Remember who we are’: riots, race, and the end of the ‘Irish welcome’”, in The Observer, →ISSN:
glosses: The situation becomes chaotic or characterized by conflict or rage.
Hail Mary
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: Hail Marys
form: Hail Marying
form: Hail Maryed
form: Hail Maryed
Etymology: From Middle English Heil Marie. The extended figurative sense alludes to the notion of saying a prayer that the action will succeed.
Senses: examples: text: He Hail Maryed himself to sleep every night and woke up Hail Marying in the morning, and to his amazement and delight it worked.
ref: 2003, Ray Cranley, Chip Chop Cherry, →ISBN, page 120:
text: Sister Cecilia Hail Maryed herself and slid back in the room.
ref: 2015, Pamela DuMond, The Assassin:
text: I can just imagine a medical examiner standing beside my corpse, pulling the sheet back so as to expose my head and torso, and explaining to a detective, “This poor man Hail Maryed himself to death!”
ref: 2018, Gregory Phillip Jones, 51 Years of Bipolar Disease: A Survivor's Story, →ISBN, page 168:
glosses: To pray by saying a Hail Mary.
twistle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtwɪsəl/
rhymes: -ɪsəl
Forms: form: twistles
Etymology: Alteration of twissel (literally “double, forked”), from Middle English twisel, twisil, from Old English twisla (“confluence, junction, fork of a river or road”), from Proto-Germanic *twisilą (“fork, bifurcation”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwis- (“twice, in two”). Cognate with German Zwiesel (“fork”). Compare also Icelandic kvísl (“branch, a fork; fork of a river”).
Senses: glosses: A boundary stream.
twistle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtwɪsəl/
rhymes: -ɪsəl
Forms: form: twistles
form: twistling
form: twistled
form: twistled
Etymology: Related to twist.
Senses: glosses: To twist.
twistle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtwɪsəl/
rhymes: -ɪsəl
Forms: form: twistles
Etymology: Related to twist.
Senses: glosses: A wrench.
shit faced
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more shit faced
form: most shit faced
Senses: glosses: Alternative spelling of shitfaced.
dust bunnies
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: glosses: plural of dust bunny
off message
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Senses: glosses: publicly stating or supporting a policy counter to the official party policy.
inkblot
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɪŋkˌblɑt/
Forms: form: inkblots
Etymology: From ink + blot.
Senses: examples: text: A note from Deller with five pencil sketches attached of the new trade figures for Brittlekin -- two bloated looking children with inkblot eyes looking greedily at an enormous bar of peanut candy.
ref: 1922, Stephen Vincent Benét, Young People's Pride:
synonyms: inkspot
glosses: A blot of ink.
examples: text: In the morning he watched with unseeing eyes the headland come out a shapeless inkblot against the thin light of the false dawn, ...
ref: 1916, Joseph Conrad, Within the Tides:
glosses: A dark, shapeless object.
examples: text: Look, I know that I have to do this, and I'll cooperate, and I'll look at your inkblots and everything, but I don't wanna talk about my life or my childhood or... anything, for that matter, actually.
ref: 1998, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV, episode 3.04)
topics: human-sciences
psychology
sciences
glosses: Any of the pictures used as stimuli in the Rorschach test.
Derived terms: inkblot test
Related terms: blotter
inkpot
klecksography
hott
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Senses: glosses: Alternative spelling of hot (sexually attractive)
engins
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: glosses: plural of engin
effervescences
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: glosses: plural of effervescence
Mexican breakfast
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: Mexican breakfasts
Etymology: Supposedly because it is all that Mexicans can afford.
Senses: glosses: A breakfast consisting of a cigarette and a glass of water.
microcellular
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: ˌmīkrōˈselyələr
Forms: form: more microcellular
form: most microcellular
Etymology: From micro- + cellular.
Senses: glosses: Being composed of very small cells.
anticlinal
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: rhymes: -aɪnəl
Forms: form: more anticlinal
form: most anticlinal
Etymology: From anticline + -al.
Senses: glosses: Inclining or dipping in opposite directions.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: Used to describe a type of cell division in a layer of cells that occurs perpendicular to the adjacent layer of cells.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Describing a torsion angle between 90° and 150°.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: Consisting of, related to, or part of an anticline.
Hypernyms: topics: geology
geography
natural-sciences
word: antiformal
Coordinate terms: topics: geology
geography
natural-sciences
word: homoclinal
topics: geology
geography
natural-sciences
word: monoclinal
topics: geology
geography
natural-sciences
word: synclinal
Derived terms: anticlinally
anticlinal vertebra
geanticlinal
anticlinal
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: rhymes: -aɪnəl
Forms: form: anticlinals
Etymology: From anticline + -al.
Senses: examples: text: But being chiefly sections of younger rocks than ours, the Austrian diagrams exhibit a more disturbed surface, so far as regards faults and slips, snapped anticlinals, upshoved synclinals, lapped folds, […]
ref: 1865, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, page 195:
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: An anticlinal fold.
moonshee
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: moonshees
Senses: examples: text: Then Your Committee examined Goneſhamdaſs, who was formerly Moonſhee, or Perſian Tranſlator, to Colonel Graham; [...]
ref: 1773 June 18, “Fifth Report from the Committee Appointed to Enquire into the Nature, State, and Condition, of the East India Company, and of the British Affairs in the East Indies”, in Reports from Committees of the House of Commons, volume III, [London]: Printed by order of the House, →OCLC, page 546, column 1:
text: The moonshees succeeded in that litigation, and the decree in their suit declared the lands to be part of the jote tenure, and limited the zemindar's claim to a title to assess them for rent.
ref: 1866 February 26, “Tarakant Bannerjee, versus Puddomoney Dossee and Others”, in D. Sutherland, editor, Judgments of the Privy Council on Appeals from India. From 1831 to 1867, Calcutta: Published by Messrs. Thacker, Spink & Co., published 1867, →OCLC, page 632:
glosses: Archaic spelling of munshi.
move the yardsticks
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: moves the yardsticks
form: moving the yardsticks
form: moved the yardsticks
form: moved the yardsticks
Etymology: The phrase originates from American football, where every ten yards of forward progress by the offense moves the yardsticks ahead to measure the next ten yards of progress.
Senses: topics: American-football
ball-games
football
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To move the chains.
glosses: To make progress, as used in political and corporate venues to express proactive actions.
Related terms: move the goalposts
Muarrif
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Etymology: From Persian, معرف, a Muslim name.
Senses: glosses: A Persian surname. A Muslim name, meaning the praised one and one that is well known amongst his people.
mutated contraction
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: mutated contractions
Senses: examples: text: Mutated contractions often form diminutive and pejorative terms, such as "Newfie" and "fundie".
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: An etymological phenomenon when a new word or slang term develops from shortening and slightly altering a longer word.
mystery ship
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: mystery ships
Senses: qualifier: boats
glosses: One of the secret British Q-ships, also known as decoy vessels or special service ships, which served as submarine decoy vessels during World War I.
name it, claim it
Language: English
Part of speech: phrase
Senses: topics: Christianity
glosses: A catch phrase of the Christian Word of Faith movement, a statement of faith and affirmation.
Synonyms: english: E. W. Kenyon
translation: E. W. Kenyon
word: what I confess, I possess
word: say it
word: do it
word: receive it
english: Kenneth E. Hagin
translation: Kenneth E. Hagin
word: tell it