guarda-chuva

[ˌɡwaɾ.ðɐˈʃu.vɐ]

[ˌɡwaɾ.ðɐˈʃu.vɐ]

[ˌɡwaɾ.ðɐˈt͡ʃu.βɐ]

From guardar (“to guard”) + chuva (“rain”).


breakfast

en-noun

breakfast (countable and uncountable, plural breakfasts)

→ Afrikaans: brekfis

→ Irish: bricfeasta

→ Maori: parakuihi

→ Scottish Gaelic: bracaist

→ Portuguese: brequefeste, brequefesta

→ Welsh: brecwast

From Middle English brekefast, brekefaste, equivalent to break + fast (literally, "to end the nightly fast"), likely a variant of Old English fæstenbryċe, (literally, "fast-breach"). Cognate with Dutch breekvasten (“breakfast”).

You should put more protein in her breakfast so she will grow.

A ſorry Breakfaſt for my Lord Protector.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 125, column 2:

Peter, after the manner of man at the breakfast table, had allowed half his kedgeree to get cold and was sniggering over a letter. Sophia looked at him sharply. The only letter she had received was from her mother. Sophia’s mother was not a humourist.

1921, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

The first meal of the day, usually eaten in the morning.

өглөөний цай (öglöönii caj, literally “morning tea”)

didjuner (more frequently under elided form "ddjuner")

We serve breakfast all day.

(by extension) A meal consisting of food normally eaten in the morning, which may typically include eggs, sausages, toast, bacon, etc.

The celebratory meal served after a wedding (and occasionally after other solemnities e.g. a funeral).

c. 1693?, John Dryden, Amaryllis
The wolves will get a breakfast by my death.

(largely obsolete outside religion) A meal eaten after a period of (now often religious) fasting.


breakfast

en-verb

breakfast (third-person singular simple present breakfasts, present participle breakfasting, simple past and past participle breakfasted)

breakfasts (present singular third-person)
breakfasting (participle present)
breakfasted (participle past)
breakfasted (past)

May 14, 1689, Matthew Prior, epistle to Fleetwood Shephard Esq.
First, sir, I read, and then I breakfast.

“Oh, he set off the moment he had breakfasted![…]”

1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter I, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 12:

Fifty years ago, the traveller might breakfast well at home in London, and take nothing more than a cup of coffee at King's Cross.

1941 August, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The English Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 356:

By seven-thirty she had breakfasted them, provided each with a packed lunch and Thermoses of coffee and tea

1987, Anne McCaffrey, The Lady: A Tale of Ireland, page 269:


scarecrow

/ˈskɛɚˌkɹoʊ/

The noun is derived from scare (“to frighten, startle, terrify”) + crow (“bird of the genus Corvus”). The word displaced other terms such as bogle (now dialectal, dated), sewel or shewel, and shoy-hoy (perhaps imitative of the cry of crows).
The verb is derived from the noun.

compound

(dated) Synonym of crow scarer (“a farmhand employed to scare birds from the fields”)

crow scarer

(British, dialectal, obsolete)
The black tern (Chlidonias niger).

Chlidonias niger
Chlidonias niger#Translingual

(British, dialectal, obsolete)
The hooded crow (Corvus cornix).

Corvus cornix
Corvus cornix#Translingual


dreadnought

Named after HMS Dreadnought, the first battleship finished of this type, itself named for Etymology 2.

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Perturbed at being overtaken, the USS Texas is leading the 6th Battle Squadron at 22-and-a-half knots as the engineers pour everything they have into the effort. Behind the colossal clouds of smoke and cinders they put out come a seemingly-endless stream of dreadnoughts, battle flags flying from every mast and line they can find. It is the Grand Fleet.

2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 18:32 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 2022-08-04:

(military, nautical, historical) A battleship, especially of the World War I era, in which most of the firepower is concentrated in large guns that are of the same caliber.

Sovereign is the flagship of the rogue Spectre Saren. An enormous dreadnought larger than any other ship in any known fleet, Sovereign is crewed with both geth and krogan. At two kilometers long, its spinal-mounted main gun is likely capable of penetrating another dreadnought's kinetic barriers with a single shot.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Sovereign Codex entry:

(informal) Any type of warship heavier in armour or armament than a typical battleship.

"Much obliged to you, ma'am!" says Mr. Guppy, divesting himself of his wet dreadnought in the hall.

1853, Charles Dickens, chapter 7, in Bleak House:

(by extension) One that is the largest or the most powerful of its kind.

A garment made of thick woollen cloth that can defend against storm and cold.


seeksorrow

In a bicentennial comment for Newsweek, he took issue with those who played the role of Seeksorrow. The Yale literary magazine had written him asking if he thought things were going to get worse […]

2002, Scott Donaldson, 9781463430856, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 301:

When my parents drove us up to Stratford, Ontario, to see a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the word seeksorrow leapt out at me from the stage, and I've loved it ever since.

2010, Phil Cousineau, Wordcatcher: An Odyssey into the World of Weird and Wonderful Words, Cleis Press, →ISBN, page xvii:

I do not think you are a seeksorrow, giving yourself comfort in vexation.

2011, Jeanne McElvaney, Old Maggie's Spirit Whispers, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 21:

A person who acts to their own detriment, contriving to give themselves vexation; a self-tormentor.


skinflint

From the phrase skin a flint (“go to extreme lengths for the sake of gain or economy”), from the brittleness and hardness of flint which makes it almost impossible to remove just its skin without shattering it.

You know, he is quite a different sort from the Public Prosecutor and our other provincial skinflints--fellows who shiver in their shoes before they will spend a single kopeck.

One who is excessively stingy or cautious with money; a tightwad; a miser.


wardrobe

From Middle English warderobe, from Old Northern French warderoube, wardereube, northern variants of Old French garderobe, from garder (“to keep safe”) + robe. Subsequently influenced by various senses of garderobe as they developed in French. Doublet of garderobe.

(obsolete) A room for keeping clothes and armor safe, particularly a dressing room or walk-in closet beside a bedroom.


turnkey

He saw the same Turnkey unfetter a man / With but little expedition, / Which put him in mind of the long debate / On the Slave-trade abolition.

1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 86:

[…]they passed through an open door into a lobby, from which a heavy gate, opposite to that by which they had entered, and which was guarded by a stout turnkey with the key in his hand, led at once into the interior of the prison.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

'Certainly not,' said the turnkey; and the first corroborated his statement.

1883, Thomas Hardy, The Three Strangers:

(archaic) A warder or jailer/gaoler; keeper of the keys in a prison.


turncoat

A compound of turn + coat, reportedly derived from the sometime military practice of wearing uniform coats that were lined in material of a contrasting color, and which could be worn inside out to present a different appearance.

But some will cry Turncoat, and rip up old stories, / How I always pretended to be for the tories: […]

1711 [December?] (date written), Jonathan Swift, “An Excellent New Song. Being the Intended Speech of a Famous Orator against Peace [i.e., Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham].”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 72:

Federal prosecutors say that in addition to turncoat witnesses, they are armed with secretly recorded conversations made in the Camden, N.J., office of Mr. Stanfa's lawyer, Salvatore Avena, who has also been indicted on racketeering charges.

1995 October 6, Selwyn Raab, “Brother of Mob Turncoat Is Gunned Down”, in The New York Times:

The opposition members chanted slogans against the turncoats and termed the speaker’s attitude as partial. To them the speaker was promoting 'lotacracy' in the province, prompting them to chant 'go Speaker go', and 'lota speaker'.

2005 June 10, Raja Riaz, The Nation, archived from the original on 2007-12-03:

A traitor; one who turns against a previous affiliation or allegiance.


makeshift

Deverbal from make shift. First appears c. 1554, in the publications of H. Hilarie.

And I am not a model clergyman—only a decent makeshift.

1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVII, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II, page 316:

Hoboism cannot be cured or prevented by makeshifts or by local measures and efforts, although community interest naturally is vital in dealing with a problem that comes home to every community.

1923, Benjamin C. Marsh, “For the Community to Do”, in The World tomorrow, volume 6:

A temporary (usually insubstantial) substitution.


makeshift

en-adj

makeshift (comparative more makeshift, superlative most makeshift)

more makeshift (comparative)
most makeshift (superlative)

They used the ledge and a few branches for a makeshift shelter.

Hodgson was able to introduce Arsenal teenager Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for his debut late on as this makeshift England line-up closed out a victory that was solid for the most part without ever threatening to be spectacular.

2012 May 26, Phil McNulty, “Norway 0-1 England”, in BBC Sport:

Made to work or suffice; improvised; substituted.


makeshift

Greene the coneycatcher, of this dream the author, / For his dainty devise deserveth the halter. / A rakehell, a makeshift, a scribbling fool; / A famous bayard in city and school: / Now sick as a dog, and ever brain-sick, / Where such a raving and desperate Dick?

1592, Gabriel Harvey, “The First Letter”, in Four Letters and Certain Sonnets, new edition, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, published 1814, A Due Commendation of the Quipping Author, page 2:


swashbuckler

Phillips, in his New World of Words defines, to swash, to make fly about; to clash, or make a noise with swords; and a swash-buckler, a vain glorious sword player or fencer, a meer braggadochoe, a vapouring fellow.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 80:

A swordsman or fencer who engages in showy or extravagant swordplay.

miekkailija

a swordsman or fencer who engages in show or extravagant swordplay

A kind of period adventure story with flashy action and a lighthearted tone.


tattletale

One who tattles (reports others' wrongdoings), often a child seeking attention.

One who gossips, often for the sake of attention.


tattletale

en-verb

tattletale (third-person singular simple present tattletales, present participle tattletaling, simple past and past participle tattletaled)

tattletales (present singular third-person)
tattletaling (participle present)
tattletaled (participle past)
tattletaled (past)

(transitive, intransitive) To act as a tattletale; to tell on; to give away, reveal, or expose.


tosspot

Well, that's one in the eye for the nay-sayers, the doubters, the cynics and assorted tosspots what make up the media and that.

2000 June 13, Darren Tackle, The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, offensive, slang) A fool, prat; an idiot.


pastime

From earlier passtime, pass-time, from Middle English passe tyme, passetyme, calque of Middle French passetemps.

Chatting is a pleasant pastime.

Hunting and fishing, the most important employments of mankind in the rude state of society, become in its advanced state their most agreeable amusements, and they pursue for pleasure what they once followed from necessity. In the advanced state of society, therefore, they are all very poor people who follow as a trade what other people pursue as a pastime.

1776, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations:

[…]lax court morals and the absurd chivalry business were in full feather, and the joust and the tournament were the frequent pastime of titled fine gentlemen who could fight better than they could spell...

1883, Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi:

An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.

1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part I, London: Collins, →ISBN:

Nor would there be an opportunity for the media's favorite pastime of exposing conflict among his advisors.

2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 398:

Something which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably.


lickpot

From Middle English likpot; equivalent to lick + pot. Possibly from the act of using a finger to clean a pot after eating.

. And the message that came was by the mouth of a kind of jackal or lickpot of John Dick's — who, for reasons of his own, hated me, chiefly because I took no share in the foulness of him and his subservient crew.

1896, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Grey Man - Volume 1, page 114:

Maybe ye'll not have another chance before the gallows gets ye ! Off with ye now, for a dirty fingered, lickpot sneak, or I'll break the fiddle over the shoulders of ye!"

1911, Maurice Hewlett, The Song of Renny, page 215:

Piso is a peasant, Cyrus a cowherd, Brutus and Cassius landsurveyors, Demosthenes a vine-dresser, Fabius a threader of beads, Artaxerxes a ropemaker, Æneas a miller, Achilles a scurvy pate, Agamemnon a lickpot, Ulysses a haymower, Nestor a beggar, Ancus Martius a shiptrimmer. . . .

1929, Anatole France, Rabelais, page 98:

And, being no lickpot, would be left to watch the breakfast-porridge while the Sisters and Catechists went to Mass with the pupils of the school, on the benches of which young Boengabadu maintained isolated pre-eminence as a genuine Aboriginal converted from utterest heathenry, by the efforts of Pere St. Xavier and Pere Amable-Marie.

1932, Richard Dehan, Dead Pearls: A Novel of the Great Wide West, page 195:


killjoy

/ˈkɪlˌd͡ʒɔɪ/

From kill + joy, first attested in 1776.

“If you mean me, sir, I call you and every one else to the inspection of my professional life. As to Christian or unchristian, I repudiate your canting palavering Christianity; and as to the way in which I spend my income, it is not my principle to maintain thieves and cheat offspring of their due inheritance in order to support religion and set myself up as a saintly Killjoy....”

What kill-joy have we here? […] I feel it in my bones some rascal is come to Galing, one that bringeth ill hap in his pocket and a shadow athwart the sun on this our day of festival.

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, London: Jonathan Cape, page 7:

He stalked behind her simple narrative, a kill-joy parent, hasty, intolerant, keeping a special cane to enforce the authority of his sadistic God[.]

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 123:

December 10 2005, Sam Murphy in The Guardian, A sober thought
Just in time for the party season, some old killjoys at the journal Medicine & Science In Sports & Exercise have released their findings on the effects on muscle of prolonged heavy alcohol intake (six weeks is prolonged, apparently). The bad news is that it seems too much boozing puts all that effort in the gym to waste - in the study, alcohol prevented the usual resistance-training-induced muscle response that leads to increased size and strength.

(occasionally endearing, derogatory) A person who is anti-fun, or prevents others from having fun.


daredevil

Even as a youngster, Steven was a bit of a daredevil riding up homemade wooden ramps on his BMX.

A person who engages in very risky behavior, especially one who is motivated by a craving for excitement or attention.


lockjaw

en-noun

lockjaw (usually uncountable, plural lockjaws)

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(pathology) A spasmodic, nervous system disease brought on by the tetanus bacteria, causing muscles to seize up and may cause death by suffocation.


telltale

From tell + tale, perhaps dissimilated from earlier taleteller, from Middle English tale tellere (literally “tale teller”).

der

Your husband is at hand; I heare his Trumpet, / We are not tell-tales, Madam; feare you not.

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 V, scene i], page 183:

There were some ill-natured people —tell-tales—it seemed, in Tamai; and hence there was a deal of mystery about getting up the dance.

Louis tells me that the gossip of the sailors finds its way aft, and that two of the telltales have been badly beaten by their mates.

1904, Jack London, The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:

The Chinese girls who saw me yesterday are telltales. I'd better wait till dark.

2008, Fleur Yano, Collected Writings of Flora Belle Jan, page 112:

Try to teach your child that there's a time to intervene and a time to mind your own business. Nobody loves a telltale.

2011, Elizabeth Grahamslaw, A Parents' Guide To Primary School:

One who divulges private information with intent to hurt others.

(music) A movable piece of ivory, lead, or other material, connected to the bellows of an organ, whose position indicates when the wind is exhausted.

The sailmakers mistake can be an excellent way to lose a race as the telltale signals were disturbed and confusing.

1997, Patrick M. Royce, Royce's Sailing Illustrated - Volume 2:

If you turn toward the wind, the sail becomes undertrimmed, and the inside, or windward, telltale starts to rise and flutter as the flow is disturbed.

2011, J. J. Isler, Peter Isler, Sailing For Dummies, page 245:

The telltale shows if wind is flowing across the sail on every point of sail except a run.

2014, John Rousmaniere, The Annapolis Book of Seamanship, page 76:

(nautical) A length of yarn or ribbon attached to a sail or shroud etc to indicate the direction of the flow of the air relative to the boat.

grímpola

nautical: yarn that indicates relative direction of airflow

(engineering) A machine or contrivance for indicating or recording something, particularly for keeping a check upon employees (factory hands, watchmen, drivers, etc.) by revealing to their employers what they have done or omitted.

controleapparaat

engineering: contrivance for indicating or recording something

"Metamorphoses . . ." is the title of a book of telltales (or serialised fables) written by Lucius Apulei¡us, a neo-platonist priest in the second century A.D.

2012, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, The Origins of Life, page 130:

This telltale is not like the story that you put in the hands of your children, or those narrated by mothers in their children's bedrooms in Western Europe before sleep. This is a telltale that is not welcome but is forbidden to be distributed.

2018, Dawood Kaloti, The Telltale Leaflet: From Palestine to Stockholm:

A story or fable that has a moral or message.


heartthrob

And really, Michael Jackson is a more fitting aspiration for the similarly sexless would-be-former teen heartthrob, who’s compared himself to the late King Of Pop (perhaps a bit prematurely) on several occasions and sings in a Jackson-like croon over a sample of “We’ve Got A Good Thing Going” on Believe’s “Die In Your Arms.”

2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2020-08-06:


cease-fire

The rebels agreed to a ceasefire while the peace talks were underway.

In warfare, an agreed end to hostilities for a specific purpose. (Typically only temporary).

vuurstaking

in warfare, an agreed end to hostilities for a specific purpose


à tue-tête

at the top of one's voice
at the top of one's voice

at the top of one's lungs
at the top of one's lungs

at the top of one's voice, at the top of one's lungs


grabass

en-verb

grabass (third-person singular simple present grabasses, present participle grabassing, simple past and past participle grabassed)

grabasses (present singular third-person)
grabassing (participle present)
grabassed (participle past)
grabassed (past)

The Paranoids were singing, to the tune of ‘Adeste Fideles’: […] grabassing around, trying to push each other over the side.

1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:


stopgap

The noun is derived from stop (“to close or block (an opening)”) + gap, from the phrase to stop a gap. The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun, and the verb is derived from the noun.

временна мярка

As witness the following. Mr Strudwick, the regular master of the form, happened on one occasion to be away for a couple of days, and a stop-gap was put in in his place. The name of the stop-gap was Mr Somerville Smith. He and Farnie exchanged an unspoken declaration of war almost immediately.

1903, P. G. Wodehouse, “Chapter 4”, in A Prefect's Uncle:

A short-term fix or temporary measure used until something better can be obtained; that which serves as an expedient in an emergency; a band-aid solution.

(specifically) A person appointed or hired to fill a position temporarily until a permanent appointment or hire can be made; a temp.


scapegrace

From scape (“(archaic) escape”) + grace (“grace of god”).

He is now laden with that superabundant energy which makes a fool of a man, and a scapegrace of a boy, and he wants to work it off.

1859, George Meredith, chapter 4, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

An infantry officer in the trenches, Graves wrote of his rocky and scapegrace return to civilian life: "I still had the Army Habit of commandeering anything of uncertain ownership that I found lying about; also a difficulty in telling the truth--it was always easier for me now, when charged with any fault, to lie my way out in Army style."

2002, Jonathan Shay, Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming:

A wild and reckless person (especially a boy); a scoundrel.


breakwater

/ˈbɹeɪkˌwɔːtə/

From break + water. Compare Dutch breekwater (“breakwater”). Contrast with firebreak.

[…]there is a channel, some three miles wide between the city and the mainland, and some mile and a half wide between it and the sandy breakwater called the Lido, which divides the lagoon from the Adriatic,

1853, John Ruskin, “The Throne”, in The Stones of Venice, volume II (The Sea-Stories), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § VI, page 8:

But there's a pier or breakwater runs out into the sea just here, which we could defend longer than anything else, like Horatius and his bridge.

1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, →OCLC, page 259:

They sailed around a breakwater that hadn't existed on Peregrine's last trip and tied in at the moorage.

1992, Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 70:

A construction in or around a harbour designed to break the force of the sea and to provide shelter for vessels lying inside.

(nautical) A low bulkhead across the forecastle deck of a ship which diverts water breaking over the bows into the scuppers.

bulbo

(on beaches) A wooden or concrete barrier, usually perpendicular to the shore, intended to prevent the movement of sand along a coast.


lickspittle

en-verb

lickspittle (third-person singular simple present lickspittles, present participle lickspittling, simple past and past participle lickspittled)

lickspittles (present singular third-person)
lickspittling (participle present)
lickspittled (participle past)
lickspittled (past)

A compounding: lick (“pass one’s tongue over”) + spittle (“saliva”); the verb may derive by back-formation from the nominal derivation lickspittling (see below).

"[Y]ou take his side, and that is wrong! ...If some young school teacher, or some young lad, lickspittles to him, it's bad enough."

1886, Aylmer and Louise Maude, The Light Shines in Darkness, translation of original by Leo Tolstoy, act 1:

(transitive and intransitive) To play the toady; take the role of a lickspittle to please (someone).


pique-nique

→ Catalan: pícnic

desctree

→ English: picnic, pic-a-nic, picknick (archaic)
→ Japanese: ピクニック (pikunikku)
→ Punjabi: ਪਿਕਨਿਕ (piknik)
→ Polish: piknik
→ Swahili: pikniki

→ Galician: pícnic

→ German: Picknick

→ Portuguese: piquenique

→ Romanian: picnic

→ Russian: пикни́к (pikník)

→ Sicilian: picchinicchi

→ Spanish: pícnic

→ Turkish: piknik

From pique + nique, from piquer (“to pick”, verb) + nique (“small thing”).


make-work

I once described this rather vulgarly as a Euro-wanking make-work project and I do not resile from that.

2011 November 10, Lord Gilbert, House of Lords Hansard:

They are more sympathetic to immigration, free markets, and free trade, and less sympathetic to protectionism, make-work policies, and government intervention in business.

2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 802:

(chiefly US) An activity or task assigned or undertaken for the sake of activity or busy-ness, rather than because of a particular need.


amuse-bouche

fr-noun

amuse-bouche m (plural amuse-bouche or amuse-bouches)

amuse-bouche (plural)
amuse-bouches (plural)

From amuse + bouche; a bowdlerization of amuse-gueule.


lackluster

en-adj

lackluster (comparative more lackluster, superlative most lackluster)

more lackluster (comparative)
most lackluster (superlative)

A faded, and an ancient dragon he was; and many a wintry storm of rain, snow, sleet, and hail, had changed his colour from a gaudy blue to a faint lack-lustre shade of gray.

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 19:

He sat looking at her with lack-lustre eyes. The light suddenly came back into them.

1885, William Dean Howells, chapter XIX, in The Rise of Silas Lapham:

The actor gave a lackluster performance in his latest film.

An allegedly true story emerges as a lackluster riff on American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street with a scrappy turn from an overly disguised lead star[.]

2016 December 30, Jordan Hoffman, “Gold review – the priciest ore is a bore in Matthew McConaughey misfire”, in The Guardian:

It’s fascinating to see a show wrap up in a manner wherein many of the flaws so clearly occur offscreen rather than on; the plague of season eight hasn’t been lackluster episodes, for the most part (though “The Last Of The Starks” was a definite low point).

2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2019-05-22:

Pressure on the UK government to commit to concrete measures and not just “lacklustre” verbal condemnation if Israel goes ahead with annexation of parts of the West Bank has been stepped up by a coalition of 14 British charities and human rights groups.

2020 June 29, Patrick Wintour, “UK criticised for 'lacklustre' response to Israel West Bank plans”, in The Guardian:

Tory MPs said Raab had been “lacklustre”, with one saying his position was “untenable”.

2021 August 20, Martin Farrer, “Friday briefing: ‘Lacklustre’ Raab under pressure to quit”, in The Guardian:

(figurative) Not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality.

fat

not exceptional; not worthy of special merit, attention, or interest; having no vitality


lackluster

en-noun

lackluster (countable and uncountable, plural lacklusters)

(uncountable) Lack of brightness or points of interest.

(countable) A person or thing of no particular brilliance or intelligence.


stop press

From stop the presses, US newspaper-printing jargon.

stop-press when used as a noun in attribution

1989, Textual Introduction to The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=C64iQVqCm3MC&pg=RA1-PR51&lpg=RA1-PR51&sig=JpcrTaGG5EdPxJjr2U8VwuilsEw
Three of the errata corrections had already been made as stop-press corrections …

Faked Stop Press! announcements in newspapers. A valuable trick because it can always be claimed that the announcement was ‘hushed up’. It is also easy to fake the printing of the Stop Press.

2002, Russell Miller, Behind the Lines http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=iAtuxaBlfRkC&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&sig=erWM7_pq0H8pCDJnv5W4-5bxlv0

2005, Mary Norway, The Sinn Fein Rebellion As I Saw It, http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=kdp6DLzb6KcC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&sig=TWkyRKxWPtmbwiGPh_BvuIQNwlA
Another lady thought she would drive a lesson home, so she said: “But you said it was a ‘Stop press,’ and you knew it was not.”
“It is, miss, but sure they hadn’t time to print the ‘stop press’ on it!!”
(“Stop press” is the latest news, usually printed on the back of the paper.)

STOP PRESS: As this issue of RAIL went to press, the RMT announced that it too would be taking strike action on the Tube on March 15

2023 March 8, “Tube drivers announce "first day of action"”, in RAIL, number 978, page 11:

(UK, journalism) The event or news article important enough to delay or interrupt the print, or require a reprint, of a publication, particularly of a newspaper edition.


stop press

en-verb

stop press (third-person singular simple present stops press, present participle stopping press, simple past and past participle stopped press)

stops press (present singular third-person)
stopping press (participle present)
stopped press (participle past)
stopped press (past)

(UK) Used to announce an event or news article important enough to delay or interrupt the print, or require a reprint, of publication, particularly of a newspaper edition.

(idiomatic, UK) Used to grab attention, implying importance, news-worthiness, etc.


bang straw

Strange fastened it to his cane, for he fancied his little stick even on shipboard. With this he sprung onto the bulwark and roared out to Williams: 'I've not struck, sir! Tell your bloody bang-straws to try and hit my stick!'

1938 December 14, James Norman Hall, “The Cheerful Tortoise (Doctor Dogbody's Leg)”, in The Windsor Magazine, volume 89, number 528, page 9:

(idiomatic, archaic) A farmer's servant, especially a thresher.


pince-nez

→ Catalan: pinçanàs (calque)

→ Russian: пенсне́ n (pensnɛ́)

→ Swedish: pincené c


abrebotellas

From abre (“it opens”) + botellas (“bottles”).


stop-motion

en-noun

stop-motion (countable and uncountable, plural stop-motions)

Jan Švankmajer’s stop-motion looks angry, rough, and primal; Henry Selick’s is so polished and smooth that it resembles CGI.

2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits :”, in The Onion AV Club:

(uncountable, photography) An animation technique wherein physical objects are slightly altered and photographed one picture at a time to give an illusion of movement when displayed in sequence.

animación de fotograma/cuadro a/por fotograma/cuadro


catch-all

If you're not careful, the entrance table will quickly become a catch-all for things that come in the door.

The category was a catch-all for items that were not filed elsewhere.

Cancer is a catch-all term that encompasses a wide variety of diseases.

Any place or repository where things are placed indiscriminately or without careful thought.

за всякакви неща

used to hold, include, or describe a broad range of things

Sammelbegriff (catchall phrase oder term)


scofflaw

From scoff + law. Coined simultaneously by Mr Henry Irving Dale and Miss Kate L. Butler for a contest held in Boston in 1923 in which a word for "a lawless drinker of illegally made or illegally obtained liquor" was sought during the Prohibition era.

The scofflaw entered the scoflsloon. He leaned an elbow on the scoffbar and rested a foot on the scoffrail.
 'Waddle'y' have?" said the scoffbartender.
 "A little tea," said the scofflaw.

If we are to scour out the scofflaws, we must first remove those particular laws at which nearly everybody scoffs.

Within six months, with the full cooperation of police throughout the state, the scofflaw rate was down to 22 per cent.

1967, Police: The Journal Covering the Professional Interests of All Law Enforcement Personnel, volumes 12-13:

At that time, appellant was informed that because there were unpaid tickets in the amount of $2,725.00, his Datsun had been declared a "scofflaw" car.

2001: 10th International Conference on High-Occupancy Vehicle Systems: Compendium of Technical Papers
The signage will make it clear that if a motorist is an HOV scofflaw (i.e., violator of the vehicle code driving in the HOV-Only zone) that they will be subject to HOV violation fine of at least $271.

Unrepentant scofflaw on the lam
Layin' waste to all the best-laid plans

2001, J. G. Thirlwell (lyrics and music), “Heuldoch 7B”, in Flow, performed by Foetus:

Given Montana's continued, fretful association with various scofflaw organizations and its unwanted reputation as a place without speed limits or other boundaries on personal behavior, we might do well to acknowledge the excesses and inherent abuse of power carried out by men who for too many years refused to bow to the police and courts and rule of law.

2013: A Decent, Orderly Lynching: The Montana Vigilantes by Frederick Allen (University of Oklahoma Press)

(US) One who habitually violates minor laws or fails to answer trivial court summonses (such as parking tickets).


scatterbrain

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-scatterbrain.wav

A flighty, disorganized or forgetful person.


pickpocket

Coordinate term: putpocket

One who steals from the pocket of a passerby, usually by sleight of hand.

xhepist

one who steals from the pocket of a passerby


spoilsport

From the verbal expression spoil sport (“ruin the amusement”).

I know I am a sad spoilsport, but it would make me wretched.

1908, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter XIV, in A Room with a View, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC:

He looks a spoilsport. There are men in whose presence it is impossible to have any fun: men who are a sort of walking conscience.

1912 February 6 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Androcles and the Lion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act II, page 31:

Someone who puts an end to others' fun, especially harmless fun.


wagtail

From a partial suppletion of Middle English wagstert (literally “wag-tail”), equivalent to wag + tail.

field wagtail

Motacilla flava and M. tschutschensis, syn. Budytes spp.

white-browed wagtail (Motacilla maderaspatensis

Any of various small passerine birds, principally of genus Motacilla, of the Old World, notable for their long tails.


turnstone

Arenaria interpres
Arenaria interpres#Translingual

Arenaria melanocephala
Arenaria melanocephala#Translingual

Either of two species of coastal wading bird, Arenaria interpres and Arenaria melanocephala, that breed in the Arctic and readily turn stones or seaweed looking for hidden invertebrates.


shearwater

Macronesian shearwater

Puffinus lherminieri baroli or Puffinus baroli

Persian shearwater

Puffinus lherminieri persicus or Puffinus persicus

tropical shearwater

Puffinus lherminieri bailloni or Puffinus bailloni

At first I would not eat a frigate bird, a booby or a shearwater, but after a few months on the island I tried one broiled over coconut-shell coals, and I have never since missed an opportunity for such a feast.

1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 53:

Any of the long-winged pelagic seabirds of the family Procellariidae in genera Puffinus, Ardenna, and Calonectris, that breed on islands and coastal cliffs.


makeweight

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-makeweight.wav

1893, Richard Le Gallienne, in a publisher's report on stories by Ernest Dowson, quoted in Jad Adams, Madder Music, Stronger Wine, page 88.
I would advise you to accept these as an instalment of a volume, (they are not big enough to make one themselves) with the promise that the stories to come should be more striking, more original in theme — not less so, not mere makeweights — than those under consideration.

Something of inferior quality which is included in a shipment to make up the weight.


cascarrabias

Verb-object compound, composed of casca + rabias.

es-verb-obj

(colloquial) cantankerous, crotchety, curmudgeonly, grumpy, grouchy, cranky, crabby


portefeuille

→ Danish: portefølje

→ Dutch: portefeuille

→ German: Portefeuille

→ Limburgish: portefui

→ Norwegian Bokmål: portefølje

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: portefølje

→ Polish: portfel

→ Portuguese: porta-fólio

→ Russian: портфе́ль (portfélʹ)

→ Romanian: portofel

→ Swedish: portfölj

→ Turkish: portföy

→ Ukrainian: портфе́ль (portfélʹ)

→ West Frisian: portefúlje

From porte (“carry”, third person singular indicative) + feuille (“sheet, paper”). Cognate with Italian portafoglio (whence French portfolio).


cure-all

Step right up! Step right up! Our panacean patent medicine miracle cure-all will cure what ails ya! Cash only! No refunds.

(colloquial) Synonym of panacea: a medicine or practice that cures all human ailments.


sawbones

en-noun

sawbones (plural sawbones or sawboneses)


tell-all

At this point, we could all write a tell-all about our tabloid childhoods and contrive an autobiographical performance about the pleasures of humiliation.

1998, Laurie Stone, Close to the Bone: Memoirs of Hurt, Rage, and Desire, page xi:

Mikerra had been offered a seven-figure book deal for a tell-all chronicling her relationship with Senator McCaffrey, his death, and the project's ultimate demise.

2009, Kennedy Shaw, Tour of Duty, page 308:

Surprise! I wrote a tell-all about each and every one of you!

2010, Zoe Fishman, Balancing Acts: A Novel, page 357:

Of all the people in the world to write a tell-all about The Lunch Club, it had to be Missy Adams?!

2011, Star Jones, Satan's Sisters: A Novel Work of Fiction, page 23:

The highly anticipated proceedings are poised to serve as a tell-all on FTX and Alameda’s shocking downfall, with jurors weighing whether Bankman-Fried callously lined his pockets with hapless investors’ money. Ellison will play a pivotal role in the case.

2023 September 30, Victoria Bekiempis, “‘Dark’ donations, free love and the fall: the Sam Bankman-Fried trial is here”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A publication, usually a book or magazine article, which tells all, revealing everything, particularly what is normally withheld.


tell-all

The statesman's tell-all memoirs were not published until long after death.

Open source is a tell-all software development strategy.

Mr. Will, whose inkhornisms remain a weekly treat, has had tough words for former White Housers who write tell-all books, so the younger George had better watch his tongue.

1997 February 1, Walter Goodman, “The Role of Partisans in a Neutral Business”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

More unsettling was the origin story of the infamous tell-all book Princess in Love. Diana claimed to be outraged in 1994 when Daily Express journalist Anna Pasternak spilled the beans of her affair with former army officer James Hewitt[…]

2022 April 5, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair:

The Princess of Canada is a “sorority girl, actress, influencer, victim”, while her husband, the prince, has written a tell-all book about his family and the media called “Waaagh!”.

2023 February 22, Alexi Duggins, “‘Baseless nonsense’: Meghan and Harry won’t sue South Park for mocking them”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Telling all; revealing everything, particularly what is normally withheld.


abat-jour

→ Albanian: abazhur

desc

→ Arabic: أَبَاجُور (ʔabāžūr)

→ Arabic: أَبَاجُور (ʔabāžūr)

→ Hijazi Arabic: أَبَجورة (ʔabajōra)

→ Bulgarian: абажу́р (abažúr)

→ Czech: abažúr

→ English: abatjour

→ Estonian: abažuur

→ Greek: αμπαζούρ (ampazoúr)

→ Ladino: abazur

→ Italian: abat-jour

→ Latvian: abažūrs

→ Lithuanian: abažūras

→ Persian: آباژور (âbâžur)

→ Polish: abażur

desctree

→ Portuguese: abajur, abat-jour, abaju, abajour
→ Hunsrik: Abaschur

→ Romagnol: abat-jour

→ Romanian: abajur

→ Russian: абажу́р (abažúr)
→ Azerbaijani: abajur
→ Bashkir: абажур (abajur)
→ Belarusian: абажу́р (abažúr)
→ Chuvash: абажур (abažur)
→ Eastern Mari: абажур (abažur)
→ Georgian: აბაჟური (abažuri)
→ Kazakh: абажур (abajur)
→ Komi-Zyrian: абажур (abažur)
→ Ossetian: абажур (abažur)
→ Tatar: абажур (abajur)
→ Tajik: абажур (abažur)
→ Udmurt: абажур (abažur)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: аба̀жӯр

Latin script: abàžūr

→ Ottoman Turkish: آباژور (abajur)

Turkish: abajur

→ Ukrainian: абажу́р (abažúr)

From abat (“breaks down”) + jour (“light”).


draaikont

nl-noun

draaikont m (plural draaikonten, diminutive draaikontje n)

draaikonten (plural)
draaikontje (diminutive neuter)

20th century. Compound of draaien (“to turn (around)”) + kont (“butt, bum”).

compound

(informal) a U-turner; an inconsistent person, who readily changes position (literally, “butt-turner”)

(informal) a fidget; someone who can't sit still


coverall

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-coverall.wav

(chiefly US, Canada, Australia) A loose-fitting jumpsuit-style protective garment worn over other clothing.


cutthroat

en-noun

cutthroat (countable and uncountable, plural cutthroats)

Children go through a phase of compound acquisition in which they invent cutthroats spontaneously before dropping the habit again.

2015 May 22, Stan Carey, “The Kick-butt World of Cutthroat Compounds”, in Slate Lexicon Valley:

cutthroat compound
cutthroat compound#English

(linguistics) Short for cutthroat compound (“an agentive-instrumental verb-noun compound word”).


rattletrap

Mom always worried about our safety in my friend's rattletrap. I told her not to worry, as it can't go fast enough to be dangerous.

(informal) A mechanical device, particularly an automobile, that is worn out, run down, or mechanically unreliable as indicated by noises it makes in operation.

Shut your rattletrap!

(dated, slang, derogatory) A person's mouth.


catchpole

From Old French chacepol (“one who chases fowls”) (or a northern variant thereof).

der

With two such catchpoles as Henry and Uncle Fred at his heels there was nothing left for Grandpa Piper but to sign his abdication to the drapery business.

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 247:

(obsolete) A taxman, one who gathers taxes.

A sheriff’s officer, usually one who arrests debtors.


catchpole

The use of the catch-pole is said to have been to take horsemen in battle by the neck and drag them from their horses.

1843, Henry Shaw, Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages, W Pickering:

(historical) An implement formerly used for seizing and securing a person who would otherwise be out of reach.


cache-sexe

From cacher (“to hide”) + sexe (“genital organ(s)”).


cutpurse

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cutpurse.wav

From Middle English cutte-purs; equivalent to cut + purse: originally, purses were worn by a strap at the girdle, which the thief would cut.

A cutpurse of the empire and the rule

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

The Gipsie snap & Pedro
are none of Toms Comradoes,
yͤ punck I skorne, & yͤ cutpurse sworn
& yͤ roring boyes brauadoes

c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

A thief who steals from others' purses or pockets in public.


rotgut

en-noun

rotgut (usually uncountable, plural rotguts)

Near-synonym: red-eye

Then the harpooner carried away a pink flask to be filled in some blind pig, for there were no licensed saloons in that locality. We drank the cheap rotgut out of tumblers.

1913 August, Jack London, chapter VI, in John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 48:

(slang) Raw or poor-quality alcoholic liquor.


fussbudget

/ˈfʌsˌbʌd͡ʒɪt/

Their three-year-old daughter can be quite a fussbudget, but she's cute.

The nation's 50 million smokers remain at liberty to vote en bloc for a fussbudget-free Congress. Are the polls ready to accommodate smokers?

2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, quoting Russell Seitz, chapter 5, in Merchants of Doubt:

(colloquial, derogatory, Canada, US) One who complains or fusses a great deal, especially about unimportant matters; a fusspot.

мрънкало

One who complains a great deal, especially about unimportant matters


blatherskite

blatherskite (countable and uncountable, plural blatherskites)

From blather + skite (“shit, shite”). Alternatively the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary asserts that the word is of Scottish origin, with blather/blether + skate referring to someone who is "contemptible". First use of the term dates to the mid-17th century. Compare cheapskate.


beija-flor

pt-noun

beija-flor m or f by sense (plural beija-flores)

Literally, “flower kisser”, from beijar (“to kiss”) + flor (“flower”).


tire-bouchon

→ Bulgarian: тирбушо́н (tirbušón)

→ Catalan: tirabuixó

→ Romanian: tirbușon

desctree

→ Ottoman Turkish: تیربوشون (tirbuşon), طرابشون (terabeşon), թիրպուշօն (tirbuşon) — Armeno-Turkish
Turkish: tirbuşon

corkscrew (to pull corks out of bottles)


spendthrift

en-adj

spendthrift (comparative more spendthrift, superlative most spendthrift)

more spendthrift (comparative)
most spendthrift (superlative)

From spend + thrift (“(archaic) savings; profits; wealth”).

compound

Wel, go to wild oats, ſpend thrift prodigal, / Ile croſſe thy name quight from my reckning booke: / For theſe accounts, faith it ſhall ſcath thee ſome what, / I will not ſay what, ſomewhat it ſhall be.

1621, attributed to Thomas Heywood or John Cooke, A Pleasant Conceited Comedy, wherein is Shewed, how a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad. As It hath been Sundry Times Acted by the Earle of Worcesters Seruants, London: Printed [by Thomas Purfoot] for Mathew Law, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules church yard, neere vnto S. Augustines gate, at the signe of the Foxe, →OCLC:

He was now esteemed quite worthy to address the daughter of a foolish, spendthrift baronet, who had not had principle or sense enough to maintain himself in the situation in which Providence had placed him, and who could give his daughter at present but a small part of the share of ten thousand pounds which must be hers hereafter.

1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter XII, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume IV, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, page 299:

Powerful feelings and generous designs are, alas! too like the inheritance of a miser in the hands of some spendthrift heir—lavished away on trifles in our early years, and needed, but not posessed, in our riper age.

1831, [George Payne Rainsford James], chapter II, in Philip Augustus; or, The Brothers in Arms. … In Three Volumes, volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, →OCLC, page 33:

Billie Burke's career and life often twined together in this manner – so many of her roles called on her to play parts that were fragments of her real life: the sought-after young stage beauty, the wronged wife, the spendthrift matriarch of bankrupt wealth, the woman too old to be acting so young.

2009, Grant Hayter-Menzies, “Preface”, in Mrs. Ziegfield: The Public and Private Lives of Billie Burke, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 3:

Rufus's stone lies in the outskirts of the forest, and in a few minutes they emerged upon the broad heath which bounds it, then like a sea of gold; for the furze was in the first glory of its spendthrift wealth.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 269:

A high-powered entertainment that acceded to the spiraling capitalization costs of the big musical with a production of spendthrift command, La Cage [aux Folles] came in at summer's end as a guaranteed hit.

2004, Ethan Mordden, “The Great Tradition”, in The Happiest Corpse I’ve Ever Seen: The Last Twenty-five Years of the Broadway Musical, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 6:

This feels like a significant league title in more ways than one. It is now 14 years since Roman Abramovich emerged as an spendthrift presence in west London.

2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2017-09-09:


spendthrift

[T]hat vve vvould doe / VVe ſhould doe vvhen vve vvould: for this vvould changes, / And hath abatements and delayes as many, / As there are tongues, are hands, are accedents, / And then this ſhould is like a ſpend thrifts ſigh, / That hurts by eaſing; […]

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii], signature [L4], verso:

VVell goe too vvild oates, ſpend thrift, prodigall, / Ile croſſe thy name quite from my reckoning booke: / For theſe accounts, faith it ſhall skathe thee ſomevvhat, / I vvill not ſay vvhat ſomevvhat it ſhall be.

1602, [Thomas Heywood], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie, wherein is Shewed How a Man may Chuse a Good Wife from a Bad. […], London: […] [Thomas Creede] for Mathew Lawe, […], →OCLC; reprinted as How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad (Old English Drama Students Facsimile; 50), [London: s.n.], 1912, →OCLC, signature C, recto:

Prodigue, & grand beuveur de vin n'a du ſien ne four, ne moulin: Pro. The drunken ſpendthrift vvaſts his beſt poſſeſſions.

1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Prodigue”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, column 1:

[T]emperate people choose neither total abstinence nor perpetual indulgence, but something in between; liberal people are neither spendthrifts nor misers; the properly angry are neither apathetic nor short-tempered; and the strictly just person distributes to everyone what is his or her due, neither more nor less.

1999, Warren G. Bovée, “Democratic Promise, Democratic Reality, and the Journalists”, in Discovering Journalism (Contributions to the Study of Mass Media and Communications; no. 56), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, pages 79–80:

Someone who spends money improvidently or wastefully.

مُبَذِّر

someone who spends money improvidently or wastefully

It was one of those bright days in spring, which are very spendthrifts of sunshine, when the darkest alley in London wins a golden glimpse, and the eternal mist around St. Paul's turns to a glittering haze:...

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Publishing”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 9:

(figuratively) Anything that distributes its attributes profusely, without restraint.


pickthank

[T]he Dogge nuſling his noſe vnder the necke of the Deare, the Wolfe glad to let the Lambe lye vpon hym to kéepe him warme, the Lyon ſuffering the Aſſe to caſt hys legge ouer him: preferring one honeſt vnmannerly friende, before a number of croutching picke-thankes.

1594, Tho[mas] Nashe, “The Vnfortunate Traueller”, in The Vnfortunate Traueller. Or, The Life of Iacke Wilton, London: […] T. Scarlet for C[uthbert] Burby, […], →OCLC:

Yet such extenuation let me beg, / As, in reproof of many tales devised, / which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear, / By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers, / I may, for some things true, wherein my youth / Hath faulty wander’d and irregular, / Find pardon on my true submission.

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 III, scene ii]:

1628, John Earle, Micro-cosmographie, or, A Piece of the World Discovered; in Essayes and Characters, Characters, 40. A rash man,
He is a man still swayed with the first reports, and no man more in the power of a pickthank then he.

1755, Eliza Haywood (under the pseudonym Exploralibus), The Invisible Spy, London: T. Garner, Volume 1, Chapter 7, p. 256,
Why then, sir, your friend is no better than a pickthank for bringing you such idle stories; and I am not afraid to tell him so to his face.

1868, F. H. Doyle, Lectures Delivered before the University of Oxford, London: Macmillan, Lecture 2, pp. 49-50,
Some pickthank contrived to let the little great man know what had taken place, and he, so she informed me, was ungenerous enough to wreak a mean revenge.

A sycophant; one who meddles, tattles, informs (often in order to curry favour).


slipstream

en-noun

slipstream (countable and uncountable, plural slipstreams)

Compound of slip + stream. Fiction sense coined by cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling in 1989.

coin

Monza was the seventh race in a row at which Leclerc had out-qualified Vettel. There were extenuating circumstances this time - Vettel did not have a slipstream on his first lap and the farcical end to qualifying prevented him doing another - but a clear pattern is emerging.

2019 September 8, Andrew Benson, BBC Sport:

The low-pressure zone immediately following a rapidly moving object, caused by turbulence.

The Republicans, who in fact quintessentially represent what I understand to be private and special interests of a narrow economic kind, have nevertheless managed, flying in the slipstream of Ronald Reagan's rhetoric, to look like the true guardians of the nation's public interest.

2012, Benjamin Barber, “Liberal Values in the Age of Interdependence”, in Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture:

(figurative, by extension) A generated advantage which makes forward movement easier.

The relative wind experienced as a result of movement through air.

(aviation) The airflow over a propeller-driven aircraft generated by the motion of its propeller(s).

Coordinate term: New Weird

Slipstream is not simply a mixture of fantasy and realism, but something which lies between or even beyond the two.

2000, Damien Broderick, quoting Justina Robson and Rozanne Rabinowitz, Transrealist Fiction: Writing in the Slipstream of Science, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 88:

(uncountable, fiction) A genre of fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries.


slipstream

en-verb

slipstream (third-person singular simple present slipstreams, present participle slipstreaming, simple past and past participle slipstreamed)

slipstreams (present singular third-person)
slipstreaming (participle present)
slipstreamed (participle past)
slipstreamed (past)

Although dangerous, over-the-road truck drivers sometimes slipstream with each other to save fuel.

To take advantage of the suction produced by a slipstream by travelling immediately behind the slipstream generator.

You do this by slipstreaming the updates into the distribution folder.

2003, William Boswell, Inside Windows Server 2003:

A better solution is to create a bootable Windows XP installation CD slipstreamed with the current service pack...

2004, Ed Bott, Carl Siechert, Craig Stinson, Microsoft Windows XP inside out:

It is illegal to distribute slipstreamed CDs. In some locales, it may also be illegal to create them.

2005, Jesper M Johansson, Steve Riley, Protect your Windows network: from perimeter to data:

(computing, transitive) To incorporate additional software (such as patches) into an existing installer.


bafflegab

Toss in a few technical terms that most people don't understand—"stochastic" this, "regression" that—and you can use people's justified respect for math and science to get them nodding along. This is granularity as bafflegab.

2015 September 29, Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, Crown, →ISBN:

Teachout has a gift for slicing through the bafflegab and revealing that the grifter's patter disguises nothing more than unimaginative, sociopathic scams.

2020 July 29, Cory Doctorow, “Break 'Em Up”, in Pluralistic, retrieved 2020-08-02:

Pretentious, incomprehensible, or overly technical language, especially legal or bureaucratic jargon.


bafflegab

bafflegab (third-person singular simple present bafflegabs, present participle bafflegabbing, simple past and past participle bafflegabbed)

bafflegabs (present singular third-person)
bafflegabbing (participle present)
bafflegabbed (participle past)
bafflegabbed (past)

(rare) To use pretentious, incomprehensible, or overly technical language.


tournevis

→ Catalan: tornavís

→ Chadian Arabic: ترنبيس (tarnabīs)

→ Khmer: ទួរណឺវិស (tuənəvɨh)

→ Luxembourgish: Tournevis

→ Vietnamese: tuốc-nơ-vít

→ Iraqi Arabic: درنفيس

From tourner + vis; compare Piedmontese tornavis.


aide-mémoire

fr-noun

aide-mémoire m (plural aide-mémoire or aide-mémoires)

aide-mémoire (plural)
aide-mémoires (plural)


jerkwater

From jerk (“to move with a sudden movement”) + water. Refers to the need to supply the boilers of steam trains with water. In rural areas and small towns with no water tower, where the train did not stop, this was done by scooping ("jerking") water from a track pan. First appears c. 1852, in the Miami County Sentinel (Peru, Indiana).

compound

Twenty-five miles down the narrow arid highway, there is another town like Napoleon, a little smaller. And then twenty-five miles further, another. This chain of jerkwaters stretches for a lazy afternoon, until you finally encounter a cluster of people that almost resembles a modern civilization, with a movie theater and chain restaurants.

2016 April 19, Rex Sorgatz, “The Internet Really Has Changed Everything. Here’s the Proof.”, in Wired:


cutwater

Rynchops niger
Rynchops niger#Translingual

A black skimmer; a sea bird of the species Rynchops niger, that flies low over the sea, "cutting" the water surface with its lower mandible to catch small fish.


bob-cherry

Playing at bob cherry
Tom and Nell and Hugh:
Cherry bob! cherry bob!
There's a bob for you.
Tom bobs a cherry
For gaping snapping Hugh,
While curly-pated Nelly
Snaps at it too.

1893, Christina G. Rosetti, A NURSERY RHYME BOOK:

A game where one tries to snap at a swinging cherry with one's mouth.


whack-a-mole

en-noun

whack-a-mole (countable and uncountable, plural whack-a-moles)

/ˈʍæk.əˌməʊl/

From whack + a + mole (“small, burrowing, insect-eating mammal of the family Talpidae”), from the arcade game Whac-A-Mole which involves quickly and repeatedly hitting the heads of mechanical moles with a mallet as they pop up from holes. The name of the arcade game was coined in 1977 when it was first sold in the United States; the original game released in Japan in 1975 was called モグラ退治 (Mogura Taiji, literally “Mole Extermination”).

compound

Trying to get rid of spam e-mails is like whack-a-mole: as soon as you delete one, another appears.

Identify a challenge. Put your shoulder into it. Make it go away. Just as it disappears, whoops, here comes another one. It's like a game of whack-a-mole. Trust me, you'll never run out of quarters.

2007 November, Gil Schwartz, “The Office Politic: Escape from the Job Monster”, in David Zinczenko, editor, Men’s Health, volume 22, number 9, Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 122, column 1:

What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.

2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, page 9]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-06-10:

Some flew across the United States; some were planning to fly into London from Europe, though, like many of us, they could only try their best to keep up with the government’s air corridor whack-a-mole.

2020 August 29, Rebecca Nicholson, “Tom Cruise: Another groundbreaking role for cinema’s cheerleader”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-10-16:

With power being redistributed automatically and surging through other circuits as the system tried to reroute electricity to keep things operational, various parts of the ship began to flicker internally as more and more breakers began to trip and were reset, only to trip again. Then, one of the engineers, tired of playing whack-a-mole, tied one of the more important breakers down so that it physically couldn't trip. This turned out to be a mistake, and a cascade overload crippled the ship's radar, radios, and power training on most of her guns. With no way of communicating with Washington, South Dakota simply held course whilst men in the switchboard room tried their best to reset the ship's entire electrical grid.

2021 March 17, Drachinifel, 13:14 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 2 (IJN 3(?) : 3 USN), archived from the original on 2022-07-14:

(idiomatic, chiefly Canada, US) The practice of trying to stop problems, etc., that repeatedly occur in an apparently random manner; also, the act of dealing with such matters in a piecemeal manner without achieving a complete solution.

der Kampf gegen die Hydra

practice of trying to stop problems, etc., that repeatedly occur in an apparently random manner; act of dealing with such matters in a piecemeal manner without achieving a complete solution


carryall

(Canada, US, dated) A light, covered carriage drawn by a single horse

(US) Any of several types of automobile, usually a station wagon or van built on a truck chassis.


February fill-dike

Regarding the season, there is an old proverb worthy noticing: February fill dike, be it black or be it white.

1837, William Hone, The every-day book and table-book; or, Everlasting calendar of popular amusements:

January white, February fill-dike.

1851, Thomas Sternberg, The Dialect and Folk-lore of Northamptonshire:

Doris, in her terror, had forgotten that February fill-dike is upon us

1997, Marion Kelsey, Victory Harvest: Diary of a Canadian in the Women's Land Army, page 174:

A rural appellation for the month of February, when rain or melting snow fills dykes with water.

февра́ль-водоле́й

February fill dyke, be it black or be it white


spitfire

1801, Peter Viereck, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin., Volume ⅩⅠⅠⅠ, by John Nichols (arranged by Thomas Sheridan), p. 143, published in London
"―But however provoked, are your scribbling spitfires never to be satisfied?"

A person with a fiery temper, someone easily provoked to anger, especially a woman or girl.


come-hither

(Ireland) A persuasive attitude; a binding spell


do-nothing

Essentially deverbal in nature, albeit not from a unitary phrasal verb, but from the phrase do nothing, which English expresses as a verb phrase containing a complement.

It became clear that a chronic do-nothing approach to the problem's management would no longer suffice.

Manchester needs more railway capacity. Just how that is provided until the new platforms are built for HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, I will leave for the experts, but a do-nothing approach is not going to be helpful and quite justifiably will create more arguments that the North is being ignored.

2020 April 22, “Letters: Open Access: Castlefield conundrum”, in Rail, page 31:

(attributive) Doing nothing, not taking any action.


breakneck

A dangerous steep place from which one could fall and be injured.


holdall

She could see something pointy—a high-heeled shoe, probably—pressing against the leather of her Gola holdall.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 279:

A large bag for carrying belongings while travelling.


portemanteau

→ Greek: πορτμαντό (portmantó)

→ Romanian: portmantou

→ Russian: портманто (portmanto)

desc

→ Ottoman Turkish: پورت مانطو (port manto)

Turkish: portmanto

Inherited from Middle French portemanteau. By surface analysis, porte (“carries”, third-person singular present indicative of porter (“to carry”)) + manteau (“coat”), literally “[that which] carries coat”.

surf

third-person singular present indicative of <i class="Latn mention" lang="fr">porter</i> (“to carry”)


drawlatch

A fastener consisting of a latch body mounted on one side of a door or lid, and a hook or catch mounted on the opposite side. When the latch is engaged, the hook or catch pulls the two sides tightly together, creating a secure closure.


lave-vaisselle

fr-noun

lave-vaisselle m (plural lave-vaisselles or lave-vaisselle)

lave-vaisselles (plural)
lave-vaisselle (plural)

From laver (“to wash”) + vaisselle (“dishes, crockery”).


fusspot

My teacher is such a fusspot, he marks us down for handwriting!

(informal) A person who makes a fuss, particularly about trivial things.


fusspot

en-verb

fusspot (third-person singular simple present fusspots, present participle fusspotting, simple past and past participle fusspotted)

fusspots (present singular third-person)
fusspotting (participle present)
fusspotted (participle past)
fusspotted (past)

I hadn't realised then that fusspotting about small details of social disorder was an Australian obsession.

1999, Annie Caulfield, The Winners' Enclosure, page 67:

(informal, intransitive) To make a fuss, particularly about trivial things.


croque-madame

From croquer (“to crunch”) + madame (“lady”), derived from croque-monsieur.


croque-monsieur

fr-noun

croque-monsieur m (plural croque-monsieur or croque-monsieurs or croque-messieurs)

croque-monsieur (plural)
croque-monsieurs (plural)
croque-messieurs (plural)

From croquer (“to crunch”) + monsieur (“gentleman”).


fouette-cul

fr-noun

fouette-cul m (plural fouette-cul or fouette-culs)

fouette-cul (plural)
fouette-culs (plural)

From fouetter (“to whip”) + cul (“arse, ass”).

af

a person in charge of administering discipline by serious spankings, as once done to pupils in French Catholic schools by a priest


porte-parole

fr-noun

porte-parole m or f by sense (plural porte-parole)

→ English: porte-parole

From porter + parole. First attested in 1552 as Middle French porteparolle.

Cette restriction du passage à la frontière germano-autrichienne, principale porte d’entrée des réfugiés sur le territoire allemand et ultime étape du périple de la plupart des réfugiés fuyant la guerre ou la pauvreté, prend effet « immédiatement », selon une porte-parole du ministère allemand de l’Intérieur à l’Agence France Presse.

2015 October 31, “Migrants : Allemagne restreint les accès à sa frontière avec Autriche”, in Le Monde:

This restriction on crossing the German-Austrian border, the main gateway for refugees to German territory and the final stage in the exodus of most refugees fleeing war or poverty, will take effect "immediately", according to a spokesperson of the German Ministry of the Interior to Agence France Presse.


shove ha'penny

(British) A game, traditionally played in pubs in Great Britain, in which players attempt to push coins so that they land between marked boundaries.


Störenfried

de-noun

Störenfried m (strong, genitive Störenfriedes or Störenfrieds, plural Störenfriede, feminine Störenfriedin)

Störenfriedes (genitive)
Störenfrieds (genitive)
Störenfriede (plural)
Störenfriedin (feminine)
Störenfried (nominative singular)
Störenfriede (definite nominative plural)
Störenfriedes (genitive singular)
Störenfrieds (genitive singular)
Störenfriede (definite genitive plural)
Störenfried (dative singular)
Störenfriede (dative singular)
Störenfrieden (dative definite plural)
Störenfried (accusative singular)
Störenfriede (accusative definite plural)

[ˈʃtøːʁənˌfʁiːt]

From stören (“to disturb”) + Fried (“peace”).

gadfly, troublemaker, disruptor, mischief-maker (male or of unspecified gender)


picklock

1664-1667, Jeremy Taylor, Dissuasive from Popery
a picklock of secrets


porte-jarretelles

fr-noun

porte-jarretelles m (plural porte-jarretelles)


à brûle-pourpoint

point-blank, very straightforwardly or bluntly


casse-noix

From casse (“breaks”, third-person singular present indicative of casser (“to break”)) + noix (“nut”), literally “[that which] breaks nut”.

compound

third-person singular present indicative of <i class="Latn mention" lang="fr">casser</i> (“to break”)

Alternative spelling of cassenoix (“nutcracker (bird of the genus Nucifraga)”)


casse-noisette

fr-noun

casse-noisette f (plural casse-noisettes)

From casse (“breaks”, third-person singular present indicative of casser (“to break”)) + noisette (“hazelnut”), literally “[that which] breaks hazelnut”.


perce-neige

From percer (“pierce”) + neige (“snow”).


cure-dent

→ Turkish: kürdan


abat-vent

(architecture) louver boarding (of window, opening), abat-vent


gratte-ciel

fr-noun

gratte-ciel m (plural gratte-ciel or gratte-ciels)

gratte-ciel (plural)
gratte-ciels (plural)


prie-Dieu

→ Catalan: pregadeu (calque)

→ English: prie-dieu


pinchpenny

Over the years, he developed a reputation as a pinchpenny who wouldn't spend money for anything.

That they accompt one a dastard if he be not defperate, a pynch penny if he be not prodygall, if filent a fotte, if full of wordes a foole?

1578, John Lyly, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit, published 1868, page 109:

One who spends little money; one who is very frugal or cautious with money.


coupe-ongles

From verb couper (“to clip”) and ongle (“nail”).


vliegveld

nl-noun

vliegveld n (plural vliegvelden, diminutive vliegveldje n)

vliegvelden (plural)
vliegveldje (diminutive neuter)

Afrikaans: vliegveld

→ Caribbean Javanese: prigpèl

→ Indonesian: lapangan terbang (calque)

→ Saramaccan: fiígífeíti

→ West Frisian: fleanfjild (calque)


lèche-vitrine

fr-noun

lèche-vitrine m or f (plural lèche-vitrines)

From lèche (“lick”, imperative of lécher) + vitrine (“window”).

af

imperative of <i class="Latn mention" lang="fr">lécher</i>

faire du lèche-vitrine

Je me serais bien arrêtée devant les magasins pour faire du lèche-vitrine, mais mon compagnon aurait peut-être pensé que je voulais me faire offrir quelque chose, ce qui l’aurait mis dans une situation délicate vu qu’il n’a certainement pas beaucoup d’argent de poche : il n’y a qu’à le regarder.

1950, Raymond Queneau, “Le Journal intime de Sally Mara”, in Les Œuvres complètes de Sally Mara, Gallimard, published 1989, page 48:

I would have gladly stopped in front of the stores to do some window shopping, but my companion might have thought that I wanted to get something for myself, which would have put him in a delicate situation given that he certainly didn't have a lot of pocket money: you could tell just by looking at him.

(idiomatic, only in the masculine) window-shopping

Elle est une véritable lèche-vitrine.


lance-roquette

fr-noun

lance-roquette m (plural lance-roquettes)


kiss-ass

(Canada, US, slang) An obsequious person who tries to win the favor of someone, usually their superior.


know-all

(chiefly UK, Ireland) Someone who obnoxiously claims to be knowledgeable on a subject.


shut-eye

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-shut-eye.wav

With the night so quiet and peaceful, though, there was nothing he could do except return to camp and try to get a little shut-eye himself.

2008, William W. Johnstone, J. A. Johnstone, Preachers Showdown, Pinnacle Books, →ISBN, page 172:


clawback

en-noun

clawback (countable and uncountable, plural clawbacks)

Deverbal from claw back. In the financial senses, refers to something being "clawed back", or reclaimed; in the sense of a flatterer, it suggests the idea of a person's back being scratched (see scratch someone's back).

(US taxation law) Money that a party is entitled to keep under one tax provision but is taken by another tax provision.


gobemouche

From gober (“to swallow whole”) and mouche (“fly”).


pare-feu

fr-noun

pare-feu m (plural (traditional) pare-feu or (post-1990 spelling) pare-feux)

pare-feu (plural traditional)
pare-feux (plural)


choplogic

The breezy humour and slapdash boisterousness of their platform rhetoric appeal to King Demos, who is apt to weary of the wearisome dialectics of the choplogics of Westminster.

1909, W[illiam] T[homas] Stead, The Review of Reviews, volume 40, page 115:


cumberground

From cumber + ground, in reference to the Bible, Luke 13:7.

Give a man money, and he may sit down upon it and spend it, or live upon the interest which it will yield in idleness, a mere cumberground and drone, from whose life the world derives no benefit.

1927, Henry William Wolff, Co-operation in India, page 285:

(obsolete) Any totally worthless object or person; something that is just in the way.


clingstone

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-clingstone.wav

A stone fruit having a stone (pit) that clings to the flesh.


basag-ulo

From basag + ulo, literally “breaking up of heads”. From the 1930s.


passe-temps

Inherited from Middle French passetemps. By surface analysis, passe (“pass”) + temps (“time”).


quakebuttock

From quake + buttock. The word was rare before the 20th century but appears to have experienced a revival.

See what theſe times are grown to, before twenty / I ruſh'd into the world, which is indeed / Much like the Art of ſwiming, he that will attain to't / Muſt fall plump, and duck himſelf at firſt, / And that will make him hardy and advent'rous, / And not ſtand putting in one foot, and ſhiver, / And then draw t'other after, like a quake-buttock; [...]

c. 1613, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies. […], [part 2], London: […] J[ohn] Macock [and H. Hills], for John Martyn, Henry Herringman, and Richard Marriot, published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 358:

Not fitting speech, Kor. Quakebuttock, some would have called him. Coward. But I knew he was no coward, and though I wanted to rail at him in anger, heartache would not let me. Not yet.

1987, Nancy Springer, chapter 14, in Mindbond (A TOR Book), New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN; republished as Mindbond (Sea King Trilogy; 2), New York, N.Y.: Open Road Integrated Media, 2014, →ISBN:

From hurtful facts I fain won't hide / (I'm not that quakebuttock, weak type who'd / Turn face from fear: I never shied / From vulgar verities others shooed), [...]

1993 fall, Mike Wenthe, “‘Song of Prude: You and I’ in the Key of F-flat”, in Deborah Forbes, Josh May, editors, The Archive, volume 106, number 1, Durham, N.C.: Undergraduate Publications, Duke University, →OCLC, page 36:

And looking back, it seemed to Jim that he had never prayed for himself at all but for this other boy that his mind's eye watched, a rawney-looking molly of a boy, the son of a quakebuttock, a coward himself, praying that he should hear his calling and join the brothers like Our Lady wished and not to be so inconsiderate.

2001, Jamie O'Neill, chapter 6, in At Swim, Two Boys, London: Scribner, →ISBN, page 147:

Have pity on we poor wretched sinners / We blatherskites and lopdoodles / Lickspiggots and clinchpoops / Quibberdicks and Quakebuttocks.

2006, Roger McGough, “Prayer to Saint Grobianos, the Patron Saint of Coarse People”, in Selected Poems, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 152:

'You really do look like you're going to cry,' Em replied (with her mouth). 'Are you sure you're all right?' / 'Yes!' I insisted. 'I'm not a complete quakebuttock, you know!' / Yes! (Quakebuttock is a new word I learned weeks ago and have been meaning to slip into conversation ever since.)

2011, Tom Clempson, “Registration”, in One Seriously Messed-up Week in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Sam Taylor Jack Samsonite, London: Atom, →ISBN:

(obsolete, rare, now humorous) A coward.


lèche-cul

fr-noun

lèche-cul m or f by sense (plural lèche-cul or lèche-culs)

From lécher (“to lick”) + cul (“arse, hole”). Said because the ass is considered vulgar and being willing to kiss another's is considered a sign of submission and patronage.

(vulgar) ass-licker (US), arse-licker (UK)


fearnaught

(by extension) A warm garment, especially one made of this cloth.


chawbacon

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-chawbacon.wav


passeport

desctree

→ English: passport
→ Hindi: पासपोर्ट (pāsporṭ)
→ Japanese: パスポート (pasupōto)
→ Korean: 패스포트 (paeseupoteu)
→ Malay: pasport
→ Thai: พาสปอร์ต (páat-sà-bpɔ̀ɔt)
→ Urdu: پاسْپورْٹ (pāsporṭ)

→ Galician: pasaporte

→ Ottoman Turkish: پاساپورت (pasaport)
Turkish: pasaport

→ Polish: paszport
→? Belarusian: пашпарт (pašpart)
→? Russian: пашпорт (pašport)
→? Ukrainian: пашпорт (pašport)

→ Portuguese: passaporte

→ Spanish: pasaporte
→ Cebuano: pasaporte
→ Tagalog: pasaporte


perce-oreille

fr-noun

perce-oreille m (plural perce-oreilles or perce-oreille)

perce-oreilles (plural)
perce-oreille (plural)

From perce (“pierces”) + oreille (“ear”).


quebra-cabeça

[ˌkɛ.βɾɐ.kɐˈβe.sɐ]

From quebrar (“to break”) + cabeça (“head”).


pare-brise

→ Armenian: պարբրիս (parbris)

→ Romanian: parbriz

→ Greek: παρμπρίζ (parmpríz)

From parer + brise. Compare Spanish parabrisas, Italian parabrezza, Portuguese para-brisa.


licou

Inherited from Old French liecol, from lier + col.


marplot

From mar + plot. In earliest use as a character name in The Busy Body, by Susanna Centlivre, in 1709.

“The old marplot has discovered the baby,” Monica whispered. “I suppose it cried and woke him up, and now he thinks he's witness to a miracle.”

1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter XI, in The Understanding Heart:

Unthinking Anglo-Saxons regard him as a Gallic marplot, rather than the great twentieth-century statesman he was – certainly the greatest Frenchman since Napoleon.

2012, Michael Burleigh, “Keeping the Flame Alive”, in Literary Review, section 402:

A meddlesome person whose activity interferes with the plans of others.


remue-méninge

brainstorming (method of problem solving)


amuse-gueule

amuse-gueule m (plural amuse-gueules or amuse-gueule)

amuse-gueules (plural)
amuse-gueule (plural)


casse-croûte

English: casse-croute


grille-pain

grille-pain m (plural grille-pain or grille-pains)

grille-pain (plural)
grille-pains (plural)


sèche-linge

sèche-linge m (plural sèche-linge or sèche-linges)

sèche-linge (plural)
sèche-linges (plural)


lackbrain

Among themselves, his clerical brethren who employed him to produce revivals, acknowledged him to be but a pitiful lackbrain...

"Is that clear enough, even for you, lackbrain?"

1995, Catherine Coulter, Lord of Falcon Ridge:

One moment I was staring up at that lackbrain Sister Margaret, and the next I was staring at that lackbrain chieftain...

(derogatory) A person who lacks brains; an idiot.


wantwit

From Middle English wanten wit, equivalent to want + wit.

[…] and ſuch a Want-wit ſadnesse makes of mee,
That I haue much ado to know my ſelfe.

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], page 163, column 1:

'Wantwit! Clod-brain! Numbskull!' he shouted, straddling her midriff and pummelling her face and chest with his fists.

2017, Minette Walters, The Last Hours, →ISBN, page 357:

A person wanting or lacking wit or sense; a fool.


pousse-café

pousse-café m (plural pousse-café or pousse-cafés)

pousse-café (plural)
pousse-cafés (plural)

Literally, “coffee-pusher”, from pousse (“push”, 2nd person singular imperative of pousser) + café (“coffee”). Compare Italian ammazzacaffè (literally “coffee-killer”).

af

2nd person singular imperative of <i class="Latn mention" lang="fr">pousser</i>

ncog

(informal) chasse-café, pousse-café (small glass of alcohol after coffee)


casse-couilles

From casser (“to break, bust”) + couille (“ball”). See also casser les couilles.


repose-pied

fr-noun

repose-pied m (plural repose-pied or repose-pieds)

repose-pied (plural)
repose-pieds (plural)


brise-lames

breakwater (construction in or around a harbour)


tapecul

(informal) old banger (car with poor suspension)


porte-clef

→ Greek: πορτκλέ (portklé)

Literally, “key carrier”. Compare Italian portachiavi, Romanian portchei.


fainéant

fainéant m (plural fainéants, feminine fainéante)

From feignant, the present participle of feindre (“to fake, to feign”), remotivated by folk etymology in fait (“does”) + néant (“nothing”).

a lazybones; one who makes little or no effort


abot-tanaw

tl-noun

abót-tanáw (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜊᜓᜆ᜔ᜆᜈᜏ᜔)

abót-tanáw (canonical)
ᜀᜊᜓᜆ᜔ᜆᜈᜏ᜔ (Baybayin)

[ʔɐˌbot̪ t̪ɐˈn̪aʊ̯]

[ˌʔaː.bot̪ t̪ɐˈn̪aʊ̯]

farthest distance that can be seen; horizon


porte-monnaie

fr-noun

porte-monnaie m (plural porte-monnaies or porte-monnaie)

porte-monnaies (plural)
porte-monnaie (plural)

→ Armenian: պորտման (portman)

→ Azerbaijani: portman, portmanat

→ Danish: portemonnæ

desctree

→ Dutch: portemonnee, (superseded) portemonnaie
→ Caribbean Hindustani: patmoni
→ Papiamentu: pòtmòni

→ English: porte-monnaie

→ German: Portemonnaie

→ Ladino: portmoné

→ Polish: portmonetka

→ Romanian: portmoneu

→ Russian: портмоне́ (portmoné)

→ Swedish: portmonnä


chasse-neige

fr-noun

chasse-neige m (plural chasse-neige or chasse-neiges)

chasse-neige (plural)
chasse-neiges (plural)

snow plow (US), snow plough (UK) (machine for moving snow)


casse-cou

From casser (“to break”) + cou (“neck”), literally “neck breaker”.


d'arrache-pied

J’ai travaillé d’arrache-pied pour parvenir où je suis, il n’y a rien de magique.

I worked relentlessly to get to where I am; there's nothing magic to it.


baisemain

à belles baisemains (archaic)

(historical) in feudalism, homage which the vassal used to give to the fief seigneur, by kissing his hand


schaafwond

nl-noun

schaafwond f (plural schaafwonden, diminutive schaafwondje n)

schaafwonden (plural)
schaafwondje (diminutive neuter)

(Netherlands) skin abrasion, excoriation


garde-robe

→ Estonian: garderoob

→ German: Garderobe (see there for further descendants)

→ Hungarian: gardrób

→ Polish: garderoba

→ Russian: гардеро́б (garderób)

→ Serbo-Croatian: garderóba, гардеро́ба

→ Turkish: gardırop

Ellipsis of armoire garde-robe, from garder (“to keep safe”) + robe (“dress”).

af

an armoire; a wardrobe (a piece of furniture for clothes)


croque-mort

fr-noun

croque-mort m or f by sense (plural croque-morts)

Uncertain, possibly from dated verb croquer (“to make disappear”) or from croc (“hook”).

Au fossoyeur, au croque-mort, au curé, aux chevaux même ils payaient un verre.

1960, “Les Funérailles d'antan”, in Georges Brassens (lyrics), Les Funérailles d'antan:

They treated the gravedigger, the undertaker, the curate, and even the horses to a drink.


porte-bonheur

→ English: porte-bonheur

From porter bonheur (“to carry luck, to bring luck”).


casse-tête

→ Polish: kastet

→ Portuguese: cassetete

→ Russian: касте́т (kastét)


cache-col

→ Greek: κασκόλ (kaskól)

→ Italian: cache-col

→ Portuguese: cachecol

→ Turkish: kaşkol


souffre-douleur

souffre-douleur m (plural souffre-douleur or souffre-douleurs)

souffre-douleur (plural)
souffre-douleurs (plural)

punchbag, punching bag (person or animal used by someone to let out their anger)


cacafuego

From Spanish. From the nickname of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, meaning "fire-shitter". See caca, fuego.


catchpenny

A publication, etc. intended to make money, with no particular merit otherwise.


chauffe-eau

chauffe-eau m (plural chauffe-eau or chauffe-eaux)

chauffe-eau (plural)
chauffe-eaux (plural)

water heater (appliance for heating water)


compte-gouttes

compte-gouttes m (plural compte-gouttes)


lèche-bottes

lèche-bottes m or f by sense (plural lèche-bottes)

bootlicker, brown noser (one who brownnoses)


tanglefoot

They never seemed to want anything, even at the sutler's store, though the Lord knows there wasn't much there they could want except tanglefoot and tobacco.

But Dooley's Irish blood was up, five fingers of tanglefoot tingling in each fist and bubbling in his brain.

1906, Charles King, Tonio, Son of the Sierras:

In the following year blight appeared again, but at another point, and after cutting it out I put on tanglefoot, simply because I happened to have some with me when passing the tree.

1917, Various, Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the:

(US, archaic, colloquial) Low-quality whiskey, especially home-brewed.


brûle-gueule

brûle-gueule m (plural brûle-gueule or brûle-gueules)

brûle-gueule (plural)
brûle-gueules (plural)

From brûler (“to burn”) + gueule (“snout, face; mouth”).


torche-cul

(slang, vulgar) asswipe, bogroll (something used to wipe the anus after defecation)


trompe-l'œil

trompe-l’œil (canonical masculine)
trompe-l’œil (plural)

trompe l’oeil (type of optical illusion)


catchfly

Any of several plants, mostly in tribe Sileneae, that have sticky leaves on which flies become stuck; especially, the silenes or campions.


turnback

en-noun

turnback (countable and uncountable, plural turnbacks)

(attributive) Part of a garment that is turned back.

Most basketmakers make their turnbacks in a particular section of the weaving on the sides or in the middle of the basket.

1991, Rachel Nash Law, Cynthia Wieboldt Taylor, Appalachian White Oak Basketmaking: Handing Down the Basket (page 86)

(basketry) The turning back of a weaver around another element.

Coordinate term: turnaway

The information commissioner, Professor John McMillan, ruled that requests for watch officer logs and authorisations for turnbacks were exempt from release because they could have a “substantial adverse effect” on the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS).

2015 July 20, Paul Farrell, “Details about asylum seeker turnbacks to remain secret, commissioner rules”, in The Guardian:

The act of turning back a boat containing immigrants.

The strap from the hames to the hip-strap, on a horse.

Removal of one set of train turnbacks also makes more efficient use of infrastructure and reduces peak loads at interchange stations.

2023 June 14, David Clough, “Tram-trains are making tracks...”, in RAIL, number 985, page 54:

A place, e.g. on a railway, where vehicles can reverse direction, i.e. turn back.

(US) A cadet at a military academy who fails a class and has to retake it.


croque-mitaine

fr-noun

croque-mitaine m (plural croque-mitaines)

"The mitten biter," from croque (“bite, crunch”) + mitaine (“mitten”).

bogeyman (menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories)


mange-merde

mange-merde m or f by sense (plural mange-merde)

(vulgar) gobshite (person of very poor judgment)


écrase-merde

Compound of écraser (“to crush”) + merde (“shit”).

(France, vulgar, dysphemistic) An unsophisticated shoe


serre-livres

LL-Q150 (fra)-Fabricio Cardenas (Culex)-serre-livres.wav

bookends (set of two objects designed to keep books upright)


lave-linge

lave-linge m (plural lave-linge or lave-linges)

lave-linge (plural)
lave-linges (plural)


para-sol

[ˌpa.ɾɐˈsɔʊ̯]

[ˌpa.ɾɐˈsɔʊ̯]

[ˌpa.ɾɐˈsɔɫ]

[ˌpa.ɾɐˈsɔɫ]


casse-pipe

a difficult, risky or life-threatening situation

Ils vont au casse-pipe.

(by extension, military) a dangerous mission or battle; a war

On va au casse-pipe.


stop-tap

It was almost stop-tap time when my name came up, and that was the excuse my friends had been waiting for to shower me with beer.

1998, Peter Jackson, Lions of Wales, page 139:

But there we were together on the pavement after stop tap, him cadging a light off me.

2010, Gwen Davies, ‘The Professionals’, translated by William Owen Roberts, Best European Fiction 2011:


tearthumb

Any of a group of annual vining plants within the genus Polygonum, with small sharp spines covering the stems.


makebate

From make + bate (“strife, contention, quarrel”).

com

One who excites contentions and quarrels; an instigator.


make-king

As Nevill, Earl of Warwick was the make-king; so this Dudley, Earl of Warwick (his title before lately created duke) was the make-queen.

1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge since the Conquest; republished as Marmaduke Prickett, Thomas Wright, editors, The History of the University of Cambridge from the Conquest to the Year 1634, Cambridge University Press, 1811, Section VII, page 250:


makepeace

To be a make-peace shall become my age / Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage.

c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, act 1, scene 1:

(rare) A peacemaker; one who reconciles persons at variance with one another; a composer of strife; an adjuster of differences.

The civill uſes whereunto the Birch-tree ſerveth are many, as for the puniſhment of Children both at home and at School, for it hath an admirable influence upon them, to quiet them when they are out of Order, and therefore ſome call it Make-peace: The old Roman Magiſirates had it born in bundles before them, as an Enſigne, and Inſtrument of Juſtice to be executed upon petty Offenders.

1657, William Coles, chapter CCCXX, in Adam in Eden: Or, Natures Paradiſe, page 594:

(obsolete) A stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for corporal punishment.


wastethrift

My adversary evermore twits me with my nephew, forsooth, my nephew: why may not a virtuous uncle have a dissolute nephew? What though he be a brotheller, a wastethrift, a common surfeiter, and, to conclude, a beggar, must sin in him call up shame in me?

1608, Thomas Middleton, A Trick to Catch the Old One, act 2, scene 1; republished in The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 2, London: Edward Lumley, 1840, page 20:


guarda-roupa

[ˈɡwaɾ.ðɐ ˈʁo.pɐ]

From guardar (“to guard, to keep”) + roupa (“clothe(s)”). Compare French garde-robe and English wardrobe.

af

Comprei um guarda-roupa novo.

wardrobe
cabinet in which clothes may be stored

Hora de renovar o guarda-roupa!

(figuratively) one's collection of clothes, especially in the context of fashion


turncloak

“The Tattered Prince gave a shrug. “Every turncloak has his tale. You are not the first to swear me your swords, take my coin, and run. All of them have reasons. ‘My little son is sick,’ or ‘My wife is putting horns on me,’ or ‘The other men all make me suck their cocks.’ Such a charming boy, the last, but I did not excuse his desertion..."

2011, George R. R. Martin, “The Spurned Suitor”, in A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire; 5), London: Voyager Books, published 2019, →ISBN, page 927:


wagpastie

Mathew Merygreeke: I will call hir: Maide with whome are ye so hastie?
Tibet Talkapace: Not with you sir, but with a little wag-pastie,
A deceiuer of folkes, by subtill craft and guile.
Mathew Merygreeke: I knowe where she is: Dobinet hath wrought some wile.

c. 1552, Nicholas Udall, Ralph Roister Doister, act 3, scene 2:

Truly this wagpastie is eyther drunck or mad.

c. 1562, Nicholas Udall, Jacke Jugeler, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published 1914, page 70:

(rare, obsolete) A rogue; a rascal; a scoundrel.


pickpurse

From Middle English pikepurse, pykeporse, equivalent to pick + purse.

Down with Christ's cross, up with purgatory pickpurse, up with him, the popish purgatory, I mean.

1548 January 18, Hugh Latimer, Sermon of the Plough, quoted in Sermons by Hugh Latimer, Cambridge University Press, published 1884, page 71:

No, it is false, if it is a pickpurse.

1602, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 1, scene 1:

(obsolete) Someone who steals purses, or money from purses.


catchwater

A device which captures surface runoff for use as a water supply.


rushbuckler

For quotations using this term, see Citations:rushbuckler.

(rare) A rough, violent, bullying person.


lança-chamas

/ˌlɐ̃.sɐˈʃɐ̃.mɐs/

/ˌlɐ̃.sɐˈʃɐ̃.mɐs/

/ˌlɐ̃.sɐˈʃɐ̃.mɐʃ/

/ˌlɐ̃.sɐˈʃɐ.mɐʃ/

/ˌlɐ̃.sɐˈʃɐ.mɐʃ/

/ˌlɐ̃.sɐˈt͡ʃa.mɐʃ/

Calque of German Flammenwerfer (“flamethrower”, literally “shoots-flames”).


stop-loss

en-noun

stop-loss (countable and uncountable, plural stop-losses)

(US, military, uncountable) A requirement for soldiers to remain in service beyond their normal discharge date.


lickpenny

black hole

An entity which consumes time or resources

For well London Lykke-peny for ones and eye, / For lake of money I may not spede.

15th century, anonymous author, London Lickpenny:

[…] at Smyrna, you talked of a lawsuit—law is a lickpenny, Mr Tyrrel—no counsellor like the pound in purse.

1823, Sir Walter Scott, Saint Ronan's Well:

(obsolete) Something that devours or absorbs lots of money; something expensive.


rakeshame

[…] if such divine ministeries as these, wherein the angel of the church represents the person of Christ Jesus, must lie prostitute to sordid fees, and not pass to and fro between our Saviour, that of free grace redeemed us, and the submissive penitent, without the truckage of perishing coin, and the butcherly execution of tormentors, rooks, and rakeshames sold to lucre ; then have the Babylonish merchants of souls just excuse.

1641, John Milton, Of Reformation of Church-Discipline in England, Book II:


turnbroach

Has not a deputy married his cook-maid? An alderman's widow, one that was her turnbroach?

c. 1613, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene i:


attrape-nigaud

fr-noun

attrape-nigaud m (plural attrape-nigaud or attrape-nigauds)

attrape-nigaud (plural)
attrape-nigauds (plural)

From attraper (“to catch”) + nigaud (“nitwit”), literally “nitwit-catcher”.


wag-halter

I can tell you, I am a mad waghalter.

1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, I.1:

(obsolete) Someone who is likely to swing in a halter; someone likely to be hanged.


lick-spigot

(obsolete) A woman who performs fellatio; a fellatrix.


slipstring

Every promise that thou therein dost utter, / Is as sure as it were sealed with butter, / Or a mouse tyed with a threed. Every good thing / Thou lettest even slip, like a waghalter slipstring.

1546, John Heywood, chapter VII, in Julian Sharman, editor, The Proverbs of John Heywood, London: George Bell and Sons, published 1874, pages 147–148:

Goinfre: m. A wag, ſlipſtring, knaviſh lad; a merrie conceited whoreſonne, a notable good fellow, an excellent companion.

1611, Randle Cotgrave, A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, page GOI-GON:

Well, slip-string, I shall meet with you.

1619, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, A King and No King, act 2, scene 2; republished in The Works of Beaumont & Fletcher, volume 2, London: Edward Moxon, 1843, page 270:

(obsolete) A wastefully extravagant person; a prodigal; a spendthrift.


scattergood

(obsolete) Someone who wastes; a spendthrift.


dingthrift

From ding + thrift. Compare English spendthrift and wastethrift.

Wilt thou, therefore, a drunkard be, / A dingthrift and a knave?


huffcap

en-noun

huffcap (countable and uncountable, plural huffcaps)

From huff + cap. The ale is called this "because it induced people to set their caps in a bold huffing fashion."

To quench the scorching heat of our parched throtes, with the best nippitatum in this toun, which is commonly called huffcap, it will make a man look as though he had seen the devil, and quickly move him to call his own father whoreson.

1576, Ulpian Fulwell, Ars adulandi, or, The Art of Flattery:

Then, when the Nippitatum, this Huf-cap (as they call it) and this nectar of lyfe, is ſet abroche, wel is he that can get the ſooneſt to it, and ſpend the moſt at it; for he that fitteth the cloſeſt to it, and ſpends the moſte at it, he is counted the godlieſt man of all the reſt; but who either cannot, for pinching pouertie, or otherwiſe, wil not ſtick to it, he is counted one deſtitute bothe of vertue and godlynes.

1583, Philip Stubbes, “The Manner of Church-ales in Ailgna”, in Furnivall, Frederick James, editor, The Anatomie of Abuses; republished as Phillip Stubbes's Anatomy of Abuses in England in Shakspere's Youth, A.D. 1583, London: The New Shakspere Society, 1882, page 150:

I am with child, till I behold this huff-cap.

1599, Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday, act 5, scene 3; Rhys, Ernest, editor, Thomas Dekker, unexpurgated edition, London: Vizetelly & Co, 1887, page 78:

Prethee tell me true, was not this Huff-cap once the Indian Emperour, and at another time did not he call himself Maximine?

a. 1677, Martin Clifford, “The Second Letter”, in Notes Upon Mr. Dryden's Poems in Four Letters, published 1687:


mumblenews

Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany, / Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick,

c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, act 5, scene 2, lines 463–464:

Well said, you mumblenews from Kolistin. Well said!

2017 [1870], Douglas Robinson, transl., The Brothers Seven, Bucharest: Zeta Books, translation of Seitsemän veljestä by Aleksis Kivi (in Finnish), page 330:


carrytale

'This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy, / This canker that eats up Love's tender spring, / This carrytale, dissentious Jealousy, / That sometime true news, sometime false doth bring,

1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, lines 655–658:

An indiscreet person who spreads gossip.