worm-eaten

en-adj

worm-eaten (comparative more worm-eaten, superlative most worm-eaten)

more worm-eaten (comparative)
most worm-eaten (superlative)

(figuratively, by extension) Rotten or decrepit.


deadwood

en-noun

deadwood (countable and uncountable, plural deadwoods)

The defendant […] sustained the injuries at Swatzell's switch, by getting his arm caught between the deadwoods of two freight cars […]

1808, The Southwestern Reporter, volume 42, page 1066

(by extension) Structural material on a load-carrying vehicle that reduces the available cargo space.


twopence

twopence (countable and uncountable, plural twopences)

(British, Ireland, by extension) A small amount or value.


beachhead

[...] the SR is confident of Newhaven's appeal as a starting point convenient for Southern England generally and of Dieppe's attraction as a beachhead from which motorists' routes to the principal holiday areas from the French coastline will be shortened.

1964 July, “BR develop Newhaven as UK's chief car-ferry port”, in Modern Railways, page 48

Muslim influence in Arakan was of great cultural and political importance. In effect, Arakan was the beachhead for Muslim penetration into other parts of Burma even if it never achieved the same degree of importance it did in Arakan. As a result of the close land and sea contacts maintained between the two countries, Muslims played a key role in the history of the Kingdom of Arakan.

2002, Moshe Yegar, chapter 2, in Between Integration and Secession: The Muslim Communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand, and Western Burma/Myanmar

(by extension) An initial success that ensures the possibility of further advances in a project; a foothold.


caseharden

en-verb

caseharden (third-person singular simple present casehardens, present participle casehardening, simple past and past participle casehardened)

casehardens (present singular third-person)
casehardening (participle present)
casehardened (participle past)
casehardened (past)

(by extension) To make insensitive to hardship.


born-again

From the New Testament: "Jesus replied, 'Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.'" [John 3:3, Today's New International Version].

After not picking up a shovel for twenty years, she finally saw the beauty in flowers and declared herself a born-again gardener.

(by extension) Having a newly won zeal for some activity.


booby trap

(by extension) An unforeseen source of danger; a pitfall.


hustings

Originally the plural of husting, later construed as a singular.

Washington is awfully deserted now that every congressman is out on the hustings.

Health secretary Matt Hancock was booed and heckled at a general election hustings in his constituency after he launched an attack on Jeremy Corbyn over his handling of antisemitism.

2019 November 30, Eleanor Busby, “Matt Hancock booed and heckled by crowd as hustings descends into chaos”, in The Independent


crosscurrent

(by extension) A situation in which there are conflicting opinions.


tew

tew (third-person singular simple present tews, present participle tewing, simple past and past participle tewed)

tews (present singular third-person)
tewing (participle present)
tewed (participle past)
tewed (past)

From Middle English tewen, a variant of tawen (“to taw, prepare”). More at taw.

with the king ran also Dyvers others, who all returning brought Cudgells and wandes in their hands all to be tewed, as if they had beaten him extreamly.

1607, ?Gavriel Archer, A relayton of the Discovery of our River, from Iames Forte into the Maine

On the shores which lie open to the East, the grass grows down to the water side, and they are the greener shores; but on the shores exposed to the West, the grass and trees are weather beaten and worn away, and the shore sides much tewed with the surge.

1813, James Burney, A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea Or Pacific Ocean, page 357

When the sand, mixed with wort upon the stone casting table, has been thoroughly pounded or tewed, by means of a short, thick, wooden roller, the workman places one of the boxes upon the moulding board, and also arranges thereon the models of the articles to be cast, or parts of the same, which must all be of such a shape as that they will admit of being withdrawn, without difficulty, from the sand.

1834, John Holland, A Treatise on the Progressive Improvement and Present State of the Manufacture in Metal, Volume 3, page 215

The edges of the table or board are surrounded by a ledge , in order to support the tewed stuff ; the table so previously prepared is filled up with the sand as high as the top of the ledge, which is in a moderately moistened state, and which must be pressed closely down upon the table in every part.

1839, Thomas Curtis, “Founding”, in The London encyclopaedia, page 493


crossfire

en-noun

crossfire (countable and uncountable, plural crossfires)

/ˈkɹɔːsfaɪɹ/

(by extension) A heated confrontation between opposing factions.


hecatomb

The noun is a learned borrowing from Latin hecatombē (“great sacrifice of a hundred oxen, hecatomb”), from Ancient Greek ἑκατόμβη (hekatómbē, “great sacrifice of a hundred oxen, hecatomb; any animal sacrifice or large sacrifice”, from ἑκᾰτόν (hekatón, “hundred”) + βοῦς (boûs, “cattle, cow, ox”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

(by extension, religion, historical) A great public sacrifice in other religions; also, a great number of animals or people reserved for such a sacrifice.


cut and run

en-verb

cut and run (third-person singular simple present cuts and runs, present participle cutting and running, simple past cut and ran, past participle cut and run)

cuts and runs (present singular third-person)
cutting and running (participle present)
cut and ran (past)
cut and run (participle past)

Gap, the US clothing giant, will not "cut and run" when an international textile agreement ends next year, threatening the closure of hundreds of factories in the developing world, the company's chief executive said last night.

2004 November 11, Tobias Webb, quoting Paul Pressler, “Gap pledges not to 'cut and run'”, in The Guardian

Calls to cut and run without paying a penny in the Brexit settlement are unlawful and unethical.

2017 May 3, Helena Kennedy, “You can’t just cut and run from Europe, Theresa May – it’s illegal”, in The Guardian

(by extension) To hurry away; to escape.


distillate

en-noun

distillate (countable and uncountable, plural distillates)

(by extension) The essence of something.


set one's cap at

en-verb

set one's cap at (third-person singular simple present sets one's cap at, present participle setting one's cap at, simple past and past participle set one's cap at)

sets one's cap at (present singular third-person)
setting one's cap at (participle present)
set one's cap at (participle past)
set one's cap at (past)

Probably a calque of French mettre le cap sur (“to set a course for”).

clq

Patrick O'Brian, "HMS Surprise".
How he has escaped marriage until now I cannot tell: the number of caps set in his direction would furnish a warehouse.

(idiomatic, more generally) To choose something as a goal.


galvanic

en-adj

galvanic (comparative more galvanic, superlative most galvanic)

more galvanic (comparative)
most galvanic (superlative)

From French galvanique, named after Italian physiologist Luigi Aloisio Galvani (1737–1798) + -ique.

named-after

Whether the town existed during Mr. Tapley's time I have not been able to learn. . . . At that moment a galvanic motion had been pumped into it by the war movements of General Halleck.

1862, Anthony Trollope, chapter 6, in North America

Then he clenched his fists, and, with an agility astonishing in a man of his years, indulged in a series of galvanic little hops in front of the astounded Peter Truefitt.

1908, W. W. Jacobs, chapter 19, in Salthaven

But the main event may well end up being the performance of Brahms’s galvanic Piano Concerto No. 1, with the exhilarating British pianist Paul Lewis.

2014 April 4, Zachary Woolfe, “Music: How the Centuries Will Play Out”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-05-12


breadless

From Middle English bredles, bredlees, bredeles, equivalent to bread + -less.


butchering

en-noun

butchering (countable and uncountable, plural butcherings)

The act by which someone or something is butchered, as:

(loosely) Slaughter or killing, especially of a human being.


daily bread

Possibly a reference to the Lord's Prayer in the Bible, part of which reads in the King James Version: “Give us this day our daily bread” (see Matthew 6:11, and compare Luke 11:3).

For he [Augustine of Hippo] calleth there the daily bread, which we continually pray for, either corporal bread and meat, which is our daily sustenance for the body, or else the visible sacrament of bread and wine, or the invisible sacraments of God's word and commandments; of the which sacraments God's word is daily heard, and the other is daily seen.

1817, Thomas Cranmer, “[Extracts from An Answer, by the Reverend Father in God, Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropolitan, unto a Crafty and Sophisticated Cavillation, Devised by Stephen Gardiner, Doctor of Law, Late Bishop of Winchester, against the True and Godly Doctrine of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Our Saviour Christ. First Printed in A.D. 1551, and afterwards in 1580, from which Last Edition the Extracts are Taken.] Connexion between the Sacraments and Our Resurrection.—At page 183.”, in Legh Richmond, editor, A Selection from the Writings of the Reformers and Early Protestant Divines of the Church of England. … This Volume Contains Various Tracts and Extracts from the Works of Archbishop Cranmer; with a Memorial of His Life (The Fathers of the English Church; 3), London: Published by John Hatchard, bookseller to the Queen, 190, opposite Albany, Piccadilly, →OCLC, page 629

This [the Eucharist] is not a physical food but a spiritual one, the very Body and Blood of Christ, offered for them as viaticum for their earthly journey. It is the "daily bread" which the faithful should ask for and eat [every]-day, more hungry and eager for it than for earthly bread.

1987, Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen [i.e., Gabriele di Santa Maria Maddalena], “298. Corpus Christi: Thursday or Sunday after Trinity Sunday: Year A”, in Divine Intimacy, enl. and rev. edition, volume III (Ninth Sunday through Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time), San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius Press

(by extension, chiefly Christianity) All those things, such as regular prayer, worship and meditation, needed to sustain spiritual life.


keelhauling

(slang, obsolete, by extension) A thorough thrashing or mauling; rough treatment.


quartering

(by extension, aviation, of wind) Coming from aft and to one side; having both a crosswind and tailwind component.


steam shovel

(by extension) Any excavating machine of similar design, no matter how powered.


colorist

(loosely) One who believes in or subscribes to colorism.


coryza

coryza (countable and uncountable, plural coryzas or coryzae or coryzæ)

coryzas (plural)
coryzae (plural)
coryzæ (plural)

/kəˈɹɑɪ̯.zə/

Borrowed from Latin corȳza, from Ancient Greek κόρυζα (kóruza, “nasal mucus”).

der

(medicine, broadly, metonymically) Rhinitis or rhinosinusitis; cold or coldlike illness; common cold.


man'yōgana

From Japanese 万(まん)葉(よう)仮(が)名(な) (man'yōgana).


Rosetta Stone

My friend’s carefully-compiled notebook was the Rosetta Stone that opened up understanding of the physics lectures.

(by extension) Any source of information crucial to interpreting.


run into

en-verb

run into (third-person singular simple present runs into, present participle running into, simple past ran into, past participle run into)

runs into (present singular third-person)
running into (participle present)
ran into (past)
run into (participle past)

I ran into your cousin the other day.

Everything was going according to plan until we ran into the legal problems.

Japan's revolutionary New Tokaido Line, the 310-mile, 150 m.p.h. route between Tokyo and Osaka that is due to open for passenger traffic in October, has run into the same kind of budgetary trouble that held up our own LMR electrification, though the Japanese Government, unlike our own, has apparently gritted its teeth and allowed the project to go ahead to planned completion.

1964 July, “Tokaido line trouble”, in Modern Railways, page 52

(intransitive but with prepositional object, by extension) To unexpectedly encounter or meet someone or something (literally or figuratively).


scratch sheet

The scratch sheet – a listing of the competitors – said that the White, Red and Blue fleets totaled 196 boats, run in four classes of 49 boats each.

2002 July 31, "More than 250 Opti prams crowd bay in perfect sailing weather", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, page 64

(by extension) A publication that lists participants in a competitive sporting event or in a political campaign.


loonie

From loon + -ie from the depiction of a loon on the reverse (tail-side) of the Canadian one-dollar coin.

The loonie continued to rise against the greenback today.

(Canada, informal, by extension) The dollar as the Canadian unit of currency.


toehold

Were Herat to fall to the Persians, this would give the Russians a crucial and dangerous toe-hold in western Afghanistan.

1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 151

One in three "adult-kids" who have not left the parental nest say they are still living at home because they cannot afford to get a toehold on the property ladder by buying or renting.

2009 December 8, Alan Travis, “More young adults in 20s and 30s living with parents than in past 20 years”, in The Guardian

Strachey argued that the Raj was bad for Britain and the British. In Inglorious Empire, Shashi Tharoor argues, with equal passion, that it was much worse for India and the Indians. In 1700, when the British were mere traders clinging on to a few coastal toeholds, the Emperor Aurangzeb ruled over a country that accounted for a quarter of the world’s economy.

2017 September 7, Ferdinand Mount, “Umbrageousness”, in London Review of Books

(by extension) Any small advantage which allows one to make significant progress; a slight footing or foothold.


earthiness

en-noun

earthiness (usually uncountable, plural earthinesses)

From Middle English erthinesse, erthynesse, eorþynesse, equivalent to earthy + -ness.


airbrush

en-verb

airbrush (third-person singular simple present airbrushes, present participle airbrushing, simple past and past participle airbrushed)

airbrushes (present singular third-person)
airbrushing (participle present)
airbrushed (participle past)
airbrushed (past)

They'd spent one evening together sixteen months ago, and Falk was acutely aware that he'd probably airbrushed and edited at least some of it without meaning to.

(by extension, figurative) To edit or alter something in order to make it appear better.


good standing

(by extension) The status of a person who is known to be of good character and to be trustworthy.


fathomless

en-adj

fathomless (comparative more fathomless, superlative most fathomless)

more fathomless (comparative)
most fathomless (superlative)

(by extension) unfathomable or incomprehensible.


scalper

iemand die toegangskaarten meestal duur doorverkoopt

(by extension) One who scalps any other item with limited availability.


cook the books

en-verb

cook the books (third-person singular simple present cooks the books, present participle cooking the books, simple past and past participle cooked the books)

cooks the books (present singular third-person)
cooking the books (participle present)
cooked the books (participle past)
cooked the books (past)

From the mid-17th century. A metaphor based on cooking, whereby ingredients are changed, altered and improved. Thus financial statements can also be so modified to the benefit of the "cook".

Those that cooked the books and presented them with bias minds; They sugar-coated the stories; and twisted and exaggerated events

2012, R.I. Iyemere, The Ordeals: Poems in Memory of Ada-Emilia Valmori, page 146

Two years after he received his piece of the Nobel Prize, Mann was drawn into controversy over a series of e-mails stolen from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom that some climate change skeptics charged provided proof that Mann and his fellow scientists were cooking the books on climate, though for what reason, the skeptics never made clear.

2015, Seamus McGraw, Betting the Farm on a Drought

One does suspect that the authors of Numbers cooked the books a bit to make the more important and respected tribes (Judah, for instance) look good with higher population numbers.

2017, Stephen Warde Anderson, The Anderson Revisionist Bible: The Books of Moses, page 280

(idiomatic, by extension) To falsify an account of an event.


coffeehousing

(distracting an opponent): From the chat or banter in a coffeehouse.

(by extension) Unethical behaviour at the table during bridge or another game.


fistful

At Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked, he survived to pilot Navy reconnaissance planes again and pick up a fistful of medals, from the Purple Heart to the Distinguished Flying Cross.

1967 June 9, “Nation: A Comer Arrives”, in Time

(by extension) A small number of something.


hot stove

(figurative, by extension) Any potentially harmful situation.


cheapskate

From cheap + skite (“contemptible person”). Compare blatherskite.

My mum is such a cheapskate that she didn't lend me money to go shopping.

(by extension) Someone who does not give freely.


Chinese whispers

Rightly famed for their year 2000 project, RMX//A Visual Remix Project, for which they remixed each others' work in a Chinese Whispers-style process, they have also printed T-shirts with their eye-catching graphics […]

2004, Helen Walters, 200% Cotton: New T-Shirt Graphics, page 141

(by extension) Any situation where something is changed or misunderstood as a result of passing through successive people or processes.


Prince of Darkness

en-proper noun

Prince of Darkness (plural Princes of Darkness)

Calque of Latin prīnceps tenebrārum, used in the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667).

(by extension, countable) A particularly evil person.


schoolmarm

Bernstein, am I a stuffed shirt? Am I a horse-faced hypocrite? Am I a New England school marm?

1941, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (motion picture), spoken by Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten), RKO Radio Pictures

(by extension) Someone who acts like a schoolmarm; a person acting harsh and stern.


Byzantium

From Latin Bȳzantium, from Ancient Greek Βῡζᾰ́ντῐον (Būzántion), named after its legendary founder, Byzas.

(historical, by extension) The Byzantine Empire.


enisle

en-verb

enisle (third-person singular simple present enisles, present participle enisling, simple past and past participle enisled)

enisles (present singular third-person)
enisling (participle present)
enisled (participle past)
enisled (past)

[…] no reply / Comes from the vast, enisling sphere / Of spirit, limitless, divine, / So far from me, so strangely mine.

1876, Edmond Holmes, “After Death”, in Poems, London: Henry S. King & Co., page 82

To-night, dear, / Let's forget all that, that and the war, / And enisle ourselves a little beyond time, / You with this Irish whiskey, I with red wine / While the stars go over the sleepless ocean,

1925, Robinson Jeffers, “For Una”, in The Wild God of the World: An Anthology of Robinson Jeffers, Stanford University Press, published 2003, p

[…] one in ten New Orleansians lived in the projects—some 50,000 souls more or less, almost all of them women with too many children, a gulag of women and children enisled by poverty.

2005, Jed Horne, Desire Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, page 25

(transitive, figurative, by extension) To isolate.


lone wolf

Paddock's motives remain unclear. Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo described the shooting as a "lone wolf" attack. "We have no idea what his belief system was," he said.

2017 October 2, "Las Vegas shooting: At least 58 dead at Mandalay Bay Hotel", in bbc.com, BBC

A Tunisian man who killed two Swedish citizens in a terrorist attack in Brussels was “probably a lone wolf”, the Belgian prime minister has said, as Sweden and Italy called for security at Europe’s borders to be tightened.

2023 October 17, Lisa O'Carroll, Miranda Bryant, Lorenzo Tondo, “Killing of two Swedish football fans in Brussels ‘probably lone wolf’ attack”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(by extension) A criminal who acts alone, not as part of a group.


echo chamber

But it would resound in the conservative media's echo chamber.

2007, Susan Faludi, The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America

“What you’re going to end up doing is amplifying within an echo chamber, which is really different from what the movement wants,” said Dana Fisher, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland whose research focuses on activism.

2020 March 19, Shola Lawal, quoting Dana Fisher, “Coronavirus Halts Street Protests, but Climate Activists Have a Plan”, in New York Times

The videos were tailored for the “echo chamber” that is often created by social media networks like YouTube. To keep you watching, YouTube serves up videos similar to those you have watched before.

2021 April 15, Cade Metz, “Feeding Hate With Video: A Former Alt-Right YouTuber Explains His Methods”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension) An environment in which a person is exposed to only those beliefs and opinions that agree with their own, so that their existing views are magnified and reinforced while alternative ideas are not expressed or considered.

eĥoĉambro

environment which unilaterally reinforces one's own views, beliefs, or opinions

circle jerk

environment which validates a limited set of ideas and feelings


dog tag

(by extension, informal) The identification tag worn around the neck by military personnel.


euouae

Gloria Patri
Guinness World Records
Liber Usualis

From the vowels in the last two words of the final phrase of the Gloria Patri doxology in Latin: “[…] in saecula saeculōrum. Āmēn.” (literally “[…] into ages of ages (for ever and ever). Amen.”). In liturgical works used in Gregorian chant, instead of repeating the words, the letters were printed under musical notes to indicate how the syllables of the words should be sung in different melodies.

The euouae, initials, and finials of all the modes, are given in this kind of notation very amply, and always on five lines, and ſpaces.

1819, Abraham Rees, “ODINGTON, Walter”, in The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature. […], volume XXV, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, […] [et al.], →OCLC, column 1

The evovae, commences always upon the dominant of the key, and terminates upon the tonic.

1825, J[ohn] F[eltham] Danneley, “EVOVAE, or EUOUAE”, in An Encyclopædia, or Dictionary of Music; […], London: […] [F]or the Editor, […] by Preston, […], →OCLC

Thus the Antiphonies of the first and second tones terminate in the final Re; if the first note of the evovae is La, the Antiphony is of the first tone; if the first note is Fa, the Antiphony is of the second tone, and so forth.

1858, Eugene Vetromile, chapter III, in Ahiamihewintuhangan; the Prayer Song, New York, N.Y.: Edward Dunigan & Brother, (James B. Kirker,) […], →OCLC, section II (Further Directions for Finding the Tone to which a Text Belongs), pages 19–20

[D]ifferent forms of the same mode or tone would arise, and these were called Evovae and sometimes differentiae, finitiones, conclusiones, and species seculorum. […] [T]he Evovae must be regarded as containing the germ of the present accepted views respecting accent, as may be seen by comparing the following forms.

1875, John Robert Lunn, “EVOVAE”, in edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 635, column 3

Though not every composer so rigorously follows the rule of the euouae as to use all the notes that belong to the euouae of a given mode (nor need he always do so in order to write good music), still composers do tend to begin their head-motives in imitative points with the first note of the euouae.

1960, R[obert Murrell] Stevenson, Juan Bermudo, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →OCLC

And you will find, in this manner, almost all the moderns, after having explained the nature of the modes, do not have any example at hand better suited to proving their statement than the intonation, mediation, and Euouae of the psalms; showing manifestly thereby that they do not make any distinction between tone and mode, seeing as the one is explained by the other.
Translation of a 1610 text by Pierre Maillart.

1994, David Crook, “The Representation of Psalm-Tone Categories in Imitation Magnificats”, in Orlando di Lasso’s Imitation Magnificats for Counter-Reformation Munich, Princeton, N.J., Chichester West Sussex: Princeton University Press, part II (Compositional Practice), page 101

[T]hese Musicians do much boast … they affirm that the Heavens themselves to sing, yet with voices never heard of any man, except perhaps they have come to the knowledge of those musicians by means of their Euouae, or through Drunkenness, or Dreaming.
Translation of a 1520s text by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.

2014, Tim Shephard, “Alfonso and the Eloquence of Bacchus”, in Echoing Helicon: Music, Art and Identity in the Este Studioli, 1440–1530, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, page 125

Knowing the syllable of the final allowed choristers to judge where to pitch the formulaic endings (evovae) that were appended to antiphons. Example 5.8 shows [Giacomo] Tritto's guidance for singing those closing formulas at the end of antiphons in modes I/II. The first bar indicates the final, re, of the antiphon; the second bar highlights the first syllable, la, of the evovae.

2020, Nicholas Baragwanath, “Canto Fermo and Canto Figurato”, in The Solfeggio Tradition: A Forgotten Art of Melody in the Long Eighteenth Century, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, part I (Context: Apprenticeship, Plainchant and the Rudiments), page 70

(by extension) A cadence used to sing those words of the Gloria Patri.


bearish

en-adj

bearish (comparative more bearish, superlative most bearish)

more bearish (comparative)
most bearish (superlative)

The Germans were downcast because of Eastern Europe and Helmut Schmidt's decline, the Arabs were depressed because of oil and Iraq, the French were bearish because of their government; only the British seemed a little upbeat, but that was before the Falkland Islands incident.

2014, Barton Biggs, Biggs on Finance, Economics, and the Stock Market: Barton's Market Chronicles from the Morgan Stanley Years, John Wiley & Sons

(by extension) Pessimistic about the future.


beanstalk

(figuratively, colloquial, by extension) A tall, slim person.


tarnished

tarnished (comparative more tarnished, superlative most tarnished)

more tarnished (comparative)
most tarnished (superlative)

(figurative, by extension, of one's reputation, name or word) Sullied or dishonored.


hole card

(by extension) Something held in reserve, or concealed, until it is useful


unpalatable

unpalatable (comparative more unpalatable, superlative most unpalatable)

more unpalatable (comparative)
most unpalatable (superlative)

"This is very perplexing," said Duke Deodonato, and he knit his brows; for as he gazed upon the beauty of the damsel, it seemed to him a thing unnatural, undesirable, unpalatable, unpleasant, and unendurable, that she should wed Dr. Fusbius.

A plain, seemingly graceless stylist, his rather unpalatable movies, full of rabid, sloggingly orchestrated physical pain and psychic damage, picture crime as a monstrous, miasmal evil, divesting it of any glamour it ever had.

2003, Jack Shadoian, Dreams and Dead Ends: The American Gangster Film, page 196

Their capacity for talking so much and saying so little is astonishing. Their verbosity is unpalatable.

2016 February 8, Marwan Bishara, “Why Obama fails the leadership test in the Middle East”, in Al Jazeera English

(by extension) Unpleasant or disagreeable.

onaangenaam

(by extension) unpleasant or disagreeable


gestate

en-verb

gestate (third-person singular simple present gestates, present participle gestating, simple past and past participle gestated)

gestates (present singular third-person)
gestating (participle present)
gestated (participle past)
gestated (past)

Philip wondered at that five-year gap. Perhaps it simply proved that a work of genius takes longer to gestate than a work of mere competent brilliance.

1986, David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, paperback edition, Penguin, page 112

Barnett is not currently working on a novel. "Something is gestating in my head," he says, "but I am not yet sure if I have one character or two."

1990 December 9, Walta Borawski, quoting Allen Barnett, “'Unfortunately, Life Has Followed Art...'”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 21, page 7

(by extension, intransitive) To develop an idea.


unanchor

unanchor (third-person singular simple present unanchors, present participle unanchoring, simple past and past participle unanchored)

unanchors (present singular third-person)
unanchoring (participle present)
unanchored (participle past)
unanchored (past)


guardrail

Set guardrails on Visual Studio Live Share
We’ve heard from Live Share users that they want to use Live Share in their organization, but without controls to prevent individuals from outside their company domain joining Live Share sessions, they’re blocked. We are excited that this and many other requested policies are now available.

2022 August 17, Carolina Uribe-Gosselin, Live Share: Enterprise Policies are here!

Some worry that releasing open-source generative A.I. models without guardrails could provoke a backlash among regulators and the general public that could damage the entire industry.

2022 October 21, Kevin Roose, “A Coming-Out Party for Generative A.I., Silicon Valley’s New Craze”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

That a confrontation over a single surveillance balloon deemed harmless by the Pentagon could destabilize diplomacy between the two countries showed the difficulties of putting “guardrails on the relationship,” a goal stated in those terms by President Biden and his aides.

2023 February 5, Helene Cooper, Edward Wong, “U.S. Navy Divers Work to Recover Debris From Chinese Spy Balloon as Diplomacy Dwindles”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

He also acknowledged the need for guardrails. “I really think the world is going to rise to the occasion and everybody wants to do the right thing,” Altman said.

2023 November 18, Blake Montgomery, Dani Anguiano, “OpenAI fires co-founder and CEO Sam Altman for allegedly lying to company board”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(figurative, by extension) Any barrier designed to prevent accidents or mistakes.


schnitzel

en-noun

schnitzel (countable and uncountable, plural schnitzels)

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

Unadapted borrowing from German Schnitzel (“cutlet”).

ubor

(by extension) A Germanic dish of breaded and deep-fried meat cutlet.


horse

en-verb

horse (third-person singular simple present horses, present participle horsing, simple past and past participle horsed)

horses (present singular third-person)
horsing (participle present)
horsed (participle past)
horsed (past)

From Middle English horsen, from Old English horsian (“to horse, provide with horses”) and ġehorsian (“to horse, set or mount on a horse, supply with horses”), from the noun (see above).

inh

To place (someone) on the back of another person, or on a wooden horse, chair, etc., to be flogged or punished.


drop trou

en-verb

drop trou (third-person singular simple present drops trou, present participle dropping trou, simple past and past participle dropped trou)

drops trou (present singular third-person)
dropping trou (participle present)
dropped trou (participle past)
dropped trou (past)

(by extension) To strip, undress, get naked.


go to ground

go to ground (third-person singular simple present goes to ground, present participle going to ground, simple past went to ground, past participle gone to ground)

goes to ground (present singular third-person)
going to ground (participle present)
went to ground (past)
gone to ground (participle past)

It was more than enough for my fugitives to clear out of the Lausanne station and make some new move, to hide away in an out-of-the-way spot, go to ground in fact, or travel in another direction.

1906, Arthur Griffiths, chapter 11, in The Passenger from Calais

Kerviel's identity was revealed on the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph websites, but was not confirmed by bank officials, who admitted on Thursday that the rogue trader appeared to have gone to ground and that they had no idea where he was.

2008 January 24, Vivienne Walt, “France's $7.2 Billion Hit”, in Time

(idiomatic, by extension, chiefly UK) To hide from public view or sequester oneself, especially when authorities, members of the news media, or others are looking for one.


tajine

From Moroccan Arabic طَجِين (ṭajīn), from Arabic طَاجِن (ṭājin, “shallow earthen pot”), from Ancient Greek τάγηνον (tágēnon, “frying pan, saucepan”), further etymology unknown.

der

[T]he term couscous is applied to the cereal along with a great variety of accompanying tajins (stews) and desserts.

1997, Habeeb Salloum, James Peters, “Glossary of Spices, Herbs, and Other Delights”, in Ruth Lane Moushabeck, editor, From the Lands of Figs and Olives: Over 300 Delicious and Unusual Recipes from the Middle East and North Africa, London: I.B. Tauris, page 4

One of Morocco's most famous traditional specialities tajine (also spelled tahine or tadjine) gets its name from glazed earthenware pot used to prepare it, the tajine slaoui. It consists of a saucepan with a tall, often nicely decorated, very tight-fitting, cone-shaped lid that transforms it into a sort of Dutch oven. The high "hat" lets steam circulate, making it the ideal vessel for cooking stews.

2004, Julia Weiss, transl., edited by Paolo Piazzesi, Moroccan Cooking, English edition, Florence: Casa Editrice Bonechi, page 57

Vegetarian entrees include vegetable tagin, stuffed squash, and maklouba (mixed vegetables with rice and yogurt), and come with a choice of soup or one of four Middle Eastern salads [...].

2005, Margaret Littman, “Restaurants [South Side]”, in Veg Out: Vegetarian Guide to Chicago, Layton, Ut.: Gibbs Smith, page 128

Fresh broad beans are used when in season, the young beans added to tagines with the skin on; when more mature, the beans are blanched and skinned before cooking.

2005, Tess Mallos, “Broad Bean Dip”, in Cooking Moroccan, Millers Point, N.S.W.: Murdoch Books, page 14

While they were finishing an excellent fish tagin—fish and tomato stew with rice cooked in a clay pot—he listened to her fantastic story.

2007, Gerhard Behrens, “The Second Ottoman Conquest of Egypt”, in The Janissary File: A Novel, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, page 33

The specialized restaurants that only serve tajin dishes are one of the essential destinations of Morocco. [...] When at a tajin restaurant in Morocco, relax, unwind, and converse like the locals while waiting for the food to be prepared.

2014, Naho Terada, Ettouhami Moulay Ahmed, Moroccan Cookbook: Night and Day (Momo Book), [Japan]: マイルスタッフ (インプレス), page 100

The classic tajines combine meat with fruit and spices. [...] When eating a tajine, you start on the outside with the vegetables, and work your way to the meat at the heart of the dish, scooping up the food with bread.

2016, “Morocco Basics”, in Morocco: Essaouira and the Atlantic Coast (Rough Guides Snapshot), London: Rough Guides

(by extension) A stew, originally from Morocco, the ingredients of which are traditionally cooked slowly in such a pot; the dish is normally served with couscous.


High Mass

(loosely) Any sung Mass, including a Missa Cantata.


ride with the punches

en-verb

ride with the punches (third-person singular simple present rides with the punches, present participle riding with the punches, simple past rode with the punches, past participle ridden with the punches)

rides with the punches (present singular third-person)
riding with the punches (participle present)
rode with the punches (past)
ridden with the punches (participle past)

(intransitive, figurative, by extension) To cope with adversity by being flexible in attitude.


cancrine

en-adj

cancrine (comparative more cancrine, superlative most cancrine)

more cancrine (comparative)
most cancrine (superlative)

From Latin cancer (“crab”) + -īnus, as if from *cancrīnus. The poetry sense comes from the fact that most species of crab can walk sideways, either left or right.

Even then there must have been a touch of profanity in such cancrine exhibitions; for if repeating the Lord’s Prayer backwards has been considered in all Christian ages as part of the means to bring Satan to the side of the repeater, it may be fairly supposed that the same sort of ignoble trifling with King David would bring company little more desirable among the audience who could listen to it with some pleasure, and possibly a little apprehension.

1869 June 12, The Athenæum, number 2172, page 792

(by extension) Of or pertaining to reading something backwards.


go the distance

en-verb

go the distance (third-person singular simple present goes the distance, present participle going the distance, simple past went the distance, past participle gone the distance)

goes the distance (present singular third-person)
going the distance (participle present)
went the distance (past)
gone the distance (participle past)

"Do you notice how every one is trying to avoid the subject of the war? . . . I am sure they cannot keep it up."
"They won't go the distance," Julian whispered.

1920, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 4, in The Devil's Paw

We are very pleased that we went the distance in this case, all the way through a jury trial, and that we were able to obtain such a tremendous recovery for shareholders.

2013 October 18, Chad Bray, “HSBC to Appeal $2.46 Billion Judgment”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-23

Selby's charge continued with a half-century in the 30th frame and a fluked red set him on the way to winning the 31st frame.
That opened up the possibility of a first Crucible finale to go the distance since Peter Ebdon's 18-17 victory over Stephen Hendry in 2002, but Brecel recovered his composure to get across the line for an emotional victory.

2023 May 1, Steve Sutcliffe, “World Snooker Championship 2023 final: Luca Brecel beats Mark Selby for first world title”, in BBC Sport

(idiomatic, by extension) To have the endurance to see a difficult, sustained challenge to its natural end without faltering.


plugged in

en-adj

plugged in (comparative more plugged in, superlative most plugged in)

more plugged in (comparative)
most plugged in (superlative)

By subscribing to this magazine, you can stay plugged in to current issues.

My new boss is much more plugged in to the needs of his employees than my last boss.

Even the most plugged-in politics enthusiasts had a hard time understanding his oblique references.

(colloquial, by extension) Fully aware; in a state of keeping up with current information about a topic; engaged wholeheartedly in a task or cause


toolkit

My hope is that this book will familiarize readers with tools for analyzing historical and contemporary mechanisms of social differentiation, ethnoracial division, and symbolic structural inequality. My belief is that boundary theory offers the very best tool kit for this kind of work.

2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 7

Prior to the Great Recession, active management of the long-bond portfolio was not a major feature of most central banks' toolkits, Japan being one notable exception.

2023, Eric Sims, Jing Cynthia Wu, and Ji Zhang, The Four-Equation New Keynesian Model, The Review of Economics and Statistics 105(4), pp. 931--947

(by extension) A set of personal abilities, skills, or resources to draw on.


Götterdämmerung

/ˌɡɒtəˈdæməɹʊŋ/

/ˌɡɑtɚˈdæmɚ.ʊŋ/

[ˌɡɑɾɚˈdɛə̯mɚ.ʊŋ]

Borrowed from German Götterdämmerung (“twilight of the gods”), which see.

bor+

To me a nasturtium by the river brink is more than a simple flower. It is a broader, grander, more magnificent, more stupendous symbol. It may mean anything, everything—such as sunsets and conflagrations and Götterdämmerungs!

1915, Robert W. Chambers, “Un Peu d'Amour”, in Police!!!

If mishandled by the world policy establishment, this debacle is big enough to shatter the fragile banking systems of Western Europe and set off round two of our financial Götterdämmerung.

2009 February 14, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, “Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown”, in The Telegraph

We are in the Götterdämmerung now, the final phase of the Trump era.

2020 June 2, Thomas Wright, “We’ve Now Entered the Final Phase of the Trump Era”, in The Atlantic

Plenty of fence-sitters have withheld their allegiance by booking a double feature, but the impending cineplex Götterdämmerung still speaks to something fundamental about how and why we pit movies against one another.

2023 July 18, Charles Bramesco, “Before Barbenheimer: when major movies are released on the same day”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(by extension) Any cataclysmic downfall or momentous, apocalyptic event, especially of a regime or an institution.


thirl

en-verb

thirl (third-person singular simple present thirls, present participle thirling, simple past and past participle thirled)

thirls (present singular third-person)
thirling (participle present)
thirled (participle past)
thirled (past)

Was everyone nowadays thirled to a formula?

1951, Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time, page 10

And there are plenty of people — Labour politicians, for example — who want people to remain thirled to poverty, who do not want them to have any spirit or independence.

2005, Alexander McCall Smith, 44 Scotland Street

(by extension) To bind; to obligate to use or be associated with.


groundswell

An astonishing groundswell of support for the new Democratic frontrunner, Barack Obama, is threatening to sweep Hillary Clinton away in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary election of the 2008 presidential contest tomorrow.

2008 January 7, Ewen MacAskill, “Groundswell for Obama leaves Clinton campaign on the rack”, in The Guardian

The 1987 book British Piers was written at a time when Britain's seaside resorts were perhaps at their lowest ebb, with a groundswell of support for rejuvenation and conservation just beginning.

2020 July 29, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railways that reach out over the waves”, in Rail, page 51

The public’s endorsement of the war lacks the patriotic groundswell that greeted the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

2022 April 1, Anton Troianovski, Ivan Nechepurenko, Valeriya Safronova, “Shaken at First, Many Russians Now Rally Behind Putin’s Invasion”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension) A broadly-based shifting of public opinion.


conversazione

en-noun

conversazione (plural conversaziones or conversazioni)

conversaziones (plural)
conversazioni (plural)

From Italian conversazione (“conversation”).

(by extension) A community social gathering.


shot in the arm

shot in the arm (plural shots in the arm)

By that agreement, President Roosevelt in 1941 gave Canada's war industry a shot in the arm.

1944 May 1, “Canada at War: Net Profit”, in Time, retrieved 2017-01-31

Renzo Piano's skyscraper, which will be Europe's tallest building, may provide a shot in the arm for London.

2011 December 30, Robert Booth, “London's Shard: a 'tower of power and riches' looking down on poverty”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2017-01-31

The president claims the economy needs a shot in the arm now, but Republicans say the nation should not widen the deficit.

2012 December 4, Annie Lowrey, “Republicans Balk at Short-Term Stimulus in Obama Plan”, in New York Times, retrieved 2017-01-31

You get a win and suddenly the crowd’s on your side again. It was a shot in the arm for two reasons. First, when we work together, we are stronger. Second, this isn’t a done deal.

2018 April 28, Dorian Lynskey, quoting James McGrory, “‘It’s not a done deal’: inside the battle to stop Brexit”, in The Guardian

(by extension) A stimulus; a boost in energy, morale, or well-being.


buttload

From butt + load. Butt in this context may be possibly one or both of:
* butt (“large wooden cask”) (Etymology 3)
* butt (“two-wheeled cart”) (Etymology 5)
Alternatively, the term may either be a corruption of English boatload or have been influenced by that term (except for the specific, West Country dialect sense).

assload and cartload ()

amount carried by a donkey or any large, unspecified amount; amount carried by a cart or any large, unspecified amount

pipe

of wine or beer, is 126 gallons or one butt

You can collect a metric buttload of data about user activity on your site without too much effort.

1999, Philip Greenspun, Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing, page 267

Anyway, they are paying me a buttload of money to do this series, and I want to share my good fortune with you and that's that.

2004, Theresa Alan, Spur of the Moment, page 264

"Yeah, there's, like, a buttload of gangs at this school."

2005, Napoleon Dynamite: The Complete Quote Book, Simon and Schuster, page 67

(by extension, mildly vulgar, slang) Any large but unspecific amount.


manful

en-adj

manful (comparative manfuller, superlative manfullest)

manfuller (comparative)
manfullest (superlative)

From Middle English manful, manfull, equivalent to man + -ful.

(by extension) Courageous; noble; high-minded.


misfire

en-verb

misfire (third-person singular simple present misfires, present participle misfiring, simple past and past participle misfired)

misfires (present singular third-person)
misfiring (participle present)
misfired (participle past)
misfired (past)

Either a univerbation of earlier miss fire, or the compound mis- + fire (or possibly a confluence of both).

His practical joke misfired and he nearly burnt my left hand.

(by extension) To fail to achieve the anticipated result.


Freeper

(slang, derogatory, by extension) Any person, especially a US citizen, who puts forth right-wing ideals.


campaigner

From campaign (verb) + -er (agent noun suffix), or
From campaign (noun) + -er (occupational suffix).


trench warfare

(uncountable, by extension) Fighting of any sort which offers no hope of ending soon.


iPhone

From i- + phone. Many Apple products have an i- prefix in their names.

(by extension) Any knockoff or similar high-end smartphone; through trademark genericization.


for the record

The court almost certainly knows your answer to this already, but, for the record, do you plea guilty or not guilty?

I can definitely send you those documents, but you'll need to send the request in writing just for the record.

(by extension) For the purpose of following correct procedure, especially when otherwise redundant and repetitive.


du jour

Beth came to the party with her boyfriend du jour.

The high unemployment numbers are the government's excuse du jour for not doing anything about the environment.

So much for pandemic frustration. Or tax fatigue. Or government backlash. Or all the controversies du jour about masks or wokified curricula or anything else that’s been in the news. Seattle voters set all that aside, en masse.

2022 February 12, Danny Westneat, “The reason voters see past the terrible headlines with Seattle schools”, in The Seattle Times

(by extension) Currently stylish; en vogue; trendy; favoured now but likely temporary; latest.


mainline

en-verb

mainline (third-person singular simple present mainlines, present participle mainlining, simple past and past participle mainlined)

mainlines (present singular third-person)
mainlining (participle present)
mainlined (participle past)
mainlined (past)

Last month, she lamented that her busy campaign schedule had kept her from mainlining Amazon’s new “Rings of Power” series.

2022 September 21, Jason Horowitz, “Hobbits and the Hard Right: How Fantasy Inspires Italy’s Potential New Leader”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension, informal, transitive) To consume voraciously.


debounce

debounce (third-person singular simple present debounces, present participle debouncing, simple past and past participle debounced)

debounces (present singular third-person)
debouncing (participle present)
debounced (participle past)
debounced (past)

With debouncing, we group several calls to the same events into one; with throttling, we are forcing our call to be executed no more than once per time period, such as a maximum of once per 400 ms.

2016, Maximiliano Firtman, High Performance Mobile Web, page 224

(programming, by extension) To discard events or signals that should not be processed because they occurred too close together.


indigestible

en-adj

indigestible (comparative more indigestible, superlative most indigestible)

more indigestible (comparative)
most indigestible (superlative)

(by extension) Difficult to accept; unpalatable.


Canaanite

Canaanite (comparative more Canaanite, superlative most Canaanite)

more Canaanite (comparative)
most Canaanite (superlative)


floodgate

From Middle English flodegate, flodgate, flodeyate, floodȝate, flodȝete, equivalent to flood + gate.

“The floodgates for advertising on cable are down,” says Michael Dann, a leading consultant on cable television.

1981 July 26, Sandra Salmans, “Will cable TV be invaded by commercials?”, in New York Times

(by extension) Anything that controls or limits an outpouring of people, emotion etc.

portti

anything that controls or limits an outpouring


small-bore

small-bore (comparative more small-bore, superlative most small-bore)

more small-bore (comparative)
most small-bore (superlative)

(by extension) insignificant or trivial.


shirttail

There was something — did you ever catch hold of the shirttail of a dream and try to pull it back into your consciousness?

1977, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - Volume 53, page 60

Well, here we are, living in a city right on the shirttail of the city, and you're still not satisfied.

1998, Ann Tatlock, A Room of My Own, page 195

James Orr joined Henry Joy McCracken and the shirttail of his force in the Slemish Mountains.

2005, Donald Harman Akenson, An Irish history of civilization, page 397

When she pulled herself out of it, she was no longer homely Doreen, acne pits ruining her face, but she was, as she jokes, hanging on to the shirttail of youth.

(by extension) The tail-end or periphery of something.


card-carrying

[Nigel] Toon is a card-carrying enthusiast, arguing for benefits in fields as varied as weather forcasting, drug discovery and nuclear fusion.

2024 May 11, John Thornhill, “More than human?”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 8

(by extension) Loyal and dedicated to some cause.


butterfly effect

en-noun

butterfly effect (plural butterfly effects)

A Sound of Thunder
Chaos: Making a New Science
Edward Lorenz
Lorenz attractor
Ray Bradbury
butterfly effect

Coined by American author and historian of science James Gleick in 1987 in his book Chaos: Making a New Science, whose first chapter bears the title “The Butterfly Effect”, and in which he discusses “the paradox of the butterfly’s wings” potentially making the difference whether a hurricane will or will not arise somewhere else later. Meteorologist Edward Lorenz, the founder of modern chaos theory, had in 1972, at a scientific meeting, presented a paper entitled “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings set off a tornado in Texas?” without using the specific term butterfly effect. Lorenz also notes that representations of the strange attractor now known as the “Lorenz attractor” resemble a butterfly, as well as that correspondents have drawn his attention to Ray Bradbury’s short science fiction story “A Sound of Thunder”, in which a time traveler’s crushing a butterfly in the Late Cretaceous changes the outcome of a present-day presidential election. But the metaphorical butterfly was actually introduced in the title of the 1972 presentation by meteorologist Philip Merilees, who was not familiar with Bradbury’s story.

coinage

Example of butterfly effect: stepping on a bug 4,000 years ago causes a different person to win the presidential election today.

(by extension, science fiction) The notion that small changes in the past via time travel can cause disproportionately large and unforeseeable consequences in the present.


cartload

From Middle English cartlode, cartelode, equivalent to cart + load.

. . . although a little apt to get buried under a cartload of written pleadings, . . .

1850, Edward Everett, The Mount Vernon Papers


slave-driver

Mom, I need a break after doing homework! You're nothing but a slave-driver!

(colloquial, usually hyperbolic or figurative)

(by extension, often humorous or sarcastic) Anyone who requests an amount of work from others that is deemed unreasonable.


backflip

PM predicts water recycling backflips.

(by extension) a total reversal in policy or opinion; a volte-face, a U-turn.


undertow

(by extension) A feeling that runs contrary to one's normal one.


thimbleful

en-noun

thimbleful (plural thimblefuls or thimblesful)

thimblefuls (plural)
thimblesful (plural)

“Just the tiniest thimbleful for me,” Annie said, overplaying it, I thought, since she lived on vodka.

1988, Edmund White, chapter 4, in The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994

(by extension) A small amount of liquid, especially alcoholic spirits.

fingerporillinen

a small amount of liquid, especially alcoholic spirits


longtail

(Bermuda, by extension) A young, unattached female tourist.


lot lizard

The term was popularized by the 2000 novel Sarah, a fictional account of the life of a truck stop prostitute.

In discussing the “lot lizards” who hang out in car lots Lisa comments: This will amaze you. A lot of professional athletes have bought car lots, used dealerships. There [are] girls that hang out in car lots.

1994, Steven Michael Ortiz, When Happiness Ends and Coping Begins, page 238

Then there are the lot lizards: Locals attracted to the danger and anonymity of a carny sexual encounter.

2003, Bret Witter ·, Carnival Undercover, page 195

He arrived in the middle of the night and looked for spun out lot lizards that couldn't sleep. He lured them to one of his comrade's tents with pharmaceuticals, and then he had his way. But he never ventured inside the festival.

(slang, US, by extension) A girl who loiters at any location that can be described as a lot, looking for a sexual encounter.


showboat

Well, I was a little upset at first. I mean, obviously people are going to think I'm a showboat, and a little bit of a prick.

2004, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, spoken by Steve Zissou (Bill Murray)

(informal, chiefly US, by extension) A showoff.


duopoly

duopoly (countable and uncountable, plural duopolies)

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From duo- (prefix meaning ‘two’) + -poly (suffix meaning ‘pertaining to the number of sellers in a market’), by analogy with monopoly.

confix

In Spain, Socialist and PP governments have alternated since the 1980s. This cosy duopoly was weakened by the long recession that followed the bursting of Spain’s housing bubble in 2007.

2018 February 10, “Spain’s centrist Ciudadanos are on the march”, in The Economist, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-05-17

And these industrial farms have concentrated into a series of duopolies. Google and Apple’s browsers have nearly 85% of the world market share. Microsoft and Apple’s two desktop operating systems have almost 90%. Google runs about 90% of global search. More than half of all phones come from Apple and Samsung, while 99% of mobile operating systems are from Google or Apple. Apple and Google’s email clients manage nearly 90% of global email. GoDaddy and Cloudflare serve about 50% of global domain name system requests. And so on.

2024 May 4, John Naughton, “The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding”, in The Guardian

The domination of a field of endeavour by two entities or people.

duopoli

(broadcasting) A situation in which two or more radio or television stations in the same city or community share common ownership.


rain check

1877 US in baseball; metaphorical usage from 1896, more generally from 1930. From at least 1870, baseball teams would reissue tickets in case of postponement due to rain, which became known as rain checks.

改天

an extension or postponement of an offer

I can't go with you to the museum this Saturday, but can I take a rain check and go some other day?

I'm on my way somewhere. I got a dinner engagement. Rain check?

1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Vincent Vega (John Travolta)

(figurative) An agreement to honor a current offer after its normal expiration.

(by extension) In social interactions, a deferred invitation, or deferred acceptance of an invitation.


McWorld

Pret a Manger, the veddy British chain, has gained a foothold in our McWorld of burgers and fries, where you can fun-size this, combo that and, let’s face it, sort of expect sullen service.

2011 August 6, Stephanie Clifford, “Would You Like a Smile With That?”, in The New York Times

(by extension) The effects of international McDonaldization of services and commercialization of goods and services as an element of globalization as a whole.


game over

/ˌɡeɪm ˈəʊ.və(ɹ)/

The message originated on pinball machines and has been very widely used in video games.

If your wife finds out about us, it's game over!

That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?

Once we started attacking that network from the inside, it was pretty much game over.

2004, Ryan Russell, Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent, page xxi

(by extension) The end of some ongoing situation due to either failure or success, typically failure.


fireside chat

(by extension) An informal address delivered by a political leader over radio, television, or the Internet.


bucketful

en-noun

bucketful (plural bucketfuls or bucketsful)

From bucket + -ful. Compare Old English būcful, būcfull (“bucketful”).

It was raining in bucketfuls.


leading-edge

The former Shell vice-president said: "I don't see leading-edge technology being developed on the railway. [...]."

2020 November 18, “Network News: Railway is years behind the curve”, in Rail, page 9

(by extension) leading, latest or most up-to-date


stalking horse

Do you think my daughter […] fit for nothing but to be a stalking horse, to stand before you, while you take aim at my wife?

1694, William Congreve, The Double-Dealer, act 2, scene 4

"Let the great of the earth give but half the care to prevent, that they show to punish, offences against themselves, and what is now called justice will no longer be a stalking-horse to enable a few to live at the cost of the rest.

1833, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 29, in The Headsman

Environmentalists have used the owl as a stalking horse to save the last 10% of old-growth forest in the Northwest.

1992 May 25, “One for The Loggers”, in Time, archived from the original on 2014-08-04

The post, culling online chatter from supremacist sites, said hate groups were increasingly worried that law enforcement authorities would use Mr. Obama’s candidacy as a stalking horse to justify a government clampdown.

2008 August 27, Kirk Johnson, Eric Lichtblau, “Officials See No ‘Credible Threat’ to Obama in Racist Rants”, in New York Times

(idiomatic, by extension) A person, thing, or expedient used in a deceptive manner, to achieve some hidden purpose.


leading edge

(by extension) The foremost part of a trend etc; a vanguard


wind chill

wind chill (countable and uncountable, plural wind chills)

(loosely) The still-air temperature equivalent to a given combination of temperature and wind speed, as far as its cooling effect on exposed flesh is concerned


bruiser

His "assistant" was a big bruiser named Pete, who, with his enormous shoulders and menacing scowl, was clearly present for the intimidation factor.

(by extension, colloquial, derogatory) A tall, strong, heavily built person, usually a man, especially one prone to physical violence; a strong and tough person.

malabar

a heavily built person, usually a man, especially prone to physical violence


April showers bring May flowers

(by extension, figurative) A period of discomfort or hardship can provide the basis for a period of happiness and joy.


bottom feeder

[T]he rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social media has made it harder to control the flow of information, thus making it easier for bottom-feeders to bully witnesses.

2013 November 16, Christian Dem, “Bottom-feeders using social media to intimidate witnesses”, in The Daily Kos, NC

The real-life cast of characters grew to include bikers, gamblers, a brutal money lender named Butchie (Andrew Dice Clay) and assorted bottom feeders like Gauthier’s accomplice Milton Ingley (Nick Offerman), a pornographer in the San Fernando Valley.

2022 February 2, Elisabeth Vincentelli, “‘Pam & Tommy’: A Story of Sex, Crimes and Videotape”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension, informal, derogatory) A person who operates amidst or thrives on the unwholesome things in a society; one who takes advantage of the misfortune of others.


kingdom come

kingdom come (countable and uncountable, plural kingdoms come or kingdom comes)

kingdoms come (plural)
kingdom comes (plural)

From the phrase “Thy kingdom come” from the Lord’s Prayer which is recorded in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4 in the Bible: see, for example, Matthew 6:10 in the King James Version (spelling modernized): “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven.” By these sentences, Jesus seeks the establishment of the rule of God the Father over the Earth in the future.

оня свят

place that one will go to after one's death — see also afterlife

Somewhere between the O's and ones / That's where I found my kingdom come

2024, Nemo (lyrics and music), “The Code”

(countable, by extension) A future period of happiness, peace, prosperity, and/or great progress; a golden age that is approaching.


hemi

(by extension) Domed versions of the above that have cylinder heads that are not exactly hemispherical


groundling

From ground + -ling. Compare Old English grundling (“a groundling fish, grundel”).

cog

This is what the magnanimous National Liberal Federation have said in effect to the House of Lords, and what, it should seem, they innocently regard as likely to impress the Gladstonian groundling.

1893, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art

If you happen to be a genius it will not necessarily be fatal to your inspiration if you succeed in winning the love of a groundling. Female groundlings often make excellent housekeepers; male groundlings good providers. But if your groundling is not of the pure type and should greatly admire your intellectual output, you will probably adapt your future production to the groundling understanding, and at that moment you begin to die at the top.

1896, Elbert Hubbard, This is the Story of The Legacy - Volume 1, page 3

Millions of these have no conception of the meaning and obligation of popular government, and so they are the ready prey of demagogues and groundlings.

1903, Henry Lyman Morehouse, William W. Bliss, Thomas Jefferson Morgan, The Baptist Home Mission Monthly - Volumes 25-26, page 183

It's like saying that Dickens put in all this crude, comic stuff to please the groundlings. I don't think he did.

1966, Invitation to Learning: English & American Novels, page 130

They serve to allow the thousands of groundlings who attend alongside the celebrities to talk, to swap ideas and generally to stick their fingers in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.

2004 July 16, “More money, more problems”, in The Economist

At the same time, as we gather from his Journal des Débats notice of Le Prophète, Berlioz was well aware of Meyerbeer's demagogic streak, his readiness to bemuse the groundling with loud commonplaces.

2008, Robert Ignatius Letellier, Giacomo Meyerbeer: A Reader, page 349

Still, the folio Ben looks to publish will be well beyond the purse of most scholars, let alone a groundling.

The point, to her, seemed to be to show that whatever was going on around him was subordinate to the great private productive secret-not-necessarily-related-to-anything-his-groundling-friends-were-talking-about trains of thought that Douglas was having.

(by extension) A person of uncultivated or uncultured taste.


codomain

domain

antonym(s) of “target set of a function”

mathematical analysis
mathematical analysis

(mathematics, mathematical analysis) The target set into which a function is formally defined to map elements of its domain; the set denoted Y in the notation f : X → Y.

(more generally, of a binary relation R between A and B) The set B.


bloodletting

Only when the bankers and industrialists abroad realized that a ferocious class struggle in Germany was raging did they begin to relent somewhat on their economic bloodletting.

2004 July 1, Leslie Feinberg, “Sexual freedom vs. fascism in Germany”, in Workers World

Yet another round of corporate bloodletting.

(by extension) The diminishment of any resource with the hope that this will lead to a positive effect.


war room

(by extension) A single location from which any activity is directed.

komentokeskus

location from which an activity is directed


freewheel

en-verb

freewheel (third-person singular simple present freewheels, present participle freewheeling, simple past and past participle freewheeled)

freewheels (present singular third-person)
freewheeling (participle present)
freewheeled (participle past)
freewheeled (past)

(by extension) To operate free from constraints.


slow motion

Without this foresight, many more structures would now be suffering the fate of the viaduct at Nuneham, which was literally collapsing in plain sight (albeit in extreme slow motion).

2023 June 28, Sir Michael Holden, “Comment: 'There will be more Nunehams'”, in RAIL, number 986, page 3


roleplay

roleplay (third-person singular simple present roleplays, present participle roleplaying, simple past and past participle roleplayed)

roleplays (present singular third-person)
roleplaying (participle present)
roleplayed (participle past)
roleplayed (past)

From role (“expected behavior”) + play (“perform, act”).

He talks like he's some scrappy bootstrap entrepreneur but he's just some old money rich kid roleplaying.

Realizing that she was an 'other' not only as a black woman but also as a black lesbian, she struggles to fiind someplace where she and other black lesbians like herself could live out their existence without role-playing or conforming to the ideals that were prevalent in the bars at that time.

1982 December 11, Catherine Joseph, “Breaking Barriers”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 21, page 10

(transitive, intransitive, by extension) To act out a social role that one does not truly belong to.


Donegal

en-noun

Donegal (countable and uncountable, plural Donegals)

/ˌdʌnɪˈɡɔːl/

/ˌdɒnɪˈɡɔːl/

Anglicization of Irish Dún na nGall (literally “fort of the foreigners or strangers”).

bor

(by extension) A coat made from this tweed.


standpipe

A vertical pipe into which water is pumped so that a desired pressure is available at the bottom.

(by extension) A vertical pipe used as an overflow protection drain in certain domestic plumbing fixtures (e.g. flush toilets).


shortchange

en-verb

shortchange (third-person singular simple present shortchanges, present participle shortchanging, simple past and past participle shortchanged)

shortchanges (present singular third-person)
shortchanging (participle present)
shortchanged (participle past)
shortchanged (past)

/ʃɔɹtˈt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒ/

/ʃɔːtˈtʃeɪnd͡ʒ/

The elective class was easy, but in the end I was shortchanging myself.

Specific evidence that the United States is being short-changed in the cultural exchange program with the Soviet Union has been offered by Representative Michael Feighan of Ohio, chairman of the House subcommittee and the joint Senate House Committee on Immigration and Nationality Policy.

1964 June 16, “Short End of Exchange”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 14

(transitive, by extension) To deprive (someone) of something due; to treat unfairly; to cheat, deceive.

bedriegen

to deprive (someone) of something due; to treat unfairly


Clarence House

The building was originally commissioned by the Duke of Clarence.

Clarence House has issued a joint statement with the Ministry of Defence, confirming that Prince Harry will be deployed to Iraq later this year.

(by extension) The office of the residents of Clarence House.


pursuivant

From Middle English pursevant et al., from Old French pursuivant, present participle of pursuivre (“to follow”). Doublet of pursuant.

(law enforcement, by extension) A warrant officer.


scut

Associated University Presses
Folger Shakespeare Library
Henry IV, Part 2

From Middle English scut (“hare”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Middle English scut, scute (“short”), possibly from Old French escorter, escurter, or Latin excurtāre, scurtāre, from curtō (“to cut short, shorten”), from curtus (“short; shortened”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”)) + -ō. A derivation from Old Norse skut, skutr (“stern of a boat”), or Icelandic skott (“animal's tail”) is thought to be unlikely.
As to sense 3 (“the female pudenda, the vulva”), see the letter of 5 June 1875 from Joseph Crosby to Joseph Parker Norris published in One Touch of Shakespeare (1986).

der

I rumpled her Feathers, and tickled her Scut, / And play'd the round Rubbers at two handed Put.

1750, “Ge ho, Dobbin or the Waggoner”, in The Tulip, page 2

So … so she show you her pretty li'l scut, he? Jesse, you are a lad; when will you learn?

a. 1968, Keith Roberts, “The Lady Margaret”, in Gardner Dozois, editor, Modern Classics of Science Fiction, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin, St. Martin’s Press, published 1993, page 233

One of the sisters backed up to the fire and hiked up the tail of her dress and bent over and thrust out her scut to it and stared at Inman with a look of glazed pleasure in her blue eyes.

1997, Charles Frazier, “To Live Like a Gamecock”, in Cold Mountain: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, page 216

(by extension) The buttocks or rump; also, the female pudenda, the vulva.


loose end

(idiomatic, by extension, chiefly in the plural) A small job that needs to be done, or minor problem that needs to be resolved, before a task can be considered complete.

elvarratlan szál

a small job that needs to be done, or minor problem that needs to be resolved


overarching

en-adj

overarching (comparative more overarching, superlative most overarching)

more overarching (comparative)
most overarching (superlative)

/ˌəʊvəɹˈɑːtʃɪŋ/

/ˌoʊvəɹˈɑɹt͡ʃɪŋ/

/ˌoʊvəɹˈɑɹkɪŋ/

The work attains narrative continuity, variety in its stories, and unity through the overarching idea of metamorphosis.

Firstly, there needs to be an overarching plan - in the sense that each part of the rail system must be considered together, precisely because it is an integrated network.

2020 May 20, David Thrower, Ian Wray, “Revisiting the plan for developing the North's rail network”, in Rail, page 39

(by extension) all-embracing or overwhelming


hivemind

Kevin Kelly (editor)
Out of Control (Kelly book)

From hive + mind, originally applied to beehives. As a metaphor for collective intelligence popularized in Out of Control (1992) by Kevin Kelly.

The marvel of “hive mind” is that no one is in control, and yet an invisible hand governs, a hand that emerges from very dumb members.

1992, Kevin Kelly, Out of Control, Addison-Wesley, published 1994, page 12

The hive mind should be thought of as a tool. Empowering the collective does not empower individuals — just the reverse is true.

2006 May 29, Jaron Lanier, “Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism”, in Edge

In any case, culture and technology are increasingly reliant on the hive mind–and whatever its faults, Lanier's broadside helps us consider the consequences of this momentous development.

2006 December 10, Steven Johnson, “Digital Maoism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

There are many places, of course, on the internet where a utopian ideal of "here comes everybody" prevails, where the anonymous hive mind is fantastically curious and productive.

2011 July 23, Tim Adams, “How the internet created an age of rage”, in The Observer

It is not my metaphor–the notion of a hivemind, a group sort of consciousness and/or collective body of knowledge, has long been discussed in both academic settings and in common parlance.

2019, Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Hivemind, Orion

Just as industrial society was imagined as a well-functioning machine, instrumentarian society is imagined as a human simulation of machine learning systems: a confluent hive mind in which each element learns and operates in concert with every other element.

2019, Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

A national hive mind has come to life on an open source Facebook group where hundreds of strangers trade tips on making respirator masks with baby wipes and paper towels, […]

2020 March 30, Andrew Jacobs, Rachel Abrams, “Hive Mind of Makers Rises to Meet Pandemic”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension) Collective intelligence, especially when facilitated by communications technology.


Pennsylvania Avenue

(by extension) The relationship between Congress and the President.


cross-grained

(by extension) Difficult to deal with; contrary or troublesome.


seel

en-verb

seel (third-person singular simple present seels, present participle seeling, simple past and past participle seeled)

seels (present singular third-person)
seeling (participle present)
seeled (participle past)
seeled (past)

From Middle English silen, from Old French siller, ciller (“to sew up the eyelids of, hoodwink, wink”), from cil (“eyelid”), from Latin cilium (“eyelid, eyelash”).


bare-assed

en-adj

bare-assed (comparative more bare-assed, superlative most bare-assed)

more bare-assed (comparative)
most bare-assed (superlative)

(informal, by extension) naked, starkers

(informal, by extension) blatant, unashamed


lick one's chops

en-verb

lick one's chops (third-person singular simple present licks one's chops, present participle licking one's chops, simple past and past participle licked one's chops)

licks one's chops (present singular third-person)
licking one's chops (participle present)
licked one's chops (participle past)
licked one's chops (past)

When the Federal Government set up the Air Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB) last fall to help prop up the ailing airlines with $10 billion in loan guarantees, many credit-strapped CEOs licked their chops in anticipation of yet another big, fat government handout.

2002 August 26, Daniel Eisenberg et al., “Air Travel Gets A New Model”, in Time

(idiomatic, by extension) To anticipate something eagerly.


barehanded

(by extension) Without using a tool or weapon.


barnacled

en-adj

barnacled (comparative more barnacled, superlative most barnacled)

more barnacled (comparative)
most barnacled (superlative)

(figurative, by extension) Thickly covered in something, as if with barnacles.


foxfire

Possibly from fox + fire, though the semantic connection is unclear. Alternatively, the first element may be ultimately from Old French fols (“false”), or the term may derive by folk etymology from phosphor.

On the inside is fixed a Barometer, by which he can tell the depth he is under water; a Compass, by which he knows the course he steers. In the barometer and on the needles of the compass is fixed fox-fire, i.e. wood that gives light in the dark.

1775 November 9, Henry L[arcom] Abbot, quoting Benjamin Gale, “Description of the American Turtle. [Dr. Benjamin Gale to Silas Deane, Esq., Killingsworth, Nov. 9, 1775.]”, in The Beginning of Modern Submarine Warfare, under Captain-Lieutenant David Bushnell, Sappers and Miners, Army of the Revolution. Being a Historical Compilation (Engineer School of Application, Willets Point, N[ew] Y[ork] H[arbor], Paper; no. III), New York, N.Y.: Printed on the Battalion Press, Sergt. Carmichael and Pvt. Beck, printers, published 1881, →OCLC, pages 176–177

The navigator steered by a rudder, the tiller of which was passed through the back of the machine at a water joint, and in one side was fixed a small pocket compass, with two pieces of shining wood, (sometimes called foxfire,) crossed upon its north point, and a single piece upon the last point. In the night, when no light entered through the head, this compass thus lighted, was all that served to guide the helmsman in his course.

1820 February 21, Charles Griswold, “Art. [IX].—Description of a Machine, Invented and Constructed by David Bushnell, a Native of Saybrook, at the Commencement of the American Revolutionary War, for the Purpose of Submarine Navigation, […]”, in Benjamin Silliman, editor, The American Journal of Science, and Arts, volume II, number I (number VI overall), New Haven, Conn.: S. Converse, published April 1820, →OCLC, page 96

[An American university is] the house and home of American civilization—a dwelling place not lighted with foxfire tapers or artificial lights to disguise nature, as the institutions of learning in Europe are, but with the light inherent in nature's truths and in the revealed word of God, honestly translated and interpreted.

1859 September, “Art. II.—The Education, Labor, and Wealth of the South. …”, in J[ames] D[unwoody] B[rownson] De Bow, editor, De Bow’s Review and Industrial Resources, Statistics, &c.: […], volume II (New Series; volume XXVII (Old Series)), number 3, New Orleans, La., Washington, D.C.: [J. D. B. De Bow], →OCLC, page 268

There is still another method of night hunting by the salt lick. [...] When night approaches, the hunter finds a piece of phosphorescent wood or "fox fire," and places it on the ground, at a point which he has previously determined to be on a direct line of the aim of his gun. The "fox fire" is plainly seen from the tree, and as soon as it is darkened he knows that it is obscured by the deer, and he pulls the trigger and kills his game.

1876, William H[amilton] Gibson, “The Deer”, in The Complete American Trapper, or The Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making: […], New York, N.Y.: James Miller, →OCLC, book VI (Steel Traps and the Art of Trapping), page 218

When they died, the others built fires to smoke them, and then covered them with birch bark. Every bit was covered with bark. Not a hair was left out, and nothing could go in. They'd put sticks of fox fire near them.

1995, Robert E. Nichols, Jr., Birds of Algonquin Legend, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, page 96

(by extension, loosely) Wood exhibiting fungal bioluminescence; torchwood.


bloodstained

bloodstained (comparative more bloodstained, superlative most bloodstained)

more bloodstained (comparative)
most bloodstained (superlative)


everliving

Coordinate term: indelible

(by extension) Which will never be forgotten.


forestage

en-verb

forestage (third-person singular simple present forestages, present participle forestaging, simple past and past participle forestaged)

forestages (present singular third-person)
forestaging (participle present)
forestaged (participle past)
forestaged (past)

From Middle English forstage, equivalent to fore- + stage.

Not only was Binodlal one of the first to forestage sontap (“heat”) as the key element in fevers, but he was also one of the first to try to understand sontap as "motion."

2016, Projit Bihari Mukharji, Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies, and Braided Sciences

It forestages the insistent presence of patterns of centre/periphery relations within Chicanidad, or rather the presence of multi-tier Chicanidades, with substantial disparities regarding the needs and problems of their members, increasing the gap between the centred and the peripheral ones.

2016, Züleyha Çetiner-Öktem, Mythmaking across Boundaries, page 61

(by extension) To make prominent; to bring into focus.


beggarly

en-adj

beggarly (comparative beggarlier, superlative beggarliest)

beggarlier (comparative)
beggarliest (superlative)

From beggar + -ly; adverb via Middle English beggarly, beggerly.


blinder

en-verb

blinder (third-person singular simple present blinders, present participle blindering, simple past and past participle blindered)

blinders (present singular third-person)
blindering (participle present)
blindered (participle past)
blindered (past)

[…] We climb in hopes / Of such seeing up the leaf-shuttered escarpments, / Blindered by green, under a green-grained sky

1958, Sylvia Plath, “Above the Oxbow”, in The Collected Poems, New York: Harper & Row, page 88

They think they're being focussed when they're really just blindering their eyes, as a farmer would a plough horse, to ways of getting to their goal faster.

1986, Tessa Albert Warschaw, Rich is Better: How Women Can Bridge the Gap Between Wanting and Having It All — Financially, Emotionally, Professionally, Penguin, page 248

(transitive, figurative, by extension) To obstruct the vision of.


death knell

"It is the death knell of an orchestra if it doesn't have its own home," he says.

2004 June 28, Jamie James, “The Rise of a Musical Superpower”, in Time

The dirty little secret at the heart of Sex Box, in fact, was that it was a well-meaning and thoughtful anthropological experiment dressed up as a tawdry, tabloid-bating death knell for standards of common decency.

2015 February 26, Sophie Gilbert, “Soggy Bottoms and 'Sex Box': The Saucy State of TV's British Imports”, in The Atlantic

A rupture would represent a death knell for the West and would harm the US worker.

2018, Michael Cottakis – LSE, “Colliding worlds: Donald Trump and the European Union”, in LSE's blog

(by extension) A sign or omen foretelling the death or destruction of something.

kuolinkellot

sign foretelling the death or destruction of something


Pharisee

From Latin Pharisaeus, from Ancient Greek Φαρισαῖος (Pharisaîos), a transliteration of Aramaic פְּרִישַׁיָּא (pərîšayyâ’), emphatic plural of פְּרִישׁ (pərîš, “separatist”, literally “separated”), related to Hebrew פרוש (parush), qal passive participle of the verb פָּרַשׁ (pāraš), meaning one who is separated for a life of purity.

der

פְּרִישַׁיָּא

Aramaic פְּרִישַׁיָּא (pərîšayyâ’)

The spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot always escape.

c. 1870, Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

(figuratively, by extension; derogatory) A person who values the letter of the law over its spirit or intention.


bite-sized

(by extension) Broken down into small pieces that are individually easy to understand or manage.

uproszczony

broken down into small pieces that are individually easy to understand or manage


sacrificial lamb

en-noun

sacrificial lamb (plural sacrificial lambs)

(figurative, by extension) A person who is sacrificed (not literally) for the greater good of some cause.


Q.E.D.

From Late Latin QED, from Latin quod erat demonstrandum.

PROP[OSITION] VI. One substance cannot be produced by another substance. ¶ Demonst[ration]. In the preceding proposition we have seen that there cannot in the nature of things be two Substances of the same attribute, or that they have anything in common (by Prop. II.); and so (by Prop. III.) one cannot be the cause of, or be produced by, another: q. e. d.

1870, Benedict de Spinoza [i.e., Baruch Spinoza], R[obert] Willis, “[The Ethics.] Part I.—Of God.”, in Benedict de Spinoza; His Life, Correspondence, and Ethics, London: Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC, page 418

Of all those on the market, Eastman's is the only one with a solution tight, locking cover. ¶ Q. E. D.

1908 July, C. H. Claudy, “Tanks”, in Frank V. Chambers, editor, The Camera: An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to the Advancement of Photography, volume 12, number 7, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Camera Publishing Company, page 252

(by extension) Used to indicate that an argument or proposition is proved by the existence of some fact or scenario.


bloodsucker

From blood + sucker. Sense 5 (“changeable lizard”) is perhaps because of the reddish color of its neck.

(by extension) One who attempts to take as much from others as possible; a leech.

крывапі́вец

one who attempts to take as much from others as possible


Holy of Holies

Calque of Biblical Hebrew קודש הקודשים \ קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים (kódesh hakodashím).

cal

קודש הקודשים

קודש הקודשים \ קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים

(by extension) The most sacred place within a sacred building.

𐕌𐕒𐕡𐕟𐕒𐕡𐕙𐕒𐕡𐕎 𐕌𐕒𐕡𐕟𐕒𐕡𐕙𐕒𐕡𐕎𐕒𐕡𐕘𐕒𐔺

the most sacred place within a sacred building


cocooning

en-noun

cocooning (countable and uncountable, plural cocoonings)

Sense “staying in one's home” coined by American futurologist Faith Popcorn in 1981.

coin

The rise of social cocooning, beginning in the 1980s, greatly impacted the social life of families. Where once families lived in more modest-sized homes and spent time engaged in community endeavors such as church, PTA and school functions[…], many families now have more spacious homes with enough amenities that they do not need to go to the public park, the local swimming pool, or even the local movie theater; […]

2014, “Cocooning”, in Marilyn J. Coleman, Lawrence H. Ganong, editors, The Social History of the American Family: An Encyclopedia, SAGE Publications

(by extension) The act of staying inside one's home, insulated from perceived danger, instead of going out.


systems biology

(by extension) The study of the self-organizing behaviour of complex, dynamic non-biological systems


adust

From Middle French aduste, and its source, Latin adustus (“burnt, scorched”), past participle of adūrere.

(by extension) Hot and dry; thirsty or parched.


calvary

From Late Latin calvāria (“skull”). Doublet of calavera and calvaria.

(by extension, figuratively) A strenuous experience.


cash out

en-verb

cash out (third-person singular simple present cashes out, present participle cashing out, simple past and past participle cashed out)

cashes out (present singular third-person)
cashing out (participle present)
cashed out (participle past)
cashed out (past)

The real benefits accrued not to the public whose streets were flooded with unregulated taxis or workers whose livelihoods evaporated, but to Uber’s early investors who were still able to cash out when the company went public.

2022 July 11, Paris Marx, “The Uber Leak Exposes the Global War on Workers”, in Tribune

(by extension) To exchange possession of any commodity or idea for cash.

Hume cashed out the concept of causation into such experiential terms as spatiotemporal contiguity, temporal succession, and constant conjunction

(by extension, often in analytic philosophy) To explain what is entailed by an idea or proposition.


bloodsucking

(by extension, of a person) parasitic, leechlike or freeloading


unscripted

Hoping to avoid any unscripted episodes during President Clinton's visit to the ancient city of Xian today, Chinese authorities yesterday detained two of the city's leading dissidents.

1998 June 25, Tony Karon, “China Swoops Down on Dissidents”, in Time, retrieved 2014-05-30

(by extension) Unplanned, unexpected, spontaneous.


Gestapo

/ɡɛˈstɑːpəʊ/

/ɡəˈʃtɑːpəʊ/

Unadapted borrowing from German Gestapo, a contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei (“secret state police”).

Men were frog-marched by the feminist Gestapo into accepting an alien 'politically correct' agenda.

2009, Ian Dunbar, More Than a Puff of Smoke, page 230

(informal, derogatory, by extension) Any militant oppressive force or group.


crosshair

crosshair (third-person singular simple present crosshairs, present participle crosshairing, simple past and past participle crosshaired)

crosshairs (present singular third-person)
crosshairing (participle present)
crosshaired (participle past)
crosshaired (past)

She fired a smile at him, the likes of which he hadn't seen in years—since Meg, in fact, had crosshaired him at the junior prom with one of those flirtations that he never would've believed the president of the Methodist Girls' Youth Group was capable of.

My kinfolks had crosshaired in on the truth of the world.

2004, The Iron Mountain Review - Volume 20, page 24

Shell-shocked, babies and children smothered the instinct to cry and clammed to backs and shoulders and the heldout hand, brave as their parents clinging to the hope of return to their homes crosshaired by the demolition man, as they sought cover under leaves in a shuddering forest.

2005, Ogaga Ifowodo, The Oil Lamp, page xix


Prince Charming

en-noun

Prince Charming (plural Prince Charmings or Princes Charming)

Prince Charmings (plural)
Princes Charming (plural)

Calque of French Roi Charmant (“Charming King”).

calque

She's still unmarried because she is waiting for her Prince Charming... and he may not exist.

There's always love for sale / A grown up fairy tale / Prince charming always smiles / Behind a silver spoon

1979, “Street Life”, Will Jennings (lyrics), performed by The Crusaders ft. Randy Crawford

Friends say we app sceptics will download them at a certain age out of desperation. But for now, follow the sound advice of mums and mentors: there’s no rush, relationships don’t define you and you must keep your standards high. Just not Prince Charming high. Carrie Bradshaw will tell you that’s nothing but a fairytale.

2023 April 1, Maddie Thomas, “Even if you’re ‘on the apps’, it feels pretty hard to meet people these days”, in The Guardian

(by extension) A heterosexual woman's prototypical ideal romantic partner, especially but not necessarily if he embodies common characteristics of the fictional princes, such as being courageous or chivalrous.


gilet

Ceratizit–WNT Pro Cycling
Museum Rotterdam
Oxford English Dictionary

Borrowed from French gilet (“vest, waistcoat”), from regional Italian gileccu (Calabria), gilecco (Genoa), gelecco (Naples), ggileccu (Sicily), etc. (standard Italian gilè is borrowed from French), from Turkish yelek (“jelick; vest, waistcoat”) (ultimately from Proto-Turkic *yẹl (“wind”, noun)) with the final syllable modified to match other types of clothing such as corselet and mantelet. The Oxford English Dictionary does not regard the French word as having derived from Arabic جَلِيقَة (jalīqa), which it views as a recent borrowing from Italian into Algerian Arabic. Doublet of jelick.

ref

From the collection of the Museum Rotterdam in Rotterdam, South Holland, the Netherlands.

der

(by extension) A sleeveless jacket resembling a waistcoat but generally closed at the neck; specifically, one which is padded to provide warmth.


break one's duck

en-verb

break one's duck (third-person singular simple present breaks one's duck, present participle breaking one's duck, simple past broke one's duck, past participle broken one's duck)

breaks one's duck (present singular third-person)
breaking one's duck (participle present)
broke one's duck (past)
broken one's duck (participle past)

From cricket, where duck means a score of zero.

Best had come on as a substitute in the 1-0 win at Wigan last weekend and wasted a goalscoring opportunity after stumbling as he was about to shoot, so many of the fans in black and white could have been forgiven for thinking that perhaps the burly forward was destined not to break his duck.

2011 January 5, Saj Chowdhury, “Newcastle 0 - 0 West Ham”, in BBC

(idiomatic, British, by extension) To do something for the first time.


ithyphallic

en-adj

ithyphallic (comparative more ithyphallic, superlative most ithyphallic)

more ithyphallic (comparative)
most ithyphallic (superlative)

/ˌɪθɪˈfælɪk/

/ˌɪθɪˈfælɪk/

Borrowed from Late Latin ithyphallicus, from Ancient Greek ἰθυφαλλικός (ithuphallikós), from ῑ̓θῠ́φαλλος (īthúphallos, “phallus carried in festivals of Bacchus; ode sung in honour of the phallus; dance accompanying such an ode; dancer performing such a dance”) + -ῐκός (-ikós, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). ῑ̓θῠ́φαλλος is derived from ἰθῠ́ς (ithús) (variant of εὐθῠ́ς (euthús, “straight”)) + φαλλός (phallós, “penis; image of a penis, phallus”). The English word can be analysed as ithyphallus + -ic.
As regards the noun, compare Latin ithyphallicum (“poem with the same metre as the hymns to Priapus”).

refn

From the collection of the Museum of London in London, England, UK.

cog

[I]t is specially desirable to be able to discern the difference […] between the "εὐνῇ καὶ φιλότητι" or "φιλότητι καὶ εὐνῇ μιγῆναι" of the Iliad and Odyssey, and an ithyphallic audacity that insults what is most sacred and decent among men.

1856 November, “Leaves of Grass. [By Walt Whitman.] Brooklyn, N.Y. 1855. 4to. pp. 95. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, N.Y. 1856. 16mo. pp. 384. [book review]”, in The Christian Examiner and Religious Miscellany, volume XXVI (4th Series; volume LX overall), number III, Boston, Mass.: Crosby, Nichols, and Company; New York, N.Y.: C. S. Francis & Co.; London: Edward T. Whitfield, […], →OCLC, page 473

itifallico

lascivious, obscene — see also lascivious, obscene


blood brother

en-noun

blood brother (plural blood brothers or (obsolete) blood brethren)

blood brothers (plural)
blood brethren (obsolete plural)

пабраці́м

unrelated male friend confirmed by a ceremonial mingling of blood

把兄弟

unrelated male friend considered to share such strong relationship

(by extension) An unrelated male considered to share such a strong relationship generally.


Olympian

en-adj

Olympian (not generally comparable, comparative more Olympian, superlative most Olympian)

more Olympian (comparative)
most Olympian (superlative)

From Late Middle English Olympyan, from Latin Olympius (“of or relating to Mount Olympus”) and its etymon Ancient Greek Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olúmpios, “of or relating to Mount Olympus; living on Mount Olympus; Olympian”) + English -an (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, or forming agent nouns). Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olúmpios) is derived from Ὄλῠμπος (Ólumpos, “Mount Olympus”) (from Pre-Greek) + -ῐος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).

affix

Behold! your Saviour mounts th' Olympian plain, / In endleſs glories with his Sire to reign.

1768, Marcus Hieronymus Vida [i.e., Marco Girolamo Vida], “Book VI”, in J[ohn] Cranwell, transl., The Christiad, a Poem in Six Books; […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] J. Archdeacon, printer to the University [of Cambridge]; sold by J. Woodyer, and T. & J. Merrill […], →OCLC, page 383

(comparable, by extension) Resembling a Greek deity in some way.

Resembling a Greek deity in some way.
Celestial, heavenly; also, godlike.

The Olympian distance he so carefully cultivated was shot through with genuine exhaustion. Workaholic and overburdened with affairs of state, he had evidently written the letter in snached moments between other matters.

2011, Thomas Penn, “Richmond”, in Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, published March 2012, part 1 (Blood and Roses), page 51

Acting in a remote and superior manner; aloof.


rub of the green

en-noun

rub of the green (plural rubs of the green)

(sports, by extension) an outside agent that affects the movement of the ball.


exploitative

en-adj

exploitative (comparative more exploitative, superlative most exploitative)

more exploitative (comparative)
most exploitative (superlative)

Carey McWilliams offers an exploitative theory to explain anti-Semitism.¹⁸ Social exclusion of Jews, he points out, commenced in the 1870’s just when huge fortunes were being made in industry and in railroading.

1954, Gordon Willard Allport, The Nature of Prejudice, Basic Books, published 1979, page 233

(more generally) Of or relating to exploitation.


swallowable

swallowable (comparative more swallowable, superlative most swallowable)

more swallowable (comparative)
most swallowable (superlative)

(by extension, of legislation) Able to be accepted by the electorate.


Morlock

Author's coinage; possibly influenced by Morlach or Moloch.

Thus civilian morale became a key issue in war preparations, which were undertaken in a spirit so fretfully suspicious that centralised mass shelters were not constructed for fear of encouraging a deep shelter mentality that would turn London's population into a race of modern Morlocks.

2004, Laura Marcus, Peter Nicholls, The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century English Literature, page 437

We need a modern White version of that. They go into niggerhoods that border Human areas and patrol. Protect the Human encampments from the invading Morlocks. Do it legally, and call the police to actually grab the criminal n*gs, but be out there in force watching & filming these things.

Quoted in: 2020, Martina Althoff, Bernd Dollinger, Holger Schmidt, Conflicting Narratives of Crime and Punishment (page 155)


nightcap

[…] and as a nightcap I happened to pick the copy of Plato […]

1920, Granville Stanley Hall, Recreations of a Psychologist

(by extension, figuratively) Something that a person reads or listens to before bed.


fingerling

From Middle English fyngyrlynge, equivalent to finger + -ling, from having the size of a human finger.

Oh, but those little crab-lingered fingerlings really wanted to get in! Now some were trying to claw up through an old knothole whose bole had aged and didn’t sit true in the plank. […] But here came the dwarf opening her door, and the spiderlets melted away.

2011, Gregory Maguire, “The Patchwork Conscience of Oz”, in Out of Oz (The Wicked Years), New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, page 160

(by extension) Any finger-sized version of something typically larger.