| 10-Sep-10 | Couchant \KOU-chuhnt\, adjective:
1. Lying down; crouching; reclining.
2. Heraldry . (Of an animal) represented as lying on its stomach with its hind legs and forelegs pointed forward.
Winding through a noble valley, we presently came to Bello's palace, couchant and bristling in a grove.
-- Herman Melville, Mardi: And a Voyage Thither
Credit: http://Dictionary.com | | 09-Sep-10 | Kith \KITH\, noun:
Acquaintances, friends, neighbors, or the like; persons living in the same general locality and forming a more or less cohesive group.
Charles 0. Brockway is unquestionably the foremost forger of America and the equal of any of his kith across the water.
-- De Francias Folsom, Our police: A history of the Baltimore force
Credit: http://Dictionary.com | | 08-Sep-10 | Shenanigan \shuh-NAN-i-guhn\, noun:
1. Mischief; prankishness.
2. Remarks intended to deceive; deceit. Often used in the plural.
For his latest shenanigan, he had been sentenced to three days in the boiler room.
-- Jim Holland, Escaping the Underground
Credit: http://Dictionary.com | | 07-Sep-10 | Beek \BEEK\, verb:
1. To bask or warm in the sunshine or before a fire.
2. (Of wood) to season by exposure to heat.
"Galen, you and the lads go beek yourselves by fireside."
-- Deborah MacGillivray, One Snowy Knight
Credit: http://Dictionary.com | | 03-Sep-10 | Anacoluthia \an-uh-kuh-LOO-thee-uh\, noun:
Lack of grammatical sequence or coherence, esp. in a sentence.
At one time or another, we have all suffered through those unappealable debates in which a lady, with copious interjections and anacoluthia, swears that the word "luna" is more (or less) expressive than the word "moon."
-- Jorge Luis Borges, Emir RodrÃÂÂguez Monegal, Alastair Reid, Borges, a reader: a selection from the writings of Jorge Luis Borges
Credit: http://Dictionary.com | | 02-Sep-10 | Bilocation \bahy-loh-KEY-shuhn\, noun:
The state of being or the ability to be in two places at the same time.
He experienced a sudden, startling sense of bilocation. He seemed to become a passive observer watching a second Finn.
-- Morgan Llywelyn, Finn Mac Cool
Credit: http://Dictionary.com | | 31-Aug-10 | Erudite \AIR-yuh-dyt; -uh-dyt\
adjective:
Characterized by extensive reading or knowledge; learned.
In front of imposing edifices like the Topkapi Palace or Hagia Sophia are guides displaying Government-issued licenses. Many of these guides are erudite historians who have quit low-paying jobs as university professors and now offer private tours.
-- "What's Doing in Istanbul", New York Times, February 23, 1997
Credit: http://dictionary.com | | 30-Aug-10 | Exiguous \ig-ZIG-yoo-us\
adjective:
Extremely scanty; meager.
They are entering the market, setting up stalls on snowy streets, moonlighting to supplement exiguous incomes.
-- Michael Ignatieff, "Rebirth of a Nation: An Anatomy of Russia", New Statesman, February 6, 1998
Credit: http://dictionary.com | | 27-Aug-10 | Defenestrate \dee-FEN-uh-strayt\
transitive verb:
To throw out of a window.
Some of his apparent chums . . . would still happily defenestrate him if they caught him near a window.
-- Andrew Marr, "No option bar the radical one", Independent, July 5, 1994
Credit: http://dictionary.com | | 26-Aug-10 | Lucre \LOO-kuhr\
noun:
Monetary gain; profit; riches; money; -- often in a bad sense.
His stories began to be published in the American Mercury before he moved to L.A., lured by the dream of Hollywood lucre.
-- Jerome Boyd Maunsell, "Truly madly weepy", Times (London), June 10, 2000
Credit: http://dictionary.com |
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