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to deprive of vital content or force
syn. disembowel
"The ancient Egyptians would eviscerate the bodies of the dead as part of the process of mummifying them" -Merriam-Webster.com |
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exaggerated pride or self-confidence
"His failure was brought on by his hubris." -Dictionary.com |
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to cover with a flood; to overwhelm
syn. deluge
"Rising rivers could inundate low-lying areas." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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a core group of trained personnel
"The Republicans hardly need a party and the cumbersome cadre of low-level officials that form one; they have a bankroll as large as the Pentagon's budget, dozens of fatted PACs, and the well-advertised support of the Christian deity." -Barbara Ehrenreich, U.S. author/columnist, 1986 |
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a period of origin or manufacture
"Happiness is a wine of the rarest vintage, and seems insipid to a vulgar taste." -Logan Pearsall Smith, U.S. essayist, 1931 |
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| excitingly appealing or interesting; glamourous |
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seeming to have a supernatural character; uncomfortable strange
"She has an uncanny sense of direction." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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unwise; not tactful
"Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic." -James Madison, U.S. president, 1789 |
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lacking in foresight or discernment; narrow (view)
"Society people are often myopic; at the moment when the cease all relations with Jewish ladies of their acquaintance, as they wonder how to fill the void, they notice, pushed among them as if by a stormy night, a new lady, who is also Jewish; but thanks to her newness, she is not associated in their minds, as were the earlier ladies, with what they believe they must detest." -Marcel Proust, French novelist, 1918 |
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highest or farthest point
"Shag carpeting reached the apogee of its popularity in the 1970s but is now considered outdated." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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a warning; an explanation to prevent misinterpretation
"His investment advice comes with a caveat: that the stock market is impossible to predict with absolute accuracy." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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dried up; drained of emotional/intellectual vitality
"I know that the right kind of leader for the Labour Party is a kind of desiccated calculating machine." -Aneurin Bevan, British politician, 1954 |
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phlebotomy; elimination of personnel/resources
"The company went through a period of bloodletting in the 1970s." -Dictionary.com |
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flamboyance in style/action
syn. verve
"She played the role of hostess with great panache." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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reserved, modest
"persian pussy from over the sea
demure and lazy and smug and fat
none of your ribbons and bells for me
ours is the zest of the alley cat" -Don Marquis, U.S. humorist/journalist, 1927 |
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faculty of finding valuable things by chance
"As they leapfrog from South Africa to Singapore in search of local delicacies, the authors prove again and again that serendipity is the traveler's strongest ally: many of their most memorable meals issue from the hands of generous strangers …" —Sarah Karnasiewicz, 2008 |
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crude, tactless
"A good man often appears gauche simply because he does not take advantage of the myriad mean little chances of making himself look stylish. Preferring truth to form, he is not constantly at work upon the façade of his appearance." -Iris Murdoch, British novelist, 1972 |
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a chant; a lengthy recitation, a series
"America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?" -Allen Ginsberg, U.S. poet, 1984 |
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a scarcity
"There's never a dearth of reasons to shoot at the President." -Don Delillo, on the Kennedys; U.S. author, 1988 |
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concise (to the point of rudeness or mystery)
"We would rather have a smiling, shape-shifting Democrat we don't trust than a frowning, laconic Republican we trust more." -Maureen Dowd, U.S. columnist, 1996 |
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concerned with a particular end; for immediate needs
"A committee formed ad hoc to deal with the issue." -Dictionary.com
"The ad hoc committee disbanded after making its final report." -Dictionary.com |
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sensational, shocking; gruesome
"What I hated even more than the conflict was the lurid spectacle of a world of unreason." -Ellen Glasgow, U.S. novelist, 1944 |
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a man whose wife is unfaithful
"Bastidides, on the contrary, who both talks and writes of nothing
save copulation,
Has become the father of twins,
But he accomplished this feat at some cost;
He had to be four times cuckold." -Ezra Pound, U.S. poet, 1957 |
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surreptitious; sly, stealthy
"We exchanged furtive smiles across the table." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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of a deceitful nature of quality; false, bogus
"Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill and calling for larger spurs and brighter beaks. I fear that nationalism is one of England's many spurious gifts to the world." -Richard Aldington, British author, 1931 |
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something absolutely indispensable or essential
"Fidelity to the subject's thought and to his characteristic way of expressing himself is the sine qua non of journalistic quotation." -Janet Malcolm, U.S. author, 1990 |
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one who dabbles in a field of interest
"She writes about art not from the point of view of an artist but from that of a committed dilettante" -Merriam-Webster.com |
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to visualize; to conceive of
"I envisage a day when proper health care will be available to everyone." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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to a sickening or excessive degree
"I wish he'd drop the subject; we have heard about budget cuts ad nauseam." -Dictionary.com |
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a heavy vapor; an atmosphere that tends to deplete
"To many men ... the miasma of peace seems more suffocating than the bracing air of war." -George Steiner, French-American critic, 1978 |
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being a good omen; favorable prophetic
syn. propitious
"His acclaimed first novel was an auspicious debut." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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to come down, dismount; to land, settle
"A group of tourists alighted from the boat." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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beggar
"The woman who does her job for society inside the four walls of her home must not be considered by her husband or anyone else an economic "dependent," reaching out her hands in mendicant fashion for financial help." -Mary Barnett Gilson, U.S. economist & educator, 1940 |
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funereal; relating to burial or religious altars
"The decrepit mansion had a sepulchral tone that gave everyone a chill." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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approaching death, inactivity, or obsolescence
"an actor who is trying to revive his moribund career" -Merriam-Webster.com |
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settles; physically inactive
"Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger." -Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher, 1762 |
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ancient, primitive, primordial
"The very nursery tales of this generation were the nursery tales of primeval races. They migrate from east to west, and again from west to east; now expanded into the "tale divine" of bards, now shrunk into a popular rhyme." -Henry David Thoreau, U.S. author, 1849 |
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purgation of emotions that brings about spiritual release
"Opera once was an important social instrument—especially in Italy. With Rossini and Verdi people were listening to opera together and having the same catharsis with the same story, the same moral dilemmas." -Luciano Berio, Italian composer, 1989 |
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an aggressive attack or refutation
"Her book is a fierce polemic against the inequalities in our society." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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insincere or foolish talk
syn. bunkum
"He thinks everything politicians say is just a bunch of malarkey." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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to enlighten, inform; to uplift
"These books will both entertain and edify readers." -Merriam-Webster.com |
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something comparatively worthless
"Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed." -Elbert Hubbard, U.S. author, 1914 |
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marked by majestic dignity or grandeur
"Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres." -Laurence Binyon, British poet |
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relevant; pertinent; closely related
"Isn't it germane to report that the Republican position is dramatically different than what would have been considered reasonable even in Republican party politics even a few years ago?" -Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show 11/19/2011 |
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fig. a member of a Turkish order of Sufis, whose ritual consists in part of a highly stylized whirling dance.
"He's not a flip-flopper, I think he's a gyrator. He just never stops spinning and twirling. He plays musical chairs with himself... Any time he's met by a challenge... he just becomes a whirling dervish of whatever he thinks will get him through that moment." -David Corn, Mother Jones DC Bureau Chief (The Rachel Maddow Show, 11/18/2011) |
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promptness in response; cheerful readiness
"Surely one of the most striking features of human dynamics is the alacrity with which those who have been oppressed will oppress whomever they can once the opportunity presents itself." —Randall Kennedy, Atlantic, May 1997 |
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practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal or spiritual discipline; austere in appearance, manner, or attitude
"Chavez's ascetic life-style has had much to do with elevating farm unionism into an epic struggle." -Dictionary.com |
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causing or tending to cause sleep;
tending to dull awareness or alertness
"The offerings include one soporific clunker, one engaging thrill-ride, and one terrific biopic." -Dictionary.com |
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German: "storm and stress"; fig. turmoil; from a late 18th century German literary movement characterized by works containing rousing action and high emotionalism that often deal with the individual's revolt against society
"in a year filled with corporate Sturm und Drang, the company was headed by no fewer than three different CEOs" -Merriam-Webster.com |
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an emotion of sympathetic pity
"The post-Katrina squalor and corruption has made it difficult for the president to milk pathos out of subsequent disasters." -Dictionary.com |
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quack; fraud
"But he was also a charismatic showman with a touch of the charlatan about him, and he loved a good spectacle." -Dictionary.com |
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fetter: a chain or shackle for the feet; confined, restrained
"But his office is understaffed and his powers fettered." -Dictionary.com |
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bereft, forsaken
"Against the forlorn backdrop of the muddy terrain the media circus has left behind, the young mother is photographed for a fashion spread wearing a … white dress." —James Wolcott, Vanity Fair, September 1998 |
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an insensitivity to subtlety or appropriateness in verbal expression
"Unfortunately, he will pay a large price for his political tin ear." -Dictionary.com |
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| a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character |
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performed or rendered in a loyal, valiant, useful, or workmanlike manner, especially in situations that involve a great deal of effort or labor
"He did a yeoman job on the problem." -Dictionary.com |
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an inopportune occurrence; an embarrassing mischance
"there was a bit of a contretemps over the seating arrangements for the upcoming wedding" -Merriam-Webster.com |
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one who is experienced or knowledgeable
"an investment maven, he was doing well even when the market was doing poorly" -Merriam-Webster.com |
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| Enjoyment derived from hatred of a person or thing; the attraction to something you really can't stand; the compulsion of revulsion |
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