Term
temporize[image]\TEM-puh-ryze
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I hope city council members will take swift action at today’s meeting, but I’m worried that they are more likely to temporize.
"The more the Security Council temporizes, compromises and weakens these resolutions, the more defiant and ambitious Iran becomes." — From a staff editorial in The New York Times, February 10, 2011
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Definition
1 : to act to suit the time or occasion : yield to current or dominant opinion
2 : to draw out discussions or negotiations so as to gain time |
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Term
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forebear[image]\FOR-bair\
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noun
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:
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ancestor, forefather; also : precursor
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Though several of her male forebears had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, Tina was the first woman of the family to do so.
"Our superstitious forebears used to say: Don't get up on the wrong side of the bed." — From an article in the Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts), April 28, 2011
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Definition
ancestor, forefather; also : precursor |
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Term
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efficacious[image]\ef-uh-KAY-shus\
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adjective
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Pam knew that the most efficacious remedy for her cold would be a steaming bowl of her grandmother’s famous chicken soup.
"The following plan is efficacious in ridding fields not only of crows but of smaller birds and even domestic fowl: Make an imitation hawk, using a large potato and long turkey feathers…. Suspend it from a tall, bent pole. The wind will lend it realism by agitating it." — From Jerry Mack Johnson’s 2011 book Old-Time Wisdom and Country Lore: 1000s of Skills for Simple Living
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Definition
having the power to produce a desired effect |
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Term
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absinthe[image]\AB-sinth\
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noun
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"I guess they'll put her out of here, too — she's getting to have crazy fits, from drinking absinthe." — From Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle
"Many a writer or artist has longed to travel back in time to the sizzling Paris of the 1920s, to sipabsinthe with Hemingway at Les Deux Magots or dine on choucroute garnie with Picasso at La Rotonde." — From an article by Joseph Berger in The New York Times, May 28, 2011
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Definition
a green liqueur which is flavored with wormwood, anise, and other aromatic herbs and commercial production of which is banned in many countries for health concerns; also : a liqueur resembling absinthe |
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Term
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verb
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"With two outs, two on, a 3-2 lead and a 1-2 count on light-hitting Nick Green in the seventh inning, Pavano didn't come far enough inside with a fastball and the D-Rays second baseman pasted the ball on a line toward the left-field corner." — From a news story by Sam Borden in the New York Daily News, June 23, 2005
"Duke (32-3) traveled to Hartford on Jan. 31 and got pasted, 87-51, by the Huskies." — From an article by Arthur Staple in Newsday (Long Island, NY), March 27, 2011
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Definition
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1 :
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to strike hard at
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2 :
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to beat or defeat soundly
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