#83

pi·rate (pī'rĭt) Pronunciation Key
n.

1.
1. One who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without commission from a sovereign nation.
2. A ship used for this purpose.
2. One who preys on others; a plunderer.
3. One who makes use of or reproduces the work of another without authorization.
4. One that operates an unlicensed, illegal television or radio station.


v. pi·rat·ed, pi·rat·ing, pi·rates

v. tr.

1. To attack and rob (a ship at sea).
2. To take (something) by piracy.
3. To make use of or reproduce (another's work) without authorization.


v. intr.
To act as a pirate; practice piracy.


[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pīrāta, from Greek peirātēs, from peirān, to attempt, from peira, trial; see per-3 in Indo-European roots.]

pi·rat'ic (pī-rāt'ĭk), pi·rat'i·cal (-ĭ-kəl) adj., pi·rat'i·cal·ly adv.

#80

wheedle \HWEE-d'l; WEE-d'l\, transitive verb:
1. To entice by soft words or flattery; to coax.
2. To gain or get by flattery or guile.

intransitive verb:
1. To flatter; to use soft words.

Editors who wished to carry original work rather than reprints found it necessary to wheedle contributions from readers by decrying inexperience as a reason for not taking up the pen and by offering prizes for submissions.
-- Ronald Weber, Hired Pens

When Wayne and I first moved here, the settlers living within twenty miles were consumed with curiosity about our relationship, and one of 'em tried to wheedle a little matrimonial information out of me.
-- Christine Wiltz, The Last Madam

He knew what it looked like to seduce, to intimidate, to wheedle, and to console; to strike a pose or preach a sermon.
-- Simon Schama, Rembrandt's Eyes

The origin of wheedle is uncertain; it is perhaps from Old English wædlian, "to beg, to be a beggar," from wædl, "want, poverty."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for wheedle

#66

scrabble \SKRAB-uhl\, intransitive verb:

1. To scrape or scratch with the hands or feet.
2. To struggle by or as if by scraping or scratching.
3. To proceed by clawing with the hands and feet; to scramble.
4. To make irregular, crooked, or unmeaning marks; to scribble; to scrawl.

transitive verb:
1. To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on or over.
2. To make or obtain by scraping together hastily.

noun:
1. The act or an instance of scrabbling.
2. A scribble.

Mice kept me awake by scrabbling in the uncovered garbage can.
-- Edith Anderson, Love in Exile

Rather frantically I scrabble for the recollection of what exactly it does give me.
-- Robert McLiam Wilson, Ripley Bogle

In the huddle they'd talk about running "post patterns," and they'd scrabble plays in the grass.
-- George Plimpton, quoted in The Last Patrician, by Michael Knox Beran

Heard by Maidment but not seen, the dog, called Rosie, yawned, then pushed herself on to her feet, slipping about on the polished boards with a scrabble of paws.
-- William Trevor, Death in Summer


Scrabble derives from Dutch schrabbelen, from Middle Dutch, frequentative of schrabben, "to scrape; to scratch."





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#52

"Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane."

......................

Qutodiationing Word suggestion

col·late [kuh-leyt, koh-, ko-, koh-leyt, kol-eyt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object), -lat·ed, -lat·ing.
1.
to gather or arrange in their proper sequence (the pages of a report, the sheets of a book, the pages of several sets of copies, etc.).
2.
Bookbinding. to verify the arrangement of (the gathered sheets of a book), usually by inspecting the signature at the foot of the first page of each sheet or the mark printed on the back of each sheet or on the spine of each signature.
3.
to compare (texts, statements, etc.) in order to note points of agreement or disagreement.
4.
Bibliography. to verify the number and order of the sheets of (a volume) as a means of determining its completeness.
5.
Computers. to merge (sequenced data from two or more data sets or files) to produce a new sequenced data set or file.
6.
Ecclesiastical. to present by collation, as to a benefice.

[Origin: 1550–60; < L collātus (ptp. of conferre to bring together), equiv. to col- col-1 + lā- (suppletive s. of ferre) + -tus ptp. ending]

—Related forms
col·lat·a·ble, adjective
col·la·tor, noun

#46

abscond \ab-SKOND\, intransitive verb:
To depart secretly; to steal away and hide oneself -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid arrest or prosecution.

The criminal is not concerned with influencing or affecting public opinion: he simply wants to abscond with his money or accomplish his mercenary task in the quickest and easiest way possible so that he may reap his reward and enjoy the fruits of his labours.
-- Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism

Pearl, now an orphan (her father having absconded shortly after her conception), has been taken to live with her great-aunt Margaret in the north of England.
-- Zoe Heller, Everything You Know


Abscond comes from Latin abscondere, "to conceal," from ab-, abs-, "away" + condere, "to put, to place."

#23

caterwaul \KAT-uhr-wawl\, intransitive verb:
1. To make a harsh cry.
2. To have a noisy argument.

noun:
1. A shrill, discordant sound.

John met Angela head-to-head and there was a lot of bellowing and caterwauling.
-- Matthew Parris, "Prescott grapples with his feminine side", Times (London), December 14, 2000

In the early days, when people were still shocked by the novelty of cursing, screaming, caterwauling emotional incontinents attacking each other on stage, he [Jerry Springer] used to produce high-falutin' justifications for the show.
-- Paul Hoggart, "Paul Hoggart's television choice", Times (London), December 9, 2000

The forest silence is impermeable, entirely undisturbed by the soft bell notes of hidden birds, the tick of descending leaves and twigs or soft thump of falling fruit, or even the far caterwaul of monkeys.
-- Peter Matthiessen, African Silences


Caterwaul is from Middle English caterwawen, "to cry as a cat," either from Medieval Dutch kater, "tomcat" + Dutch wauwelen, "to tattle," or for catawail, from cat-wail, "to wail like a cat."



by Charley Harper

#3

coruscate \KOR-uh-skayt\, intransitive verb:
1. To give off or reflect bright beams or flashes of light; to sparkle.
2. To exhibit brilliant, sparkling technique or style.

They pulled up at the farthest end of a loop path that looked out over the great basin of the Rio Grande under brilliant, coruscating stars.
-- Bill Roorbach, "Big Bend", The Atlantic, March 2001

Beneath you lie two miles of ocean -- a bottomlessness, for all practical purposes, an infinity of blue. . . . A thousand coruscating shafts of sunlight probe it, illuminating nothing.
-- Kenneth Brower, "The Destruction of Dolphins", The Atlantic, July 1989

What coruscating flights of language in his prose, what waterfalls of self-displaying energy!
-- Joyce Carol Oates, review of A Theft, by Saul Bellow, New York Times, March 5, 1989

Whether we know or like it or not, those of us who turn our hands to this task are scribbling in a line of succession which, however uncertainly and intermittently, reaches back to the young Macaulay, who first made his public reputation as a coruscating writer in the 1820s.
-- David Cannadine, "On Reviewing and Being Reviewed", History Today, March 1, 1999


Coruscate comes from Latin coruscatus, past participle of coruscare, "to move quickly, to tremble, to flutter, to twinkle or flash." The noun form is coruscation. Also from coruscare is the adjective coruscant, "glittering in flashes; flashing."

from Dictionary.com


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Equations are the devil's sentences.
- Stephen Colbert