thimblerig: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Monday, January 31, 2011 thimblerig \THIM-buhl-rig\, verb: 1. To cheat or swindle, as in the traditional shell game known as thimblerig. noun: 1. A game in which the operator rapidly moves about three inverted thimbles, often with sleight of hand, one of which conceals a token, the other player betting on which thimble the token is under. Vending wonder, big diversions with little fibs, my father loved to play the game, cog the die, and thimblerig the ear, offering up the pleasure of an afternoon s deception. -- Lee Siegel, Love and Other Games of Chance "I do not permit any man to thimblerig his debts to me into my debts to him." Burbank seemed deeply moved. -- Roger Rosenblatt, Beet: A Novel Thimblerig as a verb derives from the con artist's game of the same name. The word is a combination of thimble, the small metal cap used in sewing, and rig, in the archaic sense of "to trick or scheme." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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vulpine: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Sunday, January 30, 2011 vulpine \VUHL-pahyn\, adjective: 1. Cunning or crafty. 2. Of or resembling a fox. His olive complexion surrounded a vulpine smile whenever he looked in the direction of the defendant. -- Jeffrey R. Ryan, A Volcano Heard Afar McCone was aware of what was happening, and his leaning posture became more and more vulpine. -- Stephen King, Richard Bachman, The Running Man Vulpine derives from the Latin word for "fox," vulpinus. Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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cacoethes: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Saturday, January 29, 2011 cacoethes \kak-oh-EE-theez\, noun: An irresistible urge; mania. We must talk, think, and live up to the spirit of the times, and write up to it too, if that cacoethes be upon us, or else we are nought. -- Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers A cacoethes for travel seemed suddenly to have possessed the old gentleman, and an airy allusion to Damascus had struck her dumb. -- Leonard Merrick, The worldlings Cacoethes stems from the Greek kakoethes, a combination of the roots kakos, "bad," and ethes, "character." The word occurs famously in Juvenal's Latin phrase insanabile scribendi cacoethes, "incurable passion for writing." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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rakish: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Friday, January 28, 2011 rakish \REY-kish\, adjective: 1. Smart; jaunty; dashing. 2. Of a vessel: having an appearance suggesting speed. 3. Like a rake; dissolute: rakish behavior. Just as they stepped into the house Beard remembered that it was Patrice's afternoon off, and there she was, at the head of the stairs, in rakish blue eye patch, tight jeans, pale green cashmere sweater, Turkish slippers, coining down to meet them with a pleasant smile and the offer of coffee as her husband had made the introductions. -- Ian McEwan, Solar General Bernard Rutkowski, his cap set at a slightly rakish, angle strode along the tunnel. -- Fletcher Knebel, Charles Waldo Bailey, Seven days in May Rakish enters the English lexicon in the 1700s, but rake, as in "immoral person," goes back further, possibly descended from the Middle English rakel, "headstrong." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Flotsam, jetsam, and sandbar pianos: Three mysteries revealed A mystery has gripped Biscayne Bay since New Years, when a 650-pound baby grand piano appeared on a sandbar above the waves. Was this out-of-place instrument flotsam, the work of pirates? Was this lagan from�bumbling musical smugglers? Full disclosure: This riddle has in fact been solved, and we'll�reveal the enigmatic source�in a minute. There is a... Read more ››
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jobbery: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Thursday, January 27, 2011 jobbery \JOB-uh-ree\, noun: The conduct of public or official business for the sake of improper private gain. To a large portion of the people who frequent Washington or dwell there, the ultra fashion, the shoddy, the jobbery are as utterly distasteful as they would be in a refined New England City. -- Mark Twain, The gilded age and later novels Casting about for some way of breaking through this vicious circle, he saw but one expedient - to wit, some great service to be rendered to the government, or some profitable bit of jobbery. -- Honoré de Balzac, The Unconscious Mummers Jobbery combines the sense of job and robbery and reflects the historically negative connotation of job, whose definition may derive from gob, as in "a mass or lump." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Meet "Mercedonius," the annoying month that used to exist (sometimes) There are many reasons to be thankful for the benefits of modern living - antibiotics, airplanes, velcro . . . Another subtle but essential item is our calendar. It may have some frustrating moments, but consider how months used to work. Take heed of Mercedonius. In the days of the Roman calendar, an intercalary month was added in leap years... Read more ››
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gung-ho: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Wednesday, January 26, 2011 gung-ho \GUHNG-HO\, adjective: 1. Wholeheartedly enthusiastic and loyal; eager; zealous. 2. In a successful manner. You end up becoming this perky, gung-ho version of yourself that you know is just revolting. -- Douglas Coupland, Microserfs It's not because he's such a gung-ho company man, he's too smart for that. -- Jonathan Franzen, Strong motion: a novel Gung ho introduced as a training slogan in 1942 by U.S. Marine officer Evans F. Carlson (1896-1947) from the Chinese chin gōng hé, the abbreviated name of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, literally "work together." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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What does "packers" in the Green Bay Packers refer to exactly? In a few weeks much of the world will be glued to images of men in helmets and tight pants kicking around an egg-shaped ball. You may know a ton of Super Bowl trivia, as well as all of the arcane rules of football, but how about this word right in front of you: Packers.... Read more ››
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dharna: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Tuesday, January 25, 2011 dharna \DAHR-nuh\, noun: In India,the practice of exacting justice or compliance with a just demand by sitting and fasting at the doorstep of an offender until death or until the demand is granted. Surely thou hast heard that Munda Ram, banker, having failed to procure his moneys from Narain Das, thy kinsman, hath sworn to obtain them by dharna? -- Maud Diver, Siege perilous: and other stories You've never reached up, awestruck, to touch these ties and brought the entire rack down on your head so that you sat swathed in a riot of colors, held down by a dharna of textures, trapped in a gherao of ties. -- Shashi Tharoor, Show business: a novel Dharna is a Hindi word literally meaning "a placing." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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Dear diary . . . What's the word for the qualities that make your writing unique? Science magazine recently released a study on the effects of diary writing for college and high school students. The results showed that students experiencing test anxiety and who wrote about their disquiet in a diary right before the exam performed better on the test by half a grade. Dictionaries and diaries are old friends; what better... Read more ››
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paphian: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Monday, January 24, 2011 paphian \PEY-fee-uhn\, adjective: 1. Of or pertaining to love, esp. illicit physical love. 2. Of or pertaining to Paphos, an ancient city of Cyprus sacred to Aphrodite. 3. Noting or pertaining to Aphrodite or to her worship or service. The juxtaposition of Ellen's willowy beauty and high-spirited naivete and Kreton's clear desire for her illuminated perfectly the paphian difficulties that would confront a powerful telepath, were such persons to exist. -- Gene Wolfe, The best of Gene Wolfe: a definitive retrospective of his finest short fiction I think I walked through life at that time like a somnambulist; for I have since seen that I must have been piling mistake upon mistake until out of a chaos of meaningless words and smiles I had woven a paphian love temple. -- George Bernard Shaw, The Irrational Knot Paphian relates to the ancient Greek paphios, "of the Greek goddess Aphrodite." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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"Purple Cow?" Learn the weird reason blurbs are called blurbs You read the blurb on the back of a book to figure out if you want to shell out the extra bucks for the hardcover. You glance at the blurb on a DVD before deciding if that film is the one to enjoy that evening.  A good blurb provides a short summary or praise of a creative... Read more ››
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homograph: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Sunday, January 23, 2011 homograph \HOM-uh-graf\, noun: A word of the same written form as another but of different meaning, whether pronounced the same way or not. She would pronounce the English word with a real fear, and found its close French homograph absurd, stupidly naval and military. -- Lilane Giraudon, Guy Bennett, Fur It may help to remember the definition of the word homograph by looking at its parts. -- American Book Company, Kate McElvaney, Teresa Valentine, Maria Struder, Kent Carlisle -, Tackling the TAKS 8 in Reading Homograph conbines the Greek roots homos, "same," and graphos, "drawn or written." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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"Purple Cow?" Learn the weird reason blurbs are called blurbs You read the blurb on the back of a book to figure out if you want to shell out the extra bucks for the hardcover. You glance at the blurb on a DVD before deciding if that film is the one enjoy that evening.  A good blurb provides a short summary or praise of a creative work,... Read more ››
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lollop: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Saturday, January 22, 2011 lollop \LOL-uhp\, verb: 1. To move forward with a bounding, drooping motion. 2. To hang loosely; droop; dangle. And the dogs-except one cattle dog -Veno - Biddy would remember her; how she used to lollop about the front veranda outside her room. -- Rosa Praed, Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land Not everybody could have swum out through that entrance, against a spring-tide and to lollop in the sea; and one dash against the rocks would have settled me. -- R. D. Blackmore, Mary Anerley Lollop develops from the Middle English lollen, "to doze." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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"Purple Cow?" Learn the weird reason blurbs are called blurbs You read the blurb on the back of a book to figure out if you want to shell out the extra bucks for the hardcover. You glance at the blurb on a DVD before deciding if that film is the one enjoy that evening.  A good blurb provides a short summary or praise of a creative work,... Read more ››
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