Words associate but must start with a letter not found in the previous word.
Origin
descent
ladder
roofing
slate
writing
(At my infant school we had writing slates before we were trusted with paper and pencil).
calligraphy
swirls
paint
remodel
construction
Build
version
argument
fight
battle
war
death
weapon
gun
holster
carry
lift
clean
(The weightlifting kind. The only cleaning I do.)
Jerk
assclown
Idiot
Berk
asshat
grinch
Max
damage
price
(colloquial - what's the damage = what's it cost)
sacrifice
parenting
lax
rumble
fight
warfare
Nuclear
fusion
join
welcome
thankful
grateful
presents
gifts
favor
curry
spice
herb
cannabis
Dope
Film
scum
floating
drifting
adrift
lost
found
recovered
unearthed
plow
(Forgive me the American, ie wrong, spelling, but it's Fly's fault for pinching all the good vowels.)
(I had to stop and think what the "right" spelling would look like and it was tough)
farmer
pig
cop
sheriff
law
breaker
waves
ocean
sea
battle
war
zone
time
next
subsequent
later
follows
behind
lag
wrap
swaddle
baby
infant
sprog
brat
wurst
hotdog
bun
Chelsea
boots
kinky
voyeuristic
peep
spy
hole
toad
frog
Pierre
French
knickers
undies
camisole
garment
Clothes
pointless
futile
wasted
inebriated
smashed
vase
flower
petal
rose
water
spring
boing
stretch
Lycra
Mortal Sin :P
Humming
Bird
owl
Hoot
beep
roadrunner
cartoon
drawing
pencil
sharpener
dullard
footballer
jock
muscles
Bulging
waistline
strap
hold
all
embracing
hug
bear
polar
snow
luge
sledge
(Luge has about as much in common with an ordinary sledge as King Herod had with childcare.)
insult
mock
dis
that
other
alternative
Option
choice
best
friend
best
writing (forum ;D)
author
slacker (AKA me)
mark
scar
pimple
zit
wart
virus
flu
season
pepper
spice
rack
Pool
billiards
chalk
board
white
yellowish
complexion
acne
plooks
dermatologist
pimple
nose
Proboscis
Durante
Jimmy
Ragtime
Come on my baby, come on my darlin', come on my ragtime gal . . . Michigan Frog (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkjsN-J27aU)
boogie
dance
twist
(My other dance, perhaps once in ten years or so when absolutely forced to join in. First choice, though equally rare, is the Bikers' thumbs-in-the-belt 'Village Idiot Stomp'. Maybe that's why Village Idiots are a dying breed?
knob
turn
opportunity
knocks
door
portal
gateway
muddy
dirty
feet
inch
micrometer
precise
obsessive
driven
Chauffeur
Lyft
Hackney
taxi
lift
hitch
attach
connect
four
Quad
bike
sissy-bar
tricycle
wheels
tires
pneumatic
gauge
measure
weigh
flour
mill
stone
boulder
Colorado
brother
sibling
zero
Nil
Eurovision
blindness
cataracts
iris
flower
daffodil
jonquil
tulip
petal
stamen
boy
childish
kidlike
amateur
unpaid
Volunteer
charity
beggar
vagrant
bum
hole
drop
zone
end
over
night
mare
foal
horse
Caligula
Roman
gelato
cold
cucumber
pickle
gherkin
sour
puss
kitten
scampering
bolted
nuts
precious
dear
truffles
chocolate
sauce
topping
Sprinkles
hail
Praise
Flattery
Kiss
hug
fondle
pederast
yuck
Bile
duct
air
balloon
float
boat
destroyer
Navy
ship
bosun
deck
shuffle
cards
Moon
cheese
Limberger
Stinky
Foul
putrid
slimy
worm
earth
dirt
compost
garden
shed
moult
feathers
plume
age
Old
feeble
weak
flabby
muscular
Strong
pecks
hens
Fowl
geese
flock
swarm
group
ensemble
together
amiable
Divorce
separation
curdle
milk
goat
sheep
tup
Yume
them
us
insiders
Timecard
worker
toil
slave
freedom
sovereignty
passport
visa
mastercard
bank
vault
safe
protect
service
auto
barn
hay
straw
Upper-cut
boxing
contained
Hemmed
skirt
floor
carpet
burns
cigarette
Smoke
fire
alarm
frighten
scare
terrorise
victim
Evil
Bad
(Michael) Jackson
Pollock
valuable
knowledge
intelligence
Smart
painful
hurt
injured
snowflake
precipitation
sleet
cold
blizzard
goggles
motorbike
Punk
hair
nostrils
aroma
stench
aftershave
cologne
France
Champagne
bubbles
Wawa
store
Cupboard
Wood
chopper
bike
tandem
unicycle
balance
scale
Weight
Over
came
went
home
grown
Man
bloke
dude
Man
Child
orphan
Twist
Dance
Tango
waltz
Vienna
Richard ;D
who is no doubt working on a piece for my poetry challenge at this very minute, so probably won't see your reference.
Gloucester (Duke of)
King
Royalty
payment
bill
duck
Goose
barnacle
ship
Love
passion
fruit
lemon
Sour
tart
hussy
Whore
monger
fish
pilchard ;D(again)
tinned
Can
end
bell
ring
chime
Peal
toll
Fee
admission
Enter
doorway
threshold
jamb
tomorrow
prediction
guess
assume
incorrect
wrong
error
mistake
problem
glitch
malfunction
broken
heart
pump
draw
lottery
winner
Curse
Blasphemy
"Jehovah!"
Witness
observer
watcher
onlooker
voyeur
perv
Naughty
insolent
cheeky
chappie
Lips
Tongue
mouth
cakehole
gob
stopper
cork
floor
Mop
clean
bottom
underside
topside
beef
complain
grumble
Silence
quiet
mouse
harvest
wheat
flour
cake
lardy
fat
controller
gamestick
lacrosse
Milk
skim
ladle
spoon
Cuddle
piglet
Tigger
boing
tumescent
ready
prepared
boy-scout
green
Acres
Land
runway
skid-marks
circle-work
Broker
Insurance
life
death
burpees
gym
junkie
Dope
marijuana
hemp
Oil
fry
boil
Water
fall
stumble
clumsy
gangling
teenaged
sloth
inactive
sleeping
Bedroom
wardrobe
clothes
dressing
Blouse
torso
chest
pirate
Ship
Titanic
sunk
torpedoed
Invincible
undefeated
best
me
yourself
personality
blank
Stare
ogle
creepy
sarcophagi
Egyptian
Nile
delta
dawn
rise
Ghost
zombies
vampires
combat
engagement
rules (of)
commandments
ignore
shun
punish
retribution
fine
Sunny
disposition
Crash
burn
torch
Battery
violent
Criminal
Prisoner
Gaol
dungeon
Bars
cell
Battery
lithium
Acid
corrosive
Wear
costume
party
hat
fez
poobah
Bar
gain
Catch
fishing
complements
accessories
bling
diamonds
pearls
oysters
clams
dollars
cents
quarters
dimes
nickel
penny (remember those?)
Franks
Pigs :P
trotters
joggers
walking
Running
late
tardy
overslept
Wake
corpse
body
politic
judicious
careful
Alert
c is in judicious
a is in careful
we are in association un-plus
this is all a mess
caution
Quote from: Spell Chick on March 24, 2018, 05:31:05 PM
c is in judicious
a is in careful
we are in association un-plus
this is all a mess
caution
I was playing phonetically.
Warn
Reproach
scold
forgive
Lie
untruth
policy
Death
war
Profiteer
business
clearance
markdown
slash
Cut
Knot
boating
water
splash
Bikini
line
drawn
sketched
painted
Coat
jumper
electronics
machines
robot
Mechanical
obscure
indistinct
unusual
Common
ground
earth
worms
turn
Around
town
River
stream
Quick
fast
Yo
hello
Mac
truck
Help
assist
contribute
give
receive
take
Give
back
stabber
knifed
spooned
forked
tongue
bifurcate
divide
Add
multiply
subtract
minus
less
more
increase
Decrease
fall
Spring
bounce
trampoline
swing
playground
kids
Brats
dolls
Barbie
Ken
perception
angle
right
Left
out
hokey-cokey
Sure
possible
unlikely
could
would
can't
Maybe
never
always
talking
monologue
soliloquy
Hamlet
Piglet
sow
reap
harvest
plow
dig
underground
mine
Seagull!
bird
wings
angels
Demons
zombies
graveyard
shift
Over
weight
flab
corpulent
fat
slob
lazy
cat
fur
Venus
fly-trap
web
intricate
design
plot
thickens
damn, wrong thread
that's perfect
scheme
plan
Fail
stall
horse
mount
Fuji
Volcano
erupt
vomit
spew
chunder
Ball
foot
hoof
pony
ride
Car
pickup
line
clever
intelligent
Smart
Dumb
silly
toddler
baby
rattle
Shake
milk
udder
bovine
hircine
goat
Milk
float
boat
Coracle
Book
entertainment
opera
Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive. - Moliere
zauberflöte
He'd clearly never heard a turbine helicopter engine; or paid for the fuel.
Mozart
Wolf
Gray
Bland
tofu
soybeans
Carter
Billy
Ray
sunlight
bright
Weekend
long
eternity
Dying
Mortuary
funeral
pyre
fire
Water
swim
butterfly
monarch
Queen
bee
wasp
European
Ireland
Guinness
beer
drunk
Booze
alcohol
rubbing
massage
Hot
flashes
pervert
asphyxiation
Choke
sneeze
cough
flu
Sick
nausea
Vomit
unwell
healthy
workout
cross-fit
Jog
skip
girls
young
Boy
lad
menace
threat
Death
snuff
Case
brief
short
changed
undressed
bollocky
Wanker
putz
Clay
Mud
slide
run
hose
Cold
Ice
frappé
coffee
latte
Cappuccino
frothy
waves
high-five
praise
grovel
Shovel
dig
Tree
Oak
barrel
whiskey
drunk
Booze
Grog
pirate
Captain
Mate
friend
best
Pick
Apple
cherry
Sour
tart
strumpet
Anaconda
snake
crawl
slither
undulate
Downgrade
inferior
Weak
CrossFit
(that's how *I* approach it)
Gym
rat
Drowned
swimmer
diver
pearl
Jam
sandwich
Meatball
sauce
goose
duck
swan
Princess
Queen
Goddess
idol
matinee
video
tape
record
Track
field
valley
Peak
top
apex
nadir
President
country
Japan
east
Coast
beach
surf
Turf
lawn
ornament
Shiny
buttons
zipper
fly
Swat
fisticuffs
boxing
ring
wedding
cake
mud
Sand
Grain
wheat
corn
dog
canine
Breed
Steed
horse
pony
gallop
trot
Walk
stalk
Run
down
Left
Wrestle
fight
combat
Die
Corpse
zombie
sluggish
Nap
snooze
doze
bull
Cock
hen
rooster
Chick
Girl
comedienne
funny
Laugh
weep
Cry
tears
crocodile
Nile
Boat
sail
Ocean
sea
Cruise
Tom
drum
kit
Bar
pub
Beer
ferment
stinky
Wash
Dry
wet
dripping
soaked
clothes
Pants
Knickers
underwear
Bra
Upperdeckerflopperstopper ;D Seriously, lingerie
(Underthebuttnuthut is the male version)
girlish
Meat
animal
Blood
test
drive
travel
outback ;D
dingoes
wildlife
nature
birds
wings
fly
swatter
Hit
miss
Pine
fresh
nature
streaker
Naked
bare
soul
heaven
paradise
Heaven
clouds
Atmosphere
feeling
rotten
food
Bounty
hunter
Gon
Prefix
suffix
Cause
origin
beginning
start
Begin
undergo
Police
Bobby
pin
Head
lightbulb
wattage
Shock
electric
spark
charge
Fire
bomb
Atom
electrons
Protons
waves
ocean
Sea
mermaid
siren
Alluring
seductive
Aphrodite
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Zeus
Hera
goddess
titan
Gaia
earthy
bawdy
raunchy
Sex
gender
Bender
fluidity
Sexuality
feminine
sissy
Butch
sundance
festival
Party
birthday
card
business
Trip
dog
(My son's dog was named Trip and he swears it had nothing to do with drugs, but that he wanted to travel with said dog.)
Affection
Love
hate
Weight
pound
hammer
Nail
finger
thumb
opposed
fight
combat
Shura
obscure
Photo
image
picture
Frame
trap
Confused
puzzled
solved
Fixed
Mended
break
Glue
Horse
Uma
horse (Assuming that the uma in question is Japanese.)
carriage
Two
duo
twins
Evil
"Yes?"
possibly
Maybe
potentially
sure
thing
Mess
untidy
filth
Novel
idea
thought
mind
care
stick
Wood
pulp
fiction
Book
club
mace
weapon
Gun
firearm
shoot
massacre
wipe-out
surfing
wet
Sticky
bun
muffin
edible
Yum
gobble
Stuff
gatherings
crowds
Mob
Forum ;-)
writers
Gods
mythical
pretend
fantasy
Unicorn
horny
aroused
F**k
sex
copulation
fornicator
humans
pestilence
affliction
Pain
suffering
ache
tooth
fairy
liquid
fluid
hydraulics
water
Drip
youth
callow
shallow
deep
thoughts
Mind
thoughts
ideas
concepts
guesses
Wrong
incorrect
scrap
metal
Chain
mail
chain
link
knot
plait
braid
Hair
ball
sphere
globe
snow
avalanche
mudslide
flood
Water
drink
quaffing
cider
press
crush
flatten
Stanley
yes
Quote from: Laura on August 26, 2018, 12:47:31 PM
yes
wrong thread or something. Y in both words. Try again with good old Flat Stanley.
Yup, thought I was in the start with last letter thread. I'll do better after my second cup of coffee.
Kubrick
HAL
IBM (HAL came from subtracting one from each letter)
ginger (cockney rhyming slang for IBM Engineer is ginger beer, which gets shortened to ginger.)
beer
Drunk
intoxicated
sloshed
(I've always felt this is one of the more appropriate euphemisms for drunk, especially if the person is internally carrying several pints of beer. Sometimes you can almost hear it sloshing around.)
inebriated
pickled
walnuts
cashews
Nuts
bolts
pliers
drill
hole
rabbit
Usagi
Japanese
bonzai
tree
(An old acquaintance of mine used to have a bonsai dope plant. He was too impatient to let it grow properly. )
oak
door
jamb
frame
Crime
detective
undercover
beneath
subterranean
Ocean
salt
pay
wage
dollars
cents
money
cabbage
white
Black
snake
viper
Dodge
avoid
marriage
wed
Slavery
incarcerate
gaol
prisoner
convict
Pommies
granite
mountain
hill
climb
Run
sprint
die
(well, at least I would if I sprinted)
gasping (Sticking with the sprinting theme.)
breathing
shortness
dwarfism
little
women
Superior
naturally 8)
occurring
events
happenings
Lame
crutches
limping
scoot
mobile
trek
star
comet
asteroid
meteor
Crash
topple
Jenga
blocks
Toy
doll
Parts
leaves
Fronds
vegetation
plants
dope
Cool
refrigeration
mechanic
Bodger ;-)
usually ;D
generally
occasionally
rare
steak
Yum
apples
oranges
Mandarin
language
polyglot
bilingual
mute
deaf
Blind
sightless
dark
oblivion
explosion
boom
pow
Bang
door
portal
game
throne
seat
Warm
Hot
febrile
thermometer
anal
crap
1980s
decade
ten
decimal
point
less
more
increase
halt
exception
snowflake
Caucasian
Male
Orangutan
librarian
job
employment
work
vacation
bikini
Swim
float
Sink
hole
circumference
outer
shell
beachcomber
waves
tsunami
flood
Rain
Wet
slippery
fall
down
Up
Over
Dressed
nude
Sexy
Man
flu
shot
dead
Parrot
eye
Soul
partner
crime
drama
queen
King
chess
jacks
marbles
dice
Roll
Swiss
cheese
roll
crescent
moon
Tsuki
unknown
Sender
Unabomber
Ted
Kennedy
President
Washington
D.C.
inept
useless
religion
faith
Pray
church
Bible
Gutenberg
Steve
Harr
unknown
anonymous
Hiding
sequester
carbon
Paper
scissors
Fabric
silk
Worm
garden
hoe
rake
gardener
market
farmer's
daughter
Son
brother
friar
Tuck
nip
Bite
down
Town
village
City
Rome
Italy
Hetalia
scrotum
balls
cricket
mallets
croquet
lawn
tennis
play
games
Twister
poker
fireplace
mantlepiece
hearth
logs
fire
storm
clouds
ammonia
toxic
poison
Die
Hard
turgid
swollen
River
water
hydrogen
peroxide
Burn
hot
incandescent
Bulb
tulip
Flower
vase
Glass
eye
ball
Party
Cake
mousse
Chocolate
Bar
soap
(on a)
rope
Tie
noose
hang
picture
Snap
crackle
pop
Coke
machine
sewing
darn
bugger
slang
urban
City
Slicker
Macintosh
Gumboots
rubbers
Condoms
Ramses
pharaoh
Tutankhamun
Eygpt
Sphinx
Ancient
venerable
holy
mass
Tumor
cancer
marketing
spin
web
Spider
Lucian
Freud
psycho
Jack
(the)
Ripper
knife
dagger
sword
espee
Fight
Club
diamonds
rough
harsh
climate
Weather
cock
hen
Lay
Bed
garden
tomatoes
Italy
quindici
One of my favourite Italian words.
fifteen
players
gamers
Party
birthday
old
ancient
Patti ::)
Labelle
Quote from: Firefly on October 22, 2018, 02:08:33 AM
Patti ::)
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
this made me snort
singer
Talent
hidden
secret
lover
hater
despise
Yuck
horrid
sprouts
acorns
piggies
ham
Steak
potatoes
diaphanous
Body
lithe
sinuous
What
next
week
se'nnight
(Old English for a period of seven days, just as a fortnight is fourteen days., and a moon is twenty eight days. "Wouldst wish me to forget my love when she's but a se'nnight dead?")
archaic
Map
cartography
world
globe
round
Circle
triangle
Bermuda
shorts
Boxer
Punch
drunk
Pass
out
chill
refrigerator
cold
Hot
summer
drought
famine
Starve
hungry
diet
Atkins
Infarction
Break
crack
snap
up
Down
stream
lake
Great
Firefly ::)
Hotaru
Japanese
cars
wrecked
towtruck
Insurance
Fraud
Lawless
illegal
crooked
straight
Gay
Happy
smiling
cheesy
Lame
crutches
legs
Fetish
dogging
following
addendum
Popular
esteemed
kettle
Pot
black
darkness
hood
bonnet
Lace
bloomers
Cottontails
rabbits
doe
female
Woman
girl
friend
pal
buddy
mate
copulate ;-)
Shag 8)
pipe
gas
petroleum
Shell
ocean
water
fountain
chocolate
vanilla
essence
Perfume
scent
ambergris
whale
tail
feathers
wing
Fly
swatter
Plastic
glass
Break
neck
shoulders
knees
Finger
touch
snake
plumber
capricious
Leo
father
(that was my dad's name)
(Thinking of father as a verb...)
sire
birth
Pain
(In the) Bum
hobo
Street
path
way
right
Left
handed
scalpal
Knife
dagger
Stab
punch
fruit
mango
tree
branch
Olive
stuffed
peppers
green
ant
hill
mountain
Goat
cheese
pecorino
yummo
Bite
snap
crocodile ;D (Ma's)
tears
laughter
joke
rude
Human
sub
marine
leatherneck
dagger
knife
War
zone
parking
lot
auction
Sell
commission
hire
Work
management
bossy
Queen
Bohemian (Rapsody)
Gypsy
When Mum worked in an office for The Inland Revenue, many, many, years ago, some of the more staid members of staff referred to her as 'That Somewhat Bohemian Young Lady."
Perhaps they feared - or hoped - that she would suddenly whip out a hitherto concealed tambourine and start dancing on her desk.
Fleetwood
Mac
pasta
Italy
Europe
continent
Asia
minor
child
parent
spouse
Wife
husband
wage-earner
Sexist
pig
roasted
Comedy
tragedy
life (not mine which is fab, just in general.)
Game
Cards
greeting
Yo!
hello
Goodbye
Farewell
parting
Shots
injections
Fear
terror
wrist
Broken
mended
fences
sabre
knife
spoon
Fork
plate
Saucer
flying
ant
uncle
;D ;D
Sam
Corrupt
files
assorted
Chocolate
serotonin
brains
Power
trip
fall
Out
Dated
Flares
danger
sign
billboard
Movie
cinematography
Date
January
Month
season
winter
Snow
plow
driveway
footpath
cobblestone
uneven
smooth
Face
smile
flirt
coquettish
forties
Young
love
infatuation
Lust
yearning
covet
Invent
boffin
research
laboratory
Search
light
Dark
Chocolate
divine
comedy
Aligari
H
dante
inferno
circles
Hell
football
soccer
Moms
dads
Uncles
aunts
relations
marital
wed
garter
snake
viper
asp
Yikes!
afraid
Scared
feeble
weak
spineless
milquetoast
Vocabulary
speak
lecture
nag
Horse
Uma
carriage
pumpkin
seeds
Cum
shower
golden
Boy
sons
daughters
Brats
sons
parents
children
chaos
brouhaha
noisy
loud
gunshot
ricochet
bullet
firearm
pistol
flower
power
up
town
dreary
glum
sad
happy
tears
lacrimal
glands
pituitary
hormones
trouble
worry
fret
obsess
compulsive
neurotic
psychotic
mad
bonkers
coitus
Mentula
penis
(and I had to look it up)
(the definition, not the object)
manhood
Chico
roll
donuts
Coppers
irons
eating
breakfast
cereal
wheat
sourdough
pancakes
maple-syrup
IHOP
McDonald's
Whitehouse
Mary
Poppins
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
YES!!
No!
maybe
perhaps
when
tomorrow
yesterday
now
punctual
quick
bunny
hop
jump
skip
crawl
pub
alcohol
grog
mead
honey
sweet
bitter
angry
mad
ticked
Off
kilter
Bagpipes
Celts
Viking
Odin
gods
polytheism (to believe in parrots)
believer
agnostic
Huxley
drugs
addiction
habit
repeat
copy
Dull
football
soccer
UK
Wales
Taffy
Laffy
candy
sweets
Yum
delicious
Eat
consume
food
eat
Hault
end
finish
begin
Cole
Soul
Black
guard
secure
lock
Heart
soul
passenger
hitchhiker
bum
Homeless
poor
thin
Fat
obese
Hog
pig
Whore
monger
Kilmonger
Panther
feline
canine
hound
fox
vixen
Sexy
exotic
foreign
abroad
study
absorb
consume
imbibe
Dance
twist
nipples
milk
shake
Rattle
gun
artillery
fire
Burn
scald
Pain
searing
hot
sexy
alluring
Succubus
demon
spirit
Airlines
oxygen
Crime
Wave
surf
Beach
sand
castle
King
Queen
Me!
You
Them
us
Ours
Mine
pit
Stink
bomb
Threat
bully
schoolyard
Teacher
professor
university
degree
Law
man
Stupid
ridiculous
fabulous
Pasty!
Kline
I'm so confused. pasty or pastry or party? The first is something covering the nipple of an exotic dancer. Kline is unknown to the internet. I find K line and Patsy is a Kline person, so maybe it is that but I don't recall wearing pasties will singing ...
but then again another Kline is
Calvin
Ha ha my dyslexia didn't read that sucker right sorry Chick :-[
Underwear
Victoria
Secret
Hot
cold
Icy
frozen
Solid
Gold
bullion
soup
Gossip
teenager
conflict
argument
fight
Boxing
ring
Phone
call
girl
friend
pal
Writing
Pen
jail
Bait
rat
plague
Die
hard
Soft
cuddly
hug
Bite
vampire
Dracula
Hot
cold
Frozen
peas
mint
julep
bourbon
Drunk
sipped
Burp
wind
Slow
fast
Down
pillow
biter
Lick
dog
friend
cohort
Break
crack
Liberty Bell
Philadelphia
cheese
sandwich
press
cider
Apple
vinegar
Salt
pepper
corns
harvest
Feast
meal
dinner
Meat
ham
eggs
Gross
dozens
Cheaper
sloppy
Joe
Penny
farthing
pound
Yen
desire
Lust
Crave
pregnancy
Mistake
error
correction
Mark
husband
partner
Black
panther
cat
Dog
bark
tree
arboreal
Shot
dead
rigor
Break
pieces
together
Come
arrive
present
Down
Under
Slow
halt
go
crazy
Love
romance
unrequited
Lover
adultery
cheater
Karma
nirvana
Kurt
suicide
Painless
healthy
Bland
tofu
Yum
delicious
Feast
celebration
Party
cry
sobbing
Weep
bawl
Fight
match
Game
strategy
Plan
organized
Mess
chaos
Reigns
kingdoms
Queen
bee
sting
Police
authority
Dictator
Wifie
Prison
cell
Block
prevent
stop
Roll
bread
gluten
Punish
reprimand
Warning
danger
fear
Dot
pupil
Teacher
professor
Hot
climate
Weather
inclement
bad
Good
wonderful
Awful
terrible
Misery
weeping
cry
Out
baseball
glove
Magic
disappear
money
Wealth
VIP
conceit
Lose
reputation
Fame
nuisance
Pain
misery
grief
Wail
sob
cruel
world
Power
cord
Trip
cruise
Tom
drum
Guitar
bass
fish
Bait
magot
larvae
squirmy
fidgets
Children
school
zebrafish
tank
Puppy
canine
teeth
choppers
Flight
escape
Houdini
Con
duct
behaviour
poor
destitute
bankrupt
skint
penurious
Quality
management
Complaint
handling
Failing
breaking
Heisenberg
uncertainty
Mind
skull
crossbones
piratical
Sanji
Chinese
takeaway
Hyacinath
flower
Daisy
chain
tether
goat
ruminant
herder
Graze
munch
Bite
ankles
legs
There's an L in ankles. ;)
Sorry!
Chain (As in a 'slave bangle'.)
(The heat is warping my brain. Just be glad I'm not a train driver or an Airbus pilot.)
gang
fight
box
Soft
hearted
cardiac
Pump
harder
Soft
blancmange
dessert
pudding
Figgy
roll
under
carriage
horses
Garbage
trash
junk
Trunk
elephant
Room
capacious
Rent
boy
Lady
Godiva
nude
without
You
con
Alaska
Baked
fried
greasy
oil
vinegar
Salt
Pepper
artichoke
mayonnaise
ketchup
behind
Front
back
spine
bone
Muscle
hair
Bald
Eagle
robin
Hood
Ghetto
slum
bur
sleep
(perchance to)
dream
fanciful
whimsy
airhead
bimbo
Ding-a-ling
campanologists
bells
clappers
Whistle
dog
agile
Jump
suicide
murder
homicide
detective
sergeant
Philco
Who?
She means Bilko. To which my reply is ...
Silver
Gold
finger
thumb
green
Acrers
hectares
Greek
yogurt
Fruit
nut
pea
shooter
game
throne
Queen
Pearly
gates
Hell
Boy
child
Kid
Brat
worst
You're
honour
distinction
pop
Goes
away
missing
Kidnapped
taken
home
Odyssey
Telemachus
Cannibal
man-eater
Vixen
sea (de Havilland Sea Vixen)
whale
porpoise
Mermaid
smelly
Bathe
milk
Honey
bee
kind
Cruel
torturer
sadist
Marquis
nobleman
peon
Knight
Queen
Freddie
Mercury
Venus
moonless
Dark
sunshine
holiday
reprieve
stay
(as in a stay of execution)
freed
Power
solar
winds
cyclone
hurricane
tornado
Storm
Front
Back
passage
way
ward
sister
Mom
Dad
Brother
friar
Tuck
nip
bite
masticate
slobber
toddler
Nightmare
funny
Laugh
cry
Weep
sob
wail
blubber
tears
lacrimation
flow
Stop
desist
cease
FIRE!
hose
connection
Break
fix
bribe
foreigners
Tourist
grockle
heat
beads
rosary
Pray
mantis
Bae
Sweetie
pie
cake
Death
mort
funeral
coffin
burial
Tomb
raider
Oakland
(home of the Raiders, the American football team)
wasp (gall)
Janet
Berta
Dorian
Gray
black
Dark
side
Moon
cheese
Lame
crippled
arthritis
joints
Custody
rhubarb
pie
crust
earths
mantle
fireplace
Wood
Burn
evidence
Arrest
criminals
prison
cell
Body
parts
Cuts
meat
cannibals
hungry
Munch
savages (a thousand)
Gardens
Beds
flower
=====
On the Gardener's Questions radio programme many years ago they were teasing a female member of the panel because she'd recently had a flower named after her.
She said she felt it was quite an honour to be described as a hardy perennial, but wasn't too sure about the rest of the description. 'Not suited to formal beds, but performs vigorously when shoved into a corner or up against a wall.'
petal
rose
Bland
vanilla
chocolate
Yum
delicious
alfalfa
What
barley
Dying
expiration
label
tag
hash
Pipe
bomb
shelter
Rain
precipitation
wet
Sex
glide
fly
aviate
pilot
Sky
ionosphere
turbulence
Plane
wood
Norwegian
Swedish
Turnippy
root
leaves
Rake
poker
fire
destruction
hurricane
Drink
coffee
bean
legume
French
cuisine
Japanese
kamikaze
dead
ringer
fraud
squad
olympic
flame
bonfire
Camp
David
Jewish
Catholic
exorcism
Linda
singer
warbler
ornithology
feathered
Bird
swan
lake
pond
mere
windy
flatulent
gas
Coal
fuel
Petrol
Station
commuters
workers
bees
wax
legs
Feet
inches
worm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8aoV_7LEGY
virus
biological
warfare
Death
star
moon
Ganymede
Jupiter
Holst
Nymph
grotto
Santa
clause
contract
haulage
Confused
prevalent
commonplace
Dudley
placename
state
Colony
America
Bad
egg
chicken
jay-walker
foolish
teenager
spotty
dog
Cerbus
Cerberus
hound
munter
Terrior
Scottish
plaid
Tartan
Bland
ford
prefect
(There was a lad at junior school who insisted his dad's Ford Prefect was a Ford Perfect. At senior school he was made a Prefect with predictable results and went around showing his shiny new badge to everyone as if he'd won a damned medal. He was an obnoxious little shite, given authority way beyond his intelligence. The school never took his badge away, but even the other Prefects avoided him wherever possible.)
Slartibartfast
hitchhiker
journey
trek
odyssey
Illaid
Homeric
Simpson ;-)
desert
Wasteland
urban
sprawl
Floor
tiles
mosaic
pattern
matching
Birthday
cake
Battenberg
dynasty
unpleasant
fine
cloudy
rain
Happy
fool
jester
medieval
plague
bubonic
plague
Death
row
Boat
canoe
paddle
Creek
shit
fart
smell
Taste
bite
masticate
(Many years ago, in a rural Hampshire pub, one of the local poachers showed the bite scars on his leg and said he'd been masticated by the keeper's dog. We all burst out laughing when someone else, either miss-hearing or being wilfully obtuse, burst out "You kinky bastard!")
;D ;D
ruminate
cud
Quote from: Gyppo on November 07, 2019, 02:17:02 PM
masticate
(Many years ago, in a rural Hampshire pub, one of the local poachers showed the bite scars on his leg and said he'd been masticated by the keeper's dog. We all burst out laughing when someone else, either miss-hearing or being wilfully obtuse, burst out "You kinky bastard!")
Funny
Lame
hurt
injure
fix
heroin
cape ;)
horn
blower
supercharger
(Although some superchargers are arranged to suck air through the carb rather than blow it. The result is the same. More air taken in, more fuel sucked from the carb. Bigger bang.)
lamp
Shade
night
owl
wise
learned
friend
comrade
Trotsky
Communist
Russia
China
vases
flower
garden
vegetable
salad
cold
wet
damp
soaked
umbrella
parasol
Victorian
Sewer
(The Victorian sewer was a masterpiece of design and construction. Built from brick and egg-shaped in cross section, many miles of them are still working perfectly today, despite a much heavier load than they were designed for.)
urine
bladder
infection
unpleasant
in-law
jokes
Pranks
Lame
crippled
arthritis
Pain
stabbing
knifing
prick
Cactus
Pain
referred
associated
linked
chain
ball
cock
pecker
quarter
fraction
portion
slice
pizza
Noooo!
way
out
nature
walk
perambulate
Confused
befuddled
perplexed
Duh
Simpson
Homer
family
relatives
distant
yonder
archaic
virginity
Lost
Atlantis
ground
sky
cloudy
snow
flake
pie
grandma
sweet
Cake
frosting
decoration
Xmas
Tree
Groot
Fictional
pretend
acting
luvvy
theatrical
dramatic
emotional
weepy
stoic
flat
chested
pectoral
muscle
workout
gymnasium
kids
noise
headache
migraine
Pain
hurting
psychopath
murderer
killer
victim
Lies
dissemble
over
awed
conjunction
meeting
pointless
futile
resistance
French
Paris
gay
lord
earl
Sandwich
picnic
Eat
drink
quaff
Mead
honey
suckle
Baby
puppy
chewing
teeth
dentition
pain
torment
harass
bother
annoy
irritate
bug
mosquito
Bomber
Harris
tweed
haggis
food
sustenance
wine
grape
Sour
pucker
kiss
tongue
lick
rug
carpet
Magic
twit
bird
avian
flu
pneumonia
lungs
trees
Florence
Italy
reverse
(Why? The standard joke about Italian tanks was that they had one forward gear and four reverse.)
backwards
hillbilly
rough
sandpaper
grit
leeks
Cut
slice
carrots
vision
=====
Night-fighter pilots were given and extra ration of carrots to help improve or maintain their night vision. There is a certain amount of science to back this up. There is however no known record of anyone volunteering to fly night-fighters just to get extra carrots ;-)
===
glasses
Megane (Sp?)
Renault
Spell
magic
prestidigitation
Confusing
women
troublesome ;-)
irksome
I love that word. I don't really know why. I love the sound. I love the meaning. I just love that word.
Me too. But not as much as ...
vexatious
harassing
troll
Idiot
loopy
Clot
hemorrhage
bleed
coagulate
sticky
note
musical
play
Game
changer
Shape-shifter
monster
Kraken
ocean
sea
water
glass
Black
Gold
rush
buzz
wasp
Marvel
Comics
Entertainers (sometimes)
performance
display
Trophy
wife
soulmate (if you're both lucky)
dream
Yume
nightmare
Dream
vision
glasses
drinking
beer
garden
vegetables
root
square
ninety
Geogre
Third
Lupin
drugs
weed
Nancy
Drew
fresco
al (as in al-fresco)
Pacino
Godfather
mafia
organisation
disorganization
mess
hall
gallery
Painting
Watercolours
impressionist
dadaist
Huh?
what
...is...
was
How
much
price
Game
play
win
victory
gloat
miser
hoard
Mess
untidy
frumpy
dowdy
Howdy
greetings
welcome
home
residence
Take
steal
Borrow
Larceny
felon
crook
ill
sick
vomiting
spew
carrot
grated
cheese
grilled
mesquite
chips
fish
aquatic
water
Swim
butterfly
net
stockings
hose
garden
vegetable
fruit
bat
cricket
stumped
confused
lost
GPS
navigation
Lost
jungle
Tarzan
loincloth
skirt
petticoat
Junction
(not many will connect that)
nexus
whirlpool
I watched Petticoat Junction. I got it. I'm old.
jacuzzi
wet
slippery
dangerous
lethal
Poison
arsenic
toadstool (sandwich with arsenic sauce)
;D ;D
Mushroom
psychedelic
freaky
crazy
horse
pony
Ride
astride
howdah
camel
toe
rag ;-)
tattered
garbage
collector
hoarder
miser
heat
fire
starter
flint
axe
blade
knife
sheaf
bundle
heap
Dung
stench
disgust
revulsion
gross
number
(A gross is 144, a dozen dozen. A flower-seller once tried to convince me there was now a new metric dozen, ten.)
count
Dracula
vampire
undead
Zombie
Prime Minister
Canada
hockey
puck
Wolfgang
Mozart
dead
People
animals
cats
dogs
penguins
Antarctica
frosty
weather
vane
stargate
Terk
antenna
feelers
affectionate
warm
oven
Fire
guard
jewels
family
nuclear
bomb
detonate
ignite
Fire
wick
flame
thrower
pitcher
water
ocean
tidal
waters
ocean
Mermaid
Hercules
Greece
Hellenistic
Dionysus
Pet
caress
touch
feel
see
dark
black
ebony
wood
burn
incinerate
Pit
stop
quit
smoking
cigarette
matches
vesta
marooned
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marooned_off_Vesta
Lost
property
estate
inheritance
legacy
history
little miss pedantic followed property with estate. :o
history
documentary
film
cling
tenaciously
dogged
Whipped
Dang, it's a good thing Mark screwed up in the other thread otherwise I would feel really awful.
sadomasochistic
Bi-Polar
(Sometimes the Whipper and sometimes the Whipped.)
manic
depressive
black
Sirius
dog-star
woof
growl
signal
blinker
turn
veer
wobble
Fall
slip
over
finished
complete
hogwash
Bullshit
Fuck
profanity
cussing
asshat
England
British
Empire
land-grab
Peasant
farmer
Giles
=====
Farmer Giles is a very traditional English stereotype, yet I've never met anyone called Giles, farmer or otherwise.
===
farmer
businessman
Power
hungry
famished
calories
units
Army
stomach
The part upon which, according to legend and tradition, the Army marches. I have yet to see anyone marching on their stomach, despite this proud claim by The Catering Corps.
intestines
Guts
bowels
poop
scoop
litter
bin
garbage
Shirley
Temple
mosque
Arab
Mideast
Bullied
fought
pugilist
Confused
head-injury
punch-drunk
ticketed
Stamped
foot
Print
lithograph
etching
acid
LSD
Tripping
Balls
testicles
hanging
=====
They're comical looking things anyway, but think how much more silly they'd look if they were perched on top instead of hanging below. I once saw some toilet wall graffiti where they were drawn thus. The adjoining sketch of a ladies parts was also drawn with the 'Vee' the wrong way up. Maybe an Aussie graiffiti artist ;-)
===
Tyburn
Pill
box
pugilist
combatant
warrior
heroic
Villain
nemesis
Death
buried
concealed
weapon
sword
blade
knife
spoon
fed
bib
tucker
Malcolm
guy
ropes
tent
Peg
out
In
door
Jim
Beam
Drunk
intoxicated
sloshed
(One of my favourite terms for drunk. I've always been able to imagine someone carrying so much beer internally you can hear them slosh when they walk.)
;D ;D
pissed
micturate
wee
tiny
House
Rules
overlords
Micro-manage
stare
look
around
Downtown
shopping
mall
parking
Lot
heaps
laundry
girl
When I was kid the girls at the local laundry were some of the best paid females around. They damn well worked for it, and they were a pretty wild bunch. Plus they all had red hands. Even when they were all 'glammed up' for night out the red hands would give them away.
filly
colt
pistol
glock
Winchester
medieval
The cathedral wouldn't work, nor would the castle. But that castle is where the famed 13th century rendition of King Arthur's table is hanging on the wall, painted in Tudor colors by the Tudor kings to reinforce their "legitimacy" to the throne. I love little facts like that.
renaissance
Old
antique
Roadshow
circus
acrobats
Jumpers
Ledge
rocky
shore
coast
waterside
cottage
Forest
landscape
watercolour
painting
decor
Asian
China
doll
Barbie
Ken
(Mod hair Ken was my personal favorite. He came with removable facial hair options.)
Macho
Rambo
Sly
cunning
foxy
predator
stalker
creep
stalker
BEEEEP - wrong answer alert!
Want to try again?
start with a letter not in prev word
Huh
Did I blink or something?
Okay, from stalker...again
creep
So back to creep.....again
arsehole
Jerk
tug
War
peace
sleep
repose
duvet
quilt
afghan
Sleep
nap
infant
young
ancient
Roman
hyroglifics
writing
Happy
ecstatic
overjoyed
underwhelmed
sad
unhappy
Down
Town
country
pastoral
Gift
present
wrapped
bundled
together
married
Hell
devil
angels
Wings
buffalo
skin
wrinkles
(sigh)
corrugations
boxes
containers
Plastic
bags
purses
Clutch
pedal
bicycle
Seat
divan
Cushion
Pin
safety
Rail
subway
Roll
doughnut
Cinnamon
sugar
Honey
Suckle
offspring
Kids
Kin
relative
close
doors
Jim
gym
Junkie
drugs
High
school
years
Decades
twenties
Roaring
fire
Lighter
cigar
fag
Smoking
jacket
sweater
cardigan
Lord
Jesus
Christ
Almighty
power
Money
Coin
mint
Spear
dagger
knife
spoon
fed
Starve
hungry
Stop (Can you please slow down with the posting?)
No
YES!
WHY!!
(I hate speed posting)
Please?
OK :-*
Thanks
give
Donate
books
novels
Drama
Facebook
True
False
hope
faith
charity
sweet
lollies
Cold
sneeze
Germs
bacteria
Virus
computer
geek
nerd
glasses (All proper Nerds wear glasses, even if they've just got plain lenses to help them look the part.)
bottles
Coke
snort
guffaw
Dog
What?
question
mark
poet
Know
guess
research
laboratory
counters
Desk
top
coat
Paint
watercolor
brush
teeth
molar
grinding
tooth
ratchet
Bloc
Soviet
union
Break
Union
union, break, union
::) :P ::) :P
Britain
Euro
money
Cash
dividend
stocks
bonds
James
gadgets
Inspector
look
See
blind
window
rain
drop
fall
Spring
mattress
Fire
chaos
normality
Unknown
alias
Bro
greeting
Howdy! ;D
Cowboy
Rodeo
clowns
Killer
Plague
bubonic
rats
pain
Gain
enhance
better
Man
kind
rudeness
crowd
Madding
unhappy
Screaming
yell
shout
whisper
Mute
deaf
hearing
Damage
break
fracture
Glass
houses
apartments
Home
adobe
Spanish
Rose
perfume
scent
aftershave
towel
Soak
drench
Snow
drift
genetic
related
Blood
plasma
transfusion
hospital
Death
morgue
Tomb
cemetery
Pet
ferret
Pet
ferret
I guess we are just going to keep using the same words over and over and over.
We can get out of that by going to the ...
shop
(Even if we're being restricted to no more than two pet ferrets per customer in any one transaction.)
local
regional
Cruisine
ship?
Italian?
Is this cuisine or cruising?
Just pick which word you like up there.
I can't spell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Flag
semaphore
Little
gigantic
huge
Small
world
Earth
Day
night
dress
gown
Cap
stone
cliff
jump
Rope
string
Underwear
knickers
frozen
wasteland
forsaken
God
botherer
child
Kid
Brat
sausage
Beef
gripe
Complain
whine
moan
sex
Porn
internet
web
silk
Dress
petticoat
slip
banana
Fish
cat
ocelot
buzzard
turkey
Cold
ice
H2O
Drown
wave
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46479/not-waving-but-drowning
Quote from: Mark Hoffmann on May 08, 2020, 10:50:17 AM
wave
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46479/not-waving-but-drowning
Nice poem and all, but there is a W in drown. And this is Un plus
so
drown
to
swim
Thank you. Must have spent too much time in the sun.
trout
fish
trawler
boat
face
Nose
conk
shell
carapace
beetle
pop
soda
fountain
water
Beer
ale
Indian
ocean
waves
greets
cries
weeps
blubs
emotes
ham
stir
agitate
rile
anger
outburst
apoplexy
fuming
smoke
cheese
photography
digital
fingered
marked
scratched
balls
tennis
court
date
bikeshed
triviality
pursuit
followed
stalked
hunted
buffalo
wings
rotary
phone
camera
photo
shoot
bamboo
fabric
polyester
fake
phony
counterfeit
bogus
deceptive
fraudulent
politician
slacker
idle
procrastinate
dither
fuss
bother
care
package
benefits
rewards
challenge
obstacle
mountain
crampons
falling
stumble
over
arse
hole
cavity
filling
tooth
molar
grinding
angle
catercorner
diagonal
mathematics
game-theory
win-win
echo
ravine
crack
pipe
water
drink
cold
sneeze
gesundheit
blessing
holy
vestments
uniform
clothing
dressed
clad
wall
doorway
sleeping
bag
lady
tramp
itinerant
homeless
bench
park
manoeuvre
swerve
dodge
miss
avoid
skedaddle
run
marathon
Philippides
Athens
democracy
myth
I agree but there's an m in democracy. :)
That's a bugger ;-)
So the next person can either (properly) work from democracy, or (improperly) forgive me my over-enthusiasm and work from myth.
myth
legend
maps
Dragonnes (Here be...)
Tyrannosaurus
lizard
brain
drain
(Who remembers the 'brain drain', when our government was worried the best brains in Britain were being tempted away by better wages in America. Not sure it worked for either country. Perhaps some things grow best in their native soil.)
sink
descend
hell
Lucifer
Quote from: Spell Chick on August 21, 2020, 11:19:54 PM
hell
Quote from: Gyppo on August 22, 2020, 02:01:11 PM
Lucifer
should have gone with Satan or Devil or something because there is a letter L in hell. In fact, there are two.
but sticking with it
Netflix (I enjoyed the first few episodes, but then it got too unrealistic and far fetched, although I saw it was getting a fifth season)
Crown (The)
tiara
fascinator
I had to look this up. I had never heard of the damn thing and here it is a
hat
fedora
Linux ;-)
coding
programming
esoteric
understand
comprehend
get
obtain
purchase (because I'm a law abiding citizen and would never steal)
buy
charge
battery
pummel
beat
meringue
flip
overturn
accident
laboratory
mutant
sport (Not in the usual 'sporting' sense of the word.)
demeanor
affect
mood
ring
Mark,
because of the following joke.
My husband bought me a mood-ring for our anniversary.
When I'm in a good mood, it glows in blue and green hues.
When I'm in a bad mood, it leaves a red mark on his forehead. ;D
poet
writer
scribble
pat
caress
finger
thumb
nail
crucify
tree
deciduous
autumn
fall
trip
over
come
hither
go
cart
grocery
hoarders
collectors
accumulators
packrats
hoarders
miser
able ;-)
Victor
winner
first
penultimate
biro
Gumdrop
(Val Biro wrote a series of books about his old Austin car, named Gumdrop. A fine collection of stories.)
sweety
Darling
Clementine
oranges
marmalade
breakfast
continental
Southern
Jessies
girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYkbTyHXwbs&ab_channel=RickSpringfieldVEVO
friend
companion
buddy
system
method
actor
movie
soundtrack
Memories
keepsakes
detritus
Musketeer (Yes, I know. But there should have been!)
swashbuckler
I'm terribly sorry but I must reject your effort. It was a fine effort indeed, other than it starts with an S.
Oh SHIT which also starts with S. Let me try again
fictional (Only because there wasn't really anyplace to go with Dumas because you couldn't then use Alexander and it would just get all messed up)
Bible
Quran
Holy
ghost
writer
author
Profile
autobiography
questionable
chancy
fraught
danger
red
stop
light
dark
side
I see we are being kind to poor old Gyppo again. danger red
other
folks
problems
troubles
kitbag
durable
wellingtons
rubber
tires (or tyres)
wheels
magnesium
carbon
fibre
optic
nerve
bravado
machismo
bullfighter
cape
superhero
Batman
Robin
Marion
Wayne
=====
John Wayne's real name was Marion Robert Morrison. When I was a kid it was widely believed that Marian with an 'a' was a girls name and Marion with an 'o' was a mercifully rare boys name.
Nowadays it seems almost any string of random letters can be passed off as a name. There's probably some poor little sods out there called Qwerty because some feeble-minded parents thought it would be good to give their offspring an 'original' name.
===
cur
hound
(I was going to go from Wayne to Bruce and get us back to Batman, but Mark posted before me)
Baskerville
Doyle
Irish
Jig
dance
tango
butter
churn
turnover
apple
strudel
Bavarian
kirsch
brandy
spirit
free
given
name
place
win
lottery
gamble
roulette
wheel
spoke
uttered
mumbled
teenager
youth
distant
past
lives
exists
The e in exists exists in lives. ;)
dies
colours
hues
rainbow
coalition
mixture
brownies
cubs
Michelle
(one of my friends from Chicago and one of the biggest Cubs fans I've ever known.)
Is he a French pervert of does the word cubs not refer to little boys in Trumptonia?
Belle
He is a she and the Cubs are the Chicago baseball team and have been for over 100 years
antebellum
pre-war
tensions
bondage
ties
dickybows
ridiculous
Eighties (The)
Disco
abhorrent
unpleasant
dentistry
fillings
pot-holes
roads
journey
voyage
sailing
Ketch
mizzen
mast
flogging
Molly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XKB9UJa7xo
bolt
Frankenstein
Doctor
quack
duck
swan
Cygnet
ring (yes, I know about the spelling)
ear
tinitus
ringing
campanology
bells
towers
looms
weaving
fabric
haberdashery
necktie
party (a hanging)
birthday
event
occasion
deflowering
Morticia
Frump
dowdy
plain
Jane
Queen
chess
board
table
manners
belch
fire
The old style black powder cannons truly do 'belch fire'. Particularly when firing a blank load at a re-enactment.
Dennis
menace
extreme
sport
badminton
horses
jump
pogo
stick
poke
fun
T-Bird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6S4jiPuLYY
singer
I recently discovered this while watching a series based on Margaret Atwood's, Handmade's Tale and love it.
How Does it Feel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1IoW_WlXbA&ab_channel=RoyHarper) <--click it
opera
Theater
drama
females
girl
Miss
hit
strike
breaker
ice
Scream
piercing
sharp
bright
clever
nototious
I don't know that word so I'm going to guess it means: famously incapable of calculating the total.
arithmophobia
Dyscalculia
mathematics
(I think I spelled this one correctly)
pure
Saintly
mother
superior
me
I
them
others
alien
misplaced
gone
away
come-by
sheepdog
(Sheepdogs obviously have excellent lawyers, because despite all the sheepdog trials you never hear of even one being found guilty.)
collie
border
patrol
car
park
Central
station
port
sherry
tipple
Amaretto
Chambord
liqueur
bar
iron
board
tree
branch
special
routine
process
method
fashion
wankers
Onanists
Quote from Onan The Barbarian: "I used to have a long term relationship with my own penis, but when I started going deaf and blind I broke it off."
masturbate
hobby
Falcon
=====
(The hobby is a small breed of falcon, smaller than a kestrel. Very agile, it will snatch dragonflies from the air, and some smaller birds. In Medieval times these were deemed suitably 'dainty' to be 'flown' by Ladies. There were very strict 'class' rules about who was allowed to own and fly the different varieties of falcons and hawks.)
===
raptor
bird
finger
swivel
pivot
lever
tool
age ;-)
beauty
standards
lowered
minimised
undermined
subsidence
poverty
broke
fix
repair
bodge
whoops
a-daisy
lilies
valleys
mountains
Rockies
American
(there are also Canadian Rockies, but they can't live in this thread right now)
Pie
apple
fritter
waste
keep
donate
give
take
remove
banish
extradite
send
letters
capital
upper-case
letter
missive
thrown
spitwad
beastly
unkind
mean
cruel
punishment
flogging
whip
lash
eye
ball
game
hunt
Ethan
furniture
sofa
crumbs
debris
mess
untidy
garbage
waste
land
touchdown
feathers
peacock
racket
badminton
horses
bit
saddle
girth
waist
band
oompah
brass
monkies
capuchin
arboreal
Unfortunately arboreal starts with an a.
How about: friars
Bugger ;-)
MONKS
habits (probably bad)
filthy
dhobi
caste
untouchable
Sun
hydrogen
atoms
quarks
Ducks
(Posh ducks from Southern England say "Quark, Quark", just as their owners say "darnce" instead of "dance".)
runner
beans
legumes
French
baguette
stale
bread
spondoolies
money
laundering
fullering
(As in using Fullers' Earth to clean clothes.)
powder
keg
cask
wine
champagne
balthazar
Biblical
fictional
romance
divorce
decree
there is not one single letter in decree that does not appear in divorce
just saying
legality
Pettifogging
(Patti: Only the gods know where my mind was, and I don't think they're about to enlighten me either.)
details
plans
operation
circumcision
penis
helmet
football
pointless
zero
fighter
pilot
navigator
Henry (the Portuguese prince)
Cooper (British Heavyweight Boxer.)
barrel
staves
curved
needle
prick
thumb
'By the pricking of my thumbs,
something evil this way comes.'
screws
up
escalator
moving
emotional
wreck
ship
container
beaker
pipette
laboratory
experiment
social
worker
Bee
hornet
sting
pain
marketing
scam
fraudster
politician
(I was hoping sting went to police - close but no cigar)
devious
(Just for Patti: Being a devious politician he's probably getting a Massage in a Brothel, which is at least a twisted reference to Sting and The Police.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbXWrmQW-OE
conniving
bastard.
=====
There is a far more alliterative word which pairs perfectly with conniving, but it's not part of my instinctive vocabulary ;-)
illegitimate
unlawful
lmprisonment
kidnapped
ransom
payment
card
=====
Someone tried to convince me the other day that in a perfect 'cash-less' society there would be no muggings.
He didn't seem to appreciate that the crooks would either steal your money on-line, or, at a more basic level, mug you after you've been shopping. A wallet can be identified, but a carrier bag of shopping is anonymous.
The chap seemed to think I had a 'criminal mind'.
If he went to a writers' convention he'd be terrified ;-)
===
joker
Loki
mischief
nonsense
tomfoolery
nephew
(especially the one named Tom)
uncle
relatives
bloodline
splatter
mess
kitchen
(well, at least at my house)
waste
paper
toilet
water
salt
pepper
mill
trouble
bother
spot (of)
blemish
zit
pimple
acne
pockmarked
battlefield
killing
murder
bloody
hell
1980s
Disco
music
pleasure
(The two words 'disco' and 'music' are inherently and eternally incompatible. The mental and indeed aesthetic confusion caused by joining these two diametrically opposed words makes otherwise rational people suffer from severe physical convulsions, which are in turn loosely described by some as 'dancing'.)
beauty
spot
location
site
area
perimeter
alarm
clock
in
housed
boarded
up ;)
down
periscope
telescope
folding
clothes
rack
shelf
cupboard
glass
pipette
laboratory
coat
leaving
departure
flight
aviation
plane
Woodworking
(It was a sad day for skill when the manually - and skilfully - used woodworking plane was replaced by the logically - but unimaginatively named - mechanical 'thicknesser' machine.)
craftsman
potter
clay
earth
ling ;-)
panda
China
tableware
porcelain
vase
flowers
garland
ceremonial
sacrifice
banishment
Could you have made that one any more difficult? Still thinking on it. ??? :P ;)
I'm sure someone will come up with a clever, obvious solution but it won't be me. Not today.
outside
adjacent
There is a little 't' in outside.
go
away
Quote from: DGSquared on December 09, 2021, 06:06:56 AM
There is a little 't' in outside.
go
Only one UN not two, so as long as there wasn't an A, we are all good.
fly
swatter
tool
kit
equipment
accessories
handbag
snatcher
petty (criminal)
insignificant
unimportant
flippant
sarcastic
nosebleed
(Doesn't always follow sarcasm, but the potential is always there.)
punch
(&) Judy
Garland
flowers
blossom
Apple
computer
Apricot
(I used an Apricot computer for a while on a training course, back towards the end of the last century. The name has lingered in my mind longer than any other impressions it may have made.)
fruit
machine
robot
AI
questionable
programming
esoteric ;-)
dreamy
insubstantial
wee
minuscule
atomic
Bomb
(Strange to think that the original atomic bombs are almost a thing of joy compared to some of the devices developed since.)
IED
acronym
letters
mail
postcard
saucy
provocative
nymphette ;-)
vixen
cougar
puma
cat
mouse
trap
ensnare
tangle
engulf
swallow
pigeon
stool
chair
electric
power
tools
hammer
Thor
pantheon
Rome
Gladiators
Colosseum
(although it wasn't called that when there were gladiators in there)
architectural
Digest
process
way
marker
pencil
mechanical
robot
Terminator
warring
conflict
argument
squabble
families
clan
tribe
group
think
cerebrate ;-)
mull
Kintyre
(I had to look this up as I had no idea what the hell it was)
Peninsula
rocky
(Not all peninsulas are rocky but it's a fairly common feature.)
cliffs
white
puce
vile
The story of Puce.
https://www.theawl.com/2017/10/the-sexy-gross-story-of-puce/
ugly
concrete
(Most concrete buildings are ugly.)
building
site
place
setting
concrete
building
foundation
basement
dweller
lives
cat (The only creature which is generally accepted as having more than one life.)
panther
Black
night
darkness
friend
(Inside me head, Simon and Garfunkel are singing: Hello darkness my old friend.)
ship
cruise
mellow
yellow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrbni0tVBZ8
submarine
vessel
chalice
Grail
knight
armoured
Vehicle
tax
Hike
walk
perambulate
stroll
amble
relaxed
horizontal
sunset
layers
(Occasionally you'll see a sunset which really does look like a layered cake.)
brick
(built like) shithouse
latrine
orderly
neatly
precisely
about
near
close
intimate
public
appearance
superficial
shallow
pond
garden
flower
bed
sleep
unconscious
aware
sentient
brains
cerebral
intelligence
awareness
inate
wow
amazement
surprise
boo
cry
weep
sob
wail
siren
ambulance
walk
strut
protrusion
extension
cable
telegram
key
(You can't send telegrams with a key to tap.)
lock
down
below
depth
gauge
measure
quantify
borders
fences
walls
Ears (Which apparently some walls have.)
bunny
Easter
Christmas
jollity
fun
having
owning
mine
land
sea
ocean
liner
panty
hose
water
fall
drop
plummet
crash
dive
sky
open
shut
door
window
sill
edge
keen
wail
Banshee
floating
kayak
Eskimo
Alaska
Russia (who we bought it from)
gulag
prison
break
destroy
wreck
demolish
flatten
sports-bra
mammaries
boobs
mistakes
whoops
accident
mistake
wrong
erroneous
assumptions
guessing
surmising
deducing
Sherlock
detective
spy
covert
hidden
corpse
dead
buried
sub-terranean
hell
undesirable
junk
trash
bin
container
ship
FedEx
Memphis
Walking
(As in the damned song.)
stride
saunter
casual
easy
going
leaving
(perhaps on a jet plane; maybe owned by FedEx)
departure
burial
plot
scheme
devious
(If it's not devious it doesn't really deserve to be called a scheme.)
mischievous
(AKA devious light)
Loki
chaos
disorder
chaos
politics ;-)
mudslinging
aggravating
potholes
cavities
dentures
prosthetics
fake
news
papers
cigarette
pipe
laying
eggs
benedict
Arnold
Muscle
biceps
triceps
forceps
;D :D ;D
delivery ;-)
special
Lepidoptera
I think you thought you were in a different thread
butterflies
Very true.
Colourful
juicy
fruit
Juicy Fruit gum was my favorite flavor of gum and the flavor lasted for about 3.7 nanoseconds. You would think with that upbringing, I would be used to life's constant disappointments.
cocktail
=====
Speaking of chewing gum, which leads to bubble gum, one of the best bubble blowers in my junior school was a girl called Ann. An absolutely unremarkable girl in all other respects, but she could blow enormous bubbles.
She would sit there in class, cheeks pouched like a hamster with several wads of gum chewed to the perfect consistency. When the teachers back was turned, writing on the blackboard she'd tip her head way back and blow a huge bubble, usually pink or yellow, sometimes bigger than her own head, and then suck it back in before the teacher turned to face us again.
It was a well polished and often rehearsed performance ;-)
To the girls she was a hero, and to the boys a source of envy. We would cheerfully provide her with bubble gum and dare her to go one better each time.
On one memorable occasion, chair tilted back and resting on the desk behind her, the bubble burst and fell back all over her face and into her hair. She spent the rest of the lesson hunched forwards over her book, picking it off her face a bit at a time De-gunking her hair apparently took several hours when she got home.
After that she still blew bubbles, but never quite so big.
===
martini
girl
=====
According to the old advertising jingle she was a real Martini Girl...
'...anytime, anyplace, anywhere..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9UdlL4qfa8
androgenous
indeterminate
vague
tenuous
iffy
dodgy
artful
museum
relics
antique
old
(Some folks will argue over the exact definition of what makes an object antique, but all will agree that it has to be old. You can't make a perfect replica of some ancient artefact and thus have an instant antique. But given time...)
me
I was at a Christmas party with a bunch of gym people. Cindy had a creche displayed. It came from her aunt. It was "vintage". Someone asked how old it was. It was from 1952 - just like me. I guess I'm not old, I'm vintage.
individual
one
solitary
confinement
held
snuggle
cwtch
alternative
As in an alternative language which contains words with no English vowels ;-)
different
Cwtch is a lovely sounding word though :)
odd
deviation
mean
(statistically speaking)
standard
usual
common
everyday
breathing
(Probably the ultimate everyday activity.)
lungs
pneumonia
bacterial
microbes
virus
Corona
sun
beam
plank
timber
board
walk
prance
mince
(The movements of someone who lacks the confidence to unashamedly prance.
pies
crusty
bread
wholemeal
flour
Mill
water
liquid
whiskey
or
whisky
whichever you like better
rye
pastrami
cow
milk
chocolate
(what else could you expect from me)
milkshake
yard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL2rytTraA
measurement
dimensions
area
open
wide
broad
side
order
command
instruct
educate
student
classroom
blackboard
whiteboard
I don't think any classrooms here have blackboards anymore. Or chalk. Or erasers filled with fine dust. Oh, the glory of clapping erasers.
markers
chips
fried
burned
scorched
ground
coffee
bean
jumping
rope
hanging
tree
Birch
Elm
coffin
burial
entombment
dead
centre
middle
core
Apple
computer
virus
cold
frigid
polar
Bear
hibernate
sleep
apnea
breathing
panting
dog
wolf
predator
stalker
Deer
herbivore
sheep
lamb
stew
fret
guitar
=====
The markers along the guitar neck are called frets. I've always wondered if the so-called 'fretless guitars' are particularly laid-back instruments.
===
strings
ball
testicle ;-)
nut
hexagonal
square
Masons
jars
glass
drinking
straw
man
kind
hearted
Lion
Scarecrow
Tin-man
Oz
Rainbow
storm
wild
uncontrolled
feral
wild
women ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqk3osxS4wQ
Amazonian
Forest
undergrowth
shrubs
topiary
gardens
formal
tuxedo
cummerbund
waist
coat
paint
brush
comb
honey
darling
endearment
cooing
Doves
chocolates
plain
buffalo
chips
corn
belt
waist
band
woodwinds
musical
Broadway
hype
advertisement
purchase
buy
get
lost ;-)
adrift
unmoored
floating
clouds
storm
electric
kettle
black
gray
muted
quiet
whispered
covert
Deer
(Apart from covert as in secretive, a covert is also a thickly wooded area in which deer tend to hide out during daylight hours. If you're very lucky you will occasionally find a young faun lying very still, relying on silence and natural camouflage to protect them. The right thing to do is be glad you've seen them and just carry on by as if you haven't noticed.)
Gyppo
herbivore
sheep
wolf
she ;-)
feminine
wiles
cunning
nefarious
bad
evil
masochistic
martyr
saint
Halo
circle
disc
player
rugby
football
pointless
routine
set
collection
aggregation
stew
vegetables
carrots
long
ago
past
history
ancient
Rome
Italy
Pope
Catholic
Priest
clergy
deacon
liturgy
Mass
Grave
cemetery
flowers
bouquet
Wedding
ceremony
Tea
The Japanese have a formal tea ceremony. So do the English, but its nowhere near as formal. Sometimes it's a simple as workers downing tools and "getting a brew on, Lads."
coffee
did you know I like coffee?
ahahahahaha
I crack myself up
shop
puchase
grip
(As in getting a purchase on a rope before hauling it.)
climb
rope
trick (Indian or otherwise. The rope isn't prejudiced ;-)
magic
Boomerang
('Whilst the Magic Boomerang is in flight time stands still'.
An Aussie TV series I remember from my childhood, when we did have a TV for a couple of years.
If you fancy a bit of Black & White Nostalgia for about twenty five minutes or so...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKLRzZnL9fc
stick
adhere
tape
record
save
hoard
stockpile
weapons
arms
legs
Millipede
A creature which takes legs to ridiculous extremes.
(Speaking of legs... There was girl at the railway station today with the slimmest legs I've seen in ages. Not starvation wasted with oversized joints, just genuinely slim with proper proportions.)
bug
nasty
"There's a nasty bug going around."
cruel
vindictive
retaliatory
counterattack
war
monger
stall
horse
dressage
performance
bravura
grandiose
flashy
outrageous
scandalous
politics
Bullshit
(A lot of it, anyway.)
malarkey
foolishness
dumb
Arse (or Ass, if you insist)
bum
(but if I had insisted, donkey, but I will stick with bum)
Dosser
tosser
politician(s)
babble
psycho
(As in psycho-babble.)
neurotic
anxious
phobias
fears
unlikely
(at least most of the things I have feared have been seriously unlikely)
rare
(Like the utterly unreasonable fear of being struck on the head by a falling twenty foot long Albino Burmese Python dropped by an over-optimistic display team of flying sparrows who mistook it for a very large worm.)
ordinary
bicycle
(Did you know that the odd-wheeled 'Penny-Farthing' bicycle is more correctly known as the 'Ordinary'.)
pedals
control
remote
distant
emotionless
cold
frozen
assets
money
corrupts
destroys
utterly
complete
disaster
circumstance
fortuitous
lucky
bastard
(If I had a pound for every time I've been called a 'lucky bastard' I'd have quite a sizeable stack of pounds.)
uninherited
outcast
lonesome
Dove
swim
crawl
toddler
fall
(Falling over is an essentil part of being a toddler.)
equinox
Druid
Celtic
Scotland
Glayva
Booze
whiskey
or whisky
tot
child
infant
babe
doll
sweetheart
darling
endearment
kindness
peaceful
tranquil
meditative
ruminative
ponderous
methodical
free-spirited
hippy
sixties
hair
ball
glitter
(Like the spinning disco-ball.)
messy
glitter never really goes away
once you have glitter, there is a mess forevermore
it is the exact opposite of a Raven
bun
(Thinking of the 'messy man bun' into which some indecisive losers arrange their hair. It belongs with designer stubble and other half-hearted moves.
If there's enough hair for a bun then there's enough for a short ponytail, which will grow if you give it time.)
croissant
buttery
dairy
(In some old English books what we now call a Dairy is named as being a Buttery, a place for making butter.)
Queen
I don't know if Dairy Queen is outside the US or not, but the one I went to the most often had a broken chocolate ice cream server. If you wanted a chocolate milkshake, they added chocolate syrup to the concoction. If you wanted a chocolate ice cream Blizzard, they charged extra for the chocolate because it was a second topping. Used to really tick me off. But now I can't really eat any of that stuff at all.
legs
=====
It's a little convoluted but... I once saw an advert for an antique side table with Queen Anne's legs. (Apparently Grocers aren't the only traders who like spurious apostrophes.)
I instantly wondered how the hell it balanced with only two legs. Unless Queen Anne was in fact a Quadruped.
===
journey
Voyage
trip
psychedelic
mushrooms
fungi
woods
timber
lumberjack
sawyer
Tom
cat
lion
tiger
bear
oh, my
Stuka
bomber
Lancaster
plane
woodworking
carpenter
Jesus
One of our local vicars had a sticker on his car which read 'My boss is a Jewish Carpenter. Most of his congregation loved his sense of humour, but some of the more prune-faced ones complained to his Bishop that it showed a lack of respect. The bishop replied that it was merely a statement of fact, and that perhaps those who were offended should study their bibles a little more closely.
The same vicar had a poster outside his church for a while, reading 'Jewish Carpenter seeks joiners. Enquire within.'
God
allegedly
Squad :-)
team
player
guitar
bass
fish
troll
bridge
toll
bell
tower
lofty
ethereal
unearthly
fairy
Celts
warriors
fighters
martial
strategic
plans
foiled
thwarted
gone
removals
trash
wreck
automobile
Club
soda
Coke
steel
foundry
industrial
scale
weigh
measure
yardstick
Haberdasher
ties
neck
vampire
blood
plasma
cutter
(Plasma cutter: Electronic tool used for cutting metal.)
knife
Bowie
James
peach
velvety
soft
yielding
capitulating
surrender
forsake
desert
pyramids
blocks
hinders
obstruct
justice
legality
criminality
(You can't have one without the other.)
judiciary
lawyer
smug
narcissistic
Kardashian
unbelievable
mythical
Olympus
Camera (make of)
photography
skill
Or possibly an art, if you pursue it at a high enough level.)
competence
ability
power
station
police
van
truck
wheels
tires
knobbly
bumps
speed
heroin
meth
crystal
ball
field
trip
stumble
fall
Summer
Frock
dress
clothe
accessorize
bling
jewels
gems
diamond
mine
craft
skill
ability
handiness
ordinary
everyday
scheduled
planned
invasion
takeover
hostile
unfriendly
mean
poverty
destitute
broke
shattered
glass
window
pane
section
Brass
(The brass section in an orchestra.)
copper
bottomed
(Many traditional boats were copper-bottomed.)
underneath
subterranean
worms
holes
cavities
dentist
chair
seated
patiently
waiting
room
area
Fifty-One
half
pint
quart
measure
weigh
assess
consider
ponder
think
cognition
brain
stem
flower
garden
sprinkler
hoe
Dutch
jumprope
I so wanted this to be chocolate, but alas - rules
skip
hop
along
with
Bugs(Bunny)
annoys
irritates
husbands
either as the irritant or the irritated
either way
spare
(In some married couples one or the other is definitely a somewhat subservient 'spare' to the more dominant partner. Not usually the healthiest relationship.)
Harry
poor, poor Harry
misfit
dentist
There is a Christmas cartoon about all the Elves at the North Pole and the misfit wants to be a dentist. He and Rudolph, also a misfit, befriend each other. I cannot remember the name of the show.
orthodontist
braces
teeth
mouth
river
(As a kid I was fascinated to learn that all rivers have a mouth, and to learn that just like people, some are bigger than others.)
flowing
motions
flickering
candles
matches
burn
toast
salute
"Cheers, M'Dears."
military
camp
tents
bivouac
militia
armed
weaponized
bombs
bath
(I remember Mum having a serious fit of the giggles when she dropped one of those multi-layered foaming 'bath bombs' into her bathwater and it fairly raced up and down the bath, banging against the ends and sides, foaming and trailing jets of various colours as it dissolved. Very noisy.)
shower
curtain
window
pane
glass
wine
champagne
bubbles
geyser
hot
springs
bed
garden
shed
remove
disconnect
unlink
open
unfurl
Like the opening of a flag or a sail.
sunshade (Space-based telescopes are protected from the sun by a huge, flimsy heatshield that packs down into a sandwich box and unfurls like a new butterfly's wing. Except for when it doesn't.)
cooling
fan
enthusiast
cheerleader
daft
idiot
fool
dunderhead
blockhead
idiot
moron
definition
(Moron is a fairly precise medical definition of cognitive function.)
attribution
delineated
outline
contour
shape
triangle
musical
thematic
jingle
radio
ham
pig
sow
grain
wheat
sift
mesh
wire
Brass
(Any wire can be used for snares at a pinch, but brass is probably the best. Either braided or single strand.)
euphonium
pleasant
company
keep
safe
bank
river
brook
tolerate (as in, "I will brook no argument.")
manners
protocol
guidelines
orders
last
final
exams
tests
watch
observe
scrutinise
details
precision
accuracy
exact
meticulous
prissy
maidenly
feminine
girly
frilly
bubbly
effervescent
frothy
aerated
oxygenated
bloodstream
vein
deep
below
subterranean
cavern
Liverpool (Home of the famous Cavern Club.)
house - The midsection deckhouse, otherwise known as the Liverpool house, saved a lot of seamen's lives in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It broke up the otherwise open expanse of deck on the big sailing vessels which could ship giant seas to wash men overboard.
martin
Baker - the Martin Baker ejector seat has saved a lot of pilots' lives...
oven
stove
broke
damaged
wrecked
ship
clipper
tea
leaf
cannabis
weed
killer
assassin
murderer
mass
celebrate
joyful
cheery
jolly
roger
pirate
software
There'a lot of pirated software out there.
data
information
encyclopedia
Britannica
Other encyclopedias do exist, but we don't talk about them ;-)
educational
teaching
doctrine
policy
statement
declaration
proclamation
herald
flags
bunting
finch - a bunting is something like one
Darwin
selection
pick
axe
battle
(How do you confuse an Irishman/Welshman/Yorkshireman/supply your own racial stereotype? Show him a collection of shovels and invite him to take his pick.)
;-)
combat
wrestle
grip
handle
touch
stroke
fondle
kiss
snog
(Such an ugly little word for what is, generally, a pleasant activity. I remember my Sis, in her best junior pedant voice, explaining "Snog is a plural, not applicable to a single kiss. It's only snogging if it's five or more kisses." )
and yet snog and kiss are related by sharing a letter
tongue
I wonder sometimes if Gyppo has really got the hang of this game! ;)
cheek
I wonder that sometimes myself. So I'll stay out of it this time.
Your starter is still cheek.
Jowl
chin
(Gyppo - no! If you're not here, they'll all poke fun at me instead!)
wag
feminine (as in Wives And Girlfriends)
allure
draw
sketch
pad
stealthily
(As in the poacher padded quietly through the shadows.)
clumsily
(as the poacher, startled by a badger, shot his own toe off)
oaf
rude
(Oafs usually are.)
yokel
straw
You can't be a proper yokel unless you have a length of straw in your mouth. It's written into the great book of stereotypes.
hay
stooks
rick
storage
silo
storage and silo?
barn
dance
(I always associate barn dances with Lizzie Borden, Murderess. The caller always seemed to take the utmost relish in the lines...
Lizzie Borden took an axe,
and gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
jig
saw
viewed
panorama
vista
expanse
width
circumference
tangent
degree
unit
squadron
group
flight
escape
(As in the biblical 'Flight from Egypt', where punning folkore maintains that Pontious was the pilot.)
runner (as in "doing a runner")
athlete
(The first time I came across the phrase 'bedroom athlete' in a book I had this immediate and glorious vision of someone running around the walls, like a 'wall of death' rider. The intended meaning of the term was positively mediocre in comparison.)
skill
ability
domain
home
residence
abode
lodgings
vacation
holiday
camp
fire
volcano
magma
lava
flow
glacier
melting
deliquescent
moisture
damp
rain
precipitation
snow
powder
face
north
Humberside
Well, it's to the North of where I live ;-)
It's also got an H in it.
Geordie
Newcastle
British
Empire
nation (of shopkeepers, according to Napoleon)
state
Ah yes, Napoleon. I believe the 'shopkeepers' cut off his credit when he came shopping at Waterloo.
depose (either to make a statement, or to get rid of Napoleon)
unseat
recall (A recall petition is how a British constituency gets rid of its sitting Member of Parliament. If ten percent of the electorate sign the petition, the Member is unseated and a by-election will be held.)
photographic
exposure
bared
naked
stripped
undressed
lingerie
smalls (or in my case, larges)
tiny
miniature
golf
boring
agreed
consensus
approved
School
As in Borstal, the kind of school which is now referred to as a Young Offenders Institute.
It was standard joke of my generation when anyone asked what school we went to. "Oh, it's a very good school. It's approved."
useless
inconsequential
purposeless
vague
doddery
unsteady
wobbly
throw (throwing a wobbly is losing your temper)
pitch
baseball
diamond
jewel
precious
Gollum
ring
bell
toll
gate
door
entrance
delight
(What a bummer. I so want to write Turkish, but the rules say no.
please
thanks
gratitude
cheers (not quite sure why people say Cheers instead of Thank you, but they do)
three
wishes
genie
bottle
jeroboam
flask
hip
modern
latest
new
age
longevity
antiquity
history
past
medieval
knights
armour
mail
post
wooden
timber
felled
lumber
gait
canter
pace
stride
legs
centipede
bug
irritate
displease
unaccommodating
petulant
sulky
maudlin
tearful
grieving
widow
black
stygian
unlit
dark
night
moon
lunar
terminator
Despite what film buffs may think, the terminator is that abrupt line across the moon's surface to which the sun's light reaches and beyond which it doesn't, giving us the various phases.
finisher
laggard - a finisher is a racehorse which completes the course upright and still carrying a rider, but is not placed
slow
brake
stop
halt
lame
crippled
maimed
hospitalized
bedridden
asleep
dozing
kipping
snore
apnea
breathing
vital
essential
certain
definite
assured
guaranteed
warranted
imposed
oppressed
dominated
ruled
out
caught
nabbed
jailed
prison
warden
Game
pheasant
cock
robin
crow
jackdaw
small
undersized
minuscule
tiny
shrunken
diminished
responsibility
duty
onerous
taxes
death
inevitable
certain
sure
confident
vocal
singer
Dan ;-)
cow-pie
horns
(I remember how Desperate Dan's cow pies used to have horns sticking up through the top crust. Old time cartoonists and writers knew how to make blatant stereotypes work for them.)
trumpets
bugles
"Charge!"
"Withdraw!"
leave
depart
go
stay
remain
continue
again
repetition
duplicate
facsimile
xerox
copy
newspaper
information
knowledge
facts
demonstrable
provable
unarguable
facts
data
processing
photograph
image
copy
(Sorry about the P of photograph: I thought I was in the other thread)
Gestetner
=====
The school newspaper was printed on one of these. The school secretary, an intensely fierce little dragon of a lady, absolutely hated trusting her machine to even the handful of selected boys and girls who had been taught how to use it.
===
facsimile
duplicate
multiply
breed
hybrid
combined
harvest
gather
collect
rent
lease
borrow
lend
interest
curiosity
questioning
answer
comeback
return
boomerang
catapult
siege
castle
fortress
barbican
Plymouth
Rock
festival
mud
pack
facial
hair
beard
singe
"We have singed the King of Spain's beard." Francis Drake.
flame
burn
char
fish
Haddock
vinegar
rank
colonel
Bogey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuVYS4uw0as
shee
(like the Banshee, but with no particular residential requirements)
battlefield
=====
Mum was at a large battle re-enactment, talking to the man organising it. They were about five minutes behind schedule and the audience, worked up by some mouthy git with a microphone, were getting restless.
The big burly Irishman man in armour said, quite seriously. "They'll have to wait. We may be only playing at war, but no way will we go out the until the shee has passed over the field and tells me it's okay."
Superstitious lot, Performers. We used to walk the perimeter, establishing the 'magic circle' before fighting.
===
soldier
uniform
khaki
cloth
weave
undulate
millipede
bug
irritate
scratch
line
(In the old prize-fighting days a line would be scratched in the ground and before the start, and at each subsequent round the pugilists had to 'come up to scratch' and 'toe the line'.
If a man failed to 'come up to scratch' after the one minute break he was deemed to have lost.)
squiggle
random
happenstance
unscheduled
sporadic
Unpredictable
surprising
unaware
dim
low
cow
intimidate
(His raw aggression cowed his opponents even before the fight started.)
scare
monger ;-)
fish
net
gross
as in net wages and gross wages
unpleasant
incorrigible
bastard
jerk
off
departure
lounge
sprawl
urban
city
Metropolis
conurbation
sprawl
expand
stretch
prison
"He got a ten stretch for robbing a bank.)
gaol
warden
guardian
protector
babysitter
minder
heavy
(In case these terms don't translate very well, a minder is the large gentleman in the slightly ill-fitting suit who accompanies his principal to business meetings to make sure no one twists his head off. He may also be described as a heavy.)
lead (Although depleted uranium is heavier than the same volume of lead.)
(Not as easy to get hold of for your blackjack, though.)
advance - I choose to read lead as a verb.
proceed
=====
Jo: Sand works nearly as well as lead ;-) Has two advantages. 1) Doesn't trigger metal detectors. 2) Can be used on top of hard objects such as a window frame or fence to steady and deaden movement in your rifle barrel.
===
(I'll remember that next time - er, if the occasion ever arises that I need to steady my rifle barrel.)
walk (which is what policemen giving evidence in court mean when they say, "I was proceeding in a northerly directly...)
hike
ramble
walk
tread
step
ladder
scale
weigh
mass
church
graveyard
stones
boulders
heaped
compiled
arranged
sorted
filed
abraded
worn
attired
garbed
caparisoned
war-horse
brave
courageous
daring
foolhardy
impractical
dreamer
visionary
=====
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.
T E Lawrence
===
prophet
Seer
tarot
spread
buffet
gale
force
insist
press
kidnap - which is what the impressing of seamen pretty well amounted to
hostage
fortune
wealth
riches
accumulation
stockpile
reserve
keep
hold
cargo
(How come a cargo goes by ship while a shipment goes by car?)
Quote from: Jo Bannister on November 04, 2023, 09:25:16 PMcargo
(How come a cargo goes by ship while a shipment goes by car?)
Very clever - even funny.
Ship
barque
In a moment of silliness...
Poodle.
Why? Because barque sounds like like French for bark, therefore a poodle would barque at intruders.
Gucci, the wannabe elites of dog-eat-dog culture.
handbag
(Sorry - it's all I know about Gucci)
Ganga Giggle Garden - an actual establishment in West Hollywood where you can buy and consume cannabis.
My, how times have changed!
Garden
spade
fork
dining
hotel
staff
walking-stick
rod
pole
Anyone else remember rods, poles and perches?
Ell
(The length of a 'clothyard' arrow, which, at 39", is rather close to one metre.)
measure
dimensions
length
furlong
distance
remote
control
direct
action
scene
ambience
"Like... this is a really cool scene, Man."
surroundings
pleasant
kind
sort
place
mat
yoga
supple
malleable
gold
(Maybe not quite as malleable as lead, but it's quite easy to work with.)
(And more fun.)
silver
hair
streak - hairstreak is a family of butterflies
naked
flame
ignition
starter
battery
Just had to get a new one for the car yesterday because it couldn't get the starter started.
charger
destrier - a mediaeval warhorse
caparisoned
beribboned
colourful
painting
brush
fox
vixen
cub
offspring
kids
children
pester
bug
invertebrate
spineless
coward
fearful
tremulous
wary
suspicious
doubting
cautious
mousy
fair
ground
floor
polish
European
foreign ;-)
distant
removed
surgically
theatre
curtains
finale
close
nearby
conjoining
twins
conjoined
Siamese
Thai
food
provender
supply
chain
mail
post
fence
rails
wildfowl
goose
down
feather
quill
goose
Apparently the best quills came from geese; and the very best from one wing. I can't remember which it was, but the feather bent naturally in a way that made it comfortable to write with.
kick
as a kick in the butt, aka, a goose
arse
My girls used to describe Mum as 'A real kick-arse- Granny' ;-)
butt
rainwater
deluge
hurricane
typhoon
cyclone
storm
force
power
solar
eclipse
darkness
black
white
curtains
drapery
folds
pleats
ripples
water
drink
martini
girl
According to the advert, a Martini Girl is ready for it at 'anytime, anyplace, anywhere'.
transfemale
person
individual
one
way
route
march
spring
coiled
snake
politician ;-)
statesman
rare
unique
one-off
individual
portion
share
division
multiplication
breeding
pair
Duo
comedy
government
(If you couldn't laugh they'd reduce you to tears,)
politics
elections
hoax
conspiracy
theory
idea
notion
conception
surrogacy
incubator
safety
net
catch
up
gross
weight
(As opposed to 'tare' weight.)
scale
fish
carp
niggle
(As in carping on' about something.)
annoy
bug
insect
Fly
Linda
Oz
Australia
broad
(As in 'the broad brown land'.)
wide
load
pack
dogs
cats
Broadway
Musical
orchestra
pit
olive
tree
orchard
garden
soil
dirt
bike
trail
follow
stalk
plant
bury
cover
model
pose
arrange
schedule
timetable
calendar
wall
brick
work
enterprise
willingness
compliance
subservient
menial
worker
Bee
wasp
vicious
(Bees will, generally, leave you alone. But wasps seem to spend their lives looking for someone to sting.)
hateful
nefarious
fell
Used in the old way, as in this line from a hymn.
The ancient Prince of Hell, has risen with purpose fell...
I remember asking the teacher to explain this to me, because as far as I could understand it if he fell almost immediately after he had risen he didn't get very far.
And so another part of the linguistic maze was unravelled.
When I mentioned it at home Mum taught me the Dr Fell rhyme, and about what she called the Dr Fell Complex. When you instinctively dislike someone for no obvious reason.
I do not like thee, Dr Fell.
The reason why I cannot tell.
But this one thing I know full well,
I do not like thee, Dr Fell.
Gyppo
tumbled
gemstones
=====
These are polished in a tumbler, which is like a miniature tumble dryer. One of the little jewellery (Crystal) shops in Cornwall had a tumbler in the window, steadily spinning night and day. I, incurably curious, asked the owner how long it took.
"Several days, and sometimes weeks. But if you load the wrong mix of raw gems sometimes they just abrade each other evenly until there's nothing left that you can use. But you learn, if you plan to stay in the business.
Writers tip there. Most enthusiasts are willing to talk about their specialist subject unless they're truly too busy.
Gyppo
diamond
zirconium
lustrous
gleaming
brasses
When I was a young kid Southampton still had (just) horse drawn corporation dust carts, and I saw one of these in the carnival procession. To say that the brasses on the harness gleamed in the sunlight would be an understatement.
Mum spoke to the handler and he took great pride in showing her how the underside of the brasses was polished as well, but not quite as shiny.
We already had a bin 'lorry' out in the surrounding villages, so seeing the horse drawn cart was something of an event.
Gyppo
golden
sunrise
dawn
chorus
narrator - at least, that's how Shakespeare used it
storyteller
Although a good storyteller is also a performer, not a mere speaker of words.
liar
(just where do you make the distinction?)
Dishonest
=====
Jo, for me the line between a story and a lie, is in the purpose. A lie is told to gain some kind of advantage over or from another more gullible person. Whereas a story is a form of entertainment.
'White' lies blur the boundary, and are sometimes done with the best of intentions, particularly to spare pain for someone else. Like a nurse/doctor/policeman telling a victim's family that they died quickly/painlessly. 'Dead before they hit the ground' is a fine example.
A good - convincing - story can be enjoyed without having to totally believe it. All fiction writers, even if they don't use the term, aim to 'create a willing suspension of disbelief' in the reader. But you already know this ;-)
Readers who follow a serial character through several books become as comfortable with them as they are with a real-life friend, or perhaps a dodgy but still likeable acquaintance, and sometimes write angry letters when some damned writer has the nerve to make them behave 'out of character'.
'Live' Storytelling is more akin to gentle hypnosis.
Gyppo
management
Just because "politician" was too easy. Power seems to breed a bit of inflationary speech.
company
limited
shortage
deficiency
lack
without
beyond
(As in "There is a green hill far way, without a city wall."
=====
One of my many questions at school was, "Miss. Why would a green hill have a city wall anyway? It doesn't make sense."
She told me it meant outside or beyond.
"Then why doesn't it say so?"
"Because that's how they used to talk when that hymn was written."
"Oh."
Miss Brown was good at answering questions, good at dealing with the neuro-diverse. Looking back I think she may have been one herself.
Gyppo
measure
verify
assure
comfort
ease
facility
deft
handy
groper
brute
force
army
green
yellow
jacket
are yellow jackets an American thing or a worldwide thing?
Donkey
Donkey jackets are hard-wearing garments worn by building site labourers. They, the jackets not the workers, had reinforced shoulders and elbows. Dad always said it took at least a year to 'break them in' and 'the men' would hang onto a battered old thing long after it had passed its best.
Patti: Yellow jackets are hornets, right? We do have them over here, but just call them hornets.
Gyppo
One of the best limericks I know is about flying insects. It goes:
There was a young man from St Bee's
who was horribly stung by a wasp.
When asked, "Does it hurt?"
he replied, "No, it doesn't -
I'm so glad it wasn't a hornet."
Some people think this is absolutely hilarious. Others point out that it doesn't rhyme.
Anyway, from Donkey...
ass
idiot
moron
Definition
Moron, except when used as an insult, is a quite tightly defined medical assessment.
shape
design
plan
conspire
furtive
stealthy
bomber
Halifax
Vulcan
fiery
inflamatory
speech
address
home
domicile
residence
Halls (of)
foyer
unnecessary
Our foyer is 8 foot by 10 foot and I would much rather have had larger bedrooms or even a larger laundry room. Why I needed this space to tell Jehovah's Witnesses to go away, I will never know.
Gee Chick, that's what I call class - having a special room just for haranguing god-botherers!
duplicate
Quote from: Spell Chick on January 22, 2024, 03:00:14 PMunnecessary
Our foyer is 8 foot by 10 foot and I would much rather have had larger bedrooms or even a larger laundry room. Why I needed this space to tell Jehovah's Witnesses to go away, I will never know.
It's clearly for the acoustics, so a slammed door will resonate far better, or your voice will boom biblically as you tell them to 'Go Forth and Multiply'.
=====
Following Jo's DUPLICATE we have...
SIXTEEN, which is double eight ;-)
last
(I'm no sports fan, but isn't the last sixteen the stage prior to the quarter-finals?)
terminus
(Last stop, all off.)
bus-stop
Greyhound
It's a bus service company over this way.
collie
sheepdog
trials
court
judge
counsel
mediate
sides
Morris
In addition to all their other peculiarities, Morris dancers don't call their teams teams, they call them sides.
car
transport
(of) delight
charm
(Do you know that the term for a flock of goldfinches is a charm? Isn't that - well - charming?)
bracelet
My sister was highly dedicated to hers and had about 30 different charms.
I was not so charmed by the entire idea.
I've got a charm bracelet. Every charm on it has a specific meaning for me - places I've lived, holidays, hobbies, work, achievements of one kind of another. Unfortunately, there's no longer any room to get my hand in it. I'm thinking of turning it into a ...
necklace
Torc
gold
crown
Bowls (Most definitely not the nine pin variety.)
Drake
Mallard
wigeon
fowl
chicken
scaredycat
fearful
nightmare
sleep
dream
nightmare
succubus
incubus
gremlin
untraceable
(Every mechanic knows that sometimes, no matter how careful you are, some little Gremlin will come along and tip carborundum paste into a gearbox, or slacken a drain plug so it drops out at the most inconvenient time. Electrical gremlins are the worst and almost untraceable, because sometimes they take up residence in the testing tools. Little Bastards.)
invisible
mending
====
A little 'Dad' tale
I remember when most of the big clothes shops, fabric shops, and nearly all Dry-Cleaners would offer 'Invisible Mending Services'.
Usually an older person who sat in a little cubby hole at the back of the store, with a fancy sewing machine, a rack of different coloured threads, and a big box of buttons and zips.. Often these were semi- retired dressmakers or tailors who really knew their trade. They did 'alterations' as well, but as a kid the concept of invisible mending fascinated me.
We were walking past an empty little shop one day, the place stripped completely bare, not even a pile of letters inside the door.
Dad chuckled and said "Look, it's an invisible menders."
"I can't see anyone." Junior Gyppo, already a keen enthusiast of recreational pedantry.
"Exactly!" He was a little sod for things like that, but I was an able pupil.
"How do you know it's a mender?" I challenged.
"Obvious. You never see signs advertising invisible bakers, or bicycle repairers, or shoe shops, do you? Only menders are allowed to call themselves invisible."
Spoken with the complete confidence of a natural-born storyteller who believes his own creation for as long as it takes to share it with an audience.
"How do you know it's not just empty?"
"There's always a sign saying vacant premises, or shop to let."
He was right, even the emptiest of premises nearly always had at least a hand written sign on the inside of the glass.
Gyppo
accord
harmony
=====
Did you know that Jesus owned a Honda?
'Jesus and his disciples were all in one Accord.' Which must have been one hell of a squeeze.
===
syncopation
rhythm
beat
flog
sell
trade
swap
exchange
vows
promises
commitments
band
elastic
nimble
agile
flexible
yoga
dislocation
misplaced
unfounded
rumours
boots (a rumour can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on)
chemist
pharmacy
Dispensary
medicine
herbal
dandelion
clock
watch
observe
note
music
orchestra
whistle
blow
Mae West: You know how to whistle, right? Put your lips together, and blow.
gale - when your mae west might come in very handy
Beaufort
The Beaufort scale for wind speeds makes do with just numbers until they start classifying with words, such as 'gale' or 'storm 11', which is where Cornish fishermen start talking about 'A Proper Heller' and decide it might be safer to 'ride it out' at sea than try and force their way back into some narrow and rocky little inlet they call home.
plane - the Bristol Beaufort was designed as a torpedo bomber in WW2.
woodwork
The plane, in various styles and forms, is a woodworking tool.
craftsmanship
There is a Beaufort, SC (right on the water and with one of my favorite lunch spots) that is not pronounced bowFOR but BUfert. Lovely place to visit.
My grandmother used to live in Beaufort Street in Rochdale, Lancashire. The correct pronunciation in England is Bo-fort, which she insisted on using. Everyone else in the street thought "she were a reet snob" for not saying Bu-fort like them. Don't you just love Northerners?
dinghy (which is said din-gy, not din-jy. Din-jy is spelt dingy. Don't you just love English?)
khaki
camouflage
netting
fish
monger
dealer
trader
higgler (there's a grand old country word for you, Gyppo!)
Travelling
On of my great-great Aunts was a Higgler, although I'm fairly sure my Gran pronounced it Heggler. Maybe just a difference in accent, or perhaps I even heard it wrong.
Same trade though. She had a haberdashery and drapers shop, but went out on her little horse-drawn cart two or three times week, making deliveries and taking orders for those who couldn't or wouldn't come to her shop.
Apparently some of the 'rich folks' were perfectly happy visiting the shop, but 'simply wouldn't dream of being seen carrying a parcel away with them'.
Gyppo
salesman
retailer
vendor
purchase
grip
(As in 'getting a purchase' on a rope, miscreant, or whatever.)
fast - which doesn't always mean speedy but can mean totally immobile
rapid
waterfall
cascade
river
flow
ebb
tide
spring
"Boing!"
sound
barrier
reef
knot
granny
precursor
typewriter
Why? Because they were definitely pre-cursor.)
secretary
In the early years of the typewriter, there was considerable - even heated - debate about whether the name applied to the machine or the operative.
private
cypher
decoder
Babbage - inventor of the Difference Engine, the first computer
Lovelace
(Ida) the woman who programmed it
impressive!
outstanding
prominent
conspicuous
eminent
famous
celebrity
(Although I often fail to see why they achieved this status.
Once someone is only famous for being famous, I await with bated breath the moment when they will disappear up their own arsehole) in a puff of self-absorption.)
Gyppo
nonentity
unnoticed
hidden
occult
bleeding
something we look for in stool samples in order to diagnose early rectal/colon cancers
cut
string
parcel
food
comestibles
repast
dinner
meal
picnic
outdoor
camp
follower
tail
pony
Falabella - an extremely small pony. Went through a fashionable phase, until people discovered they take as much looking after as any other horse while being totally unsuitable for any of the things other horses do. Most were condemned to spend their entire lives as a lawn ornament.
misguided
off-course
deviant
perverse
contrary
awkward
inept
clumsy
dyspraxia
coordinated
scheduled
flight
aviation
pilot
steer
ox
span
yoke
harness
tack
nail
finger
prod
goad
urge
fancy
decorative
plain
Salisbury
cathedral
moneymaker
Apart from being an interesting building in its own right Salisbury Cathedral is a very well organised money-making machine. Whilst the scaffolding was up for some recent long term repairs they allowed small groups of tourists to 'see the cathedral as never before' during a rooftop tour, with each person paying well into three figures for the privilege. It will be several decades before that level of repair is necessary again.
Apparently they have a second- almost secret - maintenance workshop built into the roof which is only used for such works.
They don't miss a trick ;-)
Gyppo
forger
Blacksmith ;-)
farrier
(Farriers hate being referred to as blacksmiths. Mine tells a story of when he was in training with a big practice down south. A man came in, rigged out in full hunting gear, and said he needed a blacksmith. Amid the pregnant silence of seven or eight qualified and trainee farriers, the gaffer sucked his teeth and said, "Sorry, sir, there's no blacksmiths here." And sent him to a wrought-iron foundry in the next town.)
horseshoes
=====
Yes, a good blacksmith is a bit of generalist. A farrier is a specialist, even if he sometimes knocks out a bit of 'smithery' on the side for his own amusement, or for friends.
There was a local 'smith who made a point of calling himself an 'Ornamental Blacksmith'.
My friend the armourer said, "Sounds about right. He spends most of his time with his shirt off, standing there waiting to be admired."
===
lucky
(tell that to the man with the print of one on his backside!)
seven
odd
unusual
strange
lesbian
'Strange' was Dad's largely unjudgmental euphemism for lesbians. "They can't help the way they're made, Son. They're just a bit strange."
Greek
(ie from Lesbos)
Zorba
dance
fan
=====
I remember reading about a woman, a Sally Rand if memory serves without doing an internet check. She performed a dance routine with two large fans, prancing around naked behind them but never actually revealing anything likely to offend the censors.
Until one day, at an outdoor venue, a strong wind seized hold of the fans and blew the diminutive Sally off the stage in an undignified heap.
===
enthusiast
keen
fascinated
bewitched
mesmerised
captivated
snared
wired
plug
electrical
fault
error
mistake
failure
breakdown
index
finger
digit
numeral
cypher
disguised
hidden
covert
secret
concealed
unclear
obscured
turgid
sluggish
weak
frail
breakable
fragile
nerves
steel
cold
=====
We once had a fierce old neighbour, ex Army, who spoke quite frequently about 'cold steel' and using a bayonet.
"The Germans always ran from cold steel. They don't like it up-em, you know."
"Who would? I once asked. He stopped part way through his next sentence, glared at me, and then said, "You make a valid point young man. I wouldn't greatly care to be on the receiving end myself."
frozen
solid
substantial
sturdy
cob
loaf
(Why a round loaf and a horse should share the same name is a mystery to me. The loaf is a shortened form of Coburg.)
A cob and a round loaf have much in common, including the same basic profile. The classic description of a good cob is a small horse "with the head of a duchess and the backside of her cook". An enterprising company produced a range of mugs etc with the slogan "My cob can" - to counter any suggestion that they are somewhat stubborn. They quickly had to run up a second range with the slogan, "My cob could if he wanted to".
Oh yes- the game.
head - as in, "Use your loaf!"
brain
stem
stern
master
conquer
dominate
rule
slide
playground
millionaire
billionaire
oligarch
wealthy
rich
money
cash
bank
raised
lowered
flag
pavement
slab
chunk
lump
sugar
fructose (Fruit sugar.)
lactose
dextrose
(Things have taken a sweet turn.)
fillings!
Mercury
messenger
winged
falcon
Eagle
condor
Andes
mountains
lofty
attic
garret
======
If I was an Estate Agent I'd probably put an advert in my window every April Ist.
Garret to let. Would suit starving writer or would-be poet. No heating or lighting. Candlestick provided, but bring your own candles.
===
draughty - the essence of a garret
perforated
=====
A draught to rustle your drafts. It wouldn't be a proper garret without.
===
ventilated
circulate
mingle
party
communist
red
flag
weary
exhausted
beat
flog
scourge
menace
threaten
intimidate
scare
threaten
concern
dubious
fake
pretend
"Fake it until you make it."
act
quickly
rapidity
speed
race
nation
state
condition
stipulation
requirement
demand
insist
exhort
argue
debate
waffle
honey
(quite the best thing to put on a waffle)
monster
I was always equally amused and irritated by the Honey Monster in the cereal adverts. Nothing was less monstery than the Honey Monster.
My spellchecker doesn't like Monstery, but in this context I do. So "Ya boo, sucks to you!" algorithm ;-)
Gyppo
yeti
Bigfoot
sasquatch
Nessie
Loch
wet
drip
tap
brass
money
loan
borrow
use
function
job
task
master
craftsman
handy
(Whatever knowledge he has, or trade he follows, a craftsman has to be 'good with his hands'.)
convenient
local
regional
dialect
Scouse
Ringo (Starr of that ilk.)
drummer
percussionist
boxer
Well, he hits things, doesn't he?
dog
As Freddie Starr, the somewhat deranged comedian, used to say. "My father was a Boxer. My mother was a Red Setter."
hound
pester
nag
horse
An old Red Indian chief was talking to a newspaper reporter and mentioned one of his wives was called Three Horses.
"Is that the bride price you had to pay for her?"
"No. She used to be called Happy Spirit. Now she's just nag, nag, nag."
mare
female
woman
child
offspring
ancestor
forebears
progenitors
bloodline
history
ancient
decrepit
mile-weary
footsore
blister
corn
grain
oats
porridge
cereal
breakfast
waffle
bullshit ;-)
falsehood
lie
relax
chill-out
freeze
deep
submarine
Yellow
bird
vulture
glass
(If there's one thing a Vulture hates, it's a glass eye."
full
(Are you a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty person? Or are you just glad to have a glass?)
throttle
(I'm more of the engineering mind-set, that whichever way other people see it I can't help thinking the glass was over-specified, poorly designed with an over=use of materials.)
strangle
bindweed
convolvulus
thesaurus ;-)
dinosaur
(yes, I know it isn't one, but a book-seller in London didn't)
Tyrannosaurus (Rex)
predator
hunter
clip
(A hunter clip is where you take most of the hair off a horse but leave him a saddle patch and furry legs to protect him from brambles.)
bulldog
A make of spring loaded paper clip, which was so well known that it became the default generic name for all such clips, just as Biro and Bic had their moments of universal fame as ballpoint pens.
Re horse clipping. There's a local legend, dating back to when ice-cream men had a horse-drawn cart, that local gypsy once sold a fully clipped horse to the head of a local Italian ice-cream family. They told him the 'blue horse' was a special breed, and it would ensure he never got any loose hairs in the ice-cream.
A few days later the truth became obvious and it came close to a war between the two families, but it was smoothed over when they gave him a partial refund and the younger Italians persuaded the old man that it was a
good joke. The fact it was a well-mannered and well-trained cart pulling horse - regardless of colour - probably helped a lot.
Gyppo
caesearian
The body shape of the pedigree bulldog has been so distorted by breeders seeking ever bigger heads that most puppies now have to come out the side door.
offspring
All my children were delivered by C=section, but it wasn't due to big heads. Although my eldest was a large baby.
descendent
parachute
silk
barrister
(A barrister is said to take silk when he or she is made King's Counsel - which still sounds slightly odd to those of us who dealt with QCs for half a century or more.)
lawyer
crooked
bent
angled
fished
trawled
beam
I saw a photo once of a Brixham trawler fishing with a beam-trawl, under sail in a Force 5 or 6. The power of the wind-driven working boat shone out of the frame. I'd have killed to get my hands on that picture.
sun
Jo: Some pictures can really capture the essence of whatever is going on. Others are just a pictorial record.
corona
Lemonade
I remember when the 'Corona Man' made regular weekly visits along our street selling bottled lemonade from his lorry. I think the deposit on the glass bottles was three pence, in old money, but I can't swear to that.
soda
fountain
cascade
tumbling
fallen
hero
Diana
(aka Wonder Woman)
actress
performer
narcissist
Not all performers are narcissists, but all narcissists are performers.
gardener - one specialising in narcissi, obviously
market
store
cupboard
=====
My eldest smiles at my 'store cupboard'. Tins and packets of long-term food stuff', in case I can't get to the shops, or sometimes just can't be bloody bothered. Mum taught me well ;-)
I used to buy 10 reams of paper at a time, to get a better price. But now I don't use so much and there's less storage space in the bungalow for the two big boxes.
When it came in a sturdy cardboard box you could throw a cover over it and use it as a coffee/side table.
Gyppo
stairs
When I was young, every house - however modest - had a cupboard under the stairs, which is where you kept your vacuum cleaner and your ironing board. Now houses are on the whole bigger, and smarter, and have a home office or a music centre under the stairs, and nowhere to keep your vacuum and your ironing board. It's called progress.
escalator
We used to keep an incredible amount, and variety of 'stuff' in the cupboard under the staircase.
Have you ever seen one of those stupid covers you can put over an upright vacuum cleaner that make it look like a little old granny, or a small 'French Maid' stood patiently in the corner of the room? Or are they an 'urban myth'?
I've never seen one in someone's house, but I've seen them advertised. I'm sorry to say they're not just a myth. But what kind of muppet designs modern houses with so little storage that people are reduced to camouflaging essential items?
moving
(The word escalator was a late arrival in my vocabulary. In our house we called it a "moving staircase".)
kinetic
=====
My first encounter with a moving staircase was when we came in from the New Forest to visit the big department stores in Southampton. Mum wouldn't trust the lifts, but the escalator rather tickled her fancy.
But there were horror stories about people getting caught at the top and dragged through the little gap. We weren't the only ones who jumped across that gap, just in case ;-)
My uncle grew fascinated by the physics involved in running down an up escalator, or up the downward one, and carried out a series of experiments when no-one else was on them. His earnest bespectacled schoolboy explanations fell on stony ground when he quoted figures and scientific 'laws' to the store's security men and they threw him out.
Gyppo
potential
hidden
occult
weird
uncanny
spooky
ghost
haunting
melody
song
lyrics
poetical
Not all lyrics are poetical. WASPs song F**k Like A Beast is an example of the other kind.
rhyme
intrinseca
Ryme Intrinseca ( /ˌraɪm ɪnˈtrɪnzɪkə/) is a village and civil parish in northwest Dorset, England.
village
hamlet
Danish
Viking
long-ship
rowers
The basic square sail carried by a long-ship was incapable of moving her much to windward; for that she relied on her crew manning the oars.
argumentative ;-)
obnoxious
celebrities
(Not all of them are obnoxious, but many are.)
nonentities
(Not all of them are...)
people
(That's what makes the world go around. Nonentities, celebrities, or 'the common mass', they're all people, and when we forget that, that's when the trouble starts.)
citizenry
populace
voters
deluded
superstition
thirteen
unlucky
ill-starred
turkey
(A film or play in which the stars are badly chosen, badly directed, or just plain bad.)
gobbler
informer
teller
banker
comfortable
hammock
slung
thrown
potter
(As in hand-thrown pots.)
meander
streamlet
"In yonder green valley, where streamlets meander..."
brook
Lamprey
(An ugly looking fish. I have only ever seen two live ones.)
Very primitive, your lamprey. Oldest fossils some 360 million years old, so half as old again as the oldest dinosaur. When you're that old, you'll be no oil painting either.
Devonian
past
history
archaeology
dig
excavate
JCB
Manitu
A friend of mine was using one of these tele-handlers to build her extension. I don't know if I misheard, or was just away on Planet Zog for a bit, but I thought she was talking about a manatee. I couldn't think how good an aquatic mammal with no fingers could be at DIY, even if she could have got hold of one.
;-)
plant
When I was kid I was puzzled by signs alongside roadworks which warned 'Heavy Plant Crossing'. When this was explained to me I still felt robbed that I'd never seen a giant rose or carnation ambling across in front of me.
flora
Inter
blooms
flowers
daffodils
host ;-)
party
celebration
parade
display
exhibition
show
tell
tale
story
legend
myth
buster
hangdog - the expression of a canine wearing one of these lamp-shade collars to prevent him from making an almost certainly self-inflicted injury any worse
shame-faced
bashful
dwarf
star
North
polar
explorer
investigator
detective
sleuth
(I've never really liked this word. Not sure why, but it just feels wrong.
pry
lever
arch
keystone (In masonry arches,)
cops
robbers
burglars
thieves
plunderers
buccaneers
raiders
Which begins with an R - like the one in buccaneer...
privateer
Sunk, by the shot from your privateer ;-)
Barrett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McJBDjtZ8iQ
Morgan
Three-wheeler
bicycle
web-search
Why? Has Gyppo lost his mind?
Way back in the early days of the web I was looking for some information to do with Shimano bicycle gears.
The search produced a link to Bisexual Fashions.
The ways of the algorithm are indeed strange ;-)
link
chain
paper
toilet
mirror
newspaper. Allegedly ;-)
print
press
iron
(Slaps own hand: just noticed P common to newspaper and print. Sorry!)
I did the same with print and press ;-)
forge
blacksmith
Wayland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland%27s_Smithy
barrow
(According to "1066 And All That", our ancestors were buried in long round wheelbarrows.)
Funeral
(That was a fine book, Jo.)
dirge
representative
delegate
pass
col - the dip between two mountain peaks
route
map
cartography
watershed
border
frontier
post
mail
telegram
boy
When I was a kid telegram boys whizzed around on little red motorbikes, (BSA Bantam usually). By the time I was old enough to ride one legally the service had been withdrawn. Born too late.
Still owned several very second-hand Bantams over a few years though, up into my early twenties. Very useful for learning basic mechanical skills and a little bit of performance tuning ;-)
school
yard
halliard - the line used to hoist a yard up the mast to where it can do some good.
shanty
In the sail days there were shanties for all the official shipboard activities. Halliard shanties, capstan shanties, etc. These set a working rhythm. A slightly more civilised version of the big fat bastard - he always is in films, anyway - pounding on a drum to make sure galley slaves kept their strokes in order.
Gyppo
And most of them were disapproved of by the Royal Navy. They seemed to think them a precursor to mutiny - as if all that yo-ho-hoing actually meant, You nobble the Marine and I'll scrag the captain. Maybe sometimes it did - mutinies aboard ship were not that uncommon - but usually it was just a way of making a hard, tedious task go a bit smoother.
knitwear - because, at least to modern eyes, a sea-shanty isn't a sea-shanty unless sung by a man in an Aran sweater.
cardigan
The Royal Navy was known to be The Silent Service. Yet they gave their crews a daily 'tot' of rum. Sometimes this must have been like feeding dripping red meat to a cage of hungry lions.
Dad said they were sometimes rewarded with an extra ration after cleaning up a 'particularly unpleasant mess', after a sea-battle. The sort of job where they genuinely asked for volunteers before ordering someone to do it.
Quote from: Gyppo on August 14, 2024, 02:19:35 PMThe sort of job where they genuinely asked for volunteers before ordering someone to do it.
The triumph of hope over experience...
Balaclava
(Historians of the Crimean War will get the connection, which is nothing to do with knitwear.)
helmet
hat
Stetson
cowboy
Midnight
(from the film, Midnight Cowboy.)
bedtime
tales
fiction
Saga
legend
hero
medal
(Not always.)
trophy
cup
overflowing
(As the Double-D lady says, "My cups runneth over."
spate
rush
bull
fight
conflict
warfare
battle
struggle
wrestle
grapple
hook
barbed
wire
telegraph
cable
stitch
knit
crochet
Afghan - a crocheted blanket or throw. Crochet is of course the art of tying holes together to make something warm.
Breed (of Hound).
species
type
font
Christening
baptism
(of) fire
blaze
marking
homework
tedious
boring
drilling
oil
derrick
haul
pull
row
argument
Possibly heard in a gym, when two people are arguing over whose turn it is to use the 'rowing' machine.
dispute
arbitration
judgement
sentence
life
span
reach
run
A sailing boat is reaching when the wind is on her beam or quarter, running when it's on her stern.
sprint
hurry
dash
pebble
The only time in 22 years that I ever knew my mare Sian to panic was when someone started pebble-dashing a house as we were passing, using some kind of a gun.
beach
raised
A raised beach is evidence of either a drop in sea-level caused by glaciation or continental uplift, caused either by tectonic activity or a rebound effect after the end of an Ice Age. My house was once covered by a kilometre of ice. Well, all right, the site where my house now stands. When that lot melted, removing the massive weight allowed the land to heave a sigh of relief and start slowly rising. It's still rising now.
glass
barometer
(weather) Thing-ammy-jig
Gran had a barometer, but for some reason she hated the word, so although she tapped it and checked it everyday, she only ever referred to it as her 'thing-ammy-jig'.
widget
contraption
Whatsit
oojah (formally, oojah-cum-whatsit)
unspecified
alien
undesirable
criminal
villain
rogue
scoundrel
I read a book a while back and it featured a League of Gentlemen Rogues and Lady Scoundrels. In my head I heard Frances saying "I could live with that label."
highwayman
Gibbet
Where some highwaymen found themselves hanging about.
kettle
Bizarrely enough, the same term was used for a kind of fireside crane that held your kettle in the flames of your hearth.
pot
crockery
plates
Wedgewood
blue
horizon
distant
music
'Faerie music, drifting on the dawn air, unheard by most of the villagers. But Jason Pengelly, farrier to the Elvish, took down his smaller tools from their hiding place in the thatch and prepared to honour the old bargain.'
harp
Tara
(In the school choir we sang about 'The harp that once through Tara's hall, the soul of music shed. Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls as if that soul were dead'.)
If you ever find yourself in the Irish midlands, go to the Hill of Tara. It's still enormously evocative, though not much more than a few banks and ditches remain.
historic
past
over
above
higher
lower
cow
bovine
water-buffalo
India
rubber
tree
oak
timber
lumberjack
Feller
Even the Land Army's 'Lumber-Jills' were Fellers. Mum loved her six pound felling axe ;-)
guy
ropes
lasso
cowboy
stetson
dance
"They'll put castanets on,
and ruin your Stestson..."
https://youtu.be/WtJNo9aQkQ8
ball
cricket
grasshopper
cicadas
locusts
plague
contagion
murrain
("A murrain upon you, Pharoah!"
Historically 'a murrain" was usually Anthrax. Which even now is still a nasty bastard.
I've been told that, even now, the one that gives epidemiologists sleepless nights is anthrax.
sheep - because nothing is subject to a murrain like your average sheep
lanolin
The natural oil in wool.
Quote from: Jo Bannister on October 01, 2024, 07:48:39 PMI've been told that, even now, the one that gives epidemiologists sleepless nights is anthrax.
sheep - because nothing is subject to a murrain like your average sheep
Lanolin: The natural oil in sheep's wool.
It was only fairly recently they cleaned up that island off Scotland which had been deliberately infected with Anthrax as an experiment in biological warfare. Poison gases are horrible, but biological warfare is another whole level of insanity.
Gyppo
grease
cups
Grease cups are those little flip or screw lidded pots on heavy plant machinery and marine engines the apprentice/junior has to keep topped up. Apart from keeping the bearings well greased, it teaches them the value of routine.
drunk
Could be tea, but someone showing evidence of recent alcohol consumption was once referred to as being "in his cups".
plastered
whitewashed
cover-up
boiler-suit
dungarees
bib
dribble
footballer
kicker
mule
Contrary to public belief, most horses don't kick, at least they don't kick people. I only remember being kicked three times in 65 years of being round them, and only once by my own - and that was a mistake. Leo had been being pestered by another horse in the field; when I went to catch him, he thought for a moment it was the horse crowding him again, and fired off with a back foot. He realised his error before it connected, and he took all the force out of it; but the look on his face was sheer horror. I told him off, because you can't tolerate it, but I never blamed him for that - it was an honest mistake.
(drug) carrier
Jo: Mum said she only got kicked once too, and that was by Felix, her big working Shire. At the end of each day she'd lead him to the field, take off his harness, and he always kicked up both rear legs and rolled on the ground like a carefree colt for a few second.
In a moment of distraction she stepped behind him and was hit in the chest by both feet. She never blamed him for it.
The old Horse Master said, "You'll not do that again, Miss."
wave
surf
board
company
enterprise
ambition
vaulting
Many a potential high-flyer has been brought low by his 'vaulting ambitions'. Who knew there were so many entrepreneurs with gymnastic fantasies?
somersault
twist
lemon
citrus
acidic
acerbic
tart
strumpet
hussy
brazen
In writing you rarely see hussy without the prefix brazen. I've often thought that brass hussy would be cold company.
impertinent
In weather cold enough to freeze the balls on a brass monkey, the brazen hussy would have amusing but not necessarily exciting company.
cheeky
What may be merely cheeky to some is impertinent to those with an over-inflated opinion of themselves.
urchin
The two go together in literature; possibly less so in real life.
sea
ocean
voyage
journey
trip
stumble
fall
collapse
disintegrate
fragment
sherd
pottery
lame
crippled
maimed
injured
hurt
pride
(Sometimes it hurts more than a physical injury.)
lions
roar
When I was an early teen, possibly only twelve, the Camping Club had their big annual gathering, The Feast Of Lanterns, in the grounds of Longleat House,
We not only saw the Lions of Longleat, we also heard them, roaring at night. They are noisy sods, but possibly sound much louder when there only a wire fence and a sheet of canvas between you and them.
Oh yeah. The roar of a lion reaches back through history to tweak the hairs on the back of your neck in a way that things much more dangerous to us now - the roar of traffic, for instance - don't. Something in our genes remembers tasting good to lions.
snarl
Leopard
decorated
People talk about leopards changing their spots, but they'd be hard pressed since they don't have any. Cheetahs have spots: leopards have rosettes.
Hero
Not all heroes are decorated, but many of decorated folks have earned that medal.
coward
Noel
https://youtu.be/BifLPGi4X6A
Christmas
(Sorry, sorry! - the C-word, and it's only October!)
Tinsel
My eldest was visiting the other day and truly pissed off.
"I really like Christmas, but can't the bloody supermarkets and pound shops at least wait until Halloween is decently out of the way before bombarding us with Christmas stuff."
Apparently she was looking for orange and black tinsel, which she's always been able to find in previous years.
I'll have to teach her to shove the Halloween stuff in a box, in the loft, and drag it back out every year.
wreath
funeral
service
waiter
wine
communion
wafer
thin
ectomorph
alien
foreign
body
cadaver
morgue
pathologist
coroner
post-mortem
autopsy
final
Post mortem or autopsy, they're both the final examination, with no chance to revise or re-sit.
terminal
computer
adder
mathematician
physicist
Boffin
philosopher
The term scientist is comparatively recent. Before that, such people described themselves as natural philosophers.
questioning
asking
enquiring
seeking
enlightenment
yogi
bear
(Yogi Bear - Smarter than your average bear.)
grizzly
dangerous
peril
hazard
guess
improvise
wing (it)
aerofoil
sail
The only real difference between a wing and a sail is that one is horizontal and the other vertical.
canvas
tent
camping
stove
I only ever use my camping stove in power-cuts! With a hot drink inside you and a hot water bottle at your feet, you can cope with most things.
Aga
Always good to have back-ups, Jo. I've even got a Hexy-Block camping stove for if all else fails. Hate the smell of the damned thing, but it's there in the shed.
title
(Which is what Aga is: a Turkish military or administrative title.)
rank
Like the Aga Khan
sour
lemon
citrus
fruit
squash
flatten
iron
monger
fish
aquarium
tank
chieftain
rank
As many young soldiers said to their more venerable companions, "Is it true, Sarge, that when you joined the army Chieftain was a rank and not a tank?
Army humour is a strange beast, and lines like that will probably still be trotted out with ponderous relish even if there comes a time when there are no more tanks.
frank
brash
flashy
git
Not all gits are flashy, but many earn this word as a prefix ;-) Some even deserve it.
useless
surplus
over
there
nearby
adjacent
A?
beside
alongside
close
intimate
special
unique
one-off
prototype
design
plan
map
cartographer
legend - the inset on a map where the symbols are explained
Myth
lie
down
fell
(They have downs in the soft south. Oop north we have fells.)
tumbled
acrobatic
gymnastic
flexible
agile
nippy
=====
I can't remember the last time I heard 'nippy' used in conversation or print, but it was a common description when I was younger.
Also used to describe cars or motorbikes which had been 'tweaked' by their owner to be a bit more lively than their otherwise standard appearance suggested.
===
frigid
chilly
sub-zero
minus
plus
extra
moreover
additionally
furthermore
addendum
postscript
afterthought
codicil
legal
court
judge
measure
inch
slowly
As in inching forward.
rapid
fall
tumble
acrobat
supple
flexible
morals
Read a line in a book years ago which has stuck...
"Your moral compass is so warped you couldn't even find the carpark outside this building."
Apart from also bugging me a bit, since moral compasses aren't any good for finding geographical locations, I was amused.
extinct
Based on recent election results, I suspect morals ain't what they used to be.
Suspect? The case is proven beyond all reasonable doubt.
dinosaur
Lizard
reptile
There's still a presidential link, isn't there/
Slithering
Oh yeah.
oily
slimy
Miasmic
foggy
dew
Where would folk songs be without the 'foggy foggy dew' to blame for all kinds of non-metrological activities?
Quote: "...so I pulled her into bed and I covered up her head, just to keep her from the foggy foggy dew."
pond
skater
ice
breaker
circuit
bump
(novice pilots are sent off to practice "circuits & bumps" - take offs and landings)
jostle
harass
disturb
wake
funeral
Q: What's the difference between an Irish Wedding, and an Irish Funeral?
A: One less drunk.
interment
hole
=====
There was a young farmer called Hyde,
who fell in a muck-heap and died.
The next day his brother fell into another,
and now they're interred side by side.
===
;)
aperture
opening
closing
shut
locked
secure
inviolate
un-besmirched ;-)
It could be years before I ever use this word again.
So I should hope.
pristine
fresh
airy
breezy
gale
force
impel
drive
motor
sport
mutation
deviation
compass
bearing
demeanour
comportment
grace
lurcher
Well, my lurcher was called Grace.
staggered
dumbfounded
gobsmacked
I don't like this word, but it is wonderfully descriptive of that certain look.
feather - the one you can be knocked down with
Goose
Spruce
Howard Hughes's "Spruce Goose" was the largest flying boat ever to take to the air, and after nearly 80 years it's still one of the largest aircraft. It only made one flight, and spent most of it trying to kill its pilot.
timber
I remember seeing an interview with Hughes, before he became a total recluse. He swore that if he couldn't get that monstrosity to fly he would leave America.
So he had to make it fly, despite its psychopathic tendencies.
forest
covert
undercover
stealthy
prowl
leopard
cheetah
prosper
Something that cheetahs never do. After all, have you ever heard of a cheetah having any money to invest in stocks and shares?
Not one of them has a spotless reputation.
improve
burnish
gleam
shine
moon
light
weighty
ponderous
consequential
results
outcome
decision
making
factory
chimney
Many of them don't have a towering brick chimney now. How do people find their way to work without the landmarks?
Sat-nav. Admittedly, it isn't always their own work they find their way to...
sweep
brush
I remember the Sat-Nav in a hired car having a fit as my Son-in-Law was zig-zagging around a car park at a transport cafe. "You need to turn around."
comb
hair
toggle
binary
system
There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who understand binary numbers and those who don't ;-)
A mathematician's joke! Relish it - there aren't that many.
digestive
biscuit
gravy
Over here the two go together.
train
Quote from: Laura on November 27, 2024, 12:18:10 PMgravy
Over here the two go together.
Yes, but you don't have to admit it publicly. Consenting adults in private, and all that...
engine
house
Those gaunt and empty stone buildings, part of the historic allure of Cornwall, stood at the top of mineshafts and were the engine house, holding the machinery which powered the lifting gear.
residence
abode
(Be it never so humble, this is my abode.)
castle
(Screw humble!)
draughty
(Which I believe most castles were notorious for.)
breezy
uninhibited
candid
photograpy
What i really wanted to post was this, so I have.
Long before all the social media 'pranks' there was a black and white TV programme called Candid Camera. I remember telling Mum I'd like to pour sugar over the photographer.
"Why?"
"Then I'd say 'film that, candied camera'."
My word wrangling started early ;-)
image
represent
=====
An old lady was looking at a rather bizarre sculpture in at art gallery. The artist was hovering in attendance.
"Young man, what is this supposed to be?."
"It represents a mother and child, Madame."
"Then why doesn't it look like them?"
Old ladies, possibly one of the last bastions of common sense.
===
impressionism
bizarre
peculiar
odd
irregular
offbeat
idiosyncratic
eccentric
unbalanced
deranged
insane
mad
lunatic
mooncalf
idiot
president
So Biden's last official act was to achieve the impossible: making Donald Trump look OK.
clown (Both of them.)
Punch
Judy
crocodile
Alligator
caiman
handbag ;-)
purse
net
stocking
up
swan
Another of those curious English traditions is Swan Upping, when those birds resident on the River Thames are caught up and marked on behalf of their nominal owners, the Crown or the Worshipful Companies of Vintners and Dyers in London. Why? - because they always have.
lake
'Some birds, it is said, sing before they die. T'were
better if some people died before they sang.'
fish
angle
obtuse
deflection
avoidance
sidestep
waltz
stately
home
comforts
empathises
feels
gropes
blindly
cataract
waterfall
scenic
colourful
polychromatic
faded
beige
mundane
ordinary
common
allotments
designations
labels
nomenclature
index
finger
digit
upright
Every day, when General Custer rode past the Indian trading post, one of the old Indians sat outside would give him a very definite middle finger. He would then repeat the gesture, but horizontally. This second puzzled Custer, who eventually spoke to his sergeant about it.
"I know he doesn't think much of me, but what does the second gesture mean?"
"Sir, it means he's not too impressed by your horse either."
vertical
descent
fall
tumble
dry
arid
Sahara
desert
=====
An Irishman looking for a job as a tree feller is being interviewed about his previous experience.
"I did 6 months in the Sahara Forest."
"Don't you mean the Sahara Desert?
"Well", says Paddy. "That's what they call it now."
===
Paddy and his mate Feargal were walking along the road, axes over their shoulders, when they saw a sign saying "Tree Fellers Wanted - Top Wages". "It's a damn shame," said Paddy, "that there's only the two of us."
Gobi
wet
rain
sleet
hail
Caesar ;-)
thug
ruffian
oaf
boor
lout
muscle
bicep
lifting
raised
welt
shoe
clog
dance
Clog dancing - it's a northern thing
floor
Clog dancing is the civilised and stylised version of 'giving someone a good clogging'.
I remember Dad occasionally saying that some local troublemaker 'would benefit from a good clogging'
parquet
stylish (usually)
fashionable
transient
momentary
glimpse
observe
watch
minute
small
titchy
minuscule
I've always liked this word since I first discovered it. One of those which sounds like its meaning
dwarf
bonsai
pruned
cropped
harvested
mowed
meadow
At infants school we used to sing that damned song, and I honestly believed Mowameadow was a place, a town or a village, and I only listened to the damn words to find out why the three men went there.
I always felt the real story would begin once they got there. Like some novels I've read since I felt there was too much pre-amble and not enough action ;-)
grass
cutting
remark
comment
retort
flask
brandy
randy
Folk wisdom has it that 'Brandy makes you randy'. maybe for some. But too much just made me melancholy, and then quietly dangerous. So despite liking the taste of the stuff, back when, I never drank much of it.
Brandy makes you randy, whiskey makes you frisky, gin makes you thin, and champagne makes you real mean.
When one of the first tunnels under the Thames at London was being dug, the constructors hosted a posh dinner-party at the bottom of the river. They were a bit disappointed, though, by the way the champagne all went flat. Didn't stop their guests drinking it, though. And when they surfaced some hours later, all the bubbles rapidly reformed - "Memorably enlivening the digestive processes," as Bill Bryson reports.
enthusiastic
keen
Fascinating about the champagne, Jo A bit like a diver's 'bends' I guess.
Speaking of which, we once saw a Navy helicopter streaking across Bodmin moor on its way to Plymouth. Nose down, tail up, going like the clappers, and remarkably low. They may have been using terrain following radar, because the flight line just rippled slightly upwards as it passed over the solid granite 'hedges. which are about six feet high.
Later, on the news, we discovered they were taking a diver to a decompression chamber at Plymouth. He'd got in trouble and had to skip all his usual decompression stages on the way up. Every foot counts at times like that, when the nitrogen's bubbling in your blood and trying to kill you.
Our bodies were designed for surface dwelling.
sharp
wits
=====
When a king was enduring a spot of enforced celibacy due to the queen's illness he resorted to sodomising his jester.
You could say he was at his wits end.
===
half
pint
litre
foreign
alien
undesirable
Being recognised officially as an 'undesirable alien' is quite an achievement these days, and is usually rewarded with free deportation.
grim
visage
facade
skin
taxidermy
stuffed
overfed
indigestion
painful
discomfort
annoyance
Television
wasted
Was there ever such a wasted opportunity as television? It can bring the world in all its wonderful variety into everyone's living room, and what do they use it for? Game shows and cookery programs!
opportunity
What always struck me about TV is it's a visual medium. yet most of it is people sat around talking. Radio can do that.
Yes, and no. I've been told that eighty percent of what we learn in conversation comes from body language - which TV does and radio doesn't. I still think cooking is the daftest thing to put on TV. Food is about two things: taste, and smell. There are two things TV doesn't do at all: taste, and smell...
knocks
hard
(As in 'the school of hard knocks'.
soft
gentle
kind
soothing
emollient
cream
beige
chartreuse
green
innocent
guilty
plea
submission
Yield
harvest
Moon
crater
bomb
atomic
nuclear
family
kin
relative
similar
comparable
different
other
side
flank
outmanoeuvre
defeat
win
succeed
triumph
arch
at least the Romans used arches to brag about their triumphs
I wanted motorcycle, but I couldn't. I looked up models and they are all Tigers, so I couldn't
Who made up these rules?? Oh hell, me.
bishop
All modern Triumphs start with a 'T', bit there used to be a Bonneville. Set some ancient record on your salt flats way, way back.
teeth
The connection, admittedly not terribly obvious, is that shady horse-dealers used to sell their wares as younger than they actually were by filing their teeth back a bit. This was called bishoping. Wouldn't fool an expert, but took in many an unwary buyer. Which can, of course, also be said of bishops.
dentures
wobbly
unsteady
intoxicated
drunk
imbibed
quaff
messy
The main difference between drinking and quaffing is that more of the latter hits the floor.
untidy
A teetotal Viking Re-enactor - quite a rare beast but not entirely unknown - can quaff so messily and enthusiastically that not a single drop of ale passes down his throat. It's a skilled performance ;-)
random
unordered
index
finger
digit
Al ;-)
obscure
Jude (the obscure)
unknown
mysterious
quaint
historical
old-fashioned
passe
outmoded
redundant
inactive
dormant
hibernating
slumbering
anesthesia
operation
boardgame
Scrabble
wordplay
Boggle
stare
blink
tears
flowing
river
Avon
As some locals said during flooding. "Splish, Splosh! Avon calling."
Severn
Suicide
Don't know the numbers but every tall bridge attracts its share of poor sods who've had enough of this world.
homicide
for those uninterested in a do it yourself job
Quote from: Gyppo on January 28, 2025, 03:34:33 PMDon't know the numbers but every tall bridge attracts its share of poor sods who've had enough of this world.
Should be provided as a public service. Head-butting a train makes such a mess.
killing
spree
holiday
celebrate
happiness
jollity
enjoyment
laughter
mirth
glee
Am I alone in thinking this is an ugly sounding word, especially for a happy emotion.
My senior school had a 'Glee Club', which was always desperate to recruit new members. "If we can't get any new members we'll have to fold."
Most of the members were compulsive joiners, like boy scouts and girl guides. The kind who grew up thinking that working at Butlins would give them job satisfaction.
"Velcome to Butlitz Camp, vere you vill be happy as soon as ve vake you, and vill stay happy until ve let go to sleep."
musical
theatre
Drama
crisis
management
Our delivery office office had a designated 'crisis manager'. Interestingly enpough it wasn't one of our ordinary managers, but the shop steward, the union rep. A very calm and level-headed guy.
boss
metal
The raised metal bit in the middle of a round wooden shield is known as the shield boss. Usually quite plain, but sometimes fancy.
In fantasy re-enactment shields it sometimes also has a protruding spike, which looks dramatic, but would be a liability in a real fight. A solid metal boss lets you deliver a hefty blow, but a spike could get caught in your opponent's body or armour leaving you defenceless for a while.
steel
cold
influenza
jab
needle
irritate
bother
annoy
torment
agony
severe
authoritarian
fascist
political
messy
unkempt
ragged
shaggy
tales
recitations
poetry
weird
(Not all poets are weird, but compared to the average run of prose writers the odds favour a certain strangeness at least. And 'performance poets', are like the 'break dancers' of the literary world.)
sister
Not all sisters are weird, but...
Beverley
There have been other famous singing sisters, but these were the first who sprang to mind. Often heard on the old valve radio in our caravan when I was a kid.
Minster
Beverley Minster in Yorkshire is one of the largest parish churches in the UK. Bigger than many cathedrals, it's considered a Gothic masterpiece.
York
stone
adultery
misbehave
felonious
criminal
thief
stolen
pinched
squeezed
pimple
spot
(I don't like the modern word, Zit. It jars
dog
I don't know how or why that became a name for a dog. But, Gyppo, you might.
kennel
The dog Spot in the books had just the one spot. Whether the books were based on a real-life dog, or just a writer's whim I have no idea.
cough
syrup
maple
Tree
Mine is a Fire Maple. Some years it is less fiery than others, but always pretty. But it does like to fill my gutters with leaves ;-(.
saddle
The tree is the skeleton that the saddle is built around, traditionally wood though steel and fibreglass are also used. The tree has to be the right width for the horse and the right length for the rider.
maker
coffee
now we knew that, didn't we?
beverage
drink
re-hydrate
parch
dry
washing
machine
device
heraldry
(A banner with a strange device.)
flags
waving
drowning
swimmer
although apparently not a good one
dolphin
porpoise
mammal
reptile
amphibian
frog
I wanted axolotl, but it's got an A in it.
march
=====
Many years ago in the mid to late 60s my uncle was at Leeds University, and bought home copies of their 'Rag Mag', one of which contained a rhyme which I cannot recall in full.
It was to do with Aristotle and his pet.
I've heard it said that Aristotle
kept a pet, an axolotil
in a kennel, made of wattle...
(Then it did something which enraged him, but that's the bit which didn't stick in my memory, and goes on to say...)
Poor demented Aristotle
did an epiglottal throttle...
(Eight lines, I believe, and they all rhymed. A fine example of 'form poetry' at both its best and worst.
===
You'd have thought Aristotle would have been more philosophical about it!
wind
tornado
fighter
jet
water
Some boats are driven by a water jet, which is basically an impeller in a tube, rather than a propeller.
Those with 'side thrusters' for extra manoeuvrability use this system. I was on a 'trip boat' on a Scottish canal several years back and with side thrusters at front and back it could spin around in its own length. Both fascinating and noisy. Quite dizzying when dome between two tall banks.
ocean
gulf
sound
wave
gesture
motion
activity
Exercise
marathon
event
occasion
historic
archaeology
dusty
dry
Canada
(Because of the old advert, which used to be seen as a challenge to North American alcoholics. 'Drink Canada Dry.')
goose
fletchings
Back when the English Longbow swept the battlefields clean, the arrow's fletchings were usually made from goose feather.
brace - the leather guard worn on the bow arm to protect the inside from painful slaps from the released string.
fistmele
The distance between a taut but undrawn bow string and the back of the bow, measured at the handgrip. With a traditional longbow this is generally about the width of an open palm and a projecting thumb. If you have small hands you may want to add a bit more to the gap.
If you get this right the string shouldn't hit the brace at all. But it's a brave archer who doesn't wear a brace. Just in case ;-)
Yeah, I read that somewhere too. Tried it. Once.
anchor - that point, often the archer's nose or chin, to which he draws the string. Without a reliable anchor, it doesn't matter where you point the arrow, it can go anywhere.
ship
barque
Antigua
A relatively young tall ship, built in 1957, and modified since. Looks lovely.
https://www.tallship-company.com/en/barquentine-antigua
Doesn't she though?
For the benefit of non-boaties, a ship is square rigged on all three (or more) masts, a barque is square-rigged on two and fore-and-aft rigged on the mizzen (at the back), and a barquentine is square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-after on the main and mizzen.
Leeward (the Caribbean islands where you'll find Antigua & Barbuda)
windward - the other way
direction
west
bound
tied
cottage
In many rural occupations the accommodation was tied to the employment. If you lost your job you also lost your home.
roses
It's not a real cottage unless it has roses round the door.
thorns
starfish
common (allegedly)
According to the wildlife trust these are 'particularly common in British waters and can be readily found in rockpools, or stranded on beaches'. I've never found one in my life. Gran had one - dead - on a shelf in her parlour. She was great one for curios.
Wimbledon
tennis
balls
Monkey
(The other day it was so cold I saw a brass monkey crying his eyes out.)
One of my boatie sources insists that a brass monkey was a tray for bringing munitions up from the magazine to the guns on deck. If it was really cold the (cannon) balls would freeze to it.
primate
zoo
Orangutan
Jo, re brass monkeys.
Jo, My sources tell me that the brass monkey was, as you say, a tray or grid, with indentations, but its purpose was to allow cannon balls to be stacked on each other in a four, three, two, one pyramid, for 'ready use' without rolling all over the place.
Brass, of course, didn't rust like iron. But allegedly if it was cold enough the difference in the expansion rate of the two metals was enough to let the cannonballs pop loose from the base and then roll about causing great havoc.
This may be true, or it may be one of those theoretical things which could happen, but would need the sea to be frozen solid and the cannonballs to be red-hot. Having frozen phosphor-bronze bearings and heated up aluminium crankcases to get the two to fit together with a 'interference fit' I can believe this might happen.
If I remember correctly from a long ago visit to HMS Victory they had their cannon balls rolled along a wooden trough to the firing point. Coldly efficient, like a production line of death, which enabled the English gunners to get off 3 - 5 shots for every one fired by the enemy. The Royal Navy likes to use every advantage possible. Naval warfare was not a sporting competition.)
The Victory was a well-honed killing machine.
bonobo
Thanks for the info, Gyppo.
chimp
thug
A primatologist once said that the best way to understand chimpanzee society was to watch black-and-white gangster films from the 1950s.
violent
Thugee is not, as the name might suggest, a victim of thuggery. It was an Indian robber-sect, who saw it as their duty to sacrifice people to Kali. As a reward for these sacrifices they were allowed to keep the victims goods. Pragmatism at its most blunt.
Thugs weren't supposed to draw blood, so the official method of killing was strangling with a yellow silken cord. I assume this had some ritual esoteric significance.
Rich merchants travelling on lonely roads were, inevitably, a favourite target. On the other had lone and poor travellers were an easy target and were often killed for little more than the clothes they were wearing.
In the time of the British Raj the roads became so unsafe that the army took on the project of stamping out the Thugs. Dark skinned and suitably murderous volunteers were sent out, with concealed weapons, to act as bait and effectively licensed to kill.
One cam imagine that to those who enjoyed what Kipling referred to as 'The Great Game' these were glorious adrenaline filled days.
If memory serves correctly, without burrowing in the book crates, the officer with overall command of this policy was called Sleeman, a Colonel I think, known by the nickname of thugee Sleeman. Within a year or two the roads were much safer.
Gyppo
physical
bodily
corpse
stiff
petrified
stone
adultery
marriage
union
trade
craft
boat
builder
construction
building
house
brick
pig
as in the Three Little Pigs and the strong house still standing
Tamworth
Escape
A very British story ;-)
Tamworth Two Pigs
The Tamworth Two were a pair of pigs that escaped from an abattoir in Malmesbury, Wiltshire in January 1998 and remained at large for a week, causing a huge media sensation both in Britain and abroad.
Butch: A sow who was five months old when she escaped and was later rescued.
Sundance: A boar and brother to Butch, who was also five months old when they escaped.
The pigs were eventually recaptured and given a new life on a farm in Kent, where they lived until Butch's death in 2010.
sheet
It is traditional (unless you're a pig) to escape confinement by knotting sheets together to make a rope. On mature consideration, this does not seem terribly practical. How many sheets does the average prisoner (not a pig) get? How good a knot can you produce in something so basically unsuitable? How do you get through the (also traditional) bars at the window? And even if you manage to circumvent all these difficulties, how long would it take even an inattentive guard to notice flapping white sheets hanging down his prison wall?
linen
flax
seeds
plants
flowers
pretty
(Generally speaking, although there are noticeable exceptions.)
beautiful
with so many beautiful babies and toddlers, it is amazing to see how many not quite beautiful adults there are
Babies are beautiful primarily in the eyes of their besotted relatives. As we grow older, so we have fewer relatives, and the ones that remain are generally less besotted. Fortunately, our dogs go on thinking we're beautiful, whatever the preponderance of the evidence against.
plain
Salisbury
Other plains are available, but Salisbury Plain has personal signifcance.
cathedral
Coventry
blitz
firestorm
napalm
Weapon
missile
rocket
booster
module
habitation
dwelling
residence
occupation
job
employment
use
general
dollar
There is a chain of stores over here called Dollar General selling crappy stuff for even dollar amounts. It is way overpriced, considering the paucity of quality contained within the junk they have lining their shelves.
pound
hammer
sledge
toboggan
(Try this tongue-twister:
To begin to toboggan, first buy a toboggan -
but don't buy too big a toboggan.
Too big a toboggan is not the toboggan to buy to begin to toboggan.)
Cresta (The Toboggan run.)
I got tangled in the first four words for several attempts. The rest of it was relatively easy.
I'll print it off for Alma to try ;-)
icy
glacial
slow
lizard
As everyone (?) knows, a slow worm is not a worm at all, or even a snake, but a legless lizard.
sand
beach
oceanside
vista
prospect
miner
lamp
firedamp
gas
petrol
fuel
carbohydrates
protein
shake
=====
Someone the other day tried to convince me that a 'quick protein shake' was a viable alternative to a decent steak. But his main argument seemed to be centred around convenience. Not a compelling argument ;-)
rattle
as in shake, rattle, and roll
snake
spake
Archaic biblical for spoke. Still useful to to writers create a particular mood when describing magisterial utterances from a somewhat hide-bound character ;-)
Undoubtedly, Gyppo, but not in this thread...
vouchsafed
gracious
elegant
superior
autocratic
despot
autocracy
Single
one
digit
pinkie
Dinky
toy
Boat
Ferry
seaside
pebbles
rock
music
(Debatable in some cases, but the same can be said about all genres of music.)
folk
(than which there's nowt so queer...)
beliefs
creed
rules
code
Binary
system
Down
spiral
Fibonacci
sequence
geometry
cones
icecream
Treat
dog
Actually, I'm not a big believer in treats for dogs. I think praise is more effective, cheaper, and doesn't leave crumbs in all your pockets.
walker
hike
Walk
stroll
perambulate
(Now there's a word you don't often encounter these days.)
stride
march
Spring
helix
double
(As in the DNA double helix.)
paired
shotguns
Anyone with enough money can own two shotguns, but a truly matched pair is something special.
wedding
Anyone can have a wedding, but a truly matched pair is something special...
ring
telephone
smart
I'm not really sure how smart my phone. It sure acts stupid a lot of the time.
My phone is dumb by design. The last thing I need is tech that's smarter than me.
clever
clogs
I've never understood how the term 'clever clogs' came into use. Who on earth ever associated intelligence - even if limited - with wooden shoes for the first time?
Someone to whom alliteration seemed the height of wit.
dancing
It would take Lancastrians to make clog-dancing a cultural icon.
bear
A dancing bear was one of the staples of medieval entertainment.
panda
endangered
tigers
Bengal
Matches
Bengal matches were hand held fireworks, usually bright green or red flames. Just oversized matches with very large heads. Once burning they could be thrown the length of the garden without blowing out, and Dad said they reminded him of 'tracer' rounds from machine guns.
weddings
Awkward
cack-handed
fumbled
arthritic
frustrating
I now have two fingers on my right hand which don't always want to straighten out smoothly until they've 'warmed up' a bit after the overnight inaction.
Second knuckle on the ring finger sometimes locks into a curled position. And then the finger flies out straight with a clunk. Tends to lock up if I'm doing a lot of cutting with a knife, or spending too long with the potato peeler.
Trigger finger is going the same way, but at least the pull is still smooth. But rapid repeat shots make it 'flick' straight on the repeat and mess up the rhythm.
In one of Jack Higgin's book the old IRA gunman, Liam Devlin, reluctantly says 'the old trigger finger's not what it used to be'. It was a line which never convinced me, but now...
problematic
nuisance
rules
governance
control
bridle
tack
wear
(You tack a sailing ship by bringing its bow through the wind; you wear it, or in a fore-and-aft rig gybe it, by bringing the wind round the rear of the boat.)
clothing
apparel
dress
formal
If I'm ever invited to an event which specifies formal dress I'll have to hire something to wear. I can just about stretch to smart casual, or 'eccentric creative', but formal and I parted ways a long time ago.
But I have many smiling memories of attending a Rotary Club dinner wearing my medieval 'feasting' clothes, (because as well as being fed we were performing/entertaining between courses. Surrounded by formally dressed businessmen.
Gyppo
tuxedo
penguin
Antarctica
dry
Bizarrely enough, there are parts of Antarctica where it has never snowed. The McMurdo Dry Valleys is one. Any snow which had ever fallen would still be there, and mostly there isn't any.
tumble
gymnastics
Beam
sun
rise
hill
walker
cane
raspberry
jam
traffic
noise
volume
control
management
Staff
walking-stick
dressing
Stick Dressing - Carving and decorating a stick is an art for those who are good at it, and a sad waste of good timber for those who aren't thus talented ;-)
Whittling
knife
Blade
skate
roller
pigeon
(Must be a particularly funky one to have got that name.)
Decoy
Jo: I wondered about the roller pigeon too.
'Roller Pigeon Name
Roller pigeons are called so because they have been selectively bred for their ability to tumble or roll in the air. This behavior is characterized by backward somersaults during flight, which can appear as rapid and continuous as a spinning ball of feathers falling toward the ground.
The most extreme example of this behavior is seen in the Parlor Roller, a breed that cannot fly at all and instead performs somersaults on the ground when attempting to fly.
This unique trait has made roller pigeons a subject of interest in both competitive and hobbyist circles, where their rolling abilities are showcased and judged.'
Weird!
It's not weird, it's pathetic. Once again people have bred defective animals for their own entertainment. They do it with dogs, they even do it with horses - miniature ponies too frail ever to be ridden, whose only future is as a lawn ornament. How come they're so keen on their own children being healthy?
ambush
Neutralize
cull
herd
flock
shepherd
Guide
Scout
reconnoitre
spy
intelligence
useful
(We'd be screwed without it.)
handy
convenient
location
site
building
construct
temporary
fleeting
momentary
instantaneous
pronto
quickly
sudden
twitch
birder
flamingo
pink
singer (Allegedly)
My Grandaughter assures me I probably wouldn't like the celebrity creature called Pink, 'because she says F*** a lot.'
alto
saxophone
didgeridoo
wooden
Although there's probably some modern synthetic ones lout there as well now.
Mum came out with a joke about some aborigine lass braining an over familiar male with her didgeridoo, which she later described as her didgeridon't.
timber
wolf
pack
rucksack
luggage
suitcase
Box
Trunk
body
corpse
freeze
icicle
sparkle
Glitter
diamond
brooch
fastening
zip
button
press-stud
closure
finality
over
cricket
Six deliveries of the ball are called an over; presumably because it seems enough to most people.
green
I have only ever seen a proper cricket twice, as opposed to ordinary grasshoppers, and each time they were big green insects about two inches long.
Yellow
needed (with blue) to make green
river
dance
ballet
slippers
feet
I think I own some slippers. I expect they're in my grab-bag in case of unexpected visits to hospital. I can't imagine using them at home. What do your feet need protecting from in a centrally-heated house with carpets and/or tiles on the floor, in the brief interval between getting out of your daytime clothes and into your bed?
Nails
Hammer
farrier
Horseshoe
bend
curve
arc
(de) Triomphe
Napoleon
complex
syndrome
malady
illness
disease
Carrier
host
party
gathering
Strike
blow
Squander
waste
garbage
Gibberish
nonsense
folly
summerhouse
cabin
hut
abode
neighborhood
area
location
maps
charts
graphs
lines
ranks
orders
instructions
expectations
People give instructions expecting them to be followed. It ain't necessarily so ;-)
requirements
obligations
duties
job
work
labour
party
games
board
plywood
glue
adhesive
paste
cut
sever
amputate
surgery
anesthesiology
medicine
poorly
shoddy
rough
aggressive
hostile
unwelcoming
An elderly friend who was part of the Normandy landings used to joke about the French Postal System being woefully disorganised.
"I wanted to send Peggy a postcard, but there were no postboxes on the beach."
"What you have written on it, Reg?"
"Arrived safely. But the other tourists appear somewhat hostile."
===
hostile
pugnacious
boxer
pugilist
fighter
martial
warrior
Spartan
Greek
tragedy
masks
veils
nuns
sisters
brothers
priests
clergy
prayers
begging
alms
donation
gifts
ability
viable
practical
useful
handy
capable
fit
rampage
wild
destructive
mayhem
disorder
chaos
melee
riotous
assembly
construction
Some assembly required ;-)
building
house
dwelling
residence
home
lair
Family and close friends sometimes refer to my home as Gyppo's Lair. Always said with a smile and a gentle shake of the head.
den
thieves
rookery
dove
Peaceful
Allegedly - though having seen a pair of doves drive off a marauding magpie after their eggs I suspect that, like many presumed pacifists, they have a dark side when it's needed.
serene
unruffled
smooth
even
level
smooth
iron - the kind you dash away with
steel
girders
beams
trusses
hernia
bulge
windgall - a swelling on a horse's fetlock caused by a strain
protrusion
lump
hammer
=====
A 'lump hammer' has a hefty head and short handle. Usually between 4 and seven pounds in weight. Often used with a cold chisel to break concrete, or hurled across the workshop when shafts seize in bearings and won't respond to a series of gentle taps.
A few gentle taps with this hefty tool will often work where a mighty swing from a lighter hammer will just bounce back.
If you really need to 'jar' a couple of parts to free them a hammer with a head cast from lead can be quite miraculous, as it gives a solid thump without doing any damage as would a harder tool.
A lot of money is saved by learning to dismantle without breaking ;-)
===
tongs
Chinese
yen
Japanese
lacquer
finish
terminate
finality
cancelled
removed
subtracted
outage
power
grid
mesh
net
catch
snag
hinderance
obstruction
impediment
There's an I in obstruction.
marriage
The banns of which read: "If any of you know cause or just impediment why these two persons should not be joined in Holy Matrimony, ye are to declare it." (Book of Common Prayer 1662)
trap
(Joined in a state of Holy Deadlock.)
gig
inshore
The Cornish 'pilot gigs', which are used for racing now rather than carrying a pilot out to navigate a larger vessel though the ever-changing shoals and sandbars, are sturdy inshore craft.
They can really shift with a crew of four on the oars.
breakers
vehicle
There was a motorcycle 'breaker' whose advert in the magazines read proudly, "I am not a ham-fisted breaker. I am a skilled dismantler of motorcycles, so any second-hand parts you buy from me are likely to be both serviceable and correct."
sidecar
Watsonian
Other makes are available, but start with unsuitable letters.
Holmes
investigator
detective
private
secret
hidden
occult
esoteric
peculiar
weird
strange
off-beat
syncopated
rhythm
blues
depression
hollow
echoing
quack
There is a persistent myth that duck quacks don't echo. A serious scientific study went to the trouble of proving this to be mistaken. Isn't the world a better place for knowing that!
swansong
finale
("Swans sing before they die. 'Twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing.")
conclusion
result
consequence
fall-out
radiation
heat
warmth
fire
ash
dust
vacuum
(They always went together in my house. Particularly in the sentence, "I rarely dust or vacuum.")
space
frontier
the final one, even
pioneer
settler
antacid
pill
tablet
computer
algorithm
bullshit
(I've come to believe that the word algorithm was coined merely to hide, obfuscate, and even attempt to excuse all the nasty and mean-spirited things computers do to people.)
(I think it's just nerd-speke for program, Gyppo.)
fertiliser
compost
(So it's the programmers who are evil, not the computers? You mean the innate malignity of things is just a figment of my imagination?)
ericaceous
(It never was your imagination. There is an accepted doctrine called The Malignancy of Inanimate Objects.)
blueberries
fruit
Quote from: Jo Bannister on June 16, 2025, 06:56:00 AM(It never was your imagination. There is an accepted doctrine called The Malignancy of Inanimate Objects.)
Really?
Pie
bald
Certainly. I thought it was just me that things had it in for, until I found out it was everybody else as well.
smooth
rough
bumpy
irregular
movements
dances
balls
tennis
court
judgement
arbitration
settlement
village
hamlet
prince ;-)
king
Lear
Cordelia
playwright
(Surely only a playwright would name some poor child Cordelia. Have you ever met a real-life Cordelia? I haven't.
That's cos they all either change their name to Mary when they turn 18, or if they can't wait, commit suicide as soon as they're allowed to handle sharp knives.
Marlowe
scrivener
writer
Quote from: Jo Bannister on June 20, 2025, 08:08:20 AMThat's cos they all either change their name to Mary when they turn 18, or if they can't wait, commit suicide as soon as they're allowed to handle sharp knives.
I'm suddenly struck with the image of ghostly hands reaching up through the soil to headstones trying to erase Cordelia
penmanship
copperplate
flowing
river
stream
beck
summons
court
magistrate
judge
assess
rate
mark
scratch
furrow
plough
farmers
toil
effort
attempting
bid
offer
tender
=====
Dad used to talk about 'putting in a tender' to get a contract.
To a little boy who only knew abut the coal- carrying 'tenders' of stream trains, 'machine tenders' who attended to factory machinery, or 'tender feelings' towards another person this one was a bit of a puzzler.
I also learned that the lowest tender' didn't automatically get the job, and that a higher price from a reliable man with a proven track record would often win out against 'total bloody cowboys'.
Dad never cut costs to the bone just to get work, and also explained the benefits of allowing a bit extra - both money and time - for 'unexpected contingencies'.
Gyppo
associate
You missed one, Gyppo - the little boat which serves the bigger boat as a run-around is also a tender.
partner
Quote from: Jo Bannister on June 28, 2025, 07:56:17 AMYou missed one, Gyppo - the little boat which serves the bigger boat as a run-around is also a tender.
My father spent three years on a destroyer tender during WWII. Boy, he had some stories. Mostly ones that made me never want to live on a destroyer tender.
couple
Most other people's lives make me shudder, Laura. I was incredibly lucky to get mine, which only makes me laugh.
twosome
pair
scissors
cut
sever
amputate
gone
vanished
transparent
glass
tankard
pewter
alloy
blend
combination
lock
hair
tresses
plait
braid
weave
loom
threaten
imperil
jeopardize
uncertainty
doubt
misgivings
trepidation
concern
worry
sheep
goats
milk
cream
horns
(A puff pastry horn filled with cream.mde by wrapping a spiral of puff around a cone shaped mandrel which is removed after baking. A bit fiddly to make, but you get quite fast if you make them regularly. There's probably a machine that can do it now.)
antlers
headpiece
brain
processor
computer
which used to what we called people doing math problems
The downside of a living language is that it makes you feel old before your time!
binary
simple
(There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who understand binary numbers and those who don't.)
Like that, Gyppo!
natural
order
Speaking of 'binary', my Grandaughter was playing around demonstrating the different kinds of press ups.
"This is the girly one, with your knees on the ground.
"This is the traditional man's one, with your weight on your toes and legs straight.
"And this," with one leg extended and one resting on the knee, "is a non-binary press up."
Then she started showing off. "And this..." alternating the straight and bent legs, "Is for those who haven't decided yet."
She finished off with a grin and a few one-handed press ups. "But once you can do these it really doesn't matter what you are."
===
instruction
directions
map
navigation
steering
helm
rudder
tiller
ploughman (He tills the land.)
furrow
brow
forehead
My older sister (who did NOT turn out to be a nurse) had a fronthead and an armbow. She taught math.
wrinkled
prune
fruit
basket
woven
tweed
jacket
(I believe it or not, possess one Harris Tweed jacket. From way back when I used have monogrammed handkerchiefs and cufflinks.)
(You old lady-killer, you!)
potato
spud
(I look back at that younger me with a certain degree of faint bewilderment.)
mashed
flattened
steam-roller
construction
building
edifice
structure
fabrication
manufacture
product
goods
cargo
shipment
carrier
holder
possession
legal
sanctioned
prohibited
unallowed
censured
muzzled
gagged
silenced
killed
resurrected
Lazarus
better
improved
finer
better
gambler
Kenny
Rogers sang The Gambler
singer
dancer
ballet
shoes
farrier
hoof
dance
ball
tennis
court
judge
measure
yardstick
nice to still be imperial
odometer
bicycle
spokes
wooden
metallic
zinc
mineral
vegetable
corn
succotash
ratatouille
food
sustenance
livelihood
job
task
chore
laborious
farmhand
ploughman
tractor
Shire
(The only tractor which, if introduced to another, will breed a third.)
hamlet
Dane
great
splendid
wonderful
amazing
Earth
planet
celestial
heavenly
divine
godly
elevated
height
length
width
girth
saddle
mount
Vesuvius
Popocatépetl
hot
lava
explosive
ordnance
munitions
ammo
shells
conch
bivalve
mollusc
diverse
they are apparently all over the damn place with about 76000 species
widespread
foolishness
absurdity
protesters
marchers
Jarrow
The Jarrow Marchers are folk heroes 'oop north. They marched from Geordie Land to London as a protest against mass unemployment and starvation wages. This was in 'The Great Depression' between the two world wars.
When your wages don't cover the cost of food and rent you get pissed off at factory, shipyard, and mine owners, crying crocodile tears and pleading their own imagined poverty when they still drive flashy cars and smoke cigars.
My paternal Grandfather, who died before I was born, marched party of the way with the 200 or so who completed the whole trip. Apparently quite a few of the men who were lucky enough to have a job took one day off work to march part of the way as they passed through their towns en route to Hyde Park in London.
My Grandad James was a shepherd.
Gyppo
hunger
longing
yearning
love-sick ;-)
romantic
fanciful
dreamy
fantasize
create
improvise
fudge
Cornish
=====
I had a friend who worked at one of the the Cornish Fudge Factories, making handmade Fudge to sell to tourists.
Apparently there were several rows of workers, each stirring a large copper pan of fudge until it was ready, at which point it was wheeled away and replaced with another bowl of raw ingredients.
He said his arms nearly dropped off in the first two days, and then he noticed that even skinny small women working near him had biceps like body builders. After that he stopped complaining.
Some it inevitably spilt and he also claimed that his feet stuck to the floor.
He felt that working in our bakery felt like a holiday camp in comparison, but we soon disabused him of that notion ;-)
===
pasties
miners - who adopted the portable dinner with enthusiasm
coal
seam
Boxer
And this is why...
As a schoolkid I read about Jimmy Wild, a flyweight from way-back, a small Welshman who worked as a miner. Because of his size he was sent to work the smaller seams of coal where larger men couldn't work. He sometimes worked inside eight inch seams.
Just the thought of this gives me the shivers.
Imagine lying on your back, with the upper surface pressing against your nose. No room to really swing a pick so he worked it above his head, working mainly with a wrist action, and then raking it back out.
As a result this diminutive and nimble footed little man punched with almost a flick of the wrist, and was known in the press of his day as 'The Ghost with a hammer in his hand'.
Gyppo
dog
leash
restrain
handcuff
Plasticuffs
They pull up and lock like cable ties. Often used when a batch of people have to be restrained at a protest or similar.
But quite easily cut with a pair of nail clippers. The girls at the road protests nearly all had nail clippers ;-)
I watched a dozen of them being rounded up, cuffed, and shoved into a police van at one of the 'night actions'. By the time the last one had been locked in there was already a pile of cut-off plasticuffs on the ground under the side window.
The police tended to use the more traditional metal cuffs on the men.
rope
Sometimes the old ways are the best.
noose
hang
execute
perform
act
pretend
simulate
forgery
skill
craft
boat
yard
metre
foreign ;-)
xenophobic
traveler
backpack
If you need a suitcase, you're a tourist
rucksack
Jo. I like that as a simple distinction between tourist and traveller.
I was recently bewildered by an advert on Freegle where someone was advertising for a 'Festival trolley'. Turns out to be one of those collapsible sided boxes on four hefty wheels with a long handle to drag it behind you. The sort of thing you sometimes see hospital janitors using to haul their equipment.
Obviously modern festival goers have a completely different mindset from my generation.
What the hell do they lug around in there?
gunnysack
kitbag
military
I know there's all kinds of kitbags, but when I see the word my first thought is military, or military surplus.
Likewise with Patti's gunnysack. In my mind it conjures up a picture of a Hobo, throwing his sack into a slow passing boxcar and then scrambling in afterwards.
naval
maritime
oceanic
liner
Lusitania
foundered
sunken
shaft
mine
yours
nobody's
unwanted
garbage
skip
bombing
Skip bombing is a technique probably best known from the Dam-Buster raid of WW2. But that also required special 'bouncing bombs' developed for that one purpose.
But ordinary bombs with a slightly delayed 'tail fuse', so they wouldn't explode on impact, could be dropped at low level and 'skipped' though the sides of ships to explode inside. Thus avoiding the often reinforced armour at water level, designed to thwart torpedo attacks.
Mankind's ingenuity when killing others is limitless. But...
On one carefully planned occasion a solitary RAF Mosquito flew at near ground level, between the buildings - along a French street and 'skipped' a bomb from the road so it bounced into the first floor of a Gestapo building, killing all the Germans inside, but sparing the prisoners at ground level so they could be rescued by resistance fighters on the ground.
This is a recorded event, but the legend that the plane returned home with a French washing line wrapped around one wing bearing some poor mademoiselle's knickers is probably colourful hyperbole.
A bit of artistic licence we writers can empathise with!
explosive
annihilate
destroy
wipe-out
nihilism
philosophy
A dark philosophy. Negativity raised to the level of an art form.
religion
(organised) superstition
A double-edged sword which gives great comfort to some and eternal anguish to others.
myth
lore
creed
guidelines
rules
boundaries
frontiers
lines
grid
off
rotten
corrupt
bribery
payment
invoice
reminder
text
(All of my appointment reminders come via text nowadays)
message
bottle
I have always wanted to send a message in a bottle. Addressed To Whom it May Concern
beer
ale
ginger
Leo
sign
autograph
monogram
thesis
original
unique
weird
offbeat
syncopated
rhythmic
drum
skin
moisturize
dampen
spritz
mist (as a verb)
drench
soak
cork
;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deqx-Xb-yHY
wine
effervescent
bubbly
champagne
flute
musical (If played well. Bloody awful if not.)
opera
ballet
dance
studio
musician
Oboist
pianist
keyboard
socket
(pretty useless without one handy)
power
autonomy
singly
concerted
simultaneous
joint
Beef
criticism
whining
puppy
fat
lard
pig
sow
crop
trim
haircut
barber
=====
I've just worked out that I've not had my hair cut in nearly twenty years, possibly a bit more. I already had a reasonable ponytail when I took ill-health retirement from Royal Mail, and I was fifty-five then. I've hacked out a few bits which got stuck up with paint on rare occasions since them, especially that indestructible Hammerite paint, but a formal cut and any of the hated 'fussing around', no. Just as well I'm comfortable with a ponytail.
It's technically possible to remove Hammerite from your hair using the thinners, but the fumes might just kill you in the process. In the confined space of a shed they're enough to make the floor jump up and hit you without regular trips outside to breathe fresh air for a few minutes ;-) Amazing stuff, but you need to treat it with care.
===
You've had a ponytail nearly as long as Leo, then.
shave
tonsure
monk
sandals
toes
kick
goal
post
our football has posts!
Our football has posts too! The aim of the game, apparently, is to make the ball bounce off one and into the crowd.
mail
chain
The most flexible form of armour, if made and fitted properly.
And very effective, until the invention of the armour-piercing bodkin.
link
weakest
frail
desiccated
overcooked
burnt
charred
scorched
fired
sacked
bagged
shot
perforated
holes
netting
capturing
snare
drum
beat
whip
driver
(The driver of a horse-drawn vehicle is known as the whip. So is the stick he threatens his charges with. Go figure.)
golf
course
track
follow
pursue
hunt
rummage
Like an Excise 'Rummage Crew' hunting for contraband.
(I think I must have been issued with someone else's fingers this morning. I made five mistakes in the sentence immediately preceding this one.)
seek
hide
pelt
smack
fishing
line
poem
haiku
rhythmic
beat
defeat
overthrow
coup
sudden
abrupt
curt
short
lithe
slender
chance
opportunity
knocking
Makes me recall the old line about opportunity knocking on someone's door so long it's got a flat fist. (Northern, I think.)
And the related line about opportunity being often ignored/missed because it was dressed in overalls and looked like hard work.
banging
striking
handsome
pleasing
desirable
wanted
maid
well, it's what I want
cleaner
dirtier
filthy
squalid
grim
unpleasant
waspish
malicious
devilish
Mephistopheles
Nick (Old of that ilk.)
scratch
groove
channel
television
brainless
fool
deceive
bamboozle
scam
Nigerian
black
The few Nigerians I've met have always been properly black as opposed to a dark brown. For a few years at school nearly all the student teachers were Nigerians.
pot
For years, a popular TV programme was called Pot Black. When I started playing snooker, friends commissioned a special trophy for me. It's inscribed "Pot White".
kettle
drum
skin
hide
conceal
disguise
makeup
foundation
pilings
Venice
lagoon
coral
polyp
sponge
bath
room
space
universe
all
sum
total
full
overflow
leaking
drip
faucet
sink
basin
drainage
oozing
septic
antibiotics
penicillin
Fleming
The man who saw an unplanned mould in one of his petri dishes, and instead of just discarding it as a failed experiment decided to investigate it and thus laid the foundation for a whole field of medicine.
Quote: He consistently warned against the improper use of penicillin, stating in 1945 that "the thoughtless person playing with penicillin is morally responsible for the death of the man who finally succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism".
One of the saddest episodes in medical research concerned the man who was nearly saved by the experimental use of penicillin. I think he was a policeman, and he was dying of sepsis. Fleming's team hit him with their new drug, and the improvement was immediate and almost miraculous. But there wasn't enough of it. They did everything in their power to produce more quickly enough, but they couldn't. The infection regained the upper hand and the man died.
Remember him next time you feel like pestering your doctor for antibiotics to treat a nasty cold.
biologist
natural
Until the advent of bio-engineering biology was pretty much a natural science. Biologists tried to understand what was, rather than manipulate it into something chimeric.
elemental
basic
fundamental
primary
secondary
auxiliary
extra
over
above
higher
celestial
realm
kingdom
united
joint
beef
Wellington
boots
brushing
(Brushing boots protect the fetlocks of horses whose two front legs come out of the same hole.)
janitorial
cleaning
boring
drilling
toothache
painkiller
death
rebirth
spring
coiled
strike
A snake will struggle to strike unless it coils first.
union
I've been told that a snake can't strike more than half its own body length. But I don't feel any need to test this claim. I would much prefer to be several 'Gyppo body lengths' away from the damned thing.
marriage
wedding
ceremony
pompous
dignified
classy
impressive
baroque
music
I went to a concert of baroque music during the summer. Not my choice, but I'm glad I did - it was strange and rather wonderful.
serenade
Another example of how easy it is to confuse a child:
When my mother was young, popular music of the time included something called The Donkey Serenade, and something else that began, "Serenade in the night". She put two and two together, and assumed the donkey was called Sarah; but thought it was an odd thing to sing about - "Sarah neighed in the night"...
troubadour
minstrel
gallery
mezzanine (often)
I once dined in a restaurant, which was itself part of a preserved historic coaching inn, where there was still a minstrel's gallery laying back into the wall above the dining area. Sadly there were no minstrels, but the owners were very proud of the gallery.
There was also a very modern - 1980s modern - commercial kitchen squeezed into what I saw as an impossibly small space. (Which may explain why many chefs are crazy.) I got a guided tour of the kitchen, being a bit of an 'honoured guest' on that occasion.
The whole place is still preserved, but is now sealed away inside the concrete walls of a large shopping arcade. Conserved, but only accessible by arrangement with the county museum service.
If you ever find yourself in Gloucester, be sure to visit The New Inn - well, new in the 15th century - with its mediaeval galleries overlooking the courtyard.
floor
knockout
bodge
improvise
(For a few years I had a regular half page column called 'Bodgers Corner' in a motorbike magazine. Workshop tricks and 'get you home' answers to breakdowns.)
The original bodgers, I understand, were the guys who turned chair legs etc on lathes, often in the woods where the tree was felled.
devise
conceptualise
Jo: According to what I've read they would set up the lathe in the coppice and work there. The lathe was a 'pole lathe', where the power to make to turn came from a bent stick - like half a longbow - and a string/rope to turn the workpiece between two centres.
The bodger pressed on a pedal to draw the stick into a curve, and when he released it the workpiece spun the other way as the stick straightened.
I've seen one of these demonstrated at a county show, and it was fascinating to see the woodchips/shavings flying.
It's a bit like using an old treadle sewing-machine. Your foot provides the power - the spring pole just returns the piece to the starting point. So you only bodge on the pedal stroke.
Is this site educational or what?
blueprint
drawing
Blue prints were copies of technical drawings with white lines.
Dad brought one home from work to show his 'little man', when they'd finished laying out all the pipes, power cables, and foundations for the 'groundworks' of a new Grammar School. (That was fascinating in itself, to see a stretch of countryside cleared, turned into a muddy building site, and then buildings growing daily, with hod-carriers on piecework racing up ladders and sliding back down.)
In the mid 50s that particular printing technology was already being replaced with more modern methods so Dad thought I might as well see it before it vanished entirely. "You'll probably never see these in your working life Son."
I took it into school for 'show and tell', and have no idea what happened to it eventually. But just for a few second, remembering it, I can smell the paper, the tea stains, and the odd splotches of dried concrete.
When I showed my uncle, who would attend the school when it was finished, he explained the printing process to me. I was lucky kid, rarely just told to 'shut up' when I asked questions.
Gyppo
sketch
pencil
Other mediums are available ;-)
sharpener
grinder
'Mick the Grinder' used to visit out estate every few weeks. He had a big and rather boxy mobile home, possibly a converted van.
He'd park up in a street and them him and his missus would knock on doors touting for tools to sharpen.
He'd twist a lever an d a trap door in the side of his van would drop down, carrying a three wheel set up and a few oilstones as well. Then as he got on with the job his Missus would bring the sharpened tools back to your door and collect payment.
Occasionally, well into the eighties, we'd see a man with a similar set upon a bicycle. He's long gone. His kit is now in a local museum and is sometimes demonstrated on open days.
millstone
dressing
Millstones have to be 'dressed', smoothed until they're level but with grooves cut into them, before they can be used to grind corn.
Eventually they wear down to a point where they're beyond repair and the whole cycle begins with new and noticeably thicker stones.
These worn out stones were sometimes broken up and used as crazy paving, or incorporated in drystone walls. They sometimes turn up as decor, alongside spoked wagon wheels, and cut down barrels in pub gardens.
bandage
plaster
wall
barrier
obstruction
hazard
danger
peril
Haddock
Dad always referred to smoked haddock as 'Yellow Peril' because of the colour. I believe this was a Naval nickname. Sailors like to give names to the stuff served in the ship's mess.
whiting
pelagic
ocean
wet
(One thing all oceans have in common.)
rain
sleet
hail
painful
(Hail in an open-faced helmet truly hurts.)
grim
unhappy
depressed
fracture
break
fast
rapid
velociraptor
dead
buried
archaeology
digging
shovel
move
(He wasn't fit to shovel shit,
from one ship to another.)
Dad would sometimes describe someone he'd sacked for thieving as "I wouldn't trust him to shovel shit without stealing it."
perambulate
locomotion
Eva
who was Little and was the first to sing Locomotion in 1962
Peron
Argentina
pampas
grasslands
meadow
flowers
A meadow without a few flowers is just a field of grass.
clover
quadrifoglio ;-)
triffid
verdant
green
olives
trees
arboretum
wood
carpenter
joiner
coupling
brace
pheasants (or indeed any game birds which are traditionally counted and sold by the pair (brace). Strictly speaking a proper brace is a cock and a hen, but this exactitude has declined somewhat over the years.
grouse
My main grouse: there are too many damn pheasants trying to head-butt my car!
glass
I've never figured out why Pheasant Under Glass was a recipe. What does the serving part have to do with anything? Apparently it is to keep it hot and visually accessible.
and then Jo beat me after looking all that up.
complain
Sorry - it is galling when that happens! Still, better two posts than none.
bitterly
acrimony
hostility
enmity
Remind me of the legend that a British serviceman, landing at Normandy, sent a postcard home which read, with classic British understatement, 'Arrived safely, but the other tourists appear somewhat hostile'.
bellicose
warlike
violent
sudden
immediate
now
then
later
never
zero
vacuum
absence
missing
lost
baggage
Perhaps I've flown too often.
suitcase
rummage
What Customs do in your suitcase ;-)
sale
crowd
Always a good reason for avoiding sales.
mob
lynch
murder
kill
exterminate
destroy
utterly
completely
entirety
whole
meal
flour
baking
work
labour
strive
fight
combat
martial
bellicose
warfare
organised (Allegedly.)
chaotic
random
chance
opportunity
experience
We have played Careers, a board game, for years and years. They have two types of cards, the yellow ones are Opportunity cards and the orange are Experience.
practice
I exPerienced a problem. Practice makes perfect.
medical
veterinary
clinic
surgery
laparoscopy
gastroenterology
internal
organ
pipes
tobacco
shreds
tatters
patched
Dolly
Parton who sang about a patched coat
wheel
circle
turn
season
The seasons turn according to their own clock and there's not a damned thing we can do about it.
spiced
S?
flavour
S as in shit!
You have no idea how I worked to find an S word for this one thinking I was in some other thread. It is really hard to be me sometimes.
profile
Cooking experts, rather than people who get food ready for meal time, are often heard speaking of the flavor profile of this or that exotic dish with 73 different ingredients.
And this is why I don't watch cooking programs. This, and because food is about two things - flavour, and smell - the two things TV doesn't do at all.
sideways
oblique
angular
cornered
trapped
imprisoned
jailed
slammed
As in 'the door slammed shut with a horrible finality'. There's no keyhole on the inside of a cell door.
door
portal
gateway
opening
slit
why is it jailed when it is gaol?
arrow
Those vertical slits in castle walls allowed defenders to fire arrows out without ricking too much exposure.
As for the gaol vs jail, the computer she says...
The word "gaol" is pronounced "jail" because its pronunciation evolved over time to match the more common pronunciation of "jail," despite the different spelling. Originally, "gaol" was pronounced with a hard "g" sound, similar to "goat," reflecting its roots in Norman French.
However, starting in the 17th century, the pronunciation gradually shifted to align with "jail," which had been derived from Old Parisian French.
This shift occurred as the soft "g" pronunciation of "jail" became dominant in spoken English. Today, both "gaol" and "jail" are pronounced identically as "jail," even though "gaol" retains its older spelling, largely due to legal and official tradition in Britain.
=====
All of which goes to prove what a 'bastard' language English is, using words from all over the damned place and hanging onto some just out of sheer perversity ;-)
Quote from: Gyppo on November 26, 2025, 01:37:18 PMThose vertical slits in castle walls allowed defenders to fire arrows out without ricking too much exposure.
Or indeed their backs.
There's a lot in what you say about perversity. I always preferred the old "gaol" spelling, though not all editors are happy with it. Why? - just because it's different, I think.
bow
long
Jo: I think we 'word people' often fall in love with a particular spelling or pronunciation and stick to it however much the world choses to mangle it.
I was reading a book the other day and a character mentions that it's strange to have a pub called The Royal George in a village deep in IRA territory.
Another explains that the Irish like tradition. "It's always been called that. We like it that way."
=====
And sometimes we just like to be different, to sail into the wind.
===
yearn
craving
urge
animalistic
I looked up gaol a while ago and knew that stuff. What I didn't understand is why it wasn't gaoled and was jailed. Is only used as a noun, the place where miscreants are housed and not the act of housing them there?
brutal
What - you expected English to make sense? Next you'll be wondering why bough and bow (bend in the middle) rhyme, and bough and rough don't.
nasty
If you could please fix that for me? I would like the world to be logically understandable. Thanks in advance.
Fine, I'll get right on it.
unpleasant
rancid
sour
faced
juxtaposition
closeness
proximity
neighborhood
surroundings
backdrop
neutral
Like the one required for passport photographs.
fence
as in, Sitting on the
boundary
perimeter
delineation
specify
layout
blueprint
facade
Patti, where's the association between blueprint and façade?
mask
Gyppo, when we built our house before this one, they still had real blueprints that were pages and pages and one page was dedicated to the facade of the house. And they were more purple than blue. And huge pieces of paper. I believe everything today is CAD and compact. But you probably still get a set of what the facade of the house will be.
hidden
den
(That makes complete sense now Patti. The only real blueprints I've ever seen are those Dad had for some civil engineering jobs. But they were for 'groundworks'. Roads, pipes, power cables, drainage, building foundations, etc. Nothing vertical. Therefore I never saw one showing the façade of a building.)
sett
Badger
pester
annoy
harass
bedevil
haunt
linger
overstay
Alice
My grandfather had a sister who lacked all instinct for when it was time to end a visit. The mildest of men on all other occasions, this caused him mounting annoyance. Virtually blind, he'd hold his wrist-watch up to his eye and pronounce firmly, "There's another bus in five minutes, Alice."
band
orchestra
philharmonic
symphony
tuneful
cacophonous
internet ;-)
web
spider
arachnid
orb
An orb spider is one that weaves the classic concentric web.
gem
diamond
scintillating
(It's probably years since I last typed this word.)
brilliant
outstanding
prominent
blatant
flagrant
obvious
clear
glass
window
pane
bull's-eye
centre
Miss Brown, at junior school explained to us how bull's eye glass panes came into being when the blob of molten glass on a steel bar was spun was spun to make flat sheets, which were then cut into panes after it had cooled.
She said that originally the thick and lumpy bull's eye bit would have been seen as waste and re-melted, but somewhere along the line it became a fashion statement to have one amongst the other small glass panes or leaded lights on your door window. A status symbol to show that your house had hand-made glass rather than the more modern stuff that the lower classes could afford.
That woman was a true mine of information, and if she didn't know the answer to a question she'd try to find out for you.
middle
abdomen
trunk
bough
sturdy
I half remember a comedy sketch about a would-be suicide who found a suitably sturdy bough but couldn't find a good rope. So he tried to hang himself with his braces. He failed due to the stretch, but ended up with a severe case of concussion.
And doesn't that paint a picture!
well-built
crafted
skilled
trained
studied
affectation
(As in 'She adopted a studied indifference to hide her burgeoning lust.)
You been reading Mills & Boon again, Gyppo?
snobbery
Quote from: Jo Bannister on December 10, 2025, 06:57:09 AMYou been reading Mills & Boon again, Gyppo?
Jo, sounds more like Jane Austen than M&B.
conceit
Lust? Jane Austen? She clearly knew about it, but I don't remember her ever using the word.
deception
lies
reclines
horizontal
flat
out
about
surround
cage
prison
Alcatraz
escape
decamp
evacuate
leave
compassionate
Our armed forces can be surprisingly flexible and helpful about compassionate leave, sometimes flying a serviceman half way around the world to see their newborn offspring, or to deal with family problems. This isn't always possible, but on a purely practical level if the serviceman is too distracted they're of no real use anyway for a while.
kindly
gesture
Sometimes, when words fail, a kindly gesture such as a brief hug does very well as a substitute.
waving
flag
banner
pennon
burgee
pilot
(I don't know if a ship under pilotage in difficult enclosed waters still flies the pilot's own burgee whilst he has the helm.
I'd like to think the tradition still holds.
I'll ask my friend's partner next time I see him - he's a Belfast Harbour pilot. I hope so too.
aircraft
helicopter
autogyro
pilot
steer
bullock
young
calf
muscle
heart
spades
mallet
wooden
timber
fall
down
feathers
boa
Quetzalcoatl
The feathered snake god of the Incas.
python
Monty ;-)
beret
distinctive
obvious
normal
standard
battle
skirmish
foray
incursion
entry
portal
doorway
egress
departure
leave
holiday
jolly
Dad, even many years after leaving the Royal Navy, still referred to a holiday as a 'jolly'. And shorter excursions were still 'a run ashore'.
happy
joyful
merry
Christmas
baubles
cat
Cats usually seem to find Christmas tree bauble irresistible, and will stand on their back legs and treat them like a punchball.
One of my youngest daughter's cats doesn't. He is terrified of Christmas trees and goes off to sulk in another room as soon as the tree appears.
leopard
slink
sneak
underhanded
cheating
spouses
wives
married
wed
hitched
post
what you hitched something to
but I guess star would have worked, also
mortem
death
wish
aspiration
dreams
hallucinations
visions
delirium
tremens
alcohol
drug
addiction
fix
mend
repair
fix
rig
as in fix a race or election
bosun
The guy on a sailing ship who's responsible for the rigging.
crew
quarters
halves
matching
synchronous
gearbox
clutch
grab
crane
bird
nuthatch
small
diminutive
piffling
trifle
sherry
wine
brandy
smooth
(As far as I recall, good brandy was always smooth, even when it was fiery. If it tasted like kissing a spark plug with the engine running then it was probably made in a bathtub.)
rough
cider
We used to have a joke about the three types of home-brewed cider in The New Forest.
"There's Rough, Bloody Rough, and don't spit it on the floor unless you want to burn a hole in the floorboards.
apple
computer
(I've never used an Apple computer. Not even seen many of them. Never been invited to take it for a spin ;-)
Quote from: Gyppo on December 30, 2025, 09:56:24 PMWe used to have a joke about the three types of home-brewed cider in The New Forest.
"There's Rough, Bloody Rough, and don't spit it on the floor unless you want to burn a hole in the floorboards.
There's something intrinsically wrong with cider that isn't at least slightly rough. Like a farm worker in a suit.
adding-machine
register
every trip to the grocery store adds up and up and up ...
but then my senior discount kicks in and that's fun to watch
does make for a really long receipt
cash
lucre
dosh
wonga
There's nearly as many extra words for money as there are for penis and vagina ;-)
What does that tell you about the world?
financial
Quote from: Jo Bannister on January 01, 2026, 08:38:04 AMWhat does that tell you about the world?
It makes me glad I'm only passing through ;-)
Numbers.
figures
computes
hill
Hill figures, usually ancient carvings on chalk downs. Many are preserved by The National Trust.
dragon
The best, and much the oldest, of the chalk figures is the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. But since there's an H in hill, I've used its alias - it may also be the depiction of a dragon. Indeed, the adjacent hill is known as Dragon Hill.
fly
I have no idea who named a dragonfly, but it really doesn't even blow fire or anything.
soar
high
Quote from: Spell Chick on January 02, 2026, 11:58:12 AMI have no idea who named a dragonfly, but it really doesn't even blow fire or anything.
It's a matter of scale. Imagine being a fruit fly and seeing one of those coming at you...
stratospheric
up
down
feathers (small ones.)
oars
To minimise drag when rowing, you turn the loom at the end of the stroke so that the blade is horizontal while returning to the starting position. Easy to get wrong, especially if contending with waves, when it's easy to "catch a crab" and end up lying in the bottom of the boat.
propulsion
=====
When Dad was teaching me how to row a skiff he swore blind that he's never met anyone who could somehow 'balance huge lumps of water on an oar, and then tip it into his lap where he sat at the stern.
"I'll swear the little sod is trying to empty the boating lake into the boat. I'd have been drier if I'd slipped overboard to hide."
Fortunately it was a sunny day.
===
No one ever taught me to row. I seem to have been born knowing.
jet
black
Whitby Jet is a black organic stone, fossilised timber from many millions of years ago used for making jewellery. Fascinating stuff.
soot
ashes
Test
Another bloody cricket allusion.
match
lighter
fire
blaze
marking
(As in blazing a trail, or an animal with a white 'blaze' on its otherwise uniformly coloured coat.)
homework
dog
The traditional eater of homework. We never had a handy dog, so I had to arrange accidental fires, or abductions by aliens ;-)
hound
pursue
chase
decorate
paint
emulsion
muck
wrong game
Emulsion and muck share an 'm'
combination
(An emulsion is formed when two liquids which wouldn't normally combine, like oil and water do so when an emulsifier is added to the mix. But sadly, right this second, I can't think of an example.)
underwear
paper
"Don't stick stickers on my paper knickers."
https://youtu.be/cwe8fardD04
news
fake
phoney
facsimile
xerox (remember them?)
copy
and you have no idea how hard it was to come up with much for emulsion as I was looking for plus word.
dang!
duplicate
spirit
At junior school we almost fought for the privilege of turning the handle on the 'spirit duplicator', because we all liked the smell it made. Permeated the whole school.
ghost
apparition
phantasm
fetch
bring
carry
portage
canoe
kayak
paddle
steamer
pudding
Christmas
lights
fires
burn
sun
rise
fall
stumble
wobble
unbalanced
insane
Trump
spades
tools
hammer
nail
finger
point
headland
promontory
lighthouse
bright
sunny
outlook
panorama
view
opinion
strong
dogged
pursuit
Dogged and pursuit: they're sort of Siamese twin words, very hard to separate.
chase
follow
tail
wag
happy
joyful
ecstatic
gleeful
irritating
Happiness is fine, but gleeful sometimes comes across more as gloating, which is seriously uncool ;-)
exasperating
people
(Even the ones I love dearly can be bloody exasperating at times.)
"I wish I loved the Human Race; I wish I loved its silly face; I wish I liked the way it walks; I wish I liked the way it talks; And when I'm introduced to one, I wish I thought 'What Jolly Fun!'"
English Poet, Walter Alexander Raleigh.
Haven't come across that for years, Gyppo. Thanks for the reminder.
folk
tales
myths
fireside
Quote from: Jo Bannister on January 16, 2026, 07:59:12 AMHaven't come across that for years, Gyppo. Thanks for the reminder.
folk
Jo: It's been something of a mantra over the years. (I must teach it to my Grandaughter.) As my Dad said one day, when I was 'out of sorts' with the world, "Son, there'll be
days when you're not fit company for man nor beast. Those are the times when you need to be alone until you're ready to re-join the human race."
I've seen this with
all of my family at times, and we usually give the outcast room and time to find their own way back. But occasionally some well meaning outsider takes it upon themself to 'cheer us up'. This never ends well ;-(
There are few things as depressing as being cheered up.
hearth
focus
lens
sight
vision
hallucination
bewildering
puzzle
quiz
examine
study
library
shelves
delays
As in 'Your project has been temporarily shelved."
"Your project has been temporarily shelved" actually means, "What, are you crazy? Do you think we're made of money? Your project has been temporarily shelved in quick-set concrete and stored in a disused cloakroom in the basement, with a padlock and a sign on the door reading: Radiation Danger."
adjournment
interval
pause
hesitation
Um...
vocal
talkative
gabby
loquacious
noisy
rambunctious
hectic
frantic
worried
hassled
fretful
anxious
trembling
quaking
pudding
Posh dessert from Tudor times. I imagine it was some kind of jelly.
Jell-o
gelatin
slimy
(Even though it sets relatively firm, as when used on pork pies, gelatine still seems to carry 'the spirit of sliminess' within its heart.)
oily
grease
lard
pig
Tamworth
The ginger one.
runaways
Funny how the English tend to root for the underdog, or the underpigs in the case of the 'Tamworh Two'.
escapees
(Actually, shouldn't the word be Escapers? An escaper would be the one doing the escaping, an escapee one to whom the escape was done. But you can't really be the passive object of an escape, can you?)
fleeing
(You have a point, Jo. After all, a person who has been murdered is not normally referred to as a murderee. But you do sometimes see this word used thus in old books.
Perhaps escapees is just a nod back to an older version of English when words with a Latin tinge were seen as being 'more proper', a cut above working class.)
cowardly
terrified
white
snow
blizzard
conditions
environment
habitat
range
cooker ( Aga or similar.)
stove
pipe
Meerschaum
fancy
Meerschaum pipes are generally carved into a fancy shape for the bowl.
decorated
medal
trophy
award
I've always been puzzled by the concept of 'Trophy Wives'. Do their partners keep them in a cabinet, where they can be seen but not touched by others. Like a harem, but with viewing ports.
grant
handout
shake
tremble
quake
tsunami
harbour
Tsunami translates as 'harbour wave'.
Makes it sound quite gentle, doesn't it?
port
bottled
Scotch
eggs
roe
deer
forest
wood
ash
charcoal
burner
(An occasional customer at our village bakery was a 'charcoal burner'. He claimed to be the last of the Hampshire burners, and had nobody lined up to take over when he retired.)
furnace
heat
warmth
coziness
discomfort
pain
headache
migraine
hemicrania
brain
tissue
paper
mill
wind
zephyr
aeolian
billow
sail
canvas
I know there's all sorts of modern materials used now, but they all serve the same purpose, harnessing the wind.
painting
brush
Fox
puzzle
crossword
angry
irate
furious
toddler
probably one who has just has his sandwich cut diagonally when he wanted it straight
rambunctious
feisty
volatile
unpredictable
surprising
astonishing
boggling
mind
thought
whim
urge
impulse
drive
avenue
lane
shady
iffy
questionable
dubious
risky
averse
at least *I* am
wary
careful
scrupulous
ethical
moral
decent
likeable
warm
oven
incubator
premature
scheduled
train
exercise
practice
medical
hospital
ward
lock
pins
tumblers
acrobats
pyramid
Egypt
Nile
delta
river
Moon
(They played 'Moon River' at the recent wedding reception.
satellite
dish
plate
crockery
pottery
clay
swelling
=====
Dad always hated digging deep trenches in 'swelling clay', because it couldn't be trusted not to slip, or burst inwards unexpectedly. If the trench reached more than waist height they'd have to put up shuttering and expanding cross braces to keep it in place.
I once saw him working in a twenty foot deep hole, all shuttered up and heavily braced. That was a 24 hour job, in a busy main street, with pumps working non-stop to keep it reasonably dry. Paid well, probably because nobody really wanted to do it.
I asked him if it was scary.
"No more than working in a ship's stokehold during the Russian Convoys. Just doing your job and hoping no tin fish come calling."
Gyppo
pustule
bubonic
plague
crickets
lucky
fortunate
wealthy
rich
finances
wallet
purse
handbag
tote
carry
transport
move
walk
stroll
amble
pace
Totally useless fact no. 327: A horse normally trots by moving the diagonally opposite legs together. A pacer, also known as an ambler, moves like a camel - both right legs, then both left legs. They're supposed to be very comfortable to ride over long distances. I think it was Napoleon who preferred pacers.
speed
Methamphetamine
cocaine
nostril
hair
shirt
I once bought a WW1 Army Surplus 'warm woollen shirt' which originally felt like the infamous 'hair shirts' worn by religious penitents. It was incredibly uncomfortable, but after several very thorough washings, on its own in case it contaminated my other laundry, it changed completely and became a favourite.
I've always assumed it was treated with something for the long term storage, and once that has been washed out it had a texture like soft felt and was completely transformed. A girlfriend commandeered it for a nightdress, because she was a short-arse little lady.
pants
I've taken over several of Dick's shirts and I'm not short - they are just comfortable.
The irritating thing about men's clothes is that they're better made than women's clothes. And they come with pockets as standard!
rubbish
garbage
dump
abandon
Quote from: Jo Bannister on February 15, 2026, 07:49:40 AMThe irritating thing about men's clothes is that they're better made than women's clothes. And they come with pockets as standard!
Because men's clothes are
expected to last. To be functional. Even the 'strutting peacocks' amongst us expect their 'fancy' shirt to survive for occasional outings over several years.
But fashion designers see women as more gullible, prey to the changing whims of fashion, so a shorter lived and sometimes downright shoddy product is acceptable.
There are exceptions of course. I know a lady of nearly eighty who has worn the same Laura Ashley print dress to every wedding and other formal occasion for at least fifty years now. She likes it and it
still suits her. What she doesn't tell most people is she picked it up for a few bob at a jumble sale.
Men's fashion designers are forever trying to wean us away from pockets. "They spoil the line of the suit, Sir." They try to persuade us a 'man-bag' is more suited for our 'pocket clutter', but it's a very slow process except amongst those of a specific sexual orientation. The rest of us have different pockets for different things, so we can be organised in our own way.
Gyppo
hope
all ye who enter here
aspiration
suck (In the medical sense when you accidentally suck food into you windpipe, that is aspiration. It is also aspiration when they suck it back out with a vacuum hose.)
And aspiration when they put their hands together and pray that they didn't leave the end of the hose inside you.
blow
strike
Talking of leaving things inside... I wonder if there are any operating theatre 'jokers' who hide a swab or scalpel just to see the momentary panic when the numbers don't match up afterwards. Perhaps Patti has encountered one back when she was a nurse.
bowling
It is absolute panic if the count is off and no one I know would ever do it as a prank. It is absolutely horrific. All you can do is search like crazy and try to not dwell on lawsuits. It really isn't anything worth joking about. It is terrifying.
Correctly termed Gossypiboma, affectionately known as a gossipy boma, or Retained Foreign Object - as if the patient's intestines were determinedly clinging onto something that the surgeon was desperately trying to retrieve!
cricket
bat
Patti: I'm glad to hear that, seriously.
Jo: Latin words and their derivatives, are funny things at times.
COVID
plague
rats
mice
joint
A joint mouse is a chip of bone detached in an accident which drifts around causing trouble until it finally finds a place to settle.
reefer
marijuana
weed
killer
murderer
assassin
contract
promise
commitment
psychiatric
ward
bailey
The slightly-less-fortified part of a motte-and-bailey castle is also known as the ward. It's where everything from the local villagers to the local cattle would take shelter in the event of an attack.
bill
duck
Mallard
widgeon
dabbling
playing
as in playing at something rather than pursuing it seriously
(the) fool
jester
clown
makeup
fall-out
(usually comes before the make-up, but hell, we're writers, we do things our own way!)
shelter
she says as a child of the Cold War
Oh yeah. Remember the Cuban missile crisis? And kids today think being unfriended on social media is the end of the world!
cave
paintings
bison
The bulls painted in the caves of Altamira in Spain are European bison. I was going to go with the horses of Lascaux in France, but I thought I'd surprise you all.
hump
camel
cigarettes
(The first time I heard someone claiming that they smoked camels I had a very strange image in my mind.)
matches
boxing
traumatic
damage
injury
wound
circular
orbit
path
way
method
formula
pattern
fractal
spiral
whirling
maelstrom
destruction
Armageddon
horsemen
wranglers
jeans
denim
fabric
tailor
seamstress
needlework
tapestry
embroidery
Sorry Aiden: tapestry and embroidery both contain an 'e'. But going on from your embroidery we have...
silks
mulberry
indigo
shoplifter
Why? That's what they say when they slip stuff into their thieving pocket. "Three pairs of socks. In dey go."
miscreant
felon
Sorry for the last one.
wicked
sinful
guilt
conscience
rationality
system
algorithm
nonsense
that's what "mine" shows me
rubbish
trash
heap
H?
dump
council
Although most 'dumps' are now sold off to private businesses and are labelled as 'recycling facilities' until some twat decides this label is offensive and dreams up an even more fancy and fatuous title. (And yes, this is run-on sentence.)
government.
parliament
Guy Fawkes
(Possibly the only man ever to enter The Houses of Parliament with completely honest and unambiguous intentions. Completely inept though ;-)
detonate
Jo, I was in the wrong thread and just started a word with the last letter. That reading stuff is really hard.
boom
Tell me about it!
sail
(the boom is the spar that extends the foot: the bit that hits you on the head every time you tack)
bombard
strike
And the connection between sail and bombard?
From strike to...
match
lucifer
matches used be called lucifer sticks and they were definitely not safety matches
devil
They used to light themselves in people's pockets!
Satan
Old Nick
Saint Nick
Father Christmas
December
solstice
Winter
For some strange reason not many people turn up at Stonehenge to celebrate the Winter Bloody lightweights ;-) Solstice.
frost
hoar
icicle
stalagtite - an "icicle" made of rock
caves
limestone
porous
crumpet
butter
margarine
oil
cooking
dinner
lunch
breakfast
mealtime
hungry
famished
unfed
starving
emaciated
skeletal
bones
dogs
wolves
(A dog is a wolf that wants to be loved.)
lupine
tendency
Some people definitely have wolf-like tendencies.
inclination
habits
nuns
monks
abbey
cathedral
spire
conical
point
finger
thumb
digit
number
count
Dracula ;-)
Frankenstein
chicken
Poultry bred to grow so quickly they're too heavy for their own legs to support them are widely known as Frankenchickens.
peck
bushel
I can't remember how many pecks make a bushel, but - along with poles and perches - they were printed on the back of children's exercise books sixty-odd years ago. I doubt if anyone's thought of them since.
ps: Except Wikipedia, which knows there are four pecks in a bushel.
container
basket
The big fellow who delivered flour to our bakery also collected grain from the smaller farms to take to the mill. One of the older farmers still used woven 'bushel baskets' measuring his grain by volume, not weight. It got weighed at the mill.
Mr Martin said they 'made my back creak a bit, but I could handle them.'. Lesser drivers would refuse to lift them, which was why 'Mr Martin' got all the 'awkward' jobs, delievering to flour lofts and cellars.
When he lowered the baskets onto the big platform scale at the mill he queried the weight. They averaged between three and three and quarter hundredweight. And that was proper English hundredweights of 112 pounds, not the emaciated American version at a mere 100.
364lbs. 'Lifted from a platform, so it wasn't a deadlift from the floor. That might have beaten me.'
weaving
Quote from: Gyppo on March 10, 2026, 10:49:58 PM364lbs. 'Lifted from a platform, so it wasn't a deadlift from the floor. That might have beaten me.'
That's 26 stone - two well-built lads. I knew a guy once who could lift 18 stone, but I think he'd have paled at half as much again.
tapestry
hanging
=====
Mr Martin had a powerful stereo in his lorry as well. Used to play 'rousing hymns' whilst driving, sit with one elbow out of the window singing along. 'Jerusalem' at 6am, On some quiet mornings we could hear him for about a hundred yard before he arrived. Always turned it off when he was parked though.
Used to plough with horses when he was a boy.
===
lynching
Quote from: Gyppo on March 11, 2026, 09:13:50 PMUsed to plough with horses when he was a boy.
===
He needed horses?
mob
chaotic
frantic
Quote from: Jo Bannister on March 12, 2026, 08:36:07 AMQuote from: Gyppo on March 11, 2026, 09:13:50 PMUsed to plough with horses when he was a boy.
===
He needed horses?
mob
I dare say he
could have pulled the plough himself ;-)
Where were we?
frantic
so...
panicking
frightened
uneasy
nervous
jittery
stuttering
jerky
beef
steer
direct
pilot
airplane
winged
angel
seraph
messenger
'Thus spake the Seraph and forthwith...'
information
data
collection
plate
bowl
cricket
locust
plague
contagion
sterilization
vasectomy
deferens
the vas that is cut
tube
Metro
subway
excavate
dig
shovel
trowel
garden
lawn
mower
scythe
Reaper
as in the Grim one
binder
The reaper-binder was a horse-drawn precursor to the combine harvester. I saw one in action once. It was as if a windmill was having its wicked way with a chariot.
classroom
education (hah!)
students
pupils
eyeballs
ogles
perv
scummy
rancid
unpleasant
delightful
charming
likeable
friendly
amiable
personable
kindly
decent
respectable
dainty
prissy
finicky
annoying
exasperating
fuming
meltdown
rage
uncontrolled
random
unplanned
spontaneous
combustion
fire
shoot
leaves
departs
goes
walks
promenades
beachfront
shore
time
Some sailors manage to spend their entire career on shore. They are scathingly referred to as 'Dockyard Stanchions' by those who spend most of their time bouncing around on the big blue 'oggin'.
prison - "doing time"
Dartmoor
I rode past Dartmoor Prison many years back, in the early hours of the morning. Just the sight of the place chilled my soul, quite literally. When I got nearer and saw the 'No Stopping' signs along the road it reminded me of the similar rules along the road near Porton Down, the germ warfare place on Salisbury Plain.
I'm surprised they felt the need of a sign to discourage people from loitering near a prison. Most people are only too eager to leave.
pony
One of the native British breeds.
measurement
which is apparently not standardized but is about 7 ounces
Only today - today - I came across it used as a measurement, and didn't understand what it meant. About half a pound, then.
length
slang
(As in 'he slipped her a length'.
Quote from: Jo Bannister on March 29, 2026, 01:33:55 PMI'm surprised they felt the need of a sign to discourage people from loitering near a prison. Most people are only too eager to leave.
I suspect it's just a legal thing so they can automatically 'move on' anyone who is 'loitering suspiciously', rather like the 'no photography' rules around military premises. Often not enforced, but there if needed.
dialect
local
Quite a few New Forest natives say 'turnt' for turned, and 'kilt' for killed.
There's a 14th century towerhouse across the lough from here, called Kilclief. It's said how it's spelled, except by the immediate locals who drop the C - "Kilief". Go figure.
neighbouring
adjacent
next
Jo, a pony seems to be a liquid measure used in pubs and bars for measuring out beer. I think that is where "pony up to the bar" comes from.
Is it? I thought the pony was referring to £20, which the customer was slapping down. See this language! - we need another one to explain it.
pending
approaching
departing
off
switch
flip
back
stabber ;-)
dagger
black
stygian
Styx
The dark river which is only ever crossed one way. Except for Charon The Boatman, who ferries the souls.
river
Nile
felucca - a small general-purpose sailing vessel used on the Nile and, more widely, in the eastern Mediterranean.
yacht
a large rather useless craft used mostly for signaling extreme wealth or possibly extreme debt
There's a kind of reverse snobbery about yachts. Real sailing people don't admit to owning one. They have a dinghy, or a sloop, or a cutter, or a ketch, or a yawl, or a hooker (and yes, that is a boat) - or indeed, just a boat. They mostly don't wear peaked caps and reefer jackets, either.
sloop
rigging
standing
The standing rigging holds the masts in place. The running rigging operates the sails.
unseated
deposed
coup
takeover
hostile
faces
visage
shattered (cf "Ozymandias")
hopes (Seeing as I couldn't use dreams, or empires.)
desires
wants
yearns
sadly
unhappiness
misery
company
business
Anyone who can pair misery with company is a woman after my own heart, Chick!
activity
busy
Misery LOVES company, not business, but other sad souls to weep with.
ant
If you see a stationary ant it's usually dead.
formic
the acid in an ant's bite (though actually it doesn't bite, it sprays)
sting
burn
ignite
torch (As an aronist's verb rather than source of illumination.)
flashlight
beam
sun
heliocentric
Galaxy (There may be cold galaxies out there which aren't based around a sun - I don't know - but ours definitely uses one for the central pivot.
Actually, Gyppo, most galaxies seem to have a super-massive black hole as their centre. Solar systems revolve around a single star like our sun.
chocolate
plain
Cheers, Jo. That makes complete sense. I think my rag-bag brain has been confusing terminologies ;-) Take note not to ask me for directions if you're ever lost in space.
"Sorry, can't help you. I'm a stranger here myself."
regular
and there are many rogue planets out there that have no star around which they orbit
so space is really weird
Quote from: Spell Chick on April 07, 2026, 02:11:10 PMand there are many rogue planets out there that have no star around which they orbit
so space is really weird
Making it a lot like down here, then.
metronome
arm
My paternal grandma had a proper metronome, with a polished wooden case and a hinged arm which wagged like a stern admonitory finger. It was adjusted by moving a weight up or down the length of the arm.
It fascinated me, quite possibly my first introduction to mechanical logic.
She often hid it away. Terrified I'd break it. She was terrified of everything, (War Damaged), although I didn't realise this until I was much older.
Of all the misfortunes that can befall us, being afraid of things that don't warrant it must be one of the worst.
weaponise
bullets
ammunition
stockpile
yarn
maybe that's just what I stockpile, but I have lots of it here
story
floor
as in a three-story building's different levels
And here we go again... Here, three stories are the various tales told by the accused to the police, his own legal representation and the court. The building has three storeys.
ceiling
fan
(I am a ceiling fan.
Why? Because without them I'd be able to see straight up to the rafters in my bungalow, and the building would be very cold.
supporter
beam
smile
teeth
How did we get such different versions of the same language? It's all so confusing.
Yes. But also rather charming.
gnaw
nibble
N?
rodent
hamster
guinea-pig
lettuce
a menu item that is preferred
salad
Caesar
thug
robber
(The thugs were a quasi-religious cult in India, who earned their living by strangling and robbing travellers.)
crab
The robber crab or coconut crab is a terrestrial species of giant hermit crab. Watch your step in coconut groves, because what falls on your head may be even worse than a coconut.
shell
crochet
there is a rather popular stitch in crochet that isn't available for knitting - the shell stitch
Afghan
A throw which is often crocheted rather than knitted, and which consists of a great many holes loosely tied together with wool.
Warrior
battles
Jo, I love that definition!
fights
attacks
migraine
hemicrania
skull
crossbones
pirate
doubloons
gold
silver
it took me a while to come up with doubloons because I thought I was in un un plus and when I got to un un plus I was pissed instead of nonplussed
:-) Love it!
bronze
coins
pennies
copper
buttons
which, according the rumors floating around over is, is the buttons on your constabulary's uniforms in times gone by which is why your police are coppers and ours are simply cops
at least that's the story that I have not confirmed in any way
Seems that may be an urban myth. Found this:
"Coppers" (later shortened to "cops") originated in the mid-19th century from the British slang verb "to cop," meaning to seize, catch, or arrest. A "copper" was, therefore, someone who "copped" criminals, deriving from the Old French caper or Latin capere. It was not originally derived from copper buttons or the phrase "constable on patrol".
zip
code
another myth dashed
hidden
buried
treasure
value
worth
equates
mathematics
division
army
standing
The tiny 'tax haven' state of Andorra has no standing army, but it is theoretically able draw from the pool of every able-bodied military aged citizen if necessary.
Seeing as many, many 'citizens' don't live there the logistics would be a nightmare.
But the thought of Andorran passport holding Billionaires suddenly being called up is rather amusing.
reclined
I think I'm right in saying that Andorra was involved in two wars with Germany at the same time. They were on the Allied side in the First World War, but were overlooked when the peace treaty was signed. They were also on the Allied side in the Second World War - though for them, legally, it was merely a continuation of a conflict which lasted some thirty years.
flat
earth
I'm not a Flat-Earther, but I stand in some awe at the sheer bloody-minded persistence of those who truly believe. They're like those aged Japanese soldiers, hiding out on some of the smaller pacific islands who didn't know the war had ended. The whole world had moved on, and some of them only realised when their island became a tourist resort and Japanese tourists turned up that the ragged old warriors could speak to.
https://mikedashhistory.com/2015/09/15/final-straggler-the-japanese-soldier-who-outlasted-hiroo-onoda/
Saturn
braid
The rings of Saturn are not only spectacular, they are spectacularly odd. In the middle of the F-ring are two ringlets which weave around one another, a bit like the double helix of DNA. They're known as the braided rings.
weave
basket
laundry
Chinese
Southampton used to have a Chinese laundry and it puzzled me, asa little wild boy who only who into 'the big town' occasionally. "Why do the Chinese have a laundry to themselves? Is there a reason why nobody else will wash their clothes for them?"
porcelain
Spode (Finest Bone China.)
Meissen
The first European hard-paste porcelain.
Wedgewood
Josiah
Famous on three counts: as founder of the famous Wedgwood pottery; as grandfather of both Charles Darwin and his wife Emma; and as a leading abolitionist in the anti-slavery movement.
pottery
lame
Lameness in horses is described as (a) hopping lame, (b) lame, or (c) pottery.
crippled
unsound
flawed
perfect
unblemished
virginal
harpsichord
thin
(Even when played with vigour and elan a harpsichord still sounds thin compared to even a battered old pub piano.)
obese
rounded
corner
angle
Perspective
opinion
view
panorama
exposure
aperture
hole
digging
miner
tunnels
badgers
honey
The honey badger is, pound for pound, the most aggressive creature on the planet.
bee
keeper
gate
wooden
timber
forest
boreal
green
inexperienced
newbie
N?
tyro
newbie (Sidles in slightly shamefaced to try again.)
starter
motor
I've always felt the starter motor in vehicles should be called a starting motor. I don't lose sleep over it, but it bugs me. After all, we don't call a fishing rod a fisher rod, do we?
automobile
horseless
carriage
bearing
demeanour
personality
character
flaws
blemishes
imperfections
blebs
pimples
zits
(Don't like the word at all, but it qualifies.)
bumps
collide
smashing
wonderful
awesome
remarkable
noteworthy
memorable
impressive
fantastic
unbelievable
concoction
mixture
concoction
Er - that echo again...
blend
merge
Jo: Never even saw your concoction.
I should hope you didn't! I don't show my concoction to just anybody!
combine
harvester
Glad to hear it, Jo. The Borgia women kept their concoctions private too ;-)
crops
haircut
years (It must be about twenty years since I last had my hair cut.)
decades
(It's about fifty since I did. But I've rather less than you.)
tens
decimal
point
direct
marshal
collect
As when you can see someone clearly marshalling their facts and thoughts before responding.
accumulate
gather
meet
collide
slam
door
portal
entrance
incoming
arrivals
strangers
visitors
nuisance (Except for a chosen few.)
pesky
annoying
mosquitoes
whine
complain
service
It's not a Complaints Department any more, it's a Customer Service Hub. But if you want something doing, send a letter addressed to the Complaints Department. Write it in big black letters on the envelope.
animal
for a time these were specially trained animals that helped people
now they are any pet whose owner went out and bought a little vest that says "Service animal" on it
It's only a matter of time before someone claims to have a service goldfish.
beast
Dromedary
hump
copulate
reproduce
Xerox
duplicate
replica
simulacrum
faux
imitation
forgery
coiner
mint
stamp
collector
is that some sort of phil something or other?
I looked it up
philatelist
which was not the word I had in mind but it is a phil thing
Of course, so is philistine...
gleaner
harvester
crops
barley
wine
I remember a drink called 'Barley Wine', which knocked over many young men who considered themselves to be otherwise mighty drinkers. I concede that it was definitely 'wobble juice', but I didn't like the taste so never truly engaged with it in hand to hand combat.
sherry
Box
I remember buying really cheap sherry by the box. I turned up with a box at a party one time and the hostess sighed and said, "Ah well... Put it in the kitchen with all the others. I'm sure the invitation said Bottle Party."
On the kitchen table there was a near wall of boxes with plastic spouts hanging out, looking like an off-licence 'special offer' display.
The best thing about 'box wines' is that once people got drunk enough there was nearly always some idiot who could be talked into lying on the kitchen floor, underneath a wine tap, trying to drink it as fast as it came out.
Occasionally it would be a girl, and when, inevitably she had to stop to breathe and the stuff poured all over her, she'd moan like buggery about her blouse getting soaked and quite often take it off. Usually about quarter of an hour before suddenly rushing to the window or the toilet to be sick.
The more determined ones, male and female alike, after 'making room', would settle back into a more steady drinking pattern.
===
pugilist
My sister in law like Cardboardeax or white wine in a box and would remove it from the box in order to take it to the beach. This is the one living on the Florida coast, so there was lots of beach time.
fighter
How much of life's rich pageant have I missed by not liking alcohol!
scrapper
fiesty
argumentative
Congressman
politician
statesman
governor
boss
hub
centre
middle
waist
midriff
stomach
gastric
bypass
Gastric bypass surgery is probably losing customers now with Ozempic
road
trip
fall
tumble
gymnast
backflip
unnecessary
pointless
dull
shiny
glittery
shimmer
coruscation
bedazzling
jewels
precious
luxury
overkill
mayhem
bloody
infuriating
madness
irresponsible
feckless
(Which, despite popular word twisting, doesn't mean an Irishman who can't get his leg over. Or indeed, in a spirit of equality, an Irish lass who can't get her leg under.)
waster
profligate
shameless
inveterate
gambler
player
conman
thief
robber
masked
camouflage
hidden
covert
undiscovered
mysterious
weird
normal
unsurprising
everyday
predictable
boring
auger
drill
routine
habit
nun
(they wear them)
monk
abbey
priory
nuns
wimple
headgear
flat 'at
What the rest of the world, ie not Yorkshire, calls a cap
beret
French
Paris
gay
Paris was described as gay long before the word was usurped to describe a particular rather narrow form of sexuality.
jolly
Roger ;-)
affirmative
as in "Roger that" to indicate a message was received
Makes you wonder who the original Roger was. And why they couldn't just say, "Yes."
yes
agreement
contract
killer ;-)
weed
hemp
sisal
rope
lasso
noose
hang
dangle
suspend
upward
gravity
downward
beneath
under
inferior
untermensch
German
Hanoverian
A German sports horse. At one time considered world-class, until it was noticed that they don't generally have the brain power to go with their impressive physique.
steed
mount
copulation
breeding
cross
irate
furious
wrong
at least that's when I'm at my most furious
convinced
believer
faith
religiosity
gullible
G?
questioning
Gee, indeed!
asking
begging
plea
innocent
It seems all the criminals are innocent right up until they realize a plea deal is their best shot of less time in punishment.
guilty
pleasures
gastronomic
delicious
tasty
salty
S?
crisps (or if our colonial cousins prefer, chips)
noisy
Reading is FUNdamental and I thought I was in the Plus one. Dang!
loud
thunderous
knocking
"Open Up! It's The Police." (Sometimes, in spoken words, you can hear the capitals.)
rapping
annoying
bothersome
nuisance
phonecalls
mobile
nursery
crib
pram
buggy
which is what we call them over here and not related to insects at all
mosquito
aircraft
helicopter
jet
ram
A ramjet uses the force of air entering the intake to aid combustion, and is therefore most useful in high speed aircraft and missiles.
block
A 'raddle block' is strapped to a ram so the shepherd can tell by the coloured mark on their hindquarters which of the ewes in his his flock have been served by the randy creature. Or indeed if the ram is getting too old and can't fulfil his duties.
hazard
water
one of the hazards on a golf course
ocean
wide
broad
woman
Eve
(of) destruction
I've long hoped to meet one day a woman called Eve who works for a demolition firm.
fracture
break
snap
cards
birthday
candles
beeswax
I make beeswax candles - well, nightlights - occasionally. They smell nicer than ordinary white wax candles, and much nicer than some of the more exotic 'scented' candles.
hive
skep
the oldest form of bee-hive, woven out of straw, still used today by bee-keepers needing a temporary home for their charges
evidently a good word would be(e)
temporary
short-term
permanent
ink
pen
corral
fencing
swordplay
cutlass
dagger
stiletto
agony
Have you ever worn really high heels? Well, not you, Gyppo, you just have to imagine.
I have worn those shoes. To work - but then immediately changed into scrubs and wore tennis shoes all day.
Someone wanted to know if the "knock me down and fuck me shoes" belonged to me. They were bright red and ...
well, yeah, they were mine.
painful
lashes
mascara
another invention of the woman-hating devil
brush
fox
Vulpes
red
herring
silver
gold
filling
overflow
inundation
flood
ebb
tides
movement
activity
scheduled
timetable
prediction
foresight
preview
trailer
hitch
marry
wed
groom
horse
My old editor used to insist that a groom looks after a horse, a bride needs a bridegroom.
barn
farm
livestock
pigs
Tamworth
escapees
freedom
constriction
pinch
steal
robbery
theft
criminal
unlawful
roguish
ne'er-do-well
villain
proper
In the underworld anyone can be a crook, but you have to be something a bit 'above and beyond' to be called a 'proper villain'.
mastermind
haughty
snob
pompous
elitist
kingly
regal
bearing
demeanour
posture
carriage
brougham
a light four-wheel horse-drawn carriage; the Uber of its day
Victorian
empire
British
Isles
Have you noticed, we're not allowed to refer to the British Isles any more. It offends the Irish. They prefer the term "Britain and Ireland". Funny how they're not equally offended by the name Irish Sea, although Ireland is only one of the four countries of the British Isles bordering it!
aisles
nave
altar
sacrificial
disposable
I remember reading - back in the late 60's - a serious treatise on protective clothing for motorcyclists. The testers dragged weighted dummies, dressed in various items over different surfaces, concrete, tarmac, gravel, etc, to test their 'abrasion resistance'..
They claimed that an inch thick 'sacrificial shield' of some plastics would abrade slowly enough to protect fragile skin and bone, but the frictional heat would likely cook the first few layers of skin.
Leather, or a few layers of waxed cotton, still came out of the tests pretty well. Later of course Kevlar and its variants came along. Which also opened up the possibility for dickheads to ride around looking like a day-glow sales price sticker, or 'a Bloody Mivvi' for anyone who remembers those vivid ice lollies.
Some of the modern materials are a nightmare for paramedics trying to cut away clothing so they can reach the underlying injuries.
Tossed
My BIL was T-boned by a deer while riding his bike at speed. It completely knocked the bike out from under him and bent the frame. He always wears full leathers, ride for the slide theory. He got a little bit of road rash on one elbow where the leather was completely worn away by the slide, otherwise he was unhurt. And that was the end of his first Harley.
bull
gored
skirt
No, it doesn't have holes in it, it has bits let in to add to the flare.
pencil
a type of skirt
graphite
what the "lead" in a pencil actually is
lubricant
Some specialised mechanical greases contain graphite.
Once you get into 'specialised' lubricants you start to wonder how the world managed for centuries with just ordinary oil.
Graphite was the lubricant of choice when I was roller-skating. I had a free supply because they used it in the print works.
grease
movie
starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John
film
which is what we in the Old World call a movie
coating
layer
cake
wedding
I remember someone saying that women who divorce and re-marry frequently are, in fact, secretly addicted to wedding cake.
marriage
ceremony
pompous
arse The two words are often seen together.
butt
joint
connection
splice
graft
skin
tissue
paper
news
topical
recent
yesterday
past
future
present
gift
birthday
card
wool
You card raw wool with a paddle full of pins, to align the fibres and remove debris.
cotton
thread
T is in both, though.
silk
worms
caterpillars
moths
nocturnal (Mostly, although there are a few day-flying species. Such as the cinnabar moth, which has gorgeous red and black patterns.)
moonshine
whiskey
poitin
or poteen if you prefer the English rather than the Irish spelling for this unlicensed distillation
vodka
spirit
enthusiasm
zeal
devotion
adoration
worship
mayor
By tradition, mayors and magistrates are entitled to the honorific His/Her Worship. God knows why. I've known good and bad examples of both, but I've never known one you'd be tempted to kneel before.
Governor
boss
manager
director
movie
silent
mute
swan
lake
ocean
Pacific
surf
board
chairman
damper
The chairman's job is to damp down spurious chat and personal attacks and keep any committee focussed on the matter they're supposed to be discussing.
chimney
smoke
tobacco
plant
factory
industrial
manufacturing
business
affairs
clandestine
undercover
book
Well?
log
data
insufficient
(Used to be a common response from computers back in the old days.)
deficient
substandard
poor
wealthy
rich
creamy
butter
churned
whipped
beaten
downtrodden
underclass
peasantry
labourers
navvies
Named for the "navigators" who dug Britain's canals at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
canals
tunnel
One of the longest tunnels on the British canal network is the Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent & Mersey Canal in Staffordshire. It's more than a mile and a half long. Narrowboat vacationers have been known to jump ship and take the bus instead.
legging
The strenuous activity of moving your otherwise horse-drawn narrow boat through tunnels by pushing with your feet whilst laid down. No job for a claustrophobe.
Apparently it was a specialist trade - you could hire leggers at the start of a tunnel and pay them off at the end. It was considered quite a dangerous occupation. Not too bad in a low tunnel, where you could do it lying on your back on the boat's roof. Otherwise you had to lie on a plank veered out nearly to the wall, where falling off or getting a leg crushed was an ever-present possibility.
hose
pipe
I missed out on that bit of info about 'professional' leggers. Seems like today is a good day for learning new stuff.
Every day is a good day for learning new stuff. One of the things that sets writers apart from other people, apart from not getting paid as well, is recognising the fact.
organ
piano
forte
strength
grip
supinated
there are a couple different ways to grab a barbell
one is a pronated grip, another is a supinated grip, and a third is a mixed grip
The fourth, and preferable, way is to take a detour round it en route to the cafe.
flat
iron
ferrous
magnet
Most scrap dealers have a magnet somewhere on their person, as a quick check for ferrous or non ferrous metals. Some claim they can tell by the smell, or even the taste after a quick lick, but the magnet is infallible.
field
trip
Mum would sometimes turn up at short notice and take my eldest daughter out of school for a day for a 'field trip'. They'd pack a couple of small rucksacks and go for a little 'walkabout'.
The school never argued about this ;-)
stumble
imbalance
scales
weight
volume
knob
My best mate, who had a quiet sense of humour, obtained some twist knobs for a milling machine at work which were calibrated from 0-20. Used to set the depth of cut in thousandths of an inch. He fitted them to the stereo he used for parties, with two massive speaker cabinets four feet tall and about two foot square. Matt-black, very impressive. In his bedroom they could make the walls shake, and he hardly ever used them much beyond number 7.
The volume at 20 was no louder than it was at 10, but people believed it was much louder. Volume is in the eye of the beholder ;-)
door
frame
=====
The annoying man upstairs when we lived a flat bragged about how secure his door was, and that it had a very expensive 6-lever Chubb lock to protect his privacy.
As a proclaimed Satanist he probably had a few things to hide.
We were invited to visit - once, soon after our arrival- and he soon realised we were on very different pages and only ever spoke after that to complain about petty things, such as my motorcycle being leaned against a wall. "Haven't you ever heard of a proper stand. What if it falls over on someone? It's probably a breach of your tenancy agreement."
I suspect I was supposed to be frightened by his satanic status ;-)
On the way out I looked his highly vaunted 'security door' and realised that although the lock may have been very good, the frame was secured to wall with simple screws into the blockwork.
Just to piss him off I told him I could push it in, still locked, with a car jack and length of 4x2 braced against the railings on the landing. He didn't like that, and a few days later we had a visit from the police because 'A Concerned Citizen' had reported the new tenants carrying firearms into their flat.
Once I'd shown the copper that everything I owned was legal he apologised for bothering me. I asked if he could tell me who the 'concerned citizen' was.
"I couldn't possibly do that, Sir." Then deliberately looked straight up at the flat above, and smiled.
===
picture
landscape
bucolic
rustic
homely
domestic
national
debt
(Politicians talk about 'The National Debt' as if it's a random event, something beyond their control.. They're the ones who borrowed the bloody money.)
credit
score
twenty
number
dimes
counting
Dax (age 5 and going to start kindergarten [school] in a few more weeks) was working with his mother on a 500 piece puzzle. I asked him if he could count to 500. He said no. I asked if he could count to 100. He said yes. So I explained that all that happened next was one hundred and one and then one hundred and two and eventually two hundred and one, etc.
His eyes gleamed as he realized he could, if he chose to, count to 500.
enumerating
Patti: It's always a special moment when you see the light come on in their eyes as something clicks.)
fingers
and if you want to count higher than ten, take your socks off
toes
nails
hammer
Scots
Edward I, King of England from 1272 to 1307, was known as the Hammer of the Scots
Brits
Yanks
tugs ;-)
harbour
port
starboard
navigation
chart
record (As a verb.)
tape
measure
inchworm
slow-moving
traffic
highway
turnpike
fees
payment
remuneration
cash
ready
as in, ready money
prepared
Scout
motto: Be prepared
reconnoitre
reconnaissance
knowledge
Which is the whole point of any reconnaissance.
information
which is simply not the same as knowledge
wisdom
which has very little to do with either of them
practical
Knowledge and information can both - sometimes - solve problems. Wisdom can avoid them arising at all.
utility
vehicle
transport
elephant
Not in central London, obviously...
room
where some elephants hang out
ignore
best thing to do with them
shun
delete
recover
which is what I spent yesterday doing when I hid a file from myself and couldn't find it
I had not deleted it, but that didn't help at all. But after an hour of work - I found the damn thing
Well done. Nasty hour, though.
improve
betterment
growth
markets
financial
planning
design
blueprint
outline
periphery
circumference
around
proximate
close
nearby
immediate
urgency
panic
stations
depots
warehouse
forklift
Most warehouses have at least one, often many.
pallets
bonfire
how to turn one of the simplest, most useful devices invented into a threat to life and limb: build a really big bonfire with hundreds of them, really close to other people's houses
combustion
flashover
extreme
commonplace
toilet
That's a pretty common place. Nearly every home has one ;-)
bathroom
And it really wasn't so long ago when not having a toilet was the norm.
My "throne" is better than King Henry VII's
I had four until last week, when I had one taken out to make me a bit more storage. I mean, I live alone. Even if I didn't, who needs four?
shower
thunderstorm
lightning
conductor
symphony
classical
traditional
historic
ancient
archaic
A?
primordial
Oops ;-)
Soup
'When your earliest ancestor first slithered from the primordial soup of pre-history he was already inherently evil, and all the subsequent generations have merely refined this family trait.'
From an age when insults were an artform rather than single word expletives.
chicken
scared
twitchy
nervous
disposition
affect
influence
manipulate
shadowy
grey
black
ebony
ivory
from another song by Michael Jackson
I'm full of lyrics this morning.
tooth
fairy
queen
elegant
stylish
vogue
magazine
clip
shear
lamb
ewe
hogget
calf
steer
cut
blade
sword
broad (of that ilk)
narrow
boat
clipper
cigar
C!
tobacco
pipe
drain
clog
shoes
farrier
nails
hammer
stirrup
together with hammer and anvil, the three ossicle bones in your inner ear
Mongols
It is said their stirrups made their archery skills so much the better that they were able to overtake much of eastern Europe.
horde (not to be confused with hoard)
Although Ghengis Khan had both ;-)
mob
rule
govern
dominate
control
panel
committee
board
key
lock
hair
plait
braid
weave
tweed
Harris
I once had a Harris tweed jacket. Incredibly hard wearing.
Lewis
Obeying a logic of their own, the Island of Harris and the Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides are conjoined. Thus neither of them is in fact an island. They may be considered the smallest continent on the planet, or just an example of Scottish stubbornness, the inhabitants of neither end being prepared to accept the inhabitants of the other end's name for the place.
gun
The Lewis Gun was a surprisingly versatile and widely used weapon in both world wars and after.
cannon
ball
dance
hall
doorway
jamb
lintel
cross-piece
fishwife
cursing
(Fishwives were often quoted as the most extreme examples of foul-mothed harridans.
Quote: "He looked like a mild-mannered man, but his language when thwarted would have made a fishwife blush.)
blaspheme
Quote from: Gyppo on August 06, 2026, 10:24:22 AMFishwives were often quoted as the most extreme examples of foul-mothed harridans.
Which made her a cross piece!
irreverent
heretic
atheist
unbeliever
sceptic
factcheck
verify
corroborate
independent
free
liberty
fraternity
brotherhood
monks
Cistercian
Benedictine
Franciscan
Jesuit
god-botherers
zealots
cultists
obsessives
compulsive
habitual
regular
mismatch
dissimilar
Opposite
matching
pair
couple
hounds
Hounds, to those In The Know, come in couples. If a pack has an odd number in it, it's described as ten and a half couple rather than twenty-one.
pursues
To the none rural types 'Ten and a half couple sounding in the covert' would probably never translate to twenty one dogs making a racket in the woods.
Chases
it certainly wouldn't have to me
but that's probably more due to my brand of English
There's nothing wrong with your English, Chick. The problem is with a certain brand of Englishman/woman who think it's clever to use the language to disguise their meaning rather than clarify it. It's a form of snobbishness.
jumps
A case in point. Steeple-chases were so named by wealthy people - all right, men - who raced their horses across country from one church spire to the next. Nobody's done that for two hundred years. All steeple-chases take place on race-courses. What separates them from flat races is that they involve jumps.
obstacles
=====
I've never pondered about the term steeple chasing, but now it makes perfect sense for the crazy gentlemen of yesteryear who would make wagers on the strangest of challenges.
=====
I've also read somewhere that French horse jumps are nowhere near as solid as ours. Which comes as great shock to French jockeys - and their mounts - who will sometimes gallop through their native jumps, given a sufficiently robust horse and bloody-minded rider
===
interference
meddling
tinkering
mechanic
spanners
(I've never taken to the American term wrench, or wrenching, the latter is what you do to a stuck door to force it open.
To me a monkey wrench is a shifting (adjustable) spanner. And pipe wrenches are all called Stillsons, after a leading make. The larger ones 12" or more are a dangerous improvised weapon.
vice
squad
team
crew
assembly
gathering
meeting
board
games
fun
so they tell me
perception (a matter of) A sadist's fun us another's torment.)
view
scenery
panorama
wide
vista
Windows (Vista was one of their least popular offerings, but as always there are a diehard few who swear it was the perfect operating system and everything since has been a complete waste of time.
French
I always wanted to have a bedroom with French windows opening onto the garden. Now I've got one. I've also got field mice, so I keep the French windows closed and open the windows instead. Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
I sometimes think I might wish the same if I ever get my 'stable door' for the front of my bungalow.
=====
Letter
=====
I have a story about condoms being referred to as 'french letters'.
When I was learning to be a tutor there was a lovely but terribly serious French lady on the course. Her English was excellent, but very formal. She also worked as a translator and was sometimes called in by Plymouth police to help with French visitors/prisoners.
She told us about a late night call when they'd found a passed out drunk, with no recognisable ID, but who did have a letter in his back pocket which none of them could read.
"We can make a stab at printed French, M'Dear, which is how we know what it is, but handwriting baffles everyone who's on duty at this time of night. So we wondered if you could come in and read this French letter for us."
She could hear much laughter in the background - "You English are strange people" - but went in to help them.
"They seemed to think it was hilarious that I was reading a letter written in French. Can you explain this?"
Most of the other would-be tutors went quiet so I seized the nettle.
"English slang. A french letter is English slang for a condom. Which would be a bit difficult to read.
Her face went blank for a couple of seconds and then she had a brief bout of hysterical laughter, miming the action of holding the object up and frowning as if she was trying to read it.
Then she calmed down.
"In French is un capote anglais. An English overcoat."
The course tutor said this was a fine example of being willing to answer difficult questions. The other students seemed to think I'd killed a good joke.
Gyppo
alphabet
cipher
encoding
memories
apparently sleep encodes your day into your memories
I haven't been sleeping so well lately
I have no idea what I did yesterday
You think you've got problems? Sometimes I've no idea why I've just walked into the kitchen.
history
past
backwards
forwards
upwards
floating
weightless
I have experienced weightlessness. When a small plane performs a stall turn (it's not recommended in a large plane) at the top of the climb, just before it falls away into a dive, you hit zero gravity. And however tightly you're strapped in - and in a small plane with an open cockpit, you make damn sure you're strapped in tightly - you feel yourself floating up against the restraints. Odd; but rather wonderful.
poised
I've felt it in a glider, Jo, under the same circumstances, 'Odd; but rather wonderful' describes it well.
In a glider there is also a surprisingly long moment of silence surrounding the weightlessness. Gliding is far more noisy than you'd expect, with the noise coming from the air rushing over the aircraft. (It truly screams in a 120mph dive) But at that point of suspension in a stall the air stops moving, so no whistle or hiss, and a complete floppy deadness in the controls.
I only had one week of gliding, up above The Cairngorms but it's branded deep into my memory. Thanks for reminding me.
Never tried gliding. Always fancied it.
alert
prepared
before
prior
yesterday
history
geography
lessons
(I mentioned the other day that I'd not had a holiday - as such - for many years.
Grandaughter spun the globe and told me to put my finger on it without looking. I went for the Northern Hemisphere, there's too much water in the bottom half.
Albania? Must admit to no burning desire to check it out.
I have a friend who's idea of a holiday is going to some country he's never been before and climbing its highest mountain. He was in Albania last year. He liked it. I'm not sure of his criteria, though.
teachers
pet ;-)
stroke
fondle
caress
hug
squeeze
compress
tighten
belts
cummerbunds
tuxedo
penguin
Linux
Android
system
organisation
company
business
trade
swap
exchange
labour
(Labour exchange always sounded more honest to me than the 'branded' and somewhat colourful Job Centre with its 'Joke Club' reputation.)
toil
They seem to think that if they change the name of something, they'll immediately solve all its problems and associated downsides without altering anything else at all.
work
=====
In the 'joke centre' they had one board labelled 'local jobs'. One of them was in in Edinburgh, which would have been one hell of a daily commute.
When I pointed this out to the counter staff they said it was there to 'fill out the board so as not to discourage Job Seekers with empty spaces'.
They seemed puzzled that I wasn't applying for it.
I moved it to the 'other areas' board, and as I left I saw the woman putting it back where they thought it should be.
===
Clearly labouring under the misapprehension that the primary function of the Job Centre was to provide her with a job.
function
room
bed
sleep
unconscious
disorientated
bewildered
When I first started falling for girls Mum would notice that I'd 'gone off my food' and assume I was 'sickening for something'. Dad would just smile and say "Poor lad. You're feeling bewitched, bothered and bewildered. It'll pass."
puzzled
It was a song around that time, Gyppo.
mazed
The Cornish use it for puzzled/bewildered/etc.
'The poor maid just stood there, looking proper mazed.'
=====
Jo. I remember hearing that song on the big old valve radio in the caravan. Ella Fitzgerald. The magic of radio was that there were no faces, no distractions. If you liked the sound of a voice it didn't matter at all what the person looked like or where they came from.
corn
Over here where we have cornfields that stretch for damn ever, after picking the corn, some folks will build a maze and charge people to get lost in it. Or something like that.
Indian
"When I grew tall as the Indian corn
my father had nothing to lend me.
But he gave me his big old powder horn,
and his woodsman's skill to befriend me."
- "The Ballad of William Sycamore", Stephen Vincent Benét
Ocean
Southern
rough
In a memoir from one of the solo round-the-world yacht racers they commented on just how rough and wild The Southern Ocean could be. And how essential it was to take the risks if you if you truly wanted to win.
'It's the kind of place where you either break records or your own neck.'
R?
The thing about the Southern Ocean, that doesn't apply to any of the others, is that no land gets in its way. The winds just keep on thundering round. Even Cape Horn barely slows them down.
wild
untamed
civilized
orderly
conduct
baton
stick
adhere
glue
tube
cathode
ray
gun
weapon
bow
salutation
greeting
card
playing
music
orchestra
pit
fire
sack
tote
carry
farmer's
a Farmer's Carry is a weightlifting things where you wander around carrying a couple kettlebells, dumbbells, or barbells
I've never seen a farmer carrying any of those things. Sacks of feed, yes; a random bit of machinery just fallen off a tractor, yes; a sheep, yes; a grudge, certainly. But none of the above.
wife
spouse
My dad used to carry 10 gallon milk canisters to the truck. One in each hand. They were aluminum so the can was lighter than if they had been steel, but that's over 80 pounds per hand. He then had to hoist them each up to the truck bed where someone else placed them for transport.
Damn sight more than I could do, now or ever.
husband
father
sire
stud
collar
Patti: Your dad was still a strong man though. Those milk pails were smaller US gallons. Our gallons weight 10 pounds, not 8.
Jo: I believe 'the farmer's walk' is a strong man competition thing involving both strength and distance carried. Based on that flat-footed walk with a heavy bucket or sack hanging from each straight arm. Grip strength comes into it.
nab
rocks (The Nab Rocks mark one of the entrances to the Solent and are surmounted by The Nab Tower to warn sailors of this hazard.)
cradle
c?
infants
C indeed, Gyppo. Sorry.
creche
nursery
I once saw a joke about an 'adult creche' where wives could leave their husbands whilst they were shopping. It was like a giant shed, with tools and materials so they could make something whilst 'the wife' was spending their money. Supervised by older men in warehouse coats, so no pretty assistants to worry the wife.
I saw two problems with this concept. 1) Think of the arguments when the shopping was finished, but the project wasn't. 2) What did they do with the more 'metro-sexual' type who probably didn't know which end of a chisel to hold?
There's a bathroom supplies warehouse I pass, which has a sign outside: "Husbands choosing tiles must have a note from wife".
garden
flowers
glaciers
floes
growler
a bit of drift ice, often encountered in flotillas
dog
bitch
How did this come to be a term of abuse? Most bitches are delightful companions.
whine
just one more use for this delightful word
complain
disgruntled
cross
purposes
intent
meaning
sense
perception
view
opinion
reality
factual
honest
frank
stamp
Stamps going through the sorting machinery are automatically cancelled at a quite phenomenal rate. Letters the machine misses, or are too big/thick for the automated process, are 'franked' by hand with a rubber stamp, or even a squiggle with a marker pen if the pad runs dry. The object is to make sure no stamp can be used twice.
There are solvents which can be used to remove the franking ink, and some shady types sell these recycled stamps for about half their face value. But you need to do it on a fairly commercial - and totally illegal - scale to make it worthwhile.
These are the same people who used to 'wash' old school MOT certificates, and refill them with false entries ;-)
Pigs
our own Frank's dog
I think you missed one, Chick.
boar
spear
A boar spear is a specialised tool for hunting wild boar on foot. It has a crosspiece just above the head because, apparently an angry skewered boar would otherwise push itself right up the shaft to get at the hunter.
I like their attitude. A very different beast from those cute and placid little pink or spotted piggies in children's stories.
Every year when relatively domesticated pigs are turned out into the new Forest to eat the fallen acorns people are amazed just how 'stroppy ' they can get when you encroach on their territory.
I read Gyp's entire post and looked for a single word and my brain just went somewhere else. Sorry.
tomahawk
Pigs are intelligent, powerful and surprisingly fast on their trotters. I treasure the memory of a TV vet trying to inject a Mangalica sow. You never heard a scream like it, and it wasn't the pig.
bury
My mum used to say anyone could agree to bury the hatchet. The secret was to bury it and not mark the spot.
head
(If you really feel the need to bury a hatchet you could locate it in your enemy's head.)
tails
pursuit
hunt
ball
The English aristocracy at play
sphere
globe
theatre
cinema
organ
In the days of silent movies they often had an organ, and a man who played music to - supposedly- match the action on-screen.
piano
strings
along
with
groups
collections
museum
dusty (Popular perception, although in reality many of them aren't.)
antiques
old
ancestral
precursor
before
ahead
leading
winning
triumphant
defeated
beaten
whipped
flogged
scourge
torment
Inquisition
appointment
apparently, if the Spanish Inquisition wished to put you under their deeply uncomfortable spotlight, they were polite enough to make an appointment first
hospital
ward
dependent
family
genus
type
sort
arrange
organise
plan
Idea
scheme
plot
gunpowder
fireworks
pyrotechnics
fun
Valeria the Moldovan has a different slant on fireworks.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ikexoKf5cz0?feature=share
games
board
timber
logging
clear-cut
gone
removed
severed
chopped
messy
neat
ox
neat is an old term for horned oxen; hence neatsfoot oil
span
cross
angry
disturbed
agitated
cranky
grumpy
Any more dwarfs out there?
Happy
delighted
gleeful
cheery
merry
intoxicated. 'God rest ye merry gentlemen'.
drunk
blotto
inebriated
sozzled
whiskey
moonshine
terminator
the line between the lit and unlit sides of the moon
Schwarzenegger
back
reverse
obverse
tails (in a coin)
wagging
happy
jovial
(There's a word you don't often hear these days. Whether through a general lack of joviality, or a paucity of vocabulary I'm not inclined to speculate.)
chuckle
burble
streams chuckle, brooks burble. It's just the way it is and nothing can be done about it.
fountain
wisdom
learning
sagacity
Plato
Greek
philosophy
creed
belief
understanding
philosophy
system
S?
organisation
enterprise
venture
attempt
choice
pick
guitar
strings
cords
hawsers
mooring
dockside
wharf
jetty
harbor
protect
safety
catch
trawler
net
gross
as in net income and gross income
total
sum
entirety
whole
meal
I learned a long time ago that most bakery customers have no idea there's a very real difference between wholemeal and wheatmeal bread. "Why does one cost more than the other, they're both brown aren't they?"
We had one customer who saw us adding a malt extract - a very dark brown liquid - to the wheatmeal dough, and he told everyone we were colouring the white dough so we could charge extra for it ;-)
When I explained he tapped his finger on the side of his nose and said "Ah, a trade secret then. I'll keep quiet."
breakfast
cereal
oats
barley