canticle: (noun) (pronounced: cant ah cull) a hymn or chant, typically
part of a religious service. Well, I don't care what Gary told you. "On Top of Spaghetti" is not a canticle,
and you can't sing it in church.
capacious: (adj.) roomy; spacious;
ample. Yes. We find our accommodations to be quite capacious. Now get out.
caparison: (noun) an ornamental covering for a horse's saddle or
harness. Make a comparison of the caparisons, and then buy me the most gaudy one for Old Glue Foot.
capo: (noun) a clamp that fastens to the neck of a stringed
instrument, such as a guitar, that raises the tuning by a chosen amount; a captain in the Mafia (short for "caporegime").
If you're going to be a capo for the Godfather, you can't use a capo on your guitar. It just gets too confusing, if
you know what I mean.
capriccio: (noun) a whim. On a capriccio, we knocked over
the closetool.
capricious: (adj.) unpredictable, whimsical, fickle.
The man moved capriciously through the crowd, lifting wallets as he went.
captious: (adj.) critical; pedantic; nit-picking. When the
boss measured the widths of our ties... that was just being captious.
carelessity: (noun) the ability to care about something. My
level of carelessity was at an all time low for this year's Super Bowl.
carillon: (noun) (pronounced: care-ah-lon) doorbell.
Alfred, would you so terribly mind answering the carillon?
carmine: (adj.) a vivid crimson color. The car of mine is
carmine.
carnal
knowledge: (noun) sexual intercourse,
and a 1971 movie. So... let me get this straight. Carnal knowledge doesn't mean you want to know all the carnies
at the circus... but it actually does mean that. Who, boy! Am I confused.
carouse: (verb) to drink copious amounts of liquor and enjoy oneself
with others in a noisy, lively sort of way. After carousing all night, Sir Basil was often found asleep on the floor
of his pub.
casque: (noun) a helmet. It is a wise person who wears a casque when cycling.
castigate: (verb) to scold, rebuke, tell-off. Our cat castigated us after we returned home
from the long weekend.
catarrh: (noun) (pronounced cah-tar, which rhymes with guitar) mucus; rheum; nasty discharge.
Hey, you got catarrh on my guitar!
catch-22: (noun) (from the novel by Joseph Heller) a problematic
situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem. I wouldn't necessarily call
it a catch-22, my boy. But how can you possibly make an educated decision about your education unless you are first
educated?
catch-as-catch-can: (adj.) (this phrase is derived from an
old style of wrestling, where participants were allowed to use many "moves" that are no longer allowed, such as
tripping and hitting below the belt) by any means possible; improvising with what you have. Since the hurricane,
it's been pretty much catch-as-catch-can for those people left in the storm's path.
caterwaul: (verb) to make a shrill howling sound such as that of
a cat; to yowl; to wail. Yeah, we heard you boys caterwauling out here. And like I told you before, if you want
to see Miss Kitty you'll have to pay your two bits at the door, just like everyone else. Not go on and get!
catharsis: (noun) release; purification; cleansing; purgation (the noun form of cathartic)
After dating Mindy for two years, Carl found burning her effigy wasn't enough of a catharsis. Luckily, the police stopped
him before he could progress from there.
cathartic: (adj.) therapeutic; liberating; invigorating. Francis
found trips to the natural history museum to be quite cathartic, whereas they bored his poor wife to tears.
cattywhumpus: (adj.) awry, askew, out-of-sorts. Her eyes were all cattywhumpus on her head,
but she still was a pretty good cook.
caveat: (noun) (pronounced: cav-vee-ought) warning;
admonition; caution; qualification. The only caveat with dating my daughter is that you have to wear this explosive
collar. If you don't have her home by ten... Oh, well.
cavort: (verb) to frolic; to caper; to prance; to gambol; to
romp. The only caveat about Larry's nightly cavorting was the censorious nature of his wife.
censorious: (adj.) disapproving; stern; hypercritical. After
calling her gracile, she looked at me in a censorious sort of way.
cerement: (noun) (pronounced: seer-mint) waxed cloth
for wrapping a corpse. It's part of my pre-arrangement plan. If I'm going to buy a coffin before I die, I'm going
to sleep in it, and if I'm going to have my cerements, I'm going to wear them.
chagrined: (adj.) annoyed; irked; peeved. We were all chagrined
when we realized the cost and the effort to receive the rebate was more costly than the rebate.
chamfer: (verb) in carpentry, to make a symmetrical sloping edge. We want everything in
our home to be chamfered. It's the latest rage, you know.
Chanticleer: (noun) (from the French "chante cler," to sing
clearly) a name for a rooster, often used in fairy tales. First, it's a sparrow. Second, I don't know how
you can tell what sex it is. I'm not even sure they can. So calling it Chanticleer is, well... just silly.
charlatan: (noun) fake; imposter; quack. The ducks quickly
came to realize that he was no quack doctor after all. Why, he was nothing but a charlatan!
charnel: (noun) short for "charnel house," which
is a place where dead bodies are laid to rest; a tomb; associated with the dead. Oh! Carnal knowledge.
I thought you said charnel knowledge. That's why I parked at the graveyard. We can go somewhere
else if you want.
charwoman: (noun) a woman employed to clean houses or offices.
Tell the charwoman that we won't be needing her today. I feel like cleaning toilets!
chary: (adj.) (pronounced: cherry, like the fruit) cautiously or suspiciously reluctant
to do something. When she was chary about eating the cherries, we suspected that they had been poisoned.
chasuble: (noun) (pronounced: chaz-u-bull) an ornate outer garment
used by a priest when performing mass. It's really hard to find a chasuble that will fit your cat.
chattel: (noun) any item of property other than real estate.
My wife got the house in the divorce, and I got the chattel.
cheder: (noun) a Jewish religious school for children.
Papa! Papa! We learned in the cheder that cheddar is kosher.
cheeky: (adj.) rude; sassy; mischievous. The nerve of the cheeky young man, to fart before
my wife, when it was plain to see it was her turn.
cheroot: (noun) a cheap cigar. Hey, buddy! You can’t
smoke that cheroot in here.
chicanery: (noun) deception by trickery or sophistry; trickery.
We were not surprised when the candidate was accused of chicanery.
chiliastic: (adj.) (pronounced: kill-ee-ass-tick) a religious
or political group seeking solutions to current crises through rapid transformations of society or politics; millenarian.
It's like ripping off a band aid quickly. If we take a chiliastic approach and nuke all life on the planet, then we're
assured of a thousand years of peace, if not more.
chimerical: (adj.) (pronounced: ki-mer-ick-al) unreal; imaginary; visionary; improbable;
existing only as the product of an unchecked imagination, as if imagination can or should be checked. It's time for
your chimerical friends to go home, Bob. It's medication time.
chipper: (adj.) cheerful; high spirited; exuberant. You
sure are chipper after being on hold all morning long with the IT department.
chiromancy: (noun) (pronounced: ki-ro-man-cy) palm reading.
I can tell from your chiromancy that you will marry a girl named Nancy, but the wedding won't be very fancy.
chivvy: (verb) to tell someone repeatedly to do something. Josh
was chivvied into finally taking out the trash.
chock-a-block: (adj.) jam-packed; wall to wall; crowded. The old lady's house
was chock-a-block with cats.
chortle: (verb) a snorting, joyful laugh or chuckle. “Pardon me,” I said, shortly
before being fired, “but that was a chortle and not a guffaw.”
chrestomathy: (noun) a collection of selected literary passages, often by one author and especially
from a foreign language. The chrestomathy was mostly a collection of bizarre words that nobody uses anymore.
chromo: (noun) short for "chromolithograph;" a colour
picture printed by lithography, the process in which a surface is treated to repel ink, so the printing plate is the negative
of what the final product is. We have several very nice chromos on the wall, but my favourite is the crying clown.
chuff: (verb) to move with regular sharp puffing sounds.
The old steam train was chuffing down the tracks.
churlish: (adj.) crass; truculent; boorish; rude. Now, now, Geoffrey.
Let's not be churlish. We must learn to tolerate those who are less than we.
chutzpah: (noun) cheek; gall; nerve; imprudence; ballsiness.
Asking for change from the collection plate takes a lot of chutzpah.
chypre: (noun) (pronounced: she-pra – it's French)
a type of perfume based on citrus top notes. The sheep smell like chypre, though, frankly, it's not much of an improvement.
cicatrix: (noun, plural: cicatrices) a scar. When Mary
Ann walked out of my life, she left a cicatrix on my heart. I mean, not literally, but it still hurt.
cicerone: (noun) (pronounced:
sis-er-roni) a guide who gives information to sightseers. Our cicerone was only interested in macaroni, so we
didn't see much of the city, but we were well fed.
cinderous: (adj.) composed of cinders; suggesting of cinders; cindery.
We threw extra logs on the campfire when we went to sleep, but by morning it was all cinderous.
cineaste: (noun) (pronounced: sin-ee-ast) a filmmaker;
a lover of the art of filmmaking or the cinema. Ever since I saw my first X-rated movie, I was a confirmed cineaste.
circumambulate: (verb) to walk around something, usually as part
of a religious ceremony. It's not getting to the Shrine of St. Hubbins that is the hard part. Once we get there
we have to circumambulate the silly thing for 13 years if we want him to hear our petitions. If you ask me, we'd be
better off staying at home and watching others do it on YouTube.
circumspect: (adj.) careful to consider all circumstances
and possible consequences; prudent. She was circumspect in her choice of which mush melon to bring to the office picnic.
circularity: (adj.) of or relating to a circle; circular or
nearly circular in shape. The circularity of his explanation made his entire argument rather pointless.
circumvent: (verb) evade; thwart; get around. We tried
to circumvent the traffic by changing lanes, but we were thwarted when that lane slowed as well.
clade:
(noun) a group of organisms believed to have evolved from the same common ancestor. The problem with believing
in evolution is that our clade includes primates that sit around all day masturbating and throwing shit; in short, they're
too much like we are.
clangorous: (adj.) having a loud resonant metallic sound. I always find comfort
at the end of the day with the clangorous sound of my cell door slamming shut.
clannish: (adj.) not a very nice way of saying that you exclude
people outside of your group. Of course we're acting clannishly; we're the Klan, for crying out loud.
clairaudience: (noun) the supposed ability to perceive (or hear) what
others cannot. Mrs. Higgins must've been clairaudient; she could hear us scheming a block away, and then she'd call
our parents and tell them exactly what we were up to.
claque: (noun) (pronounced: klak) a group of sycophantic
followers; people paid to applaud or give praise in general (or, conversely, they're paid to heckle) Me? No.
I couldn't care less about this silly game show. I'm part of the claque. I'll applaud, sure, but only if I'm paid.
clarion: (adj.) loud and clear (noun) a loud, shrill
sound. Pardon me, sir, but I did not hear the clarion of the carillon.
claymore: (noun) a two-edged broadsword used by Scottish Highlanders;
a mine intended to blow up people. Aye! Be ready to use your claymores, if the the claymores don't get 'em first.
clement: (adj.) mild; temperate; pleasant. Because of the
clement weather, we had to cancel our skiing trip.
cloaca: (noun) (pronounced: clo-ay-ca) a sewer. Get
your mind out of the cloaca.
clockwork
orange: (noun) something that
looks good, but has no practical value; pretty, but pointless; meretricious; a dog and pony show. We call our new learning
model "PLAN," which stands for Planned Learning Ad Nauseam. It gives the school board the appearance that
we're actually doing something to improve the students' test scores, but actually it's just another clockwork orange.
clodhoppers: (noun) work boots; any unattractive foot covering.
Why, honey, it’s a family tradition to wear your mama’s clodhoppers with your wedding dress. That way you
got somethin’ old and borrowed in one whack, and if you step in somethin’ on your way to the church, you can have
somethin’ new, too.
cloddish: (adj.) foolish; awkward; clumsy. Whereas the girls all looked marvelous in their
prom dresses, the boy's all looked cloddish in the tuxedoes.
closetool: (noun) privy; outhouse; can; head; toilet; WC; bathroom;
shitter. Unfortunately, the local Sheriff happened to be in the closetool when, on a capriccio, we tipped it over, adding
that transgression to our manifold offenses.
cloying: (adj.) disgustingly sentimental; excessively sweet.
All the girls found Bob's pick-up lines to be especially cloying.
clubbable: (adj.) (pronounced: club-able) suitable for
being in a club because of social status or popularity. Sorry, Marsha, we like you and all, but you can't be in our
club. You're just not clubbable.
coadjutor: (noun) (pronounced: co-ad-ju-tor) a lower
ranking bishop assigned to help, and eventually replace, a higher ranking bishop. Here, at Greasy Burger, your position
will be Coadjutor. It means the same thing as Assistant Manager, and you'll be doing the same things as the Assistant
Manager, and you won't be getting paid any more, but we just think "coadjutor" sounds more classy.
cock-a-hoop: (adj.) extremely and obviously pleased, especially about
a victory or triumph. The fans were all cock-a-hoop about winning game four of the series, but their team was still
down three games to one.
cockamamie: (adj.) hare-brained; absurd; silly. It was only
after we were all safely arrested that we realized the plan to rob the beauty salon was just another of Leon's cockamamie
ideas.
cock-chafer: (noun) a large European beetle that flies at dusk and
often crashes into lighted windows. Wow! That's one really impressive cock-chafer!
cockle: (noun) a small, shallow boat; a mollusk; the possible subversion of the Latin cochleae, as in cochleae
cordis, which means “ventricles of the heart;” or it could be that the heart vaguely resembles a mollusk.
Before you try to warm the cockles of my heart, I’d first like to know just what the heck a cockle is, and why does
it have to be plural, and does it really need to be warmed?
cocksmanship: (noun) a man with sexual prowess; stereotypically aggressive
and competitive manly behaviour. While the boys were all engaged in their cocksmanship, the girls all left the party
and went home.
cock-up: (verb) to do something poorly. Well, Nevil, it
seems you really cocked it up this time.
codgerty: (adj.) the act of being a codger; being an old, eccentric man. The codgerty old
man was a persnickety old cuss.
codicil: (noun) addition; appendix; postscript; supplement.
Wait! There's a codicil to the will! Sir Basil writes, "Never mind. I'm giving everything to my cat,
Mr. Whiskers. So there, all you bloodsucking gadabouts!"
codswallop: (noun) utter nonsense – from the British “cod”
for testicles (among other things), and “wallop” for beer (among other things). You get a couple of pints
down ol’ Murray, and he’ll sit in the pub all night long spoutin’ nothin’ but codswallop.
cogent: (adj.) forceful; persuasive; clear. Vinnie's gun helped
make his instructions far more cogent.
cogitate: (verb) to think; to consider; to deliberate. If we are ever going to find a solution
to this problem, we will need to cogitate outside the cubicle.
cognitive dissonance: (noun) the state of being where your
brain (cognitive) is confronted with a problem you have no immediate answer for (dissonance); the ache in your brain when
you’re forced to change long held beliefs. After hearing a poem she really liked, the young woman was filled with
cognitive dissonance after years of professing her profound and deep distain for all poetry.
cognizable: (adj.) capable of being known. In order for us
to know the answer, the answer first must be cognizable.
cognizant: (adj.) being aware; having knowledge. Even
our falling asleep did not make Sheila cognizant of just how truly boring she was.
cognomen: (noun) a nickname, often one passed from father to son. No, sir, I don't
wish to be disputatious, but just because your nickname is "Doofus" doesn't mean my cognomen has to be Little Doofus.
collocation: (noun) (pronounced: call-lo-ca-tion) the habitual
juxtaposition of one word or phrase with another at a frequency greater than chance. Her constant juxtaposition of "any
who" for "anyhow" went far beyond collocation. It was downright annoying.
colporteur: (noun) (pronounced: call-porter) a peddler of books, newspapers, and similar
literature; somebody employed by a religious society to distribute tracts and bibles. Don't worry, dear, it was just
the colporteur again. I sent him away. After all, how many bibles does one truly need?
columbarium: (noun) a place where cremated ashes are kept; the nesting
boxes of pigeons. Carl loved pigeons, and he wanted to be cremated, so however you define it, he ended up in the columbarium.
comely: (adj.) pleasing appearance; attractive (usually in reference
to women). Not being able to keep “homely” and “comely” straight, Nathan was further cursed
with having a beautiful wife.
comestible: (adj.) edible; palatable; appetizing. It isn't that frog legs aren't
comestible. It's just that, generally, folks remove them from the rest of the frog before serving them.
comeuppance: (adj.) deserved fate; you got what you had coming
to you, as in: After swindling all those old folks out of everything they had, begging for spare change on a street
corner is his comeuppance.
comity: (noun) courtesy and considerate behaviour toward others; an association of nations for
their own mutual benefit. Being kind toward the psychopaths ended up being a comity of errors.
commensurate: (adj.) in proportion; corresponding in size and degree.
The election clearly showed that the amount of votes that candidates get are commensurate with how big a jerk they truly are.
compartable: (adj.) endurable; tolerable. At best, the flight
was compartable.
compeer: (noun) a person of equal rank, stature, ability, or importance; a companion. Ah!
There you are, my compeer. Shall we be off to the pub?
compendium: (noun) a systematic collection; a precise, but
detailed collection. We were required to memorize the compendium of vocabulary words so we could ostensibly elucidate
our education.
complaisance: (noun) a disposition to please or comply. Your
complaisance with the law is remarkable. But it's OK to go above the speed limit when you have your flashing lights
on. After all, you are a cop.
complementarianism: (noun) the theological idea that women and men were created to serve different purposes
that complement each other, such as the wife was created to take care of the family and home, while the husband was created
to go to work and mow the lawn; taken a bit further, it's the idea that women were created to serve men, and their place in
society is determined by the god and the men they serve. Oh, sweetheart. It's not that I want you to be subservient
to me and my every whim. It's complementarianism, and even though it means the same thing, it doesn't sound nearly as
bad.
comport: (verb) to conduct oneself; to behave. Your comport
was less than desirable, and in front of the help, too.
concatenation: (noun) (pronounced: cun-cat-ten-nation) a series of interconnected things
or events; the action of linking things together in a series. (verb: concatenate) The teacher asked us to
concatenate all the numbers on the board, and when we were done, we had a concatenation.
conchology: (noun) (pronounced: conk-call-low-gy) the
scientific study of mollusk shells. Every summer the beach is full of amateur conchologists.
concupiscent: (adj.) filled with sexual desire; lustful; horny.
Dear Miss Garple, I am filled with concupiscent desire for you. Yours truly, Ed.
confabulate: (verb) to engage in conversation; to fabricate imaginary experiences to compensate for memory loss.
Come to find out, the politician had confabulated his entire life.
conflate: (verb) to bring together; to meld or fuse.
The conflation of ducks on the pond meant that fall had once again arrived.
conning: (verb) to study attentively, especially by rote.
While all the other students were conning their multiplication tables, young Maximillian was conning them out of their lunch
money.
conniver: (noun) one who connives; one who plots. All the
connivers were off in the corner conniving.
connubial: (adj.) nuptial;
marital; conjugal. You read back over them vows and you'll see. It says nothin' about bein' connubial, not even
on our wedding night. Now back off!
conspecific: (adj.) belonging to the same species. I don't care if
we are conspecific. Just because we can have sex doesn't mean that we will. Now back off!
constabulary: (noun) collective, the constables of a district; the local police station. I didn't
report to the constabulary like you asked because I had no idea what you wanted. If you want me to report to the hoosegow,
then say "Hoosegow."
construe: (verb) to deduce by inference or interpretation;
to figure stuff out. We construed that she really didn’t care that we hated her because of her impeccability,
because that, too, was part of her impassableness.
contentious: (adj.) litigious; debatable; touchy. Going out
with the guys six nights a week became a rather contentious topic between Carla and her husband.
conterminous: (adj.) (pronounced: con-ter-min-ous) sharing a common boundary; having the
same area, context, or meaning. The northern border of the United States is conterminous with Canada.
contrapuntal: (adj.) (pronounced: contra-punt-tal) musical – the art of combining
melodies; non-musical – any element that is juxtaposed and contrasted with another. Her insistence that nothing
was wrong was contrapuntal with her loading the gun.
contrarian: (noun)
a person who opposes or rejects popular opinion. Well, Carl always was a contrarian, so it really should come as no
surprise that he refused to breathe just because everybody else was doing it. I can't say we'll mis him, though.
contretemps: (singular noun) (pronounced: con-tra-tomp – it's French) an inopportune
or embarrassing situation; dispute; argument; imbroglio; argle-bargle. Following their contretemps, she wanted to kiss
him goodbye and call her lawyer.
contumacious: (adj.) stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority. Rex acted contumaciously
right up to the point where he was shipped to Abu Dhabi.
conundrum: (noun) puzzle; mystery; challenge. The two
nuns playing on the bongos presented a conundrum for the congregation.
convertible-ing: (verb) to gad about in one's convertible. Grab
your bonnet, my dear, we're going convertible-ing!
conviviality: (noun) friendliness. We always enjoyed visiting the Joneses because of their conviviality.
convoluted: (adj.) taking the really long way to get there,
when we all would’ve been much happier with the short cut. By the time Sheila concluded her convoluted tale by
stating, “And now to make a long story short…” we all shouted, “Too late!”
copasetic: (adj.) ducky; fine; good. Many people don’t believe it to be copasetic when
banks charge them to use their own money.
copious: (adj.) abundant; gobs and gobs. There was a
copious amount of sarcasm from the teacher when she tried to address the insalubrious remark about education not truly being
necessary.
coprophagist: (noun) (pronounced: cah-prah-faa-gist)
an animal that feeds on excrement. Say what you want about the loyalty of a dog, but at least my cat isn't coprophagous.
coquettish: (adj.) flirtatious; coy; seductive. No, Howard,
I really don’t think that woman at the drive thru window was being coquettish. I think she smiled at you because
it was her job.
corpulent: (adj.) podgy, plump, rotund, fat. Why is it that all the corpulent people shop
at Wal-Mart?
corrective attentiveness: (noun) the act of listening to someone
solely so you can point out that they are wrong. The evangelist listened with corrective attentiveness to the young
woman after asking her what her religious beliefs were.
cortège: (noun) (pronounce: core-tegh) a solemn procession,
especially for a funeral. The cortège for the clown's funeral would've been more solemn had they not all been
on unicycles.
coruscate: (verb) to sparkle; to scintillate; to be showy in technique
or style. When my bling coruscates, so do I.
costermonger: (noun) a person who sells goods from a cart in the street.
The costermonger spent his days pushing his cart up and down the village's streets selling assault rifles. Business
was good.
coterie: (noun) a small group of people with shared interests, especially when that group is
exclusive of others; a clique; gang; inner circle. We're a small group that believes only second generation white, uneducated
Americans who live at the end of the cul-de-sac should be given the vote. Of course, since Kevin and Ray moved, that
leaves only me, and I'm not sure only one person qualifies as a coterie.
coterminous: (adj.) (pronounced: co-ter-men-us) having
the same border; covering the same area. The nightly news is coterminous with Seinfeld reruns, and often the two are
indistinguishable.
cotton: (verb) to understand; to like. I don’t cotton
to pickin’ cotton.
couchette: (noun) (pronounced:
coo-shet) a European version of a sleeping car on a train. You won't regret getting the couchette when you take
the night train.
coulee: (noun) a valley or a drainage zone; from the French couler,
meaning “to flow.” The coolies in the coulee responded rather coolly to Coolio.
coulrophobia: (noun) (pronounced: coal-rah-fo-bee-ah) the
fear of clowns. When did coulrophobia become so popular?
cow: (verb) to cause someone to submit through intimidation. The cow cowed the bully
bull with bull.
coxcombries: (noun; usually plural) foppish behaviour; preening; narcissistic;
vanity, vanity! We have quite had our fill, sir, of both you and your coxcombries. Now be on your way!
coy: (adj.) shy; bashful; timid. The koi were being
coy.
cozen: (verb) to trick; to deceive; to gain by deception.
He tried to cozen her amity. She tried to plant her knee firmly in his crotch.
crapulence: (noun) excessive indulgence; intemperance. Saying that you can’t help your
crapulence is a bunch of crap, you dunce!
craven: (adj.) lacking
the least bit of courage; contemptibly faint hearted; pusillanimous; proper noun: Wes. To say you are a craven
coward, sir, might seem redundant, but only to those who don't know you.
cray-cray:
(adj.) (with or without the hyphen) crazy; acting strange in a hyperactive way; ridiculous. I like a party
as much as the next guy, but wanting to whoop it up at a funeral... man, that's just cray-cray.
crèche: (noun) a young group of animals (such as penguins or goslings) gathered in one place
for care and protection, usually by several adults; a nursery or daycare center; a representation of the Nativity scene.
When I told you to take Junior to the crèche, I meant the daycare, not the Nativity scene out in the front yard.
credence: (noun) the acceptance that something is true or
believable. Having us listen to all their albums gave credence to his opinion that Credence Clearwater Revival was a
great band.
creed: (noun) a set of beliefs that guides one's life. Me?
I let the band Creed define my creed for life. It's easier that way.
creese: (noun) a short sword or a heavy dagger with a wavy blade,
commonly used by the Malays. If you want to put a crease in Bob's shirt, use an iron. If you want to put a crease
in Bob, use a creese.
crenellated: (adj.) to furnish a wall with battlements, specifically
the gaps in the top of castle walls that people can hide behind. When we told you we wanted a home security system,
what we had more in mind were cameras and deadbolts, not a mote and a crenellated roof.
crepitation: (noun) a crackling or rattling sound. We heard
the crepitation of the zombies as they walked through the leaves.
crestfallen: (adj.) downcast; disappointed; dejected. Elenna
was crestfallen when she learned Adain really didn't like her at all.
criminate: (verb) to charge with a crime; to condemn; short for
incriminate. I criminate you for the crime of having a lousy vocabulary.
cringey: (adj.) causing feelings of embarrassment or awkwardness; servile; timid. I know
you're feeling cringey right now, but once you put your pants on, I'm sure you'll be OK.
criterium: (noun) a one day bicycle race. The criterion for
winning the criterium was to finish in first place.
crotchety: (adj.) cantankerous, crabby, and crusty. You wanna
know why I’m so crotchety? It’s because you dawdle!
croupier: (noun) (pronounced: crew-pea-ay) the person
in charge of a gaming table, who pays out the winnings or gathers in the losses. No, Mr. Bond, I'm not just the croupier,
I am also a quintuplet agent, and just as soon as I figure out whose side I'm really on, then we shall see if you shall live
or die. Now place your bets!
cruciferous: (adj.) vegetables from the family Brassicaceae, including
cauliflower, cabbage, and kale. Did you know that cruciferous means “cross-bearing” in Latin, and
cruciferous vegetables are named as such because the four petals in their flower resemble a cross? I mean, it must be
true, because Wikipedia says so.
crux: (noun) the decisive or most important part of an issue.
The crux of Larry’s problem wasn’t that he was an egalitarian; it was that he was a hopeless drudge.
cryptoventriloquistic: (adj.)
"crypto" means one who is not openly avowed or declared; secretive; and is often used in combinations with other
words (such as "cryptocurrency"). A "ventriloquist" is a person who can "throw" her or
his voice, making it sound like it comes from somewhere else. Adding the suffix "ic" turns the noun into an
adjective. It turns one who is a ventriloquist into something that is ventriloquist-like. Put them all together,
and you have a secretive ventriloquist (noun), or something that is like a secretive ventriloquist (adjective).
The cryptoventriloquistic sounds from the haunted house were enough to make us stay away.
cuckold: (noun) the husband of an adulterous wife. Joe’s first clue that he might
be a cuckold was when his wife asked him to take a number.
cuckquean: (noun) the female equivalent of "cuckhold;"
a woman who has been cheated on by her husband. I always said I wanted to be treated like a queen, but I didn't mean
I wanted to be a cuckquean.
culpability:
(noun) guilt. It you don’t wanna do the time, then don’t be found culpable of your crime.
curmudgeon: (noun) a bad-tempered, cantankerous person.
Old Man Withers was a curmudgeon who would leave his gate open just so he could chase out trespassers.
curry: (verb) to seek; to gain, as in favour. We sought
to curry the sheep’s favour, but we discovered he was only trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
cursorily: (adv.) fleetingly; hastily; superficially. He looked
over the contract cursorily before signing it, not fully realizing that he really was selling his soul to the devil.
curvet: (noun) a graceful or energetic leap. Do us all
a favour and practice your curvet on the roof.
cybergnomes: (plural noun) mythical creatures that inhabit
cyberspace, purposefully losing email, garbling documents, or mucking things up on the Internet and computers in general;
a good excuse. I’m sorry, Mrs. Bimbaum, but I couldn’t get the Hasting Contract finished by yesterday’s
deadline because cybergnomes shut down the Internet.
cybercesspool: (noun) the Internet; all of it. Hey!
Look at this interesting article I just dredged from the cybercesspool. It’s Bigfoot’s meatloaf recipe.
That’s proof that meatloaf exists if I ever read it!
cynosure: (noun) a person or thing that is at the center of admiration.
While in heat, Fluffy was the cynosure of all the dogs in the neighborhood.
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