gabelle: (noun) (pronounced: gaa-bell) a very unpopular
French tax on salt, which ran from the 14th Century until 1946; any very unpopular tax. The president, in
his hourly Twitter-side chats, proposed yet another gabelle.
gabber: (verb) to talk a great deal, generally with no real purpose.
Pardon me. I hate to interrupt your gabbering, but at what point do you intend to stop, and will you have made
a cognizable point by then?
gabble: (noun) nonsense; rubbish; claptrap; twaddle. The
press secretary was having an increasingly harder time trying to explain the president's gabble.
gadabout: (noun) a habitual pleasure seeker. Melissa's a
lot of fun to be with, but I wouldn't expect anything more than what you have. She's a notorious gadabout.
gadder: (verb) to move aimlessly from one point to another; to
gad about. I don't know where we're headed next. We're just headed. It's time to gather our things and gadder
on out the door.
gadfly: (noun) a person who annoys others by constant criticism, much like flies that annoy
people by their constant biting. Wayne liked to think of himself as a gadfly provoking the social conscious of those
around him, while they all just considered him to be an asshole.
gadzookery: (noun) the use of archaic words, especially in writing.
Gadzooks! Methinks I be guilty of gadzookery! A pox on me!
galligaskins: (noun) loose fitting trousers, breeches, or gaiters.
Keep your galligaskins on! I'm coming already!
gallimaufry: (noun) chiefly literary – a hodgepodge; jumble; a confused medley. This
website seems to be a gallimaufry; I can’t figure out any unifying theme.
gallivant: (verb) to go from one place to another in search of pleasure
or entertainment. You boys been gallivantin’ around the square all night long. When ya gonna figure out
that you have a better chance of bein’ entertained in this here town if you go home and watch the late show?
gambit: (noun) an opening that usually involves a degree of
risk in the hope of obtaining an advantage; often a term used with chess, but since it’s so hard to find anybody that
really likes to play chess and who isn’t so boorish that you really wish you could smash their smug face with the chess
board every time they say “check,” then let’s use it for anything other than chess, just to make those folks
apoplectic. His gambit of sending flowers before the first date was one that eventually led him to the altar, only there
to find out just how vindictive his future bride really was.
gambol: (verb) to frolic; to skip; to caper. It was
spring, and the rabbits were gamboling in the meadow.
gams: (noun; usually plural) particularly comely legs.
Hey, Rocko., check it out. That dame's got a nice set of gams.
gaol: (noun) (pronounced: jail) jail. If you're going to put me in gaol,
then just write it "jail," otherwise it's just confusing.
garner: (verb) to gather or collect. The investigator garnered
the evidence against Claude, but Claude didn’t care because he was an idiot.
garrulous: (adj.) talkative; chatty, voluble. Yes, dear, when daddy
says you’re being garrulous he does wish that you would shut the hell up.
gaslight: (verb) to psychologically manipulate somebody into questioning her or his own sanity.
Come to find out, I'm not really nuts. It was just the cat gaslighting me into thinking I was.
gasometer: (noun) a tank for storing and measuring natural gas. We know living next door
to the gasometer is probably not the safest thing, but Leroy likes it because nobody can tell when he has gas, too.
gauche: (adj.) lacking ease or grace; socially unsophisticated or awkward. Ever since
Claude became a zombie he's been so gauche. It's just made a shambles of our social calendar.
gaud: (noun) a showy and purely ornamental thing. A feather
in your cap, when taken literally, is just gaud.
gelid: (adj.) extremely cold; icy. Her gelid attitude
towards his suggestions of an assignation made him soon realize that any hopes of furgling were in vain.
gestalt: (noun) (pronounced: gah-staldt) a whole that is considered to be greater
than the sum of all its parts. Those who say cats are useless don't see the gestalt of owning one.
gewgaw: (noun, usually plural) (pronounced: gwoo-gaw; or
the more hickified gee-gaw) a showy thing, especially if it is useless or worthless. We've devoted the entire sitting
room to my Precious Moments gewgaws. They're special!
gibber: (verb) to babble; to rant; to prattle; to gabble.
Now stop your gibbering and get off the phone before we cancel your Twitter account.
gibbous: (adj.) a moon or other planetary body seen with more
than half, but not all of the apparent disc; having a hump; humpbacked. Igor is gibbous.
gin: (verb, usually used with the proposition "up") to create; to generate, especially
by dubious means. The candidate ginned up fake news about fake news.
gird: (verb) encircle; hoop; bind. “We’ll
gird the enemy!” shouted the General, not realizing that nobody girds anything except loins.
git: (noun) an unpleasant or contemptable person. Go
on, just get on out of here you old git.
glairy: (adj.) slimy. The glairy bastard everted the family.
gleef: (noun) (from Ken Kesey’s novel Sometimes a
Great Notion) rube; local; hick; hayseed. That gleef keeps on staring at me like that, he’s gonna get
an ass whoopin’!
glib: (adj.) superficial; shallow; simplistic. The politician's glib attitude about...
well... everything... made her an easy target for her critics.
glitterati: (non-count noun – it's the same whether it's singular or plural) rich, fashionable,
and famous people who are of interest to the public, for whatever reason, and are featured in the media. The Kardashians
are glitterati, famous only because they are famous.
gloaming: (noun) twilight; dusk. "The gloaming's last
gleaming" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
glom: (verb) (rhymes with "calm") to take; to steal; to seize.
We tried to glom some meaning from her speech, but the more she talked, the less sense she made.
gobbledygook: (noun) nonsense; gibberish; especially with technical
jargon. The instructions for constructing our own household nuclear reactor were just gobbledygook, and we ended up
melting down our kitchen.
gobsmacked: (adj.) extremely surprised. We were all gobsmacked
when the president actually admitted that he was wrong.
godsend: (noun) blessing; benefit; stroke of good luck. Having my own nuclear bomb has
been a godsend.
golliwog: (noun) Caution:
If you use this word for anything other than as an historical reference, or in dialogue to show just how racist a character
is, then you're a racist. A golliwog is a fictional character created by Florence Kate Upton in the late 19th century.
It is a soft, black-faced rag doll, with "eyes rimmed in white, clown lips, and frizzy hair." Upton didn't
want to sound racist, so instead of referring to the children as golliwogs, he called them pickannies. Thankfully for
Upton, the children's parents weren't excessively violent.
gonzo: (adj.) over-the-top journalistic style; bizarre or crazy.
Dude, you're completely gonzo if you think the editor is going to allow that to be published.
goosey: (adj.) jumpy; nervous; twitchy; foolish. The goose
is especially goosey after being goosed. Really, it is. Just take a gander.
gorget: (noun) clothing or armour that covers the throat; a patch of
colour on the throat of a bird. Indeed, Horvath, the hummingbird has a quite impressive gorget.
gracile: (adj.) of slender build, especially in an attractive
sort of way. No, dear. When I said you were gracile, I meant that it was a good thing.
graffito: (noun) the singular form of graffiti. Scared off
by the police, the only clue the vandals had been there was a graffito.
grail: (verb) to seek the Holy Grail; to fervently seek anything
that you are unlikely to find. After 14 years of grailing, Sir Basil decided to chuck it all and retire by the pool.
gramercy: (int.) (pronounced: gra-mercy) an expression
used to express gratitude or surprise (from the Middle English phrase "grand mercy") Gramercy! That
sure is a big one. Oh, wait! There's another!
grandiose: (adj.) turgid; ostentatious; pretentious; a conspicuous
display designed to make ‘em look. Why, yes. The advantages of having such a grandiose mansion is that I
make the commoners envious. The disadvantage is that I can’t figure out how to get inside.
granularity: (noun) the quality or condition of being granular. Well, no. I suppose if
you don't like granularity, then you're not going to like going to the beach.
gravitas: (adj.) seriousness; dignity; solemnity of manner.
When the space station stopped rotating, the commander responded to the situation with grandiose gravitas.
greensward: (noun) grass-covered ground. We tried calling it
a greensward, but what with all the tombstones, the name never stuck.
gregarious: (adj.) fond of company, sociable; living in flocks;
tending to form groups with others of the same kind. Her gregarious nature made it easy for her to feel comfortable
away from home.
grimalkin: (noun) (pronounced: gra-mall-kin) a cat, especially
a cat's feline qualities; a spiteful old woman.
The only thing keeping Mrs.
Gundersen, head of quality control at the Holy Grail Press, from being a grimalkin, is that she's too nice. However,
she's been taking courses at the local community college in hopes of being certified in Spite.
grip: (noun) a suitcase; a stagehand. Grip the grip and
hand it to the grip.
grouse: (verb) to complain, often about unimportant things. Old Man Whittaker often groused
about the paucity of game birds.
gruntled: (adj.) pleased; satisfied; contented. Ever since
the couple met, it's obvious to everybody who knows them just how gruntled they are with each other.
