hackneyed: (adj.)
trite, clichéd, worn out, unimaginative. Well, duh. It’s as plain as the nose on your face.
If you didn’t use so many hackneyed expressions, we wouldn’t call you a hack.
Hackney, by the way, originally referred to a small village near London where carriage horses
were bred, and then to the cabs those horses pulled (a hackney cab), and eventually to cab in general... well, generally in
London. Because Hackney horses were used so much, the name morphed into a term for anything that was used too much,
especially the work of low-quality writers who turned out drudge-for-hire, where the term was eventually shortened to “hack.”
Thus, a hack writer.
haft: (noun) the handle of a knife, axe, or spear. That blade ain't gonna do ya no good,
laddie, lest you have a haft.
hairbreadth: (noun) (from: hair's breath) a small amount;
eensie weensie. The speeding car missed hitting the pedestrian by a hairbreadth.
halberd: (noun) a combined spear and battle axe. No, dear!
I did not say your mother was a battle axe. I said she was a halberd. There is a difference, you know.
halcyon
days: (noun, usually plural) (pronounced: hal-see-on) a brief,
fortuitous respite from the storms of life. 'Tis a puzzlement of life that we can't recognize our halcyon days until
after they are gone.
ham-fisted: (adj.) clumsy; bungling; inept; heavy-handed. The
president's policies to solving... well... everything... all turned out to be ham-fisted.
hand: (noun) a unit of measurement equal to four inches, primarily used to measure horses.
I got to hand it to you. You were right; that horse was 18 hands tall, not counting his hands… wait a minute!
That’s not a horse!
hangdog: (adj.) having a dejected or guilty appearance; shamefaced.
When asked who had been torturing the pets, Bob's hangdog expression gave him away.
hanker: (verb) to want; to long for; to crave. Hank hankered for his handkerchief,
while Hannah had a hankering for Hank.
happenstance: (noun) coincidence; accident; fluke. It was just
happenstance that his stance happened to be akimbo.
harangue: (verb) berate; scold; rant. Because of their truculence,
the teacher often harangued the class.
harrumph: (verb) to express oneself gruffly; to show disapproval; to clear one’s throat.
The resolution passed with a round of hearty harrumphs.
harry: (verb) the present tense of "harried;" to harass; to bother; to badger; to
pester. If the cat would only harry the starlings, maybe they wouldn't murmur in the house.
harum-scarum: (adj.)
reckless; impetuous; impulsive; foolhardy; heartless. The demonstrators went harum-scarum through the town, destroying
things as they went, protesting the senseless use of violence.
haruspex: (noun) one who practices haruspicy. After examining the goat’s entrails,
the haruspex announced that the goat was doomed to die.
hauberk: (noun) a tunic of chain mail worn as defensive armour from the 12th through
the 14th centuries. I'm sorry, m' lord, but my hauberk is at the cleaners. I'll just have to make due
best I can in today's battle.
hauteur: (noun) (pronounced: hoe-tar) superciliousness;
disdainful pride; arrogance. Finally tired of his hauteur, the citizens dipped him in hot tar and then covered him with
feathers.
hector: (verb) to bully; to harass; to intimidate; to badger.
Buddy the Badger was so good at hectoring the other animals to do all of his chores, that it became known as "badgering."
hedonist: (noun) a sybarite; a rake; a degenerate; someone who
believes the pursuit of pleasure is the most important thing in life. Being a hedonist isn't the same as a religious
belief; it's much more fun.
heebie-jeebies: (noun) the creeps; the stuff that makes your skin crawl; down-right scary. The
thought of having to sit through a Justin Bieber concert gives me the heebie-jeebies.
hegemony: (noun) (pronounced he-gem-on-nee) domination; control;
supremacy; authority. Larry asserted his hegemony over Arlene, stating precisely when supper should be served, and then
Arlene asserted her hegemony over Larry, by not cooking at all.
hegira: (noun) Capitalized: When Muhammad went from Medina to Mecca in 622 BCE, which
consolidated the first Muslim community and is seen as the start of the Muslim era (Muslim calendars consider 622 BCE as their
"year zero"); uncapitalized: any exodus or migration. Every spring the birds begin their hegira to our
backyard, where the cat is waiting.
hell
for leather: (adj. phrase)
going as fast as possible (probably from whipping a horse to make it go faster). You want to know how fast I was going
officer? As if you didn't already know? Well, I'll tell you! I was going hell for leather!
hellion: (noun) (pronounced: hell-lee-yun) a rowdy, mischievous, troublemaking person,
especially a child. Oh, I wouldn't call Maynard a hellion just because he burned down the house. I mean, I consider
it partly my fault, too, for expecting him to eat his vegetables.
hello
girl: (noun) the name for female switchboard operators, especially
in WWI, when they were sworn into the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit. I have no doubt you're qualified,
but the thing is, there's just no need for hello girls anymore.
helpmeet: (noun) helpmate; partner. And so, by the power
invested in me, I now announce you helpmeet and helpmeet. You may now kiss each other, not that you needed permission
before.
hem-haw: (verb) to deliberated about something rather than actually
taking any action. When they were finally through with all their hemming and hawing, they found that everybody else
had left, and they were locked in the pub for the night.
hench: (adj.) usually
said of a man who is strong, fit, and has well-developed muscles. Klouse and Hubert are really hench. That's why
they were chosen to be henchmen.
henge: (noun) a monument consisting of upright stones or other materials, originally used as
a very large timepiece. The most famous henge is in England – Stonehenge. However, there are henges just
about everywhere, including a carhenge in Nebraska, and a fridgehenge made out of refrigerators in New Mexico.
herald: (verb) to acclaim; to be a sign that something – usually good – is about
to happen. The nuclear war heralded a new age of peace and universal well-being for the cockroaches.
heritable: (verb) able to be inherited. Yes, darling.
Your curly hair is heritable. Your father's bank account, on the other hand, is not.
hickified: (adj.) that which has become hickish; bumpkin-esque;
attaining a down-home, kountry (with a "k") hickiness. Aw, we know proper grammar and how ta spell
an' all, but we also knows that them there city folk expect us to be hickified, and we just want their money.
higgledy-piggledy: (adj.) disordered; jumbled; mixed up. Puzzles would
be a lot easier to put together if all the pieces weren't so higgledy-piggledy.
highfalutin: (adj.) pompous; grandiose; snobbish. When that
flautist gets all wacky on the weed, he’s one highfalutin fellow.
hilarity: (noun) joviality; merriment; mirth; conviviality.
Even the principal had to laugh at the hilarity of the students’ prank.
hinky: (adj.) something’s just not right. The TV
blaring, door being open, bloody footprints going up the stairs... You know, it’s just hinky.
hirsute: (adj.) (pronounced: her-suit) long-haired; shaggy;
busy. Why, you ain't nothin' but a hirsute hippy freak!
historicity: (noun) historical authenticity. Historic fiction involves historicity, but one
should never forget that it is still fiction.
histrionic: (adj.) theatrical; over-the-top; melodramatic. After
the children’s histrionics, it wasn’t that we didn’t believe them when they called “Wolf!” the
third time; it’s just that we didn’t care.
hitherto: (adv.) previously; yet; before. Had Nevil hitherto known that the bridge was out,
he probably could've avoided a colossal cock-up.
hoary: (adj.) old; ancient; white; gray. The old whore
shook her hoary head.
hob: (noun) a projection on the backside of the fireplace on which something can be kept
warm; a stove top. I'll put the kettle on the hob while you find the biscuits.
hobnob: (verb) to mix socially, especially with those of a higher
status. Hurry up, Clem, and put on your clean pair of coveralls. We’re gonna go over and hobnob with the
folks in the double-wide.
hogshead: (noun) a large cask; a measure of capacity – 63
gallons of wine, 64 gallons of beer. Hey! Get off my sow. That is not what I meant when I said we were going
to do a hogshead stand.
ho-hum:
(adj.) boring; not exciting in the least. I thought you said that movie was superfly. But it was ho-hum
at best.
hoick: (verb) to lift or pull up abruptly; without effort.
When we asked Julia to show us her new tattoo, we didn't think she'd hoick her dress up over her head.
hoity toity: (adj.) snobbish; pretentious; haughty; supercilious.
You go actin' all hoity toity because you was invited you to their little party. Well, honey, let me set you straight:
You’re the hired help. Besides, who you hobnob with don't mean squat.
hokum: (noun) hooey; bunkum; hogwash; humbug; twaddle.
Even though everybody knew that free range water was pure hokum, nobody wanted to be the first to admit that they were wasting
their money on it, and we made a fortune.
homiletic: (noun) the art of preaching or writing sermons; didactic.
When one teaches homiletics, being didactic is good.
honorific: (noun) a title or a word implying high status, honor,
or respect. (adj.) an office or position given as a sign of respect, but having no official duties. The
Queen? Yeah, it's pretty much all honorific.
hooch: (noun) booze; rotgut; firewater; moonshine; generally any liquor of inferior quality.
Hell’s bells, when’s Bubba gonna get done cookin’ that hooch?
hoochie coochie: (noun) a woman who hits on other women’s men; a real slut. Wanda’s
a nice girl and all, but when she’s on the hooch she becomes a hoochie coochie.
hoodwink: (verb) to inveigle; dupe; deceive; double cross; (archaic) to blindfold.
It was only when we tried to use the windshield washer on the new car and lemon juice came out that we realized we’d
been hoodwinked.
hooliganism: (noun) rowdy, violent, or destructive behaviour. After reading about their hooliganisms
on the bulletin board in lobby of the post office, they still didn’t quite catch on that maybe they’d taken the
prank a bit too far.
hoopla: (noun) excited; jovial commotion. When we heared it... well... we commenced with
our hoolpa right then and there.
hoosegow: (noun) a prison; the slammer. In light of the jury's
verdict, we sentence you to eighteen years in the hoosegow.
hornswoggle: (verb) to bamboozle; to deceive. It wasn’t until we drove the car off the
lot that we discovered that we’d been horswoggled.
horologist:
(noun) a person who works on clocks; anybody who is interested in the study and measurement of time. I don't care
if you do consider yourself a horologist; this is English, so stop staring at the clock and turn around.
hove: (verb) past tense of "heave." The president
hove his allies under the bus.
hubris: (noun) excessive pride or confidence, especially in
regards to the gods. Thinking that you know god’s will is a sure sign of hubris.
huckleberry: (noun) other than the actual berry, the man you're looking
for; the right person for the job. You need somebody to take care of that problem? No worries. I'll be your
huckleberry.
hullabaloo: (noun) racket; excessive noise; ballyhoo. Ifin’s
you ask me, that’s a bunch of hullabaloo about nothin’.
humdrum: (adj.) lacking excitement; dull. It's a cross between
a Gazoo and a drum. I call it a humdrum, not because of the clever play on words, but because the sound is... well...
humdrum, at best.
Hurley-rigged: (verb) to jury-rig; to hold something together with baling wire and duct tape; to make
something work with whatever scraps you happen to have at hand. Hurley-rigging the brakes on the school bus was probably
not the best idea we ever had.
hyperphagia: (noun) an abnormal increase in the appetite, often because
of a medical condition, or when an animal is preparing to hibernate or aestivate. I dunno, Bob. I just don't think
the name Hyperphagia Express is catchy enough for our all-you-can-eat buffet.
