rabble-rouser: (noun) a person who speaks with the intention of inflaming
the public's emotions, especially when it comes to politics. Anymore, it seems the entire stance of political parties
is based on rabble-rousing.
raconteur: (noun) a person who excels in telling anecdotes; a conversationalist; a storyteller.
Gloria is a quite talented raconteur. I only wish she also excelled at eventually getting to the point.
raffish: (adj.) unconventional; louche; disreputable; rakish.
All the girls liked Raphael because he was so raffish, which is the same reason all the girls' parents didn't like him.
ragamuffin: (noun) typically a child in dressed in ragged clothes
(think Dickens); a breed of cat; a follower of Raga. We were assured the ragamuffin wasn’t really a Ragamuffin,
even though he had his favourite ragamuffin with him.
raillery: (noun) repartee; backchat; banter; teasing. You
have been warned, sir! Anymore of your raillery and I shall absquatulate!
rakehell: (noun) the longer form of “rake,” referring to a man who is habitually plagued by immoral conduct,
especially when it comes to womanizing... if that can truly be called a plague. Bob, a notorious rakehell, devoted his
life to raking in all the women he could.
rakish: (adj.) from the noun, “rake,” which, in this case, is not the garden utensil,
but a man who is rich or has a high social position, or, more than likely, both; therefore, someone who is “rakish”
is acting like a rake. He thought the dapper
hat made him look rakish, but everybody still considered him a boor, a boring boor at that.
rambler: (noun) one who rambles; to walk for pleasure, especially
in the countryside. Since the Rambler broke down, Carl just rambles about.
rambunctious: (adj.) wildly boisterous. My sister-in-law
believed her child was just being rambunctious when she dynamited her preschool. “Girls will be girls.”
randy: (adj.) sexually excited; horny. I can see your
confusion. Her name is Randi, with an "i." Whether or not she's really randy… I haven't
a clue.
ransack: (verb) search; rummage through; turn the place over, already. We’re gonna
ransack your place, see, and we ain’t gonna quit ransakin’ until you tell us where Jimmy the Sack ran off to.
rantipole: (adj.) characterized by a wild or unruly manor or attitude;
rakish. Barnsworth! Just stop it. Your rantipole behaviour does not make you redoubtable. It just
makes you look silly. And we can't have that.
rapacious: (adj.) greedy; voracious; gluttonous. The
rapacious old man had managed to amass a wealth of everything except friends.
rapacity: (noun) greed; selfishness; acquisitiveness. Tearing
down the orphanage so you can build a golf course proves both your rapacity and your cruelty.
ratiocination: (noun) the process of exact thinking; a reasoned train of thought; logical
reasoning. Damnit, Jim! I'm a doctor! I don't have time to listen to this pointy-eared Vulcan's ratiocination!
raucous: (adj.) rough; harsh; strident. The ladies were all acting rather raucously, announcing,
“Bedtime be damned! And we’re not even taking our teeth out whenever we do decide to go to sleep!”
ravener: (noun) one who plunders; one who ravens. Well, yes, George.
We are ravens. But that doesn't mean we have to be raveners, too, does it?
razzmatazz: (noun) excited action or impressive display; evasive
language; double talk; razzle-dazzle. With all their razzmatazz we couldn’t tell if they were just overly excited,
or they were trying to pull one over on us.
rebus: (noun) a puzzle in which words are presented as combinations
of pictures and individual letters. " | read | " is a rebus for "read between the lines."
recalcitrant: (adj.) having a particularly uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline.
The recalcitrant students refused to come in from recess until they were guaranteed strawberry shortcake with their lunch,
and not just any shortcake – the real stuff – and those strawberries had better be fresh, too!
recapitulate: (verb) to repeat concisely. The police
office recapitulated our offenses as he carefully seated us in the back of his cruiser.
reck: (verb) to pay heed to a warning; to be of importance;
the antonym of reckless. Reck my words, boy. Not recking my words... why, that would be reckless.
recondite: (adj.) hidden; concealed; difficult to comprehend; obscure.
The more recondite your vocabulary is, the smarter you sound.
recreant: (noun) a person who is unfaithful to a belief; an apostate;
a coward. I don't consider myself so much a recreant as somebody who just doesn't want to blow himself up.
rectitude: (noun) (pronounced: reck-ta-tude) morally correct thinking or behaviour;
righteousness. Whereas following the rules of the Church could be seen as rectitude, telling those who don't that they
will burn in Hell is probably not.
recumbent: (adj.) reclining; resting; lying down. Recumbent
on the job, eh? Well, lucky for you you're a mattress tester, or you'd be out the door. Now get back to work!
recusant: (noun)
a person who refuses to comply with authority or follow regulations. It's really hard to be a recusant and not be unemployed.
redneckedness: (adj.) having the qualities of being a redneck. His redneckedness was more than
obvious by the Confederate flag he flew in the bed of his pickup truck.
redolent: (adj.) evocative; indicative; suggestive. The sound
of fingernails scraping across a blackboard were redolent of his wife's many requests.
redoubt: (noun) stronghold; castle; fortification. Retreat
to the redoubt!
redoubtable: (adj.) formidable, especially as an opponent. My
Lady! I have come to save you from the redoubtable dragon.
refection: (noun) refreshment by food or drink; a light meal; or, if you're a rabbit, eating your
partially digested fecal pellets. I say we stop for refection, but let's not have the same thing that Mr. Hoppy is having.
refractory: (adj.) headstrong; stubborn; rebellious; obstinate.
Don't be so refractory, Henry. We're going to the Gunderssenns and that's final. They're fine people, even
though they may like to collect heads.
regnant: (adj.) reigning; ruling; dominant; having the greatest
influence. I like to pretend I'm regnant, but we all know my wife is.
regolith: (noun) a layer of loose-ish rocky material covering bedrock.
Let’s put our towels on the regolith and enjoy the sounds of the shore birds searching for dead things.
reification: (noun) (pronounced: re-if-ah-kay-shun) something that is not a concrete
idea that is being regarded as a concrete idea; treating something that is immaterial (such as love, happiness, or evil) as
a material thing. The politician tried to make the press into the reification of evil.
rejoinder: (noun) a reply; especially one that is sharp or witty. Everybody
thought Carl's rejoinder was quite witty... except for the cop, which, I suppose, is all that really mattered.
relegate: (verb) transfer; demote; consign. The sheriff
relegated his authority to the posse.
relict: (noun) a thing that
has survived from an earlier era; a widow. Mrs. Dowdy considered her husband's views on women to be relicts, so she
poisoned him, becoming a relict herself.
remonstrance: (noun) argument; evidence; proof. If the president
had included any semblance of a remonstrance with his claim, he could've possibly avoided the remonstrations of his opponents.
remonstrate: (verb) (pronounced: rim-men-strate) to present and urge reasons in opposition;
to argue against. Oh, you know your father. He'd argue against anything. He enjoys being remonstrative.
remunerative: (adj.) lucrative; financially rewarding. Becoming
a teacher for the remunerative benefits is proof that you're a tad bit purblind.
rencontre: (noun) (pronounced: rahn-cohn-tra) a chance meeting with
someone; a skirmish. I wouldn't so much as call it a one night stand as I would call it a rencontre, not that it makes
it any different; it just sounds less sordid.
reprobate: (adj.) a no good, good for nothing, trouble maker. Elisa thought Chad was dreamy,
but all her friends knew he was a smarmy reprobate.
repugnant: (adj.) extremely distasteful or unacceptable.
Senator Bullfinch was so repugnant that he was all but guaranteed to be re-elected. Apparently that’s the sort
of thing we like with politicians, since we seem to re-elect them in spite of their repugnance.
resplendent: (adj.) splendid; magnificent; dazzling; glorious.
Gloria, who once described Bob as resplendent, couldn't help but wonder, after 26 years of marriage, as Bob stood in the early
morning light scratching his beer belly while farting, what the hell had happened.
restive: (adj.) unable to keep still or quiet, and becoming increasingly
difficult to control, especially because of impatience or boredom; high school freshmen. Children, please pay attention.
Now I know you're all restive, but that's why you're here. In order to be successful in today's world, you need to learn
how to be bored.
restorative: (noun) something, especially a medication or a drink, that restores one's health, strength,
or general well-being. I don't imagine a shot of whiskey qualifies as a restorative, but it should.
resurrection
man: (noun) a person who steals bodies for dissection; a body snatcher;
a person who brings something back to life; a person who brings something back into view. I much prefer to be called
a resurrection man. It sounds so much better than "grave robber."
reticent: (adj.) quiet; restrained; taciturn. The employees
were reticent to express their feelings about their boss on the survey, even though they were assured there would be no retaliations.
reticule: (noun) handbag; purse; container. Now, dear, how
many times have you been told not to put your reptiles in mother's reticule?
retting: (adj.) soaking (often) flax or hemp in water to soften
the fibers so they can be separated; causing anything to break down. The retting questions by the prosecutor soon caused
Larry to confess that he had, indeed, shot Kennedy.
revanchism: (noun) (pronounced: re-vonch-ism) a policy
that seeks to regain lost territory or to retaliate. After the war, the government's official policy was revanchism.
reverential: (adj.) with reverence; respectful; deferential.
We all reverentially removed our hats when we realized the worm was truly dead.
revivification: (noun) the imparting of new life or energy. With
the monster revivified, it added revivification to the villagers' cry that the doctor must die.
rhadamanthine: (adj.) (pronounced: rah-duh-man-thin; from one
of the three judges of the Underworld in Greek mythology) rigourously strict or just. Everybody was in agreement
that the only way to insure law and order was through rhadamanthine punishment, but when they started shooting jaywalkers,
it was evident they had gone too far.
ribald: (adj.) course; vulgar; bawdy. The Queen did not
find his ribald sense of humour amusing.
rife: (adj.) increasingly prevelant; abundant or numerous.
The essay was rife with selling arrows, or spelling errors… it was hard to tell.
riffraff: (noun) disreputable or worthless people. This used
to be a nice neighborhood until all the riffraff moved in.
rigmarole: (noun) a lengthily and complicated procedure; a drawn out story.
After all that rigmarole, we found out that he had rigged the rolls.
riparian: (adj.) of, relating to, or situated on the banks of a
river; especially wetlands near rivers and streams. Riparian topography is great for birds, but it’s a lousy place
for a disc golf course.
riprap: (noun) loose stone used to form a foundation, especially
with breakwater. Our patio was made from riprap, which looked really nice, but it was worthless to walk on, or do anything
else, for that matter.
risible: (adj.) capable of laughing; inclined to laugh. The comedian hoped that the audience
was risible, and the audience hoped that he was capable of actually saying something funny.
riven: (verb) (the past participial of "rive.") to split; to divide; to tear
apart. Clara, I want a rivening. Your vocabulary will never be the same as mine, and it's time we stopped this
charade.
rococo: (adj.) ornate; decorative; elaborate. What?
My gold grill? My double-gold chains? That's not bling. That's rococo.
rodomontade: (noun) boastful or inflated talk or behaviour. When
you are counting off ten paces before you will most certainly be shot dead, because, let’s face it, you can’t
shoot worth a darn, is probably not a good time to recant your rodomontade.
roil: (verb) agitate; shake up; toss. The waves caused
the small boat to roil, and we weren’t even out of the harbour.
roister: (verb) (also spelled: royster) to enjoy oneself
or celebrate in a noisy or boisterous manner. Just because she responded favourably to your assiduities does not mean
you can roister about until the early hours of the afternoon.
rope-a-dope: (noun) goading an opponent to throw ineffective, but
tiring punches; any tactic that purposely wears out an opponent. The president's rope-a-dope tactics of constantly making
false claims about his opponent kept the senator busy trying to clear her good name, and off the real topic that the president
was an abashed liar.
roué: (noun) (pronounce: ru-ay) a dirty old man.
Stay away from the roué.
roughshod: (adj.) having nails that protrude beyond the horseshoe to give the
horse more traction; marked by tyrannical force. The school board rode roughshod over the superintendent's recommendations,
and fired all the teachers, and then they fired the superintendent when she couldn't hire enough teachers to have classes.
rouleaux: (noun, plural) (pronounced: roo-low) a strip
of something used as trim on the brim of a hat. "Do you like my rouleaux?" "I do not like your
rouleaux." "Good-bye, then." "Good-bye."
roux: (noun) a base of fat or butter and flour used in making sauces.
When you cook yer 'roo, make sure your roux is right, or you will come to rue it.
row: (noun) (rhymes with "cow") a usually
noisy fight or disturbance. They were having a row over whose turn it was to row when they fell out of the boat.
rubbish: (noun) trash; refuse; balderdash. You misunderstand
me. When I said, "Rubbish," I really meant "trash." I wasn't doubting you.
Rubicon:
(noun) the point of no return. Having climbed the ladder of the high dive, Elisa realized she had reached
the Rubicon when all the other kids started yelling, “Jump! Jump! Jump!”
ruction: (noun)
a disturbance; quarrel; row; fight; dispute. If you continue with this rubbish, there is going to be a ruction, which
you will come to rue.
rue: (verb) to bitterly regret. The
'roo will rue messing up our roux.
ruminant: (noun) any even-toe hoofed animal, such as a deer, cow, or goat. I had a very
hard time convincing the shepherd that I had actually advertised for a roommate, and not a ruminant.
rumpy
pumpy: (adj.) very British
term for sexual intercourse. They're at it again, having a bit of rumpy pumpy in the back of their Morris.
runlet: (noun) a small stream. If you build a damn,
then you will let the runlet run dry.
rustsicle: (noun) an underwater formation where the current causes the rust from an object (such
as a ship) to resemble icicles on the ocean floor. I'm telling you – there are rustsicles on the ocean floor streaming
out from the wreckage of the Titanic. But don't take my word. Go look for yourself.
ruttle: (noun) a death rattle in the throat. You best hurry if you want to see him alive;
he's begun to ruttle.
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