New Words For You

Front 1

anomalous

Back 1

not fitting into a common or familiar type, classification, or pattern; unusual; abnormal; inconsistent; incongruent

(to be) anomalous in something

Front 2

hedge (n)

Back 2

an act or means of preventing complete loss of a bet, an argument, an investment, or the like, with a partially counterbalancing or qualifying one

mediating hedges...

Front 3

hedge (v)

Back 3

-to enclose with or separate by a hedge: to hedge a garden.
-to surround and confine as if with a hedge; restrict (often followed by in, about, etc.): He felt hedged in by the rules of language.
-to protect with qualifications that allow for unstated contingencies or for withdrawal from commitment: He hedged his program against attack and then presented it to the board.
-to mitigate a possible loss by counterbalancing (one's bets, investments, etc.).
-to prevent or hinder free movement; obstruct: to be hedged by poverty

Front 4

heuristic (adj)

Back 4

-serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.
-encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error: a heuristic teaching method.
-of, pertaining to, or based on experimentation, evaluation, or trial-and-error methods.

Front 5

restive (adj.)

Back 5

-impatient of control, restraint, or delay, as persons; restless; uneasy.
"...restive questioning of discourse norms"
-refractory; stubborn.
refusing to go forward; balky: a restive horse.

Front 6

neophyte (n)

Back 6

-a beginner or novice: He's a neophyte at chess.
-Roman Catholic Church . a novice.
-a person newly converted to a belief, as a heathen, heretic, or nonbeliever; proselyte.

Front 7

ideologically covert v. ideologically explicit

Back 7

just cool phrasing

Front 8

denizen (n)

Back 8

-an inhabitant; resident
-a person who regularly frequents a place; habitué: the denizens of a local bar.
-British . an alien admitted to residence and to certain rights of citizenship in a country.
-anything adapted to a new place, condition, etc., as an animal or plant not indigenous to a place but successfully naturalized.

Front 9

marginalia (n)

Back 9

— pl
-notes in the margin of a book, manuscript, or letter

Front 10

winsome (adj)

Back 10

sweetly or innocently charming; winning; engaging: a winsome smile.

Front 11

macabre (adj)

Back 11

-gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible.
-of, pertaining to, dealing with, or representing death, especially its grimmer or uglier aspect.
-of or suggestive of the allegorical dance of death.
"...the macabre fluttering of bats on devil's wings..."

Front 12

epaulet (n)

Back 12

an ornamental shoulder piece worn on uniforms, chiefly by military officers.

Front 13

epauleted (adj)

Back 13

Wearing epaulets; decorated with epaulets.
"the epaulleted fruit bat, which has handsome tufts of fur on its shoulders..."

Front 14

carapace (n)

Back 14

a bony or chitinous shield, test, or shell covering some or all of the dorsal part of an animal, as of a turtle.

Front 15

haberdasher (n)

Back 15

-a retail dealer in men's furnishings, as shirts, ties, gloves, socks, and hats.
-Chiefly British . a dealer in small wares and notions.

Front 16

notion (n)

Back 16

-a general understanding; vague or imperfect conception or idea of something: a notion of how something should be done.
-an opinion, view, or belief: That's his notion, not mine.
-conception or idea: his notion of democracy.
-a fanciful or foolish idea; whim: She had a notion to swim in the winter.
-an ingenious article, device, or contrivance; knickknack.

Front 17

cudgel (n)

Back 17

a short, thick stick used as a weapon; club.
"he lay up to his neck in a pond full of alligators armed only with a cudgel"

Idiom:
take up the cudgels, to come to the defense or aid of someone or something.

Front 18

cudgel (v)

Back 18

-to cudgel one's brains, to try to comprehend or remember: I cudgeled my brains to recall her name.

Front 19

swain (n)

Back 19

-a male admirer or lover.
-a country lad.
-a country gallant.

Front 20

mummer (n)

Back 20

-a person who wears a mask or fantastic costume while merrymaking or taking part in a pantomime, especially at Christmas and other festive seasons.
-an actor, especially a pantomimist.

Front 21

mummery (n)

Back 21

the performance of mummers.
"he performed his courtship mummery during courtship season"
-any performance, ceremony, etc., regarded as absurd, false, or ostentatious.

Front 22

hone (n)

Back 22

-a whetstone of fine, compact texture for sharpening razors and other cutting tools.
-a precision tool with a mechanically rotated abrasive tip, for enlarging holes to precise dimensions.

Front 23

hone (v)

Back 23

-to sharpen on a hone: to hone a carving knife.
-to enlarge or finish (a hole) with a hone.
-to make more acute or effective; improve; perfect: to hone one's skills.

Front 24

bellwether (n)

Back 24

-a wether or other male sheep that leads the flock, usually bearing a bell.
-a person or thing that assumes the leadership or forefront, as of a profession or industry: Paris is a bellwether of the fashion industry.
-a person or thing that shows the existence or direction of a trend; index.
"...the right whale is an important bellwether of the human condition."
-a person who leads a mob, mutiny, conspiracy, or the like; ringleader.

syn: leader, pacesetter, frontrunner, trailblazer.

Front 25

cool quote

Back 25

"some people can get into the water and watch at a distance--but the last ten feet horrify them. Despite all the rigors and turmoil they've gone through to get here, despite their fascination with whales, which they spend their lives studying, they just can't face those last few feet. I don't think this is limited to whales. It has to do with the way a person needs to know life."

Front 26

appropriate (v)

Back 26

-to set apart, authorize, or legislate for some specific purpose or use: The legislature appropriated funds for the university.
-to take to or for oneself; take possession of.
"rise in demand for semi-public spaces that can be informally appropriated to ad-hoc workspaces."
-to take without permission or consent; seize; expropriate: He appropriated the trust funds for himself.
-to steal, especially to commit petty theft.