Meaning: 1. Imply or hint in a stealthy manner, suggest something unpleasant in a supersubtle way, as 'to insinuate that he was lying'. 2. Slip sinisterly into, as 'to insinuate yourself into a conversation'.Notes: Insinuate has a large robust family. The action noun is insinuation, ...
A DIVAbetic is any woman regardless of age who is in control of her diabetes. The URL is http://www.divabetic.com/ Bill Kirchenbauer and Brad Slaight have created two comedic, yet well meaning, diabetes superheroes named Captain Glucose and Meter Boy. The URL is http://www.captaingluco...
We have a verb, too, indigenize, meaning "to adapt to an indigenous culture" or "to nationalize". In Play: This word may refer to people: "Representative Mary Peltola is the fifth indigenous representative to serve in the US Congress." It may also refer to anything else from a ...
The inheritance process allowed a shift of meaning from "tooth" to "the imprint of teeth". Latin den(t)s came from PIE dent-/dont- "tooth", source also of Sanskrit danta, Greek odoys, odontos, Lithuanian dantis, Welsh and Breton dant, Breton dent, Cornish dans, Hindi and Urdu daant...
Meaning: A song sung by sailors for entertainment or in rhythm with their work.Notes: This word is only coincidentally homophonic with shanty "shack". It refers to a song, as in 'sea shanty', as sung by sailors of old. It has been variously spelled shantey, chantey and chanty over ...
In Play: The literal meaning implies altruism: "Hankamer came to regret he had endowed the Beaver Lick Christian Church with so much of his inheritance." The figurative sense implies natural traits: "Hankamer was endowed with great generosity but little circumspection."...
In Play:I've given sentential examples in theMeaningabove. However, here is a sentence illustrating the difference betweennoandnot: "It's not painful", but "There is no pain." (Adverbs modify adjectives and verbs; adjectives modify only nouns.) ...
Meaning: 1. The male parent, sire; the spouse or mate of the mother. 2. An originator or initiator, as George Washington is said to be the father of the United States.Notes: The word father has fathered many offspring itself. It has an adjective, fatherly, a noun, fatherhood, ...
Meaning: 1. Without any distinguishing characteristics or qualities, having no individual form or class. 2. Dull, drab, uninteresting.Notes: This word is a lexical orphan, except it may be used as a noun referring to an undistinguished or insignificant person. It might seem an Orphan Negative...
may also be used as a verb meaning "to rubber-neck, to crane your neck like a gander". When people stretch their necks, it is often to get a better look at something, hence the second sense of this word. In Play: All English speakers have at one time or another used the common...