Definition (Verb) To abuse, ridicule, or defame (a person or thing); to expose to public abuse or ridicule; to reproach. In Context "We live in a culture primed to pillory helicopter parents for hovering and smothering, working parents for outsourcing and neglecting, and parents of every stripe for failing to put down their phones." Heidi Stevens, "Parents Allow Less Freedom for Kids," Telegraph Herald, August 18, 2014.
Definition (Verb) To give forth intermittent or vibratory flashes of light; to shine with a quivering light; to sparkle, glitter, flash. In Context "The glowing stars grow fainter, dimmer, ceasing to coruscate like celestial jewels studding the soft, dark canopy of the sky." Frank T. Bullen, Idylls of the Sea and Other Marine Sketches, 1899.
Definition (Noun) One of the two periods in the year when the days and nights are equal in length all over the earth, owing to the sun's crossing the equator. Hence, the precise moment at which the sun crosses the equator. In Context "Easter is defined as the first Sunday after the first full moon that appears on or after the spring equinox, March 20." Jack Ewing, Monkeys Are Made of Chocolate: Exotic and Unseen Costa Rica, 2005.
Definition (Adjective) That quickly vanishes or passes away; having no permanence. Said of appearances, conditions, impressions, etc. In Context "The love I'm talking about is a simple emotion as evanescent as any other: you have the feeling towards someone for a moment, and the next moment, you're on to something else." David Hlavsa, An Actor Rehearses: What to Do When – and Why, 2006.
Writing with Others in Mind We typically write in solitude, immersed in our own thoughts and surrounded by our own things. Interruptions – intrusive conversations, incoming emails, needy colleagues – are generally unwelcome in these moments, unless, of course, we are not really in a mood to write. But when we single-mindedly focus on the sheet or screen before us, it is difficult not to be self-centered; not to view the world through the lens of our own needs and expectations. Yet, the more we withdraw into ourselves, the less likely we are to take our readers' unique identities into account. Their [...]
Definition (Noun) Something that attracts attention by its brilliancy or beauty; a centre of attraction, interest, or admiration. In Context "And as the empire expanded again in the aftermath of Yorktown, the position of the sovereign as its political flywheel, social apex and ceremonial cynosure was further enhanced." David Cannadine, Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire, 2001.
Critical Assessment "If one can invoke the idea of fierce lyricism without it sounding either coy or oxymoronic, surely that is the term to signal the chill and beauty of the Irish writer John Banville's novels. . . . "'The Sea,' then, which last month received England's coveted Man Booker Prize, is a piece of violent poetry – an autumnal, elegiac novel whose desolate story is carried along by the sweet and stormy tides of its exquisite, sometimes too exquisite, prose. . . . "The bulk of 'The Sea' is an exploration of how a man so brilliantly cultivated and articulate [...]
