Definition (Noun) A piece of dining-room furniture for holding side-dishes, wine, plate, etc., and often having cupboards and drawers. In Context "I went to the sideboard and took down the decanter of brandy and poured out a generous snifter; golden and amber-smelling." John Wray, The Right Hand of Sleep, 2000.
Definition (Adjective) Unmoving, unchanging, rigid. In Context "Egged on by Western applause, he appointed Yegor Gaidar, a young Western-oriented economist, to cure the sclerotic economy with shock therapy." Michael Binyon, "Overwhelmed by the Demons He Unleashed," The Times, April 24, 2007.
Definition (Noun) Commendatory license, sanction. In Context "The committees wanted to address these complex issues, but, given the political and economic ramifications of market reform, they needed the SEC's imprimatur on the legislation." Anne M. Khademian, The SEC and Capital Market Regulation: The Politics of Expertise, 1992.
Definition (Verb) Especially of an infant: to cry feebly, to whimper; to make a whining noise. In Context "My father's alarm clock came to life with the voices of the news of the world, and my sister, in her bassinet, lifted her arms to mewl and grope at the morning." Tony D'Souza, The Konkans, 2008.
Critical Assessment "It is an old publishing custom to make smooth the path of a promising book by assembling as many advance tributes as possible, but seldom have so many been printed on the jacket of a first novel as on that of 'A Separate Peace,' by John Knowles. These eleven garlands of praise were written by such diverse men of letters as E. M. Forster, Truman Capote, Aubrey Menen, Angus Wilson and Peter Fleming and might conceivably antagonize more prospective readers than they allure. If they should, it would be a pity, because 'A Separate Peace' is just as good [...]
Definition (Adjective) Having no practical function; redundant; superfluous. In Context "Given that trial, conviction, and execution were practically foregone conclusions, it may seem otiose to try to establish the grounds on which Darcy and the others were convicted." R. W. Hoyle, The Pilgrimage of Grace and the Politics of the 1530s, 2001.
Definition (Adjective) Characterized by, expressing or causing mourning; doleful, mournful, sorrowful. In Context "A sense of lives doomed to struggle and disappointment pervades the writing without dragging it into lugubrious or melodramatic territory." Charles Isherwood, "Grasping the Secrets of Being an Adult," The New York Times, September 2, 2011.
Definition (Noun) An abject parasite or sycophant; a toady. In Context "Journalists and members of the Left liked to accuse Hawke of being a lickspittle of the United States but, as Costello – who was no Hawke fan at the time and who observed the relationship closely – remarked, 'I never saw him as such.'" Blanche d'Alpuget, Hawke: The Prime Minister, 2010.
Critical Assessment "Mr. Clemens, on the contrary, has taken the boy of the Southwest for the hero of his new book, and has presented him with a fidelity to circumstance which loses no charm by being realistic in the highest degree, and which gives incomparably the best picture of life in that region as yet known to fiction. . . . The local material and the incidents with which his career is worked up are excellent, and throughout there is scrupulous regard for the boy's point of view in reference to his surroundings and himself, which shows how rapidly Mr. Clemens [...]
Definition (Noun) A long strip of cloth or leather wound spirally round the leg from the ankle to the knee and worn by soldiers, walkers, etc., for protection and support in rough terrain. In Context "As the sun rose and concussion waves from the naval guns shimmered across the sea, Roosevelt scuttled about on his stubby, puttee-wrapped legs with 'the twinkling walk of a sandpiper on the beach.'" Rick Atkinson, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, 2007.
