The Economist September 8th-14th 2018 (412)

nonchalant

cool and confident, unconcerned

decennial

dɪˈsɛnɪəl/ adjective: decennial recurring every ten years. "the decennial census" lasting for or relating to a period of ten years. "decennial insurance" Relatively, the banks have not done so well; the banks' share of S&P 500 market capitalisation has declined from 10% to 6%. But a notable aspect of the decennial anniversary is that the clouds may, finally, be lifting.

file out

exit as a group march out, in a file. exit, get out, go out, leave - move out of or depart from; "leave the room"; He was there on September 15th 2008 when Lehman's employees filed out with soon-to-be-iconic cardboard boxes.

diastolic pressure

Blood pressure that remains between heart contractions. occurs when the ventricles are relaxed; the lowest pressure against the walls of an artery Many people hate sitting in traffic. One study by doctors at the American University in Beirut measured the blood pressure of drivers who pulled into petrol stations in heavy traffic and compared them with those who pulled over in light traffic. The ones in jams had a mean average systolic blood pressure of 142 and a diastolic pressure of 87. The drivers in light traffic measured a much healthier 123 over 78. Oddly, whether a driver was running late made no difference to blood pressure.

Bubble CPAP

Bubble CPAP is a non-invasive ventilation strategy for newborns with infant respiratory distress syndrome. It is one of the methods by which continuous positive airway pressure is delivered to a spontaneously breathing newborn to maintain lung volumes during expiration. Wikipedia His invention was inspired by something he saw while visiting Australia. On this trip he was introduced to a type ofventilator called a bubble-CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), which is employed to help premature babiesbreathe. It channels the infant's exhaled breath through a tube that has its far end immersed in water. The exhaled breath emerges from the tube as bubbles, and the process of bubble formation causes oscillations of pressure in the air in the tube.

blasé

(adj.) indifferent, bored as a result of having enjoyed many pleasures; apathetic

albino

/alˈbiːnəʊ/ noun a person or animal having a congenital absence of pigment in the skin and hair (which are white) and the eyes (which are usually pink). "these individuals have normal-coloured eyes and are thus easily distinguished from albinos" INFORMAL an abnormally white animal or plant. "an albino tiger" They come in a range of colours and are bred across South-East Asia. In Singapore the average price for a young arowana is around $300. Rare breeds, like the red ones found in West Kalimantan, go for about $1,500.Adult albinos sell for an astronomical $70,000.

backbencher

/bakˈbɛntʃə/ noun (in the UK) a Member of Parliament who does not hold office in the government or opposition and who sits behind the front benches in the House of Commons. "he was cheered by Tory backbenchers" The Conservative Party's civil war over Brexit is intensifying as B-day approaches. Twenty pro-Brexit MPs have declared that they will vote against Theresa May's Chequers deal, easily enough to derail it. Backbenchers have started to come up with alternatives.

bland

/bland/ adjective lacking strong features or characteristics and therefore uninteresting. "bland, mass-produced pop music" synonyms: uninteresting, dull, boring, tedious, monotonous, dry, drab, dreary synonyms: tasteless, flavourless, insipid, mild, savourless AMINU TAMBUWAL, a state governor normally too bland to attract much attention, is running for president of Nigeria.

bloat1

/bləʊt/ verb 1. make or become swollen with fluid or gas. "the fungus has bloated their abdomens" noun noun: bloat 1. a disease of livestock characterized by an accumulation of gas in the stomach. "Twice a week we'd flee at the sound of their gunshots," he remembers, "and return to find more cows were missing." Many of the carcasses were left to bloat in the fields.

bloat2

/bləʊt/ verb cure (a herring) by salting and smoking it lightly.

blunt

/blʌnt/ verb 1. make or become less sharp. "wood can blunt your axe" synonyms: make less sharp, make blunt, make dull "ebony blunts tools very rapidly" antonyms: sharpen, hone weaken or reduce the force of (something). "their determination had been blunted" synonyms: dull, deaden, dampen, soften, numb, weaken, take the edge off; calm, cool, temper, muffle, impair, allay, abate; tone down, dilute, sap, water down, thin, reduce, moderate; assuage, alleviate, mollify, ease, relieve, slake, sate, appease; diminish, decrease, lessen, deplete "age hasn't blunted my passion for the good things in life" antonyms: intensify, sharpen noun INFORMAL noun: blunt; plural noun: blunts Liberals should thus ensure that the states which protect their way of life are able to defend themselves decisively and, when necessary, to blunt the ambitions of others. America's European and Asian allies should spend both more, and more wisely, on their arsenals and training their troops. Healthier existing alliances will ease the creation of new ones with countries that have reason to worry about China's ambitions.

brag

/braɡ/ verb say something in a boastful manner. "he bragged that he was sure of victory" Similar: boast, crow, show off, swagger, swank, bluster crow about - By extension, to brag or boast about something

brash1

/braʃ/ adjective self-assertive in a rude, noisy, or overbearing way. "he was brash, cocky, and arrogant" synonyms: self-assertive, assertive, cocksure, full of oneself, self-confident, arrogant, thrusting, bold, as bold as brass, audacious, brazen, brazen-faced; forward, impudent, insolent, impertinent, rude, cheeky; informalcocky, pushy, brassy "a brash, noisy man" antonyms: meek, diffident having an ostentatious or tasteless appearance. "the cafe was a brash new building" synonyms: garish, gaudy, loud, over-bright, ostentatious, showy, flamboyant, flashy, vulgar, tasteless, tawdry; informaltacky; informalbling-bling "brash colours" China's vast infrastructure investments in Central Asia, part of the Belt and Road Initiative, are displacing Russia in its own backyard. Moreover, Russia's brash flouting of international norms, including it's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukrain, sits uneasily with China.

brace

/breɪs/ verb 1) prepare (someone) for something difficult or unpleasant. "both stations are bracing themselves for job losses" synonyms: prepare, get ready, make ready, gear up, nerve 2) make (a structure) stronger or firmer with wood, iron, or other forms of support. "the posts were braced by lengths of timber" synonyms: support, shore up, prop up, hold up, buttress THE foreign-aid budget for 2018, passed by Congress in March, looked very different from the one the White House asked for. Last year the administration proposed slashing it by a third. Funding for global health would be cut by a quarter and food aid by more than half. America is the world's largest donor by far, so the aid world braced itself for an apocalypse.

brave

/breɪv/ verb 1. endure or face (unpleasant conditions or behaviour) without showing fear. "these six men braved the rough seas" synonyms: endure, put up with, bear, withstand, weather, suffer, sustain, go through; face, confront, stand up to, meet head on, face up to, brazen out, defy; literarydare "around 400 fans braved freezing temperatures to see them play" antonyms: get cold feet Now, however, farmers are lucky to eke out a few dollars a day. War and lawlessness have curdled their business. Twice a week Mr Sinamenye sells his cheeses for the equivalent of $3 each to a trader who straps them onto the back of a motorbike and braves the muddy track to Goma. There they are sold to shopkeepers, who in turn sell them for $5 each.

brim

/brɪm/ verb 1. be full to the point of overflowing. "a brimming cup" synonyms: be full, be filled up, be filled to the top, be full to capacity, be packed with, overflow, run/well over "the pan was brimming with water" fill something so completely that it almost overflows. "large tears brimmed in her eyes" synonyms: fill, fill up, fill to capacity, overflow "the tears brimmed in her eyes" be full of a particular quality, feeling, etc. "he is brimming with ideas" The NAZCA database brims with promises but it is hard to tell the serious from the flaky.

barcode

/bɑːˈkəʊd/ noun 1. a machine-readable code in the form of numbers and a pattern of parallel lines of varying widths, printed on a commodity and used especially for stock control. "simply scan the barcode on the food packaging and the app will give you a nutritional breakdown of the product" verb verb: bar-code 1. mark with a barcode. "all the merchandise is barcoded and scanned" Previous technology shifts have not had as negative effects on employment as was first feared. The authors note some well-known examples. Bar-code scanners did not eliminate the role of cashiers in America; jobs in the retail industry grew at an annual rate of more than 2% between 1980 and 2013.

bog down

/bɒɡ/ verb be prevented from making progress in a task or activity. "you must not get bogged down in detail" synonyms: mire, stick, trap, entangle, ensnare, embroil Mr Buhari's popularity has since dipped, not least because he spent much of 2017 in London receiving medical treatment. Although Nigeria's army made gains against jihadists in his first few months in office, it has since become bogged down. Soldiers guard towns and patrol the roads, but insurgents still rule the countryside.

bazooka

/bəˈzuːkə/ 1. a short-range tubular rocket launcher used against tanks. 2. a kazoo shaped like a trumpet. Many Yemenis sling rifles over their shoulders or tuck handguns into their trousers before going out. Markets sell everything from pistols to bazookas. You cannot go far inmost cities without seeing someone with a gun.

birch

/bəːtʃ/ noun 1. a slender hardy tree which has thin peeling bark and bears catkins. Birch trees grow chiefly in northern temperate regions and yield hard, pale, fine-grained timber. the hard fine-grained pale wood of birch trees. noun: birchwood Just 25km north-west of Rinkeby, where the city gives way to horse farms and birch forests, the tide was running the other way. In Habo-Tibble, a village of wooden houses and trimmed hedges, Helena Persson, who used to support the Social Democrats, had switched to the SD.

bench

/bɛn(t)ʃ/ 3. a judge's seat in a law court. the office of judge or magistrate. "his appointment to the civil bench" a judge or magistrate presiding over a particular case. synonyms: judges, magistrates, judiciary, judicature; court, law court, court of justice, bar, courtroom, tribunal, forum "the bench began to hear the evidence" The ban on gay sex was struck down by a Delhi court in 2009. Itwas then reinstated by the Supreme Court in 2013, which said parliament should deal with the matter. However, on September 6th the court reversed itself. A broader bench ruled, to general applause from Indian liberals, that the law does not, after all, criminalise homosexuality. The decision is final.

biennial

/bʌɪˈɛnɪəl/ adjective 1. taking place every other year. "the first of a series of biennial exhibitions" 2. (of a plant) taking two years to grow from seed to fruition and die. noun noun: biennial; plural noun: biennials 1. a biennial plant. 2. an event celebrated or taking place every two years. "the top antiques fairs are the Milan and Florence biennials" During last year's edition of the "99 Charity Day", users of its WeChat messaging app gave 830m yuan to good causes (about as much as is raised biennially by "Red Nose Day", a long-running British telethon). Tencent and its partners gave matching donations that brought the total to 1.3bn yuan.

dash

/daʃ/ verb destroy or frustrate (hopes or expectations). "the budget dashed hopes of an increase in funding" Similar: shatter, destroy, wreck, ruin, crush, devastate, demolish The International Olympic Committee dashed the hopes of video-gamers when its president, Thomas Bach, said that electronic sports promote violence and contradict Olympic values.

borehole

/ˈbɔːhəʊl/ noun a deep, narrow hole made in the ground, especially to locate water or oil. The regime has also announced taxes on boreholes, internet calls and even weather reports. "The pressure is falling on the ordinary people," complains John Phiri, a taxi driver. "All because the state has run up too much credit."

deselect

/diːsɪˈlɛkt/ verb 1. BRITISH (of a local branch of a political party) reject (an existing MP) as a candidate in a forthcoming election. "the ultimate disloyalty would be to deselect a long-standing MP" Corbynites won all nine places in an election to the NEC, with one going to Peter Willsman, who has blamed Jewish "Trump fanatics" for stirring up the anti-Semitism debate. Mr Corbyn's allies are preparing to use their control of the party's machinery to launch their ultimate weapon: the power to deselect MPs who don't agree with them.

drill1

/drɪl/ noun 1. a tool or machine with a rotating cutting tip or reciprocating hammer or chisel, used for making holes. synonyms: drilling tool, boring tool, rotary tool, auger, (brace and) bit, gimlet, awl, bradawl "a hydraulic drill" a tool with a rotating tip used by a dentist for cutting away part of a tooth before filling it.

dwell1

/dwɛl/ verb past tense: dwelt; past participle: dwelt 1. FORMAL live in or at a specified place. "groups of gypsies still dwell in these caves" synonyms: reside, live, have one's home, have one's residence, be settled, be housed, lodge, stay; informalhang out, hang one's hat, put up; formalabide, be domiciled, sojourn; archaicbide "groups of gypsies still dwell in these amazing caves" Frank Field, a veteran MP, has resigned the Labour whip and some 15 others are reportedly thinking of doing the same. The problem of anti-Semitism is closely linked to a broader problem of thuggery. The Corbyn surge has brought in troglodytes who have dwelt in dark basements for the past few decades, consumed by righteous hatred not just of Tories but also of Blairites and other traitors.

deferential

/dɛfəˈrɛnʃ(ə)l/ adjective showing deference; respectful. "people were always deferential to him" Similar: obsequious, humble, respectful, considerate, attentive, thoughtful. Breaking this cycle requires reform. Some have proposed radical solutions, such as making all of the roughly180 federal appellate judges associate justices, and having nine of them drawn at random to hear and choose cases at the Supreme Court for a limited period—a term, at most. Defenders argue that this would make the court more deferential to precedent, and any one judge less able to spend years cutting a partisan path across the nation's highest court.

disservice

/dɪ(s)ˈsəːvɪs/ noun a harmful action. "you have done a disservice to the African people by ignoring this fact" synonyms: unkindness, bad turn, ill turn, disfavour, mischief; injury, harm, hurt, damage, offence; wrong, injustice; informalkick in the teeth "not checking your headlines does your readers a disservice" antonyms: favour The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which publishes Science, said it would "disrupt scholarly communications, be a disservice to researchers, and impinge academic freedom".

dim

/dɪm/ adjective 1. (of a light, colour, or illuminated object) not shining brightly or clearly. "the dim glow of the fire" Similar: faint, weak, feeble, soft, pale, dull, dingy, subdued, muted, flat, lustreless, wishy-washy Opposite: bright 2. not clearly recalled or formulated in the mind. "dim memories" Similar: vague, unclear, indistinct, imprecise, imperfect The future, moreover, looks brighter still—or dimmer, if you are an illicit fisherman. Cube Sats, satellites the size of a loaf of bread, are lowering the cost of Earth observation.

din

/dɪn/ noun 1. a loud, unpleasant, and prolonged noise. "the fans made an awful din" synonyms: uproar, racket, loud noise, confused noise, commotion, cacophony, babel, hubbub, tumult, fracas, clangour, crash, clatter, clash; shouting, yelling, screaming, caterwauling, babble, babbling, clamour, outcry; brouhaha, fuss, disturbance, ado; pandemonium, bedlam, chaos, confusion; stramash; informal hullabaloo, rumpus, ruction; Against many pundits' expectations, the oldest form of modern mass-communication has held up well amid the din of television, streaming, video-gaming and all the other entertainments of modern life.

dispensation

/dɪspɛnˈseɪʃ(ə)n/ noun 2. a political, religious, or social system prevailing at a particular time. "scholarship is conveyed to a wider audience than under the old dispensation" synonyms: system, order, scheme, plan, arrangement, organization "minorities have a special voice in the new constitutional dispensation" The new dispensation also puts ever greater authority in the hands of the political appointees in charge of regulatory agencies. This means the institutions will inevitably be more politicised—an outcome many who initially supported these innovations have come to regret since the change in administration.

disburse

/dɪsˈbəːs/ verb pay out (money from a fund). "$67 million of the pledged aid had already been disbursed" Similar: pay out, lay out, spend, expend, dole out, hand out It was running on an annual budget more suitable for a parish church: less than $0.01 per artefact, only some of which was ever disbursed. Despite the risk of keeping a collection of irreplaceable objects in what those inspectors called a firetrap, officials and politicians rebuffed generous offers of financial help

disconsolate

/dɪsˈkɒns(ə)lət/ adjective very unhappy and unable to be comforted. "she left Fritz looking disconsolate" synonyms: sad, unhappy, doleful, woebegone, dejected, downcast, downhearted, despondent, dispirited, crestfallen, cast down, depressed, fed up, disappointed, disheartened, discouraged, demoralized, crushed, desolate, heartbroken, broken-hearted, inconsolable, heavy-hearted, low-spirited, forlorn, in the doldrums, melancholy, miserable, long-faced, wretched, glum, gloomy, dismal; informalblue, choked, down, down in the mouth, down in the dumps; informalbrassed off, cheesed off, as sick as a parrot, looking as if one had lost a pound and found a penny; literarydolorous; archaicchap-fallen, heartsick, heartsore "Giles was looking increasingly disconsolate" antonyms: cheerful, happy BACK on the campaign trail, Gary Johnson cuts a slightly disconsolate figure. Appearing in a sports bar in the town of Gallup, New Mexico, the former Republican governor, serial presidential hopeful and now Libertarian Party candidate for the Senate, spoke unenergetically about what he would do there.

deferral

/dɪˈfəːr(ə)l/ noun a postponement of an action or event. "they agreed to a deferral of industrial action" Mr Kavanaugh does not believe presidents are above the law: the article suggested temporary investigatory deferrals, not permanent immunity.

dilapidated

/dɪˈlapɪdeɪtɪd/ adjective (of a building or object) in a state of disrepair or ruin as a result of age or neglect. "old, dilapidated buildings" Similar: run down, tumbledown, ramshackle, broken-down, in disrepair, shabby The result—the EA Hotel, a large, dilapidated building on the end of a down-at heel terrace—is more Fawlty Towers than Manhattan glamours pot. It opened its doors four months ago

delinquent

/dɪˈlɪŋkw(ə)nt/ adjective 1. (typically of a young person) tending to commit crime, particularly minor crime. "delinquent teenagers" synonyms: lawless, lawbreaking, criminal, offending; errant, badly behaved, troublesome, difficult, unmanageable, unruly, disobedient, uncontrollable, out of control "delinquent teenagers" antonyms: well behaved, conformist 2. FORMAL failing in one's duty. synonyms: negligent, neglectful, remiss, careless of one's duty, irresponsible, lax, slack; derelict; raredisregardful, inadvertent, oscitant "delinquent parents need to face tougher penalties" antonyms: dutiful NORTH AMERICAN in arrears. "delinquent accounts" noun 1. a delinquent person. "juvenile delinquents" Zambia is one of 18 African countries the IMF says is at risk of "debt distress"— double the number in 2013. A further eight are already in distress (meaning they are delinquent or in default).

depart

/dɪˈpɑːt/ verb leave, especially in order to start a journey. "they departed for Germany" synonyms: leave, go, go away, go off, take one's leave, take oneself off, withdraw, absent oneself, say one's goodbyes, quit, make an exit, exit The sum would have been worth $60bn before the second world war. But after the Nazis departed with Hungary's gold reserves and the Russians occupied its territory, the country's currency was not what it was—and becoming even

departed

/dɪˈpɑːtɪd/ adjective dead. "a dear departed relative" synonyms: dead, deceased, late, lost, lamented; gone, no more, passed away, passed on, perished, expired, extinct; informal(as) dead as a doornail; euphemisticwith God, asleep, at peace; raredemised "he saw the ghost of his departed wife" antonyms: living

derision

/dɪˈrɪʒ(ə)n/ noun contemptuous ridicule or mockery. "my stories were greeted with derision and disbelief" synonyms: mockery, ridicule, jeering, jeers, sneers, scoffing, jibing, taunts; disdain, disparagement, denigration, disrespect, pooh-poohing; sneering, scorn, scornfulness, taunting, insults; contempt, vilification, obloquy; lampooning, satire; ragging, teasing, chaffing, raillery; archaiccontumely "my stories were greeted with disbelief and derision" antonyms: respect, praise Not long ago tech gurus predicted that technology would dissolve some of our biggest political problems—replacing a world of shortages with a world of abundance and a world of tribal loyalties with a world of internet-enabled comity. Now the tech gurus are figures of derision, and technology has joined climate change at the heart of political debate.

disparage

/dɪˈsparɪdʒ/ verb regard or represent as being of little worth. "he never missed an opportunity to disparage his competitors" synonyms: belittle, denigrate, deprecate, depreciate, downgrade, play down, deflate, trivialize, minimize, make light of, treat lightly, undervalue, underrate, underestimate; disdain, dismiss, ridicule, deride, mock, scorn, pour scorn on, scoff at, sneer at, laugh at "it has become fashionable to disparage Lawrence and his achievements" "people walked past him making disparaging comments" antonyms: praise, overrate, complimentary And although Europeans are relieved that last summer's NATO summit passed without a crisis, Mr Trump's disparagement of allies, whether big countries like Germany or small ones like Montenegro, has frayed transatlantic bonds.

dispense

/dɪˈspɛns/ verb 2. manage without or get rid of. "let's dispense with the formalities, shall we?" synonyms: waive, omit, drop, leave out, forgo, give up, relinquish, renounce; ignore, disregard, pass over, brush aside; do away with, put a stop to, put an end to; informalcut out, give something a miss, knock something on the head "I think we can dispense with the formalities" get rid of, throw away, throw out, cast aside, do away with, dispose of, discard, shed; manage without, do without, cope without; If i-buyers can dispense with at least some of them, and speed up home sales in the process, few would grumble.

distraught

/dɪˈstrɔːt/ adjective very worried and upset. "a distraught woman sobbed and screamed for help" synonyms: worried, upset, distressed, fraught, devastated, shattered; overcome, overwrought, beside oneself, out of one's mind, desperate, at one's wits' end; hysterical, frenzied, raving, deranged; informalin a state, worked up; informalswivel-eyed "the poor child was distraught" In his short story "The Southern Thruway", a man driving to Paris gets stuck in a jam so bad it lasts for days. At first he and his fellow drivers are furious. But gradually they create a little society, sharing food and drink and turning one car into a hospital. When, to everyone's surprise, cars start moving at last, the protagonist is distraught. It turns out there is nowhere he would rather be than stuck in traffic.

dissent

/dɪˈsɛnt/ noun: dissent 1. the holding or expression of opinions at variance with those commonly or officially held. "there was no dissent from this view" synonyms: disagreement, lack of agreement, difference of opinion, argument, dispute, demur; disapproval, objection, protest, opposition, defiance, insubordination; conflict, friction, strife; arguing, quarrelling, wrangling, bickering "there were murmurs of dissent from the opposition benches" antonyms: agreement, acceptance Democratic senators criticised Mr Kavanaugh's dissent from a ruling which permitted a young illegal immigrant in custody to have an abortion.

detract

/dɪˈtrakt/ verb diminish the worth or value of (a quality or achievement). "these quibbles in no way detract from her achievement" synonyms: belittle, take away from, diminish, reduce, lessen, minimize, lower, make light of, play down, discount, soft-pedal, brush aside, gloss over, trivialize, decry, depreciate, denigrate, devalue, devaluate, deprecate; "the few reservations I have expressed are not intended to detract from the book's excellence" antonyms: enhance take away (a specified amount) from the worth or value of a quality or achievement. "it is detracting nothing from his ability to say that he owed the championship to a superior car" Modern communication methods mean that collaboration is more frequent. Workers are constantly in touch with each other via e-mail, messaging groups or mobile calls. But does that boost, or detract from, performance?

dissemination

/dɪˌsɛmɪˈneɪʃn/ noun the act of spreading something, especially information, widely; circulation. "dissemination of public information" synonyms: spreading, circulation, distribution, dispersal, diffusion; proclamation, promulgation, propagation, publicizing, communication, passing on, making known, putting about; dissipation, scattering; broadcasting, relaying, transmission, putting on the air/airwaves, publishing, publication "the collection and dissemination of information" Nevertheless, this week's revelations serve a purpose. The wide dissemination of the suspects' mugshots means their days as travelling killers, if that is what theywere, are over. And the steady accumulation of evidence of Russian culpability bolsters the Western consensus that MrPutin's behaviour is out ofhand. Fresh sanctions may follow.

jot down

/dʒɒt/ verb write (something) quickly. "when you've found the answers, jot them down" synonyms: write down, note down, make a note of, take down, set down, put down, put on paper, mark down; log, record, list, register, enter; scribble, scrawl "I've jotted down a few details" Starting at day break on days of fair weather, the researchers walked slowly, carefully noting over 5,500 individual birds living in and around the buildings. They jotted down the physical dimensions of each building, together with other structural elements such as trees, shrubs and gardens.

germanium

/dʒəːˈmeɪnɪəm/ noun the chemical element of atomic number 32, a shiny grey semimetal. Germanium was important in the making of transistors and other semiconductor devices, but has been largely replaced by silicon. Optical fibre could, though, be better than it is. The glass used contains impurities that both absorb and scatter part of the light passing through it. This can be ameliorated by adding germanium, which reduces absorption and scattering. But that is not a perfect answer.

jibe2

/dʒʌɪb/ verbINFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN be in accord; agree. "the verdict does not jibe with the medical evidence" jibe3 /dʒʌɪb/ noun 1. an insulting or mocking remark; a taunt. "a jibe at his old rivals" synonyms: snide remark, cutting remark, taunt, sneer, jeer, insult, barb; informaldig, wisecrack, crack, put-down "the cruel jibes of his former colleagues" verb 1. make insulting or mocking remarks; jeer. "some cynics in the media might jibe" synonyms: jeer, taunt, mock, scoff, sneer "'What accomplishments?' Simon jibed in his sarcastic way" On the second, Tory party members like Mr Johnson more than Tory MPs do— and are getting keener with every suicide vest jibe.

flack

/flak/ INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN noun a publicity agent. Many of the international political consulting and public-relations firms that coined it in 2015 are again seen trailing their candidates through the lobbies of hotels in Abuja and London. The flacks are as fickle as the Big Men they serve. Some lobbyists are now working for the very people they sought to trash last time.

flake1

/fleɪk/ noun 1. a small, flat, very thin piece of something, typically one which has broken away or been peeled off from a larger piece. "he licked the flakes of croissant off his finger" synonyms: sliver, wafer, shaving, paring, peeling; chip, shard 2) a rack or shelf for storing or drying food such as fish. MacRebur cleans and sorts the plastic and then grinds the waste into flakes or pellets. The plan is for this part of the process to be carried out in the localities where roads are being laid or repaired, so that local waste is used to produce local roads.

fleece

/fliːs/ verb past tense: fleeced; past participle: fleeced /ˈfliːst/ 1. INFORMAL obtain a great deal of money from (someone), typically by overcharging or swindling them. "the city's cab drivers are notorious for fixing fares and fleecing tourists" THE cars in Lusaka are moving even more slowly than usual: hidden speed cameras have spooked drivers in Zambia's capital. The government is desperate for cash, so motorists who speed are being fleeced.

forestall

/fɔːˈstɔːl/ verb prevent or obstruct (an anticipated event or action) by taking advance action. "they will present their resignations to forestall a vote of no confidence" synonyms: pre-empt, get in before, get ahead of, steal a march on, anticipate, second-guess, nip in the bud, thwart, frustrate, foil, stave off, ward off, fend off, avert, preclude, obviate, prevent, intercept, check, block, hinder, impede, obstruct; informalbeat someone to it, beat someone to the draw/punch "they will resign to forestall a vote of no confidence" act in advance of (someone) in order to prevent them from doing something. "he would have spoken but David forestalled him" Alas, the more urgent necessity is to ensure the survival of the current system which, having been undermined by China, is now under determined attack by America, once its greatest support. Fighting to forestall losses is not as inspiring as fighting for new progress. But it is yet more vital; backsliding is a threat to the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.

fen1

/fɛn/ noun a low and marshy or frequently flooded area of land. "a native species of fens and damp meadows" synonyms: marsh, marshland, salt marsh, fenland, wetland, bog, peat bog, bogland, swamp, swampland; moss, carr; corcass; bayou, moor, pocosin, salina; "they opposed the drainage of the fen" the flat low-lying areas of eastern England, mainly in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, formerly marshland but largely drained for agriculture since the 17th century. singular proper noun: Fens; plural noun: the Fens STUCK in the middle of the fens outside Cambridge, the Babraham Research Campus is a nightmare to get to. Yet on September 8th 1,500 people braved challenging logistics and intermittent rain to spend a day in eight makeshift tents there to discuss political ideas. Is this the end of the liberal era?

fin

/fɪn/ noun 1. a flattened appendage on various parts of the body of many aquatic vertebrates, including fish and cetaceans, and some invertebrates, used for propelling, steering, and balancing. an underwater swimmer's flipper. a small flattened projecting surface or attachment on an aircraft, rocket, or car, for providing aerodynamic stability. a flattened projection on a device, used for increasing heat transfer. verb 1. swim under water by means of flippers. "we finned along the side of the wreck" Plastic surgeons for fish have sprung up in Singapore. Procedures include eyelid lifts and fin enlargements. Some owners, known as arofanatics, put their fish through a tanning regime to perfect their hue.

fecundity

/fɪˈkʌndɪti/ noun the ability to produce an abundance of offspring or new growth; fertility. "multiply mated females show increased fecundity" the ability to produce many new ideas. "the immense fecundity of his imagination made a profound impact on European literature" Still, arowanas remain Asia's favourite fish, despite competition. Their appeal has endured partly because they are tricky to breed. MrYap's farm collects DNA from the fish to help monitor their fecundity and boost productivity.

ferociously

/fɪˈrəʊʃəsli/ adverb: ferociously in a savagely fierce, cruel, or violent manner. "the dogs barked ferociously" to a very great degree; extremely. "a bookish, ferociously intelligent young girl" In many places the budget for preserving the past is meagre to begin with, and cut ferociously when times are hard. Outsiders should help.

preconceived

/priːkənˈsiːvd/ adjective (of an idea or opinion) formed before having the evidence for its truth or usefulness. "the same set of facts can be tailored to fit any preconceived belief" synonyms: predetermined, prejudged; prejudiced, biased "some people tend to have preconceived ideas about us" Her research in the Netherlands found that case officers expected gay asylum-seekers from conservative Muslim countries to conform to a preconceived personal narrative.

haphazard

/hapˈhazəd/ adjective lacking any obvious principle of organization. "the music business works in a haphazard fashion" synonyms: random, unplanned, unsystematic, unmethodical, disorganized, disorderly, irregular, indiscriminate, chaotic, hit-and-miss, arbitrary, orderless, aimless, undirected, careless, casual, slapdash, slipshod; chance, accidental; informalhiggledy-piggledy "things were strewn around in a haphazard fashion" antonyms: methodical, systematic It is not as if the money has been well spent. Much has been spent haphazardly—or, in some cases, stolen. "People are asking: where did all the money go?" says Geoffrey Chongo of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, a local charity.

hue

/hjuː/ noun a colour or shade. "the water is the deepest hue of aquamarine" Similar: colour, tone, shade, tint, tinge, cast, tincture. Plastic surgeons for fish have sprung up in Singapore. Procedures include eyelid lifts and fin enlargements. Some owners, known as arofanatics, put their fish through a tanning regime to perfect their hue.

hew

/hjuː/ verb 2. NORTH AMERICAN conform or adhere to. "his administration would hew to high ethical standards" Local efforts have also proliferated in countries still hewing to the Paris accord. From Aachen in Germany to Zapopan in Mexico, cities are pledging emissions reductions.

hew2

/hjuː/ verb past tense: hewed 2. NORTH AMERICAN conform or adhere to. "his administration would hew to high ethical standards" Dr Mahathir's predecessor, Najib Razak, had hewed close to China. His loss at the polls resulted more than anything from the stench of corruption within his ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). But his chumminess with China was also a factor. The two issues were entwined.

hoax

/həʊks/ noun 1. a humorous or malicious deception. "the evidence had been planted as part of an elaborate hoax" synonyms: practical joke, joke, jest, prank, trick, jape; ruse, deception, fraud, imposture, cheat, swindle, bluff, humbug, confidence trick; informalcon, spoof, scam, fast one, put-on "they recognized the plan as a hoax" verb 1. trick or deceive (someone). synonyms: play a practical joke on, play a joke on, play a jest on, play a prank on, trick, fool; deceive, hoodwink, delude, dupe, take in, lead on, cheat, bluff, gull, humbug; informalcon, kid, have on, pull a fast one on, put one over on, take for a ride, lead someone up the garden path, pull the wool over someone's eyes "on April 1st the radio station hoaxed its listeners" In the aftermath of a mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida, searches about the shooting on YouTube surfaced conspiracy videos alleging it was a hoax involving "crisis actors".

yeshiva

/jəˈʃiːvə/ an Orthodox Jewish college or seminary. The accusations—that Ms Nixon was "silent on the rise of anti-Semitism", supported the campaign to boycott Israel and opposed taxpayer funding for yeshivas— appear to be entirely fact-free.

cad

/kad/ nounINFORMAL•DATED a man who behaves dishonourably, especially towards a woman. "her adulterous cad of a husband" His problem is not just that the majority of Tory MPs voted "remain" in the referendum, and hate him as leader of the Brexiteers. MPs of all political persuasions regard him as a cad. One senior Tory says that "it's 100% inconceivable that he'll become leader of the Conservative Party

cure2

/kjʊə,kjɔː/ preserve (meat, fish, tobacco, or an animal skin) by salting, drying, or smoking. "home-cured ham" Similar: preserve, smoke, salt, dry, kipper, pickle. cure a herring by salting and smoking it lightly.

crank1

/kraŋk/ INFORMAL 1) increase the intensity of something. "the volume is cranked up a notch" synonyms: increase, make larger, make bigger, make greater, add to, augment, build up, enlarge, expand, extend, raise, multiply, elevate, swell, inflate; magnify, intensify, amplify, heighten, escalate; worsen, make worse, exacerbate, aggravate, compound, reinforce; improve, make better, boost, ameliorate, enhance, upgrade 2) crank up Informal. to get started or ready: The theater season is cranking up with four benefit performances. to stimulate, activate, or produce: to crank up enthusiasm for a new product. to increase one's efforts, output, etc.: Industry began to crank up after the new tax incentives became law. Memory chips flow from South Korea and Vietnam; system chips from Malaysia, Taiwan and elsewhere; and displays from Japan and South Korea. Rich-world firms, such as Qualcomm, sell licences to use their intellectual property (IP). The parts are then assembled, mainly by armies of Chinese workers. The machine cranks up ahead of the launch of each new model—Apple may reveal its latest on September 12th—and spews out millions of devices.

quantifiable

/kwɒntɪˈfʌɪəb(ə)l/ adjective able to be expressed or measured as a quantity. "quantifiable data" Of the 220 pledges like the Covenant of Mayors or the C40, just 48 have adopted quantifiable goals, according to the UN's annual "Emissions Gap" report; 165 lack clear mechanisms for monitoring and reporting progress.

queer

/kwɪə/ adjective 1. strange; odd. "she had a queer feeling that they were being watched" synonyms: odd, strange, unusual, funny, peculiar, curious, bizarre, weird, outlandish, eccentric, unconventional, unorthodox, uncanny, unexpected, unfamiliar, abnormal, anomalous, atypical, untypical, different, out of the ordinary, out of the way, extraordinary, remarkable, puzzling, mystifying, mysterious, perplexing, baffling, unaccountable, incongruous, uncommon, irregular, outré, offbeat, singular, deviant, aberrant, freak, freakish; suspicious, dubious, questionable; eerie, unnatural; unco 2. INFORMAL•OFFENSIVE (of a person) homosexual. denoting or relating to a sexual or gender identity that does not correspond to established ideas of sexuality and gender, especially heterosexual norms. "queer geek culture has featured gay themes since the 1980s" "Officials who handle these cases need to learn that queer people come from all kinds of backgrounds and experiences," says Marty Huber of Queer Base, an Austrian NGO.

cuisine

/kwɪˈziːn/ noun a style or method of cooking, especially as characteristic of a particular country, region, or establishment. "much Venetian cuisine is based on seafood" synonyms: cooking, cookery, fare, food; haute cuisine, cordon bleu, nouvelle cuisine food cooked in a certain way. plural noun: cuisines "we spent the evening sampling the local cuisine" Pork's special place in Chinese cuisine makes swine fevere specially abhorrent

sleaze

/sliːz/ noun 1. BRITISH immoral, sordid, and corrupt behaviour or activities. "political campaigns that are long on sleaze and short on substance" verb INFORMAL 1. behave in an immoral, corrupt, or sordid way. "you're the last person who has to sleaze around bars" New York politics Sleaze and the city

calf1

/kɑːf/ noun: calf; plural noun: calves 1. a young bovine animal, especially a domestic cow or bull in its first year. "a heifer calf" the young of some other large mammals, such as elephants, rhinoceroses, large deer and antelopes, and whales. short for calfskin. 2. a floating piece of ice detached from an iceberg. A related phenomenon is the "wisdom of crowds". Large groups are remarkably good, on average, at estimating such things as the number of beans in a jar or the weight of a prize calf. But that accuracy relies on the guesses being independent. When people are aware of the views of others, there is a tendency for them to herd, as participants are reluctant to look foolish by deviating from the majority view. The same effect may lead to stockmarket bubbles.

carp2

/kɑːp/ verb complain or find fault continually about trivial matters. "I don't want to carp about the way you did it" synonyms: complain, cavil, grumble, moan, grouse The only plausible way to remove Mr Trump is through an election, and partisanship will also make that hard. Outside carping against Mr Trump will not diminish his tribal support.

carnation

/kɑːˈneɪʃ(ə)n/ noun: carnations a double-flowered cultivated variety of clove pink, with grey-green leaves and showy pink, white, or red flowers. AYOUNG woman carefully lays a sunflower next to the candles and carnations that surround a photo of 35-year-old Daniel Hillig.

condescending

/kɒndɪˈsɛndɪŋ/ adjective having or showing an attitude of patronizing superiority. "she thought the teachers were arrogant and condescending" synonyms: patronizing, supercilious, superior, snobbish, snobby, scornful, disdainful, lofty, lordly, haughty, imperious; "she looked us up and down in a condescending manner" Liberals need to shake themselves out of this torpor. And they need to persuade others of their ideas. All too often, in recent years, liberal reforms have been imposed by judges, by central banks and by unaccountable supranational organisations. Perhaps the best-founded part of today's reaction against liberalism is the outrage people feel when its nostrums are imposed on them with condescending promises that they will be the better for it.

compute

/kəmˈpjuːt/ verb reckon or calculate (a figure or amount). "the hire charge is computed on a daily basis" synonyms: calculate, work out, reckon, figure, enumerate, determine, evaluate, assess, quantify, put a figure on; add up, add together, count up, tally, total, totalize; measure; tot up; rarecast INFORMAL seem reasonable; make sense. "the idea of a woman alone in a pub did not compute" They then buy it at a discount to the computed price (as Mr Beane did with players), spruce it up and offload it. Opendoor says its average fee is 6-6.5%, about the same cut as conventional estate agents take on a sale.

concomitant

/kənˈkɒmɪt(ə)nt/ FORMAL adjective 1. naturally accompanying or associated. "she loved travel, with all its concomitant worries" synonyms: attendant, accompanying, associated, collateral, related, connected, linked; accessory, auxiliary; resultant, resulting, consequent "the rise of urbanism brought a concomitant risk of crime" antonyms: unrelated What explains the electorate's apparent amnesia? The starting point is public anger over the combination of the country's worst-ever recession, a concomitant collapse in public services (dramatised by this week's fire at the National Museum) and the widespread corruption revealed by Lava Jato, which went far beyond the PT.

contrarian

/kənˈtrɛːrɪən/ noun 1. a person who opposes or rejects popular opinion, especially in stock exchange dealing. "it has become fashionable to be a stock-market contrarian" adjective 1. opposing or rejecting popular opinion or current practice. "the comment came more from a contrarian disposition than moral conviction" And the report argues that AI can produce better decision-making by offering a contrarian opinion so that teams can avoid the danger of groupthink.

contrive

/kənˈtrʌɪv/ verb create or bring about (an object or a situation) by deliberate use of skill and artifice. "his opponents contrived a cabinet crisis" Similar: bring about, engineer, cause to happen, manufacture, orchestrate, stage-manage, create, devise, concoct, construct, design, formulate, plan, work out, think up, dream up, come up with, fabricate, plot, hatch, wangle, set up, cook up, procure. manage to do something foolish or create an undesirable situation. "he contrived to flood the flat three times" Similar: manage, find a way, engineer a way, arrange, succeed in, work it. Liberal technocrats contrive endless clever policy fixes, but they remain conspicuously aloof from the people they are supposed to be helping. This creates two classes: the doers and the done-to, the thinkers and the thought-for, the policymakers and the policy takers.

contemptible

/kənˈtɛm(p)tɪb(ə)l/ adjective deserving contempt; despicable. "a display of contemptible cowardice" synonyms: despicable, detestable, hateful, reprehensible, deplorable Contrary to what many outraged Democrats claim, Mr Sessions's contemptible work as attorney-general falls into the first category. He is executing what Mr Trump promised on the campaign trail.

canard

/kəˈnɑːd,ˈkanɑːd/ noun 1. an unfounded rumour or story. "the old canard that LA is a cultural wasteland" The foreign media are regarded with suspicion, since Ms Suu Kyi appears to believe the canard that there is a global conspiracy against Myanmar. Foreign correspondents find it increasingly hard to get visas.

cull

/kʌl/ verb 1. reduce the population of (a wild animal) by selective slaughter. "he sees culling deer as a necessity" Similar: slaughter, kill, destroy, reduce the numbers of thin out the population of 2. send (an inferior or surplus farm animal) to be slaughtered. "unproductive animals can be identified and culled" The authorities have stepped up inspections, shut some live markets, stopped the transport of pigs from the affected areas and culled nearly 40,000 swine.

culpability

/kʌlpəˈbɪlɪti/ noun responsibility for a fault or wrong; blame. "a level of moral culpability" synonyms: guilt, blame, fault, responsibility, accountability, liability, answerability; guiltiness, blameworthiness antonyms: innocence Nevertheless, this week's revelations serve a purpose. The wide dissemination of the suspects' mugshots means their days as travelling killers, if that is what theywere, are over. And the steady accumulation of evidence of Russian culpability bolsters the Western consensus that MrPutin's behaviour is out of hand. Fresh sanctions may follow.

belfry

/ˈbɛlfri/ noun the part of a bell tower or steeple in which bells are housed. a bell tower or steeple housing bells. CHRISTIANITY and conservation have not always gone hand in hand. Yet the structures raised by Christians to exercise their faith offer tangible sanctuary to some of God's smaller creatures. Bats, famously, roost in belfries.

lapse

/laps/ noun 1. a brief or temporary failure of concentration, memory, or judgement. "a lapse of concentration in the second set cost her the match" synonyms: failure, failing, slip, error, mistake, blunder, fault, omission, oversight, negligence, dereliction; informalslip-up, fail "a momentary lapse of concentration" a decline from previously high standards. "tracing his lapse into petty crime" synonyms: decline, downturn, fall, falling, falling away, slipping, drop, deterioration, worsening, degeneration, dereliction, backsliding, regression, retrogression, decay, descent, sinking, slide, ebb, waning, corruption, debasement, tainting, corrosion, impairment "his lapse into petty crime" LAW the termination of a right or privilege through disuse or failure to follow appropriate procedures. 2. an interval or passage of time. "there was a considerable lapse of time between the two events" synonyms: interval, gap, pause, intermission, interlude, lull, hiatus, break; passage, course, passing, period, term, span, spell "after this lapse of time I can look at it more calmly" The flap over Ms Nixon pales in comparison to those lapses. But it gives further ammunition to those who detect something amiss with Mr Cuomo, who has otherwise proved a competent administrator.

loom

/luːm/ noun an apparatus for making fabric by weaving yarn or thread. Thus in the Anglo-French wars of the 1700s France recruited British defectors to unlock the secrets of coal technologies. In the subsequent century America stole British designs for looms and trains.

largesse

/lɑːˈ(d)ʒɛs/ noun generosity in bestowing money or gifts upon others. "presumably public money is not dispensed with such largesse to anyone else" Similar: generosity, liberality, munificence, bounty, bountifulness, beneficence, benefaction, altruism, charity, philanthropy, magnanimity, benevolence, charitableness, open-handedness, kindness, big-heartedness, great-heartedness, lavishness, free-handedness, unselfishness, selflessness, self-sacrifice, self-denial Opposite: meanness, miserliness money or gifts given generously. "the distribution of largesse to the local population" Similar: gifts, presents, donations, handouts, endowments, grants, aid TUCKER CARLSON, a Fox News host, and Bernie Sanders, a democratic-socialist senator, seldom agree. Yet on the matter of billionaires supposedly sponging off taxpayer largesse, they are completely simpatico.

mutineer

/mjuːtɪˈnɪə/ noun a person, especially a soldier or sailor, who rebels or refuses to obey the orders of a person in authority. "those who resisted were denounced as mutineers and treated accordingly" Protected by Cuban counter-intelligence agents, Venezuela's government pounces on dissent. Scores of would-be military mutineers have been arrested.

miasma

/mɪˈazmə,mʌɪˈazmə/ noun an unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapour. "a miasma of stale alcohol hung around him" synonyms: stink, reek, stench, smell, odour, malodour; informalpong, niff, whiff; informalguff an oppressive or unpleasant atmosphere which surrounds or emanates from something. "a miasma of despair rose from the black workshops" However poorly executed, the attempted smearing of Ms Nixon illustrates two disparate truths about New York politics: some strange Albanian miasma follows around Andrew Cuomo, the sitting Democratic governor who is vying against Ms Nixon for his third term; and Jewish voters are quite important.

munch

/mʌn(t)ʃ/ verb eat (something) steadily and often audibly. "Russell munched his breakfast toast" synonyms: chew, champ, chomp, masticate, crunch, scrunch, eat; rarechumble, manducate, triturate "he munched his sandwich in a dream" Mr Yang, who declined to give his full name, favours Heming teahouse, a lakeside tea garden where patrons may spend hours in bamboo armchairs, reading newspapers, munching melon seeds or paying a professional ear-cleaner to rootle away with metal skewers.

myopia

/mʌɪˈəʊpɪə/ noun the quality of being short-sighted. "he wore spectacles to correct a mild degree of myopia" lack of foresight or intellectual insight. "the company's corporate myopia" An edict on childhood myopia takes $20bn off Tencent's value

negate

/nɪˈɡeɪt/ verb 1. make ineffective; nullify. "alcohol negates the effects of the drug" synonyms: invalidate, nullify, render null and void, render invalid, make ineffective, neutralize, cancel (out); undo, reverse, annul, void, revoke, rescind, abrogate, repeal, retract, countermand, overrule, overturn; avoid "legislators immediately took steps to negate the effects of the Court's ruling" antonyms: confirm, support, validate 2. LOGIC•GRAMMAR make (a clause, sentence, or proposition) negative in meaning. 3. deny the existence of. "negating the political nature of education" synonyms: deny, dispute, call into question, contradict, refute, rebut, discredit, disclaim, reject, repudiate; formalgainsay; rarecontrovert "negating the political nature of education" antonyms:confirm, ratify ZBLAN fibres are, though, fragile. That makes drawing one that is more than about a kilometre long a hard task which, in turn, makes them useless for long-distance work. They also tend to contain tiny crystals that form when the material is cooling. These negate the lack of absorption and scattering that otherwise give ZBLAN its advantages.

pad3

/pad/ 3. NORTH AMERICAN defraud by adding false items to (an expenses claim or bill). "padded expenses for government work reaped billions of dollars for the Mafia" With just a month to go before the election, the country's politics have been turned upside down. The PSDB's candidate, Geraldo Alckmin, languishes at about 7% in the opinion polls. Luiz Inбcio Lula da Silva, the PT's leaderand Ms Rousseff's mentor, commands around 37% and a widening lead, despite having begun a jail sentence for receiving a beachside flat from a construction firm that benefited from padded government contracts

peel1

/piːl/ verb 1. remove the outer covering or skin from (a fruit, vegetable, or prawn). "she watched him peel an apple with deliberate care" synonyms: pare, skin, take the skin/rind off, strip, shave, trim, flay; hull, shell, husk Turkey's efforts to splinter HTS by peeling away more moderate fighters have yielded little. Yet it has so far resisted Russian calls to confront the jihadists head on, since it fears they may retaliate violently on Turkish soil.

prowl

/praʊl/ verb 1. (of a person or animal) move about restlessly and stealthily, especially in search of prey. "lions prowling in the bush" synonyms: move stealthily, slink, skulk, steal, nose, pussyfoot, sneak, sidle, stalk, creep; roam, range, rove, cruise, hunt, scavenge; informalsnoop "youths have been prowling around the back of the flats" noun noun: prowl; plural noun: prowls 1. an act of prowling. "I met her once on one of my off-duty bookshop prowls" Phrases on the prowl — prowling around in search of prey. "there is a serial killer on the prowl" Around 40 CICIG staffers are waiting for visa renewals. And just in case the government's message was unclear, it punctuated its decision by sending armoured cars to prowl around CICIG's headquarters.

prolific

/prəˈlɪfɪk/ adjective 1. (of a plant, animal, or person) producing much fruit or foliage or many offspring. "in captivity tigers are prolific breeders" synonyms: productive, creative, inventive, fertile "he was enormously prolific, writing 263 solo cantatas and arias" (of an artist, author, or composer) producing many works. "he was a prolific composer of operas" (of a sports player) high-scoring. "a prolific goalscorer" 2. present in large numbers or quantities; plentiful. "mahogany was once prolific in the tropical forests" synonyms: plentiful, abundant, bountiful, profuse, copious, luxuriant, rich, lush, proliferative; fertile, fruitful, fecund; rife, rank; literaryplenteous, bounteous; rareproliferous "the plant bears a prolific crop of large, firm tomatoes" characterized by plentiful wildlife or produce. "the prolific rivers around Galway" "We will get it done together!" A few hours later the Justice Department published a 174-page criminal complaint against Park Jin Hyok, a prolific hacker working for North Korea's military intelligence bureau.

proprietary

/prəˈprʌɪət(ə)ri/ adjective 1. relating to an owner or ownership. "the company has a proprietary right to the property" behaving as if one owned something or someone. "he looked about him with a proprietary air" 2. (of a product) marketed under and protected by a registered trade name. "proprietary brands of insecticide" Low-quality "proprietary schools" tried to cajole Vietnam veterans into enrolling through, in the words of the Federal Trade Commission, "deceptive advertising, high pressure sale tactics and misrepresentations of course difficulty and content".

propriety

/prəˈprʌɪəti/ noun conformity to conventionally accepted standards of behaviour or morals. "he always behaved with the utmost propriety" synonyms: decorum, respectability, decency, correctness, appropriateness, good manners, courtesy, politeness, rectitude, civility, modesty, demureness; sobriety, refinement, decorousness, seemliness, becomingness, discretion, gentility, etiquette, breeding, conventionality, orthodoxy, formality, protocol; "he always behaves towards me with the utmost propriety" etiquette, social conventions, social grace(s), social niceties, one's Ps and Qs, protocol, decorum, standards, civilities, ceremony, formalities, rules of conduct, accepted behaviour, conventionalities, good manners, good form, the done thing, the thing to do, punctilio, attention to detail. "he was careful to preserve the proprieties in public" antonyms: impropriety, indecorum the details or rules of behaviour conventionally considered to be correct. plural noun: proprieties "she's a great one for the proprieties" the condition of being right, appropriate, or fitting. "they questioned the propriety of certain investments made by the council" synonyms: correctness, rightness, fitness, suitability, suitableness, appropriateness, appropriacy, aptness, morality, ethicality "they question the propriety of certain investments made by the council" antonyms: impropriety Though he is without doubt a man of the right, he also evinces caution and a sense of constitutional propriety.

preoccupation

/prɪˌɒkjʊˈpeɪʃ(ə)n/ noun the state or condition of being preoccupied or engrossed with something. Similar: pensiveness, concentration, engrossment, absorption, self-absorption, musing, thinking, thinking of other things, deep thought, brown study a subject or matter that engrosses someone. "their main preoccupation was how to feed their families" Similar: obsession, concern, fixation, fascination, passion. Yet do not exaggerate how much the Asia hands work in opposition to their president's preoccupations.

Pollyanna

/pɒlɪˈanə/ noun an excessively cheerful or optimistic person. "what I am saying makes me sound like some ageing Pollyanna who just wants to pretend that all is sweetness and light" Liberals believe that things tend to get better. Wealth grows, science deepens understanding, wisdom spreads and society improves. But liberals are not Pollyannas.

portmanteau2

/pɔːtˈmantəʊ/ 2. a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for example motel or brunch. "podcast is a portmanteau, a made-up word coined from a combination of the words iPod and broadcast" consisting of or combining two or more aspects or qualities. FOR those still trying to work out what exactly "fintech" involves, we are sorry to bring you this update from China, a world leader in mixing finance with technology. Fintech is pass; the hot new thing is "techfin". This ungainly portmanteau was coined by Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, an e-commerce giant, who announced on September 10th that he plans to step down in a year's time

portmanteau1

/pɔːtˈmantəʊ/ noun 1. a large travelling bag, typically made of stiff leather and opening into two equal parts.

pernicious

/pəˈnɪʃəs/ adjective having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way. "the pernicious influences of the mass media" synonyms: harmful, damaging, destructive, injurious, hurtful, detrimental, deleterious, dangerous, adverse, inimical, unhealthy, unfavourable, bad, evil, baleful, wicked, malign, malevolent, malignant, noxious, poisonous, cancerous, corrupting, ruinous, deadly, lethal, fatal; literary malefic, maleficent; archaicpestilent, pestilential, baneful, pestiferous "a pernicious influence on society" Because they would be barred by law from asking about welfare status directly, they would probably resort to pernicious stereotypes (such as not hiring a middle-aged black woman without a wedding ring).

pernickety

/pəˈsnɪkɪti/ adjective INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN placing too much emphasis on trivial or minor details; fussy. "she's very persnickety about her food" Similar: fussy, difficult to please, difficult, finicky, over-fastidious, fastidious, over-particular, particular, faddish, finical, dainty, punctilious, hair-splitting exacting, demanding, critical, overcritical, pass-remarkable, nitpicking, choosy, picky, faddy, pernickety, nice, overnice Opposite: easy-going, laid-back, requiring a particularly, precise or careful approach. adjective: pernickety "it's hard to find a film more persnickety and difficult to use than black-and-white infrared" Political balance, as required by the regulator, is achieved by venting the full range of views throughout the day. This makes for more exciting radio than the BBC's pernickety insistence on balance in every programme.

patrician

/pəˈtrɪʃ(ə)n/ noun an aristocrat or nobleman. synonyms: aristocrat, grandee, noble, nobleman, noblewoman, lord, lady, peer, peeress, peer of the realm, titled man/woman/person, landowner; landowning class, landed gentry/aristocracy; informaltop person; informalnob, rah, chinless wonder "the great patricians of the Empire" NORTH AMERICAN a member of a long-established wealthy family. a member of a noble family or class in ancient Rome. Today, in that same vision, liberals need to side with a struggling precariat against the patricians.

pep up

/pɛp/ INFORMAL verb make someone or something more lively or interesting. "measures to pep up the economy" synonyms: improve, enliven, animate, liven up, put some/new life into, invigorate, vitalize, revitalize, vivify, ginger up, energize, electrify, galvanize, put some spark into, stimulate, get something going, add zest to, perk up, brighten up, cheer up; season, spice, add spice to, pepper, leaven, flavour, add flavouring to; informalbuck up "the turbocharger is designed to pep up performance" antonyms: subdue For years Mr Moonves impressed Wall Street by pepping up the business even as the industry of broadcast television declined around it.

peroration

/pɛrəˈreɪʃ(ə)n/ noun the concluding part of a speech, typically intended to inspire enthusiasm in the audience. "he again invoked the theme in an emotional peroration" synonyms: closing remarks, conclusion, ending, close, final section, summation, summing-up, recapitulation, reiteration; informalrecap, recapping "the blazing peroration with which the speech ended" speech, lecture, talk, address, oration, sermon, disquisition, discourse, declamation, harangue, diatribe; informalspiel "a perfectly dreadful hour-long peroration" As Mr Juncker suggested in the melancholy peroration of his speech, the politics maybe getting even harder: "I would like us to reject unhealthy nationalism and embrace enlightened patriotism," he urged.

pinched

/pɪntʃt/ adjective 1. tense and pale from cold, worry, or hunger. "her pinched, sallow face" synonyms: strained, stressed, fraught, tense, taut, tired, worn, drained, sapped; wan, peaky, pale, pallid, pasty, pasty-faced, colourless, anaemic, washed out, ashen, ashen-faced, grey, blanched; thin, drawn, haggard, gaunt, wizened, cadaverous, hollow-cheeked, hollow-eyed, emaciated "their pale, pinched faces, dulled with years of lost endeavour" antonyms: healthy, glowing, chubby 2. suffering from financial hardship. SOME cities are so shaped that traffic jams seem inevitable. Manila, in the Philippines, is scrunched between a bay in the west and a lagoon in the east. A car driving through the middle of the city is like a grain of sand seeping slowly past the neck of an hourglass. Dakar, in Senegal, is surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean, forcing suburban commuters to crawl along the same east-west roads. Auckland, Monrovia, New York and Rio de Janeiro are similarly pinched for space to grow

pus

/pʌs/ noun a thick yellowish or greenish opaque liquid produced in infected tissue, consisting of dead white blood cells and bacteria with tissue debris and serum. synonyms: matter, suppuration, discharge, secretion; raresanies "the boil may be lanced to drain the pus" Pneumonia is a result of bacterial, viral or fungal infection of the lungs. Its symptoms of breathlessness result from a build-up of pus in the alveoli. These are tiny sacs, found at the ends of the branching airways within the lungs, that are richly infused with capillary blood vessels. They are the places where oxygen enters the bloodstream and carbon dioxide leaves it. Stop the alveoli doing their job and a patient will suffocate.

pint

/pʌɪnt/ noun a unit of liquid or dry capacity equal to one eighth of a gallon, in Britain equal to 0.568 litre and in the US equal to 0.473 litre (for liquid measure) or 0.551 litre (for dry measure). INFORMAL•BRITISH a pint of beer. "we'll probably go for a pint on the way home" BRITISH a pint of milk. "two pints today, please" BRITISH a measure of shellfish, the amount containable in a pint mug. It is thus a source of anxiety that Italy is on its metaphorical third pint, with yields on ten-year government bonds hovering around the 3% mark.

rapprochement

/raˈprɒʃmɒ̃/ noun (especially in international affairs) an establishment or resumption of harmonious relations. "there were signs of a growing rapprochement between the two countries" Politically, there are limits to the rapprochement. China is the rising superpower; Russia is struggling to arrest its own decline. China's vast infrastructure investments in Central Asia, part of the Belt and Road Initiative, are displacing Russia in its own backyard.

reconvene

/riːkənˈviːn/ verb convene or cause to convene again, especially after a pause in proceedings. "parliament reconvenes on 1st June" But the Alliance will call a no-confidence vote when parliament reconvenes on September 24th, which the prime minister is sure to lose.

roost1

/ruːst/ noun 1. a place where birds regularly settle or congregate to rest at night, or where bats congregate to rest in the day. "birds were hurrying to their evening roosts" verb 1. (of a bird or bat) settle or congregate for rest or sleep. "migrating martins and swallows were settling to roost" Phrases come home to roost — (of an action in the past) have an unexpected adverse consequence for the person responsible. "for the overextended borrowers, the chickens have come home to roost" CHRISTIANITY and conservation have not always gone hand in hand. Yet the structures raised by Christians to exercise their faith offer tangible sanctuary to some of God's smaller creatures. Bats, famously, roost in belfries.

raft2

/rɑːft/ noun a large amount of something. "a raft of government initiative'' What about the raft of school shootings during which these weapons have killed hundreds of Americans? That's detestable, Mr Kavanaugh replied, but it's his job to follow Supreme Court precedent.

realm

/rɛlm/ a field or domain of activity or interest. "the realm of applied chemistry" synonyms: domain, sphere, area, field, department, arena; world, region, province, territory, zone, orbit In the security realm, Japan sees no real alternative to its reliance on American protection. Indeed, Mr Abe has been trying to strengthen military ties with America by introducing legislation that gives Japan's armed forces—though still constrained by a pacifist constitution—more leeway to help allies globally.

rev

/rɛv/ INFORMAL verb increase the running speed of (an engine) or the engine speed of (a vehicle) by pressing the accelerator, especially while the clutch is disengaged. "he revved up the engine and drove off" (of an engine) operate with increasing speed when the accelerator is pressed, especially while the clutch is disengaged. "he could hear the sound of an engine revving nearby" make or become more active or energetic. "he's revving up for next week's World Cup game" When it became clear in early 2017 that Mr Trump was serious about changing the deal, Canada revved up its charm offensive. Politicians from both of its major parties lobbied members of America's Congress and state governors, and courted businesses and unions

pin-up

/ˈpɪnʌp/ noun a poster showing a famous or attractive person. a person featured in a pin-up. The author Lao She, who in 1956 charted a Beijing teashop's woes over a half-century in his play "Teahouse", drew on life when he had the establishment's manager pin up signs pleading "No talk of state affairs", or when he showed grey-gowned secret police arresting customers for questioning the government.

refute

/rɪˈfjuːt/ verb prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong or false; disprove. "these claims have not been convincingly refuted" Similar: disprove, prove wrong/false, show/prove to be wrong/false, rebut, confute, give the lie to, demolish, explode, debunk, discredit, invalidate Opposite: confirm, prove that (someone) is wrong. "his voice challenging his audience to rise and refute him" deny or contradict (a statement or accusation). "a spokesman totally refuted the allegation of bias" Similar: deny, reject, repudiate, rebut, declare to be untrue, contradict The forensic evidence published in these charges refutes the myth that attribution is impossible in cyberspace.

recuse

/rɪˈkjuːz/ verb NORTH AMERICAN challenge (a judge or juror) as unqualified to perform legal duties because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality. "he was recused when he referred to the corporation as 'a bunch of villains'" (of a judge) excuse oneself from a case because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality. "it was the right of counsel to ask a judge to recuse himself from continuing to hear a case because of bias" Similar evasion came in response to whether Mr Kavanaugh would recuse himself from cases involving prosecution of the president who nominated him, and whether there might be any problem with a president using his constitutional power to pardon himself in the event he is charged with a crime.

rescission

/rɪˈsɪʒ(ə)n/ noun FORMAL the revocation, cancellation, or repeal of a law, order, or agreement. "the plaintiff agreed to the rescission of the agreement" synonyms: revocation, repeal, cancellation, rescindment, reversal, abrogation, annulment, nullification, invalidation, voiding, setting aside, retraction "the rescission of the contract" Reports emerged last month that Mick Mulvaney, head of the Office for Management and Budget, was considering a rescission bill, an arcane and rarely used procedure to claw back money already allocated on the budget, for $3bn of overseas aid

retarded

/rɪˈtɑːdɪd/ less advanced in mental, physical, or social development than is usual for one's age. "the child is badly retarded" informal offensive very foolish or stupid. "in retrospect, it was a totally retarded idea" The president's treatment of Mr Sessions encapsulates his unpleasantness. He demands loyalty from his followers but offers none in return. In private, according to Bob Woodward's forthcoming expose, the president has called his attorney-general "mentally retarded" and a "dumb southerner".

revanchism

/rɪˈvan(t)ʃɪz(ə)m/ noun a policy of seeking to retaliate, especially to recover lost territory. "a recipe for deep future resentment, revanchism and renewed conflict" By 2016, the idea of America dealing with its own problems and leaving the rest of the world to deal with theirs appealed to 57%. Younger people are astonishingly insouciant about revanchist Russia and ascendant China. Only one in two millennials think it is important for America to maintain its military superiority.

rump

/rʌmp/ noun 2. a small or unimportant remnant of something originally larger. "once the profitable enterprises have been sold the unprofitable rump will be left" synonyms: remainder, remaining part/number, rest, remnant, remnants, remains; those left "the rump of the army" La Republique en Marche, the party he invented and which holds a robust majority in parliament, has sucked in most of France's moderates on the left and the right. The Socialists and Republicans, as a result, are rump parties struggling to find an attractive leader or a sense of purpose.

rive

/rʌɪv/ verb past participle: riven LITERARY split or tear apart violently. "the party was riven by disagreements over Europe" synonyms: torn apart, split, rent, ripped apart, ruptured, severed; literarycleft, torn asunder, ripped asunder; raredissevered "the country was riven by civil war" The official, later referred to by the Times as a "he", suggests that Mr Trump is as unfit to be president as his detractors allege. He describes an administration riven by scheming and fearful of calamity.

sac

/sak/ noun a hollow, flexible structure resembling a bag or pouch. "a fountain pen with an ink sac" synonyms: bag, pouch, bladder, blister; technicalbursa, acinus, follicle, cyst, saccule, utricle, vesicle, vesica, vesicula, theca, liposome "cephalopods have an ink sac" a cavity within an organism, enclosed by a membrane and containing air, liquid, or solid structures. the distended membrane surrounding a hernia, cyst, or tumour. Pneumonia is a result of bacterial, viral or fungal infection of the lungs. Its symptoms of breathlessness result from a build-up of pus in the alveoli. These are tiny sacs, found at the ends of the branching airways within the lungs, that are richly infused with capillary blood vessels. They are the places where oxygen enters the bloodstream and carbon dioxide leaves it. Stop the alveoli doing their job and a patient will suffocate.

scrunch

/skrʌn(t)ʃ/ verb crush or squeeze (something) into a compact mass. "Flora scrunched the handkerchief into a ball" synonyms: crumple (up), crunch (up), crush, rumple, screw up, squash (up), twist (up), mash (up), squeeze, compress "I had scrunched up the pages and stuffed them into the gaps" become crushed or squeezed into a compact mass. "their faces scrunch up with concentration" SOME cities are so shaped that traffic jams seem inevitable. Manila, in the Philippines, is scrunched between a bay in the west and a lagoon in the east. A car driving through the middle of the city is like a grain of sand seeping slowly past the neck of an hourglass. Dakar, in Senegal, is surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean, forcing suburban commuters to crawl along the same east-west roads. Auckland, Monrovia, New York and Rio de Janeiro are similarly pinched for space to grow

squirm

/skwəːm/ show or feel embarrassment or shame. "he squirmed as he recalled the phrases he had used" This is no idle worry. Facebook and YouTube have banned Alex Jones, a notorious peddler of conspiracy theories. Loathsome as Mr Jones's ideas are, defenders of free speech ought to squirm at the notion that a small set of likeminded executives in Silicon Valley are deciding what is seen by an audience of billions.

skim

/skɪm/ INFORMAL steal or embezzle (money), especially in small amounts over a period of time. "she was skimming money from the household kitty" fraudulently copy (credit or debit card details) with a card swipe or other device. noun: skimming Much of the money Zambia borrowed was squandered or stolen. Bigwigs skimmed from worthy-sounding contracts. When the country bought bright new fire-engines their price some how ballooned by 70%, to more than $1m each. Its new roads mysteriously cost twice as much per kilometre as its neighbours'. China now holds perhaps a quarter to a third of Zambia's external debt. (No one knows how much—itself a cause for concern.)

sling1

/slɪŋ/ suspend or arrange (something), especially with a strap or straps, so that it hangs loosely in a particular position. "a hammock was slung between two trees" Similar: hang, suspend, string, dangle, swing, drape carry (something, especially a garment). loosely and casually about one's person. "he had his jacket slung over one shoulder" hoist or transfer (something) with a sling. "horse after horse was slung up from the barges" Many Yemenis sling rifles over their shoulders or tuck handguns into their trousers before going out. Markets sell everything from pistols to bazookas. You cannot go far inmost cities without seeing someone with a gun.

spine1

/spʌɪn/ noun 1. a series of vertebrae extending from the skull to the small of the back, enclosing the spinal cord and providing support for the thorax and abdomen; the backbone. "a soft voice that sent a shiver down her spine" synonyms: backbone, spinal column, vertebral column, vertebrae; back; technicaldorsum, rachis "the teenager injured his spine playing rugby"

spine2

/spʌɪn/ noun 2) resolution or strength of character. synonyms: strength of character, strength of will, firmness of purpose "Congress may find its spine when it comes to NAFTA," says Paul Frazer, a Washington-based consultant on government relations.

swipe

/swʌɪp/ INFORMAL steal. "someone swiped one of his sausages" Similar: steal, thieve, take, pilfer, purloin, snatch, help oneself to, appropriate, abstract, shoplift, filch, lift, snaffle, rob, nab Mr Woodward claims Gary Cohn, the former chief economic adviser, prevented Mr Trump from withdrawing America from a trade agreement with South Korea by swiping the relevant document from his desk. The president forgot he was due to sign it.

SARS

/sɑːz/ noun: severe acute respiratory syndrome an infectious disease with symptoms including fever and cough and in some cases progressing to pneumonia and respiratory failure. It is caused by a coronavirus. Foreign observers are likely to be just as wary. The Chinese authorities have a long history of dissembling about diseases that affect both humans and animals, including the SARS crisis of 2003 and an outbreak of another porcine infection, blue-ear pig disease, in 2007.

sartorial

/sɑːˈtɔːrɪəl/ adjective relating to tailoring, clothes, or style of dress. "sartorial elegance" EVER since President Donald Trump entered the White House, his courtiers have been scrutinised for clues to their true feelings about the man they serve. John Kelly's furrowed brow, Melania Trump's sartorial slogans—such giveaways, real and imagined, have been pored over by those anxious to know how any right-minded person could work for the tweeter-in-chief.

subdue

/səbˈdjuː/ verb overcome, quieten, or bring under control (a feeling or person). "she managed to subdue an instinct to applaud" synonyms: conquer, defeat, vanquish, get the better of, overpower, overcome, overwhelm, crush, quash, quell, beat, trounce, subjugate, master, suppress, gain the upper hand over, triumph over, tame, bring someone to their knees, hold in check, humble, chasten "he is said to have slain or subdued all those who had plotted against him" curb, restrain, hold back, constrain, contain, inhibit, repress, suppress, stifle, smother, check, keep in check, arrest, bridle, rein in; control, govern, master, quash, quell; moderate, tone down, diminish, lessen, damp It is possible, as Mr Powell suggests, that too much money chasing too few workers and goods may no longer bid up the prices of those workers and goods, but instead lead people to bid up the prices of homes and stocks. A better explanation may be that prices for workers and goods are subdued because the economy is not actually at capacity, and that, but for rising asset prices and indebtedness, growth would still be weak. Yes, unemployment is low, but labour-force participation by prime-age adults remains Below the pre-crisis level, and wage growth is weak.

taxonomy

/takˈsɒnəmi/ noun BIOLOGY the branch of science concerned with classification, especially of organisms; systematics. the classification of something, especially organisms. "the taxonomy of these fossils" a scheme of classification. plural noun: taxonomies "a taxonomy of smells" Those looking for a crisp divide in the campaign for the European Parliament's elections next May might consider a different taxonomy: institutional conservatives versus institutional innovators.

trite

/trʌɪt/ adjective (of a remark or idea) lacking originality or freshness; dull on account of overuse. "this point may now seem obvious and trite" synonyms: hackneyed, banal, clichéd, platitudinous, vapid, commonplace, ordinary, common, stock, conventional, stereotyped, predictable; stale, overused, overworked, overdone, worn out, time-worn, tired, threadbare, hoary, hack, unimaginative, unoriginal, derivative, uninspired, dull, pedestrian, run-of-the-mill, routine, humdrum; informalold hat, corny, played out, hacky; informalcornball, dime-store; raretruistic, bromidic "the observation struck me as both trite and irrelevant" antonyms: original, fresh, imaginative HOW is Asia policy made in Washington? The trite answer is by Donald Trump's Asia hands waking up each day and checking the president's tweets.

toll1

/təʊl/ noun 1. a charge payable to use a bridge or road. "motorway tolls" synonyms: charge, fee, payment, levy, tariff, dues, tax, duty, impost "a motorway toll" A new study by Raul Sanchez de la Sierra of Harvard and Krist of Titeca of the University of Antwerp found that in Kinshasa, the capital, traffic cops receive 80% of their income from "informal tolls".

cheese off

/tʃiːz/ verb INFORMAL•BRITISH exasperate, frustrate, or bore (someone). "I got a bit cheesed off with the movie" DONALD TRUMP is cheesed off. Canada will be left out of a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), he said, unless it does something about its "tremendous trade barriers", including an eye-catching tariff of "almost 300%" on dairy

times

/tʌɪmz/ verbINFORMAL multiply (a number). "you times the six by four to get twenty-four"

void2

/vɔɪd/ adjective 2. completely empty. "void spaces surround the tanks" synonyms: empty, emptied, vacant, without contents, containing nothing, blank, bare, clear, free, unfilled, unoccupied, uninhabited, desolate, barren "the cathedral has vast void spaces" noun 1. a completely empty space. "the black void of space" synonyms: gap, empty space, space, blank space, blank, vacuum, lacuna, hole, cavity, chasm, abyss, gulf, pit, hiatus; emptiness, nothingness, blankness, vacancy, vacuity, oblivion, nullity; rarevoidness, nihility "the black void of space" But Mr Robertsmay not be the median judge for long. Two of the court's liberals are in their eighties; if one dies, or is forced by ill health to retire, before the next election, and Mr Trump were to fill the void, the median position might well move rightward to Mr Gorsuch, hardening the court's ideological tenor.

vaunt

/vɔːnt/ verb 1. boast about or praise (something), especially excessively. "the much vaunted information superhighway" synonyms: boast about, brag about, make much of, crow about, gloat over, give oneself airs about, exult in, parade, flaunt, show off, flourish; acclaim, esteem, revere, extol, celebrate; informalshow off about, flash; rarelaud "the much vaunted health-care system" The timing is particularly awkward since the outbreak coincided with the much-vaunted Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, hosted by Xi Jinping, China's leader, on September 3rd and 4th in Beijing, to win African hearts, minds and business deals.

vernacular

/vəˈnakjʊlə/ noun 1. the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people of a country or region. "he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience" synonyms: everyday language, spoken language, colloquial speech, native speech, conversational language, common parlance, non-standard language, jargon, -speak, cant, slang, idiom, argot, patois, dialect; regional language, local tongue, regionalism, localism, provincialism; informallingo, local lingo, patter, geekspeak; rareidiolect "he wrote in the vernacular and adopted a non-academic style accessible to the public" antonyms: formal language, Latin "Back of Bourke" is Australian vernacular for the outback. The town faces the Darling River, about 800km north-west of Sydney in the state of New South Wales. About a third of its almost 3,000 people are aboriginals.

veracity

/vəˈrasɪti/ noun conformity to facts; accuracy. "officials expressed doubts concerning the veracity of the story" synonyms: truthfulness, truth, accuracy, accurateness, correctness, exactness, precision, preciseness, realism, authenticity, faithfulness, fidelity; reputability, honesty, sincerity, trustworthiness, reliability, dependability, scrupulousness, ethics, morality, righteousness, virtuousness, decency, goodness, probity "they expressed doubts about the veracity of the story" antonyms: falsity habitual truthfulness. "voters should be concerned about his veracity and character" While it would be helpful to know Anonymous's identity—which was still under wraps as The Economist went to press—there is little doubt about the veracity of his claims.

vie

/vʌɪ/ verb compete eagerly with someone in order to do or achieve something. "the athletes were vying for a place in the British team" synonyms: compete, contend, contest, struggle, fight, battle, cross swords, lock horns, jockey, jostle, grapple, wrestle; war, wage war, feud "restaurants vied with each other to attract custom" However poorly executed, the attempted smearing of Ms Nixon illustrates two disparate truths about New York politics: some strange Albanian miasma follows around Andrew Cuomo, the sitting Democratic governor who is vying against Ms Nixon for his third term; and Jewish voters are quite important.

thou1

/ðaʊ/ pronoun: thou archaic or dialect form of you, as the singular subject of a verb. "thou art fair, O my beloved" Wind and solar v nuclear Cleaner than thou

optometrist

/ɒpˈtɒmɪtrɪst/ noun a person who practises optometry. optometry /ɒpˈtɒmɪtri/ noun the occupation of measuring eyesight, prescribing corrective lenses, and detecting eye disease. Late on August 30th the ministry of education and other bodies published a plan to prevent myopia in children and teenagers. Among encyclopedic instructions to beef up the training of optometrists and to adjust the height of school chairs, one sentence directs regulators to curb the number of total online games as well as that of new releases

ordain

/ɔːˈdeɪn/ verb (of God or fate) decide (something) in advance. "the path ordained by God" synonyms: predetermine, predestine, preordain, foreordain, destine, prescribe, fate, will, determine, designate In their different ways Rousseau, Marx and Nietzsche rejected all these ideas. Rousseau doubted that progress takes place at all. Marx thought progress is ordained, but that it is generated by class struggle and revolution.

omission

/ə(ʊ)ˈmɪʃ(ə)n/ noun someone or something that has been left out or excluded. "there are glaring omissions in the report" synonyms: deletion, cut, exclusion, gap, blank, lacuna, hiatus; oversight "there also appear to be some significant omissions from the Commission's report" the action of excluding or leaving out someone or something. "the omission of recent publications from his bibliography" synonyms: leaving out, exclusion, exception, non-inclusion, deletion, erasure, cut, excision, elimination, absence; aphesis, apheresis, apocope, apostrophe, asyndeton, elision, ellipsis, gapping, haplography, haplology, lipography, syncope; rareexpunction "the omission of the verb gives the sentence immediacy" a failure to fulfil a moral or legal obligation. "to pay compensation for a wrongful act or omission" synonyms: negligence, neglect, neglectfulness, dereliction, forgetfulness, oversight, disregard, non-fulfilment, default, lapse, failure; nonjoinder "the damage to the goods was not caused by any act or omission by the carrier" Hardline Brexiteers hate the idea of keeping in close alignment with EU regulations so as to preserve frictionless trade in goods. Remainers dislike the plan's omission of services, which are Britain's most competitive sector.

admonish

/ədˈmɒnɪʃ/ verb reprimand firmly. "she admonished me for appearing at breakfast unshaven" synonyms: reprimand, rebuke, scold, reprove, upbraid, chastise, chide, censure, castigate, lambaste, berate, reproach, lecture, criticize, take to task, pull up, read the Riot Act to, give a piece of one's mind to, haul over the coals SELLING a home is stressful and timeconsuming. You must first put up with estate agents' admonishments about old carpets that need replacing, then with intrusions by prospective buyers who find more faults.

overleaf

/əʊvəˈliːf/ adverb: overleaf on the other side of the page. "an information sheet is printed overleaf" Data from Adzuna, a job-search website, show that advertised salaries fell from June to July. The upshot is that wages have done worse in Britain lately than almost anywhere in the rich world (see chart 2, overleaf). To explain this unusually poor performance, consider three factors.

assortment

/əˈsɔːtm(ə)nt/ noun a miscellaneous collection of things or people. "the room was filled with an assortment of clothes" synonyms: mixture, variety, array, mixed bag, mix, miscellany, random selection, motley collection, selection, medley, melange, diversity, mishmash "the alcove held an assortment of books" This tactic has worked in smaller towns and cities where rebels have laid down their weapons in return for amnesty. Idlib, however, is different. It is home to the regime's fiercest opponents, an assortment of some 70,000 jihadists and Islamists and more moderate rebels.

sitcom

/ˈsɪtkɒm/ noun INFORMAL a situation comedy. IN HIS old television sitcom, Jimmy Morales used to dress up as a prisoner. In one sketch, he told his cellmate that the country's high-ranking public officials were all atheists.

adjourn

/əˈdʒəːn/ verb break off (a meeting, legal case, or game) with the intention of resuming it later. "the meeting was adjourned until December 4" (of a group of people) go somewhere for rest or refreshment. "they adjourned to a local pub" put off or postpone (a resolution or sentence). "sentence was adjourned for a social inquiry report" synonyms: suspend, break off, discontinue, interrupt, postpone, put off, put back, defer, delay, hold over, hold in abeyance, shelve, pigeonhole, stay, prorogue, dissolve, terminate, bring to an end, halt, call a halt to; pause, suspend proceedings, take a break, recess, break up, end, come to an end; put over, table, lay on the table, take a recess "the hearing was adjourned for a week" Senators "received just last night, less than 15 hours ago, 42,000 pages of documents that we have not had an opportunity to review or read or analyse", she said. Senator Richard Blumenthal then moved to adjourn the proceedings, calling them a "charade and a mockery of our norms".

accost

/əˈkɒst/ verb approach and address (someone) boldly or aggressively. "reporters accosted him in the street" synonyms: speak to, talk to, call to, shout to, hail, initiate a discussion with; address, approach, waylay, take aside, detain, stop, halt, grab, catch, confront, importune, solicit; "the police accosted him in the street" In June of this year one Lagosian tried to beat a jam by driving on the wrong side of the road. He was accosted by police, who tried to force him to turn round. Unfortunately, the driver was a soldier, and he promptly called for back-up. A man was shot in the ensuing melee.

ameliorate

/əˈmiːlɪəreɪt/ verb FORMAL make (something bad or unsatisfactory) better. "the reform did much to ameliorate living standards" Optical fibre could, though, be better than it is. The glass used contains impurities that both absorb and scatter part of the light passing through it. This can be ameliorated by adding germanium, which reduces absorption and scattering. But that is not a perfect answer.

amorphous

/əˈmɔːfəs/ adjective without a clearly defined shape or form. "an amorphous, characterless conurbation" synonyms: shapeless, formless, unformed, unshaped, structureless, unstructured, indeterminate, indefinite, vague, nebulous "an amorphous grey mass which proved to be mashed potato" antonyms: shaped, definite lacking a clear structure or focus. "an amorphous and leaderless legislature" Ms Rousseff's impeachment brought to power Michel Temer, her vice-president from a coalition partner which broke with the PT in early 2016. A veteran dealmaker of the amorphous political centre, Mr Temer pushed through unpopular but essential economic reforms, including a cap on public spending.

amiss

/əˈmɪs/ adjective 1. not quite right; inappropriate or out of place. "there was something amiss about his calculations" synonyms: wrong, awry, faulty, out of order, defective, unsatisfactory, incorrect, untoward, adrift, astray, inappropriate, improper, unsuitable "an inspection revealed nothing amiss" antonyms: right, in order adverb adverb: amiss 1. wrongly or inappropriately. "the prime minister may have constructed his cabinet a little amiss" The flap over Ms Nixon pales in comparison to those lapses. But it gives further ammunition to those who detect something amiss with Mr Cuomo, who has otherwise proved a competent administrator.

aplomb

/əˈplɒm/ noun self-confidence or assurance, especially when in a demanding situation. "Diana passed the test with aplomb" synonyms: poise, self-assurance, assurance, self-possession, self-confidence, calmness, composure, collectedness, presence of mind, level-headedness, sangfroid, equilibrium, equanimity, nerve, nonchalance; savoir faire, savoir vivre; informalcool, unflappability "he handled the crisis with surprising aplomb" antonyms: gaucheness Against this backdrop, Mr Ma has handled his own transition with aplomb. Duncan Clark, author of a book, "Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built", says it wanted to show it was different early on.

apostasy

/əˈpɒstəsi/ noun the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief or principle. "the execution of their leader for apostasy brought widespread criticism" synonyms: renunciation of belief, abandonment of belief, recantation; treachery, perfidy, faithlessness, disloyalty, betrayal, defection, desertion; heresy; raretergiversation, recreancy antonyms: loyalty Or the party could call for apostasy laws, formalising Ahmadis as leavers of the faith, an offence for which Islam mandates death. In the wake of the controversy over Mr Mian, many quipped that Mr Rizvi, not Mr Khan, was the real leader of Pakistan.

arousal

/əˈraʊzl/ noun the action or fact of arousing or being aroused. "sexual arousal in dreams is common" The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has curbed some of the most egregious practices. A ruling in 2014 barred prurient questions about sexual activity and "arousal tests", where asylum-seekers are shown gay porn to see if it excites them.

assail

/əˈseɪl/ verb gerund or present participle: assailing make a concerted or violent attack on. "the Scots army assailed Edward's army from the rear" synonyms: attack, assault, make an assault on, launch an attack on, pounce on, set upon, set about, launch oneself at, weigh into, fly at, let fly at, turn on, round on, lash out at, hit out at, beset, belabour, fall on, accost, mug, charge, rush, storm, besiege; informallay into, tear into, lace into, sail into, pitch into, get stuck into, wade into, let someone have it, beat up, jump "the army moved down the slope to assail the enemy" (of an unpleasant feeling or physical sensation) come upon (someone) suddenly and strongly. "she was assailed by doubts and regrets" synonyms: trouble, disturb, worry, plague, beset, torture, torment, rack, bedevil, nag, vex, harass, pester, dog; be prey to, be the victim of "she was assailed by doubts" criticize strongly. "he assailed a group of editors for their alleged excesses" synonyms: criticize, censure, attack, condemn, castigate, chastise, berate, lambaste, lash, pillory, find fault with, abuse, revile, give someone a bad press; informalknock, slam, hammer, lay into, give someone a roasting, cane, blast, give someone hell, bite someone's head off, jump down someone's throat; informalslate, slag off, monster; informalpummel, cut up "critics assailed the policy" A more credible threat runs through The Hague. The Palestinians signed up to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2015, and in May asked it to investigate possible Israeli war-crimes. That has infuriated both Israel and America. John Bolton, America's national security adviser, announced the closure of the PLO office during a speech assailing the ICC, a bugbear of his. But the court has not decided whether to start an investigation, and it would be years before it pressed any charges .

iconoclasm

/ʌɪˈkɒnəklaz(ə)m/ noun 1. the action of attacking or assertively rejecting cherished beliefs and institutions or established values and practices. 2. the rejection or destruction of religious images as heretical; the doctrine of iconoclasts. Why has Argentina's economic orthodoxy worked no better than Turkey's iconoclasm?

gloat

/ɡləʊt/ verb 1. dwell on one's own success or another's misfortune with smugness or malignant pleasure. "his enemies gloated over his death" synonyms: delight in, relish, take great pleasure in, enjoy greatly, revel in, rejoice in, glory in, exult in, triumph over, crow over; boast about, brag about, feel self-satisfied about, be smug about, congratulate oneself on, preen oneself about, pat oneself on the back about; rub one's hands together "she gloated over his recent humiliation" BY MANY measures, America's economy is powering ahead. GDP is on track to grow at around 3% this year, and the unemployment rate is an impressively low 3.9%. For President Donald Trump, it is an unmissable opportunity to gloat.

goatee

/ɡəʊˈtiː/ noun a small pointed beard like that of a goat. Correction: In our article about the death of Kofi Annan on August 23rd we said that he wore a goatee. An alert reader has pointed out that he sported a Van Dyke, which is a goatee plus moustache. Sorry to split hairs.

excoriate

/ɪkˈskɔːrɪeɪt,ɛkˈskɔːrɪeɪt/ FORMAL criticize (someone) severely. "he excoriated the government for censorship" Similar: criticize, find fault with, censure, denounce, condemn, arraign, attack The biggest and oldest of these, such as the British Museum and the Louvre in Paris, have often been excoriated for keeping treasures stolen from former colonial subjects.

expound

/ɪkˈspaʊnd,ɛkˈspaʊnd/ verb present and explain (a theory or idea) in detail. "he was expounding a powerful argument" synonyms: present, put forward, set forth, proffer, offer, advance, propose, propound, frame, give an account of, recount; explain, give an explanation of, detail, spell out, describe, discuss, explicate, delineate, elucidate "he expounded his theories on the cultural state of the nation" elaborate on, expand on, expatiate on, dwell on, harp on, discuss at length "he expounded on the virtues of books and learning" explain the meaning of (a literary or doctrinal work). "the abbess expounded the scriptures to her nuns" synonyms: explain, interpret, explicate, elucidate; comment on, give a commentary on, annotate, gloss, illustrate "a detailed treatise expounding Paul's teachings" Partly because Scalia regularly and persuasively expounded on its merits it has gained much currency.

exponent

/ɪkˈspəʊnənt,ɛkˈspəʊnənt/ noun 1. a person who supports an idea or theory and tries to persuade people of its truth or benefits. "an early exponent of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas" synonyms: advocate, supporter, proponent, upholder, backer, defender, champion; promoter, propagandist, spokesperson, spokesman, spokeswoman, speaker; campaigner, fighter, battler, crusader, missionary, evangelist, pioneer, apostle; enthusiast, apologist, arguer, expounder "an exponent of free-trade policies" This view, that the constitution has one meaning, the one it was originally taken as having by its readers, and that singular meaning is best found by close study of the text, is known as originalism. Scalia was for a long time its most prominent exponent on the court

expunge

/ɪkˈspʌn(d)ʒ,ɛkˈspʌn(d)ʒ/ verb obliterate or remove completely (something unwanted or unpleasant). "the kind of man that could expunge an unsatisfactory incident from his memory" Similar: erase, remove, delete, rub out, wipe out, efface cross out, strike out Having expunged the embarrassment of the court's judgment of 2013, the latest ruling may also help to restore the standing of Justice Misra himself

impinge

/ɪmˈpɪn(d)ʒ/ verb have an effect, especially a negative one. "several factors impinge on market efficiency" Similar: affect, have an effect on, have a bearing on, touch, influence. Mr Kavanaugh, who spent years working for the independent counsel's team that investigated Bill Clinton in the mid 1990s, later decided such investigations impinged unreasonably on a president's time and attention.

indigenous

/ɪnˈdɪdʒɪnəs/ adjective originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native. "the indigenous peoples of Siberia" synonyms: native, aboriginal, local; original, earliest, first, initial; ancient, primitive, primeval, primordial; rareautochthonous, autochthonic "indigenous peoples are being slowly wiped out as prospectors invade their lands" antonyms: expatriate, migrant, adventitious Choking the smartphone complex would be madness: consumers would be upset, millions of jobs would be at risk in Asia, and stock markets in America and East Asia would suffer. But even if governments avoid a shock, over time they are likely to push for a greater share of the profits, jobs and IP. America wants more plants at home. China is suing several foreign memory-chip firms for price-fixing and wants to build an indigenous semiconductor capability. If you are running a big firm in the smartphone complex, you should be reimagining things in preparation for a less open world.

inquorate

/ɪnˈkwɔːrət/ adjective BRITISH (of an assembly) unable to proceed effectively because not enough members are present to make up a quorum. "they had boycotted the debate, leaving the house inquorate" JD.com is outstandingly bad. According to its articles of association, its board of directors is inquorate without Mr Liu, even if he has been arrested somewhere—a structure "unusual not just in China, but anywhere", says Mr Allen.

inscribe

/ɪnˈskrʌɪb/ verb 1. write or carve (words or symbols) on something, especially as a formal or permanent record. "his name was inscribed on the new silver trophy" synonyms: carve, write, engrave, etch, cut, chisel, chase, score, incise; imprint, stamp, impress, deboss, mark, brand; archaicscotch "his name was now inscribed above the door" mark (a surface or object) with characters. "the memorial is inscribed with ten names" synonyms: carve, write, engrave, etch, cut, chisel, chase, score, incise; imprint, stamp, impress, deboss, mark, brand; archaicscotch "his name was now inscribed above the door" write a dedication to someone in (a book). "he inscribed the first copy 'To my dearest grandmother'" synonyms: dedicate, address, name, sign "the book was personally inscribed to him by the author" Managers were told to report clients spreading political rumours. Bawdy songs were banned. Tea houses were told to expel itinerant barbers (who did sometimes drop hair clippings in other patrons' teacups, it is true). During the war with Japan, teahouses in Chengdu were ordered to display Nationalist flags, slogans and leaders' portraits, and to inscribe approved news headlines on blackboards.

antler

/ˈantlə/ noun each of the branched horns on the head of an adult deer (typically a male one), which are made of bone and are grown and cast annually. "a stag's antlers" each of the branches on an antler. Deer antlers are a dual-use technology

outback

/ˈaʊtbak/ noun the remote and usually uninhabited inland districts of Australia. "a two-week tour of the outback" any remote or sparsely populated inland region. plural noun: outbacks "the outback of Ontario" An outback town resurrects lost tribal authority to fight crime

instalment

/ɪnˈstɔːlm(ə)nt/ noun 1. a sum of money due as one of several equal payments for something, spread over an agreed period of time. "the first instalment of a grant for housing" synonyms: part payment, partial payment; instalment plan, instalment-payment plan, deferred payment; hire purchase, HP; instalment buying; informalthe never-never "they agreed to pay by monthly instalments" 2. any of several parts of something which are published, broadcast, or made public in sequence at intervals. "filming the final instalment in his Vietnam trilogy" synonyms: part, portion, section, segment, division, bit; chapter, episode, volume, issue "the paper published his letters in weekly instalments" 3. the process of installing something; installation. "instalment will begin early next year" For now, Mr Macron seems undeterred. After some hesitation, his government is pressing ahead with a complex move to tax income at source, which it is feared will be hit by technical problems when it comes into place in January next year and dismay those not used to seeing income tax deducted directly from their pay slips. (At present, income tax is paid in arrears, generally in instalments.)

insouciance

/ɪnˈsuːsɪəns/ noun casual lack of concern; indifference. "an impression of boyish insouciance" synonyms: nonchalance, unconcern, lack of concern, indifference, heedlessness, relaxedness, calm, calmness, equanimity, coolness, composure, casualness, ease, easy-going attitude, airiness, carefreeness, frivolousness, carelessness; informalcool "his anxieties increased, despite Jen's insouciance" antonyms: anxiety, concern That the pair arrived on Russia's flag-carrier, Aeroflot, and had previously travelled on the same passports, including to Britain, suggests sloppy tradecraft or remarkable insouciance.

insouciant

/ɪnˈsuːsɪənt,ɪnˈsuːsɪɒ̃/ adjective showing a casual lack of concern. "an insouciant shrug" synonyms: nonchalant, untroubled, unworried, unruffled, unconcerned, lacking concern, indifferent, blasé, heedless, relaxed, calm, equable, equanimous, serene, composed, casual, easy, easy-going, airy, breezy, carefree, free and easy, free from care, free from worry, happy-go-lucky, light-hearted, frivolous, unserious; informalcool, laid back, upbeat "he had an insouciant attitude to their money problems" antonyms: anxious, concerned By 2016, the idea of America Dealing with its own problems and leaving the rest of the world to deal with theirs appealed to 57%. Younger people are astonishingly insouciant about revanchist Russia and ascendant China. Only one in two millennials think it is important for America to maintain its military superiority.

incendiary

/ɪnˈsɛndɪəri/ adjective 1. (of a device or attack) designed to cause fires. "incendiary bombs" synonyms: combustible, flammable, inflammable, fire-producing, fire-raising "an incendiary bomb" 2. tending to stir up conflict. "incendiary rhetoric" synonyms: inflammatory, rabble-rousing, provocative, seditious, subversive, revolutionary, insurrectionary, insurrectionist; arousing, stirring; contentious, controversial "her incendiary speech provoked more rioting" antonyms: conciliatory very exciting. "an incendiary live performer" The attacking troops will probably use indiscriminate weapons, such as incendiary and clusterbombs, as well as heavy armour.

inveigh

/ɪnˈveɪ/ verb speak or write about (something) with great hostility. "he liked to inveigh against all forms of academic training" synonyms: fulminate, declaim, protest, rail, rage, remonstrate, storm; denounce, censure, condemn, decry, criticize, complain vehemently about; disparage, denigrate, run down, revile, abuse, vilify, impugn; informallash, tongue-lash, kick up a fuss about, kick up a stink about, bellyache about, beef about, grouch about, sound off about "he went on to inveigh against pornography and violence in the cinema" antonyms: support Early Economist editorials inveigh against paying for state education through general taxation and greater public spending on relief efforts during the Irish famine

engross

/ɪnˈɡrəʊs,ɛnˈɡrəʊs/ verb 1. absorb all the attention or interest of. "they seemed to be engrossed in conversation" synonyms: preoccupy, absorb, engage; rivet, grip, hold, interest, catch, captivate, enthral, charm, spellbind, bewitch, fascinate, entrance, beguile, intrigue, arrest, immerse, involve, envelop, engulf, fixate, hypnotize, mesmerize "the notes on the staves totally engrossed him" absorbed, involved, immersed, caught up, rapt, interested; preoccupied by, engaged in/with, riveted by, gripped by, intent on, focused on, captivated by, beguiled by, intrigued by, fixated by, hypnotized by, mesmerized by "he was engrossed in his book" absorbing, involving, engaging, riveting, gripping, captivating, compelling, compulsive, irresistible, arresting, interesting, fascinating, intriguing, enthralling, spellbinding, entrancing, bewitching, beguiling, hypnotic, mesmeric; The joke is one small indication of how China's entrepreneurs-turned-billionaires, symbols of the rise of its internet, engross citizens.

infatuation

/ɪnˌfatʃʊˈeɪʃ(ə)n,ɪnˌfatjʊˈeɪʃ(ə)n/ noun an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone or something. "he had developed an infatuation with the girl" synonyms: passion for, love for, adoration of, desire for, fondness for, feeling for, regard for, devotion to, penchant for, preoccupation with, obsession with, fixation with, craze for, mania for, addiction to; fancy, passing fancy; informal crush on, thing about, hang-up about; pash, puppy love, calf love; raremash "he was aware of his brother's infatuation with Joan" They say the old alliances with Japan and South Korea still stand (despite Trumpian grumbling), and that America still believes in upholding an international order in which Asia has prospered. And despite the president's infatuation with strongmen, America—they say—really doesn't think leaders should gun down suspected drug-dealers.

effeminate

/ɪˈfɛmɪnət/ adjective DEROGATORY (of a man) having characteristics regarded as typical of a woman; unmanly. "he lisps and his handshake is effeminate" synonyms: womanish, unmanly, effete, foppish, affected, niminy-piminy, mincing, posturing; informalcampy, queeny; informalponcey, limp-wristed, pansyish, faggy "as his manicured fingers played with the gold medallion around his neck, he looked very effeminate" antonyms: manly "Neither your walk, your behaviour, nor your clothing indicate even in the slightest that you could be homosexual," they told him. Confusingly, an Iraqi seeking asylum was reportedly rejected last month because he was too effeminate. Officers thought he was shamming.

immiserate

/ɪˈmɪzəreɪt/ verb cause to become poor or impoverished. "the colonial policy immiserated the populace" As it does so, it creates and organises an ever-larger proletariat that it goes on to immiserate. Capitalists will never willingly surrender their privileges.

set aside1

1. save or keep something, typically money or time, for a particular purpose. "the bank expected to set aside about $700 million for restructuring" Similar: save, put by, put aside, put away, lay aside, lay by, put to one side keep, reserve

irreparable

/ɪˈrɛp(ə)rəb(ə)l/ adjective (of an injury or loss) impossible to rectify or repair. "they were doing irreparable damage to my heart and lungs" synonyms: irreversible, irremediable, unrectifiable, irrevocable, irretrievable, irredeemable, unrestorable, irrecoverable, unrecoverable, unrepairable, beyond repair, past mending; hopeless, past hope, beyond hope; written off "if the pump runs dry, irreparable damage can be done" antonyms: repairable To the extent that firms with pricing power charge more, it will hurt consumers. And it will cause a potentially irreparable tear in the geopolitical fabric joining America and China.

evince

/ɪˈvɪns/ verb FORMAL reveal the presence of (a quality or feeling); indicate. "the news stories evinced the usual mixture of sympathy and satisfaction" Similar: reveal, show, make clear, make plain, make obvious, make manifest Though he is without doubt a man of the right, he also evinces caution and a sense of constitutional propriety.

sham

/ʃam/ verb falsely present something as the truth. "was he ill or was he shamming?" pretend to be or to be experiencing. "she shams indifference" synonyms: feign, fake, pretend, put on, make a pretence of, simulate, counterfeit, affect, imitate "she shams indifference" pretend, fake, dissemble; malinger; informal put it on; informal swing the lead "was he ill or was he shamming?" "Neither your walk, your behaviour, nor your clothing indicate even in the slightest that you could be homosexual," they told him. Confusingly, an Iraqi seeking asylum was reportedly rejected last month because he was too effeminate. Officers thought he was shamming.

schmooze

/ʃmuːz/ NORTH AMERICAN verb talk intimately and cosily; gossip. "we schmooze about New York, what she misses" talk in a cosy and intimate manner to (someone), typically in order to manipulate them. "she schmoozed every casting agent in town" Russia's relationship with China started to thaw in 1989, when Mikhail Gorbachev visited Beijing. Boris Yeltsin continued the schmoozing in the 1990s. Mr Putin settled the last border dispute with China in 2004

shed1

/ʃɛd/ noun 1. a simple roofed structure used for garden storage, to shelter animals, or as a workshop. "a bicycle shed" synonyms: hut, lean-to, outhouse, outbuilding, shack; potting shed, woodshed; cattle shed, cow-house; lock-up; barn, smokehouse; woolshed; shippon; dialectlinhay; archaichovel "guinea pigs and rabbits should be kept in sheds or garages" a larger structure for storing or maintaining vehicles or other machinery. "a shed is required for the three engines" AUSTRALIAN/NZ a building for shearing sheep or milking cattle. verb 3rd person present: sheds 1. park (a vehicle) in a depot. "the buses were temporarily shedded in that depot" For all the talk of closer ties, Russia's border crossings to China are pitiful and often look like sheds rather than gateways.

shed2

/ʃɛd/ verb 1. (of a tree or other plant) allow (leaves or fruit) to fall to the ground. "both varieties shed leaves in winter" (of a reptile, insect, etc.) allow (its skin or shell) to come off, to be replaced by another one that has grown underneath. synonyms: slough off, cast, cast off, moult; technicalexuviate "the caterpillar has to shed its skin four or five times to allow it to grow" antonyms: grow (of a mammal) lose (hair) as a result of moulting, disease, or age. take off (clothes). "we shed our jackets" synonyms: take off, remove, pull off, peel off, shrug off, discard, divest oneself of, doff, fling off, fling aside, climb out of, slip out of; undo, unfasten, unbutton, unzip "we shed our jackets" antonyms: don, put on have the property of repelling (water or a similar substance). 2. discard (something undesirable, superfluous, or outdated). "many firms use relocation as an opportunity to shed jobs" synonyms: make redundant, dismiss, let go, discharge, give someone their notice, get rid of, discard The effect that this predation pressure has on the animals is telling. Young males (those that are, in any case, least likely to mate) are almost always the last to shed their antlers, typically doing so in May.

umbilical

/ʌmˈbɪlɪk(ə)l,ˌʌmbɪˈlʌɪk(ə)l/ adjective 1. relating to or affecting the navel or umbilical cord. "the umbilical artery" extremely close; inseparable. "the umbilical link between commerce and international rugby" (of a pipe or cable) connecting someone or something to a source of essential supplies. "a tractor-mounted unit in the field is fed through an umbilical hose" noun noun: umbilical; plural noun: umbilicals 1. short for umbilical cord. Liberalism was not born with the umbilical link to political democracy that it now enjoys. Liberals were white men who considered themselves superior to the run of humanity in both those particulars; though Bagehot, like Mill, supported votes for women, for most of its early years this newspaper did not. And both Mill and Bagehot feared that extending the franchise to all men regardless of property would lead to "the tyranny of the majority".

unbowed

/ʌnˈbaʊd/ adjective not having submitted to pressure or demands. "they are unbowed by centuries of colonial rule" The president has expressed himself willing to put tariffs on all Chinese imports. China, for its part, is unbowed. At a summit on September 11th Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, and Vladimir Putin, Russia's leader, agreed to strengthen economic ties and resist American protectionism.

unflappable

/ʌnˈflapəb(ə)l/ adjective INFORMAL having or showing calmness in a crisis. "I prided myself on being unflappable even in the most chaotic circumstances" Similar: imperturbable, unexcitable, cool, calm, collected and collected, controlled For Kinshasa's weary drivers, dealing with the police requires charm, negotiation skills and unflappability. When your correspondent was taking a taxi in Kinshasa, a drunk policeman half launched himself through the window to demand money. The driver simply laughed. Once the officer had retreated just enough, he sped off.

unclog

/ʌnˈklɒɡ/ verb remove accumulated matter from (a drain or other channel). "exfoliation unclogs pores and prevents blackheads" "We pray that it works," says Ibrahima Ndiaye, an urban planner in Dakar. But he doubts that a new city will be enough to unclog the old one

identikit

/ʌɪˈdɛntɪkɪt/ noun 1. a picture of a person, especially one sought by the police, reconstructed from typical facial features according to witnesses' descriptions. "an identikit photograph" adjective 1. having typical features and few unique ones; formulaic or standardized. "the pub was transformed by identikit 'Victoriana'" To be sure, there is a way to go before the promise of i-buyers is fulfilled. Their algorithms are good at appraising identikit single-family units, but struggle with idiosyncratic properties—flats in city centres, say, or luxury villas.

hourglass

/ˈaʊəɡlɑːs/ noun a timing device with two connected glass bulbs containing sand that takes an hour to pass from the upper to the lower bulb. shaped like an hourglass. modifier noun: hourglass; modifier noun: hour-glass "her hourglass figure" SOME cities are so shaped that traffic jams seem inevitable. Manila, in the Philippines, is scrunched between a bay in the west and a lagoon in the east. A car driving through the middle of the city is like a grain of sand seeping slowly past the neck of an hourglass. Dakar, in Senegal, is surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean, forcing suburban commuters to crawl along the same east-west roads. Auckland, Monrovia, New York and Rio de Janeiro are similarly pinched for space to grow

backwater

/ˈbakwɔːtə/ noun a part of a river not reached by the current, where the water is stagnant. "the eels inhabit backwaters" an isolated or peaceful place. "nothing spoils the tranquillity of this quiet backwater" a place or situation in which no development or progress is taking place. "the country remained an economic backwater" For much of American history, politicians saw the Supreme Court as a backwater.

battered

/ˈbatəd/ adjective (of a thing) damaged by age and repeated use. "a pair of battered black boots" Similar: damaged, shabby, run down, worn out, falling to pieces, falling apart, dilapidated Every driver in charge of a spluttering Yellow taxi or battered local bus (nicknamed "spirits of death" for their shoddy maintenance) must pay a "protection fee" to traffic officers.

baleful

/ˈbeɪlfʊl,ˈbeɪlf(ə)l/ adjective threatening harm; menacing. "Bill shot a baleful glance in her direction" Similar: menacing, threatening, unfriendly, hostile, antagonistic, evil, evil-intentioned, wicked, nasty, hate-filled, bitter, acrimonious, malevolent, malicious, malignant, malign, sinister Opposite: benevolent, friendly having a harmful or destructive effect. "the baleful influence of Rasputin" THE prudish wording of India's colonial-era penal code of 1860 has long cast a baleful shadow over gay people. Section 377 banned "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal".

baseload

/ˈbeɪsləʊd/ noun the permanent minimum load that a power supply system is required to deliver. A working paper published last month by James Bushnell and Kevin Novan of the University of California, Davis, underscores the challenge that renewables pose for nuclear and other sources of baseload power, such as coal.

blandishment

/ˈblandɪʃm(ə)nt/ noun a flattering or pleasing statement or action used as a means of gently persuading someone to do something. "the blandishments of the travel brochure" synonyms: flattery, cajolery, coaxing, wheedling, honeyed words, smooth talk, soft words, blarney; fulsomeness, simpering, fawning, toadying, ingratiating, ingratiation, currying favour, inveiglement; charm offensive; informalsweet talk, soft soap, smarm, spiel, ego massage, buttering up, cosying up, cuddling up; informal flannel; informal guyver, smoodging. "consumers have the capacity to resist the blandishments of advertisers" The hawks believe China is trying to make the world, in their language, a "safe space" for authoritarians. They advocate pushing back on every front. The administration lambasted China last month when El Salvador became the latest Central American country to fall for blandishments and threats and switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.

blizzard

/ˈblɪzəd/ noun a severe snowstorm with high winds. synonyms: snowstorm, snow blast, snow squall; white-out a large or overwhelming number of things arriving suddenly. "a blizzard of forms" Remember how, in her campaign to become America's president, Hillary Clinton concealed her lack of big ideas behind a blizzard of small ones.

bludgeon

/ˈblʌdʒ(ə)n/ verb beat (someone) repeatedly with a bludgeon or other heavy object. "she was found bludgeoned to death in the basement" synonyms: batter, cudgel, club, strike, hit, beat, beat up, hammer, thrash If alternatives comparable in price and quality were available, though, companies would presumably already be buying them. And so, as well as the hassle of switching suppliers, buyers will almost certainly face some sort of extra cost. As the tariffs turn from a chiselled list into one bludgeoning all imports from China, that sort of adjustment will be harder to make.

brio

/ˈbriːəʊ/ noun vigour or vivacity of style or performance. "she told her story with some brio" synonyms: vigour, vivacity, vivaciousness, gusto, verve, zest, sparkle, dash, elan, panache, exuberance, ebullience, enthusiasm, eagerness, vitality, dynamism, animation, spirit, energy; informalpep, vim, zing, get-up-and-go "Britain's early film makers set about the business of film production with some brio" antonyms: lethargy Increasingly, however, the greatest obstacle to disruption is China's rulers. The party is intent on having a say much earlier in the development of industries that it considers important. As a result, China is unlikely to see new business leaders with the boldness and brio to match Mr Ma.

brushstroke

/ˈbrʌʃstrəʊk/ noun a mark made by a paintbrush drawn across a surface. They relentlessly encourage a focus on the identity politics that increasingly consume left-liberals, particularly in America, drawing attention away from the broad canvas of economic and political reform to the fine brush strokes of comparative victimology.

barroom

/ˈbɑːruːm/ noun NORTH AMERICAN a room where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter. Which other countries might qualify is a subject of lively bar-room debate. The ECB's quantitative-easing programme gave the appearance of safety to all euro-zone government bonds, even Italy's.

bawdy

/ˈbɔːdi/ adjective 1. dealing with sexual matters in a comical way; humorously indecent. synonyms: ribald, indecent, risqué, racy, rude, spicy, suggestive, titillating, naughty, improper, indelicate, indecorous, off colour, earthy, broad, locker-room, Rabelaisian; pornographic, obscene, vulgar, crude, coarse, gross, lewd, dirty, filthy, smutty, unseemly, salacious, prurient, lascivious, licentious, X-rated, scatological, near the bone, near the knuckle; erotic, sexy, sexual; informalblue, raunchy, nudge-nudge; euphemisticadult "they told bawdy jokes" antonyms: clean, innocent noun noun: bawdy 1. humorously indecent talk or writing. Managers were told to report clients spreading political rumours. Bawdy songs were banned. Tea houses were told to expel itinerant barbers (who did sometimes drop hair clippings in other patrons' teacups, it is true). During the war with Japan, teahouses in Chengdu were ordered to display Nationalist flags, slogans and leaders' portraits, and to inscribe approved news headlines on blackboards.

betterment

/ˈbɛtəm(ə)nt/ noun the improvement of something. "they believed that what they were doing was vital for the betterment of society" synonyms: improvement, amelioration, advancement, change for the better, furtherance, upgrading, enhancement; reform, rectification "the betterment of society as a whole" The liberal world order failed to confront the epic challenge of climate change or to adapt its institutions to the growing importance of emerging economies. Liberal thinkers paid too little heed to those things people value beyond self-determination and economic betterment, such as their religious and ethnic identities.

bevy

/ˈbɛvi/ noun 1. a large group of people or things of a particular kind. "he was surrounded by a bevy of beautiful girls" synonyms: group, gang, troop, troupe, party, company, band, body, crowd, pack, army, herd, flock, drove, horde, galaxy, assemblage, gathering; knot, cluster, covey; informalbunch, gaggle, posse, crew "a bevy of beautiful women" 2. RARE a group of roe deer, quails, or larks. "a bevy of larks trill their carefree songs" There is a bevy of less extreme reform ideas, such as "inclusion funds" paid for by a modest tax on the migrants themselves, which would spend their money in the places where migrants make up a disproportionate share of the population.

bungle

/ˈbʌŋɡ(ə)l/ verb carry out (a task) clumsily or incompetently. "he bungled his first attempt to manage a group of professional players" Similar: mishandle, mismanage, mess up, make a mess of, botch, spoil, mar, ruin Mr Salmond faces two complaints. Scottish newspapers are filled with lurid details of alleged groping in Bute House. The allegations against him come just as Scotland's flagging independence movement shows signs of revival. SNP membership nowoutstrips the Conservative Party's across the whole of Britain. Brexit, which 62% of Scots voted against, is being bungled, stoking demands for freedom from Westminster.

bugbear

/ˈbʌɡbɛː/ noun 1. a cause of obsessive fear, anxiety, or irritation. "the biggest villain is that adman's bugbear, saturated fat" synonyms: pet hate, hate, bane, irritant, irritation, dislike, anathema, aversion, vexation The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is delighted. UNRWA is a bugbear for his hawkish allies. Exceptionally, the UN counts all the descendants of Palestinian refugees as refugees themselves.

doughty

/ˈdaʊti/ adjectiveARCHAIC•HUMOROUS brave and persistent. "his doughty spirit kept him going" It is possible that the next president could swing in the opposite direction, recognising the vital role its alliances play in American security, seeking to reform rather than vilify international institutions like the WTO and reinvigorating international co-operation on climate change—a grave threat to the world order which has been far less doughtily faced than that of communism. But it is unlikely.

dais

/ˈdeɪɪs,deɪs/ noun a low platform for a lectern or throne. synonyms: platform, stage, podium, rostrum, stand, grandstand, staging, apron, soapbox, stump; lectern, pulpit, box, dock; mandapam FIVE years after the darkest days of the financial crisis, Lawrence Summers took the dais at an IMF forum to offer a few thoughts on America's recovery.

drastic

/ˈdrastɪk/ adjective likely to have a strong or far-reaching effect; radical and extreme. "a drastic reduction of staffing levels" synonyms: extreme, serious, forceful, desperate, dire, radical, far-reaching, momentous, substantial; heavy, sharp, severe, harsh, rigorous, swingeing, punishing, excessive, oppressive, draconian "drastic measures were necessary" antonyms: mild, moderate But it could also just push the political brawling down a level, so that every appellate nomination becomes a blood sport. In any case, it is probably too drastic a change to be feasible.

dreaded

/ˈdrɛdɪd/ adjective regarded with great fear or apprehension. "the dreaded news came that Joe had been wounded" dread /drɛd/ verb 1. anticipate with great apprehension or fear. "Jane was dreading the party" synonyms: fear, be afraid of, worry about, be anxious about, have forebodings about, feel apprehensive about; be terrified by, cower at, tremble/shudder at, cringe from, shrink from, quail from, flinch from; informal have cold feet about, be in a blue funk about "I used to dread going home at night" antonyms: look forward to Given Donald Trump's promise in 2016 that his picks for the Supreme Court would "automatically" overrule Roe, the long-dreaded rollback is no idle concern

dossier

/ˈdɒsɪə,ˈdɒsɪeɪ/ noun a collection of documents about a particular person, event, or subject. "we have a dossier on him" synonyms: file, report, case history, case study, casebook; account, notes, document(s), documentation, data, information, evidence; annal(s), archive(s), chronicle(s), diary, journal, memoir, register, log, logbook; inventory, list, catalogue; raremuniments "I've built up a dossier on his drug and arms deals" The police dossier against Mr Chan, a copy of which was given to him and which he later published on Facebook , contains more than 700 pages.

doyen

/ˈdɔɪən,ˈdwɑːjã/ noun the most respected or prominent person in a particular field. "he became the doyen of British physicists" That is Henry Kissinger, the doyen of cold-war diplomacy and the author of rapprochement with China and détente with the Soviet Union.

dexterous

/ˈdɛkst(ə)rəs/ adjective showing or having skill, especially with the hands. "a dexterous keyboard player" synonyms: deft, adept, adroit, agile, nimble, neat, nimble-fingered, handy, able, capable, talented, skilful, skilled, proficient, accomplished, expert, experienced, practised, polished, efficient, effortless, slick, professional, masterful, masterly, impressive, finely judged, delicate; informalnifty, nippy, mean, wicked, ace, wizard, crack; rarehabile "a dexterous flick of the wrist" shrewd, ingenious, inventive, clever, intelligent, bright, brilliant, smart, sharp, sharp-witted, razor-sharp, acute, quick, quick-witted, astute, canny, intuitive, discerning, perceptive, perspicacious, insightful, incisive, sagacious, wise, judicious; cunning, artful, crafty, wily, calculating; "Klein had achieved notoriety for his dexterous accounting abilities" antonyms:clumsy, stupid The erosive effects of robotisation and artificial intelligence on the world of work are debatable and frequently exaggerated. But though optimists think clever and more dexterous machines will make most of their human colleagues more productive, rather than redundant, they hardly see a return to the 20th-century world of copious lifelong jobs. The coming decades will further strain people's ability to predict what skills they will need and how their careers will evolve.

desiccate

/ˈdɛsɪkeɪt/ verb 1. remove the moisture from (something), typically in order to preserve it. "desiccated coconut" synonyms: dried, dried up, dry, dehydrated, powdered "desiccated coconut" antonyms: moist 2. lacking interest, passion, or energy. "a desiccated history of ideas" That teahouses managed equally to enrage Red Guards, Nationalist police chiefs and desiccated imperial mandarins might be reason enough to cherish them, and to name The Economist's new China column "Chaguan" in their honour.

dinghy

/ˈdɪnɡi/ noun a small boat for recreation or racing, especially an open boat with a mast and sails. a small inflatable rubber boat. Set against such mighty waves, it is questionable whether the patches on Mr Juncker's dinghy will hold. The notion of the EU as a "global player" looks farcical at a time when Beijing, for example, barely pays attention to Brussels (and vice versa, grumble some).

dungeon

/ˈdʌn(d)ʒ(ə)n/ noun 1. a strong underground prison cell, especially in a castle. synonyms: underground cell, underground prison, oubliette; cell, prison, jail, lock-up, black hole; archaichole, thieves' hole, bocardo "the king imprisoned him in the castle dungeon" Some have disappeared into Mr Assad's torture dungeons. "The Russians aren't offering anything. It's either die, or surrender and then die," says one official. The rebels have also arrested hundreds of people in the areas they control on charges of negotiating with the Russians and the regime. HTS has erected gallows on the roundabout of one town in Idlib, to warn those who may want to abandon the fight.

gentry

/ˈdʒɛntri/ noun people of good social position, specifically the class of people next below the nobility in position and birth. "a member of the landed gentry" synonyms: the upper classes, the upper middle class, the privileged classes, the wealthy, the elite, high society, the establishment, the haut monde, the county set, the smart set But in the 1840s, 60% of the income of factory workers went on food, a third of that on bread. We were created to take the part of the poor against the corn-cultivating gentry.

jerrycan

/ˈdʒɛrɪkan/ noun a large flat-sided metal container for storing or transporting liquids, typically petrol or water. A few villagers come and buy fresh milk in plastic jerrycans, but most of it is turned into cheese.

gyre

/ˈdʒʌɪə,ˈɡʌɪə/ verb 1. whirl or gyrate. "a swarm of ghosts gyred around him" Plenty stays close to shore. Some, though, is carried by currents to mid-ocean gyres.

fatuous

/ˈfatjʊəs/ adjective silly and pointless. "a fatuous comment" synonyms: silly, foolish, stupid, inane, nonsensical, childish, puerile, infantile, idiotic, brainless, mindless, vacuous, imbecilic, asinine, witless, empty-headed, hare-brained; pointless, senseless; ridiculous, ludicrous, absurd, preposterous, laughable, risible; informal daft, moronic, cretinous, dumb, gormless "she was irritated by a fatuous question" Yet ruling liberals have often sheltered themselves from the gales of creative destruction. Cushy professions such as law are protected by fatuous regulations

febrile

/ˈfiːbrʌɪl/ adjective 1. having or showing the symptoms of a fever. "a febrile illness" synonyms: feverish, fevered, hot, burning, burning up, fiery, flushed, sweating, in a cold sweat; shivering; delirious; informalwith a temperature; rarepyretic "the patient was febrile and had abdominal pain" 2. characterized by a great deal of nervous excitement or energy. "the febrile atmosphere of the city" This week there was even wild talk among some Tory MPs of ousting Mrs May as party leader. In today's febrile political climate, the chances of getting a Chequers-like plan through Parliament seem alarmingly small. Alas the EU may not offer the prime minister much succour.

flannelled

/ˈflan(ə)ld/ adjective wearing flannel trousers. "a rather stout boy, grey-flannelled, pulling off a school cap" flannel /ˈflan(ə)l/ verb INFORMAL•BRITISH use bland fluent talk to avoid addressing a difficult subject or situation directly. synonyms: use flattery, talk blarney, flatter, pull the wool over someone's eyes; prevaricate, hedge, equivocate, be evasive, vacillate, blather, evade/dodge the issue, stall; hum and haw; informalwaffle, shilly-shally, soft-soap, sweet-talk, butter someone up, pussyfoot around "she can tell if you're flannelling" Another island where flannelled fools thrive—despite batty rules

fluid

/ˈfluːɪd/ adjective adjective: fluid 1. (of a substance) able to flow easily. "the paint is more fluid than tube watercolours" synonyms: flowing, able to flow easily; liquid, liquefied, melted, molten, uncongealed, running; gaseous, gassy; technicalfluxional "in fluid magmas, these gas bubbles can expand freely" antonyms: solid smoothly elegant or graceful. "her movements were fluid and beautiful to watch" That ever-present feeling has one consolation: it can make hyperinflations quick to end. Of the 57 episodes identified by Messrs Hanke and Krus, many lasted less than a year. Because people are always thinking about prices, their inflation expectations are unusually fluid.

folksy

/ˈfəʊksi/ adjective 2. informal and unpretentious. "his folksy, direct style" None of this is to say that enterprise is fizzling in China. Indeed one of Mr Ma's legacies is a shift to a culture that values startups more than ever. His charisma and folksy advice have earned him cult-like status among the country's entrepreneurs.

fickle

/ˈfɪk(ə)l/ adjective changing frequently, especially as regards one's loyalties or affections. "celebs trying to appeal to an increasingly fickle public" Similar: capricious, changeable, variable, volatile, mercurial, vacillating, fitful, irregular Many of the international political consulting and public-relations firms that coined it in 2015 are again seen trailing their candidates through the lobbies of hotels in Abuja and London. The flacks are as fickle as the Big Men they serve. Some lobbyists are now working for the very people they sought to trash last time.

harness

/ˈhɑːnəs/ noun a set of straps and fittings by which a horse or other draught animal is fastened to a cart, plough, etc. and is controlled by its driver. Similar: tack, tackle, equipment, trappings, straps, yoke, gear, equipage. an arrangement of straps for fastening something such as a parachute to a person's body or for restraining a young child. These can be obtained cheaply and speedily online through a variety of websites that promise to send them overnight, along with certificates, collars, harnesses, vests and other paraphernalia proclaiming "emotional support animal".

haughty

/ˈhɔːti/ adjective arrogantly superior and disdainful. "a look of haughty disdain" synonyms: proud, vain, arrogant, conceited, snobbish, stuck-up, pompous, self-important, superior, egotistical, supercilious, condescending, lofty, patronizing, smug, scornful, contemptuous, disdainful, overweening, overbearing, imperious, lordly, cavalier, high-handed, full of oneself, above oneself; informalsnooty, sniffy, hoity-toity, uppity, uppish, cocky, big-headed, swollen-headed, puffed up, high and mighty, la-di-da, fancy-pants, on one's high horse, too big for one's boots; informal toffee-nosed; informalchesty; informaltoo big for one's breeches; literaryvainglorious "his bearing was both haughty and disdainful" antonyms: modest, humble Mr Kavanaugh fielded the queries less haughtily than did Neil Gorsuch a year ago, but he was just as evasive when asked about the issues everyone is most curious about.

hurtle

/ˈhəːt(ə)l/ verb move or cause to move at high speed, typically in an uncontrolled manner. "a runaway car hurtled towards them" synonyms: speed, rush, race, chase, bolt, bowl, dash, career, careen, cannon, sweep, whizz, buzz, zoom, flash, blast, charge, shoot, streak, run, gallop, stampede, hare, fly, wing, scurry, scud, go like the wind; informalbelt, pelt, tear, scoot, tool, zap, zip, whip, burn rubber, go like a bat out of hell; informalbomb, bucket, shift, go like the clappers; informalclip, boogie, hightail, barrel; archaicpost, hie "a runaway car hurtled towards them" antonyms: go slowly The second lesson is that an increasing number of creditors are willing to encourage irresponsible borrowing. By 2016, when it was clear that Zambia was hurtling towards a crisis, the IMF urged it to put a brake on new borrowing

hellraiser

/ˈhɛlreɪzə/ noun: hell-raiser a person who causes trouble by drinking, being violent, or otherwise behaving outrageously. IT MAY seem like professional suicide to leave a radio show that pulls in 9m listeners for one with a meagre 400,000. But that is precisely what Chris Evans, the country's most famous broadcaster and former hellraiser, did on September 3rd.

herring

/ˈhɛrɪŋ/ noun a fairly small silvery fish which is most abundant in coastal waters and is of widespread commercial importance.

heterodoxy

/ˈhɛt(ə)rə(ʊ)dɒksi/ noun deviation from accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs. contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion : unorthodox, unconventional heterodox ideas. "his work was marked by elements of theological heterodoxy" A SHREWD observer of London's after work drinking culture once offered the following bit of mathematical heterodoxy to explain it: "There is no number between two and six." If you go out with colleagues and stop at two drinks, you will be able to summon the will to go home at a reasonable hour. After a third drink, another will seem like a good idea—and another, and another. You will be on course for a hangover.

hustle

/ˈhʌs(ə)l/ 1. INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN a fraud or swindle. 2. INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN obtain illicitly or by forceful action. "Linda hustled money from men she met" 3. INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN engage in prostitution. "she would hustle for a few dollars" With hardly any formal economy in Congo, let alone a welfare state, people do whatever they can to get by. Ordinary folk farm, trade, smuggle and hustle. Officials and rebels loot and extort.

Camembert

/ˈkaməmbɛː/ noun a kind of rich, soft, creamy cheese with a whitish rind, originally made near Camembert in Normandy. The verdant hills of this region, dotted with Friesian cows and known as "Africa's Switzerland", are ideal for caseiculture. Some Belgian monks who arrived in the 1970s soon began crafting camembert. Italian missionaries whet appetites for mozzarella. In their heyday, dairies in Masisi also churned out butter, cream and yogurt.

canvass

/ˈkanvəs/ verb 2. propose (an idea or plan) for discussion. "early retirement was canvassed as a solution to the problem of unemployment" synonyms: propose, suggest, submit, offer, air; discuss, debate, consider "early retirement was canvassed as a solution to the problem of unemployment" discuss thoroughly. "the issues that were canvassed are still unresolved" "early retirement was canvassed as a solution to the problem of unemployment" In the face of growing political rancour, calls for reform are getting louder. Perhaps the most widely canvassed idea is that justices should serve a single 18-year term rather than for life, with two new justices chosen each presidential term.

cloakroom

/ˈkləʊkruːm,ˈkləʊkrʊm/ noun 1. a room in a public building where outdoor clothes or luggage may be left. "the cloakroom attendant" 2. BRITISH a room that contains a toilet or toilets. "a downstairs cloakroom with a WC and hand basin" Those wishing to enter Mukalla must hand over their weapons at one of several checkpoints. As if manning a cloakroom, soldiers hand out receipts so that owners can reclaim their guns when leaving.

credence

/ˈkriːd(ə)ns/ noun 1. belief in or acceptance of something as true. "psychoanalysis finds little credence among laymen" synonyms: acceptance, belief, faith, trust, confidence, reliance, traction "psychoanalysis finds little credence among laymen" the likelihood of something being true; plausibility. "being called upon by the media as an expert lends credence to one's opinions" synonyms: credibility, credit, reliability, plausibility, believability "the messenger gave credence to her tale" 2. a small side table, shelf, or niche in a church for holding the elements of the Eucharist before they are consecrated. "a credence table" The court is typically reluctant to stray too far from public opinion, and most Americans do not want Roe overturned. Mr Kavanaugh, for his part, has called Roe "settled law", which lends credence to the idea that whittling away is the likely approach. (That said, he has also noted that the court "can always overrule its precedent"—as it did in a liberal direction in Lawrence v Texas, invalidating laws banning sodomy.)

cryptic

/ˈkrɪptɪk/ adjective 1. having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure. "he found his boss's utterances too cryptic" synonyms: enigmatic, mysterious, hard to understand, confusing, mystifying, perplexing, puzzling, obscure, abstruse, arcane, oracular, Delphic, ambiguous, elliptical, oblique; informalas clear as mud "his cryptic comments taxed her powers of comprehension" antonyms: straightforward, clear (of a crossword) having difficult clues which indicate the solutions indirectly. Some of the "One Belt One Road" infrastructure with which it is forging links to the rest of Eurasia will be useful— though the West needs to keep an eye out for cryptic militarisation.

carnal

/ˈkɑːn(ə)l/ adjective relating to physical, especially sexual, needs and activities. "carnal desire" synonyms: sexual, sensual, erotic, lustful, lascivious, libidinous, lecherous, licentious, lewd, prurient, salacious, coarse, gross, lubricious, venereal; physical, bodily, corporeal, fleshly, animal; informalsexy "the carnal desires of the flesh" antonyms: spiritual THE prudish wording of India's colonial-era penal code of 1860 has long cast a baleful shadow over gay people. Section 377 banned "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal".

coltan

/ˈkɒltan/ noun a dull metallic mineral which is a combination of columbite and tantalite and which is refined to produce tantalum. EASTERN CONGO is best known for producing coltan, a mineral used in mobile phones, and refugees. But it also makes rather good cheese

comity

/ˈkɒmɪti/ nounFORMAL 1. an association of nations for their mutual benefit. the mutual recognition by nations of the laws and customs of others. plural noun: comity of nations; noun: comity of nations 2. courtesy and considerate behaviour towards others. "a show of public comity in the White House" Internet-enabled comity is going hand-in-hand with internet-enabled hatred. And the internet platforms are now so big that they are becoming threats to democracy itself.

curveball

/ˈkəːvbɔːl/ noun BASEBALL a delivery in which the pitcher causes the ball to deviate from a straight path by imparting spin. "his three-speed curveball enabled him to win 20 games in two different seasons" NORTH AMERICAN informal something which is unexpected, surprising, or disruptive. "there's always a curveball on every mission" The platitudes—including an analogy borrowed from Chief Justice John Roberts, who in 2005 said a judge's role is simply to "call balls and strikes"— gave way to more substance later, when the 21 members of the Judiciary Committee took turns lobbing softballs and curveballs at Mr Trump's pick.

cuddly

/ˈkʌdli/ adjective endearing and pleasant to cuddle, especially as a result of being soft or plump. "she was short and cuddly" On the same day Eddie Mair, a former host of BBC Radio 4's "PM" programme, hosted his first show in the same slot for LBC, a London based station. More cuddly than hell-raising, Mr Mair has swapped 4m listeners at the BBC for about half that number.

currency

/ˈkʌr(ə)nsi/ noun 2. the fact or quality of being generally accepted or in use. "the term gained wider currency after the turn of the century" synonyms: prevalence, circulation, dissemination, publicity, exposure; acceptance, popularity, traction, fashionableness, voguishness "since the war, the term has gained new currency" the time during which something is in use or operation. "no claim had been made during the currency of the policy" Partly because Scalia regularly and persuasively expounded on its merits it has gained much currency.

cover-up

/ˈkʌvərʌp/ noun 1. an attempt to prevent people discovering the truth about a serious mistake or crime. "they claim he did not gun down the president and insist there was a cover-up" synonyms: whitewash, concealment, deception, suppression, false front, facade, veneer, pretext; -gate, camouflage, disguise, mask "the other officers charged were mostly implicated in the cover-up rather than the massacre itself" antonyms: exposé 2. a loose outer garment, as worn over a swimsuit or exercise outfit. Her response to the crisis in Rakhine, where the army's brutality has forced more than 720,000 Rohingyas to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, has been to cover up for the generals.

lurid

/ˈl(j)ʊərɪd/ adjective unpleasantly bright in colour, especially so as to create a harsh or unnatural effect. "lurid food colourings" Similar: brightly coloured, bright, over-bright, brilliant, glaring, fluorescent, flaming, dazzling, vivid, intense, showy, gaudy, loud Opposite: muted, subtle, presented in vividly shocking or sensational terms. "the more lurid details of the massacre were too frightening for the children" Mr Salmond faces two complaints. Scottish newspapers are filled with lurid details of alleged groping in Bute House. The allegations against him come just as Scotland's flagging independence movement shows signs of revival. SNP membership nowoutstrips the Conservative Party's across the whole of Britain. Brexit, which 62% of Scots voted against, is being bungled, stoking demands for freedom from Westminster.

landslide

/ˈlan(d)slʌɪd/ noun 2. an overwhelming majority of votes for one party or candidate in an election. "they won by a landslide" synonyms: decisive victory, runaway victory, overwhelming majority, grand slam, triumph, walkover, game, set, and match "the 1906 election produced a Liberal landslide" antonyms: narrow victory, hung parliament But as Mexico's relationship with Mr Trump seems to have improved since Mr Lуpez Obrador won a landslide election victory in July, Canada's relations with him have worsened

lanthanum

/ˈlanθənəm/ noun the chemical element of atomic number 57, a silvery-white rare earth metal. The best solution known in principle was found in 1975, by researchers at the University of Rennes, in France. It is a glass, made from a mixture of the fluorides of zirconium, barium, lanthanum, aluminium and sodium, that is therefore known as ZBLAN (sodium has the chemical symbol Na). Fibre made from ZBLAN has extremely low losses from absorption and scattering, particularly in the part of the spectrum called the mid-infrared, where conventional optical fibre does not work well.

lucid

/ˈluːsɪd/ adjective 1. expressed clearly; easy to understand. "a lucid account" Similar: intelligible, comprehensible, understandable, cogent, coherent They have become central venues for social interaction and for all manner of expression, from lucid debate and cat videos to conspiracy theories and hate speech.

lowbrow

/ˈləʊbraʊ/ DEROGATORY adjective 1. not highly intellectual or cultured. "lowbrow tabloids" synonyms: mass-market, tabloid, pop, popular, intellectually undemanding, lightweight, easy to understand, accessible, unpretentious, simple, simplistic; downmarket, uncultured, unsophisticated, rubbishy, trashy, philistine, plebeian, cheap; informaldumbed-down "a lowbrow action movie" noun 1. a lowbrow person. But teahouses are more than fine places that attracted the right enemies. In their heyday, when some city streets might have boasted half a dozen, they were places to relax, do business, gossip and exchange ideas, both lowbrow and highfalutin. Some teahouse litigators were crooks, writes Qin Shao of the College of New Jersey, another teahouse historian. But at its best, teashop mediation with crowds hearing every word, could expose and shame local bullies, offering a rough sort of accountability.

lodestar

/ˈləʊdstɑː/ noun a star that is used to guide the course of a ship, especially the Pole Star. Similar: guide, guiding, star, guiding light, role model, model, luminary, exemplar The more interesting question is how much of the report will make it into the Conservatives' plans. The DailyMail, lodestar of middle-England conservatism, said that there was "much to welcome" in it. Would the Tories run against both the Mail and the Archbishop of Canterbury?

leftward

/ˈlɛftwəd/ adverb 1. towards the left. "all the wheels were going leftward" 2. towards support of radical, reforming, or socialist views. "his politics moved sharply leftward" adjective 1. going towards or facing the left. "they moved their eyes in a leftward direction" 2. tending to support radical, reforming, or socialist views. "the leftward shift in Western European politics" Some hope Chief Justice Roberts will tack leftward, as his namesake did (and, indeed, as justices tend to, overtime, whatever their original ideological stance, though the trend is hardly universal). With Mr Kennedy gone, it will now be Mr Roberts who has four justices to his left and four to his right.

libertine

/ˈlɪbətiːn,ˈlɪbətɪn,ˈlɪbətʌɪn/ noun 1. a person, especially a man, who freely indulges in sensual pleasures without regard to moral principles. "his image as an unbridled libertine is a total myth" synonyms: philanderer, ladies' man, playboy, rake, roué, loose-liver, Don Juan, Lothario, Casanova, Romeo; lecher, seducer, womanizer, adulterer, debauchee, sensualist, voluptuary, hedonist; profligate, wanton, reprobate, degenerate; informalstud, skirt-chaser, ladykiller, lech, wolf; datedrip, blood, gay dog; formal fornicator "'Don Giovanni' ends with the unrepentant libertine being dragged down to hell by demons" antonyms: puritan 2. a freethinker in matters of religion. adjective 1. characterized by free indulgence in sensual pleasures. "his more libertine impulses" synonyms: licentious, lustful, libidinous, lecherous, lascivious, lubricious, dissolute, dissipated, debauched, immoral, wanton, shameless, degenerate, depraved, debased, profligate, promiscuous, unchaste, lewd, prurient, salacious, indecent, immodest, impure, carnal, intemperate, abandoned, unrestrained, unprincipled, reprobate; rakish, decadent, sensual, voluptuary, hedonistic; informalloose, fast, goatish, randy, horny, raunchy; rareconcupiscent, lickerish "they were careful to insist that free love was not to be confused with libertine sexual intercourse" antonyms: chaste, puritanical 2. freethinking. The guarantee of a conservative justice mattered to white evangelicals—who might otherwise have had problems with a foul-mouthed, thrice-married libertine—because of Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that recognised a constitutional right to abortion.

madcap

/ˈmadkap/ adjective 1. amusingly eccentric. "a surreal, madcap novel" synonyms: zany, eccentric, ridiculous, unconventional, weird "a madcap comedy" done without considering the consequences; foolish or reckless. "a madcap scheme" synonyms: reckless, rash, hot-headed, daredevil, impulsive, wild, daring, adventurous, heedless, thoughtless, incautious, imprudent, indiscreet, ill-advised, hasty, foolhardy, foolish, senseless, impractical, hare-brained; informalcrazy, crackpot, crackbrained; informalradge "a madcap scheme" What if, he wondered in 2012 (then aged 18), you could build a massive bow-shaped floating barrier, anchor it to the seabed and let currents shuffle the litter into the scoop? Despite his youthful age and madcap scheme, Mr Slat set up the Ocean Cleanup to put it into practice.

markup/ pay over the odds

/ˈmɑːkʌp/ noun 1. the amount added to the cost price of goods to cover overheads and profit. "a mark-up of 50 per cent" more than the usual or expected amount We had to pay over the odds to get good seats for the concert. Other deals have been similarly wasteful. Zambia bought 42 fire engines for $1m each—a 70% mark-up. And it has regularly paid over the odds for infrastructure built by state-owned Chinese companies.

Marmite

/ˈmɑːmʌɪt/ noun TRADEMARK IN UK a dark savoury spread made from yeast extract and vegetable extract. used in reference to something that tends to arouse strongly positive or negative reactions rather than indifference. adjective: Marmite "the styling is 'Marmite'—some hate it, many love it" But since Brexit, Heineken has turned into Marmite: while some still like him, many loathe him. When he attended the England v India cricket match at the Oval on September 8th and his face flashed up on the screen, the crowd booed.

marshal

/ˈmɑːʃ(ə)l/ verb gerund or present participle: marshalling 1. assemble and arrange (a group of people, especially troops) in order. "the general marshalled his troops" synonyms: gather, gather together, assemble, collect, muster, mass, amass, call together, draw up, line up, align, array, organize, group, set/put in order, set/put into position, arrange, deploy, position, order; dispose, rank, mobilize, rally, round up; triage "the Mercian king marshalled a formidable army" antonyms: disperse, scatter bring together and arrange in order (facts, ideas, objects, etc.). "he paused for a moment, as if marshalling his thoughts" synonyms: usher, guide, escort, conduct, lead, shepherd, steer, take "guests were marshalled to their seats" position (rolling stock) in the correct order. direct the movement of (an aircraft) on the ground at an airport. Inside the Green Zone, Baghdad's government enclave, Brett Mc Gurk, America's regional envoy, and Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds Force, Iran's foreign legion, are marshalling their allies.

mortar1

/ˈmɔːtə/ noun 1. a short smooth-bore gun for firing shells (technically called bombs) at high angles. "mortars and machine guns" a device used for firing a lifeline or firework. 2. a cup-shaped receptacle in which ingredients are crushed or ground, used in cooking or pharmacy. "a pestle and mortar" Political tensions are turning violent and spilling out of the Green Zone. Though American and Iranian commanders battled in tandem against IS, they are now at loggerheads. On September 6th mortars landed near America's embassy in Baghdad; its consulate in Basra was later struck,

motorcade

/ˈməʊtəkeɪd/ noun a procession of motor vehicles, typically carrying and escorting a prominent person Corruption goes hand in hand with repression. After the election in 2016, which he won amid allegations of rigging, Mr Lungu jailed the opposition leader, Hakainde Hichilema, for the crime of not yielding to the presidential motorcade.

priesthood

/ˈpriːsthʊd/ noun the office or position of a priest. "the ordination of women to the priesthood" priests in general. "there was relief among the Anglican priesthood A strain of millenarian thinking has been common since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers ten years ago this month. Its devotees, too, rail against a discredited priesthood and its vices—in this case, central bankers and quantitative easing (QE). They also maintain that a reckoning is due.

melee

/ˈmɛleɪ/ noun a confused fight or scuffle. "several people were hurt in the melee" synonyms: tumult, disturbance, rumpus, commotion, disorder; brawl, fracas, fight, affray, fray, scuffle, breach of the peace, struggle, skirmish, free-for-all, tussle, quarrel. "a number of people were trampled to death during the subsequent melee" a confused crowd of people. "the melee of people that were always thronging the streets" In June of this year one Lagosian tried to beat a jam by driving on the wrong side of the road. He was accosted by police, who tried to force him to turn round. Unfortunately, the driver was a soldier, and he promptly called for back-up. A man was shot in the ensuing melee.

mellow

/ˈmɛləʊ/ adjective 1. (especially of a sound, flavour, or colour) pleasantly smooth or soft; free from harshness. "she was hypnotized by the mellow tone of his voice" synonyms: dulcet, sweet-sounding, tuneful, euphonious, lyric, melodious, mellifluous; fruity, smooth, warm, full, rich, well rounded; raremellifluent "the mellow tone of his voice" antonyms: harsh (of wine) well-matured and smooth. "a mellow, richly flavoured Shiraz" synonyms: seasoned, conditioned, mature, aged, old; rich in texture, warm "the splendid mellow brickwork of the Tudor gatehouse" The FDA moves to harsh the mellow of the e-cigarette industry

nostrum

/ˈnɒstrəm/ noun a medicine prepared by an unqualified person, especially one that is not considered effective. "a charlatan who sells nostrums" synonyms: patent medicine, quack remedy, potion, elixir, panacea, cure-all, cure for all ills, universal remedy, sovereign remedy, wonder drug, magic bullet; rarecatholicon, diacatholicon, panpharmacon "the pill pedlars will have to show that their nostrums work" a scheme or remedy for bringing about some social or political reform or improvement. "right-wing nostrums such as a wage freeze and cutting public spending" synonyms: remedy, cure, prescription, answer, magic formula, recipe, recipe for success "his successes resulted from such right-wing nostrums as a wage freeze and cutting public spending" Liberals need to shake themselves out of this torpor. And they need to persuade others of their ideas. All too often, in recent years, liberal reforms have been imposed by judges, by central banks and by unaccountable supranational organisations. Perhaps the best-founded part of today's reaction against liberalism is the outrage people feel when its nostrums are imposed on them with condescending promises that they will be the better for it.

nihilism

/ˈnʌɪ(h)ɪlɪz(ə)m/ noun the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless. synonyms: negativity, cynicism, pessimism; rejection, repudiation, renunciation, denial, abnegation; disbelief, non-belief, unbelief, scepticism, lack of conviction, absence of moral values, agnosticism, atheism, non-theism "he could not accept Bacon's nihilism, his insistence that man is a futile being" PHILOSOPHY the belief that nothing in the world has a real existence. Nietzsche feared that societywas descending into nihilism, but appealed to the heroic bermensch in each person as its saviour.

pancake

/ˈpankeɪk/ noun 1. a thin, flat cake of batter, fried on both sides in a pan and typically rolled up with a sweet or savoury filling. "crispy pancakes filled with cheese" synonyms: crêpe, drop scone, galette, waffle, griddle cake, batter cake, flannel cake; flapjack, slapjack; blini; tortilla, tostada; chapatti, dosa; latke, blintze 2. make-up consisting of a flat solid layer of compressed powder, used especially in the theatre. 2. INFORMAL flatten or become flattened. "Hurley's car was pancaked" Phrases flat as a pancake — completely flat. "the land's as flat as a pancake" MUSIC was blasting, rockets were flying and pancakes were frying in Russia's far east on September 9th.

paramount

/ˈparəmaʊnt/ adjective 1. more important than anything else; supreme. "the interests of the child are of paramount importance" synonyms: most important, of greatest importance, of prime importance, of supreme importance; uppermost, supreme, chief, overriding, predominant, cardinal, foremost, first and foremost, prime, primary, principal, pre-eminent, highest, utmost, main, key, central, leading, major, top, topmost, dominant; informalnumber-one "the safety of the staff is paramount" 2. having supreme power. "a paramount chief" Defending the existing trade system is thus a paramount goal. And the gains it may yet offer, in services and elsewhere, are substantial.

payslip

/ˈpeɪslɪp/ noun BRITISH a note given to an employee when they have been paid, detailing the amount of pay given, and the tax and insurance deducted. For now, Mr Macron seems undeterred. After some hesitation, his government is pressing ahead with a complex move to tax income at source, which it is feared will be hit by technical problems when it comes into place in January next year and dismay those not used to seeing income tax deducted directly from their pay slips. (At present, income tax is paid in arrears, generally in instalments.)

peacock

/ˈpiːkɒk/ noun a male peafowl, which has very long tail feathers with eye-like markings that can be erected and fanned out in display. an ostentatious or vain person. "these young men have always considered themselves the peacocks of Europe" After an incident earlier this year in which a woman flying from Newark Liberty Airport to Los Angeles attempted to board a United Airlines flight with her emotional-support peacock (they were denied passage), certain airlines, including United, now also require passengers to provide health

puny

/ˈpjuːni/ adjective small and weak. "white-faced, puny children" synonyms: undersized, underdeveloped, undernourished, underfed, stunted, slight, small, little, diminutive, dwarfish, pygmy; More antonyms: strong, sturdy, significant, sizeable, substantial poor in quality, amount, or size. "the army was reduced to a puny 100,000 men" The system's chief weakness is its long tail of puny firms. Many observers worry about labour conditions in the supply chain; the typical poorly paid assemblyworker in China handles 1,700 phones a day.

platitude

/ˈplatɪtjuːd/ noun a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful. "she began uttering liberal platitudes" synonyms: cliché, truism, commonplace, hackneyed/trite/banal/overworked saying, banality, old chestnut; bromide, inanity, tag "a string of empty platitudes" The platitudes—including an analogy borrowed from Chief Justice John Roberts, who in 2005 said a judge's role is simply to "call balls and strikes"— gave way to more substance later, when the 21 members of the Judiciary Committee took turns lobbing softballs and curveballs at Mr Trump's pick.

pinch point

/ˈpɪntʃ ˌpɔɪnt/ noun a place or point where congestion occurs or is likely to occur, especially on a road. "the transport secretary has set out plans to ease traffic jams at ninety-two pinch points" Cities can build around natural pinch points by erecting long road bridges, as Lagos and Mumbai have done, or by tunnelling.

prudish

/ˈpruːdɪʃ/ adjective having or revealing a tendency to be easily shocked by matters relating to sex or nudity; excessively concerned with sexual propriety. "the prudish moral climate of the late 19th century" synonyms: puritanical, puritan, priggish, prim, prim and proper, formal, moralistic, strait-laced, prissy, mimsy, stuffy, niminy-piminy, Victorian, old-maid, old-maidish, schoolmistressy, schoolmarmish, governessy; informalgoody-goody, starchy; rareGrundyish "his grandmother was a rather prudish woman" antonyms: permissive, liberal, broad-minded THE prudish wording of India's colonial-era penal code of 1860 has long cast a baleful shadow over gay people. Section 377 banned "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal".

promulgate

/ˈprɒm(ə)lɡeɪt/ verb promote or make widely known (an idea or cause). "these objectives have to be promulgated within the organization" synonyms: make known, make public, publicize, spread, communicate, propagate, disseminate, circulate, broadcast, promote, announce, proclaim; literarybruit about "ideas which Ruskin had been the first to promulgate" put (a law or decree) into effect by official proclamation. "in January 1852 the new Constitution was promulgated" synonyms: put into effect, enact, implement, enforce, pass "the new law was promulgated on December 19" The specific liberal philosophy Wilson sought to promulgate was born amid the tumult of industrialisation and in the wake of the French and American revolutions. It drew from the intellectual inheritance of Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke and Adam Smith.

propagate

/ˈprɒpəɡeɪt/ verb 2. spread and promote (an idea, theory, etc.) widely. "the French propagated the idea that the English were drunkards" synonyms: spread, disseminate, communicate, pass on, put about, make known, promulgate, circulate, transmit, distribute, broadcast, publish, publicize, proclaim, preach, promote; propagandize "the advanced ideas drawn from the West or propagated by other leading democrats" And so liberals set out to define the conditions for progress to come about. They believe that argument and free speech establish good ideas and propagate them.

prescient

/ˈprɛsɪənt/ adjective having or showing knowledge of events before they take place. "a prescient warning" synonyms: prophetic, predictive, visionary; psychic, clairvoyant; far-seeing, far-sighted, with foresight, prognostic, divinatory, oracular, sibylline, apocalyptic, fateful, revelatory; insightful, intuitive, perceptive, percipient; rare foreknowing, previsional, vatic, mantic, vaticinal, vaticinatory, prognosticative, augural, adumbrative, fatidic, fatidical, haruspical, pythonic "much of what happened was predicted in Leonard's prescient article" To be fair, the scheme did a lot of good by freeing up money for schools and clinics. But Mr Easterly's warning was prescient. Zambia took barely a decade to run up fresh debt worth 59% of GDP.

prurient

/ˈprʊərɪənt/ adjective having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters, especially the sexual activity of others. "she'd been the subject of much prurient curiosity" synonyms: salacious, licentious, voyeuristic, lascivious, lecherous, lustful, lewd, libidinous, lubricious; depraved, debauched, degenerate, dissolute, dissipated; rareconcupiscent "obscene material deals with sex in a manner appealing to prurient interest" The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has curbed some of the most egregious practices. A ruling in 2014 barred prurient questions about sexual activity and "arousal tests", where asylum-seekers are shown gay porn to see if it excites them.

parlous

/ˈpɑːləs/ adjective archaic humorous 1. full of danger or uncertainty; precarious. "the parlous state of the economy" synonyms: bad, dire, dreadful, awful, terrible, appalling, frightful, grave, serious, desperate, precarious, uncertain, touch-and-go, difficult, unsafe, perilous, dangerous, risky; pitiful, wretched, sorry, poor, lamentable, woeful, hopeless; informaldicey, hairy, lousy; informaldodgy, chronic "the parlous state of the industry" adverb archaic 1. greatly or excessively. "she is parlous handsome" The world's credit markets froze with fear. A complete collapse of the financial system seemed plausible, and with it a global depression much deeper than the parlous recession which actually followed.

Passover

/ˈpɑːsəʊvə/ noun the major Jewish spring festival which commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, lasting seven or eight days from the 15th day of Nisan. An actor-turned-politician, Ms Nixon also says she got news of her most prominent role, as Miranda Hobbes on "Sex and the City", while preparing a Passover seder.

pothead

/ˈpɒthɛd/ nounINFORMAL a person who smokes cannabis. Mr Johnson is many things: a wealthy builder, ultra-marathon runner, fiscal hawk and pothead. He is not much of a retail politician.

porcine

/ˈpɔːsʌɪn/ adjective of, affecting, or resembling a pig or pigs. "his flushed, porcine features" Foreign observers are likely to be just as wary. The Chinese authorities have a long history of dissembling about diseases that affect both humans and animals, including the SARS crisis of 2003 and an outbreak of another porcine infection, blue-ear pig disease, in 2007.

pellet

/ˈpɛlɪt/ noun 1. a small, rounded, compressed mass of a substance. "fish food pellets" synonyms: little ball, little piece; technicalprill "millions of blind worker ants each carry a tiny pellet of mud" a piece of small shot or other lightweight bullet. "he had also been struck by a number of shotgun pellets" MacRebur cleans and sorts the plastic and then grinds the waste into flakes or pellets. The plan is for this part of the process to be carried out in the localities where roads are being laid or repaired, so that local waste is used to produce local roads.

pengö

/ˈpɛŋɡə,ˈpɛŋɡəʊ/ noun the basic monetary unit of Hungary from 1927 until 1946, when it was replaced by the forint IN 1946 Gyorgy Faludy, a Hungarian poet, received 300bn pengo for a new edition of his works.

pinch penny

/ˈpɪn(t)ʃ pɛni/ verb to spend as little money as possible When we were first married we had to pinch pennies just to get by. noun a miserly person. "a pinchpenny watchdog of public spending" Slumps happen when spending is too low to prevent some of an economy's capacity from falling idle. Spending drops when the desire to save increases suddenly across an economy, as people seek to pinch pennies in the face of economic anxiety. Because one person's spending is another's income, a rise in saving leads to a slump, unless it is offset by increased borrowing elsewhere. But normally, when an economy has too much saving, interest rates fall (or are manipulated downward by central banks) until borrowers come out of the woodwork and savers become less interested in hoarding their income. Real trouble starts when interest rates get stuck at zero before saving and borrowing are brought into balance, leaving the economy stuck.

pivot

/ˈpɪvət/ noun 1. the central point, pin, or shaft on which a mechanism turns or oscillates. synonyms: central shaft, fulcrum, axis, axle, swivel, pin, hub, spindle, hinge, pintle, kingpin, gudgeon, trunnion "the machine turns on a pivot" a person or thing that plays a central part in a situation or enterprise. "the pivot of community life was the chapel" synonyms: centre, focal point, focus, central point, hub, heart, nucleus, raison d'être, crux, keystone, cornerstone, linchpin, kingpin "his financial methods became the pivot of government policy" the person or position from which a body of troops takes its reference point when moving or changing course. Russia's pivot to Asia, so Mr Putin has repeatedly promised, would transform the fortunes of the sparsely populated Russian far east.

ratchet

/ˈratʃɪt/ noun 1. a device consisting of a bar or wheel with a set of angled teeth in which a pawl, cog, or tooth engages, allowing motion in one direction only. "a ratchet screwdriver" 2. a situation or process that is perceived to be changing in a series of irreversible steps. "the upward ratchet of property taxes" verb 1. operate by means of a ratchet. "a ratcheted quick release system" 2. cause something to rise (or fall) as a step in what is perceived as an irreversible process. "the Bank of Japan ratcheted up interest rates again" This partisan ratchet is bad for the judiciary and bad for the country. It risks hobbling the court, in two ways. First, if the only time a president can fill a seat is when his party controls the Senate, then the court will spend long periods at less than full strength. Second, the court's legitimacy depends on its reputation as a credible neutral arbiter.

roundabout

/ˈraʊndəbaʊt/ noun 1. BRITISH a road junction at which traffic moves in one direction round a central island to reach one of the roads converging on it. "turn right at the next roundabout" synonyms: rotary, traffic circle "go straight on at the roundabout" Some have disappeared into Mr Assad's torture dungeons. "The Russians aren't offering anything. It's either die, or surrender and then die," says one official. The rebels have also arrested hundreds of people in the areas they control on charges of negotiating with the Russians and the regime. HTS has erected gallows on the roundabout of one town in Idlib, to warn those who may want to abandon the fight.

ropy

/ˈrəʊpi/ adjective 2. INFORMAL•BRITISH of poor quality. "a portrait by a pretty ropey artist" slightly ill. "I did feel a bit ropey earlier" More than a decade ago, inspectors had pointed to the museum's ropy electrical wiring. Its director had complained of termites and closed a third of the exhibition rooms.

wretched

/ˈrɛtʃɪd/ adjective (of a person) in a very unhappy or unfortunate state. "I felt so wretched because I thought I might never see you again" Similar: miserable, unhappy, sad, broken-hearted, heartbroken, grief-stricken, grieving, sorrowful, sorrowing, mourning, anguished, distressed, desolate, devastated, despairing, inconsolable, disconsolate, pitiable, downtrodden, oppressed, powerless, helpless Opposite: cheerful, fortunate of poor quality; very bad. "the wretched conditions of the slums" Similar: harsh, hard, grim, stark, ifficult poor, poverty-strick THE bill in front of the House was a wretched thing, as the opposition politician explained. It would "appeal to insular prejudice against foreigners, to racial prejudice against Jews, and to Labour prejudice against competition".

rickety

/ˈrɪkɪti/ adjective 1. (of a structure or piece of equipment) poorly made and likely to collapse. "we went carefully up the rickety stairs" synonyms: shaky, unsteady, unsound, unsafe, tottering, crumbling, decaying, disintegrating, tumbledown, broken-down, dilapidated, ramshackle, derelict, ruinous, falling to pieces, decrepit; informalshambly, geriatric; informal: shacky; rumpty "we went carefully up the rickety stairs" 2. affected by rickets. "poverty was evident in undernourished faces or rickety legs" "WHERE would you rather be?" asks a bumper sticker on the back of a rickety-looking Toyota Corolla. It is an advertisement for a hotel—and a question that people might well ask themselves.

sacrosanct

/ˈsakrə(ʊ)saŋ(k)t,ˈseɪkrə(ʊ)saŋ(k)t/ adjective (especially of a principle, place, or routine) regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with. "the individual's right to work has been upheld as sacrosanct" synonyms: sacred, hallowed, respected, inviolable, inviolate, unimpeachable, unchallengeable, invulnerable, untouchable, inalienable, set apart, protected, defended, secure, safe, unthreatened "the rights of parents are sacrosanct for this government" The neo-liberal era was characterised by a narrowing of political debate. Economics was acknowledged to be the Queen of the Sciences. Managerialism was sacrosanct. Questions of blood and soil were ruled out of bounds.

salvo

/ˈsalvəʊ/ noun a simultaneous discharge of artillery or other guns in a battle. "a deafening salvo of shots rang out" a number of weapons released from one or more aircraft in quick succession. a sudden, vigorous, or aggressive act or series of acts. "the pardons provoked a salvo of accusations" These were the first attacks by Shia militias on American targets in Iraq since 2011. Two days later Iran fired missiles at a Kurdish base in Koya, an Iraqi town close to its border. This was reportedly the first salvo fired by Iran at Iraq since the long war between the two countries in the 1980s.

sanity

/ˈsanɪti/ noun the ability to think and behave in a normal and rational manner; sound mental health. "I began to doubt my own sanity" synonyms: soundness of mind, mental health, mental faculties, balance, balance of mind, stability, reason, rationality, saneness, lucidity, lucidness, sense, senses, wits, normality, right-mindedness "she wondered if she was losing her sanity" antonyms: insanity reasonable and rational behaviour. "the next few years saw several appeals for sanity from top scientists" synonyms: sense, common sense, good sense, wisdom, prudence, judiciousness, practicality, reasonableness, rationality, soundness, sensibleness "we are delighted that sanity has prevailed" antonyms: insanity A good offer can take months to materialise, only to fall through later. "It's just not worth your sanity," groans Anne Aviles, a schoolteacher in Atlanta.

Seder

/ˈseɪdə/ noun a Jewish ritual service and ceremonial dinner for the first night or first two nights of Passover. "a Seder meal" An actor-turned-politician, Ms Nixon also says she got news of her most prominent role, as Miranda Hobbes on "Sex and the City", while preparing a Passover seder.

sequestrate

/ˈsiːkwəstreɪt,ˈsiːkwɛstreɪt/ verb take legal possession of (assets) until a debt has been paid or other claims have been met. "the power of courts to sequestrate the assets of unions" take forcible possession of (something); confiscate. "in November 1956 the property was sequestrated by the authorities" Similar: confiscate, seize, take possession of, take, sequester, appropriate, expropriate, impound, commandeer, arrogate, distrain, attach, disseize, poind legally place (the property of a bankrupt) in the hands of a trustee for division among the creditors. "a trustee in a sequestrated estate" declare (someone) bankrupt. "two more poll tax rebels were sequestrated"

Scoutmaster

/ˈskaʊtˌmɑːstə/ noun a man in charge of a group of Scouts (in 1964 replaced in official use by Scout leader ). This was not their first taste of repression. Before Communism, Chengdu endured iron-fisted rule by the Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek. Despots with a bossy, scoutmasterly streak, the Nationalists issued dozens of orders to stamp out bad teahouse habits

scrapheap

/ˈskraphiːp/ noun a pile of discarded materials or articles. "cars on a scrapheap" Alas, Mr Chaudhry's words were destined not for the history books but the scrapheap. Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a new, rabble-rousing Islamist party dedicated solely to punishing blasphemers, was quick to demand Mr Mian's dismissal.

scrapyard

/ˈskrapjɑːd/ noun a place where scrap is collected before being recycled or discarded. Volvo is nevertheless worth a lot more than when it was snapped up in 2010 for $1.8bn by Li Shufu, owner of Geely. The seller was Ford, and the Volvo brand was then close to the scrapyard (which was where Saab, another Swedish carmaker, ended up in 2011 under the ownership of General Motors). Even so, there was widespread incredulity that a Chinese maker of cheap, low-quality vehicles could be a suitable guardian for a premium marque.

scuttle3

/ˈskʌt(ə)l/ verb 1. sink (one's own ship) deliberately by holing it or opening its seacocks to let water in. "the ship was scuttled by its German prize crew, who took to the boats" 2. deliberately cause (a scheme) to fail. "some of the stockholders are threatening to scuttle the deal" Lacking a realistic chance of scuttling the nomination, Democrats orchestrated a bit of theatre for the opening of the hearing. The torpor of the typical proceeding was broken moments after Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Judiciary Committee, used his gavel. Senator Kamala Harris implored Mr Grassley "to be recognised for a question before we proceed".

sloppy

/ˈslɒpi/ adjective 1. careless and unsystematic; excessively casual. "we gave away a goal through sloppy defending" Similar: careless, slapdash, slipshod, lackadaisical, disorganized, haphazard That the pair arrived on Russia's flag-carrier, Aeroflot, and had previously travelled on the same passports, including to Britain, suggests sloppy tradecraft or remarkable insouciance.

smattering

/ˈsmatərɪŋ/ noun a slight superficial knowledge of a language or subject. "Edward had only a smattering of Welsh" a small amount of something. plural noun: smatterings "a smattering of snow" synonyms: bit, small amount, little, modicum, touch, soupçon; superficial knowledge, nodding acquaintance, passing acquaintance, rudiments, elements, basics; informalsmidgen, smidge, tad "an audience with a smattering of classical education" Although the speakers and the audience tilted right, the participants included a smattering of left-leaning grandees and activists. "It's nice to come to a political meeting where people aren't spitting at you," said a Labour moderate.

stasis

/ˈsteɪsɪs,ˈstasɪs/ noun formal technical 1. a period or state of inactivity or equilibrium. "long periods of stasis" MEDICINE a stoppage of flow of a body fluid. plural noun: stases 2. civil strife. In other parts of finance the sense of stasis is yet more striking. Credit-rating agencies provided sweeping and unfounded endorsements of the mortgage-related securities that turned out to be toxically risky, thus allowing fuel for the great conflagration to build up unheeded. This led to calls for heads to roll, more competition and a new regulatory structure.

softball

/ˈsɒf(t)bɔːl/ noun a modified form of baseball played on a smaller field with a larger, softer ball, seven rather than nine innings, and underarm pitching. The game evolved in the US during the late 19th century from a form of indoor baseball. a ball used in softball. The platitudes—including an analogy borrowed from Chief Justice John Roberts, who in 2005 said a judge's role is simply to "call balls and strikes"— gave way to more substance later, when the 21 members of the Judiciary Committee took turns lobbing softballs and curveballs at Mr Trump's pick.

sodium

/ˈsəʊdɪəm/ noun: sodium; symbol: Na the chemical element of atomic number 11, a soft silver-white reactive metal of the alkali-metal group. The best solution known in principle was found in 1975, by researchers at the University of Rennes, in France. It is a glass, made from a mixture of the fluorides of zirconium, barium, lanthanum, aluminium and sodium, that is therefore known as ZBLAN (sodium has the chemical symbol Na). Fibre made from ZBLAN has extremely low losses from absorption and scattering, particularly in the part of the spectrum called the mid-infrared, where conventional optical fibre does not work well.

socialite

/ˈsəʊʃəlʌɪt/ noun a person who is well known in fashionable society and is fond of social activities and entertainment. Chinese people quizzed about their giving habits still mention a case that came to light in 2011 of a socialite who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and appeared to be affiliated to the Chinese Red Cross.

servile

/ˈsəːvʌɪl/ adjective 1. having or showing an excessive willingness to serve or please others. "bowing his head in a servile manner" synonyms: obsequious, sycophantic, excessively deferential, subservient, fawning, toadying, ingratiating, unctuous, oily, oleaginous, greasy, grovelling, cringing, toadyish, slavish, abject, craven, humble, Uriah Heepish, self-abasing; informal slimy, bootlicking, smarmy, sucky, soapy, forelock-tugging; informal brown-nosing, apple-polishing; vulgar slangarse-licking, bum-sucking; vulgar slangkiss-ass, ass-kissing "his attitude towards Mandeville can only be described as servile" antonyms: bossy, assertive 2. of or characteristic of a slave or slaves. "the servile condition of the peasants" Nevertheless, Russia and China increasingly share a view of how the world ought to be reordered. Theywant to reassert the role of states over individuals and civil society, break American alliances and establish "harmonious" (ie, servile) arrangements with countries in their orbits. Both have blocked international action against genocidal and despotic regimes, such as those of Syria and Sudan.

succour

/ˈsʌkə/ noun 1. assistance and support in times of hardship and distress. "the wounded had little chance of succour" synonyms: aid, help, a helping hand, assistance; ministration, comfort, ease, relief, support, guidance, backing; rareeasement "they provide shelter and succour in times of need" verb 1. give assistance or aid to. "prisoners of war were liberated and succoured" synonyms: help, aid, bring aid to, give help to, give/render assistance to, assist, lend a (helping) hand to, be of service to; minister to, care for, comfort, bring comfort to, bring relief to, support, be supportive of, sustain, protect, take care of, look after, attend to, serve, wait on "the Navy was unable to succour colonies in Africa" This week there was even wild talk among some Tory MPs of ousting Mrs May as party leader. In today's febrile political climate, the chances of getting a Chequers-like plan through Parliament seem alarmingly small. Alas the EU may not offer the prime minister much succour.

trample

/ˈtramp(ə)l/ verb tread on and crush. "the fence had been trampled down" Similar: tread, tramp, stamp, walk over, squash, crush, flatten, compress, press (down), compact, pound, tamp down, mangle, pulp, mash, pulverize, treat with contempt. "a lay statesman ought not to trample upon the opinions of his Church advisers" Similar: treat with contempt, ride roughshod over, disregard, set at naught In its late-19th-century heyday, people called Bourke Australia's "Chicago of the west" because of its wealth from wool. But the white settlers who made it rich treated aboriginals with contempt, grabbing their land and trampling on their culture.

trouser

/ˈtraʊzə/ verb INFORMAL•BRITISH receive or take (something, especially money) for oneself; pocket. "they claimed that he had trousered a £2 million advance" Derivatives markets of the type that felled AIG, an insurer, are smaller and safer. Revamped pay policies should prevent a repeat of the injustice of bankers taking public money while pocketing huge pay-packets—in 2009 staff at the five biggest banks trousered $114bn

troglodytes

/ˈtrɒɡlədʌɪt/ noun (especially in prehistoric times) a person who lived in a cave. a hermit. a person who is regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned. Frank Field, a veteran MP, has resigned the Labour whip and some 15 others are reportedly thinking of doing the same. The problem of anti-Semitism is closely linked to a broader problem of thuggery. The Corbyn surge has brought in troglodytes who have dwelt in dark basements for the past few decades, consumed by righteous hatred not just of Tories but also of Blairites and other traitors.

triad

/ˈtrʌɪad/ noun 1. a group or set of three related people or things. "the triad of medication, diet, and exercise are necessary in diabetes care" a chord of three musical notes, consisting of a given note with the third and fifth above it. a Welsh form of literary composition with an arrangement of subjects or statements in groups of three. 2. a secret society originating in China, typically involved in organized crime. a member of a Triad. Rather than lodging power in centralised ministries and unaccountable technocracies, they should devolve it to regions and municipalities. Instead of treating geopolitics as a zero-sum struggle between the great powers, America must draw on the self-reinforcing triad of its military might, its values and its allies.

twiddle

/ˈtwɪd(ə)l/ verb twist, move, or fiddle with (something), typically in a purposeless or nervous way. "she twiddled the dials on the radio" synonyms: turn, twist, swivel, twirl, adjust, move, jiggle; fiddle with, play with, toy with, fidget with "she twiddled the dials on the radio" The Federal Reserve has been raising its benchmark interest rate since December 2015, and will probably do so again this month, from a range of 1.75-2% to 2-2.25%. This is the central banker's version of twiddling the bath taps, but on a national scale. It requires a delicate touch.

torpor

/ˈtɔːpə/ noun a state of physical or mental inactivity; lethargy. "they veered between apathetic torpor and hysterical fanaticism" synonyms: lethargy, torpidity, sluggishness, inertia, inertness, inactivity, inaction, slowness, lifelessness, dullness, heaviness, listlessness, languor, languidness, stagnation, laziness, idleness, indolence, shiftlessness, sloth, slothfulness, apathy, accidie, passivity, weariness, tiredness, lassitude, fatigue, sleepiness, drowsiness, enervation, somnolence, narcosis "he spent most of the journey in a state of torpor" antonyms: vigour, energy, animation Lacking a realistic chance of scuttling the nomination, Democrats orchestrated a bit of theatre for the opening of the hearing. The torpor of the typical proceeding was broken moments after Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Judiciary Committee, used his gavel. Senator Kamala Harris implored Mr Grassley "to be recognised for a question before we proceed".

tenuous

/ˈtɛnjʊəs/ adjective very weak or slight. "the tenuous link between interest rates and investment" synonyms: slight, insubstantial, flimsy, negligible, weak, fragile, shaky, sketchy, doubtful, dubious, questionable "I'll just take the paper off his desk." The episode, as recounted in a new book by Bob Woodward, a journalist, is a reminder of just how tenuous is the continued existence of the world's largest free-trade area—"one of the worst deals ever", in Mr Trump's characterisation.

tenable

/ˈtɛnəb(ə)l/ adjective 1. able to be maintained or defended against attack or objection. "such a simplistic approach is no longer tenable" synonyms: defensible, justifiable, defendable, supportable, sustainable, maintainable, arguable, able to hold water, reasonable, rational, sound, viable, workable, plausible, credible, believable, conceivable, acceptable, imaginable "this politically convenient view is no longer tenable" antonyms: indefensible, untenable 2. (of an office, position, scholarship, etc.) able to be held or used. "a scholarship of £200 per annum tenable for three years" That such an excuse is tenable at the moment reflects the deficiencies of current monitoring arrangements. These are based on a requirement for vessels at sea to have radio beacons.

chisel1

/ˈtʃɪz(ə)l/ noun steel tool for shaping materials

chisel2

/ˈtʃɪz(ə)l/ verb 1. cut or shape (something) with a chisel. "chisel a hole through the brickwork" If alternatives comparable in price and quality were available, though, companies would presumably already be buying them. And so, as well as the hassle of switching suppliers, buyers will almost certainly face some sort of extra cost. As the tariffs turn from a chiselled list into one bludgeoning all imports from China, that sort of adjustment will be harder to make.

chummy

/ˈtʃʌmi/ adjective on friendly terms; friendly. "she's become rather chummy with Ted recently" synonyms: friendly, on good terms, close, familiar, affectionate, intimate; informalas thick as thieves, thick, matey, pally, buddy-buddy, palsy-walsy, clubby "she's become rather chummy with Ted" Dr Mahathir's predecessor, Najib Razak, had hewed close to China. His loss at the polls resulted more than anything from the stench of corruption within his ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). But his chumminess with China was also a factor. The two issues were entwined.

valence

/ˈveɪl(ə)ns/ noun the attractiveness or desirability of a reward or outcome But the fact that the man whose charges on his daughter's basketball team call him Coach Kwas tapped by this president gives his nomination a different valence.

verdant

/ˈvəːd(ə)nt/ adjective (of countryside) green with grass or other rich vegetation. "verdant valleys" synonyms: green, leafy, grassy, grass-covered; lush, rich, flourishing, thriving, teeming, prolific, rampant, overgrown, dense, thick, jungle-like; informaljungly; rareverdurous, viridescent, virid, graminaceous, gramineous "the verdant forests of southern Vermont" of the bright green colour of lush grass. "a deep, verdant green" The verdant hills of this region, dotted with Friesian cows and known as "Africa's Switzerland", are ideal for caseiculture. Some Belgian monks who arrived in the 1970s soon began crafting camembert. Italian missionaries whet appetites for mozzarella. In their heyday, dairies in Masisi also churned out butter, cream and yogurt.

whack-a-mole

/ˈwakəməʊl/ nounNORTH AMERICAN a game in an amusment arcade in which players use a mallet to hit toy moles, which appear at random, back into their holes. "next time you are near a kiddie amusement park, go in and play a round of whack-a-mole" used with reference to a situation in which attempts to solve a problem are piecemeal or superficial, resulting only in temporary or minor improvement. "the site's security team has an ongoing battle against spammers, but it's a game of whack-a-mole" Guerrillas in Colombia Whack-a-mole

weedy

/ˈwiːdi/ adjective 2. INFORMAL•BRITISH (of a person) thin and physically weak in appearance. "he was small and weedy" synonyms: puny, feeble, weak, frail, delicate, underdeveloped, thin, undersized, slight, slightly built, skinny, scrawny, a slip of a ...; informalpint-sized "a weedy little man" antonyms: burly Britain's ultra-low rate of joblessness, coupled with few particularly weedy wages, makes it perhaps the biggest Phillips-buster of all

wanton

/ˈwɒntən/ adjective 1. (of a cruel or violent action) deliberate and unprovoked. "sheer wanton vandalism" synonyms: deliberate, wilful, malicious, malevolent, spiteful, vicious, wicked, evil, cruel; unprovoked, unmotivated, motiveless, arbitrary, groundless, unjustifiable, unjustified, needless, unnecessary, uncalled for, gratuitous, senseless, pointless, purposeless, aimless, useless, meaningless, empty, vacuous "wanton destruction" antonyms: justifiable 1. The West should also warn President Vladimir Putin and Mr Assad that a military victory in Idlib, if secured by wanton means, will come at a political cost. 2. Causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving is a statutory offence in England and Wales and Northern Ireland

watershed2

/ˈwɔːtəʃɛd/ noun 2. an event or period marking a turning point in a situation. "these works were a watershed in the history of music" BRITISH the time after which programmes that are regarded as unsuitable for children are broadcast on television. "the 9 p.m. watershed" Mao-era shackles were relaxed during the 1980s, when the party began allowing big state-backed charities to operate. For smaller, independent ones a watershed moment came in 2008, when a devastating earthquake struck Wenchuan in the south-western province of Sichuan.

obviate

/ˈɒbvɪeɪt/ verb remove (a need or difficulty). "the presence of roller blinds obviated the need for curtains" synonyms: preclude, prevent, remove, get rid of, do away with, get round, rule out, eliminate, make unnecessary, take away, foreclose, avoid, avert, counter "the settlement obviated the need for the separate cases to be heard in court" avoid or prevent (something undesirable). "a parachute can be used to obviate disaster" Made in Space already has a plastic-extrusion printer on board the space station. This is used to make replacements for small items that have got damaged, obviating the delays involved in bringing them from Earth. The company's managers are therefore reasonably confident that their ZBLAN extruder will also workin free-fall

ostracize

/ˈɒstrəsʌɪz/ verb 1. exclude from a society or group. "she was declared a witch and ostracized by the villagers" synonyms: exclude, shun, spurn, cold-shoulder, give someone the cold shoulder, reject, repudiate, boycott, blackball, blacklist, cast off, cast out, shut out, avoid, ignore, snub, cut dead, keep at arm's length, leave out in the cold, bar, ban, debar, banish, exile, expel; antonyms: welcome, accept, befriend, include But managers always have to balance the merits of teamwork, which help ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal, with the dangers of "group think", when critics are reluctant to point out a plan's defects for fear of being ostracized by the group

onus

/ˈəʊnəs/ noun something that is one's duty or responsibility. "the onus is on you to show that you have suffered loss" synonyms: burden, responsibility, liability, obligation, duty, weight, load, charge, mantle, encumbrance; cross to bear, millstone round one's neck, albatross "the onus is on the plaintiff to obtain the police report" Mr Trump cannot be trusted with the levers of America's awesome power untutored and unrestrained. But for the rest of his staff, the onus to speakout is much stronger.

epithet

/ˈɛpɪθɛt/ noun an adjective or phrase expressing a quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of the person or thing mentioned. "old men are often unfairly awarded the epithet 'dirty'" synonyms: sobriquet, nickname, byname, title, name, label, tag; description, descriptive Although most bishops around the world have spoken up in defence of Francis, a group of American bishops joined Archbishop Viganт's attack. They have for the most part done so carefully, describing the archbishop as a man of integrity, while pointedly applying no such epithets to the pope.

escapade

/ˈɛskəpeɪd/ noun an act or incident involving excitement, daring, or adventure. "he told of their escapade with a 'borrowed' truck" synonyms: exploit, stunt, caper, skylarking, mischief, romp, antic(s), fling, spree, prank, jape, game, trick; adventure, venture, mission; deed, feat, trial, experience, incident, occurrence, event, happening, episode, affair; informal lark, scrape, fooling around, shenanigans; rarefrolic "he is a paragliding fanatic famous for his flying escapades" It is easy to see why Trump staffers such as Anonymous want more credit for their escapades. Serving Mr Trump is a thankless task. But it is hard to imagine what he hoped to achieve with his allegations.

gallows

/ˈɡaləʊz/ noun a structure, typically of two uprights and a crosspiece, for the hanging of criminals. "he was saved from the gallows by a last-minute reprieve" synonyms: hanging, being hanged, the noose, the rope, the gibbet, the scaffold; the death penalty, execution, being executed "they were condemned to the gallows" Some have disappeared into Mr Assad's torture dungeons. "The Russians aren't offering anything. It's either die, or surrender and then die," says one official. The rebels have also arrested hundreds of people in the areas they control on charges of negotiating with the Russians and the regime. HTS has erected gallows on the roundabout of one town in Idlib, to warn those who may want to abandon the fight.

grovel

/ˈɡrɒv(ə)l,ˈɡrʌv(ə)l/ verb lie or crawl abjectly on the ground with one's face downwards. "he grovelled at George's feet" synonyms: crawl, creep, cringe, crouch, prostrate oneself, kneel, fall on one's knees; throw oneself at someone's feet "George grovelled at his feet" act obsequiously in order to obtain forgiveness or favour. "they criticized leaders who grovelled to foreign patrons" synonyms: behave obsequiously, be obsequious, be servile, be sycophantic, fawn, kowtow, bow and scrape, toady, truckle, abase oneself, humble oneself, prostrate oneself; curry favour with, flatter, court, woo, dance attendance on, make up to, play up to, ingratiate oneself with; informal crawl, creep, suck up, butter up, be all over, fall all over, lick someone's boots, rub up the right way; archaicblandish "they dislike leaders who grovel to foreign patrons" Officials have constrained bosses' freedom to make splashy deals. Bytedance, a brash technology firm set up in 2012, has been reined in, and forced to withdraw one of its apps. Its founder issued a groveling public apology after being chastised by the government.

goofball

/ˈɡuːfbɔːl/ noun INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN 1. a naive or stupid person. 2. a narcotic drug in the form of a pill, especially a barbiturate. After his presidential run in 2016, also as a Libertarian, he is known nationally for his goofball manner, indifference to world affairs and dope habit.

guarded

/ˈɡɑːdɪd/ adjective: guarded cautious and having possible reservations. "he has given a guarded welcome to the idea" synonyms: cautious, careful, circumspect, wary, chary, reluctant, non-committal, reticent, restrained, reserved, controlled, moderate, discreet, unrevealing, vague, diplomatic, prudent, politic, tactful; with reservations; informalcagey, leery "his colleagues showed guarded enthusiasm for the proposal" secured, secure, protected, shielded, manned, policed, defended, under guard, under surveillance "more guerrillas could be rounded up for the attack on the heavily guarded bridge" antonyms: revealing, obvious The North says Mr Trump should reciprocate by declaring that the Korean war is over. Mr Kim says he promised to do so in Singapore. The White House is guarded about whether this is so.

Gordian knot

/ˈɡɔːdɪən/ noun an extremely difficult or involved problem. Instead of negotiating, Mr Trump is making one-sided moves designed to preclude negotiations. The right of return is an emotive issue. Palestinians want justice for decades of displacement. Israelis fear losing their Jewish majority. Mr Trump seems to think he can cut this Gordian knot by asking the UN to redefine the word "refugee".

cut the Gordian knot

/ˈɡɔːdɪən/ phrase of Gordian knot solve or remove a problem in a direct or forceful way, rejecting gentler or more indirect methods. "Kirk may cut the Gordian knot by booting me out" Instead of negotiating, Mr Trump is making one-sided moves designed to preclude negotiations. The right of return is an emotive issue. Palestinians want justice for decades of displacement. Israelis fear losing their Jewish majority. Mr Trump seems to think he can cut this Gordian knot by asking the UN to redefine the word "refugee".

gory

/ˈɡɔːri/ adjective involving or showing violence and bloodshed. "a gory horror film" synonyms: grisly, gruesome, violent, bloodthirsty, bloody, brutal, savage; ghastly, frightful, horrid, horrifying, fearful, hideous, macabre, spine-chilling, horrible, horrendous, grim, awful, dire, dreadful, terrible, horrific; disgusting, repulsive, repugnant, revolting, repellent, sickening, distressing, shocking, appalling, abominable, loathsome, abhorrent, odious, monstrous, unspeakable "the ritual slaughter is a gory ceremony" antonyms: charming, uplifting covered in blood. synonyms: bloody, bloodstained, blood-soaked, blood-spattered "gory pieces of human skin and bone" "Monster Hunter: World", involving the killing of fearsome beasts, was expected to be another bestseller in China for Tencent, which licensed the game from Capcom of Japan. Regulators, apparently thinking it too gory, pulled it within a week of its release in August (it had been approved just before the freeze began).

indigent

/ˈɪndɪdʒ(ə)nt/ adjective 1. poor; needy. "a charity for the relief of indigent artists" synonyms: poor, impecunious, destitute, penniless, impoverished, poverty-stricken, down and out, pauperized, without a penny to one's name, without two farthings/pennies to rub together; insolvent, ruined; needy, in need, in want, hard up, on the breadline, hard-pressed, in reduced/straitened circumstances, deprived, disadvantaged, distressed, badly off; beggarly, beggared; informalon one's uppers, up against it, broke, flat broke, strapped (for cash), without a brass farthing, without a bean, without a sou, as poor as a church mouse, on one's beam-ends. "the first state pensions were given to indigent people over seventy" antonyms: rich noun noun: indigent; plural noun: indigents 1. a needy person. EARL WARREN was the 20th century's most consequential American jurist. During his nearly 16-year tenure as chief justice, the Supreme Court ruled, in Brown v Board of Education, that segregation was unlawful; in Gideon v Wainwright, that states must provide attorneys to indigent criminal defendants; in Miranda v Arizona, that police must inform suspects that they have the right to an attorney and to remain silent;

insular

/ˈɪnsjʊlə/ adjective: insular 1. ignorant of or uninterested in cultures, ideas, or peoples outside one's own experience. "a stubbornly insular farming people" Similar: narrow-minded, limited, blinkered, restricted, inward-looking, conventional, parochial, provincial, small-town, localist, small-minded, petty-minded, petty, close-minded, short-sighted, myopic, hidebound, dyed-in-the-wool, diehard, set, set in one's ways, inflexible, dogmatic, rigid, entrenched, illiberal, intolerant, prejudiced, bigoted, biased, partisan, sectarian, xenophobic, discriminatory, parish-pump, blimpish, borné, jerkwater, claustral. Opposite: broad-minded, tolerant THE bill in front of the House was a wretched thing, as the opposition politician explained. It would "appeal to insular prejudice against foreigners, to racial prejudice against Jews, and to Labour prejudice against competition".

instigate

/ˈɪnstɪɡeɪt/ bring about or initiate (an action or event). "they instigated a reign of terror" synonyms: set in motion, put in motion, get under way, get going, get off the ground antonyms: halt incite someone to do something, especially something bad. "instigating men to refuse allegiance to the civil powers" synonyms: incite, encourage, urge, goad, provoke, spur on, drive on, egg on, entice, stimulate, push, press, prod, prompt, induce There are three ways to oust a president, and all are daunting. Anonymous says Mr Trump's aides briefly discussed, then dismissed, removing him via the 25th Amendment, which allows a majority of the cabinet to instigate the removal of a leader who is incapacitated.

intricate

/ˈɪntrɪkət/ adjective very complicated or detailed. "an intricate network of canals" Similar: complex, complicated, convoluted, tangled, entangled, ravelled, twisted, knotty These intricate networks have a vast economic footprint, as a recent IMF study shows

inverse

/ˈɪnvəːs,ɪnˈvəːs/ adjective: inverse 1. opposite or contrary in position, direction, order, or effect. "numerous studies have shown an inverse relationship between exercise and the risk of heart disease" synonyms: reverse, reversed, inverted, opposite, converse, contrary, counter, antithetical, transposed, retroverted "inverse snobbery" noun 1. something that is the opposite or reverse of something else. "power is the inverse of dependence" synonyms: opposite, converse, obverse, antithesis, other side; In the past, low unemployment went hand in hand with juicy pay rises. The fewer the number of people looking forwork, the harder employers had to compete for staff. The inverse relationship between unemployment and wage growth is summed up by the Phillips curve, named after William Phillips, who first plotted it in 1958

inkblot

/ˈɪŋkblɒt/ noun a dark mark or stain made by ink. "a huge inkblot on paper" This year the court told Hungary to stop using Rorschach tests. Some officials had been trying to discern gayness from the way refugees responded to inkblots.

shackle

/ˈʃak(ə)l/ noun 1. a pair of fetters connected together by a chain, used to fasten a prisoner's wrists or ankles together. synonyms: chains, fetters, irons, leg irons, manacles, handcuffs; bonds, tethers, ropes, restraints; informal cuffs, bracelets "the men filed through their shackles and made a desperate bid for freedom" a situation or factor that restrains or restricts someone or something. noun: shackle "society is going to throw off the shackles of racism and colonialism" synonyms: restrictions, trammels, restraints, constraints, straitjacket; impediments, hindrances, obstacles, barriers, encumbrances, obstructions, checks, curbs; ball and chain "the shackles of bureaucracy" Mao-era shackles were relaxed during the 1980s, when the party began allowing big state-backed charities to operate. For smaller, independent ones a watershed moment came in 2008, when a devastating earthquake struck Wenchuan in the south-western province of Sichuan.

shoddy

/ˈʃɒdi/ adjective 1. badly made or done. "we're not paying good money for shoddy goods" synonyms: poor-quality, inferior, second-rate, third-rate, low-grade, cheap Every driver in charge of a spluttering Yellow taxi or battered local bus (nicknamed "spirits of death" for their shoddy maintenance) must pay a "protection fee" to traffic officers.

shepherd2

/ˈʃɛpəd/ 2. guide or direct in a particular direction. "I shepherded them through the door" synonyms: guide, conduct, usher, convoy, marshal, steer, herd, lead, take, escort, accompany, walk; show, see, attend, chaperone "police shepherded thousands of workers away from the area" The flagship oil-reform bill that he shepherded was returned first by his own legal department and then by the presidency because it contained dozens of errors, inconsistencies and contradictions.

shepherd

/ˈʃɛpəd/ noun 1. a person who tends and rears sheep. synonyms: herdsman, herdswoman, shepherd boy, shepherdess; sheepman "he worked as a shepherd"

shimmer

/ˈʃɪmə/ verb shine with a soft, slightly wavering light. "the sea shimmered in the sunlight" synonyms: glint, glisten, flicker, twinkle, sparkle, flash, scintillate, flare, glare, gleam, glow, glimmer, glitter, dance, blink, wink; rarecoruscate, fulgurate "the glow of the lanterns shimmered on the water" These are mainly for use in a car-sharing service that may one day substitute for car ownership. The new headquarters of Polestar, another joint venture between the two that will make high-performance electric cars, is a shimmering cube of light at the firm's otherwise grey concrete headquarters in Gothenburg.

underscore

/ˈʌndəskɔː/ noun 1. a line drawn under a word or phrase for emphasis. (on a computer or typewriter keyboard) a short horizontal line _ on the baseline. verb 1. underline (something). emphasize. "the company underscored the progress made with fuel cells" A working paper published last month by James Bushnell and Kevin Novan of the University of California, Davis, underscores the challenge that renewables pose for nuclear and other sources of baseload power, such as coal.

upkeep

/ˈʌpkiːp/ noun the process of keeping something in good condition. "we will be responsible for the upkeep of the access road" synonyms: maintenance, repair(s), service, servicing, care, aftercare, preservation, conservation, running "we will be responsible for the upkeep of the access road" financial or material support of a person or animal. "payments for the children's upkeep" synonyms: subsistence, care, upbringing, support, keep, maintenance, sustenance, welfare "Casey paid a monthly sum for the child's upkeep" But the country has overpaid. A study by the World Bank in 2017 found that Zambia paid $360,000 per kilometre, which is more than twice the African average. And since upkeep has been neglected, many new roads are already potholed.

eyelid

/ˈʌɪlɪd/ noun An eyelid is a thin fold of skin that covers and protects the human eye. The levator palpebrae superioris muscle retracts the eyelid, exposing the cornea to the outside, giving vision. This can be either voluntarily or involuntarily. noun: eyelid; plural noun: eyelids each of the upper and lower folds of skin which cover the eye when closed. synonyms: lid; technical palpebra, nictitating membrane Plastic surgeons for fish have sprung up in Singapore. Procedures include eyelid lifts and fin enlargements. Some owners, known as arofanatics, put their fish through a tanning regime to perfect their hue.

thuggery

/ˈθʌɡəri/ noun: thuggery violent behaviour, especially of a criminal nature. "a cowardly act of mindless thuggery" Frank Field, a veteran MP, has resigned the Labour whip and some 15 others are reportedly thinking of doing the same. The problem of anti-Semitism is closely linked to a broader problem of thuggery. The Corbyn surge has brought in troglodytes who have dwelt in dark basements for the past few decades, consumed by righteous hatred not just of Tories but also of Blairites and other traitors.

acquiesce

/ˌakwɪˈɛs/ verb accept something reluctantly but without protest. "Sara acquiesced in his decision" Similar: permit, consent to, agree to, allow Mr Putin is probably right to reckon that the world will come to terms with the fall of Idlib, just as it acquiesced in the fall of Aleppo. The real questions are how long it takes, how many lives will be wasted and how much hatred it sows.

alveolus

/ˌalvɪˈəʊləs,alˈvɪələs/ noun ANATOMY plural noun: alveoli 1. any of the many tiny air sacs of the lungs which allow for rapid gaseous exchange. an acinus (sac-like cavity) in a gland. 2. the bony socket for the root of a tooth. Pneumonia is a result of bacterial, viral or fungal infection of the lungs. Its symptoms of breathlessness result from a build-up of pus in the alveoli. These are tiny sacs, found at the ends of the branching airways within the lungs, that are richly infused with capillary blood vessels. They are the places where oxygen enters the bloodstream and carbon dioxide leaves it. Stop the alveoli doing their job and a patient will suffocate.

anthropogenic

/ˌanθrəpəˈdʒɛnɪk/ adjective (chiefly of environmental pollution and pollutants) originating in human activity. "anthropogenic emissions of sulphur dioxide" Unthinking anti-government rhetoric as precluded serious new thought about the relationship between government and individuals in an anthropogenic climate, changing economy and more atomised and diverse society

bien pensant

/ˌbjã pɒ̃ˈsɒ̃,French bjɛ̃ pɑ̃sɑ̃/ noun a conventional or orthodox person. The most emotive of these is immigration. Thanks to books such as David Goodhart's "The Road to Somewhere", Britain is belatedly having a serious debate about immigration after decades in which the subject was sidelined among the bien pensants.

foul-mouthed

/ˌfaʊlˈmaʊθd/ adjective using or characterized by a great deal of bad language. "a foul-mouthed cop" synonyms: vulgar, crude, coarse; obscene, rude, smutty, dirty, filthy, indecent, indelicate, offensive, distasteful, obnoxious, risqué, suggestive, racy, earthy, off colour, colourful, ribald, Rabelaisian, bawdy, lewd, salacious, vile, depraved, sordid, X-rated, scatological; profane, foul, blasphemous, abusive, scurrilous; informal blue "a drunken, foul-mouthed yob" It had already claimed credit for forcing the PTI to put pressure on the Dutch government over a "blasphemous" cartoon competition, which was cancelled. Lacking other such causes to latch on to, the TLP's leader, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a surprisingly foulmouthed cleric, may well seek to grab headlines on his own.

halitosis

/ˌhalɪˈtəʊsɪs/ noun technical term for bad breath. bad breath noun unpleasant-smelling breath; halitosis. His injudicious comments on halitosis aside, he also avoids attacking others, including his rivals, whom he scarcely mentions.

highfalutin

/ˌhʌɪfəˈluːtɪn/ adjective INFORMAL (especially of speech, writing, or ideas) pompous or pretentious. "you don't want any highfalutin jargon" synonyms: pretentious, affected, high-sounding, high-flown, lofty, grandiose, magniloquent grandiloquent, ornate, florid, flowery, overblown, overdone, overripe, overwrought, verbose, inflated, rhetorical, oratorical, turgid; pompous, bombastic, declamatory, sonorous, portentous, pedantic, boastful, boasting, bragging; "the report was cloaked in highfalutin language" antonyms: unpretentious But teahouses are more than fine places that attracted the right enemies. In their heyday, when some city streets might have boasted half a dozen, they were places to relax, do business, gossip and exchange ideas, both lowbrow and highfalutin. Some teahouse litigators were crooks, writes Qin Shao of the College of New Jersey, another teahouse historian. But at its best, teashop mediation with crowds hearing every word, could expose and shame local bullies, offering a rough sort of accountability.

conurbation

/ˌkɒnəˈbeɪʃ(ə)n/ noun an extended urban area, typically consisting of several towns merging with the suburbs of a central city. "the major conurbations of London and Birmingham" Start with land. Most 21st-century productivity growth and wealth creation will take place in highly productive cities. The world's 50 largest conurbations house 7% of the population but account for 40% of gross product. The productivity gap between such cities and poorer places has widened by 60%, on average, in the past two decades, according to the OECD, and is still growing.

meritocracy

/ˌmɛrɪˈtɒkrəsi/ noun government or the holding of power by people selected according to merit. "progress towards meritocracy was slow" a society governed by people selected according to merit. plural noun: meritocracies "Britain is a meritocracy, and everyone with skill and imagination may aspire to reach the highest level" a ruling or influential class of educated or able people. "the relentless advance of the meritocracy" Today's liberal meritocracy sits uncomfortably with that inclusive definition of freedom. The ruling class live in a bubble.

miscegenation

/ˌmɪsɪdʒɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/ noun the interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types. "they believe in miscegenation as the answer to world peace" It also curtailed the rights of non-whites already there in the same ways as it did the rights of its black population, with laws against miscegenation and the like.

paraphernalia

/ˌparəfəˈneɪlɪə/ noun miscellaneous articles, especially the equipment needed for a particular activity. "drills, saws, and other paraphernalia necessary for home improvements" synonyms: equipment, stuff, things, apparatus, tackle, kit, implements, tools, utensils, material(s), appliances, rig, outfit, accoutrements, appurtenances, impedimenta, miscellaneous articles, odds and ends, bits and pieces, bits and bobs, trappings, accessories; informalgear, junk, rubbish, the necessary, dunnage, traps. "the paraphernalia necessary for home improvements" trappings associated with a particular institution or activity that are regarded as superfluous. "the rituals and paraphernalia of government" These can be obtained cheaply and speedily online through a variety of websites that promise to send them overnight, along with certificates, collars, harnesses, vests and other paraphernalia proclaiming "emotional support animal".

sequestration

/ˌsiːkwəˈstreɪʃ(ə)n/ noun 2. the action of chemically sequestering a substance. "carbon sequestration" sequester /sɪˈkwɛstə/ verb 1. isolate or hide away. "she is sequestered in deepest Dorset" Similar: isolate oneself, hide oneself away, shut oneself away, seclude oneself, cut/shut oneself off It also calls for generating 100% by 2045 from renewable and "zerocarbon resources", which could include nuclear power. Of course, by then other emission-free energy technologies, such as batteries, hydrogen, and the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel plants, could be better and cheaper than splitting nuclei.

stipulation

/ˌstɪpjʊˈleɪʃn/ noun a condition or requirement that is specified or demanded as part of an agreement. "they donated their collection of prints with the stipulation that they never be publicly exhibited" synonyms: condition, precondition, proviso, provision, prerequisite, requisite, specification; demand, requirement, non-negotiable point; rider, caveat, qualification; clause; terms "the only stipulation was that Edwards should retain his job as chairman for three years" The new rules were greeted with optimism by many NGO workers, not least because of the surprisingly collaborative approach authorities took to drafting them. Ms Luo of the Longyue Foundation says the law's stipulations about fundraising have been a big advantage for her organisation.

supranational

/ˌsuːprəˈnaʃ(ə)n(ə)l,ˌsjuːprəˈnaʃ(ə)n(ə)l/ adjective having power or influence that transcends national boundaries or governments. "supranational law" Liberals need to shake themselves out of this torpor. And they need to persuade others of their ideas. All too often, in recent years, liberal reforms have been imposed by judges, by central banks and by unaccountable supranational organisations. Perhaps the best-founded part of today's reaction against liberalism is the outrage people feel when its nostrums are imposed on them with condescending promises that they will be the better for it.

serendipitous

/ˌsɛr(ə)nˈdɪpɪtəs/ adjective occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way. "a serendipitous encounter" synonyms: chance, accidental; lucky, fortuitous; unexpected, unanticipated, unforeseen, unlooked-for; coincidental "their diligent efforts were coupled with the joys of serendipitous discovery" His invention was inspired by something he saw while visiting Australia. On this trip he was introduced to a type ofventilator called a bubble-CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), which is employed to help premature babies breathe. It channels the infant's exhaled breath through a tube that has its far end immersed in water. The exhaled breath emerges from the tube as bubbles, and the process of bubble formation causes oscillations of pressure in the air in the tube. These feed back into the child's lungs. That improves the exchange of gases in the alveoli and also increases the lungs' volume. Both make breathing easier. At about $6,000, standard bubble-CPAPs are cheaper than conventional ventilators. But that is still too much for many poor-country hospitals. However, after a second piece of serendipitous inspiration, when he picked up a discarded shampoo bottle that contained leftover bubbles, Dr Chisti realised he could probably lash together something that did the same job. Which he did, using an oxygen supply(which is, in any case, needed for the low flow oxygen delivery method), some tubing and a plastic bottle filled with water. And it worked.

oscillation

/ˌɒsɪˈleɪʃn/ noun 1. movement back and forth in a regular rhythm. "the natural oscillation of a spring" synonyms: swinging, swing, swaying, swinging from side to side, swinging backwards and forwards, swinging back and forth, swinging to and fro, vibration "the oscillation of the pendulum" wavering, fluctuation, see-sawing, vacillation, yo-yoing, variation "his oscillation between commerce and art" variation or fluctuation between two states, limits, opinions, etc. "the plot's oscillation between bleak and comic elements" The exhaled breath emerges from the tube as bubbles, and the process of bubble formation causes oscillations of pressure in the air in the tube.

equanimity

/ˌɛkwəˈnɪmɪti,ˌiːkwəˈnɪmɪti/ noun calmness and composure, especially in a difficult situation. "she accepted both the good and the bad with equanimity" synonyms: composure, calmness, calm, level-headedness, self-possession, self-control, even-temperedness, coolness, cool-headedness, presence of mind; serenity, placidity, tranquillity, phlegm, impassivity, imperturbability, unexcitability, equilibrium; poise, self-assurance, assurance, self-confidence, aplomb, sangfroid, nerve; informalcool, unflappability; rareataraxy "she was able to confront the daily crises To preserve her equanimity Ms Aviles turned to a firm called Open door. She entered her property details on its website and received an offer of $298,500 in seconds.

etymological

/ˌɛtɪməˈlɒdʒɪk(ə)l/ adjective relating to the origin and historical development of words and their meanings. "an etymological dictionary" They must overcome that fear—or, if they cannot, they must be attacked by true liberals who have managed to do so. As Milton Friedman once put it, "The 19th-century liberal was a radical, both in the etymological sense of going to the root of the matter, and in the political sense of favouring major changes in social institutions.

idiosyncratic

/ˌɪdɪə(ʊ)sɪŋˈkratɪk/ adjective relating to idiosyncrasy; peculiar or individual. "she emerged as one of the great, idiosyncratic talents of the nineties" Similar: distinctive, individual, characteristic, distinct, distinguishing, peculiar Not everyone is reassured. John Allison, a former chief executive of BB&T, a large regional bank, and a board member at the Cato Institute, a libertarian thinktank, says the sorts of models the Fed uses have four problems: their methods miss outlying risks; they rely on historical data and thus often miss changes (an example being pre-crisis changes to bank-capital requirements by regulators favouring thekind ofhome loans that soured); they force different institutions to take similar positions, aggravating overall risk; and they do not work well with small, idiosyncratic kinds of loans—meaning those for small businesses, a clientele that matters.

idiosyncrasy

/ˌɪdɪə(ʊ)ˈsɪŋkrəsi/ noun 1. a mode of behaviour or way of thought peculiar to an individual. "one of his little idiosyncrasies was always preferring to be in the car first" a distinctive or peculiar feature or characteristic of a place or thing. "the idiosyncrasies of the prison system" synonyms: peculiarity, individual/personal trait, oddity, eccentricity, mannerism, quirk, whim, whimsy, fancy, fad, vagary, notion, conceit, caprice, kink, twist, freak, fetish, passion, bent, foible, crotchet, habit, characteristic, speciality, quality, feature; individuality; unconventionality, unorthodoxy; archaicmegrim; raresingularity "his idiosyncrasies included the recycling of cigar butts" Start with the idiosyncrasies. Argentina's worst drought in 50 years has damaged farm output and dried up an important source of hard currency

incapacitated

/ˌɪnkəˈpasɪteɪtɪd/ adjective deprived of strength or power; debilitated. "Richard was temporarily incapacitated" verb prevent from functioning in a normal way. "he was incapacitated by a heart attack" synonyms: disabled, debilitated, indisposed, unfit; immobilized, paralysed, There are three ways to oust a president, and all are daunting. Anonymous says Mr Trump's aides briefly discussed, then dismissed, removing him via the 25th Amendment, which allows a majority of the cabinet to instigate the removal of a leader who is incapacitated.

intermediate

/ˌɪntəˈmiːdɪət/ adjective 1. coming between two things in time, place, character, etc. "an intermediate stage of development" synonyms: halfway, in-between, middle, mid, midway, median, intermediary, intervening, interposed, transitional; in the middle, at the halfway point For many companies, switching may be easier said than done. Around half of the products threatened with tariffs are intermediate goods, used by companies to make other stuff.

thud

/θʌd/ noun 1. a dull, heavy sound, such as that made by an object falling to the ground. "he hit the floor with a terrific thud" synonyms: thump, clunk, clonk, crash, smash, smack, bang, boom, thunder, wallop; stomp, stamp, clump, clomp; informalwham, whump "Jean heard the thud of the closing door" verb 1. move, fall, or strike something with a dull, heavy sound. "the bullets thudded into the dusty ground" synonyms: thump, clunk, clonk, crash, smash, smack, bang, thunder; stomp, stamp, clump, clomp; informalwham, whump "bullets thudded into the dusty ground" Few influential voices urge compromise. Militiamen and politicians alike predict a return to assassinations and a Shia-on-Shia civil war. And after months of merciful calm, the thud of car-bombs can be heard again on highways out of Baghdad

Arowanas

Arowanas are freshwater bony fish of the family Osteoglossidae, also known as bonytongues (the latter name is now often reserved for Arapaimidae). In this family of fish, the head is bony and the elongated body is covered by large, heavy scales, with a mosaic pattern of canals. Why Asia is obsessed with arowanas

attest

1. provide or serve as clear evidence of. "his status is attested by his becoming an alderman" declare that something exists or is the case. "I can attest to his tremendous energy" witness or certify formally. "the witnesses must attest and sign the will in the testator's presence" Similar: certify, corroborate, confirm, verify, substantiate Both were embarrassed by having their pay made public last year, under new transparency rules at the BBC. But their moves also attest to the pull of an increasingly ambitious commercial sector.

crow about

2. By extension, to brag or boast about something. You know, no one likes it when you go around crowing about your successes in business. The government may crow about unemployment being at its lowest since the 1970s, but pay growth is at its weakest since the Napoleonic wars.

binary

A way of representing information using only two options. Despite an exchange last month in which MrMacron asserted: "If they want to see me as their main opponent, they are right," it is better to see open v closed not as a binary proposition but as a spectrum, with MrMacron closer to one end and MrOrban and Mr Salvini towards the other.

fishy2

2. INFORMAL arousing feelings of doubt or suspicion. "I'm convinced there is something fishy going on" synonyms: suspicious, questionable, dubious, doubtful, suspect; odd, queer, peculiar, strange, not quite right; mysterious, murky, dark, shifty, disreputable, underhand; informalfunny, shady, crooked, bent, not kosher, off; informal dodgy; shonky "there was something fishy about the whole set-up" antonyms: honest, open His message, in essence, was: very sorry—lovely projects, but since coming to office we've discovered we can't afford them. Implicit was another point: we can't afford them because we now know how inflated the costs are, and how skewed the deals are in China's favour—or plain fishy.

set aside2

2. declare a legal decision or process to be invalid. "he applied by summons to set aside the notice served on them" Similar: overrule, overturn, reverse, revoke, countermand, rule against, nullify A newbook on Mr Trump recounts that last year he advocated assassinating Mr Assad—a claim he denies—but the idea was set aside by his defence secretary, Jim Mattis.

drill2

2. instruction or training in military exercises. "parade-ground drill" synonyms: training, instruction, coaching, teaching, grounding; (physical) exercises, workout; discipline; informalsquare-bashing "he used military discipline and drill to train the boys" intensive instruction or training in something, typically by means of repeated exercises. "tables can be mastered by drill and practice" a rehearsal of the procedure to be followed in an emergency. "air-raid drills" The Russians will be joined by 3,200 Chinese troops and 900 tanks and armoured vehicles, as well as troops from Mongolia. Unlike the drills on its western borders, such as the naval exercises concurrently taking place in the Mediterranean, which prepare the armed forces for a potential conflict with the West, Vostok-2018 is designed to show the strength of Russia's rapprochement with China, a country which only a few years ago it saw as a direct military threat.

dwell on

2. think, speak, or write at length about (a particular subject, especially one that is a source of unhappiness, anxiety, or dissatisfaction). "I've got better things to do than dwell on the past" synonyms: linger over, mull over, muse on, brood about, brood over, think about, spend time thinking about, be preoccupied by, be obsessed by, eat one's heart out over; harp on about, discuss at length, expatiate on, elaborate on, expound on, keep talking about" she had no time to dwell on her disappointment" (of one's eyes or attention) linger on (a particular object or place)."she let her eyes dwell on them for a moment"

smear3

3. a false accusation intended to damage someone's reputation. "the popular press were indulging in unwarranted smears" synonyms: false accusation, false report, false imputation, slander, libel, lie, untruth, slur, defamation, calumny, vilification; stain, taint "there were a number of press smears about some of his closest aides" Sadly, his tenure as president of the senate showed little of this promise. It was marked by allegations of corruption, which he dismisses as smears by rivals.

No-Doc or Low-doc loan (abbr: No/Low

A No-Doc or Low-doc loan (abbr: No/Low Documentation Loan) refers to loans that do not require borrowers to provide documentation of their income to lenders or do not require much documentation. The worst excesses of that market—"nodoc" mortgages, fraud, flipping and credit stuffed down the throats of any borrower with a pulse—have largely disappeared.

bund

A bund is a debt security issued by Germany's federal government, and it is the German equivalent of a U.S. Treasury bond. The German government uses bunds to finance its spending, and bonds with long-term durations are the most widely issued securities. It is hard to draw a line between safe bonds and credit in the euro zone. In contrast with America, there is no unique issuer of the currency. The European Central Bank (ECB), a sort of joint venture, prints the euros. German bunds are treated as the benchmarks of asset, simply because Germany is the zone's largest economy and has a reputation for thrift.

penal code

A criminal code (or penal code) is a document which compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. THE prudish wording of India's colonial-era penal code of 1860 has long cast a baleful shadow over gay people. Section 377 banned "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal".

grape

A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten fresh as table grapes or they can be used for making wine, jam, juice, jelly, grape seed extract, raisins, vinegar, and grape seed oil. In the slowest cities, few drivers obey bans on texting or making phone calls. When stuck in traffic, they chat to friends and conduct business. Or they shop. Many jammed cities have street hawkers. Lagos's may be the most inventive. In two days in the city, this reporter was offered soft drinks, grapes, plantain chips, eggs, newspapers, windscreen wipers, hats, hot-water bottles, flip-flops, stuffed animals, gospel music, dog leads, three-legged stools, a large mirror and a CD track One 43-year-old man named Lawal sells inflatable mattresses. He used to have a stall in a roadside market, where he tailored clothes and fixed mobile phones.

leave of absence (LOA)

A leave of absence (LOA) is a period of time that one must be away from one's primary job, while maintaining the status of employee. The term may be used more restrictively to exclude other periods away from the workplace (e.g., vacations, paid time off, holidays, hiatuses, sabbaticals, working from home programs), with LOA used for exceptional circumstances; generally, such an arrangement has a predefined termination at a particular date or after a certain event has occurred. Tesla's investors absorbed news of the departure of both its chief accountant after less than a month in the position and its human-resources director, who is not returning to her job following a leave of absence. There was also more concern about the erratic behaviour of Elon Musk

passerine

A passerine is any bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or - less accurately - as songbirds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by the arrangement of their toes, which facilitates perching.Wikipedia Treecreeper The treecreepers are a family, Certhiidae, of small passerine birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere and sub-Saharan Africa. The family contains ten species in two genera, Certhia and Salpornis. Wikipedia

coils of steel

A series of loops that has been wound or gathered America's economy is shifting further towards intangibles. The administration and bosses are right that China has misbehaved. But ideas are harder to police than gearboxes and coils of steel.

severance package

A severance package is pay and benefits that employees may be entitled to receive when they leave employment at a company unwillfully. In addition to their remaining regular pay, it may include some of the following: Any additional payment based on months of service. The broadcaster has employed lawyers to investigate the claims, which Mr Moonves denies; if they find there is cause to dismiss him, he will forgo some or all of his severance package.

tack2

A tack is a course or an approach (the word has nautical origins). When switching courses or taking a different approach, one changes tack, not tact. Tact often appears in place of tack. Presumably some people think of it as short for tactic, which is synonymous with tack in some contexts. May 30, 2013 YOU might think a company worth $1trn would gain a sympathetic hearing in the White House. Not, it seems, when the subject is China. On September 7th, as President Donald Trump prepared a new salvo of tariffs on Chinese imports, Apple released a letter pleading with the administration to change tack lest it harm American consumers.

ferret

ACCORDING to the Air Carrier Access Act, pigs might indeed fly. Technically so might dogs, cats, miniature horses, kangaroos, possums, parrots, hamsters, ducks, turkeys, ferrets, lizards, snakes, turtles and a variety of other animals seldom seen at 35,000 feet.

hamster

ACCORDING to the Air Carrier Access Act, pigs might indeed fly. Technically so might dogs, cats, miniature horses, kangaroos, possums, parrots, hamsters, ducks, turkeys, ferrets, lizards, snakes, turtles and a variety of other animals seldom seen at 35,000 feet.

parrot

ACCORDING to the Air Carrier Access Act, pigs might indeed fly. Technically so might dogs, cats, miniature horses, kangaroos, possums, parrots, hamsters, ducks, turkeys, ferrets, lizards, snakes, turtles and a variety of other animals seldom seen at 35,000 feet.

Aliens Act 1905

Aliens Act 1905 Image result for Aliens Bill The Aliens Act 1905 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Act for the first time introduced immigration controls and registration, and gave the Home Secretary overall responsibility for immigration and nationality matters. Wikipedia The Economist, although it did not support the Aliens Bill in 1904, made clear that it did "not want to see the already over grown population swollen by 'undesirable aliens' ".

suicide vest

An explosive belt is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers. Explosive belts are usually packed with ball bearings, nails, screws, bolts, and other objects that serve as shrapnel to maximize the number of casualties in the explosion. Wikipedia On September 9th he took to the pages of the Mail on Sunday to deliver his most incendiary one-liner yet: "We have wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution and handed the detonator to Michel Barnier," he wrote, referring to the EU's chief negotiator.

overprice

Another aim of the FDN is to help fight graft. This is common in government infrastructure projects the world over. Colombia has been no exception. In one recent scandal, dubbed the Merry-Go-Round, construction firms overpriced work and bribed politicians, including Bogota's former mayor, who was sentenced to 24 years in jail. (He is appealing.)

cash-laden

Apple, Samsung and most semiconductor makers could ride out such tensions, with their high margins and cash-laden balance sheets. But the long chain of other suppliers could not, given their razor-thin margins, big working-capital balances and fixed costs. Tariffs could push them into the red. Of the 132 firms, 52% would be loss-making if costs rose by just 5%. And a ZTE-style cessation of trade would be disastrous. If revenues dried up and the 132 firms continued to pay their own suppliers, short-term debts and wages, 28% of them would run out of cash within 100 days.

Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill is the seat of the U.S. government, home to the domed United States Capitol, Senate, Houses of Representatives and the neoclassical Supreme Court. It's also known for the redbrick Eastern Market, where vendors sell produce, meat and cheese throughout the week, and handicrafts and antiques on weekends. Barracks Row is lined with an eclectic mix of bakeries, pizzerias and global eateries. Jack Dorsey, the chief executive Of Twitter, and Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, faced a grilling on Capitol Hill (Alphabet's bosswas also asked to appear but did not attend).

Corfu

Corfu, an island off Greece's northwest coast in the Ionian Sea, is defined by rugged mountains and a resort-studded shoreline. Its cultural heritage reflects years spent under Venetian, French and British rule before it was united with Greece in 1864. Corfu Town, flanked by 2 imposing Venetian fortresses, features winding medieval lanes, a French-style arcade and the grand Palace of St.

Extrusion

Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A material is pushed through a die of the desired cross-section. Made in Space already has a plastic-extrusion printer on board the space station. This is used to make replacements for small items that have got damaged, obviating the delays involved in bringing them from Earth. The company's managers are therefore reasonably confident that their ZBLAN extruder will also workin free-fall

Freeing trade in services

Freeing trade in services, such as those of lawyers, architects or airlines, would yield gains six times larger, maybe more. But the WTO, for which nothing is settled until everything is settled, has spent decades failing to reach big deals on services. Nor has it succeeded in stopping China, which joined in 2001, from flouting the spirit, if not always the letter, of its rules by shaking down foreign investors for technologies it fancies and giving under-the-table assistance to its own industries.

stretch

INFORMAL a difficult or demanding task. "it was a stretch for me to come up with the rent" The firm said the unpredictability of a brewing global trade war had persuaded it to wait. But an IPO that valued the upmarket Swedish carmaker on a par with Audi— which makes nearly 2m cars a year, three times as many as Volvo produces—always looked a stretch.

hard-nosed

INFORMAL adjective: hardnosed realistic and determined; tough-minded. "a hard-nosed businessman" synonyms: tough-minded, unsentimental, down-to-earth, no-nonsense, hard-headed, hard-bitten, pragmatic, clear-thinking, realistic, practical, rational, shrewd, astute, businesslike; informalhard-boiled "hard-nosed businessmen" antonyms: sentimental Changes to welfare policy from 2010, including tougher rules on who gets benefits, and declines in their value, have also played a role. Cross-country analysis of welfare policy is scanty, but it suggests that the reforms in Britain have been especially hard-nosed. As losing a job becomes a scarier prospect, workers may not bargain so hard for better pay.

heist

INFORMAL hʌɪst/ noun 1. a robbery. "a diamond heist" verb NORTH AMERICAN 1. steal. "he heisted a Pontiac" The second was the theft of $81m from the central bank of Bangladesh in 2016, the largest ever digital bank heist from a single institution

sponging off

INFORMAL obtain or accept money or food from other people without doing or intending to do anything in return. "they found they could earn a perfectly good living by sponging off others" Similar: scrounge off/from, live off, be a parasite on, impose on, beg from, borrow from, be dependent on, freeload on, bum off, cadge from, mooch off, bludge on. obtain (money or food) from someone without doing anything in return. "he edged closer, clearly intending to sponge money from her" TUCKER CARLSON, a Fox News host, and Bernie Sanders, a democratic-socialist senator, seldom agree. Yet on the matter of billionaires supposedly sponging off taxpayer largesse, they are completely simpatico.

cat videos

Images and videos of domestic cats make up some of the most viewed content on the web, particularly image macros in the form of lolcats. ThoughtCatalog has described cats as the "unofficial mascot of the Internet". Wikipedia They have become central venues for social interaction and for all manner of expression, from lucid debate and cat videos to conspiracy theories and hate speech.

negative income tax (NIT)

In economics, a negative income tax (NIT) is a welfare system within an income tax where people earning below a certain amount receive supplemental pay from the government instead of paying taxes to the government. Such a system has been discussed by economists but never fully implemented. A more modest, but still radical, alternative is to replace today's welfare schemes with an expanded commitment to guaranteeing minimum income through negative income taxes. First championed by Milton Friedman, such taxes mean that the state tops up the income of anyone earning less than a guaranteed minimum. Both Britain and America have tax credits to top up wages along these lines.

precariat

In sociology and economics, the precariat is a social class formed by people suffering from precarity, which is a condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare. The term is a portmanteau obtained by merging precarious with proletariat. Wikipedia Today, in that same vision, liberals need to side with a struggling precariat against the patricians.

plantain chips

In the slowest cities, few drivers obey bans on texting or making phone calls. When stuck in traffic, they chat to friends and conduct business. Or they shop. Many jammed cities have street hawkers. Lagos's may be the most inventive. In two days in the city, this reporter was offered soft drinks, grapes, plantain chips, eggs, newspapers, windscreen wipers, hats, hot-water bottles, flip-flops, stuffed animals, gospel music, dog leads, three-legged stools, a large mirror and a CD track One 43-year-old man named Lawal sells inflatable mattresses. He used to have a stall in a roadside market, where he tailored clothes and fixed mobile phones.

rutting moon

It is believed the "rutting moon" affects the timing of the breeding season for white-tailed deer. Since we already know conception date, we can compare that date to the date of the "rutting moon." Data show that the rut occurs in mid-November. But the "rutting moon" varies from late October to late November. Males grow antlers during the spring and summer, in order to fight one another for females during the rutting season, which is early autumn.

systolic blood pressure

More than 120 over 80 and less than 140 over 90 (120/80-140/90): You have a normal blood pressure reading but it is a little higher than it should be, and you should try to lower it. Make healthy changes to your lifestyle. The first number, called systolic blood pressure, measures the pressure in your blood vessels when your heart beats. The second number, called diastolic blood pressure, measures the pressure in your blood vessels when your heart rests between beats. ... A blood pressure less than 120/80 mmHg is normal. Many people hate sitting in traffic. One study by doctors at the American University in Beirut measured the blood pressure of drivers who pulled into petrol stations in heavy traffic and compared them with those who pulled over in light traffic. The ones in jams had a mean average systolic blood pressure of 142 and a diastolic pressure of 87. The drivers in light traffic measured a much healthier 123 over 78. Oddly, whether a driver was running late made no difference to blood pressure.

You have not seen the last of my bonnet and me

Ms Sturgeon's job is made no easier by the renewed prominence of Mr Salmond. When he lost his parliamentary seat, he signed off his concession speech with a couplet from an old Jacobite song: "In the midst of your glee / You have not seen the last of my bonnet and me!" He has stayed true to his word. Ms Sturgeon may wish he had not.

NIMBY

NIMBY, or Nimby, is a characterization of opposition by residents to a proposed development in their local area. It often carries the connotation that such residents are only opposing the development because it is close to them, and that they would tolerate or support it if it was built further away. Wikipedia The curtailment of development rights enriches even owners of vacant plots; if the windfall gains from soaring property values are heavily taxed, NIMBYism will not be such a profitable strategy.

mugshot

Nevertheless, this week's revelations serve a purpose. The wide dissemination of the suspects' mugshots means their days as travelling killers, if that is what theywere, are over.

get​/​be given the chop ​

PHRASE​ BRITISH ​INFORMAL 1. to be forced to leave your job More than 200 workers are expected to get the chop due to falling sales. 2. to be stopped or ended, usually because of a lack of success The series failed to win viewers and soon got the chop. E-sport events were held at the recent Asian Games. But although the noble art of karate is being added to the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo, which will also include boxing, judo, shooting and wrestling, e-sports have now been given the chop.

Plastics extrusion

Plastics extrusion is a high-volume manufacturing process in which raw plastic is melted and formed into a continuous profile. Extrusion produces items such as pipe/tubing, weatherstripping, fencing, deck railings, window frames, plastic films and sheeting, thermoplastic coatings, and wire insulation. Made in Space already has a plastic-extrusion printer on board the space station. This is used to make replacements for small items that have got damaged, obviating the delays involved in bringing them from Earth. The company's managers are therefore reasonably confident that their ZBLAN extruder will also workin free-fall.

Political capital

Political capital is a metaphor used in political theory to conceptualize the accumulation of resources and power built through relationships, trust, goodwill, and influence between politicians or parties and other stakeholders, such as constituents. Yet the PTI has the political capital to make a stand.

ultimate borrowers

Regulation obliges the banks to limit their own exposure to currency risk, but foreign lenders may fear that the ultimate borrowers will default. About $100bn of the banks' foreign debt falls due within a year. A bit more than $20bn in loans, including syndicated loans raised from dozens of banks, must be repaid or rolled over by the end of 2018 (see chart on previous page).

secular stagnation

Secular stagnation refers to "a condition of negligible or no economic growth in a market-based economy". In this context, the term secular is used in contrast to cyclical or short-term, and suggests a change of fundamental dynamics which would play out only in its own time. But is such secular stagnation a real phenomenon? Not only has growth picked up, but, perhaps more important, interest rates in America have risen above zero. Surely, if the Federal Reserve can raise its benchmark rate to 1.75% without derailing the economy, something in the secular-stagnation story is awry.

Survation

Survation was incorporated on 2 February 2010 as a private limited company. It is chiefly known in the UK for its monthly voter-intention polls on behalf of Daily Mirror, Mail on Sunday and its work for Sky News. ... Survation is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. The latest Survation poll puts them at 6%, a point behind the UK Independence Party. Sir Vince's position is so desperate that he is talking about changing the party's rules so that he can be succeeded bysomebodywho isn't an MP, a recipe fordisaster in a parliamentary system.

taps

The Federal Reserve has been raising its benchmark interest rate since December 2015, and will probably do so again this month, from a range of 1.75-2% to 2-2.25%. This is the central banker's version of twiddling the bath taps, but on a national scale. It requires a delicate touch. Too much cold water, in the form of higher rates, will choke off demand and hence jobs. Too much hot, and rising inflation will eat away at people's spending power. The aim is to find the perfect temperature, where employment is as high as it can be while inflation stays subdued.

Flycatcher

The tyrant flycatchers are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds, with more than 400 species. They are the most diverse avian family in every country in the Americas, except for the United States and Canada. Wikipedia The spotted flycatcher and the short-toed treecreeper, for example, both benefited from the surrounding trees. The older a church, the greater its levels of ornithological diversity. Stability is an important promoter of such diversity.

Middle Income Countries (MICs)

The world's Middle Income Countries (MICs) are a diverse group by size, population, and income level. They are defined as lower middle-income economies - those with a GNI per capita between $1,006 and $3,955; and upper middle-income economies - those with a GNI per capita between $3,956 and $12,235 (2018).Mar 27, 2018 TomTom, a maker of satellite-navigation devices, and INRIX, a data company, rank cities by traffic congestion. But their lists are dominated by cities in rich and upper-middle-income countries.

pore through (150 phrasal verbs)

Their weapon of choice, a bottle of perfume modified to carry poison, was recklessly discarded, resulting in the death of a local. British investigators pored through 11,000 hours of CCTV footage, probably cross-referencing individuals on flights from Russia with those in Salisbury.

emotional support animal

These can be obtained cheaply and speedily online through a variety of websites that promise to send them overnight, along with certificates, collars, harnesses, vests and other paraphernalia proclaiming "emotional support animal".

vest

These can be obtained cheaply and speedily online through a variety of websites that promise to send them overnight, along with certificates, collars, harnesses, vests and other paraphernalia proclaiming "emotional support animal".

Why states should increase salaly

This also affects the private sector. If bosses are less fearful of losing workers to the state, they will be less inclined to offer pay rises.

Tier 1 capital

Tier 1 capital is the core measure of a bank's financial strength from a regulator's point of view. It is composed of core capital1, which consists primarily of common stock and disclosed reserves (or retained earnings), but may also include non-redeemable non-cumulative preferred stock. Core capital is the minimum amount of capital that a thrift bank, such as a savings bank or savings and loan company, must have on hand in order to comply with Federal Home Loan Bank regulations. ... Core capital consists of equity capital and declared reserves. In general, the regulatory system that has been assembled in America is complex and opaque. Keefe Bruyette & Woods, a research firm, reckons that over the past decade the 67 large institutions that it monitors paid out $243bn in 219 different fines and settlements—on average 12% of tier one capital for the 31 American banks and 6% for 36 international ones (see chart 4).

stuff down the throat2

To force, compel, or attempt to make one accept, endure, consider, or agree with/to something. 1) I hate going to my friend's house, because his husband's always stuffing political rhetoric down my throat. 2) Look, I'm just browsing around for a car, quit trying to stuff one down my throat! 3) The worst excesses of that market—"nodoc" mortgages, fraud, flipping and credit stuffed down the throats of any borrower with a pulse—have largely disappeared.

Tradecraft

Tradecraft, within the intelligence community, refers to the techniques, methods and technologies used in modern espionage (spying) and generally, as part of the activity of intelligence. That the pair arrived on Russia's flag-carrier, Aeroflot, and had previously travelled on the same passports, including to Britain, suggests sloppy tradecraft or remarkable insouciance.

Treecreeper

Treecreeper The treecreepers are a family, Certhiidae, of small passerine birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere and sub-Saharan Africa. The family contains ten species in two genera, Certhia and Salpornis. Wikipedia

Underutilization

Underutilization is the state of not being used enough or not used to full potential. An example of underutilization is when a very smart person with a masters degree is just working at an entry-level job in fast food. All of the main measures of labour underutilization reported by the Bureau of Labour Statistics are at or below their pre-crisis trough, and near to where they were at the peak of the dotcom boom

splutter

V. make a series of short explosive spitting or choking sounds Every driver in charge of a spluttering Yellow taxi or battered local bus (nicknamed "spirits of death" for their shoddy maintenance) must pay a "protection fee" to traffic officers.

Van Dyke

Van Dyke is a goatee plus moustache Correction: In our article about the death of Kofi Annan on August 23rd we said that he wore a goatee. An alert reader has pointed out that he sported a Van Dyke, which is a goatee plus moustache. Sorry to split hairs.

Windfall gain

Windfall gain (or windfall profit) is an unexpected gain in income which could be due to winning a lottery, unforeseen inheritance or shortage of supply. Windfall gains are transitory in nature. Property prices in leading cities have soared. In Paris, Hong Kong, New York and London the median household spends on average 41% of its income on rent, as opposed to 28% 30 years ago. This is a huge windfall gain for a relatively small number of property owners. It reduces the chances of prosperity for a much larger number who are prevented from moving to high-productivity cities offering better wages, and in doing so holds back the economy. One study suggests America's GDP would be 9% higher if the less restrictive zoning laws of the median American city were to be applied to the priciest, fanciest ones.

infraction

a breaking of a law or obligation This is done by sticking a fist out of the window at certain junctions on the boulevard and dropping a noteworth $0.30 into awaiting policeman's hand. If this money is not paid, the officers will find ways in which the vehicle is breaching the law and impose a large fine. "Most cars tend to have some kind of infraction. If not, [the cops] will make something up," MrTiteca says. "I was once stopped because the policeman said the taxi driver needed a licence to carry a white person."

pow-wow

a conference or meeting for discussion, especially among friends colleagues The exercise will coincide with the Eastern Economic Forum, a big economic and political pow-wow in Vladivostok that is due to be attended by China's President Xi Jinping and Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

plaintiff

a person who brings a case against another in a court of law. Mr Kavanaugh looked on quietly, if a little dyspeptically, as this unfolded. "I do not decide cases based on personal or policy preferences", he insisted, when he was finally permitted to speak. "I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge....I am a pro-law judge".

tender age

a time in your life when you are still young and lack experience. Tennis players start at a more tender age these days. at the tender age of something: He was first elected at the tender age of 23. General words relating to youth and being young: youth, young, junior... It was only after Oxford University appointed him as a full professor of economics in 1968, at the tender age of 32, that he started the work on asymmetric information and tax for which he won a Nobel prize.

diffuse

adjective /dɪˈfjuːs/ 1. spread out over a large area; not concentrated. "the diffuse community which centred on the church" Similar: spread out, diffused, scattered, dispersed, not concentrated Opposite: concentrated, (of disease) not localized in the body. "diffuse hyperplasia" The concentrated displeasure of producers exposed to foreign competition is more powerful than the diffuse gratitude of the mass of consumers, and so tariffs get reimposed.

offhand

adjective /ɒfˈhand,ˈɒfhand/ 1. ungraciously or offensively nonchalant or cool in manner. "you were a bit offhand with her this afternoon" synonyms: indifferent, casual, careless, uninterested, unconcerned, cool, distant, aloof, nonchalant, blasé It has some merits. Most Jordanians are of Palestinian descent, with ties across the border. Businesses in the West Bank would gain access to Jordan and to export markets beyond. The Jordanian army could secure the border with Israel, assuaging its security concerns. But Mr Trump's seemingly offhand proposal is not realistic

underhand

adjective /ˈʌndəhand/ 1. acting or done in a secret or dishonest way. "underhand dealings" synonyms: deceitful, underhanded, dishonest, dishonourable, disreputable, unethical, unprincipled, immoral, unscrupulous, fraudulent, cheating, dubious, dirty, unfair, treacherous, duplicitous, double-dealing, below the belt, two-timing, two-faced, Janus-faced, unsporting, unsportsmanlike; antonyms: honest, fair, above board 2. another term for underarm. "underhand bowling" with the palm of the hand upward or outward. "an underhand grip" An exceptionally underhanded smear lands the governor in hot water

small-bore

adjective denoting a firearm with a narrow bore, in international and Olympic shooting generally .22 inch calibre (5.6 millimetre bore). INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN trivial; unimportant. "small-bore economic issues" The Economist was founded to campaign for the repeal of the Corn Laws, which charged duties on imports of grain into Victorian Britain. Today that sounds comically small-bore.

defendant

an individual or group being sued or charged with a crime Mr Kavanaugh looked on quietly, if a little dyspeptically, as this unfolded. "I do not decide cases based on personal or policy preferences", he insisted, when he was finally permitted to speak. "I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge....I am a pro-law judge".

casei

casei. It's one of many friendly bacteria that call your digestive system home. You probably also have some in your urinary and genital tracts. These helpful organisms are also known as probiotics. The verdant hills of this region, dotted with Friesian cows and known as "Africa's Switzerland", are ideal for casei culture. Some Belgian monks who arrived in the 1970s soon began crafting camembert. Italian missionaries whet appetites for mozzarella. In their heyday, dairies in Masisi also churned out butter, cream and yogurt.

nothing short of or little short of

nothing short of or little short of phrase You use nothing short of or little short of to emphasize how great or extreme something is. For example, if you say that something is nothing short of a miracle or nothing short of disastrous, you are emphasizing that it is a miracle or it is disastrous. [emphasis] The results are nothing short of magnificent. His last visit to Washington was little short of a fiasco. FOR some, e-cigarettes are nothing short of a miracle. Over time tobacco kills half of its users, according to statistics from the World Health Organisation.

affirmative action

noun NORTH AMERICAN 1. action favouring those who tend to suffer from discrimination; positive discrimination. Affirmative action Affirmative action, also known as reservation in India and Nepal, positive action in the United Kingdom, and employment equity in Canada and South Africa, is the policy of promoting the education and employment of members of groups that are known to have previously suffered from discrimination. Wikipedia On various racially charged issues things may be sharper. Scalia and the court's three still-sitting conservatives all ruled against affirmative-action policies. Mr Kennedy, though, unenthusiastically joined the court's liberal wing in upholding universities' rights to consider race in admissions. Mr Kavanaugh and Mr Gorsuch (untested, as yet, on thismatter in the court) seem more likely to side with the other three conservatives. Mr Kavanaugh worked on the George W. Bush administration's opposition to the University of Michigan Law School's affirmative-action policy

blood sport

noun a sport involving the hunting, wounding, or killing of animals. "blood sports such as dogfighting and cockfighting" But it could also just push the political brawling down a level, so that every appellate nomination becomes a blood sport. In any case, it is probably too drastic a change to be feasible.

rubber tree

noun a tree that produces the latex from which rubber is manufactured, native to the Amazonian rainforest and widely cultivated elsewhere. used in names of other trees from which a similar latex can be obtained, e.g. Dahomey rubber. noun: Dahomey rubber ATTHE end of a dirt track framed by rubber trees, Herman proudly shows of his family's fish farm

fire engine

noun a vehicle carrying firefighters and equipment for fighting large fires. Much of the money Zambia borrowed was squandered or stolen. Bigwigs skimmed from worthy-sounding contracts. When the country bought bright new fire-engines their price somehow ballooned by 70%, to more than $1m each. Its new roads mysteriously cost twice as much per kilometre as its neighbours'.

remit

noun ˈriːmɪt,rɪˈmɪt/ 1. BRITISH the task or area of activity officially assigned to an individual or organization. "the committee was becoming caught up in issues that did not fall within its remit" synonyms: area of responsibility, area of activity, sphere, orbit, scope, ambit, province, territory, realm, department, turf; brief, instructions, orders; informalbailiwick "his remit includes administering the consumer credit licensing system" 2. an item referred to someone for consideration. "a remit on the question failed" The government entered the crisis with a finance minister and treasury minister whose remits intertwined, both of whom had to contend with a powerful cabinet chief. Investors did not know who was in charge.

top-up

noun BRITISH an additional or extra amount or payment that restores something to the level that is required. "they will miss out on hundreds of pounds worth of pension top-ups" a quantity of a drink that refills a partly full glass or cup. "he headed back to the bar for a top-up" A more modest, but still radical, alternative is to replace today's welfare schemes with an expanded commitment to guaranteeing minimum income through negative income taxes. First championed by Milton Friedman, such taxes mean that the state tops up the income of anyone earning less than a guaranteed minimum. Both Britain and America have tax credits to top up wages along these lines.

rap sheet

noun INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN a criminal record. "he had not joined a gang or acquired a rap sheet" The rap sheet against Mr Park is remarkable. The "scope and damage" of North Korea's operations, notes an FBI agent, "is virtually unparalleled".

op-ed

noun NORTH AMERICAN a newspaper page opposite the editorial page, devoted to personal comment, feature articles, etc. "an op-ed piece" He also wrote an op-ed while in private practice approvingly citing Scalia's belief that "in the eyes of government, we are just one race here

drum up

phrasal verb of drum try to obtain support or business by means of vigorous persuasion. "the organizers are hoping to drum up support from local businesses" Similar: round up, gather, collect, summon, obtain, get, attract, canvass. If the commission has done too little to prepare the union for the coming tempest, that is partly Mr Juncker's fault. (He never really understood the eastern states, complains one insider.) But the main reason is to do with the institution's declining structural power; that is, its waning ability to drum up support for its ideas among national governments and the European Parliament

latch on to

phrasal verb of latch INFORMAL 1. attach oneself to (someone) as a constant and usually unwelcome companion. "he spent the whole evening trying to latch on to my friends" take up (an idea or trend) enthusiastically. "the newspapers latched on to the idea of healthy eating" BRITISH (of a football or rugby player) take advantage of (another player's move) when attacking. "Nevin latched on to a miscued header to smash home the winning goal" (of one substance) cohere with (another). "the DNA chain latches on to its counterpart" 2. understand the meaning of (something). "she'll soon latch on to what is happening" It had already claimed credit for forcing the PTI to put pressure on the Dutch government over a "blasphemous" cartoon competition, which was cancelled. Lacking other such causes to latch on to, the TLP's leader, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a surprisingly foulmouthed cleric, may well seek to grab headlines on his own.

roll over

phrasal verb of roll FINANCE contrive or extend a particular financial arrangement. "this is not a good time for rolling over corporate debt" Regulation obliges the banks to limit their own exposure to currency risk, but foreign lenders may fear that the ultimate borrowers will default. About $100bn of the banks' foreign debt falls due within a year. A bit more than $20bn in loans, including syndicated loans raised from dozens of banks, must be repaid or rolled over by the end of 2018 (see chart on previous page).

in arrears

phrase of arrears 1. behind with paying money that is owed. "two out of three tenants are in arrears" synonyms: behind, behindhand, late, overdue, in the red, in default, in debt "the tenants were in arrears with their rent" antonyms: in credit (of payments made or due for wages, rent, etc.) at the end of each period in which work is done or a tenancy is occupied. "you will be paid monthly in arrears" 2. (of a competitor in a sports race or match) having a lower score or weaker performance than other competitors. "she finished ten metres in arrears" For now, Mr Macron seems undeterred. After some hesitation, his government is pressing ahead with a complex move to tax income at source, which it is feared will be hit by technical problems when it comes into place in January next year and dismay those not used to seeing income tax deducted directly from their pay slips. (At present, income tax is paid in arrears, generally in instalments.)

a clean sheet (or slate)

phrase of clean noun: clean slate an absence of existing restraints or commitments. "no government starts with a clean sheet" The president, Enrique Peсa Nieto, was desperate for one last accomplishment in his unhappy tenure. His successor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a left-winger, is equally keen to take office, on December 1st, with a clean slate, so that he can implement an ambitious domestic agenda

in clover

phrase of clover in ease and luxury. "we'll be in clover down there, lying around in the sun and fishing on the lake" IT IS common for one of Britain's great parties to be in crisis while the other is in clover. Labour tore itself apart in the Thatcher era and the Tories did the same during the Blair years.

cock of the walk

phrase of cock someone who dominates others within a group. "don't ever forget he's cock of the walk here" cock of the walk ExamplesWord Origin noun the leader in a group, especially one with a conceited, domineering manner. Magazine articles routinely ask "Is Democracy Dying?" (Foreign Affairs and more recently the Atlantic) or "What's killing liberalism?" (the Atlantic again). The cock of-the-walk confidence with which liberals strode into the 21st century has given way to trembling self-doubt.

in hock

phrase of hock having been pawned. "the family jewels are in hock already" in debt. "the women were in hock to extortionate moneylenders" It was not her fault that Myanmar's courts were left dysfunctional and judges in hock to the generals after five decades of dictatorship. But a report issued last year by Justice Base, a British NGO, shows that the judiciary has not improved in recent years.

a hornets' nest

phrase of hornet noun: hornets' nest a situation fraught with difficulties or complications. "the move has stirred up a hornets' nest of academic fear and loathing" Elections in Sweden The poll that kicks the hornets' nest

hum and haw ( hem and haw)

phrase of hum BRITISH be indecisive. "I was humming and hawing over buying copies" synonyms: be indecisive, hesitate, dither, vacillate, procrastinate, equivocate, prevaricate, waver, falter, fluctuate; haver; swither; informalshilly-shally, dilly-dally, blow hot and cold, pussyfoot around; archaictarry "they waste a lot of time humming and hawing before going into action" antonyms: be decisive Mr Kavanaugh hemmed and hawed through an answer, finally ducking the question completely. "I think all I can say", he said, "is that was my view in 1998".

pull the wool over someone's eyes

pull the wool over someone's eyes phrase of wool deceive someone by telling untruths. synonyms: deceive, fool, trick, take in, hoodwink, dupe, delude; informal lead up the garden path, pull a fast one on, put one over on, bamboozle, con There is not much those hands can do about the president's dealings with North Korea. Since his summit in June with Kim Jong Un, Mr Trump has been trying to do things his way. His people see Mr Kim pulling the wool over his eyes by promising "denuclearisation".

raison d'être

raison d'être /ˌreɪzɒ̃ ˈdɛtrə,French ʀɛzɔ̃ dɛtʀ/ noun the most important reason or purpose for someone or something's existence. "seeking to shock is the catwalk's raison d'être" Conservatives scooped up large numbers of former UKIP voters. That makes it strange to reject party members out of hand. After all, Tory policy is to support UKIP's raison d'кtre—Brexit—even though many sitting Tory MPs dislike it.

at someone's beck and call

ready to do something for someone any time you are asked: She was confined to a wheelchair but had a private nurse at her beck and call. Far more women take paid work now than in the middle of the 20th century. Far more households are headed by a single parent. Jobs are much less likely to last for life, to start at nine or to end at five. People are more likely to have more than one at a time. Some of them like this, especially when one is a passion that the other subsidises. Others resent working at unpredictable hours for little money at the beck and call of more than one master. An OECD study suggests only 60% of the rich world's workforce has stable employment. Most important, in terms of expense, health care is getting costlier and people are living much longer.

reservation2

reservation /rɛzəˈveɪʃ(ə)n/ noun 2. an expression of doubt qualifying overall approval of a plan or statement. "some generals voiced reservations about making air strikes" synonyms: doubt, qualm, scruple; misgivings, scepticism, unease, hesitation, hesitancy, demur, reluctance; objection; demurrer "the British government expressed grave reservations about the proposals" antonyms: confidence The Maltese authorities expressed "serious reservations" about the EBA's findings. The bank, which had its assets frozen in March after its chairman was arrested in America for allegedly violating sanctions against Iran, has denied all charges against it.

set-up2

set-up /ˈsɛtʌp/ noun INFORMAL 2. a scheme or trick intended to incriminate or deceive someone. "Listen. He didn't die. It was a set-up" synonyms: trick, trap; conspiracy; informalput-up job, frame-up, frame "the whole thing was a set-up" A police captain admitted the whole thing was a set-up and was sent to prison. In any case, it turned out that the state secrets contained in the documents had been publicly available all along.

sped off/drove off

sped /spɛd/ past and past participle of speed. To leave or drive off rapidly For Kinshasa's weary drivers, dealing with the police requires charm, negotiation skills and unflappability. When your correspondent was taking a taxi in Kinshasa, a drunk policeman half launched himself through the window to demand money. The driver simply laughed. Once the officer had retreated just enough, he sped off.

stuff down1

stuff down 1. To shove, cram, or pack something down into something else. A noun or pronoun is used between "stuff" and "down." The criminal stuffed the bag of drugs down his pants when he saw a police car approaching. She ripped up the subpoena in rage and stuffed it down the garbage disposal. The worst excesses of that market—"nodoc" mortgages, fraud, flipping and credit stuffed down the throats of any borrower with a pulse—have largely disappeared.

whittle away

to gradually reduce the amount or importance of something. The team saw their lead whittled away during the second half. whittle away at: The government is whittling away at the rights of citizens. The court is typically reluctant to stray too far from public opinion, and most Americans do not want Roe overturned. Mr Kavanaugh, for his part, has called Roe "settled law", which lends credence to the idea that whittling away is the likely approach. (That said, he has also noted that the court "can always overrule its precedent"—as it did in a liberal direction in Lawrence v Texas, invalidating laws banning sodomy.)

drum something home

to use repeated arguments or messages in order to make sure that people understand something They drummed home the message that the United States traded more goods with Canada in 2017 than with any other country bar China (Mexico was third), and that 36 states count Canada as their top export partner.

landmark

turning point, milestone, critical point He voted to bar capital punishment for minors and for people with mental disabilities. He was also the gay-rights justice, author of four landmark opinions, including opening marriage laws to gay Americans in 2015.

arcane

understood by few; mysterious or secret Reports emerged last month that Mick Mulvaney, head of the Office for Management and Budget, was considering a rescission bill, an arcane and rarely used procedure to claw back money already allocated on the budget, for $3bn of overseas aid

sign of the times

usually disapproving ​something that is typical of the (bad) way things are now: These riots are a sign of the times. JESUS CHRIST is free trade and free trade is Jesus Christ." Even by the standards of the 1840s, Sir John Bowring, a British politician, made bold claims for the rockonwhich The Economist was founded. But his zeal was of the times.

purport

verb /pəˈpɔːt/ appear to be or do something, especially falsely. "she is not the person she purports to be" synonyms: claim, lay claim, profess, pretend; set oneself up (as), appear, seem; allege/maintain/assert/proclaim/imply that one is, be apparently, be ostensibly, pose as, impersonate, pass oneself off as, be disguised as, masquerade as, feign the identity of, pass for, represent oneself as; rarepersonate "this work purports to be authoritative" A paper claiming that a no-deal Brexit would boost the economy attracted much ridicule. So did a purported plot by Tory MPs to oust Theresa May as prime minister.

splinter

verb 1. break or cause to break into small sharp fragments. "the soap box splintered" synonyms: shatter, break into tiny pieces, break into fragments Turkey's efforts to splinter HTS by peeling away more moderate fighters have yielded little. Yet it has so far resisted Russian calls to confront the jihadists head on, since it fears they may retaliate violently on Turkish soil.

tack

verb 1. fasten or fix in place with tacks. "he used the tool to tack down sheets of fibreboard" synonyms: pin, nail, staple, fix, fasten, attach, secure, affix, put up, put down "a photo was tacked to the wall" 2. fasten (pieces of cloth) together temporarily with long stitches. "when the dress was roughly tacked together, she tried it on" synonyms: stitch, baste, sew, bind, hem "when the dress was roughly tacked together she tried it on" add or append something to something already existing. "the castles have new wings and other bits tacked on" synonyms: attach, add, append, join, tag, annex "there are some poems tacked on at the end of the book" Some hope Chief Justice Roberts will tack leftward, as his namesake did (and, indeed, as justices tend to, overtime, whatever their original ideological stance, though the trend is hardly universal). With Mr Kennedy gone, it will now be Mr Roberts who has four justices to his left and four to his right.

countenance

verb admit as acceptable or possible. "he was reluctant to countenance the use of force" Similar: tolerate, permit, allow, admit of, approve (of), agree to, consent to Some Republicans have said they will not countenance a new NAFTA pact that excludes Canada. Talks resumed between the two countries.

whittle sth down

whittle sth down — phrasal verb with whittle verb UK/US /ˈwɪt.əl/ to gradually reduce the size of something or the number of people in a group: We had 80 applicants for the job, but we've whittled them down to six. And whereas Labour candidates need the backing of only10% ofMPs to get on to the ballot paper sent to members, Tory candidates are whittled down by MPs to a shortlist of two before members have their say.

bonfire

ˈbɒnfʌɪə/ noun a large open-air fire used for burning rubbish or as part of a celebration. "the smell of burning leaves from a garden bonfire" Preserving the past The bonfire of the antiquities

salient

ˈseɪlɪənt/ adjective: salient 1. most noticeable or important. "it succinctly covered all the salient points of the case" synonyms: important, main, principal, major, chief, primary, notable, noteworthy, outstanding, arresting, conspicuous, striking, noticeable, obvious, remarkable, signal, prominent, pronounced, predominant, dominant, key, crucial, vital, essential, basic, staple, critical, pivotal, prime, central, focal, paramount "the salient points stuck out clearly in her mind" antonyms: unimportant, inconspicuous Europe's most salient political rift is between institutional conservatives and innovators

gavel

ˈɡav(ə)l/ noun: gavel 1. a small hammer with which an auctioneer, a judge, or the chair of a meeting hits a surface to call for attention or order. verb 1. bring (a hearing or person) to order by use of a gavel. "he gavelled the convention to order" Lacking a realistic chance of scuttling the nomination, Democrats orchestrated a bit of theatre for the opening of the hearing. The torpor of the typical proceeding was broken moments after Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Judiciary Committee, used his gavel. Senator Kamala Harris implored Mr Grassley "to be recognised for a question before we proceed".

conflagration

ˌkɒnfləˈɡreɪʃ(ə)n/ noun an extensive fire which destroys a great deal of land or property. "tinder-dry conditions sparked fears of a conflagration in many drought-devastated communities" synonyms: fire, blaze, flames, inferno, firestorm, holocaust "the conflagration spread rapidly through the wooden buildings" In other parts of finance the sense of stasis is yet more striking. Credit-rating agencies provided sweeping and unfounded endorsements of the mortgage-related securities that turned out to be toxically risky, thus allowing fuel for the great conflagration to build up unheeded. This led to calls for heads to roll, more competition and a new regulatory structure.