1. showing no intelligence or thought

2. having no meaning or direction; empty

The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it. -

from Latin vacuus "empty, void, free." Figurative sense of "empty of ideas"

1. reckless, heartless, or malicious; without reason or excuse

2. not moral; lewd, lascivious

"Such (a) stand and attitude are leading to the grave, wanton violation of all the north-south agreements," the report said.

1. not resisting; compliant

2. not stiff or rigid; easily bent or shaped

While he forecasts that lower yielding stocks are likely to bounce more when the markets recover, he says the emphasis on dividends is part of a longer-term trend driven by four key factors.

1. to welcome with loud approval; praise highly

2. a shout or show of approval

A day after abandoning his proposal to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, Gov. Eliot Spitzer won the kind of wide acclaim from elected officials that he could not win for the proposal itself.

to moan about or weep for; mourn

The tower's approval came despite opposition from residents and some city leaders who bemoan the proliferation of cell towers in the city, especially when they are placed near homes.

1. the stiff strawlike part of grains such as wheat, oats, rye

2. to make good-natured fun of someone

3. worthless material; detritus

Chaff is separated from the grain by threshing. It's hard to separate the chaff from the wheat sometimes. The kids chaffed the exchange student for her mistakes in grammar.

The stockbroker defalcated millions from investment clients.

1. a person skilled in the techniques of an art, esp. playing a musical instrument; by extension, a person with a cultivated appreciation of artistry
2. showing mastery in artistic skills

They applauded the virtuoso's performance.

not knowing; unaware; unintentional

We are unwitting victims of the system.

1. a fawning flatterer; humble dependent
2. to attempt to gain favor by fawning or being servile

The freshman was the senior's toady even though many made fun of her.

a practitioner specializing in treatment chiefly by manipulation of the bones and muscles

An osteopath considers that the structure and functions of the body are interdependent and any structural deformity may lead to functional breakdown.

a large, often scholarly, book

An unabridged dictionary is a tome.

not easily managed; contrary

sudden dread or paralyzing terror

1. to make shiny by polishing
2. a polish or shine

so long as to seem endless; never stopping

to remove objectionable words or passages from a document

three dots used to show an omission in writing or printing; the omission of a word or words in text

These efforts are to no avail, however, because the author can't leave anything unsaid, any ellipsis gaping: sooner or later someone will say what everything means, and maybe more than once.

very hurtful; noxious

The most important conclusions are that the bile of nocuous or venomous serpents is the most powerful antidote to venom.

1. giving freely; generous
2. done with an open hand

From his mother's mother he inherited a sense of fete and a gift for cosmopolitan and open-handed hospitality.

to orate; to speak in a loud and emotional manner

What is the clue to understanding a country rife with despair and disrepair, which nonetheless moved a Mughal emperor to declaim, "If on earth there be paradise of bliss, it is this, it is this, it is this ...?"

narrow-minded and stubborn

In recent years, there has been another voice on the scene -- one that has infused this hidebound, somewhat predictable genre with an unsettling energy.

1. cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident
2. reddish; ruddy
3. (in old physiology) having blood as the predominating humor and consequently being ruddy-faced, cheerful, etc.
4. blood-red; red
5. Heraldry. a reddish-purple tincture.
6. a red iron-oxide crayon used in making drawings

I had now arrived at my seventeenth year, and had attained my full height, a fraction over six feet. I was well endowed with youthful energy, and was of an extremely sanguine temperament.

Unreasonable or foolhardy contempt of danger; rashness.

The elaborate caution with which the British commander now proceeded stands out in striking contrast with the temerity of his advance upon Bunker Hill in the preceding year.

1. acting keenly on the senses; sharp
2. quick in discernment; drawing fine distinctions
3. of an angle, less than 90 degrees
4. happening quickly, briefly, and severely

I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.

1. to ward off; turn aside (as a thrust or weapon)
2. the act of warding off

I am not saying the whole group's survival is at stake. But we have to act today if we are to parry the harder onslaught of our competitors tomorrow.

suitable or used for war; warlike

But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak around him.

1. a person who gets about on foot; walker
2. going on foot; walking
3. without imagination; dull

1. penetrating; cutting; biting; trenchant
2. remarkably clear and direct; sharp; keen; acute
3. adapted for cutting or piercing
4. of or pertaining to the incisors

It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.

To howl, as a dog or a wolf; to wail; as, ululating jackals.

He had often dreamed of his grieving family visiting his grave, ululating as only the relatives of martyrs may.

1. Flushed with red; of a lively reddish color.
2. Excessively ornate; flowery; as, "a florid style; florid eloquence."

The Reverend Mr Kidney is a short round bowlegged man with black muttonchop whiskers and a florid face, like a pomegranate, into which he has poured a great quantity of brandy and lesser amounts of whisky and claret.

To make clear or manifest; to render more intelligible; to illustrate; as, an example will elucidate the subject.

He thought that film's promise and purpose was to elucidate the real, to reveal the patterns already before us, and he believed that unity of space and time were paramount.

Peevish; testy; irritable.

Waugh's tetchy and combative personality made him a difficult companion at arms.

1. The condition or quality of being empty.
2. Exhaustion, as from lack of nourishment.
3. Lack of vitality or spirit.

The problem that faces British universities is not that they have become fat and lazy, but that they have been starved beyond lean efficiency into inanition.

1. Any species of Phalacrocorax, a genus of sea birds having a sac under the beak; the shag. Cormorants devour fish voraciously, and have become the emblem of gluttony. They are generally black, and hence are called sea ravens, and coalgeese.
2. A gluttonous, greedy, or rapacious person.

Coleridge was precocious and from the first displayed a voracious appetite for books. He later characterised himself as "a library cormorant."

1. The act of pouring a liquid (usually wine) either on the ground or on a victim in sacrifice to some deity; also, the wine or liquid thus poured out.
2. A beverage, especially an alcoholic beverage.
3. An act or instance of drinking.

Hearing that the train had lost one of its engines and that the remainder of the trip would be very slow, I headed for the bar car for a libation and a snack or two to soothe my growing hunger pangs.

a bitter verbal attack or speech

It wasn't an argument, it was a diatribe. I've never seen anything like it. It's an insult to you (the jury).

1. Protection; support.
2. Sponsorship; patronage.
3. Guidance, direction, or control.
4. A shield or protective armor; -- applied in mythology to the shield of Zeus.

It is this ideal of the human under the aegis of something higher which seems to me to provide the strongest counterpressure against the fragmentation and barbarization of our world.

1. Nearness in place; proximity.
2. Nearness in time.
3. Nearness of relation; kinship.

Following the race he took umbrage at Stewart's rough driving so early in the day, and the propinquity of the two drivers' haulers allowed the Kid to express his displeasure up close and personal.

1. The commotion or agitation of a crowd, usually accompanied with great noise, uproar, and confusion of voices; hurly-burly; noisy confusion.
2. Violent commotion or agitation, with confusion of sounds; as, "the tumult of the elements."
3. Irregular or confused motion; agitation; high excitement; as, "the tumult of the spirits or passions."
--tumultuous, adjective

Just imagine, reader, a reduction of the centuries and a parade of all of them, all races, all passions, the tumult of empires, the war of appetites and hates, the reciprocal destruction of creatures and things.

The performance of miracles or magic.

Of course, none of these improbable meetings ever took place in reality. But within the realm of showbiz thaumaturgy, they're perfectly acceptable examples of latter-day digital compositing, wherein it's possible to have anything share a frame of film or video with practically anything else.

The transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of words.

Some examples:

We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish ["half-formed wish"] inside us.

A well-boiled icicle ["well-oiled bicycle"].

It is kisstomary to cuss ["customary to kiss"] the bride.

Is the bean dizzy ["dean busy"]?

When the boys come back from France, we'll have the hags flung out ["flags hung out"]!

Let me sew you to your sheet ["show you to your seat"].

Lack of knowledge or awareness; ignorance.

The ancients understood that too much knowledge could actually impede human functioning -- this at a time when the encroachments on global nescience were comparatively few.

1. Merely imaginary; produced by or as if by a wildly fanciful imagination; fantastic; improbable or unrealistic.
2. Given to or indulging in unrealistic fantasies or fantastic schemes.

But those risks are real, not chimerical.

To attack by words or arguments; to call in question; to make insinuations against; to oppose or challenge as false; to gainsay.

As might be expected of fanatical flag idolaters, the GAR did not accept refusals lightly, and in one instance in Illinois impugned the patriotic loyalty of recalcitrant local school administrators by spreading rumors that one of them was a foreign alien yet to be naturalized and the other a draft dodger who evaded Civil War service by fleeing to Canada.