Crash course in asking dictionaries questions

[a_grilled_fish]

This fun, mindless activity requires no occult materials, only a decent paper dictionary. Thesauri work just as well, sometimes even better. In fact, I happen to have a thesaurus close at hand, so I'll be using it in my examples. Dictionaries of foreign words, textbooks and novels can also work, but not as well.

You begin by asking the book a question. Make sure that your question is very clear, and that it is not a "yes/no" question. It should be able to take a word for an answer. Asking the dictionary to describe people tends to work very well. When you have asked your question, close your eyes and flip open to a random page. Place your finger somewhere on the page and open your eyes.

• "In one word, how would you describe me?"
  
• dexterous [adj] ingenious, proficient able, active, acute, adept, adroit, agile, apt, artful, canny, clever, crack*, crackerjack*, deft, effortless, expert, facile, handy, having the know-how*, masterly, neat, nimble, nimble-fingered, prompt, quick, savvy, skilled, skillful, slick, sly, smooth.
  

Ooh yeah. Always nice to hear good things about yourself. But what about some of my bad points?

• "What is my biggest vice?
  
• 
  desirous [adj] aspiring, hopeful acquisitive, ambitious, amorous, anxious, avid, covetous, craving, desiring, eager, enthusiastic, grasping, greedy, hot*, itchy*, keen, longing, lustful, passionate, prehensile, ready, stimulated, turned on*, willing, wishful, wishing, yearning.
  

Wow. That actually made sense. What if I ask it to predict the future?

• "What career will I have when I'm 40?
  
• direct [v2] give instructions; teach address, advise, bid, charge, command, deliver, dictate, enjoin, give directions, give orders, inform, instruct, lecture, order, read, tell, warn.
  

However, it doesn't always work this well. Some answers will require more interpretation than others.

• "How can we attain world peace?"
  
• round [v1] turn; encircle begird, bypass, circle, circulate, circumnavigate, compass, encompass, flank, gird, girdle, go around, gyrate, hem, picot, revolve, ring, roll, rotate, skirt, spin, surround, wheel, whirl
  

Well, complex questions require complex answers. That concludes my mini-tutorial on questioning tomes of knowledge. You can try asking dictionaries for advice too, but beware developing too much of a reliance on the dictionary - you won't be able to use it on the test.

In other news, I have 40,000 words in my NaNoWriMo novel.
* denotes a colloquial term