Definitions
tony: (adj) Having a high or fashionable tone; high-toned, stylish; ‘swell’.
griffe/griff/griffo: (n) In Louisiana, the produce of a negro and a mulatto, containing one fourth white blood, and three fourths black
sacatra: (n) The name given in Louisiana to the offspring of a griffe and a negress.
dago: (n) 1. A name originally given in the south-western section of the United States to a man of Spanish parentage; now extended to include Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians in general, or as a disparaging term for any foreigner.
2. The Spanish or Italian language.
klezmer: (n) 1. A performer of Jewish folk music, traditionally itinerant and playing in small groups at festivals and family events.
2. A form of Jewish folk music characterized by improvisation and the incorporation of elements of the music of several different (esp. Eastern and Central European) cultures.
3. (adj) Of or designating such music or musicians.
brioche: (n) A kind of cake made of flour, butter, and eggs; sponge-cake.
giardia: (n) 1. A flagellate protozoan, Giardia lamblia, which sometimes inhabits the intestinal tract of mammals; also, any member of this genus.
2. Infection of the gut with the flagellate protozoan Giardia lamblia, often causing diarrhoea, flatulence, and other symptoms of malabsorption, also called giardiasis.
decurion: (n) 1. In Roman Antiquity: A cavalry officer in command of a decuria or company of ten horse. Also generally, a commander or captain of ten men.
2. An overseer of ten households, a tithing-man.
3. In Roman History: A member of the senate of a colony or municipal town; a town councillor.
jejune: (adj) 1. Without food, fasting; hungry.
2. Deficient in nourishing or substantial (physical) qualities; thin, attenuated, scanty; meagre, unsatisfying; (of land) poor, barren.
3. Unsatisfying to the mind or soul; dull, flat, insipid, bald, dry, uninteresting; meagre, scanty, thin, poor; wanting in substance or solidity. Said of thought, feeling, action, etc., and esp. of speech or writing; also through transference: of the speaker or writer. (The prevailing sense.)
4. Puerile, childish; also, naïve. (This use may owe its origin to the mistaken belief that the word is connected with Latin 'juvenis' = young (compare 'junior'), or French 'jeune' = young.
maintainer: (n) 1. A person who upholds, defends, guards, keeps in being, or preserves unharmed a cause, right, law, state of things, etc. Also: specfically, the god whose creative power keeps the world in being.
2. A person who fosters or supports wrongdoing, sedition, false quarrels, etc.
3. A person who aids and abets another in wrongdoing or error.
4. A person who gives aid or support to another; a defender and helper.
5. In Law: A person who supports a suit in which he or she has no legally recognized interest.
6. A person who provides for the upkeep of a place, a thing, etc.; a person who keeps a thing in repair or in working order.
7. A person who provides another with the necessaries of life; a person who keeps a mistress.
8. A person who upholds or supports something in speech or argument; a person who contends for the truth or validity of a doctrine, assertion, tenet, etc.
9. A mine owner; a shareholder in a mine.
10. A thing which maintains or preserves something.
11. In Watchmaking and Clockmaking: An apparatus for keeping the movement of a clock or watch from being interrupted during the process of winding.
grader: (n) 1. A person employed in grading produce or in grading roads.
2. A machine for ‘grading’ (in various senses).
grade: (v) 1. To degrade.
2. To admit to a (specified) degree at a University.
3. To lay out (the plan of a country) by degrees of latitude and longitude.
4. To arrange or place in grades or classes; to class (persons, schools, etc.) according to dignity, merit, or advancement; to sort (produce) according to quality; to determine the grades or degrees of.
5. To blend with other things, so as to affect the grade or quality of.
6. To colour with shades or tints which pass insensibly one into another.
7. Of produce: To take a specified grade.
8. To reduce (the line of a road, railway, or canal) to levels or practicable gradients.
9. In Stock-breeding: To cross with some better breed. 'to grade up': to improve the breed of (stock) by grading.
10. In Philology: passively, To be altered by gradation or ablaut.
11. To wear away the surface of so as to produce a regular slope.
12. To cut (steps) at regular intervals.
13. To pass imperceptibly from one grade into another. Also with down, off, over, toward, up, etc. Also, 'to grade up': to take rank with a higher grade or class; 'to grade up with': to compare with, to be like.
14. To read and mark (a student's paper) with a grade.
foment: (v) 1. To bathe with warm or medicated lotions; to apply fomentations to. Also, to lubricate.
2. To cherish with heat, to warm. Always in conjunction with another verb, as chafe, heat, warm.
3. To rouse or stir up (a person or his energies); to excite, irritate.
4. To become excited or heated.
5. To promote the growth, development, effect, or spread of (something material or physical).
6. To cherish, cultivate, foster; to stimulate, encourage, instigate (a sentiment, belief, pursuit, course of conduct, etc.). Especially in a bad sense.
flash: (v) In Building: to put small sheets of lead under the slates of a house..to prevent the rain from running into the joint.
griffe/griff/griffo: (n) In Louisiana, the produce of a negro and a mulatto, containing one fourth white blood, and three fourths black
sacatra: (n) The name given in Louisiana to the offspring of a griffe and a negress.
dago: (n) 1. A name originally given in the south-western section of the United States to a man of Spanish parentage; now extended to include Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians in general, or as a disparaging term for any foreigner.
2. The Spanish or Italian language.
klezmer: (n) 1. A performer of Jewish folk music, traditionally itinerant and playing in small groups at festivals and family events.
2. A form of Jewish folk music characterized by improvisation and the incorporation of elements of the music of several different (esp. Eastern and Central European) cultures.
3. (adj) Of or designating such music or musicians.
brioche: (n) A kind of cake made of flour, butter, and eggs; sponge-cake.
giardia: (n) 1. A flagellate protozoan, Giardia lamblia, which sometimes inhabits the intestinal tract of mammals; also, any member of this genus.
2. Infection of the gut with the flagellate protozoan Giardia lamblia, often causing diarrhoea, flatulence, and other symptoms of malabsorption, also called giardiasis.
decurion: (n) 1. In Roman Antiquity: A cavalry officer in command of a decuria or company of ten horse. Also generally, a commander or captain of ten men.
2. An overseer of ten households, a tithing-man.
3. In Roman History: A member of the senate of a colony or municipal town; a town councillor.
jejune: (adj) 1. Without food, fasting; hungry.
2. Deficient in nourishing or substantial (physical) qualities; thin, attenuated, scanty; meagre, unsatisfying; (of land) poor, barren.
3. Unsatisfying to the mind or soul; dull, flat, insipid, bald, dry, uninteresting; meagre, scanty, thin, poor; wanting in substance or solidity. Said of thought, feeling, action, etc., and esp. of speech or writing; also through transference: of the speaker or writer. (The prevailing sense.)
4. Puerile, childish; also, naïve. (This use may owe its origin to the mistaken belief that the word is connected with Latin 'juvenis' = young (compare 'junior'), or French 'jeune' = young.
maintainer: (n) 1. A person who upholds, defends, guards, keeps in being, or preserves unharmed a cause, right, law, state of things, etc. Also: specfically, the god whose creative power keeps the world in being.
2. A person who fosters or supports wrongdoing, sedition, false quarrels, etc.
3. A person who aids and abets another in wrongdoing or error.
4. A person who gives aid or support to another; a defender and helper.
5. In Law: A person who supports a suit in which he or she has no legally recognized interest.
6. A person who provides for the upkeep of a place, a thing, etc.; a person who keeps a thing in repair or in working order.
7. A person who provides another with the necessaries of life; a person who keeps a mistress.
8. A person who upholds or supports something in speech or argument; a person who contends for the truth or validity of a doctrine, assertion, tenet, etc.
9. A mine owner; a shareholder in a mine.
10. A thing which maintains or preserves something.
11. In Watchmaking and Clockmaking: An apparatus for keeping the movement of a clock or watch from being interrupted during the process of winding.
grader: (n) 1. A person employed in grading produce or in grading roads.
2. A machine for ‘grading’ (in various senses).
grade: (v) 1. To degrade.
2. To admit to a (specified) degree at a University.
3. To lay out (the plan of a country) by degrees of latitude and longitude.
4. To arrange or place in grades or classes; to class (persons, schools, etc.) according to dignity, merit, or advancement; to sort (produce) according to quality; to determine the grades or degrees of.
5. To blend with other things, so as to affect the grade or quality of.
6. To colour with shades or tints which pass insensibly one into another.
7. Of produce: To take a specified grade.
8. To reduce (the line of a road, railway, or canal) to levels or practicable gradients.
9. In Stock-breeding: To cross with some better breed. 'to grade up': to improve the breed of (stock) by grading.
10. In Philology: passively, To be altered by gradation or ablaut.
11. To wear away the surface of so as to produce a regular slope.
12. To cut (steps) at regular intervals.
13. To pass imperceptibly from one grade into another. Also with down, off, over, toward, up, etc. Also, 'to grade up': to take rank with a higher grade or class; 'to grade up with': to compare with, to be like.
14. To read and mark (a student's paper) with a grade.
foment: (v) 1. To bathe with warm or medicated lotions; to apply fomentations to. Also, to lubricate.
2. To cherish with heat, to warm. Always in conjunction with another verb, as chafe, heat, warm.
3. To rouse or stir up (a person or his energies); to excite, irritate.
4. To become excited or heated.
5. To promote the growth, development, effect, or spread of (something material or physical).
6. To cherish, cultivate, foster; to stimulate, encourage, instigate (a sentiment, belief, pursuit, course of conduct, etc.). Especially in a bad sense.
flash: (v) In Building: to put small sheets of lead under the slates of a house..to prevent the rain from running into the joint.