Defintions
lucubration: (n) 1. The action or occupation of lucubrating; nocturnal study or meditation; study in general; an instance of this.
2. Usually plural. The product of nocturnal study and meditation; hence, a literary work showing signs of careful elaboration. Now somewhat derisive or playful, suggesting the notion of something pedantic or over-elaborate.
tine: (v) 1. To close, shut (a door, gate, or window; a house, one's mouth, eyes, etc.)
2. To enclose or shut (a thing) up in something.
3. To enclose with a hedge or fence; to fence, to hedge in.
4. To make or repair (a hedge or fence).
5. To confine, restrain to something.
6. To lose; to suffer deprivation of; to cease to have or enjoy.
7. To fail to gain, attain, or win; to lose the battle, be defeated
8. To spend in vain or to no purpose, to waste
9. To cause the loss of.
10. To suffer loss.
11. To incur (a penalty).
12. To let slip from one's remembrance, to forget
13. To leave far behind, as in a race; to outstrip entirely; to get far ahead of
14. To ruin, destroy, bring to nought; To be lost, ruined, or destroyed; to perish.
15. To furnish with tines or prongs
16. To scratch or work with tines; to harrow.
bardash: (n) A catamite, ‘cinædus.’
cinædus: (n) 1. a man who fails to live up to traditional standards of masculine comportment.
2. a man whose most salient feature was a supposedly "feminine" love of being sexually penetrated by other men.
(interestingly, the OED defines 'catamite' as "A boy kept for unnatural purposes.". Um, can we be any more vague? I had to go outside the OED to get any definition of cinædus at all, despite the fact that they used the word in one of their own definitions. Seems the OED is prudish about some things after all.)
fumitory: (n) A plant of the genus Fumaria (or the related Corydalis), usually F. officinalis.
bistort: (n) 1. A species of Polygonum (P. bistorta), named from the twisted form of its large root, bearing a cylindrical spike of small flesh-coloured flowers; also called Snakeweed.
2. In Surgery: A scalpel; made in three forms, the straight, the curved, and the probe-pointed (which is also curved). (Also called a 'bistoury').
dodder: (n) 1. The common name of the genus Cuscuta, family Convolvulaceæ, comprising slender leafless plants, like masses of twining threads, parasitic on flax, clover, thyme, furze, and other plants.
2. Applied locally to some choking or climbing weeds.
exordium: (n) The beginning of anything; especially the introductory part of a discourse, treatise, etc.; ‘the proemial part of a composition’.
proemial: (adj) Of, relating to, or of the nature of a proem; prefatory, introductory.
supererogation: (n) 1. The performance of good works beyond what God commands or requires, which are held to constitute a store of merit which the Church may dispense to others to make up for their deficiencies.
2. Performance of more than duty or circumstances require; doing more than is needed.
burnet: (n) The popular name of plants belonging to the genera Sanguisorba and Poterium (family Rosaceæ), of which the Great or Common Burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) is common in meadows, and the Lesser or Salad Burnet (Poterium Sanguisorba) on the Chalk. The old herbalists confounded with these the Burnet Saxifrage Pimpinella Saxifraga, an umbelliferous plant resembling the Burnets in foliage.
umbelliferous: (adj) 1. In Botany: Bearing flowers arranged in umbels; of or belonging to the order of Umbelliferæ.
2. Produced by or grown on umbelliferous plants.
3. Umbelliform.
umbel: (n) 1. In Botany: A mass of inflorescence borne upon pedicels of nearly equal length springing from a common centre.
2. An umbelliferous plant.
3. In Zoology: An umbelliform arrangement of parts.
umbelliform: (adj) Having the form of an umbel.
centaury: (n) 1. A plant, of which the medicinal properties were said to have been discovered by Chiron the centaur; two species were distinguished, Centaurion majus, and C. minus (also lepton). The herbalists identified these (probably correctly) with two Gentianaceous plants, More or Yellow Centaury (Chlora perfoliata), and Common or Lesser Centaury (Erythræa Centaureum). Hence Centaury is sometimes used as the book-name for all the species of Erythræa.
2. By 16th c. herbalists, great centaury was (by some confusion) applied to a composite plant or plants; and to the genus containing these the name Centaurea was appropriated by Linnæus. Great Centaury of Turner was C. Rhapontica, of Lyte and his successors, C. Scabiosa, and ‘Centaury’ has since been extended as a book-name to all the species, as Australian, black, corn, erect, mealy, mountain centaury.
3. American centaury: a name for Sabbatia, a genus of North American herbs of the Gentian family, esp. S. angularis.
tormentil: (n) A low-growing herb, Potentilla Tormentilla (Tormentilla repens), N.O. Rosaceæ, of trailing habit, common on heaths and dry pastures, bearing small four-petalled yellow flowers, and having strongly astringent roots; in use from early times in medicine, and in tanning. Also called septfoil.
squit: (n) 1. A diminutive or insignificant person.
2. Stupid or silly talk; nonsense.
3. The weak-fish or sea-salmon, Cynoscion regalis (Otolithus regalis, Labrus Squeteague), of the eastern United States.
4. Diarrhoea. Now only in plural 'the squits'.
dead-leg: (n) 1. In Plumbing: A length of pipe between a hot-water cylinder and a hot tap, in which standing water cools when the tap is off, wasting water and energy.
2. Chiefly in form deadleg. An idle or worthless person; a dead-beat, a ‘loser’.
3. A temporarily numb and weak leg, usually one deliberately caused by a kick or blow, esp. of a person's knee to another's thigh. Frequently in 'to give (a person) a dead leg'.
conker: (n) 1. In plural: A boys' game, played originally with snail-shells, but now with horse-chestnuts, in which each boy has a chestnut on a string which he alternately strikes against that of his opponent and holds to be struck until one of the two is broken.
2. A horse-chestnut (formerly a snail-shell) used in the game; hence generally a snail-shell or horse-chestnut.
baize: (n) 1. A coarse woollen stuff, having a long nap, now used chiefly for linings, coverings, curtains, etc., in warmer countries for articles of clothing, e.g. shirts, petticoats, ponchos; it was formerly, when made of finer and lighter texture, used as a clothing material in Britain also.
2. A curtain, table-cover, etc. of baize.
2. Usually plural. The product of nocturnal study and meditation; hence, a literary work showing signs of careful elaboration. Now somewhat derisive or playful, suggesting the notion of something pedantic or over-elaborate.
tine: (v) 1. To close, shut (a door, gate, or window; a house, one's mouth, eyes, etc.)
2. To enclose or shut (a thing) up in something.
3. To enclose with a hedge or fence; to fence, to hedge in.
4. To make or repair (a hedge or fence).
5. To confine, restrain to something.
6. To lose; to suffer deprivation of; to cease to have or enjoy.
7. To fail to gain, attain, or win; to lose the battle, be defeated
8. To spend in vain or to no purpose, to waste
9. To cause the loss of.
10. To suffer loss.
11. To incur (a penalty).
12. To let slip from one's remembrance, to forget
13. To leave far behind, as in a race; to outstrip entirely; to get far ahead of
14. To ruin, destroy, bring to nought; To be lost, ruined, or destroyed; to perish.
15. To furnish with tines or prongs
16. To scratch or work with tines; to harrow.
bardash: (n) A catamite, ‘cinædus.’
cinædus: (n) 1. a man who fails to live up to traditional standards of masculine comportment.
2. a man whose most salient feature was a supposedly "feminine" love of being sexually penetrated by other men.
(interestingly, the OED defines 'catamite' as "A boy kept for unnatural purposes.". Um, can we be any more vague? I had to go outside the OED to get any definition of cinædus at all, despite the fact that they used the word in one of their own definitions. Seems the OED is prudish about some things after all.)
fumitory: (n) A plant of the genus Fumaria (or the related Corydalis), usually F. officinalis.
bistort: (n) 1. A species of Polygonum (P. bistorta), named from the twisted form of its large root, bearing a cylindrical spike of small flesh-coloured flowers; also called Snakeweed.
2. In Surgery: A scalpel; made in three forms, the straight, the curved, and the probe-pointed (which is also curved). (Also called a 'bistoury').
dodder: (n) 1. The common name of the genus Cuscuta, family Convolvulaceæ, comprising slender leafless plants, like masses of twining threads, parasitic on flax, clover, thyme, furze, and other plants.
2. Applied locally to some choking or climbing weeds.
exordium: (n) The beginning of anything; especially the introductory part of a discourse, treatise, etc.; ‘the proemial part of a composition’.
proemial: (adj) Of, relating to, or of the nature of a proem; prefatory, introductory.
supererogation: (n) 1. The performance of good works beyond what God commands or requires, which are held to constitute a store of merit which the Church may dispense to others to make up for their deficiencies.
2. Performance of more than duty or circumstances require; doing more than is needed.
burnet: (n) The popular name of plants belonging to the genera Sanguisorba and Poterium (family Rosaceæ), of which the Great or Common Burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) is common in meadows, and the Lesser or Salad Burnet (Poterium Sanguisorba) on the Chalk. The old herbalists confounded with these the Burnet Saxifrage Pimpinella Saxifraga, an umbelliferous plant resembling the Burnets in foliage.
umbelliferous: (adj) 1. In Botany: Bearing flowers arranged in umbels; of or belonging to the order of Umbelliferæ.
2. Produced by or grown on umbelliferous plants.
3. Umbelliform.
umbel: (n) 1. In Botany: A mass of inflorescence borne upon pedicels of nearly equal length springing from a common centre.
2. An umbelliferous plant.
3. In Zoology: An umbelliform arrangement of parts.
umbelliform: (adj) Having the form of an umbel.
centaury: (n) 1. A plant, of which the medicinal properties were said to have been discovered by Chiron the centaur; two species were distinguished, Centaurion majus, and C. minus (also lepton). The herbalists identified these (probably correctly) with two Gentianaceous plants, More or Yellow Centaury (Chlora perfoliata), and Common or Lesser Centaury (Erythræa Centaureum). Hence Centaury is sometimes used as the book-name for all the species of Erythræa.
2. By 16th c. herbalists, great centaury was (by some confusion) applied to a composite plant or plants; and to the genus containing these the name Centaurea was appropriated by Linnæus. Great Centaury of Turner was C. Rhapontica, of Lyte and his successors, C. Scabiosa, and ‘Centaury’ has since been extended as a book-name to all the species, as Australian, black, corn, erect, mealy, mountain centaury.
3. American centaury: a name for Sabbatia, a genus of North American herbs of the Gentian family, esp. S. angularis.
tormentil: (n) A low-growing herb, Potentilla Tormentilla (Tormentilla repens), N.O. Rosaceæ, of trailing habit, common on heaths and dry pastures, bearing small four-petalled yellow flowers, and having strongly astringent roots; in use from early times in medicine, and in tanning. Also called septfoil.
squit: (n) 1. A diminutive or insignificant person.
2. Stupid or silly talk; nonsense.
3. The weak-fish or sea-salmon, Cynoscion regalis (Otolithus regalis, Labrus Squeteague), of the eastern United States.
4. Diarrhoea. Now only in plural 'the squits'.
dead-leg: (n) 1. In Plumbing: A length of pipe between a hot-water cylinder and a hot tap, in which standing water cools when the tap is off, wasting water and energy.
2. Chiefly in form deadleg. An idle or worthless person; a dead-beat, a ‘loser’.
3. A temporarily numb and weak leg, usually one deliberately caused by a kick or blow, esp. of a person's knee to another's thigh. Frequently in 'to give (a person) a dead leg'.
conker: (n) 1. In plural: A boys' game, played originally with snail-shells, but now with horse-chestnuts, in which each boy has a chestnut on a string which he alternately strikes against that of his opponent and holds to be struck until one of the two is broken.
2. A horse-chestnut (formerly a snail-shell) used in the game; hence generally a snail-shell or horse-chestnut.
baize: (n) 1. A coarse woollen stuff, having a long nap, now used chiefly for linings, coverings, curtains, etc., in warmer countries for articles of clothing, e.g. shirts, petticoats, ponchos; it was formerly, when made of finer and lighter texture, used as a clothing material in Britain also.
2. A curtain, table-cover, etc. of baize.