Showing posts with label GRE exam. Show all posts
draggle
draggle \DRAG-uhl\, verb
1. To soil by dragging over damp ground or in mud.
2. To trail on the ground; be or become draggled.
3. To follow slowly; straggle.
No skirts to hold up, or to draggle their wet folds against my ankles; no stifling veil flapping in my face,
and blinding my eyes; no umbrella to turn inside out, but instead, the cool rain driving slap into my face…
-- Fanny Fern, Ruth Hall and Other Writing
You can't run through the streets after the water baths in that thing you draggle around the house.
-- Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, Anya
Draggle is obviously related to this more common word drag. It entered English in the late 1400s. The
suffix -le is a verb formation from Middle English, also seen in dazzle and twinkle, among others.
veloce
GRE Word of the Day
veloce \ve-LAW-che\, adjective:
Played at a fast tempo.
And when I tired of reading I would swim in my pool, parting the azure blue water like a veloce human knife.
-- Sergio De La Pava, A Naked Singularity
Ah, I mention his name and your eyes, they light up veloce come un razzo—fast as a rocket.
-- Jacquie D'Alessandro, Summer at Seaside Cove
Veloce stems from the Latin word velocem which was the accusative form of velox meaning "quick."
gull
GRE Word of the Day
gull \guhl\, verb:
1. To deceive, trick, or cheat.
noun:
1. A person who is easily deceived or cheated; dupe.
What new commodities have you brought to gull us with?
-- Sir Walter Scott, The Waverly Novels
People always ended up trying to gull her. It happened sooner or later. Trent hadn't shown any likelihood of
trying something like this. A pang of regret at her naivety lodged in her chest.
-- Lorelie Brown, Jazz Baby
Gull is of uncertain origin, but it may come from the now-obsolete word gull which meant "to guzzle."
demulcent
GRE Word of the Day
demulcent \dih-MUHL-suhnt\, adjective:
1. Soothing or mollifying, as a medicinal substance.
noun:
1. A demulcent substance or agent, often mucilaginous, as for soothing or protecting an irritated mucous
membrane.
It will do you no harm to keep close, drink nothing but demulcent barley-water and eat gruel, thin gruel—no
beef or mutton, no wine or spirits.
-- Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander
She knew where sour grass grew, which you chew for dyspepsy, and mint, excellent for the nau-shy, and the
slippery elm, whose fragrant inner bark was the favorite demulcent of a hundred years ago—the thing to use
for raw throat and other sore tishas.
-- James Thurber, Writings and Drawings
Demulcent comes from the Latin word demulcere which meant "to soften."