accosted

verb / uh-kos-tid / accost / accosts / accosting to approach and speak to someone in a challenging way I SAW a man pursuing the horizon;Round and round they sped.I was disturbed at this;I accosted the man.“It is futile,” I said,“You can never” — “You lie,” he cried,And ran on. Stephen Crane (I Saw a Man)

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acid

adjective / as-id / acidic / acidly / acidness / nonacid / preacid (Emotions) a way of speaking that causes irritation or discomfort (Seeing) extremely vibrant, possibly irritating, in color (Smelling) violently pungent odor (Tasting) sour in flavor (Touching) leaving a stain As Harry and Ron rounded the clump of trees behind which Harry had first heard the dragons roar, a witch leapt out from behind them. It was Rita Skeeter. She was wearing acid-green robes today; the Quick-Quotes Quill […]

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bay

verb / bey / bayed / bayer to howl with a deep, prolonged bark, like a dog on the prowl I‘M a lean dog, a keen dog, a wild dog, and lone; I’m a rough dog, a tough dog, hunting on my own; I’m a bad dog, a mad dog, teasing silly sheep; I love to sit and bay the moon, to keep fat souls from sleep. Irene Rutherford McLeod (Lone Dog)

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churlish

adjective / chur-lish / churl / churlishness / churlishly (Emotions) without manners, uncultivated, and difficult to work with The way I viewed it, there were lots of very ugly things in London, so, on the occasions when something beautiful with a glossy coat came along and nudged its cold nose into your hand, it seemed churlish not to take a few moments to celebrate the mere fact of its existence. Tom Cox (Under the Paw: Confessions of a Cat Man)

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curmudgeonly

adjective / ker-muhj-uhn-lee / curmudgeon / curmudgeons / curmudgeonry / curmudgeonliest / curmudgeonlier (Emotions) in a manner fitting a habitually grouchy person Sociologists also say that higher education and training in the scientific method generally make people less gullible. And for better or for worse, so does being in a bad mood. In several experiments, researchers found that when someone is in a good mood, they become more innocent and unsuspecting, while feeling grumpy makes one better at sensing deception. […]

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frazzled

adjective / fraz-uhld / frazzle / frazzles / frazzling (Emotions) utterly exhausted and tattered on the outside I am thinking about the way that life can be so slippery; the way that a twelve-year-old girl looking into the mirror to count freckles reaches out toward herself and that reflection has turned into that of a woman on her wedding day, righting her veil. And how, when that bride blinks, she reopens her eyes to see a frazzled young mother trying […]

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melancholy

noun / mel-uhn-kol-ee / melancholies / melancholia affected with deep thoughtful sadness BREATH o’ the grass,Ripple of wandering wind,Murmur of tremulous leaves:A moonbeam moving whiteLike a ghost across the plain:A shadow on the road;And high up, high,From the cypress-boughA long sweet melancholy note.Silence.And the topmost sprayOf the cypress-bough is stillAs a wavelet in a pool;The road lies duskily bare:The plain is a misty gloom:Still are the tremulous leaves;Scarce a last ripple of wind,Scarce a breath i’ the grass.Hush! the tired […]

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mirth

noun / murth / mithless / mirthful an emotion that follows humor and accompanied by laughter and amusement We, in the ages lyingIn the buried past of the earth,Built Nineveh with our sighing,And Babel itself with our mirth;And o’erthrew them with prophesyingTo the old of the new world’s worth;For each age is a dream that is dying,Or one that is coming to birth. Arthur O’Shaughnessy (The Music-Makers)  

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shudders

verb / shuhd-erd / shudder / shuddered / shuddering to tremble convulsively as a result of fear, revulsion, or coldness The true genius shudders at incompleteness — imperfection — and usually prefers silence to saying the something which is not everything that should be said. Edgar Allan Poe (Marginalia)  

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