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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