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- Word
Hound is a noun for a hunting dog (or, informally, a person who pursues something avidly) and a verb meaning to chase or harass someone persistently.
- Word
A bicuspid is a premolar tooth with two cusps (points), sitting between the canines and the molars; as an adjective, bicuspid describes a body part that has two points, such as a bicuspid aortic valve.
- Word
Maturated is the past tense and past participle of maturate: it means became mature or brought to maturity, and in pathology it can mean that a wound or lesion formed or discharged pus (suppurated).
- New usage
Maturated love is best read as a spelling/variant phrasing of mature love: a secure, caring partnership built on care, responsiveness, knowledge, and respect—not a clinical claim that love “maturated” like a wound, and not a measured psychology statistic.
- Word
Trenched is the past tense and past participle of trench: it usually means dug a long narrow ditch (often for utilities, planting, or military cover), or describes ground cut with such ditches.
- Word
Calico is cotton cloth—plain heavy cotton in UK use, printed patterned cotton in US use—and, especially in American English, a cat with white plus black and orange (or diluted) patches; UK speakers often call that coat tortoiseshell and white.
- Word
Grist is grain prepared for grinding, and by extension anything useful you can turn to your advantage—especially in the phrase grist for the mill; capitalized, Grist is also an open-source relational spreadsheet product.
- Word
A bell jar is a bell-shaped glass cover used to protect objects or hold gases or a vacuum; the phrase is also famous as the title of Sylvia Plath’s novel and as a metaphor for feeling trapped by depression.
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To meddle is to involve yourself in someone else’s business without the right or invitation—usually in a way others find annoying or improper.
- Word
A trifle is something of little value or importance; as a verb it means to treat lightly; and in British cooking it is a layered cold dessert of sponge, fruit or jam, custard, and cream.
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Slang4 entries
Informal expressions used in conversations, online communities, and everyday life. Meaning can change with context and tone.
New usages1 entry
Familiar words used in a different way. These entries focus on the contemporary sense and distinguish it from the ordinary meaning.
Words13 entries
Words worth understanding, with plain-English definitions, original examples, and sources for further reading.
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