Words and their Definitions

[Doodoo]

Lollygag
To lollygag means to mess around or to waste time. The word has long been used in the English language and might be heard in a sentence such as this one:

It’s very difficult taking my daughter to the shops since she spends a lot of time lollygagging rather than doing what she is supposed to.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages
gam·bol
/ˈɡambəl/
verb
gerund or present participle: gambolling
run or jump about playfully.

Example: The temple ruins in Lop Bui are occupied by hundreds of gambolling monkeys, which the visitors feed. You should not leave your car doors or windows open because the monkeys will snatch anything that takes their fancy. They also climb on the trains which stop nearby and travel free on the roof.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... ing-around. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Bangkok Post PCL. All rights reserved.

[Doodoo]

Shuttlecock

A shuttlecock (also called a birdie or shuttle) is a high-drag projectile used in the sport of badminton. It has an open conical shape formed by feathers or plastic (or a synthetic alternative) embedded into a rounded cork (or rubber) base. The shuttlecock's shape makes it extremely aerodynamically stable. Regardless of initial orientation, it will turn to fly cork first, and remain in the cork-first orientation.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Spring and summer rain in wooded areas, particularly those planted with pine trees, may give rise to the unusual phenomena known as tree soap, when foam runs down tree trunks or collects at the base of the bole. When rain runs down tree trunks it is known as stemflow, but when the weather is dry chemicals can accumulate on the bark of trees. These can include natural plant substances such as sap, particulates from the air such as salts and acids, and other pollutants. Stemflow causes them to accumulate in a concentrated form. This is essentially a crude soap made with an alkali such as sodium or potassium, mixed with carboxylic acids, which is agitated into foam by the bumpiness of the bark it flows over.

Melissa Harrison

[Laan Yaa Mo]

'Wok' is a word that caused one of our members a bit of confusion earlier this evening on another thread.

A wok (Chinese: 鑊; Cantonese Yale: wohk) is a deep round-bottomed cooking pan of Chinese origin. It is believed to be derived from the South Asian karahi.

[Doodoo]

METREON
A metreon is a particle which can take the form of both radiation and gas. Metreon particles have been demonstrated to react with dark matter, and even to have temporal properties. In their gaseous form, metreon particles are extremely volatile, and are easily ignited via weapons fire.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Who could expect an Edinburgh tram to drop you at one of Britain’s premier birding sites? As the passengers alighted at Leith, the tram bell still ringing in their ears, they heard a strange, almost comic sound from the adjacent docks. It was the rolling, cooing ar-ooo call made by displaying eider ducks, though the human travellers could be forgiven for thinking that someone in the nearby flats was watching an old Frankie Howerd film, so similar is the eider call to the sound that he used to make on hearing a double entendre. These hefty sea ducks are one of our wildest, but here in the Port of Leith they swim around the docks like mallards on a boating lake.

Jonathan Tulloch

[Doodoo]

Anthropocene (adj)

Relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. (Noun: The Anthropocene.)

[Laan Yaa Mo]

It is easy to see why common terns are also known as sea swallows. With their long, thin wings, forked tails and slender bodies, they hover over the water with a breathtaking grace, before diving for fish. Is there a more graceful, buoyant flyer? Their aerodynamic skills enable them to catch sprats or sand eels in blustery seas, and when nesting near freshwater, to catch perch, roach or minnows. Though elegant in flight, it cannot be said that a common tern’s call is immediately beautiful to the human ear. Its rasping kee-yah call sounds like someone screaming. When you hear a colony of common terns, the sound is deafening and unsettling. It is meant to be. This collective cacophony is one way of driving off predators.

Jonathan Tulloch

[Doodoo]

Pol·der
noun

1.
a piece of low-lying land reclaimed from the sea or a river and protected by dikes, especially in the Netherlands

[Doodoo]

padawan
noun, informal :
a young person especially when regarded as naïve, inexperienced, etc.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

A mother mute swan sat on her nest, ringed by her cygnets. The cob (the male) was close by. The nest was huge, a 4m-wide platform. A joint enterprise between the parents, it had taken nearly three patient weeks to build, with the cob finding each piece of reed and driftwood, and handing them over to the female (the pen) for her to patiently build up the raft. Mute swan parents are extremely caring and protective of their young; the urban myth of them being able to break your arm probably comes from this instinct to keep their cygnets safe from a large range of predators including crows, magpies, herons, pike, foxes, rats and mink.

https://www.thetimes.com/comment/regist ... -p5ztd060z

[Doodoo]

Anthropocene (adj) : Relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene

The Trinity test in July 1945 has been proposed as the start of the Anthropocene.

[Doodoo]

Ver·i·si·mil·i·tude

noun

1.
the appearance of being true or real:
"the detail gives the novel some verisimilitude"

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Definition of geezer noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
geezer noun
/ˈɡizər/
(informal)

an old man, especially one who is rather strange
Some old geezer keeps coming around asking for money.

[Doodoo]

D'oh (ex):

Exclamation used to comment on a foolish or stupid action, especially one’s own.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Meaning of oaf in English

oaf
noun [ C ] old-fashioned
UK /əʊf/ US /oʊf/

a stupid, rude, or awkward person, especially a man:
a drunken/insensitive/stupid oaf
You clumsy oaf! You broke it!

[Doodoo]

edgelord
noun,
slang :
someone who makes wildly dark and exaggerated statements (as on an internet forum) with the intent of shocking others

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Ten per cent of all plants, from opium poppies to euphorbias, produce latex when damaged. It coagulates on contact with air, sealing wounds and protecting the plant from infection, and acts as a highly effective deterrent against invertebrates. Usually, latex is a white, milky liquid, but in greater celandines it’s bright orange and once was used to treat warts and other skin conditions, as the alkaloids it contains are antimicrobial. However, this is not advisable, as it can lead to tissue damage. Greater celandines (which are unrelated to lesser celandines) have been here since Roman times; its seeds are spread by ants, which carry them to their nests and feed the tasty covering to their larvae, after which a new plant germinates.

Melissa Harrison, The Times

[Doodoo]

zhuzh

noun
ˈzhu̇zh
variants or zhoosh
pluralzhuzhes or zhooshes
: a small improvement, adjustment, or addition that completes the overall look, taste, etc. of something