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caitiff KAY-tuhf noun, adjective a despicable coward; a loathsome wretch 1915Jeffery FarnolMy Lady CapriceBase caitiff, hold!1921Giovanni BoccaccioThe Decameron...you stretch forth your delicate hands and cull the roses, leaving the thorns alone: which, being interpreted, means that you will leave the caitiff husband to abide in sorry plight with his dishonour…1949Henry KuttnerSee You LaterDidn't you realize what this caitiff schmo was planning, the stinkard?Labels: Giovanni Boccaccio, Henry Kuttner, Jeffery Farnol
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Entry By: CJ Cooney
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volte-face volt-FAWS noun an about face; a turnabout; a reversal of point-of-view 1917William John LockeThe Red PlanetHe was alive, he professed robust health, and in reply to Mrs. Holmes's frantically expressed hope that he was adopting no course that might discredit his father's name, he twitted her with intellectual volte-face to the views of Philistia, but at the same time assured her that he was doing nothing which the most self-righteous bourgeois would consider discreditable.1920John GalsworthyThe FoundationsPOULDER. [Making a volte face towards the table] Miss?1951Henry KuttnerThe Ego Machine'Mad or sane, I am Nicholas Martin,' Martin announced, with an abrupt volte face.Labels: Henry Kuttner, John Galsworthy, William John Locke
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rodomontade raw-duh-muhn-TAYD noun vain and pretentious boasting; braggadocio; bluster; jactance 1903Samuel ButlerThe Way of All Flesh'It may be observed that while Euripides accuses AEschylus of being 'pomp-bundle-worded,' which I suppose means bombastic and given to rodomontade, AEschylus retorts on Euripides that he is a 'gossip gleaner, a describer of beggars, and a rag-stitcher,' from which it may be inferred that he was truer to the life of his own times than AEschylus was.1951Henry KuttnerThe Ego MachineAbout his ears the hypnotic bursts of Disraelian rodomontade thundered compellingly.1986Sheri S. TepperDervish DaughterEverything I have learned about him indicates this is really true and not some mere bit of rodomontade.Labels: Henry Kuttner, Samuel Butler, Sheri S. Tepper
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saturnine SA-turh-nain adjective to be melancholy; to be bitterly sarcastic; a grave; foreboding appearance 1878Bret Harte Drift From Two Shores After the Sunday episode, already referred to, she was given her liberty on that day, a privilege she gracefully recognized by somewhat unbending her usual austerity in the indulgence of a saturnine humor. 1946Henry KuttnerVintage SeasonHe saw one man's face, over and overa long, dark saturnine face, deeply lined, sorrowful, the face of a powerful man wise in worldliness, urbane and helpless.1957Jim ThompsonWild TownBugs glowered at him helplessly, wanting nothing so much as to smash his fist into the deputy's bland, saturnine face.1995Brian JacquesThe Outcast of RedwallTall and saturnine, he dressed plainly and affected the manner of a gentlebeast.Labels: Bret Harte, Brian Jacques, Henry Kuttner, Jim Thompson
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Entry By: CJ Cooney
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