Banjax

BANJAX

-verb
1. To ruin or destroy.
-noun
2. (chiefly Irish, informal) A mess or undesirable situation made as a result of incompetence.























Banjax in the kitchen
A cooking storm gone feral
A feast on the table

Snib

SNIB

–noun
1. a bolt, catch, lock, or fastening on a door or window.
2. the catch that holds the bolt on a lock.
–verb (used with object)
3. to bolt or fasten (a door or window).






















Against you
I had snibbed the door
Forever
And ever
Forsaking our memories
With our common lies

Svelte

SVELTE

-adj.
1. Slender; lithe.
2. Graceful; suave.






















A svelte determined figure
She puts a dainty foot down
Sure of her facts, of her rights
Dusting should come about
At least once a week.

Wash

WASH

–verb (used with object)
1. to apply water or some other liquid to (something or someone) for the purpose of cleansing; cleanse by dipping, rubbing, or scrubbing in water or some other liquid.
2. to remove (dirt, stains, paint, or any matter) by or as by the action of water (usually followed by “out”, “off”, etc.).
3. to free from spiritual defilement or from sin, guilt, etc.
4. to bathe, wet, or moisten with water or other liquid.
5. to flow through, over, or against.
6. to carry, bring, remove, or deposit (something) by means of water or any liquid, or as the water or liquid does (often followed by “up”, “down”, or “along”)
7. to wear or diminish, as water does by flowing over or against a surface (often followed by “out” or “away”)
8. (of water) to form by flowing over and eroding a surface.
9. Mining .
a. to subject (earth or ore) to the action or force of water in order to separate valuable material.
b. to separate (valuable material) in this way.
10. to purify (a gas or gaseous mixture) by passage through or over a liquid.
11. to cover with a watery or thin coat of colour.
12. to overlay with a thin coat or deposit of metal.
–verb (used without object)
13. to wash oneself.
14. to wash clothes.
15. to cleanse anything with or in water or other liquid.
16. to undergo washing without injury, especially shrinking or fading: fabrics guaranteed to wash.
17. Informal . to be found true, valid, or real when tested or closely scrutinized; stand being put to the proof.
18. to be carried or driven by water (often followed by “along” or “ashore”).
19. to flow or beat with a lapping sound, as waves on a shore.
20. to move along in or as in waves, or with a rushing movement, as water.
21. to be eroded, as by a stream or by rainfall: a hillside that washes frequently.
22. to be removed by the action of water (often followed by “away”).
–noun
23. the act or process of washing with water or other liquid.
24. a quantity of clothes, linens, etc., washed, or to be washed, at one time.
25. a liquid with which something is washed, wetted, coloured, overspread, etc.
26. the flow, sweep, dash, or breaking of water.
27. the sound made by this.
28. water moving along in waves or with a rushing movement.
29. the rough or broken water left behind a moving ship, boat, etc.; wake.
30. Aeronautics . the disturbance in the air left behind by a moving airplane or any of its parts.
31. any of various liquids for grooming or cosmetic purposes.
32. a lotion or other liquid having medicinal properties, as an antiseptic solution or the like (often used in combination).
33. Mining . minerals from which valuable material can be extracted by washing.
34. the wearing away of the shore by breaking waves.
35. a tract of land washed by the action of the sea or a river.
36. a marsh, fen, or bog.
37. a small stream or shallow pool.
38. a shallow arm of the sea or a shallow part of a river.
39. a depression or channel formed by flowing water.
40. Geology . alluvial matter transferred and deposited by flowing water.
41. Also called dry wash. Western U.S. the dry bed of an intermittent stream.
42. a broad, thin layer of colour applied by a continuous movement of the brush, as in water-colour painting.
43. Also called watershed, weathering. Architecture .
a. an upper surface so inclined as to shed rain water from a building.
b. any member of a building having such a surface.
44. Also, washing. a thin coat of metal applied in liquid form.
45. waste liquid matter, refuse, food, etc., from the kitchen, as for hogs; swill (often used in combination).
46. washy or weak liquor or liquid food.
47. the fermented wort from which the spirit is extracted in distilling.
48. Informal . an action that yields neither gain nor loss.
–adj.
49. capable of being washed without shrinking, fading, etc.; washable.



She applies a wash
In a sweeping motion
Over and over
Always on the same spot
I often wonder
If this is not some type of
Self hypnotism

Moor

MOOR

–noun
1. a tract of open, peaty, wasteland, often overgrown with heath, common in high latitudes and altitudes where drainage is poor; heath.
2. a tract of land preserved for game.

–verb (used with object)
1. to secure (a ship, boat, dirigible, etc.) in a particular place, as by cables and anchors or by lines.
2. to fix firmly; secure.
–verb (used without object)
3. to moor a ship, small boat, etc.
4. to be made secure by cables or the like.
–noun
5. the act of mooring.






















I often wonder about
Fate
Mooring meanings together
Securing them to one same word,
While I trace provenance
For a clue
A Motive
For their gathering.

Ventifact

VENTIFACT

-noun
A stone shaped, polished, or faceted by windblown sand.
























Historical ventifacts
Modelled by the breath of time
And inquisitive minds

Nyctophobia

NYCTOPHOBIA

-noun
An abnormal fear of night or darkness.



January days
Suffering nyctophobia
Pushing night away

Horripilation

HORRIPILATION

–noun
a bristling of the hair on the skin from cold, fear, etc.; goose flesh.



Old marble is cold
Yet the gull does not contemplate
Horripilation.

Palpitate

PALPITATE

-verb
1. To pulsate with unusual rapidity from exertion, emotion, disease, etc.; flutter.
2. To cause to pulsate or tremble.























Life still palpitates
Within the baked surface
Each man facing death
Differently.

Lagniappe

LAGNIAPPE

-noun
1. A small gift given with a purchase to a customer, for good measure.
2. A gratuity or tip.
3. An unexpected or indirect benefit.



I am chasing smiles
Few feeble lagniappes
In a life of love,
Ingrained servitude,
And habit blindness.

Heuristic

HEURISTIC

–adj.
1. serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.
2. encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error.
3. of, pertaining to, or based on experimentation, evaluation, or trial-and-error methods.
4. Computers, Mathematics . pertaining to a trial-and-error method of problem solving used when an algorithmic approach is impractical.
–noun
5. a heuristic method of argument.
6. the study of heuristic procedure.



I justify my book craving
With heuristics
Research for my stories
Lies.

Neuston

NEUSTON

-noun
The aggregate of minute aquatic organisms that inhabit the surface of a body of water.






















I can see stars and
Minute galaxies
Spread on my windshield
Neuston laden ice
Wild baroque patterns
Combined into art

Exogamy

EXOGAMY

-noun
Marriage outside one's tribe or a similar social unit.























They dance
The exogamy waltz
While the world stares and frowns
Not a care on their mind.

Aeneous

AENEOUS

–adj.
bronze-coloured























Aeneous backside
Marred by decay and time
Nonetheless alluring
Centuries down the line.

Burke

BURKE

–verb (used with object)
1. to murder, as by suffocation, so as to leave no or few marks of violence.
2. to suppress or get rid of by some indirect manoeuvre.



Snow and ice weapons
On some burking manoeuvre.
Dull shovelling sounds.

Farouche

FAROUCHE

-adj.
1. Sullenly unsociable or shy.
2. Fierce.



Farouche clouds
A promise of hail
Or world's end.

Quatopygia

QUATOPYGIA

-Noun
An enticing movement of a man or woman's rear end.























Looking up,
I see no quatopygia
But my eyes do the dance.
And do they dance!

Scurf

SCURF

–noun
1. the scales or small shreds of epidermis that are continually exfoliated from the skin.
2. any scaly matter or incrustation on a surface.



Chasing last years' scurf
Scrubbing, scouring, polishing.
New year remains old.


Happy New(ish) Year

Demise

DEMISE

–noun
1. death or decease.
2. termination of existence or operation.
3. Law .
a. a death or decease occasioning the transfer of an estate.
b. a conveyance or transfer of an estate.
4. Government . transfer of sovereignty, as by the death or deposition of the sovereign.
–verb (used with object)
5. Law . to transfer (an estate or the like) for a limited time; lease.
6. Government . to transfer (sovereignty), as by the death or abdication of the sovereign.
–verb (used without object)
7. Law . to pass by bequest, inheritance, or succession.
























Senescent year
Waiting for its demise
In a glass of sparkles.

Engram

ENGRAM

-noun
1. The supposed physical basis of an individual memory in the brain.
2. A presumed encoding in neural tissue that provides a physical basis for the persistence of memory; a memory trace.



I keep your gloves close to my heart,
Close to my lips, close to my nose,
Tracing faded presence into the fold,
Creases of leather, engrams of memories.

You wore these to church on Sunday
And when meeting secret admirers;
I can't reconcile the ideas:
A volage yet pious grand-mother.

Over the years, I'd forgotten
You were merely human.


The background picture is copyright of Willow of Willow Manor, who has put it forth as a writing prompt.
Join the writing fun at Magpie Tales.

Toil

TOIL

–noun
1. hard and continuous work; exhausting labour or effort.
2. a laborious task.
3. Archaic . battle; strife; struggle.
–verb (used without object)
4. to engage in hard and continuous work; labour arduously.
5. to move or travel with difficulty, weariness, or pain.
–verb (used with object)
6. to accomplish or produce by toil.

–noun
1. Usually, toils. a net or series of nets in which game known to be in the area is trapped or into which game outside of the area is driven.
2. Usually, toils. trap; snare: to be caught in the toils of a gigantic criminal conspiracy.
3. Archaic . any snare or trap for wild beasts.



Toils let out to dry,
Many such less worries
Paling in the warmth

Thumb

THUMB

–noun
1. the short, thick, inner digit of the human hand, next to the forefinger.
2. the corresponding digit in other animals; pollex.
3. the part of a glove or mitten for containing this digit.
4. Architecture . an ovolo or echinus moulding.
–verb (used with object)
5. to soil or wear with the thumbs in handling, as the pages of a book.
6. to glance through (the pages of a book, leaflet, etc.) quickly.
7. to play (a guitar or other instrument) with or as with the thumbs.
8. (of a hitchhiker) to solicit or get (a ride) by pointing the thumb in the desired direction of travel.






















I thumb through your body,
Looking for favourite parts
Mindless of scars and fractures
That tell of a long love tale.

Divagate

DIVAGATE

-verb
1. To wander; stray.
2. To digress in speech.



Here our road divagates into nothingness
Strangled silences and dire hesitations
Here we must part or run into a slow death
Suffocation by unspoken words or hate.

Fulsome

FULSOME

-adj.
1. Effusive; lavish.
2. Excessive to the point of being offensive.



Fulsome clouds
Painting summer's end.
New ink scent.

Halcyon

HALCYON

-adj.
1. calm; peaceful; tranquil.
2. rich; wealthy; prosperous.
3. happy; joyful; carefree.
4. of or pertaining to the halcyon or kingfisher.
–noun
5. a mythical bird, usually identified with the kingfisher, said to breed about the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea, and to have the power of charming winds and waves into calmness.
6. any of various kingfishers, especially of the genus Halcyon.
7. ( initial capital letter ) Classical Mythology . a daughter of Aeolus who, with her husband, Ceyx, was transformed into a kingfisher.



Halcyon clouds
Dreaming of being birds
But scared of water

Tattle

TATTLE

–verb (used without object)
1. to let out secrets.
2. to chatter, prate, or gossip.
–verb (used with object)
3. to utter idly; disclose by gossiping.
–noun
4. the act of tattling.
5. idle talk; chatter; gossip.























Tattles come to life
Gaining in complexity.
Santa Claus is real!

Ebullient

EBULLIENT

-adj.
1. boiling, agitated
2. characterized by ebullience; having or showing liveliness and enthusiasm






















Ebullient times
Hard on the grumpy mind
Too many glitters ready to explode

Orography

OROGRAPHY

–noun
the branch of physical geography dealing with mountains.



Lavishing orography attention
I survey your valleys and summits
Looking for ore
Finding snow

Pneuma

PNEUMA

-noun
Spirit, soul.






















Pneuma filled places
Haunting rather than haunted
Wind moving shadows

Stroot

STROOT

-v. trans.
To swell out; to strut. (obsolete)






















Autumn showers
Overtaking the lawn
Strooting mushrooms

Prone

PRONE

–adj.
1. having a natural inclination or tendency to something; disposed; liable.
2. having the front or ventral part downward; lying face downward.
3. lying flat; prostrate.
4. having a downward direction or slope.
5. having the palm downward, as the hand.

–noun
a sermon or a brief hortatory introduction to a sermon, usually delivered at a service at which the Eucharist is celebrated.






















Prone lying kitty
Prone to lying too

Crapulous

CRAPULOUS

-adj.
1. marked by intemperance especially in eating or drinking
2. sick from excessive indulgence in liquor























I fear crapulous times ahead
But refuse to fast in wait.

Precatory

PRECATORY

-adj.
1. Expressing a request.
2. Nonbinding: only expressing a wish or giving a suggestion.






















Precatory angels
Offering expiation
But refusing grace

Novercal

NOVERCAL

–adj.
of, like, or befitting a stepmother.






















I attempt novercal attention
Applying best behaviour to the cats
Only to be branded as evil.

Ontology

ONTOLOGY

–noun
1. philosophy the branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being
2. logic the set of entities presupposed by a theory
3. Computing
a. A systematic account of Existence.
b. (From philosophy) An explicit formal specification of how to represent the objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them.
c. The hierarchical structuring of knowledge about things by subcategorising them according to their essential (or at least relevant and/or cognitive) qualities.






















I must confess unrest
Seeing ontology applied to servers
What gods are we creating
That will smother us?

Bistre

BISTRE

-noun
1. a yellowish-brown to dark-brown pigment made from the soot of burned wood
2. any of various colors in this range























Bistre statues
Showing off in a corner
Not much to boast of.

Goniometer

GONIOMETER

–noun
an instrument for measuring solid angles, as of crystals.




Women are fabled
For using secret goniometers
To judge a man's solidity
It is unfortunate that
Most of the time
Calibration of the instrument
Has been overlooked.

Dilettante

DILETTANTE

–noun
1. a person who takes up an art, activity, or subject merely for amusement, especially in a desultory or superficial way; dabbler.
2. a lover of an art or science, especially of a fine art.
–adj.
3. of or pertaining to dilettantes.






















They call me an amateur,
The word rank and bitter to my ears
I prefer that of dilettante
Being one that enjoys the arts
A mindless and blissful dabbler.

Ferly

FERLY

-adj.
1. Fearful; terrible.
2. Unexpected; sudden.
3. Singular; wonderful; extraordinary.
-noun
4. A wonder; a strange deed, event, or object.























Ferly morsel
Autumn fragrance captured
Comfort food.

Cater-cousin

CATER-COUSIN

-noun
An intimate friend.






















My cat
Is a cater-cousin
In some fashion:
She loves to sleep with me
On me.

Cachinnate

CACHINNATE

–verb (used without object)
to laugh loudly or immoderately.



Lost in whiteness
Crows cachinnate over snow
Making cold colder.

Eddy

EDDY

–noun
1. a current at variance with the main current in a stream of liquid or gas, esp. one having a rotary or whirling motion.
2. a small whirlpool.
3. any similar current, as of air, dust, or fog.
4. a current or trend, as of opinion or events, running counter to the main current.
–verb (used with or without object)
5. to move or whirl in eddies.






















I let myself sucked into
The eddies of time
An eternal return of the cycle
Yet not quite:
Exactitude as hell promises
Deviations delight.

Crowd

CROWD

–noun
1. A large number of persons gathered together; a throng.
2. The common people; the populace.
3. A group of people united by a common characteristic, as age, interest, or vocation.
4. A group of people attending a public function; an audience.
5. A large number of things positioned or considered together.
–verb int.
6. To congregate in a restricted area; throng.
7. To advance by pressing or shoving.
–verb trans.
8. To force by or as if by pressing or shoving.
9. To draw or stand near to: The batter crowded the plate.
10. To press, cram, or force tightly together: crowded the clothes into the closet.
11. To fill or occupy to overflowing: Books crowded the shelves.
12. Informal To put pressure on, as to pay a debt.
–noun
13. An ancient Celtic stringed instrument that was bowed or plucked. Also called crwth.
15. Chiefly British A fiddle.























Gather about,
Bear with me as I draw the crowd
Keeping it tense
The old bow quivering with effort
Ready for music.


Background picture courtesy of Angela Anderson-Cobb

Chortle

CHORTLE

-noun
1. a noisy joyful laugh, often featuring a snort
-int. and trans. verb
2. to laugh or express with a chortle






















Here by
The fountain
Full of chortles
I can feel your heart
As we hold hands
Beating wild
With mine.

Strop

STROP

–noun
1. any of several devices for sharpening razors, especially a strip of leather or other flexible material.
2. Also, strap. Nautical, Machinery .
a. a rope or a band of metal surrounding and supporting a block, etc.
b. a metal band surrounding the pulley of a block to transmit the load on the pulley to its hook or shackle.
c. a rope sling, as for handling cargo.
d. a ring or grommet of rope.
–verb (used with object)
3. to sharpen on or as if on a strop.



Let this be said
And not forgotten:
Your tongue has known the strop
And cuts to the core.

Felicific

FELICIFIC

–adj.
causing or tending to cause happiness.






















Felicific food
Shared with friends and love.
Magic calories.

Mordacious

MORDACIOUS

–adj.
1. biting or given to biting.
2. sharp or caustic in style, tone, etc.



Hers is a mordacious smile
Dreams full of playfull nipping
Tender morsels to be teased.

Samizdat

SAMIZDAT

-noun
An underground publishing system used to print and circulate banned literature clandestinely. Also, such literature.



Holland was once offering a unique samidzat against censure.
Nowadays, Internet fills the gap.
But censure never stops.

Pristine

PRISTINE

–adj.
1. having its original purity; uncorrupted or unsullied.
2. of or pertaining to the earliest period or state; primitive.






















For days we forgot you
But then we saw you had not been out
Pristine snow telling on your weakness
And came back
Too late.


The background picture is copyright of Willow of Willow Manor, who has put it forth as a writing prompt.
Join the writing fun at Magpie Tales.

Onomancy

ONOMANCY

-noun
Divination by the letters of a name.



Trying to find
The perfect name
For my characters
Onomancy
Less potent than
Alliteration