Laconic Poetry Flashcards
Bilk
verb (used with object)
to defraud; cheat: He bilked the government of almost a million dollars.
to evade payment of (a debt).
to frustrate: a career bilked by poor health.
to escape from; elude: to bilk one’s pursuers.
noun
a cheat; swindler.
a trick; fraud; deceit.
Example Sentences:
The existence of the placebo effect does not justify the action of using it to bilk the public.
The incentives were more complex than to bilk shareholders by betting the ranch every time.
It isn’t, really, to bilk the tax-payers out of as much money as possible.
Origin: 1625–35; of obscure origin
Churl
noun
a rude, boorish, or surly person.
a peasant; rustic.
a niggard; miser: He was a churl in his affections.
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English History . a freeman of the lowest rank.
Example Sentences:
None but the pickiest churl could find a significant omission in this compilation.
House is equal parts brilliant diagnostician and-oh, dear-sulfurous churl , wounded in body and in spirit.
He is a churl with a soft place in his heart, whose speech is a brash of bitter waters, but who loves to help you at a pinch.
Origin: before 900; Middle English cherl, Old English ceorl man, freeman; cognate with Dutch kerel, German Kerl; akin to carl
Pale
noun
a stake or picket, as of a fence.
an enclosing or confining barrier; enclosure.
an enclosed area.
limits; bounds: outside the pale of his jurisdiction.
a district or region within designated bounds.
(initial capital letter)Also called English Pale Irish Pale. a district in eastern Ireland included in the Angevin Empire of King Henry II and his successors.
an ordinary in the form of a broad vertical stripe at the center of an escutcheon.
Shipbuilding. a shore used inside to support the deck beams of a hull under construction.
verb (used with object)
to enclose with pales; fence.
to encircle or encompass.
Idioms
beyond the pale beyond the limits of propriety, courtesy, protection, safety, etc.: Their public conduct is certainly beyond the pale.
Origin: 1300–50; Middle English (north), Old English pāl < Latin pālus stake. See peel3 , pole1
