[Word Powers] Daily Words - June 2009

Dote (doht) (verb): 1. to bestow or express excessive love or fondness habitually (usually fol. by on or upon): 2. to show a decline of mental faculties, esp. associated with old age. They dote on their daughter.
Mote (moht) (noun): A small particle or speck, esp. of dust. I am sorry. There is no room in my bag, even for a single mote.
Aerie (air-ee, eer-ee) (noun): The nest of a bird of prey, as an eagle or a hawk. A house, fortress, or the like, located high on a hill or mountain Joe lives in a sleek, 20th-floor aerie with a spectacular view of the city.
Airy (air-ee) (adjective): Open to a free current of fresh air; breezy: airy rooms. Not practical or realizable; speculative. We have heard airy theories about socioeconomic improvement.

Chide (chahyd) (verb): 1. To express disapproval of; scold; reproach The principal chided the children for their thoughtless pranks. 2. To harass, nag, impel, or the like by chiding She chided him into apologizing.
Grok (grok) (verb): To understand profoundly through intuition or empathy. The fact is that virtue is its own reward, but sadly not too many people grok that today.
	Reverie (rev-uh-ree) (noun): A state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing. Seemingly asleep, he was lost in reverie listening to the audio track of the classic movie Casablanca.
	Resuscitate (ri-suhs-i-teyt) (verb): To restore consciousness, vigor, or life. After a very hectic season, Richardson took off to Florida to seek rest and resuscitation to stop himself from going mad !

Specious (spee-shuhs) (adj): 1. Apparently good or right though lacking real merit. 2. Pleasing to the eye but deceptive. The river’s beauty turned out to be specious; what had looked like churning rapids from a distance, was some sort of foamy industrial waste on closer inspection.
Spurious (spyoor-ee-uhs) (noun): Not genuine, or true. Makers of spurious goods and drugs reportedly earn Rs 60,000 crore every year.
Nelson (nel-suhn) (noun): The name, applied to team or individual scores of 111 or 222 (known as a double nelson) is thought to refer to Lord Nelson's lost eye, arm and leg (Nelson actually had both of his legs intact, the third missing body part is mythical). Umpire David Shepherd made popular the longstanding practice of raising a leg or legs from the ground on Nelson in an effort to avoid ill fate.
Chinaman (chahy-nuh-muhn) (noun): A left-handed bowler bowling wrist spin. For a right-handed batsman, the ball will move from the off side to the leg side (left to right on the TV screen). Named after Ellis "Puss" Achong, a West Indian left-arm wrist-spin bowler of Chinese descent. The South African Paul Adams, well known for his unusual "frog-in-a-blender" bowling action, is perhaps the best known recent practitioner and has taken more Test wickets through chinaman bowling than any other player.

Googly (goo-glee) (noun): 1. A bowled ball that swerves in one direction and breaks in the other. 2. A deceptive spinning delivery by a leg spin bowler. For a right-hander bowler and a right-handed batsman, a googly will turn from the off side to the leg side. The googly is a major weapon in the arsenal of a leg spin bowler, and can be one of the bowler's most effective wicket-taking bowls.
Beamer (bee-mer) (noun): A delivery that reaches the batsman at around head height without bouncing. Due to the risk of injury to the batsman, a beamer is an illegal delivery, punishable by a no ball being called. Repeated or deliberate cases of using beamer may result in the bowler being barred from bowling again for the remainder of the innings (or match), as happened with Waqar Younis in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
Brace (breys) (noun): 1. (verb) to fix firmly; make steady; secure against pressure or impact He braces himself when the ship rolls. 2. (noun) In Cricket: two wickets taken off two consecutive deliveries. Brace is not very commonly used and after a bowler has taken two wickets in a row, it is more common to say that they are "on a hat-trick".
Gazunder (guzunder) (noun): 1. In Cricket: A delivery that fails to bounce to the expected height after bouncing, thus beating the batsman and "goes under" the bat. 2. In Investment: When a buyer reduces her bid for a property before the transaction has been signed and finalized. This often happens when the seller desperately wants to sell the property. Gazunder often results in batsmen being out bowled.
Flipper (flip-er) (noun): A leg spin delivery with under-spin, so it bounces lower than normal. Rather than turn away from the bat like a normal leg spinner, the flipper skids on low and fast after pitching.
Featherbed (feth-er-bed) (noun): A wicket which is considered to be good for batting on, offering little, if any, help for a bowler. The T20 format has reduced cricket to a wholesale slaughter of the bowlers on featherbeds in order to attract crowds.
Agricultural shot (noun): A swing across the line of the ball (resembling a scything motion) played without much technique. Often one that results in a chunk of the pitch being dug up by the bat. The term is believed to have originated in the city-country games in Australia, where the farmers normally had less technique, but more power than their city rivals. Bogged down by the accurate bowling, Gautam decided to break the shackles by playing an agricultural shot over the bowlers head for four.
Wagon wheel (noun): A graphical chart which divides a cricket ground into six sectors (looking like the spokes of a wagon style wheel), and shows how many runs a batsman has scored into each area This will be the first package to produce both batting wagon wheels and bowling length views.
Gamut (GAM-uht) (noun): 1. The entire scale or range 2. In Music - The entire series of recognized notes. In her stories she expresses the whole gamut of emotions, from happiness to sorrow.
Coy (koi) (adj): 1. Shy; modest. 2. Tending to avoid people and social situations; reserved. The mayor was coy about his future political aspirations.
Trite (trahyt) (adj): 1. Lacking in freshness or effectiveness because of constant use or excessive repetition; hackneyed; stale 2. Expressed too frequently to be interesting or seem sincere His lyrics about love and peace are too trite for me to take them seriously.
Instigate (IN-sti-geyt) (verb): 1. To cause by incitement; 2. To urge, provoke, or incite to some action or course The revolt in the north is believed to have been instigated by a high-ranking general.
Ersatz (er-zahts) (Adjective): artificial and inferior; What the Obama administration is doing is far worse than nationalization: it is ersatz capitalism, the privatizing of gains and the socializing of losses.
Emeritus (i-mer-i-tuhs) (verb): Retired, but retaining one's title on an honorary basis or life. Dr. Abdul Kalam, who stepped down as president last year, is now a Professor Emeritus at Gandhigram University.
Salient (sey-lee-uhnt, seyl-yuhnt) (Adj): Prominent or conspicuous Gandhiji had a number of salient features such as his round glasses and his khadhi attire.
Sagacious (suh-gey-shuhs) (Adj): Having or showing acute mental discernment and keen practical sense; shrewd The announcer’s sagacious commentary made the game seem vastly more interesting than expected.
	Demagogue (dem-uh-gog,-gawg) : 1. (Noun) A person, esp. an orator or political leader, who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people. 2. (Verb) To treat or manipulate (a political issue) in the manner of a demagogue; obscure or distort with emotionalism, prejudice, etc.. Adolf Hitler, a charismatic, Austrian-born demagogue, rose to power in Germany during the 1920s and early 1930s at a time of social, political, and economic upheaval.
	Raucous (raw-kuhs) (Adj): 1. harsh; strident; grating: raucous voices; raucous laughter. 2. rowdy; disorderly: a raucous party. The crowd becomes quite raucous for French internationals, and downright mad during the World Cup.
	Lunge (luhnj) (noun/verb): 1. a sudden forward thrust, as with a sword or knife; stab. 2. any sudden forward movement; plunge. Tom suddenly lunged at Jack with a broken bottle.
	Curtsy (Curtsey) (KURT-see) (verb): A respectful bow made by women and girls, consisting of bending the knees and lowering the body. She curtseyed to the Queen.

Amiable (ey-mee-uh-buhl) (Adj): 1. Having or showing pleasant, good-natured personal qualities; affable: an amiable disposition. 2. Friendly; sociable: an amiable greeting; an amiable gathering. His amiable disposition acquired him a large circle of friends, who deeply lament his death.
	Daedal (deed-l) (Adj): 1. Complex or ingenious in form or function; intricate. 2. Skillful; artistic; ingenious. Most Web-site designers realize that large image maps and daedal layouts are to be avoided by using uncluttered, easy-to-use layouts.
Emancipate (ih-man-suh-peyt) (verb): Give equal rights to; of women and minorities To free from restraint, control His goal was to emancipate these people from the wretched plight they were in owing to historical injustice.
	Apace (uh-peys) (Adverb): Quickly, swiftly, at full speed. “The rough and ready man who write apace, Read somewhat seldomer, think perhaps even less” – Robert Browning
Waif (weyf) (noun): 1. A person, esp. a child, who has no home or friends. Although he already had eight cats, he could not resist adopting yet another feline waif. 2. A stray item or article: To gather waifs of gossip.
Prehensile (pri-HEN-sil, -sahyl) (adj): 1. Adapted for seizing, grasping, or taking hold of something: a prehensile tail. 2. Able to perceive quickly; having keen mental grasp. Giraffes have extremely long prehensile tongues, measuring well over 30cm.
Chenille (shuh-neel) (noun): a velvety cord or yarn of silk or worsted, for embroidery, fringes, etc. A deep-pile, durable, woolen carpeting with chenille weft is the most expensive power-loomed floor covering.
Pedagogue (ped-uh-gog, -gawg) (verb): A teacher or headmaster, a mentor, a guide, somebody who shows you the way to proceed. One of the most famous pedagogues of India, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, always used to say, “Learning is a process people do, not a process that is done to people”.