tbtabby has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 18 lists, listed 632 words, written 459 comments, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.

Comments by tbtabby

  • The longest word I know of that you can spell with only two letters.

    June 18, 2023

  • A baby porcupine. Aren't they cute?

    September 22, 2022

  • A milkette is the tiny plastic container with a single serving of milk or cream for your coffee that you get in restaurants.

    November 12, 2020

  • Isosceles, Isosceles,

    Two angles have equal degrees.

    Isosceles, Isosceles,

    You look just like a Christmas tree.

    November 7, 2020

  • Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz.

    August 27, 2020

  • "Why do you think they call it dope?"

    Not because it makes you act like a dope. The word is derived from the Dutch word "doop," which means "thick dipping sauce." It originally referred to any thick, saucy liquid until the late 19th century, when it was used to refer to opium paste. So it's actually the other way around; stupid people are called dopes because they act like they're on dope.

    June 29, 2020

  • In Scrabble, playing only one or two tiles at a time to hold on to letters that can be used for a high-scoring word on the next turn.

    November 27, 2019

  • Drawing tiles immediately after playing a word. This is done because players can only challenge a word before the player who laid it out draws tiles from the bag.

    November 27, 2019

  • A one-sided Scrabble match, so called because even your granny couldn't lose. Also known as a blowout or a no-brainer.

    November 27, 2019

  • The Scrabble equivalent of card counting; studying the board to determine what letters are in the bag or an opponent's rack.

    November 27, 2019

  • The ten most advantageous tiles in Scrabble: the two blanks, 4 Ss, J, Q, X, and Z.

    November 27, 2019

  • Playing as many tiles as possible in order to get the maximum number of tiles from the bag.

    November 27, 2019

  • A word that ends with the same letter twice.

    November 27, 2019

  • Playing Scrabble in a way that the remaining tiles on the rack will be useful on the next turn.

    November 27, 2019

  • A variant of Scrabble in which the players' tiles are face-up.

    November 27, 2019

  • In Scrabble, when there are fewer than seven tiles in the bag.

    November 27, 2019

  • Distracting your opponent with behavior such as chatting or drumming your fingers on the board. Against the rules in tournament play.

    November 27, 2019

  • In Scrabble, a word that looks like a misspelling of another word. Useful for tricking opponents into challenging valid words. For example, sycosis looks like a misspelling of psychosis.

    November 27, 2019

  • The act of feeling the tiles when you reach into the tile bag in order to get a tile you want. Against the rules in tournament play.

    November 27, 2019

  • A tile worth a lot of points, such as Q or Z.

    November 27, 2019

  • A close game of Scrabble, decided by which player gets stuck with the Q.

    November 27, 2019

  • Discarding an unwanted Q when the game is nearly over.

    November 27, 2019

  • In Scrabble, a word that's difficult to extend, such as vug or fez.

    November 27, 2019

  • A letter than can be added to a word on the board, changing it into a new word. If it's done with more than one letter, it's called an extension.

    November 27, 2019

  • Concealing an unwanted tile in the palm of your hand so you can slip it back into the bag unnoticed. Illegal in tournament play for obvious reasons.

    November 27, 2019

  • A Scrabble board with little or no room for high-scoring plays.

    November 27, 2019

  • In Scrabble, a five or six letter tile combination that's useful for forming a bingo.

    November 27, 2019

  • In Scrabble, a bingo which can't be played because there's no room on the board for it.

    November 27, 2019

  • There's two varieties of Scrabble bingos: Natural Bingo, made without the use of blank tiles, and Blank Bingo, which...is obvious.

    November 27, 2019

  • When Tetris fever first swept the nation, Nintendo referred to the blocks as "Tetrads." I personally like that better than "Tetriminoes," the term that's accepted today.

    March 4, 2019

  • First used to mean an arch-enemy by Shakespeare in Henry VI, Act 4, Scene 7:

    "Is Talbot slain, the Frenchmen's only scourge, Your kingdom's terror and black Nemesis? O, were mine eyeballs into bullets turn'd, That I in rage might shoot them at your faces!"

    February 2, 2019

  • A buyer who agrees to every extra proposed by the dealer, adding thousands to the price in the process.

    September 9, 2018

  • When a dealer has to finance even the down payment to sell a car.

    September 9, 2018

  • A dealership with a large selection of cars.

    September 9, 2018

  • A customer with excellent credit who pays the hefty down payment in cash.

    September 9, 2018

  • A customer whose credit is so bad that they can't possibly qualify for a loan.

    September 9, 2018

  • Not revealing that you have a trade-in vehicle until you've negotiated a low price on the car you want to buy.

    September 8, 2018

  • A customer who agrees to the first pencil price, like a fish that jumps into a boat and flops around before the fisherman even puts their hook in the water.

    September 8, 2018

  • The first, and therefore highest, price that a dealer offers to a buyer.

    September 8, 2018

  • Car-dealer term for a customer who, no matter how good a deal they're getting, tries to get a better one. Also known as a chiseler.

    September 8, 2018

  • A flashy car, usually brightly-colored sports car.

    September 8, 2018

  • Trying to sell a new car to a customer who's brought a car in for repair.

    September 8, 2018

  • Announcing a pending sale over a car lot's PA to keep a buyer from backing out at the last minute.

    September 8, 2018

  • A car deal that only brings in a modest profit.

    September 8, 2018

  • A car deal with a huge profit margin.

    September 8, 2018

  • Changing the information on a buyer's loan application to make it more likely that a third-party lender will approve a loan.

    September 8, 2018

  • A customer who brings a print ad to the car lot, wanting to buy a car for the advertised price.

    September 8, 2018

  • A car with a lot of mechanical problems. The name comes from the belief that such a car must have been made on a Friday, when manufacturers are rushing through their work so they can start the weekend.

    September 8, 2018

  • Car-dealer term for hiding a buyer's trade-in vehicle to keep them from leaving. Also known as "dehorse".

    September 8, 2018

  • Paint sealer that's sold to car buyers as an add-on to increase the dealer's profit.

    September 8, 2018

  • A customer who insists on buying a car at the dealer's invoice price.

    September 8, 2018

  • Disability and life insurance policies that a dealer tries to include in a sale.

    September 8, 2018

  • Car-dealer term for getting a non-buying customer off the lot so they don't waste the dealers' time. "Broom 'em!"

    September 8, 2018

  • A customer who owes more on their trade-in vehicle than it's worth.

    September 8, 2018

  • Car-dealer term for a worthless trade-in vehicle that's only fit to be sold for scrap.

    September 8, 2018

  • A sunroof.

    September 8, 2018

  • A car with a manual transmission.

    September 8, 2018

  • Description of a car with a lot of dents, dings and scrapes.

    September 8, 2018

  • Car-dealer nickname for a car that's been on the lot for a very long time.

    September 8, 2018

  • A mythical vehicle that all the be-backs will return in.

    September 8, 2018

  • Car dealer slang for a person who accompanies a potential buyer because they're unable to negotiate by themselves.

    September 8, 2018

  • The window sticker on a new car. Named after US senator Mike Monroney, who authored the 1958 legislation that requires them.

    September 8, 2018

  • I have a book about how to perform an appendectomy, but someone tore out the last page.

    April 9, 2018

  • A very disturbing boss.

    March 16, 2018

  • A video game that proves VR is viable.

    March 13, 2018

  • Slang for a radio antenna.

    March 5, 2018

  • In radio, used to describe the radio personalities' work schedule. Radio clocks are timed to the minute, including station breaks, ads, and who is working when.

    March 5, 2018

  • A long commercial break, so called because it allows the DJ to stop working for a while.

    March 5, 2018

  • Also used to describe marking up a script to add pauses and inflections. One slash for a pause, two for a long pause, and an underline for emphasis. It's called "woodshedding" because the slashes are thought to resemble axe marks.

    March 5, 2018

  • Speaking sideways into a microphone to cut down on excessive popping and hissing.

    March 5, 2018

  • The area on the edge of town where all the TV and radio towers are built.

    March 5, 2018

  • A major radio station that's been given clearance by the FCC to be the only station with a particular frequency in a radius of up to 750 miles. Not to be confused with the media conglomerate of the same name.

    March 5, 2018

  • In radio, the point when a song's lyrics begin. A DJ whose banter ends right when the song's lyrics begin is said to have "hit the post."

    March 5, 2018

  • Music with no lyrics that a DJ can talk over, either to introduce a song or advertise something.

    March 5, 2018

  • A nationally-run radio commercial that has an empty spot in the middle where local affiliates can add their own specific commercials.

    March 5, 2018

  • A brief bit of music used for a transition on the radio.

    March 5, 2018

  • A large amount of radio feedback.

    March 5, 2018

  • "A semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith." -Biographia Literaria, 1817

    Coleridge coined the phrase later epitomized by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 theme song.

    March 5, 2018

  • "Ant tribes...that fold in their tiny flocks on the honeyed leaf, and the virgin sisters with the holy instincts of maternal love, detached and in selfless purity." -Moral and Religious Aphorisms, 1825

    Coleridge coined it 200 years after its opposite, selfish, was coined.

    March 5, 2018

  • "In order not to be miserable, you must have a Soul-mate as well as a House or a Yoke-mate." -An 1822 letter

    Being a Romantic poet, Coleridge needed a word to describe a profound and fated emotional connection.

    March 5, 2018

  • "The original Man, the Individual first created, was bi-sexual." -Aids to Reflection, 1824

    Coleridge was the first to use the word in print, but not in the same way it's used today. He used it to mean that humans are born with both masculine and feminine characteristics, and "learn" to act masculine or feminine. The word wasn't used to describe someone with attraction to either gender until the 1890s.

    March 5, 2018

  • "'Tis almost as bad as Lovell's 'Farmhouse,' and that would be at least a thousand fathoms deep in the dead sea of pessimism." -A letter from 1794

    Coleridge adapted this word from the French word pessimisme, which means "the worst."

    March 5, 2018

  • "Of course, I am glad to be able to correct my fears as far as public balls, concerts, and time-murder in narcissism." -an 1822 letter

    Coleridge was the first to use the Greek myth to describe real-world egomania.

    March 5, 2018

  • "But the will itself by confining and intensifying the attention may arbitrarily give vividness or distinctness to any object whatsoever." -Biographia Literaria, 1817

    Elsewhere in this book, Coleridge explains he invented this word because "render intense" didn't fit the meter of the poem he was trying to write.

    March 5, 2018

  • "To make our Feelings, with their vital warmth, actualize our Reason." -The Friend, 1809

    Betcha thought this was born out of late-20th-century corporate jargon, didn't ya? Nope. Coleridge verbed actual more than a century prior.

    March 5, 2018

  • "In any given perception there is something which has been communicated to it by an impact, or an impression." -Biographia Literaria, 1817

    The word had been used to describe a physical collision since the 1600s, but Coleridge was the first to use it in a metaphorical sense.

    March 5, 2018

  • I just encountered this word in a crostic puzzle. It was the first time I'd ever seen it used as an adjective. Why didn't they just use "Eighth month" as the clue?

    August 11, 2017

  • Mario's Word of the Week!

    May 9, 2017

  • A Welsh cheese made from goat's milk.

    January 21, 2017

  • I just learned this word from Animal Crossing: New Leaf. If you chat with a villager with a Normal-type personality (i. e. Dora) outside on a rainy day, they may say "Weather like this calls for making kugel later."

    April 20, 2016

  • California! California!

    September 22, 2015

  • Wrinkled, rumpled or creased.

    January 20, 2015

  • Hair.

    January 20, 2015

  • Used up.

    January 20, 2015

  • Nauseating.

    January 20, 2015

  • To flee in terror.

    January 20, 2015

  • Walking down the street while smoking a pipe.

    January 20, 2015

  • An angry rage.

    January 20, 2015

  • Practical joking, goofing off, or other nonsense.

    January 20, 2015

  • A man with a handsome face.

    January 20, 2015

  • Also means "tickle" in Swedish.

    December 1, 2013

  • If a boy with gold eyes and a metal staff asks if you are this, say "no."

    December 19, 2012

  • Granny Weatherwax is this for witches.

    December 4, 2012

  • Features in the shortest possible sentence that includes every letter of the alphabet: "Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz." Unless someone out there knows a shorter one.

    November 9, 2012

  • There's too many false ones flying around.

    September 27, 2012

  • Dew knot trussed yore spell chequer two fined awl miss takes.

    August 11, 2012

  • One of the achievements in Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage is called "Fustigate Raoh."

    July 26, 2012

  • This word is certainly not in Granny Weatherwax's vocabulary.

    March 21, 2012

  • I hate it when people use this word when they mean conscience.

    March 8, 2012

  • I hate it when people use conscious when they mean this word.

    March 8, 2012

  • The most dangerous troll in Ankh-Morpork.

    February 8, 2012

  • A miserable pile of secrets.

    February 5, 2012

  • Learned this word watching World's Dumbest Criminals.

    February 1, 2012

  • A badass troll.

    January 28, 2012

  • This word was used in the 2003 Scrabble Championship tournament, which was featured on Cheap Seats. Jason mistook it for a misspelling of piranha.

    January 24, 2012

  • The waldo looks nervous.

    January 2, 2012

  • Like a bouncer, but more forceful.

    August 30, 2011

  • The most inglorious of all the game birds.

    August 15, 2011

  • A truce between destiny and reality. Coined by the Ultimate Warrior to describe a philosophy that makes sense to him alone.

    July 15, 2011

  • And now, in song!

    May 31, 2011

  • The UK spelling of tidbit.

    February 13, 2011

  • This word was made infamous my a hilariously bad horror film.

    February 1, 2011

  • Arsenic-based DNA discovered on Titan!

    December 3, 2010

  • The opposite of melodrama: Acting so low-key that it's impossible to tell what emotion the actor is supposed to be experiencing. Coined by The Distressed Watcher to describe the acting in the Twilight films.

    November 14, 2010

  • I'm a strictly cepivorous guy;

    I eat nothing but onions. No lie:

    Onion pies, onion cakes,

    Onion ice cream and shakes.

    Yes, I'm single…and think I know why.

    October 18, 2010

  • Means "snow" in Farsi.

    September 6, 2010

  • Means "cow" in Tagalog.

    July 29, 2010

  • Looks like a peapod to me.

    July 2, 2010

  • A tommygun.

    April 24, 2010

  • Notice, Shockofgod...the definition is not "madness."

    April 7, 2010

  • Pickled pigs' feet.

    February 8, 2010

  • Steak and bourbon...and a dog to eat the steak.

    February 8, 2010

  • A sandstorm.

    February 8, 2010

  • Toilet paper.

    February 8, 2010

  • A chamber pot.

    February 8, 2010

  • No paint at all.

    February 8, 2010

  • Coors beer.

    February 8, 2010

  • Sleeping on the ground without cover.

    February 8, 2010

  • A straw mattress.

    February 8, 2010

  • A mule.

    February 8, 2010

  • An armadillo.

    February 8, 2010

  • A '70s-style leisure outfit: Loud pants and shirt, white belt and loafers.

    February 8, 2010

  • Dice used for craps.

    February 8, 2010

  • A hangman's noose.

    February 8, 2010

  • A burro.

    February 8, 2010

  • A raccoon bone.

    February 8, 2010

  • Codfish.

    February 8, 2010

  • A straw mattress.

    February 8, 2010

  • Chewing tobacco.

    February 8, 2010

  • .

    February 8, 2010

  • Baked beans.

    February 8, 2010

  • Sturgeon. Originated in the 19th century, when the fish were extremely plentiful in the Hudson River.

    February 8, 2010

  • Cornbread.

    February 8, 2010

  • Cowhide.

    February 8, 2010

  • Pickled pigs' feet.

    February 8, 2010

  • Sympathy...but little else.

    February 8, 2010

  • A tommy gun.

    February 8, 2010

  • A wad of small-denomination bills with a large bill on the outside.

    February 8, 2010

  • Whiskey.

    February 8, 2010

  • Australian slang for a funny joke...which led to an Australian comedy festival being called the "Cracker Festival." Be careful wearing the promotional t-shirts.

    January 31, 2010

  • "...and Loopin was masticating to it!"

    January 29, 2010

  • "Eat to live, don't live to eat." -Cicero

    January 27, 2010

  • Stressing a normally weak beat.

    November 3, 2009

  • An acronym used for remembering the names of the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.

    October 7, 2009

  • An egg-spitting hermaphrodite in Super Mario Bros. 2.

    September 9, 2009

  • A Secret Squirrel cartoon featured an evil, sentient quark as a villain. He was flattening the United States one structure at at time, destroying structures by pulling out the bottom atom. He planned to turn the country into a parking lot, then flatten Canada to make room for a giant amphitheater...where he would perform. The best part was the way he was defeated...Secret pointed out that quarks are defined as hypothetical particles, so he didn't really exist. Thus, he disappeared in a puff of logic.

    September 7, 2009

  • "Only the silky anteater?"

    September 5, 2009

  • Antony and Cleopatra, Act 2, Scene 5:

    "Half my Egypt were submerg'd and made / A cestern for scal'd snakes."

    September 2, 2009

  • Othello, Act 1, Scene 3:

    "I should but teach him how to tell my story, / And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake."

    September 2, 2009

  • Shakespeare invented this word to mean "room or space within a bed."

    A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 2 Scene 2:

    "Then by your side no bed-room me deny."

    September 2, 2009

  • The game was well-known in Shakespeare's day, but he was the first to call it by its current name.

    Henry V, Act 5, Scene 2:

    "If I could win a lady at leapfrog...I should quickly leap into a wife."

    September 2, 2009

  • King John, Act 5, Scene 1:

    "Wild amazement hurries up and down / The little number of you doubtful friends."

    September 2, 2009

  • Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4:

    "reason panders will."

    September 2, 2009

  • Shakespeare added the "in-."

    All's Well That Ends Well, Act 5, Scene 3:

    "We are old, and on our quick'st decrees / Th' inaudible and noiseless foot of time / Steals ere we can effect them."

    September 2, 2009

  • Shakespeare adapted this word into English from the Dutch verb "domineren."

    Love's Labor Lost, Act 3, Scene 1:

    "A domineering pedant o'er the boy."

    September 2, 2009

  • As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7:

    "Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms."

    September 2, 2009

  • The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Scene 2:

    "undress you, and come now to bed."

    September 2, 2009

  • The words eye and ball were already in the English language, but Shakespeare was the first to put them together.

    A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 3, Scene 2:

    "make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight."

    September 2, 2009

  • Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2:

    "I have drugg'd their possets."

    September 2, 2009

  • Coriolanus, Act 4, Scene 1:

    "I go alone, / Like to a lonely dragon."

    September 2, 2009

  • Henry V, Act 4, Scene 1:

    "next day after dawn, / Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse."

    September 2, 2009

  • Romeo & Juliet, Act 5, Scene 1:

    "in his needy shop a tortoise hung, / An alligator stuff'd, and other skins."

    September 2, 2009

  • You can turn any love song into a sea chantey by substituting "matey" for "baby."

    September 2, 2009

  • This was used in a question on 1 vs. 100:

    "Howard Stern is eating ratatouille with Baba Booey. What are they eating?

    A. A mixture of meats

    B. A variety of veggies

    C. A pastiche of pasta"

    The correct answer, of course, is B. But the contestant answered A. He's so sure, too...I feel bad for him. It's a commercial right now, but they're going to show him the answer when it comes back.

    EDIT: They showed it to him. I was right, it was painful to watch.

    August 30, 2009

  • The act of hiding a package in a public place, such as a park, for another agent to find.

    August 26, 2009

  • A double agent who's been caught and forced to feed misleading information to the enemy.

    August 26, 2009

  • In spy lingo, to cause an agent to become a double agent.

    August 26, 2009

  • Spy lingo for a meeting between an intelligence officer and a spy, in a time and place of the spy's choosing. Blind dates are very dangerous, because the spy could be setting a trap.

    August 26, 2009

  • Spy lingo for a male agent who uses the honey trap to entrap women into becoming spies. A spy gigolo, if you will.

    August 26, 2009

  • Someone who volunteers to be a spy by walking into a foreign embassy or similar post and volunteering their services.

    August 26, 2009

  • Passing information to or from a spy as you brush past them on a street or in a crowd. Also known as a "contact pass."

    August 26, 2009

  • Using sex to trap a spy, or blackmail someone into becoming a spy.

    August 26, 2009

  • The CIA. Also known as "The Company."

    August 26, 2009

  • In spy lingo, a talent spotter who hangs out in nightclubs, bars and other seedy places, looking for government employees who can be plied with booze, drugs, sex, or blackmail into becoming spies.

    August 26, 2009

  • Someone on the lookout for foreign nationals who might be recruited as spies.

    August 26, 2009

  • Spy lingo for a member of an enemy agency.

    August 26, 2009

  • The four most common reasons people turn against their nations and spy for a foreign power:

    Money

    Ideology

    Compromise (by incriminating information)

    Ego

    August 26, 2009

  • Spy lingo for a spy radio. The spy using it is called a pianist.

    August 26, 2009

  • Retrace the steps of a "blown" agent or operation in order to determine what went wrong.

    August 26, 2009

  • Russian term for spy operations that involve killing people. ("Wet" refers to blood.)

    August 26, 2009

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  • I like your lists.

    February 9, 2010