wag
[WAG] A humorous person; a wit; a joker.
Examples:
1) The master of ceremonies was one Boston, a noted wag, and the occasion seemed to promise the greatest facetiousness. (Francis Bret Harte, "The Luck of Roaring Camp")
2) Yet the fate of all three reformers was more or less the same. Washington remained much as it had been before. ("Only more so," a wag might add.) (Jonathan Rauch, "Government's End")
3) Some wag has summed up the three laws of thermodynamics in everyday terms: 1. You can't win. 2. You can't even break even. 3. You can't get out of the game. (John Gribbin with Mary Gribbin, "Almost Everyone's Guide to Science")
Etymology:
"Wag" in this sense perhaps comes from the obsolete "wag-halter" ("a rogue; one likely to be hanged").


waggish

• wag
• waggery

[WAG-ish]
1. Resembling or characteristic of a wag.
2. Done or made in waggery or for sport; humorous.
Example:
Lisa listens to the same waggish DJ every morning, never tiring of his prank phone calls and irreverent impressions of local politicians.
History, related words, more examples:
One who is waggish acts like a wag. What, then, is a wag? Etymologists think "wag" probably came from "waghalter," a word that was once used for a "gallows bird" (that is, a person who was going to be, or deserved to be, hanged). "Waghalter" was apparently shortened to "wag" and used jokingly or affectionately for mischievous pranksters or youths. Hence a wag is a joker, and waggery is merriment or practical joking. "Waggish" can describe the prank itself as well as the prankster type; the class clown might be said to be prone to "waggish antics" or even to have a "waggish disposition."


wait and see

• wait
• see

Wait and find out; wait patiently; no hurry; let us wait for the result.
Example:
I don't know what to do. Wait and see.


walk on eggshells

• be walking on eggshells
• walking on eggshells
• walking on
• eggshells
• walk on
• eggshell
• walking
• walk
• walking on thin ice
• be walking on thin ice
• walk on thin ice
• thin ice
• thin
• ice

To be in a delicate situation; to be on the edge of danger or ruin.
Examples:
1) Ever since I smashed their car, I've been walking on eggshells with my parents. 2) We're walking on eggshells with our landlord - she told us that if we have one more loud party, she's going to kick us out of our apartment.
Etymology:
An 'eggshell' is the thin, white outer coating of an egg. The shell is very thin and breaks easily. So if you are 'walking on eggshells' you are in a situation where you could break something (or get in trouble or ruin everything) very easily. Synonym: walking on thin ice


walk the talk

• walk
• talk
• do what you preach
• preach
• practise what you preach
• practise
• do

To do what you talk about doing, to practice what you preach.
Example:
If we advise people to be honest, we should be honest ourselves. We have to walk the talk.
Synonyms:
do what you preach, practise what you preach.


walk with a limp

• walk
• limp

be crippled

walkout

• walk-out
• walk

A strike; a unified employee protest against an employer.
Example: The steel plant has been shut down by a walkout.
Etymology: This term came into use in the late 1880s, when labor unions began to organize mass protests against low wages and inhuman working conditions.

walleyed

• walleye

[WAWL-eyed]
1. Having walleyes or affected with walleye.
2. Marked by a wild irrational staring of the eyes.
Example:
Being refused service at the restaurant left Trent so angry that he could only manage a walleyed stare.
History, related words:
The noun "walleye" has several meanings. It can refer to an eye with a whitish or bluish-white iris or to one with an opaque white cornea. It can also refer to a condition in which the eye turns outward away from the nose. The extended second sense of the adjective "walleyed" came from the appearance of eyes affected with the condition of walleye. You might guess that "walleyed" has an etymological connection with "wall," but that's not the case. Rather, it is derived from "wawil-eghed" - a Middle English translation of the Old Norse word "vagl-eygr," from "vagl" ("beam") and "eygr" ("eyed").


wan
1. Having a pale or sickly hue.
Synonyms: pale; pallid.
2. Lacking vitality, as from weariness, illness, or unhappiness.
Synonym: feeble.
3. Lacking in intensity or brightness;
Synonyms: dim, feeble.
Examples:
1) She was concerned about her grandson's wan appearance. "So skinny," she would say in Yiddish, "such a plucked little owl." (Herbert G. Goldman, "Banjo Eyes")
2) Her pale, pinched lips, sunken eyes and wan, haggard cheeks presented a mournful contrast to her former self. (Wilkie Collins, "Iolani")
3) ...Some wan heroine in a Gothic romance, keening over a faithless lover, trembling before a murderous stalker, falling into the arms of her rescuers. (Marilyn Stasio, review of "Final Jeopardy, by Linda Fairstein", New York Times, July 28, 1996)
4) Through the frayed curtain at my window, a wan glow announces the break of day. (Jean-Dominique Bauby, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly")
Etymology:
"Wan" is from Old English "wann" ("gloomy, dark").


wanderlust
[WAHN-der-lust]
Strong longing for or impulse towards wandering.
Example:
Less than a year after Bob moved to New England, wanderlust set in again, and he decided to pack up his things and head out to the Southwest.
Etymology:
"Wanderlust" is lust (or "desire") for wandering. The word comes from German, in which "wandern" means "to wander," and "Lust" means "desire."


warp speed

• warp
• speed

[WORP-SPEED]
The highest possible speed.
Example:
When Mario saw Helen enter the elevator, he grabbed his laptop and vaulted down the stairs at warp speed to get to the meeting room ahead of her.
History:
"Warp speed" is an example of a phrase that entered the public consciousness through science fiction and eventually gained enough popularity to end up in the dictionary. The expression was popularized on the science-fiction show "Star Trek" in the 1960s. On the show, "warp speed" referred to a specific concept, namely the idea of faster-than-light travel. Within a relatively short period of time, "Star Trek" gained a devoted and intense following. Fans were soon discussing the fictional concepts of the show, including warp speed, with great enthusiasm. Eventually, the term "warp speed" was adopted by the general population. In the process, however, it lost its specific fictional meaning and came to mean simply "the highest possible speed."


wassail
1. To indulge in riotous drinking.
Synonym: carouse.
2. (dialect England) To sing carols from house to house at Christmas.
3. To drink to the health or thriving of.
Example:
The farmer and his revelers wassailed the apple orchard, hoping for another fruitful season, and then merrily poured cider around the trees.
4. A festive occasion on which toasts are drunk.
5. The ale or wine in which toasts for a festive occasion are made.
Etymology:
The salutation "wassail," from the Old Norse toast "ves heill" ("be well"), has accompanied English toast-making since the 12th century. By that time, it had become the salutation you offered as a toast, to which the standard reply was "drinc hail" - drink good health. ("Hail" is an older form of the modern word "hale" - health; well-being and is also closely connected with the word "hail" meaning to salute, greet, welcome.) The toast seems to have come over with the Danes; by the twelfth century the Norman conquerors of Britain regarded it as one of the most characteristic sayings of the country. By the 13th century, "wassail" was being used for the drink itself, and it eventually came to be used especially of a hot drink (of wine, beer, or cider with spices, sugar, and usually baked apples) drunk around Christmastime - on Christmas Eve or Twelfth Night. This beverage warmed the stomachs and hearts of many Christmas revelers and was often shared with Christmas carolers. In the western counties of Britain, the tradition grew up on Twelfth Night of toasting the good health of the apple trees that would bear the crop from which next years cider would be made. Pieces of bread soaked in cider were placed in the crooks of trees, guns were fired to ward off evil spirits, and special songs were sung:
Let every man take off his hat And shout out to th'old apple tree Old apple tree we wassail thee And hoping thou will bear.
Ceremonies like these have almost entirely died out, though one or two are self-consciously kept alive in Somerset.
The verb "wassail" was first used in the 14th century to describe the carousing associated with indulgence in the drink; later, it was used of other activities associated with wassail and the holiday season, like caroling. Seventeenth-century farmers added cattle and trees to the wassail tradition by drinking to their health or thriving during wintertime festivities.


wasted

• waste
• plastered
• blasted
• plaster
• blast

Drunk, stoned, high; what happens to you if you drink too much or take drugs.
Examples:
1) Sam spent eight hours at the bar, and by the end of the night he was wasted. 2) We were really wasted at the concert. Black Sabbath rules!
Etymology:
This word comes from 1950s hipster talk. "Waste" is trash or something that is ruined or lifeless. The idea is that if you drink a lot of liquor or take a lot of drugs, your body and mind become lifeless.
Synonyms: plastered, blasted


wastrel
[WAY-struhl]
1. A person who wastes, especially one who squanders money; a spendthrift.
2. An idler; a loafer; a good-for-nothing.
Etymology:
1) Horace Liveright, the book publisher of the 1920's, is usually recalled in literary memoirs as a charming wastrel, a gambler who always saw a winning bet as a chance to raise his stake in whatever game he was losing at. (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "Disastrous Life of a Pioneer in Hype," New York Times, July 27, 1995)
2) Thad risked everything, including his farm, to set Abner up in the grocery business in the town of Hargrave, only to have Abner turn wastrel and lose everything. (John Kenny Crane, "Good Fellers," New York Times, November 15, 1992)
3) Was her father ... the brilliant, glamorous figure she remembered, or the alcoholic wastrel his own brother described? (Jean Strouse, "Making the Facts Obey," New York Times, May 24, 1992)
Etymology:
"Wastrel" is from "waste" + "-rel" (as in "scoundrel").


watered down

• water down
• watered
• down
• water

Weakened or diluted; something that has been made less powerful or potent.
Examples:
1) The movie is a watered down version of the book. 2) Tipsy McStagger's is a pretty good pub. The only problem is that the bartender waters down the drinks.
Etymology: If you want to dilute the concentrate of a solution, you add water to it.


waylay

• ambush
• assail
• bushwhack
• set
• set upon

[WAY-lay]
1. To lie in wait for and attack from ambush.
2. To approach or stop (someone) unexpectedly.
Synonyms: ambush, assail, bushwhack, set upon.
Examples:
1) When his mother praised certain well-behaved and neatly dressed boys in the village, Jung was filled with hate for them, and would waylay and beat them up. (Frank McLynn, "Carl Gustav Jung")
2) He returned to her night after night, until his brother, Frank, waylaid him one evening outside Harriet's cabin and beat him bloody. (Lynne Olson, "Freedom's Daughters")
3) Furious and humiliated, the boy waylaid Martha after school. (Julian Barnes, "England, England")
4) The women, who hold wicker baskets filled with flowers and incense, are out to waylay tourists and to entice them into buying the blooms and scents. (Jacob Heilbrunn, "Mao More Than Ever," New Republic, April 21, 1997)
Etymology:
"Waylay" comes from "way" (from Old English "weg") + "lay" (from Old English "lecgan").


wayworn
[WAY-worn]
Wearied by traveling.
Examples:
1) The wayworn Battalions halt in the Avenue: they have, for the present, no wish so pressing as that of shelter and rest. (Thomas Carlyle, "The French Revolution")
2) These beautiful and verdant recesses, running through and softening the rugged mountains, were cheering and refreshing to the wayworn travellers. (Washington Irving, "Astoria")
Etymology:
"Wayworn" is "way" (from Old English "weg") + "worn" (from Old English "werian").


weal

• well-being
• well
• being
• commonweal
• commonwealth
• wealth

[WEEL]
A sound, healthy, or prosperous state.
Synonym: well-being
Example:
During his two years as county judge, other qualities ... became apparent. One was an unusual ability to persuade men to sacrifice for a common weal. (Robert Caro, "The New Yorker", January 15, 1990)
History, more exaples, related words:
"Weal" is most often used in contexts referring to the general good. One reads, for example, of the "public weal" or the "common weal." The latter of these led to the formation of the noun "commonweal," a word that once referred to an organized political entity, such as a nation or state, but today usually means "the general welfare." The word "commonwealth" shares these meanings, but its situation is reversed; the "political entity" sense of "commonwealth" is still current, whereas the "general welfare" sense has become archaic. At one time, "weal" and "wealth" were also synonyms; both meant "riches" ("all his worldy weal") and "well-being." Both stem from "wela," the Old English word for "well-being," and are closely related to the Old English word for "well."


weaponize
1. To make into or use as a weapon or a potential weapon.
Example:
Will modern physicists weaponize String Theory?
2. To attach a weapon to a missile or other delivery mechanism.
Example:
India and Pakistan have begun weaponizing the nuclear devices they first tested in 1998, senior Clinton administration officials now believe. Pakistan has already placed a nuclear warhead on some of its missiles, and India is responding in kind, they say. ("A New Threat in South Asia", Newsweek, October 18, 1999)
Etymology:
From "weapon", from O.E. "wæpen" ("instrument of fighting and defense"), from P.Gmc. "wæpnan", from "webno-m", of unknown origin with no cognates outside Gmc.



webster

• Webster's

1. (archaic) weaver
Etymology:
Middle English, from Old English "webbestre" ("female weaver"), from "webbian" ("to weave"); akin to Old English "wefan" ("to weave"); "-ster" is a feminine suffix in English, as in "spinster".
2. John Webster - English playwright (1580?-1652?)
3. Daniel Webster - United States politician and orator (1782-1817)
4. town and lake resort in Worcester County, in south central Massachusetts. 5. Noah Webster - American lexicographer (1758-1843)
6. Webster's - dictionary
Example:
To appreciate this fine title, it is useful to know that Webster's is the authoritative dictionary in the US, and is called after the patriotic scholar Noah Webster; but that the name Webster itself means "woman weaver". ("Feminism and linguistic theory". Cameron, Deborah. Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1992)
History:
The name Webster's was the subject of a bitter dispute in the early 20th century with the courts ruling that G. & C. Merriam, the lineal publishing descendants of Noah Webster's dictionaries, did not have exclusive rights to the name. Webster's in everyday English has been synonymous with dictionary since Noah Webster hit it big in 1828, but perhaps because they don't want to get embroiled in further litigation, dictionaries don't record that generic meaning of the name." (Dennis Baron, "McLanguage Meets the Dictionary")
7. Margaret Webster - American actress, producer, and director, b. New York City (1905-1972)

websurfer

• web surfer
• web
• surfer

(comp.)
1. A person who wanders around the World Wide Web.
Example:
The browsing tree deal with the way the websurfer get to the information.
2. A client application for the World Wide Web.
Example:
"WebSurfer" supports manual proxy configuration and exclusion lists for hosts or domains that should not be fetched via proxy



websurfing

• web surfing
• web
• surfing

In a computer context, wandering around the World Wide Web.
Example:
Once started, the program will follow you in your websurfing.


welch
To fail to pay a debt; to fail to do something you promise to do.
Example: I won the pool game, but the guy I was playing welched on the bet. Etymology:
Although the origins of this word are unknown, it might be an old slur againt people from Wales in Great Britain, implying that people from that region (the Welsh) don't pay their debts.

welkin

• welkin ring
• ring

[WEL-kun]
1. The vault of the sky; firmament.
2. The celestial abode of God or the gods; heaven.
3. The upper atmosphere.
Example:
The pink sky at sunset brought to mind a quote from Shakespeare's "King John": "The sun of heaven, methought, was loath to set / But stay'd and made the western welkin blush."
History, related expression, more examples:
When it comes to "welkin," the sky's the limit. This heavenly word has been used in English to refer to the vault of the sky since at least the 12th century, and it derives from an earlier word from Old English that meant "cloud." In modern English, "welkin" is still flying high, and it is often teamed with the verb "ring" to suggest a loud noise or an exuberant expression of emotion, as in "the welkin rang with the sound of the orchestra" or "her hearty laugh made the welkin ring." These contemporary phrases echo an older use - the original words of a carol that once began "Hark, how all the welkin ring," which we now know as "Hark! The herald angels sing."


well begun is half done

• good begun is half done
• well
• begun
• half done
• half
• done
• good
• do
• begin

This saying means that if you start something off well, it will be easier to finish.
Example:
Thomas cracked three eggs into the bowl without dropping any shell into the omelet mixture. "This sure is a good start!" he said to himself. "And if well begun is half done, then this is going to be one excellent omelet!"

welter
[WEL-ter]
1. To writhe, toss; wallow.
2. To rise and fall or toss about in or with waves.
Example:
The ship tossed and weltered upon the waves in the ocean.
3. To become deeply sunk, soaked, or involved.
4. To be in turmoil.
History, more meanings and examples:
"Welter" can be used both as a noun (meaning "turmoil" or "chaos") and a verb. Which part of speech is older? The verb. It has been part of English since at least the 1300s, while the earliest uses of the noun date from the late 1590s. Both noun and verb have roots related to Dutch and Germanic terms meaning "to roll," and both have found a place in English literature. The verb helps demonstrate extreme despair in the early Arthurian legend "Morte Arthure" ("He welterys, he wristeles, he wrynges hys handes!"), and in 1837 Thomas Carlyle used the noun in "The French Revolution" ("I leave the whole business in a frightful welter: ... not one of them understands anything of government").


wet blanket

• party pooper
• wet
• blanket
• party
• pooper

A person who discourages others from having fun; a pessimistic, no-nonsense individual.
Example:
Don't be such a wet blanket! Let me have the car keys - we're going for a spin. Synonym: party pooper

wet day centre

• wet day center
• wet centre
• wet center
• wet day
• centre
• wet
• day
• center

a day centre which allows its users to drink alcohol on the premises (hence "wet").
Meaning, etymology, history:
You may tell from the spelling that this is, at least in this form, a British term. It refers to a day centre which allows its users to drink alcohol on the premises (hence "wet").
Such centres have been set up to reach and advise people who habitually drink alcohol in public places. Street drinkers, as they are known in social-work jargon, are mainly men in their 30s and 40s, addicted to alcohol, often homeless and with mental health problems, who are frequently rejected by mainstream health or social services because they are aggressive and disruptive and unwilling to stop drinking. The idea of wet day centres (also called "wet centres") is to provide a safe place as an alternative to spending the day on the street, where drinkers run the risk of arrest. Centres provide easy access to support and advice aimed at solving all their problems, not only to reducing their reliance on alcohol, which is usually a symptom of deeper troubles. Though the idea of "wet day centres" has been around since the 1970s, there are as yet only half a dozen or so of them in the UK. It's not clear how old the term is, but it became more widely known as the result of a survey on practical help for street drinkers commissioned by the King's Fund and the Government's Homelessness Directorate and published in December 2003.
Examples:
1) From the "Guardian", 4 Feb. 2004: The building is one of a handful of wet day centres in Britain, open to help homeless and vulnerable people by providing an area where chronic drinkers can consume alcohol.
2) From the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer", 26 Mar. 2003: The goal of the new "wet" center is to get chronic drinkers off the streets and away from harm, and to reduce the enormous public resources they use up in jail and emergency rooms, said Bill Hobson, executive director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center.


wheedle

• blarney
• cajole
• coax
• sweet-talk

[HWEE-d'l; WEE-d'l]
(Trans. v.)
1. To entice by soft words or flattery; to coax.
2. To gain or get by flattery or guile.
3. (Intrans. v.) To flatter; to use soft words.
Synonyms: blarney, cajole, coax, sweet-talk.
Examples:
1) Editors who wished to carry original work rather than reprints found it necessary to wheedle contributions from readers by decrying inexperience as a reason for not taking up the pen and by offering prizes for submissions. (Ronald Weber, "Hired Pens")
2) When Wayne and I first moved here, the settlers living within twenty miles were consumed with curiosity about our relationship, and one of 'em tried to wheedle a little matrimonial information out of me. (Christine Wiltz, "The Last Madam")
3) He knew what it looked like to seduce, to intimidate, to wheedle, and to console; to strike a pose or preach a sermon. (Simon Schama, "Rembrandt's Eyes")
4) Steve hates shopping, but his wife wheedled him into going to the mall.
History:
The origin of "wheedle" is uncertain; it is perhaps from Old English "w?dlian" ("to beg, to be a beggar"), from "w?dl" ("want, poverty").
"Wheedle" has been a part of the English lexicon since the mid-17th century. Once established in the language, "wheedle" became a favorite of some of the language's most illustrious writers. "Wheedle" and related forms appear in the writings of Wordsworth, Dickens, Kipling, Dryden, Swift, Scott, Tennyson, and Pope, among others.


whelm

• underwhelmed
• overwhelm

[WELM]
1. To turn upside down usually to cover something; cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect.
2. To overwhelm.
3. To pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it.
Example:
Marya was a bit whelmed by the new and unfamiliar task.
Etymology, more examples, related words:
"It is not overwhelming and it is not underwhelming. You leave the production feeling merely whelmed." Thus wrote Michael Phillips in the "Los Angeles Times", February 6, 2001. Recently, writers like Phillips have begun using "whelm" to denote a middle stage between "underwhelm" and "overwhelm" ("overpower, defeat; master; crush; stagger; stun, daze; flood, engulf"). But that's not how "whelm" has traditionally been used. "Whelm" and "overwhelm" have been with us since Middle English (when they were "whelmen" and "overwhelmen"), and throughout the years their meanings have largely overlapped. Both words early on meant "to overturn," for example, and both have also come to mean "to overpower in thought or feeling." Around 1950, however, folks started using a third word, "underwhelmed," for "unimpressed," and lately "whelmed" has been popping up with the meaning "moderately impressed."


when the chips are down

• chips
• down
• chip
• be down

When one is in a difficult or serious situation (chips are used in gambling), when the winner or loser of a card game or a bet is decided.
Example: The man is a good manager and when the chips are down he is always able to overcome his difficulties.


where there's a will

• there's a way
• where there's a will there's a way
• where there is a will
• there is a way
• where there is a will there is a way
• where
• will
• way
• there

People use this saying to mean that if you want something badly enough, you will figure out how to get it.
Example:
Helen Keller was blind, deaf, and mute, but wanted, more than anything, to be able to
read. Everything was against her, but she worked and worked until, one day, she was finally able to read and write. She must certainly have believed that where there's a will, there's a way.

whilom
[WYE-lum]
former
Example:
On the eastern side settlement and agriculture have all but obliterated the whilom tallgrass prairie... (William Least Heat-Moon, "The Atlantic", September 1991)
History, related words:
"Whilom" shares an ancestor with the word "while." Both trace back to the Old English word "hwil," meaning "time" or "while." In Old English "hwilum" was an adverb meaning "at times." This use passed into Middle English (with a variety of spellings, one of which was "whilom"), and in the 12th century the word acquired the meaning "formerly." The adverb's usage dwindled toward the end of the 19th century, and it has since been labeled "archaic." The adjective first appeared on the scene in the 15th century, with the now-obsolete meaning "deceased, late," and by the end of the 16th century it was being used with the meaning "former." It's a relatively uncommon word, but it does see occasional use.


whinge

• whine

[WINJ]
(British) to complain fretfully
Synonym: whine
Example:
She urged her fellow workers to stop whinging about how they were victims of "the system" and to do something to change that system.
History, related words:
"Whinge" isn't just a spelling variant of "whine". They are actually entirely different words with different histories. "Whine" ("to make a high squeaking noise; to cry or complain in a high pitched or nasal voice; to grumble and complain like a child") traces to an Old English verb, "hwinan," which means "to make a humming or whirring sound." When "hwinan" became "whinen" in Middle English, it meant "to wail distressfully"; "whine" didn't acquire its "complain" sense until the 16th century. "Whinge," on the other hand, comes from a different Old English verb, "hwinsian," which means "to wail or moan discontentedly." "Whinge" retains that original sense today, though nowadays "whinge" puts less emphasis on the sound of the complaining and more on the discontentment behind the complaint.


whirligig

• whirligig beetle
• beetle

[WER-lih-ghig]
1. A child's toy having a whirling motion.
Example:
The more he earned the more he spent, and Sam felt like he was trapped in a never-ending whirligig of debt.
2. Merry-go-round.
3. a) one that continuously whirls, moves, or changes; b) a whirling or circling course (as of events).
Etymology, related words:
English speakers, and particularly children, began spinning whirligigs as early as the 15th century. Since then, "whirligig" has acquired several meanings beyond its initial toy sense. It even has a place in the name of the whirligig beetle, a member of the family Gyrinidae that swiftly swims in circles on the surface of still water. The word "whirligig" comes to us from Middle English "whirlegigg" ("whirling top"), which is itself from "whirlen," meaning "to whirl," and "gigg," meaning "(toy) top."


whistle-stop

• whistlestop
• whistle
• stop
• Whistle-stop tour
• Whistlestop tour
• tour

To conduct a political campaign by making brief appearances or speeches in a series of small towns; tour the country to solicit votes.
Also: whistlestop.
Synonym: barnstorm
Example:
A BBC news item stated that "civic dignitaries and local leaders will lead the group on a whistle-stop tour of the city over the weekend".
History:
It's common to see this expression in the UK and other countries as well as its homeland of the USA. This example keeps the original idea of a tour in a political campaign that makes many brief stops in small communities, though it's now also commonly used for any travel that's done very quickly and with only brief pauses. They're out in the mid-western United States, in the interwar years when small communities were still served by railways. It was common practice for trains not to stop at such places unless a passenger wanted to alight. (The passenger told the conductor, who signalled the engineer by pulling on the signal cord; the engineer sounded the whistle twice to acknowledge the request.) As a result, the original meaning of "whistle stop" was some small place out on the plains that nobody had ever heard of except those who lived there. This idea starts to appear in print in the 1920s, as here in the "Nevada State Journal" of February 1928: "He is the sort you fear will ask you where you are from and you will have to tell him some outlandish whistle stop with the conventional red depot". The term was first applied to a fast-moving political campaign tour just after World War Two. President Truman organised an extensive railway trip during his re-election campaign of 1948, which visited Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California. He travelled in a special train called "Magellan" and made up to eight speeches a day from the observation platform at the rear. One of the first references was on the front page of the "Bradford Era" for 6 September 1948, announcing the start of Truman's election campaign (in those days, they were mercifully short): "Smiling, President Truman headed toward Michigan today on the first lap of a whistle stop campaign in which he will criss-cross the nation before election day". "Whistle-stop tour" itself isn't recorded until the following year.

white book

• white
• book

1. official government report in Britain during the British Mandate.
Synonym: white paper.
2. bluish-green herb having sticky stems and clusters of large evening-opening white flowers with much-inflated calyx; sometimes placed in genus lychnis.
Synonyms:
evening lychnis, white cockle, bladder campion, silene latifolia, lychnis alba, white campion. 3. (comp.) the specification covering the video CD format.

white elephant

• white
• elephant
• sacred cow
• sacred
• cow
• sacre

[WYTE-EL-uh-funt]
1. a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit
Example:
The town's white elephant is the closed theater, which earns no money but costs thousands of dollars to maintain.
2. an object no longer of value to its owner but of value to others
3. something of little or no value
History:
The real "white elephant" (the kind with a trunk) is a pale pachyderm that has long been an object of veneration in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar. Too revered to be a beast of burden, the white elephant earned a reputation as a burdensome beast, one that required constant care and feeding but never brought a single cent (or paisa or satang or pya) to its owner. One story has it that the kings of Siam (the old name for Thailand) gave white elephants as gifts to those they wished to ruin, hoping that the cost of maintaining the voracious but sacred mammal would drive its new owner to the poorhouse.
Synonym: sacred cow


white paper

• white
• paper

1. a government report; short document that provides customers with general directions and explanations on a particular subject; 2. bound in white.
Synonym: white book

wholphin
A cross between a whale and a dolphin.
Example:
Where a bottlenose dolphin would have 88 teeth and a false killer whale would have 44, the wholphin, called Kekaimalu, has 66.
Etymology:
"Wholphin" = "whale" + "dolphin".

widdershins

• counterclockwise

[WID-er-shinz]
In a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction.
Synonym: counterclockwise
Example:
In the book, the members of the coven hold hands and dance widdershins around the fire.
History:
By the mid-1500s, English speakers had adopted "widdershins" (which is from the Middle High German "wider," meaning "back against," and "sinnen," meaning "to travel") for anything following a path that is opposite to the apparent direction of the sun as it travels across the sky in the Northern Hemisphere (or opposite the direction of the movement of the shadow on a sundial or the hands on a clock). In its earliest known uses, "widdershins" was used to describe cases of bad hair in which unruly locks stood on end or fell the wrong way. But because many people in times past considered the widdershins direction to be "backwards," it has long been associated with magic, witchcraft, and, sometimes, the devil.


wig out

• wig
• lose your cool
• flip your wig
• lose one's cool
• flip one's wig
• lose
• cool
• flip

To go crazy; to lose one's mind.
Examples:
1) Maria wigged out when she found her husband in bed with her best friend. 2) I hope Tom doesn't wig out when we tell him we lost his dog.
Etymology:
The idea behind the term is that so much activity is going on in your brain that your hair (a 'wig' is artificial hair) might jump off your head. The term can be positive too - you might 'wig out' when you hear really good music, for example. Synonyms: lose one's cool, flip one's wig


wiki

• weblog
• blog
• Wikipedia
• Wikipedians
• Wikipedian
• Wiktionary
• Wikinews
• visual wiki
• visual
• wiki-wiki
• wiki wiki bus
• bus
• wiki-

Also: Wiki
1. A website where users can collectively add or modify text; a user-editable web site.
2. The software that created wiki.
3. A catchy prefix in Internet-speak, for example wikitext, wikisite and wikipage.
Examples:
1) Of all of the websites tracking the Katrina disaster, surely one of the most remarkable is Scipionus.com & it has become a giant visual wiki page, attracting tens of thousands of visitors who are collaborating in creating a public document of astonishing detail. (Wired News, 2nd September 2005) 2) & There are now wikis  websites that anyone can edit  on everything from Tolkien to travel ... ("The Guardian", 1st April 2004)
History, related words: First there were weblogs or blogs, web pages authored by individual users as a regular record of their thoughts, opinions and experiences. Now on the rise to widespread popularity is the wiki, a web page which allows not just one but multiple users to contribute to its content. Wikis are rapidly becoming a popular mechanism for building repositories of information accessible to Internet users across the globe. They differ from blogs in that, in addition to the opportunity to add text, they also allow users to edit text previously contributed by others. They can therefore be used collaboratively in building an information resource which can be enhanced, corrected and updated as an ongoing process. The most well-known implementation of a wiki is the website Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>, a free, web-based encyclopaedia containing around 2.3 million articles and written collaboratively by volunteers, sometimes referred to as Wikipedians. In 2005 Wikipedia has become one of the most popular reference sites on the web, traffic to the site rising by over 150% in the past year. Wikipedia has also spawned several sister wikis, such as Wiktionary <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page> (a wiki dictionary and thesaurus), and Wikinews <http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page> (news reports on a wide variety of subjects). Despite its popularity and its potential as the largest encyclopaedia in history, Wikipedias status as a reference work is controversial. Constantly edited by volunteers, its articles are subject to change by nearly anyone, which may lead to inaccuracies, unintentional bias and even vandalism. Beyond the world of Wikipedia, wikis are increasingly being used in a wide range of business and educational contexts. New uses of wikis as a mechanism for online information sharing are emerging all the time. For example, in the aftermath of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, a visual wiki <http://www.scipionus.com> was created, allowing users to move over a map of the Gulf coast and read specific information about affected areas. The term "wiki" and the concept behind it were invented by Ward Cunningham <http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=7726>, a computer programmer in Oregon in the United States. Cunningham derived wiki from the Hawaiian expression "wiki wiki", meaning quick (wikis are quick because both editing and reading text can be done by using the same standard web browser). Wiki wiki were the first Hawaiian words Cunningham learnt when arriving at Honolulu airport, where he was directed to take the wiki wiki bus (shuttle bus) between terminals. On 25th March 1995, Cunningham founded the first ever wiki, the "Portland Pattern Repository" <http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors>, a website containing a bank of computer programming patterns. By the late 90s, people were recognising the more general potential of wikis in the collaborative development of online information repositories, and in January 2001, Wikipedia was launched.

wildcatter

• wildcat

[WYLD-katt-er]
1. One that drills wells in the hope of finding oil in territory not known to be an oil field.
2. One that promotes or sells stock in unsafe and unreliable enterprises; especially: one that sells stocks in such enterprises.
Example:
Her father was a lucky wildcatter with an instinct for drilling gushers.
Etymology, related words:
Messing with a wild cat, such as a lynx, can be a pretty risky undertaking, but ferocious felines played only an indirect role in the development of the word "wildcatter." That term has been used in English since the late 19th century, along with the verb "wildcat," which refers to the risky practice of drilling experimental oil wells in territory not known to produce oil. English-speakers associated "wildcat" with risk-taking ventures after a number of U.S. banks fraudulently issued banknotes with little or no capital to back them up. Supposedly, the banknotes issued by one particular bank bore the image of a panther or, as it was known locally, a "wild cat," and it was those risky notes that led to the financial risk-taking senses of "wildcat" and "wildcatter."


wildcrafting

• wild-crafting
• wild crafting
• wild
• crafting
• wildcraft
• wildcrafter

Also: wild-crafting, wild crafting.
1. The harvesting of wild plants, particularly for use as food or in herbal medicines.
2. skill in or knowledge of matters relating to survival in a wilderness environment
wildcraft - v., n.; wildcrafter - n.
Examples:
1) Some members [of the International Herb Growers and Marketers Association]... are wildcrafters, or people who collect herbs and other plants in the wild, Buehrle said. Wildcrafters sell to medical and pharmaceutical companies. "One business does more than $1 million in wildcrafting," she said. (Dick Wright, "Herb-growers' meet includes garden trip", The Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate, April 3, 1988)
2) The harvesting of wild plants (known as "wildcrafting") is more complicated than one might imagine. Ethical wildcrafting includes positive species identification and the avoidance of any environmental impact on the plant in question as well as on the other interdependent elements in the ecosystem. Once a harvest is completed the area involved should look as though the wildcrafter was never there. The bottom line is sustainability. (Kerry Hackett, "Some herbs now at risk or near extinction", Stratford Beacon Herald (Stratford, Ontario), March 12, 2004)
3) The art of "wildcrafting," which is picking wild herbs, actually can be practiced in such a way as to aid the growth of wild plants by judicious thinning and pruning. (John Lust, "The Natural Remedy Bible", Pocket Books, April 1, 2003)
History:
Utne magazine ran an article about wildcrafting with the title, "The Guerrilla Gatherers", which is apt since much wildcrafting is technically illegal (because it often occurs in protected wilderness areas). Note that an earlier sense of wildcrafting - skill in or knowledge of matters relating to survival in a wilderness environment - dates to about 1924, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.


wimp

• sissy
• wuss
• chicken
• whimper

A weak or fearful person; someone who lacks courage.
Examples:
1) I was too much of a wimp to play sports in high school. 2) Don't be such a wimp - riding a bike can't hurt you!
Etymology: A 'whimper' is a small cry of pain or fear. Someone who whimpers a lot and is afraid of getting hurt is a thus a 'wimp'.
Synonyms: sissy, wuss, chicken

win-win situation

• winwin situation
• win situation
• win-win
• situation
• winwin
• win

A situation where everyone involved benefits or wins.
Examples:
1) The merger between the two food companies was a win-win situation all around. 2) Our new partnership with France Telecom is really a win-win situation.
Etymology:
This phrase comes from business slang, and is frequently used by sales and public relations people to convince others that a new course of action will benefit everyone.

winkie

• winky
• winkey

Also: winky, winkey
1. For someone who is very chicky, very cutsie, someone you could see writing you a cute note with i's dotted with hearts and URAQT-pi written at the end. Describes a stereotypical teeny-bopper.
2. Anything overly cute, sappy, sentimental, etc. could be considered to be winky. (Note, this is not necessarily a derogatory adjective. It is only if the elocutionary force behind it is derogatory.)
3. (comp.) Emoticon :-)
Example:
I received a strange symbol at the end of an e-mail and was informed that it is called and emoticon, or a winkey.
Synonym: winkey face
4. (comp.) WinKey - a computer utility.
Example:
Start your favorite applications, folders and Web pages instantly by creating your own Windows key shortcuts with WinKey!
5. (slang) A face.
6. (Australian slang) A weenie.
Example:
My name is winkie, and I'm here to rock your f*cking world, word up.
7. Winky - a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of books.
Example:
Winky is a House-Elf, who unlike Dobby, didn't want to be freed. She served the Crouch family and guarded the family's many secrets. ("Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winky>)
8. Winkie - one of the "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes" characters.
Example:
Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town, Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown, Tapping at the window and crying through the lock, Are all the children in their beds, it's past eight o'clock?
History:
"Wee Willie Winkie" rhyme belongs to "Nursery Rhymes". The explanation of the words to "Wee Willie Winkie" was to teach children to associate every day tasks with their own lives. Before the days of the wireless, television and the Internet great reliance was put upon the "Town Crier" to pass on the latest news and information. "Wee willie winkie" was the children's version of the "Town Crier"! The author of the poem was William Miller (1810 - 1872) and the first publication date of the words to "Wee Willie Winkie" was in 1841.


winning streak

• win streak
• winning
• streak
• win
• winning game after game
• game

1. A streak of wins; a series of several wins one after the other.
2. Making a clean sweep.
Synonym: winning game after game
Examples:
1) The Expos have won nine games - their longest winning streak.
2) The team extented their winning streak to ten.



winsome

• win
• winning
• charming
• engaging

[WIN-sum]
1. Generally pleasing and engaging, often because of a childlike charm and innocence; causing joy or pleasure; agreeable; pleasant.
2. Cheerful, lighthearted; merry; gay.
Synonyms: charming, engaging, winning
Examples:
1) Andrew's winsome smile and sweet personality endeared the toddler to everyone who tended him in the hospital.
2) And, oh, it was a sweet smile, they said, none sweeter, so winsome and large it transformed her melancholy face. (Flavia Alaya, "Under the Rose")
3) The first time I met Diana, she was a winsome little girl full of energy and mischief. (Annabel Goldsmith, "I will miss her smile," Daily Telegraph, September 3, 1997)
4) Every town has them, the youngsters who light up the headlines in the provincial papers, who smash under-age scoring records and throw you a winsome smile just to top it all. ("O'Shea junior's date with destiny," Irish Times, August 29, 1998)
5) Willard R. Espy ... had such a winsome way with words, such an elegant ear for rhyme and such a sure sense of the absurd that he once began a poem with the words 'I do not roister with an oyster'. ("Willard R. Espy, 88, Scholar and Practitioner of Wordplay," New York Times, February 25, 1999)
Etymology:
"Winsome" began as "wynsum" a thousand years ago. It was formed from "wynn", the Old English word for "joy" or "pleasure", and the suffix "-sum", an older form of the "- some" we see today in many adjectives, such as "awesome", "irksome", and "lonesome". "Wynn" later became "win", meaning "pleasure", but we haven't used that noun since the 17th century. We do, however, use another word that has a "pleasing" connection and is related, albeit distantly, to "winsome". "Winning" ("tending to please or delight," as in "a winning smile" or "winning ways"), the present participle of the familiar verb "win", is from Old English "winnan", meaning "to struggle". Both "winnan" and "wynn" are thought to be related to Latin "venus", which means, among other things, "charm".


wiseacre

• smart aleck
• smart
• aleck
• smart arse
• know-all
• know-it-all
• Solomon
• wisenheimer
• weisenheimer
• wise-guy
• wiseguy
• Clever Dick

[WY-zay-kuhr]
One who pretends to knowledge or cleverness; a would-be wise person.
Synonyms:
smart aleck, smart arse, (Mr. / Miss / Mrs.) know-all / know-it-all, Solomon, wisenheimer / weisenheimer, wise-guy / wiseguy, Clever Dick.
Examples:
1) All across the United States, journalists and other wiseacres would soon have a field day with the popular mayor's personal problems and public trials. (Herbert Mitgang, "Once Upon a Time in New York")
2) A wiseacre on the Oakland to Los Angeles shuttle this week said the next technological leap would be implanting cell phones into people's heads. He was kidding - we think. (Chuck Raasch, "California is November prize for candidates," USA Today August 24, 2000)
3) A few wiseacres in the audience began heckling the young comedian after his first couple of jokes fell flat.
Etymology, related words:
Given the spelling and definition of "wiseacre," one might guess that the word derives from the sense of "wise" meaning "insolent" or "fresh" - the sense that gives us "wisecrack" and "wisenheimer." But, in fact, "wiseacre" derived from the Middle Dutch "wijssegger" ("soothsayer"), a modification of the Old High German "wizzago", or "wissago", alteration of "wizago" - "a prophet." "Wiseacre" first appeared in English way back in the late 16th century, while the "insolent" sense of "wise" and the words formed from it are products of the 19th and 20th centuries. The etymologies of "wiseacre" and "wise" are not completely distinct, however; the ancestors of "wiseacre" are loosely tied to the same Old English root that gave us "wise."

wishy-washy

• wishy
• washy
• namby-pamby
• spineless
• namby
• pamby

1. Weak, feeble; worthless; weak in willpower; not able to decide, saying yes and no.
Synonyms: namby-pamby, spineless.
2. Thin and pale; weak; without strength or substance; originally said of liquids. fig., weak-minded; spiritless.
3. A weak or thin drink or liquor; wish-wash.
Examples:
1) I like you because you're decisive, because you're not wishy washy.
2) A weak wishy-washy man who had hardly any mind of his own. trollope.
History:
1693, "feeble or poor in quality," reduplication of "washy" ("thin, watery"). Meaning "vacillating" first recorded 1873.




wistful
[WIST-ful]
1. full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy; inspiring such yearning
2. musingly sad
Synonym: pensive
Example:
Dan's gaze was wistful as he watched the movers load the furniture into the truck and thought of all the good times he'd had in the house.
Etymology:
1613, "closely attentive"; the meaning of "yearningly eager" is first recorded 1714.
"Wistful" comes from a combination of "wishful" and "wistly," a now obsolete word meaning "intently." One can't say with certainty where "wistly" came from, but it may have sprung from obsolete "wist" ("intent") 15c., of uncertain origin. Another version is that it comes from "whistly," an old term meaning "silently" or "quietly"; but how did the supposed transition from a word meaning "quietly" to one meaning "intently" come about? That's something to muse about, but the answer isn't known.


wizened

• wizen

[WIZ-und]
Dried; shriveled; withered; shrunken; as, "a wizened old man".
Examples:
1) Her eyes were clear and shining, full of love, and set deeply in the creases of her wizened face. (Catherine Whitney, "The Calling")
2) At five foot six, 130 pounds, Erdos had the wizened, cadaverous look of a drug addict, but friends insist he was frail and gaunt long before he started taking amphetamines. (Paul Hoffman, "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers")
3) A thorny bramble bearing wizened leaves grew with the bittersweet in a crevice that ran downhill from the duo of trees. (Mary Parker Buckles, "Margins: A Naturalist Meets Long Island Sound")
Etymology:
"Wizened" is the past participle of "wizen" - "to wither, to dry," from the Old English "wisnian".


woebegone
[WOH-bih-gahn, WOE-bee-gon]
1. Beset or overwhelmed with woe; immersed in grief or sorrow.
Synonym: woeful.
2. Exhibiting great woe, sorrow, or misery.
3. Being in a sorry condition.
Synonyms: dismal-looking; dilapidated; run-down
Examples:
1) Socrates, condemned to death by the people of Athens, prepares to drink a cup of hemlock, surrounded by woebegone friends. (Alain De Botton, "The Consolations of Philosophy")
2) This woebegone lot includes Henry, a real-estate developer whose dream project has, like his marriage, slipped into bankruptcy; Henry's sister, Wiloma, who has hurled herself headlong into the arms of a New Age church to survive her own divorce; and Henry and Wiloma's decrepit Uncle Brendan, a former monk whose faith has eroded along with his health, stranding him in a nursing home. (Jennifer Howard, review of "The Forms of Water", by Andrea Barrett; New York Times, June 13, 1993)
3) After 40 years as a producer he thinks of himself as a battered, scarred but well-armoured animal, "like an old turtle"; and if such creatures could speak they would probably sound like [him], a bit woebegone but drolly unsurprised by life's vicissitudes. ("Time for another Hugo hit," Times (London), May 22, 2000)
Etymology, more examples:
At first glance, "woebegone" looks like a word that has its meaning backwards; after all, if "begone" means "go away," shouldn't "woebegone" mean "devoid of woe," or "happy"? Not exactly. The word derives from the Middle English phrase "wo begon." The "wo" in this phrase simply means "woe" (from Old English "wa", used to express grief), but "begon" ("to go about, to beset"), from Old English "began, bigan", from "bi-" ("around, about") + "gan" ("to go"). Someone who is "woebegone," therefore, is literally beset with woe. Since the early 19th century, the word has also been used to describe things that appear to express sadness, as in "a woebegone face."


wolf in sheep's clothing

• wolf
• sheep
• clothing

This phase describes someone who appears to be harmless or friendly but who is really
dangerous or untrustworthy.
Etymology:
It comes from a fable by Aesop.
Example:
"I can't believe Ron took my idea for his history report. He said he was just interested in hearing about what I was working on. What a wolf in sheep's clothing!"

woolgathering
[WOOL-gath-(uh)-ring]
indulgence in idle daydreaming
Examples:
1) "Ruth, stop your woolgathering," said the teacher, snapping her fingers and pulling the child away from her daydream.
2) Similarly, in the meadow, if you laze too late into the fall, woolgathering, snow could fill your mouth. (Edward Hoagland, "Earth's eye," Sierra, May 1999)
3) It would be easy to slip off into woolgathering and miss a deadline. (Jeraldine Saunders, Washington Post, March 4, 2004)
4) Plagued by guilt, they took refuge in wine, women, and woolgathering. (Brennan Manning, "Ruthless Trust")
5) The soprano roused Fergus from his woolgathering. (Sandra Brown, "Where There's Smoke")
Etymology:
"Woolgathering" once literally referred to the act of gathering loose tufts of wool that had gotten caught on bushes and fences as sheep passed by. Woolgathering was an unprofitable enterprise; its practitioners must have seemed to wander aimlessly, gaining little for their efforts. In the mid-16th century, "woolgathering" began to appear in figurative phrases such as "my wits (or my mind) went a-woolgathering" - in other words, "my mind went wandering aimlessly". From there, it wasn't long before the word "woolgathering" came to suggest foolish or purposeless mind- wandering.


work one's fingers to the bone

• work your fingers to the bone
• work
• finger
• bone

To labor very hard under difficult conditions.
Example: Henry worked his fingers to the bone to make sure the project was finished on time.
Etymology: The idea behind this phrase is that you could work so hard that the flesh falls from your hands.

worried wealthy

• the worried wealthy
• worried
• wealthy

Wealthy people who order expensive, uninsured medical tests as a precautionary measure.
Examples:
1) You may have seen the ads. "How 17 seconds can save your life," reads one promotion for a center in Cherry Hill, N.J., featuring a middle-aged, vibrant-looking couple. Health centers are marketing full- or whole-body scans to "the worried wealthy," as some have coined them. (Sono Motoyama, "Distressed test - Will full-body scan find what ails you?", Philadelphia Daily News, March 22, 2004)
2) Hordes of consumers, often called "the worried wealthy", are flocking to medical centers and mobile trailers around the country to have their bodies scanned by three-dimensional computerized X-rays from chest to groin. They are not sent by physicians, and most have no symptoms to warrant exposing themselves to radiation doses that may add up to the equivalent of 500 chest X-rays, the National Radiological Protection Board says. Rather, these anxious consumers are spending many hundreds of nonreimbursable dollars on total body C.T. scans to reassure themselves that nothing is wrong internally that would warrant prompt treatment. (Jane E. Brody, "How Perils Can Await the 'Worried Wealthy'", The New York Times, November 12, 2002)
Etymology:
This sense of the phrase refers to people who are anxious about their health and are wealthy enough to afford hundreds or even thousands of dollars for procedures such as heart scans, virtual colonoscopies, and full-body scans using electron-beam-tomography (EBT) or computed-tomography (CT). Another sense of the phrase - wealthy people who are worried about losing their money - is much older, dating to at least the mid-70s,


wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole

• would not touch that with a ten-foot pole
• would
• touch
• ten-foot pole
• ten-foot
• pole
• ten
• foot
• feet

To be so repulsed or disgusted by something that you wouldn't go anywhere near it.
Examples:
1) I wouldn't touch that pile of goo with a ten-foot pole! 2) Sarah hates spinach. She wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole!
Etymology:
This is a comic phrase that exaggerates how bad something is. The idea is that something is so bad that you wouldn't go anywhere near it, and you wouldn't even poke it with a very long stick.

wraith
[RAYTH]
1. The exact likeness of a living person seen usually just before death as an apparition. 2. Ghost, specter.
Example:
As the twilight deepened, she dreaded to raise her head and look at the dark corners of the room, lest his wraith, the offspring of her excited imagination, should be waiting there, to startle her. (Charles Dickens, "Dombey and Son")
3. An insubstantial form or semblance; lack of substance.
Synonym: shadow.
4. A barely visible gaseous or vaporous column.
History:
If you see your own double, you're in trouble, at least if you believe old superstitions. The belief that a ghostly twin's appearance portends death is one common to many cultures. In German folklore, such apparitions were called "doppelgangers" (literally, "double goers"); in Scottish lore, they were "wraiths". The exact origin of the word "wraith" is misty, however. Etymologists can only trace it back to its first known use in an English text, which was a 1513 classical translation by Scotsman Gawin Douglas (he used it to name apparitions of both the dead and the living). In current English, "wraith" has taken on additional, less spooky, meanings as well; it now often suggests a shadowy - but not necessarily scary - lack of substance.


wrong side of the tracks

• wrong side
• tracks
• wrong
• side
• track
• slum

The poor part of town.
Synonym: slum
Example:
Chris came from the wrong side of the tracks, but eventually he became a millionaire.
Etymology:
In many American cities, the neighborhoods where poor people live are typically on one side of a city's railroad tracks, close to factories and sources of pollution .


wump

• wumpp

Also: wumpp
The sound of a falling body landing on the ground.
Examples:
1) A mug-wump is a bird who sits on a fence with his mug on one side and his wump on the other, ready to fly any way the wind blows.
2) "First, there was the aiiigh, then a fa-wumpp ba-bumpp," Malloy said, stifling laughter.
Etymology:
"Wump(p)" is the example of onomatopoeia (use or formation of words which sound like the meaning they represent).



wunderkind

• wunderkinder

[VOON-duhr-kint]
Plural: wunderkinder [-kin-duhr]
1. A child prodigy.
2. One who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age.
Examples:
1) It was even written that, at 20, his best days were behind him. He had gone from a wunderkind to an object of sympathy, a hero struggling not to be forgotten. ("Owen shines like a beacon amid the wrecks," Times (London), May 29, 2000)
2) In the mid-thirties, he became the youngest and best state director of FDR's National Youth Administration, a Texas wunderkind who at age twenty-eight beat several better known opponents for a south-central Texas congressional seat. (Robert Dallek, "Flawed Giant")
Etymology:
"Wunderkind" comes from German, from "Wunder" ("wonder") + "Kind" ("child").


wuss

• wimp
• sissy
• coward

A coward; an ineffectual, timid person.
Examples:
1) Don't be a wuss, Stephan. It's just a little spider! 2) You're afraid of the dark? What are you, some kind of wuss?
Etymology:
This word has been popular with teenage boys since the 1960's. Synonyms: wimp, sissy


wysbanrtwyg
(SMS) what you see bears absolutely no relation to what you get