STAYCATION
A vacation spent at home or close to home rather than involving distant travel.
Other meanings and uses↓
- The plural staycations refers to multiple such home-based or nearby breaks.
- The word can be used attributively in phrases such as staycation plans or staycation activities.
GUITAR
A musical instrument with a fretted or unfretted neck and a body, played by plucking or strumming.
Other meanings and uses↓
- The word can modify another noun, as in guitar player, guitar music or guitar lesson.
DIRTY
Marked by dirt, grime or another unwanted substance and therefore not clean.
Other meanings and uses↓
- It can describe conduct that is unfair, dishonest or deliberately underhanded.
- It can describe language or humor considered obscene or indecent.
- As a verb, to dirty something means to make it unclean.
KILLER
A person, animal or thing that causes someone or something to die.
Other meanings and uses↓
- It can denote a disease, substance or condition capable of causing death.
- Informally, a killer can be something exceptionally demanding or exhausting.
SICK
Affected by physical illness or feeling unwell, nauseated or otherwise unhealthy.
Other meanings and uses↓
- It can mean deeply disgusted, disturbed or distressed by something.
- To be sick can mean to vomit in ordinary conversational usage.
- It can describe humor or behavior regarded as morbid or offensive.
DOWNFALL
A loss of power, prosperity or status that results in ruin or serious decline.
Other meanings and uses↓
- It can also mean the person, weakness or event that causes such a collapse.
- In older or literal use, it may refer simply to a falling or downward descent.
SHAKEN
Moved rapidly back and forth or subjected to repeated jolting or agitation.
Other meanings and uses↓
- It can describe someone who is emotionally distressed or badly unsettled.
- It is the past participle of shake and appears in perfect and passive verb constructions.
UP
Toward, at or in a higher position, place or level relative to something else.
Other meanings and uses↓
- It can mean awake and no longer sleeping, as in being up early.
- It can mean operating or available, as when a system is up.
- It can indicate an increase, improvement or completion depending on context.
TENNIS RACKET
A long-handled, framed piece of sporting equipment used to hit a ball in tennis.
Other meanings and uses↓
- Tennis racquet is an established alternative spelling of the same equipment name.
SHAKESPEARE
William Shakespeare, the English playwright and poet associated with numerous plays and sonnets.
Other meanings and uses↓
- The name can refer collectively to Shakespeare’s writings, as in reading or performing Shakespeare.
- It can be used attributively in phrases concerning his life, language, works or historical period.
WICKED
Morally wrong, evil or deliberately harmful in conduct, intention or character.
Other meanings and uses↓
- It can describe someone as playfully mischievous rather than seriously evil.
- It can intensify an unpleasant quality, such as a wicked headache or wicked storm.
- Wicked is also the past-tense and participial form of the uncommon verb wick.
TASSEL
A decorative bunch of hanging threads or cords fastened together at one end.
Other meanings and uses↓
- The plural tassels refers to multiple examples of this hanging ornament.
- Tasseled or tasselled describes an object decorated or finished with tassels.
SITCOM
A comedy program built around recurring characters placed in continuing everyday situations.
Other meanings and uses↓
- The plural sitcoms refers to more than one series or program of this type.
- The word can modify another noun in phrases such as sitcom episode or sitcom actor.
MARIONETTE
A jointed puppet operated from above by lines attached to a handheld control.
Other meanings and uses↓
- Figuratively, it can describe someone whose actions are controlled by another person.
- The plural marionettes refers to multiple puppets of this particular type.
DRY
Free or relatively free from water, moisture or another liquid on or within it.
Other meanings and uses↓
- It can describe a region or period receiving little or no rainfall.
- It can describe restrained, understated humor delivered without visible amusement.
- As a verb, dry means to remove moisture or to become free of moisture.
GNARLY
Rough, twisted or covered with knots, especially in reference to wood or branches.
Other meanings and uses↓
- It can describe a problem or situation that is difficult, complicated or unpleasant.
- It can describe physical conditions that are rough, severe or potentially hazardous.
