The _silly_ buckets on the deck. (Coleridge: _The Ancient
Mariner_)
4. In technical usage or particular phrases a former sense of a word may
be embedded like a fossil. The italicized words in the following list
retain special senses of this kind. What do these words as thus used mean?
Can you add to the list?
To _wit_
Might and _main_
Time and _tide_
Christmas_tide_
_Sad_ bread
A bank _teller_
To _tell_ one's _beads_
Aid and _abet_
_Meat_ and drink
Shop_lifter_
Fishing-_tackle_
Getting off _scot_-free
An _earnest_ of future favors
A _brave_ old hearthstone
_Confusion_ to the enemy!
Giving aid and _comfort_ to the enemy
Without _let_ or hindrance
A _let_ in tennis
_Quick_lime
Cut to _the quick_
_Neat_-foot oil
To _sound in_ tort (Legal phrase)
To bid one God_speed_
I had as _lief_ as not
The child _favors_ its parents
On _pain_ of death
Widow's _weeds_
I am _bound_ for the Promised Land
To _carry_ a girl to a party (Used only in the South)
To give a person so much _to boot_
5. Each of the subjoined phrases contradicts itself or repeats its idea
clumsily. The key to the difficulty lies in the italicized words. What is
their true meaning?
A weekly _journal_
_Ultimate_ end
Final _ultimatum_
_Final_ completion
Previous _preconceptions_
_Nauseating_ seasickness
_Join_ together
_Descend_ down
_Prefer_ better
_Argent_ silver
Completely _annihilate_
_Unanimously_ by all
Most _unique_ of all
The other _alternative_
_Endorse_ on the back
_Incredible_ to believe
A _criterion_ to go by
An _appetite_ to eat
_A panacea_ for all ills
_Popular_ with the people
_Biography_ of his life
_Autobiography_ of his own life
_Vitally_ alive
A new, _novel_, and ingenious explanation
_Mutual_ dislike for each other
_Omniscient_ knowledge of all subjects
A _material_ growth in mental power
_Peculiar_ faults of his own
Fly into an _ebullient_ passion
To _saturate_ oneself with gold and silver
Elected by _acclamation on_ a secret ballot.