English language -- Dictionaries -- Humor; English language -- Semantics -- Humor; Vocabulary -- Humor
ABSENT, adj. Peculiarly exposed to the tooth of detraction; vilified;
hopelessly in the wrong; superseded in the consideration and affection
of another.
To men a man is but a mind. Who cares
What face he carries or what form he wears?
But woman's body is the woman. Oh,
Stay thou, my sweetheart, and do never go.
But heed the warning words the sage hath said:
A woman absent is a woman dead.
Jogo Tyree.
ABSENTEE, n. A person with an income who has had the forethought to
remove himself from the sphere of exaction.
ABSOLUTE, adj. Independent, irresponsible. An absolute monarchy is one
in which the sovereign does as he pleases so long as he pleases the
assassins. Not many absolute monarchies are left, most of them having
been replaced by limited monarchies, where the sovereigns' power for
evil (and for good) is greatly curtailed, and by republics, which are
governed by chance.
ABSTAINER, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying
himself a pleasure. A Total Abstainer is one who abstains from
everything, but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the
affairs of others.
Said a man to a crapulent youth: "I thought
You a total abstainer, my son."
"So I am, so I am," said the scapegrace caught--
"But not, sir, a bigoted one."
G. J.
ABSURDITY, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's
own opinion.
ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
ACADEMY, n. [from Academe]. A modern school where football is taught.
ACCIDENT, n. An inevitable occurrence due to the action of immutable
natural laws.
ACCOMPLICE, n. One associated with another in a crime, having guilty
knowledge and complicity, as an attorney who defends a criminal, knowing
him guilty. This view of the attorney's position in the matter has not
hitherto commanded the assent of attorneys, no one having offered them a
fee for assenting.
ACCORD, n. Harmony.
ACCORDION, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an
assassin.
ACCOUNTABILITY, n. The mother of caution.
"My accountability, bear in mind,"
Said the Grand Vizier: "Yes, yes."
Said the Shah: "I do--'t is the only kind
Of ability you possess."
ACCUSE, v. t. To affirm another's guilt or unworth; most commonly as a
justification of ourselves for having wronged him.
ACEPHALOUS, adj. In the surprising condition of the Crusader who
absently pulled at his forelock some hours after a Saracen scimitar had,
unconsciously to him, passed through his neck, as related by the Prince
de Joinville.
ACHIEVEMENT, n. The death of endeavor and the birth of disgust.
ACKNOWLEDGE, v. t. To confess. To acknowledge one another's faults is
the highest duty imposed by our love of truth.
Joram Tate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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