kudzu (n)

• a fast-growing Asian vine of the legume family that is used for forage and erosion control and is often a serious weed in the southeastern US: Japanese kudzu

silt (n)

• n: sand, soil, mud, etc., that is carried by flowing water and that sinks to the bottom of a river, pond, etc.; loose sedimentary material with rock particles
• v: to become blocked, filled, or covered with silt; to block, fill, or cover (something) with silt ("the channel silted up")

cairn (n)

• a pile of stones that marks a place (such as the place where someone is buried or a battle took place) or that shows the direction of a trail; a heap of stones piled up as a memorial or as a landmark

talc (n)

• a very soft mineral that is a basic silicate of magnesium, has a soapy feel, and is used especially in making talcum powder

desiccate (v)

• to dry up; to become dried up
• to preserve (a food) by drying : dehydrate
• to drain of emotional or intellectual vitality
• ("that historian's dryasdust prose desiccates what is actually an exciting period in European history"); ("add a cup of desiccated coconut to the mix")
• Latin desiccatus, past participle of desiccare to dry up, from de- + siccare to dry, from siccus dry

lintel (n)

• a piece of wood or stone that lies across the top of a door or window and holds the weight of the structure above it; a horizontal architectural member spanning and usually carrying the load above an opening
• from Anglo-French "lintel," alteration of "linter" "threshold," from Late Latin "limitaris," from Latin, constituting a boundary, from "limit-," "limes" - "boundary"

loggia (n)

• an area on the side of a building that has a roof and that is open on one side; a roofed open gallery especially at an upper story overlooking an open court
• Italian, from Old French loge lodge

verdigris (n)

• a green or greenish blue poisonous pigment resulting from the action of acetic acid on copper, consisting of one or more basic copper acetates, and formerly used in medicine
• a green or bluish deposit especially of copper carbonates formed on copper, brass, or bronze surfaces
• from Anglo-French "verdegrece," "vert de Grece," literally, "green of Greece"
• Verdigris: river 351 miles (565 kilometers) SE Kansas & NE Oklahoma flowing into Arkansas River

spire (n)

• n: a slender tapering blade or stalk (as of grass)
• n: from Old English spīr; akin to Middle Dutch spier blade of grass
• n: the upper tapering part of something (as a tree or antler) : pinnacle
• n: a tapering roof or analogous pyramidal construction surmounting a tower
• n: steeple ("a church spire")
• n: a spiral; coil
• Latin spira coil, from Greek speira; perhaps akin to Greek sparton rope, esparto
• v: to rise like a spire

corrugate (v)

• to form or shape into wrinkles or folds or into alternating ridges and grooves; to furrow
• Latin corrugatus, past participle of corrugare, from com- + ruga wrinkle; probably akin to Lithuanian raukas wrinkle

hamlet (n)

• a small village ("she always longed to return to the quiet hamlet where she had been born")
• from Anglo-French hamelet, diminutive of ham village, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English hām village, home
• Hamlet: a legendary Danish prince and hero of Shakespeare's play Hamlet

mire (n/v)

• n: thick and deep mud or slush
• n: wet spongy earth (as of a bog or marsh)
• n: a troublesome or intractable situation ("found themselves in a mire of debt")
• from Old Norse mȳrr; akin to Old English mōs marsh
• v: to cause to stick fast in or as if in mire; to hamper or hold back as if by mire : entangle ("the sight of the standard, which had emerged from the battle mangled and mired, still stirred the soldiers' hearts")

jackstraw (n)

• a game in which a set of straws or thin strips is let fall in a heap with each player in turn trying to remove one at a time without disturbing the rest

bolus (n)

• a rounded mass: as: a large pill; a soft mass of chewed food
• a dose of a substance (as a drug) given intravenously; a large dose of a substance given by injection for the purpose of rapidly achieving the needed therapeutic concentration in the bloodstream
• Late Latin, from Greek bōlos lump

mattock (n)

• a digging and grubbing tool with features of an adze and an ax or pick

caustic (adj)

• capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action : corrosive ("the chemical was so caustic that it ate through the pipes")
• marked by incisive sarcasm ("she wrote a caustic report about the decisions that led to the crisis")
• Latin causticus, from Greek kaustikos, from kaiein to burn

fey (adj)

• (chiefly Scottish) fated to die : doomed; marked by a foreboding of death or calamity
• able to see into the future : visionary
• marked by an otherworldly air or attitude
• crazy, touched
• excessively refined; precious
• quaintly unconventional : campy
• from Old English fǣge; akin to Old High German feigi doomed and perhaps to Old English fāh hostile, outlawed

culvert (n)

• a drain or pipe that allows water to flow under a road or railroad
• a transverse drain
• a conduit for a culvert
• a bridge over a culvert

sou'wester (n)

• a hat that is worn when it rains and that is longer in the back than in the front and ties under the chin
• a long coat worn by sailors that keeps them dry during stormy weather; a long oilskin coat worn especially at sea during stormy weather

plunder (v)

• to steal things from (a place, such as a city or town) especially by force

tendril (n)

• the thin stem of a climbing plant that attaches to walls, fences, etc.
• something that is thin and curly
• something suggestive of a tendril ("creeping tendrils of fog"); ("a few tendrils of hair framed her face")

travois (n)

• a simple vehicle used by Plains Indians consisting of two trailing poles serving as shafts and bearing a platform or net for the load

moor (n/v)

• n: a broad area of open land that is not good for farming
• n: chiefly British : an expanse of open rolling infertile land
• n: a boggy area; especially : one that is peaty and dominated by grasses and sedges
• n: a member of a group of North African Arab people who ruled parts of Spain from the eighth century until 1492
• v: to hold (a boat or ship) in place with ropes or cables or with an anchor ("we found a harbor and moored the boat there for the night")

sheave (n/v)

• n: a grooved wheel or pulley (as of a pulley block)
• v: to gather and bind into a sheaf

cognate (n/adj)

• adj: (of a word) having the same linguistic derivation as another; from the same original word or root (e.g., English is, German ist, Latin est, from Indo-European esti)
• adj: related; connected ("cognate subjects such as physics and chemistry"); related to or descended from a common ancestor
• n: (linguistics) a cognate word
• n: (law) a blood relative
• from Latin cognatus, from co- ‘together with’ + natus ‘born.’

imponderable (n/adj)

• n: a factor that is difficult or impossible to estimate or assess; incapable of being weighed or evaluated with exactness ("there are too many imponderables for an overall prediction")
• adj: difficult or impossible to estimate, assess, or answer ("an imponderable problem of metaphysics")
• adj: (archaic) (literary) very light

salitter (n)

• the essence of God

oracle (n)

• a priest or priestess acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods in classical antiquity
• a place at which divine advice or prophecy was sought; a shrine in which a deity reveals hidden knowledge or the divine purpose through such a person
• a person or thing regarded as an infallible authority or guide on something ("casting the attorney general as the oracle for and guardian of the public interest is simply impossible"); expert ("our oracle on Africa")
• a response or message given by an oracle, typically one that is ambiguous or obscure
• via Old French from Latin oraculum, from orare ‘speak.’

molder (v)

• to rot slowly especially from not being used : to decay slowly
• to crumble into dust: disintegrate

quill (n/v)

• n: any of the main wing or tail feathers of a bird
• n: a pen made from a main wing or tail feather of a large bird by pointing and slitting the end of the shaft
• n: an object in the form of a thin tube, in particular
• n: the hollow sharp spines of a porcupine, hedgehog, or other spiny mammal
• n: a weaver's spindle
• v: to form (fabric) into small cylindrical folds

sloe (n)

• another term for blackthorn; the small bluish-black fruit of the blackthorn, with a sharp sour taste; the small dark globose astringent fruit of the blackthorn
• "sloe-eyed" = having soft dark bluish- or purplish-black eyes. : having slanted eyes

bollard (n)

• a short, thick post on the deck of a ship or on a wharf, to which a ship's rope may be secured
• (british) a short post used to divert traffic from an area or road

creosote (n/v)

• n: a dark brown oil distilled from coal tar and used as a wood preservative. It contains a number of phenols, cresols, and other organic compounds; a colorless, pungent, oily liquid, containing creosol and other compounds, distilled from wood tar and used as an antiseptic
• v: to treat (wood) with creosote
• coined in German from Greek kreas ‘flesh’ + sōtēr ‘preserver,’ with reference to its antiseptic properties

gantry (n)

• a bridgelike overhead structure with a platform supporting equipment such as a crane, railroad signals, lights, or cameras
• a movable framework for supporting and servicing a rocket prior to launching
• a frame for supporting barrels
• a framework spanning a railroad track or tracks for displaying signals

breech (n/v)

• n: the part of a cannon behind the bore
• n: the back part of a rifle or gun barrel
• n: (archaic) a person's buttocks
• n: a baby whose buttocks or feet are presented first during the birth
• v: to put (a boy) into breeches after being in petticoats since birth
• of Germanic origin; related to Dutch broek ), interpreted as a singular form. The original sense was ‘garment covering the loins and thighs’ (compare with breeches), hence ‘the buttocks’ (sense 2 of the noun, mid 16th century), later ‘the hind part’ of anything (late 16th century)

taut (adj)

• stretched or pulled tight; not slack ("the fabric stays taut without adhesive")
• (especially of muscles or nerves) tense; not relaxed
• (of writing, music, etc.) concise and controlled ("a taut text of only a hundred and twenty pages")
• (of a ship) having a disciplined and efficient crew
• kept in good order; trim

truss (n/v)

• n: a framework, typically consisting of rafters, posts, and struts, supporting a roof, bridge, or other structure
• n: a surgical appliance worn to support a hernia, typically a padded belt
• n: a large projection of stone or timber, typically one supporting a cornice
• n: (british) a bundle of old hay (56 lb), new hay (60 lb), or straw (36 lb)
• n: a compact cluster of flowers or fruit growing on one stalk
• n: (slang) a heavy metal ring securing a lower yard to its mast
• v: to tie up the wings and legs of (a chicken or other bird) before cooking
• v: to tie up (someone) with their arms at their sides ("I found him trussed up in his closet")
• v: to dress (someone) in elaborate or uncomfortable clothing ("he was trussed up in a heavily padded suit")
• v: to support (a roof, bridge, or other structure) with a truss or trusses
• from Old French trusse (noun), trusser ‘pack up, bind in,’ based on late Latin tors- ‘twisted,’ from the verb torquere

plank (n/v)

• n: a long, thin, flat piece of timber, used especially in building and flooring
• n: a fundamental point of a political or other program ("the central plank of the bill is the curb on industrial polluters")
• n: something to stand on or to cling to for support
• n: any one of the stated principles or objectives comprising the political platform of a party campaigning for election ("they fought for a plank supporting a nuclear freeze")
• v: to make, provide, or cover with planks ("the ship was planked with teak")