Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                             

Word:  Fixation

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: An Obsessive interest in or feeling about someone or something.
• Example: I firmly believe that one of my appropriate fixations has been to manage time well. 

 

Word: Railed

• Parts of Speech: Noun / Verb
• Meaning: Begin behaving in a strange, abnormal, or wildly uncontrolled way.
• Example: I’ve railed about time management to my students.

 

Word: Banister

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: The structure formed by the uprights and handrail at the side of the staircase.
• Handrail, railing.
• Example: “It doesn’t matter how well you polish the underside of the banister." 

 

Word: Naive

• Parts of Speech: Adjective
• Meaning: Showing lack of experience, wisdom, or judgement.
• Example: I once put “get tenure” on my to-do list. That was naive. 

 

Word: Compulsive

• Parts of Speech: Adjective
• Meaning: Resulting from or relating to an irresistable urge, especially one that is against one’s conscious wishes.
• Example: She said I sounded way too compulsive for her tastes.

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References

Book: The Last Lecture.

Word Meanings: Google Search, Dictionary, Vocabulary.com, Apple Lookup.

Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                                    

 Word:  Flatly

• Parts of Speech: Adverb
• Meaning: Showing little interest or emotion.
• Example: “So you’ve got cancer,” he said flatly.

 

Word: Brazen

• Parts of Speech: Adjective
• Meaning: Bold and without shame.
• Example: And if by some chance I was the most brazen con man he’d ever stopped, well, he wasn’t taking this any further. 

 

Word: Trot

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Proceed or cause to proceed at a pace faster than a walk, lifting each diagonal pair of legs alternatively.
• Example: As he trotted back to his police car, I had a realization. 

 

Word: Chirp

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Utter a short, sharp, high-pitched sound.
• Example: The machine chirped, beeped and said I owed $16.55, but issued no receipt.

 

Word: Ordeal

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: A painful or horrific experience, especially a protracted one.
• Example: The whole tedious ordeal could have stretched to ten or even fifteen minutes.

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References

Book: The Last Lecture

Word Meanings: Google Search, Dictionary, Vocabulary.com, Apple Lookup.

Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                                     

 

 Word: Court

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Be involved romantically, typically with the Intention of marrying. Pay special attention.
• Example: When I was courting her, I sent her flowers once a week. 

 

Word: Scribble

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Write or draw something carelessly or hurriedly.
• Example: Before she starts scribbling in her journal, I owe it to her to straighten up my mess.

 

Word: Drift

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Be carried slowly by a current of water or air.
• Example: I had drifted a few miles an hour over the speed limit. 

 

Word: Cocked

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Tilt something in a particular direction.
• Example: The Officer Cocked his head and squinted at me.

 

Word: Squint

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Look at someone or something with one or both eyes partly closed in an attempt to see more clearly or as a reaction to strong light.
• Example: The Officer cocked his head and squinted at me.  

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References

Book: The Last Lecture

Word Meanings: Google Search, Dictionary, Vocabulary.com, Apple Lookup.

Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                             

Word: Dread  

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Anticipate with great apprehension or fear.
• Example: "It’s not helpful if we spend every day dreading tomorrow,” she says.

 

Word: Bittersweet

• Parts of Speech: Adjective
• Meaning: Sweet with a bitter aftertaste.
• Example: This last New Year’s Eve, though was very emotional and bittersweet in our house.

 

Word: Slam

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Shut forcefully and loudly.
• Example: If my life were a movie, this scene of me and Dylan would get slammed by critics for over-the-top-shadowing.

 

Word: Meticulous

• Parts of Speech: Adjective
• Meaning: Showing great attention to detail, Very careful and precise.
• Example: Rather than showing Dylan and Logan the proper way to do it - carefully and meticulously - I just let them have at it haphazardly.

 

Word: Haphazard

• Parts of Speech: Adjective
• Meaning: Lacking any obvious principle of organization, unplanned, unsystematic, random, unmethodical.
• Example: Rather than showing Dylan and Logan the proper way to do it - carefully and meticulously - I just let them have at it haphazardly.

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References

Book: The Last Lecture

Word Meanings: Google Search and Vocabulary.com, apple lookup.

Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                                          

 

 Word: Valor

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: Great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle.
• Example: In recognition of this, my dad, then twenty-two years old, was issued the Bronze Star for valor.

 

Word: Vicinity

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: The area near or surrounding a particular place.
• Example: He commenced treating wounded men while shells continued to fall in the immediate vicinity.

 

Word: Relent

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Abandon or mitigate a harsh intention or cruel treatment.
• Example: Presented with the data, I relented.

 

Word: Prognosis

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: The likely course of a disease or ailment.
• Example: At the same time, given my prognosis, Jai says she’s learning to let some of the little stuff slide.

 

Word: Calibrate

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Adjust or correlate the readings of an instrument with those of a standard in order to check the instrument’s accuracy.
• Example:  Dr. Reiss has a gift for helping people to recalibrate their home lives when one spouse has a terminal illness.

Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                                         

Word: Accordion

• Parts of Speech: Noun 
• Meaning: A portable musical instrument with metal reeds blown by bellows, played by means of keys and buttons.
• Example: I found photos of him as a young man playing an accordion.

 

Word: Clutch

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Grasp or sieze something tightly or eagerly.
• Example: And as an older man, clutching a stuffed bear bigger than he was.

 

Word: Grin

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Smile broadly, especially in an unrestrained manner and with the mouth open.
• Example: He had this great grin on his face. 

 

Word: Flourish

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Grow, thrive, prosper, do well, develop, proliferate.
• Example: He would present them with a flourish, building a bit of drama. 

 

Word: Leap

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Jump over or spring in a long way.
• Example: Paush leaped from a covered position and commenced treating the wounded men.  

Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                                    

 

 Word: Staccato

• Parts of Speech: Adjective/ Adverb / Noun
• Meaning: A series of short, sharply separated sounds or words.
• Example: I was gasping out of fear in staccato. 

 

Word: Incubator

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: An enclosed apparatus providing a controlled environment for the care and protection of premature or unusually small babies.
• Example: He’d been in a so-called “closed-air bassinete,” which is a more benign description of an incubator.

 

Word: Hysterical

• Parts of Speech: Adjective
• Meaning: Feeling or showing an extreme and uncontrolled emotion.
• Example: She could have gotten so hysterical that she’d thrown herself into shock.

 

Word: Stricken

• Parts of Speech: Verb / Adjective
• Meaning: Seriously affected by an undesirable condition or an unpleasant feeling.
• Example: I could have been so stricken that I’d have been no help in the surgery room. 

 

Word: Ordeal

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: A painful or horrific experience, especially a protracted one.
• Example: Through the whole Ordeal, I don’t think we ever said to each other.  

Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                                         

 

 Word: Wail 

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: A prolonged high-pitched cry of pain, anger, or grief
• Example: And then the baby, our first child, Dylan, let out a wail like you’ve never heard before. 

 

Word: Preemie

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: A baby born prematurely
• Example: The preemies who come out limp often have the most trouble. 

 

Word: Dissonant

• Parts of Speech: Adjective
• Meaning: Lacking harmony
• Example: At Magee, they did a wonderful job of simultaneously communicating two dissonant things.

 

Word: Bassinet

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: A baby’s wicker-cradle usually with a hood
• Example: One day, we arrived at the hospital, and Dylan’s bassinett was gone.

 

Word: Gasp

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Inhale suddenly with the mouth open, out of pain, or astonishment.
• Example: I was gasping out fear in staccato.  

Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                            

 

 Word: Shrug

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Raise one’s shoulder slightly and momentarily to express doubt, ignorance, or indifference.
• Example: I just shrugged, and I could see that for Jai, an entire day’s worth of anxiety was just melting away.

 

Word: Gash

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: A long deep slash, cut, or wound.
• Example: We would just live with dents and gashes.

 

Word: Placenta

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: A flattened circular organ in the uterus of pregnant eutherian mammals, nourishing and maintaing the fetus through the umblical chord.
• Example: With the Placenta in such distress, the life support for the fetus was giving out. 

 

Word: Riff

• Parts of Speech: Noun
• Meaning: A short repeated phrase in popular music and Jazz, typically used as an introduction, or refrain in a song.
• Example: I wondered how often she used her “hospital paperwork” riff to ease patients’ anxieties.

 

Phrase: Off the ledge 

• Parts of Speech: 
• Meaning: "Off the ledge" is a figurative phrase that means avoiding a risky or harmful situation. It can also mean taking a risk, making a big decision, or doing something unexpected. 
• Example: Just keep her off the ledge when she gets scared.

Lexicon Lift: 5 Daily Words (Are you familiar with these? And how do you use these words?)

                                                              

 

 Word: Devise

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Plan or Invent a complex procedure, system, or mechanism by careful thought.
• Example: Your principal duty is to devise, implement, and manage a backup and recovery strategy.

 

Word: Drape

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: The manner in which fabric hangs or falls; Place casually.
• Example: Within seconds, the deflating envelope draped onto the ground.

 

Word: Trotting

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: To trot is move faster than walking, but not quite a full-out run.
• Example: The ballooner came trotting over to us. “Wait wait!” he said. “You ordered the wedding package! It comes with a bottle of champagne!”. 

 

Word: Obsess

• Parts of Speech: Verb
• Meaning: Be preoccupied with something; Haunt like a ghost; pursue.
• Example: Jai spent the entire day obsessing over how to explain everything to Ricky when he got home from Club Babalu. 

 

Word: Root

• Parts of Speech: Noun / Verb
• Meaning: Come into existence, Originate; Become settled or establishedand stable in one’s residence or life style.
• Example: As she’d soon learn, my measured response was rooted in my upbringing.