51吃瓜 of the Day
knackered
adjective
British Slang.
exhausted; very tired: He is really knackered after work.
More about knackered
The verb knacker originally meant 鈥渢o tire, kill, castrate,鈥� a verb derived either from the noun knacker 鈥渁 tradesman who buys animal carcasses or slaughters useless livestock鈥� or from the plural noun knackers, a slang word for 鈥渢esticles, courage.鈥� Knackered in the sense 鈥渆xhausted鈥� entered English in 19th century.
how is knackered used?
She was completely knackered. All she wanted was a shower and twelve hours of sleep.
When they’re knackered like that they start crying.
impedimenta
plural noun
baggage or other things that retard one's progress, as supplies carried by an army: the impedimenta of the weekend skier.
More about impedimenta
Scores of millions of Americans will smile (or moan) at the recollection of reading (with the assistance of a pony or trot) Caesar鈥檚 Commentaries on the Gallic War in their sophomore year high school Latin class, and seeing their old friend (or nemesis) 颈尘辫别诲墨尘别苍迟补 鈥渂aggage train, traveling equipment鈥� loaded with ablatives absolute and subjunctives in indirect discourse. 滨尘辫别诲墨尘别苍迟补 is a neuter plural noun formed from the verb 颈尘辫别诲墨谤别 鈥渢o restrict, hobble, impede鈥� and –mentum, a neuter noun suffix for concrete objects. 滨尘辫别诲墨谤别 is a compound of the preposition and prefix in, in– 鈥渋n, into鈥� and ped-, the inflectional stem of the noun 辫脓蝉 鈥渇辞辞迟鈥�; 颈尘辫别诲墨尘别苍迟补 therefore being the things that get caught in your feet, weigh you down. Impedimenta entered English at the end of the 16th century.
how is impedimenta used?
Games impedimenta–hockey sticks, boxing gloves, a burst football, a pair of sweaty shorts turned inside out–lay all over the floor …
Every man was piled up with impedimenta–broken, torn, soiled and cobbled impedimenta.
skimble-scamble
adjective
rambling; confused; nonsensical: a skimble-scamble explanation.
More about skimble-scamble
The rare adjective skimble-scamble shows the same, common vowel alteration in a reduplicated word as in mish-mash or pitter-patter. The reduplicated word is the verb scamble, of unknown etymology, and now obsolete or dialectal, meaning 鈥渢o struggle or scramble with others for food or money tossed to a crowd,鈥� now replaced by scramble. The lexicographer Samuel Johnson was not keen on skimble-scamble, calling it a 鈥渃ant word,鈥� one of his favorite terms of abuse. Skimble-scamble entered English at the end of the 16th century.
how is skimble-scamble used?
He complained bitterly of his reporters, saying that the skimblescamble stuff which they published would “make posterity think ill of his understanding, and that of his brethren on the bench.”
And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff, /
As puts me from my faith.