From them I learned the following things about ratchet. What does 'ratchet' mean, and how is it pronounced? Ratchet [is] used to describe someone means nasty, ghetto or trifling. —Janet …

Sep 13, 2013 · Scheming does not carry the meaning of causing harm to others. You can scheme for personal gain without necessarily hurting anyone or, at least, without that being your …

Terry Pratchett used in his disc world novels the word "avec" as a common food ingredient for french (in his books named "quirmian" or "Quirm" for the country) food. Excerpt from "Snuff" by …

The word crazy is a later addition. Scanning Google Books I find a handful of references starting from the mid-60s where batshit is clearly just a variation on bullshit (nonsense, rubbish) - …

Aug 22, 2011 · A good question: I'm in a similar quandry with a supplier, but after 'sorry to bother you' email or two, I started to ratchet-up the bluntness. :)

Dec 11, 2020 · Since the OP wants the sentence to conjure in readers a sense of "quantifiable relationship", if you will, I suggest the phrasal verb ratchet down, which readily evokes this …

ADDED: It is possible that a third sense of racket contributed. Racket is found in some 18th-and 19th-century texts as a variant of ratchet, a toothed wheel or bar, or a tooth or click for …

The OED says this The present distinction in usage between forward and forwards is that the latter expresses a definite direction viewed in contrast with other directions. In some contexts …

I found Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous words, “ there is properly no history, only biography,” in his “Essay I” being quoted in the article titled “Keeping the dream alive: A biography,” …

The French have an interesting phrase: Fin de siècle (French pronunciation: [fɛ̃ də sjɛkl]) From Wikipedia's entry for the phrase: " Fin de siècle means literally 'end of the century.' The term …