A plot device in a story which entails the villain giving a convincing lecture to its interrogator, usually in an attempt to justify itself; often successfully convincing the hero of his or her own moral shortcomings.
"You'd like to quantify me, Officer Starling. You're so ambitious, aren't you? Do you know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. You're a well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Your eyes are like cheap birthstones - all surface shine when you stalk some little answer. And you're bright behind them, aren't you? Desperate not to be like your mother. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation out of the mines Officer Starling. Is it the West Virginia Starlings or the Okie Starlings, Officer? It was a toss-up between college and the opportunities in the Women's Army Corps, wasn't it? Let me tell you something specific about yourself, Student Starling. Back in your room, you have a string of gold add-a-beads and you feel an ugly little thump when you look at how tacky they are now, isn't that so? All those tedious thank-yous, permitting all that sincere fumbling, getting all sticky once for every bead. Tedious. Tedious. Bo-o-o-o-r-i-ing. Being smart spoils a lot of things, doesn't it? And taste isn't kind. When you think about this conversation, you'll remember the dumb animal hurt in his face when you got rid of him. If the add-a-beads got tacky, what else will as you go along? You wonder don't you, at night?"
—The Hannibal Lecture by Hannibal Lecter, The Silence Of The Lambs (book)
—The Hannibal Lecture by Hannibal Lecter, The Silence Of The Lambs (book)
by Kontesa January 7, 2010
A term depicting a person who is constantly inclined to advise/lecture everyone about every little fact that they know in a pedantic manner.
by Swampybaby December 25, 2015
A lecture which a student turns up to, only to realise that there is neither lecturer nor other students anywhere to be seen, even though said student is certain he/she is in the correct place.
noun. Phantom lecture
Person A: "how was your lecture mate?"
Person B: "Shite. went all the fucking way into town, only to find it was a bloody Phantom Lecture. Theres £2.40 on the bus i could have done without wasting."
Person A: "how was your lecture mate?"
Person B: "Shite. went all the fucking way into town, only to find it was a bloody Phantom Lecture. Theres £2.40 on the bus i could have done without wasting."
by jonnytee November 19, 2009
A special type of teacher that makes you feel uniquely unintelligent. Even after you've supposedly become an adult and know everything like your parents do.
by Towntrain January 16, 2017
Death lecture is a lecture given to you by an asian parent, stating everything bad you've every done in the world.
Asian Mom: John, you got B+, what wrong with you, you can't drive, you can't cook, you don't clean, you sit on your lazy ass all day...
John: *Get getting death lectured*
John: *Get getting death lectured*
by exxo56456451 April 15, 2007
VERB
The act of attending a university lecture for a class you do not take.
Derivative of gate crash
Reasons behind this behaviour vary... One could lecture crash to keep a friend company, to hide the fact that they have no one to hang out with during a break, to try before you buy, or maybe just because they find the subject interesting.
The act of attending a university lecture for a class you do not take.
Derivative of gate crash
Reasons behind this behaviour vary... One could lecture crash to keep a friend company, to hide the fact that they have no one to hang out with during a break, to try before you buy, or maybe just because they find the subject interesting.
"Hey Clementine! What are you doing here?! I didn't know you took psych 101!"
"Hey Fatima, nahh I don't, I'm just lecture crashing"
"Hey Fatima, nahh I don't, I'm just lecture crashing"
by RoboBear September 20, 2011
NOUN
The one person who, unbeknownst to them, keeps you from failing a subject at university simply by being so beautiful (among myriad 'meh' looking peers) that you happily zombie your way to the lecture just to sit behind them and stare at the back of their perfect head for an hour. lodestone
During that one, magical hour you:
a) Get heart palpitations glimpsing a perfectly sculpted ear...or if super duper lucky,sliver of sideface- ohhHHHhhh yeeeEEEAAAAaahhh!
b)Try to stop breathing so heavily/swallowing so often etc.
c) Absorb bits of lecture during mental intermissions between daydreaming about what their name might be, what their voice might sound like, what you would talk about, whether they'd notice if you touched their hair, if your babies would inherit their hair, what shampoo they use etc.; thus enabling a pass mark- BONUS!
After shadowing a complete stranger all semester, your borderline-obsessive and stalkerliciously-sprung self knows that any possible post-fantasy encounter would go down like this:
Hottie, smiling politely :) after unintentional physical contact:
"oops, sorry"
You, grinning INTENSELY :D ,shitting rainbows red-facedly:
"GOOD THANKS!"
The one person who, unbeknownst to them, keeps you from failing a subject at university simply by being so beautiful (among myriad 'meh' looking peers) that you happily zombie your way to the lecture just to sit behind them and stare at the back of their perfect head for an hour. lodestone
During that one, magical hour you:
a) Get heart palpitations glimpsing a perfectly sculpted ear...or if super duper lucky,sliver of sideface- ohhHHHhhh yeeeEEEAAAAaahhh!
b)Try to stop breathing so heavily/swallowing so often etc.
c) Absorb bits of lecture during mental intermissions between daydreaming about what their name might be, what their voice might sound like, what you would talk about, whether they'd notice if you touched their hair, if your babies would inherit their hair, what shampoo they use etc.; thus enabling a pass mark- BONUS!
After shadowing a complete stranger all semester, your borderline-obsessive and stalkerliciously-sprung self knows that any possible post-fantasy encounter would go down like this:
Hottie, smiling politely :) after unintentional physical contact:
"oops, sorry"
You, grinning INTENSELY :D ,shitting rainbows red-facedly:
"GOOD THANKS!"
"Hey aren't you half an hour early for this lecture? And don't you usually go to the morning lecture so that you don't have to endure an awkward 5 hour break?"
"I missed the early lecture last week and totes fell in lust with this gorgeous lecture lodestone!"
"OMG! You are totally lecture lusting!"
"I missed the early lecture last week and totes fell in lust with this gorgeous lecture lodestone!"
"OMG! You are totally lecture lusting!"
by RoboBear September 20, 2011