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Lorelili's definitions

bad seed

Slang term for somebody with a genetic predisposition for bad behavior (and is potentially a bad influence on others).

The title of a 1954 novel by William March and of a 1955 play based on the book (and a 1956 film based on the play) about eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark, a girl who seems to have been born evil. Despite coming from a loving home, she is a sociopath who is willing to kill to get what she wants.
Rhoda Penmark, the original "bad seed", is a precocious con artist who uses her cute, innocent facade to manipulate adults to get what she wants. Her tricks don't work on other children, who can sense who she really is and avoid her.

It is implied heavily that Rhoda's behavior is genetic; her maternal grandmother was a serial killer who was executed for numerous poisonings. Rhoda's mother, who was adopted at a young age, has always sensed something wrong with her daughter and is suspicious when Rhoda is strangely nonchalant about her classmate's sudden, mysterious death.
by Lorelili July 12, 2011
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demure

Of a quiet, modest, unassuming, reserved nature. Somebody who is serious or sober (moderate, self-controlled) and even shy. For most of the 1800s, this was the ideal for a woman, as illustrated in Jane Austen's works and the works of many poets, writers, artists, and leaders. Not necessarily a doormat, but certainly a docile, gentle kind of persona.
The boy next door was enraptured by the ingenue, a shy, demure thing with big doe eyes and a sweet disposition.

He was a demure, unpretentious young man with his feet planted on the ground.
by Lorelili July 22, 2011
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Annie Chapman

(September, 1841-September 8, 1888) Also known as "Dark Annie", the second recognized victim of Jack the Ripper.
Born Eliza Ann Smith, she was married in 1869 to John Chapman, a coachman, had two daughters and a son (Emily Ruth, born 1870; Annie Georgina, born 1873; John Alfred, born 1880) with him, and they lived fairly comfortably for some time.
Life went awry when young John was born crippled. Then in 1882, Emily Ruth died of meningitis at age 12. Around this time, the couple began drinking heavily. About 1884, they separated.

Annie somehow fell to the slums of Whitechapel by 1886. John continued to send her 10 shillings a week until Christmas of 1886, when he died of cirrhosis. His death shattered Annie's will to live.
In her last days, Annie was a homeless alcoholic, living in lodging houses, selling flowers and crocheting and occasionally prostituting herself (despite her plain features, plump figure, and poor health) to get by.
While the rest of the Ripper victims came from ordinary working class backgrounds, Annie Chapman's family had a foothold in the middle class. Known by her friends late in life as "Dark Annie", for her dark brown hair, Annie had become estranged from her surviving children and from her sisters.
Only 5 feet tall, plump, and never a classic beauty, at age 47 Annie Chapman was malnourished, a homeless streetwalker, and suffering from tuberculosis and brain diseases that would have killed her soon if Jack had not killed her.
At 1:35 AM on September 8, 1888, Annie was turned away from her lodging house since she had no money for a bed. She was last seen alive at 5:30 AM outside 29 Hanbury Street, negotiating with a man who was probably her killer. Half an hour later, her body was found in the backyard of the same house, inches from the back steps.

Her skirt was hiked to her groin and her legs pulled up and leaning outwards, implying coitus; her throat was cut to the bone, her stomach opened, her intestines pulled out and draped over her shoulder, and her uterus taken away.
by Lorelili October 7, 2012
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stable

Noun: a building where animals, especially horses, are housed.

Adjective: relatively permanent or unchanging, firmly fixed or established; unlikely to be unbalanced, changed, destroyed or altered. Consistent, dependable, and moderate.
The stable rang with the sounds of a young mare in labor; the yelps of the other horses brought the farmer running. He and his wife remained calm and stable as they helped the mare give birth to her first foal, a beautiful chestnut filly.
by Lorelili July 29, 2011
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slattern

A sexually promiscuous woman. May or may not be paid for sex, depending on whether is a prostitute or a slut.
Paris Hilton, the Grand High Slattern, paraded on the red carpet in her usual belt/miniskirt sans underwear and her almost nonexistant top.
by Lorelili May 17, 2007
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forlorn hope

A band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position, where the risk of casualties is high.

The term is from Dutch, roughly translated as "lost troop".
While the Donner Party was trapped in the mountains, a team of the fifteen strongest immigrants (five women, nine men, and a boy of twelve) set out on December 16, 1846, to find help, using makeshift snowshoes made by an old farmer, Franklin Graves. Later known as the "Forlorn Hope", the group consisted of:
*Luis and Salvador (19, 28), Miwok guides, murdered for food.
*Antonio (23), a teamster, died
*Patrick Dolan (35), died
*William Foster (31), survived
*Sarah Murphy-Foster (20), survived; she and William lost their toddler, Jeremiah (2.5)
*Harriet Murphy-Pike (18), survived; lost her baby, Catherine
*Lemuel Murphy (12), died despite his sisters; his mother, Levina (37), and brother, John (17), also lost
*William Eddy (28), survived; lost his wife, Eleanor (25), and both children, James and Margaret (3, 1)
*Franklin Graves (57), died; his wife, Elizabeth (46), and three youngest children, Jonathan, little Franklin, and little Elizabeth (7, 5, 1), were lost.
*Mary Graves (20), survived
*Sarah Graves-Fosdick (22), survived
*Jay Fosdick (23), died
*Amanda McCutchen (23), survived; lost her baby, Harriet
*Charles Stanton (30), died
The Forlorn Hope wandered from December 16, 1846, until January 17, when a Miwok village helped the seven survivors to the safety of Johnson's Ranch, where they called for a rescue mission.
On Christmas Day, hopelessly lost and their starvation rations gone, the idea of cannibalism was first discussed, but nobody could bear to kill anybody. As a blizzard lashed them that night, Antonio died, followed by Graves, who died in the arms of his daughters; Dolan went mad before he slipped into a coma. Those remaining butchered and ate the flesh of their dead companions, sobbing in shame as they ate; Luis and Salvador, plus William Eddy, refused to eat. Taking pains to avoid eating their dead relatives, the party trudged on, cursing the man whose shortcut had led them to this.
William Foster, crazed by hunger, suggested killing Luis and Salvador for food; Eddy unsuccessfully tried to discourage him before warning the two men, who ran as far as they could.
Sarah Fosdick, a newlywed, had just lost her father and then had to watch her husband die and then see his heart roasting on a stick.
"What to do we did not know. Some of those who had children and families wished to go back, but the two Indians said they would go on. I told them I would go too, for to go back and hear the cries of hunger from my brothers and sisters was more than I could stand. I would go as far as I could, let the consequences be what they might." -Mary Graves (1826-1891)
by Lorelili January 4, 2012
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English

Either means the people of England or a sadly mangled language. Once belonging to the Germanic Anglo-Saxons, the language has since become influenced by scores of other languages, slowly destroying the English language and its structure and rules.

Shanty (From Gaelic "Sean taigh"("old house")), galore (from Gaelic "gu leòr" ("enough")), whiskey (from Gaelic "uisge" ("water")), hamburger (from "Hamburg steak"), flower (from French "fleur", itself from Latin "flor"), bloom (from German "blum" ("flower")) and countless other words from so many other languages have, for better or worse, steeped into English.
"Let’s face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England or french fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? One index, two indices? Is cheese the plural of choose?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day an cold as hell another?
When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm clock goes off by going on.
When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?
Now I know why I flunked my English. It’s not my fault; the silly language doesn’t quite know whether it’s coming or going." -Richard Lederer.
by Lorelili March 28, 2005
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