Bribe (n): Something offered to someone to influence their judgement unduly or to persuade them to behave in a certain way; spoil, booty.
Booty (n): Spoil taken in war or by force; plunder.
Plunder (vt): To carry off the goods or possessions of by force.
Spoil (vt): To mar; to impair; to make useless; to treat over-indulgently.
Indulgent (adj): Ready to gratify the wishes of others; compliant; not severe.
Severe (adj): Conforming to a rigorous standard; hard to endure.
Gratification (n): A recompense, tip or bribe.
Recompense (n): Reward.
Reward (n): That which is given in return for good (or sometimes evil).
All drawn, selectively, from The Chambers Dictionary, 2003
That's a very good way of making a point subtly without shouting. House point.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure the source is Chambers, and not Cabinet minutes?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you've observed that you can put 'Large' in front of all these to maximise their significance, except 'Indulgent' and 'Severe'. Which is right and proper.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna shout next time, Rog, trust me.
ReplyDeleteMartin, how can you say that? You imagine the Cabinet are that articulate?
Chris, I'm experimenting with putting 'self-' or its compounds in front of each word. It works with quite a few, if you take a pseudo-poetic perspective. (I particularly like 'self-bribe'.)
I didn't kmow gratification meant that. In fact now I'm not sure what I thought it meant.
ReplyDelete