Jape

jape
verb, intransitive. To say or do something in jest or mockery.
Also a noun, meaning a practical joke.

"I suppose I could get busy and put that away," Liz said, nodding toward the overflowing basket of clean laundry.

"Or you could pile it on your dresser and  rummage through it when you need something to wear," Steve japed.

Stung by his sarcasm, she moved to the basket, picked it up and carried it into the bedroom. Folding and storing the first few items soothed her, then she came to a pair of his briefs. Turning to his dresser, she halted. Its top was buried beneath two stacks of his clothes: one of shirts, the other of jeans and slacks. They had been there so long, she no longer perceived them as unusual. His remark hadn't been a criticism of her housekeeping at all, but a suggestion he considered entirely valid, given his own method for dealing with clean clothes.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Idealize

idealize

verb, transitive. To regard or represent as perfect or better than in reality.

"What prompted you to move in with them in the first place, Mom?" Mark asked. "The experience was so unpleasant, you've been talking about how bad it was ever since."

"When we met, I thought, 'This couple will be my friends for the rest of my life.' They put on such a good public front that I idealized them. They kept it up for a long time--long enough to convince me that I could trust them in every way. It was only after I moved into their house, with you a toddler, that their true colors emerged." Marge shook her head. "What good actors they are! I have to grant them that."

"Why did you stay after it became so unpleasant?"

"I felt trapped. They were very extravagant, for such indigent people. I was making more money than she was, and he wasn't working at all. It was a relief to take you out of day-care and have him watch you at home, with their daughter. It saved me a lot. Unfortunately, soon everything I made went to support that household: rent, groceries, gas for the cars, utilities.... There was no end to it. I felt obligated to help financially, since they were helping me to take care of you, and because I could. I would have felt mean-spirited to keep any money back for myself while the household needed so much."

Marge paused and stared into space for a minute or two. "The change in the way they treated me took place gradually," she said. "By the time I knew what they were really like, it was too late."

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Haggle

haggle
verb, intransitive. To dispute or bargain persistently, especially over the cost of something.

Fran sat, crossed her legs, and faced Randy, her expression neutral. He mirrored her movements after greeting the clerk who had emerged from the depths of the shop. Fran realized that he owned the entire row of buildings--the office on the corner where she had applied, the music store next to it, and this furniture store where he had led her for the interview.

"Is there nowhere in his office where he can talk privately?" she wondered. No matter. They seemed to have plenty of space here to conduct their business.

"My problem, Fran, is that I have an aging staff," he began. "My receptionist is seventy-four; I have another employee who's ninety-two. I just don't know what I'm going to do when they have to retire. I need to bring someone in right now who can do production, and I'm willing to offer...." He quoted a figure several thousand dollars a year less than she had made at the company that had laid her off a few weeks ago. Inwardly, she smirked. He was hoping she was desperate. She was not going to haggle over the salary. It was the figure she had written on the application, or nothing. Her days of scrimping and doing without in order to make some millionaire more wealthy were over.

"My problem, Randy, is that I need to work four more years until I can retire with full Social Security benefits. It's in my best interest to maximize my income during those four years. I'm already getting so much freelance work that I'm having trouble finding enough spare time to apply for jobs, and I'm enjoying the freedom of being my own boss. I'm unwilling to give up that pleasure for a big reduction in pay."

"Of course, you feel you need more compensation for your long commute," he remarked. She suppressed a giggle. She could almost see him backpedal. "I'll run this by Charles and find out what he says, and give you a call in a day or two."

She stood and held out her hand, smiling. Randy's company would never pay her what she asked. The only reason their staff was so old was that they couldn't afford to retire on what they had been making there. She had no intention of joining their ranks.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Gag

gag
verb, transitive. To put a gag on someone. To prevent someone from speaking freely or disseminating information. To choke or retch. Also a noun, usually referring to a piece of cloth, put in or over a person't mouth to prevent speaking or crying out.

The odor was faint when Amy reached her desk the Tuesday morning after the holiday. She took the case containing her "computer glasses" out of her tote, then paused, sniffing. Something had died in her office over the weekend. Leaving the computer off for the moment, she began to look: behind the desk, against the wall, on the credenza shelves, inside the desk drawers.... She got down on her hands and knees so she could survey the floor beneath the furniture. Nothing but a couple of dust bunnies. This was not good. If the little corpse was inside the wall, there was no way to extract it and get it out of the building before the smell became more powerful. Amy had grown up on a farm and knew what was in store for her. She did her best to prepare: she opened the vent in the celing, even though she knew she would spend the day shivering as the chilly air blew on her. It was worth it to blow the smell away. "Tomorrow," she promised herself, "I'll bring my sweater and a jar of Vicks to dab under my nose." Today, she knew, all she would be able to do was endure it. "Endure" was correct: by early afternoon, the odor was strong enough to make her gag.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Fade

fade
verb, intransitive
To gradually grow faint and disappear. To lose or cause to lose color or brightness. To lose freshness and wither (of a flower). To gradually become thin and weak, especially to the point of death. To lose strength or drop back, especially after a promising start (of a racehorse). Gradually lose intensity (of a radio signal). To become temporarily less efficient as a result of frictional heating (of a vehicle brake).

They were left only with one another now. At the beginning of the voyage, they had taken turns using the ship's radio, talking to the friends and family they had left behind, sometimes for hours. Their departure had been so flurried, so packed with activities, that they all felt that necessary statements had been left unsaid. Once they left Earth's gravity well, a great silence sourrounded them and their ship, and their duties were too few to fill the time. None of them had thought much about how they would while away all those hours, when they weren't in cryo-sleep, so they called home while they could.

After they crossed Mars' orbit, the signal took noticeably longer to traverse the distance. Their conversations took place as in slow motion. All began to sense an impatience on the part of those on Earth with the increasing delay between question and response. The travelers still clung to those conversations--those emotional lifelines.

After they departed the Solar System, the delays became almost interminable and the signal's strength began to fade. Some of them gave up. They said their last goodbyes, not even waiting for a response, signed out on the ship's duty board, and went to their cryo-pods for the long sleep. Those whose duty was to stay awake for the first three-month watch felt the loss of not only their contacts on Earth, but of most of their shipboard companions. As they monitored their descent into the long, chemically-induced slumber, they already missed them.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Elide

elide
verb, transitive. To omit a sound or syllable when speaking. To join together; to merge. Elide is most frequently used as a term to describe the way that some sounds or syllables are dropped in speech, for example in contractions such as "I'll" or "he's." The result of such an omission is that the two surrounding syllables are merged; this fact has given rise to a new sense, with the meaning "join together" or "merge."

Even after working with him for months, she still had to concentrate to translate Donnie's speech into standard English. Part of the problem was her own diminished hearing. Part of it was his dense, down-home Oklahoma accent. Part of it was the way he elided words that were not contractions when uttered by any other person. The fact that such garbled language could emerge from someone so knowledgable about horses and horse racing was a continual marvel to her. She accepted it as a unique trait and appreciated the knowledge that he distributed every time he entered the room where she worked. He inhabited a different world than she did, and she knew she would never be able to find a place in his. All she could do was listen to him, ask questions, and learn about it.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.