Word of the day: juke

The word of the day is juke:

to make a move intended to deceive (an opponent) (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/juke)

"He juked past her and back through the door the other way."

 - Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

Word of the day: craquelure

The word of the day is craquelure:

a network of fine cracks or crackles on the surface of a painting, caused chiefly by shrinkage of paint film or varnish. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/craquelure)

"The walls of the top-floor workshop began filling up with old books—reference books, botanicals, atlases, huge black split-spined grimoires, the leather all craquelured like desert hardpan, in tall wobbly stacks that swayed worryingly if you brushed against them."

 - Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

Word of the day: plus fours

The word of the day is plus fours:

long, baggy knickers for men, introduced before World War I and worn until the 1930s for sports activities, especially golf (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plus+fours)

"On the minus side he was unbelievably affected: he was black and from Cleveland but dressed in Scottish tweeds and smoked a fat Turk's-head pipe.  He was the first person Quentin had ever seen in real life wearing plus fours."

 - Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

Word of the day: noodge

The word of the day is noodge:

to annoy with persistent complaints, criticisms, or pleas; nag (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/noodge)

"He'd found a topic for his independent research project, anyway, Dean Fogg could stop noodging him about that."

 - Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

Word of the day: gramarye

The word of the day is gramarye:

occult learning; magic (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gramarye)

"It was a long way from running a secret magical kingdom, but then again Fillory had never really needed him that badly, had it.  Fillory pretty much ran itself.  Whereas these kids, floundering as they were in the choppy, frigid waters of introductory gramarye, would have been lost without him."

 - Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

Word of the day: praxis

The word of the day is praxis:

1. practice, as distinguished from theory; application or use, as of knowledge or skills.
2. convention, habit, or custom.
3. a set of examples for practice.

1581, from M.L. praxis "practice, action" (c.1255, opposite of theory), from Gk. praxis "practice, action, doing," from stem of prassein "to do, to act."(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/praxis)

"I don't see any real distinction between religion and magic, or for that matter between gods and magicians.  I think divine power is just another form of magical praxis.  You know what Arthur C. Clarke said about technology and magic, right?  Turn it around.  What is advanced magic indistinguishable from?  Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from the miraculous."

 - Lev Grossman, The Magician King

Word of the day: derrick

The word of the day is derrick:

1. Machinery. a jib crane having a boom hinged near the base of the mast so as to rotate about the mast, for moving a load toward or away from the mast by raising or lowering the boom.
2. Also called oil derrick. the towerlike framework over an oil well or the like.
3. a boom for lifting cargo, pivoted at its inner end to a ship's mast or kingpost, and raised and supported at its outer end by topping lifts. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/derrick)

"Because they were the size of derricks, its arms moved slowly, traversing enormous distances, but they never stopped moving."

 - Lev Grossman, The Magician King

Word of the day: hypnagogic

The word of the day is hypnagogic:

1. of or pertaining to drowsiness.
2. inducing drowsiness. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hypnagogic)

"It was a will-o'-the-wisp leading her onward, farther into the perilous marsh of Bed-Stuy, deeper into a dreamlike, hypnagogic state."

- Lev Grossman, The Magician King

Word of the day: verger

The word of the day is verger:

Chiefly British. a church official who serves as sacristan, caretaker, usher, and general attendant. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/verger)

"The atmosphere was of an old country church from which the verger had stepped away for a few minutes."

- Lev Grossman, The Magician King

Word of the day: vergescu

The word of the day is vergescu:

The white shield that was the mark of noviceknights, especially in Arthurian legend. (http://www.dictionaryfocus.com/?action=definition&word=vergescu)

"Quentin felt like the little boy at the beginning of The Lorax, at the mysterious tower of the dismal Once-ler.  They should have been facing down bellowed challenges from black knights bearing the vergescu, or solving thorny theological dilemmas posed by holy hermits.  Or at the very least resisting the diabolical temptations of ravishing succubi.  Not fighting off seasonal affective disorder."

- Lev Grossman, The Magician King

Word of the day: piste

The word of the day is piste:

(in fencing) a regulation-size strip, usually 2 meters wide and 14 meters long, on which fencers compete. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/piste)

"A man was on his hands and knees on the floor ruling out the piste with a lump of chalk."

 - Lev Grossman, The Magician King

Word of the day: windlass

The word of the day is windlass:

a device for raising or hauling objects, usually consisting of a horizontal cylinder or barrel turned by a crank, lever, motor, or the like, upon which a cable, rope, or chain winds, the outer end of the cable being attached directly or indirectly to the weight to be raised or the thing to be hauled or pulled; winch.

device for raising weights by winding arope round a cylinder, c.1400, alterationof wyndase (1293), from Anglo-Fr. windas,and directly from a Scand. source such asO.N. vindass, from vinda "to wind" (seewind (v.)) + ass "pole, beam." (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/windlass)

"They walked, slowly, all the way from one end of the docks to the other, stepping over taut guy ropes and squashed and dried fish carcasses and weaving their way around massive stanchions and windlasses and through labyrinths of stacked crates."

 - Lev Grossman, The Magician King