Ff: Fer-de-lance

n. pl. fer-de-lance A venomous tropical American pit viper (Bothrops atrox) having brown and grayish markings. [French, from fer de lance, spearhead : fer, iron + de, of + lance, spear.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Get bitten by a fer-de-lance snake and you're dead within half an hour if you don't get treatment.

KINGS OF THE JUNGLE; RECORD'S MAN JOINS REGIMENT IN TROPICAL HELLHOLE ... by Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)

Bb: Brownie

brownie [ˈbraʊnɪ]

n

1. (Myth & Legend / European Myth & Legend) (in folklore) an elf said to do helpful work at night, esp household chores

"I see you think I have no chance," Brownie said falteringly.

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by Barrie, James Matthew

Cc: Captious

adj. 1. Marked by a disposition to find and point out trivial faults: a captious scholar. 2. Intended to entrap or confuse, as in an argument: a captious question. [Middle English capcious, from Old French captieux, from Latin captisus, from capti, seizure, sophism, from captus, past participle of capere, to seize; see kap- in Indo-European roots.] captious·ly adv. captious·ness n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

The consciousness of having done amiss, had exposed her to a thousand inquietudes, and made her captious and irritable to a degree that must have been that had beenhard for him to bear.

Emma by Austen, Jane

Aa: Ablutions

ablutions

plural noun washing, bathing, wash, bath, showering, toilet, cleansing, scrubbing, purification, lavation He spent about 15 minutes doing his daily ablutions.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Her bridal adornments, it is true, at first caused some little dismay, having painted and anointed herself for the occasion according to the Chinook toilet; by dint, however, of copious ablutions, she was freed from all adventitious tint and fragrance, and entered into the nuptial state, the cleanest princess that had ever been known, of the somewhat unctuous tribe of the Chinooks.

Astoria or Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains by Irving, Washington

v. con·verged, con·verg·ing, con·verg·es

v.intr.

1.

a. To tend toward or approach an intersecting point: lines that converge.

b. To come together from different directions; meet: The avenues converge at a central square.

2. To tend toward or achieve union or a common conclusion or result: In time, our views and our efforts converged.

3. Mathematics To approach a limit.

v.tr.

To cause to converge.

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[Late Latin convergere, to incline together : Latin com-, com- + Latin vergere, to incline; see wer-² in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

They all converge upon the Nore, the warm speck of red upon the tones of drab and gray, with the distant shores running together towards the west, low and flat, like the sides of an enormous canal.The Mirror of the Sea by Conrad, Joseph