The Foolish Dictionary Part 7
=DIMPLE= A ripple in the gentle whirlpool of a pretty womans smile.
=DIPLOMAT= An international liar, with an elastic conscience and a rubber neck.
=DISCOUNT= Something often sold in place of goods.
=DISCRETION= An instinctive perception that enables us to say, "Oh, shut up!" to the small, weak man, and "I beg your pardon, but I do not entirely agree with your views," to the large, strong one.
=DIVE= A gamblers retreat.
=DIVIDENDS= A gamblers reward.
=DIVORCE= Nominally, separation of husband and wife from the bonds of matrimony. In the vicinity of Newport it is frequently a legal formula that immediately precedes a fashionable wedding.
=DOCK= A place for laying up.
=DOCTOR= One who lays you up.
=DREAM= What a man may call a woman, though a Pill may have suggested it. Sweethearts are dreams because they seldom come true; wives, because theyre often a night-mare, and both because they go by contraries.
=DRAFT= (=DRAUGHT=) What gives a cold, cures a cold, and pays the doctors bill.
=DROP-St.i.tCH= A kind of feminine hosiery designed to prevent the men from paying too much attention to the open-work, "peek-a-boo" shirt-waist.
=DRUM= Something noisy, and made to beat.
=DRUMMER= Something noisy, but impossible to beat. From the Grk.
_drimus_, meaning sharp. Hence, something sharp, that always carries its point and sticks whoever it can.
=DUST= Mud with the juice squeezed out.
=DYNAMITE=
[Ill.u.s.tration]
The peroration of an anarchists argument.
=DYSPEPSIA= A good foundation for a bad temper.
Out of sight, only in mind.--_Ballad of the Blind Beggar_.
E
A word to the wise is useless.
=EAGLE= The national bird of a Christian country; (the United States.) Presumably chosen on account of its being a bird of pray.
=EARL= A t.i.tle of n.o.bility.
=EARLY= A t.i.tle of stupidity. See old saw,
"Early to bed and early to rise, Makes a man a farmer!"
=EARTH=
[Ill.u.s.tration]
A solid substance, much desired by the seasick.
=ECHO= The only thing that can cheat a woman out of the last word.