Aren't there any interesting verbs?

[Bailey]

ad·ju·di·cate (-jd-kt)
v. ad·ju·di·cat·ed, ad·ju·di·cat·ing, ad·ju·di·cates
v.tr.
1. To hear and settle (a case) by judicial procedure.
2. To study and settle (a dispute or conflict): The principal adjudicated our quarrel.
v.intr.
To act as a judge.



[Latin adidicre, adidict-, to award to (judicially) : ad-, ad- + idicre, to judge (from idex, judge; see judge).]


ad·judi·cation n.
ad·judi·cative adj.
ad·judi·cator n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

mark judging-the-offerings Bailey

[Bailey]

slight (slt)
adj. slight·er, slight·est
1. Small in size, degree, or amount: a slight tilt; a slight surplus.
2. Lacking strength, substance, or solidity; frail: a slight foundation; slight evidence.
3. Of small importance or consideration; trifling: slight matters.
4. Small and slender in build or construction; delicate.
tr.v. slight·ed, slight·ing, slights
1. To treat as of small importance; make light of.
2. To treat with discourteous reserve or inattention.
3. To do negligently or thoughtlessly; scant.
n.
1. The act or an instance of slighting.
2. A deliberate discourtesy; a snub: "It is easier to recount grievances and slights than it is to set down a broad redress of such grievances and slights" Elizabeth Kenny.


[Middle English, slender, smooth, possibly of Scandinavian origin; see lei- in Indo-European roots.]



slightness n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

I was just looking for the verb form but slight is such a nice noun too.

mark slightly-cracked Bailey

[Bailey]

am·bush (mbsh)
n.
1. The act of lying in wait to attack by surprise.
2. A sudden attack made from a concealed position.
3.
a. Those hiding in order to attack by surprise.
b. The hiding place used for this.
4. A hidden peril or trap.
tr.v. am·bushed, am·bush·ing, am·bush·es
To attack from a concealed position.



[Middle English embush, from Old French embusche, from embuschier, to ambush, from Frankish *boscu, bush, woods.]



ambusher n.
Synonyms: ambush, ambuscade, bushwhack, waylay
These verbs mean to attack suddenly and without warning from a concealed place: guerrillas ambushing a platoon; highway robbers ambuscading a stagecoach; a patrol bushwhacked by poachers; a truck waylaid by robbers.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

mark I-like-ambuscade Bailey

[Bailey]

De`bride´
v. 1. to remove (e. g., dead tissue) surgically from a wound.

Trust me on this one, this process sounds a lot more civilized and gentle than it really is. I think it's a great verb to use in other circumstances like instead of Downsizing[reduncies east-pondian] an awesome euphemism.

It can be done by a 'health professional' scraping away at material or pathogen that doesn't belong on an open wound,[it hurts] or by icky leaches sucking away the bruised or infected blood. I'm sure there are more charming ways to do it but it's usually not done on patients while they are 'asleep'.

mark alway's-heard-it-pronounced-de-Breed' Bailey

[Bailey]

im·pend (m-pnd)
intr.v. im·pend·ed, im·pend·ing, im·pends
1. To be about to occur: Her retirement is impending.
2. To threaten to happen; menace: discouraged by the trouble that impended.
3. Archaic To jut out; hang suspended.



[Latin impendre : in-, over; see in-2 + pendre, to hang; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

mark verbing Bailey

[Stargzer]

Verbifying Suffixes:

-ize / ise

As in idolize.

Quick definitions (-ize)


() A verb suffix signifying to make, to do, to practice; as apologize, baptize, theorize, tyrannize.

(This definition is from the 1913 Webster's Dictionary and may be outdated

-lyze / lyse

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

-lyze

a combining form occurring in verbs that correspond to nouns ending in -lysis: catalyze.

Also, especially British, -lyse.

[Origin: ly(sis) + -(i)ze]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.


American Heritage Dictionary

-lyze

suff. To cause or undergo lysis: pyrolyze.

[From -lysis.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary

-lyze

suff.

To cause or undergo lysis: hydrolyze.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary

lyze (lz)
v.

Variant of lyse.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

-fy

Quick definitions (-fy)


() A suffix signifying to make, to form into, etc.; as, acetify, amplify, dandify, Frenchify, etc.

(This definition is from the 1913 Webster's Dictionary and may be outdated.)

Idolize is the progenitor of this list (for no particular reason), which led to -lyze. I included -fy when I saw Bailey's ratify, for which the Online Etymology Dictionary gives this etymology:

ratify
c.1357, from O.Fr. ratifier (1294), from M.L. ratificare "confirm, approve," lit. "fix by reckoning," from L. ratus "fixed, valid" (pp. of reri "to reckon, think") + root of facere "to make" (see factitious).

While the genus of the rat is rattus, the Latin word for rat is mus, a mouse; "The ancients included under this name the rat, marten, sable, ..."

[William]

Doctor, here are three verbs and a noun for your consideration.

Without researching the issue, I'm guessing each is related in some way to the word "spirit" and to life, though I'm not sure how "conspire" might fit in. A spire, is of course, typically associated with christian oriented chruches and signifies a reaching upward to the lifegiver, God. "Inspire" might mean an infusion of knowledge to the "spirit", a knowledge that might enrich or even save lives. Respiration is of course the exhange of gases involving the lungs or gills of many living creatures, a process without which life would not be possible for them.

The prefix "con" could mean either "against", or "with". The word "conspire" has negative connotations implying as it does a secret combination of two or more individuals to accomplish something for their own benefit to the hurt of someone else, or to maybe hurt someone else even though the conspirators would gain nothing by this. "Con" in the sense of "with" is obvious, two or more people working with each other to accomplish some secret and evil goal.
"Con" in the sense of "against" might mean against life.

Or this all might just be a weird conspiracy theory conceived in the fevered brain of an old man entering the early stages of senility.

[Perry]

inspiration
c.1303, "immediate influence of God or a god," especially that under which the holy books were written, from O.Fr. inspiration, from L.L. inspirationem (nom. inspiratio), from L. inspiratus, pp. of inspirare "inspire, inflame, blow into," from in-"in" + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit). Inspire in this sense is c.1340, from O.Fr. enspirer, from L. inspirare, a loan-transl. of Gk. pnein in the Bible. General sense of "influence or animate with an idea or purpose" is from 1390. Inspirational is 1839 as "influenced by inspiration;" 1884 as "tending to inspire."

Inspire then has to do with spirit and breath.

spire
O.E. spir "sprout, shoot, stalk of grass," from P.Gmc. *spiraz (cf. O.N. spira "a stalk, slender tree," M.L.G. spir "a small point or top"), from PIE *spei- "sharp point" (see spike (n.1)). Meaning "tapering top of a tower or steeple" first recorded 1596 (a sense attested in M.L.G. since 1392 and also found in the Scand. cognates). The verb is first recorded c.1325.

Spire seems to be more about shape.

conspire
c.1300, from O.Fr. conspirer, from L. conspirare "to agree, unite, plot," lit. "to breathe together," from com- "together" + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit). Conspiracy is from 1386; conspiracy theory is from 1909.

Consprie and inspire are related through the breathing aspect. And the con is indeed representing with, rather than against.

[William]

And then, of course, there's the apparently controversial, transpire.

from M-W online:

Main Entry: tran•spire
Pronunciation: tran(t)-'spI(-&)r
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): tran•spired; tran•spir•ing
Etymology: Middle French transpirer, from Medieval Latin transpirare, from Latin trans- + spirare to breathe
transitive verb : to pass off or give passage to (a fluid) through pores or interstices; especially : to excrete (as water) in the form of a vapor through a living membrane (as the skin)
intransitive verb
1 : to give off vaporous material; specifically : to give off or exude watery vapor especially from the surfaces of leaves
2 : to pass in the form of a vapor from a living body
3 a : to be revealed : come to light b : to become known or apparent : DEVELOP
4 : to take place : GO ON, OCCUR
USAGE Sense 4 of transpire is the frequent whipping boy of those who suppose sense 3 to be the only meaning of the word. Sense 4 appears to have developed in the late 18th century; it was well enough known to have been used by Abigail Adams in a letter to her husband in 1775 <there is nothing new transpired since I wrote you last -- Abigail Adams>. Noah Webster recognized the new sense in his dictionary of 1828. Transpire was evidently a popular word with 19th century journalists; sense 4 turns up in such pretentiously worded statements as "The police drill will transpire under shelter to-day in consequence of the moist atmosphere prevailing." Around 1870 the sense began to be attacked as a misuse on the grounds of etymology, and modern critics echo the damnation of 1870. Sense 4 has been in existence for about two centuries; it is firmly established as standard; it occurs now primarily in serious prose, not the ostentatiously flamboyant prose typical of 19th century journalism.

and expire in which X seems to have rendered S redundant:

Main Entry: ex•pire
Pronunciation: ik-'spI(-&)r, oftenest for vi 3 and vt 2 ek-
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): ex•pired; ex•pir•ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French or Latin; Anglo-French espirer to breathe out, from Latin exspirare, from ex- + spirare to breathe
intransitive verb
1 : to breathe one's last breath : DIE
2 : to come to an end
3 : to emit the breath
transitive verb
1 obsolete : CONCLUDE
2 : to breathe out from or as if from the lungs
3 archaic : EMIT

and perspire:

Main Entry: per•spire
Pronunciation: p&r-'spI(-&)r
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): per•spired; per•spir•ing
Etymology: French perspirer, from Middle French, from Latin per- through + spirare to blow, breathe -- more at PER-
: to emit matter through the skin; specifically : to secrete and emit perspiration

[Perry]

I used to know an elderly shopkeeper in Nice, who on hot days would complain about how much she was "transpiring".

"Oh mon Dieux, je transpire."

[Bailey]

Women don't transpire, Trees do, horses sweat, men perspire and women glow.

mark Bailey

[William]

Doctor Goodword, would you maybe approve of the creation of new verbs?

If so I present for your consideration the new verb "delect".

As you have probably guessed, the verb "delect" would be the opposite of the verb "elect". It would replace the awkward constructions "vote out of office" and "resign from office". It could also replace whatever words are used to describe what happens to an elected politician who is convicted after impeachment. Such a person would be said to have been delected.

Inevitably this new verb would lead to a transformation of the adjective "delectable".

One might wonder, for example, if House Majority Leader Nancy Polosi is delectable or if at anytime in the past she was ever delectable. My personal opinion is that she currently is virtually undelectable in view of her solid hold on the hearts of the vast majority of voters in her district. I would not rule out the possibility that at sometime in her past she was delectable, maybe early on in her political career.

It is my opinion also that President George Bush is not delectable. Having less than a year and a half left in office it is highly unlikely that he would be impeached and even less likely that he would be convicted even if he was impeached. Furthermore it is virtually impossible that the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will be repealed before Bush's current term ends. So in that case he is also undelectable.

Senator Clinton is very probably undelectable but may become delectable should her run for the leadership of the free world be successful. Her delectability would then come into play in November of the year 2012. She would of course become immediately delectable should the opposition party gain overwhelming ascendancy in both Houses of Congress and should she create such consternation among them they would attempt to delect her. I personally feel that if she is elected to the Presidency in 2008 she will contiue to be undelectable throughout her presidency, even in 2012.

I'm pretty sure that most Republicans and many Democrats of my acquaintance regard her as undelectable at this stage of her career.

Among those who find her undelectable under any conditions I would include her loving and loyal husband, although he himself was very nearly delected during his second term.

[Perry]

Nice verb. Do you want it to be selected or elected?

[Stargzer]

I think the great Arlo Guthrie used the most past participles of the "-ected" type in one sentence than any other person I know:

And we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but thats not what I came to tell you about.

Came to talk about the draft.

We got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street, where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected.

Stargzer wakes from his nostalgic reverie in time to click the Submit button ...

[Perry]

Wasn't it INjected, INspected, DEEtected, INfected, NEEglected and SEElected?

Perry I-want-to-see-blood-and-guts-and-veins-in-my-teeth Dror