bastard n. a (large) tool with a rough side or edge used for smoothing or shaping. Editorial Note: A curiosity of the LOTJ editing process is that the first citation listed for it came before the second: somewhere, the definition was expanded but there’s no information on the source that enabled them to do so. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Images of birds flutter inside lots of English words and phrases, from “nest egg” and “pecking order,” to proverbs from around the world—including a lovely Spanish saying about how birds sense light just before dawn. Plus...
The edge of the Grand Canyon. A remote mountaintop. A medieval cathedral. Some places are so mystical you feel like you’re close to another dimension of space and time. There’s a term for such locales: thin places. And: did you ever go...