thermokarst n.— «Nearby were the outlines of other, even bigger holes, which, Romanovsky told me, had been filled with gravel by the local public-works department. The holes, known as thermokarsts, had appeared suddenly when the permafrost gave...
drunk adj.— «The trench, he explained, had been formed when a wedge of underground ice had melted. The spruce trees that had been growing next to it, or perhaps on top of it, were now listing at odd angles, as if in a gale. Locally, such trees are...
toyetic
adj.— «“Sideways” was unbranded by stars or title (and was not, in marketing parlance, “toyetic,” susceptible to merchandising deals).» —“Gross Points” by Louis Menand New Yorker Jan. 31, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
escape fire n.— «Wag Dodge, saw that it wasn’t going to work. So he stopped, took out some matches, and set the tall dry grass ahead of him on fire. The new blaze caught and rapidly spread up the slope. He stepped into the middle of the burned-out...
pump head n.— «From thirty to fifty per cent of patients will experience a syndrome Cohn calls “pump head,” in which they suffer significant cognitive deficits: memory loss, inability to concentrate, difficulties in recognizing patterns, and an...
sashweight
n.— «Bores and self-important types were “sashweights” in his lexicon.» —“Gardner Botsford” by Roger Angell New Yorker Oct. 4, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)