Monday, January 14, 2013

Words for Critical Citizens #1: Taradiddle

taradiddle \tair-uh-DID-ul\

noun

1 : a trivial or childish lie : fib

2 : pretentious nonsense

"Even parents with the very best of intentions find themselves telling taradiddles to their offspring." — From a blog post by Ben Schott at nytimes.com, November 12, 2010

"As truths go, the history of Miss Rossiter she had laid out was unimpressive: a forked-tongue taraddidle of the highest order and if I were to serve it up to Hardy and be found out afterwards I should be lucky to escape arrest, if not a smack on the legs with a hairbrush for the cheek of it." — From Catriona McPherson's 2009 novel Danny Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains

Source: Webster's Word-of-the-Day

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