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B

badger

"There are other do's and don'ts: don't threaten your children, don't badger them." Newspaper ad for Partnership for a Drug-Free America, New York Times, 11/4/99

bagatelle

"He saw the benefits to his people as a mere bagatelle." Winston Churchill, Great Contemporaries

balk

"She rested on the staira young woman of a beauty that should balk even the justice of a poet's imagination." O. Henry, "Roads of Destiny"

banal

"Mansfield Park is a bore! What might have been attractive on a TV screen proved to be uninteresting and banal on the big screen." "Koch Goes To The Movies," Queens Courier, 1/12/00

barometer

"We watched carefully to see the ties that Mr. Smythe would wear as they were a sure barometer of the mood he would be in." Loring Brewster, "Vermont's Mr. Chips"

bedlam

"There was bedlam as the crowd awoke to the relief of victory." Dick Thatcher, Against All Odds

begrudge

"Taxpayers never seem to begrudge the use of their money when spent on local projects important to them." Newsday, 8/22/99

belated

"When he made his belated entrance into the political campaign, he was told he had no chance." Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics

belittle

"To say this is not to belittle subject matter, which is clearly essential to any proper education." William H. Kilpatrick, "Progressive Education"

belligerence

"North Korea's belligerence in planning to test a long-range missile has led to a dramatic change of course for Japan and South Korea." Howard French, "Two Wary Neighbors Unite," New York Times, 8/4/99

benevolence

"My relationship to this land is purely spiritual: It's a place of absolute silence, absolute benevolence." Stephen Trimble, Wilderness

bereft

"The pictures of the bereft survivors searching for their loved ones are painful to see." Newsday, 9/19/99

besiege

"He felt unable to carry the Confederate lines and settled down to besiege their fortifications." David Herbert Donald, Lincoln

besmirch

"A primary attack on any witness against your client is an attempt to besmirch his or her character." Quoted in New York Times Magazine, 9/20/70

bias

"U.S. SUIT CHARGES BIAS IN NASSAU COUNTY PROPERTY TAXES" Headline, New York Times, 6/15/99

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bluntly

"Managers will put it bluntly: 'You've got to catch the ball.'" Tim McCarver, Baseball for Brain Surgeons

bogus

"The mayor denied his proposed change in the election law was a bogus attempt to seize more power." New York Times, 9/25/99

bona fide

"Milosevic, a bona fide villain, will pay for his war crimeswe can be sure of that." Editorial, Washington Post, 5/28/99

brash

"Baker's brash manner quickly antagonized the other warehouse workers." Seymour Broock, Labor Meets Its Match

brigands

"The history of motion pictures shows that, from the earliest silent films, stories about western brigands would capture a large audience." John Simon, Reverse Angle

bristle

"No sooner had the dog caught sight of him, however, than it began to bristle and growl savagely." H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man

buff

"Grandpa was a stock market buff, hanging around the Dreyfus office most every weekday and following the yo-yo Dow Jones averages." Eloise Ryan Abernethy, One Family's Finances [adapted]

bulwark

"That England, hedged in with the main, That water-walled bulwark, still secure And confidant from foreign purposes." William Shakespeare, King John

burgeoned

"In recent years programs on AM, FM, shortwave and low-powered stations have burgeoned." Carlos Johnston, "Intelligence Report" Summer 1998

C

cache

"Fagin drew from his cache the box which he had unintentionally disclosed to Oliver." Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

cacophony

"At his side he had a battery run radio blasting forth a sickening cacophony of noise." Freeman Tilden, The National Parks

cajole

"We had to cajole tonight's guest to come on the program because he's something of a hermit." Larry King on his CNN TV program, 8/25/99

callous

"The movie industry was callous in the way it treated writers who came from New York." Alex Ross, New Yorker, 2/23/98

callow

"A group of newly arrived callow students followed nervously at the director's heels." Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow

calumny

"Overwhelmed by the calumny heaped upon him for his prejudice, he quickly resigned." Jewell Bellush and Dick Netzer, Urban Politics