blight – any plant disease resulting in withering without rotting
Example: “I’d care more about a blight in the potatoes than for all the politics in Europe.”Lever, Charles James
bog – wet spongy ground of decomposing vegetation
Example: The weather has turned against us, and the plains, covered with snow two days ago, have turned to a swampy, shoe-sucking mud bog.National Geographic (Mar 4, 2016)
boycott – refusal to have commercial dealings with some organization
Example: A Roman Catholic bishop in the Philippines this week urged the faithful to boycott Madonna’s shows over her “suggestive” performance and “vulgar” clothes.Reuters (Feb 26, 2016)
clan – group of people related by blood or marriage
Example: In the Kennedy clan, each older sibling was made guardian of a younger one.New York Times (Nov 15, 2016)
curmudgeon – an irascible, cantankerous person full of stubborn ideas
Example: Do something to improve yourself. Here’s a clue – moping around and being a curmudgeon doesn’t fall into this category.Forbes (Feb 18, 2015)
emerald – a green transparent form of beryl
Example: “I want Ireland,” he said, “I want emerald green.”Golf Digest (May 22, 2017
emigration – moving from one place in order to settle in another
Example: Serious drought and barren soil led to waves of emigration throughout history.Washington Post (Mar 1, 2018)
famine – a severe shortage of food resulting in starvation and death
Example: And the growing influx of immigrants — even before the late-1840s famine in Ireland — was mortifying the city’s Protestant, Anglophile and nativist majority.New York Times (Mar 7, 2018)
glen – a narrow secluded valley (in the mountains)
Example: The four-mile path undulates through farms and foothills, into canopies of pines and magical green glens.Washington Times (May 17, 2016)
hooligan – a cruel and brutal fellow
Example: All World Cup ticket holders are required to obtain a personalized fan-ID, allowing authorities to screen them and keep hooligans away from matches.Reuters (Nov 30, 2017)
keen – express grief verbally
Example: His keening caterwaul sounds as if he had flicked the ejector switch but forgotten to undo his seat belt.The New Yorker (Nov 16, 2015)
lilt – a jaunty rhythm in music
Example: Their hits began with the lilting, keeningly romantic Linger, which reached the Top 10 in the US and Ireland, and No 14 in the UK.The Guardian (Jan 15, 2018)
limerick – a humorous rhymed verse form of five lines
Example: An editor read through submissions for a St. Patrick’s Day limerick contest.New York Times (Mar 27, 2017)
literature – writings in a particular style on a particular subject
Example: They may be incredible, grotesque, or funny, but they are never common-place: it is this uniqueness that is the great charm of ancient Irish literature.Russell, T. O.
mutton – meat from a mature domestic sheep
Example: The sheep was killed, and produced excellent mutton—not fat indeed, but eatable.Surtees, William
parade – a ceremonial procession including people marching
Example: Parades are held on March 17th to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
slew – a large number or amount or extent
Example: A slew of food delivery apps and startups have sprung up across the French capital in recent months, and they’re impossible to miss.The Verge (Mar 8, 2016)
smithereens – a collection of small fragments considered as a whole
Example: Scientists who tried managing energies of the necessary magnitude often ended up with equipment blown to smithereens and laboratories littered with glass shards.Big ScienceSmiddereens, from smidirin, which is a form of smiodar, “fragment.”
spree – a brief indulgence of your impulses
Example: But the big driver of America’s five-day shopping spree that starts on Thanksgiving was the mobile phone, not the mall.New York Times (Nov 28, 2017)
wraith – a mental representation of some haunting experience
Example: “Don’t tell me you believe in myths of jinn and efrits and wraiths that kidnap children in the night?”An Ember in the Ashes
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