Building up vocabulary: Tardy/Tardiness

I was leafing through a book this morning and came across the word "tardiness" and decided it was worth looking it up in dictionaries.

Tardy is an adjective that works as a synonym for "late, behind time, not on time". The noun that derives from it is "Tardiness", which is the quality or state of being late. The adverb related to it is "Tardily".
<habitual tardiness will be recorded in your personnel file>

Sources:
1) http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tardiness
2) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tardiness
3) http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tardiness

to pet or to pat?

You have probably wondered how the heck you spell this verb for a dozen times right?

Well, guess what! Both spellings are correct. Both "pet" and "pat" can be used to refer to touching a child or an animal gently with your hands.

Now, for idioms and other meanings... why not checking both entries? ;) Let us know which is your "pet entry" or "pet expression" using either "pet" or "pat."
Remember to check the other classes for the word pet as well.


to pet

to pat

Have fun!
Cheers!

Phrasal Verb of the Day: hold forth

According to Merriam-Webster, "to hold forth" means to speak at length; expatiate. Use in a sentence: "Whatever you are holding forth about, I suggest you stop".

Cognate of the day

Treason

(mostly used in politics, though)

Phrasal Verb of the Day

The phrasal verb "dress down" is more widely known by its usual definition, which stands for wearing informal clothes, meaning the opposite of the "dress up". During class today with our teacher Levi, awareness was raised of the fact that there might be another meaning to it, so I looked it up on three online dictionaries: The Free Dictionary (1), Merriam-Webster (2) and The Cambridge Online Dictionary (3).

Here are the results that followed the research:

(1) Phrasal Verbs:

dress down

1. To scold; reprimand: I was dressed down by the teacher for lateness.

2. To wear informal clothes, befitting an occasion or location: I dressed down for such a casual occasion.

(2) Definition:

transitive verb

: to reprove severely

       intransitive verb

: to dress casually especially for reasons of fashion

Example:

1. <dressed down for boorish behavior at the dance>

(3) Definition: 

If you dress down for an occasion, you intentionally wear informal clothes of the type that will not attract attention:

She always made a point of dressing down on her first date with a man.

SOURCES:
(1) http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dress+down
(2) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dressing-down?show=1&t=1375494270
(3) http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/dress-down