Definition: (adjective) Turned or twisted toward one side.
Synonyms: askew, awry, lopsided, skew-whiff, wonky.
Usage: He noticed that his tie was cockeyed and made sure to straighten it before meeting with the company executives.
Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Geologists have uncovered mineral forms never before seen on Earth at the site of a 60 million-year-old meteorite strike on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. When probing a thick layer of ancient lava flow on the small, picturesque island, Simon Drake and … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
About 120,000 vehicles pass under the Hudson River by way of the 1.5-mile (2.4-km) Lincoln Tunnel every day. A vital link between New York’s Manhattan borough and Weehawken, New Jersey, the tunnel was constructed under the supervision of civil engineer and underwater tunnel pioneer Ole Singstad. The first two-lane tube opened in 1937, with two others opening in 1945 and 1957. To accommodate rush-hour traffic patterns, lanes can be reversed. How much was the original fare when the tunnel opened? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Begun in 1997, National Unity Day celebrates the coming together of Zimbabwe’s two political parties, the Zanu-PF and PF Zapu (one representing the Shona-speaking and the other the Ndebele-speaking peoples). Among the celebrations to mark National Unity Day are a number of sporting events, including a soccer championship in which the winning team receives the Unity Cup. In the city of Masvingo, the general public and leading political figures gather at the Great Zimbabwe National Monuments for a concert featuring a number of popular singers and musicians. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Considered by some to have been the best American poet of his time, Robinson is now primarily remembered for his short poems about the lives—mostly tragic—of people in a small New England village. He briefly attended Harvard but had to drop out after his father’s death and thereafter endured years of poverty and obscurity before his poetry was noticed. A quiet, introverted man, Robinson never married and became legendary for his reclusiveness. Why did he have no name until he was six months old? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Though all seven species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered, they are still found in every ocean except the Arctic. Believed to use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate, sea turtles have an extraordinary sense of time and location, and most species return to nest at the exact place where they were born. Certain species even swim ashore together in a single, mass arrival. After a few months, hundreds of hatchlings dig their way out of the nests and seek the ocean. How do they find it? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Definition: (adjective) Nervous and unable to relax.
Synonyms: fidgety, fretful, itchy.
Usage: The long wait made the children antsy.
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Source: The Free Dictionary
Your morning cup of tea may have more power than you thought. Researchers have found that drinking a cup of hot tea at least once a day may lower the risk of developing glaucoma, one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide. Glaucoma causes fluid pressure to … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie were working with pitchblende, a heavy mineral known to contain the radioactive element uranium, when they noticed something unusual. Somehow, the pitchblende was more radioactive than the uranium it contained. The culprit was radium, a previously unknown element present in pitchblende only in trace amounts—yet more than a million times more radioactive than uranium. What common household products contained radium until it was discovered to be dangerous? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
The Feast of Juul was a pre-Christian festival observed in Scandinavia at the time of the Winter Solstice. Fires were lit to symbolize the heat, light, and life-giving properties of the returning sun. A Yule (or Juul) log was brought in with great ceremony and burned on the hearth in honor of the Scandinavian god Thor. A piece of the log was kept as both a token of good luck and as kindling for the following year’s log. The present-day custom of lighting a Yule log at Christmas is believed to have originated in the bonfires associated with the Feast of Juul. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary