11. Tightly woven fabric with raised cords
Your answer: gabardine

gabardine means "(usually in the plural) trousers"

The correct answer was pique

Another definition for 'gabardine' is 'a firm durable fabric with a twill weave' which fits the original definition.

Happy New WW Trivia!

Incomplete definition:

2. Includes spinach and beets
Your answer: goosefoot family

6. Stud
Your answer: a man participant in his own marriage ceremony

a man participant in his own marriage ceremony is the definition for "bridegroom"

The correct answer was an upright in house framing

Of course! I think I may have overstretched my lateral thinking....

My dictionary does not mention trousers, but describes a medieval cloak or frock as the second definition.
Gabardine (which I, incidentally, would spell "gaberdine") is a woven fabric, but does not have raised cords. Pique definitely does. Corduroy would also fit the definition. Believe me, I have sewn and worn them all.

Twill weave - 'a cloth with parallel diagonal lines or ribs'. I took ribs to mean something like 'raised cords' but I guess they wouldn't have to be raised, merely visible as ribs. I'll defer to the cloth expert on this.

I'm obviously 'pique'd.

Happy New WW Trivia!

8. The noise made by the forcefaul impact of two objects

Your answer: slam

Of course, 'forcefaul' should be 'forceful'.

Happy New WW Typo Trivia!

deleted 250 more botanical entries, deleted some of the entries with typos.

This one made me laugh, even though I made a wild guess at the answer, and got it wrong.

" 6. Cock_up
" The correct answer was raise "


In Britain, "cock" is a mildly vulgar word for penis, and the verb "to cock up" means to do something badly. Noun "a cock-up" is the result. I don't think a teacher would use any of these words to a class of five-year-olds.

Intrigued by the debate over gabardine/gaberdine, because I too would have spelt it with an e. I had a bottle green gaberdine mac as part of my school uniform. (That's why I haven't worn green since I left school.)

Wiki explains the difference:

The fabric takes its name from the "gaberdine", spelled with an 'e', which is a long, loose overgarment tied at the waist.

It also says that it was invented in the late 19th century by Thomas Burberry, founder of the Burberry fashion house.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabardine

15. Hog_molly

Your answer: widely distributed in warm clear shallow streams

Another incomplete definition.

Happy New WW Trivia!

I did not pick that answer because I did not think pigs could swim that well...

I just had this question, these definitions seem rather close in meaning to me. I looked up "pompous," "puffed up" was even part of its definition.

1. Exaggerated praise (as for promotional purposes)
Your answer: claptrap

claptrap means "pompous or pretentious talk or writing"

The correct answer was puff

The "(as for promotional purposes)" would indicate to me right away that "puff" is a better answer than "claptrap". "Puffery" is a term which specifically indicates overblown praise or claims for a product.

I don't disagree that "claptrap" might be an appropriate answer for "exaggerated praise", but I think that the specific reference to promotional purposes makes "puff" a better answer.

That's interesting - I've always heard claptrap used to describe speech that is nonsense, but it seems that it didn't start out meaning that. Take your choice!

Pretentious, insincere, or empty language:
"I hate ... that air/Of claptrap, which your recent poets prize" (Byron).
[Obsolete meaning: a theatrical trick to win applause : clap + trap.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,


n Informal
1. contrived but foolish talk
2. insincere and pretentious talk politicians' claptrap
[C18 (in the sense: something contrived to elicit applause): from clap1 + trap1]
Collins English Dictionary


Noun 1. claptrap - pompous or pretentious talk or writing
Synonyms: blah, bombast, fustian, rant
Related Words: grandiloquence, grandiosity, magniloquence, ornateness, rhetoric - high-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation; "the grandiosity of his prose"; "an excessive ornateness of language"
Thesaurus Based on WordNet 3.0


noun (Informal) nonsense, rubbish, rot, crap (slang), garbage (informal), trash, bunk (informal), b*llsh*t (taboo slang), b*lls (taboo slang), bull (slang), s**t (taboo slang), hot air (informal), tosh (slang, chiefly Brit.), flannel (Brit. informal), pap, c*bbl*rs (Brit. taboo slang), bilge (informal), humbug, drivel, twaddle, tripe (informal), affectation, guff (slang), blarney, bombast, moonshine, insincerity, hogwash, hokum (slang, chiefly U.S. & Canad.), piffle (informal), poppycock (informal), bosh (informal), eyewash (informal), tommyrot, horsefeathers (U.S. slang), bunkum or buncombe (chiefly U.S.) He talks a lot of pretentious claptrap.
Collins Thesaurus

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/claptrap

1. British slang

Your answer: dekko

While it is 'British slang', it is slang for a look or glance, not a definition of British slang.

Happy New WW Trivia!

I think this is another incomplete definition:

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2. Thickness

Your answer: used of a line or mark

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Also, this definition raises an interesting point:

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4. Waw

Your answer: the 6th letter of the hebrew alphabet

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This pronunciation of the name of this letter is Sephardic. However, the Ashkenazi pronunciation of this letter is "vav". It's hard to say which is the "standard" -- most Hebrew speakers of Central European background would pronounce that letter as "vav", but many Israeli Hebrew speakers would pronounce it as "waw". This isn't a "correction", per se, but should words like this be in the game? After all, the 6th letter of the Hebrew letter is the character itself, not an English transliteration of the pronunciation of the letter in a certain dialect or accent. Regardless, "hebrew" should be capitalized.

Current set:

13 a long-acting barbiturate used as a sedative
- nihilist
- snicker
- butcher
- anglophil
- purple heart
- jambon

The right answer is purple heart, also known as Drinamyl, except it isn't a sedative: it's a combination of amphetamine and barbiturate, and it's a stimulant.

Current set:

10. Someone who helps another person commit a crime
Your answer: accessary

Normal spelling is accessory, and I couldn't find it spelt with an 'a' anywhere.



5. A long slender cigar
Your answer: panetela

I hadn't seen this before - I've only ever seen it spelt panatella - but I know now that this is the Spanish spelling. Gosh FT is educational!

I've just had:-

1. The right to enter

Your answer: accession

I think the correct word should be 'access'. 'Accession' means the act of entering on high office, something acquired or added (e.g. a library book) or the act by which a nation becomes party to an agreement already in force.

In the case of 'accessary', <a href="http://www.onelook.com" target="_blank">www.onelook.com</a> finds 23 sources with a reference. Here is an example:

<a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accessary" target="_blank">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accessary</a>

It is usually a variant, so that is why you probably didn't find it.

Happy New WW Trivia!

Another incomplete definition:

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12. Southern variety

Your answer: canebrake rattlesnake

John, what a brilliant website - thank you, I have snagged it! All those references to a word I had no idea even existed!

I clicked a few of them, and they all took me to accessory. Do you suppose anyone actually uses the variant spelling in real life?

Lesley153, 'define accessary' has 390 hits vs 90,700 for 'define accessory' in Yahoo! searches. A search for 'accessary' gets 6,500 hits vs 3,500,000+ for 'accessory'. So, I would say that it isn't used very much, but it does exist.

Commenting on Abechstein's post on other language characters, I would say that they should be included. They are the English names of those characters. Most likely there is a 'vav' entry as well as the 'waw' entry for the Hebrew character. Just my opinion.

Happy New WW Trivia!

Oh yes - I wasn't arguing about its existence, but I've never seen it before, and agree that it can't be used very much. Perhaps in word puzzle clues.

By the way, I was a little taken aback when I saw waw. I've always known the letter as vov or vav, so waw was a very strange variation. How on earth would you pronounce it?

Sephardic Hebrew speakers pronounce that letter just like you'd think -- the "v" sound is replaced with a "w" sound. So, the name of the letter is pronounced sort of like the English interjection "wow".

The only reason I don't think it's necessarily appropriate to have "words" like this included in the game is highlighted by JMelston's post -- "waw" is not the "English name" of the character, it is merely the English transliteration of the pronunciation of the character by speakers of one Hebrew dialect. For this reason, I would say it's not really a English word at all.