March 2008

Notable and Quotable: Ring Lardner

Born on March 6, 1885, humorist Ring Lardner was known for short stories and sports writing, and he was widely admired for his keen ear for the vernacular. He died young, before the age of 50, but he left his mark in multiple citations in the Unabridged Dictionary.

Interested in finding all 56 entries credited to writers named Lardner? It's easy. Choose the Unabridged as your reference and click on Advanced Search. Type Lardner in the Author field and click Search. The 39 Lardner citations that don't trace to Ring are divided up among Ring Lardner's sons and other relatives from this literary family.

applesauce noun
"I know applesauce when I hear it"

dauber noun
"the boys were depressed . . . their dauber was down"

dirty adjective
"the two girls give me a dirty look like it was my fault or something"

festive adjective
"a set of diamond . . . cuff buttons for festive wear"

hang verb
"hung that left on the Dutchman's jaw"

inhale verb
"inhaled about four meals at once"

language noun
"shouldn't of blamed the fellers if they'd cut loose with some language"

line out verb
"cut into the first ball and lined out"

mash note noun
"wrote him mash notes with fake names signed to them"

peeper noun
"let his peepers roll over towards our table"

pip noun
"the gal's a pip and I'm going to marry her"

risky adjective
"she had on the riskiest dress she'd bought"

scream noun
"what a scream he was on a party"

sizable adjective
"a sizable mud puddle"

so-and-so noun
"the reason he didn't was so-and-so"

up-and-down adjective
"in the deep sand about a foot from a straight up-and-down bank"