Related:

• NOMINATE, v. To designate for the heaviest political assessment.
  To put forward a suitable person to incur the mudgobbling and deadcatting of the opposition....
• EXHORT, v.t. In religious affairs, to put the conscience of another upon the spit and roast it to a nut-brown discomfort.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• PLEASE, v. To lay the foundation for a superstructure of imposition.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• Adore, v.: To venerate expectantly.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• FORMA PAUPERIS. [Latin] In the character of a poor person -- a method by which a litigant without money for lawyers is considerately permitted to lose his case.
  When Adam long ago in Cupid's awful court (For Cupid ruled ere Adam was invented) Sued for Eve's favor, says an ancient law report, He stood and pleaded unhabilimented....
• RUMOR, n. A favorite weapon of the assassins of character.
  Sharp, irresistible by mail or shield, By guard unparried as by flight unstayed, O serviceable Rumor, let me wield Against my enemy no other blade....
• REFORM, v. A thing that mostly satisfies reformers opposed to reformation.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• Ruin, v. To destroy. Specifically, to destroy a maid's belief in the virtue of maids.
  -- Ambrose Bierce "The Devil's Dictionary...