Related:

• Force is but might," the teacher said-- "That definition's just.
  The boy said naught but thought instead, Remembering his pounded head...
• POLICE, n. An armed force for protection and participation.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• INDIGESTION, n. A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind.
  As the simple Red Man of the western wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force...
• TAKE, v.t. To acquire, frequently by force but preferably by stealth.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• SCARABEE, n. The same as scarabaeus. He fell by his own hand Beneath the great oak tree.
  He'd traveled in a foreign land. He tried to make her understand The dance that's called the Saraband, But he called it Scarabee....
• DEBT, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave- driver.
  As, pent in an aquarium, the troutlet Swims round and round his tank to find an outlet, Pressing his nose against the glass that holds him, Nor ever sees the prison that enfolds him...
• Magpie, n.: A bird whose theivish disposition suggested to someone that it might be taught to talk.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...