Vote for the best verboticism.

'Honey, you just ran a red light!'

DEFINITION: v. To unintentionally encourage bad behavior by responding to it in a manner that incites even worse behavior. n. A response designed to stop bad behavior, which paradoxically produces more of it.

Create | Read

Verboticisms

Click on each verboticism to read the sentences created by the Verbotomy writers, and to see your voting options...

You have two votes. Click on the words to read the details, then vote your favorite.

Pissoftomy

Created by: stefaniaus

Pronunciation: Pis soft omy

Sentence: It was clearly a case of pissoftomy with no means of redemption

Etymology:

| Comments and Points

Crazydriver

Created by: Andrew98

Pronunciation:

Sentence:

Etymology:

| Comments and Points

Miscourage

Created by: jrogan

Pronunciation: mis-cur-rage

Sentence: Every time Sally miscouraged her boyfriend go slower, he went faster. It didn't matter whether they were on the highway, or in the bedroom.

Etymology: miss + courage as opposed to discourage

| Comments and Points

Exacerbloop

Created by: OZZIEBOB

Pronunciation: Eks-asz-SUR-bloop

Sentence: When Bob tried to smooth things over with a few words of "wisdom", he quickly found out that many an embarassing moment wouldn't be so embarassing if it only lasted a moment. The daftermath of his exacerblooper and exacerblooping, lead to a hellishing harangue from Roxie that lasted an hour.

Etymology: Blend of EXACERBate & BLOOP/er: an embarassing, silly, verbal error, usually during a serious moment.

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

great sentence - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-20: 15:32:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

Reverbirate

Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: re-VERB-eye-rayt

Sentence: It seemed that whenever Cindy would try to motivate her husband, Charlie, to behave more civilly, her words would only reverbirate in some dark corner of his psyche and have the opposite effect with him responding in even more outrageous manner.

Etymology: blend of 'reverberate' (echo) and 'irate' (angry)

| Comments and Points

Modifail

Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: mod/i/fail

Sentence: As a teacher, I sometimes modifail when a student over reacts in a negative way to an attempted behaviour modifcation causing even further trouble in class.

Etymology: modify + fail

| Comments and Points

Negatentional

mrskellyscl

Created by: mrskellyscl

Pronunciation: neg-a-ten-shen-al

Sentence: As a teacher, Mary knew that negatentional responses were equal to posintentional ones to the kids who acted up to get her attention, although the results were disastrous for her classroom management. She soon realized that by nagging Kevin the same result would happen, Kevin would do the opposite of what she wanted to get a response from her. She decided to ignore the inappropriate behavior and reward him for proper behavior, just as she would her kindergarten children, in order for him to get posattention from her.

Etymology: negative: unfavorable or disconfirming + intentional: done deliberately + attention: notice or recognition. Teachers and trainers understand that to some children or animals negative attention is just as good as positive attention because it gives them the reward of recognition and response.

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

Do I not lie it? Negatory! Good word. - Nosila, 2009-06-30: 17:31:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

Baboozle

Created by: melodydrama

Pronunciation: Bah-boo-zle

Sentence: The comment meant to hurry her husband along was a sad baboozle, he only walked slower and they missed their appointment.

Etymology: Baboon+bamboozle

| Comments and Points

Scaradigm

Created by: mweinmann

Pronunciation: skair - a - dime

Sentence: There was a scaradigm shift in Tony's behavior after Lisa tried to soothe him during the drive through the Catskills. The road was narrow and slippery and an antelope strolled out and started to play around in the headlights.

Etymology: scare (A general state of alarm), paradigm (A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality)

| Comments and Points

Contradick

artr

Created by: artr

Pronunciation: käntrədik

Sentence: Katy has just about had it with her boyfriend. He is such a contradick. Whenever she suggests a change to his behavior, he re-doubles his bad behavior to prove his independence.

Etymology: contradictory (mutually opposed or inconsistent) + dick (slang: jerk)

| Comments and Points

Show All or More...

 

Comments:

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2008-05-20: 00:00:01
Today's definition is inspired by Amy Sutherland's observation that if we are going to use "progressive animal training techniques" on humans, that we simply need to reward behavior we want and ignore behavior we don't. Of course this is easier said than done, and requires a great deal of self-awareness and self-discipline. In fact, Amy calls it the "Zen of Animal Training". See: "What Shamu Taught me About Life, Love and Marriage". Thanks Amy! ~ James

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2009-06-30: 00:00:01
Today's definition is inspired by Amy Sutherland's observation that if we are going to use "progressive animal training techniques" on humans, that we simply need to reward behavior we want and ignore behavior we don't. Of course this is easier said than done, and requires a great deal of self-awareness and self-discipline. In fact, Amy calls it the "Zen of Animal Training". See: "What Shamu Taught me About Life, Love and Marriage". Thanks Amy! ~ James

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2010-07-20: 00:00:00
Today's definition was suggested by amysutherland. Thank you amysutherland. ~ James

Genkareink - 2019-07-22: 07:52:00
[url=]http://market.pbprog.ru/forum/index.php?PAGE_NAME=profile_view&UID=163192 [/url] [url=]http://getcars.ru/communication/forum/index.php?PAGE_NA

Svetikreink - 2019-07-22: 08:33:00
[url=]http://www.mebelsfabriki.ru/forum/?PAGE_NAME=profile_view&UID=4877 [/url] [url=]https://dw.kz/forum/index.php?PAGE_NAME=profile_view&UID=11886

Petrikreink - 2019-07-22: 09:52:00
http://stroller-be.ru/forum/?PAGE_NAME=profile_view&UID=18142 http://market.korund-s.ru/forum/index.php?PAGE_NAME=profile_vie

Genkareink - 2019-07-22: 17:03:00
http://www.minfin34.ru/forum/user/5417/ http://185.183.175.35/main/society/forum/?PAGE_NAME=profile_view&UID=353837

Svetikreink - 2019-07-22: 17:41:00
http://getcars.ru/communication/forum/index.php?PAGE_NAME=profile_view&UID=2702 http://ke.kz/forum/user/27600/

Petrikreink - 2019-07-22: 18:56:00
http://saomos.news/forum/user/3677/ http://torgi.imc-bel.ru/forum/user/19246/ http://xn--80afhpoahcbjlch1a1d7