Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: v. To ask a someone a bizarre question in order to get them to think outside their mental little boxes. (And to see if they are actually listening.) n. A creative provocation designed to pull people out of their daily stupor.
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.
Zenquiry
Created by: bookowl
Pronunciation: zen-kwire/ee
Sentence: A zenquiry requires complete silence and meditation. The questions are open to interpretation and often surprising.
Etymology: zen + enquiry
Quizarre
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: kwiz-zahr
Sentence: Just to shake up her "gotta-have-the right-answer" students, the teacher gave her class a test that had nothing to do with the course of study. The teacher found it amusing. The students found it quizarre.
Etymology: quiz (an informal test or examination of a student or class) + bizarre (markedly unusual in appearance, style, or general character and often involving incongruous or unexpected elements; outrageously or whimsically strange)
Braintweezer
Created by: splendiction
Pronunciation: brain tweaser
Sentence: “Please don’t give me one of those braintweezers of yours right before I have to go to bed!” Paul warned his philosophy roommate Ato. Lately, Paul, Ato and a bunch of the others had been posing many mindbenders of eachother with sharp braintweezers that stimulated unused areas of the brain. “After the last braintweez, my mind’s swelling and redness lasted for days! I lost too much sleep with the throbbing thoughts in my head...although I did realize the world is really a shallow representation of the forms!”
Etymology: From the words brain and tweezer, to pinch; it is closely related to "brainteaser" but "braintweezer" causes more of a reaction in the recipient, more lateral thinking.
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COMMENTS:
Splendid word - silveryaspen, 2009-03-12: 00:51:00
Good! - kateinkorea, 2009-03-12: 22:04:00
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Questvigorate
Created by: silveryaspen
Pronunciation: qwest vig er ate
Sentence: Have you been where you thought you were? Did you return before you got back? Did you come in the out door? Does colder weather make you older? Are you getting richer now it is daylight $avings time? Isn't it fun to questvigorate?
Etymology: To go on a QUEST to INVIGORATE other's thinking by bizarre QUESTIONS is to QUESTVIGORATE.
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COMMENTS:
Please feel free to add your questvigorates. - silveryaspen, 2009-03-11: 01:25:00
If a turtle loses his shell, is he homeless or naked? - metrohumanx, 2009-03-11: 01:49:00
How come we park on the driveway, but drive on the parkway? - George Carlin - Tigger, 2009-03-11: 02:12:00
How come we park on the driveway, but drive on the parkway? - George Carlin - Tigger, 2009-03-11: 02:51:00
Is catching a cold at the last station of a railway line a terminal illness? - Jabberwocky, 2009-03-11: 12:14:00
Why did kamikaze pilots wear crash helmets? - metrohumanx, 2009-03-11: 21:24:00
you are all so creatively mullicious and smile-licious :-) - silveryaspen, 2009-03-11: 21:51:00
How come when 2 cars meet in the course of driving, it's an Intersection, but when sex partners meet it's an intercourse?? Is this where sex drive originates? - Nosila, 2009-03-12: 00:08:00
Only when given the green light! - silveryaspen, 2009-03-12: 00:47:00
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Homedepose
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: home de pose
Sentence: When Kyle asked about a seat for his wheelbarrow, Katie the associate was used to getting homedepose idiotic questions all the time. Her experience had prepared her to think outside the box store and have a ready response.
Etymology: Home Depots (famus US home goods retailer, known for its signature orange color and pretty much in every city in USA & Canada...) & Pose (ask a question)
Mindgame
Created by: RightOnTheWin
Pronunciation: \ˈmīnd\ˈgām\
Sentence: Derek enjoys to mindgame “slow” people so they’ll demean themselves. However, the day came when Derek himself became the victim of mindgame.
Etymology: Mind ( The conscious mental events and capabilities in an organism ) + Game (Activity engaged in for diversion or amusement)
Evoqunotion
Created by: kateinkorea
Pronunciation: ee VOKE que NO sheun
Sentence: Several times a year Dr. Miller would lay an evoqunotion on us, to get us to think outside the box. He would suddenly ask us a question that seemed very complicated and difficult, or even impossible. Usually the solution was to look for another way of interpreting the question. Of course he always used the classic ‘nine-dot’ creativity puzzle at some point in the semester-the originator of the thinking outside the box concept. Initially the students would stress over these questions for days, but near the end of the semester the students were waiting with bated breath for the next one to come out.
Etymology: EVOKE: prompt, spur QUERY: question NOTION: idea EVOLUTION: change over time
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COMMENTS:
what a foxy outboxy creative sentence. - silveryaspen, 2009-03-11: 21:41:00
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Evocogitreat
Created by: metrohumanx
Pronunciation: eee-VOE-codge-a-TREET (evocogitreatment)
Sentence: Gill Bates wasn't really mullicious, but his job as a border guard had affected him in strange ways. Years of interrogating aliens caused him to ask bizarre, sometimes profound questions. Questions were his bread, and answers were his butter. Metaphors were his condiments, but only on weekends. Gill's EVOCOGITREATMENT of the language usually resulted in a far-away look shrouded in a roaring silence, but one night he ordered a pizza cut into NINE slices, causing a vessel to burst in the chef's brain. He frequently asked the goth kid at the gas station to change the air in his tires. The waitress couldn't tell him the origin of "chicken fingers", and the local policeman couldn't explain the absence of "GO" signs. When Gill asked his librarian if she had "books on paper", she had to call her supervisor. Gill Bates now spends his retirement peeling grapes and wondering what would happen if an atomic bomb was detonated in the eye of a hurricane. Perhaps he should EVOCOGITREAT the French Ambassador.....They'd probably love to detonate a low-yield nuke in the South Pacific...and it wouldn't bother them ATOLL!
Etymology: EVOke+COGITate+tREAT= EVOCOGITREAT.....EVOKE:to call forth, conjure, to re-create imaginatively, to bring to mind, tending to induce an especially emotional response; French évoquer, from Latin evocare, from e- + vocare to call .....COGITATE: (transitive verb ) to ponder or meditate on very intently; Latin cogitatus, past participle of cogitare to think, think about, from co- + agitare to drive, agitate.....TREAT: to present or represent artistically ,to deal with in speech, writing or action; Middle English treten, from Anglo-French treter, traiter, traitier, from Latin tractare to drag about, handle, deal with, frequentative of trahere to drag, pull.
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COMMENTS:
Evocogitreat is mullicious, both are delightful and great creates. - silveryaspen, 2009-03-11: 21:36:00
Do leaderships swim? - silveryaspen, 2009-03-11: 21:38:00
Since metaphors are his condiments, I don't relish trying to ketchup with Gill! He mustard gone to the Mayo clinic...good story! - Nosila, 2009-03-12: 00:12:00
Another GREAT create :) - abrakadeborah, 2009-03-25: 14:03:00
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Enigmachination
Created by: Jabberwocky
Pronunciation: en/ig/mak/in/ay/shun
Sentence: The professor liked to jolt the students into clearer thought by beginning each class with an enigmachination.
Etymology: enigma + machination (trick, ruse)
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COMMENTS:
Terrific idea===== Great idea and word - silveryaspen, 2009-03-11: 21:29:00
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Prodvoke
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: prädvōk
Sentence: During his weekly meetings with his staff, Larry loved to prodvoke people to think outside the box. As he was being fired, he was reminded he worked for a packaging company and that people are paid to think INSIDE the box.
Etymology: prod (an act of stimulating or reminding someone to do something) + provoke (stimulate or incite)
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COMMENTS:
carton me, but a good story! - Nosila, 2010-09-22: 18:03:00
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Comments:
Today's definition was suggested by metrohumanx. Thank you metrohumanx. ~ James
Today's definition was suggested by metrohumanx. Thank you metrohumanx. ~ James