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'Omigod! What happened to your nose?'

DEFINITION: v. To make something worse while attempting to make it better. n. A bad improvement.

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Verboticisms

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Fortifry

Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: for/ti/fry

Sentence: Dave thought that adding wires to his breaker panel would fortify his electricity. Little did he know he would fortifry it.

Etymology: fortify + fry

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COMMENTS:

"smokin" - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-15: 11:41:00

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Wimprovement

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: wim proov ment

Sentence: When Cathy met Todd in High School, he was a brawny fellow, but lacking in refinement. Ten years later, they were wed, had 2 kids and Todd was now a big pudding of a man who was so whipped and broken by the demanding Cathy. She considered Todd her greatest wimprovement.

Etymology: Wimp (a person who lacks confidence, is irresolute and wishy-washy) & Improvement (betterment;change;progress)

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Remuddle

Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: ree - MUDL

Sentence: Wilford had set out to completely redesign and redo the interior of his home but lacking proper skills and experience his effort turned out to be a hideous remuddle rather than the upgrade he had envisioned.

Etymology: Blend of remodel and muddle...to mix up in a confused or bungling manner

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COMMENTS:

excellent - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-15: 11:41:00

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Reekonstruction

Created by: galwaywegian

Pronunciation: reek on struk shun

Sentence: "how do you feel after your latest reekonstruction, mr Jackson?" the waiting media asked. "I'm bad" he said, "I'm bad"

Etymology: reek as in stinking, reconstruction

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COMMENTS:

nice reference to MJ - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-15: 11:45:00

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Badvancement

Created by: Tigger

Pronunciation: /bad-VANS-mehnt/

Sentence: It seems that each new elected politician is a badvancement on the last one. Although they promise improvement after improvement, and all sorts of advancements, things keep going from bad to worse.

Etymology: Bad - of poor or inferior quality; defective (of uncertain origin; meaning of "defective or inferior" first recorded around 1300 AD) + Advancement - a forward step; an improvement (from Old French, avancer "move forward")

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Remuddle

Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: re-MUD-l

Sentence: Simpson had set out to completely redesign and redo the interior of his home but lacking proper skills and experience his effort turned out to be a hideous remuddle rather than the upgrade he had envisioned.

Etymology: Blend of 'remodel' (redo or makeover) and 'muddle' (to mix up in a confused or bungling manner)

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Adworsity

Created by: bookowl

Pronunciation: Ad/wurs/itee

Sentence: They suffered further adworsity when the contractor hung the windows upsidedown.

Etymology: add + worse + adversity

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Unintendment

Created by: pieceof314

Pronunciation: un-intend-ment

Sentence: Horace had horrible headaches. He was getting rather desperate. He thought by cutting his head off, he would alleviate the problem. The one unintendment he didn't count on was death.

Etymology: un, not + intend, to direct one's attention towards

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Incorrectify

Created by: stache

Pronunciation: ĭn'kə-rěk'tə-fī'

Sentence: "You can't polish a turd," Garvin said when David showed him how he had used accessories to incorrectify his '79 Ford Pinto.

Etymology: incur, to bring upon oneself, as in, to incur the ridicule of the public; rectify, verb form of rectum, part of the human anatomy often euphemized as a term of disparagement.

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COMMENTS:

nice - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-15: 11:45:00

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Misrepair

youmustvotenato

Created by: youmustvotenato

Pronunciation: miss-repair

Sentence: With clippers in hand, I began cutting my hair. I kept having to "fix" my mistakes and soon enough, my hair was in misrepair.

Etymology: mistaken; repair

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Comments:

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2008-05-15: 00:01:00
Today's definition is inspired by author and philosopher, Mark Kingwell who I saw last night speaking about "Social Change". He reminded us that not all change is good change. And noted that in German they have word to describe such bad improvements -- Schlimmbesserung -- which we don't have in English. And so it's today's challenge. Thanks Mark! ~ James