Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: v. To offer pre-approved credit, loans or sweepstake prizes in order to lock the some poor sucker into permanent usury. n. Junk mail, spam or telemarketing offers for pre-approved credit and loans.
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.
Owemen
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: o men
Sentence: Carol could not believe her luck. She had gotten in her mailbox the chance to get a pre-approved credit card. It was low interest (2%) for the first 3 months and then ballooned to 30% after that. She wanted to apply, but talked to her Mom first. Her Mom made her rip up the offer and chuck it away. She told her such a come-on was an owemen...she would owe men money for the rest of her days if she signed up!
Etymology: Owe (be in debt) & Men (people) and play on Omen (a prediction of your future)
Mortalgage
Created by: Stevenson0
Pronunciation: mort/al/age
Sentence: The sales pitch and the rates were good we decided to lock into a 60 year mortalgage.
Etymology: MORTALGAGE - from MORTAL + MORTGAGE or MORTAL + ENGAGE
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COMMENTS:
very clever - Jabberwocky, 2009-02-24: 08:59:00
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Telesharketing
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: teləshärkiting
Sentence: Jill screens all her calls. She has her roommate sort through her mail, because she has found that she is far too susceptible to telesharketing. Next she may have to give up watching television.
Etymology: telemarketing (the marketing of goods or services by means of telephone calls, typically unsolicited, to potential customers) + shark (a person who unscrupulously exploits or swindles others)
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COMMENTS:
:) - galwaywegian, 2010-09-07: 04:58:00
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Lendanger
Created by: karenanne
Pronunciation: len DAYN jer
Sentence: Aiyo Yu keeps getting calls from PityBank (motto: "We Want to Help You Feel Forever In Our Debt") offering her the "opportunity" to roll her balances on other cards "free of charge" into the card she holds from this particular company. She also gets mailings from the same company inviting her to apply for various-sized loans that would pay off all her debts and give her "just one convenient monthly payment." These lendangering practices are helping a lot - helping PityBank, that is. She doesn't seem to realize that rolling all your outstanding debts into one payment is only helpful if you actually pay down the balance every month, and don't run up new balances. Most of her paycheck is a lendangered species at this point.
Etymology: endanger + lend
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COMMENTS:
An all-too familiar tale, sadly! - Nosila, 2010-09-07: 21:10:00
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Bankruptyee
Created by: splendiction
Pronunciation: bank rupt yee
Sentence: "SCAM mail coupons for fast, easy, credit! Our promise is to bankruptyee with any use! (For best results, use consistently). Now offered: specials that will keep you in the red forever!"
Etymology: bankruptyee v. From bankruptcy (to declare insolvent) and "ye" - old term for you (second person singular). Meaning: to "bankrupt" an individual.
Scamwow
Created by: Mustang
Pronunciation: SKAM-wow
Sentence: Having been hammered over and over by a recent infomercial about a wipe cloth, whenever Radcliffe would see ads of any kind for those 'too good to be true' products or services he would involuntarily shout "Scamwow!", oftentimes startling people near him.
Etymology: Blend of 'scam' (con game with phony offers) and the exclamation 'wow',(expressing joy or surprise) a play on Shamwow, a former commercially advertised product.
Spamscam
Created by: kateinkorea
Pronunciation: SPAM SCAM
Sentence: I couldn't believe it when I got an email that said "The Perfect Man Dating Site". I hate spam mail and I usually ignore it. But this one had come into my Inbox, so I convinced myself that maybe it had been sent to me by a friend. It advertised that only 10% of the members were women and the rest were good, decent, successful men all looking for women. They were having a contest to encourage more women to join these poor (um...but not poor) lonely men on this site. So of course I went on to the website and joined. This was worse than spam it was spamscam. It was one of the worst ever rip-offs. I visited the site several times over the next week. Later I got a bill for $548. I hadn't read through the terms of membership (in my haste) and now I owed this place money for having looked at these profiles.
Etymology: SPAM: unwanted mail SCAM: trick to cheat someone out of something or into something
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COMMENTS:
Turned out to be a very expensive date! - Mustang, 2009-02-24: 19:00:00
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Pawnfree
Created by: TJayzz
Pronunciation: Paw-n-fr-ee
Sentence: Now that the credit crunch is well under way many people will be forced to turn to buying on credit from those pawn-free credit offers. This means that you are entitled to free gifts and 0% for the first six months, then when you are completely hooked the rate goes up to 19% therefore having great difficulty keeping up the repayments.
Etymology: Pawn(a person who is used by others for their own purposes) + Free(Something given for nothing. OR IS IT???)
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COMMENTS:
pawnfree, as free as the wind blows - Jabberwocky, 2009-02-24: 09:18:00
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Caratnschtick
Created by: metrohumanx
Pronunciation: CARROTn-schtick
Sentence: Debbie Terwilliger pounced on any free offer, no matter how unlikely. At her college, sleazy agents handed out credit cards by the bushel, and DebT grabbed a handful. She fell for the old CARATNSCHTICK everytime, and now she's getting a pedicure in debtor's prison.
Etymology: CARAT+n+SCHTICK=CARATNSCHTICK..........CARAT:a unit of fineness for gold equal to 1⁄24 part of pure gold in an alloy.....CARROT:a reward or advantage offered especially as an inducement; Middle French carotte, from Late Latin carota, from Greek karōton.....SCHTICK: a usually comic or repetitious performance or routine; Yiddish shtik pranks, literally, piece, from Middle High German stücke, from Old High German stucki; akin to Old English stycce piece, Old High German stoc stick.....carrot and stick:The carrot and stick approach was first used by owners of donkeys in order to keep their animals moving. Whenever the animal stopped, the rider used to dangle a raw carrot in front of the animal's nose, or beat it with the stick.
Comments:
Verbotomy - 2009-02-24: 00:01:01
Today's definition was suggested by readerwriter. Thank you readerwriter. ~ James
readerwriter - 2009-02-24: 08:20:00
The thanks should go to my hubby who doesn't play, but loves to hear the defs!
Verbotomy - 2009-02-24: 22:59:00
Well lets give thanks to your hubby. Sounds like he has lots of good ideas! ~ James
Verbotomy - 2010-09-07: 00:00:00
Today's definition was suggested by readerwriter. Thank you readerwriter. ~ James