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A.Word.A.Day--vamoose

Pronunciation Sound Clip RealAudio

This week's theme: slang/informal terms.

vamoose (va-MOOS, vuh-) intr.verb

To depart hurriedly.

[From Spanish vamos (let us go).]

See more usage examples of vamoose in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)

"He (Eddie Cortez, mayor of Pomona, California) was stopped by border patrol agents one day last summer in his town, more than 100 miles from the Mexican border, and ordered to produce documents to prove he was a legal resident. "He wasn't doing anything suspicious. He was just sitting in his truck, wearing jeans and looking like he might be a Latino, which apparently is all it takes to look suspicious in the minds of some people. "Fortunately, as Cortez tells the story, he had a badge in his pocket that identified him as Pomona's mayor. Embarrassed, the border agents apologized and vamoosed." Clarence Page; Illegal Immigrants Are An Easy Target; St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Jun 15, 1994.

X-Bonus

The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it. -Peter. B. Medawar, scientist, Nobel laureate (1915-1987)

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