A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1135

When talking about a demotion, I’ve been known to say someone has been Plutoed.
-Tom Barnum, Mequon, Wisconsin (nosheetsherlock yahoo.com)

I use the verb to vultch, from vulture, when a person is waiting closely for something to happen. Examples:
The kids gathered in the kitchen vultching in anticipation of dinner. The dog was vultching under the dining room table waiting for something to fall from above.
The buzzards continued to vultch in the trees waiting for the lion to finish feeding.
-Joel Pond, Chicago, Illinois (joelpond hotmail.com)

“The verb god isn’t known widely.” Yet a domineering boss can lord over us.
-David D. Jones, St. Paul, Minnesota (DaveJones39 hotmail.com)

35% of America has godded Trump.
-Michael Barrie, Los Angeles, California (mikebarrie2.0 gmail.com)

I frequently verbify the word grocery. Example: I spent all day grocerying, but I never found any good chocolate.
-Duncan Chesley, Durham, Maine (duncan.chesley gmail.com)

I like using “twin” as a verb, as in David Whyte in his lovely poem “My Daughter Asleep”
  My prayer tonight is for the great and hidden symmetries of life to reward this faith I have
  And twin her passages of loneliness with friendship
  Her exiles with homecoming
  Her first awkward steps with promised onward leaps.
-Jon Howe, Friday Harbor, Washington (jonthowe gmail.com)

We speak of adulting to describe being disciplined about tasks that need doing, especially tasks (like doing our taxes) that we would rather not do at all. There comes a time when we realize we are just going to have to adult this thing, if it’s going to get done.
-John Brownson, Albany, California (jhb johnbrownson.net)

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In the 1920s, this verbing of nouns was much-used slang; we often hear it in movies set in that time. “Chair me.” “Cigarette me.” In Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare’s), near the end, after Octavius has defeated both A & C, there is a scene in which Octavius promises Cleopatra respectful and honorable treatment of her when back in Rome. Cleo knows that this is all lies. After Octavius leaves, she says to her ladies-in-waiting, “He words me, girls, he words me.”
The verbing of nouns can often make statements/comments more incisive, stronger, more pointed.
-Richard Block, Santa Fe, New Mexico (rablock cybermesa.com)

I am wondering if I truly erred in using the word braille as a verb. My daughter chastised me for doing so, as she had been chastised by her peers at college when she did it, having learned it from me. I could never find support for my usage, but it still makes perfect sense to me that if I am in total darkness, I must rely heavily on my sense of touch to find my way.
-Laurie O’Rourke, Friday Harbor, Washington (magkelor mac.com)

Although it’s been over 50 years since I read it, I’m sure one of William Peter Blatty’s characters in “Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane!” grouchoed across a room. That is, a low-slung walk that Groucho Marx used to do.
-Michael Green, Carlisle, UK (mwgreen hotmail.co.uk)

My husband took note when I said I would zoom a friend soon. Zoom got verbed!
-Daphne Harwood, Vancouver, Canada (daphwood gmail.com)

A footballer who is given a warning is shown a yellow card. Newspaper reports now refer to a player being “yellow carded”.
-Neil Corre, London, UK (neil corre.co.uk)

A noun that I frequently use as a verb is the word grief as in “Please don’t grief me.”
-Richard Rodzinski, Lake Placid, New York (richardrodzinski intermezzo-productions.com)

When our son was very small, the best way to get him to go to sleep was to lay him on his stomach and tell him we would “pat your bum”. When he learned to talk, he would ask us to “patchabum me please”.
-Alec Bamford, Bangkok, Thailand (chanida.alec gmail.com)

Every night my mother is supposed to check in with me before 10. Usually, if she forgets it’s because she’s gotten caught up in a British murder mystery. Last night she hadn’t texted, I sent her a “?” and received the reply, “Sorry, I was Marpling!”
-Laura Peebles, Arlington, Virginia (lhpeebles aol.com)

Once, in a failed attempt at ironic humor, I described an act of reduction as smallened.
-Milo Grika, St. Paul, Minnesota (milo grika.com)

We use Frankenstein to describe novice skiers who awkwardly careen downhill, arms out in front, as in, “Oh dear, I hope the Frankenstein skier doesn’t hit a tree!” Also it is used as a verb for skiers completely out of control; for example, “I was Frank’n out after I hit that mogul & nearly wiped out!”
-Nancy Kopp, Neillsville, Wisconsin (porchprincess yahoo.com)

Bucky knew this.
-Sheila Garl, Mesa, Arizona (sheila.garl gmail.com)

In our family we solution a problem and then consider it solutioned.
-Terry Joshi, Yonkers, New York (mommylooloo hotmail.com)

I have verbed molehill, i.e., to make light of, minimize, or ignore an otherwise momentous (mountainous) achievement.
Usage: The novelist broke new ground with his sci-fi thriller which remained #1 on the NYT bestseller list for over three years, but it was molehilled by the literary establishment.
-Brenda J. Gannam, Brooklyn, New York (gannamconsulting earthlink.net)

In my book Father Feelings I flipped “child” into a verb to describe the counterpart to the common use of “parenting”. I was noting that each of our kids “childs” me in a different way, and that our kids’ “childing” is a major factor in the dynamics of how a family works.
-Eliot Daley, Prineton, New Jersey (eliot eliotdaley.com)

If it is a beverage, then I shall bever it! More often, when going to the bar I tell my friends I shall beverate myself.
-Gražina Strolia, Highland Park, New Jersey (grazina.strolia marlabs.com)

Three of my friends have served recently as interim directors of important organizations here in Kalamazoo while the search was on for a new director. So I have asked them periodically “Are you still interim-ing?”
-Lauri Holmes, Kalamazoo, Michigan (lauriholmes gmail.com)

We were discussing child car seats with family members who became parents within the last year or so. What to do when taking babies on a bike: A child seat behind the pedaler or a child trailer? The oldest suggested: Just Mitt Romney the baby onto the roof.
-Nina Cohen, Salem, Massachusetts (ninavcohen gmail.com)

A word I keep hoping to see appear in the “nouns as verbs” category is “bird”. I went to graduate school to study ornithology because I became interested in birds in college and went on to work at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology for 33 years. From about that time, I learned that people who enjoy tracking down and searching for birds, identifying them, recording their numbers, and perhaps even enjoying competition about who has seen more birds in a given place or duration, are “birders” (not birdwatchers) who spend their time birding. My husband (a more avid birder than I am) spends some time each day birding -- whether traveling to a location, or just walking up our street to see what’s in our neighborhood cattail marsh. As for me, it seems that the only time these days that I get a chance to bird is when I am with him.
-Diane L Tessaglia-Hymes, Etna, New York (dianeth cornell.edu)