Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Wednesday's Word

Gravid / GRAV-id / adjective
Being with child; heav with young or eggs; pregnant.

For the moment the Cap'n Toby lies at rest outside the harbor, and the twelve-inch mackerels that Brian and I are cutting up for lobster bait are ripe, their bellies gravid with either blood-red roe or milt the color of sailors' bones.
-- Richard Adams Carey, Against the Tide

In North America, in contrast, the British conquered an empire; New France disappeared from history. But -- Anderson's profound theme -- Britain's triumph was gravid with defeat.
-- Jack Beatty, "Defeat in Victory", The Atlantic, December 2000

she is a bored society matron who seduces him before a carload gravid with already weary, now grossed-out morning commuters.
-- Rita Kempley, review of The Adjuster (MGM/UA Studios movie), Washington Post, June 29, 1992

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