words with contradictory meanings

terminator

pious

"moot" is perfect

suspicious?

maybe not self-contradictory but consider:

those men look suspicious.

vs.

i'm suspicious of those men.

i was coming here to suggest that one!

along with perennial favourite 'curious'

Update!

SUBMIT

"Drift" as targeted deliberate movement, being formerly part of the verb "drive", vs "drift" i.e. meander aimlessly

(having crossed over via magic quantum superposition e.g. snowdrifts and drifting at sea where you're meandering because something else is driving you)

admittedly I'm struggling to think of a particularly convincing surviving example of the former - OED says "(do you get my) drift" = "what I am driving at", but for me that also works as a sarcastic suggestion that you are leaving it as a gentle undercurrent for the more astute listener, rather than actively shoving in that direction

I have been incoherent here and will be zung if anyone can be bothered, must be hometime

"Trailer" = something that comes before (eg a film) or after (eg a car)

suspicious?

maybe not self-contradictory but consider:

those men look suspicious.

vs.

i'm suspicious of those men.

― tangelo amour (elmo argonaut), Wednesday, 1 September 2010 15:21 (Yesterday)

I suspect 'those men look suspicious' is actually a misuse of the word that has become so common as to be accepted.

Like 'suspicious behaviour' should probably be 'behaviour arousing suspicion'.

cf. sceptical/dubious - "I am sceptical, that is dubious", not "I am dubious".

sus·pi·cious

1 : tending to arouse suspicion : questionable <suspicious characters>
2 : disposed to suspect : distrustful <suspicious of strangers>
3 : expressing or indicative of suspicion <a suspicious glance>

suspicious
"deserving of or exciting suspicion," mid-14c., from O.Fr. suspecious, from L. suspiciosus "exciting suspicion". Meaning "full of or inclined to feel suspicion" is attested from c.1400. Edgar Allan Poe (c.1845) proposed suspectful to take one of the two conflicting senses.

overlook!

Specifically:
1.
a. To look over or at from a higher place.
b. To rise above, especially so as to afford a view over: The tower overlooks the sea.

2.
a. To fail to notice or consider; miss.
b. To ignore deliberately or indulgently; disregard.

3. To look over; examine.

4. To watch over; oversee. See Synonyms at supervise.

ay, that's a good one

behaviour.

graft

dense

"he could not understand the dense text because he was too dense"

mmmm not buying that one - both mean something like "impenetrable"

the buffalo buffalo etc

screen. to show (e.g. a film) & to hide.

good one!

patronise. makes me chuckle whenever it's used in the "get cash from" sense.

literally

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym

You're talking about the common misuse of "literally" as "not literally", right? I don't think it officially has contradictory meanings?

let's ask the dictionary tsar

http://img1.etsystatic.com/008/0/8111024/il_570xN.472319187_3qwm.jpg

No-one's said my favourite one – fuse

siren

repress

was there a brief period in the 60s when "uptight" meant "cool"?

cf the stevie wonder song. why does he say "uptight" there??

adumbrate

Re: 'uptight,' a quick search unearthed this, from Tom Dalzell's Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang:

Uptight was another term meaning "very good," a very different connotation than that attached to the word in the hippie slang (inhibited) which survived at the expense of the mainstream meaning. The mainstream meaning was exemplified in the lyrics of a hit song by Little Stevie Wonder …

From context I always thought that uptight represented the life with the girl from the right side of the tracks with the butlers and maids. He has loose shabby clothes because he's poor. But he loves her and is happy about her and her uptight square world. That's just been what I've been going on.

Warhol & the Velvet Underground used "Up-Tight" in the cool sense in '66 as well (same year as the Stevie Wonder song). It is unusual how quickly and totally that word switched. Bet you don't find many positive "uptight"s after '67 even.

fuck the word "sanction". it always throws me when I read it in an article. contradictory as both a noun and a verb!

Refute:

1 : to prove wrong by argument or evidence : show to be false or erroneous
2 : to deny the truth or accuracy of - "refuted the allegations"

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, February 27, 2018 8:04 AM

#2 is new and insane to me.

contemporary!

anxious

how so

contemporary means at the same time as, so probably gives the info from context whether its contemporary to the subject or contemporary to the present time doesn't it?

Yes - in fact that is the case with every word listed here!

However, "Contemporary art" does not change its meaning depending on context as far as I'm aware

incense as a noun vs. incense as a verb

sensibility

OL i will confess that i can't puzzle out your last three contributions itt

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/anxious

makes the anxious one quite clear - worried / eager

id have to disagree with ascribing intent to the word like that tbh

to whom does one write