a list of words that are only ever used in one phrase and one phrase only

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'stark naked'

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

cleave (in the sense of join, not split) "cleave to one's principles"

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

Ha ha Nick just reminded me of one of Billy Connelly's finest

Teacher: Woe betide the boy who plays football instead of coming into class

Young Billy: Who's this fucking Woby? He's got the right idea!

(or words to that effect)

― Rumpea, Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

"Render" is not uncommon.

― elmo (allocryptic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

The quick and the dead – quick as in alive
Hold fast – fast as in, er, not moving at all

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

You use a derivative of fast still - as in fasten.

― I Dream Of Sleep (kate), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

Duh

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

I guess I meant render in the sense of "to pay", the whole action, not using "render payment" which is redundant.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:24 (twenty years ago)

Brimstone
Mickle, muckle
Hale

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

'Hale', of course, is usually used in conjunction with 'twat'.

http://www.20six.co.uk/pub/channel26/hale_and_pace2.jpg

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

After the 'wan' thing I just shouldn't say that I use 'hale' and 'brimstone', should I?

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:33 (twenty years ago)

Hale, Satan

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

Hoist on his own petard is from Hamlet, right?

Pétard in French is slang for a joint.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:40 (twenty years ago)

"For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his owne
petar" Shakespeare, Hamlet III iv.

"Hoist" was in Shakespeare's time the past participles of a verb "to hoise", which meant what "to hoist" does now: to lift. A petard (see under "peter out" for the etymology) was an explosive charge detonated by a slowly burning fuse. If the petard went off prematurely, then the sapper (military engineer; Shakespeare's "enginer") who planted it would be hurled into the air by the explosion. (Compare "up" in "to blow up".) A modern rendition might be: "It's fun to see the engineer blown up with his own bomb."

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 16:16 (twenty years ago)

cleave

the only word in the english languaged that means one thing and also its opposite.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

nah, there's loads

― Slumpman (Slump Man), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 17:23 (twenty years ago)

eke!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

quench

When is it ever used not in conjunction with "thurst" ?

― JTS, Tuesday, 23 August 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

short SHRIFT
out of KILTER

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

.cx

― LeCoq (LeCoq), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

roffle!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

(well except for joshblog)

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

One autoanytonym that I just came across that isn't on that list: muck, as a verb, which means to remove the muck from something, and to put the muck on something.

Pyrrhic is a proper name (relating to Pyrrhus), and so I'm not sure it qualifies.

I'll add the sense of "brand" used in "brand [spanking] new".

For "stark naked", see also "stark raving".

I'm kinda with Archel in this, in that I use many of these words in other contexts, but Martin will tsk me as well I suspect.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

Re the autoantonyms: is there a term for flammable/inflammable, words that look like they should be opposites but in fact mean the same thing?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

'stark naked'

also used with contrast

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

scantily clad.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

INTENTS and purposes

― Rotgutt (Rotgutt), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

INTENSIVE PORPOISES

ihttp://www.crru.org.uk/images/porpoise_callout.jpg

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 22:57 (twenty years ago)

damn.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:06 (twenty years ago)

When is it ever used not in conjunction with "thurst" ?

when it's used in conjunction with 'desire'?

I love autoantonyms!

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

The word tuffet exists nowhere outside of Miss Muffet's direct sphere of influence.

― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

kith (and kin)
rack (and ruin)

― isadora (isadora), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 01:45 (twenty years ago)

fast = fast asleep!
stark = stuff is always getting put "in stark relief"
hatch = hatch-as-mouth is just a metaphor, though
fro = limited to haircuts
spic = you can imagine why people don't say it a lot
wan = I'm with Archel
wont = as is my wont, as he is wont to do
render = on all yr bills, at least
profuse = lots of "profusion," though
muck = muckraking, mucking drains, etc
scantily = original "scant" gets used plenty
intents = "intent" gets used all the time
rack = nice one

― nabiscothingy, Wednesday, 24 August 2005 02:11 (twenty years ago)

'Wreaking' is nothing without 'havoc'

― Lurky McLurk, Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:01 (twenty years ago)

Hue and cry

is "hew and cry," innit?

― Leeeeeeee (Leee), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:22 (twenty years ago)

i came across a good for real one playing scrabble the other day but i can't remember it for the life of me. it started, i think, with a t, and means essentially an object of fond desire.

also -- livelong, as in "the livelong day"

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:27 (twenty years ago)

Nab, I just meant "muck" as an autoantonym, not as a word that is used in one phrase only.

You can wreak terror as well.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:40 (twenty years ago)

Only pools are limpid.

― weather1ngda1eson (Brian), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 06:00 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and last night I also thought that "fast" meaning still is in "hold fast" and "make fast". So there.

― I Dream Of Sleep (kate), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 06:52 (twenty years ago)

See http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.html for words with two contradictory meanings (I don't think 'antagonym' is quite the official term but then I'm not sure there is one.)

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:31 (twenty years ago)

Well I'm not really worried about this,
But can some one please answer me this -
Apart from on commentary, where else on earth
Can you hear the word 'aplomb' being used?

(Half Man Half Biscuit- Keeping Two Chevrons Apart)

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

Hrmmm. I enjoy summer fruits - sometimes I feel like eating a peach, and sometimes I feel like eating aplomb.

― I Dream Of Sleep (kate), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:43 (twenty years ago)

Peel and Unpeel aplomb.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

Not quite on topic but I vaguely remember a line in PG Wodehouse about Jeeves (I think) being, if not disgruntled, not exactly gruntled either.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

I am a very dolent person
I eptly work.
Don't tell me a secret, I'll only be creet.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:49 (twenty years ago)

Flammable - might burst into flames.
Inflammable - might burst into flames.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:50 (twenty years ago)

I am norant.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:56 (twenty years ago)

http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/language/gruntled.html

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 09:45 (twenty years ago)

"Contemplate suicide"

Suicide is only ever contemplated, never "thought about" or "considered".

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 10:11 (twenty years ago)

"lo" and behold

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 180 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

"Hither and thither" there.

― Kim Kimberly, Wednesday, 3 December 2025 17:15 (six months ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xckDFpXa6po

― Tony Bubbles (Tom D.), Wednesday, 3 December 2025 17:17 (six months ago)

sure but the only other available rhyme was “zither” which is an untenable word for medieval bohemia

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 3 December 2025 17:44 (six months ago)

I hereby withdraw thither from thread consideration

― hennohenno moheji (Matt #2), Wednesday, 3 December 2025 18:59 (six months ago)

one month passes...

"panacea" only ever used afaict in the phrase "not a _________"

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 12 January 2026 09:10 (four months ago)

There's also no silver bullet

― Alba, Monday, 12 January 2026 09:14 (four months ago)

Very rarely a one size fits all solution

― Alba, Monday, 12 January 2026 09:14 (four months ago)

"Universal panacea" is a phrase I think I've come across.

― ledge, Monday, 12 January 2026 09:42 (four months ago)

Obviously there isn't one.

― ledge, Monday, 12 January 2026 09:42 (four months ago)

“universal panacea” is redundant

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 12 January 2026 12:09 (four months ago)

Gentlemen, you can't argue about lazy writing in here!

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 12 January 2026 12:21 (four months ago)

Not unless you know the recall code.

― Eric Blore Is President (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 12 January 2026 19:38 (four months ago)

On tenterhooks

― Wearing red lipstick and maintaining a neutral expression (Tom D.), Thursday, 15 January 2026 07:55 (four months ago)

Good King Wenceslas
Bring me meat and bring me wine!
Bring me pine logs hither!
You and I shall see him dine
when we beat them thither!

Missed this at the time, but the Oxford Book of Carols calls the lyrics to GKW “doggerel”.

― ICE = Tonton Macoute (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 15 January 2026 13:31 (four months ago)

A tenter is a frame for stretching fabrics. Compare the word tent. Both come from the Latin word for stretching, which also gives us words like tendon.

Anyway the fabric is held to the tenter by means of small hooks. Hence tenterhooks.

― calmer chameleon (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 15 January 2026 13:56 (four months ago)

At Christmas eve church service we sang all the verses of all the hymns, and later the other alto said "Next time we don't do all the verses. The cutoff is 'thither.' Anything with thither, we don't sing."

Later her (adult) daughter asked "What the heck is a thither?" which led to a hilarious family riff about cutting things with thithers.

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Thursday, 15 January 2026 14:24 (four months ago)

if you hear a zither
don't dither

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 15 January 2026 16:23 (four months ago)

I would be remiss if I did not...

― Venus of Willendorf on Golf (jaymc), Tuesday, 27 January 2026 15:28 (four months ago)

How remiss of you not to think of at least one other usage of that word.

― Wearing red lipstick and maintaining a neutral expression (Tom D.), Tuesday, 27 January 2026 16:33 (four months ago)

You're forgetting my daughters, Miss and Remiss.

― calmer chameleon (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 27 January 2026 16:53 (four months ago)

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