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

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

Quench: Also a blacksmithing term, meaning to plunge the hot item into water (or into captured enemy soldiers, if you're a samurai). Basically refers to applying liquid.

Rack: Racked with guilt/sobs/etc.

Cleave: Biblical! Genesis 2:25: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh".

(I always think of that when I see that word)

auk (auk and style)

Turns out there's no such saying.

Booby trap

Obviously "boob"/"booby" is still used in, er, another context, but I think this is the only contemporary usage of its original meaning (a foolish person).

booby prize

Achingly beautiful?

Oh, I didn't know the English term for the concept of "booby prize", thanks for enlightening me.

Also, I guess the term "boob tube" is still used in the US, or is it?

(Meaning television, not the piece of clothing.)

No it's not. And there's no piece of clothing called boob tube.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_top

A tube top, colloquially known in the U.K. as a boob tube, is a shoulderless, sleeveless women's garment that wraps around the upper torso.

Ah OK, well in America we don't have that term

huh I always thought it was an Americanism

much of a "muchness"

Finland... UK... USA... do we even speak the same language?

"Boob tube" in America means TV, yes, but only someone over age 60 would use that term in that way. We say "tube top" for the garment.

... but only someone over age 60 would wear one.

You should come to Brooklyn

The high water mark of "boob tube" was probably the 70s, so "over age 60" is a little exaggerated, but it's not a current hip hep and happening phrase. It is definitely generally understandable still. "The tube" for tv is probably a little more in use, but then again tvs aren't as in use as they used to be.

Genuinely surprising that there's no porn streaming site called BoobTube.

"Boob Tube"? You don't mean "Goggle Box" ?

Wit in "To wit"

Raring in 'Raring to go'?

I don't think I even quoted it secondhand. Actually, my students want Maduro gone, and I've seen the strange-bedfellows approach b/w the Trump administration and the parents of the students who have no butter or meat.

― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 10 February 2019 01:04 (forty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq7LM4rOcV4

druthers

seems like the word 'fraught' is accompanied by 'with danger' at least 95% of the time. partly to be perverse, I like to dislodge it from danger and use it in other contexts.

i rarely use fraught in the "with danger" context. I use it as a replacement for "problematic" which has semantically shifted in recent years.

Only pools are limpid.
― weather1ngda1eson (Brian)

only green is limpid

just read this wonderful malapropism:

"These guys covered the gamete with Rock N’ Roll, Blues, R&B and splendid jams."

which reminds me that mature haploid cells aside, the gamut is only ever run.

Damsel in distress.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damselfly

Swingeing cuts.

The ides of march.

bandy around

bandy about

bandy words with

'about' - same thing
'words with' - i'll allow it.

slake