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January 17 & 18, 2003 poultry (POWL tri) The noun poultry refers to chickens, ducks and other birds that are kept for their eggs and meat. The adjective form is also poultry. Farmers would need a permit to transfer poultry. Consumer groups demanded the government reveal what is happening on poultry farms. Another product involved training farmers how to raise poultry and fish. Poultry processors reported a rebound in sales. January 16, 2003 outbreak (OUT break) The noun outbreak refers to the sudden start of something unpleasant, especially disease or violence. United Nations experts warned yesterday that the bird flu outbreak troubling Asia has the potential to be more deadly than Sars and that Vietnam - the country worst hit so far - was ill-prepared to cope. The farmers claim their eggs have never been associated with an outbreak of food poisoning. It was one of the clubs fined two seasons ago when an outbreak of fighting at several matches led to the League imposing stiffer penalties. Shortly before the outbreak of the First Balkan War in 1912, the Ottoman authorities agreed to establish an autonomous Albanian state, including Kosovo. January 15, 2003 wedge The noun wedge refers to an object with a pointed edge that is used to split a material such as stone or wood or which is used to hold something firmly in position. Wedge is also used in the expression to drive a wedge which means to cause ill feelings and weaken a relationship between people. As a verb wedge means to put or squeeze something tightly into a space so that it cannot move easily. The Fourth Army has warned of a campaign being engineered to drive a wedge between the authorities and Muslim people. The used a wooden block as a wedge to keep the door open. For almost an hour the officers unloaded and searched the boxes that were wedged into the suspect's car. The battle is over Kashmir, a spectacularly beautiful territory wedged in the Himalayan mountains between China and Afghanistan. January 14, 2003 avalanche (AV a lanch) The noun avalanche refers to a large mass of snow which falls down a mountainside. Avalanche can also refer to a large quantity of things that arrive or happen at nearly the same time. Three snowboarders have died and another was injured after being swept away by avalanches in the southeast of France on Saturday. A wintry storm dumped up to a metre of snow, prompting avalanche warnings at major ski resorts. He was at a loss to find the right words to respond to the avalanche of bad publicity. The past decade has seen an avalanche of IT innovations. January 13, 2004 comb (KOAM) The verb comb means to do a very careful search for something. About 500 soldiers, some of them aboard helicopters, continued to comb through mountain ranges, rubber plantations and villages in Yala and Songkhla yesterday for the stolen guns. Combing over the backyard with metal detectors, FBI agents searched for bullets and shell casings in the lawn. Company officials are combing the property market for good bargains. Navegar combed its sales records and informed the agents that the weapon had been sold five years ago to a wholesaler in Illinois. January 12, 2004 reel The verb reel means to be extremely surprised or upset by some kind of a shock. Reel can also mean to walk in an unsteady way as if to be about to fall. The tiny Pacific nation of Niue was reeling yesterday after what locals described as the worst storm in living memory. The US beef industry is reeling at the prospect of a lengthy loss of export markets after the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease in the state of Washington. As Israelis reeled from the worst terrorist attack in five years, Israeli television broadcast photos of the fresh-faced teenagers who were killed. He whirled drunkenly about and reeled off into the night. Click here to see our words in the news for the previous week. Return to our home page |© The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. All rights reserved 2004 | Last modified: January 16, 2004