A porter in a British hotel comes upon an American tourist impatiently jabbing at the button for the lift.
"Sir, the lift will be here in a moment."
"Lift? Lift?" replies the American. "Oh, you mean the elevator."
"No sir, here we call it a lift."
"Well, as it was invented in the United States, it’s called an elevator."
"Yes sir, but as the language was invented here, it’s called a lift."
- dance n. Dance in which couples move in circles or dancers form one large circle.
- robin n. - petition, esp. With signatures in a circle to conceal the order of writing.
- us tournament in which each competitor plays every other.
- table n. - international charitable association.
- (round table) assembly for discussion, esp. At a conference (often attrib.: round-table talks).
- trip n. Trip to one or more places and back again.
- —adj. - shaped like a circle, sphere, or cylinder; convex; circular, curved, not angular.
- done with or involving circular motion.
- entire, continuous, complete (round dozen).
- candid, outspoken.
- (usu. Attrib.) (of a number) expressed for brevity as a complete number (£297.32, or in round figures £300).
- (of a voice, style, etc.) Flowing, sonorous. —n. - round object or form.
- a revolving motion or course (yearly round). B recurring series of activities, meetings, etc. (continuous round of pleasure; round of talks).
- a fixed route for deliveries (milk round). B route etc. For supervision or inspection (watchman's round; doctor's rounds).
- drink etc. For each member of a group.
- a one bullet, shell, etc. B act of firing this.
- a slice from a loaf of bread. B sandwich made from two slices. C joint of beef from the haunch.
- set, series, or sequence of actions in turn, esp.: a one spell of play in a game etc. B one stage in a competition.
- golf playing of all the holes in a course once.
- song for unaccompanied voices overlapping at intervals. 10 rung of a ladder. 11 (foll. By of) circumference or extent of (in all the round of nature). —adv. - with circular motion (wheels go round).
ROUSE
v. (-sing) 1 (cause to) wake.
- (often foll. By up, often refl.) Stir up, make or become active or excited (was roused to protest).
- anger (terrible when roused).
- evoke (feelings). [origin unknown]
ROUTE
march n. Training-march for troops.
- —n. Way or course taken (esp. Regularly) from one place to another. —v. (-teing) send, forward, or direct by a particular route. [french route road, from latin rupta (via)]
ROVER
n. Wanderer.
- n. Pirate. [low german or dutch]
ROWAN
n. (in full rowan-tree) 1 scot. & n.engl. Mountain ash.
- (in full rowan-berry) its scarlet berry. [scandinavian]
ROWDY
—adj. (-ier, -iest) noisy and disorderly. —n. (pl. -ies) rowdy person. rowdily adv. Rowdiness n. Rowdyism n. [origin unknown]
ROWEL
n. Spiked revolving disc at the end of a spur. [latin rotella diminutive: related to *rota]
ROYAL
blue adj. & n. (as adj. Often hyphenated) deep vivid blue.
- british legion n. National association of ex-members of the armed forces, founded in 1921.
- commission n. Commission of inquiry appointed by the crown at the request of government.
- family n. Family of a sovereign.
- flush n. Straight poker flush headed by an ace.
- icing n. Hard white icing for cakes.
- jelly n. Substance secreted by worker bees and fed by them to future queen bees.
- marine n. British marine (see *marine n. 1).
- navy n. British navy.
- warrant n. Warrant authorizing a tradesperson to supply goods to a specified royal person.
- —adj. - of, suited to, or worthy of a king or queen.
- in the service or under the patronage of a king or queen.
- of the family of a king or queen.
- majestic, splendid.
- exceptional, first-rate (had a royal time). —n. Colloq. Member of the royal family. royally adv. [latin: related to *regal]
- ‘we’ n. Use of ‘we’ instead of ‘i’ by a single person.
RSPCA
abbr. Royal society for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
