A young boy was playing with a ball in the street. He kicked it too hard, and it broke the window of a house and fell inside. A lady came to the window with the ball and shouted at the young boy, so he ran away, but he still wanted his ball back.
A few minutes later he returned and knocked at the door of the house, and when the lady answered it, he said, "My father"s going to come and fix your window very soon."
After a few more minutes a man came to the door with tools in his hand, so the lady let the boy take his ball away.
When the man finished fixing the window, he said to the lady, "That will cost you exactly ten dollars."
"But aren"t you the father of that young boy?" the woman asked, looking surprised.
"No," he answered, equally surprised. "Aren"t you his mother? "
n. - belief in the superiority of a particular race; prejudice based on this.
- antagonism towards other races. racist n. & adj.
RACKET
n. (also racquet) 1 bat with a round or oval frame strung with catgut, nylon, etc., used in tennis, squash, etc.
- (in pl.) Game like squash, played in a court of four plain walls. [french raquette from arabic rahat palm of the hand]
- n. - disturbance, uproar, din.
- slang a scheme for obtaining money etc. By dishonest means. B dodge; sly game.
- colloq. Line of business. [perhaps imitative]
RACOON
n. (also raccoon) (pl. Same or -s) 1 n. American mammal with a bushy tail and sharp snout.
- its fur. [algonquian]
RADDLE
—n. Red ochre. —v. (-ling) 1 colour with raddle or too much rouge.
- (as raddled adj.) Worn out. [related to *ruddy]
RADIAL
—adj. - of or in rays.
- a arranged like rays or radii. B having spokes or radiating lines. C acting or moving along lines diverging from a centre.
- (in full radial-ply) (of a tyre) having fabric layers arranged radially and the tread strengthened. —n. Radial-ply tyre. radially adv. [medieval latin: related to *radius]
RADIAN
n. Si unit of angle, equal to an angle at the centre of a circle the arc of which is equal in length to the radius (1 radian is approx. 57°).
RADISH
n. - plant with a fleshy pungent root.
- this root, eaten esp. Raw. [latin *radix]
RADIUM
n. Radioactive metallic element orig. Obtained from pitchblende etc., used esp. In radiotherapy.
RADIUS
n. (pl. Radii or radiuses) 1 a straight line from the centre to the circumference of a circle or sphere. B length of this.
- distance from a centre (within a radius of 20 miles).
- a thicker and shorter of the two bones in the human forearm. B corresponding bone in a vertebrate's foreleg or a bird's wing. [latin]
